Anthropology

This general anthropology text takes a holistic approach that emphasizes critical thinking, active learning, and applying anthropology to solve contemporary human problems. Building on the classical foundations of the discipline, Anthropology: Asking Questions About Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture, Third Edition, shows students how anthropology is connected to such current topics as food, health and medicine, and the environment. Full of relevant examples and current topics--with a focus on contemporary problems and questions--the book demonstrates the diversity and dynamism of anthropology today.

Robert L. Welsch is retired from Franklin Pierce University, where he taught from 2008-2019. Previously, he taught at Dartmouth College, from 1994-2008.

Luis A. Vivanco is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Anthropology Department at the University of Vermont.

Agustín Fuentes is Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University.

Contents
Letter from the Authors
About the Authors
Preface
Acknowledgments

PART I The Anthropological Perspective

1 Anthropology:

Asking Questions About Humanity

How Did Anthropology Begin?

The Disruptions of Industrialization

The Theory of Evolution

Colonial Origins of Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology as a Global Discipline

What Do the Four Subfields of Anthropology Have in Common?

Culture

Cultural Relativism

Human Diversity

Change

Holism

How Do Anthropologists Know What They Know?

The Scientific Method in Anthropology

When Anthropology Is Not a Science: Interpreting Other Cultures

How Do Anthropologists Put Their Knowledge to Work in the World?

Applied and Practicing Anthropology

Putting Anthropology to Work

What Ethical Obligations Do Anthropologists Have?

Do No Harm

Take Responsibility for Your Work

Share Your Findings

A WORLD IN MOTION: George A. Dorsey and the Anthropology of Immigration in the Early Twentieth Century

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: E. B. Tylor and the Culture Concept

DOING FIELDWORK: Conducting Holistic Research with Stanley Ulijaszek

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Anthropologists Are Innovators

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Key Characteristics of Anthropologists in the Workplace

2 Culture:

Giving Meaning to Human Lives

What Is Culture?

Elements of Culture

Defining Culture in This Book

If Culture Is Always Changing, Why Does It Feel So Stable?

Symbols

Values

Norms

Traditions

How Do Social Institutions Express Culture?

Culture and Social Institutions

American Culture Expressed Through Breakfast Cereals and Sexuality

Can Anybody Own Culture?

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Cultural Anthropology and Human Possibilities

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Franz Boas and the Relativity of Culture

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Michael Ames and Collaborative Museum Exhibits

3 Human Biocultural Evolution:

Emergence of the Biocultural Animal

Life Changes. But What Does It Mean to Say It Evolves?

A Brief Primer on the Rise of Evolutionary Thinking

Differentiating Evolution From Simple Change

What It Means to Have Common Ancestry

Why Evolution Is Important to Anthropology . . . and Anthropology to Evolution

What Are the Actual Mechanisms Through Which Evolution Occurs?

The Modern Synthesis

Basic Sources of Biological Change: Genes, DNA, and Cells

Genetic Mechanisms of Evolution

Non-Genetic Mechanisms of Evolution

How Do Biocultural Patterns Affect Evolution?

Human Inheritance Involves Multiple Systems

Evolutionary Processes Are Developmentally Open-Ended

The Importance of Constructivist Evolutionary Approaches for Biocultural Anthropology

Are Modern Humans Evolving, and Where Might We Be Headed?

The Impact of Disease on Evolution

Cultural Practices, Morphology, and Evolution

Looking to the Future

Global Population and Human Density

Genetic Manipulation

Climate Change and Adaptive Behavioral Patterns

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Clyde Kluckhohn and the Role of Evolution in Anthropology

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: The Biocultural Awesomeness of Awe

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Clarifying the Biocultural and Evolutionary Dimensions of Obesity

4 Cross-Cultural Interactions:

Understanding Culture and Globalization

Are Cross-Cultural Interactions All That New?

Is the Contemporary World Really Getting Smaller?

