Untitled Notebook

Students:
Looking to improve
your grades?
ACCESS FREE STUDY TOOLS AT edge.sagepub.com/nanda12e
• Study your way with mobile-friendly FLASHCARDS and QUIZZES

for anywhere, anytime studying.
• Watch VIDEOS that illustrate key chapter concepts in action.
• Access influential RESEARCH IN YOUR FIELD via selected

SAGE journal articles.
Instructors:
Your time is valuable.
We’re here for you!
SAGE COURSEPACKS: OUR CONTENT TAILORED TO YOUR LMS
We make it easy to import our quality instructor and student content into
your school’s learning management system (LMS).
• NO NEW SYSTEM to learn
• INTUITIVE AND SIMPLE to use
• Allows you to CUSTOMIZE COURSE CONTENT to meet your students’ needs
• A variety of high-quality assessment questions and multimedia ASSIGNMENTS
TO SELECT FROM
• NO REQUIRED ACCESS CODES
CONTACT YOUR SAGE SALES REPRESENTATIVE TO LEARN MORE:
sagepub.com/findmyrep
For use in: Blackboard, Canvas, Brightspace by Desire2Learn (D2L), and Moodle
SAGE
Premium
Video
BOOST COMPREHENSION. BOLSTER ANALYSIS.
• SAGE Premium Video EXCLUSIVELY CURATED FOR THIS TEXT

• BRIDGES BOOK CONTENT with application & critical thinking questions
• Includes short, auto-graded quizzes that DIRECTLY FEED TO
YOUR LMS GRADEBOOK
• Premium content is ADA COMPLIANT WITH TRANSCRIPTS
• Comprehensive media guide to help you QUICKLY SELECT
MEANINGFUL VIDEO tied to your course objectives
SAGE
Publishing:
Our Story
SAGE was founded in 1965 by 24-year-old entrepreneur Sara Miller McCune.
SAGE continues its legacy of making research accessible.
SAGE ANTHROPOLOGY is committed to providing current and relevant content,

as well as engaging in advocacy. We believe in anthropological science,
learning by doing, and the power of ethnography. We take an applied and
hands-on approach and acknowledge the importance of PREPARING YOUR
STUDENTS FOR LIFE AFTER GRADUATION.
• As a STUDENT-FRIENDLY PUBLISHER, we keep our prices affordable and

provide multiple formats of our textbooks so your students can choose the
option that works best for them.
• Being permanently INDEPENDENT means we are fiercely committed to
publishing the highest-quality resources for you and your students.
Cultural Anthropology
Twelfth Edition
Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support
the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global
community. SAGE publishes more than 1000 journals and over
800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas.
Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data,
case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our
founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable
trust that secures the company’s continued independence.
Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne

Cultural Anthropology
Twelfth Edition
Serena Nanda
John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
City University of New York
Richard L. Warms
Texas State University
FOR INFORMATION: Copyright © 2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
SAGE Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted by U.S. copyright law, no part of
2455 Teller Road
this work may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
or stored in a database or retrieval system, without permission in writing
E-mail: [email protected]
from the publisher.
SAGE Publications Ltd.
1 Oliver’s Yard All third party trademarks referenced or depicted herein are included
55 City Road solely for the purpose of illustration and are the property of their
London, EC1Y 1SP respective owners. Reference to these trademarks in no way indicates
United Kingdom any relationship with, or endorsement by, the trademark owner.
SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. Printed in the United States of America
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 ISBN 978-1-5443-3391-5
India
SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd.

18 Cross Street #10-10/11/12
China Square Central
Singapore 048423
This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Acquisitions Editor: Joshua Perigo
Content Development Editor: Alissa Nance
Editorial Assistant: Noelle Cumberbatch
Production Editor: Olivia Weber-Stenis
Copy Editor: Shannon Kelly
Typesetter: Hurix Digital
Proofreader: Caryne Brown
Indexer: Beth Nauman-Montana
Cover Designer: Rose Storey
Marketing Manager: Kara Kindstrom 18 19 20 21 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Brief Contents
Preface xxi
About the Authors xxiii
PART I • INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Chapter 1 • Anthropology and Human Diversity 1
Chapter 2 • Doing Cultural Anthropology 27
Chapter 3 • The Idea of Culture 53
Chapter 4 • Communication 81
PART II • EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES

Chapter 5 • Making a Living 107
Chapter 6 • Economics 131
Chapter 7 • Political Organization 157
Chapter 8 • Stratification 183
PART III • FAMILIES IN SOCIETY

Chapter 9 • Kinship 209
Chapter 10 • Marriage, Family, and Domestic Groups 231
Chapter 11 • Gender 255
PART IV • SYMBOLS AND MEANINGS

Chapter 12 • Religion 279
Chapter 13 • Creative Expression: Anthropology
and the Arts 309
PART V • CULTURE CHANGE

Chapter 14 • Power, Conquest, and a World System 331
Chapter 15 • Culture Change and the Modern World 355
Appendix • A Brief Historical Guide to Anthropological

Theory 379
References 386
Index 421
Detailed Contents
Preface xxi
About the Authors xxiii
PART I • INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Specialization in Anthropology 3
Biological or Physical Anthropology 3
Linguistic Anthropology 4
Archaeology 5
Cultural Anthropology 6
Applied Anthropology 7
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Medical Anthropology: Disease,
Illness, and Syndemics 7
Some Critical Issues in Anthropology 9
Ethnocentrism 9
Anthropology and Cultural Relativism 10
The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images Human Biological Diversity and Race 11
Anthropologists and “Natives” 13
Anthropology and Globalization 14
Ethnography: Dangerous Field 15
Why Study Anthropology? 18
The Global and the Local: “Stone Age” Tribes Versus Globalization 21
Summary 22
Critical Thinking Questions 23
Key Terms 23
Glossary 24
Anthropology in Historical Perspective 27

Franz Boas and American Anthropology 28
From Haddon to Malinowski in England and the Commonwealth 29
Anthropological Techniques 31
Ethnographic Data and Cross-Cultural Comparisons 35
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Anthropologists and Drug Use 36
Some Critical Issues in Ethnography 37
Feminist Anthropology 37
Postmodernism 38
Engaged and Collaborative Anthropology 39
Studying One’s Own Society 40
Peggy Reeves Sanday Ethnography: The Nacirema 41
Ethical Considerations in Fieldwork 43
Anthropology and the Military 44
New Roles for the Ethnographer 45
The Global and the Local: Rights, Ethics, and Female Genital Operations 46
Summary 48
Key Terms 49
Glossary 50
Defining Culture 54
Culture Is Made Up of Learned Behaviors 56
Culture Is the Way Humans Use Symbols to Classify Their World and Give It Meaning 59
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Culturally Specific Diseases: The Case
of Lia Lee 60
Culture Is an Integrated System—Or Is It? 63
Culture Is a Shared System of Norms and Values—Or Is It? 65
Culture Is the Way Human Beings Adapt to the World 67
Ethnography: Building a House in Northwestern Thailand 68
Photo of homecoming mum, Brittany
Culture Is Constantly Changing 71 Eicker, 2017
Culture Counts 75
The Global and the Local: Is There an American Culture? 75
Summary 76
Key Terms 78
Glossary 78
Origins and Acquisition of Human Language 82

The Structure of Language 85
Phonology 85
Morphology 86
Syntax 86
Semantics: The Lexicon 87
Language and Culture 87
Ethnography: Cell Phone Use in Jamaica 88
Language and Social Stratification 91
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Forensic Linguistics 92
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) 93
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 93
Nonverbal Communication 95
Language Change 96
Language and Culture Contact 97
Thornton Cohen/Alamy Stock Photo
Tracing Relationships Among Languages 98
The Global and the Local: Language, Identity, and Assimilation 100
Summary 101
Key Terms 103
Glossary 103
PART II • EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES
Human Adaptation and the Environment 107

An Overview of Subsistence Strategies 109
Foraging 110
Australian Foragers: The Pintupi 110
Ethnography: Inuit Foraging Strategy and Global Warming 111
Pastoralism 114
Ethnography: The Maasai of East Africa: A Transhumant Pastoral Adaptation 114
The Yarahmadzai: Nomadic Pastoralists 116
Horticulture 118
Rosemarie Stennull/Alamy Stock The Lua’: Swidden Cultivators in Thailand 118
Photo Agriculture 120
Musha: A Peasant Village in Egypt 121
Industrialism 122
Ethnography: The American Beef Industry 123
The Global Marketplace 125
The Global and the Local: Anthropology, Subsistence
Patterns, and Climate Change 126
Summary 127
Key Terms 129
Glossary 129
Economic Behavior 132

Allocating Resources 133
Foragers 134
Pastoralists 135
Horticulturalists 135
Agriculturalists 136
Organizing Labor 137
Specialization in Complex Societies 138
Distribution: Systems of Exchange and Consumption 139
Reciprocity 139
Ethnography: Food, Culture, History, and Economics in Belize 140
Redistribution 144
Market Exchange 146
Capitalism 146
Anthropology Makes a Difference: UX (User Experience) 147
Insights/UIG/Getty Images
Resistance to Capitalism 150
The Global and the Local: Gifts, Bribes, and Social Networks 151
Summary 152
Key Terms 154
Glossary 154
Social Differentiation 157

Power and Social Control 158
Law: Social Control and Conflict
Management 160
Types of Political Organization 161
Band Societies 161
Tribal Societies 162
Chiefdoms 166
Ethnography: Wealth and Power in the Precolonial Asante State 167
State Societies 169
The Nation–State 171
The Nation–State and Ethnic Conflict 173
Anthropology Makes a Difference: The Rise of Populism 173
The Nation–State and Globalization 176
The Global and the Local: Citizenship and Statelessness 177 ERIC LAFFORGUE/Alamy Stock Photo
Summary 178
Key Terms 180
Glossary 180
Explaining Social Stratification 183

Criteria of Stratification: Power, Wealth, and Prestige 185
Class and Caste in Social Stratification 186
Caste in India 187
Class in the United States 189
Stratification and Race 193
Race in the United States and Brazil 194
Anthropology Makes a Difference: The RACE Project 197
Ethnography: Race, Health, and the Environment in Hyde Park, Georgia 198 Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler
Stratification and Ethnicity 200

Ethnicity in the United States 200
Ethnicity, Immigration, and Globalization 202
The Global and the Local Undesirable Elements: The Voices of New Immigrants 203
Summary 204
Key Terms 206
Glossary 206
PART III • FAMILIES IN SOCIETY

Kinship: Relationships Through Descent and Marriage 209

Rules of Descent and the Formation of Descent Groups 210
Unilineal Descent Groups 211
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Kinship Rules and Realities
in a Korean Village 211 Courtesy of Tom Curtin
Patrilineal Descent Groups 213
Matrilineal Descent Groups 214
Ethnography: The Matrilineal Minangkabau of Sumatra 215
Double Descent 217
Nonunilineal Kinship Systems 218
The Classification of Kin 218
Comparing Kin Classification in North India and the United States 219
Principles for Classifying Kin 220
Types of Kinship Systems 221
The Global and the Local: Transmigration and Kinship 224
Summary 225
Key Terms 227
Glossary 227
Functions of Marriage and the Family 231

Marriage Rules 232
Ethnography: Is Marriage Universal? The Na of China 233
Incest Taboos 235
Exogamy and Endogamy 236
Preferential Marriages 237
The Levirate and the Sororate 238
Monogamy, Polygyny, and Polyandry 238
Polygyny 239
Exchange of Goods and Rights in Marriage 240
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Refugees and Families 241
Bride Service and Bridewealth 242
In Pictures Ltd./Corbis Historical/
Dowry 243
Getty Images
Different Kinds of Families 243
The Nuclear Family 244
Composite Families 245
Extended Families 246
Families and Globalization 248
The Global and the Local: Getting Old in Different Cultures 249
Summary 251
Key Terms 252
Glossary 253
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender 256

The Cultural Construction of Gender 256
Gender Ideologies: Women’s Sexuality and Male Prestige Behavior 257
Gender Ideology in Fairy Tales 258
Proving Manhood 258
Gender and Bullfighting in Spain 259
Controlling Female Sexuality 260
Tibor Bognar/Alamy Stock Photo
Modest Dress in Islam 261
Variability in Gender and Sexuality 262
Variation in Gender Roles 262
Variable Norms of Sexual Behavior 262
Ethnography: The Hijras: An Alternative Gender Role in India 263
Theories of Gender and Stratification 266
Gender Relations and Systems of Production 268
Gender Relations in Foraging Societies 268
Gender Relations in Horticultural Societies 268
Gender Relations in Pastoral Societies 269
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Advocating for Female
Factory Workers in China 270
Gender Relations in Agricultural Societies 271
Gender and Globalization 271
Gender and Family in Current-Day Wealthy Societies 271
The Global and the Local Women’s Rights in Global Perspective:
How Much Does Poverty Count? 273
Summary 275
Key Terms 276
Glossary 276
PART IV • SYMBOLS AND MEANINGS

What Religion Does in Society 280

Searching for Order and Meaning 280
Reducing Anxiety and Increasing Control 281
Reinforcing or Changing the Social Order 281
Characteristics of Religion 282
Stories, Sacred Narratives, and Myths 282
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Religion and Fertility 282
Symbols and Symbolism 284
Supernatural Beings, Powers, States, and Qualities 284
Rituals and Ways of Addressing the Supernatural 286
The Power of the Liminal 286
Rites of Passage 287
Rites of Intensification 287
Prayer 288
Sacrifice 288
Magic 289 Photo by Peace-On-Earth.org
Divination 291
Religious Practitioners 292
Shamans 292
Priests 294
Witches and Sorcerers 295
Religion and Change 297
Varieties of Religious Prophesy 297
Ethnography: The Rastafari: Religion and Resistance to Domination 298
The Ghost Dance and Religious Change in Native North America 300
Fundamentalism and Religious Change 302
The Global and the Local: The Globalization of Religion in the United States 303
Summary 304
Key Terms 306
Glossary 306
Chapter 13 • Creative Expression 309
Art in Its Cultural Context 309

Some Functions of Art 310
Art as Ritual: Paleolithic Cave Art 310
Art, Culture, and Symbolism 311
Art and the Expression of
Cultural Themes 313
Manga and Anime in Japan 313
Deep Play 314
Art and Politics 315
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Museums and Culture 1: Who Gets to Say? 316
Art and Cultural History 318
SOPA Images/Contributor/Getty
Images Art and the Expression of Identities 318
Body Art and Cultural Identity 318
Art and Personal Identity 319
Art and Representing the Other 321
Orientalism in European Art: Picturing the Middle East 321
Marketing World Art 322
Maria Martinez and Pueblo Pottery 322
Ethnography: The Arts, Tourism, and Identity in Tana Toraja, Indonesia 323
Tourism and World Art 325
The Global and the Local: World Music 326
Summary 328
Key Terms 329
Glossary 329
PART V: • CULTURE CHANGE

European Expansion: Motives and Methods 333

Pillage 334
Museums and Anthropology II: Who Owns History? 334
Slavery 336
Joint Stock Companies 337
The Dutch East India Company 337
The Era of Colonialism 339
Colonization, 1500 to 1800 339
Colonizing in the 19th Century 340
Making Colonialism Pay 342
Ethnography: African Soldiers of Misfortune 343
Forced Labor 345
Taxation 346
Education 346
Colonialism and Anthropology 347
Decolonization 348
An Interconnected but Unstable World 349
The Global and the Local: Globalization, Nationalism, and Colonialism 350
Summary 351
Key Terms 352
Glossary 352
Chapter 15 • Culture, Change, and the Modern World 355
The Changing Political and Economic Environment 357

The Persistence of Poverty And Instability 358
Migration 359
Multinational Corporations 360
Sweatshop Labor 360
Anthropology Makes a Difference: Development Anthropology 360
Ethnography: Child Labor in Brazil 363
Electronics, Apple, and Foxconn 365
MNCs: McDonaldization 366
MNCs: Gender 367
Urbanization 367
Population Pressure 368
China’s One-Child Policy 369
Fertility, Politics, and Economics 370
Environmental Challenges 371
Global Warming 372
The Effect of Pollution on the Poor 373 © iStock.com/jcfmorata
Reasons for Hope? 373
The Rights of Indigenous People 374
Saami Reindeer Herders and Norway 374
The Global and the Local: Looking to the Future 375
Summary 376
Key Terms 378
Glossary 378
Appendix • A Brief Historical Guide to

Anthropological Theory 379
19th-Century Evolutionism 379
The Early Sociologists 379
Boas and American Anthropology 380
Functionalism 380
Culture and Personality 381
Cultural Ecology and Neo-Evolutionism 381
Neomaterialism: Evolutionary, Functionalist, Ecological, and Marxist 381
Structuralism 382
Ethnoscience and Cognitive Anthropology 382
Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavioral Ecology 382
Anthropology and Gender 383
Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology 383
Postmodernism 384
Anthropology and Globalization 384
Structure and Agency: Practice Theory Approaches 384
References 386
Index 421
Preface
In the summer of 2017, a kerfuffle erupted in anthropology. think about the nature, structure, and meaning of human
The eminent senior anthropologist Marshall Sahlins wrote societies. If we lose them, we not only efface parts of the record
what he described as a “rant” on the Facebook page of HAU: of human societies, but we also risk not teaching our students
Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Sahlins complained about the basic tools of social analysis.
training of anthropology students. He claimed that most were On the other hand, though Martin’s barbs may have
ignorant of the traditional ethnographic subjects of anthro- been somewhat misdirected at Sahlins, she had a point.
pology; he provided a long list of examples, including African Communities of all kinds are present in the world and must
segmentary lineages, the Kula trade, Kwakiutl potlatches, have a voice in anthropology. Anthropology needs to be
and Polynesian mana. Sahlins argued that anthropologists diverse, inclusive, critical, and relevant. African segmentary
are the custodians of such knowledge and should not let it be lineage systems are not only important for understanding
forgotten. Nuer society in the 1930s; they are also important today, as
Sahlins invited commentary on his rant and he cer- Nuer, Dinka, and other groups clash in genocidal violence
tainly got it. Numerous people responded; among them was across Southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Potlatch and
Savannah Martin, on her blog “Is There Something on My Kula trades are still practiced, though with perhaps differ-
Face?” Martin, a grad student in anthropology, took Sahlins to ent meaning than they had in the past. Anthropologists may
task, calling him a “Eurocentric white-savior anthropologist” have collected data about all these subjects, but we don’t own
who laid claim to knowledge that was not his. She called on them. Many of the societies that anthropologists have studied
anthropologists to open the discipline to more diverse people are alive and well. Their members’ voices need to be heard and
and to pay more attention to the culture of whiteness. their stories told. Further, the tools of anthropology need to be
It seems to us that Martin largely missed Sahlins’s points, turned on current-day societies and particularly on issues of
but she did make some critically important points of her own. race, power, and inequality.
In an important sense, Cultural Anthropology, 12th Edition, is As we pointed out above, one basis of this book is the his-
a response to the positions represented by both Sahlins and torical record of anthropological inquiry. We are proud of
Martin, and, we think, affirms them both. the number of times references to the classics of ethnogra-
If we imagine that current anthropology originated with phy appear in this book—from Malinowski’s descriptions
the work of Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor, of Melanesian romance to Benedict’s description of pot-
our discipline is now about 150 years old. In that time, anthro- latches, from Durkheim’s descriptions of Australian religions
pologists have done an extraordinary job of learning about to Radcliffe-Brown’s Andaman Islanders study, you’ll find
culture. Often facing difficult conditions, they have collected a wealth of ethnographic detail. At the same time, the book
histories and stories, practices and beliefs, and customs and reflects the vital concern of anthropologists with contemporary
challenges to customs from hundreds of groups around the issues and dilemmas. So, you will also find extensive discussions
world. They’ve analyzed these to generate ideas about the of issues of race, inequality, and power structures as they appear
range of human possibilities and the nature of human society. in the contemporary world. You’ll find coverage of Christian
The original ethnographic data of anthropology are fundamentalism, the culture of whiteness, the #MeToo
important for many reasons. They provide an invaluable his- movement, the rise of populism in the 2010s, the increase
torical record of the many societies and practices that have in xenophobia, and the fear of immigrants in contemporary
been lost or irrevocably changed as the world has become a Europe and the United States. You’ll find thoughtful consider-
more homogeneous, globalized, and interconnected com- ations of globalization and its relation to economies and nation-
munity. Those data also provide the tools that anthropologists alism, and of the theft and preservation of cultural materials.
have used to learn to think about the world. Sahlins to the con- In short, with this book, we hope to help teach students
trary, between the covers of this book you will find informa- how to think anthropologically. We want to be up-to-date
tion on African segmentary lineages, Kula trading, potlatch, and engaged, but, as good anthropologists, we want to know
and mana. These subjects are important both in their own our traditions and our ancestors. We hope to show students
right and because they are useful examples that help students the ways in which the discipline’s analytical concepts and
xxi
xxii CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
tools—derived from a century and a half of systematically col- Community College; Sharon Lang, University of Redlands;
lecting data and thinking about culture—can help us analyze, Kate McClellan, Mississippi State University; Anne Schiller,
understand, and act effectively in our world. George Mason University; David Wangsgard, College
After many years with a different publisher, we are also of Southern Nevada; and Heather York, Southern New
extremely pleased to now be working with SAGE Publishing. Hampshire University.
SAGE is more than 50 years old but is a relative newcomer to We gratefully acknowledge the following students at
anthropology. SAGE’s independence and its brief history in Texas State University who read, analyzed, and provided
anthropology have given us enormous flexibility to create new comments on the manuscript of this edition. Their responses
and exciting material. This is reflected in the new photography and comments were enormously useful: William S. Acosta,
and graphics in this book, in the many video excerpts linked Brieanna N. Almendarez, Megan A. Brown, Skylar Burfield,
to the text and, most particularly, in the fieldwork journal by Caleb Ceasor, Tina Esnaashari, Alexandra L. Farrar, Natalie
Jessica Bodoh-Creed, which has been designed to be used R. Flowers, Rianna Humphrey, Nicole R. Kirkpatrick, August
along with this book. Through exercises and experiences, the C. Kutac, Kiara D. Leonard, Kelly Long, James A. Mullicane,
The Field Journal for Cultural Anthropology encourages stu- Daniela Ortega, Austen N. Ramsey, Alyssa Rocha, Valery K.
dents to apply the key concepts of anthropology in ways that Sandovskiy, Jade N. Simon, Lauren A. Strobel, and Erika Yanes.
are meaningful in their lives. We look forward to our collab- In addition, we acknowledge the help of Dr. Kenneth Mix from
oration with SAGE in producing meticulously researched, the Agriculture Department at Texas State University.
imaginative, and informative material that will encourage stu- Our families continue to form an important cheering
dent learning and engagement. section for our work, and we thank them for their patience,
endurance, and just plain putting up with us. We are deeply
Acknowledgments grateful to the people at SAGE Publishing, particularly our
Editor, Joshua Perigo, and our Content Developmental
It gives us great pleasure to thank the many people Editors, Sarah Dillard and Alissa Nance, for their sup-
who have been associated with this book. We are most port, encouragement, and insight. In addition, we wish to
appreciative of the helpful comments made by review- thank Editorial Assistants Alexandra Randall and Noelle
ers of the 12th edition: Michelle Alvarez, Southern New Cumberbatch, Content Project Manager Cheri Palmer,
Hampshire University; Tiffany M. Blackmon, Northern Marketing Manager Kara Kindstrom, and Marketing
Virginia Community College; Roxanne Gerbrandt, Austin Associate Tzveta Mihaylov.
Peay State University; Rachel F. Giraudo, California The knowledge, editing skills, and superb suggestions
State University, Northridge; David Julian Hodges, made by the many people involved in the production of this
Hunter College (CUNY); Joshua Kreger, Northampton book have greatly contributed to it.
About the Authors
Serena Nanda is professor emer- Richard L. Warms is profes-

itus of anthropology at John Jay sor of anthropology at Texas
College of Criminal Justice, City State University. His published
University of New York. She has works include Anthropological
published two anthropological Theory: An Introductory History;
murder mysteries, The Gift of a Theory in Social and Cultural
Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Anthropology: An Encyclopedia;
Matr imony, and Murd e r, a and Sacred Realms: Essays in
novel set in an Indian immi- Religion, Belief, and Society.
grant community in New York City, and Assisted Dying: An He also has written journal articles on commerce, religion,
Ethnographic Murder Mystery on Florida’s Gold Coast. Her and ethnic identity in West Africa; African exploration
other published works include Neither Man Nor Woman: and romanticism; and African veterans of French colonial
The Hijras of India, winner of the 1990 Ruth Benedict Prize; armed forces. Warms’s interest in anthropology was kin-
American Cultural Pluralism and Law; Gender Diversity: dled by college courses and by his experiences as a Peace
Crosscultural Variations; and a New York City guidebook, 40 Corps Volunteer in West Africa. He has traveled extensively
Perfect New York Days: Walks and Rambles In and Around the in Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America. He continues to
City. She has always been captivated by the stories people tell teach Introduction to Cultural Anthropology as well as classes
and by the tapestry of human diversity. Anthropology was in anthropological theory, the anthropology of religion, eco-
the perfect way for her to immerse herself in these passions, nomic anthropology, and film at both the undergraduate
and, through teaching, to spread the word about the impor- and graduate level. Students and faculty are invited to con-
tance of understanding both human differences and human tact him with their comments, suggestions, and questions at
similarities. [email protected].
xxiii
The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Anthropologists study cultural practices all over the world in their attempt to understand the similarities and differences
among human groups. Here, men in the city of Fukuoka in Japan’s Hakata district celebrate the Gion Yamakasa festival. The
festival commemorates an important event in the 13th century when a priest ended an epidemic of plague by scattering
water while sitting on a float carried y townspeople Now, each uly teams of men carrying floats that can weigh se eral tons
race through the city streets following the priest’s route.
Anthropology and Human
Diversity 1
As long as human beings have existed, they have lived in groups and have had LEARNING OBJECTIVES
to answer certain critical questions. They have had to figure out how to live
After you have read this chapter, you
with one another; how to feed, clothe, and house themselves; how to determine will be able to:
rights and responsibilities; how to lend meaning to their lives; and how to deal
1.1 Define anthropology and explain
with those who live differently. Cultures are human responses to these basic
how it differs from other academic
questions. The goal of cultural anthropology—the comparative study of human disciplines
societies and cultures—is to describe, analyze, and explain different cultures, to
1.2 List the major subdisciplines of
show how groups have adapted to their environments and given significance to
anthropology
their lives.
1.3 Explain some of the ways in
In this chapter, we introduce some of the basic ideas of anthropology. We first which anthropology is applied
in careers and used to increase
describe the way the field is divided into major subdisciplines. Then we turn to a general understanding
discussion of some fundamental concepts, including ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism, biological diversity and race, the ways in which anthropology has 1.4 Discuss and explain the
ideas of cultural relativism and
been affected by globalization, and reasons why anthropology is important ethnocentrism
in your life. Along the way, we discuss the experiences of anthropologists in
dangerous field situations, explore anthropology and medicine, and consider 1.5 Describe anthropology’s
position on race and explain
whether there really are such things as “Stone Age tribes.” the critical factors that lead the
discipline to take this position
Anthropologists attempt to comprehend the entire human experience. We
study our species from its ancestral beginnings several million years ago up to 1.6 Describe some of the changes
in the conditions under which
the present. We study human beings as they live in every corner of the earth, anthropologists work and the ways
in all kinds of physical, political, and social environments. We reach beyond anthropology has changed as a
humans to understand nonhuman primates, those animals most closely related result
to us. We peer into the future, contemplating how we might communicate with 1.7 Discuss some of the key
extraterrestrial intelligence (Traphagan, 2014) or live on space stations (Oman- reasons for studying anthropology
Regan, 2016). This interest in humankind and our closest relations throughout
time and in all parts of the world distinguishes anthropology as a scientific and
humanistic discipline.
In other academic disciplines, human behavior is usually studied primarily from

the point of view of Western society. Scholars in these disciplines often consider
the behavior of people in the modern industrial nations of Europe and North
America to be representative of all humanity. Anthropologists, on the other
hand, believe that we can only understand who we are as human beings—our
potentials and our perils—through the study of humanity in its total variety.
In an era when people from different cultures are increasingly in contact with
one another and most people in the world live in multicultural and multiethnic
nations, this anthropological perspective is vital.
Human beings everywhere consider their own behavior not only right, but also
natural. Our ideas about economics, religion, morality, and other areas of social
life seem logical and inevitable to us, but others have found different answers.
1
2 PART I • INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
For example, should you give your infant bottled formula or should you breastfeed not
only your own child but, like the Efe of Zaire, those of your friends and neighbors as well
(N. R. Peacock, 1991: 352)? Is it right that emotional love should precede sexual relations?
Or should sexual relations precede love, as is normal for the Mangaian of the Pacific
(D. Marshall, 1971)? What should we have for lunch: hamburgers and fries or termites,
grasshoppers, and hot maguey worms, all of which are commonly eaten in certain regions
of Mexico (Bates, 1967: 58–59)? Should we bring our baby into a shop or restaurant with
us or leave it to snooze in a stroller outside, as is common in Denmark (Lodish, 2014;
Figure 1.1). In anthropology, concepts of human nature and theories of human behavior are
based on studies of a wide variety of human groups, some of whose goals, values, views of
reality, and environmental adaptations are very different from our own.
Anthropologists bring a holistic approach to understanding and explaining. To say

anthropology is holistic means that it combines the study of human biology, history, and
the learned and shared patterns of human behavior and thought we call culture in order to
analyze human groups. Holism separates anthropology from other academic disciplines,
which generally focus on one factor—biology, psychology, physiology, or society—to
explain human behavior. Anthropology seeks to understand human beings as organisms
who adapt to their environments through a complex interaction of biology and culture.
Because anthropologists take a holistic approach, they are interested in the total range
of human activity. Most anthropologists specialize in a single field and a single problem,
but together they study the small dramas of daily living as well as spectacular social
events. They study the ways in which mothers hold their babies or sons address their
fathers. They want to know not only how a group gets its food but also the rules for eating
that food. Anthropologists are interested in how human societies think about time and
space and how they see colors and name them. They are interested in health and illness
FIGURE 1.1 In
P Photo B ERN K E LER

