Anthropology Lecture Note

Anthropology (1) What is Anthropology?  Anthropology = the study of humans* (All varieties of people, cultures and all time periods)  Anthropologists use a holistic approach: The 4 Fields Cultural Linguistic Biological Archaeological  Archaeology: Study of past material culture (ex. fossil fuels, artifacts, etc.)  Biological: Study of human biology + evolution (study “races”, biological variation)  Linguistic: Study of language - broader cultural, historical and biological context (includes ape language studies, unique to humans)  Cultural: Human diversity (ex. sets of learned behaviours, culture in all forms)  Applied anthropology: “action anthropology” – anthro as a social action/critique, includes all 4 fields, applying it to the real world, brings attention to discrimination (2) What is the Anthropological Perspective? What is Culture?  Explanations of the Human Condition o Dualism: human nature made up of different but equal sources o Idealism: “cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), ideas that the mind creates o Materialism: activities of our physical bodies make us in the material world o Determinism: human nature determined by our mind or determined by the material world – determined by the causal force of physical matter What is the Anthropological Perspective?  Anthropological Perspective I. Cultural Relativism  Ideas or beliefs that people learn in a society determines their behaviours  Argues AGAINST reductionism* / determinism (To a single point culture, ex. Canada = hockey. Nothing more)  How does it improve our understanding of cultural practices? (Ex. genital cutting, rituals) Does culture force us to do things?  Rights of passages: legal age, graduating, birthday, license, etc. Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism  Viewing other society’s ideas within the context of society’s problems and opportunities – relativism  Judging other societies ideas in context with one’s own culture (reductionist) – ethnocentrism – try to avoid it II. Participant Observation  Fieldwork  Gain insight by: participating with informants* in social activities, observing activities as outsiders – participant NOT considered as a subject (Informants: people who work WITH anthropologists to provide them with insight about their culture.) III. Holism  Whole is the sum of its parts o Parts and whole mutually determine each other and co-evolve  Objects and environments interpenetrate and define each other IV. Cross Cultural Comparison (ethnology)  Consider the similarities and differences in a wide range of human societies before generalizing human nature, society or history  Wide range of beliefs and how they work individually *Social groups should all deserve equal respect* Ethnology vs. Ethnography  Compare societies, basis for developing generalizations about humans different activities (ex. religion, bonds (kinship), etc.) – cross cultural comparison (analogy)  Study of small groups in large scale societies, collect data through participation and interview – individual study (participant observation) How do Anthropologists define Culture?  Culture: definitions o Edward Burnett Tylor  Culture includes knowledge, belief and morals acquired by man in a society o Franz Boas (1930)  Culture embraces all manifestations of social habits  The product of human activities o Wendell Bennett (1964)  Culture develops by engaging in activities o Lewis Binford (1968)  Culture enables man to adapt o James Spradley (1984)  People use culture to interpret their world and generate social behaviour called culture  Trying to fulfill others needs  Humans as Bicultural Organisms o Recognizes dialect between biology and culture o Interacting with the world – physically and symbolically  Richard Potts: Foundation of Culture 1. Transmission (ex. children learning by watching adults, waving) 2. Memory – remembering the behaviours that we’ve learned 3. Reiteration – replicating behaviours that we have learned 4. Innovation – modify/ invent new behaviours (ex. fist bump instead of wave) 5. Selection – deciding on which innovation we want to keep (ex. fist bump in, while waving out) 6. Symbolic Coding – ability to make and use symbols (ex. drawing trees) 7. Complex Symbolic Representation – not bringing in a real tree but drawing 8. Institutional Development - political, social organizations * All 8 foundations have to interact to have meaning. You have to put all the blocks together in order to create something* the last 3 were added at a later time What is Culture?  Culture is… o Learned  Enculturation (socialization) – we learn from our surroundings  Our way of learning is not always formal (ex. from friends or parents) o Shared  Groups share the same culture o Transmitted  This is the way that culture is passed on and taught  Learning style is influenced by how a culture interacts with children and people o Adaptive  Adapted to particular environments o Patterned  Knowing the correct behaviour at a place or time (ex. classroom expect.)  Allows us to have consistency by knowing what to do o Always Changing  (Ex. fashion is constantly changing, before yearly and now seasonal)  Tacit Culture? o Tacit Culture  Parts of culture that are directly observable  Are shared, patterned  They are not formally “taught” (ex. knowing to keep a distance from people) o Culture shock – consequence of differences  People holding hands on the street but not dating is not normal here  When outside of the country people may sit closer to you rather than keeping a certain distance, being close is more respectful there (3) What is Fieldwork?  Doing Fieldwork: Before Entering the Field o Research Proposal  Have a clear proposal and know what questions you want answered in the field. Have a theory and a plan. o Grant Applications  Get funding from different organizations including the government for your research o Ethics Clearance Approvals o Research Design o Travel Arrangements  Make plans prior to travel (ex. vaccinations, flights, visas, accommodations) o Packing and more packing  Doing Fieldwork: Once in Field o Arrival and Culture shock  How is once supposed to act in a new place? How to dress? What to do around people? Do you shake hands or hug? o Choosing a Place to Live  Are you going to live with people from there to understand their lives better? Is it safe? Or are you staying in a hotel with colleagues? o Working around an Unfamiliar Language  It may become difficult to communicate with people from another country and you may have to make your own way of communicating o Gathering / Collecting Data  Get the right tools you need (ex. camera, recording instruments, laptop etc.)  Making sure you keep your notes and records detailed o Interpreting and Reporting Data  Having organized notes will make it easier to share your data as the people who are funding you may want to know where their money is being spent  Doing Fieldwork: Ethics o Accountability o Numerous frameworks / policies often developed by professional associations and by funding agencies  Ex. Canadian Anthropology Society/Société Canadienne d’Anthropologie (CASCA) o Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans 1. Respect for Human Dignity 2. Respect for Free and Informed Consent 3. Respect for Vulnerable Persons 4. Respect for Privacy and Confidentiality 5. Respect for Justice and Inclusiveness 6. Balancing Harm and Benefits 7. Minimizing Harm 8. Maximizing Benefit  Doing Fieldwork: Data Collection o Interviews  Key informants or participants  Effects on informants o Surveys o Life Histories Different Types of Fieldwork  Can Broadly be divided into 2 categories  Ethnographic Fieldwork  Archaeological Fieldwork (expand more on this during week 7)  Are not mutually exclusive, both can occur as a larger research project, and can be undertaken by any type of anthropologist  The Positivist Approach o Goal = production of objective knowledge o Commitment of explaining how the world works and to a separation of facts from values  The Positivist Approach in Anthropology o The field is your living laboratory  Record objective facts o Ethics and politics  Recognize the relationship that is formed between the informants  Acknowledge that anthropologists DO have ethical obligations to other humans (ex. if someone is dying, they help rather than observing) o Result: Anthropological Fieldwork  Cannot be completely value free and anthropologists bias comes in  Communicating with people is a dialogue  Reflexive o “Thinking about thinking” o Critical, aware  While on the field, it is not possible to talk to every person or see everything  Avoids generalizations  Admits observations are situated  Communities are impacted, they recognize anthropologists as friends o Detailed, accurate data collection AND consideration of a larger context of the reason  Ethical and political context  Background of researchers  Full partnership of informants  The way data is gathered  Become friends with them, their not just informants but help them out o Single-sited  Writing down everything you see, observing anthropology, watching rather than participating o Multi-sited  How do you do fieldwork on cultural processes that are not constrained by boundaries  Influenced by 2 important works -The Modern World System by Immanuel Wallerstein -Europe and the People Without History by Eric Wolf  How does our perspective change based on our position (slavery – slave or slaver, different viewpoints)  Focuses on widespread processes  Leads researchers from site to site as develops chain  Limitations  Dilution of intensity of fieldwork – relationships may not be as strong in some areas as they were in others (spending 8 days with people is diluted vs. spending 8 months) You learn different amounts about people  May undercut commitments to primary informants Effects of Fieldwork  Effects on Informants o Disruption of understanding self and the world o Economic gain or loss o Change in status  Effects on the Researcher o Culture shock – figuring out how to live again o Sense of isolation, vulnerability o Shock of “otherness” o (De) sensitization  Humanizing Effects o Become friends, experiencing the “other” o Disagreement – informants may disagree how their culture maybe submitted and may not end up wanting their articles published o Open ended o Reflexivity o Production of anthropological knowledge (4) Language and Communication  Defining Language o Verbal vs. Non-Verbal communication  Speech – act of producing meaningful sounds  Language – cognitive, mental process to create those sounds  Origins of Language o Archaeology and Paleoanthropology o Based on non-linguistic info  Genetics, areas of brain, development of symbolic artifacts  Homo sapiens (100KYA – KYA = kilo = 1000 years) What makes Human Language Distinctive?  Human Language: Design Features 1. Productivity / Openness – create an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of rules (ex. combine numbers and letters to make new words) 2. Displacement – ability to refer to events and issues beyond the present  Past and future  Real, fantasy, fiction 3. Prevarication – can lie; can construct sentences that are grammatically correct but semantically nonsensical (meaningless) (ex. “Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.”) 4. Arbitrariness – lack of transparent distinction between the form of a symbol and its function (ex. red circle w/ cross – red signals no or danger) 5. Duality of Patterning – units (sounds) patterned in a way to create meaning (ex. ma = mama) 6. Semanticity – language means things, words connect to what it represents (ex. tree), but there are different ways to think like imagining different kinds of trees in different peoples minds  Components of Language o Phonemes  Sounds that make a difference for meaning  Each language only uses some sounds  Only some language has transcriptions to a written form o Morphology Vocabulary  Semantics – study of meaning o Pragmatics  Study of language in the context of its use o Syntax  Rules that predict how words or sentences are generally formed – intuitive understanding We are hardwired to understand grammar and rules o  Non Verbal Human Communication – embodied communication o Kinesics  Study of human communication by verbal / non verbal means  Posture, body movement, facial expressions (non word sounds: laugh, cry) o Paralanguage  All the optional vocal features / sciences (ex. tone, volume, speed)  Silence = powerful (ex. a judge is quiet in the courtroom but has most power) o Dress  Jersey, kimono, hijab (ex. wearing the wrong hockey jersey to a pub may put you to shame) o Sign Language  Form of communication that uses hand movements  Provides a fully competent form of communicative system  Many different forms globally (diff. kinds of sign language per country)  Associated with people who are hearing impaired or if verbal speech is forbidden (ex. when police are breaking in to someone’s home they use hand movements to direct which way to go) How do we “Learn” Language  Understanding Human Language: Evolution of Grammar o Noam Chomsky (B.1928) o Linguistic, Philosopher, Political Activist  Linguistics is a branch of cognitive psychology o Theory of generative grammar o Linguistic Competence o Theory of Innate Language o Emergent Grammar Viewpoint  Savage – Rumbaugh + Rumbaugh  Syntax and grammar must develop once anyone begins to speak more than 2 words  No universal grammar  Human language is unique because we improve upon systems that are already in place (ex. animal could always lie, and we learned how to as well)  Language Acquisition: Children o We were born into a language, not born with one. o Basic grammar of Human Mind (Chomsky) o Communicative Competence (Dell Hymes) o Universal Sequences  Negation (double negative – “I don’t see no dog.”  5 “W” Questions o Overall Intellectual Growth Crucial  Memory, understanding of causality, capacity for symbolic representation (ex. when kids say stuff wrong; I’m souping = I’m eating soup) o Baby Talk or Parentese – (universal?)  Also used with pet or foreigners  Simplified form of language – deletion of verbs, short words, high pitched Animal Communication Systems  3 Broad Categories for Signals in all Non-Human Acts  Signals that relate to individual survival  Signals that relate to mating and reproduction  Signals that relate to social signals Ex. Making sounds to warn your crew about predators that are coming.  