Window on humanity chapter summaries

Window on Humanity A Concise Introduction to Anthropology

Eighth Edition

Conrad Phillip Kottak University of Michigan

To my wife, Isabel Wagley Kottak

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Brief Contents Anthropology Today Boxes xiii Preface xiv Acknowledgments xxv About the Author xxvii 1 What Is Anthropology? 1 2 Culture 19 3 Doing Anthropology 41 4 Evolution, Genetics,

and Human Variation 67 5 The Primates 96 6 Early Hominins 121 7 The Genus Homo 143 8 The First Farmers 173 9 The First Cities and States 197 10 Language and

Communication 222 11 Making a Living 248

12 Political Systems 275 13 Families, Kinship,

and Marriage 301 14 Gender 328 15 Religion 352 16 Ethnicity and Race 379 17 Applying Anthropology 406 18 The World System,

Colonialism, and Inequality 430

19 Anthropology’s Role in a Globalizing World 456

GLOSSARY G1 BIBLIOGRAPHY B1 INDEX I1

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Contents Anthropology Today Boxes xiii Preface xiv Acknowledgments xxv About the Author xxvii

Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology? 1 The Cross-Cultural Perspective 1 Human Adaptability 2

Adaptation, Variation, and Change 3 Cultural Forces Shape Human Biology 4

General Anthropology 6 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology 7

Cultural Anthropology 7 Anthropological Archaeology 8 Biological Anthropology 10 Linguistic Anthropology 11

Applied Anthropology 11 Anthropology and Other Academic

Fields 13 A Humanistic Science 13 Cultural Anthropology

and Sociology 14 Anthropology Today: School of Hope 15 Summary 17

Chapter 2 Culture 19 What Is Culture? 19

Culture Is Learned 20 Culture Is Symbolic 20 Culture Is Shared 21 Culture and Nature 22 Culture Is All-Encompassing

and Integrated 22 Culture Is Instrumental, Adaptive,

and Maladaptive 23

Culture’s Evolutionary Basis 25 What We Share with Other Primates 25 How We Differ from Other Primates 27

Universality, Generality, and Particularity 28 Universals and Generalities 28 Particularity: Patterns of Culture 29

Culture and the Individual 30 Levels of Culture 31 Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and

Human Rights 32 Mechanisms of Cultural Change 34 Globalization 35 Anthropology Today: Preserving Cultural

Heritage 36 Summary 38

Chapter 3 Doing Anthropology 41 What Do Anthropologists Do? 41 Research Methods in Archaeology

and Biological Anthropology 42 Multidisciplinary Approaches 43 Studying the Past 44 Survey and Excavation 44

Kinds of Archaeology 45 Dating the Past 46

Relative Dating 46 Absolute Dating 47 Molecular Anthropology 48

Kinds of Biological Anthropology 49 Bone Biology 49 Anthropometry 49 Primatology 50

Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology 50

Ethnography: Anthropology’s Distinctive Strategy 50 Observation and Participant

Observation 51

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Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules 52

The Genealogical Method 54 Key Cultural Consultants 54 Life Histories 54 Local Beliefs and Perceptions,

and the Ethnographer’s 55 Problem-Oriented Ethnography 56 Longitudinal Studies, Team Research,

and Multisited Ethnography 56 Survey Research 58 Doing Anthropology Right and Wrong:

Ethical Issues 59 Ownership Issues 60 The Code of Ethics 61 Anthropologists and the Military 62

Anthropology Today: Biology, Culture, and Grandparents 63

Summary 64

Chapter 4 Evolution, Genetics, and Human Variation 67 Evolution 67

Natural History before Darwin 68 Evolution: Theory and Fact 69

Genetics 71 Mendel’s Experiments 72 Independent Assortment 74

Population Genetics and Mechanisms of Genetic Evolution 74 Natural Selection 75 Mutation 77 Random Genetic Drift 78 Gene Flow 79

Race: A Discredited Concept in Biology 80 Races Are Not Biologically Distinct 82 Genetic Markers Don’t Correlate

with Phenotype 83 Human Biological Adaptation 84

Explaining Skin Color 84 Genes and Disease 88 Lactose Tolerance 91

Anthropology Today: Disease Evolution: A Case Study 92

Summary 93

Chapter 5 The Primates 96 Our Place among Primates 96 Homologies and Analogies 99 Primate Adaptations 100 The Primate Suborders 102 Monkeys 102

New World Monkeys 103 Old World Monkeys 104

Apes 105 Gibbons 105 Orangutans 106 Gorillas 107 Chimpanzees 109 Bonobos 110

Endangered Primates 111 Primate Evolution 111 Chronology 112 Early Primates 113

Early Cenozoic Primates 114 Oligocene Proto-Monkeys 114

Miocene Hominoids 115 Anthropology Today: Should Apes Have

Human Rights? 117 Pierolapithecus catalaunicus 118

Summary 119

Chapter 6 Early Hominins 121 What Makes Us Human? 121

Bipedalism 121 Brains, Skulls, and Childhood

Dependency 122 Tools 123 Teeth 123

Chronology of Hominin Evolution 123 Who Were the Earliest Hominins? 124

Sahelanthropus tchadensis 124 Orrorin tugenensis 126 Ardipithecus 127

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The Varied Australopiths 129 Australopithecus anamensis 129 Australopithecus afarensis 131 Gracile and Robust Australopiths 135

Early Stone Tools 137 Surprisingly Early Stone Tools 137 Oldowan Hominins at the

Kanjera Site 139 Anthropology Today: Au. sediba: Ancestor

or Fascinating Sideline? 140 Summary 141

Chapter 7 The Genus Homo 143 Early Homo 143

2015 Discoveries 143 H. rudolfensis 144 H. habilis and H. erectus 146

Out of Africa I: H. erectus 149 Acheulean Tools 149 Adaptive Strategies of H. erectus 150 The Evolution and Expansion of

H. erectus 150 Middle Pleistocene Hominins 153

Ice Ages of the Pleistocene 153 H. heidelbergensis 153

The Neandertals 155 Cold-Adapted Neandertals 156 The Neandertals and Modern People 156

The Denisovans 158 Homo floresiensis 159 Modern Humans 160

Out of Africa: AMH Edition 160 “Mitochrondrial Eve” and the Spread

of AMHs 161 AMHs on the Move 162

The Advent of Behavioral Modernity 163

Advances in Technology 166 Glacial Retreat 167 Settling the Americas 167 Anthropology Today: The Rising Stars

of a South African Cave 169 Summary 171

Chapter 8 The First Farmers 173 Broad-Spectrum Economies 173

The Mesolithic in Europe 173 Developments in Asia, Including

Early Pottery 174 The Neolithic 175 The First Farmers and Herders in the

Middle East 176 The Environmental Setting: A Vertical

Economy 177 Where and Why Did Food Production

Begin? 178 Genetic Changes and Domestication 179 The Coevolution of Farming and Property

Rights 180 Food Production and the State 181

Other Old World Farmers 182 The Neolithic in Africa 182 The Neolithic in Europe 183 The Neolithic in Asia 185

The First American Farmers 187 Key Aspects of Food Production

in the Americas 187 The Tropical Origins of New World

Domestication 188 Explaining the Neolithic 189 Costs and Benefits 191 Anthropology Today: Global Climate Change

and Other Threats to Archaeology 192 Summary 194

Chapter 9 The First Cities and States 197 State Formation 197

Regulation of Hydraulic Economies 198 Regional Trade 198 Population, War, and Circumscription 199

Attributes of States 200 State Formation in the Middle East 201

Urban Life 201 An Early Ritual Center 203 The Halafian and Ubaid Periods 204

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Social Ranking and Chiefdoms 205 The Rise of the State 207

Other Early States 210 State Formation in Mesoamerica 212

Early Chiefdoms and Elites 213 Warfare and State Formation:

The Zapotec Case 214 States in the Valley of Mexico 215

Why States Collapse 217 The Decline of the Maya 217

Anthropology Today: The Fantastic Claims of Pseudo-Archaeology 218

Summary 220

Chapter 10 Language and Communication 222 Language 222 Nonhuman Primate

Communication 223 Call Systems 223 Sign Language 223 The Origin of Language 226

Nonverbal Communication 226 Kinesics 226 Personal Space and Displays

of Affection 227 The Structure of Language 228 Language, Thought, and Culture 230

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 231 Focal Vocabulary 231

Sociolinguistics 233 Social and Linguistic Variation 233 The Language of Food 234 Linguistic Diversity within

Nations 235 Linguistic Diversity in California 237 Gender Speech Contrasts 237 Stratification and Symbolic

Domination 238 African American Vernacular English

(AAVE) 239 Historical Linguistics 240

Language, Culture, and History 243 Language Loss 243

Anthropology Today: Words of the Year 244 Summary 245

Chapter 11 Making a Living 248 Adaptive Strategies 248 Foraging 249

Geographic Distribution of Foragers 250 Correlates of Foraging 252

Adaptive Strategies Based on Food Production 253 Horticulture 253 Agriculture 254 The Cultivation Continuum 256 Agricultural Intensification: People

and the Environment 256 Pastoralism 257

Economic Systems 259 Organization of Production in

Nonindustrial Societies 260 Means of Production 260 Alienation in Industrial Economies 261

