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-
Principle Key Ideas

1. Do No Harm This is a primary obligation. Anthropologists must avoid harm to dignity, as well as bodily and material
well-being, especially among vulnerable populations. This principle can supersede the goal of seeking new
knowledge, even forcing the cancellation of a project. Anthropologists must be aware of any potential
unintended consequences of their research. Archaeologists in particular must seek "conservation, protec-
tion, and stewardship" of irreplaceable objects.
2. Be Open and Honest Anthropologists muse be clear, honest, and open regarding the purpose, methods, outcomes, and sponsors
Regarding Your Own Work of their work. They muse not mislead participants, conduct secret or clandestine research, or omit signifi-
cant information chat might affect an individual's decision co participate. They muse consider the poten-
tial impact of che research and its dissemination. They should explicicly negotiate with research partners
about the ownership of and access to records. Researchers muse not plagiarize, fabricate, or falsify data
(except for che use of pseudonyms or ocher minor modifications to limit informants' exposure to risks).
3. Obtain Informed Consent Anthropologists muse obtain voluntary and informed consent of participants. They must explain their
and Necessary Permissions goals, methods, funding, and expectations regarding anonymity and credit. This principle recognizes chat
consent is dynamic and may need to be renegotiated. Signed consent forms are not automatically neces-
sary; it is che quality, not che format , oT the consent chat is important. All research permissions and per-
mits must be acquired in advance.
4. Weigh Competing Ethical Anthropologists must recognize and weigh competing obligations to participants, students, colleagues,
Obligations Due funders , etc. (Usually primary responsibilities are to participants, especially vulnerable ones .) They muse
Collaborators and Affected be able to distinguish between interdependencies of interests and also be prepared to be explicit about
Parties their ethical obligations. They muse not agree to conditions that inappropriately change che research. In a
collaboration, open negotiation is more important than credit, ownership, etc.
5. Make Your Results Anthropologists muse disseminate the results of their research in a timely fashion, including with partici-
Accessible pants. Preventing or limiting dissemination, such as co protect confidentiality, may be appropriate.
6. Protect and Preserve Your Anthropologists must ensure che integrity, preservation, and protection of their work. Unless otherwise
Records established (such as in collaborations), research belongs to the researcher. Clarity about who owns the
records of che research is critical. Priority must be given to ensure the security and confidentiality of raw
data and collected materials, and to ensure chat these not be used toward unauthorized ends. Anthropolo-
gists muse inform participants about the uses of records. Generally, che advantages of preserving data out-
weigh the potential benefits of destroying materials for the sake of confidentiality.
7. Maintain Respectful and Anthropologists must promote an equitable, supportive, and sustainable workplace environment. They
Ethical Professional must report research misconduct when they observe it, and they must not obstruct the responsible schol-
Relationships arly efforts of others. They must also provide acknowledgements and credit where they are due.
Source: Adapted from http://ethics.americananchro.o rg/category/starement/.
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same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Welsch, Robert Louis, 1950- author. I Vivanco, Luis Antonio,
1969- author.
Title: Cultural anthropology : asking questions about humanity /
Robert L. Welsch, Franklin Pierce University, Luis A. Vivanco,
University of Vermont.
Description: Second edition. I New York: Oxford University Press, (2018) I
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031718 I ISBN 9780190679026 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Ethnology.
Classification: LCC GN316 .W47 2018 I DDC 305.8-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031718

98765432
Printed by LSC Communications
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

..
 Robert L. Welsch:

To Sarah for her love and support, and to my students who have nudged me toward a broader
and more complex view of the human condition and humanity's remarkable diversity.

Luis A. Vivanco:

To Peggy, Isabel, Felipe, and Camila for their love and support, and to my students who have
taught me much about the importance of inspired teaching and learning.
 ••
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Brief 1
Anthropology:
Asking Questions About Humanity 2 ••
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Contents 2 Culture:
Giving Meaning to Human Lives 30 •••
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3 Ethnography:
Studying Culture 54 ••
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4 linguistic Anthropology:
Relating Language and Culture 80 ••
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5 Global ization and Culture:
Understanding Global Interconnections 108 ••
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6 Foodways:
Finding, Making, and Eating Food 136
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7 Environmental Anthropology:
Relating to the Natural World 164 ••
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Economics:
8 Working, Sharing, and Buying 190 ••
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Politics: ••
9 Cooperation, Conflict, and Power Relations 218
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lo Race, Ethnicity, and Class:
Understanding Identity and Social Inequality 246
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Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: ••
11 The Fluidity of Maleness and Femaleness 274
Kinship, Marriage, and the Family: •••
12 Love, Sex, and Power 300 •••
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13 Religion:
Ritual and Belief 328 ••
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14 The Body:
Biocultural Perspectives on Health and Illness 356 ••
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15 Materiality:
Constructing Social Relationships and Meanings •••
with Things 384 ••
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VII

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Contents •••
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Letter &om the Authors xxi
About the Authors xxii
Preface xxiii
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Acknowledgments xxviii •••
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Anthropology: ••
1 Asking Questions About Humanity 3 •••
How Did Anthropology Begin? 5 •••
The Disruptions of Industrialization 5 •
The Theory of Evolution 6 ••
Colonial Origins of Cultural Anthropology 7 ••
Anthropology as a Global Discipline 8 ••
What Do the Four Subfields of Anthropology Have in Common? 8 ••
Culture 10 ••
Cultural Relativism 11
Human Diversity 12
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Change 13 ••
Holism 14 ••
How Do Anthropologists Know What They Know? 14 •••
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The Scientific Method in Anthropology 16
When Anthropology Is Not a Science: Interpreting Other Cultures 19

How Do Anthropologists Put Their Knowledge to •••

Work in the World? 20 ••
Applied and Practicing Anthropology: The Fifth Subfield? 20 ••
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Putting Anthropology to Work 21

What Ethical Obligations Do Anthropologists Have? 23 ••

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Do No Harm. But Is That Enough? 23
Take Responsibility for Your Work. But How Far Does That Go? 24
Share Your Findings. But Who Should Control Those Findings? 25 ••
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X CONTENTS

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Edward Burnett Tylor and the Culture

Concept 11
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Should Anthropologists Take
Responsibility for the Influences They Have on the Societies They
Study? 26
- DOING FIELDWORK: Conducting Holistic Research with Stanley
Ulijaszek 15

Culture:
2 Giving Meaning to Human Lives 31

What Is Culture? 33
Elements of Culture 33
Defining Culture in This Book 39

If Culture Is Always Changing, Why Does It Feel So Stable? 41

Symbols 42
Values 42
Norms 42
Traditions 43

How Do Social Institutions Express Culture? 44

Culture and Social Institutions 45
American Culture Expressed Through Breakfast Cereals and Sexuality 45

Can Anybody Own Culture? 49

- CLASSIC CONTRI BUTI O NS: Franz Boas and the Relativity of Culture 40
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Understanding Holism 48
ANTHROPO LOGIST AS PRO BLEM SOLVER: Michael Ames
and Collaborative Museum Exhibits 50

3 Et hnography:
Studying Culture 55

What Distinguishes Ethnographic Fieldwork from Other Types

of Social Research? 57
Fieldwork 58
Seeing the World from "the Native's Point of View" 58
Avoiding Cultural "Tunnel Vision" 61

How Do Anthropologists Actually Do Ethnographic Fieldwork? 63

Participant Observation: Disciplined "Hanging Out" 63
Interviews: Asking and Listening 64
Scribbling: Taking Fieldnotes 66
 CONTENTS XI

What Other Methods Do Cultural Anthropologists Use? 68

Comparative Method 68
Genealogical Method 69
Life Histories 70
Ethnohistory 70
Rapid Appraisals 70
Action Research 70
Anthropology at a Distance 71
Analysis of Secondary Materials 72
Special Issues Facing Anthropologists Studying Their Own Societies 73

What Unique Ethical Dilemmas Do Ethnographers Face? 75

Protecting Informant Identity 76
Anthropology, Spying, and War 77

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Bronislaw Malinowski on the

Ethnographic Method 62
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Fieldwork in an
American Mall 59
lB1 ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Aleida Rita Ramos
and Indigenous Rights in Brazil 7 4

4 Linguistic Anthropology:
Relating Language and Culture 81
How Do Anthropologists Study Language? 83

Where Does Language Come From? 85

Evolutionary Perspectives on Language 85
Historical Linguistics: Studying Language Origins and Change 86

How Does Language Actually Work? 89

Descriptive Linguistics 89
Sociolinguistics 91

Does Language Shape How We Experience the World? 93

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 93
Hopi Notions ofTime 93
Ethnoscience and Color Terms 95
Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Correct? 96

If Language Is Always Changing, Why Does It Seem So Stable? 97

Linguistic Change, Stability, and National Policy 97
Language Stability Parallels Cultural Stability 98
xii CONTENTS

How Does Language Relate to Power and Social Inequality? 100

Languageideology 100
Gendered Language Styles 100
Language and Social Status 102
Language and the Legacy of Colonialism 10 3
Language and New Media Technologies 103

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Edward Sapir on How Language Shapes Culture 94

- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Exploring Relationships of Power
and Status in Local American Dialects 101
- DOING FIELDWORK: Helping Communities Preserve Endangered Languages 99

5 Globalization and Culture:

Understanding Global Interconnections 109
Is the World Really Getting Smaller? 112
Defining Globalization 112
The World We Live In 113

What Are _the Outcomes of Global Integration? 116

Colonialism and World Systems Theory 118
Cultures of Migration 119
Resistance at the Periphery 121
Globalization and Localization 122

Doesn't Everyone Want to Be Developed? 123

What Is Development? 124
Development Anthropology 124
Anthropology of Development 125
Change on Their Own Terms 126