Denmark, it is common
for shopping or dining
parents to leave their
babies outside.
and the significance of physical variation. Anthropologists are interested in social rules
and practices concerning sex and marriage. They are interested in folklore and fairy tales,
political speeches, and everyday conversation. For anthropologists, great ceremonies like
the coronation of a ruler and daily rituals like the way one greets a friend are both worth
investigating.
Specialization in Anthropology variation map physiological differences among modern

human groups and attempt to explain the sources of this
To cover such a broad range of interests, anthropology is diversity.
divided into several specialized subdisciplines. The major Because the human species evolved through a com-
divisions of anthropology are physical or biological anthro- plex feedback system involving both biological and cul-
pology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and cultural tural factors, biological anthropologists are also interested
anthropology. To these four traditional subfields, many in the origins and evolution of culture. For example, in his
add a fifth, applied anthropology. Although professional 2009 book Catching Fire, the biological anthropologist
anthropologists generally have training in all of the sub- Richard Wrangham argued that an aspect of culture—the
disciplines, they usually identify with one of them. Applied ability to control fire and use it to cook food—led to dra-
anthropologists may specialize in any of the other four. matic biological and social changes in human ancestors.
Cooked food is more digestible than raw, and this resulted
in changes in human anatomy, including far shorter diges-
Biological or Physical Anthropology tive tracts than our closest primate relations. Cooking food
People live in a broad range of ecological and social condi- also required changes in social organization that led to much
tions. Our ability to survive and prosper in many different greater cooperation between males and females than is
circumstances is based on the enormous flexibility of cultural found among nonhuman primates. Wrangham thus argued
behavior. The capacity for culture, however, is grounded in that human evolution was both a biological and a cultural
our biological history and physical makeup. Human adap- process.
tation is thus biocultural—that is, it involves both biologi- Our unique evolutionary history resulted in the develop-
cal and cultural dimensions. Therefore, to understand fully ment of a biological structure—the human brain—capable of
what it is to be human, we need a sense of how the biological inventing, learning, and using cultural adaptations. Cultural
aspects of this adaptation came about and how they influence adaptation, in turn, has freed humans from the slow process
human cultural behavior. of biological evolution: Populations can invent new ways of
Biological (or physical) anthropology is the study of dealing with problems almost immediately or adopt solutions
humankind from a biological perspective. It focuses primar- from other societies. The study of the complex relationship
ily on those aspects of humanity that are genetically inherited. between biological and cultural evolution links biological
Biological anthropology includes numerous subfields, such anthropology, cultural anthropology, and archaeology.
as skeletal analysis, or osteology; the study of human nutri- In addition to studying human groups, biological
tion; demography, or the statistical study of human popula- anthropologists study other living primates, members of
tions; epidemiology, or the study of patterns of disease; and the order that includes monkeys and apes as well as humans.
primatology. Nonhuman primates are studied for the clues that their
Biological anthropology is probably best known for chemistry, physiology, morphology (physical structure),
the study of human evolution and the biological processes and behavior provide about our own species. At one time,
involved in human adaptation. Paleoanthropologists search primates were studied mainly in the artificial settings of lab-
for the origins of humanity, using the fossil record to trace the oratories and zoos, but now much of the work of biological
history of human evolution. They study the remains of the anthropologists involves studying these animals in the wild.
earliest human forms as well as those ancestral to humans Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas (Figure 1.2) are two well-
and related to humans. known anthropologists who study nonhuman primates
Another subspecialty of biological anthropology, called in the wild. Goodall works with chimpanzees in Tanzania,
human variation, is concerned with physiological differ- Galdikas with orangutans in Indonesia. Both are widely rec-
ences among humans. Anthropologists who study human ognized for their conservation efforts.
anthropologists want to understand the variation among lan-

FIGURE 1.2 Understanding primate behavior guages and how language is structured, learned, and used.
is part of biological anthropology. Here, Birute Language is a complex symbolic system that people use
Galdikas films orangutans in Indonesia. to communicate and to transmit culture. Thus, language pro-
vides critical clues for understanding culture. For example,
Suzanne Plunkett/AFP/Getty Images
people generally talk about the people, places, and objects

that are important to them. Therefore, the vocabularies of
spoken language may give us clues to important aspects of
culture. Knowing the words that people use for things may
help us to glimpse how they understand the world.
Language involves much more than words. When we
speak, we perform. If we tell a story, we don’t simply recite
the words. We emphasize some things. We add inflection
that can turn a serious phrase comic or a comic phrase seri-
ous. We give our own special tilt to a story, even if we are
just reading a book out loud. Linguistic anthropologists are
interested in the ways in which people perform language—
the ways they change and modify the meanings of their
words.
All languages change. Historical linguists work to
discover the ways in which languages have changed and
the ways in which languages are related to each other.
Understanding linguistic change and the relationships
between languages helps us work out the past of the people
who speak them. Knowing, for example, the relationships
among various Native American languages give us insight
into the histories and migrations of those who speak them.
The technological changes of the past two decades have
ushered in a new world of communications. The wide-
spread use of cell phones, e-mail, texting, emojis, and social
networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,
and Reddit create entirely new ways of communicating,
changing both the occasions on which people communicate
and the language they use. For example, 20 years ago, people
who lived at great distance from each other communicated
relatively rarely. The mail was often slow, and phone calls
were expensive. Now, such people may communicate many
Linguistic Anthropology times daily, speaking on the phone and visiting each other’s
Language is the primary means by which people communi- websites. Cell phones in particular have become extremely
cate with one another. Although most creatures communi- important in poorer nations. For example, in 1998, there
cate, human speech is more complex, more creative, and used were no cell phones in Botswana. By 2006, there were
more extensively than the communication systems of other more than 800,000, enough for half the total population
animals. Language is an essential part of what it means to be and more than six times the number of landlines (Open
human and is a basic part of all cultures. Linguistic anthro- Society Initiative for Southern Africa, n.d.). By 2008, vir-
pology is concerned with understanding language and its tually every citizen had a cell phone (Aker & Mbiti, 2010),
relation to culture. and by 2015, there were 1.6 phone numbers for every per-
Language is an amazing thing that we take for granted. son in Botswana (“Botswana’s Mobile Penetration,” 2015).
When we speak, we use our bodies—our lungs, vocal Across Africa, there are now almost 1 billion active cell
cords, mouth, tongue, and lips—to produce noises of vary- phone numbers (“Mobile Phones,” 2016). Cell phone usage
ing tone and pitch. And, somehow, when we and others is explored in more detail in the “Ethnography” section in
do this together, we are able to communicate with one Chapter 4. Studying these changes in communication is an
another, but only if we speak the same language. Linguistic exciting new challenge for linguistic anthropologists.
Understanding language is also a critical task for

people interested in developing new technology. We FIGURE 1.3 Archaeologists attempt to reconstruct
live in a world where computers talk to us and listen past cultures by studying their material remains. Here,
to us. We will be able to build machines that use lan- archaeologists sift through dirt from the burial of a
guage effectively only if we understand how humans young woman who died on the Oregon Trail.
structure and use language.
Gordon Wiltsie National Geographic aga ine Getty Images

Archaeology
Archaeologists add a historical dimension to our
understanding of cultures and how they change.
Archaeology is the study of past cultures through
their material remains.
Many archaeologists study prehistoric
societies—those for which no written records have
been found or no writing systems have been deci-
phered. However, even when an extensive written
record is available, as in the case of ancient Greece or
colonial America, archaeology can help increase our
understanding of the cultures and lifeways of those
who came before us (Figure 1.3).
Archaeologists do not observe human behav-
ior and culture directly but rather reconstruct
them from material remains or artifacts. An arti-
fact is any object that human beings have made,
used, or altered. Artifacts include pottery, tools,
garbage, and whatever else a society has left
behind.
In the popular media, archaeology is mainly
identified with spectacular discoveries of arti-
facts from prehistoric and ancient cultures, such
as the tomb of the Egyptian king Tutankhamun.
As a result, people often think of archaeologists
primarily as collectors. But contemporary archae-
ologists are much more interested in understand-
ing and explaining their finds in terms of what
those objects say about the behavior that pro- example, Elizabeth Scott’s work at Nina Plantation in
duced them than in creating collections. Their principal Louisiana (2001) adds to our understanding of the lives
task is to infer the nature of past cultures based on the of slaves and free laborers from the 1820s to the 1890s.
patterns of the artifacts left behind. Archaeologists work Joseph Bagley’s excavation of a Boston outhouse belong-
like detectives, slowly sifting and interpreting evidence. ing to a Puritan woman from the late 1600s unearthed a
The context in which things are found, the location of an bowling ball and frilly lace…interesting because both
archaeological site, and the precise position of an artifact were illegal at the time, suggesting that people’s private
within that site are critical to interpretation. In fact, these behavior could be quite different from what was recorded
considerations may be more important than the artifact in the official records (Bagley, 2016).
itself. Another important archeology subfield is cultural
There are many different specialties within archae- resource management (CRM). Archaeologists working in
ology. Urban archaeology is a good example. Urban CRM are concerned with the protection and management
archaeologists delve into the recent and distant past of of archaeological, archival, and architectural resources.
current-day cities. In doing so, they uncover knowledge They are often employed by federal, state, and local agencies
of the people often left out of the history books, making to develop and implement plans for the protection and man-
our understanding of the past far richer than it was. For agement of such cultural resources.
Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is a complex field with many

different subfields. One index of this complexity is the
The study of human society and culture is known as cultural
more than 50 different sections and interest groups of the
anthropology. Anthropologists define society as a group of
American Anthropological Association; the vast majority
people persisting through time and the social relationships
of these are concerned with cultural anthropology. Some
among these people—their statuses and roles. Traditionally,
examples include political and legal anthropology, which is
societies are thought of as occupying a specific geographic
concerned with issues of nationalism, citizenship, the state,
location, but modern transportation and electronic commu-
colonialism, and globalism; humanistic anthropology, which
nication have made specific locales less important. Societies
is focused on the personal, ethical, and political choices fac-
are increasingly global rather than local phenomena.
ing humans; and visual anthropology, which is the study of
As Chapter 3 has shown, culture is an extremely com-
visual representation and the media.
plex phenomenon. Culture is the major way in which
Cultural anthropologists are often particularly inter-
human beings adapt to their environments and give mean-
ested in documenting and understanding the ways in which
ing to their lives. It includes human behavior and ideas that
cultures change (Figure 1.4). They examine the roles that
are learned rather than genetically transmitted, as well as
power and coercion play in change as well as humans’ ability
the material objects a group of people produces.
to invent new social forms and modify old ones. Studies of
Cultural anthropologists attempt to understand culture
both as a universal human phenomenon and as a char-
acteristic of a group of people. They use many different
research strategies to search for general principles that FIGURE 1.4 Cultural anthropologists describe and
underlie all cultures or examine the dynamics of specific analyze current-day culture. Many current studies
cultures. They may explore the ways in which members focus on culture change and the connections among
of different societies produce and acquire their food, how societies. Here, a monk uses a cell phone at a temple
they raise children and pass on their beliefs and practices, in Bagan, Myanmar.
and/or how they understand the world and their place in
it. They may examine how members of different cultures
Kampee Patisena
interact with and change one another. Anthropologists
are often particularly interested in the effects of differ-
ences of power both among cultures and within individ-
ual cultures. Research in cultural anthropology is almost
oment Getty Images

always based on participant observation, long-term
fieldwork that involves gathering data by observing and
participating in people’s lives. The ethnography accom-
panying this section gives some examples of fieldwork
undertaken under difficult and dangerous conditions.
Ethnography and ethnology are two important
aspects of cultural anthropology. Ethnography is the
description of a society or culture. Ethnography refers to
both the process of qualitative, fieldwork-based research
and the written results of that research. An ethnographer
attempts to describe an entire society or a specific set of
cultural institutions or practices. An ethnography may be
either emic or etic, or it may be a combination of the two.
An emic ethnography attempts to capture what ideas and
practices mean to members of a culture. It attempts to
give readers a sense of what it feels like to be a member
of the culture it describes. An etic ethnography describes
and analyzes culture according to principles and theo-
ries drawn from Western scientific traditions, such as
ecology, economy, or psychology. Emics and etics will
be more fully described in Chapter 2. Ethnology is the
attempt to find general principles or laws that govern
cultural phenomena. Ethnologists compare and contrast
practices in different cultures to find regularities.
culture change are important because rapid shifts in society, Applied Anthropology
economy, and technology are basic characteristics of the con-
Much of anthropology is concerned with basic research—that
temporary world. Understanding the dynamics of change is
critical for individuals, governments, and corporations. One is, asking the big questions about the origins of our species, the
goal of cultural anthropology is to be able to contribute pro- development of culture and civilization, and the functions of
ductively to public debate about promotion of and reaction to human social institutions. However, anthropologists also put
change. their knowledge to work to solve human problems.
Anthropology Makes a Difference

M E D I CA L A N T H R O P O L O GY: D I S E A S E , I L L N E S S, A N D SY N D E M I C S
Medical anthropology draws upon social, cultural, has been expanded to include communities around the
biological, and linguistic anthropology to help world (Gilbert et al., 2015).
people better understand health and well-being. It is
concerned with the experience of disease as well as its Syndemics relates to the consistent presence of
distribution, prevention, and treatment. multiple diseases within particular social, economic,
and environmental contexts. In addition to SAVA,
Medical anthropologists adapt the holistic and other syndemics include violence, immigration,
ethnographic approaches of anthropology to the study depression, type 2 diabetes, and abuse among
of health and disease in diverse societies. Modern female Mexican immigrants to the United States
biomedicine tends to regard diseases as universal (VIDDA); several conditions involving diabetes, HIV,
entities. However, medical anthropologists have found tuberculosis, and depression (Mendenhall et al., 2017;
that disease and medicine never exist independently Littleton & Park, 2009); and hepatitis and mental health
of particular cultural and historical contexts. Health (Cabral, 2017).
and sickness are not just biological notions but
fundamentally sociocultural and political-economic Lauren Slubowski Keenan-Devlin (2014) explored
concepts. This is captured by making the distinction the syndemic relationship between obesity, stress,
between disease, which refers to the biological poverty, and insecure living conditions among black
condition of the body, and illness, which refers to the youth in Chicago. She found that poor schools,
culturally shaped ways in which people experience inadequate law enforcement, lack of employment,
sickness (Kleinman, 1981; Rodlach, 2006). Disease and and financial insecurity had powerful effects on
illness in any society are influenced by issues such as people’s stress levels and waist circumferences.
subsistence systems, inequality, the system through These effects could be tracked by measuring study
which health care is provided, and cultural notions of participants’ body mass indices and levels of
health and sickness. cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress.
High cortisol levels increase risk for depression
Anthropologists (and increasingly medical and mental illness and also lower life expectancy.
professionals) often look at disease through the study Keenan-Devlin found that among youth in the South
of syndemics. Syndemics result when multiple diseases Austin neighborhood of Chicago, psychological
and social, economic, environmental, and political stress and poor living conditions were linked to
factors typically occur together. The syndemics model metabolic and cardiovascular stresses that resulted
focuses on understanding these interconnections in youth obesity and increased the likelihood
and finding ways to attack not only the biology of that these individuals would suffer chronic health
disease but the contextual conditions that help cause problems throughout their lives. Thus, these
it. Rather than focusing only on individuals and their conditions affected not only the youth in the study
symptoms, syndemics also explores the ways in which but future generations as well.
other aspects of people’s lives lead to the development
and perpetuation of illness. Early work in syndemics Medical care and the provision of information about
by anthropologist Merrill Singer examined HIV/AIDS diet can play strong roles in reducing both stress and
in Hartford, Connecticut. Singer showed that it was obesity among South Austin youth. However, Keenan-
important for public health officials to understand that Devlin argued that neither of these efforts is sufficient.
the problem was not simply the HIV virus but rather Breaking the multigenerational chain of stress, obesity,
a combination of substance abuse, violence, and HIV/ and, frequently, depression will require attention to
AIDS, a condition that became known as the SAVA stable housing, schools, and socio-emotional support
syndemic (Singer et al., 2017). Singer’s work in Hartford services that create belonging and interconnectedness.
(Continued)
(Continued)
As the example of the South Austin children shows, treating the first sometimes requires addressing the
it is often important to think about the connections second.
between health and the degree to which people in
different societies have access to resources such The work of medical anthropologists emphasizes the
as food and water, as well as the goods and social complex relationship of biology and culture and the
positions their society values (Baer et al., 1997). ways in which cultural, political, and economic context
Medical anthropologist and psychiatrist Arthur shape health, sickness, and medical practice. As
Kleinman (1995) noted that the body connects Keenan-Devlin (2014: 146–147) noted, “Anthropology
individual and group experience. Trauma caused by is uniquely suited to support community-based
violence and depression caused by chronic pain are efforts of transformation,” and, because of its ability
best understood as personal experiences of broader to use different research methodologies, speak across
social concerns rather than simply as individual different professions, and create intimacy and trust
medical problems. The implication is that medical with community members, it “has a profound role to
ills are closely related to social problems. Effectively play” in improving health outcomes.
Applied anthropologists are trained in one of the four implementation of educational and mental health poli-
subdisciplines we have already mentioned. Sometimes cies, and medical anthropologists apply their cross-cultural
referred to as practicing anthropologists, they work with knowledge to improve health care, sanitation, diet, and dis-
governments, corporations, and other organizations to use ease control in a variety of cultural contexts. Some anthropol-
anthropological research techniques to solve social, political, ogists work closely with government agencies that provide
and economic problems. In this book, we highlight some of relief and educational resources to at-risk communities.
the work of applied anthropologists. Each chapter includes Archaeology has numerous applications. Establishing
a feature titled “Anthropology Makes a Difference.” In these an archaeological record has often enabled native peoples to
you will read about some of the ways anthropologists are regain access to land and resources that historically belonged
involved in the practical worlds of business, defense, medi- to them. Work in archaeology is often basic to understanding
cine, government, public policy, climate change, sustainable the history of groups that left little record. Excavations such as
development, refugees, immigration, law enforcement, and the one done at the African Burial Ground in New York City
communication. (Harrington, 1993) give us insight into the living conditions
Specialists in each of the subfields of anthropology make of groups not well represented in the written record—in this
contributions to applied work. For example, in cultural case, enslaved and free Africans living in Manhattan in the
anthropology, experts in the anthropology of agriculture 17th and 18th centuries. Such knowledge is frequently fun-
use their knowledge to help people with reforestation, water damental to cultural identity. In addition to this, archaeol-
management, and agricultural productivity. Such experts ogy has sometimes produced technical applications relevant
have been instrumental to the work of many organizations to the current world. For example, in Israel’s Negev Desert,
that promote the welfare of tribal and indigenous peoples in Peru, and in other locations, the archaeological study of
throughout the world. Examples of these organizations ancient peoples yielded information about irrigation design
include Cultural Survival, founded by anthropologist David and raised-field systems that allowed modern people to make
Maybury-Lewis; the Center for World Indigenous Studies; more effective use of the environment and increase agricul-
and Survival International. Cultural anthropologists who tural yields (Downum & Price, 1999).
study legal and criminal justice systems address problems In biological anthropology, forensic anthropologists
such as drug abuse or racial and ethnic conflict. They have (Figure 1.5) use their knowledge of human skeletal biology to
often promoted alternative forms of conflict resolution, such discover information about the victims of crimes, thus aiding
as mediation techniques that grew out of anthropological in law enforcement and judicial proceedings. Other biologi-
studies of non-Western societies. Anthropologists working cal anthropologists focus on anthropometry, the measure-
in West Africa provided key information that helped focus ment of human beings, and provide critical information to
the medical response to the Ebola crisis in Guinea, Liberia, designers who make everything from chairs to spacecraft.
and Sierra Leone in 2014 (American Anthropological Private industry has become a major consumer of
Association, 2014). Psychological and educational anthro- anthropological talent. More than two dozen anthropol-
pologists contribute to the more effective development and ogists work for the technology consulting firm Sapient.
social dynamics that underlie culture. This promotes

