Review for Exam 3 (final)

ANT 2000Fall 2006

Economic systems Hunter-gatherers Horticulturalists Agriculturalists Pastoralists Highland cultivators of the New World Asian agrarian civilizations Industrial economies

Harris’ TEE ratings for cultures Technoenvironmental efficiency

ratings for: !Kung (Botswana, S. Africa. H/G) Genieri (Gambia. Horticulture) Tsembaga Maring (New Guinea. Mixed

horticulture and domesticated pigs Luts'un (China 1947. Irrigated

agriculture USA (Industrial agriculture)

Chayanov's rule The largest number of producers

relative to the number of consumers in a family yields less work per producer.

But ..  This rule does not apply in industrial economies where the cost of children is high.

Hunting and gathering people, like the !Kung, have a great deal of leisure, while people in the U.S. work more today than they did 30 years ago.

Americans work longer and longer to pay for food.

Reciprocity Generalized and balanced reciprocity.

Hunters and gatherers best exemplify generalized reciprocity.

The Kula Ring is an example of balanced reciprocity.

Negative reciprocity is jargon for getting back less than you give in a transaction.

Wealth leveling mechanisms The Potlatch of the NW Coast The cargo system in Latin America Note that the means of production

are not distributed, only the temporary surplus.

Money Some monetary systems in so-

called primitive societies: Yap money wheels Iroquois wampum Cowrie shells (Sudan) Diwara shells (Melanesia)

Optimal foraging theory Over time, people learn how much

of their time and other resources to put into hunting and collecting various commodities.

We examined the case of the Aché in Paraguay and the case of coupon shoppers in the U.S.

Political systems Levels of sociocultural integration:

bands, tribes, chiefdoms, states. Just 3000 years ago, most peoples

were still hunters and gatherers. We discussed the causes and

consequences of the development of hierarchical political and economic systems.

Consolidation Despite the breakup of the Soviet

Union, and the former Yugoslavia, there are fewer and fewer autonomous political units in the world over time.

NAFTA and the EU are indicators of continued consolidation of political units.

Today, there are only ~200 autonomous political units.

War War is not universal. Some societies are more prone to war

than others and the distribution of war events is not random.

Democracies tend not to go to war with one another, for example.

We discussed the causes of increased warfare in New Guinea.

Most cultures are patrilineal. Some cultures are matrilineal, but

there is no record of a matriarchal society.

Women hold political office in many cultures.

Cognitive and psychological anthropology

Psychological anthropologists test the extent to which ideas about human nature can be generalized from studies of Western societies.

Cross-cultural studies show, for example, that adolescence is not universally a period of rebelliousness.

In this society, adolescent rebelliousness is good training for independence and neolocality.

Hands-on Children in the U.S. spend much of

their day in cribs or playpens. Children in the industrial West and

in Japan are touched or held from 12% to 20% of the time they are awake.

Children in the U.S. typically spend their nights alone, too.

Holding and trust The study of the Logoli by the

Munroes shows that infants who are held more by their mothers become more trusting and more optimistic by age 5.

The number of different holders added to the trust effect, not the time held by different holders.

Response to crying Among the Efe of Nigeria, a 3-month old

gets a response within 10 seconds of crying 75% of the time.

In the U.S. we ignore crying 45% of the time.

Infant mortality is less than 1% in many industrialized societies (Sweden, Japan, U.S., Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand) and up to 35% in some nonindustrialized societies.

Preoperational Are preindustrial people

preoperational? Think of two-week hunting trips in

the Amazon; trans-Pacific canoe trips; eight-section kinship systems in Australia; the distribution of meat in H/G societies.

Are there culture free tests? How does schooling affect test response?

Collectivism vs. individualism What accounts for collectivist and

individualist societies? When people live in cramped spaces, they

punish children more for fighting with others.

Agricultural and herding societies stress obedience, while hunting and gathering societies stress self-reliance and individuality.

We are foragers in the U.S.

Mental illness Edgerton asked people in four East

African societies to list the traits of people who have severe mental illness.

Five traits accounted for about 60% of all traits listed. There was much overlap across these five traits.

"The Africans in these four societies," Edgerton said, "do not regard a single behavior as psychotic which could not be so regarded in the West."

Cultural expression of mental illness

Hallucinations were almost never listed by Edgerton’s informants.

Schizophrenia is biochemically based, but it is manifested differently across cultures.

Windigo psychosis Windigo psychosis is a culturally

defined mental illness. From Marano's work, the best

explanation is that under conditions of stress, the Ojibwa and Cree triaged their population and increased the chance for survival of all. 