If the World Is Not Becoming Homogenized, What Is Actually

Happening? 127
Cultural Convergence Theories 127
Hybridization 128

How Can Anthropologists Study Global Interconnections? 130

Defining an Object of Study 130
Multi-Sited Ethnography 132

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Eric Wolf, Culture, and the World System 120
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Understanding Global Integration
Through Commodities 117
- DOING FIELDWORK: Tracking Emergent Forms of Citizenship
with Aihwa Ong 131
 CONTENTS xiii

6 Food ways:
Finding, Making, and Eating Food 137

Why Is There No Universal Human Diet? 140

Human Dietary Adaptability and Constraints 140
Cultural Influences on Human Evolution: Digesting Milk 141

Why Do People Eat Things That Others Consider

Disgusting? 142
Foodways and Culture 142
Foodways Are Culturally Constructed 143
Foodways Communicate Symbolic Meaning 144
Foodways Mark Social Boundaries and Identities 145
Foodways Are Dynamic 145

How Do Different Societies Get Food? 148

Foraging 149
Horticulture 150
Pastoralism 151
Intensive Agriculture 153
Industrial Agriculture 153

How Are Contemporary Foodways Changing? 155

Contradictory Patterns in India's Changing Foodways 155
Industrial Foods, Sedentary Lives, and the Nutrition Transition 156
The Return of Local and Organic Foods? 159
The Biocultural Logic of Local Foodways 160

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Audrey Richards and the Study

of Foodways 143
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Food Preferences
and Gender 146
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Teresa Mares
and Migrant Farmworkers' Food Security in Vermont 157

Environmental Anthropology:
7 Relating to the Natural World 165

Do All People See Nature in the Same Way? 168

The Human-Nature Divide? 169
The Cultural Landscape 170

How Does Non,West ern Knowledge of Nature Relate to Science? 171

Ethnoscience 172
Traditional Ecological Knowledge 173
xiv CONTENTS

Are Industrialized Western Societies the Only Ones to

Conserve Nature? 175
Anthropogenic Landscapes 176
The Culture of Modern Nature Conservation 177
Is Collaborative Conservation Possible? 179

How Do Social and Cultural Factors Drive Environmental

Destruction? 180
Population and Environment 180
Ecological Footprint 181
Political Ecology 183
Anthropology Confronts Climate Change 186

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Roy Rappaport's Insider and Outsider Models 175

- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Identifying Hidden Costs 184
- DOING FIELDWORK: James Fairhead and Melissa Leach on Misreading the
African Landscape 182

Economics:
8 Working, Sharing, and Buying 191
Is Money Really the Measure of All Things? 194
Culture, Economics, and Value 195
The Neoclassical Perspective 196
The Substantivist-Formalist Debate 196
The Marxist Perspective 197
The Cultural Economics Perspective 199

How Does Culture Shape the Value and Meaning of Money? 201
The Cultural Dimensions of Money 201
Money and the Distribution of Power 202

Why Is Gift Exchange Such an Important Part of All Societies? 203

Gift Exchange and Economy: Two Classic Approaches 203
Gift Exchange in Market-Based Economies 207

What Is the Point of Owning Things? 208

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Property 208
Appropriation and Consumption 208

Does Capitalism Have Distinct Cultures? 211

Culture and Social Relations on Wall Street 212
Entrepreneurial Capitalism Among Malays 213

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Marshall Sahlins on Exchange in

Traditional Economies 198
 CONTENTS XV

- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Role of Exchange in

Managing Social Relationships 205
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Jim Yong Kim's Holistic,
On-the-Ground Approach to Fighting Poverty 214

9 Politics:
Cooperation, Conflict, and Power Relations 219
Does Every Society Have a Government? 221
The Idea of "Politics" and the Problem of Order 222
Structural-Functionalist Models of Political Stability 223
Neo-Evolutionary Models of Political Organization: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms,
and States 223
Challenges to Traditional Political Anthropology 224

What Is Political Power? 227

Defining Political Power 227
Political Power Is Action-Oriented 228
Political Power Is Structural 228
Political Power Is Gendered 229
Political Power in Non-State Societies 230
The Political Power of the Contemporary Nation-State 231

Why Do Some Societies Seem More Violent Than Others? 235

What Is Violence? 235
Violence and Culture 236
Explaining the Rise of Violence in Our Contemporary World 237

How Do People Avoid Aggression, Brutality, and War? 239

What Disputes Are "About" 239
How People Manage Disputes 240
Is Restoring Harmony Always the Best Way? 241

• CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: E. E. Evans-Pritchard on Segmentary Lineages 226

THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Power of Personal
Connections 232
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Maxwell Owusu and Democracy
in Ghana 234

Race, Ethnicity, and Class:

10 Understanding Identity and Social Inequality 247
Is Race Biological? 249
The Biological Meanings (and Meaninglessness) of "Human Races" 250
Race Does Have Biological Consequences 253
xvi CONTENTS

How Is Race Culturally Constructed? 254

The Construction of Blackness and Whiteness in Colonial Virginia and
Beyond 254
Racialization in Latin America 255
Saying "Race Is Culturally Constructed" Is Not Enough 258

How Are Other Social Classifications Naturalized? 259

Ethnicity: Common Descent 259
Class: Economic Hierarchy in Capitalist Societies 260
Caste: Moral Purity and Pollution 262

Are Prejudice and Discrimination Inevitable? 263

Understanding Prejudice 264
Discrimination, Explicit and Disguised 266
The Other Side of Discrimination: Unearned Privilege 268

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Hortense Powdermaker on Prejudice 265

- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Counting and Classifying
Race in the American Census 256
- DOI NG Fl ELDWORK: Tamie Tsuchiyama and Fieldwork in a Japanese-American
Internment Camp 269

Gender, Sex, and Sexuality:

11 The Fluidity of Maleness and Femaleness 275
How and Why Do Males and Females Differ? 277
Shifting Views on Male and Female Differences 277
Beyond the Male-Female Binary 280
Do Hormones Really Cause Gendered Differences in Behavior? 281

Why Is There Inequality Between Men and Women? 283

Debating "The Second Sex" 283
Taking Stock of the Debate 284
Reproducing Male-Female Inequalities 285

What Does It Mean to Be Neither Male Nor Female? 286

Navajo Nddleehe 287
Indian Hijras 289
Trans in the United States 290

Is Human Sexuality Just a Matter of Being Straight or Queer? 291

Cultural Perspectives on Same-Sex Sexuality 294
Controlling Sexuality 297

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Margaret Mead and the Sex/Gender

Distinction 279
 CONTENTS XVII

• THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Anthropological Perspectives

on American (Non)Acceptance of Trans People 292
• DOING FIELDWORK: Don Kulick and "Coming Out" in the Field 295

Kinship, Marriage, and the Family:

12 Love, Sex, and Power 301

What Are Families, and How Are They Structured in Different

Societies? 303
Families, Ideal and Real 304
Nuclear and Extended Families 305
Clans and Lineages 306
Kinship Terminologies 308
Cultural Patterns in Childrearing 312

How Do Families Control Power and Wealth? 313

Claiming a Bride 313
Recruiting the Kids 314
The Dowry in India: Providing a Financial Safety Net for a Bride 315
Controlling Family Wealth Through Inheritance 315

Why Do People Get Married? 316

Why People Get Married 316
Forms of Marriage 317
Sex, Love, and the Power of Families Over Young Couples 317

How Are Social and Technological Changes Reshaping How People Think
About Family? 319
International Adoptions and the Problem of Cultural Identity 320
In Vitro Fertilization 322
Surrogate Mothers and Sperm Donors 323

• CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: A. L. Kroeber on Classificatory Systems of

Relationship 310
• THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Genealogical Amnesia in Bali,
Indonesia, and the United States 311
• DOING FIELDWORK: Andrea Louie on Negotiating Identity and Culture in
International Adoptions 321

13 Religion:
Ritual and Belief 329

How Should We Understand Religion and Religious Beliefs? 331

Understanding Religion, Version 1.0: Edward Burnett Tylor and Belief in Spirits 331
 xviii CONTENTS
_.
Understanding Religion, Version 2.0: Anthony F. C. Wallace on Supernatural Beings,
Powers, and Forces 332
Understanding Religion, Version 3.0: Religion as a System of Symbols 333
Understanding Religion, Version 4.0: Religion as a System of Social Action 335
Making Sense of the Terrorist Attacks in France: Charlie Hebdo 336

What Forms Does Religion Take? 339

Clan Spirits and Clan Identities in New Guinea 339
Totemism in North America 340
Shamanism and Ecstatic Religious Experiences 340
Ritual Symbols That Reinforce a Hierarchical Social Order 342
Polytheism and Monotheism in Ancient Societies 342
World Religions and Universal Understandings of the World 343
How Does Atheism Fit in the Discussion? 344

How Do Rituals Work? 344

Magical Thought in Non-Western Cultures 344
Sympathetic Magic: The Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion 345
Magic in Western Societies 347
Rites of Passage and the Ritual Process 348

How Is Religion Linked to Political and Social Action? 348

The Rise of Fundamentalism 351
Understanding Fundamentalism 351

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sir James G. Frazer on Sympathetic

Magic 346
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Examining Rites
of Passage 349
- DOING FIELDWORK: Studying the Sikh Militants 352

14 The Body: Biocultural Perspectives on Health and Illness

How Do Biological and Cultural Factors Shape Our Bodily
Experiences? 360
357

Uniting Mind and Matter: A Biocultural Perspective 360

Culture and Mental Illness 361

What Do We Mean by Health and Illness? 363

The Individual Subjectivity of Illness 363
The "Sick Role": The Social Expectations of Illness 364