FIGURE 1.5 Forensic anthropologists help discover an awareness of the meanings and dynamics of our
information about victims of crime. Here, forensic own and other cultures.
anthropology students from Texas State University Applied anthropology doesn’t just mean that you
help law enforcement officials recover human remains get paid to use your anthropological training. All of us
near San Antonio, Texas. do applied anthropology when we bring anthropo-
logical understandings and insight to bear on prob-
ichelle amilton
lems of poverty, education, war, and peace. We don’t

apply anthropology only when we write a report. We
apply anthropology when we go to the voting booth
and to the grocery store, when we discuss issues with
our friends, and, if we’re religious, when we pray.
Anthropology provides no simple answers. There is
no correct anthropological way to vote, shop, or pray.
However, anthropology does inform our decisions
about these things. Our attempt to understand other
cultures and our own lets us look on these things with
new eyes.
As noted previously, in the “Anthropology Makes
a Difference” boxes featured in each chapter of this
book, you’ll find interesting ways that people have
made careers of anthropology and used it to help oth-
ers. However, you’ll also find examples of the ways in
Anthropologists can also be found working at Microsoft, which anthropology contributes to our understand-
Intel, Kodak, Whirlpool, AT&T, Hallmark, General Motors, ing of the world. Ultimately, our lives are more about the ways
and many other large corporations. They have been instru- in which we exemplify the meanings and values that we hold
mental in developing numerous consumer products. For than about how we make our living. For some, anthropology
example, anthropologists helped Procter & Gamble develop is a career, but even if you never make a dime from your study
the Swiffer floor mop and helped Adobe design Photoshop of anthropology, it will inform, enrich, and perhaps complicate
(Flavelle, 2010; Pearson, 2015). your life.
Although it is true that there are many careers in anthro-
pology, it is our conviction that putting anthropology to work Some Critical Issues
consists of more than just people earning a living with the in Anthropology
skills they gained through training in anthropology. Perhaps
the most important aspect of anthropology is the way an A major contribution of anthropology is to demonstrate the
anthropological perspective demands that we open our eyes importance and variability of culture in human societies. The
and experience the world in new ways. In a sense, anthropol- remainder of this book analyzes and describes various human
ogy is like teaching fish the meaning of water. How could a fish societies and examines their differences and similarities in
understand water? Water is all a fish knows, and it knows it so detail. However, there are several issues to consider before we
well it cannot distinguish it from the nature of life and reality begin this investigation. These include the nature of ethnocen-
itself. Similarly, all humans live in cultures, and our experi- trism, the meaning and importance of cultural relativism in
ences are normally bounded by our cultures. We often mis- anthropology, the ways in which anthropologists understand
take the realities and truths of our culture for reality and truth race, and the importance of the emergence of a global eco-
itself, thinking that the ways we understand and do things are nomic system. These are issues that cultural anthropologists
the only appropriate ways of understanding and doing. must always address, regardless of their subject of study or
The fish understands the meaning of water only when it is their perspective.
removed from the water (usually with fatal consequences). If
anthropology is not exactly about removing people from their
culture, it is, in a sense, the conscious attempt to allow people Ethnocentrism
to see beyond the bounds of their culture. Through learning Imagine a deaf person raised in a culture where music and
about other cultures, we become increasingly aware of the vari- dance don’t exist. Imagine they come across a group of peo-
ety of different understandings present in the world and of the ple with fiddles and drums, jumping around every which
way. The deaf person would think the people jumping

about were crazy. They cannot hear the music, so they FIGURE 1.6 Ethnocentrism is the notion that one’s
don’t see that the others are dancing (Myerhoff, 1978). own culture is superior to any other. This famous
Similarly, a person who does not hear the music of photograph taken in 1937 by Margaret Bourke-
another culture cannot make sense of its dance. In other White draws attention to the contrast between the
words, if we assume that the understandings, pattern- sentiment on the billboard and the people in the
ings, and rules of other cultures are the same as our own, breadline. Note that the passengers in the car are
then the actions of other people may seem incompre- white but the people in the breadline are black.
hensible. One of the most important contributions of
anthropology is its ability to open our ears to the music
argaret Bour e White Contri utor Getty Images

and meaning in other cultures. It challenges and cor-
rects our ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is the notion that one’s own culture
is superior to any other. It is the idea that other cultures
should be measured by the degree to which they live up
to our cultural standards. We are ethnocentric when we
view other cultures through the narrow lens of our own
culture or social position (Figure 1.6).
The American tourist who, when presented with
a handful of Mexican pesos, asks, “How much is this in
real money?” is being ethnocentric—but there is noth-
ing uniquely American about ethnocentrism. People all
over the world tend to see things from their own cultur-
ally patterned point of view—through their own cultural
filters. They tend to value what they have been taught to
value and to see the meaning of life in terms of their own Although ethnocentrism gets in the way of understand-
culturally defined purposes. For example, people in the New ing other people, a group’s belief in the superiority of its own
Guinea Highlands understood the world of conscious beings way of life may help bind its members together and help
to be composed of themselves, their allies, their enemies, and them to perpetuate their values. When a culture loses value
spirits, including ancestors, gods, and other figures. When for its people, the people may experience anomie, a condi-
they first encountered European outsiders in the 1930s, they tion where social and moral norms are absent or confused.
rapidly classified them as spirits and believed that the dark- This results in great emotional stress, and those who suffer it
skinned carriers who accompanied them were their dead may even lose interest in living. Such people may be rapidly
relatives. It was the only way that these people could initially absorbed by other groups and their culture lost.
make sense of what they were seeing (Connolly & Anderson, To the extent that ethnocentrism prevents building
1987: 36–37). bridges between cultures, however, it is maladaptive. When
Although most peoples are ethnocentric, the ethnocen- one culture is motivated by ethnocentrism to trespass on
trism of wealthy and powerful societies has had greater con- another, the harm done can be enormous. It is but a short step
sequences than that of smaller, less technologically advanced from this kind of ethnocentrism to racism—beliefs, actions,
and more geographically isolated peoples. For example, the and patterns of social organization that exclude individuals
historical circumstances that led to the spread of Western and groups from the equal exercise of human rights and fun-
culture have given its members a strong belief in its rightness damental freedoms. The transformation from ethnocentrism
and superiority. Westerners have been in a position to impose to racism underlies much of the structural inequality that
their beliefs and practices on other peoples because of their characterizes modern history.
wealth and their superior military technology. It may matter
little, for example, to the average Frenchman if the Dogon (an
ethnic group in Mali) believe that their way of life and beliefs Anthropology and Cultural Relativism
are superior. The Dogon have little ability to affect events in Anthropology helps us understand peoples whose ways of
France. However, it mattered a great deal to the Dogon that life are different from our own but with whom we share a
the French believed that their way of life and beliefs were common human destiny. However, we can never understand
superior. The French colonized Mali and imposed their a people’s behavior if we insist on judging it first. Cultural
beliefs and institutions on its people. relativism is the notion that a people’s values and customs
must be understood in terms of the culture of which they is the wide variation in human form. Some people are short,
are a part. Cultural relativists maintain that to understand others are tall; skin color covers a spectrum from very dark
the logic and dynamics of other cultures, anthropologists to very light; some people have slight builds, others are husky.
must suspend judgment of them. Researchers who view the The degree to which humans vary is even more startling
actions of other people simply in terms of the degree to which when less obvious differences, such as blood type and other
they correspond to the observers’ notions of right and wrong biochemical traits, are taken into account.
systematically distort the cultures they study. A particularly salient aspect of culture in the United
Cultural relativism is a fundamental research tool of States (and throughout much of the world today) is the
anthropology. It is distinct from moral relativism—the notion assumption that the range of human diversity is best under-
that because no universal standard of behavior exists, people stood as a small number of biologically separate races. Over
should not judge behaviors as good or evil. Anthropological the past two centuries, scientists have struggled to create a
methods may require researchers to suspend judgment but not consistent system to identify and classify these races. It may
to dispense with it entirely. There are many things that should come as a surprise to learn that despite hundreds of years of
offend us. Slavery, human sacrifice, genocide, and racism are all labor by enormously creative and intelligent researchers, no
cultural practices. Anthropologists are not required to approve agreed-upon, consistent system of racial classification has
of them in order to study them. It is possible to understand ever been developed. Modern genetics has shown that there
other cultures without believing that their practices are good. are no absolute racial markers. In other words, there is no
Anthropologists insist that every culture has a logic that makes case in which all members of a race share a gene that does not
sense to its own members. It is our job to understand that logic, occur in members of other races (Gannon, 2016).
even if we do not approve of it or wish that culture for ourselves. Anthropology in the United States has always been con-
Using the anthropological technique of cultural relativ- cerned with questions of race. At the turn of the century,
ism helps us see that our own culture is only one design for Franz Boas, one of the founders of modern American anthro-
living among the many in the history of humankind. We can pology, argued passionately for biopsychological equality—
see that our culture came into being under a particular set the notion that although individuals within social groups
of historical circumstances. It is not the inevitable end result differ from one another, the meaningful differences between
of human social evolution. Understanding this provides a social groups come from culture, not biology. Before World
much-needed corrective for ethnocentrism. War II, however, many physical anthropologists attempted
From its beginnings, anthropology held a dual promise: to create systems to divide humanity into biological races
contributing to the understanding of human diversity and and rank them (Figure 1.7). Today, anthropologists agree
providing a cultural critique of our own society (Marcus & that there is no way of doing this and that race, as a biolog-
Fischer, 1986). By becoming aware of cultural alternatives, we ical characteristic of humans, does not exist (American
are better able to see ourselves as others see us and to use that Anthropological Association, 1998; Templeton, 2013).
knowledge to make constructive changes in our own soci- Human beings are truly all members of a single race.
ety. Through looking at the “other,” we come to understand In biological terms, no group of humans has ever been
ourselves. isolated for long enough to make it very different from others
and, as a result, our similarities are far more compelling than
Human Biological Diversity and Race our differences. Thus, anthropologists understand systems of
Anthropology shows us that there are important and often racial classification as reflecting history and social hierarchy
dramatic differences between cultures. However, it also rather than biology. Prejudice and racism are certainly reali-
shows us that despite all of these differences, from a biological ties, but they are not rooted in biological differences between
perspective, people are overwhelmingly similar. In fact, com- people (Strain, 2003).
pared with other closely related species, the human species The notion that races are not biological categories might
shows extremely low levels of biological diversity. The genetic seem unusual and counterintuitive. Thus, it is worth a brief
difference between individuals is very small: only one- detour to point out the problems with the notion of biolog-
tenth of 1% of DNA. Genetically, we are all 99.9% the same ical race. These are many, but three are especially import-
(Witherspoon et al., 2007). Although genetic markers can ant: (1) the arbitrary selection of traits used to define races,
sometimes indicate a person’s likely ancestry, that’s different (2) the inability to adequately describe within-species varia-
from race. Africans, for example, are often more genetically tion through the use of racial categories, and (3) the repeated
different from each other than from non-Africans (Worrall, independent evolution of so-called racial characteristics in
2017; Campbell & Tishkoff, 2010). populations with no genetic relationship.
Despite the compelling biological similarity of all human Each human being is a collection of thousands of char-
groups, one of the important outcomes of human evolution acteristics such as skin color, blood type, tolerance to lactose
of lactose tolerance is as valid as basing a racial group

FIGURE 1.7 Ota Benga, a Pygmy, was brought to the on any other trait. However, if we did so, we would
United States for the Africa exhibit at the St. Louis group Norwegians, Arabs, North Indians, and some
World’s Fair in 1904. He was briefly exhibited at the Africans into one race, while excluding other peo-
monkey house of the Bronx Zoo in New York. The ples. There is no reason at all to believe that lactose
implication of the exhibit was that people such as tolerance correlates with features of personality such
Ota Benga were more similar to chimpanzees than as entrepreneurial drive, intelligence, or sexuality.
to white Americans. Such exhibits reinforced the However, there is no reason to believe that eye shape
incorrect idea that Africans were biologically inferior or hair texture correlate with these either.
to Europeans and highlighted the racism in America It is no accident that the characteristics that mem-
at the turn of the 20th century. bers of many cultural groups, including Americans,
choose as racial markers are traits such as skin color,
lamy Stoc Photo
eye shape, nose shape, and hair texture. These traits

are not chosen for their biological importance but
because they are easily visible. Thus, they make it rel-
atively easy to assign individuals to races. Using blood
type, lactose intolerance, or dry versus wet earwax to
istoric Collection
determine race would be just as logical as other means

of defining racial groups, but because such traits are
not easily seen, they would be socially useless.
Variation within socially constructed races also
presents enormous problems. Obvious and obscure
physical differences between members of the same
so-called race are enormous, typically exceeding dif-
ferences between average members of racial groups.
In fact, studies using biological measures make clear
that individual differences between people are much
greater than racial differences. In other words, mea-
sured genetically, you are likely to be more different
from another person of your race than from another
person of a different race.
To illustrate the importance of variation within
races, imagine lining up all the students on your cam-
pus according to the color of their skin. Assuming
the student population is large enough, all skin tones,
from the very light people at one end of the line to the
very dark people at the other, would be represented.
(milk sugar), tooth shape, and so on. Variations in these traits The vast majority of people would fall in between the
result from both genetic and environmental factors as well extremes. At what point would white become black? Are peo-
as interactions between the two. There is no way to weigh ple who stand close to each other in the line necessarily more
the importance of any trait—no reason, for example, why closely related than those who stand farther apart? In fact,
blood type should be intrinsically more or less important there is no way to tell who is related to whom by looking at
than lactose tolerance, skin color, or hair shape. However, the line.
schemes of racial classification select a very small number Finally, the traits that are typically used to define races
of traits and ignore others. Such systems typically assume have arisen repeatedly and independently throughout the
that the traits they have selected have a very strong genetic world and are the result of common forms of evolution. Most
basis and that these traits are more significant than others, theories of race assume that people who share similar racial
which they ignore. The problem with such schemes is that characteristics share similar origins. The fact that traits arise
they identify races that are simply the result of the particu- recurrently, however, means that this assumption is faulty
lar traits the researchers have chosen. In other words, if dif- (Figure 1.8).
ferent traits were chosen, different races would result. Jared It is often imagined, for example, that all black peo-
Diamond (1994) noted that identifying a race on the basis ple are descendants of a group of central Africans and all
validity and must be dismissed. People who wish to

FIGURE 1.8 People who appear similar might have argue that racial groups have differing biologically
very different ancestries. The girl in the photo might based abilities must first show that such groups are
look African, but she is from Vanuatu in the South biologically distinct. This has not been done and is
Pacific Ocean, over 8,000 miles from the closest point probably impossible to do. In fact, one of the most
on the African continent. compelling facts about humanity is how closely
related every human is to every other human.
Eric Lafforgue rt In ll f Us Cor is ia Getty Images
Mathematical models of migration and genealogy

show that the most recent common ancestor of all
humans lived between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago
(Rohde et al., 2004). Even more remarkable, the
model shows that everyone alive more than 5,500
years ago was either an ancestor of all currently liv-
ing humans or of no one alive today. Rohde and his
colleagues wrote, “No matter the languages we speak
or the colour of our skin, we share ancestors with
those who planted rice on the banks of the Yangtze,
who first domesticated horses on the steppes of the
Ukraine, who hunted giant sloths in the forests of
North and South America, and who labored to build
the Great Pyramid of Khufu” (2004: 565). And, we
share those ancestors surprisingly recently.
One of the most important things we can learn
by studying anthropology is that although racism
is an important social fact, the differences among
human groups are the result of culture, not biolog-
ical inheritance or race. All human beings belong to
the same species, and the biological features essential
to human life are common to us all. A human being
from any part of the world will learn the cultural and
behavioral patterns of the group in which he or she is
raised. Adaptation through culture and the potential
white people are descendants of a group who lived in the for cultural richness and creativity are part of a uni-
Caucasus Mountains. However, this is biological non- versal human heritage and override any physical variation
sense. To illustrate this point, consider people from the among human groups. Issues of race and racism are dis-
Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, and France. cussed in numerous places in this book.
People from the Central African Republic and Papua New
Guinea (off the coast of Australia in Melanesia) are likely
to have dark skin and similar hair texture and to share Anthropologists and “Natives”
other features. Most people from France are likely to have From the late 19th through the mid-20th century, when
light skin and have hair texture and other features that anthropology was developing as a field of study, much of
look quite different from those of Africans and Papua New the world was colonized by powerful nations. These nations
Guineans. From this, one might conclude that Central often held ethnic minorities and traditional societies as sub-
Africans and Papua New Guineans are more closely jugated populations within their own borders. Many anthro-
related to one another than either is to the French. This pologists came from colonizing countries and worked among
is incorrect. Molecular genetic data tell us that Africans the colonized. British and French anthropologists usually
and Melanesians show a great deal of genetic divergence. worked among colonized people in Africa. American anthro-
Europeans are more closely related to both Africans pologists often worked with Native American populations or
and Papua New Guineans than either is to the other Pacific Islanders in areas under U.S. control.
(Templeton, 1998: 640). Doing anthropological research under such conditions
The notion that perceived differences between social had several implications. First, communities had little con-
groups are caused by racial inheritance has no biological trol over whether or not to accept an anthropologist. If the
colonial government gave anthropologists permission to anthropologists be somewhat detached observers or impas-
work in a village, the residents had to accept them. Second, sioned advocates? If the former, will the anthropologists’ data
anthropologists did not have to be responsive to the political and analysis be accurate? If the latter, will the data and anal-
or economic needs of the people among whom they worked. ysis be trustworthy? (See D’Andrade, Scheper-Hughes, et al.,
Finally, because it was very rare that the people among 1995, for a good exploration of this debate.)
whom anthropologists worked read their books and articles, We firmly believe that anthropology benefits from lively
anthropologists did not have to be sensitive to their concerns discussion of its role and meaning. The participation of
and had little fear of being contradicted by them. Although anthropologists from many backgrounds as well as the par-
anthropologists during these times frequently did outstand- ticipation of members of the communities that anthropolo-
ing research, the conditions under which they worked inevi- gists study makes the discipline richer and the debate more
tably affected their descriptions of society. useful. There is time and space for more than one kind of
Conditions today are far different. Sometimes, as anthropology.
described in the accompanying ethnography titled
“Dangerous Field,” anthropologists face hazardous, Anthropology and Globalization
life-threatening situations; most of the time, though, they
work under conditions of relative safety. However, they work During the early years of anthropology, in the 19th and early
in independent nations among people who can choose to 20th centuries, anthropologists usually studied societies
accept or reject them. Many anthropologists come from as if each culture was a separate, well-defined, and isolated
non-Western nations, and anthropologists frequently face unit. Books from this era often include exhaustive descrip-
the reactions and criticisms of an audience that includes tions of individual cultures but contain only scant mention
members of the groups they study. For example, Warms (one of the relationships between cultures. For example, A. R.
of your authors) recently presented a paper at an academic Radcliffe-Brown’s The Andaman Islanders, a well-known
conference. Afterward, he was congratulated by an audience ethnography first published in 1922, described people living
member who told him that one of the people discussed in the on an archipelago in the Indian Ocean between India and
paper was a relative. These instances can affect anthropologi- Thailand. In The Andaman Islanders, there are 500 pages of
cal descriptions of societies. description and analysis of social organization, ceremonies,
Anthropologists today must be sensitive to the polit- religious customs, and technology but only one or two pages
ical and social implications of their work. As contemporary describing the connections between the islands and the rest
social groups—whether nations or smaller units within of the world.
nations—search for identity and autonomy, cultural repre- Even in the era when Radcliffe-Brown wrote, the
sentations become important resources, and traditions once Andamans were only relatively isolated. The British gov-
taken for granted become the subject of heightened political ernment established a penal colony on the Andamans in the
consciousness. People want their cultures to be represented 18th century, and contact between the islands and the out-
to the outside world in ways acceptable to them and may side world was well established by the time Radcliffe-Brown
hold anthropologists responsible for the political impact of arrived more than a century later. In fact, Radcliffe-Brown
their work. Anthropologists must carefully consider exactly did his work by interviewing people at Andaman Homes,
whose story gets told and why (Faubion & Marcus, 2009; J. R. an institution founded by a colonial clergyman that func-
Campbell, 2010). tioned as something between a prison and a boarding school
Anthropologists have responded to these changes in (Pandya, 2005; Mukerjee, 2003: 50).
a variety of ways. For example, most anthropologists have Today, the Andaman Islands remain off the beaten track.
become much more explicit about the exact conditions under However, you can fly from New York City to the Andamans
which their data were collected, their motivations for doing on regularly scheduled service in under two days. You can
research, and the personal background and values they bring book your vacation there through www.andamanholidays
to research. Anthropologists from wealthy countries now .com and stay at one of several resorts. You can join the
often work with anthropologists from the countries and Switzerland-based Andaman Association, and you can view
communities they study. However, these changes have also more than 50,000 pictures from the Andamans on Flickr
added fuel to theoretical disputes that have long simmered .com. This increased contact has not been good for all of the
in the discipline. Should anthropology try to be an objective islands’ residents. One hundred and fifty years ago, there
social science striving to discover fundamental principles of were perhaps 5,000 to 8,000 indigenous people living on the
human social behavior? Or should it be an interpretive art, Andaman Islands. Today, the total population of the islands
engaged in trying to cause people to understand the reali- is almost 400,000, but there are fewer than 500 indigenous
ties of the lives of those different from themselves? Should people. One indigenous group, the Jarawas, remained more
Ethnography
DA N G E R O U S F I E L D
Throughout much of the history of anthropology, cases, artificially peaceful. Anthropologists worked in
researchers assumed that they would be safe in the areas that were controlled by colonial governments
field. Most students are drawn to anthropology at or that were American protectorates. In these
least partially by the chance to do work in interesting cases, hostility among groups was suppressed and
places—to live with people, learn their ways of life, managed by colonial authorities. Anthropologists
and become friends with them (Chagnon, 1997). themselves, regardless of whom they worked for, were
Anthropologists have generally assumed that protected by these authorities, and natives could
they will work under conditions of stability, trust, expect that violence against anthropologists would
quietude, security, and freedom from fear. Although be punished rapidly and harshly.
anthropologists today do often work in places where
these conditions are possible, in many other places, The world of colonial anthropology is gone.
anthropology, if it is done at all, is done under Although most anthropologists today continue to
conditions of instability and violence. work under conditions of relative peace and security,
some work in conditions of danger and physical risk
A 1990 study of dangers to anthropologists in to themselves and those who work with them. Kovats-
the field identified malaria, hepatitis, and vehicle Bernat worked on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
crashes as the three greatest risks anthropologists in an area of the city often called “Kosovo” because
face (Howell, 1990). However, the study also of the prevalence of gangsterism, political gunplay,
noted a surprisingly high rate of encounters with and drug terrorism. Most of the street kids in the
violence, criminality, and political instability. area sniff glue, and some carry razors. Kovats-Bernat
For example, at least 42% of anthropologists had reported that he was at various times “present at
experienced “criminal interpersonal hazards” and street shootings, threatened, searched, suspected of
22% reported living through political turmoil such subversion, and in the midst of crossfire” (2002: 209).
as war, revolution, and rioting. A more recent study
mentioned the problems of random violence, drug Anthropologists have faced danger and physical
gangs and mafias, and state violence from the police, violence during fieldwork in many parts of the world.
military, and paramilitary (Goldstein, 2014). For example, Danny Hoffman, a photojournalist
turned anthropologist, has written about his
J. Christopher Kovats-Bernat (2002) pointed out that experiences of civil war in Sierra Leone. He
the conditions under which Malinowski, Mead, and recounted an incident at a United Nations (UN)
many other anthropologists operated were, in many disarmament center when tensions increased as
the number of armed combatants grew beyond
FIGURE 1.9 the ability of the UN monitors to control them.
Finally, one of the combatants threw a grenade
into the crowd. Fortunately, the grenade did not
Photo pro ided y Christopher Ko ats Bernat
explode, and Hoffman reported that he was able to

“observe . . . the dynamics of a crowd at an instant of
intense violence and confusion and to understand
the accounts we later gathered through the prism of
our own experience of the event” (2003: 12). Monique
Skidmore did field research in Burma. She wrote that
anthropologists and informants inevitably share
experiences and that, in her case, these experiences
included being frightened, confused, and disoriented
as well as suffering from a general loss of perspective
(Skidmore, 2003: 6).
Kovats-Bernat, Hoffman, and Skidmore are drawn

to the ethnography of violent places for different
reasons, but all believe the risks they and their
informants take are worthwhile. Skidmore considers
herself “an activist by proxy,” determined to write
against terror (2003, p. 6). Hoffman (2003: 9–10)
(Continued)
(Continued)
Professional Responsibility urge anthropologists
noted that media conglomerates are increasingly to maintain transparency and avoid deception.
unwilling to support correspondents in out-of-the- However, in violent societies, trying to explain what
way places. Reporters sent to locations of violence an anthropologist is and does could, in some cases,
are usually only briefly there. They depend on lead to arrest—or worse.
governments for access and thus tend to report news
that governments allow. Their reporting generally Kovats-Bernat wrote that when anthropologists
aligns with the interests and understandings of the do research under conditions of violence, they
host government. Given this, anthropologists are invite the possibility of victimization and violence
often among the very few who witness dangerous on both themselves and their informants. If
events and have the depth of knowledge to anthropologists and informants accept that such
understand and analyze them. Kovats-Bernat wrote research is worthwhile, we must understand the
that doing the ethnography of violence can make relationship between anthropologists and their
a critical contribution to anthropological theory. subjects in a new way. Our relationship needs to
For him, violence is not something that covers and be “one of mutual responsibility” [in which] “all
contaminates society; rather, in many cases, it is the participants in the research must . . . willingly
stuff of social relationships, inseparable from kinship, accept the possibility that any involvement in the
market activities, language, and other aspects of study could result in intimidation, arrest, torture,
culture (2002: 217). disappearance, assassination, or a range of other,
utterly unforeseeable dangers” (Kovats-Bernat, 2002:
Doing fieldwork in dangerous locations raises 214; italics in the original).
important ethical questions. Kovats-Bernat wrote
that he has often found the Code of Ethics of the
Critical Thinking Questions
American Anthropological Association (AAA) to
be “irrelevant, naïve, or insufficient to guide [his] 1. Given the ethical problems of conducting research
actions” (2002: 214). For example, the association’s in violent locations, should anthropologists ever
Principles of Professional Responsibility state be involved in such research? If not, will their
that “anthropologists must do everything in analyses of society be biased in favor of seeing
their power to protect the physical, social, and violence as an aberration?
psychological welfare . . . of those studied.” (American
Anthropological Association, 1986: 1). Kovats-Bernat 2. The AAA Code of Ethics and Principles of
questions how this can be done under conditions Professional Responsibility make moral demands
of violence and lawlessness. The AAA statement on researchers. These demands may have costs
assumes that the researchers have the knowledge in terms of personal safety and limit the types of
and power to look after the subject of their research, information anthropologists may collect. What
yet in real field situations, the reverse is often true. level of danger should anthropologists be ready
to accept to remain true to these professional
In situations of instability, activities basic to research codes? Are some research topics off limits to
may be fraught with danger. For example, even the anthropologists?
most innocuous of field notes may, under certain
conditions, mean the difference between life and 3. Anthropologists who work in violent locations are
death for anthropologists and their subjects. Efforts motivated by intellectual goals and professional
at encrypting notes or locking them up are often advancement. What motivates informants to take
futile. The AAA’s Code of Ethics and Principles of the risk of working with anthropologists?
or less isolated until the 1990s, when a highway extended into disasters, fashions, and tastes in one part of the globe have pro-
their territory, bringing timber companies, tourists, poachers, found effects on the lives of people in many parts of the world.
and disease. Today, the Jarawa are the largest of the Andaman Wars in the Middle East directly affect the lives of American
indigenous groups, but only about 250 remain (Stock & servicemen and their families as well as the millions who live
Migliano, 2009; Vidal, 2009). (See Figures 1.10 and 1.11.) in areas of political instability. The consumption habits of
One of the most compelling facts of our world is that Americans and Chinese affect each other as the price of oil
no place is truly isolated. Today, we are connected with one moves up and down in dramatic swings. Styles in clothing in
another by lines of transportation and communication. the West affect the lives of villagers in Asia and Latin America
Even more importantly, we are connected by flows of money, as corporations search for the cheapest and most efficient way
products, and information. Policy decisions, wars, natural to produce products. Migration has become so extensive that
FIGURE 1.10 AND 1.11 Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in the late 19th and
early 21st centuries.
C RBIS Cor is ia Getty Images
David Pearson / Alamy Stock Photo