Defining Globalization

The World We Live In

What Are the Outcomes of Global Integration?

Colonialism and World Systems Theory

Cultures of Migration

Resistance at the Periphery

Globalizing and Localizing Identities

Doesn't Everyone Want to Be Developed?

What Is Development?

Development Anthropology

Anthropology of Development

Change on Their Own Terms

If the World Is Not Becoming Homogenized, What Is Actually Happening?

Cultural Convergence Theories

Hybridization

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Eric Wolf, Culture, and the World System

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Coldplay and the Global Citizen Festival

A WORLD IN MOTION: Instant Ramen Noodles Take Over the World

DOING FIELDWORK: Tracking Emergent Forms of Citizenship with Aihwa Ong

PART II Becoming Human

METHODS MEMO: How Do Anthropologists Study Human and Primate Biological Processes?

5 Living Primates:

Comparing Monkeys, Apes, and Humans

What Does It Mean to Be a Primate, and Why Does It Matter to Anthropology?

What It Means to Be a Primate

The Distinctions Between Strepsirrhini and Haplorrhini

Primatology as Anthropology

What Are the Basic Patterns of Primate Behavioral Diversity, and Under What Conditions Did They Develop?

Common Behavior Patterns Among Primates

The Emergence of Primate Behavioral Diversity

How Do Behavior Patterns Among Monkeys and Apes Compare with Humans?

The Lives of Macaques

The Lives of Chimpanzees and Bonobos

So How Do They Compare With Us?

What Does Studying Monkeys and Apes Really Illustrate About Human Distinctiveness?

Primate Social Organization and Human Behavior

We Have Culture. Do They Too?

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: So You Want to Work With Primates?

DOING FIELDWORK: The Ethics of Working with Great Apes

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sherwood Washburn and the New (Integrative) Physical Anthropology

METHODS MEMO: How Do Anthropologists Study Ancient Primates and Human Origins?

6 Ancestral Humans:

Understanding the Human Family Tree

Who Are Our Earliest Possible Ancestors?

Our Earliest Ancestors Were Hominins

The Fossil Record of Hominins in

The Three Hominin Genera

Who Is Our Most Direct Ancestor?

What Did Walking on Two Legs and Having Big Brains Mean for the Early Hominins?

The Benefits of Upright Movement

The Effects of Big Brains on Early Hominin Behavior

Who Were the First Humans, and Where Did They Live?

Introducing Homo erectus

The Emergence of Archaic Humans

Who Were the Neanderthals and Denisovans?

Contemporary Humans Hit the Scene

How Do We Know If the First Humans Were Cultural Beings, and What Role Did Culture Play in Their Evolution?

The Emerging Cultural Capacity of H. erectus

Culture Among Archaic Humans

Social Cooperation and Symbolic Expression

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: How to Think Like a Paleoanthropologist

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Were We "Born to Run"?

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Helpless Babies, and the Evolution of Human Cooperation

A WORLD IN MOTION: Rethinking the Peopling of the Americas

7 Human Biodiversity Today:

Understanding Our Differences and Similarities

In What Ways Do Contemporary Humans Vary Biologically?

Genetic Variation Within and Between Human Populations

Genetic Variation Is Tied to Gene Flow

Physiological Diversity and Blood Types

Disease Environments and Human Immunity

Why Do Human Bodies Look So Different Across the Planet?

Is Skin Really Colored?

Variations in Body Shape, Stature, and Size

Are Differences of Race Also Differences of Biology?

The Biological Meanings (and Meaninglessness) of "Human Races"

But Isn't There Scientific Evidence for the Existence of Races?

What Biocultural Consequences Do Social Phenomena Like Discrimination, Rapid Change, Nurturing, and So Forth Have on Human Bodies?

Eugenics: A Weak Theory of Genetic Inheritance

The Embodied Consequences of Being a Racialized Minority

How Do Humans Thrive?