How and Why Do Doctors and Other Health Practitioners Gain Social
Authority? 366
The Disease-Illness Distinction: Professional and Popular Views of Sickness 367
The Medicalization of the Non-Medical 370
 CONTENTS XIX

How Does Healing Happen? 373

Clinical Therapeutic Processes 373
Symbolic Therapeutic Processes 373
Social Support 374
Persuasion: The Placebo Effect 374

What Can Anthropology Contribute to Addressing Global

Health Problems? 376
Understanding Global Health Problems 376
Anthropological Contributions to Tackling the International
H IV/AIDS Crisis 379

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Arthur Kleinman and the New Medical

Anthropological Methodology 369
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Emergence of New
Disease Categories 371
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Nancy Scheper-Hughes
on an Engaged Anthropology of Health 378

15 Materiality:
Constructing Social Relationships and Meanings with Things 385
Why Is the Ownership of Artifacts from Other Cultures
a Contentious Issue? 388
Questions of Ownership, Rights, and
Protection 389
Cultural Resource Management: Not Just for
Archaeologists 392

How Can Anthropology Help Us Understand

Objects? 395
The Many Dimensions of Objects 395
A Shiny New Bicycle, in Multiple Dimensions 396
The Power of Symbols 397
The Symbols of Power 398

How Do the Meanings of Things Change Over Time? 399

The Social Life of Things 400
Three Ways Objects Change Over Time 400

How Do Objects Come to Represent Our Goals

and Aspirations? 405
The Cultural Biography of Things 405
The Culture of Mass Consumption 406
How Advertisers Manipulate Our Goals and Aspirations 408
XX CONTENTS

- CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Daniel Miller on Why Some

Things Matter 407
- THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Looking at Objects from Multiple
Perspectives 403
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: John Terrell, Repatriation,
and the Maori Meeting House at The Field Museum 393

Epilogue 412
Glossary 417
References 423
Credits 437
List of Boxes 441
Index 443
Letter from the Authors
Dear Reader,

Imagine how people would react to you if the next time you went to the university
bookstore you tried to haggle at the cash register for your textbooks. Or if the next
time you caught a cold you explained to your friends that you were sick because a
jealous person had hired a witch to cast a spell on you. In both cases, a lot of people
would think you were crazy. But in many societies throughout the world, a lot of
ordinary people would consider you crazy for not haggling or for not explaining your
misfortunes as the workings of a witch.
Issues such as these raise some interesting questions. How do people come to be-
lieve such things? How are such beliefs reflected in and bolstered by individual be-
havior and social institutions in a society? Why do we believe and act in the ways we
do? Such questions are at the core of the study of culture. The idea of culture is one of
anthropology's most important contributions to knowledge.
The goal of our textbook is to help students develop the ability to pose good an-
thropological questions and begin answering them, our inspiration coming from the
expression "99% of a good answer is a good question." We present problems and
questions that students will find provocative and contemporary, and then use theo-
ries, ethnographic case studies, and applied perspectives as ways of explaining how
anthropologists have looked at these topics over time. Our approach emphasizes what
is currently known within the study of cultural anthropology and issues that continue
to challenge anthropologists.
Central to the plan of this book are three underlying principles that guide our ap-
proach to cultural anthropology:

• An emphasis on learning how to ask important and interesting anthropological

questions;
• Applying anthropology to understand and solve human problems;
• Respecting tradition, with a contemporary perspective.

Every chapter, every feature of the book has been written with these principles in
mind. We have written a book about anthropology that draws on insights anthropol-
ogists have learned during the twentieth century. At the same time, with its cutting-
edge content and pedagogy, this is a textbook that provides what students need for
the twenty-first century.
For most students, an introductory course in cultural anthropology is the only
educational exposure they will have to anthropological thinking. Most readers are
unlikely to see anthropological thinking as relevant to their own lives unless we find
a way to make it so. This book represents our endeavor to do just that.
Here's wishing you greater appreciation of cultural anthropology and a lifetime of
cultural revelations to come.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Welsch

Luis A. Vivanco

xxi
 About the Authors
Robert L. Welsch currently teaches cultural anthropology at Franklin Pierce Uni-
versity and previously taught for many years at Dartmouth College. He was affiliated
with The Field Museum in Chicago for more than two decades. Trained in the 1970s
at the University of Washington, at a time when anthropologists still focused mainly
on non-Western village-level societies, and when cultural materialist, Marxist, struc-
turalist, and interpretive theories dominated the discipline, Welsch has focused his
research on medical anthropology, religion, exchange, art, and museum studies in the
classic anthropological settings of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, and the history
of anthropology as a professional discipline. He is Associate Professor of anthropology
at Franklin Pierce University.

Luis A. Vivanco teaches cultural anthropology and global studies at the University
of Vermont, where he has won several of the university's top teaching awards. He was
trained at Princeton Uhiversity in the 1990s when post-structuralist perspectives and
"studying up" (studying powerful institutions and bureaucracies, often in Western
contexts) was becoming commonplace. Vivanco has worked in Costa Rica, Mexico,
Colombia, and the United States, studying the culture and politics of environmen-
talist social movements, the media, science, ecotourism, and urban mobility with
bicycles. He is Professor of anthropology and co-director of the Humanities Center
at the University of Vermont.

xxii
Preface
What is cultural anthropology, and how is it relevant in today's world? Answering
these core questions is the underlying goal of this book.
Cultural anthropology is the study of the social lives of communities, their belief
systems, languages, and social institutions, both past and present. It provides a frame-
work to organize the complexity of human experience and comprehend global cul-
tural processes and practices. The practice of cultural anthropology also provides
knowledge that helps solve human problems today.

Thinking Like an Anthropologist

Unlike textbooks that emphasize the memorization of facts, Cultural Anthropology:
Asking Questions About Humanity teaches students how to think anthropologically.
This approach helps students view cultural issues as an anthropologist might. In this
way, anthropological thinking is regarded as a tool for deciphering everyday experience.

Organized Around Key Questions

Inspired by the expression "99% of a good answer is a good question," each chapter
opens with a contemporary story and introduces key questions that can be answered
by cultural anthropology. Each main section of a chapter is built around these ques-
tions. Through these unique chapter-opening and follow-up questions, students will
see how classic anthropological concerns relate to contemporary situations. Addi-
tionally, this insight is reinforced by thought-provoking questions at the end of each
section and "Reviewing the Chapter" features at the end of each chapter.

Solving Human Problems

At the heart of Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity is the belief
that anthropology can make a difference in the world. We explain how anthropol-
ogists have looked at a wide range of human issues over time-mediating conflict,
alleviating social problems, contributing to new social policies-exploring examples
but also explaining challenges that still remain.

The Past Through a

Contemporary Perspective
Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity represents our effort to close
the gap between the realities of the discipline today and traditional views that are
also taught at the introductory level. We believe that there is much to be gained, for
XXIII
 xxiv PREFACE
:(

ourselves and our students, by strengthening the dialogue between generations and
sub-fields of anthropologists. We endeavor to bring classic anthropological examples,
cases, and analyses to bear on contemporary questions.

Why We Wrote This Book

In view of how most academic work and life is organized and practiced today, our
co-authorship is a somewhat unlikely collaboration. We come from different gen-
erations of anthropological training, teach at different kinds of institutions, do our
research in opposite corners of the world, and work on different topics. Given the
pressures and realities of regional and topical specialization within the discipline,
we might not even run into each other at conferences, much less have reason to
work together.
But as teachers concerned with sharing the excitement of anthropological find-
ings and thinking with our undergraduate students, we have a lot in common. For
one thing, we believe rhat there is strength in diversity, and we think our differing
backgrounds are more representative of the breadth of the discipline and who ac-
tually teaches introductory courses in cultural anthropology. Because both of us
feel that anthropological thinking is for everyone, we wrote this textbook to appeal
to instructors who blend traditional and contemporary views of anthropology and
teach students of many cultural backgrounds. We do this by treating the learn-
ing experience as a process of actively asking questions about real-world problems
and applying theoretical insights to understand them, as nearly all anthropologists
actually do.

Thematic Boxes
Four types of thematic boxes are used throughout the book to highlight key themes
and principles. Classic Contributions boxes consider the history of anthropological
thought on a particular topic and provide follow-up questions to promote critical
analysis. Thinking Like an Anthropologist boxes invite students to exercise their own
anthropological IQ by examining concrete ethnographic situations and formulating
the types of questions that anthropologists typically ask. Doing Fieldwork boxes draw
upon actual field projects to explore the special methods anthropologists have used
to address specific questions and problems. Finally, Anthropologist as Problem Solver
boxes describe cases in which anthropologists have applied disciplinary insights and
methods to help alleviate social problems, mediate conflicts, and (re)define policy
debates. These cases also provide insights into careers that take advantage of an an-
thropology background.