anyone living in a large Western city is likely to come into con- anthropologists come from diverse ethnic and national back-
tact with people from all over the world every day. Conversely, grounds. Anthropologists today are much more likely to be
individuals living in poverty in rural Africa, Asia, and Latin members of or have family connections to the groups they
America are likely to have relatives living in large cities in the study than was true in the past.
United States, Europe, or the Arab world. The Internet, extremely rapid communication, and
Globalization has affected anthropology in many ways the relative ease of travel have all increased the connections
and changed the ways in which anthropologists work and between anthropologists and the communities they study. In
write. As we saw in the case of Radcliffe-Brown, until the the early 20th century, anthropologists spent days or weeks
late 20th century, anthropologists generally focused on the traveling to their research sites. Communication was almost
particular unique characteristics of the communities they entirely by letter, and the mail, if it existed at all, was extremely
studied. Today, they are far more likely to focus on the rela- slow. Today, few research sites are more than 48 hours away
tionships and exchanges between those they study and the from any major world city. Communication, even in quite
rest of the world. Anthropologists rarely produce works that remote places, is rapid and inexpensive. This means that
purport to describe an entire culture. Even books that sound anthropologists can be in touch with the people with whom
as if they might be descriptions of a single group empha- they work with far greater frequency.
size global connections. Hillary Kahn’s (2006) Seeing and Rapid communication and global economic change
Being Seen: The Q’eqchi’ Maya of Livingston, Guatemala, have politicized some anthropologists. Anthropologists fre-
and Beyond is a good example. It includes chapters on colo- quently work with small, relatively isolated groups. These
nialism, the ways in which religious belief is connected to groups are usually virtually powerless in the modern-day
exchange with outsiders, and Q’eqchi’ relations with their nations that control their territory. Like the Andaman
neighbors, the Garifuna, one-quarter of whom have migrated Islanders, they have often suffered enormously from
to New York City (2006: 12). increased contact with the outside world. They have been
Globalization has also increased the diversity of the pushed onto smaller and smaller areas of land, decimated
anthropological community. Through the late 20th century, by disease, and exploited by corporations, governments, and
most anthropologists were men from northern Europe and even tourists. Anthropologists have responded by becoming
the United States who identified as white. Today, although increasingly engaged in political and social action. Our inter-
white men still retain much power in the discipline, they est in defending the rights of indigenous people has some-
are now a minority. A 2016 survey of members of the AAA times led to activist research in which anthropologists work
showed that more than 60% were women (Ginsberg, together with the people they study to formulate strategies
2016). Anthropology programs are increasingly avail- to improve the lives of these people and end their oppression
able at universities around the world, and more and more (Hale, 2001: 13).
We explore the anthropology of globalization in many programs produce generalists. An undergraduate degree
places in this book. The ethnographies in Chapter 5, for in psychology does not typically get you a job as a psychol-
example, indicate how making a living in today’s world ogist. Most people who study political science do not go
ties many people to globalization. Chapter 6, “Economics,” on to be politicians, and few who study sociology go on to
provides some additional background for understanding work as sociologists. In fact, survey data show that there is
globalization. In Chapters 7, “Political Organization,” and often little connection between a person’s undergraduate
8, “Stratification,” we examine the issues of global migra- major and their eventual career. Surveys consistently find
tion, and Chapter 11, “Gender,” explores some of the new that only about 30% of college graduates have jobs that are
roles of women in a global economy. Religion and art, closely connected with their college major (Abel & Deitz,
too, now have global dimensions, which we explore in 2015; University of Virginia, 2008). This is true even for
Chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 14, “Power, Conquest, and a science and engineering students. Data from the National
World System,” describes the historical development of Science Foundation show that only about a quarter of
economic and social links between disparate peoples, and these students hold jobs that are related to their degrees
in Chapter 15, “Culture, Change, and the Modern World,” and that require at least a bachelor’s degree to perform
we examine many of the problems and prospects that face (Mervis, 2012: 275).
people in wealthy and poor nations alike. In addition, each Despite the statistics just cited, many private and
chapter of the book ends with a feature called “The Global public organizations look specifically to hire anthro-
and the Local,” in which we offer examples of the ways in pologists. The U.S. government is probably the largest
which global and local cultures interact with each other; employer of anthropologists, followed by Microsoft
these sections include discussion questions about this (Wood, 2013: 51). Companies that have hired anthro-
interaction. pologists include Intel, Citicorp, AT&T, Kodak, Disney,
and General Mills, among many others. Additionally,
Why Study Anthropology? there are numerous jobs for anthropologists in the
public and nonprofit sectors, including positions in
If you’re reading this book for a course at a college or uni- international development, social services, museums,
versity, and particularly if you are considering a major in national parks, and governmental organizations con-
anthropology, you’ve probably faced some intense ques- cerned with national security. In a 2015 Forbes article by
tioning from friends and family members. Some may have George Anders titled “That ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree
known about anthropology and applauded your wisdom Has Become Tech’s Hottest Ticket,” the chief informa-
in taking this course. Others may have had no idea what tion officer at a major tech firm argued that technolog-
anthropology is. Still others probably asked you what ical brilliance is not enough; firms need people who
anthropology was good for and what you hoped to do with understand culture and processes. A recently published
it. You might have told them that you want to work in one study by Harvard professor David J. Deming (2017)
of the many aspects of applied anthropology or become demonstrated that jobs requiring an understanding of
a college professor, but we think there are other good social interaction grew rapidly between 1980 and 2012,
answers as well. while the number of less socially informed jobs shrank.
Anthropology is, in most places, part of a liberal arts Culture, process, and social interaction are skills at
curriculum, which also generally includes English, geog- which anthropology students excel.
raphy, history, modern languages, philosophy, political However, like students with other majors, most
science, psychology, and sociology, as well as other depart- anthropology graduates go on to more general positions in
ments and programs. Some liberal arts departments have government, business, and the professions. Some become
teacher training programs. If you want to teach middle executives at large corporations, some are restaurateurs,
school English, in most places you will probably need some are lawyers, some are doctors, some are social service
a degree in English. Some liberal arts programs involve workers, some sell insurance, some are government officials,
training in highly technical skills that are directly appli- some are diplomats, and, no doubt, some may struggle finan-
cable to jobs. For example, geography departments may cially and have to work at entry level or temporary positions.
offer training in remote sensing, the acquisition and anal- And you could say the same for the vast majority of students
ysis of aerial photography, and multispectral and infrared majoring in most subjects at every university.
imagery and radar imagery for use by government and To refocus our question we might ask, what are the par-
business; these are highly complex skills with very specific ticular ways of thought that anthropology courses develop
job applications. However, the vast majority of liberal arts and that are applicable to the very broad range of occupations
that anthropologists follow? How is anthropology different American terms. Instead, it is a rapidly globalizing world
from other social science disciplines? Although there are cer- characterized by corporations with headquarters and work-
tainly many possible answers to these questions, it seems to forces spread across the globe; by international institutions
us that three are of particular importance. such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,
First, anthropology is the university discipline that and the World Trade Organization; and by capital and
focuses on understanding other groups of people. This focus information flows that cross cultural boundaries in milli-
on culture is one of the most valuable contributions anthro- seconds. Americans who wish to understand and operate
pology can make to our ability to understand our world and effectively in such a world must learn about other cultures
to analyze and solve problems. and other ways; failure to do so puts them at a distinct
Although the United States has always been an eth- disadvantage.
nically and culturally diverse place, for most of the 20th At home, the United States is once again a nation of
century, the reins of wealth and power were held by a immigrants (Figure 1.12). Until the late 20th century, most
dominant group: white Protestant men of northern immigrants were cut off from their homelands by politics
European ancestry. Members of other groups did some- and by the expense and difficulty of communication. Under
times become rich, and there were certainly many poor these conditions, assimilation to the dominant American
white Protestants. However, wealthy white Protestants culture was essential. Although politics will always be an
held the majority of positions of influence and power in issue, today’s immigrants can, in most cases, communicate
U.S. society, including executive positions at most large freely and inexpensively with family and friends in their
corporations, high political offices at both state and homelands and may be able to travel back and forth on a
national levels, and seats on the judiciary. As a result, if regular basis. Thus, complete assimilation is far less neces-
you happened to be born white, Protestant, and male, you sary or desirable.
had an advantage. Of course, you might have inherited Some people may applaud multiculturalism; others may
great wealth. But, even if (as was far more likely) you were bemoan what they feel is the passing of the “American” way of
the son of a factory hand or a shopkeeper, you were a rep- life. What no one can really dispute is that the world of today
resentative of the dominant culture. The ways of the pow- is vastly different from the world of 1950. Given the increas-
erful were, more or less, your ways. If members of other ing integration of economic systems, declining costs of com-
cultural groups wanted to speak with you, do business munication and transportation, and the rising economic
with you, or participate in public and civic affairs with power of China and other nations, we can be sure that people
you, they had to learn to do so on your terms—not you of different ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds will meet
on theirs. They not only had to learn to speak English, more and more frequently in arenas where none has clear
they also had to learn the forms of address, body lan- economic and cultural dominance. Thus, an understand-
guage, clothing, manners, and so on appropriate to their ing of the nature of culture and knowledge of the basic tools
role in your culture. Because others had to do the work scholars have devised to analyze it are essential, and anthro-
of changing their behavior, you yourself were probably pology is the place to get this.
almost completely unaware of this disparity and accepted In addition to this first, very practical application, there
it simply as the way things were. Miami Herald colum- is a second, more philosophical concern. Like scholars in
nist Leonard Pitts pointed out that “if affirmative action many other disciplines, anthropologists grapple with the
is defined as giving preferential treatment on the basis of question of what it means to be a human being. However,
gender or race, then no one in this country has received they bring some unique tools to bear upon this issue. Within
more than white men” (2007: 214). This is true whether anthropology, we can look for the answer to this question
or not such men wanted preference or realized they were in two seemingly mutually exclusive ways. We can look at
getting it. culture as simply the sum of everything that humans have
White, Protestant, northern European men still control done, thought, created, and believed. In a sense, as individ-
most of the wealth in the United States. However, by the late ual humans, we are heirs to the totality of cultural practices
20th century, their virtual monopoly on power had begun and experiences humans have ever had. Anthropology is
to break up. Members of minority groups have moved into the discipline that attempts to observe, collect, record, and
stronger economic and political positions. Moreover, the understand the full range of human cultural experience.
United States increasingly exists in a world filled with other Through anthropology, we know the great variety of forms
powerful nations with very different histories and tradi- that cultures can take. We know the huge variation in social
tions. It is less and less a world where everyone wants to do organization, belief systems, production, and family struc-
business with the United States and is willing to do so on ture that is found in human society. This gives us insight into
addiction, pollution, and crime. The list is long.

FIGURE 1.12 The United States is a nation of However, we are not the only people in the world
immigrants. In 2013, about 13% of people living in ever to have faced these problems. At some level,
America were foreign born. Here, protestors rally all of these problems are the result of our attempt
against changes in a government program to protect to live together as a group on this planet. Learning
young immigrants from deportation. how other peoples in other places and perhaps
other times as well solved or failed to solve their
©iStockphoto/anouchka
problems may give us the insight to solve our own;

we might learn lessons, both positive and negative,
from their cultural experiences.
In some ways, the cultures of today are unique.
Societies have never been as large and intercon-
nected as many of them are today. They have never
had the wealth that many have today. They have
never had the levels of technology, abilities to com-
municate, and abilities to destroy that our current
society has. These characteristics make it naïve
to imagine that we could simply observe a dif-
ferent culture, adopt its ways as our own, and live
happily ever after. We can no more re-create tribal
culture or ancient culture or even the culture of
industrialized nations of 50 years ago than we can
the plasticity of human society as well as the limits to that walk through walls. But it does not therefore fol-
plasticity. low that the experiences of others are useless to us. In
Alternatively, we can answer the question by ignoring the Greek drama, the notion of hubris is critical. It is proba-
variability of human culture and focusing on the character- bly best understood as excessive pride or confidence that
istics that all cultures share. In the 1940s, George Murdock leads to both arrogance and insolence toward others. In
listed 77 characteristics that he believed were common to all Greek tragedy, the hubris of characters is often their fatal
cultures. These included such things as dream interpretation, flaw and leads to their downfall. Heroes such as Oedipus
incest taboos, inheritance rules, and religious ritual. More and Creon were doomed by their hubris. We surely won’t
recent authors (Brown, 1991; Cleaveland et al., 1979) have find that the members of other cultures have ready-made
developed other lists and analyses. Brown (1991: 143) noted answers to all the problems that confront us. But to imag-
that human universals are very diverse and there is likely no ine ourselves as totally unique, to imagine that the experi-
single explanation for them. However, thinking about such ences of other peoples and other cultures have nothing to
commonalities among cultures may guide us in our attempt teach us, is a form of hubris, and, as in tragedy, could well
to understand human nature. lead to our downfall.
Finally, a third interest of anthropologists is in creating The ancient Greeks contrasted hubris with arete. This
new and useful ways to think about culture. One particu- characteristic implies a humble striving for perfection,
larly effective way to understand culture is to think of it as along with the realization that such perfection cannot be
a set of answers to a particular problem: How does a group reached. With the notion of arete in mind, we approach
of human beings survive in the world? In other words, cul- the study of anthropology cheerfully and with a degree
ture is a set of behaviors, beliefs, understandings, objects, of optimism. From anthropology, we hope to learn new
and ways of interacting that enable a group to survive with ways of analyzing, understanding, celebrating, and com-
greater or lesser success and greater or lesser longevity. At ing to terms with the enormous variations in human cul-
some level, all human societies must answer this critical tural behavior. We hope to be able to think creatively about
question, and to some degree, each culture is a different what it means to be human beings and to use what we learn
answer to it. to provide insight into the issues, problems, and possibili-
In the world today and in our own society, we face ties of our own culture. We hope that with the help of such
extraordinary problems: hunger, poverty, inequality, vio- understanding, we will leave the world a better place than
lence between groups, violence within families, drug we found it.
The Global and the Local

“ S TO N E AG E ” TR I B E S V E R S U S G L O B A L IZ ATI O N
Did you ever dream of finding a lost tribe or of visiting a place that was totally untouched
by Western society?
FIGURE 1.13 Members of an “uncontacted” group of these groups are composed of the descendants
of the survivors of bloody and violent contact
in the Brazilian Amazon. Such groups are the
with the outside world in the 19th and early 20th
descendants of survivors of violent contact with centuries. Some of them fled after recent contact with
the outside world in the 19th and 20th centuries. missionaries (S. Wallace, 2018). Thus, rather than
being people unaffected by the outside world, the
members of uncontacted tribes are people who know
AP Photo/dapd
of the outside world and choose to avoid it.
The current world population is approximately

7.6 billion. It is very difficult to estimate the total
population of uncontacted people, but it is probably
no more than 10,000, or about 1 uncontacted person
for every 750,000 of the world population. One of
the most compelling facts of life in the 20th century
is that although some groups of people are surely
more isolated than others, virtually all groups are in
contact with one another. Today, anthropologists are
apt to find that the people they work with are well
Introductory anthropology students often imagine aware of events in the United States and the policies
that anthropologists go off to study groups that of governments around the world. They wear T-shirts
are wholly unaffected by the modern world and featuring the names of U.S. cities or professional
uncontaminated by its practices. For better or for sports teams and drink Coca-Cola. They get their
worse, this is not the case: Such groups haven’t news from the radio, television, and the Internet. Even
existed for a long time. Members of industrialized in very remote locations, it is common to meet people
cultures had reached virtually every group of people who have traveled themselves or who have relatives
in the world by the time of World War I. living in the United States or in western Europe.
One exception to this occurred in the 1930s when the The successful presidential campaigns of Barack
Leahy brothers, Australian gold prospectors, made Obama and Donald Trump are good examples of the
contact with the native peoples of the New Guinea extent of global interconnections. Both campaigns
Highlands. Although the purpose of their exploration drew unprecedented attention throughout the world.
was strictly economic, they took still photos and The enthusiasm generated by the Obama campaign
movies. These pictures as well as interviews with the was demonstrated by the spontaneous appearance of
brothers and the New Guineans they encountered are songs about Obama in many places. Some examples
included in the film First Contact and the book of the include Trinidadian Mighty Sparrow’s “Barack
same name (Connolly & Anderson, 1983, 1987). the Magnificent” and Kenyan Tony Nyadundo’s
17-minute-long “Obama.” But, later in the Obama
Survival International, a British organization that presidency, there were protests against him. When
promotes the interests of native peoples, reports Obama went to Hannover, Germany, in 2016 to
that there are currently about 100 tribes that choose promote the transatlantic trade partnership, he was
to reject contact with outsiders. Of these, most live met with 35,000 protesters (Eckardt, 2016).
in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon (Survival
International, 2017; Figure 1.13). However, here, Donald Trump’s election was greeted with far less
uncontacted is a relative term. These groups are international enthusiasm than Obama’s. Women’s
neither unknown nor undiscovered. In many cases, marches protesting Trump’s planned policies were
they have contact with neighboring tribes; in other held immediately following his inauguration. These
cases, members have visited the outside world. In marches took place in many American cities but
many instances, they have guns, metal tools, and also in cities across Europe and places as far distant
other elements of modern technology. In Brazil, many as Nairobi, Kenya; Macau, China; Buenos Aires,
(Continued)
(Continued)
Argentina, and Accra, Ghana (Taylor, 2017). When Key Questions
Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the
1. What are your global connections? Do you have
fall of 2017, protests occurred throughout the Middle
relatives you know who are living in other nations
East and in other places as well. For example, 80,000
or that are citizens of other nations? If all of your
protested in Jakarta, Indonesia (Da Costa, 2017).
classmates answered this question, how many
Regardless of your personal beliefs, these examples
individuals and nations would be represented?
demonstrate the wide and rapid reach of American
politics. 2. One of the consequences of global interconnec-
tions is that the economic and political policies
We are connected more closely to those around the
of powerful countries like the United States affect
globe than we often believe. And the implication of
people all over the world. Given this, should
that is that no one today is truly isolated from world
noncitizens be represented in the U.S. political
events. No one lives in the Stone Age.
system? If so, how should such representation
take place?
SUMMARY
1. What is the definition of anthropology? Anthropology 7. What is the focus of study of cultural anthropology?
is the comparative study of human societies and cul- Cultural anthropology focuses on the learned and shared
tures. Its goal is to describe, analyze, and explain differ- ways of behaving typical of a particular human group.
ent cultures—to show how groups have adapted to their
environments and given significance to their lives. 8. What do applied anthropologists do? Applied anthro-
pologists are trained in one of the other subfields. They
2. In what ways is anthropology holistic? Anthropology is use anthropological research techniques to solve social,
holistic in that it combines the study of human biology, political, and economic problems for governments and
history, and the learned and shared patterns of human other organizations.
behavior and thought we call culture in order to analyze
human groups. 9. For medical anthropologists, how do disease and ill-
ness differ and what is a syndemic? Disease refers to
3. What are the five subdisciplines, or specializations, the biological condition of the body. Illness refers to
of anthropology? The five areas of specialization the culturally shaped ways in which people experience
within anthropology are cultural anthropology, linguis- sickness. A syndemic occurs when multiple diseases
tics, archaeology, biological (or physical) anthropology, and social, economic, environmental, and political fac-
and applied anthropology. tors interact.
4. What is the focus of study of biological anthropology? 10. Name some critical issues that concern cultural anthro-
Biological anthropologists study humankind from a bio- pologists. Critical issues that concern all cultural anthro-
logical perspective, focusing on evolution, human vari- pologists include ethnocentrism, cultural relativism,
ation, skeletal analysis, and primatology as well as other race, and globalization.
facets of human biology.
11. What is ethnocentrism and what is its importance in
5. What is the focus of study of linguistic anthropology? the study of different cultures? Ethnocentrism is the
Linguistic anthropology examines the history, structure, notion that one’s own culture is superior to all others.
and variation of human language. Anthropologists find that ethnocentrism is common
among almost all people and may serve important roles
6. What is t he fo c us of study of archae olog y? in society. However, anthropology also reveals the prob-
Archaeologists try to reconstruct past cultures through lems of judging other people through the narrow per-
the study of their material remains. spective of one’s own culture.
12. What is cultural relativism and is it the same as moral 16. What is anthropology’s relationship to other univer-
relativism? Cultural relativism is the belief that cultures sity disciplines and what sorts of jobs do anthropology
must be understood as the products of their own histo- majors hold? Anthropology is part of the liberal arts
ries rather than being judged by comparison with one curriculum. Both the job prospects and the careers
another or with our own culture. Anthropologists note of those who study anthropology are similar to those
that cultural relativism differs from moral relativism; who study other liberal arts disciplines. Anthropology
understanding cultures on their own terms does not nec- courses develop ways of thinking that are applicable to
essarily imply approval of them. the broad range of occupations that anthropologists
may choose.
13. What is the anthropological perspective on race?
Anthropology demonstrates that race is not a valid scien- 17. In what ways is anthropological thinking useful in
tific category but rather an important social and cultural the world? Anthropology focuses on understanding
construct. other groups of people. This is critical because people
are more in contact with each other today than ever
14. How is the practice of anthropology different today than before. Anthropologists grapple with the question of
it was 60 years ago? Until about 60 years ago, anthropolo- what it means to be a human being. Anthropologists
gists usually worked in colonies or other controlled areas. attempt to observe, collect, record, and understand the
Native peoples had little choice about participating in full range of human cultural experience. Anthropology
studies and rarely read works by anthropologists. Today, presents many useful ways of thinking about culture.
people often determine whether or not they will partic- Learning how other peoples in other places solved
ipate in anthropological studies and frequently read the their problems may give us insight in solving our own.
works of anthropologists. Additionally, we can learn lessons from their cultural
15. How have anthropologists responded to the increasing experiences.
interconnectedness of people throughout the world? 18. How often do anthropologists study Stone Age cultures
Anthropologists are deeply concerned with document- made up of people virtually unknown to the outside
ing and understanding the ways in which global eco- world? Practically never. Almost all the world’s people
nomic, social, and political processes affect local culture have had relatively close contact with each other for the
throughout the world. Anthropologists have often been past century. A very few groups remain “uncontacted”
involved in advancing the rights and interests of native because they actively flee from outsiders.
peoples.
CRITICAL TH INKIN G Q U E S TION S
1. The field of anthropology includes archaeology, biologi- 4. The observation that biological race does not exist seems
cal anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. to be contradicted by our daily experience, yet it is true.
What are the similarities and differences among these Explain the critical problems with the idea that humanity
approaches and in what ways do they share goals? is composed of separate biological races.
2. This chapter notes that in some ways doing anthropol- 5. Describe some of the ways in which the experiences of
ogy is like teaching fish the meaning of water. Explain anthropologists working today are different from those
what this expression means. of anthropologists working 50 or more years ago.
3. Why is ethnocentrism so common in the world and why

is cultural relativism often extremely difficult?
KE Y TE RM S
applied anthropologists 8 biopsychological equality 11 culture 6
archaeology 5 cultural anthropology 1 emic 6
artifact 5 cultural relativism 10 ethnocentrism 10
biological (or physical) cultural resource management ethnography 6
anthropology 3 (CRM) 5 ethnology 6
etic 6 linguistic anthropology 4 primates 3

historical linguists 4 paleoanthropologists 3 racism 10
holistic/holism 2 participant society 6
human variation 3 observation 6
indigenous peoples 8 prehistoric 5
G LO S SARY
applied anthropologists These professionals apply ethnology The attempt to find general principles or laws
anthropology to the solution of human problems. that govern cultural phenomena.
archaeology The subdiscipline of anthropology that etic An etic ethnography describes and analyzes culture
focuses on the reconstruction of past cultures based on according to principles and theories drawn largely from
their material remains. Western scientific traditions.
artifact Any object made or modified by human beings. historical linguists Those who study the relationships
Generally used to refer to objects made by past cultures. among languages to better understand the histories and
migrations of those who speak the languages.
biolog ic a l (or phy sic a l) a nt h rop olog y T he
subdiscipline of anthropology that studies people from holistic/holism In anthropology, an approach that
a biological perspective, focusing primarily on aspects considers culture, history, language, and biology essential
of humankind that are genetically inherited. It includes to a complete understanding of human society.
osteology, nutrition, demography, epidemiology, and
primatology. human variation The subdiscipline of biological
anthropology concerned with mapping and explaining
biopsychological equality The notion that all human physical differences among modern human groups.
groups have the same biological and mental capabilities.
indigenous peoples Members of societies that have
cultural anthropology The comparative study of human occupied a region for a long time and are recognized by other
society and cultures. Cultural anthropologists examine groups as the region’s original (or very ancient) inhabitants.
human thought, meaning, and behavior that is learned
rather than genetically transmitted and that is typical of linguistic anthropolog y The subdiscipline of
groups of people. anthropology concerned with understanding language
and its relation to culture.
cultural relativism The notion that cultures should be
analyzed with reference to their own histories and values, paleoanthropologists Anthropologists who are
in terms of the cultural whole, rather than according to concerned with tracing the evolution of humankind in
the values of another culture. the fossil record.
cultural resource management (CRM) The protection participant observation The fieldwork technique that
and management of archaeological, archival, and involves gathering cultural data by observing people’s
architectural resources. behavior and participating in their lives.
culture The learned behaviors and symbols that allow prehistoric Societies for which we have no usable written
people to live in groups. The primary means by which records.
humans adapt to their environments. The way of life
characteristic of a particular human society. primates Members of a biological order of mammals
that includes human beings, apes, and monkeys as well as
emic An emic ethnography attempts to capture what prosimians (lemurs, tarsiers, and others).
ideas and practices mean to members of a culture.
racism The belief that some human populations are
ethnocentrism Judging other cultures from the superior to others because of inherited, genetically
perspective of one’s own culture; the notion that one’s transmitted characteristics.
own culture is more beautiful, rational, and nearer to
perfection than any other. society A group of people who depend on one another for
survival or well-being as well as the relationships among
ethnography A description of a society or culture. such people, including their statuses and roles.
The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
Peggy Ree es Sanday
nthropological fieldwor usually in ol es long term study In this picture, anthropologist Peggy Ree es Sanday poses with
Eggi, a inang a au child named after her Sanday wor ed with the inang a au, a society we descri e in some detail in
Chapter 9, for more than 25 years She has also wor ed on ur an po erty in the United States and with original communities
in Western ustralia In addition to her in depth field research, Sanday has promoted the use of anthropological data in pu lic
de ate on issues such as race, male dominance, and ac uaintance rape
Doing Cultural Anthropology 2
In our attempt to understand human diversity, cultural anthropologists have LEARNING OBJECTIVES
developed methodologies for gathering data and developing and testing
fter you ha e read this chapter, you
theories. For both technical and ethical reasons, the controlled laboratory will e a le to:
experiments of the physical sciences are usually of little use in cultural
2.1 Descri e the 19th century
anthropology. Anthropologists can hardly go out and start a war somewhere to
origins of anthropology and the
see the effect of warfare on family life. Nor can they control in a laboratory all research style of anthropologists of
the factors involved in examining the impact of multinational corporations on that era
villages in the Amazon rain forest. Instead, they look to the existing diversity of
2.2 Tell who ran Boas and
human cultures. In place of the artificially controlled laboratory, anthropologists Bronislaw alinows i were and
rely on ethnography and cross-cultural comparison. explain their importance to the
de elopment of anthropology
Ethnography is the gathering and interpretation of information based on 2.3 Discuss participant o ser ation
intensive, firsthand study of a particular culture (the written report of such a and appraise its importance in
study is also called an ethnography). Ethnographies help us understand other anthropology
cultures and are used as a basis for cross-cultural comparisons. The ethnographic 2.4 Gi e examples of research
data from different societies are analyzed to build and test hypotheses about conducted from emic and etic
general, or even possibly universal, social and cultural processes. perspecti es
2.5 naly e the role of cross

