Anthropology For Dummies

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1 What Is Anthropology?
Chapter 1 Human Beings and Being Human: An Overview of Anthropology
Digging Into Anthropology’s History
Getting Acquainted with Anthropology’s Subfields
Physical anthropology
Archaeology
Cultural Anthropology
Linguistics
Making Sense of Anthropology’s Methods
Applied Anthropology: Using the Science in Everyday Life
Chapter 2 Looking Into Humanity’s Mirror: Anthropology’s History
Getting to the Heart of Anthropology
Dazed and Confused: What It Is to Be Human
Two types of culture
Two types of modernity
-Isms and the Making of Anthropology
Colonialism
Antiquarianism
Scientism
Holism
Anthropology Today
Chapter 3 Actually, Four Mirrors: How Anthropology Is Studied
Physical Anthropology and the Evolutionary Basis of Biology
You say you want an evolution
More facets of physical anthropology
The biocultural animal
Archaeology: The Study of Ancient Societies
Archaeology and evolution
More facets of archaeology
Linguistic Anthropology
Nonhuman animal communication
Spoken language
Gesture and body language
Cultural Anthropology: The Study of Living Societies
Putting the culture in cultural anthropology
Attempting to explain why humans do what they do
Participant observation
Applied anthropology and global culture
Part 2 Physical Anthropology and Archaeology
Chapter 4 The Wildest Family Reunion: Meet the Primates
Monkey Business: Primate Origins
You Look Like an Ape: Primate Species
What’s in a name? General primate characteristics
Going ape (and prosimian): Primate subgroups
Yes, We Have No Bananas: Primate Subsistence
The indiscriminate-eaters: Omnivores
The bug-eaters: Insectivores
The leaf-eaters: Folivores
The fruit-eaters: Frugivores
Monkeying Around: Primate Locomotion
Stand back, Tarzan: The brachiators
Bug-bashers: The vertical-clingers-and-leapers
In the trees: Arboreal quadrupeds
Soldiers beware: Terrestrial quadrupeds
A group of one: Bipeds
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Primate Social Groups and Behavior
Primates Today (But For How Long?)
Chapter 5 My Career Is in Ruins: How Anthropologists Learn about the Past
What, How Old, and Where: It’s All You Need to Know
The significance of where
The significance of when
The significance of artifacts
Keeping Time: How Archaeologists Date Finds
The deeper, the older: Stratigraphy
Before or after? Relative dating
Absolutely probably 6,344 years old (plus or minus): Radiometric absolute dating
Saving Space: How Archaeologists Keep Track of Where Artifacts Are Found
Be there: Provenience
Be square: Site grids
Type Casting: How Archaeologists Classify Their Finds
Types of types: The theory of classification
Unearthing the most common artifact types
Chapter 6 Bones of Contention: The Fossil Evidence for Early Human Evolution
Great Africa: The Earliest Hominins
Stand and Deliver: The Riddles of Bipedalism
Walking upright: Pros and cons
The complexities of early hominin evolution
All the Same from the Neck Down: The Australopithecines
The basic differences and similarities
The crusher: Robust australopithecines
The omnivore: Gracile australopithecines
The Cracked Mirror: Early Homo
Exploring characteristics of early Homo
Dalmatians and cigar smoke: Finds at Olduvai Gorge
Out of Africa: Early dispersals of early Homo
Tool time: The decoupling of behavior from anatomy
The Traveler: The Accomplishments of Homo erectus
Characteristics of Homo erectus
From confrontational scavenging to ambush hunting
The use of fire
Symmetry, watercraft, and the “15-minute culture”
Chapter 7 It’s Good to Be Home: Homo sapiens sapiens, Our Biological Species
Distinguishing Modern Homo sapiens sapiens (That’s You!)