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Ashley Montagu and "Man's Most Dangerous Myth"

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Jada Benn Torres and Reparational Genetics in the Caribbean

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: It Does, in Fact, "Take a Village:" A Biocultural Perspective

8 The Body:

Biocultural Perspectives on Health and Illness

How Do Biological and Cultural Factors Shape Our Bodily Experiences?

Uniting Mind and Matter: A Biocultural Perspective

Culture and Mental Illness

What Do We Mean by Health and Illness?

The Individual Subjectivity of Illness

The "Sick Role": The Social Expectations of Illness

How and Why Do Doctors and Other Health Practitioners Gain Social Authority?

The Disease-Illness Distinction: Professional and Popular Views of Sickness

The Medicalization of the Non-Medical

How Does Healing Happen?

Clinical Therapeutic Processes

Symbolic Therapeutic Processes

Social Support

Persuasion: The Placebo Effect

How Can Anthropology Help Us Address Global Health Problems?

Understanding Global Health Problems

Anthropological Contributions to Tackling the International HIV/AIDS Crisis

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Heidi Larson, Vaccine Anthropologist

A WORLD IN MOTION: Medical Tourism and Yemen

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Paul Farmer and the Effort to Situate Global Health Problems in an Anthropology of Suffering

PART III Humans and Their Material Worlds

METHODS MEMO: What Field Methods Do Archaeologists Use to Study the Human and Environmental Past?

9 Materiality:

Constructing Social Relationships and MeaningsWith Things

Why Is the Ownership of Prehistoric Artifacts and Objects From Other Cultures Such a Contentious Issue?

Archaeological Excavation and Questions of Ownership

The Road to NAGPRA

Cultural Resource Management

How Should We Look at Objects Anthropologically?

The Many Dimensions of Objects

A Shiny New Bicycle in Multiple Dimensions

Constructing the Meaning of an Archaeological Artifact

How and Why Do the Meanings of Things Change Over Time?

The Social Life of Things

Three Ways Objects Change Over Time

How Archaeological Specimens Change Meaning Over Time

What Role Does Material Culture Play in Constructing the Meaning of a Community's Past?

Claiming the Past

The Politics of Archaeology

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Working as an Ethnographic Collections Manager at the Field Museum

A WORLD IN MOTION: The Movement of Art In and Out of Africa

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Margaret Conkey and the Gender Politics of Understanding Past Lives

METHODS MEMO: Why Is Carbon-14 So Important to Archaeologists?

10 Early Agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution:

Modifying the Environment to Satisfy Human Demands

How Important Was Hunting to Prehistoric Peoples?

Taking Stock of Living Hunter-Gatherers

"Man the Hunter"

Recent Attempts to Understand Prehistoric Hunting Strategies

Back to the Past: Understanding Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers

Why Did People Start Domesticating Plants and Animals?

Why Do Archaeologists Call It the Neolithic Revolution?

The Neolithic Revolution: The Beginnings of Food Production

The Hilly Flanks Hypothesis

The Pressure of Population Growth

Changing Weather and Climates

The Role of Social Processes

How Did Early Humans Raise Their Own Food?

Domesticating Plants

Domesticating Animals

Tending Tree Crops: Recent Findings on Arboriculture

What Impact Did Raising Plants and Animals Have on Other Aspects of Life?

Transhumance: Moving Herds with the Seasons

Sedentism and Growing Populations

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: What Are the Responsibilities and Job Description of an Archaeologist?

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: V. Gordon Childe on the Neolithic Revolution

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Michael Heckenberger on the Amazon as a Culturally Managed Landscape

METHODS MEMO: How Do Archaeologists Analyze the Objects They Find?

11 The Rise and Decline of Cities and States:

Understanding Social Complexity in Prehistory

What Does Social Complexity Mean to Archaeologists?

Population Growth and Settlement Practices

Trade and Contact With Peoples of Different Cultures

Specialization and Production Models

Does Complexity Always Imply Social Inequality?

