unit 2
The Transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens Homo antecessor:
Refers to a group of homin fossils found in the Atapuerca region of Spain that appear to be transitional between Neandertals and modern humans. They are closely related to Homo heidelbergensis, and many scholars believe they are the same species.
Ethnocentric-
Refers to judgment of other cultures solely in terms of one's own culture.
The Domestication of Plants and Animals Domestication Elsewhere in the World
South America (cassava) and the Eastern United States (sunflower) East Asia (rice, sugar cane, bananas) Africa (millet, sorghum, peanuts, yams, etc.)
Field Independence
being able to isolate a part of a situation from the whole.
Culture
is a set of learned behaviors and ideas that are characteristic of a particular society or other social group.
Homo sapiens:
modern- looking humans, undisputed examples of which appeared about 50,000 years ago; may have appeared earlier
sedentarism-
settled life
The Transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens Neandertals-
the common name for the species Homo neadertalensis: Homo sapiens or Homo neandertalensis- the technical name for the Neanderthals, a group of robust and otherwise anatomically distinct hominin that are close relatives of moderns humans?
Agriculture-
the practice of raising domesticated crops
Morphology
- The study of how sound sequences convey meaning. ---Lexicon- The words and morphs, and their meanings, of a language; approximated by a dictionary. ---Morph- The smallest unit of a language that has a meaning. ---Morpheme- One or more morphs with the same meaning.
Syntax
- The ways in which words are arranged to form phrases and sentences. ---historical linguistics- The study of how languages change over time.
Culture Is Patterned
-A culture that is mostly integrated is one in which elements or traits are mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another. -Integration may be influenced by psychological processes and by people transferring experiences from one area of life to another. -Cultural traits may become patterned through adaptation. Customs that diminish the survival chances of a society are not likely to persist. However, what may be adaptive in one environment may not be adaptive in another.
The Anthropology of Childhood
-A long period in which the young are dependent on parents and other caretakers is common in all human societies. -Anthropologists look at children as agents and actors, not just as recipients of socialization. Socialization is the development, through the influence of parents and others, of attitudes, values, and behavior patterns in children that conform to cultural expectations. -Socialization is not always directive and explicit. Much of children's learning is by "observing and pitching in." -Societies have not only specific ideas about particular aspects of childrearing but also broader theories about childhood. Many of these belief systems and practices are assumed to be adaptive for survival in particular environments. -Parents within a culture have culturally patterned ideas about childrearing called ethnotheories. Researchers try to uncover these theories, but also observe actual parent-child behavior, and try to determine whether outcomes in children match what the parents try to achieve. -Researchers have suggested that genetic or physiological factors in populations predispose them to personality characteristics that are reflected in babies. But babies' behavior may have nongenetic explanations such as the mother's health, learning in the womb, and malnutrition.
Archaeological Inferences About Civilization
-Archaeologists rather than historians have studied the most ancient civilizations because those civilizations evolved before the advent of writing. -Archaeologists generally assume that burial finds reflecting inequality in death reflect inequality in life, at least in status and perhaps also in wealth and power. When archaeologists find other substantial differences, as in house size and furnishings, they can confirm that the society had different socioeconomic classes of people. -Archaeologists do not always agree on how a state should be defined, but most seem to agree that hierarchical and centralized decision making that affects a substantial population is the key criterion. -Most states have cities with public buildings, full-time craft and religious specialists, an official art style, and a hierarchical social structure topped by an elite class from which the leaders are drawn. -Most states maintain power with a monopoly on the use of force. The state uses force or the threat of force to tax its population and to draft people for work or war.
Cultural Constraints
-Because members of a culture generally conform to that culture, they are not always aware of being constrained by its standards and rules for acceptable behavior, which social scientists refer to as norms. -Cultural constraints can be direct or indirect.
The First Cities and States in Other Areas
-City and states arose early on the African, Asian, South American, and North American continents. -In Africa, the Nile Valley in Egypt with a capital at Memphis supported a population that lived in self-sufficient villages; later states built the pyramids. The Axum state in Ethiopia was a center of trade with multistory stone residences. Sub-Saharan Africa comprised a succession of city-states. -In Asia, the Harappan civilization in the Indus Valley of India controlled enormous territory with major cities built on similar patterns that included municipal water and sewage systems. The Shang dynasty in China was a stratified and specialized state society with religious, economic, and administrative unification and a distinctive art style. -In South America, state societies near present-day Lima, Peru, had independent cities, plazas, and large pyramids, and those in the Andes had complex agricultural systems with irrigation, a widespread system of religious symbols and beliefs, and art. -In North America, Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, was a huge settlement with a powerful chiefdom, religious and craft specialists, and social stratification.
How and Why Cultures Change
-Discovery and Invention --Diffusion --Acculturation --Discovery and Invention --Unconscious Invention --Intentional Invention --Who Adopts Innovations? --Costs and Benefits --Diffusion is a process by which cultural elements are borrowed from another society and incorporated into the culture of the recipient group. ---Direct Contact ---Intermediate Contact ---Stimulus Diffusion --Acculturation refers to the changes that occur when different cultural groups come into intensive contact. The process of extensive borrowing of aspects of culture in the context of superordinate- subordinate relations between societies; usually occurs as the result of external pressure. --A situation in which one of the societies in contact is much more powerful than the other. --Some conditions that may give rise to rebellion and revolution: ---Loss of prestige of established authority ---Threat to recent economic improvement ---Indecisiveness of government ---Loss of support of the intellectual class
Attitudes That Hinder the Study of Cultures
-Ethnocentrism—a view of one's cultural behaviors and attitudes as correct and those of other cultures as immoral or inferior—can bias objectively observing another culture. -Ethnocentrism also keeps a person from understanding his or her own customs. -Glorification of one's own culture or that of another also hinders effective anthropological study.