Anatomical modernity
Behavioral modernity
Africa: The Cradle of Humanity
Discovering the first AMHss
Exploring behavioral modernity
Out of Africa: An Epic Dispersal
Taking a closer look at Neanderthals
Getting Neanderthals and AMHss together
The Origins of Language: The Social Grooming Theory
The Origins of the Modern Mind
The evolution of consciousness: Two models
The roots of myth
The roots of ritual
The roots of symbolism
Chapter 8 Hunting, Fishing, Sailing, and Sledding: The Dispersal of Humanity Worldwide
Dispersal and Survival: The Decoupling of Behavior from Biology
The Earliest Settlement of Australasia
Another Grand Exploration: The Colonization of the New World
Dueling hypotheses: A couple of migration theories
Just the facts, ma’am
Igloos, Dogs, and Whalebone Knives: The Colonization of the Arctic
First arrivals
The Thule expansion
The Voyage of Ru and Hina: The Colonization of the Pacific
The tools of the explorers
The society of the explorers
High Altitude People: Early Settlement of the Tibetan Plateau
Big-River People: Early Settlement of the Amazon and Congo Basins
Desert People: Early Settlement of the Sahara
Chapter 9 Old, Old McDonald: The Origins of Farming
The Principle of Domestication
Cultural selection
Effects of farming on society
Plant domestication
Animal domestication
Principles of Horticulture
Distinctive characteristics of horticulture
Garden horticulture
Slashing and burning
Limited storage
Principles of Farming
Distinguishing state farming from horticulture
Water control
Animal domestication, farming-style
Massive storage
Farming facilities and tools
Secondary products
Looking Back on the Origins of Farming
Why farm in the first place?
In the Near East
In Africa
In East Asia
In the Western Pacific
In the Americas
The Early Farming Village
The Making of Man’s Best Friend: the Early Domestication of Dogs
Chapter 10 The Development of Civilization
Human Subsistence and Social Organization
Human subsistence
Human social organization
The Characteristics of Civilization
Urbanization
Long-distance trade
Social stratification
Durable record-keeping/writing
Standing armies and extended warfare
Money
Slavery
Territorial sovereignty
Vassal tribute
Non-food production specialists
Astronomy and/or mathematics
Monumental architecture
State religion
Taxes
Charting the Rise and Fall of the First Civilizations
Egypt
Inca
Civilization Today: Will It Fall, Too?
Part 3 Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics
Chapter 11 The Spice of Life: Human Culture
Demystifying the Definition of Culture
What Culture Is and What Culture Isn’t
Culture versus cultured
Why cultures differ
Cultural Universals
Having an Out-of-Body Experience
Adaptation and its implications
Behaviors
Values
Objects
Language: Passing the baton of culture
Opening Your Human Behavior Owner’s Manual
Culture = software, brain = hardware
Problems with the software/hardware analogy
Getting Your Cultural Education
Life stages
Stages of human learning
From Mop-Tops to Mötley Crüe: What Is Cultural Change?
Diffusion versus assimilation
Innovation
Cultural Evolution
How culture evolves
What cultural evolution doesn’t mean
Chapter 12 From Kalahari to Minneapolis: How Cultural Anthropologists Work
Watching Cultural Anthropology Grow Up
Battling ethnocentrism
Getting scientific
Embodying the etic modernist approach: Bronislaw Malinowski
A More Personal Approach: Emic Research
Recognizing how a researcher’s choices influence the results
Realizing that the act of observing affects the results
Considering Recent Developments
Exploring postmodernism
Keeping pace with cultural change
Striving for Accuracy
Recognizing potential research pitfalls
Watching cultural anthropology in action
Going into the Field: Getting Prepared for Less-Than-Ideal Conditions
Chapter 13 Can We Talk? Communication, Symbols, and Language
Exploring the Complexity of Human Language
Screeching and howling: Non-human animal communications
Contrasting non-human and human symbolism
Identifying characteristics of human spoken language
Linking language to the mind: Tapping its true power
Ready to Swear: How the Human Mind Is Hard-Wired for Language
First four months
Six to twelve months
12 to 18 months
18 to 24 months
36 months and later
Watching Human Language Evolve
Admitting our uncertainty
Explaining language diversity
Making room for new theories
Chapter 14 Types of Types: Race and Ethnicity
The Kinds of Humanity: Human Physical Variation
The race card: Racial types and physical anthropology
The lowdown: What anthropologists can say for sure about human races
The history of racial typing
The grand illusion: Race, turns out, is arbitrary
Why Is Everyone Different? Human Cultural Variation
Distinguishing ethnicity from race
A common horror: Ethnic cleansing
A common delight: Ethnic identity
Ethnic group interactions
Chapter 15 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Identity, Family, Kinship, and Gender
Am I “Cameron” or “a Smith”? The Scales of Human Identity
Know thyself: Identity
What’s in a name?