Non-Human Primate Communication o Rely on call systems  Oral communication  Set of meaningful sounds that are made in response to environmental functions  However, non-human primates have the capability to learn to communicate effectively with humans  Chimpanzee Language Studies o Washoe  1st non human to speak a human language (sign language)  Allen and Beatrice Gardener  He was copying humans in order to learn how to interact Some animals don’t have the same brain (vocal apparatus) and are not capable of making the same sounds as humans do o Nim Chimpsky  Herbert S. Terrace o Kanzi  Sue Rumbaugh  Lexigrams  Chimps used symbols to show what they needed but the symbols do not look like the banana itself to show that they are not only looking at images  Gorilla Language Study o Koko  Dr. Francine “Penny” Patterson  American sign language  Lived like a human and signed what she wanted or how she was feeling without humans helping her or showing her imaged  Orangutan Language Study o Chantek  Dr. Lyn Miles  American sign language  Criticisms of Ape Language Experiments o Arguments for “Clever Hans Effect”  Operan Conditioning  The animals are replicating and not actually understanding the symbols but are just copying their trainers How do we Study Language?  Descriptive Linguistics o Patterns of speaking discoverable in actual speech o Difficult  The rules of examining principles that predict how sounds are made and how they’re used  How sounds convey meaning and meaningful sound sequences are strung together to form words (morphology)  How words are strung together to form phrases and sentences (syntax)  Historical Linguistics o How languages change over time o Record and date linguistic divergence  Written works  Language family’s (cognates –words that mean and sound the same)  Reasons for divergence  Pragmatics o Study of language in the context of its use o 2 kinds of text  Linguistic (words/sentences)  Non – Linguistic (subjects / activities present at the same time)  Discourse (series of sentences, same topic  Enthopragmatics (remembering main threads of communications – ex. remember that one time…)  Ethnography of Speaking o Sociolinguistics  Study of language in relation to society  Gender and speech  Variation can be slight / extreme  Ex. “vocal fry” and “up talk”, meaning bro talk or like Kim K.  Social status and speech  Individual social position is reflected in their language What is the Relationship between Culture and Language?  Cultural Influences on Language o Accent  Pronunciation  Provides info of someone’s background  Place of origin/education (ex. my fair lady kind of talk) o Lexical Context  Vocabulary  Ex. colour words, colour vs. the written words – stroop effect)  Ex. Chips vs. fries, potay-toe vs. potah-toe  Linguistic Influences on Culture o Linguistic Determinism  Language determines consciousness of the world and behaviour Extreme = frames and dimensions of persons primary language is so strong that its impossible to learn another language fully, or to understand a different culture fully o Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis  A particular language nature influences the thought of its speaker  Different patterns of thought  Language is a force in its own right  Multilingualism and Code switching o Multilingualism Common  Esp. when have more than one official language  Ex. Singapore: English, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay o Code switching  Use more than 2 languages during a conversation  Speak one language to not offend others (speaking English in front of bilingual family so they’re not offended)   Dialects o Language variation based on regional and social differences among speakers (pronunciation, accents, intonation, grammar, vocabulary, conversational style) 1. Settlement patterns 2. Physical and social isolation 3. Migration 4. Contact 5. Gender and class There is no such thing as a standard dialect. We have biased opinions on what may be better to us. What Happens when Languages Come into Contact?  Pidgin Languages o Language with no native speaker o Develops in a single generations between members of communities that possess distinct native languages o Different from and reducible to neither of the languages that give birth to it  Creole Language o Associated with European colonialists and their imported slaves o Incorporated much of vocabulary of masters language but have different grammar from both sides o Ex. Chomsky but in grammar What are Conlangs?  Constructed Languages o “Con-lang” o A language whose phonology, grammar, and vocab has been consciously devised by an individual/group, instead of having evolved naturally  Include Elvish, Klingon  Constructed Languages: Na’vi o Na’vi is a constructed language spoken by the people in Pandora in the movie “Avatar” o Language was created by Dr. Paul Frommer, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Management Communications at USC  Constructed Languages: Kryptonian o Christine Schreyer (UBCO) o Constructed for the film “Man of Steel”  Constructed Languages: Bioware o Wolf Wikeley (U of A alumnus) o Developed four 2500 word languages for Dragon Age (Elven, Dwarven, Qunari)  Emphasis on “authentic sounding fantasy language”  Well known for gibberish Are Languages at Risk? Can we “Save” Them?  Extinction, Endangerment and Revitalization o Language Shift or Decay  Speakers adopt a new language  Language is dying with the people o These people understand English but can’t actually speak it o Language Endangerment  Fewer than 10000 speakers  How to separate languages from dialect? o Language Extinction  Gradual / sudden o Language Revitalization  Efforts to revive/maintain local languages face many challenges  Must respond to local circumstances and factors  Which version do we want to keep?  Strategies  Formal classroom instruction  Master-Apprentice System  Web based tools and services (5) Worldview and Symbolic Practice How do we Make Meaning? What is Art? What is Myth?  What’s Art? Art as a Culture o Artistic activities = cultural activities o Involve shared and learned patterns or behaviour, belief, and feeling o Is evocative because expresses beliefs/feelings, stimulates thought, generates new ideas o Cross-cultural variation o Art as mimetic  Portrays the world accurately o Art as representational  Imitates, idealizes or symbolizes form and experience o Art as instrumental  Attempts to have a beneficial effect on society, enriching peoples lives, teaching moral lesson, and providing insights for improving and changing the world  ‘She’s Fake’: the Problem of Authenticity o Bigenho’s 3 forms of authenticity 1. Experimental authenticity, which exists in the entire, often shares sensory experience connected with a piece of art 2. Cultural-historical authenticity, which stems from the way in which a piece of art is represented in relation to the historical or mythical history in the art form 3. Unique authenticity, which is tied to the individual artists new, innovative, and personal production of a work of art (something can be deemed to be authentic because there is something personal about it from the artist) Explaining Variation in the Arts  Explaining Variation in Arts o Visual Art – graffiti (some walls prohibit art but they wrote on it too) o Folklore  Includes myths, legends, folktales (once upon a time – recognizing there will be a story), ballads, riddles (very culturally specific – difficult to figure out), proverbs (should/should not do this), poems, and superstitions of a cultural group  Often written but transmission is predominantly oral  Some basic themes cross-culturally  Joseph Campbell (did a study, mythologist, reason behind star wars) o Music  Correlation between musical style and cultural complexity  Preference for certain rhythmical pattern, tonal ranges, voice quality  Instruments  Spread of pop music  Why is some music better than others?  Ethnomusicology  They study sounds, different instruments, is it a symphony or solo?  What is a Myth? o A representative story that embodies a cultures assumptions about the way society, or the world in general, must operate  Story’s with self evident truths  They involve a teller/audience, usually elders o o o As social charter As cognitive explanation As Identity o Orthodoxy  This is what we believe Orthopraxy  Approved forms of ritual behaviour  Some are more o Body as Art? Body as Culture  Body as Art? Body as Culture! o Body as identity: race, gender  Body modification = expression of identity (individual or group) – as art o Can also view body as:  Material culture (osteoachaeology)  Commodity  Technology  Body as Decoration and Adornment o Permanent (body modification)  Surgical alterations  Scarification (scarring body (surgery aftermath, plastic and letting it heal) surgery)  Circumcision  Piercings  Tattoos  Bindings o Temporary  Paint  Hair (colour, cut, body hair rules, and regulations)  Objects (jewelry, feathers, clothing)  Dieting (losing/gaining weight) or body building o Need to decorate body is universal o Motivated by aesthetic considerations and cultural traditions o Used to delineate:  Social position, rank, sex, gender, occupation (uniforms), local/ethnic identity, religion, etc.  Change in status  The Cultural Politics of Body Modification o In the Flesh, Victoria Pitts (2003)  Body art movement  Associated with “radical” or “deviant” or nonmainstream  Considering how no mainstream body practices reflect and/or contest mainstream norms and values about the body  Sexual politics  Gender inequality  Cultural identity  “Modern Primitivism” o Western culture seen as alienating o Dissatisfaction with Western culture attitudes towards the body  Aim to demonstrate symbolic control over o Implications  Of racializing bodies and practices by white, largely middle-class Westerners  Of fetishizing bodies of colour  Cultural appropriation  Body Modification and Gender o “Alternative” sexualities  Queer culture  “Queering the body”  Emphasis on modifications associated with non-Western rites of passage  BDSM  Association with other stigmatized bodily pleasures o Body modification by women  Argue has subversive potential because women’s bodies are  Pressured by cultural norms of beauty  Frequently victims of sexual or physical abuse  Emphasis on self-ownership and “reclaiming the body”  Challenging traditional beauty ideals  Other see as “pathological” Tattoos  Antiquity of Tattoos o Varies cross-culturally  Paleolithic in Japan  Neolithic in Eurasia  Otzi  Cultural Variation in Tattooing o Symbol of status, membership in a group  By choice (ex. to mark membership)  By force (ex. prisoners in Japan, England, China) o Technique – different way of tattooing o Therapeutic / Medicinal Purposes  Maori Ta Moko o Ta Moko  Permanent form of body decoration/deformation  Carried out by ritual specialists  Associated with rite of passage into adulthood (become adult after tattoo) o Communicates many different social messaged of differing complexity and significance o Outward expression of the person and their position with respect to present, as well as connecting them to their past (ancestors) o Modern Moko still represents individual and connection to ancestor but within a different context  Tattoos as Language o Tattoos are an enduring mode of communication o Tattoos as symbols (ex. getting ribbons to show cancer supporter) o Marl “coming of age”, having overcome adversity, psychological reminders  Tattoos as Language, as Narrative o Storytelling or narratives (DeMello 2002)  What and why images are used  Placement on body  Individual and social significance  Individualism  Spirituality (ex. cross)  Personal growth (ex. right of passage)  Sacredness of the body  Women’s motivations  Mainstream o o o Since 1970s have seen:  Increasing number of middle class clients  Derived form of a number of social movements  Professionalization of tattooing  New reliance on non-western images and styles  Media representation  Cyberspace (80s = chat rooms)  Magazines  Television 1990s body art movement  Largely white, adult, gay-friendly, middle-class, educated, politically savvy group (Pitts 2003)  Movement beyond “badge of rebellion” or mark of membership in gang X-cultural variation in whether or not tattoos are acceptable or taboo  Tattoos as Taboo: Prison Tattoos o The Convict Body (Demello 1993)  Social stratification among tattoo wearers (both inside and outside of prison)  Express cultural categories of class and ethnicity  Creation of common culture  Membership in community  Professional vs. Semi-Professional vs. Street vs. Prison Tattooing  Distinguish on bass of design and method (technology, colour, imagery)  Distinguish on basis of economics (prison, street, pro) o Who gets tattooed?  Convict versus inmate  Convict – respect left  Inmate – no respect; is a model prisoner  Tattooing is illegal in most prisons  Honour system  Age Religion and Ritual  Religion o Is a pervasive force in most human societies o It can be difficult to separate religious practices from other activities (political/economic) o Is any set of attitudes, beliefs and practices pertaining to supernatural power  What constitutes “natural” and “supernatural” is often difficult to distinguish o Is an expression of values, ideologies, cultural worldview o Is a system of meanings o Is a conception of reality o Is a model of, and for, life  Religion in Action o Is a behaviour at the individual level  Ritual: A repetitive social practice set off from everyday routine and composed of a sequence of symbolic activities that adhere to a culturally defined ritual schema and are closely connected to a specific set of ideas central to the culture  Key Characteristics of Religion o o o o Prayer Physiological Exercise Exhortation Mana o o o Taboo Feasts Sacrifice  Ritual 1. Ritual is a repetitive social proactive composed of a sequence of symbolic activities 2. It is set off from the social routines of everyday life 3. Rituals adhere to a characteristic, culturally defined ritual schema 4. Ritual action is closely connected to a specific set of idea that are often encoded in myth  Ritual as Action o Rites of Passage  A ritual that serves to mark the movement and transformation of an individual form one social position to another  Recall: separation, transition, incorporation o Rites of Intensification  Religious rituals enacting during a groups real or potential crisis  Religion and Ritual in Action: Religious Experience o Religion and ritual are social  They involve social interactions and organizations  They are experiences o All religions have basis in religious experience  Is an altered state; an out of body or vision o Humans are biologically equipped to have religious experiences  Measurable physiological changed during such experiences o Not all religions place an emphasis on experience, some try to eliminate the religious experience  Why is Religion Universal? (Theories) o Reversion to childhood needs  Freud’s tyrannical men, totem animals, and cannibalistic scenes  Use of language to return to safety and comfort of parental care  “Our Father” o Need to understand  Why we are here – because God created us  The unknown – natural phenomena – ex. Lightening (God is angry)  Death and dying – what is beyond and why do we die?  