Anthropology For Dummies
, by Smith, Cameron M.
- ISBN: 9781119784203 | 1119784204
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 5/11/2021
Study the science of all of us
Anthropology is the organized study of what makes humans human. It takes an objective step back to view homo sapiens as a species and ask questions like: Given our common characteristics, why aren’t all of us exactly the same? Why do people across the world have variable skin and hair color and so many inventive ways to say hello? And how can knowing the reasons behind our differences—as well as our similarities—teach us useful lessons for the future? The updated edition of Anthropology For Dummies gives you a panoramic view of the fascinating fieldwork and theory that seeks to answer these questions—and helps you view the human world through impartial, anthropological eyes.
Keeping the jargon to a minimum, Anthropology For Dummies explores the four main subdivisions of the discipline, from the adventurous Indiana Jones territory of archaeology and the hands-on biological insights provided by our physical nature to the studious book-cracking brainwork of cultural and linguistic investigation. Along the way, you’ll journey deep into our prehistory where we begin to differentiate ourselves from our primate relatives—and then fast forward into the possibilities of centuries yet to come.
- Explore the history of anthropology and apply its methods
- Get a deep, scientific take on contemporary debates such as identity
- Excavate the human past through new fossil discoveries
- Peer into humanity’s future in space
Whether you’re studying anthropology for school or just want to know more about what makes us humans who we are, this is the perfect introduction to humanity’s past and present—and a clue to what we need to build a better future.
Dr. Cameron M. Smith teaches at Portland State University's Department of Anthropology in Portland, Oregon. His anthropological experiences span from searching for early human fossils in East Africa to learning about traditional hunting methods in Arctic Alaska. His research has been published in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology and The Journal of Field Archaeology, and he has written for the general public in his book The Top Ten Myths About Evolution (endorsed by the National Center for Science Education) and many articles in mainstream magazines such as Scientific American MIND, Archaeology, Skeptical Inquirer, and Spaceflight.
Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond the Book 5
Where to Go from Here 5
Part 1: What is Anthropology? 7
Chapter 1: Human Beings and Being Human: An Overview of Anthropology 9
Digging Into Anthropology’s History 10
Getting Acquainted with Anthropology’s Subfields 11
Physical anthropology 11
Archaeology 12
Cultural Anthropology 13
Linguistics 14
Making Sense of Anthropology’s Methods 14
Applied Anthropology: Using the Science in Everyday Life 15
Chapter 2: Looking Into Humanity’s Mirror: Anthropology’s History 17
Getting to the Heart of Anthropology 18
Dazed and Confused: What It Is to Be Human 20
Two types of culture 21
Two types of modernity 22
-Isms and the Making of Anthropology 22
Colonialism 23
Antiquarianism 25
Scientism 27
Holism 28
Anthropology Today 29
Chapter 3: Actually, Four Mirrors: How Anthropology Is Studied 31
Physical Anthropology and the Evolutionary Basis of Biology 32
You say you want an evolution 33
More facets of physical anthropology 36
The biocultural animal 39
Archaeology: The Study of Ancient Societies 41
Archaeology and evolution 42
More facets of archaeology 44
Linguistic Anthropology 46
Nonhuman animal communication 46
Spoken language 47
Gesture and body language 48
Cultural Anthropology: The Study of Living Societies 49
Putting the culture in cultural anthropology 50
Attempting to explain why humans do what they do 51
Participant observation 52
Applied anthropology and global culture 54
Part 2: Physical Anthropology and Archaeology 57
Chapter 4: The Wildest Family Reunion: Meet the Primates 59
Monkey Business: Primate Origins 60
You Look Like an Ape: Primate Species 62
