anthropology final
pastoralism/characteristics of pastoralism
- A form of subsistence technology in which food-getting is based directly or indirectly on the maintenance of domesticated animals; - Pastoralists more often get their animal protein from live animals in the form of milk and blood (a high source of protein used for blood); • Pastoralists also trade animal products for plant foods and other necessities. - Feed on Natural Pasture • Animal Protein From Milk, Blood, and Also Grow Crops or Trade with Agricultural Groups
Characteristics of Foragers
- The Hadza foragers of Tanzania, for example, do not believe that they have exclusive rights over the land on which they hunt; - Foragers also tend to share tools. For example, among the !Kung (Ju/'hoansi), the few possessions they have are constantly in circulation among members of their groups (cites Elizabeth Marshall Thomas); - Foragersconsidertoolstobelongtothe person who made them
The !Kung or Ju/'hoansi
- located in Botswana and Namibia - Basarwa, "The Real People" (70 OtherRelated Groups) 88,000-100,000 Total San KalahariDesert inSouthernAfrica - Richard Lee and Irven Devore (1963) Study Dobe !Kung (in Botswana) • Bantu-speaking Neighboring Groups Include the Herero and Tswana Traditional Pastoral (Herding) Peoples • Ju/'hoansi Traditional Hunters and Gatherers • Arid Ecosystem—Occupy Marginal Land (Kalahari Desert)
The Allocation of Resources: technology foragers (inuit,kung) characteristics
-Inuit have more sophisticated forms of technology than most hunter-gatherer groups including harpoons, compound bows, ivory fishhooks, kayaks, etc. -Expensive equipment is not always individually owned in intensive agricultural or industrial societies; • Sometimes, there is collective ownership by co- operatives or co-ownership by neighbors
Human Behavioral Ecology (HBE) (1) Relative Parental Investment in Offspring!! (2) Degree of Intrasexual Competition for Mates of the Opposite Sex (3) Degree of Differential Choice (By Sex Investing More in Offspring) (4) Life History Parameters!!
1. Relative Parental Investment in Offspring by Each Sex (Time, Energy, Risk) 4.• Life History Parameters (Maturation, Morality, Reproduction)
Three Types of Advantages of Differential Access: Wealth, Power, and Prestige
1. Wealth or economic resources (things that have value in a culture—land, tools, goods, money, etc.); 2. Power (ability to influence others and based on threat of force); 3. Prestige (accorded particular respect or honor).
type of economic production
1. domestic—family or kinship mode of production; • Labor consisted of people getting food and producing shelter and implements for themselves and their kin. 2. industrial societies, rely largely on mechanized production in agriculture as well as in factories. Most people in industrialized societies labor for others as wage earners. 3.A third system found in nonindustrial societies is the tributary type of production, wherein most people still produce their own food but an elite or aristocracy that controls a portion of the production including the products of specialized crafts
foraging/food collection/hunter-gatherers
Although foraging characterizes most of human history, foragers in the world today, also commonly referred to as hunter-gatherers, are not very numerous and most live in marginal areas— deserts, the arctic, and dense tropical rainforests—habitats that do not allow easy exploitation by modern agricultural technologies. In the last few hundred years, only about 5 million people have been foragers.
Bilateral Kinship/Kindred/Ego
Bilateral Kinship: • The type of kinship system in which individuals affiliate more or less equally with their mother's and father's relatives; descent groups are absent; • A system in which kinship ties are calculated equally through both sexes: mother and father, sister and brother, daughter and son, and so on (Kottak, 2015). Kindred: A bilateral set of close relatives who may be called upon for some purpose. Ego: In the reckoning of kinship, the reference point or focal person.
"Two-Spirits" (Berdaches)/More than Two Genders Cheyenne/Other Native American Groups
Cheyenne and some other Native American societies recognize a third gender called "two spirits" (formerly berdaches). -Two-spirit people more often biological males. Upon adulthood, individual would wear women's dress and take on many of the activities of women; May be taken as a second wife by a man; • Also two-spirit biological women (who generally take on male roles) less common but occur in some cultures. These two-spirit women could marry other women.
