Anthropology For Dummies

Anthropology is the organized study of what makes humans human. It takes an objective step back to view homo sapiens as a species and ask questions like: Given our common characteristics, why aren’t all of us exactly the same? Why do people across the world have variable skin and hair color and so many inventive ways to say hello? And how can knowing the reasons behind our differences—as well as our similarities—teach us useful lessons for the future? The updated edition of Anthropology For Dummies gives you a panoramic view of the fascinating fieldwork and theory that seeks to answer these questions—and helps you view the human world through impartial, anthropological eyes.  

Keeping the jargon to a minimum, Anthropology For Dummies explores the four main subdivisions of the discipline, from the adventurous Indiana Jones territory of archaeology and the hands-on biological insights provided by our physical nature to the studious book-cracking brainwork of cultural and linguistic investigation. Along the way, you’ll journey deep into our prehistory where we begin to differentiate ourselves from our primate relatives—and then fast forward into the possibilities of centuries yet to come. 

Explore the history of anthropology and apply its methods  Get a deep, scientific take on contemporary debates such as identity  Excavate the human past through new fossil discoveries  Peer into humanity’s future in space 

Whether you’re studying anthropology for school or just want to know more about what makes us humans who we are, this is the perfect introduction to humanity’s past and present—and a clue to what we need to build a better future.  

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 5

Where to Go from Here 5

Part 1: What is Anthropology? 7

Chapter 1: Human Beings and Being Human: An Overview of Anthropology 9

Digging Into Anthropology’s History 10

Getting Acquainted with Anthropology’s Subfields 11

Physical anthropology 11

Archaeology 12

Cultural Anthropology 13

Linguistics 14

Making Sense of Anthropology’s Methods 14

Applied Anthropology: Using the Science in Everyday Life 15

Chapter 2: Looking Into Humanity’s Mirror: Anthropology’s History 17

Getting to the Heart of Anthropology 18

Dazed and Confused: What It Is to Be Human 20

Two types of culture 21

Two types of modernity 22

-Isms and the Making of Anthropology 22

Colonialism 23

Antiquarianism 25

Scientism 27

Holism 28

Anthropology Today 29

Chapter 3: Actually, Four Mirrors: How Anthropology Is Studied 31

Physical Anthropology and the Evolutionary Basis of Biology 32

You say you want an evolution 33

More facets of physical anthropology 36

The biocultural animal 39

Archaeology: The Study of Ancient Societies 41

Archaeology and evolution 42

More facets of archaeology 44

Linguistic Anthropology 46

Nonhuman animal communication 46

Spoken language 47

Gesture and body language 48

Cultural Anthropology: The Study of Living Societies 49

Putting the culture in cultural anthropology 50

Attempting to explain why humans do what they do 51

Participant observation 52

Applied anthropology and global culture 54

Part 2: Physical Anthropology and Archaeology 57

Chapter 4: The Wildest Family Reunion: Meet the Primates 59

Monkey Business: Primate Origins 60

You Look Like an Ape: Primate Species 62

What’s in a name? General primate characteristics 63

Going ape (and prosimian): Primate subgroups 66

Yes, We Have No Bananas: Primate Subsistence 70

The indiscriminate-eaters: Omnivores 71

The bug-eaters: Insectivores 72

The leaf-eaters: Folivores 72

The fruit-eaters: Frugivores 73

Monkeying Around: Primate Locomotion 74

Stand back, Tarzan: The brachiators 75

Bug-bashers: The vertical-clingers-and-leapers 75

In the trees: Arboreal quadrupeds 75

Soldiers beware: Terrestrial quadrupeds 76

A group of one: Bipeds 77

Monkey See, Monkey Do: Primate Social Groups and Behavior 78

Primates Today (But For How Long?) 80

Chapter 5: My Career Is in Ruins: How Anthropologists Learn about the Past 83

What, How Old, and Where: It’s All You Need to Know 84

The significance of where 85

The significance of when 85

The significance of artifacts 86

Keeping Time: How Archaeologists Date Finds 87

The deeper, the older: Stratigraphy 88

Before or after? Relative dating 89

Absolutely probably 6,344 years old (plus or minus): Radiometric absolute dating 90