What’s in a name? General primate characteristics 63
Going ape (and prosimian): Primate subgroups 66
Yes, We Have No Bananas: Primate Subsistence 70
The indiscriminate-eaters: Omnivores 71
The bug-eaters: Insectivores 72
The leaf-eaters: Folivores 72
The fruit-eaters: Frugivores 73
Monkeying Around: Primate Locomotion 74
Stand back, Tarzan: The brachiators 75
Bug-bashers: The vertical-clingers-and-leapers 75
In the trees: Arboreal quadrupeds 75
Soldiers beware: Terrestrial quadrupeds 76
A group of one: Bipeds 77
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Primate Social Groups and Behavior 78
Primates Today (But For How Long?) 80
Chapter 5: My Career Is in Ruins: How Anthropologists Learn about the Past 83
What, How Old, and Where: It’s All You Need to Know 84
The significance of where 85
The significance of when 85
The significance of artifacts 86
Keeping Time: How Archaeologists Date Finds 87
The deeper, the older: Stratigraphy 88
Before or after? Relative dating 89
Absolutely probably 6,344 years old (plus or minus): Radiometric absolute dating 90
Saving Space: How Archaeologists Keep Track of Where Artifacts Are Found 93
Be there: Provenience 93
Be square: Site grids 93
Type Casting: How Archaeologists Classify Their Finds 95
Types of types: The theory of classification 95
Unearthing the most common artifact types 96
Chapter 6: Bones of Contention: The Fossil Evidence for Early Human Evolution 101
Great Africa: The Earliest Hominins 102
Stand and Deliver: The Riddles of Bipedalism 103
Walking upright: Pros and cons 104
The complexities of early hominin evolution 106
All the Same from the Neck Down: The Australopithecines 109
The basic differences and similarities 110
The crusher: Robust australopithecines 112
The omnivore: Gracile australopithecines 114
The Cracked Mirror: Early Homo 116
Exploring characteristics of early Homo 116
Dalmatians and cigar smoke: Finds at Olduvai Gorge 118
Out of Africa: Early dispersals of early Homo 119
Tool time: The decoupling of behavior from anatomy 120
The Traveler: The Accomplishments of Homo erectus 121
Characteristics of Homo erectus 121
From confrontational scavenging to ambush hunting 122
The use of fire 122
Symmetry, watercraft, and the “15-minute culture” 123
Chapter 7: It’s Good to Be Home: Homo sapiens sapiens, Our Biological Species 125
Distinguishing Modern Homo sapiens sapiens (That’s You!) 126
Anatomical modernity 126
Behavioral modernity 128
Africa: The Cradle of Humanity 128
Discovering the first AMHss 129
Exploring behavioral modernity 129
Out of Africa: An Epic Dispersal 132
Taking a closer look at Neanderthals 132
Getting Neanderthals and AMHss together 133
The Origins of Language: The Social Grooming Theory 137
The Origins of the Modern Mind 139
The evolution of consciousness: Two models 139
The roots of myth 142
The roots of ritual 142
The roots of symbolism 143
Chapter 8: Hunting, Fishing, Sailing, and Sledding: The Dispersal of Humanity Worldwide 145
Dispersal and Survival: The Decoupling of Behavior from Biology 146
The Earliest Settlement of Australasia 148
Another Grand Exploration: The Colonization of the New World 151
Dueling hypotheses: A couple of migration theories 151
Just the facts, ma’am 153
Igloos, Dogs, and Whalebone Knives: The Colonization of the Arctic 156
First arrivals 156
The Thule expansion 156
The Voyage of Ru and Hina: The Colonization of the Pacific 159
The tools of the explorers 159
The society of the explorers 160
High Altitude People: Early Settlement of the Tibetan Plateau 162
Big-River People: Early Settlement of the Amazon and Congo Basins 162
Desert People: Early Settlement of the Sahara 163
Chapter 9: Old, Old McDonald: The Origins of Farming 165
The Principle of Domestication 166
Cultural selection 166
Effects of farming on society 166
Plant domestication 167
Animal domestication 168
Principles of Horticulture 169
Distinctive characteristics of horticulture 169
Garden horticulture 170
Slashing and burning 170
Limited storage 172
Principles of Farming 172
Distinguishing state farming from horticulture 172
Water control 173