Class Societies: Open and Closed Class Systems What is a Social Class?
Class societies characterized by unequal access to economic resources, power, and prestige -People of the same class tend to live in the same neighborhoods and identification with a social class begins early in life (prior to 1948 explicit regulations kept certain groups out of particular neighborhoods) -A class is a category of people who have all have about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power, and prestige; • Fully stratified or class societies range from somewhat open to virtually closed class or caste systems.
Descent Groups/Descent Group Exogamy
Descent Group: A permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundamental to tribal society. • Exogamy: Rule requiring people to marry outside their own group.
intensive agriculture (characteristics): irrigation, fertilizer, technology and terracing
Food production characterized by the permanent cultivation of fields and made possible by the use of the plow, draft animals or machines, fertilizers, irrigation, water-storage techniques, and other complex agricultural techniques.
general features (correlations) of foragers:
Foragers tend to live in small communities and sparsely populated territories; • (Usually) Follow a nomadic lifestyle; • Do not recognize land rights; • No full-time political officials; • Not organized into social classes/specialization; • Men hunt large marine and land animals, fish; • Women gather wild plant foods. • Considerable variability among foragers; • Food collectors who depend on fishing have bigger, more permanent communities; • Contemporary foragers live in "marginal" environments" (tropics to arctic); • Hunting and gathering bands up until 10,000 years ago and advent of food production; • All live in modern nation-states and are partly dependent on food producers.
foraging
Foraging Also Called Food Collection: A food getting strategy that obtains wild plant and animal resources through gathering, hunting, scavenging, or fishing; also known as food collection.
Distribution of Goods and Services: Three Types of Exchange (Reciprocity, Redistribution, and Market or Commercial Exchange)
Goods and services are distributed in all societies and have been classified by anthropologists into three general types: reciprocity, redistribution, and market or commercial exchange;
John Marshall and The Kalahari Family
John Marshall (Son of Laurence + Lorna) • The Hunters (1950s) Film • N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman (1980) Film • The Kalahari Family (1990s) Five Parts/Film
Nyae Nyae (Namibia) Marshall Family Done (Botswana)
Laurence, Lorna, John, Elizabeth Marshall study Nyae Nyae (in Namibia) - Of These 12,000 Ju/'hoansi: Dobe in Botswana (75%) Nyae Nyae in Namibia (25%)
Lineage: Patrilineage and Matrilineage Clan/Patriclan/Matriclan/Totem
Lineage: A set of kin whose members trace descent from a common ancestor through known; Unilineal descent group based on demonstrated descent (Kottak, 2015). Patriclan (clans with patrilineal descent): A clan tracing descent through the male line; Matriclan (clans with matrilineal descent): A clan tracing descent through the female line; Totem: A plant or animal associated with a clan as a means of group identification; may have other special significance for the group.
Traditional Psychological Research (U.S.) (1) Males are More Aggressive (2) Males Have Greater Mathematical Abilities (3) Males have Greater Visual-Spatial Abilities (4) Females Superior Verbal Abilities
Males are More Aggressive • Males Have Greater Mathematical Abilities Than Females • Males Have Greater Visual Spatial Abilities Than Females • Females Have Superior Verbal Ability to Males
subsistence vs. market or commercial economy
Many societies (foraging, horticulturalists, some agriculturalists), have what is called a subsistence economy producing food only for their own consumption. This differs from a market or commercial economy (with a profit motive).
Explanations for the Universality of Marriage:
Marriage is Adaptive Gender Division of Labor (Pros and Cons) Prolonged Infant Dependency (Pros and Cons) Sexual Competition Among Males (Pros and Cons)
Yanomamo: Nuclear families and patrilineal descent groups
Nuclear Families, Patrilineal Descent Groups • Exogamous and Span More Than One Village • Villages are Autonomous Political Units • Nuclear family: A family consisting to a married couple and their young children;
Patrilineal Descent Groups
Patrilineal Descent: Unilineal descent rule in which people join the father's group automatically at birth and stay members throughout their life. Include children of the group's men.