Economizing and Maximization 263 Alternative Ends 264

Distribution, Exchange 265 The Market Principle 265 Redistribution 265 Reciprocity 266 Coexistence of Exchange Principles 267 Potlatching 268

Anthropology Today: Scarcity and the Betsileo 270

Summary 273

Chapter 12 Political Systems 275 What Is “The Political”? 275 Types and Trends 276 Bands and Tribes 277

Foraging Bands 278 Tribal Cultivators 280 The Village Head 280 The “Big Man” 282 Pantribal Sodalities 283 Nomadic Politics 285

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Chiefdoms 286 Political and Economic Systems 286 Status Systems 287 The Emergence of Stratification 288

State Systems 289 Population Control 290 Judiciary 290 Enforcement 290 Fiscal Support 291

Social Control 292 Hegemony and Resistance 292 Weapons of the Weak 293 Shame and Gossip 294 The Igbo Women’s War 295

Anthropology Today: The Illegality Industry: A Failed System of Border Control 296

Summary 298

Chapter 13 Families, Kinship, and Marriage 301 How Anthropologists View Families

and Kinship 301 Families 302

Nuclear and Extended Families 302 Industrialism and Family

Organization 304 Changes in North American Kinship 305 The Family among Foragers 307

Descent 307 Attributes of Descent Groups 308 Lineages, Clans, and Residence Rules 310

Defining Marriage 310 Exogamy and Incest 312 Incest and Its Avoidance 313 Endogamy 314 Same-Sex Marriage 315 Marriage: A Group Affair 316

Gifts at Marriage 317 Durable Alliances 318

Divorce 319 Plural Marriages 320

Polygyny 320 Polyandry 322

The Online Marriage Market 322 Anthropology Today: What Anthropologists

Could Teach the Supreme Court about the Definition of Marriage 324

Summary 325

Chapter 14 Gender 328 Sex and Gender 328 Recurrent Gender Patterns 330 Gender Roles and Gender

Stratification 333 Reduced Gender Stratification:

Matrilineal–Matrilocal Societies 333 Matriarchy 334 Increased Gender Stratification:

Patrilineal–Patrilocal Societies 335 Patriarchy and Violence 336

Gender in Industrial Societies 337 Changes in Gendered Work 338 Work and Family: Reality and

Stereotypes 340 The Feminization of Poverty 341 Work and Happiness 342

Beyond Male and Female 343 Sexual Orientation 346 Anthropology Today: Gender, Ethnicity,

and a Gold Medal for Fiji 348 Summary 350

Chapter 15 Religion 352 What Is Religion? 352 Expressions of Religion 354

Spiritual Beings 354 Powers and Forces 355 Magic and Religion 356 Uncertainty, Anxiety, Solace 356 Rituals 356 Rites of Passage 357 Totemism 360

Social Control 360 Kinds of Religion 362

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Protestant Values and Capitalism 363 World Religions 363 Religion and Change 365

Revitalization Movements and Cargo Cults 365

New and Alternative Religious Movements 366

Religion and Cultural Globalization 367 Evangelical Protestantism and

Pentecostalism 367 Homogenization, Indigenization,

or Hybridization? 369 The Spread of Islam 370 Antimodernism and Fundamentalism 371 Religious Radicalization Today 372

Secular Rituals 373 Anthropology Today: Newtime Religion 374 Summary 376

Chapter 16 Ethnicity and Race 379 Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity 379

Status and Identity 380 Minority Groups and Stratification 382

Race and Ethnicity 382 The Social Construction of Race 383

Hypodescent: Race in the United States 383

Race in the Census 384 Not Us: Race in Japan 386 Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in Brazil 388

Ethnic Groups, Nations, and Nationalities 391 Ethnic Diversity by Region 391 Nationalities without Nations 392

Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation 392 Assimilation 393 The Plural Society 393 Multiculturalism 393

Changing Demographics in the United States 394 The Gray and the Brown 395 The Backlash to Multiculturalism 396

Ethnic Conflict 397 Sectarian Violence 398 Prejudice and Discrimination 399 Black Lives Matter 400 Anti-Ethnic Discrimination 401

Anthropology Today: Why Are the Greens So White? Race and Ethnicity in Golf 402

Summary 404

Chapter 17 Applying Anthropology 406 What is Applied Anthropology? 406 The Role of the Applied

Anthropologist 407 Early Applications 407 Academic and Applied Anthropology 408 Applied Anthropology Today 409

Development Anthropology 410 Equity 410 Negative Equity Impact 410

Strategies for Innovation 412 Overinnovation 412 Indigenous Models 413

Anthropology and Education 414 Urban Anthropology 415 Medical Anthropology 417

Disease Theory Systems 418 Scientific Medicine versus Western

Medicine 419 Industrialization, Globalization,

and Health 420 Anthropology and Business 422 Public and Applied Anthropology 424 Careers and Anthropology 425 Anthropology Today: Culturally Appropriate

Marketing 426 Summary 428

Chapter 18 The World System, Colonialism, and Inequality 430 The World System 430

World-System Theory 431 The Emergence of the World System 432

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Industrialization 433 Causes of the Industrial Revolution 434 Socioeconomic Changes Associated with

the Industrial Revolution 435 Industrial Stratification 435

The Persistence of Inequality 436 Wealth Distribution in the

United States 436 Environmental Risks on the American

Periphery 438 Colonialism and Imperialism 440

The First Phase of European Colonialism: Spain and Portugal 440

Commercial Expansion and European Imperialism 441

The British Colonial Empire 441 French Colonialism 442 Colonialism and Identity 444 Postcolonial Studies 444

Development 445 Neoliberalism 445 Neoliberalism and NAFTA’s Economic

Refugees 446 Communism, Socialism, and

Postsocialism 449 Communism 449 Postsocialist Transitions 449

The World System Today 450 Anthropology Today: Mining Giant Compatible

with Sustainability Institute? 452 Summary 454

Chapter 19 Anthropology’s Role in a Globalizing World 456 Globalization: Its Meaning and

Its Nature 456 Our Global Economy 457 Energy Consumption and Industrial

Degradation 458 Global Climate Change 459 Environmental Anthropology 462

Global Assaults on Local Autonomy 462 Deforestation 463 Emerging Diseases 465

Interethnic Contact 466 Cultural Imperialism and

Indigenization 467 A Global System of Images 469 A Global Culture of Consumption 469

People in Motion 470 Indigenous Peoples 472 Anthropology’s Lessons 473 Anthropology Today: Diversity under Siege:

Global Forces and Indigenous Peoples 474 Summary 476

Glossary G1 Bibliography B1 Index I1

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Anthropology Today Boxes

School of Hope 15 Preserving Cultural Heritage 36 Biology, Culture, and Grandparents 63 Disease Evolution: A Case Study 92 Should Apes Have Human Rights? 117 Au. sediba: Ancestor or Fascinating

Sideline? 140 The Rising Stars of a South

African Cave 169 Global Climate Change and Other

Threats to Archaeology 192 The Fantastic Claims of Pseudo-

Archaeology 218 Words of the Year 244 Scarcity and the Betsileo 270

The Illegality Industry: A Failed System of Border Control 296

What Anthropologists Could Teach the Supreme Court about the Definition of Marriage 324

Gender, Ethnicity, and a Gold Medal for Fiji 348

Newtime Religion 374 Why Are the Greens So White? Race

and Ethnicity in Golf 402 Culturally Appropriate Marketing 426 Mining Giant Compatible with

Sustainability Institute? 452 Diversity under Siege: Global Forces and

Indigenous Peoples 474

Window on Humanity is intended to provide a concise, readable, introduction to general (four-field) anthropology. The shorter length increases the instructor’s options for as- signing additional reading—case studies, readers, and other supplements—in a semes- ter course. Window also can work well in a quarter system, for which traditional texts may be too long. Just as anthropology is a dynamic discipline that encourages new discoveries and explores the profound changes now affecting people and societies, this edition of Window on Humanity makes a concerted effort to keep pace with changes in the way students read and learn core content today. Our digital program, Connect Anthro- pology, includes assignable and assessable quizzes, exercises, and interactive activi- ties, organized around course-specific learning objectives. Furthermore, Connect includes an adaptive testing program in LearnSmart, as well as SmartBook, the first and only truly adaptive reading experience. The tools and resources provided in Connect Anthropology are designed to engage students and enable them to improve their performance in the course. This 8th edition has benefited from feedback from over 2,000 students who worked with these tools and programs while using the 7th edition of Window or one of my other recent texts. We were able to respond to specific areas of difficulty that students encountered, chapter by chapter. I used this extensive feedback to revise, rethink, and clarify my writing in almost every chapter. In preparing this edition, I benefited tremendously from both students’ and profes- sors’ reactions to my book. As I work on each new edition, it becomes ever more apparent to me that while any competent and useful text must present anthropology’s core, that text also must demon- strate anthropology’s relevance to the 21st-century world we inhabit. Accordingly, each new edition contains substantial content changes as well as specific features relevant to our changing world. One of my primary goals is to help students make connections between what they read and their own lives. Accordingly, the “Anthropology Today” boxes placed near the end of each chapter examine recent developments in anthropol- ogy as well as contemporary topics and issues that are clearly related to anthropology’s subject matter. I have written ten new “Anthropology Today” boxes highlighting impor- tant recent fossil finds as well as recent world events and issues in the news. Each chap- ter also contains a new feature that I call “Think Like an Anthropologist,” which attempts to get students to do just that—to apply their critical thinking skills as an an- thropologist might. I realize that most students who read this book will not go on to become anthropologists, or even anthropology majors. For those who do, this book should provide a solid foundation to build on. For those who don’t—that is, for most of my readers—my goal is to instill a sense of understanding and appreciation of human diversity and of anthropology as a field. May this course and this text help students think differently about, and achieve greater understanding of, their own culture and its place within our globalizing world.