Saving Space: How Archaeologists Keep Track of Where Artifacts Are Found 93

Be there: Provenience 93

Be square: Site grids 93

Type Casting: How Archaeologists Classify Their Finds 95

Types of types: The theory of classification 95

Unearthing the most common artifact types 96

Chapter 6: Bones of Contention: The Fossil Evidence for Early Human Evolution 101

Great Africa: The Earliest Hominins 102

Stand and Deliver: The Riddles of Bipedalism 103

Walking upright: Pros and cons 104

The complexities of early hominin evolution 106

All the Same from the Neck Down: The Australopithecines 109

The basic differences and similarities 110

The crusher: Robust australopithecines 112

The omnivore: Gracile australopithecines 114

The Cracked Mirror: Early Homo 116

Exploring characteristics of early Homo 116

Dalmatians and cigar smoke: Finds at Olduvai Gorge 118

Out of Africa: Early dispersals of early Homo 119

Tool time: The decoupling of behavior from anatomy 120

The Traveler: The Accomplishments of Homo erectus 121

Characteristics of Homo erectus 121

From confrontational scavenging to ambush hunting 122

The use of fire 122

Symmetry, watercraft, and the “15-minute culture” 123

Chapter 7: It’s Good to Be Home: Homo sapiens sapiens, Our Biological Species 125

Distinguishing Modern Homo sapiens sapiens (That’s You!) 126

Anatomical modernity 126

Behavioral modernity 128

Africa: The Cradle of Humanity 128

Discovering the first AMHss 129

Exploring behavioral modernity 129

Out of Africa: An Epic Dispersal 132

Taking a closer look at Neanderthals 132

Getting Neanderthals and AMHss together 133

The Origins of Language: The Social Grooming Theory 137

The Origins of the Modern Mind 139

The evolution of consciousness: Two models 139

The roots of myth 142

The roots of ritual 142

The roots of symbolism 143

Chapter 8: Hunting, Fishing, Sailing, and Sledding: The Dispersal of Humanity Worldwide 145