Matrilineal Descent Patrilineal Descent
Patrilineal Descent: • The rule of descent that affiliates an individual with kin of both sexes related to him or her through men only. See Figure 22-2 (p. 392). • Unilineal descent rule in which people join the father's group automatically at birth and stay members throughout their life. Include children of the group's men (Kottak, 2015).Matrilineal Descent: • The rule of descent that affiliates individuals with kin of both sexes related to them through women only. See Figure 22-3 p. 393. • Unilineal descent rule in which people join the mother's group automatically at birth and stay members throughout life. Therefore, include only children of the group's women (Kottak, 2015).
Definitions/Characteristics of Various Forms: Patrilocal Residence Matrilocal Residence
Patrilocal: • A pattern of residence in which a married couple lives with or near the husband's parents; • The son stays and the daughter leaves, so that the married couple lives with or near the husband's parents (67 percent of all societies). Matrilocal: • A pattern of residence in which a married couple lives with or near the wife's parents. • The daughter stays and the son leaves, so that the married couple lives with or near the wife's parents (15 percent).
hunter-gatherers
People who collect food from naturally occurring resources, that is, wild plants, animals, and fish. The term hunter-gatherers minimizes sometimes heavy dependence on fishing. Also referred to as foragers or food collectors.
Polyandry/Fraternal Polyandry (India, Tibet)
Polyandry: The marriage of one woman to more than one man at a time; Fraternal polyandry: The marriage of a woman to two or more brother at the same time:
The Potlatch (Kwakiutl, Pacific Northwest)
Potlatch: A feast among Pacific Northwest Native Americans at which great quantities of food and goods are given to the guests in order to gain prestige for the hosts;
general features of agriculturalists
Requires More Labor Than Horticulture Doesn't Require Fallow Period Continuous Use of Land, Labor • DomesticatedAnimals(Plow) Production, Transport, Fertilizer • Irrigation (Fertilization) Irrigated Field a Unique Ecosystem • Terracing (Dense Populations) Cut Into the Hillside to Avoid Runoffs - Intensive agriculturalists tend to work longer hours than horticulturalists!! - Worldwide trend for intensive agriculturalists to produce more for market use called commercialization
Martin Whyte's Research on Female Status
Status not a Single Concept (Many Components) Not High Even When Contribute to Subsistence Higher in Matrilineal/Matrilocal Societies Low in Preindustrial Political Hierarchies - • Whyte found that the idea that generally high status for women stems from a greater caloric contribution to primary subsistence not supported by his research; • Women have somewhat higher status where kin groups and marital residence are organized around women (Iroquois example); • In preindustrial societies, women have generally lower status in societies with more political hierarchy.
the inuit (eskimo) traditional adaption
The Inuit (Eskimo) peoples live year-round in the North American Arctic and are therefore unable to exploit plants as a major part of their diet; • Term Eskimo replaced with Inuit but not a universally accepted term either; • Exploit sea mammals (seals, whales), fish, and caribou. Use harpoons into animals from Kayaks.
Alabama Governor George Wallace and the the Stand at the Schoolhouse Door (1963)
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door took place at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, in a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever" and stop the desegregation of schools, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two black students, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood.