How Can Archaeologists Identify Social Complexity From Archaeological Sites and Artifacts?

Identifying Social Complexity From Sites and Artifacts in Western Mexico

Population Growth and Settlement Patterns

Soils and Land Use

Monuments and Buildings

Mortuary Patterns and Skeletal Remains

Ceramic, Stone, and Metal Objects

How Do Archaeologists Explain Why Cities and States Fall Apart?

Rethinking Abandonment in the US Southwest

The Transformation (Not Collapse) of the Classic Maya

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Archaeological Field Schools for Undergraduates

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Robert Carneiro on the Role of Warfare in the Rise of Complex Societies

A WORLD IN MOTION: Exploring Early Contacts Between China and the East Coast of Africa

DOING FIELDWORK: Researching Primordial Sea Monsters and Sharks in the Maya Jungle with Sarah Newman

PART IV Human Social Relations and Their Meanings

METHODS MEMO: How Do Anthropologists Study the Relationship Between Language and Culture?

12 Linguistic Anthropology:

Relating Language and Culture

Where Does Language Come From?

Evolutionary Perspectives on Language

Historical Linguistics: Studying Language Origins and Change

What Does Language Actually Do and How Does it Work?

Descriptive Linguistics

Phonology: Sounds of Language

Morphology: Grammatical Categories

Sociolinguistics

Does Language Shape How We Experience the World?

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Hopi Notions of Time

Ethnoscience and Color Terms

Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Correct?

If Language Is Always Changing, Why Does It Seem So Stable?

Linguistic Change, Stability, and National Policy

Language Stability Parallels Cultural Stability

How Does Language Relate to Social Power and Inequality?

Language Ideology

Gendered Language Styles

Language and the Legacy of Colonialism

Language Ideologies and Contemporary Racial Justice

Language Ideology and New Media Technologies

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: The End of Gendered Pronouns in American English?

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Edward Sapir on How Language Shapes Culture

A WORLD IN MOTION: The Emergence of a New Language in the Northern Territory of Australia

DOING FIELDWORK: Anthropologist Bernard Perley Explores Language Endangerment

METHODS MEMO: How Do Anthropologists Use Ethnographic Methods to Study Culture and Social Relations?

13 Economics:

Working, Sharing, and Buying

Is Money Really the Measure of All Things?

Culture, Economics, and Value

The Neoclassical Perspective

The Substantivist-Formalist Debate

The Marxist Perspective

The Cultural Economics Perspective

How Does Culture Shape the Value and Meaning of Money?

The Types and Cultural Dimensions of Money

Money, Debt, and the Distribution of Power

Why Does Gift Exchange Play Such an Important Role in All Societies?

Gift Exchange and Economy: Two Classic Approaches

Gift Exchange in Market-Based Economies

What Is the Point of Owning Things?

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Property

Appropriation and Consumption

Does Capitalism Have Distinct Cultures?

Culture and Social Relations on Wall Street

Entrepreneurial Capitalism Among Malays

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: The Economics of Anthropology

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: David Graeber and the Problem of Debt and Obligation in Organizing Human Societies

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Jim Yong Kim's Holistic, On-the-Ground Approach to Fighting Poverty

14 Sustainability:

Environment and Foodways

Do All People See Nature in the Same Way?

The Human-Nature Divide?

The Cultural Landscape

How Do People Secure an Adequate, Meaningful, and Environmentally Sustainable Food Supply?

Modes of Subsistence

Food, Culture, and Meaning

How Does Non-Western Knowledge of Nature and Agriculture Relate to Science?

Ethnoscience

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

How Are Industrial Agriculture, Economic Globalization, and Climate Change Linked to Increasing Environmental and Health Problems?

Population and Environment

Ecological Footprint

Industrial Foods, Sedentary Lives, and the Nutrition Transition

Climate Change and Culture

Are Industrialized Western Societies the Only Ones to Conserve Nature?