Cultural anthropology encompasses a wide range of activities and specialties. cultural research in anthropology
Anthropologists do solitary fieldwork in remote locations, delve into and descri e some of the tools used
historical archives, test hypotheses using statistical correlations from many to conduct it
different societies, administer formal and informal questionnaires, record life 2.6 Summari e the importance of
histories, make ethnographic films, curate museum exhibits, and work with feminism and postmodernism in the
indigenous peoples as advocates in cultural and political projects. But all de elopment of anthropology
of these activities have their roots in fieldwork, which is not only the major 2.7 Descri e colla orati e and
source of anthropological data and theory but also an important part of most engaged anthropology and comment
anthropologists’ experience. In this chapter, we explore some of the history on the ad antages and pro lems
associated with them
and practice of fieldwork. We examine fieldwork techniques, different trends in
anthropological data collection, and different styles of ethnographic writing. We 2.8 List examples of the ethical
also discuss some of the ethical issues raised by the practice of anthropology. dilemmas facing anthropology
Anthropology in Historical analysts of ethnographic accounts rather than as field

researchers. For their data, they mostly relied on the
Perspective writings of amateurs— travelers, explorers, missionar-
Anthropology was not always based on fieldwork. The ies, and colonial officers—who had recorded their expe-
first scholars who called themselves anthropologists riences in remote areas of the world. Because of this,
worked in the second half of the 19th century. Among their critics sometimes referred to them as “armchair
the most famous of them were Sir Edward Burnett Tylor anthropologists.”
and Lewis Henry Morgan. Both were brilliant men who Morgan and Tylor were deeply influenced by the evolu-
traveled widely (Tylor in Mexico and Morgan in the U.S. tionary ideas of their era, particularly the theories of Charles
Midwest), but they saw themselves as compilers and Darwin and Herbert Spencer. They assumed that these
27
ideas could be applied to human society, and they used data Franz Boas and American Anthropology
from archaeological finds and accounts of current-day peo-
Problems such as these led to a radical reappraisal of evolu-
ples to produce evolutionary histories of human society.
tionary anthropology at the end of the 19th century. The
Nineteenth-century anthropologists sometimes referred to
most important critic of evolutionism was Franz Boas.
simpler societies as “living fossils,” a term borrowed from
Born in Minden, Germany, Boas had come to the United
biology and paleontology. For biologists, living fossils are
States after completing his doctorate in geography and liv-
currently existing plants or animals that closely resemble
ing among the Inuit on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic
their fossil ancestors. For anthropologists of this era, “liv-
(Figure 2.1). In the late 1890s, he became the first professor
ing fossils” were societies they believed to be unchanged
of anthropology at Columbia University in New York City.
for thousands of years. Anthropologists believed that such
There he was heavily involved in training many students,
societies were living, “fossilized” examples of earlier states
including A. L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and
of their own society. Morgan, Tylor, and others claimed that
Edward Sapir, all of whom became leading anthropologists of
by carefully examining and comparing these societies, they
the first half of the 20th century. As a result, Boas’s ideas had a
could show how human society evolved from its most sim-
profound impact on the development of anthropology in the
ple and primitive state to the most complex current societ-
United States.
ies. They used social institutions such as family and religion
Boas’s studies as well as his experiences among the Inuit
as well as technology to place each society on an evolution-
convinced him that evolutionary anthropology was both
ary scale of increasing complexity. Their scale began with
intellectually flawed and, because it treated other people and
simple, small-scale societies (classified as living in a state
other societies as inferior to Europeans, morally defective.
of “savagery”); passed through larger, more centrally orga-
nized societies (usually classified as living in a state of “bar-
barism”); and ended with societies such as their own (which
they called “civilization”). Although Morgan and Tylor were FIGURE 2.1 In the first half of the 20th century,
deeply critical of many aspects of their own societies, each Franz Boas had a huge impact on anthropology
was also convinced that he lived in the most highly evolved in the United States. He emphasized fieldwork
society that had ever existed. and cultural relativism. In this picture, taken in a
Morgan and Tylor’s evolutionary anthropology had photography studio in Germany, Boas poses as an
numerous problems. Explorers, colonial officials, and mis- Inuit awaiting the return of a seal to a blowhole.
sionaries were highly motivated to play up the most exotic,
Science istory Images lamy Stoc Photo

and often the most brutal, aspects of the societies they
described. Doing so increased the fame of the explorers
(and the number of books they were able to sell). It made the
natives seem more in need of the good government the colo-
nial official claimed to provide or the path to salvation the
missionary claimed to offer.
Nineteenth-century evolutionary anthropologists such
as Morgan and Tylor also assumed that the societies they ana-
lyzed had been unchanged for thousands of years. This was
another problem. In fact, these societies were often of recent
origin. Sometimes they had been created by the processes of
colonialism and Western expansion itself. And, even if they
were ancient, many societies had been dramatically affected
by colonialism, trade, and warfare resulting partially from
the expansion of European economic interests (Chapter 14
describes this process).
Perhaps most important, the evolutionists were so sure
that they had properly formulated the general evolution-
ary history of society that they twisted and contorted their
data to fit their theories. Tylor, for example, wrote that his
theoretical perspective was so well established that he could
ignore any data that did not fit with the surety that such data
were inaccurate (Tylor, 2017).
He was deeply critical of the data-gathering techniques and Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision
the reasoning of Morgan, Tylor, and others. Boas argued that outlawing separate but equal schooling (Baker, 2000). He
anthropologists should not be mere collectors of tales and was, in a sense, the first activist anthropologist. Today, virtu-
spinners of theories but rather should devote themselves to ally all anthropologists rely on Boas’s basic insights.
fieldwork and objective data collection. Anthropologists
must live among the people they studied, carefully collecting
From Haddon to Malinowski in England
the stories of elders and inventorying the material goods they
possessed. They should study people holistically, recording and the Commonwealth
the cultural patterns of the group members, their language, While Boas was forming his ideas in the United States, a
the tools they used, and their religion. Anthropologists separate fieldwork tradition was developing in Britain. In
should investigate the group using archaeology and historical the late 19th century, Alfred Cort Haddon mounted two
archives. They should collect statistical measures of the bod- expeditions to the Torres Straits (between New Guinea and
ies of those they studied. Australia). Haddon was originally a biologist, but his trav-
One of Boas’s core beliefs was that cultures must be els turned his interest to ethnography, the gathering and
understood in context. Cultures, he argued, are the products interpretation of information based on intensive, firsthand
of their own histories. Therefore, each culture’s standards study. In 1898, Haddon’s second expedition included schol-
of beauty and morality, as well as many other aspects of its ars from several different fields. Haddon and his colleagues
members’ behavior, could be understood only in light of that became professors at Cambridge and the London School of
culture’s historical development. Because our own ideas were Economics, where they trained the next generation of British
also the products of history, it was inappropriate to use our Commonwealth anthropologists. Like Boas, their under-
standards to judge other cultures. Evolutionists had failed, in standings were based in fieldwork, and they made it a basic
part, because they had made just this mistake. They assumed, part of their students’ training.
incorrectly, that the more a culture’s values, morals, and Bronislaw Malinowski (Figure 2.2) was one of the most
aesthetic standards approached those of Europeans, the more prominent students of the Torres Straits scholars. Malinowski
evolved that culture was. In other words, the evolutionists grew up in Krakow, then part of the Austro-Hungarian
failed because of their own ethnocentrism, their belief that Empire (now in Poland). He went to England to study eth-
their own culture was better than any other. Ethnocentrism nography, and his mentor, Charles Seligman, sent him to do
is the application of the historical standards of beauty, worth, fieldwork on the Trobriand Islands (in the Torres Straits).
and morality developed in one culture to all other cultures. Malinowski arrived in the Trobriands in 1914 as World
Boas insisted that anthropologists free themselves as War I broke out. Because the Trobriands were governed
much as possible from ethnocentrism and approach each by Australia and Malinowski was a subject of the Austro-
culture on its own terms, carefully considering the notions of Hungarian Empire, he was considered an enemy national.
worth and value carried by its members. This position came As a result, he was unable to leave the region until the end of
to be known as cultural relativism, and it is one of the dis- the war. Thus, what he had intended as a relatively short field-
tinguishing features of anthropology. Boas and his followers work expedition became an extremely long one.
maintained that anthropologists must suspend judgment Malinowski’s time on the Trobriands was a sig-
to understand the logic and dynamics of other cultures. nal moment in British Commonwealth anthropology.
Researchers who view the actions of other people simply in Previously, the Torres Straits scholars had studied culture at
terms of the degree to which those actions correspond to a distance, observing it for a short time and then describing
their own notions of the ways people should behave system- it. Malinowski spent years with native Trobrianders, learning
atically distort the cultures they study. their language, their patterns of thought, and their cultural
Boas was a tireless campaigner for human rights and jus- ways. Malinowski later wrote that if anthropologists wanted
tice. He argued that all human beings had an equal capacity to understand the cultures they studied, they needed to “put
for culture and that although human actions might be consid- aside camera, notebook and pencil and join in [themselves]
ered morally right or wrong, no culture was more evolved or of in what is going on” (1984: 21). In other words, anthropolo-
greater value than another. He was an unwavering supporter of gists should not be content with interviewing people and col-
racial equality. His work and that of his students, notably Ruth lecting their histories and genealogies. Rather, they should,
Benedict and Margaret Mead, was widely used by Americans to the greatest extent possible, participate in the lives and
who argued for the equality of men and women and the rights daily activities of the people they sought to understand. This
of African Americans, immigrants, and Native Americans. His style of fieldwork—participant observation—became a
work had a profund effect on African American activists such basic research tool for anthropologists trained in the British
as W. E. B. Du Bois (V. J. Williams, 1996) and was cited in the Commonwealth and the United States.
FIGURE 2.2 Bronislaw

Malinowski, one of the
pioneers of participant
observation, worked in
the Trobriand Islands
between 1915 and 1918.
He appears here with
Trobriand Islanders.
A diary Malinowski kept during his Trobirand work

shows he was frequently lonely, frustrated, and angry. Despite
these problems, he developed a form of ethnography cen-
tered on empathic understandings of native lifeways. He
analyzed culture by describing social institutions and show-
PALAU
PAPUA ing the cultural and psychological functions they performed.
NEW GUINEA
Malinowski also stressed the interrelations among the ele-
PAC I F I C ments of culture.
OCEAN In an era when non-Europeans were often considered
incomprehensible and illogical, Malinowski forcefully pro-
moted the idea that native cultural ways were logical and
rational. For example, in a famous essay on science and
Bismarck Sea
INDONESIA magic, he argued that natives used magic only for goals that
PAPUA
NEW GUINEA Trobriand they were unable to attain by more rational means, such as
Islands
controlling the weather. Malinowski claimed that magic was
Araf ura S ea SOLOMON
Port Moresby ISLANDS like science in that it had “a definite aim intimately associ-
ated with human instincts, needs, and pursuits” (1954: 86).
Like science, magic was “governed by a theory, by a system of
C oral S ea principles which dictate the manner in which the act has to
be performed in order to be effective” (Malinowski, 1954: 86).
0 500 mi
After his return from the Trobriand Islands, Malinowski
AUSTRALIA 0 500 km
became a professor at the London School of Economics. Like
Boas, he trained many students, encouraging them to con-
Simlindon I. Kadai I. duct fieldwork based in participant observation and imbuing
Tuma I. S olomon Sea
Nulima I.
them with the idea that the actions of non-Western people
Boimaga I.
were rational.
Buriwadi I.
Kaileuna I. Kiriwina I. Malinowski’s and Boas’s anthropologies were quite differ-
Labi I.
Munuwata I.
ent. Boas and his students focused on understanding cultures
Kuiawa I.
Kibu I. Kitava I. with respect to their context and histories. Malinowski and
Nubiam I.
his students emphasized the notion of function: the contri-
TRO B R I AN D
Muwo I. bution made by social practices and institutions to the main-
I S LAN D S tenance and stability of society. However, both developed
Vakuta I. traditions of fieldwork and participant observation. Both
traditions have a strong history of opposition to racism. Both
men saw other cultures as fully rational and neither supe- Participant observation has both advantages and limita-
rior nor inferior to their own. There have been a great many tions. Perhaps the key advantage is that anthropologists are
new approaches in anthropology since the days of Boas and on the job 24/7. Anthropologists observe people at work, at
Malinowski, but these fundamental insights and principles play, and when sleeping. They share the good times of the
remain basic to current-day anthropology. communities where they work and frequently the tragedies
as well. Regardless of their specific interests, the constant
attempt to participate in another culture gives anthropol-
Anthropological Techniques ogists a depth of understanding that is almost impossible to
Today, anthropologists work for a wide variety of employ- achieve in any other way. An important limitation of partic-
ers, including universities, businesses, and governments. ipant observation is that anthropologists necessarily work
You find them investigating topics as varied as the way peo- with a relatively small number of individuals. A sociologist
ple hunt in Paraguay (Blaser, 2009), illness and injury among carrying out a carefully constructed survey of several thou-
migrant farm workers in the United States (Horton, 2016), sand individuals may be able to describe certain aspects of a
language and ethnicity among the Maya in Guatemala large community accurately. Anthropologists rarely work
(Romero, 2015), the meanings British hoarders attach to with more than 50 individuals, and it is sometimes difficult to
the things they collect (Orr et al., 2017), and the relationship say how well these individuals represent larger communities.
between music editing and choreography in international air Sometimes anthropologists will pay for their research
guitar competitions (McDaniel, 2017). Because of the multi- themselves, but because research frequently involves
plicity of anthropologies, it would be impossible to describe extended stays in distant places, doing it is fairly expensive.
all the different settings in which anthropologists work and Because of this, fieldwork is often funded by grants given by
the different ways they go about their work. However, almost universities, government agencies, and nonprofit organi-
all anthropological work has some similarities. zations that promote social science research. Examples of
Since the days of Boas and Haddon, fieldwork has been organizations that fund anthropological research include
the cornerstone of anthropology. Most anthropological data the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, the
are generated through fieldwork, and virtually all anthro- American Museum of Natural History, the Wenner-Gren
pologists do fieldwork as part of their graduate training. For Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the U.S. gov-
most, doing fieldwork continues as a basic element of their ernment, through its Fulbright Scholar Program.
careers. Some anthropologists return to the same fieldwork
location year after year, creating a record of the com-
munity throughout their lifetime. Others may change
FIGURE 2.3 Doing ethnography requires
their fieldwork location and the research problems
anthropologists not only to observe and ask questions
that concern them every few years.
but also to participate in the culture and social life of a
Fieldwork is the firsthand, intensive, system-
society, as with this anthropologist living among the
atic exploration of a culture. Although fieldwork
Mentawai of Sumatra. Traditionally, these tattoos are
includes many techniques, such as structured and
incised with needles using vegetable dye, but these are
unstructured interviewing, mapping space, taking
being done with washable pigments.
census data, photographing and filming, using his-
torical archives, and recording life histories, for most
Photo y udith Pearson

anthropologists, the heart of anthropological field-
work is participant observation (Figure 2.3). This
intensive field experience is the methodological hall-
mark of cultural anthropology. In other social sci-
ence disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, and
economics, the key methodological tools tend to be
laboratory experimentation, large-scale surveys, close
readings of archives, or analysis of statistical informa-
tion. Anthropologists believe that only by living with
people and engaging in their activities can we begin
to understand the interrelated patterns of culture.
Anthropologists observe, listen, ask questions, and
attempt to find a way in which to participate in the life
of a society over an extended period.
In most cases, anthropologists are required to submit

their research proposals to an institutional review board FIGURE 2.4 Until the last third of the 20th
(IRB). An IRB is a committee organized by a university century, many ethnographies, like Downs’s
or other research institution that approves, monitors, and book on the Navajo, were intended as complete
reviews all research that involves human subjects. The goal of descriptions of societies.
an IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of the research sub-
Gro e, IL: Wa eland Press, Inc , 1972 Reissued 1994 ll rights reser ed
Reprinted y permission of Wa eland Press, Inc rom Downs, The Navajo, Long
jects, the research institution, and the researchers themselves.
IRBs were originally started to review medical research, but
in most places they have expanded their scope of operations
to include all research involving living people.
Decisions about which communities anthropologists
investigate are based on many factors. Some of these include
personal history, geographical preferences, political stability,
cost, physical danger, and connections their professors and
other mentors may have. However, the most critical aspect of
choosing a location has to do with the research questions that
the anthropologist wishes to answer.
In the early 20th century, anthropologists studying rel-
atively small groups often attempted to write complete
descriptions of societies. Their books, which had titles
such as Portrait of a People: The Tiwi of North Australia
(Hart & Pilling, 1960), The Sebei: A Study in Adaptation
(Goldschmidt, 1986), and The Navajo (Downs, 1972;
Figure 2.4), contained chapters on the whole range of culture
and society, including subjects such as family, religion, farm-
ing, and legal affairs. In a sense, it did not matter much where
these authors chose to work; any small-scale community or
society could be described.
Today, few anthropologists attempt to write such
descriptions. This is partly because most feel that societ-
ies are so complex they cannot be adequately described in a
single work. But more important, although societies were
never really isolated, today they are so interconnected and
so changed by these connections that they must be seen in
regional and global context. Current ethnographies focus on existing knowledge. It is a bit like filling in pieces of a jigsaw
specific situations, individuals, and events and frequently on puzzle, with one important exception: You can finish a puz-
culture change. Some recent examples describe inequality zle, but good research leads to the posing of interesting ques-
and food rights in Uzbekistan (Rosenberger, 2012), families tions and, thus, more research.
and reproductive technologies in India (Khanna, 2010), and The opportunity to do participant observation, to live a
the commercialization of traditional medicine in Bolivia life and understand a culture very different from the one in
(Sikkink, 2010). As research questions have narrowed, the which the anthropologist grew up, is one of the key factors
conditions under which and the locations where they can be that brings people to anthropology. However, arriving at a
answered have become more specific. field location can be a difficult and disorienting experience.
After they have identified an area of general interest, Often, anthropologists will have made a brief trip to the field
anthropologists spend a great deal of time reading the exist- location to arrange logistics such as obtaining the necessary
ing research on their subject. It is no exaggeration to say that research clearances and finding a place to stay. Despite this
most researchers spend many hours reading for each hour and a great deal of other preparation, for most people, liv-
they spend doing active field research. From their studies, ing in another culture and trying to learn its ways is difficult.
they gain an understanding of the geography, history, and Culture is learned behavior, and we have been learning our
culture of their chosen area. They find out what is known and culture since the moment of our births. When we move to a
what remains to be learned about the subjects of their interest. radically different culture, much of that learning is no longer
Then they try to design projects that help to close the gaps in relevant.
Anthropologists arriving in new cultures are in many United States. The communities differed in the degree and
ways like children. Their language skills are often weak, and extent of their contact with the dominant American culture.
their speech is sometimes babyish. Their social skills are Phillips hypothesized that the women who historically had
undeveloped. They are ignorant of many aspects of their the least contact with the dominant culture would report
social and physical environment. One common result of this more traditional practices. She interviewed 36 mothers with
is the syndrome often called culture shock—the feelings of children under the age of five, 12 from each community. Her
alienation, loneliness, and isolation common to one who has analysis of the interview data largely confirmed her hypoth-
been placed in a new culture. Almost all researchers experi- esis, although she found that some West African beliefs
ence some degree of culture shock. For graduate students, persisted even among members of the community with the
sometimes the journey stops there. You can be an outstand- greatest contact with the dominant culture.
ing scholar—well versed in literature and able to think and Some anthropological research is more highly interpre-
write creatively—yet be unable to do fieldwork. Sometimes tive and uses techniques drawn from the study of history
aspiring anthropologists return after a few weeks of fieldwork and literature. For example, Allison Truitt (2008) studied the
and pursue other fields of study. important role of motorbikes in current-day urban Vietnam.
Getting past culture shock is a process of learning. She had no formal hypothesis but used data from interviews,
Anthropologists need to learn the language, customs, and advertisements, observations of traffic patterns, and legal
social organization of the groups they study. They need to codes to analyze the value and meaning of motorcycles in
acquire the fundamental grounding knowledge that it takes Vietnamese culture (Figure 2.5). She explored both the prac-
to be an adult in a different culture. It is probably accurate to tical and symbolic importance of motorcycles, showing how
say most anthropologists never feel that they are truly mem- motorcycles are markers of social and economic mobility
bers of the cultures they study. We are separated from our and of middle-class identity. Her work describes the ways
subjects by our backgrounds, education, and sometimes the in which motorcycles have become key symbols in a politi-
color of our skins. Perhaps most important, most of us are cal struggle that pits consumer demand against government
separated by the knowledge that our time in the field is tem- attempts to control production and consumption.
porary and we will leave to rejoin our other lives. However, Regardless of their style of research, in most cases,
in our best moments, anthropologists do come close to acting as anthropologists begin to observe and participate in
and feeling like members of the cultures we study. new cultures, they develop networks of contacts. These
Although almost all anthropologists rely on participant are often the people who both guide anthropologists in
observation, there are numerous different styles of anthro- their new surroundings and offer insights into the cul-
pological research within this general method. The research ture. Anthropologists often develop strong connections,
techniques and tools that anthropologists use depend on the and even lifetime friendships, with some of these contacts
type of research they do and the sorts of questions they want (Grindal & Salamone, 1995). Historically, in anthropology
to answer. Anthropological research styles are sometimes such friends and contacts are called informants, though
characterized as either emic or etic, terms drawn from the the term has fallen somewhat out of use (to some, it sounds
study of language. Anthropologists using the emic perspec- too much like spying). More current terms are respon-
tive seek to understand how cultures look from the inside. dents, interlocutors, and consultants. To some, these
The aim of emic research is to enable cultural outsiders to terms emphasize the collaborative nature of fieldwork and
gain a sense of what it might be like to be a member of the suggest that the people who work with anthropologists are
culture. Anthropologists using an etic perspective seek to active and empowered. Regardless of what these people
derive principles or rules that explain the behavior of mem- are called, anthropologists learn much of what they know
bers of a culture. Etic analysis may produce conclusions that from them. In some cases, anthropologists work with a few
conflict with the ways in which people understand their own individuals (sometimes called key informants) who they
culture. However, etic research is judged by the usefulness of believe are both knowledgeable and eager to talk with them.
the hypotheses it generates and the degree to which it accu- Alternatively, they may construct statistical models and use
rately describes behavior, not by whether or not members of techniques such as random sampling to choose their con-
the culture studied agree with its conclusions. sultants. Sometimes they are able to interview all members
Some anthropological research follows a model drawn of a community.
from the natural sciences. In this sort of research, anthro- In the early stages of fieldwork, anthropologists may just
pologists propose a hypothesis and collect empirical data to observe. Within a short time, however, they will begin to
determine if the hypothesis can be supported. For example, participate in cultural activities. Participation is the best way
Wendy Phillips (2005) analyzed pregnancy beliefs among to understand the difference between what people say they
women of African descent in three communities in the do, feel, or think and what they actually do, feel, or think. It
FIGURE 2.5 Allison Truit
iStoc photo hanohi i

used data from interviews,
advertisements, observations of
traffic patterns, and legal codes
to understand the importance
of motorcycles in current-day
Vietnamese culture. In this
picture, motorcycles crowd the
streets of Ho Chi Mihn City in
2010.
is not that informants deliberately lie (although they may)