New in This Edition

Building on the successful approach established in the first edition, the second edi-
tion of Cultural Anthropology features a number of changes designed to keep the
material up to date, relevant, and engaging for students. The following are the most
visible changes.
 PREFACE XXV

• A new chapter-"The Body" (Chapter 14)-that explores biocultural per-

spectives on health and illness. Integrating new material with the most signifi-
cant points from the first edition's chapters on biocultural concerns and medical
anthropology, this new chapter shows students how the cultures in which we
live shape our understandings and experiences of our bodies and minds, and
our definitions and reactions to health and illness.
• A thoroughly revised chapter-"Materiality" (Chapter 15)-on material
culture. Expanding on the discussion of material objects in the first edition,
this chapter broadens its perspective to explore how and why objects have mean-
ing and power to us in various cultural contexts, and it features a new section
that examines issues related to the ownership of artifacts from other cultures.
• New maps showing the locations of peoples and places discussed in each
chapter. Included near the beginning of each chapter, these new maps add
context by helping students visualize where in the world the people and places
under discussion are located.
• A new map that highlights examples related to the processes and outcomes
of globalization. Located on the inside of the back cover, this map helps stu-
dents quickly identify major discussions related to anthropologists' interest in
how culture interacts with globalization processes around the world.
• A new epilogue. The final section in this book draws together important themes
that run throughout the chapters-including the importance of appreciating
human diversity, embracing a holistic perspective, and rejecting ethnocentrism-to
help students recognize the many ways in which studying cultural anthropology
can enrich their understanding of their world.
• New chapter-opening stories drawn from real life. New case studies explor-
ing the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis (Chapter 5), the impact of the 2008 global
financial crisis on foodways in Greece (Chapter 6), responses to climate change
in the Marshall Islands (Chapter 7), the importance of social networks to entre-
preneurs in China (Chapter 8), the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the
fear of the disease becoming widespread in the United States (Chapter 14), and
the controversy surrounding the Into the Heart ofAfrica art exhibit in Canada
(Chapter 15) help students relate major themes in each chapter to people's real-
world experiences.
• New thematic boxes. New boxes draw students' attention to a wide variety
of concerns that are important to American anthropologists today, including
the social impacts of anthropological research (Chapter 1), collaborating with
communities to preserve endangered languages (Chapter 4), tracking emergent
forms of citizenship (Chapter 5), holistic approaches to fighting poverty (Chap-
ter 8), (non)acceptance of trans people in America (Chapter 11), negotiating
identity and culture in international adoptions (Chapter 12), and building and
maintaining relationships with peoples whose cultural objects are on display in
Western museums (Chapter 15).

In addition to these changes, we have also added new coverage of key topics in
various chapters to ensure students receive a well-rounded introduction to cultural
anthropology. These additions include the following:

• Chapter 1 features an expanded discussion of ethical obligations anthro-

pologists must consider when conducting their research and sharing their
findings.
• Chapter 2 provides a revised definition of culture as well as an expanded expla-
nation of the authors' approach to culture in this book.
xxvi PREFACE

• Chapter 3 includes a restructured and expanded introduction to the skills and

techniques anthropologists draw on when conducting fieldwork.
• Chapter 4 contains new sections on how anthropologists study language and
the effects of new media technologies on language use.
• Chapter 5 provides new coverage of why people migrate and how migrants
build and make use of social networks.
• Chapter 7 includes a new discussion of anthropologists' interest in the social
dimensions of climate change.
• Chapter 8 features new explorations of cross-cultural perspectives on the signif-
icance of debt and the concepts of property and ownership.
• Chapter 11 features a thoroughly revised approach to gender, sex, and sexuality,
focusing on the fluidity of maleness and femaleness .
• Chapter 12 includes new material on the study of cultural patterns in childrear-
ing, and on international adoptions and the problem of cultural identity.
• Chapter 13 provides an in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding the 2015
attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, pointing out that such attacks
are not merely the result of a "clash of civilizations."
'

Ensuring Student Success

Oxford University Press offers students and instructors a comprehensive ancillary
package for Cultural Anthropology.

For Students
Companion Website
Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity is also accompanied by an
extensive companion website (www.oup.com/us/welsch), which includes materials
to help students with every aspect of the course. For each chapter, you will find:

• Learning objectives
• Chapter outlines to help guide students through the chapter material
• Interactive exercises to engage students in fieldwork experience
• A glossary of key terms as a helpful reference for key concepts
• Flashcards to assist students in studying and reviewing key terms
• Additional links to websites providing supplemental information on the topics
and ideas covered in the chapter
• Additional recommended readings that delve more deeply into the topics dis-
cussed in the chapter and that broaden student conceptions of what one can do
with an anthropology degree
• Self-grading review questions to help students review the material and assess
their own comprehension

For Instructors
Oxford University Press is proud to offer a complete and authoritative supplements
package for both instructors and students. When you adopt Cultural Anthropology:
Asking Questions About Humanity, you will have access to a truly exemplary set of
ancillary materials to enhance teaching and support students' learning.
The Ancillary Resource Center (ARC) at www.oup-arc.com is a convenient,
instructor-focused single destination for resources to accompany CulturalAnthropology:
 PREFACE xx vii

A sking Questions About Humanity. Accessed online through individual user accounts,
the ARC provides instructors with access to up-to-date ancillaries while guaranteeing
the security of grade-significant resources. In addition, it allows OUP to keep instruc-
tors informed when new content becomes available.
The ARC for Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity includes:

• Digital copy of the Instructor's Manual, which includes:

* A statement from the authors describing their pedagogical vision, clarify-
ing the question-centered pedagogy, and offering advice on how to promote
active learning in the classroom
* Chapter outlines
* Discussions of key controversies, which expand on the issues highlighted in the
"What We Know" and "To Be Resolved" columns of the chapter-review tables
* Key terms and definitions and summaries
* Lecture outlines
* PowerPoint slides
* Web links and blogroll
* In-class activities and project assignments
* Suggestions for class discussion
* Additional readings
* Supplements to each box figure
* Image bank
• A computerized Test Bank written by the authors and organized around prin-
ciples from Bloom's Taxonomy for cognitive learning, including:
* Multiple-choice questions
* True/false questions
* Fill-in-the-blank questions
* Essay prompts
• Ethnographic film clips with supporting background and discussion questions
for each clip, written by the authors, to explore and reinforce themes in the book.

Instructors may also order a complete Course Management cartridge. Contact your
Oxford University Press Sales Representative for more information.
c-·

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the many individuals who have supported this project
from its inception to the final stages of production. The impetus for this book lies with
Kevin Witt, who had an inspired vision for a new kind of anthropology textbook and
the foresight to identify and support the team to write it. In its early stages while this
project was with McGraw-Hill, development editors Pam Gordon, Nanette Giles, Susan
Messer, and Phil Herbst each played an important role in shaping the manuscript.
At Oxford University Press, Sherith Pankratz, our acquisitions editor, and our two
development editors, Thom Holmes (first edition) and Janice Evans (second edition),
have managed this project and helped us further refine our vision with exceptional
care and expertise. We would also like to thank associate editor Meredith Keffer for
her extensive support, especially with the visual program. In addition, we would like
to thank editorial assistant Larissa Albright, advertising and promotion product asso-
ciate Marissa Dadiw, associate editor Andrew Heaton, editorial assistant Jacqueline
Levine, and assistant editor Paul Longo for their helpful feedback on the headings.
We would also like to thank permissions coordinator Cailen Swain. In production, we
would like to thank designer Michele Laseau, production editor Lisa Ball, copy editor
Gail Cooper, and proofreader Marianne Tatom. And last, but by no means least, we
would like to acknowledge and thank our marketing team, including Tony Mathias,
Frank Mortimer, Jordan Wright, and the other hardworking men and women who are
marketing this book and getting it into the hands of the students for whom we wrote
it. Although the sales and marketing teams often go unsung and unacknowledged by
many authors, we know their work is critical to the success of a project like this one.
It is important to acknowledge and thank Agustfn Fuentes of the University of
Notre Dame, co-author of our general anthropology textbook, Anthropology: Asking
Questions about Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture (published by OUP), who has
helped shape our thinking on numerous dimensions of cultural anthropology.
We are grateful to Franklin Pierce University, the University ofVermont, Dartmouth
College, the Hood Museum of Art, The Field Museum, the U.S. National Museum
of Natural History (a branch of the Smithsonian Institution), the American Museum of
Natural History in New York, the University of Costa Rica, and the National Uni-
versity of Colombia, all of whom have provided support in diverse ways. In particular,
we appreciate the support and encouragement of Kim Mooney, President of Franklin
Pierce University; Andrew Card, former President of Franklin Pierce University;
Lynne H. Rosansky, Provost at Franklin Pierce; Kerry McKeever and Paul Kotila,
Academic Deans at Franklin Pierce; and Jean Dawson and John Villemaire, Division
Chairs of the Social and Behavioral Sciences at Franklin Pierce. At the University of
Vermont, the Provost's Office and the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences have provided important institutional support for this project.
Numerous librarians aided the development of this project at various stages, includ-
ing Paul Campbell, Gladys Nielson, Amy Horton, Paul Jenkins, Leslie Inglis, Wendy
O'Brien, Eric Shannon, Melissa Stearns, Lisa Wiley, and Jill Wixom at Frank S. DiPi-
etro Library at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire; Laurie Kutner
at Bailey-Howe Library at the University of Vermont; Amy Witzel, Fran Oscadal, and
John Cocklin at Baker Library at Dartmouth College; and staff of Alden Library at
Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
We want to especially thank our colleagues Kirk M. and Karen Endicott, Robert
G. Goodby, Debra S. Picchi, Douglas Challenger, John E. Terrell, Robert J. Gordon,
and Richard Robbins, all of whom have offered support, encouragement, and in-
xxviii sights throughout the various phases of writing this book. Many other colleagues
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxix

have contributed to this project in direct and indirect ways, including shaping our
thinking about various anthropological topics, sparking ideas and being a sounding
board about matters of content and pedagogy, and reading and responding to draft
chapters. These colleagues include: at Dartmouth College, Hoyt Alverson, Sienna R.
Craig, Brian Didier, Nathaniel Dominy, Seth Dobson, Dale F. Eickelman, Kathy
Hart, Sergei Kan, Brian Kennedy, Kenneth Korey, Joel Levine, Deborah Nichols,
and John Watanabe; and at the University of Vermont, Ben Eastman, Scott Van
Keuren, Jennifer Dickinson, Teresa Mares, and Amy Trubek.
Several students at Franklin Pierce, the University of Vermont, and Dartmouth
College have helped with research during the various stages of writing and rewriting.
These include: Kristin Amato, Cory Atkinson, D. Wes Beattie, Kyle Brooks, Justyn
Christophers, Michael Crossman, Matthew Dee, Brian Dunleavy, Catherine Durickas,
Nathan Hedges, Kelsey Keegan, Saige Kemelis, Brian Kirn, Cooper Leatherwood,
Adam Levine, Kevin Mooiman, Taber Morrell, Rebecca Nystrom, Shannon Perry,
Keenan Phillips, Adam Slutsky, Scott Spolidoro, and Michael Surrett.
We want to thank our students at Franklin Pierce University and the University of
Vermont who have test-driven both early drafts of this book as well as the first edi-
tion. Their feedback and insights have been invaluable. But in particular we want to
thank Courtney Cummings, Kimberly Dupuis, John M . Gass, Kendra Lajoie, Holly
M artz, Scott M. McDonald, Lindsay Mullen, and Nick Rodriguez, all of whom were
students in AN400 at Franklin Pierce during the fall semester of 2012. Having used
drafts of the text in their Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class, they reviewed
all of the chapters in the book in focus-group fashion and offered useful insights
about examples and writing in each chapter.
Last but certainly not least, we would like to thank our families for all the critical
emotional and logistical support they have provided over the years to ensure the suc-
cess of this project. Luis's children, Isabel, Felipe, and Camila, have aided us in various
ways, from prodding questions about the book and anthropology to, at times, comic
relief when we needed it. Our wives, Sarah L. Welsch and Peggy O 'Neill-Vivanco,
deserve our deepest gratitude for all their wise counsel over the many years this book
was in development, and their ongoing support as we continue to improve it.

Manuscript Reviewers
We have greatly benefited from the perceptive comments and suggestions of the many
talented scholars and instructors who reviewed the manuscript of the second edition
of Cultural Anthropology. Their insight and suggestions contributed immensely to the
published work.

Tara D eubel Melanie A. Medeiros Michael E. Surrett

University ofSouth Florida State University ofNew York at Geneseo State University ofNew York College
at Buffalo
Christine Dixon Andrew Nelson
Green River College University ofNorth Texas David Syring
University ofMinnesota Duluth
Patrick Lathrop Donald Pollock
Laura M. Tilghman
Marist College State University ofNew York at Buffalo
Plymouth State University
Ida Fadzillah Leggett Leila Rodriguez Okori Uneke
Middle Tennessee State University University of Cincinnati Winston-Salem State University
D avid McCaig Kathleen M. Saunders Katherine Wahlberg
Phoenix College Western Washington University Florida Gulf Coast University
Another random document with
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are set forth. In the opinion of the present writer that is not a
satisfactory account of the part played by the Chronicler. It does not
make sufficient allowance for the singular homogeneity of style and
purpose throughout the book. Torrey’s work is of value as a warning
against the danger and difficulty of the analysis which Benzinger and
Kittel have essayed. Frequently the points which are adduced as
evidence for distinction of sources are too few or too subjective to
provide adequate ground for the analysis—see the detailed
examination of the Hebrew provided in the edition by Curtis. But,
whilst it should be admitted that this uniformity of style carries great
weight and must receive careful consideration, it does not, we think,
follow that Torrey’s sweeping conclusion is correct, and that behind
the non-canonical passages there is nothing save the imagination of
the Chronicler. To begin with, if that were true, the Chronicler would
be unparalleled amongst ancient historians. The originality of ancient
chroniclers was shown in the manner in which they combined,
modified, and embellished the nucleus given by tradition, but they
did not invent de novo to the extent required by this theory. Even if
that be an over-statement, we can at least assert that they did not
shut themselves up to their own imagination, if any traditions relating
to their subject were current. On the contrary, they made use of all
such available material, good or bad. And it is quite incredible that
historical interest in Jerusalem regarding the old days of the
Kingdom was confined to the compilation of Kings until suddenly the
Chronicler produced this startlingly different account. There is very
strong probability that the version given in Chronicles has a long
chain of antecedents behind it. For consider, further, the general
situation. The vicissitudes of time and fortune had caused great
changes in the population of Jerusalem, but none that made
absolutely impossible the continuance of traditions not represented
or only partially represented by the narratives crystallised in Kings.
Thus “we may safely assume that the overthrow of Edom (2
Chronicles xxv. 5‒13) and the leprosy of Uzziah (2 Chronicles xxvi.
16‒23) were once told more fully than in the brief verses of 2 Kings
xiv. 7, xv. 5. We may surely allow links between the impression left
upon tradition by these events and the stories that have been
preserved by Chronicles” (S. A. Cook, in the Journal of Theological
Studies, xii. 470). It is now generally recognised that the
depopulation of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. was not nearly so complete as
was once thought, and considerable continuity of tradition may have
been maintained. Moreover, the influx of South Judean families in
the exilic and post-exilic times must have meant an extension of
popular tales concerning Judean affairs. It is therefore significant that
the South Judean “strain” is a marked feature in the Chronicler’s
history. Again, it is practically certain that Levitical predecessors of
the Chronicler felt somewhat the same interest as he displays in the
origins of their order and institutions. Are we to suppose that they
made no attempts to gratify their curiosity, or to find historical
grounds for their claims? Surely they would seize with interest on
any and all current traditions, and would be constantly collating them
with the well-known version in Kings, adding whatever they could to
the total, and no doubt tending to retell the whole—at least the
popular and edifying portions of the narrative—in terms more
agreeable to the ideas and practices of their own time. We cannot
suppose that the Chronicler was the first and only Levite who
attempted to satisfy the obvious need (§ 6) for an orthodox
ecclesiastical version of Judean history. Features of the genealogies,
and in particular the Levitical data, suggest the existence of
statistical records, if of nothing more. One further small but
interesting point deserves mention. In 1 Chronicles iv. 9, vii. 23, xii.
18 there are sayings which cannot possibly originate with the
Chronicler, for they are written in an archaic style utterly foreign to
his manner of speech. Of these xii. 18 is poetical in form, while the
other two are sentences of a type made familiar to us by early
passages in Genesis. These verses, then, are certainly not the
invention of the Chronicler, and, even if they are only isolated
fragments, their existence is at least significant. In fine, the natural
supposition is that in post-exilic Jerusalem there were various
traditions which were drawn partly, but not exclusively, from the
particular recension of history preserved in Kings, and which
continued to develop in form and perhaps in content after the “Kings”
recension was relatively fixed. Whether these developments of
traditions, canonical and otherwise, preserve any genuine history or
not (§ 7), their existence in popular and priestly circles of the
Chronicler’s time is, we think, almost certain; and it is quite certain
that, if they were in existence, the Chronicler would utilise them. On
this view, then, the sources of the Chronicler were:

(a) The canonical books.

(b) Variant forms of a few narratives in Kings; traditions of South

Judean origin, recording movements of population and hostilities
with southern tribes; popular midrashic tales; family statistics and
genealogies, particularly of the Priests and Levites; records or
traditions relating to the Temple, the fortifications of Jerusalem, and
the repair of certain Judean towns—some of this material being
really independent of the traditions in Kings.

The problem raised by the stylistic uniformity of the new

passages in Chronicles must now be considered. Probably the
material indicated in (b) above may at times have crystallised into
definite midrashic writings. (Thus, when the Chronicler speaks of the
“History of the Kings of Judah and Israel,” we may believe that he
refers to some such document, one that was either extant in his own
age or was generally known to have existed.) Probably, however, it
was also to a large extent in a fluid oral condition—matter of
common knowledge and of common talk in Levitical circles. Certainly
it is legitimate to think that with this material, written or oral or both,
the Chronicler was intensely familiar; and that he could easily have
related it in his own words. We may surmise that his procedure was
somewhat as follows: He made the well-known narrative of Samuel‒
Kings the basis of his version, altering its words as little as possible,
yet, if necessary, exercising great freedom, so as to make it fully
orthodox in accordance with the ecclesiastical standards of his time.
Into this groundwork he wove with admirable skill new material of
fact and narrative, drawn from the sources set forth in (b) above; and
all this new material he selected, revised, and related in such a
fashion as might best serve the very definite religious, moral, and
ecclesiastical ends (§ 6) which his history was designed to meet. It
passed, in fact, freely and effectively through the medium of his
mind; so that it appears, if not wholly in his own words, at least
coloured by his distinctive turns of speech. A second way in which
we can explain the uniform style of the new matter in Chronicles and
escape the conclusion that it has all been derived from the
imagination of the Chronicler is to suppose that for some time past it
had been transmitted through the talk or writing of Levites like-
minded with the Chronicler and sharing the same ecclesiastical
fashion of speech; that, in fact, much of Chronicles was built up by
chroniclers before the Chronicler. There may be some truth in this
argument; for, as was said above, the Chronicler was surely not the
first Levite to feel the need for an “orthodox” history. The two
explanations can be regarded as supplementary rather than
alternative; but the present writer considers that stress should be laid
chiefly upon the first.

This investigation of the structure of Chronicles yields the

following general result. The position here taken is opposed to the
theory that the whole of the new material was the product of the
Chronicler’s imagination and literary skill. It leaves open the valuable
possibility that the new material may preserve historical facts and
traditions independent of those in Kings. On the other hand it admits
that the Chronicler has had an important share in shaping the
material and that (a) the consequent uniformity of style renders any
attempt to analyse the new matter into its proximate sources
precarious (observe, however, that the immediate history of the
sources behind the new material is not of such primary importance to
us as is the fundamental conclusion that there were such sources):
and (b) whilst each part of the new matter is entitled to a thorough
examination on its merits, great care must be exercised to determine
exactly what part the Chronicler has played. Thus it is probable that
some features of the narratives in Chronicles may originate with the
Chronicler: that is only what we should expect from a man able to
plan and carry through a work so clearly intentioned and on such a
large scale as Chronicles‒Ezra‒Nehemiah. He may have told his
tale not only in his own words, but in his own way. We must be on
our guard therefore to make allowance for the strength of his
convictions, for his conception of the course of history and for the
intentions with which he wrote. How far these considerations affect
the historical value of his work will be dealt with below (§ 7).