Preface

Preface xv

Updates and Revisions—Informed by Student Data

Revisions to this 8th edition of Window on Humanity were extensively informed by student data, collected anonymously by McGraw-Hill’s LearnSmart adaptive learning system. Using this data, we were able to identify content areas with which students struggle. I relied on this data, which provided feedback at the paragraph and even sen- tence level (see the screen capture below), in making decisions about material to revise, update, and improve.

McGraw-Hill Connect Anthropology

Connect Anthropology is a premier digital teaching and learning tool that allows instructors to assign and assess course material. Connect Anthropology includes assignable and assessable quizzes, exercises, and interactive activities, organized around course-specific learning objectives. New to this edition, NewsFlash activities bring in articles on current events relevant to anthropology with accompanying assessment. In addition, Connect Anthropology includes LearnSmart, an adaptive testing program, and SmartBook, the first and only adaptive reading experience. The system is praised by users—faculty and students alike—for helping to make both teaching and learning more efficient, saving time and keeping class time and inde- pendent study time focused on what is most important and only those things that still need reinforcing, and shifting the teaching/learning process away from memorization and cramming. The result is better grades, better concept retention, more students staying in class and passing, and less time spent preparing classes or studying for tests.

SmartBook: SmartBook makes study time as productive and efficient as possible. It identifies and closes knowledge gaps through a continually adapting reading experience that provides personalized learning resources at the precise moment of need. This ensures that every minute spent with SmartBook is returned to the student as the most value-added minute possible. The result? More confidence, better grades, and greater success.

xvi Preface

Connect Insight: Connect Insight is Connect’s one-of-a-kind visual analytics dashboard—available for both instructors and

students—that provides at-a-glance information regarding student performance, which is immediately actionable. By presenting assignment, assessment, and topical perfor- mance results together with a time metric that is easily visible for aggregate or individ- ual results, Connect Insight gives the user the ability to take a just-in-time approach to teaching and learning.

Chapter-by-Chapter Changes

Updates were also informed by the many excellent reviews provided by faculty at 2- and 4-year schools across the country. In addition to the new “Think Like an Anthropologist” feature, as well as revisions and updates in nearly every section of the book, the follow- ing are this edition’s major changes: Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology? ∙ “The Subdivisions of Anthropology” features a thoroughly revised sub-section on

“Biological Anthropology.”

Preface xvii

∙ The “Anthropology and Other Academic Fields” section has been fully revised and includes a new sub-section on “Cultural Anthropology and Sociology.”

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “School of Hope,” has been added.

Chapter 2: Culture ∙ The opening section, “What Is Culture?,” has been fully revised, with a new intro-

duction differentiating more clearly between society and culture, as well as new definitions of enculturation and popular culture.

∙ The “Mechanisms of Cultural Change” section includes a new discussion of pidgin languages.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “Preserving Cultural Heritage,” has been added.

Chapter 3: Doing Anthropology ∙ The “Dating the Past” section includes a fully revised section on “Molecular

Anthropology.” ∙ The “Ethnography: Anthropology’s Distinctive Strategy” section (formerly

“ Ethnographic Techniques”) features a new introduction with a clarified definition of ethnography, as well as a fully revised and expanded sub-section on “Problem- Oriented Ethnography.”

∙ The “Doing Anthropology Right and Wrong: Ethical Issues” section includes a revised discussion of “Ownership Issues,” with updated discussion of the “ Kennewick Man” bones and their return to the Colville reservation in 2016.

Chapter 4: Evolution, Genetics, and Human Variation ∙ The “Evolution” section (previously “The Origin of Species”) features a new

introduction and an expanded and reworked sub-section, “Evolution: Theory and Fact.” ∙ The “Population Genetics and Mechanisms of Genetic Evolution” section (formerly

“Mechanisms of Genetic Evolution”) features a new introduction and expanded and revised sub-sections, “Mutation” and “Random Genetic Drift.”

∙ The “Race: A Discredited Concept” section features clarified discussions on “Races Are Not Biologically Distinct” and “Genetic Markers Don’t Correlate with Phenotype.”

∙ The “Human Biological Adaptation” section includes a new introduction, a new sub-section “Explaining Skin Color,” and a rewritten sub-section, “Genes and Disease.”

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “Disease Evolution: A Case Study,” has been added.

Chapter 5: The Primates ∙ The “Our Place Among the Primates” section features a new introduction and

includes updated taxonomic categories. ∙ The “Primate Adaptations” section (formerly “Primate Tendencies”) has been

reworked and expanded to include discussion of sensory shifts. ∙ “The Primate Suborders” section (formerly “Prosimians”) has been rewritten and

expanded to incorporate discussion of the split between haplorrhines and strepsirrhines.

∙ The “Monkeys” section and “Orangutans” sub-sections have been reworked.

xviii Preface

∙ The “Early Primates” section has been extensively revised and expanded to include discussion of the spread of angiosperms (flowering plants) during the Cenozoic era, and evolutionary splits in the early primate groups.

∙ The “Miocene Hominoids” section has been revised.

Chapter 6: Early Hominins ∙ The discussion throughout the chapter has been revised to reflect contemporary

consensus on terminology (Paranthropus rather than Australopithecus robustus and Au. boisei; “australopith” rather than “australopithecine”).

∙ The “Who Were the Earliest Hominins?” section has been extensively revised to include the most recent findings.

∙ “The Varied Australopiths” section has been thoroughly revised to include new data and measurements, and expanded discussion of anatomical features.

∙ The “Early Stone Tools” section (previously “Oldowan Tools”) has been extensively revised and expanded to incorporate recent archaeological discoveries.

Chapter 7: The Genus Homo ∙ The “Early Homo” section features a new introduction, a brand new sub-section,

“2015 Discoveries,”and extensively revised sub-sections on “H. rudolfensis” and “H. habilis and H. erectus.”

∙ The “Middle Pleistocene Hominins” section (formerly “Archaic H. Sapiens”) has been revised to incorporate clearer terminology and a much expanded discussion of “H. heidelbergensis.”

∙ “The Neandertals” section has been revised and expanded to incorporate more coverage of Neandertal DNA.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “The Rising Stars of a South African Cave,” highlights the recent Homo naledi discoveries.

Chapter 8: The First Farmers ∙ A new major subhead, “Broad-Spectrum Economies,” features a new introduction

and reworked sub-sections, “The Mesolithic in Europe” and “Developments in Asia, Including Early Pottery.”

∙ “The First Farmers and Herders in the Middle East” section includes a new sub- section, “The Coevolution of Farming and Property Rights,” as well as an expanded sub-section on “Where and Why Did Food Production Begin?,” with new discussion about the productivity of early farmers.

∙ The “Other Old World Farmers” section includes heavily revised sub-sections on “The Neolithic in Africa” (with expanded discussion of Nabta Playa), “The Neolithic in Europe” (with new discussion of DNA changes), and “The Neolithic in Asia” (with new material on Southern Chinese farming).

∙ “The First American Farmers” section has been revised and expanded to include Piperno’s experiments growing teosinte under prehistoric conditions.

∙ The “Costs and Benefits” section includes new coverage of the public health, income inequality, and environmental costs of food production.

Preface xix

Chapter 9: The First Cities and States ∙ The “State Formation” section (previously “The Origin of the State”) has been

extensively revised and includes a new introduction clarifying the difference between chiefdoms and states.

∙ The “State Formation in the Middle East” section has been fully revised and includes a new sub-section “An Early Ritual Center” (which discusses the important early site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey) and a rewritten and clarified sub-section “Social Ranking and Chiefdom.”

∙ The “State Formation in Mesoamerica” section has been heavily revised and in- cludes new material on trade between the Olmec and Oaxaca regions and warfare in the Zapotec state.

Chapter 10: Language and Communication ∙ The “Nonverbal Communication” section includes a new sub-section, “Personal

Space and Displays of Affection” (adapted from the previous edition’s Chapter 2 “Anthropology Today” box).

∙ The “Sociolinguistics” section contains a new sub-section, “Linguistic Diversity in California” (adapted from the previous edition’s Chapter 10 “Anthropology Today” box), as well as expanded discussion of regional speech patterns and examples of linguistic diversity within India.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “Words of the Year,” has been added.

Chapter 11: Making a Living ∙ A new introduction to the “Adaptive Strategies” section better distinguishes the

concept of food production. ∙ The “Foraging” section includes a clarified definition of foraging, as well as expanded

discussion of the distribution of modern foragers, the Basarwa San, and social distinctions in egalitarian foraging societies.