but rather that anthropologists and informants have particu- TABLE 2.1"Interviewing Techniques
lar interests and individual ways of looking at issues. People
Informal Researchers engage in, o erhear,
wish to present their lives, their families, and their com-
Inter iews remem er, and write down
munities in a certain light. No one, including anthropolo- con ersations from their daily
gists, can present a fully accurate and unbiased portrait of a experience
culture. Participation, however, forces researchers to think Unstructured Researchers engage with another in a
more deeply about culture and gives greater context and Inter iews scheduled con ersation Researchers
depth to the information they glean through interviews and may ha e a plan ut informants are
observation. allowed to express themsel es as they
choose
Working with consultants is often informal, but anthro-
Semistructured Similar to an unstructured inter iew
pologists use an arsenal of more formal tools depending on
Inter iews ut ased on the use of a written list of
their theoretical interests. Much of anthropology is done by uestions or topics that the researchers
interviewing, and anthropologists use many different inter- intend to co er in a specific order
view techniques. Some anthropologists prepare exhaustive Structured Researchers as different su ects to
inventories and questionnaires; however, more frequently, Inter iew respond to a set of uestions as nearly
they design a series of open-ended questions that allow their identical as possi le often in ol es the
subjects to talk freely and extensively on a topic. Occasionally, use of ery explicit instructions
an anthropologist will use a structured interview, a technique
designed to help identify the objects and ideas that their con-
sultant thinks are important. Because kinship structures are As with the techniques used, the analysis of data also
important elements of many societies, anthropologists also depends on the questions being asked and the theoretical
become adept at gathering genealogical information. Table 2.1 perspective of the researcher. Anthropological data generally
details some specific types of interviews. Almost all anthro- come in the form of extensive field notes, voice recordings,
pologists use informal, unstructured, and semistructured and photographs. In most cases, organizing data presents
interviews. Structured interviews are less common. substantial challenges. Notes have to be indexed, record-
In addition to interviewing, anthropological data gath- ings transcribed, and data entered in spreadsheets. Aspiring
ering includes mapping, photography, careful and silent anthropologists should keep in mind that, as with background
observation of a wide range of activities, measurements of research, successful anthropologists often spend more time
various kinds of production, and, in some cases, serving in working with their data than they did collecting it in the first
apprenticeships. It all depends on the nature of the problem place. Recording an interview may take only an hour or two.
an anthropologist is investigating. Transcribing and indexing that recording may take several
days. Anthropologists increasingly use computer-based ana- 1950s, the rising divorce rate in the United States was causing
lytic tools, particularly Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data alarm. Was divorce truly something new and different—a
Analysis Software, often referred to as CAQDAS. Some exam- product of modernity? Murdock used the HRAF to show
ples of CAQDAS include NVivo, Atlas.ti, and MAXQDA. that almost all societies had some form of divorce and that the
divorce rate in the United States (in the 1950s) was lower than
average. Thus, his use of the HRAF allowed people to think
Ethnographic Data and Cross-Cultural about divorce in a comparative context. In recent years, the
Comparisons HRAF, now available online and in computer-searchable for-
Boas and his students were interested in describing cultures mats, has been used to consider a wide variety of issues. These
in their contexts. Because they understood each culture as include menopause (Sievert, 2006), corporal punishment of
the product of its unique history, they did not attempt sys- children (Ember & Ember, 2005), patterns of cultural evolu-
tematic comparison of one culture to another and were not tion (Peregrine et al., 2004), and wealth exchanges at marriages,
very interested in discovering laws or principles of cultural such as dowry payments (Huber et al., 2011).
behavior. However, some level of comparison has always Of course, not all cross-cultural research involves the use
been implicit in anthropology. One goal of the Boasians, for of the HRAF. Much research is done by a single investigator
example, was to use their research to cause Europeans and working in two or more locations or by teams using the same
Americans to compare their own societies with the societies techniques in multiple locations. Some examples include
anthropologists described. Anthropologists hoped that this cross-cultural studies of violence (Aijmer & Abbink, 2000),
would help people think about their own societies in a new of economics (Durrenberger & Marti, 2006; Henrich et al.,
light and help change them for the better. 2004), and of language and cognition (Wierzbicka, 2003).
Historically, British and European anthropologists were Medical anthropology is a particularly rich area of cross-
more explicitly interested in ethnology, the attempt to find cultural research. The delivery of effective medical services to
general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena. members of different cultures is a critical area of interest for
They compared societies in the hope of deriving general applied medical anthropologists. Medical anthropologists
principles of social organization and behavior. Starting in the need to know how people in different cultures understand
1860s, Herbert Spencer began to develop a systematic way of the causes, symptoms, and cures for different diseases. For
organizing, tabulating, and correlating information on a large example, Carod-Artal and Vázquez-Cabrera (2007) investi-
number of societies, a project he called Descriptive Sociology. gated migraine headache symptoms among three different
The American scholar William Graham Sumner, his student groups of Native Americans: the Tzeltal Maya of Mexico, the
Albert Keller, and Keller’s student George Murdock brought Kamayurá of Brazil, and the Uru-Chipaya of Bolivia. They
Spencer’s ideas about cross-cultural comparison to the found that all three groups had named syndromes whose
United States. In the late 1930s, Murdock and Keller created a symptoms matched migraines. However, the groups’ under-
large indexed ethnographic database at Yale University. First standings of the origins of such headaches and how to treat
called the Cross-Cultural Survey, the project was expanded in them differed greatly from each other and from our own.
the late 1940s to include other universities, and its name was Another example of cross-cultural research is a study of
changed to the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). preschools in China, Japan, and the United States (Figure 2.6).
The HRAF is an attempt to facilitate cross-cultural anal- The aims of the study were to examine preschools compara-
ysis. It provides a single index of ethnographic reports and tively and to examine these three different cultures through
other sources on 710 numbered subject categories. Two a focus on their preschools. Researchers hoped to link their
examples of categories are techniques of clothing manufac- findings on preschools to larger cultural and social concerns,
ture (294) and traditional friendships and rivalries within particularly social change. The study sought to go beyond sta-
communities (628). Using the HRAF, researchers can find tistical measures such as teacher/child class ratios and instead
information on these and many other topics for a wide range elicit the cultural meanings embedded in preschools—what
of current and historic societies. they are meant to do and to be (Tobin et al., 1989). Inspired by
The HRAF frequently comes under fire; critics charge that methods in visual anthropology, in which the subjects of eth-
the project takes cultural data out of context and therefore cor- nographic films were asked to comment on the completed
rupts it. They say that the works indexed in the HRAF were film, the researchers in this study used videos in their ethnog-
written from different perspectives, for different purposes, and raphy and then showed the movies to audiences both from the
in different eras. Because of this, the indexing is often incon- filmed culture and from the two other cultures. This method
sistent or inappropriate, and therefore analyses based on it are thus not only documented the diversity of human cultures but,
suspect. Despite these problems, work based on the HRAF is in good anthropological tradition, also used the study of other
often both interesting and insightful. For example, back in the cultures to achieve insights about the researchers’ own cultures.
FIGURE 2.6 In one example
The sahi Shim un Getty Images

of cross-cultural research,
anthropologists examined
preschools in China, Japan, and
the United States. They hoped to
link their findings about these
schools to larger social concerns,
particularly culture change. Here,
Japanese preschoolers wearing
mawashi loincloths try to push a
sumo wrestler.

ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND DRUG USE
Anthropologists have an important contribution deindustrialization, male identity, race, and ethnicity
to make to our understanding of the use and abuse in East Harlem. More recently, Bourgois has focused
of controlled substances. In the 1960s and 1970s, on drug addiction and homelessness. His 2009 book
the identification of a drug addict subculture drew Righteous Dopefiend, done in collaboration with
anthropologists into the world of substance abuse photographer Jeff Schonberg, is based on nine years
and addiction (Schensul, 1997). Ethnography was a of ethnographic work with homeless heroin injectors
particularly suitable methodology for studying street in San Francisco. During their fieldwork, Bourgois
drug scenes and their participants. and Schonberg shared the lives of several dozen such
individuals, often spending nights with them under
Medical models of drug use emphasize its freeways or in marginal areas.
psychological and biochemical elements. Most social
science models of drug use and distribution treat Bourgois and Schonberg describe their fieldwork as
drug users and sellers as “deviants,” separate from taking place in a gray zone, a term they borrow from
the larger population and operating outside of its Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi. By gray zone Bourgois
social networks and cultural norms. In keeping with and Schonberg mean that the structures of society
their broader holistic perspective, anthropologists, on and the facts of addiction “create a morally ambiguous
the other hand, have introduced models that aim at space that blurs the lines between victims and
connecting individual drug users and sellers with the perpetrators” (2009: 20). Although heroine injectors
larger structural features of the society and economy. are certainly responsible for their decisions, these
For example, in the 1990s, Hamid (1992, 1998, 1990) decisions take place in the context of personal history,
demonstrated that patterns of drug use, distribution, governmental policies, institutional contexts, and a
and drug-related violence are related to the ways in social hierarchy, and all these factors have profound
which political decisions and economic processes and almost always deleterious impacts on their lives.
impact neighborhoods, families, and kinship
networks. Bourgois and Schonberg had to learn to survive and
do productive fieldwork. They had to balance their
Philippe Bourgois has been one of anthropology’s feelings of being manipulated and victimized by the
most consistent and effective drug researchers. His constant demands of their informants with the reality
work In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio that gifts of money, food, and goods such as blankets
(1996) focused on the complex relationship between were critical to defining friendship and community
among homeless addicts. They were witnesses to advised addicts never to share injection paraphernalia.
innumerable illegal acts, from drug dealing and However, the sharing of drugs and equipment is basic
consumption to petty theft and violence. The people to the survival of addicts on the streets. Early in their
they worked among were both perpetrators and victims fieldwork, Bourgois and Schonberg participated in
of these acts. Bourgois and Schonberg had to carefully a needle exchange program, providing boxes of 100
and constantly consider their obligations to the needles to some of the people they worked with. This
community they studied, to the broader community, was extremely effective because the addicts who
and to the discipline of anthropology. received the needles sold them for small amounts of
money, flooding the area with clean needles. However,
Bourgois and Schonberg’s work provides an intimate it also illustrates the institutional problems associated
and detailed account of the lives of homeless addicts. with such programs. Needle-exchange activists were
They explored topics such as love and sex among
unhappy that free needles were resold. Ultimately, the
addicts, addicts’ relationships with their families, the
needles were confiscated in police sweeps because
strategies addicts use to survive on the streets, the
possession of a large number of needles is illegal.
ways in which they interact with health care providers
and treatment programs, and, sometimes, the ways they Bourgois and Schonberg’s work underscores
die. Schonberg’s gritty black-and-white photos give the strength of anthropological fieldwork. The
readers an almost visceral sense of life on the streets. understandings of the lives of homeless addicts
that they presented can be achieved only through
One focus of Righteous Dopefiend is the way that race
long-term study that involves the anthropologist
affects addict behavior. In a world in which everyone
is self-destructive, white addicts tend to be even more becoming deeply involved in the community. Such
self-destructive than black addicts. They are less likely to understandings can lead to suggestions that can
have contact and support from their families, are often greatly improve the effectiveness of programs
clinically depressed, and more frequently inject in ways designed to help addicts, and Bourgois and Schonberg
that lead to abscesses and infection than do black addicts. provided numerous such suggestions. However,
their work also demonstrates the ways in which the
Bourgois and Schonberg’s work shows why many of problems of homeless addicts are symptomatic of
the programs designed to help the homeless fail. Such far larger issues such as economic change, cultural
programs are often designed with good intentions understandings about drugs, addiction, homelessness,
but do not take close account of the actual lives of race, and inequality. These are political, economic, and
addicts. For example, health workers constantly cultural structures that are not easily changed.
Some Critical Issues in Ethnography In fact, the majority of his students after 1918 were women.
These included Gladys Reichard, Theresa Mayer Durlach,
Many anthropological research techniques were well estab- Ruth Underhill, Ruth Landes, and Esther Goldfrank
lished by the middle of the 20th century. However, the past (Zumwalt, 2017). Some of the women Boas trained went on
half century has been an exciting and dynamic time for to become well known within the discipline. One, Margaret
anthropology. Political and economic changes and new intel- Mead, became a household name outside of anthropology
lectual challenges have done much to shape the current-day as well. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), the political
practice of anthropology. Among these new dimensions, movements of the 1960s, particularly the civil rights move-
feminist anthropology, postmodernism, engaged and collab- ment and the feminist movement, caused anthropologists to
orative anthropology, and the ethical problems posed in the begin to think about gender and their discipline in new ways.
practice of anthropology have been particularly important. Feminists soon discovered that the presence of some very
high-profile women within anthropology did little to coun-
teract the fact that the overwhelming majority of anthropol-
Feminist Anthropology ogists were men. And male anthropologists tended to focus
By the 1960s, the role of fieldwork in anthropology was on the social roles, activities, and beliefs of men in the soci-
extremely well established. Additionally, the representa- eties they studied. There were several reasons for this. First,
tion of women within academic anthropology was relatively in many societies, men and women live quite segregated
good, particularly in comparison to other areas of the univer- lives. Because they were men, most anthropologists had lit-
sity. Franz Boas had trained many female anthropologists. tle access to the lives of women. Second, anthropologists
tended to assume that men’s activities were political and Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, worked among the Ilongot
therefore important, whereas women’s activities were domes- people of the Philippines. Historically, headhunting, which
tic and therefore of less importance. Third, in most societies, ended in the 1970s, was one of the most important Ilongot
men’s activities were far more public than women’s activities. cultural practices. Ilongot men often responded to the pain
Anthropologists tended to assume that what was public and and sorrow of the deaths of their family members with
visible was more important than what was more behind the headhunting expeditions. Grief and rage propelled them
scenes and less visible. However, this is clearly not always (or to undertake long journeys into the territories of enemy
even often) the case. groups. Once there, they ambushed the first victim they
The result of taking men more seriously than women was found, cut off his or her head, and tossed the head away.
a systematic bias in anthropological data and understand- The Ilongot described their emotions before these human
ings. Anthropologists had often reported with great detail hunts as heavy and tangled but as light and cleansed after
and accuracy about men’s social and cultural worlds, but they committing and celebrating these murders. Renato Rosaldo
had barely scratched the surface of women’s worlds. Further, wrote that his early attempts to understand headhunting
the assumption—frequently implicit in ethnographies—that failed partially because he did not have the personal back-
men spoke for all of society often made cultures appear more ground to comprehend grief and rage. This changed when
harmonious and homogeneous than they actually were. tragedy struck. In 1981, Michelle Rosaldo fell to her death
Starting in the 1970s, increasing numbers of women while doing fieldwork among the Ilongot. His wife’s death
joined university anthropology faculties. By the late 1990s, and his own process of grieving caused Rosaldo to see the
more than 50% of new anthropology PhDs and more than Ilongot, their headhunting practices, and their frequent
40% of all anthropology professors were women (Levine & conversion to Christianity in new ways. He came to under-
Wright, 1999). These anthropologists began paying greater stand headhunting as the result of grief, rage, the relations
attention to women’s lives in the societies they studied and between elders and young men, and its historical context.
to the nature of sexuality and gender, issues addressed more However, it took the personal experience of grief to enable
fully in Chapter 11. this understanding.
Individuals may be drawn to sciences such as physics or
chemistry because of their personal experiences. However,
Postmodernism the results of laboratory experiments are dependent on the
Ultimately, the issue of women in anthropology focused on physical instruments used to measure them. In principle,
different ways of knowing. Feminists argued persuasively that an experimenter’s family history has no bearing on what a
male anthropologists had missed vital dimensions of society balance scale says or what the temperature on a thermome-
because their gender and their academic interests predis- ter reads. However, in anthropology, in many instances the
posed them to see certain things and not others. These ideas anthropologist is the measuring instrument. There is no
dovetailed well with postmodernism, a critique of both natu- scale; there is no thermometer. Anthropologists see what they
ral and social sciences that gained prominence in the 1980s. happen to see and come to understand it through their stud-
Postmodernists hold that all knowledge is influenced by the ies, through their theoretical perspectives, and through the
observer’s culture and social position. They claim fieldwork- lens of their own histories and experiences. The situation of
ers cannot discover and describe an objective reality because the anthropologist—their background, understandings, and
such a thing does not exist (or exists but cannot be discovered goals, particularly relative to the people they study—is called
or comprehended by human beings). Instead, postmodernists the anthropologist’s positioning.
propose that there are only partial truths or cultural construc- During the 1990s, reflections on the nature of fieldwork
tions and that these depend on context, power, and history. and the positioning and role of the anthropologist became
Postmodernists urged anthropologists to examine a central focus of writing in the profession. Work such as
the ways they understood both fieldwork and the work of Rosaldo’s encouraged anthropologists to think about the
writing ethnographies. They demanded that anthropol- ways in which their own status, personality, and culture
ogy become sensitive to issues of history and power. Some shaped their view of others and affected how ethnographers
postmodernists challenged the ethnographer’s role in inter- interacted with members of other cultures to produce data.
preting culture, claiming that anthropological ethnogra- In some cases, anthropologists turned from writing about
phies were just one story about experienced reality and the culture to writing about anthropology itself. Critical analy-
ethnographer’s voice was only one of many possible equally ses of earlier anthropological literature became common.
valid representations. In other cases, rather than trying to describe culture or find
Renato Rosaldo’s essay “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage” principles underlying cultural practices, anthropologists
(1989) is an important example. Rosaldo and his wife, wrote about their own experience of living in other cultures.
Thinking about these issues also led to more perceptive and of drug addiction and recovery that could be given to drug
insightful anthropological writing. Anthropologists began addicts considering joining the program. In a later project,
to deeply consider whose story was being told, how it was Lassiter constructed a collaborative project with the Kiowa
being told, and why it was being told. Today, most anthro- Indians in Oklahoma. The Kiowa were particularly interested
pologists include information in their work about their own in an ethnography of Kiowa song. They stipulated that it be
histories, the conditions under which the fieldwork was car- written so that the Kiowa people themselves could read and
ried out, and the nature of the relationships between them understand it and required they be acknowledged for their
and their informants. contributions. Lassiter emphasized that a critical aspect of his
collaboration with the Kiowa was to give the highest priority
to representing the Kiowa cultural consultants as they wished
Engaged and Collaborative Anthropology to be represented, even if this meant adding or changing infor-
Engaged and collaborative anthropology are partially the mation or altering his interpretations. For Lassiter (2004), col-
result of thinking about the position and role of the anthro- laborative ethnography is not just eliciting the comments of the
pologist. They reflect concerns with power differentials cultural consultants but, even more important, also integrating
between people as well as issues about whose voices are heard these comments back into the text. Elizabeth Campbell and
in anthropological writing. Collaboration is the process of Lassiter wrote that ethnography should share “authority and
working closely with other people and, in a sense, describes control whenever and wherever possible” (2015: 6).
all anthropological research. Collaborative anthropologists, Engaged anthropology moves from the production of
however, highlight this aspect of their work. They consult texts to political action (Figure 2.7). Most anthropologists
with their subjects about shaping their studies and writing would like their work to further a deep understanding of the
their reports. They attempt to displace anthropologists as sole human condition. Most also feel a profound sense of connec-
authors representing a group, turning research into a joint tion with the people among whom they work. In many cases,
process between researcher and subject. The work of James the communities in which anthropologists work are poor,
Spradley (1933–1982) is an important contribution to collab- and, in some cases, they face political oppression as well. In
orative, engaged anthropology. His classic ethnography You these circumstances, it is not surprising to find that many
Owe Yourself a Drunk (1970) was aimed at getting the public anthropologists believe that for anthropology to be relevant
to understand and help the homeless alcoholics who were the and meaningful, it must be involved in political and social
subject of the book. efforts to improve the life chances of people in these commu-
Eric Lassiter, an anthropologist inspired by Spradley, has nities. Engaged anthropologists move from describing and
done several collaborative projects. While still a student, he analyzing the communities they study to actively promoting
began collaborative work with Narcotics Anonymous, a drug their interests and welfare.
addiction and recovery group. Lassiter worked with his con- Vincent Lyon-Callo (2004) is an engaged anthropologist
sultants to develop an ethnography focused on the experience who studies social services for homeless people. Lyon-Callo
FIGURE 2.7 Anthropologist
roon Thaewchatturat lamy Stoc Photo

