This edition is new in several ways. We have expanded the coverage of biological (physical) anthropology and archaeology. There is now a chapter on how archaeologists and paleoanthropologists discover and explain the past and present, and a separate chapter devoted to the australopithecines. We have added 5 new boxes, 3 in the physical anthropology and archaeology sections. We have expanded our coverage of applied and practicing anthropology, reflecting the fact that one out of two anthropologists is now employed outside the academic world, working on practical problems. We now have three chapters grouped under the heading of "Using Anthropology." The first introduces applied and practicing anthropology and includes new sections on cultural resource management and forensic anthropology. Then there is an entirely new chapter on medical anthropology. Finally, there is a chapter on global social problems and how they might be solved on the basis of anthropological and other social science research. We have added new materials on ethnicity and racism, including new sections on ethnicity and inequality, racism and inequality, and new boxes on ethnic conflict and African American/European American disparities in death.
This book is an abridged version of the latest edition of our Anthropology. (Peter N. Peregrine was coauthor.) In updating this book, we try to go beyond descriptions, as always. We are interested not only in what humans are and were like, but we are also interested in why they got to be that way, in all their variety. When there are alternative explanations, we try to communicate the necessity to evaluate them both logically and on the basis of the available evidence. Throughout the book, we try to communicate that no idea, including ideas put forward in textbooks, should be accepted even tentatively without supporting tests that could have gone the other way.
PART I: INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology?
Chapter 1 introduces the student to anthropology. We discuss what we think is special and distinctive about anthropology in general, and about each of its subfields in particular. We outline how each of the subfields is related to other disciplines such as biology, psychology, and sociology. We direct attention to the increasing importance of applied anthropology.
Chapter 2: Discovering and Explaining the Past , and Present
Chapter 2 gives an overview of archaeological and paleoanthropological research. We discuss the types of evidence archaeologists and paleoanthropologists use to reconstruct the past, the methods they use to collect the evidence, and how they go about analyzing and interpreting that evidence. We also describe the many techniques used by archaeologists and paleoanthropologists to determine the age of archaeological materials and fossils. We discuss what it means to explain and what kinds of evidence are needed to evaluate an explanation. We discuss the major types of study in cultural anthropologyethnography, ethnohistory, within-culture comparisons, and worldwide cross-cultural comparisons. The box explores the differences between scientific and humanistic understanding and points out that the different approaches are not really incompatible.
PART II: HUMAN EVOLUTION: BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL
Chapter 3: Genetics and Evolution
Chapter 3 discusses evolutionary theory as it applies to all forms of life, including humans. Following an extensive review of genetics and the processes of evolution, including natural selection and what it means, we discuss how natural selection may operate on behavioral traits and how cultural evolution differs from biological evolution. We consider ethical issues posed by the possibility of genetic engineering. The box examines the evidence suggesting that evolution proceeds abruptly rather than slowly and steadily.
Chapter 4: Primate Evolution: From Early Primates to Hominoids
This chapter starts with the common primate traits and then describes what is distinctive about humans. Then we discuss the emergence of the early primates. The chapter ends with what we know or suspect about the Miocene apes, one of whom (known or unknown) was ancestral to bipedal hominids. We link major trends in primate evolution to broader environmental changes that may have caused natural selection to favor new traits. To highlight how theory is generated and revised, the box explains how a paleoanthropologist has reexamined his own theory of primate origins.
Chapter 5: The First Hominids
Chapter 5 discusses the evolution of bipedal locomotion-the most distinctive feature of the group that includes our genus and those of our direct ancestors, the australopithecines. We discuss the various types of australopithecines and how they might have evolved. The box, which is new, discusses recent australopithecine finds and how they appear to fit into our current understanding of human evolution.
Chapter 6: The Origins of Culture and the Emergence of Homo
Chapter 6 examines the first clear evidences of cultural behaviorstone toolsand other clues suggesting that early hominids had begun to develop culture about 2.5 million years ago. We discuss what culture is and how it may have evolved. We then discuss the hominidsthe first members of our genus, Homowho are most likely responsible for the early signs of cultural behavior, and Homo erectus, the first hominid to leave Africa and the first to demonstrate complex cultural behavior. The new box examines the evolution of the brain and the physical changes in early humans that allowed the brain to increase in size.