∙ The “Adaptive Strategies Based on Food Production” section has been revised to clarify the discussions of horticulture, shifting cultivation, and slash-and-burn horticulture.

∙ The “Distribution, Exchange” section features revised discussions of redistribution, reciprocity, and potlatching.

Chapter 12: Political Systems ∙ The “What Is ‘The Political’?” section features a revised introduction clarifying the

difference between power and authority. ∙ The “Social Control” section has been thoroughly revised to clarify the concepts of

public resistance, hidden transcripts, and shame and gossip. ∙ The “State Systems” section includes expanded discussion of the relative value of

state systems. ∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “The Illegality Industry: A Failed System of

Border Control,” has been added.

xx Preface

Chapter 13: Families, Kinship, and Marriage ∙ The “Families” section has been extensively revised to include expanded discussion

of the zadruga family system, industrialism and family organization, and changes in North American kinship, as well as new material on expanded family households and matrifocal households.

∙ The “Descent” section has been revised to foreground the concept of descent groups and clarify the discussion of demonstrated and stipulated descent.

∙ The “Same-Sex Marriage” has been thoroughly revised to include revised statistics regarding same-sex marriage worldwide and new material on the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States.

∙ The “Divorce” section provides new discussion of divorce among foragers. ∙ The “Plural Marriages” section features a new introduction clarifying the difference

between polygamy, polygyny, and polyandry, as well as expanded discussion of polygyny.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “What Anthropologists Could Teach the Supreme Court about the Definition of Marriage,” has been added.

Chapter 14: Gender ∙ The “Sex and Gender” section features a new introduction foregrounding the

concepts of nature and nurture. ∙ The “Recurrent Gender Patterns” has been simplified for greater clarity. ∙ The “Gender Roles and Gender Stratification” section provides expanded discussion

of patriarchy and violence (with new examples, including the Boko Haram kidnappings) as well as resistance to it (with the case of Pakistani Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai’s work).

∙ The “Gender in Industrialized Societies” section has been heavily revised, with a new introduction. Its sub-section “Changes in Gendered Work” contains new statistics and new material on the effects of automation and education on women’s professional employment. A new sub-section “Work and Family: Reality and Stereotypes” examines the changing roles of women and men regarding work and family responsibilities, as well as persisting stereotypes. The sub-sections on “The Feminization of Poverty” and “Work and Happiness” have been thoroughly reworked.

∙ The “Beyond Male and Female” section has been revised to clarify the difference between intersex and transgender, and expanded to discuss the increased visibility of, and legal challenges faced by, transgender individuals in the United States.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “Gender, Ethnicity, and a Gold Medal for Fiji,” has been added.

Chapter 15: Religion ∙ The “Social Control” section features a new discussion of accusations of witchcraft

as a means of religiously-based social control. ∙ The “World Religions” section has been fully revised to incorporate the latest statistics.

Preface xxi

∙ The “Religion and Cultural Globalization” section has been extensively revised and includes expanded discussion of the relationship between antimodernism and reli- gious fundamentalism in Christianity and Islam, as well as a new sub-section “Reli- gious Radicalism Today” focusing on Scott Atran’s research into militant groups like al Qaeda and ISIS.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “Newtime Religion,” has been added.

Chapter 16: Ethnicity and Race ∙ The “Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity” section has been substantially revised, including

a new introduction and statistics, as well as an expanded “Status and Identity” sec- tion (previously “Shifting Status”) clarifying the definition of status as well as the difference between ascribed and achieved status.

∙ The “Race and Ethnicity” section provides clarification about the difficulty in defining both terms.

∙ “The Social Construction of Race” section includes clarified discussion of racial attitudes in Japan.

∙ The “Ethnic Groups, Nations, and Nationalities” section provides a revised discussion of nationalism.

∙ The “Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation” section includes updated discussions of assimilation and multiculturalism.

∙ The “Changing Demographics” section provides updated demographic statistics as well as a new sub-section “The Backlash to Multiculturalism,” which explores the growth of the Tea Party movement during the Obama presidency and ethno- nationalism during and since the Trump presidential campaign and presidency.

∙ The “Ethnic Conflict” section (previously “Roots of Ethnic Conflict”) has new coverage of sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria and of the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as updated discussions of anti-ethnic discrimination and violence in Darfur, Syria, and Ukraine, and new material on the backlash against undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Chapter 17: Applying Anthropology ∙ “The Role of the Applied Anthropologist” section has been heavily revised, with an

expanded sub-section on “Early Applications” and an updated section on “Applied Anthropology Today.”

∙ The “Development Anthropology” section has been thoroughly revised, particularly the “Equity” and “Negative Equity Impact” sub-sections.

∙ The “Strategies for Innovation” section includes an expanded and revised discussion of overinnovation.

∙ The “Urban Anthropology” section has updated statistics. ∙ The “Medical Anthropology” section has been rewritten and reorganized and features

three new sub-head sections to clarify the discussion: “Disease Theory Systems,” “Scientific Medicine versus Western Medicine,” and “Industrialization, Globalization, and Health.”

xxii Preface

∙ The “Anthropology and Business” section now includes expanded discussion and numerous examples of how anthropologists can contribute to market research and applied ethnography in business settings,

Chapter 18: The World System, Colonialism, and Inequality ∙ “The World System” section features a new introduction foregrounding the concept

of the modern world system, as well as revised sub-sections on “World System Theory” and “The Emergence of the World System.”

∙ “The Persistence of Inequality” section (previously “Socioeconomic Effects of Inequality”) has been thoroughly revised to incorporate new statistics and extensive new discussion of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

∙ The “Colonialism and Imperialism” section (previously “Colonialism”) has been heavily revised and includes clarified discussion of the difference between colonialism and imperialism, as well as a new sub-section “The First Phase of European Colonialism: Spain and Portugal.”

∙ The “Communism, Socialism, and Postsocialism” section (previously “The Second World”) provides expanded discussion of postsocial transitions.

Chapter 19: Anthropology’s Role in a Globalizing World ∙ The “Globalization: Its Meanings and Its Nature” section has been clarified and

simplified. ∙ The “Energy Consumption and Industrial Degradation” section has been heavily

updated to incorporate new statistics and coverage of recent global developments, such as the Ebola and Zika virus crises, cyber attacks, and climate change.

∙ The “Global Climate Change” section has been fully revised to incorporate the latest statistics and an expanded discussion of the greenhouse effect.

∙ The “Environmental Anthropology” section includes an updated sub-section on “Emerging Diseases,” especially zoonotic diseases.

∙ The “Interethnic Contact” section features a new introduction focused on shifting cultural patterns and a revised sub-section “A Global Culture of Consumption.”

∙ The “Indigenous Peoples” section features updated statistics and new coverage of the United Nations’ commitment to the rights of indigenous peoples.

∙ A new “Anthropology Today” box, “Diversity under Siege: Global Forces and Indigenous Peoples,” has been added.

Content and Organization

No single or monolithic theoretical perspective orients this book. My e-mail, along with reviewers’ comments, confirms that instructors with a very wide range of views and approaches have been pleased with Window as a teaching tool. ∙ In Chapter 1, anthropology is introduced as an integrated four-field discipline, with

academic and applied dimensions, that examines human biological and cultural di- versity in time and space. Anthropology is discussed as a comparative and holistic

Preface xxiii

science, featuring biological, social, cultural, linguistic, humanistic, and historical approaches. Chapter 2 examines the central anthropological concept of culture, in- cluding its symbolic and adaptive features. Chapter 3 is about doing anthropology— the methods and ethics of research in anthropology’s subfields.

∙ The chapters focusing on biological anthropology and archaeology (4–9) offer up-to- date answers to several key questions: When did humans originate, and how did we become what we are? What role do genes, the environment, society, and culture play in human variation and diversity? What can we tell about our origins and nature from the study of our nearest relatives—nonhuman primates? When and how did the pri- mates originate? What key features of their early adaptations are still basic to our abilities, behavior, and perceptions? How did hominids develop from our primate ancestors? When, where, and how did the first hominins emerge and expand? What about the earliest real humans? How do we explain biological diversity in our own species, Homo sapiens? What major transitions have taken place since the emer- gence of Homo sapiens?

∙ Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the Neolithic, especially the domestication of plants and animals, as a major adaptive change, with profound implications for human lifeways. The spread and intensification of farming and herding are tied to the appearance of the first towns, cities, and states, as well as the emergence of social stratification and major social inequalities.

∙ The chapters on linguistic and sociocultural anthropology (10–19) are organized to place related content close together—although they are sufficiently independent to be assigned in any order the instructor might select. Thus, “Political Systems” (Chap- ter 12) logically follows “Making a Living” (Chapter 11). Chapters 13 and 14 (“Fam- ilies, Kinship, and Marriage” and “Gender,” respectively) also form a coherent unit. The chapter on religion (15) covers not just traditional religious practices but also contemporary world religions and religious movements. It is followed by four chap- ters (16–19) that form a natural unit exploring sociocultural transformations and ex- pressions in today’s world.

