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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Human biology & related topics > Biological anthropology
This book presents the first comprehensive description of the
lithic assemblages from Qafzeh Cave, one of only two Middle
Paleolithic sites in the Levant that has yielded multiple burials
of early anatomically modern Homo sapiens (AMHs). The record from
this region raises the question of possible long-term temporal
overlap between early AMHs and Neanderthals. For this reason,
Qafzeh has long been one of the pivotal sites in debates on the
origins of AMHs and in attempts to compare and contrast the two
species' adaptations and behavior.
Although the hominin fossils from the site were published years
ago, until now the associated archaeological assemblages were
incompletely described, often leading to conflicting
interpretations. This monograph includes a thorough technological
analysis of the lithic assemblages, incorporated in their
geological and sedimentological contexts. This description serves
as a springboard for regional comparisons as well as a more general
discussion about Middle Paleolithic behavior, which is relevant to
important and as yet unresolved questions on the origins of
"modern" behavior patterns.
The volume includes a wide-ranging and up-to-date bibliography
that provides the middle-range for discussing the ecological
context and behavioral complexity of the Middle Paleolithic period,
and ends with some thought-provoking conclusions about the dynamic
human interations that existed in the region during this time.
Because of their vital role in the emergence of humanity, tools and
their uses have been the focus of considerable worldwide study.
This volume brings together international research on the use of
tools among primates and both prehistoric and modern humans. The
book represents leading work being done by specialists in anatomy,
neurobiology, prehistory, ethnology, and primatology. Whether
composed of stone, wood, or metal, tools are a prolongation of the
arm that acquire precision through direction by the brain. The same
movement, for example, may have been practiced by apes and humans,
but the resulting action varies according to the extended use of
the tool. It is therefore necessary, as the contributors here make
clear, to understand the origin of tools, and also to describe the
techniques involved in their manipulation, and the possible uses of
unknown implements. Comparison of the techniques of chimpanzees
with those of prehistoric and modern peoples has made it possible
to appreciate the common aspects and to identify the differences.
The transmission of ability has also been studied in the various
relevant societies: chimpanzees in their natural habitat and in
captivity, hunter-gatherers, and workmen in prehistoric and in
modern times. In drawing together much valuable research, this work
will be an important and timely resource for social and behavioral
psychologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, and animal
behaviorists.
The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve presents a road
map for an evolutionary psychology of the twenty-first century. It
brings together theory from biology and cognitive science to show
how the brain can be composed of specialized adaptations, and yet
also an organ of plasticity. Although mental adaptations have
typically been seen as monolithic, hard-wired components frozen in
the evolutionary past, The Shape of Thought presents a new view of
mental adaptations as diverse and variable, with distinct functions
and evolutionary histories that shape how they develop, what
information they use, and what they do with that information. The
book describes how advances in evolutionary developmental biology
can be applied to the brain by focusing on the design of the
developmental systems that build it. Crucially, developmental
systems can be plastic, designed by the process of natural
selection to build adaptive phenotypes using the rich information
available in our social and physical environments. This approach
bridges the long-standing divide between "nativist" approaches to
development, based on innateness, and "empiricist" approaches,
based on learning. It shows how a view of humans as a flexible,
culturally-dependent species is compatible with a complexly
specialized brain, and how the nature of our flexibility can be
better understood by confronting the evolved design of the organ on
which that flexibility depends.
As Senegal prepares to celebrate fifty years of independence from
French colonial rule, academic and policy circles are engaged in a
vigorous debate about its experience in nation building. An
important aspect of this debate is the impact of globalization on
Senegal, particularly the massive labor migration that began
directly after independence. From Tokyo to Melbourne, from Turin to
Buenos Aires, from to Paris to New York, 300,000 Senegalese
immigrants are simultaneously negotiating their integration into
their host society and seriously impacting the development of their
homeland.