Descriptive Linguistics
-Grammar to the linguist consists of the actual, often unconscious, principles that predict how most people talk, which linguists study through phonology, morphology, and syntax. -Even though what people say is sometimes contradicted by their observed behavior, language is important to understanding the beliefs, attitudes, values, and worldview of a people. In many cases, behaviors also cannot be readily understood without verbal interpretation. -Linguists studying phonology write down speech utterances as sound sequences and then try to identify which sounds affect meaning, which sound sequences are allowed in a language, and what usually unconscious rules predict those sequences. -Morphology is the study of sequences of sounds that have meaning. The smallest unit of language that has a meaning is called a morph. One or more morphs with the same meaning may make up a morpheme. -The lexicon of a language consists of words and morphs and their meanings. A free morpheme can be a separate word. A bound morpheme displays its meaning only when attached to another morpheme. -Syntax reflects the rules that predict how phrases and sentences are generally formed. Speakers of a language follow implicit rules of syntax but are not usually consciously aware of them. The linguist's description of the syntax of a language makes these rules explicit.
Historical Linguistics
-Historical linguists focus on how languages change over time. Linguists can reconstruct changes that have occurred in a language, written or unwritten, by comparing contemporary languages that are similar. -Common ancestry, contact between speech communities, and the limited processes of linguistic change may explain why languages show similarities. -Languages that derive from the same protolanguage are called a language family. Most languages spoken today can be grouped into fewer than 30 families. Linguists still can reconstruct many features of a protolanguage by comparing the derived languages. -The location of a protolanguage may be suggested by the words for plants and animals in the derived languages. The locations of those animals and plants thousands of years ago may help researchers decipher the origins of the protolanguage.
Cities and States in Mesoamerica
-In the formative period, small, autonomous farming villages shifted from the hilly slopes to the floor of the Teotihuacán Valley, probably in association with the use of irrigation. Small "elite" centers emerged, each having a raised platform that supported temples and residences. -The city and state of Teotihuacán developed somewhat later in the Valley of Mexico and likely influenced much of Mesoamerica. Teotihuacán-style pottery and architectural elements are spread extensively, and graves include significant amounts of foreign goods. Streets and buildings were laid out in a grid pattern that involved much planning. -The earliest city-state in Mesoamerica developed in the Valley of Oaxaca, with a capital at Monte Albán. It may have originally been founded in the late formative period as a neutral place where different political units in the valley could coordinate activities affecting the whole valley. -Mayan state societies were densely populated and dependent on intensive agriculture. Their societies may have been more urban and complex than previously thought.
Individuals as Agents of Cultural Change
-Individuals sometimes can bring about substantial culture change, but more often a whole cohort of individuals are faced with similar circumstances and change in similar directions. -When enough individuals change, culture will change.
Relationships between Language and Culture
-Lexical content- vocabulary or lexicon -core vocabulary- Nonspecialist vocabulary. -Cultural Influences on Language ---Basic Words for Colors, Plants, and Animals ---Grammar -Linguistic Influences on Culture -Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: ---Language is a force in its own right, and it affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality.
Descriptive Linguistics
-Linguists have invented special concepts and methods of describing language: --Phonology ---phones ---phoneme -Morphology ---Lexicon ---Morph ---Morpheme -Syntax ---historical linguistics
The Consequences of State Formation
-Populations grow and become concentrated in cities. -More efficient agriculture allows many people to be removed from food production. As a result, art, music, literature, and organized religion can develop and flourish. -Militaristic expansion and conquest occurs, and leaders wield power over their own populations. An underclass of poor and often unhealthy people emerges. -Epidemic disease and periodic famine affect the population, often resulting from dense populations and issues with food production.
Psychological Explanations of Cultural Variation
-Psychological anthropologists are interested in the possible causes of psychological differences between societies, as well as the possible consequences of psychological variation. -Adam Kardiner suggested that cultural patterns influence personality development and the resulting personality characteristics influence the culture. ---Primary institutions ---Secondary institutions -Personality integration of culture ---refers to the possibility that an understanding of personality might help us explain connections between primary and secondary institutions.
The Ethnography of Speaking
-Sociolinguistics is concerned with the ethnography of speaking, or cultural and subcultural patterns of speech variation in different social contexts. -Social Status and Speech -Gender Differences in Speech -Multilingualism and Code- switching- Using more than one language in the course of conversing.
Psychological Variation in Adulthood
-Some anthropologists believe that the Western concept of self is quite different from non-Western concepts; others think that there is not enough systematic study of individuals to come to strong conclusions. -Depending on adaptational requirements, societies may select and train for different perceptual and cognitive processes such as field independence and field dependence. Individuals in hunting communities tend to be field independent; those in agricultural communities, field dependent. -Societies vary markedly in the degree to which adults express anger and act aggressively toward others. Aggression may be related to war and to a group's economy.
defining culture
-Some anthropologists include material culture in defining culture. -Culture is Commonly Shared -Culture Is Learned -Controversies About the Concept of Culture -Culture is Commonly Shared ---The size of a group within which cultural traits are shared can vary from a particular society or a segment of that society to a group that transcends national boundaries. -Culture is Learned ---A defining feature of culture is that it is learned. ---Humans have a unique way of transmitting their culture through the use of spoken, symbolic language. -Controversies About the Concept of Culture ---One of the disagreements is whether the concept of culture should refer to just the rules and ideas behind behavior or if it should also include the behaviors or products of behaviors.