∙ Those last four chapters address several important questions: How are race and eth- nicity socially constructed and handled in different societies, and how do they gener- ate prejudice, discrimination, and conflict? How and why did the modern world system emerge and expand? How has world capitalism affected patterns of stratifica- tion and inequality within and among nations? What were colonialism, imperialism, and Communism, and what are their legacies? How do people today actively inter- pret and confront the world system and the products of globalization? What factors threaten continued human diversity? How can anthropologists work to ensure the preservation of that diversity?

∙ Let me also single out two chapters present in Window on Humanity but not found consistently in other anthropology texts: “Ethnicity and Race” (Chapter 16) and “Gender” (Chapter 14). I believe that systematic consideration of race, ethnicity, and gender is vital in an introductory anthropology text. Anthropology’s distinctive four- field approach can shed special light on these topics. We see this not only in Chapter 16 (“Ethnicity and Race”) but also in Chapter 4 (“Evolution, Genetics, and Human

xxiv Preface

Variation”), in which race is discussed as a problematic concept in biology. Race and gender studies are fields in which anthropology always has taken the lead. I’m con- vinced that anthropology’s special contributions to understanding the biological, social, cultural, and linguistic dimensions of race, ethnicity, and gender should be highlighted in any introductory text.

Teaching Resources

The following instructor resources can be accessed through the Library tab in Connect Anthropology:

∙ Instructor’s manual ∙ PowerPoint lecture slides ∙ Computerized Test Bank ∙ Word version of the test bank

Create

Design your ideal course materials with McGraw-Hill Education’s Create: http://www.create.mheducation.com

Rearrange or omit chapters, combine materials from other sources, and/or upload any other content you have written to make the perfect resource for your students. You can even personalize your book’s appearance by selecting the cover and adding your name, school, and course information. When you order a Create book, you receive a complimentary review copy. Get a printed copy in three to five business days or an electronic copy (eComp) via e-mail in about an hour. Register today at http:// www.create.mheducation.com and craft your course resources to match the way you teach.

xxv

I’m grateful to many colleagues at McGraw-Hill. I offer particular thanks to Product Developer Emily Pecora, who synthesized and summarized the prepublication re- views, helped me plan and implement this revision, and worked with me to complete and submit the manuscript ahead of schedule. I have always appreciated Emily’s keen editorial eye for style, language, and presentation, as well as content. She has helped guide me through several revisions. I also thank Bruce Cantley for his work as product developer as Window on Humanity moved toward publication. Thanks also to Gina Boedeker, McGraw-Hill’s former Managing Director for anthropology, and to Rhona Robbin, former Lead Product Developer, for their help and support over many years and editions, including the start of this revision. I am privileged to be working now with Claire Brantley, Executive Portfolio Manager, and Dawn Groundwater, Lead Product Developer. Thanks as well to McGraw-Hill’s entire team of sales reps and regional managers for the work they do in helping professors and students gain access to my books. I also acknowledge Michael Ryan, Vice President for Portfolio and Learning Content. As usual, Rick Hecker has done a great job as Content Project Manager, guiding the manuscript through production and keeping everything moving on schedule. Laura Fuller, Buyer, worked with the printer to make sure everything came out right. Thanks, too, to Charlotte Goldman, freelance photo researcher, and to Scott Lukas, Lake Tahoe Community College, who created the content for the Connect products for this book. I also thank Amy Marks for copyediting, Marlena Pechan for proofreading, and Egzon Shaqiri for executing the design. Lori Slattery also deserves thanks as Content Licensing Specialist. The names and schools of the reviewers contracted by McGraw-Hill to review the 7th edition of Window on Humanity, in preparation for the 8th edition, or the 10th edi- tion of Mirror for Humanity, in preparation for the 11th edition, are as follows:

Acknowledgments

Jenna Andrews-Swann Georgia Gwinnett College Margaret Bruchez Blinn College Jessica H. Craig Central New Mexico Community College Anna R. Dixon University of South Florida, St. Petersburg Shasta Gaughen California State University, San Marcos Fred Heifner Cumberland University Joshua A. Irizarry Bridgewater State University

Lily Malekfar Triton College Scotty Moore Houston Community College Elizabeth Scharf University of North Dakota Marjorie M. Snipes University of West Georgia Julie Vazquez College of the Canyons Jessica Worden-Jones Schoolcraft College Catherine Wright Jacksonville State Community College

xxvi Acknowledgments

I’m grateful to all these reviewers and professors for their enthusiasm and their sugges- tions for changes, additions, and deletions (sometimes in very different directions!). Very, very special thanks as well to the more than 2,000 students whose responses in LearnSmart helped me pinpoint content and writing that needed clarification. Never have so many voices contributed to a revision as to this one. My readers also share their insights about Window via e-mail. Anyone—student or instructor—can reach me at the following e-mail address: ckottak@bellsouth.net. As usual, my family provides me with understanding, support, and inspiration in my writing projects. Dr. Nicholas Kottak and Dr. Juliet Kottak Mavromatis regularly share their insights with me, as does Isabel Wagley Kottak, my long-term companion in the field and in life, to whom this book is dedicated. During my long academic career, I’ve benefited from the knowledge, help, and ad- vice of so many friends, colleagues, teaching assistants (graduate student instructors— GSIs), and students that I can no longer fit their names into a short preface. I hope they know who they are and accept my thanks. I do especially thank my co-authors of other books: Lara Descartes (Media and Middle Class Moms), Lisa Gezon (Culture), and Kathryn Kozaitis (On Being Different). Kathryn (with whom I have worked on four edi- tions), Lisa (two editions), and Lara are prized former students of mine. Today they all are accomplished anthropologists in their own right, and they continue to share their wisdom with me. I’m very grateful to my Michigan colleagues who’ve offered insights and suggested ways of making my books better. Thanks especially to a 101 team that has included Tom Fricke, Stuart Kirsch, Holly Peters-Golden, and Andrew Shryock. Special thanks as well to Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery for continuing to nurture the archaeologist in me. Feedback from students and from my fellow anthropologists keeps me up-to-date on the interests, needs, and views of the people for whom Window is written, as does my ongoing participation in workshops on the teaching of anthropology. I continue to be- lieve that effective textbooks are based in the enjoyment of teaching and respect for students. I hope this product of my experience will continue to be helpful to others.

Conrad Phillip Kottak

Seabrook Island, South Carolina

ckottak@bellsouth.net

xxvii

About the Author Conrad Phillip Kottak, who received his AB and PhD degrees from Columbia Univer- sity, is the Julian H. Steward Collegiate Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where he served as anthropology department chair from 1996 to 2006. He has been honored for his teaching by the university and the state of Michigan and by the American Anthropological Association. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, where he chaired Section 51, Anthropology from 2010 to 2013. Professor Kottak has done ethnographic fieldwork in Brazil, Madagascar, and the United States. His general interests are in the processes by which local cultures are incorporated—and resist incorporation—into larger systems. This interest links his earlier work on ecology and state formation in Africa and Mad- agascar to his more recent research on globalization, national and international culture, and media, including new media and social media. Kottak’s popular case study Assault on Paradise: The Globalization of a Little Community in Brazil (2006) describes his long-term and continuing fieldwork in Arembepe, Bahia, Brazil. His book Prime-Time Society: An Anthropological Analysis of Television and Culture (2009) is a comparative study of the nature and impact of television in Brazil and the United States. Kottak’s other books include The Past in the Present: History, Ecology and Cultural Variation in Highland Mada- gascar (1980), Researching American Culture: A Guide for Student Anthropologists (1982), Madagascar: Society and History (1986), and Media and Middle Class Moms: Images and Realities of Work and Family (with Lara Descartes, 2009). The most recent editions (17th) of his texts Anthropology: Appreciating Human Diversity and Cultural Anthropology: Appreciating Cultural Diversity were published by McGraw- Hill in 2017. He also is the author of Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (11th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2018) and of this book—Window on Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Anthropology (8th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2018). Conrad Kottak’s articles have appeared in academic journals, including American Anthropologist, Journal of

© Juliet Kottak Mavromatis

xxviii About the Author

Anthropological Research, American Ethnologist, Ethnology, Human Organization, and Luso-Brazilian Review. He also has written for more popular journals, including Transaction/ SOCIETY, Natural History, Psychology Today, and General Anthropology. In other research projects, Professor Kottak and his colleagues have investigated ecological awareness in Brazil, biodiversity conservation in Madagascar, and media use by modern American families. Professor Kottak currently is collaborating with Professor Richard Pace and several graduate students on research investigating “The Evolution of Media Impact: A Longitudinal and Multi-Site Study of Television and New Electronic/Digital Media in Brazil,” a project supported by the National Science Foundation. Conrad Kottak appreciates comments about his books from professors and students. He can be reached at the following e-mail address: ckottak@bellsouth.net.

1

Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology?