This book addresses the modes of organization of transnational
societies in the globalized context, and specifically the role of
religion in the experience of migrant communities in Western
societies. Abundant literature is available on immigrants from
Latin America and Asia, but very little on Africans, especially
those from French speaking countries in the United States. Ousmane
Kane offers a case study of the growing Senegalese community in New
York City. By pulling together numerous aspects (religious, ethnic,
occupational, gender, generational, socio-economic, and political)
of the experience of the Senegalese migrant community into an
integrated analysis, linking discussion of both the homeland and
host community, this book breaks new ground in the debate about
postcolonial Senegal, Muslim globalization and diaspora studies in
the United States. A leading scholar of African Islam, Ousmane Kane
has also conducted extensive research in North America, Europe and
Africa, which allows him to provide an insightful historical
ethnography of the Senegalese transnational experience.
Why is there a resurgence of racism in contemporary societies? How
do ideas about race and ethnicity serve to construct forms of
social and political identity? These are some of the key questions
addressed in this important book. Drawing on comparative sources,
this study analyses some of the most important aspects of racism
within the context of contemporary social relations, introducing
both students and practitioners to questions of key importance in
the study of racism.
If you're intrigued by the question "What makes us human?", strap
in for this whirlwind tour of the highlights of anthropology From
the first steps of our prehistoric ancestors, to the development of
complex languages, to the intricacies of religions and cultures
across the world, diverse factors have shaped the human species as
we know it. Anthropology strives to untangle this fascinating web
of history to work out who we were in the past, what that means for
human beings today and who we might be tomorrow. This pocket-sized
introduction includes accessible primers on: Influential
anthropologists such as Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict
The key branches of anthropology, from physical and linguistic
anthropology to archaeology How anthropologists study topics such
as communication, identity, sex and gender, religion and culture
How we can approach one of life's most enduring questions: what is
it that truly makes us human? This illuminating little book will
introduce you to the key thinkers, themes and theories you need to
know to understand the development of human beings, and how our
history has informed the way we live today. A perfect gift for
anyone taking their first steps into the world of anthropology, as
well as for those who want to brush up their knowledge.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1979.
This book documents and interprets the trajectory of ethnographic
museums in Tunisia from the colonial to the post-revolutionary
period, demonstrating changes and continuities in role, setting and
architecture across shifting ideological landscapes. The display of
everyday culture in museums is generally looked down upon as being
kitsch and old-fashioned. This research shows that, in Tunisia,
ethnographic museums have been highly significant sites in the
definition of social identities. They have worked as sites that
diffuse social, economic and political tensions through a vast
array of means, such as the exhibition itself, architecture,
activities, tourism, and consumerism. The book excavates the
evolution of paradigms in which Tunisian popular identity has been
expressed through the ethnographic museum, from the modernist
notion of 'indigenous authenticity' under colonial time, to efforts
at developing a Tunisian ethnography after Independence, and more
recent conceptions of cultural diversity since the revolution.
Based on a combination of archival research in Tunisia and in
France, participant observation and interviews with past and
present protagonists in the Tunisian museum field, this research
brings to light new material on an understudied area.
A chronicle that has been judged the 'single most authentic document of its kind.' Based on testimonies from descendants of Inca kings, who in the 1540s-50s still remembered the oral history and traditions of their ancestors. Beginning in 1551, Betanzos transcribed their memories and translated them from Quechua by order of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Pt. I covers Inca history prior to the Spanish arrival and Pt. II deals with the conquest to 1557, mainly from the Inca point of view"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.
The focus of Richard Zgusta's The Peoples of Northeast Asia through
Time is the formation of indigenous and cultural groups of coastal
northeast Asia, including the Ainu, the "Paleoasiatic" peoples, and
the Asiatic Eskimo. Most chapters begin with a summary of each
culture at the beginning of the colonial era, which is followed by
an interdisciplinary reconstruction of prehistoric cultures that
have direct ancestor-descendant relationships with the modern ones.
An additional chapter presents a comparative discussion of the
ethnographic data, including subsistence patterns, material
culture, social organization, and religious beliefs, from a
diachronic viewpoint. Each chapter includes maps and extensive
references.
What is multiculturalism? The word is used everywhere, often
without being clearly defined. The first collection of this scope,
Mapping Multiculturalism offers cogent critiques of the term and
its uses by leading scholars in sociology, history, literary
criticism, popular culture studies, ethnic studies, and critical
legal studies. The contributors look at current uses of the rubric
"multicultural" and offer groundbreaking analyses of complex
relationships between popular culture, political events, and
intellectual trends. Featuring essays by authors, activists,
artists, and theoreticians, Mapping Multiculturalism represents the
entire range of multicultural studies today through essays that
demarcate the cutting edge of contemporary cultural politics.