Illness – why do bad things happen to good people  Sleep and dreams – why does sleep rejuvenate our bodies?  Trances o Reduction of anxiety/uncertainty  Individual coping  Malinowski – religion arises as a result of universal desire to find comfort in times of stress (therapeutic)  Knowledge is not sufficient to prevent illness, accidents, and natural disasters  Through religion can affirm conviction (life after death, immortality of personality) to reduce anxiety – “it was God’s plan”  Risk reduction/avoidance  “Taboos among New England Fishermen”  Poggie and Pollnac     Religious taboos/prohibitions may serve to reduce anxiety and therefore indirectly maximize our success “Rituals of avoidance” Do or say something and something bad will happen Personal safety and preventing bad luck Ex. don’t step on a crack, or you’ll break your mother’s back  Institutionalized Religions o Are based upon shaded beliefs, norms, ritual expressions o Process:  All begin with a founder and the individuals experience (ex. Christ)  Groups of visions drawn to vision and teachings of the leader (cults)  Codification (someone’s writing down the rules – do the following…)  Institutionalization  Religion becomes embedded within an organization (Church)  Creation and organization of bodies responsible for overseeing and/implementing policy Supernatural Forces  Types of Supernatural Forces o Supernatural Forces  Have no person-like character  Animism: belief in souls  Animatism: belief in impersonal forces  Mana: power that inhabits some objects but not others  Ex. carrying an object that may have luck – take it everywhere  Taboo (restrictions) can often reflect power that is not to be o Supernatural Beings  Non-human Origin  Gods – names personalities  Spirits – closer in kind to humans  Ghosts and Ancestor Spirits  Supernatural beings that were once human  Most societies believe in these Usually anthropomorphic – conceived in the image of a person  Structure or Hierarchy of Supernatural Beings o Some cultures rank Gods, spirits while other do not o Monotheism – One God supreme, may be other beings; associated with hierarchy o Polytheism – Many important Gods; non supreme  Interacting with Supernatural o Feasts and sacrifices o Prayer  “Asking” o Divination  Seeking answers from the supernatural about what may be bothering us o Physiological experience (body/mind)  Altered states/trances  Possession o  May be drug or isolation/deprivation induced Magic  Practices that force the supernatural to act in a certain way (compel, not ask)  Has a positive or negative outcome  Ex. Voodoo  Imitative magic  Magic based on the principle that like produces like  Ex. Hunting magic  Contagious magic  Magic based on the principle that beings once in contact can influence one another after separation  Sorcery and Witchcraft o Invocation of spirits to work harm against people o Sorcery = use of materials, objects an medicines  Evidence often leaves to accusations – leaving a bottle on someone’s pic o Witchcraft = accomplishment of the same thing but through thought and emotion  Evidence cannot be found of it  A Note about Wicca o Neo-pagan practice of witchcraft o Elements of polytheism and animism o Power from inner self rather than supernatural force o Not considered with doing evil or causing harm o Requires secret initiation rights to enter the coven, coven members ranked based on training and skills o Balance between male (God) and female (Goddess); harmony with nature o Not satanic; virtues of truth, honesty, and integrity  Religious Specialists o Priests – full time specialists affiliate at public events o Shamans – healers, mostly men, part time o Healers – religious practitioners who acquire spirit power to diagnose the spirit cause of illness and effect cures  Associated with high power o Mediums – heal and divine while in possession trance, mostly women, part time o Diviners – people with power to predict the future through messages from spirit world o Sorcerers and Witches – invocators of supernatural forces to cause injury, death, illness – low statues, feared – directly associated with supernatural – gender bias (6) Economics and Exchange Why do Anthropologists Study Economic Relations?  Defining Economic Anthropology o Looking at the chain from resources that can be used, traded and exchanged  Fundamental of Economic Production and Labour o Production  Mode of product  Means of product  Relations of product o Labour  Voluntary vs. forced  Division of labour – roles throughout the house doing specific chores Marxism  What are modes of exchange? o It’s a fundamental concept in anthropology o The movement of material culture provides informational bout social organization, subsistence, politics and ideology o Exchange can refer to both goods and information o Exchange can be divided into internal (within a society) and external (with other cultural groups) Types of Modes of Exchange 1. Reciprocity 2. Redistribution 3. Market 4. Mobilizative  Mode of Exchange o Reciprocity  Exchange between individuals who are equal  No formal accounting, competition  Ex. buy a coffee and the person buy next time o Repayments  Gifting between socially equal people - don’t usually involve cash o Redistribution o o  Good are collected by a central authority and then redistributed  Involves groups and individuals that are socially unequal  Ex. hunters take animal down and the leader chooses how to distribute it Market Exchange  Capitalist mode of exchange  Common in complex societies Mobilizative Exchange  Completely impersonalized – ex. Taxes collected come back as public services  Between groups and people who are unequal  Gift Exchange o In small scale societies, gift exchanged often form the basis of the social system o Can move material long distances o Two main features 1. They create social obligations 2. They redistribute goods o Two important concepts 1. Function of prestige gifts 2. Sphere of exchange  Gift Exchange: Marcel Mauss o Gift giving as a “total social phenomenon”  Involved in all kinds of behaviours o All cultures practice it but with different rules o Obligated to give in certain circumstances – ex. Weddings, birthday etc. o Identified 3 obligations 1. The obligation to give a gift 2. The obligation to receive 3. The obligation to repay (the most imperative) o Each society has its own rules for: 1. When to give a gift 2. What to gift 3. How to gift 4. How to accept a gift 5. When and what to repay  Gift Exchange and Feasting o In some hunter –gatherer societies the role of the “big man” is attained by ever greater displays of gift giving, including the competitive feast (or potlatch) common to the west coast  These were also used to settle disputes  Pacific North West Potlatches o Haida, Tlingit, Coast Salish Nations o Leveling device: equalized the distribution of goods between communities  Competition o Reputation enhanced not by keeping wealth but by giving it away o Form of social credit  Host chief and (kin) group later invited to other potlatches Online Economics  Online Economics o Many online games (Sims) have virtual economies and in-game currency o Usually linked with real world  Can “purchase” online goods for real world currency  Ex. in app purchases o Value of in-game resources is tied to the in-game power they confer upon the owner  Capital o Also “metagame” currencies  Not official currencies rather created and managed by endgame guilds to manage distribution of rewards  Ex. Dragon Kill Points (DKP)  Semi formal score-keeping system used by guild  WoW and Gold Farming o Gold farming: real-world scale of virtual goods and services produced in online games o Gold farmers play in-game to make currency then sell that for real money (via web) to other players of that game  Also “power-leveling”: play purchasers character building up its levels and skills handed back to purchaser once agreed upon level is reached o Richard Heeks (2008) o Example of “cyber-work”  WoW, Gold Farming, Labour, and Fairness o Alicia Hibbert (2010)  In-game fairness via organization, distribution, and acquisition of wealth  Player perceptions of real-money trading in the context of individual and collective motivations in the endgame  Loot distribution systems as made of promoting player-initiated definitions of fairness  Economy of fun where real money trading was justified as individual progression serves to increase the fun of the collective Why do People Consume What They do?  Subsistence Strategies o Foods collectors – hunt, fish, gather food  Small scale foragers – reply on few key stable resources  Complex foragers – go through many strategies to get the food o Food producers  Herders  Horticulturalist    Extensive agriculture Intensive agriculture Mechanized industrial agriculture  Consumption of Resources o Consumption of resources  Internal explanation  External explanation – humans adapt to change in environments  Ecology, ecozones, ecotones, econiche o  Cultural explanation Cultural construction of “needs”  Dietary prohibitions (cultural – ex. is it kosher?)  Affluence (Wealth, what can you afford?)  Scarcity  Summary o Economics is the exchange dimension o behaviour  All societies engage in exchange  Gifts are form of exchange that are a universal human phenomenon and can be considered basic to humanity (7) Political Organization How do Anthropologists Study Politics?  Variation in Political Organization o Factors associated with  How food is procured: food collection to food production to increasingly intensive food production  Where people live: small, fluid to large, permanent communities, rural to urban  Concentration of people: low to high population  How society is organized: egalitarian to ranked to class and caste hierarchical social organization  The role of kinship  Egalitarian Societies o Foragers and horticulturalists o Equal access to status positions  For person of same ability (ex. leadership) o Dependency on sharing o Separation of status from actual possession of wealth  Rank Societies o Agriculturalists and pastoralists o Unequal access to prestige/status but not major unequal access to economic resources/power o Position of chief partially hereditary o Generosity for redistribution and maintenance of economic equality  Class (Stratified) Societies o Unequal access to prestige, economic resources, and power o Differing classes have differing opportunities o Various mechanisms of class perpetuation o Boundaries between classes is established by custom and tradition o o Open systems  Some possibility of moving from one class to another Closed (caste) systems   Ranked group where membership is determined at birth Marriage is restricted to members of one’s own caste  Ex. India, Japan, Rwanda  The Search for Laws of Social Organization o Thinkers such as Karl Marx and Lewis Henry Morgan looked for laws through historical change o Biological determinists look or biological triggers o Cultural ecologists look to the natural environment o Anthropologists find that in fact, there is no law, that social organization is arbitrary  Varieties of Social Organization o Social Organization  The patterning of human interdependence in a given society through the action and decision of its members o Power  Transformative capacity; the ability to transform a given situation – laws  The Power to Act o Power  Transformative capacity; the ability to transform a given situation o Political Anthropology  The study of social power in human society  State and non-state societies  Coercion verses free agency  What could lead people to accept coercion? o Antonio Gramsci  Ideology  Worldview that justifies the social relationships under which people live  Domination  Unstable and expensive  Hegemony  A system of leadership in which rulers persuade subordinated to accept the ideology of the dominant group by offering mutual accommodations that nevertheless preserve the rulers’ privileged position  Power as an Independent Entity o Resistance  The power to refuse being forced against ones will to conform to someone else’s wished o Consensus  An agreement to which all parties collectively give their assent o Persuasion  Power based on verbal argument  The Power of Imagination and of Reflection o Anomie  A pervasive sense of rootlessness and normlessness in a society o Alienation  The deep separation that individuals experience between their innermost sense of identity and the labour they are forced to perform in order to survive  Power at Work in the Contemporary World: Biopower and Governmentality o Michel Foucault o Biopower  Preoccupied with the bodied of citizens and the social body itself o Governmentality  The art of governing appropriate to promoting the welfare of populations within a state  How are Politics, Gender and Kinship Related? o Katherine Bowie  Demonstrated that it is impossible to understand local (electoral) politics without understanding local kinship and lineage practices  Ex. Thailand = matrilocality and matrilineal kinship  Because of how kinship system works (women stay local, husbands marry into villages), it is the lineages that govern economic exchanged  Role of Kinship o Hereditary leadership = Ascribed  Common in rank and state societies  Monarchies  Rules of succession  Visually identifiable  Tattoos (Polynesia)  Dress (crowns, other symbols of state – items are passed down) o Versus achieved status/leadership  How are Immigration and Politics Related? o “New Europe” as case study  Many implications of immigration including  Globalization  Negotiation identity  Different countries view immigration differently  Umberto Melotti French= ”ethnocentric assimilationism” British= ”uneven pluralism” Germany= ”institutionalized of precariousness” (8) Social Relationships: Marriage, Family, Kinship and Friendship  The Cross-Cultural Comparison Imperative o What’s “natural”, what’s cultural? o Comparison serves to  Understand others better  Understand ourselves better o Reductionism – (over-) simplifications o Comparisons  What’s unique and what’s common to all?  