Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism, and Human Adaptation

Celia EmmelhainzANTH 630: Human Evolutionary Ecology

Presentation at Texas A&M, December 1 2008

Cultural Adaptation

Division and conflict between groups by ethnicity can be seen as: -Adaptive-Neutral-Tolerable-Maladaptive(Edgerton 1992)

Ethnicity

Viewed as Primordial: - Endogamy and Shared Descent

(Hammond and Axelrod 2006)- Social Construct/Mental Shortcut

(Gil-White 1999, 2001)

Viewed as Socially Constructed: - Group Boundaries

(Barth 1969)- Rational Choice

(Economics)

Markers ofEthnicity:

LanguageReligionCustoms

PhysicalityDress

Accent

Francisco Gil-White and the Ultimatum game

- Bulgan Sum, Hovd, Mongolia- Few outward markers- Kazakhs and Torguuds- More paid to out-group

members(Gil-White 2003, 2004)

Adaptation and Ethnicity (Theories in Human Evolutionary Ecology)

— Living Kinds Theory— Genetic Similarity Theory— Domain-Specific Mechanisms— Social Identity Mechanisms— Rational Choice Theory(MacDonald 2001)

Maladaptation and ethnicity

• Lost opportunities (trade, mating, cooperation)

• Discrimination• Xenophobia• War• Genocide

“ethnocentrism: the feeling that one’s group has a mode of living, values, and patterns of adaptation that are superior to those of other groups.”

Columbia Encyclopedia 2000:12933 cited in Gil-White 2005

Ethnocentrism

- Reinforces group norms and increases in-group conformity - Increases discrimination against outsiders- Increases cooperation within-group and decreases it between groups- Increases tendency to think of outsiders as sub-human- Decreases costly interactions (Gil-White 2005) - Increases conflicts and misunderstandings

Conclusion“if humans are to succeed in adapting to one another and to the environments in which they live, they must devise social and cultural mechanisms to control certain aspects of their biological nature.” (Edgerton 1992:61)

Pictures used in a fair-use educational context:1. http://www.angryasianman.com/images/angry/mongol01.jpg2 . http://www.ngsprints.co.uk/popup_image.php?pID=1079623. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nozomiiqel/1099084874. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25932866@N065. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/mongolia.html6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/clydebentley/25643494517. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/4908889518. http://www.flickr.com/photos/46329566@N00/2821552374/9. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerrold/23793265010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff-bauche/223026583711. http://www.flickr.com/photos/integralfocus/7196981612. http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithpatterson/9790094668

For more information see also: Brown 2003Edgerton 1992Gil-White 1999Gil-White 2003Hammond and Axelrod 2006Henrich and Boyd 1998Jahoda 2002MacDonald 2001McElreath et al 2003Ruston 2005Soltis et al 1995