Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Anthropology

PART 1. Biological Anthropology

ISSUE 1. Did Homo Sapiens Originate Only in Africa?

YES: Christopher Stringer and Robin McKie, from African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity

NO: Alan G. Thorne and Milford H. Wolpoff, from "The Multiregional Evolution of Humans," Scientific American

Paleoanthropologist Christopher Stringer and science writer Robin McKie argue that recent analysis of mitochondrial DNA evidence dates the evolution of anatomically modern humans to about 200,000 years ago. They assert that Homo sapiens originated from a single African population, which then spread over the rest of that continent and ultimately dispersed to all parts of the Old World, replacing all earlier hominid populations. Paleoanthropologists Alan G. Thorne and Milford H. Wolpoff counter that models derived from mitochondrial DNA evidence do not agree with the fossil and archaeological evidence. They maintain that Homo erectus populations had dispersed to all parts of the Old World by one million years ago. As the populations dispersed, they maintainedcontact and interbred enough so that the populations gradually evolved throughout the Old World to become anatomically modern humans.

ISSUE 2. Did Neanderthals Interbreed With Modern Humans?

YES: Scott Norris, from "Family Secrets," New Scientist

NO: Ian Tattersall, from The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives, rev. ed.

Science writer Scott Norris surveys recent osteological, archaeological, and genetic evidence and concludes that the predominance of evidence favors a period of "mixing" between Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe. Biological anthropologist Ian Tattersall contends that the anatomical and behavioral differences between Neanderthals and early modern humans were too great for them to have been the same species and thus able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring.

ISSUE 3. Should Anthropology Abandon the Concept of Race?

YES: Jonathan Marks, from "Black, White, Other," Natural History

NO: George W. Gill, from "The Beauty of Race and Races," Anthropology Newsletter

Biological anthropologist Jonathan Marks argues that the popular idea of races as discrete categories of people who are similar to each other and different from all members of other races is a cultural--not a biological--concept. Biological and forensic anthropologist George W. Gill contends that races--conceived as populations originating in particular regions--can be distinguished both by external and skeletal features. Furthermore, the notion of race provides a vocabulary for discussing human biological variation and racism.

ISSUE 4. Are Humans Inherently Violent?

YES: Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, from Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence

NO: Robert W. Sussman, from "Exploring Our Basic Human Nature," Anthro Notes

Biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham and science writer Dale Peterson argue that sexual selection, a type of natural selection, has fostered an instinct for male aggression because males who are good fighters mate more frequently and sire more offspring than weaker and less aggressive ones. Biological anthropologist Robert W. Sussman regards the notion that human males are inherently violent as a Western cultural tradition, not a scientifically demonstrated fact.

ISSUE 5. Can Apes Learn Language?

YES: E. S. Savage-Rumbaugh, from "Language Training of Apes," in Steve Jones, Robert Martin, and David Pilbeam, eds., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution

NO: Joel Wallman, from Aping Language

Psychologist and primate specialist E. S. Savage-Rumbaugh argues that, since the 1960s, attempts to teach chimpanzees and other apes symbol systems similar to human language have resulted in the demonstration of a genuine ability to create new symbolic patterns. Linguist Joel Wallman counters that attempts to teach chimps and other apes sign language or other symbolic systems have demonstrated that apes are very intelligent animals, but up to now these attempts have not shown that apes have any innate capacity for language.

PART 2. Archaeology

ISSUE 6. Did People First Arrive in the New World After the Last Ice Age?

YES: Stuart J. Fiedel, from Prehistory of the Americas, 2d ed.

NO: Thomas D. Dillehay, from "The Battle of Monte Verde," The Sciences

Archaeologist Stuart J. Fiedel supports the traditional view that humans first reached the Americas from Siberia at the end of the last Ice Age. He argues that there are currently no convincing sites dated before that time and is skeptical of claims by other archaeologists who date human occupation of sites significantly earlier. Archaeologist Thomas D. Dillehay asserts that the site he has excavated at Monte Verde proved that humans reached the New World well before the end of the last Ice Age, possibly as early as 30,000 years ago.

ISSUE 7. Did Polynesians Descend from Melanesians?

YES: John Edward Terrell, from "The Prehistoric Pacific," Archaeology

NO: P. S. Bellwood, from "The Peopling of the Pacific," Scientific American

Archaeologist John Edward Terrell argues that while all indigenous peoples in the Pacific had ancestors who lived in Southeast Asia in the very distant past, Polynesians represent a local stock, which derives itself biologically, culturally, and linguistically from a cultural melting pot in Melanesia. Archaeologist P. S. Bellwood contends that the Polynesians represent the extreme eastern expansion of the Mongoloid peoples he calls Austronesians. He states that Austronesians originally came from Taiwan to Southeast Asia and passed through Melanesia on their way to the Polynesian Islands.