The Cross-Cultural Perspective

Human Adaptability Adaptation, Variation, and Change Cultural Forces Shape Human Biology

General Anthropology

The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Cultural Anthropology Anthropological Archaeology Biological Anthropology Linguistic Anthropology

Applied Anthropology

Anthropology and Other Academic Fields A Humanistic Science Cultural Anthropology and Sociology

Anthropology Today: School of Hope

The Cross-Cultural Perspective

“That’s just human nature.” “People are pretty much the same all over the world.” Such opinions, which we hear in conversations, in the mass media, and in a dozen scenes in daily life, promote the erroneous idea that people in other countries have the same desires, feelings, values, and aspirations that we do. Such statements proclaim that be- cause people are essentially the same, they are eager to receive the ideas, beliefs, values, institutions, practices, and products of an expansive North American culture. Often this assumption turns out to be wrong.

Anthropology offers a broader view—a distinctive comparative, cross-cultural per- spective. Most people think that anthropologists study nonindustrial societies, and they do. My research has taken me to remote villages in Brazil and Madagascar, a large island off the southeast coast of Africa. In Brazil I sailed with fishers in simple sailboats on Atlantic waters. Among Madagascar’s Betsileo people, I worked in rice fields and took part in ceremonies in which I entered tombs to rewrap the corpses of decaying ancestors.

However, anthropology is much more than the study of nonindustrial peoples. It is a comparative science that examines all societies, ancient and modern, simple and complex. Most of the other social sciences tend to focus on a single society, usually an

2 Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology?

industrial nation such as the United States or Canada. Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective, constantly comparing the customs of one society with those of others.

Among scholarly disciplines, anthropology stands out as the field that provides the cross-cultural test. How much would we know about human behavior, thought, and feel- ing if we studied only our own kind? What if our entire understanding of human behav- ior were based on analysis of questionnaires filled out by college students in Oregon? That is a radical question, but one that should make you think about the basis for state- ments about what humans are like, individually or as a group. A primary reason anthro- pology can uncover so much about what it means to be human is that the discipline is based on the cross-cultural perspective. A single culture simply cannot tell us everything we need to know about what it means to be human. We need to compare and contrast.

To become a cultural anthropologist, one typically does ethnography (the firsthand, personal study of local settings). Ethnographic fieldwork usually entails spending a year or more in another society, living with the local people and learning about their way of life. No matter how much the ethnographer discovers about that society, he or she remains an alien there. That experience of alienation has a profound impact. Having learned to respect other customs and beliefs, anthropologists can never forget that there is a wider world. There are normal ways of thinking and acting other than our own.

Human Adaptability

Anthropologists study human beings wherever and whenever they find them—in a Turkish café, a Mesopotamian tomb, or a North American shopping mall. Anthropology is the exploration of human diversity in time and space. Anthropology studies the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture. Of particular interest is the diversity that comes through human adaptability.

Humans are among the world’s most adaptable animals. In the Andes of South America, people wake up in villages 16,000 feet above sea level and then trek 1,500 feet higher to work in tin mines. Tribes in the Australian desert worship animals and discuss philosophy. People survive malaria in the tropics. Men have walked on the moon. The model of the Star Trek starship Enterprise in Washington’s Smithsonian Institution is a symbol of the Star Trek mission “to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Wishes to know the unknown, control the uncontrolla- ble, and create order out of chaos find expression among all peoples. Creativity, adapt- ability, and flexibility are basic human attributes, and human diversity is the subject matter of anthropology.

Students often are surprised by the breadth of anthropology, which is the study of humans around the world and through time. Anthropology is a uniquely comparative and holistic science. Holism refers to the study of the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture.

People share society—organized life in groups—with other animals, including ba- boons, wolves, mole rats, and even ants. Culture, however, is more distinctly human. Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide

Human Adaptability 3

the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them. Children learn such a tradition by growing up in a particular society, through a process called enculturation. Cultural traditions include customs and opinions, developed over the generations, about proper and improper behavior. These traditions answer such questions as: How should we do things? How do we make sense of the world? How do we tell right from wrong? A cul- ture produces a degree of consistency in behavior and thought among the people who live in a particular society.

The most critical element of cultural traditions is their transmission through learning rather than through biological inheritance. Culture is not itself biological, but it rests on certain features of human biology. For more than a million years, humans have had at least some of the biological capacities on which culture depends. These abilities are to learn, to think symbolically, to use language, and to employ tools and other products in organizing their lives and adapting to their environments.

Anthropology confronts and ponders major questions of human existence as it ex- plores human biological and cultural diversity in time and space. By examining ancient bones and tools, we unravel the mysteries of human origins. When did our ancestors separate from those remote great-aunts and great-uncles whose descendants are the apes? Where and when did Homo sapiens originate? How has our species changed? What are we now, and where are we going? How have changes in culture and society influenced biological change? Our genus, Homo, has been changing for more than 2 million years. Humans continue to adapt and change both biologically and culturally.

Adaptation, Variation, and Change Adaptation refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses, such as those posed by climate and topography or terrains, also called landforms. How do organisms change to fit their environments, such as dry climates or high mountain altitudes? Like other animals, humans use biological means of adapta- tion. But humans are unique in also having cultural means of adaptation. Table 1.1 sum- marizes the cultural and biological means that humans use to adapt to high altitudes.

TABLE 1.1 Forms of Cultural and Biological Adaptation (to High Altitude)

Form of Adaptation Type of Adaptation Example

Technology Cultural Pressurized airplane cabin with oxygen masks

Genetic adaptation (occurs over generations)

Biological Larger “barrel chests” of native highlanders

Long-term physiological adaptation (occurs during growth and development of the individual organism)

Biological More efficient respiratory system, to extract oxygen from “thin air”

Short-term physiological adaptation (occurs spontaneously when the individual organism enters a new environment)

Biological Increased heart rate, hyperventilation

4 Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology?

Mountainous terrains pose particular challenges, those associated with high altitude and oxygen deprivation. Consider four ways (one cultural and three biological) in which humans may cope with low oxygen pressure at high altitudes. Illustrating cultural (tech- nological) adaptation would be a pressurized airplane cabin equipped with oxygen masks. There are three ways of adapting biologically to high altitudes: genetic adaptation, long- term physiological adaptation, and short-term physiological adaptation. First, native populations of high-altitude areas, such as the Andes of Peru and the Himalayas of Tibet and Nepal, seem to have acquired certain genetic advantages for life at very high alti- tudes. The Andean tendency to develop a voluminous chest and lungs probably has a genetic basis. Second, regardless of their genes, people who grow up at a high altitude become physiologically more efficient there than genetically similar people who have grown up at sea level would be. This illustrates long-term physiological adaptation dur- ing the body’s growth and development. Third, humans also have the capacity for short- term or immediate physiological adaptation. Thus, when lowlanders arrive in the highlands, they immediately increase their breathing and heart rates. Hyperventilation increases the oxygen in their lungs and arteries. As the pulse also increases, blood reaches their tissues more rapidly. All these varied adaptive responses—cultural and biological— achieve a single goal: maintaining an adequate supply of oxygen to the body.

As human history has unfolded, the social and cultural means of adaptation have become increasingly important. In this process, humans have devised diverse ways of coping with a wide range of environments. The rate of cultural adaptation and change has accelerated, particularly during the past 10,000 years. For millions of years, hunting and gathering of nature’s bounty—foraging—was the sole basis of human subsistence. However, it took only a few thousand years for food production (the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals), which originated some 12,000–10,000 years ago, to replace foraging in most areas. Between 6000 and 5000 B.P. (before the present), the first civilizations arose. These were large, powerful, and complex societies, such as ancient Egypt, that conquered and governed large geographic areas.

Much more recently, the spread of industrial production and the forces of globaliza- tion have profoundly affected human life. Throughout human history, major innovations have spread at the expense of earlier ones. Each economic revolution has had social and cultural repercussions. Today’s global economy and communications link all contempo- rary people, directly or indirectly, in the modern world system. People must cope with forces generated by progressively larger systems—region, nation, and world. The study of such contemporary adaptations generates new challenges for anthropology: “The cultures of world peoples need to be constantly rediscovered as these people reinvent them in changing historical circumstances” (Marcus and Fischer 1986, p. 24).

Cultural Forces Shape Human Biology Anthropology’s comparative, biocultural perspective recognizes that cultural forces constantly mold human biology. (Biocultural refers to using and combining both bio- logical and cultural perspectives and approaches to analyze and understand a particular issue or problem.) Culture is a key environmental force in determining how human bod- ies grow and develop. Cultural traditions promote certain activities and abilities, dis- courage others, and set standards of physical well-being and attractiveness. Consider

Human Adaptability 5

how this works in sports. North American girls are encouraged to pursue, and therefore do well in, competition involving figure skating, gymnastics, track and field, swimming, diving, and many other sports. Brazilian girls, although excelling in the team sports of basketball and volleyball, haven’t fared nearly as well in individual sports as have their American and Canadian counterparts.

Cultural standards of attractiveness and propriety influence participation and achieve- ment in sports. Americans run or swim not just to compete but also to keep trim and fit. Brazil’s beauty standards traditionally have accepted more fat, especially in female but- tocks and hips. Brazilian men have had significant international success in swimming and running, but Brazil rarely sends female swimmers or runners to the Olympics. One reason why Brazilian women avoid competitive swimming in particular may be that sport’s effects on the body. Years of swimming sculpt a distinctive physique: an enlarged upper torso, a massive neck, and powerful shoulders and back. Successful female swim- mers tend to be big, strong, and bulky. The countries that have produced them most consistently are the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, the Scandinavian nations, the Netherlands, and the former Soviet Union, where this body type isn’t as stigmatized as it is in Latin countries. For women, Brazilian culture prefers ample hips and buttocks to a muscled upper body. Many young female swimmers in Brazil choose to abandon the sport rather than their culture’s “feminine” body ideal.