Animal domestication, farming-style 173
Massive storage 175
Farming facilities and tools 175
Secondary products 176
Looking Back on the Origins of Farming 178
Why farm in the first place? 178
In the Near East 179
In Africa 180
In East Asia 181
In the Western Pacific 182
In the Americas 183
The Early Farming Village 184
The Making of Man’s Best Friend: the Early Domestication of Dogs 186
Chapter 10: The Development of Civilization 189
Human Subsistence and Social Organization 190
Human subsistence 190
Human social organization 195
The Characteristics of Civilization 198
Urbanization 198
Long-distance trade 199
Social stratification 199
Durable record-keeping/writing 200
Standing armies and extended warfare 201
Money 201
Slavery 201
Territorial sovereignty 202
Vassal tribute 202
Non-food production specialists 203
Astronomy and/or mathematics 203
Monumental architecture 203
State religion 204
Taxes 205
Charting the Rise and Fall of the First Civilizations 205
Egypt 207
Inca 208
Civilization Today: Will It Fall, Too? 210
Part 3: Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics 213
Chapter 11: The Spice of Life: Human Culture 215
Demystifying the Definition of Culture 216
What Culture Is and What Culture Isn’t 217
Culture versus cultured 217
Why cultures differ 218
Cultural Universals 219
Having an Out-of-Body Experience 221
Adaptation and its implications 221
Behaviors 222
Values 222
Objects 224
Language: Passing the baton of culture 224
Opening Your Human Behavior Owner’s Manual 225
Culture = software, brain = hardware 226
Problems with the software/hardware analogy 226
Getting Your Cultural Education 227
Life stages 227
Stages of human learning 228
From Mop-Tops to Mötley Crüe: What Is Cultural Change? 229
Diffusion versus assimilation 229
Innovation 230
Cultural Evolution 230
How culture evolves 231
What cultural evolution doesn’t mean 231
Chapter 12: From Kalahari to Minneapolis: How Cultural Anthropologists Work 233
Watching Cultural Anthropology Grow Up 234
Battling ethnocentrism 234
Getting scientific 235
Embodying the etic modernist approach: Bronislaw Malinowski 238
A More Personal Approach: Emic Research 240
Recognizing how a researcher’s choices influence the results 241
Realizing that the act of observing affects the results 242
Considering Recent Developments 243
Exploring postmodernism 244
Keeping pace with cultural change 244
Striving for Accuracy 245
Recognizing potential research pitfalls 245
Watching cultural anthropology in action 247
Going into the Field: Getting Prepared for Less-Than-Ideal Conditions 248
Chapter 13: Can We Talk? Communication, Symbols, and Language 251
Exploring the Complexity of Human Language 252
Screeching and howling: Non-human animal communications 253
Contrasting non-human and human symbolism 255
Identifying characteristics of human spoken language 258
Linking language to the mind: Tapping its true power 260
Ready to Swear: How the Human Mind Is Hard-Wired for Language 262
First four months 263
Six to twelve months 263
12 to 18 months 263
18 to 24 months 264
36 months and later 264
Watching Human Language Evolve 264
Admitting our uncertainty 266
Explaining language diversity 267
Making room for new theories 269
Chapter 14: Types of Types: Race and Ethnicity 271
The Kinds of Humanity: Human Physical Variation 272
The race card: Racial types and physical anthropology 272
The lowdown: What anthropologists can say for sure about human races 275
The history of racial typing 276
The grand illusion: Race, turns out, is arbitrary 280
Why Is Everyone Different? Human Cultural Variation 281
Distinguishing ethnicity from race 282
A common horror: Ethnic cleansing 283
A common delight: Ethnic identity 283
Ethnic group interactions 284
Chapter 15: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Identity, Family, Kinship, and Gender 287
Am I “Cameron” or “a Smith”? The Scales of Human Identity 288
Know thyself: Identity 288
What’s in a name? 289
A Family Affair 289
Families of origin versus families of procreation 291
Incest 292
Marriage 292
Kinship 294
Sex and Gender 296
The differences between sex and gender 297
Common gender roles 298