What underlying patterns emerge? What is Kinship?  Kinship  Consanguineal Kin – blood kin, biological kin  Affinal Kin – kin by marriage, in-laws o Kinship is relative o Kinship is the building block of society o Kindred are kin recognized by a particular individual as being related o Kin are “ego”-centered  Descent and Inheritance o Property and social status are transmitted through descent/inheritance systems o 2 main types of descent  Bilateral descent  Individual claim ties to a broad network of kin  Unilateral descent  Matrilineal or Patrilineal  Establishes a kinship with clearly define boundaries  Advantageous in societies where property is held in common by an extended family  Ambilineal descent  What are Kinship Terminologies? o Use of classificatory terms o Cross- cultural studies show that societies differ markedly in how they group or distinguish relatives o Terminology used reflects:  Prevailing kind of family  Rule of residence  Rule of descent o Kinship terms are very resistant to change Criteria of Relatedness (chart on page 374-375)  How have reproductive technologies changed Kinship o Euro-American o Reproductive technologies  Biological parenthood  Surrogacy (traditional and gestational)  Gamete donation  How does organ transplantation create new relatives? o Lesley sharp  Study of increasingly widespread use of biomedical and surgical techniques that see the transplantation  Transplantation, Kinship, and Gift Giving o Nancy Scheper-Hughes  Transplant medicine puts sever demand on modern conception of the body, the person and the meaning of kin, of life, and death  Organ “sharing” that envisions the body as a gift   Spread of new medical technologies ad the subsequent demand for new “commodities” means a new form of social exchange has risen which breaches the traditional dichotomy between gifts and commodities and between kin and strangers Why would people sell their organs? What is a Family?  Family Structure o Non-conjugal family – family we don’t live with o Conjugal family – family we live with o Nuclear – a typical family o Polygynous o Extended, joint and blended family o Families of choice, families by choice  Friendship  How are families transformed over time? o Migration o Separation – by choice, by force o Divorce o Remarriage o Death  What is Adoption? o All societies have ways of incorporating outsides into their kinship groups o Adoption: the “practices used which allow people to transform relationships based on nurturance into relations of kinship”  Impacts kin terms used (ex. Ancient Roman system of recognizing both biological and “social” parents)  Adopted individuals may be kin or non-kin Marriage  Marriage o Public social contract (political-legal-economic)  Regulates sexuality (confers sexual rights)  Defines social identity of offspring (context for enculturation, provides for care of children)  Establishes economic partnerships  Strengthens/increases political and/or economic alliances  Creates affinal ties  Establishes alliances between kin groups (kinship networks expanded)  Allocates important right and responsibilities  Establishes the position of the child in a line of inheritance  Is symbolically marked (ceremony) o Incest prohibitions help define the social parameters within which groups (families, lineages, clans etc.) are reproduced (ex. social class and status) o Who is marriageable/non=t marriageable has many consequences  Economic, political, ecological, religious etc.  Marriage as Rite of Passage o o o Rites of passage (for individual) involve three steps: 1. Separation (pre-liminal) 2. Segregation (transition/threshold – liminal phase) 3. Integration (incorporation/re-aggregation) Other basic rites of passage are birth, maturity, death Incest prohibitions: define social parameters within groups (families) Why is Marriage a Social Process?  Marriage Patterns o Endogamy: marriage within a group  Often castes and classes  Brother-sister marriages among royalty  Incan, Egyptian, Hawaiian royal families  Consolidates wealth and social status  Frequently reinforced by religious beliefs o Exogamy: marriage outside a group  Extends kinship networks o Monogamy: Marriage form in which a person may only have one person at a time  Only legal option in many industrialized nations  Variations in how many times a monogamous person can be married  Serial monogamy o Polygyny: marriage of man to more than one women  Typically only in wealthy households  Co-wives hierarchical system  Frequent where women require help (ex. is labour demand)  Polygamy: form of polygamy, one women married to multiple men  Marriage Patterns: Residence 1. Patrilocal – son lives with family 2. Matrilocal – daughter stays with family 3. Avunculocal – both son and daughter leave birth household – live near mother brother 4. Neolocal – married couple decide to live where they chose How is Marriage an Economic Exchange?  Marriage Exchange: Bridewealth (aka “brideprice”) o Recognition of a women and her family’s socio-economic worth and status  Payment for the loss of her labour and fertility to her kin group o Maintenance of status/class distinctions  Ex. those with property marry those with property o Gift for a gift  Public legitimation of marriage and transfer of gifts o Bridewealth gained may be used to negotiate wives for their own sons making for further extension of ties o Marital insurance against divorce  Good treatment of wife o Control of social relations and property by families, not newlyweds  Marriage Exchange: Dowry o o o o o Public presentation of transfer of goof by bride’s kin to groom’s family or directly to the newlyweds  Transferred wealth may represent woman’s inheritance (share) of family wealth Dowry common in India Voluntary gift compensating daughter for not receiving land and other family property Dowry usually in form of personal or household goods Dowry as jewelry source of security for bride (hers to keep)  However, most have no control over dowry – mother-in-law and husbands take control Marriage, Families, and Kinship in Comparison: Ethnographic Examples  Trobrianders o Matrilineal descent o Trobriand biological father not perceived to be a “blood relative” (consanguineal) o Trobrianders maintain that every child should resemble its mothers husband o Child shares mothers blood and her siblings  A “father” related to the child a “mother’s husband”  Trobrianders: Incest Taboos o It is incestuous for a son to have sexual contacts with his mother o It is an “economic” crime for a man to have sexual contacts with his “daughter”, but not incest o It is not incest for a person to marry a “half-sibling” by the some father (since they are by their definition not siblings at all) o It is incest to marry a half-sibling  Lakher o Assam/Burma o Mother not considered consanguine with the child o Father provides the bony structure for the infant with his semen o Children are thought to resemble their mothers ad no their fathers, because the mother provides the soft, fleshy parts of the body o Mother is referred to as “my father’s wife”  Lakher: Incest Taboos o Lakher consider it incestuous for a man to have sexual contacts with a daughter o Considered adultery and/or very poor taste for a son to have sexual relations with his mother but not incest o A man may marry “half-siblings” on his mother’s side but not those of his father  Nandi o o o o o o Western Kenya Woman-woman marriage Nandi are patrilineal Nandi patrilinies are not corporate group:  Cattle hers, land, and grazing rights are not managed by the patriliny as a whole but by patrilineal households Distant patrikin are not as important socially as the local community A widow with no male children to inherit cattle, land and grazing right may marry another woman who does have male offspring  Women becomes a social male    Nayar o o o o o  Role and rights of a husband No sex with other men, nor with her wife She becomes father to the women’s children  The male children of her wife inherit from her South India Warrior and feudal landholders Matrilineal descent and matrilocal residence Young women take lovers of equal or higher caste  Lovers can’t move into the household Children are born members of the matrilineage and subject to the authority od the senior male in the lineage  All household members are biologically related  No in-laws  Most stable form of household known to anthropologists  Each child born is considered part of the lineage wealth  Everyone gets their share of wealth (9) Understand the Past – What is Archaeology?  What is Archaeology? o Archaeology is the study of the past using material culture (the stuff we make)  Archaeological record = all material objects constructed by humans (or ancestors) revealed by archaeology o It is a subdivision of anthropology which the study of culture o Archaeology is equal part of science and history o Really archeology is anthropology in the past tense  Anthropological Archaeology o In the Americas, archaeology developed as part of anthropology  “Four field” approach o In many countries archaeology is in a separate department, on its own o In East Africa, archeology as part of history  Archaeology Research Design o Ensures archeological research is organized, efficient, and valid o Archaeological research is undertaken to answer specific questions  Who, what, when, where, why o In order to do this, must have specific research design  Steps (recall fieldwork lecture) o Formulation of research: defining a problem, where to look ad what types of data to collect, background research o Implementation of research: obtaining permission; obtaining funding; acquiring equipment and supplies; recruiting staff and excavators Archaeological Sites  What is a site? o Locations where the material remains of human activity have been preserved in a way that anthropologists can recover them  Site Types o Prehistoric  Isolated field – one item  Campsite – separate activity  Stone Feature – highly variable  Kill sites – animals killed  Workshops – production o Cultural heritage     Quarry – raw material mined Rock Art Human Burials Ceremonial  How Sites are Found o Historic/Ethnographic sources and word of mouth o Survey  Pedestrian survey o Prospection: finding out what is beneath the earths surface without digging  Remote Sensing (GPR)  Why Excavate? o Yields most reliable evidence for:  Human activities at a particular period in the past  Changed in those activities from period to period o Activities take place horizontally in space o Change in those activities occur vertically through time  Excavate o 1m x 1m square units o Screening of deposits o Use of various tools based on number of factors  Trowels, pickaxes, screens, paintbrushes, measuring tape etc.  Data Collection o Two goals 1. Recover as much evidence as possible 2. Record the horizontal and vertical location (provenience of that evidence with as much precision as possible What do Archaeologists Find?  Material Culture: Evidence o Artifacts  Anything made, used or modified by humans (chairs) and are portable o Ecofacts  Natural objects used by humans (animal remains) organic or environmental o Fossils  Organic material has been replaced with minerals (impressions) o Features  Non portable artifacts (walls, burials, classroom)  Context: the most important concept in archaeology! o Context is defined as the location (both vertical and horizontal) where artifacts are found o o o o Context provides most of the important archaeological information Artifacts not found in context (looted, found eroded on surface) have lost most of their value Ex. keeping a toothbrush in a bathroom is normal but no one stores it in the fridge An artifacts context is made up of its provenience, matrix and association  Preservation o What types of evidence recovered is determined by:  Matrix (surrounding material)  Climate (local and regional)  Organic preservation: oxygen, acid = bad Dating Techniques  AD? BC? BP? BCE? CE? (CE = common era / P = present) o A.D. / B.C. uses Anno Domini (AD 1) as year “zero” o B.C.E / C.E. denotes common era, and is more culturally sensitive o In archaeology, B.P. (before present) is most often used when citing dates o Only dates within the last 4000 years are commonly converted in B.C.E / C.E. dates. Earlier dates are left in B.P format  Issues in Dating o 2 problems in all dating techniques: 1. Security of context 2. Contamination o Selection of:  What kind of sample  How much sample is required o Tendency to over-analyze objects o Each technique has its won pitfalls and limitations o Some degree of error is expected  Expressed as age bracket (ex. 1000 +/- 10 years  Dating Techniques o Relative – simply indicates something is younger/older  Stratigraphic sequences  Typological sequences o Absolute/Chronometric/Numeric – provides actual ages and can be converted to calendar ages  Isotropic dating  Non-isotropic dating  Radio carbon dating  14C (Radiocarbon) Dating o Libby  1947 (1950’s)  Half-life 5568 +/- 30 years  +/- 40 years generally accepted o Of the three isotopes of carbon, 14 is radioactive o During life of organism 14C is constantly replenished  Exchange ceases with death  Proportion of 14C to stable C will decay logarithmically (exponentially) o Measurements of 14C relates to the time organism ceased exchanging carbon with the biosphere = time of its death (dating when it died)  Dating: Interpretation o Accuracy  The closeness of a chronometric age determination to the real age – we will never know the real date o Precision  The total chronometric age range the true age should lie within (with a given level of confidence = size of error)  Association o With all dating techniques – the date is only as good as its association with the object or event that it is intended to date  Date and technique may be sound but is of little use if it cannot be associated confidentiality to a relevant arch level or feature  Dating Techniques: What you need to know for the exam? o What is the difference between relative dating methods and absolute/chronometric/numerical dating methods? o List the main forms of relative dating o What are the isotropic methods of dating discussed in the text?  How (generally) does radiocarbon dating work? o What are the non-isotropic methods of dating discussed in the text? o What are some of the issues with dating techniques?  Why are accuracy and precision Whose Past is it?  