Pseudopatients Rosenhan's study of

pseudopatients in mental hospitals showed the power of labeling.

Expressive culture: visual art The most superstructural feature

of culture is expressive behavior. Patricia Rice and Ann Patterson

examined the bones found in 90 caves (Lascaux, etc.) where late Paleolithic art is found.

Rice and Patterson Most common bones: bovines, horse,

reindeer, ibex, deer, mammoth. Most common paintings: reindeer,

horse, bovines, deer, ibex, mammoth.

The number of portrayals and the percentage of bone matter are correlated r=.41.

Larger species (mammoth, horse, bison) are overportrayed. The correlation between species

weight and bone prevalence is r=.76 Nineteen experts ranked species

for danger in hunting. The correlation of average ranked

danger and species weight is r=.96

Fischer’s hypothesis Egalitarian societies will have art

based on repetition of simple elements and plenty of empty space.

The art of stratified societies will (a) combine elements into complex designs and (b) tend toward the baroque.

He tested this on a sample of cultures.

Art was part of everyday life for most of human history.

Secular art is part of our everyday life.

However, obscurity of meaning, rather than faithfulness of reproduction of art is valued.

This is the result of mass production.

Expressive culture: folklore Kluckhohn found that there are five

recurrent themes in folklore around the world: catastrophe (mostly floods), slaying of

monsters, incest, sibling rivalry, and castration. These themes, however, are not distributed

equally around the world. With unpredictable food shortages, for

example, natural catastrophes are not likely to be mentioned.

Expressive culture: music Alan Lomax found that some components

of music are related to social complexity. Counterpoint and polyphony are most

frequent among hunter-gatherers where women supply most of the non-protein food.

In societies where women contribute much less than men do to food production, the tendency is for single melodies sung by men.

Leadership in song reflects social complexity. Wordiness is associated with social complexity

Barbara Ayres: a strong relationship between the preferred rhythms in a society and the method of carrying infants.

Slings and shawls produce regular, repetitive rhythms, while cradles produce either free or irregular rhythms.

Games and social organization John Roberts found that games of

strategy (chess, cards) are associated with complex political organization.

Team sports were invented by Native Americans, probably in Mexico. Hockey originated in the northeast of North

America, and was probably an adaptation of the ball game developed by the Mexicans.

The distribution of gambling, however, remains unexplained.

Religion Distinguish among magic, religion,

and science. All are systems for controlling

supernatural and natural forces. Complex societies, with

hierarchical organization, are more likely to have a high god.

Globalization of culture Today, music and art are syncretic,

a phenomenon that is a consequence of globalization.

As the infrastructure and structural features of the world converge, we expect a convergence of the superstructure.

Culture change

Culture is always changing. Innovation, through discovery and

invention, is important, but diffusion is the most common way in which cultures change.

Cultures come into contact through trade, battle, occupation, and missionary activity.

Tobacco and paper Tobacco went from the east coast of the

U.S. to the west coast by going around the world between the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries.

Paper was invented in China in the second century BCE.

It took a thousand years to reach Spain, and then moved across Europe over the next few hundred years, spurred by the invention of moveable type.

Primary inventions One example of a primary

invention that occurred twice, independently, is the keystone (and the dome that a keystone makes possible).

It was invented by Inuit (Eskimos) and Romans at different times and different places.

Colonialism Much culture change today in the

developing world is the legacy of the Colonial era.

Colonialism transferred diseases, technologies, and crops.

It produced massive voluntary and involuntary migrations, and we can see the voluntary migrations continuing today.

Applied anthropology developed as part of the colonial experience in England.

Theories of modernization Several theories have been

proposed to account for the lack of modernization in countries in Africa and Latin America that were colonies of European states: modernization theory, dependency theory, and the world systems theory.

The second demographic transition

A hallmark of modern industrial economies is the dramatic all in fertility.

Japan will face a dilemma: import labor, put more women to work, or increase productivity.

Note that some less industrialized countries, like China, have relatively high longevity and low infant mortality, despite a relatively low GNP per capita.

Cultural materialism and the Educational model of social change

The social change industry employs thousands of people around the world.

Based mostly on the educational model of change: using information to change people's

behavior. This works when the behavior one

wants to change is tied to the superstructure.

The educational model of change does not work when the target behavior is tied to the structure of the infrastructure of society.

Asking people to give up their cars when there is no public transportation and when there is no affordable housing near their work is bound not to work.

The educational model also works when it is the curriculum for raising children.

For the most part, TFR is related to infant mortality and inversely related both to PCGDP and to longevity.

Anomalies like China and the UAE are the result of anomalous structural and infrastructural conditions.

Inequality continues to grow.