ISSUE 8. Was There a Goddess Cult in Prehistoric Europe?

YES: Marija Gimbutas, from "Old Europe in the Fifth Millennium b.c.: The European Situation on the Arrival of Indo-Europeans," in Edgar C. Polomé, ed., The Indo-Europeans in the Fourth and Third Millennia

NO: Lynn Meskell, from "Goddesses, Gimbutas and `New Age' Archaeology," Antiquity

Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas argues that the civilization of pre-Bronze Age "Old Europe" was matriarchal--ruled by women--and that the religion centered on the worship of a single great Goddess. Archaeologist Lynn Meskell considers the belief in a supreme Goddess and a matriarchal society in prehistoric Europe to be an unwarranted projection of some women's utopian longings onto the past.

ISSUE 9. Were Environmental Factors Responsible for the Mayan Collapse?

YES: Richard E. W. Adams, from Prehistoric Mesoamerica, rev. ed.

NO: George L. Cowgill, from "Teotihuacan, Internal Militaristic Competition, and the Fall of the Classic Maya," in Norman Hammond and Gordon R. Willey, eds., Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Archaeologist Richard E. W. Adams argues that while military factors must have played some role in the collapse of the Classic Maya states, a combination of internal factors combined with environmental pressures were more significant. Archaeologist George L. Cowgill agrees that no single factor was responsible for the demise of the Classic Maya civilization, but he contends that military expansion was far more significant than scholars had previously thought.

PART 3. Cultural Anthropology

ISSUE 10. Should Cultural Anthropology Model Itself on the Natural Sciences?

YES: Marvin Harris, from "Cultural Materialism Is Alive and Well and Won't Go Away Until Something Better Comes Along," in Robert Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology

NO: Clifford Geertz, from The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz

Cultural anthropologist Marvin Harris argues that anthropology has always been a science and should continue to be scientific. He contends that anthropology's goal should be to discover general, verifiable laws as in the other natural sciences. Cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz views anthropology as a science of interpretation. He believes that anthropology's goal should be to generate deeper interpretations of diverse cultural phenomena, using what he calls "thick description," rather than attempting to prove or disprove scientific laws.

ISSUE 11. Are San Hunter-Gatherers Basically Pastoralists Who Have Lost Their Herds?

YES: James R. Denbow and Edwin N. Wilmsen, from "Advent and Course of Pastoralism in the Kalahari," Science

NO: Jacqueline S. Solway and Richard B. Lee, from "Foragers, Genuine or Spurious? Situating the Kalahari San in History," Current Anthropology

Archaeologists James R. Denbow and Edwin N. Wilmsen argue that the San of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa have been involved in pastoralism, agriculture, and regional trade networks since at least a.d. 800. Cultural anthropologists Jacqueline S. Solway and Richard B. Lee contend that relations between San and other groups are highly variable from place to place. The Dobe !Kung followed an autonomous hunting-and-gathering way of life until their land was overrun by pastoralists in the late 1960s.

ISSUE 12. Do Hunter-Gatherers Need Supplemental Food Sources to Live in Tropical Rain Forests?

YES: Thomas N. Headland, from "The Wild Yam Question: How Well Could Independent Hunter-Gatherers Live in a Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystem?" Human Ecology

NO: Serge Bahuchet, Doyle McKey, and Igor de Garine, from "Wild Yams Revisited: Is Independence from Agriculture Possible for Rain Forest Hunter-Gatherers?" Human Ecology

Cultural anthropologist Thomas N. Headland contends that tropical rain forests are poor in energy-rich wild foods that are readily accessible to humans, especially starches. Cultural anthropologists Serge Bahuchet and Igor de Garine and biologist Doyle McKey argue that rain forest foragers harvest far fewer wild foods than the forests actually contain, precisely because they now have easy access to cultivated foods.

ISSUE 13. Do Sexually Egalitarian Societies Exist?

YES: Maria Lepowsky, from Fruit of the Motherland: Gender in an Egalitarian Society

NO: Steven Goldberg, from "Is Patriarchy Inevitable?" National Review

Cultural anthropologist Maria Lepowsky argues that among the Vanatinai people of Papua New Guinea, the sexes are basically equal, although minor areas of male advantage exist. Sociologist Steven Goldberg contends that in all societies men occupy most high positions in hierarchical organizations and most high-status roles, and they dominate women in interpersonal relations. He believes that this is because men's hormones cause them to compete more strongly than women for high status and dominance.