Chapter 7: The Emergence of Homo sapiens
Chapter 7 examines the transition between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens and the emergence of modern-looking humans. In keeping with our global orientation, we discuss fossil and archaeological evidence from many areas of the world, not just from Europe and the Near East. We give special consideration to the Neandertals and the question of their relationship to modern humans. We consider the cultures of modern humans in the period before agriculture developed, roughly 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. We examine their tools, their economies, and their artthe first art made by humans. We also discuss human colonization of North and South America and the impact of humans on the new environments they encountered. The new box considers how women are depicted in Upper Paleolithic art.
Chapter 8: The Emergence of Food Production and the Rise of States
Chapter 8 deals with the emergence of broad-spectrum collecting and settled life, and then the domestication of plants and animals, in various parts of the world. Our discussion focuses mainly on the possible causes and consequences of these developments in Mesoamerica and the Near East, but w6 also consider southeast Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Europe. We then discuss the rise of civilizations in various parts of the world and the theories that have been offered to explain the development of state-type political systems. Our focus is on the evolution of cities and states in Mesoamerica and the Near East, but we also discuss the rise of cities and states in South America, South Asia, China, and Africa. We examine how states affect people living in them and their environments. We conclude with a discussion of the decline and collapse of states. The box discusses the consequences of ancient imperialism for women's status.
Chapter 9: Human Variation and Adaptation
Chapter 9 brings the discussion of human biological and cultural evolution into the present by dealing with physical variation in living human populations and how physical anthropologists study and explain such variation. We examine how both the physical environment and the cultural environment play important roles in human physical variation. In a section on race and racism, we discuss why many anthropologists think the concept of "race" as applied to humans is not scientifically useful. We talk about the myths of racism and how "race" is largely a social category in humans. The box reviews differences in average IQ scores and what they mean.
PART III: CULTURAL VARIATION
In most of the chapters in this part, we try to convey the range of cultural variation with ethnographic examples from all over the world. Wherever we can, we discuss possible explanations of why societies may be similar or different in some aspect of culture. If anthropologists have no explanation for the variation, we say so. But if we have some idea of the conditions that may be related to a particular kind of variation, even if we do not know why they are related, we discuss that too. If we are to train students to go beyond what we know now, we have to tell them what we do not know, as well as what we think we know.
Chapter 10: The Concept of Culture
This chapter introduces the concept of culture. We first try to convey a feeling for what culture is before dealing more explicitly with the concept and some assumptions about it. A section on cultural relativism puts the concept in its historical context and discusses recent thinking on the subject. We discuss the fact that individual behavior varies in all societies and how such variation may be the beginning of new cultural patterns. The first box, which asks whether Western countries are ethnocentric in their ideas about human rights, incorporates the debate within anthropology about cultural relativism; the second box discusses an applied anthropologist's view of why the Bedouin are reluctant to settle down.
Chapter 11: Communication and Language
We begin by discussing communication in humans and other animals. After a consideration of communication in other animals, we discuss the origins of language and how creoles and children's language acquisition may help us understand the origins. Then we move on to descriptive linguistics and the processes of linguistic divergence. After focusing on the interrelationships between language and other aspects of culture, we end with the ethnography of speaking, including differences in speech by status, gender, and ethnicity. To stimulate thinking about the possible impact of language on thought, we ask in the box whether the English language promotes sexist thinking, referring to recent research on the subject.
Chapter 12: Getting Food
This chapter discusses how societies vary in getting their food, how they have changed over time, and how such variation seems to affect other kinds of cultural variationincluding variation in economic systems, social stratification, and political life. We include a discussion of "market foragers" to emphasize that most people in a modern market economy are not in fact producers of food. Although it is commonly thought that industrialization is mainly to blame for negative developments in the environment, the box deals with the negative effects in preindustrial times of irrigation, animal grazing, and overhunting.