The Universality of Psychological Development
-Some psychological assumptions about human development are being questioned by anthropologists. -Probable human universals in the psychological realm include the ability to create taxonomies, make binary contrasts, order phenomena, use logical operators (e.g., and, not, equals), plan for the future, and have an understanding of the world and what it is about. -With regard to ideas about people, it may be universal to have a concept of the self; to recognize faces; to try to discern others' intentions from facial clues, utterances, and actions; and to imagine what others are thinking. -Human universals for emotion may include ability to empathize; to communicate, recognize, hide, or mimic emotions; to smile when friendly and cry when in pain or unhappy; to play for fun; to show and/or feel affection, sexual attraction, and envy; and to have childhood fears. -The potential ability of children to develop some kind of healthy attachment pattern to caretakers seems to be a universal. -Stages of development may be universal but are likely tied to experience, not age. When assessing universal stages of psychological development, anthropologists must be careful to use contextually and culturally relevant assessments, especially with non-Westerners.
Psychological Explanations of Cultural Variation
-Some theory postulates that primary institutions such as family organization and subsistence techniques influence personality through customary childrearing practices, which in turn give rise to certain common adult personality characteristics. -It is further suggested that secondary institutions such as religion and art are shaped by common personality characteristics. Secondary institutions seem less related to the adaptive requirements of the society but may reflect and express the motives, conflicts, and anxieties of society members.
Cities and States in Southern Iraq
-The Formative Era -Sumerian Civilization ---Sumer, in Southern Iraq, was unified under a single government just after 3000 B.C. ---Writing, large urban centers, imposing temples, codified laws, a standing army, wide trade networks, a complex irrigation system, and a high degree of craft specialization. ---cuneiform- Wedge-shaped writing invented by the Sumerians around 3000 b.c. ---Hieroglyphics- "Picture writing," as in ancient Egypt and in Mayan sites in Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America). -The Formative Era -Signified the coming together of many changes that seem to have played a part in the development of cities and states.
Culture Change and Adaptation
-The frequency of a new learned behavior will increase over time and become customary in a population if the people exhibiting that behavior are most likely to survive and reproduce. It is possible for culture change to occur much more rapidly than genetic change. -When circumstances change, individuals are particularly likely to try ideas or behaviors that are different from those of their parents.
Cultural Relativism
-The idea of cultural relativism rejects the notion that Western cultures are at the highest or most progressive stage of evolution. -Cultural relativism attempts to objectively describe and understand a society's customs and ideas in the context of that society's problems and opportunities. -Following the idea of cultural relativism helps anthropologists be alert to perspectives in other cultures that might challenge their own cultural beliefs about what is true and that might lead them to make moral judgments. -Approaches using cultural relativism pose conflicts with efforts to create universal standards of human rights. However, universal human rights advocates might increase their persuasiveness if they are aware of the viewpoints and values within a particular culture.
Theories About the Origin of the State
-The irrigation theory suggests that the administrative needs of maintaining extensive irrigation systems may have been the impetus for state formation. -The circumscription theory suggests that states emerge when competition and warfare in circumscribed areas lead to the subordination of defeated groups, which are obliged to submit to the control of the most powerful group. -Theories involving trade suggest that the organizational requirements of producing exportable items, redistributing imported items, and defending trading parties would foster state formation. -At this point, no one theory is able to explain the formation of every state. Perhaps different organizational requirements in different areas all favored centralized government.
The Origins of Language
-The origins of spoken language are unknown. --Pidgin and Creole Languages --Children's Acquisition of Language -Pidgins are simplified languages lacking many of the building blocks found in other languages. -Creoles incorporate vocabulary from both subordinate and dominant cultures, but has a grammar that differs from both.
Globalization: Problems and Opportunities
-The process of globalization has resulted in the worldwide spread of cultural features, particularly in the domain of economics and international trade. -In some ways, cultures are changing in similar directions. They have become more commercial, more urban, and more international. -A form of continental diffusion between Asia, Africa, and Europe had been occurring since at least the beginning of written history, in large part because of the scope and power of empires. -Worldwide diffusion of a culture trait does not mean that it is incorporated in exactly the same way among societies, and the spread of certain products and activities through globalization does not mean that change happens in the same way everywhere. -Negative effects of globalization include unemployment, native peoples' loss of land, increasing class inequality, undernutrition and starvation, and spread of disease. -Positive effects of globalization include increases in life expectancy and literacy, less warfare, and growth of middle classes, which have become agents of social change. -Movement of ideas, art, music, and food among cultures tends to be reciprocal.
Describing a Culture
-Understanding what is cultural involves (a) separating what is shared from what is individually variable and (b) understanding whether common behaviors and ideas are learned. -Variations in behavior are typically confined within socially acceptable limits. -Anthropologists try to distinguish actual behavior from ideal cultural traits—the ideas about how people in particular situations ought to feel and behave. Ideal cultural traits may differ from actual behavior because the ideal is based on the way society used to be. -When a domain of behavior includes many individual variations or when the people studied are unaware of their pattern of behavior, the anthropologist may need to collect information from a larger sample of individuals to establish what the cultural trait is. -Anthropologists suspect that something is largely learned if it varies from society to society and is genetically influenced when it is found in all societies.