Contributors: Norma Alarcon, U of California, Berkeley; Richard P.
Appelbaum, U of California, Santa Barbara; Edna Bonacich, U of
California, Riverside; Wendy Brown, U of California, Santa Cruz;
Darryl B. Dickson-Carr, Florida State U; Antonia I. Castaneda, U of
Texas, Austin; Angie Chabram-Dernersesian, U of California, Davis;
Jon Cruz, U of California, Santa Barbara; Angela Y. Davis, U of
California, Santa Cruz; Steve Fagin, U of California, San Diego;
Rosa Linda Fregoso, U of California, Davis; Neil Gotanda, Western
State U; M. Annette Jaimes Guerrero, San Francisco State U; Ramon
Gutierrez, U of California, San Diego; Cynthia Hamilton, U of Rhode
Island; George Lipsitz, University of California, San Diego; Lisa
Lowe, U of California, San Diego; Wahneema Lubiano, Princeton U;
Michael Omi, U of California, Berkeley; Lourdes Portillo; Cedric Jo
Robinson, U of California, Santa Barbara; Tricia Rose, New York U;
Gregg Scott; Paul Smith, George Mason U; Renee Tajima; Patricia
Zavella, U of California, Santa Cruz. Avery F. Gordon teaches
sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Christopher Newfield teaches English, also at the University of
California, Santa Barbara.
While the image of modern Myanmar/Burma tends to be couched in
human rights terms - and especially of a heroic Aung San Suu Kyi
opposing an oppressive military regime - in reality there are
several conflicts with ethnic and religious dimensions, as well as
political and ideological differences between the opposition and
the ruling military regime. This is not surprising in a country
where 30 per cent of the population and much of the land area are
non-Burman, and where contradictory tendencies towards regional
separatism versus unitary rule have divided the people since before
independence. In what is probably the most comprehensive study of
Burma's ethnic minorities to date, this volume discusses the
historical formation of ethnic identity and its complexities in
relation to British colonial rule as well as to the modern State,
the present situation of military rule and its policy of
'myanmarfication'. Changes of identity in exile and due to
religious conversion are analysed and discussed. Finally, the book
deals with relevant and recent anthropological and sociological
theoretical discussions on the ethnic identity, boundaries and
space of all the main ethnic groups in Burma. It probes into the
complexity and diversity and it provides more details and
up-to-date information than previously collected in one volume.
The Environment in Anthropology presents ecology and current
environmental studies from an anthropological point of view. From
the classics to the most current scholarship, this text connects
the theory and practice in environment and anthropology, providing
readers with a strong intellectual foundation as well as offering
practical tools for solving environmental problems. Haenn, Wilk,
and Harnish pose the most urgent questions of environmental
protection: How are environmental problems mediated by cultural
values? What are the environmental effects of urbanization? When do
environmentalists' goals and actions conflict with those of
indigenous peoples? How can we assess the impact of
"environmentally correct" businesses? They also cover the
fundamental topics of population growth, large scale development,
biodiversity conservation, sustainable environmental management,
indigenous groups, consumption, and globalization. This revised
edition addresses new topics such as water, toxic waste,
neoliberalism, environmental history, environmental activism, and
REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation), and it situates anthropology in the
multi-disciplinary field of environmental research. It also offers
readers a guide for developing their own plan for environmental
action. This volume offers an introduction to the breadth of
ecological and environmental anthropology as well as to its
historical trends and current developments. Balancing landmark
essays with cutting-edge scholarship, bridging theory and practice,
and offering suggestions for further reading and new directions for
research, The Environment in Anthropology continues to provide the
ideal introduction to a burgeoning field.
Over the past four decades, the forces of economic restructuring,
globalization, and suburbanization, coupled with changes in social
policies have dimmed hopes for revitalizing minority neighborhoods
in the U.S. Community economic development offers a possible way to
improve economic and employment opportunities in minority
communities. In this authoritative collection of original essays,
contributors evaluate current programs and their prospects for
future success.Using case studies that consider communities of
African-Americans, Latinos, Asian immigrants, and Native Americans,
the book is organized around four broad topics. The Context
explores the larger demographic, economic, social, and physical
forces at work in the marginalization of minority communities.