ISSUE 14. Are Yanomamö Violence and Warfare Natural Human Efforts to Maximize Reproductive Fitness?

YES: Napoleon A. Chagnon, from "Reproductive and Somatic Conflicts of Interest in the Genesis of Violence and Warfare Among Tribesmen," in Jonathan Haas, ed., The Anthropology of War

NO: R. Brian Ferguson, from "A Savage Encounter: Western Contact and the Yanomami War Complex," in R. Brian Ferguson and Neil L. Whitehead, eds., War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare

Anthropologist and sociobiologist Napoleon A. Chagnon argues that the high incidence of violence and warfare he observed among the Yanomamö in the 1960s was directly related to man's inherent drive toward reproductive fitness (i.e., the innate biological drive to have as many offspring as possible). Anthropologist and cultural materialist R. Brian Ferguson counters that the high incidence of warfare and violence observed by Chagnon in the 1960s was a direct result of contact with Westerners at mission and government stations.

ISSUE 15. Was Margaret Mead's Fieldwork on Samoan Adolescents Fundamentally Flawed?

YES: Derek Freeman, from Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth

NO: Lowell D. Holmes and Ellen Rhoads Holmes, from Samoan Village: Then and Now, 2d ed.

Social anthropologist Derek Freeman contends that Margaret Mead went to Samoa determined to prove anthropologist Franz Boas's cultural determinist agenda and states that Mead was so eager to believe in Samoan sexual freedom that she was consistently the victim of a hoax perpetrated by Samoan girls and young women who enjoyed tricking her. Cultural anthropologists Lowell D. Holmes and Ellen Rhoads Holmes contend that during a restudy of Mead's research, they came to many of the same conclusions that Mead had reached about Samoan sexuality and adolescent experiences.

ISSUE 16. Do Museums Misrepresent Ethnic Communities Around the World?

YES: James Clifford, from The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art

NO: Denis Dutton, from "Mythologies of Tribal Art," African Arts

Postmodernist anthropologist James Clifford argues that the very act of removing objects from their ethnographic contexts distorts the meaning of objects held in museums. Exhibitions misrepresent ethnic communities by omitting important aspects of contemporary life, especially involvement with the colonial or Western world. Anthropologist Denis Dutton asserts that no exhibition can provide a complete context for ethnographic objects, but that does not mean that museum exhibitions are fundamentally flawed.

PART 4. Ethics in Anthropology

ISSUE 17. Should the Remains of Prehistoric Native Americans Be Reburied Rather Than Studied?

YES: James Riding In, from "Repatriation: A Pawnee's Perspective," American Indian Quarterly

NO: Clement W. Meighan, from "Some Scholars' Views on Reburial," American Antiquity

Assistant professor of justice studies and member of the Pawnee tribe James Riding In argues that holding Native American skeletons in museums and other repositories represents a sacrilege against Native American dead and, thus, all Indian remains should be reburied. Professor of anthropology and archaeologist Clement W. Meighan believes that archaeologists have a moral and professional obligation to the archaeological data with which they work. Such data is held in the public good and must be protected from destruction, he concludes.

ISSUE 18. Should Anthropologists Work to Eliminate the Practice of Female Circumcision?

YES: Merrilee H. Salmon, from "Ethical Considerations in Anthropology and Archaeology, or Relativism and Justice for All," Journal of Anthropological Research

NO: Elliott P. Skinner, from "Female Circumcision in Africa: The Dialectics of Equality," in Richard R. Randolph, David M. Schneider, and May N. Diaz, eds., Dialectics and Gender: Anthropological Approaches

Professor of the history and philosophy of science Merrilee H. Salmon argues that clitoridectomy (female genital mutilation) violates the rights of the women on whom it is performed. Professor of anthropology Elliott P. Skinner accuses feminists who want to abolish clitoridectomy of being ethnocentric. He argues that African women themselves want to participate in the practice, which functions like male initiation, transforming girls into adult women.

ISSUE 19. Do Anthropologists Have a Moral Responsibility to Defend the Interests of "Less Advantaged" Communities?

YES: James F. Weiner, from "Anthropologists, Historians, and the Secret of Social Knowledge," Anthropology Today

NO: Ron Brunton, from "The Hindmarsh Island Bridge and the Credibility of Australian Anthropology," Anthropology Today

Anthropology professor James F. Weiner asserts that anthropologists have a responsibility to defend traditional native cultures, particularly if secret cultural knowledge is involved. Applied anthropologist Ron Brunton argues that even when hired as consultants, anthropologists have a moral and professional responsibility to the truth, whether the gained knowledge is considered by the native community as secret or not.

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