The Processes of Linguistic Divergence
-When groups speaking the same language lose communication with one another through physical or social separation, they accumulate small changes in phonology, morphology, and syntax that lead to dialects and, with continued separation, to separate languages. -Isolation leads to divergence between speech communities, and contact leads to resemblance. Conquest and colonization often promote extensive and rapid linguistic borrowing or total replacement. Generally, words are borrowed more commonly than grammar.
The Processes of Linguistic Divergence
-While isolation brings about divergence between speech communities, contact results in greater resemblance. -Dialects are differences in phonology, morphology, and syntax that are not great enough to produce unintelligibility. A variety of a language spoken in a particular area or by a particular social group.
Writing and Literacy
-Written language dates back only about 6,000 years. -Writing and written records have become increasingly important. -Literacy is a major goal of most countries.
The Transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens Homo heidelbergensis:
A transitional species between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Differ from homo erectus Have smaller teeth and jaws, a much larger brain, a skull that lacks a sagittal keel and occipital torus, a browridge that divides into separate arches above each eye, and a more robust skeleton. Differs from Homo sapiens in retaining a large and prognathic face with relatively large teeth and jaws; a browridge; a long, low cranial vault with a sloping forehead; and in its more robust skeleton.
Consequences of the Rise of Food Production
Accelerated Population Growth Declining Health The Elaboration of Material Possessions
The Decline and Collapse of States
All ancient states collapse eventually Environmental degradation Human behavior may have increased the incidence of disease Overextension
Assimilation Theory
An additional interpretation suggesting that there may have been some replacement of one population by another, some local continuous evolution, and some interbreeding (or, genetic introgression) between early humans. There is new evidence of this model from Neanderthal and Denosovian DNA
state
An autonomous political unit with centralized decision making over many communities with power to govern by force (e.g., to collect taxes, draft people for work and war, and make and enforce laws
Cultural Relativism
Can the concept of cultural relativism be reconciled with the concept of an international code of human rights?
Upper Paleolithic Europe Upper Paleolithic Art
Cave art was often presented in the form of paintings, with the majority of subjects being animals. Venus figurines- not restricted to this. Other depictions of humans, both male and female, running the whole range of ages. Mostly women in motherhood role not confined to cave paintings
The First Cities and States in Other Areas
Civilizations arose in the Nile Valley, the Indus Valley, sub‐ Saharan Africa, northern China, and the Andes mountains.
Psychological Variation in Adulthood
Concepts of the Self Many anthropologists have concluded that the concept of the "self" in many non-Western societies is quite different from the Western conception.
The Emergence of Modern Humans
Cro‐Magnon humans were once thought to be the earliest specimens of modern humans, or Homo sapiens sapiens. Humans who lived in western Europe about 35,000 years ago, they were once thought to be the earliest specimens of modern-looking humans. But it is now known that modern-looking humans appeared earlier outside of Europe; the earliest so far found lived in Africa -First appeared in western Europe about 35,000 years ago. -Theories about the Origins of Modern Humans: ---Single‐Origin Theory ---Multiregional Theory ---Assimilation Theory
Ethical and Cultural Relativism
Cultural Relativism (2 meanings) 1. methodological relativism: cultural practices can only be understood relative to the culture in which they exist (e.g., is Yanomamö endocannibalism nutritional or religious?) 2. ethical relativism: there is no basis to judge whether a particular cultural practice is good or bad. That is, all cultures and cultural values are equally valid, of equal worth, and equal dignity - we should have tolerance and respect for any cultural practice. This is a non-scientific proposition because it cannot be evaluated scientifically.
Culture and Culture Change
Culture is Patterned How and Why Cultures Change Culture Change and Adaptation Globalization: Problems and Opportunities Ethnogenesis: The Emergence of New Cultures Cultural Diversity in the Future
Cities and States in Southern Iraq
Early state societies arose in what is now southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. Burial sites from the formative era reflect differences in status. Villages specialized in the production of particular goods. Temples may have been centers of political and religious authority for several communities. Chiefdoms, each having authority over several villages, may have developed. The state of Sumer in southern Iraq was unified under a single government just after 3000 b.c. It had writing, large urban centers, imposing temples, codified laws, a standing army, wide trade networks, a complex irrigation system, and a high degree of craft specialization.
Cultural Constraints
Emile Durkheim stressed that culture is something outside us, exerting a strong coercive power on us. --Norms are standards or rules about what is acceptable behavior.
Individuals as Agents of Cultural Change
Ethnographers are focusing more explicitly now on how individual agency may bring about change.
The Anthropology of Childhood
Explaining Variation in Childhood and Beyond -Parent's Belief Systems -Adaptational Explanations -Possible Genetic and Physiological Influences -Socialization
Globalization: Problems and Opportunities
Globalization is the spread of cultural features around the world. The ongoing spread of goods, people, information, and capital around the world. The diffusion of a cultural trait does not mean that it is incorporated in exactly the same way.