Ethics (formally) Defined o Ethics: set of standards that we use to guide our actions in (particular) situations (Thomas et al. 2009)  Consequential Ethics: moral theories where actions are judged as either “right” or “wrong” by the effects they have on the world at large, or on the happiness and wellbeing of others (Thomas et al. 2009)  Deontological Ethics: the view that human actions have an intrinsic quality that makes them right or wrong, regardless of consequence (Immanuel Kant; Thomas et al. 2009)  REVIEW: Ethics and Doing Fieldwork o Responsibility, accountability, protection, and stewardship  To the public, Indigenous communities, our colleagues, our students, our employers, our funders  To the archaeological record and material culture  To the past o Numerous frameworks/policies/codes often developed by professional associations  Legislation in Canada o No coherent legal framework exists at the federal level for protection of sites on lands and in waters controlled by the federal government (Parks Canada is the exception)  Canada Shipping Act (2001; shipwrecks) o o o  The Government of Canada Archaeological Heritage Policy Framework (1990)  Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (2003)  Cultural Property Import and Export Act (1985)  Historic Sites and Monuments Act (1953; 1985) All provinces and territories have enacted legislation to protect from harm archaeological sites and historical places Variances include: how archeological objects and sites are defined, how old and object as to be, who gets to dig Varies among provinces and territories because of different histories and relative proportions of distinct ethnic  Four Major Types of Archaeology 1. Academic Archaeology – education and research 2. Archaeology in Industry – Cultural Resource Management (CRM) 3. Indigenous Archaeology – research design determined by Indigenous organizations 4. Amateur Archaeology – volunteers, looters/pothunters, pseudo-archaeologists  Cultural Resource Management (CRM) o Canada has one of the strongest CRM laws in the world  Before any development is allowed a government clearance for cultural resources is required o Main phases:  Identification and preliminary assessment  Assessing significance  Management plans and mitigation  Cultural Resource Management (CRM): The Good o Have been responsible for finding and recording a significant portion of the sites in most provinces (80% of 3000 in Ontario) o Focused our attention on small scale sites again not typically studied by academics o Helped municipalities develop master plans for archaeological resources using GIS o First Nations and Inuit communities have benefited form CRM archaeology because oral history and traditional land use mapping are now required for environmental and cultural impact assessments  Also hire individuals from First Nations and Inuit communities as consultants bringing much needed employment  Cultural Resource Management (CRM): The Bad o Credibility (perceived lack of professionalism, partially because is archaeology for profit and is much variation in rates) o Subject to boom and bust cycles of economy o Young arches hired into major decision-making positions with little experience o Dangerous working conditions (regulation issues) o The separation between academic and CRM archaeologists  CRM professionals produce a lot of data that sometimes is lost in “grey literature”  Rapidly changing as CRM arches are becoming major participants in conferences  Cultural Heritage Management o Branch of CRM and increasingly academic archaeology o o Concerned with the identification, interpretation, maintenance, and preservation of significant cultural sites and physical heritage assets (tangible heritage) AND aspects of intangible heritage (traditional skills, language, beliefs, oral traditions, songs, dance, drama etc.)  Tangible = physical = archaeological  Intangible = cannot be stored in museum, constantly being reinterpreted, requires ongoing consultation and communication with communities (including consideration of their lives, livelihoods and living conditions) = anthropological Assessment and mitigation of threats  Rescue or salvage archaeology  Indigenous Archaeology o Aboriginal involvement in archaeology is a priority in Canada o Indigenous archaeology is one way this can be accomplished o See active promotion of archaeology within, by, and for the aboriginal community o Consultation: concerns and needs regarding the stewardship of archaeological and ethnographic objects, and repatriation of human remains; of traditional land use; of oral history o Advocating for telling history from a First People’s point of view (internalist archaeology) o Many nations have developed their own protocols for doing archaeology in their territory (ex. Squamish and Wet’sewet’en Nations) o Some key figures in Canada: Eldon Yellowhorn (Blackfoot), Evelyn Sigfried (Cree), Brandi George (Anishnaabe)  Responsibilities o To the archaeological record, the public, and to colleagues o Includes  Stewardship  Protection  Conservation   Curation Outreach  Heritage industry o The worlds best archaeological sites are often tourist sites o This produces bullions of dollars, critical in developing nations o Issues arise with too much tourism  Conservation o Restoration and conservation is an entire subfield in archaeology o The decision to conserve archaeological sites and artifact is not always obvious  Curation o The management, storage, and conservation of artifacts and other data recovered in the course of archaeological investigation  Organizations and institutions are responsible for establishing guidelines  Must consider permanent storage (need lots of space) and tasks (labeling, cataloguing, cleaning, stabilizing, preserving, storing)  Is expensive! Need time and money  Ownership o Perhaps the toughest ethical question is: does everyone own the past or do the direct descendants own the past? o o o o o The USA one own any cultural resources found on their land, while in Canada any cultural resource is owned by the government It is not always clear who has the rightful ownership of cultural materials Many of the worlds greatest museums are filled with objects looted from their source during the 19th century Elgin Marbles, removed from the Parthenon, are now in the British museum but Greece wants them back Should antiques be returned to their country of origin?  Looting and Collecting o At the start of the Iraq war, the Baghdad museum was extensively looted, partly by professionals and partly by locals  Some objects have been recovered o The international illegal trade in antiques rank up there with narcotics, worth an estimated $2.2 billion annually (Campbell 2013) o Canadian sites are also looted regularly, even though laws prohibit collecting and excavation o International Law (UNESCO) has prohibited the trade and transport of antiques since 1970  Publication and Outreach o It is the responsibility of any archeologists to publish their results of all research so that it is available to the public and other scientists  In fact, many CRM laws include provisions for publication o Public outreach is a growing concern for many archeologists  Is one of the best ways to prevent illegal activities and to promote, protection preservation and conservation (10) Origins of Food Predictions / Origins of Complexity Origins of Agriculture  The origins of Agriculture o One of the three great transformations in human prehistory (along with the origins of material culture and the origins of social complexity)  Change over to food production from food collection is a recent event  Humans as hunter-gatherers for over 99% of our history, but now very few o Origins of agriculture occurred independently at various places between 12-7 KYA  What is Agriculture? 1. Domestication: relationship between humans and plants/animals a. Cultivation: a deliberate cultural process involving the activates of preparing fields, sowing, weeding, harvesting, and storing which requires new ways of thinking about subsistence and new technologies b. Agriculture: modification of the environments of plants and animals to increase their productivity and use 2. Technology: the tools used for the daily tasks associated with food production (ex. harvesting, processing, storing) 3. Community: the development of settled villages (sedentism) and a constructed landscape (agro ecology)  Origins of Agriculture: Models o o o o o o o The Neolithic Revolution (V. Gordon Childe) Most explanations concentrate on one foo fur basic factors:  Rising human population densities  Climate change  Risk aversion and ecological models  Social inequalities Populations and resources (Ester Boserup)  Food productions are flexible and respond to population densities by intensifying resource use  When territory is limited, food shortages result and new food storage strategies appear  Domestication was another form of storage (ex. meat on the hoof) Emergence of farming on extension of past strategies Broad-Spectrum Foraging: hunter-gatherers seek to maintain stability and resource flexibility (Brian Hayden)  Late Pleistocene – Halocene shift from megafauna to broad spectrum resources  Diversification means of risk reduction/strategy to increase resource stability  Shift from k-selected species (long-lived, log maturation periods with few offspring/reproductive cycle) to r-selected species (rapid reproduction, large numbers of offspring) – both in terms of plants (annuals) and animals (ex. sheep and goats) Climate Change  Richerson, Boyd, Bettinger, McCorriston, Hole, Moore, and Hillman  Weather more “seasonal” = hotter summers, cooler winters  Exploitation of seasonal grains but seeing decreasing availability  Planting crops strategy to get through food shortages Agricultural intensification driven by socio-political competition (Barbara Bender)  Production, storage and transformation of surpluses  Competition between ambitious individuals within societies requires surplus resources  The earliest plant domesticates were flavourings (ex. chili peppers) given away at feasts as prestige items  Agriculture develops to provide more of these high status foodstuffs  Problems with Models o No one theory or model fits every instance where domestication occurred o Cultures adapted to specific local conditions and selective pressures o Several options for how to change might be available, and in some areas, agriculture was impossible or not chosen as pattern to pursue o Often make plant domestication appear as if it was incidental or accidental  Denies importance of human agency, in particular that of women (feminist archaeology critique)  Ignores environmental modifications that depended on conscious, active human intention Domestication and Domesticates  The Essence of Domestication o Mutualisms (David Rindos)  Domestication is co-evolutionary process  Taxon diverges from original gene pool, establishing symbiotic protection and dispersal relationship with animals feeding upon it Humans interfere with life cycles, producing plants and animals that are less “fit” Indehiscence, seed dispersal mechanisms, dormancy cycles, chemical defenses  “Wild” vs. “domesticated”    Domestication o Process of domestication is a hallmark of complex settled societies o Domestication often produces significant changed in a plant due to intensive selection imposed by farmers o Neolithic revolution is one of the most important times in prehistory  Characteristics of Domesticated Plants o Indehiscence  Seeds remain on stalk (tough rachis)  Pods – so not burst and scatter seeds o Gigantism  Larger seeds o Synchronous maturation  Beneficial for harvesting o Do not pertain to all crops  Forage, feed  Animal Domestication o Involves capture and taming of animals, removal from natural habitats, control of breeding conditions o Domestication of animals followed plants o Neotony  Selection for reduces aggression o Selection for desirable traits which, by their character render animal less “fit”  Ex. fat-tailed sheep; milk production; wool that requires shearing  Wild vs. Domestic Animals o The analysis of faunal remains can give insight into when domestication occurred and the form it took  Presence outside of “normal” range  Age and sex distribution  Large numbers of young animals suggest culling  Different ratios of male to female can identify milking versus meat herds  Teeth: crowding is more common in domesticates but not reliable measure though  In domestic pigs can see a gradual decrease in tooth size  Overall size: may see a decrease in size between wild/domesticate (ex. cattle), but may have climate/environmental factors  Changes in features like hair/wool can be preserved  Sheep and Goats o Small, easily handled herd animals who prefer to follow a dominant individual o Can be raised in a confined environment o Multi-purpose: milk, meat, wool, hides o Breeding produced wool in domestic sheep o Domestic goats about 8000 BCE in Iran  Cattle o Cattle were much more difficult to tame o They were probably domesticated from Bos primigenius (sp) in Southwest Asia where their movements could be controlled o Domestic cattle produce surplus milk and have been bred for that characteristic OR to produce larger amounts of meat than their wild ancestors  Chicken o Wild chickens do not lay surplus eggs, and normally stop laying once a certain number of eggs are in the nest o The domestic hen is probably from the Gallus sp. (wild Indian and south-east Asian Red Jungle fowl) o Early evidence for domestic chickens has been found in  India (3200 BCE)  China (1400 BCE)  Egypt (1400 BCE)  Six stages in continuum of animal-human-environment relationship o Jarman (1982) – p. 187-188 1. Random hunting 2. Controlled hunting 3. Herd following 4. Loose herding 5. Close herding 6. Factory farming  Consequences of the Rise of Food Production o Accelerated population growth o Declining health  The food supply might appear to be more stable, by foragers had better diets and worked less hours  Life expectancy dropped and malnutrition was a problem  Growth in population = higher population density  Disease transmission becomes easier, social stresses intensify  Transmission of infection from animals occurred (TB), also parasites from close contact (hookworm)  Problem with waste disposal in sedentary environment o Land issues  Farmers typically cultivate specific areas of land unless they are pastoralists  Herdsmen require much more pastur for their animals  Disputes can arise over property right and inheritance of land  When land becomes scarce, a village might fission (one group leaves to find new land to work) What is Social Complexity?  