Trobriand Islanders (Kula Ring) Details
The horticultural Trobriand Islanders off the Eastern coast of Papua New Guinea practice an elaborate trade system of ornaments, food, and other necessities with neighboring islands (studied by Bronislaw Malinowski); • Practical side of trade is hidden between a complex ceremonial exchange called the kula ring (valued shell ornaments across several islands) -• Two kinds of ornaments are involved in the ceremonial exchanges—white shell armbands (mwali) which are given only in a counterclockwise direction, and red shell necklaces (soulava) which are given only in a clockwise direction; • The possession of these ornaments allows a man to organize an expedition to the home of one of his trading partners on another island. Exchange of goods via trade and gift exchange.
characteristics of bands level organization
The kind of political organization where the local group or band is the largest territorial group in the society that acts as unit. The local group in band societies is politically autonomous
George Flippin University of Nebraska
The son of freed slaves, George A. Flippin starred at halfback for the University of Nebraska football team from 1891 to 1894. Flippin was a sensational athlete and remarkable player, but his presence on the Nebraska gridiron was the cause of controversy on several different occasions. George Flippin was the first African- American athlete at Nebraska and only the fifth black athlete at a predominantly white university. Because of Flippin's presence on the roster, Missouri refused to play a scheduled game with Nebraska at Omaha in 1892. The result was a 1-0 forfeit.
Egalitarian Characteristics Revisited: (e.g., Small Differences based on Achieved Rather Than Ascribed Attributes, Dependent on Sharing)
These societies do have (power) differences between individuals in terms of age and gender but whatever status is derived is based on achieved, rather than ascribed, attributes; • Differences exist in prestige and status based on abilities and not on inheritance - Do not have social groups with unequal access to economic resources or power (like in state societies). Foragers prevent individuals from trying to gain unequal power (Mbuti, Hadza examples).
Transgender
Transgender used to describe people who don't feel their assigned gender fits them well;
The Yanomamo (wet & dry)
Venezuela, Brazil • 20,000 Individuals • 200-250 scattered villages • 40-300 per village (75 average) • Napoleon Chagnon and Raymond Hames (UNL) Principal Ethnographers • Tribal Horticulturalists who also hunt and gather
Explanations for the Relative Status of Women:
Women Contribute More to Primary Subsistence Men's Status Related to Emphasis on Warfare Male Status High With Centralized Authority Women's Status High in Matrilineal/Matrilocal
general features of horticulturalists revisited:
Yield more food per given area than food collectors; • Support larger, more densely populated communities; • Sedentarism; • Social differentiation and specialization evident (but still not ranked or stratified).
Characteristics of Pastoralists
like foragers who are usually nomadic, are also limited in their possessions but they can use animals to carry some of their possessions. -Among pastoralists, each family owns its own tools, clothes, livestock, and perhaps a tent;
Egalitarian
relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities (generalized reciprocity)
Chayanov's Rule
suggests that when there are proportionately more workers in a society people can work less. Conversely, few able-bodied workers and more consumers (children, aged) the workers have to work harder;
Subsistence (Men, Women)
women: • Gather Three Days Per Week (nuts, fruits, berries, vegetables, honey, small mammals, insects, birds eggs) • Account for 60-80% of Subsistence Base • Mongongo or Mangetti Nut Main Staple • Roots and Tubers • Digging Stick, Carrying Pole • Kaross (Antelope Skin) Food, Firewood, Children men: • Hunt Three Days Per Week (Wildebeest, Warthog, Giraffe) • Provide 20-40 % of Subsistence Base • Hunt with Spears, Bow and Arrows • Poison from the Thorax of the Larvae of a Beetle to Slow, Kill Large Game • Gather Plants/Collect Reptiles, Birds, Insects • Incredible Tracking Skills, Physical Courage in Hunting
Descent Group/Unilineal Descent Revisited:
• A descent group is a permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundamental to tribal society (Kottak, 2015); • Unilineal descent refers to the fact that a person is affiliated with a group of kin through descent links of one sex only—either males only or females only. Unilineal descent can be either patrilineal or matrilineal.
Dowry
• A dowry usually involves a substantial transfer of goods or money from the bride's family to the bride, the groom, or the couple (8% of societies); • Usually not a transaction between the kin of the bride and the kin of the groom; • Goods go to a new household and does not come back to the family that gave the dowry.
Neolocal Residence
• A pattern of residence whereby a married couple lives separately and usually at some distance, from the kin of both spouses. • Both son and daughter leave; married couple live apart from the relatives of both spouses (5 percent).