The Domestication of Plants and Animals Domestication in Mesoamerica-
Here the seminomadic Archaic hunting and gathering lifestyle persisted long after people first domesticated plants, bottle gourd. These were not eaten but were used to carry water. Others include tomatoes, cotton, a variety of beans and squashes, and, perhaps most importantly, maize. invention of planting maize, beans, and squash together in the same field ---Guila Naquitz- domesticated plants, including bottle gourd and several varieties of squashes
Middle Paleolithic Cultures
Home sites- caves and rock shelters at least part of the year, open, evidence of fire Getting Food- evidence suggests big animals for hunting not just small Funeral and Other Rituals?- some appear deliberately buried The Mousterian The Middle Stone Age in Africa
Upper Paleolithic Cultures in Africa and Asia
In eastern and southern Africa, people lived in small, mobile groups, hunting large animals and collecting a wide variety of plant foods. They became more sedentary, especially along streams and rivers
The Universality of Psychological Development
In what respects is psychological development the same the world over? In what respects is it different? -Emotional Development -Cognitive Development
What Happened to the Neandertals?
Interbreeding Genocide- modern humans killed off Neanderthals Extinction- most archaeological support, less efficient than modern humans in getting food, they may had needed more of it
Theories about the Origin of the State
Irrigation Population Growth, Circumscription, and War Local and Long‐Distance Trade
Domestication-
Modification or adaptation of plants and animals for use by humans. When people plant crops, we refer to the process as cultivation. It is only when the crops cultivated and the animals raised have been modified—are different from wild varieties—that we speak of plant and animal domestication.
Why Did Food Production Develop?
Most archaeologists believe that certain conditions must have pushed people to switch from collecting to producing food.
Middle Paleolithic Cultures Tool Assemblages-
Named after the tool assemblage found in a rock shelter at Le Moustier in the Dordogne region of southwestern France. Compared with an Acheulian assemblage, the Middle Paleolithic (40,000-300,000 years ago) Mousterian has a smaller proportion of large core tools such as hand axes and cleavers and a bigger proportion of small flake tools such as scrapers. Flakes were often altered or "retouched" by striking small flakes or chips from one or more edges.
Neanderthal and Denisovian Genetic Introgression
Neanderthal-derived DNA accounts for an estimated 1-4% of the Eurasian genome, but it is significantly absent or uncommon in the genome of most Sub-Saharan African people. In Oceanian and Southeast Asian populations, there is a relative increase of Denisovan-derived DNA. An estimated 4- 6% of the Melanesian genome is derived from Denisovans.
Neolithic-
Originally meaning "the new stone age," now meaning the presence of domesticated plants and animals. The earliest evidence of domestication comes from the Near East about 8000 b.c.
Cross-Cultural Variation in Childrearing
Parental Responsiveness to Infants and Baby-Holding Parent-Child Play Parental Acceptance and Rejection of Children Compliance or Assertiveness Attitudes Towards Aggression Task Assignment Children's Settings
Upper Paleolithic Europe
People remained hunters and gatherers and fishers and lived in highly mobile bands. They made their camps out in the open and in caves and rock shelters. A quick review of stone tools
Psychological Variation in Adulthood
Perceptual Style: Field Independence or Dependence -Might the environment influence the way people in different societies think and perceive? ---Field Independence— being able to isolate a part of a situation from the whole. ---Field Dependence— parts are not perceived separately; rather, the whole situation is focused on.
Preagricultural Developments ---Mesoamerica Other Areas
Permanent settlements began to emerge only after the domestication of plants and animals. axes and adzes first appeared, more broad hunting and gathering ---The Archaic Peoples of Highland Mesoamerica- hunt and collect broad range of resources, no evidence of social differences, little evidence of rituals, lifestyles simple and egalitarian ones
Preagricultural Developments Microlithic Technology
Preagricultural peoples in Europe, Asia, and Africa equipped themselves with composite tools including microlithic blades held in place with resins.
Expression of Aggression
Societies vary markedly in the degree to which adults express anger and act aggressively toward others. Robert Edgerton found that pastoralists were more willing than farmers to express aggression openly.
Single‐Origin Theory
Suggests that modern humans emerged in just one part of the Old World - the Near East and then Africa - and spread to other parts of the world, superseding Neandertals. It is the most likely model
Multiregional Theory
Suggests that modern humans emerged in various parts of the Old World, and resulted in the vast varieties of humans we see today. The least likely model
Ethnogenesis:
The Emergence of New Cultures Ethnogenesis is a process whereby new cultures are created usually in the aftermath of violent events such as depopulation, relocation, enslavement, and genocide.
Cities and States in Mesoamerica
The Formative Period The City and State of Teotihuacán (earlier than the Aztecs) The City of Monte Albán Other Centers of Mesoamerican Civilization (e.g., Maya) City‐States arose early in other parts of the New World Guatemala, The Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Peru (Inca), and Cahokia near St. Louis, Missouri
The End of the Upper Paleolithic
The Maglemosian Culture of Northern Europe- made stone axes, large timber appear to have been slip for houses, canoes, paddles, wild plant foods and fishing, depended mostly on hunting The Archaic Cultures of Eastern North America- sedentary lifestyle, plants and animals, development of ground stone woodworking tools, domestication of plants and animals
The Last Ice Age
The Upper Paleolithic world was characterized with a much different environment. The world was locked in an ice age and annual temperatures were as much as 10 degrees Celsius below today's.
Cultural Relativism
The anthropological attitude that a society's customs and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of that society's problems and opportunities became known as cultural relativism.
Mesolithic-
The archaeological period in the Old World beginning about 12,000 b.c. Humans were starting to settle down in semipermanent camps and villages, as people began to depend less on big game (which they used to have to follow over long distances) and more on relatively stationary food resources such as fish, shellfish, small game, and wild plants rich in carbohydrates, proteins, and oils.