Dispersal and Survival: The Decoupling of Behavior from Biology 146

The Earliest Settlement of Australasia 148

Another Grand Exploration: The Colonization of the New World 151

Dueling hypotheses: A couple of migration theories 151

Just the facts, ma’am 153

Igloos, Dogs, and Whalebone Knives: The Colonization of the Arctic 156

First arrivals 156

The Thule expansion 156

The Voyage of Ru and Hina: The Colonization of the Pacific 159

The tools of the explorers 159

The society of the explorers 160

High Altitude People: Early Settlement of the Tibetan Plateau 162

Big-River People: Early Settlement of the Amazon and Congo Basins 162

Desert People: Early Settlement of the Sahara 163

Chapter 9: Old, Old McDonald: The Origins of Farming 165

The Principle of Domestication 166

Cultural selection 166

Effects of farming on society 166

Plant domestication 167

Animal domestication 168

Principles of Horticulture 169

Distinctive characteristics of horticulture 169

Garden horticulture 170

Slashing and burning 170

Limited storage 172

Principles of Farming 172

Distinguishing state farming from horticulture 172

Water control 173

Animal domestication, farming-style 173

Massive storage 175

Farming facilities and tools 175

Secondary products 176

Looking Back on the Origins of Farming 178

Why farm in the first place? 178

In the Near East 179

In Africa 180

In East Asia 181

In the Western Pacific 182

In the Americas 183

The Early Farming Village 184

The Making of Man’s Best Friend: the Early Domestication of Dogs 186

Chapter 10: The Development of Civilization 189

Human Subsistence and Social Organization 190

Human subsistence 190

Human social organization 195

The Characteristics of Civilization 198

Urbanization 198

Long-distance trade 199

Social stratification 199

Durable record-keeping/writing 200

Standing armies and extended warfare 201

Money 201

Slavery 201

Territorial sovereignty 202

Vassal tribute 202

Non-food production specialists 203

Astronomy and/or mathematics 203

Monumental architecture 203

State religion 204

Taxes 205

Charting the Rise and Fall of the First Civilizations 205

Egypt 207

Inca 208

Civilization Today: Will It Fall, Too? 210

Part 3: Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics 213

Chapter 11: The Spice of Life: Human Culture 215

Demystifying the Definition of Culture 216

What Culture Is and What Culture Isn’t 217

Culture versus cultured 217

Why cultures differ 218

Cultural Universals 219

Having an Out-of-Body Experience 221

Adaptation and its implications 221

Behaviors 222

Values 222

Objects 224

Language: Passing the baton of culture 224

Opening Your Human Behavior Owner’s Manual 225

Culture = software, brain = hardware 226

Problems with the software/hardware analogy 226

Getting Your Cultural Education 227

Life stages 227

Stages of human learning 228

From Mop-Tops to Mötley Crüe: What Is Cultural Change? 229

Diffusion versus assimilation 229

Innovation 230

Cultural Evolution 230

How culture evolves 231

What cultural evolution doesn’t mean 231

Chapter 12: From Kalahari to Minneapolis: How Cultural Anthropologists Work 233

Watching Cultural Anthropology Grow Up 234

Battling ethnocentrism 234

Getting scientific 235

Embodying the etic modernist approach: Bronislaw Malinowski 238

A More Personal Approach: Emic Research 240

Recognizing how a researcher’s choices influence the results 241

Realizing that the act of observing affects the results 242

Considering Recent Developments 243

Exploring postmodernism 244

Keeping pace with cultural change 244

Striving for Accuracy 245

Recognizing potential research pitfalls 245

Watching cultural anthropology in action 247

Going into the Field: Getting Prepared for Less-Than-Ideal Conditions 248

Chapter 13: Can We Talk? Communication, Symbols, and Language 251

Exploring the Complexity of Human Language 252

Screeching and howling: Non-human animal communications 253

Contrasting non-human and human symbolism 255

Identifying characteristics of human spoken language 258

Linking language to the mind: Tapping its true power 260

Ready to Swear: How the Human Mind Is Hard-Wired for Language 262

First four months 263

Six to twelve months 263

12 to 18 months 263

18 to 24 months 264

36 months and later 264

Watching Human Language Evolve 264

Admitting our uncertainty 266

Explaining language diversity 267

Making room for new theories 269

Chapter 14: Types of Types: Race and Ethnicity 271

The Kinds of Humanity: Human Physical Variation 272

The race card: Racial types and physical anthropology 272

The lowdown: What anthropologists can say for sure about human races 275

The history of racial typing 276

The grand illusion: Race, turns out, is arbitrary 280

Why Is Everyone Different? Human Cultural Variation 281

Distinguishing ethnicity from race 282

A common horror: Ethnic cleansing 283

A common delight: Ethnic identity 283

Ethnic group interactions 284

Chapter 15: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Identity, Family, Kinship, and Gender 287