When you grew up, which sport did you appreciate the most—soccer, swimming, football, baseball, tennis, golf, or some other sport (or perhaps none at all)? Is this be- cause of “who you are” or because of the opportunities you had as a child to practice and

Athletes primed for the start of the 10 kilometer women’s marathon swim at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Years of swimming sculpt a distinctive physique—an enlarged upper torso and neck, and powerful shoulders and back. ©Tim de Waele/Corbis via Getty Images

6 Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology?

participate in this particular activity? When you were young, your parents might have told you that drinking milk and eating vegetables would help you grow up “big and strong.” They probably didn’t as readily recognize the role that culture plays in shaping bodies, personalities, and personal health. If nutrition matters in growth, so, too, do cultural guidelines. What is proper behavior for boys and girls? What kinds of work should men and women do? Where should people live? What are proper uses of their leisure time? What role should religion play? How should people relate to their family, friends, and neighbors? Although our genetic attributes provide a foundation for growth and development, human biology is fairly plastic—that is, it is malleable. Culture is an environmental force that affects our development as much as do nutrition, heat, cold, and altitude. Culture also guides our emotional and cognitive growth and helps deter- mine the kinds of personalities we have as adults.

General Anthropology

The academic discipline of anthropology, also known as general anthropology or “four-field” anthropology, includes four main subdisciplines, or subfields. They are so- ciocultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. (From here on, the shorter term cultural anthropology will be

used as a synonym for sociocultural anthropology.) Of the subfields, cultural anthropology has the largest membership. Most departments of anthropology teach courses in all four subfields.

There are historical reasons for the inclusion of four subfields in a single discipline. The origin of anthropology as a scientific field, and of American anthropology in particular, can be traced to the 19th century. Early American anthropologists were con- cerned especially with the history and cultures of the native peoples of North America. Interest in the ori- gins and diversity of Native Americans brought to- gether studies of customs, social life, language, and physical traits. Anthropologists still are pondering such questions as these: Where did Native Americans come from? How many waves of migration brought them to the New World? What are the linguistic, cul- tural, and biological links among Native Americans and between them and Asia? (Note that a unified four-field anthropology did not develop in Europe, where the subfields tend to exist separately.)

There also are logical reasons for the unity of American anthropology. Each subfield considers variation in time and space (that is, in different geographic areas). Cultural anthropologists and

Early American anthropology was especially concerned with the history and cultures of Native North Americans. Ely S. Parker, or Ha-sa-no-an-da, was a Seneca Indian who made important contributions to early anthropology. Parker also served as commissioner of Indian affairs for the United States. Source: National Archives and Records Administration

The Subdisciplines of Anthropology 7

anthropological archaeologists study changes in social life and customs (among many other topics). Archaeologists use studies of living societies to imagine what life might have been like in the past. Biological anthropologists examine evolutionary changes in human biology. Linguistic anthropologists may reconstruct the basics of ancient languages by studying modern ones.

The subfields influence each other as anthropologists talk to each other, read books and journals, and meet in professional organizations. General anthropology explores the basics of human biology, society, and culture and considers their interrelations. Anthro- pologists share certain key assumptions. Perhaps the most fundamental is the idea that sound conclusions about “human nature” cannot be derived from studying a single population, nation, society, or cultural tradition. A comparative, cross-cultural approach is essential.

The Subdisciplines of Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is the study of human society and culture. This subfield de- scribes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differ- ences. To study and interpret cultural diversity, cultural anthropologists engage in two kinds of activity: ethnography (based on fieldwork) and ethnology (based on cross- cultural comparison). Ethnography provides an account of a particular culture, society, or community. During ethnographic fieldwork, the ethnographer gathers data that he or she organizes, analyzes, and interprets to develop that account, which may be in the form of a book, an article, or a film. Traditionally, ethnographers have lived in small communities and studied local behavior, beliefs, customs, social life, economic activities, politics, and religion (see Okely 2012; Wolcott 2008).

An anthropological perspective derived from ethnographic fieldwork often differs radically from that of economics or political science. Those fields focus on national and official organizations and policies and often on elites. However, the groups that anthro- pologists traditionally have studied usually have been relatively poor and powerless. Ethnographers often observe discriminatory practices directed toward such people, who experience food shortages, dietary deficiencies, and other aspects of poverty. Political scientists tend to study programs that national planners develop, whereas anthropologists discover how these programs work on the local level.

Communities and cultures are less isolated today than ever before. As noted by Franz Boas (1940/1966) many years ago, contact between neighboring tribes always has ex- isted and has extended over enormous areas. “Human populations construct their cul- tures in interaction with one another, and not in isolation” (Wolf 1982, p. ix). Villagers increasingly participate in regional, national, and world events. Exposure to external forces comes through education, the mass media, migration, and modern transportation. (The “Anthropology Today” box at the end of this chapter examines the role of a resi- dential school in eastern India in bridging barriers between cultures.) City and nation increasingly invade local communities with the arrival of teachers, tourists, develop- ment agents, government and religious officials, and political candidates. Such linkages

8 Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology?

are prominent components of regional, national, and international systems of politics, economics, and information. These larger systems increasingly affect the people and places anthropology traditionally has studied. The study of such linkages and systems is part of the subject matter of modern anthropology.

Ethnology examines, compares, analyzes, and interprets the results of ethnography— the data gathered in different societies. Ethnologists use such data to compare, contrast, and generalize about society and culture. Looking beyond the particular to the more general, they attempt to identify and explain cultural differences and similarities, to test hypotheses, and to build theory to enhance our understanding of how social and cultural systems work. Ethnology gets its data for comparison not only from ethnography but also from the other subfields, particularly from anthropological archaeology, which re- constructs social systems of the past. (Table 1.2 summarizes the main contrasts between ethnography and ethnology.)

Anthropological Archaeology Anthropological archaeology (more simply, “archaeology”) reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains. At sites where people live or have lived, archaeologists find artifacts—material items that humans have made, used, or modified—such as tools, weapons, campsites, buildings, and garbage. Plant and animal remains and ancient garbage tell stories about consumption and activities. Wild and domesticated grains have different characteristics, which allow archaeologists to distinguish between gathering and cultivation. Examination of animal bones reveals the ages of slaughtered animals and provides other information useful in determining whether species were wild or domesticated.

Analyzing such data, archaeologists answer several questions about ancient econo- mies: Did the group get its meat from hunting, or did it domesticate and breed animals, killing only those of a certain age and sex? Did plant food come from wild plants or from sowing, tending, and harvesting crops? Did the residents make, trade for, or buy particular items? Were raw materials available locally? If not, where did they come from? From such information, archaeologists reconstruct patterns of production, trade, and consumption.

Archaeologists have spent considerable time studying potsherds, fragments of earth- enware. Potsherds are more durable than many other artifacts, such as textiles and wood. The quantity of pottery fragments allows estimates of population size and density. The discovery that potters used materials that were not available locally suggests systems of trade. Similarities in manufacture and decoration at different sites may be proof of cultural connections. Groups with similar pots may share a common history. They might

TABLE 1.2 Ethnography and Ethnology—Two Dimensions of Cultural Anthropology

Ethnography Ethnology

Requires fieldwork to collect data Uses data collected by a series of researchers Is often descriptive Is usually synthetic Is specific to a group or community Is comparative and cross-cultural

The Subdisciplines of Anthropology 9

have common cultural ancestors. Perhaps they traded with each other or belonged to the same political system.

Many archaeologists examine paleoecology. Ecology is the study of interrelations among living things in an environment. The organisms and environment together con- stitute an ecosystem, a patterned arrangement of energy flows and exchanges. Human ecology studies ecosystems that include people, focusing on the ways in which human use “of nature influences and is influenced by social organization and cultural values” (Bennett 1969, pp. 10–11). Paleoecology looks at the ecosystems of the past.

In addition to reconstructing ecological patterns, archaeologists may infer cultural transformations, for example, by observing changes in the size and type of sites and the distance between them. A city develops in a region where only towns, villages, and hamlets existed a few centuries earlier. The number of settlement levels (city, town, village, hamlet) in a society is a measure of social complexity. Buildings offer clues about political and religious features. Temples and pyramids suggest that an ancient society had an authority structure capable of marshaling the labor needed to build such monu- ments. The presence or absence of certain structures, like the pyramids of ancient Egypt and Mexico, reveals differences in function between settlements. For example, some towns were places where people went to attend ceremonies. Others were burial sites; still others were farming communities.

Archaeologists also reconstruct behavior patterns and lifestyles of the past by exca- vating. This involves digging through a succession of levels at a particular site. In a

Anthropological archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania work to stabilize the original plaster at an Anasazi (Native American) site in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. ©George H.H. Huey/Alamy Stock Photo

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given area, through time, settlements may change in form and purpose, as may the con- nections between settlements. Excavation can document changes in economic, social, and political activities.