Chapter 13: Economic Systems
Chapter 13 discusses how societies vary in the ways they allocate resources (what is "property" and what ownership may mean), convert or transform resources through labor into usable goods, and distribute and perhaps exchange goods and services. We consider the effects of political systems (including colonialism) on land ownership and use, and we distinguish between gift and commodity exchanges. There is a discussion of why children in some foraging societies do more work than in others. After the discussion of commercialization, the box illustrates the impact of the world system on local economies, with special reference to the deforestation of the Amazon.
Chapter 14: Social Stratification: Class, Ethnicity, and Racism
This chapter is considerably revised. There is a major new section on racism and inequality, including a discussion of how the concept of "race" is not scientifically useful as applied to humans. There is also now a major section on ethnicity and inequality. A new box compares death rates of African Americans and European Americans. In general, we deal with variation in degree of social stratification and how the various forms of social inequality may develop.
Chapter 15: Sex, Gender, and Culture
In the first part of this chapter, we discuss how and why sex and gender differences vary cross-culturally; in the second part we discuss variation in sexual attitudes and practices. We explain how the concepts of gender do not always involve just two genders. We emphasize all the ways women contribute to work, and how conclusions about contributions by gender depend on how you measure "work." In the box, we review research on why women's political participation may be increasing in some Coast Salish communities of western Washington state and British Columbia, now that they have elected councils.
Chapter 16: Marriage and the Family
After discussing various theories about why marriage might be universal, we move on to discuss variation in how one marries, restrictions on marriage, whom one should marry, and how many one should marry. We close with a discussion of variation in family form. The box considers why one-parent families are on the increase in countries like ours.
Chapter 17: Marital Residence and Kinship
In addition to explaining the variation that exists in marital residence, kinship structure, and kinship terminology, this chapter emphasizes how understanding residence is important for understanding social life. The box discusses the possible relationship between neolocality and adolescent rebellion.
Chapter 18: Political Life: Social Order and Disorder
We look at how societies have varied in their levels of political organization, the various ways people become leaders, the degree to which they participate in the political process, and the peaceful and violent methods of resolving conflict. We discuss how colonialization has transformed legal systems and ways of making decisions, how conflicts may be resolved peacefully, and how cross-cultural research casts doubt on the notion that wars in the non-Western world are fought over women. The box deals with how new local courts among the Abelam of New Guinea are allowing women to address sexual grievances.
Chapter 19: Religion and Magic
After discussing why religion may be culturally universal, we consider variation in religious belief and practice with extensive examples. We discuss revitalization movements and how humans tend to anthropomorphize in the face of unpredictable events. The box reviews research on New England fishermen that suggests how their taboos, or "rituals of avoidance," may be anxiety reducing.
PART IV: USING ANTHROPOLOGY
Chapter 20: Applied and Practicing Anthropology
This chapter discusses the types of jobs outside of academia, the history and types of applied anthropology in the United States, the ethical issues involved in trying to improve people's lives, the difficulties in evaluating whether a program is beneficial, and ways of implementing planned changes. We point out how applied anthropologists are playing more of a role in planning change, rather than just advising programs already in place. The box shows how anthropologists have been able to help in reforestation.
Chapter 21: Medical Anthropology
This new chapter discusses cultural understandings of health and illness, the treatment of illness (particularly from a biocultural rather than just a biomedical point of view), political and economic influences on health, and the contributions of medical anthropologists to the study of various health conditions and diseases. Those conditions and diseases include AIDS, mental and emotional disorders, the folk illness susto, depression, and undernutrition. The box deals with why an applied medical project didn't work.
Chapter 22: Global Social Problems
In this chapter we discuss how research may suggest possible solutions to various global social problems, including natural disasters and famines, homelessness, crime, family violence, and war. There is a new box on ethnic conflicts and whether they are inevitable.
CONTINUING FEATURES
Boxes
Current Issues. These boxes deal with topics students may have heard about in the news (e.g., the increase in single-parent families, IQ differences in ethnic groups) or topics that are currently the subject of debate in the profession (e.g., science versus humanism, human rights and cultural relativity).