Am I “Cameron” or “a Smith”? The Scales of Human Identity 288

Know thyself: Identity 288

What’s in a name? 289

A Family Affair 289

Families of origin versus families of procreation 291

Incest 292

Marriage 292

Kinship 294

Sex and Gender 296

The differences between sex and gender 297

Common gender roles 298

Kinship and Gender Worldwide and through Time 300

Among foragers 300

Among horticulturalists 301

Among agriculturalists 301

Age and Stage of Life 302

Chapter 16: Not at the Dinner Table! Religion and Politics 305

What Is Religion? 306

Functions of religion 306

Why religion is so powerful 307

The Material and Supernatural Worlds 308

Ritual and Religion 309

The Organization of Supernatural Knowledge 311

Shamans 311

Priests 312

The Origins of Religion 314

Types of Religions 316

The Relations of Power: Politics 318

I’ve got the power (and I know how to use it) 318

Power plays: How various societies apply power 319

The Politics of Polarization 320

Part 4: So What? Anthropology, The Modern World, and You 323

Chapter 17: Kiss or Kill? Diversity, Conflict, and Culture 325

The Anthropology of Conflict and Conflict Resolution 325

Scales and consequences of conflict 328

Cultural conflict among small-scale societies 329

Cultural conflict in larger-scale societies 331

Humanity and justice 334

Globalization and Human Culture 334

Globalization and ecological justice 335

Globalization and cultural assimilation 336

Globalization and nativistic movements 336

Globalization and forced migration 337

Chapter 18: Looming Disasters? From Overpopulation to Space Debris 339

The Only Constant Is Change 339

Overpopulation 342

The road to overpopulation 343

Hope on the horizon 344

Climate Change 345

Say What? The Loss of Linguistic Diversity 347

Food and Water Availability/Famine 348

Disease 349

Space Debris 350

Your New Home on Mars! Issues of Space Settlement 351

Chapter 19: Eve and the Iceman: The Cutting Edge of Physical Anthropology 355

Molecular Anthropology 356

How it works 356

How anthropologists use it 357

Some complications with the molecular clock 360

DNA and the Mitochondrial Eve 361

Out of Africa: African diversity and extra-African similarity 362

The inevitable debates 362

Neanderthals and You: The Neanderthal Genome 363

The Iceman 364

Chapter 20: Stonehenge and You: Why Archaeology Matters 367

History Is Written by the Winners: The Importance of Archaeology 368

Historical archaeology and written history 370

Commoners of ancient Egypt 371

The archaeology of American slaves 372

Other important historical archaeology sites 373

Conversation Stoppers? Archaeology and the Unknown 374

Why did humanity take up farming? 375

How did humans go from having leaders to having rulers? 376

Does history repeat itself? 377

Part 5: The Part of Tens 379

Chapter 21: Ten Things to Remember About Anthropology, Whatever Else You Forget 381

The Use of Tools Separated Behavior from Anatomy 381

We’re Not Just Like Apes, We ARE Apes 382

Nobody Knows Why Hominids First Walked Upright (Yet) 382

Everyone Is in the Human Race 383

Civilization is Brand-New 383

There Are Many Ways to be Human 384

Culture Doesn’t Ride on Genes 384

Language and Metaphor Are the Keys to Human Success 384

Absolutely, There Are No Absolutes 385

There is No Ladder of Progress 385

Chapter 22: Ten Great Careers for Anthropology Majors 387

Academic Anthropology 387

Cultural/Human Resources 388

Forensic Anthropology 388

Crime Scene Investigation 389

Primate Biology 389

Primate Ethology 389

Diplomacy 390

Museum Work 390

Library Science 390

Contract Archaeology 391

Chapter 23: Ten (Or So) Great Anthropologically Themed Movies and Books 393

Cave of Forgotten Dreams 394

Once We Were Warriors 394

The Places in Between 394

Gorillas in the Mist 395

Neanderthal 395

Quest for Fire 395

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 396

Maps and Dreams 396

Dances of Life 396

Chapter 24: The Top Ten Myths about the Human Past 397

All Human Societies Evolved in the Same Direction 397

Prehistoric Life Was Nasty, Brutish, and Short 398

Ancient People Were Perfectly in Balance with Nature 399

Farming Is Easier and Better than Foraging 399

Ancient Monuments Had Just One Purpose 400

“Primitive Technology” Was Limited 401

Cave Art Was about Men Hunting Animals 401

It’s Nature or Nurture 402

History Repeats Itself 403

Having Reached a Peak, Human Evolution Has Ended 404

Index 405