This discussion of the sources may conclude by emphasising the

remarkable skill of the composition. The passages taken direct from
the earlier Scriptures have been so admirably combined with the
new material that the component parts have been wrought into a real
unity. It is evident we are dealing with an author of strong personality.
What the aim and purpose of this writer were we may now proceed
to consider.

§ 6. The Purpose and Method of the

Chronicler
(1) In the time of the Chronicler the position of the orthodox party
in Jerusalem, whose interests, civil and ecclesiastical, were bound
up with the worship at the Temple on Mt Zion, was one of
considerable difficulty. During the Greek period (from 330 b.c.) the
mental horizon of the Jews in Jerusalem had expanded even more
than under the Persian rule (538‒330 b.c.). They were now able to
realise their isolation and political insignificance, whilst at the same
time the communities of Jews scattered in all the leading countries of
the ancient world were rapidly growing in size, influence, and in
cosmopolitan outlook. Even the religious supremacy of Jerusalem
was threatened. We now know that there was an important Jewish
Temple at Elephantine in Egypt, which the Jewish community there
was eager to maintain. But far more serious was the Samaritan
schism and the Temple to Jehovah erected by them on Mt Gerizim.
We can well imagine that a rival Temple on Palestinian soil claiming,
no doubt with some show of justice, that there were true Levitical
families among its priests, that its ritual was correct and its
observance of the Law every whit as sound as that in Jerusalem,
was a matter of vital importance to the ecclesiastical orders at
Jerusalem. Undoubtedly the feud was bitter in the Chronicler’s time;
and there are strong grounds for holding that Chronicles‒Ezra‒
Nehemiah were written with the immediate object of confuting the
ecclesiastical pretensions of the Samaritans and of showing that in
Jerusalem only ought men to worship. Certainly Chronicles is well
adapted for that end. A virulent polemic would have been discounted
as a party document. The Chronicler instead has skilfully retold the
story of the past, so as to leave two main impressions. In the first
place, by ignoring the affairs of the Northern Kingdom, save where
he intimates that its people were religiously degenerate from the
start (see 2 Chronicles xiii. 5‒12), that they were grievously
decimated by a great disaster (2 Chronicles xiii. 13‒17), and that in
general their attitude on the subject of mixed marriages was
scandalously lax (see Ezra and Nehemiah), he has subtly but
forcibly created the impression that the Samaritans were little better
than “a heterogeneous mob of heathen.” Secondly and chiefly, his
history was intended to show that Jerusalem, with its Temple on Mt
Zion, is the one place which Jehovah has chosen, and where He has
set His Name. There alone was His worship properly and legitimately
established, and there alone can it still be carried on. Jerusalem too,
like Samaria, had suffered for its sins, but the disaster of the exile,
the break in the succession, was repaired, he argues, through the
return from Babylonia of that company of Israelites of pure descent
whom Ezra led back: the genealogies which are so noticeable a
feature of Chronicles‒Ezra‒Nehemiah are given as irrefutable proof
that the Jerusalem community of the Chronicler’s day—Levites and
laymen—were the true and only descendants of the nation of old. It
followed that by them alone could the worship of Jehovah be lawfully
conducted.

It seems very probable that the Chronicler’s work was directed

specifically against the Samaritans. But in any case it is undoubtedly
true that the essential purpose of the book was to vindicate the
religious supremacy of Jerusalem, and to exalt the honour and the
privileges of its priesthood and its Temple.
 (2) In seeking to achieve this aim, the Chronicler inevitably dwelt
upon those aspects of life and thought in which he specially
believed. Thus we may distinguish various features of his work which
subserve the main purpose:

(a) He was anxious, for instance, to uphold the political

supremacy of Jerusalem, no easy matter in his time. To Jews of the
Greek period, fully aware of the pomp and power of heathen states,
the achievements of even such national heroes as David or Solomon
probably seemed pale and insignificant, as they are related in
Samuel or Kings. In order to create a due sense of their importance,
and to mitigate the depressing effects of Jerusalem’s present
impotence, the Chronicler retold the glories of the past in terms
commensurate with the notions of the present. To this end he
idealised the great men of Israel. Thus the life of David is related by
him as a career of almost unbroken success and of consistent piety.
Thus also the sacrifices offered by Solomon at the dedication of the
Temple are said to have been on a scale that might well have
astonished Alexander the Great.

(b) Chiefly, however, the Chronicler was concerned with the

religious pre-eminence of Jerusalem. He delights therefore in
magnifying to the full the glories of the Temple, its ritual and its
officers. It is quite clear that his interest in this theme is far wider
than any immediate polemical aim, and the subject deserves careful
attention. When he describes the Temple of Solomon in terms of
surpassing splendour, he is not merely seeking to cast down the
pride of Samaritan rivals, he is also gratifying the longings of his own
heart—how poor in comparison the outward form of the Temple he
himself served so faithfully! Perhaps also he hoped thereby to excite
his own love for its well-being among the less ardent of his brethren.
More important was the question of ritual and the Law. We have
already said (p. xx) that the Chronicler lived at a time when the
Pentateuch had for a long while existed in its final form, when the
ritual and Law of Israel were regulated in accordance with its fully
elaborated precepts; the whole complex system being supposed to
have been imparted to Israel by Moses. Now, when the Chronicler
and others like him turned to the historical records of their people,
the books of Samuel and Kings, they found many things which must
have sorely puzzled them. For those records constantly relate events
in ways which run counter to the provisions of the completed
Pentateuch, sometimes ignoring, sometimes contradicting and
breaking, its laws and practices. It is utterly unlikely that he and his
fellows were aware that those books reflect the customs of an earlier
period; so that in altering their narrative (as he does) he was not
conscious of falsifying history. Even if he was, we must not judge his
conduct by the opinions of our own time, but remember that “he lived
in an age when certain accepted theories were regarded as more
authentic than recorded facts” (Kent, Student’s O.T. vol. ii. 23). It is
fair, however, to believe that in the inconsistencies of the older
histories with the observances of his own day he saw only an
astonishing ignorance or carelessness in matters of the Law on the
part of the older writers—a state of affairs which called loudly for
correction. For the good name of David and Solomon, for the honour
of the pious Kings of Judah, as well as for the edification of his
contemporaries (and, maybe, for the confusion of the Samaritans),
such flagrant blemishes had to be removed. And in Chronicles he
has produced a thorough revision of the history of Judah in
accordance with the principles and provisions of the completed
Pentateuch. Throughout the entire work this aim is consistently
pursued. It must be therefore considered a main feature of the
Chronicler’s purpose. The alterations of the text of Samuel‒Kings
which he has made on this account will be so frequently pointed out
in the notes that here one simple example will suffice. In 2 Samuel
viii. 18 it is said, “And the sons of David were priests.” Since in the
Chronicler’s time it was unthinkable that any could be priests save
members of Levitical families, this statement was corrected to read,
“And the sons of David were chief about the king” (1 Chronicles xviii.
17). Finally, in the officials of the Temple—Priests and Levites—the
Chronicler manifests the deepest interest. Throughout his narrative
he is vigilant to exalt the honour and privileges of those classes. In
particular, he brings the guilds of Levitical singers into prominence so
frequently that it is generally supposed he was himself a member of
that order of Levites.
 These remarks on the principal features of the book indicate in
general the purpose and method of the Chronicler. Yet in a sense
they do so externally, and behind all else, as the animating force,
there lies the Chronicler’s religious faith, his zeal for God. That truly
is his ultimate motive; but it will be convenient to reserve what may
be said concerning it until a later stage (§ 8).
 § 7. The Historical Value of Chronicles
Until recent times the burning question in the exposition of
Chronicles has been the problem of reconciling its statements with
those in Samuel‒Kings, finding explanations for the inconsistencies,
and combining the additional matter given in Chronicles so as to
form one harmonious narrative. So baffling was the task that even
the Talmudists, masters in the arts of subtle exegesis, doubted the
accuracy of Chronicles, and were inclined to treat it, not as an
authority for the history, but as a book for homiletic interpretation
(see references in the Jewish Encyclopedia iv. 60). As soon as the
character and purpose of the book, the circumstances and opinions
of the writer, are understood, the demand for harmonising the variant
accounts at all costs is seen to be mistaken, and the exposition of
Chronicles is thereby freed from a burden by which it has been
sorely hampered. The question of the historical value of its narratives
remains one of great importance, but on literary and scientific, not on
religious, grounds (compare p. xxx).

It will make for clearness if we approach the subject by

considering first (A) the direct historical value of Chronicles, i.e. its
worth as a history of Judah; and secondly (B) its indirect historical
value as a work of the period to which we have assigned its
composition, 300‒250 b.c. Under (A) our discussion may
conveniently be divided into a consideration of: (I) those parts which
reproduce or are apparently based on Samuel‒Kings; (II) the
material wholly or apparently independent of canonical Scripture.

A.