Research Frontiers. These boxes take an in-depth look at new research (e.g., on ethnic conflict) or a research controversy (e.g., primate origins).
New Perspectives on Gender. These boxes involve issues pertaining to sex and gender, both in anthropology and everyday life (e.g., sexism in language, depictions of women in Upper Paleolithic art, effects of imperialism on women's status).
Applied Anthropology. These boxes deal with some of the ways anthropologists have applied their knowledge to practical problems (e.g., deforestation in the Amazon, disparities in death rates).
Readability
We derive a lot of pleasure from trying to describe research findings, especially complicated ones, in ways that introductory students can understand. Thus, we try to minimize technical jargon, using only those terms students must know to appreciate the achievements of anthropology and to take advanced courses. We think readability is important, not only because it may enhance the reader's understanding of what we write, but also because it should make learning about anthropology more enjoyable! When new terms are introduced, which of course must happen sometimes, they are set off in boldface type and defined right away.
Glossary Terms
At the end of each chapter, we list the new terms that have been introduced; these terms were identified by boldface type and defined in the text. We deliberately do not repeat the definitions at the end of the chapter to allow students to test themselves against the definitions provided in the Glossary at the end of the book.
Critical Questions
We also provide three or four questions at the end of each chapter that may stimulate thinking about the implications of the chapter. The questions do not ask for repetition of what is in the text. We want students to imagine, to go beyond what we know or think we know.
Internet Exercises
Internet exercises have been developed to provide students with Web-based resources on topics covered in each chapter. Students are encouraged to use the Internet addresses (URLs) to discover more about the changes that are occurring in the field of anthropology.
Summaries
In addition to the outline provided at the beginning of each chapter, there is a detailed summary at the end of each chapter that will help the student review the major concepts and findings discussed.
A Complete Glossary at the End of the Book
Important glossary terms for each chapter are listed (without definitions) at the end of each chapter, so students can readily check their understanding after they have read the chapter. A complete Glossary is provided at the back of the book to review all terms in the book and serve as a convenient reference for the student.
Notes at the End of the Book
Because we believe firmly in the importance of documentation, we think it essential to tell our readers, both professional and student, what our conclusions are based on. Usually the basis is published research. References to the relevant studies are provided in complete notes by chapter at the end of the book.
Bibliography at the End of the Book
All of the references cited throughout the book are collected and listed at the end of the book.
SUPPLEMENTS
The supplement package for this textbook has been carefully crafted to amplify and illuminate materials in the text itself.
For the Professor
Instructor's Manual With Tests. This carefully prepared manual includes chapter outlines, resources for discussion, discussion questions, paper topics and research projects, Web resources, and film resources and over 1,000 questions in multiple-choice, true/false, and essay formats. All test questions are page-referenced.
Transparency Acetates. Taken from graphs, diagrams, and tables in this text and other sources, these full-color transparencies offer an effective means of amplifying lecture topics. Please see your Prentice Hall sales representative for more information.
Videos. Prentice Hall is pleased to offer two new video series: The Changing American Indian in a Changing America: Videocases of American Indian Peoples, and Rites of Passage: Videocases of Traditional African Peoples. In addition, a selection of high quality, award-winning videos from the Filmmakers Library collection is available upon adoption. Please see your Prentice Hall sales representative for more information.
For the Student
Companion Website. In tandem with the text, students can now take full advantage of the World Wide Web to enrich their study of anthropology through the Ember Website. This resource correlates the text with related material available on the Internet. Features of the Website include chapter objectives, study questions, as well as links to interesting material and information from other sites on the Web that can reinforce and enhance the content of each chapter. Address: www.prenhall.com/ember
A Prentice Hall Guide to Evaluating Online Resources, Anthropology, 2003. This guide provides a brief introduction to navigating the Internet, along with references related specifically to the discipline of anthropology. Also included with the guide is access to ContentSelect. Developed by Prentice Hall and EBSCO, the world leader in online journal subscription management. ContentSelect is a customized research database for students of anthropology. Free to students when packaged with Anthropology, A Brief Introduction, Fifth Edition.