Anthropogenic Landscapes

The Culture of Modern Nature Conservation

Environmentalism's Alternative Paradigms

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Roy Rappaport's Insider and Outsider Models

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Urban Black Food Justice with Ashanté Reese

A WORLD IN MOTION: Migrant Caravans, Global Warming, and Ecological Refugees

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Careers in Sustainability

15 Power:

Politics and Social Control

Does Every Society Have a Government?

The Idea of "Politics" and the Problem of Order

Structural-Functionalist Models of Political Stability

Neo-Evolutionary Models of Political Organization: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States

Challenges to Traditional Political Anthropology

What Is Political Power?

Defining Political Power

Political Power Is Action Oriented

Political Power Is Structural

Political Power Is Gendered

Political Power in Non-State Societies

The Political Power of the Contemporary Nation-State

How Is Social Inequality Constructed and Upheld?

Race, Biology, and the "Natural" Order of Things

The Cultural Construction of Race

Saying Race Is Culturally Constructed Is Not Enough

Why Do Some Societies Seem More Violent Than Others?

What Is Violence?

Violence and Culture

Explaining the Rise of Violence in Our Contemporary World

How Do People Avoid Aggression, Brutality, and War?

What Disputes Are "About"

How People Manage Disputes

Is Restoring Harmony Always the Best Way?

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: An Anthropological Politician?

ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Maxwell Owusu and Democracy in Ghana

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Hortense Powdermaker on Prejudice

16 Kinship and Gender:

Sex, Power, and Control of Men and Women

What Are Families, and How Are They Structured in Different Societies?

Families, Ideal and Real

Nuclear and Extended Families

Kinship Terminologies

Cultural Patterns in Childrearing

How Families Control Power and Wealth

Why Do People Get Married?

Why People Get Married

Forms of Marriage

Sex, Love, and the Power of Families Over Young Couples

How and Why Do Males and Females Differ?

Toward a Biocultural Perspective on Male and Female Differences

Beyond the Male-Female Dichotomy

Explaining Gender/Sex Inequality

What Does It Mean to Be Neither Male Nor Female?

Navajo Nádleehé

Indian Hijras

Is Human Sexuality Just a Matter of Being Straight or Queer?

Cultural Perspectives on Same-Sex Sexuality

Controlling Sexuality

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Family-Centered Social Work and Anthropology

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Margaret Mead and the Sex/Gender Distinction

DOING FIELDWORK: Don Kulick and "Coming Out" in the Field

17 Religion:

Ritual and Belief

How Should We Understand Religion and Religious Beliefs?

Understanding Religion version 1.0: Edward B. Tylor and Belief in Spirits

Understanding Religion version 2.0: Anthony F. C. Wallace on Supernatural Beings, Powers, and Forces

Understanding Religion version 3.0: Religion as a System of Symbols

Understanding Religion version 4.0: Religion as a System of Social Action

What Forms Does Religion Take?

Clan Spirits and Clan Identities in New Guinea

Totemism in North America

Shamanism and Ecstatic Religious Experiences

Ritual Symbols That Reinforce a Hierarchical Social Order

Polytheism and Monotheism in Ancient Societies

World Religions and Universal Understandings of the World The Localization of World Religions

How Does Atheism Fit in the Discussion?

How Do Rituals Work?

Magical Thought in Non-Western Cultures

Sympathetic Magic: The Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion

Magic in Western Societies

Rites of Passage and the Ritual Process

How Is Religion Linked to Political and Social Action?

The Rise of Fundamentalism

Understanding Fundamentalism

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Clifford Geertz's Notion of Religion as a Cultural System

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LIFE: Is Anthropology Compatible With Religious Faith?

A WORLD IN MOTION: Contemporary Pilgrimage and the Camino de Santiago

Epilogue:

Anthropology and the Future of Human Diversity
Glossary
References
Credits
Index