Kinship and Gender Worldwide and through Time 300
Among foragers 300
Among horticulturalists 301
Among agriculturalists 301
Age and Stage of Life 302
Chapter 16: Not at the Dinner Table! Religion and Politics 305
What Is Religion? 306
Functions of religion 306
Why religion is so powerful 307
The Material and Supernatural Worlds 308
Ritual and Religion 309
The Organization of Supernatural Knowledge 311
Shamans 311
Priests 312
The Origins of Religion 314
Types of Religions 316
The Relations of Power: Politics 318
I’ve got the power (and I know how to use it) 318
Power plays: How various societies apply power 319
The Politics of Polarization 320
Part 4: So What? Anthropology, The Modern World, and You 323
Chapter 17: Kiss or Kill? Diversity, Conflict, and Culture 325
The Anthropology of Conflict and Conflict Resolution 325
Scales and consequences of conflict 328
Cultural conflict among small-scale societies 329
Cultural conflict in larger-scale societies 331
Humanity and justice 334
Globalization and Human Culture 334
Globalization and ecological justice 335
Globalization and cultural assimilation 336
Globalization and nativistic movements 336
Globalization and forced migration 337
Chapter 18: Looming Disasters? From Overpopulation to Space Debris 339
The Only Constant Is Change 339
Overpopulation 342
The road to overpopulation 343
Hope on the horizon 344
Climate Change 345
Say What? The Loss of Linguistic Diversity 347
Food and Water Availability/Famine 348
Disease 349
Space Debris 350
Your New Home on Mars! Issues of Space Settlement 351
Chapter 19: Eve and the Iceman: The Cutting Edge of Physical Anthropology 355
Molecular Anthropology 356
How it works 356
How anthropologists use it 357
Some complications with the molecular clock 360
DNA and the Mitochondrial Eve 361
Out of Africa: African diversity and extra-African similarity 362
The inevitable debates 362
Neanderthals and You: The Neanderthal Genome 363
The Iceman 364
Chapter 20: Stonehenge and You: Why Archaeology Matters 367
History Is Written by the Winners: The Importance of Archaeology 368
Historical archaeology and written history 370
Commoners of ancient Egypt 371
The archaeology of American slaves 372
Other important historical archaeology sites 373
Conversation Stoppers? Archaeology and the Unknown 374
Why did humanity take up farming? 375
How did humans go from having leaders to having rulers? 376
Does history repeat itself? 377
Part 5: The Part of Tens 379
Chapter 21: Ten Things to Remember About Anthropology, Whatever Else You Forget 381
The Use of Tools Separated Behavior from Anatomy 381
We’re Not Just Like Apes, We ARE Apes 382
Nobody Knows Why Hominids First Walked Upright (Yet) 382
Everyone Is in the Human Race 383
Civilization is Brand-New 383
There Are Many Ways to be Human 384
Culture Doesn’t Ride on Genes 384
Language and Metaphor Are the Keys to Human Success 384
Absolutely, There Are No Absolutes 385
There is No Ladder of Progress 385
Chapter 22: Ten Great Careers for Anthropology Majors 387
Academic Anthropology 387
Cultural/Human Resources 388
Forensic Anthropology 388
Crime Scene Investigation 389
Primate Biology 389
Primate Ethology 389
Diplomacy 390
Museum Work 390
Library Science 390
Contract Archaeology 391
Chapter 23: Ten (Or So) Great Anthropologically Themed Movies and Books 393
Cave of Forgotten Dreams 394
Once We Were Warriors 394
The Places in Between 394
Gorillas in the Mist 395
Neanderthal 395
Quest for Fire 395
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 396
Maps and Dreams 396
Dances of Life 396
Chapter 24: The Top Ten Myths about the Human Past 397
All Human Societies Evolved in the Same Direction 397
Prehistoric Life Was Nasty, Brutish, and Short 398
Ancient People Were Perfectly in Balance with Nature 399
Farming Is Easier and Better than Foraging 399
Ancient Monuments Had Just One Purpose 400
“Primitive Technology” Was Limited 401
Cave Art Was about Men Hunting Animals 401
It’s Nature or Nurture 402
History Repeats Itself 403
Having Reached a Peak, Human Evolution Has Ended 404
Index 405
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