Narumon Hinshiranan of
Chulalongkorn University,
Bangkok, helps rebuild a Moken
village. Hinshiranan is a key
advisor to Project Moken, an
organization dedicated to
preserving the culture and lifeways
of the Moken, a seminomadic
people of coastal and island
Thailand and Myanmar who
depend on ocean resources for their
livelihood and whose way of life is
being threatened by economic and
social changes.
hopes to understand homelessness but also to shift focus on problems in this regard. Anthropologists with specific polit-
its causes to the center of U.S. culture and politics. Lyon-Callo ical and social goals do not seem likely to accurately report
believes that most homelessness in the United States results experiences and data that conflict with those goals. What
from a cultural and political philosophy that embraces the are engaged anthropologists to do with findings that do not
free market and private initiative as the solution to social promote their political agenda? Even if their reporting is as
problems. He argues that most Americans have a “social ser- objective as possible, political opponents will most likely dis-
vices” orientation to homelessness. They believe the problem miss data and analysis generated by engaged anthropologists
can be solved through charity or services aimed at reforming as hopelessly biased.
homeless people, who are seen as deviant or disabled. This
understanding undercuts attempts to see homelessness as a
result of systemic inequalities such as increasing unemploy- Studying One’s Own Society
ment, declining relative wages, and exploitation of work- When most people think of anthropologists, they imagine
ers. Lyon-Callo argues that by distracting action from these researchers who study others in exotic locations, but since
issues, the social services orientation actually helps maintain the early 20th century, anthropologists have also studied
homelessness. their own societies. W. Lloyd Warner, Solon T. Kimball,
Lyon-Callo’s emphasis on the structural causes of home- Margaret Mead, Zora Neale Hurston, and Hortense
lessness, such as a lack of jobs and housing, led to the creation Powdermaker were all American anthropologists who wrote
of a winter cot program in community churches, a living about American culture in the early and mid-20th century.
wage campaign, and new job opportunities for the home- Kenyan anthropologist (as well as freedom fighter and first
less. However, he argues, since homelessness is ultimately a president of Kenya) Jomo Kenyatta wrote about the Gikuyu
political and economic problem, anthropologists must work of Kenya in 1938, and Chinese anthropologist Francis Hsu
in public political forums to address its root causes and end wrote extensively on Chinese society. Anthropologists who
it. There are, nevertheless, issues with this stance. It is not study their own society are sometimes called native anthro-
clear that anthropologists and other social scientists agree on pologists. In recent years, native anthropologists have
the root causes of homelessness. Even those who agree with become even more common. This trend is driven by many
Lyon-Callo note that the current social service approach at factors, including the training of a greater number of anthro-
least offers a degree of immediate hope and help for homeless pologists from different cultures, the increasing total num-
people. Fundamental social and economic change is a more ber of anthropologists, and the rise of interest in ethnicity in
distant goal. the United States and Europe. The danger of violence and
Although many anthropologists practice some elements political instability in many places where anthropologists
of both collaborative and engaged anthropology, these have studied in the past is also a contributor, as is the corre-
approaches raise important concerns. Collaborative anthro- sponding difficulty in getting access to and funding for work
pologists propose that consultants should have a strong role in these areas.
in determining what anthropologists write. However, most Traditionally, anthropologists doing fieldwork try hard to
anthropologists also believe they have an obligation to accu- learn the culture of the people with whom they are working.
rately report what people say and do to the best of their ability. In a sense, anthropologists working in their own culture have
They have a further obligation not to knowingly falsify infor- the opposite problem: They must attempt to see their culture
mation. These obligations may frequently conflict with the as an outsider might. This is challenging because it is easy to
goal of producing the work the consultants desire. Further, take cultural knowledge for granted. In addition, it may be as
communities are rarely so homogenous that they speak with difficult to maintain a neutral stand in one’s own culture as it
a single voice. Collaborative anthropology may give voice is in a different one. It may be easier to remain culturally rela-
and legitimacy to one element of a community over another. tivistic when we confront issues such as cannibalism or infan-
Often, writing what consultants want really means choosing ticide in other cultures than when we confront problematic
their side in a political contest. situations such as racism or inequality in our own.
Engaged anthropologists have no difficulty in choosing Some of the problems and the rewards of studying one’s
sides in political contests. This, however, has its own prob- own culture can be seen in Barbara Myerhoff ’s books and
lems. In the wake of postmodernism, anthropologists have films. Myerhoff (1978: 18–19) contrasted her work with the
acknowledged that it is not possible for them to report with Huichol of northern Mexico with her work among elderly
complete neutrality. Personal history, particular interests, Jewish people in California. She noted that in the first case,
and chance all play important roles in what anthropolo- doing anthropology was “an act of imagination, a means for
gists observe and report. Nevertheless, anthropologists who discovering what one is not and will never be.” In the second
pursue specific political and social agendas face far greater case, fieldwork was a glimpse into her possible future, as she
Ethnography
T H E N AC I R E M A
Anthropologists have become so familiar with the which is believed to have a supernatural influence
diversity of ways different peoples behave that they on all social relationships. Each day, Naciremans
are not usually surprised by even the most exotic perform a complex set of rituals devoted to the
customs. However, the magical beliefs and practices mouth. Were it not for these rituals, they believe that
of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws
seems desirable to describe them as an example of shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers
the extremes to which human behavior can go. The reject them.
Nacirema are a North American group living in the
territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and In addition to daily mouth rites, the people seek
Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of out a “holy mouth man” once or twice a year. These
the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia,
tradition states that they came from the east. consisting of a variety of augers, pokers, probes, and
prods. The use of these objects in the exorcism of
Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly the evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable
developed market economy, but Naciremans spend ritual torture of the client. The holy mouth man
a considerable portion of the day in ritual activity. uses these tools to scrape, prod, and cut particularly
The focus of this activity is the human body, the sensitive areas of the mouth. Magical materials
appearance and health of which loom as a dominant believed to arrest decay and draw friends are inserted
concern in the ethos of the people. Such a concern is in the mouth. The extremely sacred and traditional
certainly not unusual, but its ceremonial aspects and character of the rite is evident in the fact that the
associated philosophy are unique. natives return to the holy mouth men year after
year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to
The fundamental belief underlying the whole
decay. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye
system appears to be that the human body is ugly
of a holy mouth man as he jabs a poker into an
and has a natural tendency to debility and disease.
exposed nerve to suspect that a certain amount of
People’s only hope is to avert these through the use
sadism is involved in these practices. And indeed,
of ritual and ceremony, and every household has
much of the population shows definite masochistic
one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The
tendencies. For example, a portion of the daily body
rituals associated with the shrine are secret and are
ritual performed only by men involves scraping
normally discussed only with children and only when
and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp
they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was
instrument.
able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with
the natives to examine these shrines and to have the Nacirema medicine men have an imposing temple,
rituals described to me. or latipsoh, in every community of any size. The
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest built more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very
into the wall in which are kept the many charms sick patients can be performed only at this temple.
and magical potions no native believes he could These ceremonies involve not only the priests who
live without. These preparations are secured from perform miracles but also a permanent group of
medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded vestal maidens who move sedately about the temple
with substantial gifts. chambers in distinctive costume.
Beneath the charm box is a small font. Each day The latipsoh ceremonies are so harsh that it is
every member of the family, in succession, enters surprising that sick adults are not only willing
the shrine room, bows his head before the charm but also eager to undergo the protracted ritual
box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the purification, if they can afford to do so. No matter
font, and proceeds with a brief rite of purification. how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency,
The holy waters are secured from the water temple the guardians of the temple will not admit a client
of the community, where priests conduct elaborate if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian. Even
ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure. after one has gained admission and survived the
ceremonies, the guardians continue to demand gifts,
The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror sometimes pursuing clients to their homes and
of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of businesses.
(Continued!)
(Continued)
Supplicants entering the temple are first stripped of all the strange and bizarre customs of people who at first
their clothes. Psychological shock results from the fact appear utterly different from yourself. At some point
that body secrecy is suddenly lost. A man whose own in your reading, you may have realized that Miner is
wife has never seen him in an excretory act suddenly describing American customs as they might be seen
finds himself naked and assisted by a vestal maiden from the point of view of an unknowing but perhaps
while he performs his natural functions into a sacred quite perceptive observer. Your first reaction might
vessel. Female clients find their naked bodies are be to chuckle at the narrator’s misunderstandings
subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation, and prodding and treat the essay as an example of just how deeply
of the medicine men. The fact that these temple an outside observer might be in error about a culture.
ceremonies may not cure and may even kill does not But if you’re a reflective person, you might also
decrease the people’s faith in the medicine men. wonder if the narrator didn’t present some fairly
penetrating insights about the nature of our society.
In conclusion, mention must be made of certain Clearly the narrator has misunderstood some of the
practices that have their base in native esthetics but ways Americans think about bathrooms, dentists,
depend upon the pervasive aversion to the natural and hospitals. But is Miner so far off in describing the
body and its functions. There are ritual fasts to make fat American attitude toward disease, decay, and death?
people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people Finally, if you caught the joke early enough, you might
fat. Still other rites are used to make women’s breasts have pondered the meaning of the quote that ends the
larger if they are small and smaller if they are large. essay: Have we really “advanced to the higher stages
General dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized of civilization?” What does that mean anyway?
by the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the
range of human variation. A few women afflicted with Critical Thinking Questions
almost inhuman hypermammary development are so
1. The Nacirema do not generally see themselves
idolized that they make a handsome living by simply
as Horace Miner does. But an interpretation that
going from village to village and permitting the natives
makes no sense to members of a culture being
to stare at them for a fee.
described is not necessarily wrong. Outsiders may
be able to perceive essential truths invisible to
Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has
members of a culture. Given this, how do anthro-
shown them to be a magic-ridden people. It is hard
pologists know if their descriptions and analyses
to understand how they have managed to exist so
are accurate?
long under the burdens they have imposed upon
themselves. But even exotic customs such as these 2. Many essays in anthropology have political and
take on real meaning when they are viewed with social implications. By drawing our attention to
the insight provided by Malinowski when he wrote, aspects of other cultures, anthropologists implic-
“Looking from far and above, from our high places of itly ask us to examine our own. What do you think
safety in civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity the social and political goals of this essay are?
and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and
guidance early man could not have mastered his 3. Miner’s essay was written more than half a cen-
practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man tury ago, in 1956. Does it need updating? What
have advanced to the higher stages of civilization.” has changed about American society and what
has not?
The essay you’ve just read is adapted from a classic
piece of American anthropology written by Horace Source: Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,”
Miner. Miner’s essay draws you in as you read about The American Anthropologist, 58 (1956): 503–507.
knew that someday she would be a “little old Jewish lady.” Her native anthropologist to avoid politics. Delmos Jones, an
work was a personal way to understand that condition and African American anthropologist who worked in the United
contemplate her own future. It was, tragically, a future that States, provides a case in point. Jones (1995) was deeply con-
never arrived. Myerhoff died of cancer when she was only 49. cerned with improving the position of African Americans.
The issues and problems engaged anthropology raises He studied voluntary organizations whose goal was to cre-
may be particularly poignant for native anthropologists. ate political and social change in African American urban
On the one hand, nothing about being a native requires an communities. He was able to get access to such organiza-
individual to take a specific political position. On the other tions both because he was an African American and because
hand, in some cases it may be particularly difficult for a he shared the organizations’ goals. One of his important
findings was that, for a variety of reasons, there was consid- always be free to decide whether or not they will participate in
erable dissent between the leadership and the rank and file the study.
in the groups he studied. Further, he discovered that leaders Anthropologists also have obligations to the discipline
used numerous means to stifle this dissent. Jones’s findings of anthropology. Two of these obligations are both import-
left him with a variety of unpleasant choices. If he publicized ant and problematic. First, anthropologists should conduct
the problems within the organizations, he risked both alien- themselves in ways that do not endanger the research pros-
ating the leaders who had befriended him and potentially pects or lives of other anthropologists. Anthropologists who
damaging causes in which he strongly believed. However, if violate the mores and ethics of the communities where they
he failed to publicize these problems, he would be omitting work make it unlikely that those communities will accept
an important aspect of his findings and supporting leader- other anthropologists in the future. Anthropologists who
ship practices he considered troubling. become involved with and identified with governments,
Reflecting on his research experience, Jones concluded military forces, or political platforms may endanger not only
that although being a cultural insider offers certain advan- themselves but also the work and lives of others. For example,
tages, such as access to a community, it also poses special if people know that some anthropologists are working for an
dilemmas, particularly when the group being studied is army or intelligence-gathering agency, they may suspect that
oppressed by the larger society. Indeed, he noted that the very all of them are.
concept of a native anthropologist is problematic. An individ- Second, many anthropologists believe that the primary
ual has many identities, including race, culture, gender, and purpose of research is to add to the general store of anthropo-
social class. Being a native in one identity does not make one logical knowledge. Because of this, anthropologists have an
a native in all one’s identities. obligation to publish their findings in forums that are available
to other anthropologists and to the general public. Publishing
usually involves review of the work by other anthropologists,
Ethical Considerations in Fieldwork which helps ensure the validity and quality of research.
Delmos Jones’s position as a native anthropologist involved Anthropologists acknowledge that certain forms of
him in a delicate ethical situation. This is not at all unusual. secrecy are acceptable and, on occasion, even required. For
Ethical issues frequently arise in anthropological research. example, to protect both the communities where they work
Anthropologists have obligations to the standards of their and the individuals with whom they work, anthropologists
discipline, to their sponsors, to their own and their host gov- may decide not to reveal the precise location of their research
ernment, and to the public. However, their first ethical obliga- or the actual names of the individuals they discuss. However,
tions are to the people they study and to the people with whom research in which the methods and findings are secret is a far
they work. Under some circumstances, these obligations can greater problem. Not only does it fail to contribute to anthro-
supersede the goal of seeking new knowledge. According to pological knowledge, but the scientific community also has
the AAA’s Principles of Professional Responsibility (2012), no way of assessing its validity.
anthropologists must grapple with the difficulties of complex The obligations to protect other anthropologists and to
rights, responsibilities, and involvements. Their responsibilities publish research findings both pose dilemmas. The engaged
include avoiding research that harms their subjects’ dignity or anthropologists described earlier believe that anthropologists
bodily and material well-being. They must carefully weigh the must work for the communities they study. However, this
potential consequences and understand that, in some cases, may make it impossible for future anthropologists to work at
potential negative impacts might be more important than the all. For example, governments may not grant anthropologists
goal of seeking new knowledge. research visas or organizations may not allow research if they
Anthropologists have obligations to be open and honest believe anthropologists will promote political action against
regarding their work and to thoroughly inform their partic- them. Applied anthropologists wish to work for businesses
ipants and collaborators about the purposes, methods, out- and governments. Anthropological findings often have the
comes, and sponsors of that work. Informed consent is a greatest value for these entities when they are not shared with
critical aspect of anthropological ethics. Obtaining informed other businesses or the public. There may be very few jobs
consent of study participants requires anthropologists to take available for applied anthropologists who insist on the right
part in ongoing and dynamic discussion with their consul- to publish all of the results of their research.
tants about the nature of the study as well as the risks and ben- Numerous projects have tested the boundaries of ethics
efits of participation in it (Clark & Kingsolver, n.d.). Informed in anthropology, in regard both to the people anthropologists
consent means that study participants should understand the study and to the discipline itself. One of the best known of these
ways in which their participation in the study and the release was Project Camelot, a mid-1960s attempt by the U.S. Army
of the research data are likely to affect them. Individuals must and Department of Defense to enlist anthropologists and other
social scientists in achieving U.S. foreign policy goals. Project occurring (McFate & Laurence, 2015). Several social scien-
Camelot’s stated purpose was to create a model for predict- tists working in this program were killed.
ing civil wars, but it was also implicated in using military and The use of anthropologists in the training of military
cultural means to fight insurgency movements and prop up officers is the less controversial of the two forms of engage-
friendly governments (Horowitz, 1967). When Project Camelot ment. Anthropologists who favor this form of working with
was made public in 1965, the United States had recently invaded the military argue that they generally present information
the Dominican Republic and was escalating the Vietnam War. that is publicly available. Military personnel are free to enroll
Project Camelot created controversy both inside and in anthropology courses at public and private universities.
outside of anthropology. In countries where anthropologists Presenting anthropology courses as part of military training
worked, people began to see them as spies whose presence is no different. Additionally, supporters of such engagement
presaged a U.S. invasion. At the AAA, Project Camelot led to argue that soldiers of all ranks who understand the dynam-
vitriolic debate; members raised concerns over the integrity ics of a culture, the importance of cultural meanings and
of research, the safety of anthropologists in the field, and the symbols, and the structure and distribution of power within
purposes to which anthropological knowledge might be put. a society are liable to be more successful and less destructive
These concerns eventually led to the issuing of the first offi- than those who do not. Where are they to get this knowl-
cial statement on anthropological ethics in 1971. edge if not from anthropology? However, such engagement
also raises concerns. No professor can ever control the uses
to which students put the information and skills received in
Anthropology and the Military class, and the military’s interest in anthropological knowledge
Concerns similar to those raised by Project Camelot have is often related to conquest, domination, and control of other
occurred over the engagement of some anthropologists with populations. Some anthropologists argue that engagement
the U.S. military. Anthropologists and other social scientists with the military is wrong because it actively promotes such
are involved with the military in two different ways. Some ends. David Price (2009) noted that although anthropologists
anthropologists work at military colleges and bases providing working in universities and in the military face similar issues,
anthropological training for officers or analyses of the culture anthropologists in universities seek knowledge for its own
of the military itself. Other anthropologists and social sci- sake, at least in theory, whereas those working for the military
entists work on the ground collecting data in zones of active seek it for victory, security, and defense.
conflict. Between 2007 and 2014, some anthropologists The use of anthropologists and other social scientists as
and scientists were involved with a program called Human part of HTS teams on the ground is much more worrisome
Terrain Systems (HTS). HTS members collected information than their presence in military training. The effectiveness of
on village social structure, body language, and other aspects HTS was the subject of intense dispute. Some argue that it
of culture (Figure 2.8). They were involved with the interro- saved both troops and civilians in Afghanistan (Fondacaro &
gation of detainees (Weinberger, 2011). The army considered McFate, 2008); others maintain that such claims lack any
using HTS in “phase zero” conflicts to prevent wars from empirical support (Price, 2010).
FIGURE 2.8 Anthropologists

615 collection lamy Stoc Photo
and other social scientists

working for the military raise
important ethical concerns.
Human Terrain Systems
(HTS) was a U.S. Army
program that used social
scientists in zones of active
military action. Here, HTS
team member Dr. Richard
Boone interviews a civilian in
Afghanistan’s Logar province
in 2009.
Whether or not the military’s use of anthropologists is Given all of the problems that occurred with HTS, it is
effective, most anthropologists find it extremely problematic. probably safe to say that a strong majority of anthropologists
A recent review of the HTS controversy noted that anthro- oppose this use of their discipline. Anthropologists voiced
pologists argued the program failed “to abide by even the opposition to HTS and other forms of involvement with the
most basic principles of ethical research” (Forte, 2011: 151). military at the annual meetings of the AAA in 2007 and 2008.
Maximilian Forte (2011: 151) stated that HTS could not avoid However, ultimately, ethical behavior is the responsibility of
harming people and could not obtain informed consent. He each individual anthropologist. The members of the AAA
also said that the confidentiality and safety of both informants are supposed to subscribe to its Code of Ethics. However,
and researchers had been repeatedly compromised. James not all anthropologists are subject to the AAA or to univer-
Peacock and his coauthors (2007) pointed out that engage- sity-based institutional review boards. Lawyers who behave
ment with the military raises concerns about (1) obligations unethically can be disbarred. Doctors can have their medical
to those whom anthropologists study; (2) perils for the disci- licenses revoked. In both cases, they violate the law and can
pline, one’s colleagues, and the broader academic community; be punished if they continue to practice. There is no compa-
and (3) issues of secrecy and transparency. The HTS program rable sanction for anthropologists (and, indeed, for members
was shut down by the military in 2014. of most disciplines). Therefore, there will always be a great
It is indeed difficult to see how many of anthropology’s diversity of anthropological practice.
ethical requirements can be met under conditions of warfare.
How, for example, are participants to give coercion-free con- New Roles For the Ethnographer
sent while subject to military occupation? How can anthropol-
ogists honestly inform participants about the ways the research Although native anthropologists have been practicing for a
data will be used and are likely to affect them? Are individuals long time, until the 1970s, most anthropology was done by
in a conflict ever really free to decide whether or not they will European or North American ethnographers visiting a rela-
participate in a study? Can anthropologists working under tively isolated society and reporting on that society to other
such circumstances ensure, within reason, that the informa- Europeans and North Americans. In the past several decades,
tion they supply will not harm the safety, dignity, or privacy of this model has become unrealistic. Immigration, inexpensive
the people with whom they work? Isn’t the point of their work communication, and relatively cheap airfare have altered the
sometimes just the opposite of that? What of anthropologists’ world and the nature of the anthropologist’s job (Figure 2.9).
obligations to publish their research? Aren’t the results of this Whether working in cities, in villages, or with tribal groups,
sort of research necessarily secret? Historically, anthropologists almost all ethnographers must consider the interaction of local
have been concerned with protecting the rights and safety of units with larger social structures, economies, and cultures.
the people they study. The primary concern of anthropologists Such connections may extend from the region to the entire
working in projects like HTS must instead be the safety, secu- world. Thus, research may mean following consultants from
rity, and goals of their employers. villages to their workplaces in cities or collecting genealogies
FIGURE 2.9 Members of the
Samuel Corum nadolu gency Getty Images

Standing Rock Sioux and their
supporters march against the
Dakota Access Pipeline in
Washington in 2017. The pipeline,
built to bring shale oil from
North Dakota to Illinois, crosses
Native American land. Despite
extensive protests by Native
peoples, it was completed in
May 2017. Anthropologist Dana
Powell, who worked with the
protesters, said that “politically,
this is about Native sovereignty
over territory” (in Wall, 2016).
that spread over countries or even continents. In addition to serves as the basis for the revitalization of cultural identities
expanding the research site, contemporary ethnographers that have been nearly effaced by Western impact (Feinberg,
must often use techniques such as questionnaires, social sur- 1994). Sometimes it plays an important role in establishing
veys, archival material, government documents, and court group claims to “authenticity” and is useful in local polit-
records as well as participant observation. The deep connec- ical and economic context. For example, when Kathleen
tions among cultures and the global movement of individuals Adams (1995) carried out her fieldwork among the Toraja of
means that we must constantly reevaluate the nature of the Sulawesi, Indonesia, she became a featured event on tourist
cultures we are studying, their geographical spread, their eco- itineraries in the region. Toraja tour guides led their groups
nomic and political position, and their relation to each other. to the home of her host, both validating his importance in the
Today, not only are native anthropologists much more village and bolstering the tourists’ experience of the Toraja as
common but the people anthropologists study have far a group sufficiently “authentic” and important enough to be
greater knowledge of the world than they did in earlier times. studied by anthropologists.
Often, they understand what anthropology is and what In the past, anthropologists sometimes worried about
anthropologists do, something that wasn’t true in the past. the subject of their work disappearing. They argued that the
In some cases, this has led to difficulties as people struggle main thing anthropology was designed to study was small-
over the question of who has the right to speak for a group. scale, relatively isolated, “primitive” society. They were con-
In other cases, people from the groups that anthropologists cerned that as economic development spread around the
have described have publicly taken issue with the analysis. world, such societies would go out of existence and the job of
For example, in the early 2000s, a fierce controversy broke anthropology would essentially be finished. In a small sense
out over anthropological descriptions of the Yanomamö, they were right, but in the larger sense they were wrong. Any
an often-studied Amazonian group. Had their primary anthropologist looking today to study a society untouched
ethnographer, Napoleon Chagnon, portrayed them accu- by the outside world would be out of luck. No such societies
rately? Was the research team he was part of responsible have existed for a long time. On the other hand, globaliza-
for spreading disease and decimating Yanomamö villages? tion has been productive of both diversity and homogeneity.
Anthropologists, journalists, and Yanomamö tribe members Economic, political, and social forces bring groups of people
debated these questions at meetings and in the popular press together in new ways, in conflict and in cooperation. New
(for a review of the debate, see Borofsky, 2005). cultural forms are created and old ones modified. Human
Despite controversies such as this, for the most part, cultural diversity, imagination, and adaptability show no
natives’ increased knowledge of the outside has resulted signs of dying out and, thus, anthropologists will always have
in closer relations among anthropologists and the peo- material to study. Wherever human cultures exist and how-
ple they study as well as more accurate ethnographies. ever they may change, anthropologists will be there, devising
Ethnographic data is often useful to a society. Sometimes it means to study, understand, and think about them.

R I G H T S, E T H I C S, A N D F E M A L E G E N ITA L O PE R ATI O N S
Question: Are there universal human rights? If so, how do we decide what they are?
What could be more obvious than the notion that skills. . . carry with them specific ethical obligations
anthropologists should support human rights and to promote the well-being of the people who are
be actively engaged in their promotion? Doubting collaborators in our anthropological research and
the value of human rights is like arguing against in the production of anthropological knowledge”
freedom of speech or claiming that children are not (2006: 5). Ida Nicolaisen (2006) pointed out that
important. Yet human rights pose ethical dilemmas standing up for human rights is often a matter of
for anthropologists. Almost all anthropologists life and death. She noted, for example, that between
believe firmly in our duty to promote human rights 2005 and late summer 2006, at least 73 indigenous
in our own society. Many also believe that they have people in the Philippines were “subjected to extra-
an obligation to promote the interests of those they judicial killings” and concluded that “we owe it
study. For example, Laura R. Graham wrote that “our to indigenous peoples and other marginalized
privileged position, specialized training, and unique groups to stand up for their basic human rights
when needed” (Nicolaisen, 2006: 6). There are often women (Merwine, 1993; Walley, 1997). Fuambai
difficulties in determining exactly what rights are, Ahmadu wrote, “What western audiences rarely
however. Laura Nader wrote that ideas about human see. . . is the fact that many circumcised women who
rights were developed in a largely western European support their tradition, are healthy. . .lead sexually
context and are often conceived of as “something fulfilling lives, and. . . quite like their circumcised
Euro-Americans take to others” (2006: 6). Promoting bodies” (in Tierney, 2008). Ahmadu went on to
Western notions of human rights may mean denying argue that some of the problems associated with
people in other societies what they consider to be FGO, such as sexual dysfunction and feelings of
their rights to pursue individual and cultural choices. shame, disfigurement, and inferiority, are really
caused by Western condemnation of it. Carlos D.
Female genital operations (FGOs) are a good example Londoño Sulkin wrote that it’s very important for
of this issue. Approximately 100 million females in anthropologists to “actually pay attention to what
the world today, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, the people we write about say and do” (2009: 18)
have undergone some form of FGO, the ritual cutting and that, after listening to his informants, he could
of a girl’s genitals. These practices vary in intensity no longer totally condemn genital cutting.
from a ritualized drawing of blood to infibulation,
which involves removing almost all of the genitals, Today, many women from societies where female
stitching together the wound, and leaving only a small genital rituals are practiced are migrating to Europe
opening for passing urine and menstrual flow. Where and the United States, giving this formerly local
they are traditionally practiced, these operations are cultural pattern a global dimension. Although
considered essential and are intended to preserve some women have fled their countries for fear of
a girl’s virginity before marriage, to symbolize her being forced to undergo genital cutting, others wish
role as a marriageable member of society, and to to preserve this practice in their new countries.
emphasize her moral and economic value to her However, these practices have been outlawed by
patrilineage (Barnes & Boddy, 1994; Walley, 1997). several European countries and the United States.
Saida Hodžić (2017) has noted that for a variety of
Almost everything about FGO is controversial, reasons, genital cutting is declining.
beginning with the debate about whether it is
medically harmful. A study by the World Health Although some women from societies that practice
Organization published in 2006 showed that such FGOs defend the practice, others from those cultures
operations increased the likelihood of the death of speak out against it (El Saadawi, 1980). However, many
both mothers and children during childbirth. However, who oppose the practice also think Western interest in
this finding has been contradicted by other studies eliminating it is unwarranted interference in their right
(see, for example, Morison et al., 2001, and Obermeyer, to determine their own culture. They point to a double
2003). All of these studies are controversial, and both standard: People in wealthy nations often see such
their methodology and their findings have been practices as “barbaric” while ignoring similar practices
critiqued (see Shell-Duncan, 2008, and Tierney, 2008). in their own cultures. The only place where female
The name of the rite is itself politically loaded. Is it a genital operations are currently increasing is in the
female genital operation, a rather neutral term; female world’s wealthy nations. Conroy (2006: 107) has pointed
genital mutilation, a term that implies that the ritual out that “‘designer laser vaginoplasty’ and ‘laser vaginal
is wrong; or female circumcision, a name that makes it rejuvenation’ are growth areas in plastic surgery. . . .[In
sound similar to male circumcision, a less invasive and these operations] women are being mutilated to fit male
less painful practice? masturbation fantasies, in what Faith Wilding calls ‘the
full-scale consumer spectacle of the cyborg porn babe.’”
There is no doubt that the FGOs of African and
Middle Eastern cultures offend the sensibilities Key Questions
of many people in the wealthy nations of the 1. If anthropologists have moral obligations to the
United States and Europe. Amnesty International people with whom they work, should they ever
(2005) considers such operations to be “a work with people whose beliefs and practices
grave violation of human rights.” UNICEF, the they disapprove of? If yes, then what obligations
World Health Organization, and other groups do they have to such people? If no, how are we to
carry out campaigns against FGOs, and many accurately represent such people?
anthropologists oppose them (Fluehr-Lobban,
1998; Shell-Duncan, 2008). However, others urge 2. What sorts of things do you consider to be
that these practices be examined carefully in their universal human rights? How good is our society
cultural contexts. Indeed, from the perspective of at ensuring the rights you have identified? Do you
some women in certain African societies, female think there is a core set of universal rights upon
genital cutting is an affirmation of the value of which most people could or should agree?
SUMMARY
1. When did anthropology begin as an academic disci- emic perspective seek to understand how cultures look
pline and what were the methods and goals of early from the inside. Their goal is to enable cultural outsiders
anthropologists? Anthropology began in the 19th cen- to gain a sense of what it might be like to be a member
tury. In that era, anthropologists were compilers of data of the culture. Anthropologists using an etic perspec-
rather than fieldworkers. Their goal was to describe and tive seek to derive principles or rules that explain the
document the evolutionary history of human society. behavior of members of a culture. Etic research is judged
There were numerous problems with their data and by the usefulness of the hypotheses it generates and the
methods. degree to which it accurately describes behavior, not by
whether members of the culture studied agree with its
2. Who was Franz Boas and what role did he play in U.S.
conclusions.
anthropology? Franz Boas was a German-trained social
scientist. In the United States, Franz Boas established 7. What is the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) data-
a style of anthropology that rejected evolutionism. base and what is it used for? The HRAF is a database
Boas insisted that anthropologists collect data through of information on more than 300 cultures. It is used
objectively oriented fieldwork. He argued that cul- for cross-cultural research. Cross-cultural researchers
tures were the result of their own history and could not attempt to compare cultures to derive laws or principles
be compared to one another, a position called cultural that can be applied to many different cultures.
relativism.
8. How does Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg’s work
3. Who was Bronislaw Malinowski and what role did he among drug users demonstrate the value and limits of
play in anthropology? Bronislaw Malinowski was a anthropological fieldwork? By living with homeless drug
British-trained anthropologist whose approach and abusers, Bourgois and Schonberg gained insights into
fieldwork were critical in establishing anthropology in the addicts’ lives that led to concrete suggestions about
Britain. Malinowski emphasized participant observa- ways to improve those lives. However, it also showed
tion and the rationality of native practices. Although the that the problems of the addicts were enmeshed with
focus of Malinowski’s work was different from that of
larger issues of race, inequality, and homelessness that are
Boas, both promoted fieldwork by professionally trained
extremely difficult to address.
anthropologists and both saw members of other cultures
as fully rational and worthy of respect. 9. What is feminist anthropology and what is its impor-
tance in the development of anthropological thinking?
4. How is research in anthropology today different from
Most anthropology before the late 1960s focused on
research in the early 20th century? Almost all anthropol-
men’s lives. Feminist anthropology was a movement
ogists today do fieldwork, and many continue to work
in the 1960s to change the focus of anthropology to
in small communities. Most focus on answering spe-
include all people and to increase the number of female
cific questions rather than describing entire societies.
anthropologists. Feminist anthropology began a trend
Anthropological techniques include participant obser-
of thinking about the structure of anthropology as a
vation, interviews, questionnaires, and mapping.
discipline and the role of gender, power, and voice in
5. What is participant observation? Participant observa- society.
tion is the technique of gathering data on human cul-
tures by living among the people, observing their social 10. What is postmodernism and how did it affect anthro-
interaction on an ongoing daily basis, and participating pology? Postmodernism is a theoretical position focus-
as much as possible in their lives. This intensive field ing on the role of power and voice in shaping society
experience is the methodological hallmark of cultural and research. Postmodernists urged anthropologists to
anthropology. become more sensitive to these issues. Postmodernists
also held that the objective world was unknowable and
6. W h at a r e t h e e m i c a n d e t i c p e r s p e c t i v e s ? anthropologists’ voices were uncertain. Postmodernism
Anthropological research styles are sometimes charac- created intense debate within anthropology but ulti-
terized as either emic or etic. Anthropologists using the mately enriched ethnography.
11. What are engaged and collaborative anthropology? places of violence and instability, anthropologists may
Engaged and collaborative anthropology place special not have the knowledge or power necessary to provide
emphasis on some of the issues raised by postmodern- such protection. The use of anthropologists in the mili-
ism. Collaborative anthropologists take great pains to tary presents an extremely thorny ethical issue for the
involve members of the groups they study in the produc- profession.
tion of ethnographic knowledge. Engaged anthropolo-
gists place special emphasis on the political dimensions 14. What is the importance of anthropology in an increas-
of their work and combine fieldwork with political and ingly globalized world? Anthropologists are increasingly
social activism. enmeshed in a global society. Those they study are rarely
isolated and are often quite knowledgeable about anthro-
12. What are native anthropologists and what special pology. Anthropological knowledge is often important
advantages and problems do they have? Native anthro- in the ways people understand their identity and, as such,
pologists are those who study their own society. Native is increasingly political.
anthropologists may have advantages of access and rap-
port. However, in some cases, they also experience cer- 15. What are female genital operations (FGOs) and what
tain burdens more intensely, such as whether to expose moral issues do they pose for anthropologists? An
aspects of the culture that may be received unfavorably FGO is the ritual cutting of a girl’s genitals, a frequent
by outsiders. practice in some cultures. This practice is horrify-
ing to many outsiders and may have negative medi-
13. What are some ethical dilemmas that anthropologists cal consequences, but it is highly valued by both men
face? Anthropological ethics require protecting the dig- and women in some cultures. Some anthropolo-
nity, privacy, and anonymity of the people one studies gists strongly oppose the practice while others have
as well as obtaining their informed consent. However, it defended it. Examples such as FGO demonstrate the
is not clear that this can be accomplished in all cases. In complexity of human rights.
1. Describe some of the key issues surrounding the devel- 4. To what degree do you think anthropologists should be
opment of anthropology in the 19th and early 20th cen- involved in promoting the welfare of the people with
turies. What motivated early anthropologists? whom they work? What are the advantages and disad-
vantages of engaged and collaborative anthropology?
2. Participant observation is the key research technique of
anthropology. How is it done? What are its advantages? 5. Should anthropologists work for governments, corpo-
What problems and issues face researchers using partici- rations, and the military? If you believe that anthropolo-
pant observation? gists should be willing to work for these entities, are there
limits on the kinds of research they should do or the
3. Summarize the key challenges that feminism and post- kinds of information they should be willing to give their
modernism posed for anthropology and the ways in employers?
which the discipline responded.
KE Y TE RM S
collaborative anthropologists 39 ethnology 35 informed consent 43