A note about Complexity o When anthropologists (and particularly archaeologists) talk about complexity, we are NOT saying anything about intelligence (ex. the complexity of the mind) o What we are trying to understand is differences in social organization and technology     Bands o o o o o o There are fewer options available to a foraging society than a state and fewer decision to be made These are degrees of difference Complexity typically means there is:  Surplus production  Occupational specialization  Social stratification Foragers Are highly mobile, small-scale societies Tend to be groups of kin-related people, who occasionally merge into larger groups (ca. 100) Largely egalitarian  Exchange via reciprocity  Division of labour based on sex and age All human societies before 10KYA BUT not all are alike (have different strategies)  Tribes o Segmentary societies o Small-scale farmers o Smaller groups integrated into larger community via kinship  Approximately 1000 people o Settlement patterns of villages  No central places dominate settlement pattern o Tendency toward ritualistic redistribution system o Nominal leader who redistributes food and performs a few minor ceremonial activities  Does not have any privileged access to wealth or power (leads by example)  Chiefdoms o Not very common o Based on ranking where lineages are socially ranked o Leaders or chiefs  Have preferential access to wealth  Normally controls the redistribution system  Hereditary inequality (ascribed status) o Associated wit permanent virtual centers and see the beginnings of dominance of one center over others o Also begin to see craft specialization  (Early) States o A single ruler has authority to establish laws o Social stratification no longer only kinship based but rather class based o Settlement patterns based on the dominance of a central place o Market economy with redistribution through taxation o Clear craft specialization o Complex architectural structures  Origins of Complexity: Models 1. The Urban Revolution (V. Gordon Childe) 2. Irrigation (Wittfogel) 3. Population Pressure 4. Bloodwealth (Hayden) 5. Warfare (Carniero)  The Urban Revolution o V. Gordon Childe (1936)  His second ‘revolution’  Marked by the emergence of metallurgy, full-time artisans, and cities  Artisans were supported by surpluses obtained through the use of intensive agriculture  An elite emerged to organize and control system  Taxation and tribute lead to the acquisition of wealth  Irrigation Agriculture o Julian Steward (1955) and Karl Wittfogel (1957)  Irrigation (canals) allowed for larger crop surpluses to be grown  Irrigation was also behind the stratification of societies  A elite (hydraulic bureaucracy) emerged to control larger scale water diversion projects and the people building/using them  Trade o Colin Renfrew (1972)  Rise of the Minoans was attributed to their trading contracts  Olive trees and vineyards impacted communities  From this arose complicated inter-relationships and redistributive systems on Crete which were controlled by the elites based in palaces  While trade was important, palynology shows olives and grapes were not a primary factor  Environmental Circumscription and Warfare o Robert Carniero (1970)  Areas with limited land (ex. river valleys in otherwise arid regions such as coastal Peru, the Nile Valley)  Start with small autonomous villages  Population increase, leads to budding off and filling an arable land  Population growth and restricted resources drove warfare and expansion to obtain more land  Eventually, when there is no more land, had to intensify agriculture or conquer and/or enslave the neighbours  Leads to social stratification, need for administration and ultimately to a state society  Consequences of State Formation o Positive  Allowance of larger and denser populations  Increased efficiency of agricultural production and distribution  Labour outside of food production activities  Large scale trade and exchange networks o Negative  Police and military forces  Differential resource access  Development of classes  Health issues  Warfare and conquest (11) Evolution, Genetics and Human Biological Variation Why is Evolution Important?  Pre-Darwinian Views o Plato and Aristotle  Single, graded continuum of animal s and plats going from less perfection (plants) to more perfection (humans) o Homer  Golden Chain (incorporates Creator)  The Study of Variations: Ordering Nature o Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)  Developed the modern system of taxonomy  Taxonomy = the science of biological classification  Taxon o Binomial nomenclature  Ex. Homo sapiens o Systema Natura (1735)  Evidence for Change? o Early research in geology provided evidence that the natural world had changed over time  Robert Hooke (1635-1703) and others  James Hutton (1726-1797) and others  Geoges Cuvier (1769-1832)  Charles Lyell (1797-1875)  Exploring Change: Early Models o Uniformitarianism:  Idea that all landforms were developed by processes (erosion, sedimentation, volcanism that can be seen today  Thus processes are uniform over time  Model was incompatible with tradition as a great age for the earth is required Catastrophism:  Idea that periodic catastrophes caused:  Changed in landforms  Replacement of fossil communities  Evolving Organisms o In the same period, many suggested models to explain variation and changes in organisms:  Comte de Buffon (1707-1778)  Observed plants and animals from many habitats  Noted patterns in variation  Proposed mechanism  Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)  Inheritance of acquired characteristics  Each environment has different demands  Animals change over their lifetimes to adapt to these demands  Changed are passed directly to offspring  No a process of selection, but introduced idea of adaptation o   Charles Darwin (1809-1882)  Natural selection was developed independently Alfred Wallace (1823-1913)  Both Darwin and Wallace familiar with debates in geology, debates in evolution, theories of Thomas Malthus (political economist)  Evolving Organisms: Darwin o Charles Darwin (1809-1882)  Wealthy family  Medicine, theology  Interest in the natural sciences  HMS Beagle – Galapagos  Finches – he noticed they were different on every island o The Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859)  Change in organisms over time – this change being neither positive or negative o The Descendant of Man (1871)  Monkeys, apes and humans are descendants from a common ancestor, long ago  Physical (and genetic) divergence of that common ancestor into monkeys and humans caused by the process of natural selection  Evolving Organisms: Wallace o Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)  Born in a small village in Manmouthshire, Wales  Was the 8th of 9 children  No formal education  The Mischief – Amazon  “On the Tendency of Varieties to Deport Indefinitely from the Original Type” What is Natural Selection?  Evolution by Natural Selection o Darwin’s principles of evolution 1. Producing offspring at a faster than food supplies increase 2. Biological variation exists within all species 3. There is competition among individuals 4. Favourable traits lead to fitness 5. Environment matters 6. Traits are inherited, leading to reproductive success 7. Time = more variation (different species) 8. Geographical isolation (new species)  Natural Selection o Main process that increases the frequency of adaptive traits through time  Adaptive = results in greater reproductive success in a particular environment o Operates through three main principles 1. Variation 2. Heritability 3. Differential reproductive success o Variability between individuals within a population gives reproductive edge to some in a changing environment, leading to gradual change over time in the population as a whole  Process become encapsulated in “survival of the fittest” (Herbert Spencer) What are the Basics of Contemporary Genetics?  Heredity: Genetic Revolution o Darwin cont.  Variations transmitted through heredity but what was the mode of inheritance?  Genetics = The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics  Genetic Principles o Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)  Was a botanist  Discovered the principles of inheritance even before chromosomes were discovered  Grew more than 28000 pea plants  “Discrete” physical unit is inherited  Challenged the model of blended inheritance  Three main principles or postulates  Mendel’s Postulates 1. Principles of Segregation a. That parents contribute 2. Principles of Dominance and Recessiveness a. Recessive b. Dominant c. Heterozygous d. Homozygous Genotype (genetic) / Phenotype (physical) 3. Principle of Independent Assortment a. The distribution of one pair of alleles into gametes does not influence the distribution of another pair b. The genes controlling different traits  Genetics and Variation Crossing Over o Makes possible the independent assortment of linked genes o Crossing over during meiosis leads to allele combinations in sex cells that are not present in the parent chromosomes Human Biological Variation  Studying Human Variation o Key questions  How do Humans vary? How did this variation arise?  Methods: Genotype / Phenotype We can study human variation in: o Genotype  DNA sequences carried by an individual  Nuclear DNA, mDNA  May be used to study: o Inheritance of a given trait o Population ancestry and relationships o Phenotype  Observable physical traits o Hair, skin, eye colour   o Blood type o Body dimensions o Enzyme production Results of genes and environment Impact of genes vs. environment varies and is not always known  DNA and Population Ancestry o To trace population ancestry:  Look for shared gene sequences  These should be passed on unchanged from parents to offspring  Key to study DNA sequences that are not recombined  mtDNA – traces maternal ancestry  Y – chromosome traces paternal ancestry o Result is a “tree” of population ancestry and relationships  Reflects descent of populations from common ancestral group  Splitting of populations may be given a time estimate based on estimated rate on mutation in DNA  Breeding Populations o Humans are divided into breeding populations by factors such as:  Geographical barriers  Customs and attitudes o This separation is incomplete die to gene flow:  Exchange of mates with other breeding populations  Can lead to exchange of traits  Maintains genetic unity of our species  Environmental Stress o Much environmental stress is dealt with through cultural adaptation  Ex. Inuit o Removes much selective pressure on human populations o If culture does not remove stress, it may have a selective effect  Environmental Stress o The body also deals with stresses through acclimatization o This is a response on the individual level, often reversible  Tanning  Increase in red blood cell count at high altitudes o Can cause phenotypic differences between genetically similar groups  Environment and Body Build o Bergmann’s Rule:  General relationship between body size and temperature  Warmer = Slender  Colder = Robust o Allen’s Rule:  General relationship between limb proportions and temperature  Warmer = Longer Limbs  Colder = Shorter Limbs  Genetic Drift (Wright Effect) o A trait may become common or rare in a population due to chance o Such effects are referred to as genetic drift o Genetic drift contributes to differences between populations o Is most significant in small populations  Genetic Drift: Special Cases o Founder Effect  Part of a breeding population branches off as a new population (ex. colony)  Rare traits may be absent from or overrepresented in new population  Result may be group of related but different populations in a region o Bottleneck Effect  Part of a breeding population dies in a catastrophe  By chance, most individuals with a trait may die or survive  Population now has a different proportion of that trait than before the catastrophe  Sexual Selection o A form of natural selection o Individuals with “most attractive” traits mate more often o Traits may be practical o Traits may be impractical  Beauty is culturally defined o Impact on humans is uncertain  Selection: An Example o Sickle-cell anemia  Relatively common in populations in malarial regions  Result of selective pressure of malaria  Single copy of the allele helps to protect against malaria, this individual is more likely to survive and reproduce  Balancing selection  Researchers have studied the gene sequence associated with this trait to understand its origin and spread through populations  Patterns of Variation o Recent studied of human variation indicate that:  Most variation in traits is clinical  Cline: gradual differences across an area  Few sharp boarders in traits between human populations  Most groups similar to nearby groups  Reflects the effects of gene flow  Most traits vary independently  Reflects independent inheritance, different selective pressures  Populations could be groups in different ways using different traits o mtDNA and Y-DNA variation an be use to group relationships  All human groups appear to share a relatively recent common ancestor  Smaller and more closed related groups may share some typical traits  Reflects recent common ancestry  They still show much more internal variation o Most genetic variation is seen within racial groups    Variation between racial groups accounts for relatively small % of total human variation Reflects broad nature of classic racial groups Reflects fact that racial groups are defined using few selected traits (12) Constructing Difference  What Can Anthropology Tell Us About Social Inequality? o Last topic we looked at how anthropologists understand biological variation o This topic examines the way people understand (and create) variation or differences  Race  Social stratifications (class and caste) – reviewish  Sexuality, sex, and gender Constructing Difference: The Race Concept  Historical Views on Human Variation o Organizing nature o Skin colour is the most noticeable way humans vary so most systems were based on it  ~1350 BCE Egyptians were classifying people based on skin colour o 16th century sees exploration of New World  Increased awareness of human diversity  Early Racial Classification Schemes o Carl Linnaeus:  Systema Naturae (1758)  Four racial categories  Homo sapiens afer (Africans)  Homo sapiens americanus (American Indians)  Homo sapiens asiaticus (Asians)  Homo sapiens europaeus (Europeans)  Homo sapiens ferus (Wild Men?) o Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752 – 1840)  Five racial categories  Ethiopian  American  Asian   Caucasian Malayan  Changing/Challenging Ideas of Race o Ashley Montagu (1905 – 1999)  Opposed the term “race”  Argues the term has no scientific validity  Advocated the use of the term “ethnic group”  A group defined in terms of sociological, cultural, and linguistic traits rather than perceived biological variation  The Race Concept o Race as everyday “fact” of life  What race are you? o System of folk heredity (Marks 1994)  System of race identification generally accepted in a society  May be seen as biological or cultural  Informally learned from childhood  Does not always work  “Mixed” races  Biological Race o Race as a biological category (biological race)  Broad regional categories based on variation in human appearance o A group of people defined by:  Common ancestry  Genetic similarity o Implies greater genetic similarity within that between races o o o Implies an objective system Biological race is based on a few selected, physical traits only  Such as “Asian” or “White” using visual characteristics (phenotype) Classification should not consider other traits:  Cultural  Linguistic  Religious  However… o RECALL: human variation is clinal o There are no “natural” boundaries  Arbitrary divisions and definitions are still necessary  When does “white” begin and end?  