Anthropology and the Human Condition

Human Diversity

Overview
What is Anthropology?
The Anthropological Perspective, Strangers Abroad, Race, Culture

What do Anthropologists study?

Kinship, Gender, Economics, Community

Current debates & trends in Anthropology.

Representing Others, the Poetry of Culture, World Anthropologies

Why are the tribes and the nations of the world different and how have the present differences developed? Anthropology, 1907

Why are People Different? Three General Theories

Geography (Environmental Determinism)
19th century idea; uncommon now

Race (Biological Determinism)

19th century idea; still common

Culture (Cultural Relativism)

19th to 20th century idea; popular now

In this lecture
Rethinking Race
What is Race? Do Races really exist?

The Journey of Man and Woman

How did we all get here?

The Form is Fixed and Culture Takes Off

What is the Big Bang of Culture?

What is Evolution?

What is Race?
Race vs. Species Species
Functional Definition: Members of the same Species can mate and have viable offspring. Human beings (Homo sapiens) are one species.

Race (or Sub-species)

Members of the same species, but distinctive in some way. Racial classifications are arbitrary and non-functional.

Race: Essentialist Categories

Ethiopian

Malayan

Mongoloid

American

Caucasoid

Blumenbachs Classification (1775)

Scientific Approach
Based on Coherence of Traits Originally included Cultural & Biological Traits Nations, Races, Peoples

Old fashioned concepts of race are not only social divisive but scientifically wrong
The Idea of Race is based on coherence of traits (esp. biological). Traits do not cohere. 94% of biological/ genetic variation occurs within human populations 6% occurs between populations
http://anthro.palomar.edu/vary/default.htm

Incoherent Traits
(Example of Biological and Cultural Traits)

African and European men wearing Asian batik.

Coherence of Traits: Race and Ethnicity

Race is interpretation of Biological Traits Ethnicity is interpretation of Cultural Traits Racial Theory and Primordial Ethnic theory are based on an assumption of within-group coherence of traits. Biological and anthropological (sociological) research indicate that traits do not cohere enough to make racial or primordial ethnic theories valid or useful.

Race and Ethnicity: Folk Categories / Scientific Categories

More often than not, folk categories (used in everyday life) conflate race and ethnicity (i.e. they use biological characteristics and cultural characteristics at the same time). Example 1: Americans use mostly (but not only) biological traits to categorize people by race. Example 2: When Malaysians (and Singaporeans?) use the word race they mean something closer to what anthropologists call ethnicity

Example 1: American use of race

Barak Obama is first Black nominee for president of a major political party. Some people question if he is really black; NOT mainly because of biology, but because of culture (e.g. the schools he went to; the way he talks).

Racial Categories?
Reflectivity of Skin?

30

26

ABO Blood Type?

Type B

Type A

Type O

Do Races Exist?
People can be classified based on biology.
Skin color Blood Type Y-lineage or mtDNA-lineage Factor Analysis (see Thompson 2006 reading) Patrilineage (CMIO in Singapore)

Does this make Race real?

Race can be an important social reality. Race is meaningless outside of society.

Conclusions about Race

Race is not a scientifically useful scheme for categorizing human diversity. Biological traits do not cohere enough to make race useful. Mental & attitudinal traits (e.g. IQ) cohere even less. Race is a set of social and cultural categories; Race is socially constructed

Journey of Man
Why does Spencer Wells describe his research as tracing the journey of Man? What is meant by the comment in film that After 50,000 years ago . . . the form is fixed and culture takes off.? What were the major routes taken by humans out of Africa? What are the significance of the Kalahari, Australia, India and Central Asia in understanding the journey of man? How does Spencer Wells interest in and portrayal of San people in the film compare to that of Lee, Wilmsen and others we will read about in this course? Why does the Wells argue that Old fashioned concepts of race are not only socially divisive but scientifically wrong? If he is correct, what are the implications for societies like Singapore? How do we explain difference without the concept of race?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/photogalleries/journey_of_man/

Journey of MAN: Tracing the Y chromosome

Tracing Genetic Ancestry

Y-chromosome: Paternal (Father) Lineage
Only Men have Y-Chromosomes (XY vs. XX) Y-Chromosomes pass down from father to son without recombining

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): Maternal (Mother) Lineage

Everyone has mitochondria (a microscopic organism that lives in our cells) We inherit our mitochondria from our Mothers Mutations in mtDNA reveal Maternal Lineages

http://www.mygenetree.com/articles/types-of-dna-tests/mitochondrial-dna.php

Populating Land and Seas:

How People Came to Southeast Asia

~45,000 years ago

~45,000 years ago

~45,000 years ago Coastal Migration to Sundaland

SUNDALAND

To Polynesia (Fiji, Hawaii)

~45,000 years ago Coastal Migration ~5,000 years ago Out of Taiwan (Malayo-Polynesian) To Madagascar

To Micronesia

Malayo-Polynesian Expansion
Out of Taiwan ~5,000 years ago Broadest EthnoLinguistic Dispersal prior to 1500 C.E. (~500 years ago) Spread of genes, language, culture and technology BUT all together?