Ethnocentrism-
The attitude that other societies' customs and ideas can be judged in the context of one's own culture.
Preagricultural Developments
The first clear evidence of a changeover to food production, or the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals, was in the Near East, about 8000 B.C.
Food production-
The form of subsistence technology in which food-getting is dependent on the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals.
Cultural Diversity in the Future
The process of globalization is minimizing cultural diversity. However, in the last 30 years or so, it has become increasingly apparent that many people are affirming their ethnic identities.
Rachis-
The seed-bearing part of a plant. In the wild variety of grain, the rachis shatters easily, releasing the seeds. Domesticated grains have a tough rachis, which does not shatter easily.
Subculture-
The shared customs of a subgroup within a society.
The Domestication of Plants and Animals Neolithic"of the new stone age"
The shift to the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals has been referred to as the Neolithic revolution.
Phonology-
The study of the sounds in a language and how they are used. ---phones- A speech sound in a language. ---phoneme- A sound or set of sounds that makes a difference in meaning to the speakers of the language.
Middle Paleolithic Cultures
The time period of the Mousterian stone tool tradition The Middle Paleolithic in Europe and the Near East is the period of cultural history associated with the Neandertals. The Middle Paleolithic period dates back about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago.
Upper Paleolithic Europe
The tools made by Upper Paleolithic peoples suggest that they were much more effective hunters and fishers than their predecessors. During the Upper Paleolithic, and probably for the first time, spears were shot from a spear thrower rather than thrown with the arm. We know this because bone and antler atlatls (the Aztec word for "spear thrower") have been found in some sites. Also bow and arrows and harpoons invented at this time
Communication
The word communicate comes from the Latin verb communicare, "to impart," "to share," "to make common." --Nonverbal Human Communication --Nonhuman Communication
The Transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens
There is disagreement about how and where Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens by paleoanthropologists.
Describing a Culture
There is much individual variation within a population, but most behaviors have socially acceptable boundaries on that variation. A modal pattern reflects an average, or most common, behavior amongst the individuals in a population.
Preagricultural Developments The Near East
There seems to have been a shift from big game hunting to the use of many natural resources at the end of the Upper Paleolithic. ---The Natufians of the Near East- a people living in the area that is now Israel and Jordan, inhibited caves and rock shelters and built villages on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel. they burried it seems social class, foragers and hunters, stored food
Epipaleolithic-
Time period during which food production first developed in the Near East.
Archaic-
Time period in the New World during which food production first developed.
The End of the Upper Paleolithic
To deal with the new, more forested environment, the Maglemosians made stone axes and adzes to chop down trees and form them into houses, canoes, and paddles. Archaic cultures experienced a reduced availability of meat and began to rely more upon plant foods.
Pressure Flaking-
Toolmaking technique whereby small flakes are struck off by pressing against the core with a bone, antler, or wooden tool.
Upper Paleolithic Europe
Two new techniques of tool making appeared: >Indirect percussion >Pressure Flaking- Microlith- A small, razorlike blade fragment that was probably attached in a series to a wooden or bone handle to form a cutting edge.
Preagricultural Developments Sedentarism and Population Growth
Why might a sedentary lifestyle change the birth spacing among once nomadic peoples? prolonged sexual abstinence after birth of a child, abortion or infanticide
Upper Paleolithic Europe How were the tools used?
ethnographic analogy- Method of comparative cultural study that extrapolates to the past from recent or current societies. The idea that they used tools like we would today. Problems though in not knowing if the original use of a tool was the same as present use
The Domestication of Plants and Animals Domestication in the Near East-
oats, rye, barley, lentils, peas, and various fruits and nuts (apricots, pears, pomegranates, dates, figs, olives, almonds, and pistachios). It appears that animals were first domesticated in the Near East. Dogs were first domesticated before the rise of agriculture, around 13,000 b.c., goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs were domesticated around 7000 b.c. and perhaps even earlier. ---Ali Kosh- irrigation and the use of domesticated cattle, goats, obsidian ---Catal Hüyük- Lentils, wheat, barley, and peas were grown in quantities that produced a surplus. beautifully carved wooden bowls and boxes that the people of the town produced. These people also had obsidian and flint daggers, spearheads, lance heads, scrapers, awls, and sickle blades. Bowls, spatulas, knives, ladles, and spoons were made from bone. The houses contained belt hooks, toggles, and pins carved from bone. Evidence also suggests that men and women wore jewelry fashioned from bone, shell, and copper and that they used obsidian mirrors. ---Obsidian- A volcanic glass that can be used to make mirrors or sharp-edged tools.
Field Dependence
parts are not perceived separately; rather, the whole situation is focused on.
Nonhuman Communication
symbolic communication- An arbitrary (not obviously meaningful) gesture, call, word, or sentence that has meaning even when its referent is not present.
Maladaptive Customs
those that diminish the chances of survival and reproduction. Cultural traits that diminish the chances of survival and reproduction in a particular environment.
Adaptive Customs
those that enhance survival. Cultural traits that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
Civilization
urban society, from the Latin word for "city-state"
Relationships Between Language and Culture
-A society's language may reflect its corresponding culture in lexical content or vocabulary. -Both cultural and biological factors influence the number of basic color terms. Societies tend to have six or more color terms only when they are relatively far from the equator and only when their cultures are more technologically specialized. -Ignoring terms that specialists use within a society, it seems that all languages have a core vocabulary of about the same size. -Current evidence supports the idea that the vocabulary of a language reflects the everyday distinctions that are important in the society. This finding may also be true of grammar. -Some evidence supports the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality, but more research is needed.