Bride Price/Bride Wealth/Progeny Price
• Bride price or bride wealth is a gift of money or goods from the groom or his kin to the bride's kin. Right to marry the bride and the right to her children; • This is the most common economic transaction at marriage cross-culturally (44% of societies);
Parallel and Cross-Cousins Revisited
• Cross-cousins are children of siblings of the opposite sex. One's cross-cousins are the father's sisters' children and mother's brothers' children; • Parallel cousins are children of siblings of the same sex. One's parallel cousins are the father's brothers' children and the mother's sisters' children. Parallel Cousins: Children of Two Brothers or Two Sisters Children of Siblings of the Same Sex Mother's Sister's Children Father's Brother's Children Cross Cousins: Children of a Brother and a Sister Children of Siblings of the Opposite Sex Mother's Brother's Children Father's Sister's Children
Hunting by Women (Agta of the Philippines)
• Each of the theories has flaws. Critics of the strength theory point out that women in some societies engage in heavy labor; • In terms of compatibility, women can and do ask others to watch and feed their infants if they are unavailable. Women among the Agta of the Philippines regularly hunt wild pig and deer and take nursing babies on hunting trips.
Explaining the Taboo (Origins and Persistence): Westermarck's Childhood-Familiarity Theory (Familiarity Breeds Contempt)
• Edward Westermarck's childhood- familiarity theory suggests that people closely associated with each other since early childhood (such as siblings) are not sexually attracted to each other and avoid marriage with each other (1920); • Initially rejected, there has been mounting support for this theory.
village headman/polygyny
• First among equals; • Leads by example and persuasion; • Leader, mediator, generous, fierce warrior; • Headman cultivates more land than others; • His garden provides much of food during village feasts; • Related to most members of the village; • Polygynous (as many as four, five wives); • Larger villages, more unrelated individuals.
The inuit
• Hunt seals in winter, caribou in the spring, fish in the summer; • High male mortality and female infanticide to balance sex ratio (but still more women); • Often polygynous; • Practice senilicide, invalidicide; • Prestige and envy; • Most disputes over wife "stealing" and adultery.
What is the Ember et al. Hypothesis?: Postpartum Feeding Requirements and Male Aid
• In many cultures, marriage involves economic considerations; • In about 75% of the societies known to anthropology, one or more economic transactions take place before or after the marriage; • Economic transaction may include any of several forms: bride price, bride service, exchange of females, gift exchange, dowry, indirect dowry
The Levirate and Sororate
• Levirate is a custom whereby a man is obligated to marry his brother's widow; • Sororate is a custom whereby a woman is obligated to marry her deceased sister's husband; • Both customs are exceedingly common being the obligatory form of second marriage in the majority of societies known to anthropology. Keeps links between families intact.
Practicing or Applied Anthropology Defined
• Practicing or Applied Anthropology: The branch of anthropology that concerns itself with applying anthropological knowledge to achieve practical goals, usually in the service of an agency outside the traditional academic setting;
The Band
• Size Often Varies by Season (Mobility) • Individuals Shift Membership Throughout Life (Band) Exogamous • Affiliate with Band Through Kinship, Marriage, Fictive Kinship • Egalitarian (Power and Prestige) but Division of Labor by Age and Sex Basic unit of social organization among foragers. A band includes fewer than 100 people; it often splits up seasonally (Kottak, 2015
Class Societies: Caste Systems (Closed Systems) India (Castes),
• Some societies have classes called castes that are virtually closed. A caste is a ranked group whose membership is determined at birth, and marriage is restricted to members of one's own caste; • Classic example in India of four main levels or hierarchies of castes. Lowest castes do the unclean and undesirable work. A large group of untouchables forms the bottom of this hierarchy.
foraging
• The relatively few foraging societies still available for observation have been the focus of intense anthropological study; • Attempt to understand variations of human culture; • But hunter-gatherers have received disproportionate attention from anthropologists because this strategy has dominated much of human history.