A Family Affair
Families of origin versus families of procreation
Incest
Marriage
Kinship
Sex and Gender
The differences between sex and gender
Common gender roles
Kinship and Gender Worldwide and through Time
Among foragers
Among horticulturalists
Among agriculturalists
Age and Stage of Life
Chapter 16 Not at the Dinner Table! Religion and Politics
What Is Religion?
Functions of religion
Why religion is so powerful
The Material and Supernatural Worlds
Ritual and Religion
The Organization of Supernatural Knowledge
Shamans
Priests
The Origins of Religion
Types of Religions
The Relations of Power: Politics
I’ve got the power (and I know how to use it)
Power plays: How various societies apply power
The Politics of Polarization
Part 4 So What? Anthropology, the Modern World, and You
Chapter 17 Kiss or Kill? Diversity, Conflict, and Culture
The Anthropology of Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Scales and consequences of conflict
Cultural conflict among small-scale societies
Cultural conflict in larger-scale societies
Humanity and justice
Globalization and Human Culture
Globalization and ecological justice
Globalization and cultural assimilation
Globalization and nativistic movements
Globalization and forced migration
Chapter 18 Looming Disasters? From Overpopulation to Space Debris
The Only Constant Is Change
Overpopulation
The road to overpopulation
Hope on the horizon
Climate Change
Say What? The Loss of Linguistic Diversity
Food and Water Availability/Famine
Disease
Space Debris
Your New Home on Mars! Issues of Space Settlement
Chapter 19 Eve and the Iceman: The Cutting Edge of Physical Anthropology
Molecular Anthropology
How it works
How anthropologists use it
Some complications with the molecular clock
DNA and the Mitochondrial Eve
Out of Africa: African diversity and extra-African similarity
The inevitable debates
Neanderthals and You: The Neanderthal Genome
The Iceman
Chapter 20 Stonehenge and You: Why Archaeology Matters
History Is Written by the Winners: The Importance of Archaeology
Historical archaeology and written history
Commoners of ancient Egypt
The archaeology of American slaves
Other important historical archaeology sites
Conversation Stoppers? Archaeology and the Unknown
Why did humanity take up farming?
How did humans go from having leaders to having rulers?
Does history repeat itself?
Part 5 The Part of Tens
Chapter 21 Ten Things to Remember About Anthropology, Whatever Else You Forget
The Use of Tools Separated Behavior from Anatomy
We’re Not Just Like Apes, We ARE Apes
Nobody Knows Why Hominids First Walked Upright (Yet)
Everyone Is in the Human Race
Civilization is Brand-New
There Are Many Ways to be Human
Culture Doesn’t Ride on Genes
Language and Metaphor Are the Keys to Human Success
Absolutely, There Are No Absolutes
There is No Ladder of Progress
Chapter 22 Ten Great Careers for Anthropology Majors
Academic Anthropology
Cultural/Human Resources
Forensic Anthropology
Crime Scene Investigation
Primate Biology
Primate Ethology
Diplomacy
Museum Work
Library Science
Contract Archaeology
Chapter 23 Ten (Or So) Great Anthropologically Themed Movies and Books
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Once We Were Warriors
The Places in Between
Gorillas in the Mist
Neanderthal
Quest for Fire
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Maps and Dreams
Dances of Life
Chapter 24 The Top Ten Myths about the Human Past
All Human Societies Evolved in the Same Direction
Prehistoric Life Was Nasty, Brutish, and Short
Ancient People Were Perfectly in Balance with Nature
Farming Is Easier and Better than Foraging
Ancient Monuments Had Just One Purpose
“Primitive Technology” Was Limited
Cave Art Was about Men Hunting Animals
It’s Nature or Nurture
History Repeats Itself
Having Reached a Peak, Human Evolution Has Ended
Index
EULA