Which parent defines “race”?  When do you stop? How many races are there?  Human populations interbreed o Biological race is not “real”  Race as a Measure of Ancestry o Focuses on genetic relationships o Focuses on geographic origin o Ancestral relationships are traceable  Mitochondrial DNA  Nuclear DNA o Relationships are “real”  Race as “category of convenience”  Medical and forensic applications  Deconstructing Racial Feature: Skin Colour o Most important factor in racial classification aka. Folk taxonomies o Three influences on skin colour 1. Hemoglobin 2. Carotene 3. Melanin a. A brown pigment that determines the darkness of the skin – secreted by melanocytes b. UV – tan/sunburn + thickening of the skin = protection from UV (cancer etc.) c. Is influenced by natural selection d. More pigmentation at tropics, less in northern latitudes  Social Race o Race as a social construction  Is very important in many cultures o Social race classifications  Reflect cultures’ choice of important defining characteristics  May include factors such as faith  Deal poorly with boundary crossing  May allow self-definition of race  Involves the racialization of groups  Social Race vs. Ethnicity o Ethnicity  A category primarily based on language, culture, or faith  Need not include shared ancestry  Ex. Jewish, Hispanic  Social Race and Racism o Race as a social divider  Influences perception by others  Racial stereotypes influence responses of others  Defines or limits opportunities  May follow lines of social class o Racism may rest on claimed biological differences  This is why it is important to critically analyze the biological traits used in defining race  Scientific racism  The Bell Curve & IQ tests  Racism o Based on false beliefs o Assumptions of superiority o Product of the past, resonates today o Not supported by modern science o Cultural phenomenon o Worldwide  Race in Japan o Japanese that share the same “blood” are valued = “pure” o Japan sees itself as being homogenous in “race”, ethnicity, language & culture  Minorities do exist o Perceived “racial” difference is enough to value one person (or group) over another o Japanese identity and the Burakumin (about 4 million people, comparable to untouchable caste from India – separated from rest of Japanese society by their ancestor lineage and by blood) o Japanese ethnicity, identity, migrants and Nikkei (generations have lived in Philippines but background is Japanese)  Race in the United States o A person acquires their racial identity at birth  Hypodescent o This automatically places the product of a mixed union in the minority (see inferior) group  A child born to a “white” and “African American” couple will be designated “black” o Designations usually stay with a person their whole life o Divides American society into groups that are unequal in their access to wealth, power and prestige  So race has REAL effects on society  Race in Brazil o Has fewer exclusionary categories than U.S. or Japan o Brazilian description of human diversity is more detailed, fluid, and flexible than most other cultures o Over 500 racial classifications Bases categorization on phenotype (thousands of detectable physical differences including skin, hair and eye colour; hair shape etc.) Poverty and skin colour correlated = class status affects racial status  Someone who is poor and light skinned is seen as having darker skin (“money whitens”) Permits individuals to change their “race” classification  Open system!  o o  Role of History o Difference in treatment of “mixed” populations in U.S. and Brazil is historically based  English men, women and families were preponderance of colonizers in U.S.  Portuguese settlers of Brazil were mainly men; many married women of indigenous population and recognized offspring as heirs  Both groups had sex with their slave populations, but Brazilians often freed their progeny  No hypodescent rule developed in Brazil Constructing Difference: Sexuality, Sex, and Gender  Sexuality o Cultural variation in how sexuality in viewed, practiced, and controlled o Is formed by our cultural environment  Sexual orientation: biological and psychological makeup of an individual  Sexual identity: the identity a person takes based on his/her sexual preference  Sexuality: Cultural Regulations o Sexual behaviour linked to sex but, more importantly, to gender and gender roles o Permissiveness versus restrictiveness  Premarital sex  Homosexuality  Sex in marriage  Incest  Extramarital sex  RECALL: Taboos  Sex vs. Gender o Sex: Biological attributes only o Gender: The way that members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated and expected to behave – roles  Biological Perspective o Physique and physiology o Sexual dimorphism o Athleticism o Attractiveness  Facial symmetry o The “five sexes” of biological anthropology o Intersex  Gender Issues o Nature vs. Nurture  Differences between men and women one of the most controversial  Roles taken as “natural” meaning unchangeable  Others behaviours viewed as “deviant”  Roles are culturally defined this vary cross-culturally  Gender Construct o Set of cultural assumptions about gender roles and values AND the relations between the genders that people learn as members of their society  Gender model  Masculinity and femininity: social attributes of two sexes which reflect biological differences but are not reduces to them  Anthropology’s Contribution o Anthropological research has demonstrated that the social roles of men and women vary  Cross-cultural perspective is important for showing and contrasting biological versus cultural differences  Ideology of Dual Genders, Dual Sexes o Many Westerners recognize only two genders (male and female) o Other societies acknowledge third+ genders, sexes and/or sexual gradations  Gender as continuum  Third+ Genders: Examples o Two Spirit people, Native Americans  Specialized social role  Ethnographic record:  Biological males who reject the usual gender role of bison hunter, raider, and warrior  Dressed, spoke and styled their hair like women and undertook female activities  Responsible for performing key rituals  Not necessarily connected with sexuality  Contemporary perspective:  Much broader, inclusive definition that may/may not include sexuality o Philippines  Nursery rhyme about four distinct genders: “Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomyboy”  Hierarchical o Bakla are (traditionally):  Assigned male at birth, gender female  Some self-identity as women others as third gender  About gender NOT sex; few have sex reassigned surgery  Treat each other as sisters  Dating each other prohibited (seen as incestuous)  Economically integrated into Filipino society (stereotypical beaut salon worker) o Much variation in terms of transgender identity in South Asia  Hirja, Chakka, Khusra, Kothi, or Kojja o Assigned male at birth, feminine gender identity  Some have physical modifications o Traditionally were initiation rites – “adoption” process  Employed for rituals o Socioeconomically disadvantaged and discriminated against  Few employment opportunities, face violence, issues with housing and access to health care  Legal status in tenuous at best  Gender-less (?) o Daycares in Sweden o Baby “Storm” in Canada  Gender fluid parenting  Gender, Sex, and Bodies o Gender and sex are both connected with our bodies o In some cases our bodies represent our sex and our gender but in other cases our bodies may be different from the sex and/or gender we identify with  There are also individuals who do not “fit” into our two biological categories (intersex)  Recall:  Our bodies are also associated with our status (female/male circumcise)  Modify our bodies and claim them for our identity (tattoos)  Body modification in ways that challenge negatively (cancer)  Gender Roles and Labour o Tasks performed by females  Gathering, childcare, elder/infirm care, household management o Tasks performed by males  Hunting/fishing/herding, clearing fields for planting, warfare, long distance trade  Gender and Subsistence o Foragers  Usually equality (egalitarian)  Some groups have male dominance  Economic roles defined according to gender but include flexibility and overlap  Labour distribution by age is important o o o o Horticulturalists  Control over distribution of produce and goods influence gender status  Directly linked with pattern of descent (matrilineal vs. patrilineal)  Subsistence and household activities, craft production all allocated according to gender Pastoralists  Early anthropologists frequently misunderstood gender roles/division of labour in pastoralists  The anthropologists usually came from patriarchal societies therefore saw pastoralist societies as male dominated (men own land, cattle, access therefore male pursuits, interests emphasized)  Reality: much more complicated  Ex. impact of colonialism, spread of Islam with Maasai in East Africa Industrialism and post industrialism  Saw women’s participation in production  Marginalization in employment and unequal pay  “Gender gap”  Cult of domesticity  Notion that women were, by nature and biology, suited to the domestic tasks of nurturing and caring for their husbands and children Today  Transformation of work and workplace   “Have it all” mentality Impact on families, conceptions of motherhood, conceptions of fatherhood, what it means to be female, what it means to be male  Parenthood: Motherhood and Fatherhood o Motherhood:  Breastfeeding and weaning  “Yummy mummy” o Fatherhood  “Stay at home dad”  Career-life balanced  Gender and Status o Gender equality  Constellation of behaviours, attitudes, and rights that support the autonomy of both women and men o Gender inequality  Denial of autonomy and equal rights to one group of people based on their gender o Domination and submission  Is the subordination of women universal?  Mostly  Seems to be tied to the division of labour and value of women’s labour  Gender and Family Violence o Difficulty in defining what constitutes abuse o Cross-culturally if one form of family violence occurs, other are also likely  More one spouse in family makes decisions and has the power, more physical violence occurs  Violence against children, infanticide  Violence against wives  Common when: men control products of family labour, divorce is difficult for women, remarriage for a widow is controlled by husbands kin, women do not have female work groups  Gender, Age, and Status o Status, especially of women, almost always changes with age  Role changes with status increase as ages (ex. Australian aborigines, Yanomamo)  Status of older women declines further relative to that of men – our society  Reflected in greater acceptance of male “cradle-robbers” vs. female “cougars”  Rites of Passage and Status o Rites of passage often mark changes  Ex. baptism, confirmation, bar/bat mitzvah, graduation, marriage, parenthood o “Systems of age roles” in most societies include increased status and responsibility with age  Contrast with “youth culture” in our society and the alienation and institutionalization of older people  Obligations between generations truncated with old ages and our society  “You throw your old people away”  Ageism o o o o Discrimination based on age (usually of groups of people) Seniors or children/youth Stereotyping Prejudice (benevolent or hostile)  A Biological Perspective: Birth, Growth, and Aging o Human Childbirth  Encephalization over course of human evolution  Trade off between size of infant cranium and size of pelvis  Labour and delivery practice/assistance = culturally determined o Patterns of Human Growth  Biological plasticity  Chart and measure growth and development  Physical and mental o Stages of Human Growth 1. Prenatal or gestational: conception to birth 2. Infancy: birth to first tooth 3. Juvenile: first tooth until puberty 4. Adolescence: puberty to? 5. Adult: ? 6. Old age: 40? 50? 65? 80? o Menarche and Menopause  Changed in onset puberty (decrease in age of menarche)  Environmental factors (hormones in food etc.)  Only humans have a significant part of the life span extend beyond female reproductive years  Why does menopause occur?  PMS from a cross-cultural perspective o Aging  Extension of human life span through biomedical technologies/advancements  Still have maximum life expectancy (~120)  Why do we age? (Senescence) (13) The Living Primates  Primatology: Why Study the Living Primates? o 1950’s = rise of field of primatology  Primatologist: a scientist working directly or indirectly with nonhuman primates in a variety of settings o Goals of primatology:  Reconstruct early Hominin and human adaptations, behaviours by providing models and analogues  Comparison – to understand ourselves  The “Trimates” or “Leakey’s Angels” o Jane Goodall o Dian Fossey o Birute Galdikas Are we looking Through a Window or in a Mirror?  