Labor Market Development discusses the factors that shape supply
and demand and examines policies and strategies for workforce
development. Business Development focuses on opportunities and
obstacles for minority-owned businesses. Complementary Strategies
probes the connections between varied economic development
strategies, including the necessity of affordable housing and
social services.Taken together, these essays offer a comprehensive
primer for students as well as an informative overview for
professionals.
Sometimes history seems like a laundry list of malevolent monarchs,
pompous presidents and dastardly dictators. But are they really the
ones in the driving seat? Sapiens: A Graphic History – The Masters of
History takes us on an immersive and hilarious ride through the human
past to discover the forces that change our world, bring us together,
and – just as often – tear us apart.
Grab a front-row seat to the greatest show on earth and explore the
rise of money, religion and empire. Join our fabulous host Heroda Tush,
as she wonders: which historical superhero will display the power to
make civilisations rise and fall? Will Mr Random prove that luck and
circumstance prevail? Will Lady Empire convince us of the irrefutable
shaping force of conquerors? Or will Clashwoman beat them all to
greatness by reminding us of the endless confrontations that seem to
forever plague our species?
In this next volume of the bestselling graphic series, Yuval Noah
Harari, David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave continue to present the
complicated story of humankind with wit, empathy and originality.
Alongside the unlikely cast of new characters, we are rejoined by the
familiar faces of Yuval, Zoe, Professor Saraswati, Bill and Cindy (now
Romans), Skyman and Captain Dollar. As they travel through time, space
and human drama in search of truth, it's impossible not to wonder: why
can’t we all just get along?
This third instalment in the Sapiens: A Graphic History series is an
engaging, insightful, and colourful retelling of the story of humankind
for curious minds of all ages, and can be browsed through on its own or
read in sequence with Volumes One and Two.
In Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Indonesia Lee Wilson offers
an innovative study of nationalism and the Indonesian state through
the ethnography of the martial art of Pencak Silat. Wilson shows
how technologies of physical and spiritual warfare such as Pencak
Silat have long played a prominent role in Indonesian political
society. He demonstrates the importance of these technologies to
the display and performance of power, and highlights the
limitations of theories of secular modernity for understanding
political forms in contemporary Indonesia. He offers a compelling
argument for a revisionist account of models of power in Indonesia
in which authority is understood as precarious and multiple, and
the body is politically charged because of its potential for
transformation.
Kim Sterelny here builds on his original account of the
evolutionary development and interaction of human culture and
cooperation, which he first presented in The Evolved Apprentice
(2012). Sterelny sees human evolution not as hinging on a single
key innovation, but as emerging from a positive feedback loop
caused by smaller divergences from other great apes, including
bipedal locomotion, better causal and social reasoning,
reproductive cooperation, and changes in diet and foraging style.
He advances this argument in The Pleistocene Social Contract with
four key claims about cooperation, culture, and their interaction
in human evolution. First, he proposes a new model of the evolution
of human cooperation. He suggests human cooperation began from a
baseline that was probably similar to that of great apes, advancing
about 1.8 million years ago to an initial phase of cooperative
forging, in small mobile bands. Second, he then presents a novel
account of the change in evolutionary dynamics of cooperation: from
cooperation profits based on collective action and mutualism, to
profits based on direct and indirect reciprocation over the course
of the Pleistocene. Third, he addresses the question of normative
regulation, or moral norms, for band-scale cooperation, and
connects it to the stabilization of indirect reciprocation as a
central aspect of forager cooperation. Fourth, he develops an
account of the emergence of inequality that links inequality to
intermediate levels of conflict and cooperation: a final phase of
cooperation in largescale, hierarchical societies in the Holocene,
beginning about 12,000 years ago. The Pleistocene Social Contract
combines philosophy of biology with a reading of the archaeological
and ethnographic record to present a new model of the evolution of
human cooperation, cultural learning, and inequality.
An updated edition with new perspectives on racial identity and
significant attention on intersectionality New Perspectives on
Racial Identity Development brings together leaders in the field to
deepen, broaden, and reassess our understandings of racial identity
development. Contributors include the authors of some of the
earliest theories in the field, such as William Cross, Bailey W.