Although archaeologists are best known for studying prehistory, that is, the period before the invention of writing, they also study the cultures of historical and even living peoples (see Sabloff 2008). Studying sunken ships off the Florida coast, underwater archaeologists have been able to verify the living conditions on the vessels that brought ancestral African Americans to the New World as enslaved people. In a well-known research project in Tucson, Arizona, archaeologist William Rathje learned a great deal about contemporary life by studying modern garbage (Zimring 2012). The value of “garbology,” as Rathje called it, is that it provides “evidence of what people did, not what they think they did, what they think they should have done, or what the interviewer thinks they should have done” (Harrison, Rathje, and Hughes 1994, p. 108). What people report may contrast strongly with their real behavior as revealed by garbology. For example, the three Tucson neighborhoods that reported the lowest beer consump- tion actually had the highest number of discarded beer cans per household (Rathje and Murphy 2001; Zimring 2012)!

Biological Anthropology Biological anthropology is the study of human biological diversity through time and as it exists in the world today. There are five specialties within biological anthropology:

1. Human biological evolution as revealed by the fossil record (paleoanthropology). 2. Human genetics. 3. Human growth and development. 4. Human biological plasticity (the living body’s ability to change as it copes with

environmental conditions, such as heat, cold, and altitude). 5. Primatology (the study of monkeys, apes, and other nonhuman primates).

A common thread that runs across all five specialties is an interest in biological variation among humans, including their ancestors and their closest animal relatives (monkeys and apes).

These varied interests link biological anthropology to other fields: biology, zoology, geology, anatomy, physiology, medicine, and public health. Knowledge of osteology— the study of bones—is essential for anthropologists who examine and interpret skulls, teeth, and bones, whether of living humans or of our fossilized ancestors. Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils. Paleoanthropologists study the fossil record of human evolution. Paleoanthropologists often collaborate with archaeologists, who study arti- facts, in reconstructing biological and cultural aspects of human evolution. Fossils and tools often are found together. Different types of tools provide information about the habits, customs, and lifestyles of the ancestral humans who used them.

More than a century ago, Charles Darwin noticed that the variety that exists within any population permits some individuals (those with the favored characteristics) to do better than others at surviving and reproducing. Genetics, which developed after Darwin, enlightens us about the causes and transmission of the variety on which evolution

Applied Anthropology 11

depends. However, it isn’t just genes that cause variety. During any individual’s lifetime, the environment works along with heredity to determine biological features. For exam- ple, people with a genetic tendency to be tall will be shorter if they have poor nutrition during childhood. Thus, biological anthropology also investigates the influence of envi- ronment on the body as it grows and matures. Among the environmental factors that influence the body as it develops are nutrition, altitude, temperature, and disease, as well as cultural factors, such as the standards of attractiveness that were discussed previously.

Biological anthropology (along with zoology) also includes primatology. The primates include our closest relatives—apes and monkeys. Primatologists study their biology, evolution, behavior, and social life, often in their natural environments. Prima- tology assists paleoanthropology, because primate behavior and social organization may shed light on early human behavior and human nature.

Linguistic Anthropology We don’t know (and probably never will) when our ancestors acquired the ability to speak, although biological anthropologists have looked to the anatomy of the face and the skull to speculate about the origin of language. Primatologists have described the communication systems of monkeys and apes. We do know that grammatically complex languages have existed for thousands of years. Linguistic anthropology offers further illustration of anthropology’s interest in comparison, variation, and change. Linguistic anthropology studies language in its social and cultural context, throughout the world and over time. Some linguistic anthropologists make inferences about universal features of language, linked perhaps to uniformities in the human brain. Others reconstruct ancient languages by comparing their contemporary descendants. Still others study lin- guistic differences to discover varied perceptions and patterns of thought in different cultures (see Bonvillain 2012, 2016).

Historical linguistics considers variation in time, such as the changes in sounds, grammar, and vocabulary between Middle English (spoken from approximately C.E. [formerly A.D.] 1050 to 1550) and modern English. Sociolinguistics investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation. How do different speakers use a given language? How do linguistic features correlate with social factors, including class and gender differences (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2013)? One reason for variation is geography, as in regional dialects and accents. Linguistic variation also is expressed in the bilingualism of ethnic groups. Linguistic and cultural anthropologists collaborate in studying links between language and many other aspects of culture, such as how people reckon kinship and how they perceive and classify colors.

Applied Anthropology

What sort of man or woman do you envision when you hear the word anthropologist? Although anthropologists have been portrayed as quirky and eccentric, bearded and bespectacled, anthropology is not a science of the exotic carried on by quaint scholars in ivory towers. Rather, anthropology has a lot to tell the public. Anthropology’s foremost professional organization, the American Anthropological Association (AAA), has

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formally acknowledged a public service role by recognizing that anthropology has two dimensions: (1) academic anthropology and (2) practicing, or applied, anthropology. The latter refers to the application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems. As American an- thropologist Erve Chambers (1987) has stated, applied anthropology is “concerned with the relationships between anthropological knowledge and the uses of that knowledge in the world beyond anthropology” (p. 309). More and more anthropologists from the four subfields now work in “applied” areas such as public health, family planning, business, market research, economic development, and cultural resource management.

Because of anthropology’s breadth, applied anthropology has many applications. For example, applied medical anthropologists consider both the sociocultural and the bio- logical contexts and implications of disease and illness. Perceptions of good and bad health, along with actual health threats and problems, differ among societies. Various ethnic groups recognize different illnesses, symptoms, and causes and have developed different health care systems and treatment strategies.

Applied archaeology, usually called public archaeology, includes such activities as cultural resource management, public educational programs, and historic preserva- tion. Legislation requiring evaluation of sites threatened by dams, highways, and other construction activities has created an important role for public archaeology. To decide what needs saving, and to preserve significant information about the past when sites

Applied anthropology in action. Professor Robin Nagle of New York University is also an anthropologist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation. Nagle studies curbside garbage as a mirror into the lives of New Yorkers. Here she accompanies sanitation worker Joe Damiano during his morning rounds in August 2015. ©Richard Drew/AP Images

Anthropology and Other Academic Fields 13

cannot be saved, is the work of cultural resource management (CRM). CRM in- volves not only preserving sites but also allowing their destruction if they are not significant. The management part of the term refers to the evaluation and decision- making process. Cultural resource managers work for federal, state, and county agen- cies and other clients. Applied cultural anthropologists sometimes work with public archaeologists, assessing the human problems generated by the proposed change and determining how they can be reduced. Table 1.3 relates anthropology’s four subfields to its two dimensions.

Anthropology and Other Academic Fields

As mentioned previously, one of the main differences between anthropology and the other fields that study people is holism, anthropology’s unique blend of biological, social, cultural, linguistic, historical, and contemporary perspectives. Paradoxically, while distinguishing anthropology, this breadth is what also links it to many other dis- ciplines. Techniques used to date fossils and artifacts have come to anthropology from physics, chemistry, and geology. Because plant and animal remains often are found with human bones and artifacts, anthropologists collaborate with botanists, zoologists, and paleontologists.

A Humanistic Science As a discipline that is both scientific and humanistic, anthropology has links with many other academic fields. Anthropology is a science—a “systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims, through experiment, observation, and deduction, to produce reliable explanations of phenomena, with references to the material and physical world” (Webster’s New World Encyclopedia 1993. College Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. p.937. Copyright © 1993). The chapters that follow present anthropology as a humanistic science devoted to discovering, describing, understanding, and explain- ing similarities and differences in time and space among humans and our ancestors. Clyde Kluckhohn (1944) described anthropology as “the science of human similarities and differences” (p. 9). His statement of the need for such a field still stands: “ Anthropology provides a scientific basis for dealing with the crucial dilemma of the world today: how can peoples of different appearance, mutually unintelligible languages, and dissimilar ways of life get along peaceably together?” (p. 9). Anthropology has compiled an impressive body of knowledge, which this textbook attempts to encapsulate.

TABLE 1.3 The Four Subfields and Two Dimensions of Anthropology

Anthropology’s Subfields Examples of Application (General Anthropology) (Applied Anthropology)

Cultural anthropology Development anthropology Anthropological archaeology Cultural resource management (CRM) Biological anthropology Forensic anthropology Linguistic anthropology Study of linguistic diversity in classrooms

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Besides its links to the natural sciences (e.g., geology, zoology) and social sciences (e.g., sociology, psychology), anthropology also has strong links to the humanities. The humanities include English, comparative literature, classics, folklore, philosophy, and the arts. These fields study languages, texts, philosophies, arts, music, performances, and other forms of creative expression. Ethnomusicology, which studies forms of musi- cal expression on a worldwide basis, is especially closely related to anthropology. Also linked is folklore, the systematic study of tales, myths, and legends from a variety of cultures. One might well argue that anthropology is among the most humanistic of all academic fields because of its fundamental respect for human diversity. Anthropologists listen to, record, and represent voices from a multitude of nations and cultures. Anthropology values local knowledge, diverse worldviews, and alternative philosophies. Cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology in particular bring a comparative and nonelitist perspective to forms of creative expression, including language, art, narratives, music, and dance, viewed in their social and cultural context.