The Decline and Collapse of States
-All ancient states collapsed eventually. As with theories for the origin of states, no single explanation seems to fit all or even most of the situations. Research into this question may have implications for prolonging the lives of our modern state systems. -Four possible reasons may partially explain the collapse of a state: (1) environmental degradation, (2) human behavior that may increase the incidence of disease, (3) overextension that may deplete resources, and (4) internal conflict that results from leaders' mismanagement or exploitation.
Cultural Diversity in the Future
-Although modern transportation and communication facilitate the rapid spread of some cultural characteristics to all parts of the globe, it is highly unlikely that all parts of the world will end up the same culturally. -Many people are affirming ethnic identities in a process that often involves deliberately introducing cultural difference. -One study suggests that there are many more cultural groups nearer to the equator than in very northern and southern latitudes, possibly associated with levels of greater environmental predictability.
Archaeological Inferences about Civilization
-Civilization refers to the first inscriptions, or writing; cities; many kinds of full‐time craft specialists; monumental architecture; great differences in wealth and status; and the kind of strong, hierarchical, centralized political system we call the state. Most states have cities with public buildings; full-time craft and religious specialists; an "official" art style; a hierarchical social structure topped by an elite class; and a governmental monopoly on the legitimate use of force to implement policies). -Archaeologists do not always agree on how a state should be defined. -However, most agree that hierarchical and centralized decision making affecting a substantial population is the key criterion.
Culture is Patterned
-Culture is Integrated --The elements or traits that make up that culture are not just a random assortment of customs but are mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another. -Adaptation to the Environment --Maladaptive Customs --Adaptive Customs
Defining Culture
-Culture is the set of learned behaviors and ideas (including beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals) that are characteristic of a particular society or other social group. -Behaviors can also produce products or material culture, including houses, musical instruments, and tools that are the products of customary behavior. -Anthropologists have traditionally been concerned with the cultural characteristics of societies. Societies may or may not correspond to countries; many countries, particularly newer ones, contain many societies. -The terms society and culture are not synonymous. Society refers to a group of people; culture refers to the learned and shared behaviors, ideas, and characteristic of those people. -Even when anthropologists refer to something as cultural, there is always individual variation, and not everyone in a society shares a particular cultural characteristic of that society. -For something to be considered cultural, it must be not only shared but also learned. -Cognitive anthropologists are most likely to say that culture refers not to behaviors but to the rules and ideas behind them, and that culture therefore resides in people's heads. -Another view is that culture is an entity, a force, that profoundly affects the individuals who live within its influence.
Ethnogenesis: The Emergence of New Cultures
-Despite the trend of globalization, many cultures still vary considerably, and new cultures have been created—a process called ethnogenesis. -In particular, cases of violent events such as depopulation, relocation, enslavement, and genocide can lead to ethnogenesis.
How and Why Cultures Change
-Examining the history of a society will reveal that its culture has changed over time. Consequently, in describing a culture, it is important to understand that a description pertains to a particular time period. -A good deal of culture change may be stimulated by changes in the external environment. -Inventions and discoveries (including behavior and ideas), when accepted and regularly used by a society, will change the culture. These inventions and discoveries might be unintentional or intentional. -Relatively little is known about why some people are more innovative than others. The ability to innovate may depend in part on such individual characteristics as high intelligence and creativity. Creativity may be influenced by social conditions. -In general, people are more likely to adopt a behavior or innovation as it becomes more common. The speed with which an innovation is adopted may depend partly on how new behaviors and ideas are typically transmitted—or taught—in a society. -New cultural elements in one society may come from another society. Innovation occurring in this way is called diffusion. The three basic patterns of diffusion are direct contact, intermediate contact, and stimulus diffusion. -Diffusion is a selective process. New traits and elements will be rejected or accepted depending on complex variables. -Acculturation is another type of change that occurs when different cultural groups come into intensive contact. Acculturation occurs primarily when one of the two societies in contact is more powerful than the other. -One of the most drastic and rapid way a culture can change is as a result of revolution—replacement, usually violent, of a country's rulers. -The sources of revolution may be mostly internal, or partly external. Revolutions are not always successful in their goals, nor necessarily in bringing about culture change. -Not all people who are suppressed, conquered, or colonialized eventually rebel against established authority. Revolutions are more likely in countries that are just becoming industrialized.
Cross-Cultural Variation in Childrearing
-Parental responsiveness to infants and baby-holding vary cross-culturally. Parents in industrialized societies respond and/or hold babies less often or less quickly than do parents in preindustrialized societies where safety and survival may be more of a concern. -Cross-culturally, parent-child play is rare. Lack of parent-child play may be explained by the need for parents to create emotional distance in societies where threats to survival are high. Some societal ethnotheories suggest to parents that not playing may be better than playing. -In societies where parents have little leisure time, rejection of children is more likely. In general, leisure time probably decreases as cultural complexity increases. Across cultures, children tend to be hostile and aggressive when they are neglected and not treated affectionately by their parents. -Agricultural and herding societies tend to stress responsibility and obedience; hunter-gatherer societies tend to stress self-reliance and assertiveness. Theory suggests that departures from routine may risk food supplies of agricultural and herding societies more than that of hunter-gatherer societies; if so, this makes compliance more adaptive for agriculturalists and herders. -Societies differ considerably in their attitudes toward aggression in children. A society's involvement in war cross-culturally predicts parental encouragement of aggression, particularly in boys. -"Tight" societies have strong behavior norms and considerable punishment for norm violations; "looser" societies have more lenient norms and less strict punishments. Tight societies tend to be densely populated agricultural societies with higher stresses and risks. -Assigning tasks to children varies across cultures. Task settings not only put children in contact with different groups of people, such as adults and younger children, but children may learn to exhibit different behaviors depending upon setting and tasks. -Schooling appears to affect many aspects of cognitive performance Cultural expectations shape teaching approaches as well as school performance.