What we have been able to show? o Primates are intelligent  Impressive skills re: tool use  Ability to manipulate symbols  Ape-language experiments  Ability to reason analogically  Ability to learn and transmit knowledge across generations  Sense of self  Ability to recognize oneself (the “mirror test”) o Primates are social  Behave differently to differently dominant individuals  Recognize and respond to individual personalities  Recognize kin from non-kin  Ally with close kin first in conflicts  What we also know… o No significant relationship between environment and primate social organization  Dietary and behavioural plasticity o Monogamous pairs  Rare in non-human primates  Where monogamous, lack of sexual dimorphism and sex roles undifferentiated Primate Characteristics and Taxonomy Primate Characteristics: LeGros Clark (1963)  Suborder: Strepsirhines o Lemurs, Lorises, and Galagos o Old World tropics and subtropics o Retain some primitive traits not seen in other primates o Best living analogy to earliest fossil primates o Characteristic traits:  Good sense of smell (olfaction)  Rhinarium – moist nose  Prehensile hands and feet with nails on most digits  Tooth comb  Stereoscopic vision with orbits enclosed by a postorbital bar  Dental formula: 2133/2133  Suborder: Haplorhines o “Higher primates” o Tarsiers and Anthropoids (Monkeys, Apes, and Humans) o Share many traits not seen in Strepsirhines  The tarsier is a problem here since it shares many traits with both Strepsirhines and Haplorhines o Differences from Strepsirhines include: 1. Increase in body size 2. Larger brain in relation to body size 3. Reduced reliance on olfaction 4. Absence of the rhinarium 5. Greater degree of colour vision 6. More generalized dentition  Platyrrhines – New World Primates o Found in forested areas in southern Mexico and Central and South America o Common traits:  Diurnal  Flat nosed/faced  Small bodied, some have prehensile tails o Callitrichidae (callitrichids)  Marmosets, tamarins  Claws, not nails  Commonly birth twins  Considered to be monogamous o Cebidae (cebids)  Squirrel monkeys (saimiri)  Spider monkeys (ateles)  Capuchins (Cebus)  Howler monkey (Aloutta)  Catarrhines – Old World Primates o Cata = downward, rhini = nose o 5 families 1. Cercopithecidae (ex. baboons, mandrills) 2. Colobidae (colobus, langurs, proboscis) 3. Hylobatidae (gibbons) 4. Pongidae (orangutan, chimpanzee, gorilla) 5. Hominidae (homo sapiens sapiens)  Family: Cercopithecidae o Cheek pouches (store extra food) o Ischial callosities (sitting pads) o Wide distribution in Africa and Asia o Broad adaptations to arboreal, forest floor, terrestrial, open-country environments  Most extensive adaptation (excepting Homo) to terrestrial environment  Family: Colobidae o Often referred to as “leaf-eating monkeys”  Bulk of food = leaves  Sacculated (chambered) stomachs (digest cellulose)  Africa and Asia  Arboreal and leapers  Often polygynous (single, male, multi-female)  Family: Hylobatidae o Often referred to as “lesser apes” because of smaller relative size  Occur in SE Asia  Extremely territorial  Excellent brachiators  Small, monogamous groups  Superfamily: Hominoidea o Apes and Humans  Apes and humans differ from the previously mentioned species by the following characteristics: 1. Larger body size 2. Two premolars (21 23/ 2123) 3. No tail 4. Short trunk 5. Arms that are longer than legs (not humans) 6. Shoulder modifications 7. More complex behaviour 8. More complex brain 9. More infant care  Family: Pondigae (“Great Apes”) o 4 genera  Orangutan (Pongo pygaeus)  Borneo and Sumatra (fossils widely distributed throughout Asia)  Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla)  Common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)  Pygmy chimpanzee (bonobo) (Pan paniscus)  Pongid’s General Characteristics o Have anatomy suited for brachiating, but all use variety of locomotion o All pongids spend time traveling, feeding on the ground o Orangutans tend to be solitary with overlapping male-female ranges o Gorillas live in societies comprising one fully adult male and multi-females o Chimps live in large, fluid social groups  Family: Hominidae – Humans o Anatomically generalized o Habitual bipedal locomotion o Large brains, flat faces, small from (anterior) teeth o Sexual dimorphism not pronounced vs. pongids (male gorilla = 200kg) Brief Highlights of Primate Evolution  The Emergence of Primates o Eocene (55-34 mya) o First undisputed primates o Found everywhere except Australia, Antarctica, and South America o Dapids o Omomyoids  Early Higher Primates o By late Eocene to Oligocene (34-23 mya)  Many higher primate species  Fayum Depression in Egypt  Change in world climate (cooler and dryer) saw many species go extinct  Parapithecidae (ex. Apidium)  Propliopithecidae (ex. Aegyptopithecus)  Miocene Anthropoids o o o o Miocene (23-5 mya) Early Miocene “Proto-Apes”  Mostly in Africa  Best known genus is Proconsul (20-18 mya) Middle Miocene Hominoids include:  Kenyapithecus  Gigantopithecus  Largest primate to have ever lived  Thick tooth enamel  Robus jaws, ate nuts and seeds Late Miocene Hominoids include:  Sivapithecus (12-8 mya)  Primarily in Western and Southern Asia  Thich enamel, ate seeds and nuts  Once thought to be ancestral to orangutans  Dryopithecus (12-8 mya)  Primarily in Europe  Thick tooth enamel and lighter jaws  Ancestor to apes and humans? (14) Human Evolution  What is a Hominin? o Modern human o Our ancestors  Other species branching of this lineage o First hominin debate o 5-10 mya o Earliest Hominin fossils are:  African, ~7 million years ago  Very apelike – mosaic of traits  Identifying Hominins o Key Hominin traits: 1. Skeletal traits associated with bipedalism 2. Changes to the face, teeth and jaws 3. Expansion of the brain (encephalization) 4. Tool-making behaviour  Why Bipedalism? o Advantages  Freeing of the hands  Prolonged infant care  Food carrying or provisioning activities  Tool use  Elevated head  Visibility in open grasslands  Energetic advantages  Long distance slow walking  Improved heat regulation  Mating advantage? Disadvantages (costs)  Lower body stresses  Knee, hip and lower back pain Who were the First Hominins? o  Sahelanthropus tchadensis o 6-7 mya o Toros-Menalla, Chad o Partial cranium, no postcranial  Bipedal? o Closest common ancestor to chimps?  Orrorin tugenesis o 5.8-6 mya o Western Kenya o 19 specimens of jaw, teeth, finger, arm and leg bones  Ardipithecus ramidus and Ar. Kadabba o 5.8-4.4 mya o Aramis, Ethiopia o 1994: jaw fragment and miscellaneous teeth (Ar. Ramidus) o 2004: 45% complete skeleton, teeth, cranial, and upper limb bone fragments (Ar. Kadabba) o Two species:  Ardipithecus ramidus  Ardipithecus kadabba  The Australopithecines o Diverse group of early Hominins:  Dates range from 4.2 – 1 mya  Brain not much larger than modern apes  Variation in robusticity  Gracile vs. robust  Bipedal  Pelvis and femur  Footprints (3.6 mya, Laetoli, Tanzania)  Partially arboreal  Longer arms than legs, curved fingers  Australopithecus vs. Paranthropus o Gracile  A. anamensis  A. afarensis  A. africanus  A. garhi  A. bahrelghezali  Australopithecus anamensis o 4.2-3.9 mya o Kenya  -anam: “Lake” in Turkana language o Robust (Paranthropus)  A./P. robustus  A./P. boisei  A./P. aethiopicus o o Mosaic of ape and Hominin traits Most primitive of the genus  Australopithecus afarensis o 3.9-2.9 mya o Ethiopia and Tanzania o Most well-known early Hominin:  Lucy (AL-288)  Dikika child o Laetoli footprints  Tanzania  Mary Leaky and team  1 to 2 adults and one juvenile  Evidence of bipedalism  Evidence of sexual dimorphism  Australopithecus africanus o 3-2 mya o South Africa (Taung, Serkfontein, Makapansgat) o Bipedal o More human-like dentition o Taung child  Australopithecus sediba o 1.95-1.78 mya o South Africa o 2 partial skeletons o Descended from A. africanus o Derived homo-like morphology  Ancestral to Homo  Australopithecus bahrelghazali o 3.5-3 mya o Chad o First Hominin found outside of East Africa Rift Valley o Partial fragmentary jaw  Australopithecus garhi o 2.5 mya o Middle Awash, Ethiopia o Few skull and limb fragments o Similar to, but definitely not, any of other australopithecines  Range of variation? Adaptation?  Australopithecus aethiopicus o 2.6-2.3 mya o Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia o Ancestral to A. boisei o Hyper-robust o Black skull   (KNM-WT 17000) 2.5 mya  Australopithecus boisei o 2.3-1.1 mya o East Africa (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) o Louis and Mary Leakey  Zinj or Nutcracker Man o Toolmaker? o Pronounced sexual dimorphism  Australopithecus robustus (robust = South Africa) o 2.8-1 mya o South Africa o Robert Broom o Omnivore o Tools? What do we know about Early Homo?  Early Hominin Tools? o First tools recovered in East Africa  Earliest at Gona, Ethiopia 3.5 mya o Most date to around 2.5 mya  Australopithecines?  Early Homo? o Lower Paleolithic o Oldowan tool tradition  Choppers and scrapers  Early Homo: Variability o 2.4-1.5 mya o East and South Africa o Two contemporaneous species? 1. Homo habilis (smaller body/brain, Gracile face and teeth) 2. Homo rudolfensis (larger body/brain, Robus face/teeth)  Who was Homo erectus? o 1.8 mya – 500 kya  As late as 100 kya in Asia o Great diversity/variability anatomically  Just H. erectus or H. erectus AND H. ergaster o First movement out of Africa (Out of Africa I)  Trinil, Java; Swanscombe, England; Atapuerca, Spain; Zhoukoudian, China  Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania; Lake Turkana, Kenya  Dmanisi, Georgia (W. Europe) = Homo georgicus  Homo erectus o Despite diversity, some typical traits can be identified in the cranium and post-cranium  Cranium  Pronounced ridges, sloping forehead, receding chin  o  Smaller more vertical face  Smaller teeth Post-cranium more similar to modern humans than to early Homo  Larger body size  Modern proportions Nariokotome (Turkana) boy KNM –WT 15000  Nearly complete H. ergaster/erectus specimen  Dates to 1.6 my  Sex = boy= shape of pelvis  Age = 11 - 13 = dental eruption (no 3rd molar = no wisdom teeth)  Skeleton = 5’3”  Projected would have stood between 5’6” and 6 ft. tall had he reached maturity  Homo erectus: Culture o Tools and other artifacts dating from 1.8 mya to 200 kya are assumed to have been produced by Homo erectus o Culture of Homo erectus: 1. Acheulian Tool Tradition 2. Big Game Eating 3. Control of Fire 4. Language 5. Other ritual evidence  The “Hobbit”: Homo floresiensis o Discovered in Liang Bua Cave on Indonesian island of Flores (2003) o ~1m (3ft.) tall o Fully bipedal o Cranial capacity ~380 cc o Fossils date: 38 – 18 kya o Archaeological dates: 95 – 13 kya  Similar to that found with H. erectus species How did Homo sapiens Evolve?  Transition to Modern Humans: Context o Archaic H. sapiens  First appear in the Middle Pleistocene (900 – 125 kya) o Some persist into the late Pleistocene (125 – 10 kya)  Pleistocene? (Aka. Ice Age)  Glacial: Ice cover in Northern Eurasia; Africa is dry  Interglacial: No ice cover in Eurasia; Africa wet  Hominins affected by changes in climate, fauna, and flora  Archaic Homo sapiens o Also called ‘Homo heidelbergenisis’ o Found in Africa, Asia, Europe  Did not vastly extend the geographic range of Homo erectus  Some difficult to distinguish from Homo erectus o Key traits include:      Larger brain More globular brain case Arching, heavy supraorbital torus Occipital torus Low forehead  Archaic Homo sapiens: Culture o Acheulian tool tradition continues o Some later groups used the Levallois technique (Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic culture) o Several changes to more ‘modern’ culture seen:  Apparent use of fire  Simple shelters  Wider range of foods  Large animals hunted Who were the Neandertals?  Neandertals & Pop Culture o Rosny, Quest for ire, 1991 (1981) o HG Wells, The Grisly Folk, 1927 o William Golding, The Inheritors, 1955 o John Darnton, Neanderthal, 1996  Who were the Neandertals? o Late European/West Asian pre-moderns  Named after the Neander  Stem from earlier pre-moderns  First definite Neandertal remains date to 175 kya  Biache-Saint-Vaast, France  Latest Neandertal remains date to 27 kya  Mezmaiskaya Cave, Russia Neandertal Anatomy (slide 38) – look like us but hav bigger, bolder, more enhanced features  Neandertals: Adapted for Cold? o Neandertal cranial and postcranial morphology has also been interpreted as an adaptation to cold climate  Body:  Short and wide, shortened limbs  Build may reflect need to conserve heat  Facial morphology:  Large brain  Large nasal aperture  Mid-facial projection  Infraorbital foramina  Neandertal Anatomy o Strenuous  Show many (healed) injuries o Neandertals show injury pattern similar to modern rodeo riders  Proposed by Thomas Berger and Erik Trinkaus  May reflect more need for strength compared to recent humans  May reflect close approach to large prey (ex. hunting strategy)  Neandertal Culture: Technology  Neandertal Culture: Speech  Neandertal Culture: Burials o Definitely intentional  Le Moustier  La Ferrassie  Shandiar (IV)  Krapina  Neandertal Culture: TLC? o Healed injuries  Spinal, rib, limb fractures  Amputaion  Blindness  Degenerative joint diseases (ex. arthritis)  Teeth loss (bad teeth!) o Little or no signs of infection o Care for elders  Shandiar 1  Elderly man with withered right arm (paralysis?), walked with a limp, deformity to left side of skull  Us or Them? o Differing interpretations of placement in human lineage and intelligence over time  Dumb brutes – flower children – social peers  Neandertal prejudice/racism?  What happened to the Neandertals? o Interbreeding  Hybrid individuals  Fossil evidence Genetic evidence (mtDNA) o Genocide o No evidence o Extinction o Retreat & refuge Anatomically Modern Humans  Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens o First appear ~200,000 years ago during Middle Pleistocene o By 50,000 years ago they has spread across the globe, even as far as Australia! o Contemporaneous with Neandertals  Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens: Anatomy o Anatomically modern Homo sapiens are characterized by:  A gracile skull  Minimal brow ridges  Rounded cranium, higher forehead     Cranial capacity ~1500 cc Small teeth and jaws Retracted face with an obvious chin (mental protuberance) UPPER PALAEOLITHIC CULTURE  New stone tool technology  Art!  Art: Cave Paintings o After 40 kya o Location  Deep cold caves  Sound  Isolation – darkness o Ritual parallels  Means of achieving altered state (shamans & trances)  Monastic practices  Vision quests  Sympathetic (hunting) magic  Fertility magic  Mobiliary Art o Depictions of Women  Venus figures  See “Women’s art in the Upper Paleolithic?” pg. 143-145 o Bone flutes o Bruniquel Horse o Hohlenstein figure  Clothing and Ornamentation o Body Ornamentation:  Pieced shells, pierced animal teeth, and bone beads were most likely work as necklaces or attached to clothing o Lice and Clothing  “Human body lice reveal the birthdate of fashion” – Stoneking et al. 2003  Genetics of lice  42-70 kya