Direct Value.
 (I) If the Chronicler’s version of the history was to gain
acceptance at all, it was necessary to make the older well-known
histories the basis of his work. And indeed he himself no doubt
conceived his version not as contradictory of the older narratives but
only as a more careful account of the history of Judah, paying
adequate attention to the religious affairs in which he was specially
interested. Hence, wherever the text of Samuel and Kings was
suitable for his purpose he reproduced it exactly ¹: an example is 2
Chronicles xviii. 3‒34 = 1 Kings xviii. 4‒35. The historical value of
passages which are merely transcriptions must be discussed not
here but in their original setting: obviously their value is that which
they possess there—neither more nor less. We proceed therefore to
consider the changes introduced by the Chronicler in using canonical
sources. They are of various kinds:

¹ It must not be assumed that where the text of Chronicles and

Samuel‒Kings now coincides, it has done so always. That
conclusion is only generally true. Sometimes, it seems, the
original text of Chronicles was altered to conform more
closely with Kings, and vice versa the present text of Kings is
sometimes the result of assimilation to Chronicles
Unfortunately the evidence of the extant Greek versions
(§ 10) is quite insufficient to tell us how far the present text of
Chronicles has been modified by this assimilating tendency,
except in the last two chapters of 2 Chronicles where the
evidence of the Greek is peculiarly full. It is clear, however,
that some by no means unimportant changes have taken
place in the course of transmission: see § 10, and the
remarks on p. xxii.

(i) A great number of minor alterations have been made,

conforming the older material to the Chronicler’s point of view. A few
instances may be given: 2 Samuel v. 21, “And [the Philistines] left
their images there, and David and his men took them away” = 1
Chronicles xiv. 12, “And [the Philistines] left their gods there, and
David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire.” Again, 2
Samuel xxiv. 1, “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against
Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel”
= 1 Chronicles xxi. 1, “And Satan stood up against Israel and moved
David to number Israel.” Again, 1 Kings ix. 12, “The cities which
Solomon had given him (Huram)” = 2 Chronicles viii. 2, “The cities
which Huram had given to Solomon.” Compare further 2 Samuel viii.
18 = 1 Chronicles xviii. 17 (quoted above, p. xli f.); 2 Samuel vi. 12 =
1 Chronicles xiii. 13; 2 Samuel xxiv. 24 = 1 Chronicles xxi. 25.

(ii) In some instances the alterations are so many or of so radical

a nature that the whole tenour of the passage has been transformed
—e.g. the conspiracy against Athaliah which resulted in the
coronation of the youthful king Joash (2 Kings xi.) is rewritten (2
Chronicles xxiii.) to agree with the usages of the Temple in the
Chronicler’s time. Similarly in the passage which follows (2
Chronicles xxiv. 4‒14), which is certainly based on 2 Kings xii. 4‒16,
only some 30 words of the original have been kept, so freely has it
been revised. Again, the account of the destruction of Jehoshaphat’s
fleet (1 Kings xxii. 48 f.) is remarkably altered in 2 Chronicles xx. 35‒
37. Compare further 1 Chronicles xv. 25‒28 = 2 Samuel vi. 12‒15; 2
Chronicles xxii. 7‒9 = 2 Kings ix. 27, 28; 2 Chronicles xxxii. 1‒23 = 2
Kings xviii. 13‒xix. 37 (a free abridgment).

(iii) Another noteworthy feature in the Chronicler’s treatment of

the canonical sources is his omissions. These call for mention here
because they are not only significant of his feelings and principles,
but they also have an immense effect on the impression conveyed
by his narrative as compared with that of his source. Not a word, for
instance, is said that would detract from the picture of David as the
man after God’s heart and the ideal monarch of Israel. The perils of
his youth, Saul’s enmity and the long struggle against Ishbosheth are
omitted ¹. His murder of Uriah and the disastrous rebellion of
Absalom are ignored; but the result is a David very different from the
great yet sometimes erring monarch depicted in Samuel (see the
head-note to 1 Chronicles xxviii.). Another significant omission is 2
Kings xviii. 14‒16, Hezekiah’s payment of tribute to Babylonia, a
tradition which doubtless seemed to the Chronicler a sign of
weakness and lack of faith incredible in a king so pious and
successful. Above all, we notice the omission of the affairs of the
Northern Kingdom, except for a few derogatory notices. The
consequence is that if Chronicles stood alone, our conception of the
relative importance of Judah as compared with Israel would be very
far removed from the actual facts. It is a simple matter to see how
imperative it is that the impression given by Chronicles should here
be corrected by the records in Kings, and the student will find it
instructive to consider the point with some care.

¹ Such omissions are very skilfully managed by the Chronicler.

Even so, they generally entail some abrupt transition or
obscurity, as in the present instance for which see the note
on 1 Chronicles xi. 1. Here the cause of the obscurity can be
shown by direct comparison of the earlier history in Samuel.
Mark how usefully Chronicles thus demonstrates the
legitimacy of the argument that similar difficulties elsewhere
in the Old Testament are perhaps due to a similar cause,
although the earlier source may not be extant to prove that
the conjecture is correct.

The conclusions to be drawn from the above are clear. First, in

passages of the type instanced in (ii) above, where the differences
between Kings and Chronicles are considerable and not confined to
changes made on transparently religious grounds, the possibility that
we have to do with a variant form of the tradition in Kings should be
carefully considered. If there be any such distinct traditions, even
though they are few or in a late stage of development, they are of
high value, for they may be as worthy of consideration as the form in
Kings. Moreover a slight variation in a tradition may occasionally
suffice to indicate the existence of a different standpoint towards an
important topic or period in the history. But in the majority of all cases
included under this heading (I) it appears that the changes in the
narratives were arbitrarily made in consequence of the standpoint,
beliefs, and purpose (§§ 1 and 6) of the Chronicler, and they can
make no claim to rest on historical facts. For the detailed arguments
upon which this general conclusion is based, the reader is referred to
the notes on the text.
 (II) The additional matter of Chronicles includes a variety of
subjects. These may be roughly but conveniently summarised under
the following headings—(1) genealogical lists (1 Chronicles ii.‒ix.,
xxiii.‒xxvii., etc.); (2) topographical and other archaeological notices
(e.g. 1 Chronicles xi. 41‒47; 2 Chronicles xvii. 7‒10, xix. 4‒11, xxvi.
6, 49, xxxii. 30, xxxiii. 14, and notably the organisation of the Levites,
1 Chronicles xxiii., xxiv., and details regarding the building of
Solomon’s Temple, e.g. 2 Chronicles ii.‒iv., passim); (3) letters and
speeches (1 Chronicles xvi. 8‒36, xxii. 6‒19, xxviii. 2‒10, xxix. 1‒20;
2 Chronicles xv. 1‒7, xvi. 7‒10, xxi. 12‒15); (4) national events,
especially religious affairs and wars (e.g. 1 Chronicles iv. 34‒43, v. 6,
xxiii. ff.; 2 Chronicles xvii. 7‒10, xix. 4‒11, xxix. 3‒xxx. 27), such
topics being sometimes related in the style of (5) Midrashim—i.e.
edifying tales describing marvellous deliverances from foes and
splendid religious ceremonies (2 Chronicles xiii. 3‒20, xiv. 9‒15, xxx.
13‒27, and especially xx. 1‒30 ¹). If, as Torrey contends, the whole of
this is simply the product of the Chronicler’s imagination working
upon the canonical sources only and freely interpreting events in
accordance with his own convictions, then, we must frankly admit, its
historical value as a record of the past it purports to describe is nil. If,
however, according to the view taken in this volume (see § 5), much
of this material is drawn from a body of tradition, oral and written,
current in the Jerusalem of the Chronicler’s day, and not represented
in canonical writings, the question of historical value is still open. Our
task, then, is to consider whether among the extra-canonical
traditions some genuine historical facts may have been preserved.
The problem is not easy, and, as yet, it does not admit of so exact
and definite a reply as we should like to give. Obviously the answer
requires a thorough consideration of each item of the new material, a
task which would far exceed the scope of this introduction. There
are, however, some general observations which throw light upon the
problem. These we shall give here, reserving the discussion of
individual passages for the notes. Taking the subjects enumerated
above in order, we have:
 ¹ The subjects thus classified are not, of course, mutually
exclusive—thus a letter or speech and statements of alleged
historical events will frequently be a part of the contents of
some midrashic passage.

(1) The new genealogical lists, which are so prominent a feature

of Chronicles. Some of these lists are certainly not trustworthy
records of pre-exilic times ¹. But others, e.g. parts of the Calebite and
Levitical genealogies, probably embody facts concerning the
kinships and distribution of various South Judean families in pre-
exilic and exilic times, and furnish valuable evidence of a northward
movement (see S. A. Cook, 1 Esdras, p. 12 in Charles’s Apocrypha,
or his articles on Caleb, Judah, Levites in Encyclopedia Britannica¹¹).
It is certain that in post-exilic Jerusalem a considerable part of the
population were descendants of these south Judean clans. Surely it
would be surprising if no valid traditions of their relationships, their
movements and fortunes, had been preserved amongst them. There
is therefore good reason for holding that some historical information
(e.g. 1 Chronicles iv. 34‒43) may be found in these lists, and it is
possible that a close study of certain of the genealogies will yield
most valuable light on some of the main questions of Old Testament
history and literature. Unfortunately the study of the intricate
problems involved is not yet sufficiently advanced to permit
conclusions which meet with general acceptance.

¹ On the other hand they may have historical value as regards

the families of Judah and Jerusalem in or about the
Chronicler’s own generation—a point, however, which
properly falls to be discussed under B below.