Historical Linguistics
-Protolanguage- A hypothesized ancestral language from which two or more languages seem to have derived. -Cognates- Words or morphs that belong to different languages but have similar sounds and meanings. -How do languages change over time? -Language Families and Culture History
Attitudes That Hinder the Study of Cultures
-The person who judges other cultures solely in terms of his or her own culture is practicing ethnocentrism. -Ethnocentric -Ethnocentrism
Communication
-There are many ways in which information is exchanged or imparted, but all systems of communication require a common and shared system of symbols, signs, or behaviors. -Humans rely heavily on spoken language to communicate, and it is probably the major way culture is transmitted. Any system of language consists of publicly accepted symbols by which individuals try to share private experiences and thoughts, but human language is much more than symbolic communication. -All human languages are thought to use a large set of symbols that can be combined to produce new meanings (open system), communicate about past and future events, apply linguistic rules for combinations of sounds, and have many kinds of discourse. -Human communication happens directly through spoken language; indirectly through "body language"; with nonverbal symbolic systems such as writing, algebraic equations, musical scores, and road signs; and through art, music, and dance. -Some direct nonverbal communication appears to be universal in humans. Humans worldwide seem able to recognize a happy, sad, surprised, angry, disgusted, or afraid face. But many body and hand gestures are not universal. -Other animal species communicate through sound, chemicals, and body movement. Some animals use symbolic communication; there is general agreement that humans have much more complexity in their systems of communication, but there is debate about how profound the differences are.
The Origins of Language
-Unambiguous evidence of human language dates back to 5,000 years ago, but it likely existed 50,000 years ago and may possibly have been used by humans as well Neandertals. -Actual development of language is neither completely biologically determined nor dependent on a system of writing. Languages of simpler societies are equally as complex as those of developed societies. -All languages possess the amount of vocabulary their speakers need, and all languages expand in response to cultural changes. -Pidgin languages combine features of various languages but without basic components such as prepositions or auxiliary verbs. They may or may not develop into full languages. -Pidgin languages that do develop further (often through children) become creole languages, having grammar different from the source languages. Some argue that creole languages throughout the world have striking grammar similarities and may resemble early human languages. -A child is apparently equipped from birth with the capacity to reproduce all the sounds used by the world's languages and to learn any system of grammar, an ability that gives way to cultural influences around the age of 1 year.
Nonverbal Human Communication
-kinesics- The study of communication by nonvocal means, including posture, mannerisms, body movement, facial expressions, and signs and gestures. -paralanguage- Refers to all the optional vocal features or silences apart from the language itself that communicate meaning. -accents- Differences in pronunciation characteristic of a group.
Indirect percussion-
A toolmaking technique common in the Upper Paleolithic. After shaping a core into a pyramidal or cylindrical form, the toolmaker can put a punch of antler or wood or another hard material into position and strike it with a hammer. Using a hammer-struck punch enabled toolmakers to strike off consistently shaped blades. >Blade- A thin flake whose length is usually more than twice its width. In the blade technique of toolmaking, a core is prepared by shaping a piece of flint with hammerstones into a pyramidal or cylindrical form. Blades are then struck off until the core is used up. >Burin- A chisel-like stone tool used for carving and for making such artifacts as bone and antler needles, awls, and projectile points.
The Denisovans
A group of Siberian hominins contemporary with Neanertals and modern humans. Analysis of DNA shows that they interbred with modern humans. A recent find in Siberia has unearthed a potentially new species - one living contemporaneously with the Neandertals and modern humans.
Society-
A group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not generally understood by neighboring peoples. By this definition, societies do not necessarily correspond to countries.
Middle Paleolithic Cultures Levalloisian method
A method that allowed flake tools of a predetermined size to be produced from a shaped core. The toolmakers first shaped the core and prepared a "striking platform" at one end. Flakes of predetermined and standard sizes could then be knocked off. Although some Levallois flakes date from as far back as 400,000 years ago, they are found more frequently in Mousterian tool kits.
Socialization
A term anthropologists and psychologists use to describe the development, through the direct and indirect influence of parents and others, of children's patterns of behavior (and attitudes and values) that conform to cultural expectations. Also called enculturation.
The Earliest Humans and Their Cultures in The New World
Archaeological remains of early New World hunters, called Paleo‐ Indians, have been found in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Finds have indicated that Paleo‐Indian hunters deliberately stampeded animals, such as Bison, into a natural trap, an arroyo or cliff.
Neanderthal traits
Buried dead Use ochre for coloring Made shell and bird feather ornaments Some lived in shelters made of animal bones Evidence of cannibalism
The Consequences of State Formation
When states arise they have a dramatic effect: -Population growth -Agriculture becomes more efficient -Warfare and political terror flourish -Art, music, and literature develop
Culture Change and Adaptation
While customs are not genetically inherited, cultural adaptation may be somewhat similar to biological adaptation. If culture is generally adapted to its environment, then culture change should also be generally adaptive.