Jackson, Jean Kim, Rita Hardiman, and Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe,
who offer new analysis of the impact of emerging frameworks on how
racial identity is viewed and understood. Other contributors
present new paradigms and identify critical issues that must be
considered as the field continues to evolve. This new and
completely rewritten second edition uses emerging research from
related disciplines that offer innovative approaches that have yet
to be fully discussed in the literature on racial identity.
Intersectionality receives significant attention in the volume, as
it calls for models of social identity to take a more holistic and
integrated approach in describing the lived experience of
individuals. This volume offers new perspectives on how we
understand and study racial identity in a culture where race and
other identities are socially constructed and carry significant
societal, political, and group meaning.
A Hindu monk in Calcutta refuses to take his psychotropic
medications. His psychiatrist explains that just as his body needs
food, the drugs are nutrition for his starved mind. Does it matter
how--or whether--patients understand their prescribed drugs?
Millions of people in India are routinely prescribed mood
medications. Pharmaceutical companies give doctors strong
incentives to write as many prescriptions as possible, with as
little awkward questioning from patients as possible. Without a
sustained public debate on psychopharmaceuticals in India, patients
remain puzzled by the notion that drugs can cure disturbances of
the mind. While biomedical psychopharmaceuticals are perceived with
great suspicion, many non-biomedical treatments are embraced.
Stefan Ecks illuminates how biomedical, Ayurvedic, and homeopathic
treatments are used in India, and argues that pharmaceutical
pluralism changes popular ideas of what drugs do. Based on several
years of research on pharmaceutical markets, Ecks shows how doctors
employ a wide range of strategies to make patients take the
remedies prescribed. Yet while metaphors such as "mind food" may
succeed in getting patients to accept the prescriptions, they also
obscure a critical awareness of drug effects. This rare ethnography
of pharmaceuticals will be of key interest to those in the
anthropology and sociology of medicine, pharmacology, mental
health, bioethics, global health, and South Asian studies.Stefan
Ecks is Director of the Medical Anthropology Program and Senior
Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh.
A volume in Education Policy in Practice: Critical Cultural Studies
Series Editors Bradley A. U. Levinson, and Margaret Sutton, Indiana
University This book on bilingual education policy represents a
multidimensional and longitudinal study of "policy processes" as
they play out on the ground (a single school in Los Angeles), and
over time (both within the same school, and also within the state
of Georgia). In order to reconstruct this complex policy process,
Anderson impressively marshals a great variety of forms of
"discourse." Most of this discourse, of course, comes from
overheard discussions and spontaneous interviews conducted at a
particular school-the voices of teachers and administrators. Such
discourse forms the heart of her ethnographic findings. Yet
Anderson also brings an ethnographer's eye to national and regional
debates as they are conducted and represented in different forms of
media, especially newspapers and magazines. She then uses the key
theoretical concept of "articulation" to conceptually link these
media representations with local school discourse. The result is an
illuminating account of how everyday debates at a particular school
and media debates occurring more broadly mutually inform one
another. Reviews: Anderson's timely, methodologically
sophisticated, and compelling account surrounding the politics of
bilingual education moves beyond instrumental notions of policy to
advance the idea that mandates are themselves resources that may be
vigorously contested as contending parties vie for inclusion in the
schooling process. Her work artfully demonstrates how improving
schooling for all children is inseparable from a larger,
much-needed discussion of what we as a polity believe about whether
and how we are interconnected, together with who should and does
have a voice in the policy making and implementation process.
-Angela Valenzuela, Professor, University of Texas at Austin,
author of Subtractive Schooling and Leaving Children Behind
Anderson shows the gap between clear-cut assumptions and ideologies
informing education policy and legislation on language and
immigration, and the complications that arise for teachers when
they actually implement language legislation in the classroom. She
also illustrates assumptions about language and being American, as
these are both debated and shared by each "side" of the language
and immigration debates in California and Georgia. Her chapter on
California's Proposition 227 is a particular eye-opener,
demonstrating in detail the embedding of local identities and
oppositions in these debates. Above all, she makes quite clear the
complex, often contradictory, web of relations among politics,
language, race, and cultural citizenship. --Bonnie Urciuoli,
Professor, Hamilton College, author of Exposing Prejudice
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