(2) Much of the topographical and archaeological information

scattered here and there in the books of Chronicles does not inspire
confidence, but part may rest on old tradition; compare the headnote
to 1 Chronicles xii. 1‒22. Many of the references in chapters i.‒ix.
(e.g. vii. 24, viii. 12, etc.) to Judean townships, whether explicitly
mentioned (e.g. 1 Chronicles vi. 54 ff.), or lightly disguised in the
genealogical tables (e.g. 1 Chronicles ii. 18 ff., 50 ff.), are valuable
not only for information regarding the relationship of Jewish families
and movements of southern peoples, Edomites and Arabians (see
(1) above, and the note on 1 Chronicles ii. 42), but also as evidence
of the extent (small indeed!) of the territory occupied by the post-
exilic Jewish community (compare Hölscher, Palästina, pp. 18‒23,
26‒31). It is further plausibly suggested that notices of certain tribes
of the Northern Kingdom (e.g. Ephraim and Manasseh) may be
regarded as indications of the extension of Judaism in Samaria and
Galilee about the Chronicler’s period (see note on 2 Chronicles xv.
9). The Chronicler was singularly interested in building operations
(see, e.g. 2 Chronicles xxvi. 9, xxxii. 30, xxxiii. 14) and some of his
references to the building of fortified townships in Judea (2
Chronicles xi. 5 ff., xiv. 6, xvi. 1‒6, xvii. 12) and to the origin of
buildings and gates in Jerusalem may be correct (see 2 Chronicles
xxvi. 5‒10, note).

(3) As regards the letters and speeches which are ascribed by

the Chronicler to various kings and prophets—e.g. David, Elijah,
Azariah, etc.—these cannot be deemed authentic. For example, the
great song of praise attributed to David in 1 Chronicles xvi. 7 ff. is
wholly composed of quotations from Psalms of late date. Such
speeches or letters are examples of a device constantly and
legitimately employed by ancient historians as a method of imparting
vividness and spirit to their narrative. The letters and speeches
represent simply what ought in the historian’s opinion to have been
written or spoken. The Greek historian, Thucydides, carefully states
the practice: “I have,” he writes, “put into the mouth of each speaker
the sentiments proper to the occasion, expressed as I thought he
would be likely to express them....” (Thucydides i. 22) ¹.

¹ The practice is not peculiar to Chronicles, and these remarks

are generally true of the correspondence between Solomon
and Hiram and the long prayer of Solomon, found in 1 Kings
v. 2‒9, viii. 22‒50, and transcribed (with some expansions) in
2 Chronicles ii. 3‒16, vi. 12‒42.
 (4) National events, such as religious ceremonies (e.g.
Hezekiah’s Passover, 2 Chronicles xxix.‒xxxi.) and wars (e.g. 2
Chronicles xx. 1‒30) constitute as a rule the subject-matter of (5) the
pious midrashic passages; so that (4) and (5) may conveniently be
treated together. Midrash is not serious history, and very probably
was not intended to be regarded as such even by its author. It is
earnest moral and religious teaching presented in a quasi-historical
dress. In all these passages the form of the tale is unhistorical, and
all midrashic features, such as the incredibly and often impossibly
large numbers given in Chronicles, must without hesitation be set
aside; but it does not follow that the tale has no historical foundation
whatever, that the events around which it was written were originally
unreliable. In an ancient writing mythical features do not afford a
proper ground for rejecting a tale as historically worthless—a fact
which requires to be emphasised. An interesting example is found in
the extraordinary legends which attached themselves to the life of
Alexander the Great and rapidly spread throughout Europe and Asia
(see Encyclopedia Britannica¹¹ vol. i. pp. 550 f.).

Perhaps the most striking instance in Chronicles is the amazing

and bloodless victory vouchsafed to Jehoshaphat over certain
Bedouin tribes who invaded Judah from the desert by the southern
end of the Dead Sea (2 Chronicles xx. 1‒30, where see notes). As
told in Chronicles, the story is a Midrash, preaching the duty of trust
in God and of obedience to His will at all hazards; but it is evident
that the moral and religious form of the story has been built on and
around a tradition of a desert raid on Judah. Now this nucleus of the
tale may easily rest on historical fact. Fierce but undisciplined
invaders, advancing from the desert through the difficult country of
south Judah, a land of cliffs ravines and caves, might be sorely
harassed by the guerilla attacks of the shepherd population of that
region, and finally broken up by the outbreak of internal dissensions,
before the main Judean army from Jerusalem had arrived to oppose
their advance in force. Such an event would quickly fade from the
military recollections of Jerusalem, but might be long perpetuated as
a local tradition among the shepherd class of the district where the
victory was won. Thus we should have, on the one hand, a reason
for its non-appearance in the earlier strata of memories embodied in
Kings. On the other hand, when the South Judean families had
moved northward to Jerusalem in the exilic and post-exilic days, the
story would gain currency, and one can easily see how suitable it
was for development into just such a religious narrative as we find in
Chronicles. The raid, then, is probably a genuine tradition, but, even
so, a word of caution is required. It is necessary still to consider the
question whether the story is correctly associated with the time of
Jehoshaphat. Perhaps, yes; but possibly several such raids took
place, and the memories of them may have been confused and
combined into one; or, again, the names of the original foes may
have been changed into those of more recent opponents. Other
important passages of this type are discussed in the notes on 2
Chronicles xiii. 3‒20, xiv. 9‒15, xxxiii. 11‒13.

One point calls for special mention. In the later chapters of 2

Chronicles the Chronicler’s account of the history, particularly as
regards the relations of the Judean kingdom with the Edomites and
Arabians to the south, is characterised by a freshness and
independence which suggests that he was here relying on definite
and valuable traditions (see notes pp. 257 f., 262, 280 f., 286 f.,
292).

These results do not provide the complete material for an

estimate of the historical value of Chronicles. To them must first be
added the conclusions noted below, under B.

B.

Indirect Value.

Although the Chronicler says not one word directly of his own
times, indirectly his work gives us much useful information
concerning that obscure period. In very many ways Chronicles is a
mirror reflecting the thoughts, hopes, and circumstances of the
orthodox community in Jerusalem, circa 300‒250 b.c. Indirect and
unconscious though the evidence may be, it is still precious, for our
knowledge of the period is so slight that all fragments of information
are most welcome.

Some of the genealogical lists yield information regarding the

post-exilic population of Judah and Jerusalem. Certain references
(see p. xlviii) perhaps imply the extension of Judaism in Palestine.
From the descriptions of the Temple and its organisation, facts can
be gleaned regarding the Temple of the Chronicler’s own age. Thus
in 1 Chronicles xxiii ff. where the Chronicler ascribes to David
(unhistorically, see notes pp. 51 f., 136, 145) the origination of the
Levitical arrangements in the Temple, he gives an elaborate
description of their organisation; and therein we can see a picture of
the complex system and duties of the Priests and the Levites (with
the subordinate classes of doorkeepers and singers) as these were
finally determined in the late post-exilic Temple. Some interesting
inferences can be drawn from Chronicles regarding the instruction of
the people in matters of religion. When in 2 Chronicles xvii. 7‒9
arrangements for teaching the Law throughout Judah are said to
have been instituted by Jehoshaphat, we may be sure that some
such system was in vogue in the Chronicler’s day, or, at the very
least, that the Chronicler and his fellow-Levites were anxious to see
it fully carried out. Perhaps schools for instructing the people had
already been established in Jerusalem, and it was desired to extend
them throughout the countryside as well. Significant in the same
connection is the remark ascribed to Azariah the prophet (2
Chronicles xv. 3): “Now for long seasons Israel hath been without the
true God and without a teaching priest and without law” (compare 2
Chronicles xxxv. 3). Similarly from 2 Chronicles xix. 4‒11 we may
infer the existence of, or the desire to establish, a careful system of
courts of justice under the control of the Levitical order. Again,
Chronicles contributes to our knowledge of the evolution of public
worship. The subject is so obscure, the details so unknown, that we
may be grateful for anything which helps us to discern even broad
stages in the development. Undoubtedly those flagrant abuses of
worship which called forth the denunciations of Isaiah and Jeremiah
had passed away. One gathers that public worship in the Temple had
become an affair of truly religious significance. The prayer of
Solomon is repeated from Kings, but in addition the Chronicler
ascribes similar utterances of praise, supplication, and thanksgiving
to David and Hezekiah, and the good kings (especially Hezekiah and
Josiah) are represented as zealously active in ordering and
arranging for great services of worship which the people were to
attend. All this, of course, is related of the past, but from it we may
infer facts of the Chroniclers present. We infer, then, a community
accustomed to gather constantly at the Temple for the worship of
their God. The main elements of public worship can be traced. There
was, of course, the ancient ritual of animal sacrifice, hallowed for the
Jews by its vast antiquity, and grown the more impressive in
proportion as the literalism of the past was forgotten and men felt
more vividly that the offering was symbolic of things of the spirit—of
the mystery of life, of forgiveness, and of recognition that all things
are the gift of God. Undoubtedly there was public prayer. It is hardly
possible to read the prayers of the great kings in Chronicles and not
feel that they echo a liturgy of prayer—for the individual and for the
nation. There was a great and impressive service of song and of
music, compare 2 Chronicles v. 12, 13: that is writ large indeed on
the pages of Chronicles; and 1 Chronicles xvi. 8 ff. is enough to tell
us that the Psalter was the book of praise. We have a sufficient hint,
too, that to the songs at least, if not to the prayers also, the people
were expected to respond—“And all the people said, Amen, and
praised the Lord” (2 Chronicles xvi. 36). Probably arrangements
were in vogue for regular reading of the Law, although Chronicles
alone would hardly suffice to establish the point (2 Chronicles xxxiv.
31 is insufficient evidence). Even if it be thought that this picture
represents rather the ideals of the Levites than the actual
attainments of the community, it is still important that such a
standard of worship was conceived by the priests and set before the
people. One recalls the words of the great prophet of exilic or post-
exilic times who wrote: “for mine house shall be called a house of
prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah lvi. 7). His was a vision of the Temple
as the centre of the whole world’s worship. To the Chronicler it had at
least become a true “house of prayer” for Israel. Other details might