Malayo-Polynesian Expansion
Language and Culture Spread from Taiwan Farming Technology spread from Taiwan & Papua New Guinea? People (genes) mixed:
~20% Out of Taiwan ~20% from Coastal Migration ~60% Indigenous and other Sources

People (genes), Language, Culture and Technology do not all spread together

The Form Is Fixed . . .

2.5 Million Years Ago Homo habilis (the handy man) 1.8 Million Years Ago Homo erectus (first out of Africa)

200,000 to 50,000 years ago Modern Homo sapiens*

*Wells calls this the Great Leap Forward and First Big Bang in modern Human cultural evolution. Marking a qualitative difference between Homo sapiens and others; like Homo erectus. (pp.151)

http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/physical.htm

. . . and Culture Takes Off

Biological change in humans has been largely & literally superficial for 50,000 years. Human diversity is primarily cultural not physical or racial.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/physical.htm

All Humans have the Same Capacity for CULTURE

Culture is a cognitive capacity for concept formation. All mammals (and some other species, like birds) share this capacity. Humans just have an extremely more complex version than other species. All humans alive today; and all humans who have lived for the past 50,000 to 100,000 years have the same capacity for Culture i.e. all !Kung San, all other Africans, all Europeans, all Chinese, all Malays, all Indians . . . Everybody.

What is Evolution?
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/):
a process of change in a certain direction a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state a process of gradual and relatively peaceful social, political, and economic advance

These are all BAD definitions according to contemporary scientific research in the field of evolution!!!

Lower, Simpler, Worse to Higher, More Complex, Better

Contemporary evolutionary thought does look at emergence of complex systems out of simpler ones. But Lower to Higher and Worse to Better are value judgments, NOT science. Complexity only means more working parts; NOT better

Progress?

Survival of the Fittest

(Darwin Revisited)

Survival of the Fittest versus Survival of the Minimally Adequate

Both mean the same thing (though the second may be slightly more accurate) They have different social implications (the first has been used in justifying eugenics in ways the second might not).

Gradual and Relatively Peaceful Advance

Much evidence shows that evolution may proceed through punctuated equilibrium: periods of relative stability punctuated by relatively rapid change.

Evolutionary change may be peaceful but may be very violent.

Advance is yet another unscientific valuejudgement (i.e. advanced civilization vs. primitive civilization).

So What is Evolution?
Change in a system over time resulting in a qualitatively different system. The qualitative difference may or may not entail greater complexity.

Some Examples of Evolved Systems

Biological Species Language Bird Songs Ecosystems Settlement Patterns Modes of Production Kinship Systems

Recent Human Evolution?

Human evolution in the past 50,000 years? Biologically No (not substantially)
Biologically, humans are not qualitatively different from each other or from humans alive 50,000 years ago

Socially and Culturally Yes

Some aspects of human society and culture are qualitatively different than human society 50,000 years ago.

Agricultural Revolution* (a.k.a. Neolithic Revolution)

10,000 5,000 years ago Humans start routinely planting and harvesting food

Surplus production (especially of grains rice, wheat, etc.)

*Wells calls this the Second Big Bang (The Importance of Culture, pp.150-151)

Agricultural & Surplus provide conditions for:

1. Settled Populations 2. Specialization in non-agricultural production 3. Increased interdependence 4. Increased trade and exchange 5. Hierarchy and State Building

Complex Social Networking

Mesopotamian Ziggurat: Representation of State Power

First Urban Revolution

From 5,500 2,500 yrs ago Urban Centers appear in: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley (5,500-4,500 y.a.) China (3,800 y.a.), Central & South America (2,500 y.a.)

Second Urban Revolution

First Urban Revolution was associated with the Agricultural Revolution (about 10,000 years ago) Second Urban Revolution is associated with the Industrial Revolution (since about 200 yrs ago) Some call this Modernity

Population Growth
Population Explosion from about 1800 C.E. 10,000 y.a.: 8 million 1750 C.E.: 800 million 1820 C.E.: 1 billion 1930 C.E.: 2 billion 1960 C.E.: 3 billion 1976 C.E.: 4 billion 1987 C.E.: 5 billion 2002 C.E.: 6.3 billion

A few final thoughts on social and cultural complexity . . .

Are greater complexity and all evolutionary changes a good thing?
Militarism? Hierarchy? Patriarchy? As Wells points out, settled agriculture actually reduced quality of life for most individuals (e.g. more disease, less autonomy, warfare)

Is everything in industrial society more complex than a foraging society?

Compare Ju/hoansi knowledge and reckoning of kinship to that of the average Singaporean?