cultural relativism 29 etic perspective 33 institutional review board (IRB) 32
culture shock 33 fieldwork 31 native anthropologists 40
emic perspective 33 Human Relations Area Files participant observation 29
engaged anthropology 39 (HRAF) 35 positioning 38
ethnocentrism 29 informant (respondent, interlocutor, postmodernists 38
ethnography 27 consultant) 33
G LO S SARY
collaborative anthropologists These anthropologists fieldwork The firsthand, systematic exploration of
practice an ethnography that gives priority to informants a society. It involves living with a group of people and
on the topic, methodology, and written results of research. participating in and observing their behavior.
cultural relativism The notion that cultures should be Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) An ethnographic
analyzed with reference to their own histories and values, database that includes descriptions of more than 300
in terms of the cultural whole, rather than according to cultures and is used for cross-cultural research.
the values of another culture.
informant (respondent, interlocutor, consultant)
culture shock Feelings of alienation and helplessness A person from whom an anthropologist gathers data.
that result from rapid immersion in a new and different
culture. informed consent The requirement that participants in
anthropological studies should understand the ways in
emic perspective Examining a society using concepts which their participation and the release of the research
and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that data are likely to affect them.
culture.
institutional review board (IRB) A committee
engaged anthropology Anthropology that includes organized by a university or other research institution that
political action as a major goal of fieldwork. approves, monitors, and reviews all research that involves
human subjects.
ethnocentrism Judging other cultures from the
perspective of one’s own culture. The notion that one’s native anthropologists Anthropologists who do
own culture is more beautiful, rational, and nearer to fieldwork in their own culture.
perfection than others.
participant observation The fieldwork technique that
ethnography The major research tool of cultural involves gathering cultural data by observing people’s
anthropology; includes both fieldwork among people in behavior and participating in their lives.
society and the written results of fieldwork.
positioning The situation of an individual; their history,
ethnology The attempt to find general principles or laws background, and goals
that govern cultural phenomena.
postmodernists Adherents of a theoretical perspective
etic perspective Examining societies using concepts, focusing on issues of power and voice. Postmodernists
categories, and rules derived from science; an outsider’s suggest that anthropological accounts are partial truths
perspective that produces analyses that members of the reflecting the background, training, and social position of
society being studied may not find meaningful. their authors.
Peggy Ree es Sanday
Photo of homecoming mum, Brittany Eicker, 2017
High school senior Brittany Eicker from the Ft. Worth suburb of Alvarado, Texas, shows off her homecoming mum. In Texas,
homecoming mums started as corsages made of chrysanthemums but have become elaborate paper and plastic decorations
that showcase the interests, personalities, and aspirations of their creators. Mums frequently include decorations such as
teddy bears and bells. They can be expensive too: Eicker spent almost $600 on hers.
The Idea of Culture 3
Culture is one of the most basic characteristics of human society. Although it LEARNING OBJECTIVES
is not easy to define precisely, practically everything humans perceive, know,
think, value, feel, and do—in short, almost everything that makes us human—is will be able to:
based in culture. Even things like sex or sleep that strike us as natural are often
3.1 List the major characteristics of
deeply patterned by culture.
culture
Much of culture consists of the aspects of our lives that go without saying, and this 3.2 Describe the roles that child-
sometimes makes culture difficult to think about. Consider clothing and speech. rearing practices play in a culture
Almost all college students in the United States wear broadly similar clothes. On a 3.3 Explain the relationship
normal day, you would probably not go to class wearing a tuxedo or evening gown. between culture and the ways in
You would not go dressed as Darth Vader or wearing a skimpy bathing suit. If a which people classify the world
professor asked you a question about mathematics, you probably wouldn’t answer 3.4 Give some examples of the ways
by barking like a dog and tap dancing (though, importantly, a first-grader might). in which symbols, rituals, and events
Not only are you very unlikely to do these things, in all probability, you would such as games create meaning for
people in particular cultures
never even consider doing them. Because we learned them so early and practiced
them so long, violating the boundaries of dress and speech in a classroom setting 3.5 Compare and contrast culture
simply does not occur to most adults. These boundaries are part of what theorist and systems and explain the ways
that culture can be considered
Pierre Bourdieu has called habitus—the often taken-for-granted ways of acting a system and the ways in which
that are acquired through both individual and social experience. culture is not like a system
Culture is so basic to human society that it is difficult to imagine what human 3.6 Define norms and values and
explain their importance in culture
life would be without it. We might come close, however, by considering autism.
Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in both verbal 3.7 Relate some of the ways in
and nonverbal communication, impairment of social interaction, and a host of which culture is and is not shared
other symptoms. It is generally diagnosed in children between the ages of 18 3.8 Compare and contrast cultural
and 36 months. Autism may affect as many as one in 150 children. As a result, it and biological adaptation and
is likely that you either know or know of someone with some form of autism. explain the ways in which culture
might be considered an adaptation
Autism can occur in many different levels of severity. Some individuals with 3.9 List some of the ways in which
profound autism are silent and withdrawn. However, many others have a mild culture changes
to moderate form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. People with Asperger’s 3.10 Describe the roles of conflict
are able to master language and learn to participate in society. and consensus in culture change
and give examples of each
Some people with autism or Asperger’s have exceptional intellectual skills;
Dr. Temple Grandin is one of the best known of these individuals. Dr. Grandin, a
professor of animal science at Colorado State University, has written extensively
about her experience of autism and the ways in which she has learned to interact
with other people. As Grandin and psychologist Oliver Sacks explain it, people
with autism think in extremely concrete terms and have profound difficulty
understanding social conventions and unwritten cultural rules of every sort.
Writing about her, Sacks said that Grandin lacks “the implicit knowledge, which
every normal person accumulates and generates throughout life on the basis
of experience and encounters with others” (1995: 270). As a result, she must
53
“‘compute’ others’ intentions and states of mind, to try to make . . . explicit, what for the
rest of us is second nature” (Sacks, 1995: 270). In other words, although people with autism
certainly don’t lack culture, they seem to learn it and understand it differently than those
without the disorder. Thinking about their experiences can give us insight into the nature
of culture.
Grandin has often described herself as an “anthropologist on Mars.” To her, being in

human society is like being on a different planet. She is an outsider confronted with a
wholly different way of life. She can observe what people do, but their actions make no
sense. She has no intuitive feel for the things going on around her. In other words, for
Grandin, other people have this thing that we call “culture.” Her experience of culture
seems enormously different from that of other individuals. She must continually
reassess and think about (and sometimes say) exactly those things that go without
saying.
Grandin has been very successful because she has learned to imitate the culture of the
people around her—that is, she has learned when she needs to say certain things and
perform certain actions to fit in. But, despite her success, Sacks (1995) has reported that
Grandin does not think she understands others. In describing this condition, the classical
music critic Tim Page, who also has Asperger’s, wrote, “I am left with the melancholy
sensation that my life has been spent in a perpetual state of parallel play, alongside, but
distinctly apart from, the rest of humanity” (2007: 36).
Accounts of individuals with autism such as Grandin and Page make it clear that if we
do not internalize the assumptions, constraints, and patterns imposed by culture, it is
extraordinarily difficult to express our human qualities and abilities. But what is culture?
Defining Culture have language, which is a complex symbolic sys-

tem. Using symbols helps people create meaning,
In 1873, Sir Edward Burnett Tylor introduced the concept of including beliefs about the way the world should be.
culture as an explanation for the differences among human However, many different such beliefs are likely to be
societies. Tylor defined culture as the “complex whole which found within any culture.
includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any 3. Cultures are to some degree patterned and integrated.
other capabilities acquired [learned] by man as a member of That is, the elements of culture stand in some logical
society” (2017/1871: 34), and he defined anthropology as the relationship to one another. However, as we will see
scientific study of human culture. later in the chapter, the degree of coordination among
Today, anthropologists generally agree that all cultures elements of culture is hotly disputed.
share, to some degree, the following six characteristics:
4. Cultures are in some way shared by members of a
1. Cultures are made up of learned behaviors. People are group. Every human being has an individual person-
not born knowing their culture. Learning culture is a ality. Studying this is the domain of psychology. Each
continuous process. We start learning our culture the person must also interact with others and thus must
day we are born, and we are still learning things at the share a framework of meaning and behavior with
time of our death. them. Studying that framework is the domain of cul-
2. Cultures all involve symbols. A symbol is simply tural anthropology.
something that stands for something else. People 5. Cultures are in some way adaptive. That is, cul-
manipulate, invent, and change symbols. All cultures tures contain information about how to survive
in the world. Cultures also contain much that is Based on this list, we define culture as the learned, sym-
maladaptive. bolic, at least partially adaptive, and ever-changing patterns
6. All cultures are subject to change. Whether propelled of behavior and meaning shared by members of a group.
by its internal dynamic or acted upon by outside Although anthropologists agree on the basic characteristics
forces, no culture remains static. However, the speed of culture, they disagree on their relative importance, how to
with which cultures change may vary enormously study them, and, indeed, on the goals of anthropology itself.
from place to place and time to time. For example, some anthropologists are deeply concerned
TABLE 3.1$Some Major Anthropological Schools of Thought and Their Understanding of Culture
THEORY NAME UNDERSTANDING OF CULTURE CRITICAL THINKERS

Ninteenth-century A universal human culture is shared, in different degrees, by all E. B. Taylor (1832–1917)
evolution societies. L. H. Morgan (1818–1881)
Turn-of-the-century Groups of people share sets of symbols and practices that bind Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)
sociology them into societies. Marcel Mauss (1872–1950)
American historical Cultures are the result of the specific histories of the people who Franz Boas (1858–1942)
particularism share them. A. L. Kroeber (1876–1960)
Functionalism Social practices support society s structure or fill the needs of Bronislaw Malinowski
individuals. (1884–1942)
A. R. Radcliffe Brown (1881–1995)
Culture and personality Culture is personality writ large. It both shapes and is shaped by Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
the personalities of its members. Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
Cultural ecology and Culture is the way in which humans adapt to the environment Julian Steward (1902–1972)
neo-evolutionism and make their lives secure. Leslie White (1900–1975)
Ecological materialism Physical and economic causes give rise to cultures and explain Morton Fried (1923–1986)
changes within them. Marvin Harris (1927–2001)
Ethnoscience and Culture is a mental template that determines how members of a Harold Conklin (1926–2016)
cognitive anthropology society understand their world. Stephen Tyler (1932–)
Structural anthropology Universal original human culture can be discovered through Claude Lévi-Strauss
analysis and comparison of the myths and customs of many (1908–2009)
cultures.
Sociobiology Culture is the visible expression of underlying genetic coding. E. O. Wilson (1929–)
Jerome Barkow (1944–)
Anthropology and gender The ways societies understand sexuality are central to Michelle Rosaldo (1944–1981)
understanding culture. Don Kullick (I960–)
Symbolic and Culture is the way in which members of a society understand Mary Douglas (1921–2007)
interpretive anthropology who they are and give lives meaning. Clifford Geertz (1926–2006)
Practice theory Culture emerges from the dynamic relationship between social Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002)
structure and individual choice. Sherry Ortner (1941–)
Postmodernism Because understanding of cultures most reflect the o ser er s Renato Rosaldo (1941–)
biases, culture can never be completely or accurately described. James Clifford (1945–)
Globalization Culture is est analy ed as the glo al flow of identity, sym olism, Arjun Appadurai (1949–)
money, and information. David Harvey (1935–)
Note: Theoretical positions in anthropology represent sophisticated thinking and cannot be summed up in a single line. There are many outstanding
books about anthropological theory, including McGee and Warms (2012), Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (6th ed.), 2017.
with observable behavior. Other anthropologists wish to

comprehend the ways in which members of a culture under- FIGURE 3.1 Culture is made of learned
stand the world. Some anthropologists hope to find general behaviors. We start learning culture the day we
laws of human culture. Others are more concerned with are born and continue all our lives. Here, a little
describing specific aspects of particular cultures. These dis- boy in Ghana copies his father’s drumming.
agreements reflect different theoretical perspectives within
anthropology—different anthropological theories.
Photo by Deborah Pellow

For our purposes, an anthropological theory is a set of
propositions about which aspects of culture are critical, how
these aspects should be studied, and what the goal of study-
ing them should be. Although those who hold different the-
oretical perspectives may insist that there is a right way and
a wrong way to do anthropology, we suggest that theoretical
perspectives are more like different windows thorough which
one can view culture. Just as the view changes as one moves
from window to window of a building, so the anthropol-
ogist’s understanding of society changes as he or she moves
from one understanding of culture to another. And just as
two windows may have views that overlap or views that show
totally different scenes, definitions of culture may overlap or
reveal totally different aspects of society. Some of the major
theoretical perspectives in anthropology are summarized in
Table 3.1. More detailed summaries of these schools and lists
of key works within them are found in the Appendix to this
book starting on page 378.
In this chapter, we explore some aspects of anthropo-
logical theory by examining each of the six points of our
definition of culture. Each of these characteristics of cul-
ture tells us something about what it means to be human.
what is edible and what is not. We decline many things that
However, each also raises questions, problems, and con-
are nutritious because we don’t consider them to be food.
tradictions. This discussion is not meant to be an exhaus-
Many insects, for example, are perfectly edible. The philos-
tive description of the ways anthropologists see the world.
opher Aristotle was particularly fond of eating cicadas, and
Rather, it is intended to give some of the flavor of the lively
some species of beetles were eaten in northern Europe well
debate among anthropologists about the nature of human
into the 19th century. Yet most Americans have learned that
society and allow you to reexamine some of the ideas and
insects are not food and will go hungry, to the point of star-
ways of behaving that we perhaps take for granted in our
vation, before eating them. Further, we eat particular things
own and other societies.
at particular times, in particular places, and with particular
people. For example, although it is perfectly acceptable to eat
Culture Is Made Up of popcorn at the movies, you would be unlikely to have lamb
Learned Behaviors chops and asparagus there.
We sometimes think of learning as an aspect of child-
Just about everything that is animate learns. Your dog, your hood, but in every society, human beings learn their cul-
cat, even your fish show some learned behavior. But, as far ture continuously (Figure 3.1). We are socialized from the
as we know, no other creature has as much learned behav- moment of our births to the time of our deaths. Although
ior as human beings. Almost every aspect of our lives is lay- great demands for labor and responsible behavior may be
ered with learning. Our heart beats, our eyes blink, and our placed on children in many societies, all humans remain
knees respond reflexively to the doctor’s rubber mallet, but physically, emotionally, and intellectually immature well into
to get much beyond that, we need learning. Food is a good their teen years and perhaps into their early twenties. This
example. Humans must eat; that much is determined bio- lengthy period of immaturity has profound implications.
logically. However, we don’t just eat; our culture teaches us First, it allows time for an enormous amount of childhood
learning; this means that very few specific behaviors need be The infant is brought outdoors, her or his face is unveiled at
under direct genetic or biological control. Second, it demands dawn, and the child is introduced to the temple, to nature, to
that human cultures be designed to provide relatively stable buffaloes, and to their clan relatives (Morgan, 1996: 28).
environments that allow time for this learning to take place. In the poverty-stricken region of northeastern Brazil,
Human infants become adults in particular human soci- a child is not considered a social person until it shows phys-
eties. Infants grow into children and later into adults not sim- ical and emotional signs of being able to survive. Children
ply as humans but as particular kinds of humans—Tlingit, are raised under extremely harsh conditions. The need for
Trobriand Islanders, Britons, or Tahitians, for example. Every both adults and children to work to avoid starvation results
society has both informal and formal means of transmitting in infants frequently left alone or with only very minimal
its culture so that children grow up to be responsible and par- care for long periods. Under these conditions, some chil-
ticipating adults and so that the society is reproduced socially dren show wasting and passivity; others have wild fits and
as well as biologically. convulsions. Such behaviors are understood by parents as
The biological processes of conception, birth, matura- indications that these children have an aversion to life. Babies
tion, and death are the same for all human beings, although suffering from chronic sickness are often seen as wanting to
environmental factors such as nutrition and disease may die. An elderly midwife explained to anthropologist Nancy
affect them. However, in all societies, these biological pro- Scheper-Hughes that if a baby is born healthy, she instructs
cesses are less important than the social understandings the mother to feed it. However, if it is born small or wasted,
involved. Consider our own society. When does a child she tells the mother not to give it anything that will strengthen
become an adult? When he or she reaches puberty? Gets a it. The midwife said, “We let Jesus decide…His plan, not
driver’s license? Graduates from high school or college? Gets ours” (Scheper-Hughes, 1992: 367–369). Under these con-
married? Has a child? Although some of these are clearly bio- ditions, mothers distance themselves emotionally from such
logical events, our discussion of the beginnings of adulthood infants and believe that allowing their deaths is cooperating
will be primarily about culture, not biology. with God’s plan. Dead infants are buried in unmarked graves
The question of when a child becomes a human being is with little ceremony, and mothers are strongly discouraged
another good example of the cultural nature of growth. Birth from crying or grieving for them.
is a biological event, but being born does not necessarily These examples from northeastern Ghana, the Toda, and
make an individual a human. Social birth refers to the point northeastern Brazil contrast sharply with American under-
at which one is considered a human being and a member of standings. Almost all Americans agree that a newborn child
human society (Morgan, 1996). There is much variability is a member of society and has certain rights. Americans will
in when cultures recognize a fetus, an infant, or a child as a almost always go to great lengths to make sure newborn chil-
social person. The variability is linked to factors such as the dren survive. However, Americans disagree about whether a
ways in which the society produces its material needs, the blastula, embryo, or fetus has rights or is a member of society.
relations between the sexes, the social stratification system, Many abortion opponents argue that a social person with spe-
the culturally defined divisions of the life cycle, attitudes cific rights is created at the act of conception or shortly there-
toward death, and, particularly, infant mortality rates. after. Those who favor legal abortion argue that a social person
In northeastern Ghana, for example, some newborns are is not created until the fetus can survive outside the womb.
believed to be chichuru, or “spirit children,” not real children All sides in this debate cite deeply held beliefs. However, it is
but spirits who come to the world to play and cause distress important to understand that although science can identify
to their communities. A newborn may be a “spirit child” if the moment of conception or the hour of birth, culture deter-
it has physical abnormalities, if the child’s birth is followed mines when a member of society comes into existence.
by tragic events, if the baby cries constantly, or if there were The recognition of human status is the beginning phase
irregularities in the mother’s sexual behavior or her preg- in human development. Beginning with birth, all humans
nancy. A child identified as a “spirit child” is killed and buried pass through developmental phases, each characterized by
without a funeral ceremony. Its family must perform a series an increase in the capacity to deal with the physical and social
of sacrifices to be cleansed. A study found that in this area of environment. At each phase, the biologically based physical,
Ghana, almost 15% of the deaths of children younger than mental, and psychological potentials of the individual unfold
three months were considered deaths of chichuru (Allotey & within a specific cultural context.
Reidpath, 2001). Child-rearing practices in all cultures are designed to
Often it is social birth rather than biological birth that produce adults who know the skills, norms, and behavior
is marked by ritual. Among the Toda of India, for example, patterns—the cultural content—of their society. But the
newborns are not considered people until the age of three transmission of culture involves more than just knowing
months, after which a “face opening” ceremony takes place. these things. It also involves patterning children’s attitudes,
FIGURE 3.2 The Inuit ear pull game is a harsh

RUSSIA
Greenland test of physical endurance. Contestants pull
DEN.
against one another until one can no longer
Alaska,
U.S.
CANADA endure the pain. Here, Jacey Brave Heart, 12,
Inuit
pulls against Drew Dewberry at the 2007 World
UNITED
STATES Eskimo Indian Olympics in Anchorage, Alaska.
RUSSIA
AP Photo/AL Grillo
A R C TIC
ARCTIC
OCEAN
Greenland
(DEN.)
Alaska
(U.S.)
Anchorage
Juneau
PACIF IC
OCEAN
Vancouver CANADA
Ottawa Montreal
0 500 mi
UNITED
STATES Toronto
0 500 km
Rather, when confronted with a problem situation, they are
expected to observe closely, to reason, and to find solutions
independently. They watch, practice, and are then tested, fre-
motivations, values, perceptions, and beliefs so that they quently by adults asking them questions. For example, when
can function in their society (which itself adapts to external traveling on the featureless, snow-covered tundra, an adult
requirements of the physical and social environment). The may ask a child, “Where are we? Have you ever been here
process of learning to be a member of a particular cultural before?”
group is called enculturation. Play is a critical part of Inuit child-rearing. Inuit games
As an example, we will take a closer look at child-rearing prepare children for the rigors of the Arctic environment by
among the Inuit, a hunting people of the Arctic. The Inuit stressing hand–eye coordination, problem solving, and phys-
teach their children to deal with a world that is a dangerously ical strength and endurance. Some games involve learning
problematic place, in which making wrong decisions might by taking objects apart and trying to put them back together.
well mean death (Briggs, 1991). To survive in this harsh This develops careful attention to details, to relationships, to
environment, Inuit must learn to maintain a constant state patient trial and error, and to the mental recording of results
of alertness and an experimental way of living.” Therefore, for future reference. Many games stress the body and test the
developing skills for solving problems quickly and sponta- limits of the individual’s psychological and physical endur-
neously is central to Inuit child-rearing. Children are brought ance (see Nelson, 1983). In the ear pull game, for example, a
up to constantly test their physical skills, to extend them and thin loop of leather is positioned behind the ears of each of
to learn their own capacity for pain and endurance (Stern, two competitors who then pull away from each other until
1999). The goal of Inuit child-rearing is to create adults who one gives up in pain (Canadian Broadcasting Company,
have silattutuq—literally, who have a big world. People who 1982; Figure 3.2).
have achieved silattutuq understand the interconnections of In addition to being physically adept and independent,
all beings and are respectful in their ways and interactions Inuit children must learn to be cooperative and emotion-
(Annahatak, 2014). ally restrained. Under the conditions of their closely knit
Inuit children learn largely through observing their and often isolated camp life, expressions of anger or aggres-
elders. Children are discouraged from asking questions. sion are avoided. The Inuit prize reason, judgment, and
emotional control, and these are thought to grow naturally as and your friends. You see certain things in the classroom and
children age. overlook others because you mentally organize the contents
The Inuit believe that children have both the ability of the classroom in respect to your role as a student. In that
and the desire to learn. Educating a child thus consists of context, some of the things in the room, such as professors
providing the necessary information, which the child will and friends, are relevant; other things, such as the color of
sooner or later remember. Parents are willing to permit a the walls, you discount and may not notice at all. It is virtually
child to experiment with potentially harmful behavior until impossible to see things without organizing and evaluating
the child learns not to repeat it. Scolding is seen as futile. them in some manner. If you paid as much attention to the
Children will learn when they are ready; there is no point in cracks in the wall, the patterns on the floor, and the humming
forcing a child to learn something before he or she is ready of the ventilation system as you did to the professor’s lecture,
to remember it. Inuit elders believe that frequent scolding you would not only be likely to fail the class, you would also
makes children hostile, rebellious, and impervious to the live in a world that was overwhelming and impossibly con-
opinions of others. fusing. Only through fitting our perceptions and experiences
The study of enculturation has a central place in the into systems of organization and classification can we com-
history of anthropology and gave rise to some of its classic prehend our lives and act in the world. A human without this
works. Margaret Mead’s 1928 book Coming of Age in Samoa ability would be paralyzed, frozen by an overwhelming bom-
was a best seller and a landmark work that changed how bardment of sensations. Indeed, this is one of the problems
Americans looked at childhood and culture. Mead and oth- that some people with autism, such as Temple Grandin, often
ers who studied childhood learning were known as culture experience.
and personality theorists. Culture and personality theorists Methods of organizing and classifying are the products of
held that cultures could best be understood by examining the a group of people. You are not the only one who thinks that
patterns of child-rearing and considering their effect on adult the students and professors in a classroom are more import-
lives and social institutions. Culture and personality theory ant than the ceiling tiles; all students and professors probably
was extremely influential from the 1920s until the 1950s. share that perception. Anthropologists have long proposed
Today, the process of learning culture is still of great inter- that culture is a shared mental model that people use to orga-
est to many anthropologists, especially those who approach nize, classify, and ultimately understand their world. A key
culture from a psychological perspective, those who study way this model is expressed is through the symbolic system
culture from the perspective of practice theory, and gender of language.
researchers. One recent work in enculturation is A World Different cultures have different models for understand-
of Babies (DeLoache & Gottlieb, 2000), a series of essays in ing and speaking about the world, and the ways people clas-
which anthropologists describe the advice that might be sify elements of their environment provide many examples
given to new parents in seven different cultures. Other exam- of this. For instance, Bamana children in Mali classify some
ples include Play and the Human Condition (2015), Thomas kinds of termites as food. Americans think of all termites
Henricks’s examination of the social meanings of play and the as pests. In English, the verb smoke describes the action of
way play sometimes helps people imagine better versions of ingesting a cigarette, and drink describes the action of con-
themselves, and Kathleen Barlow and Bambi Chapin’s (2010) suming a liquid. However, in the Bamana language, you
collection of essays about mothering. use the same verb, min, for both smoking and drinking.
Americans classify rainbows as objects of beauty and take
pleasure in pointing them out to one another. Lacandon
Culture Is the Way Humans Use Maya in southern Mexico classify rainbows as dangerous and
Symbols to Classify Their World frightening, and it is highly inappropriate to point one out to
and Give It Meaning another person (McGee, personal communication).
One way of thinking about culture is as a codification of
As human beings, we are unable to see everything in our reality—a system of meaning that transforms physical real-
environment. Instead, we pay attention to some elements of ity, or what is there, into experienced reality. Dorothy Lee,
our surroundings and disregard others. For example, when an anthropologist who was interested in the different ways
you walk into a classroom, you notice friends and other stu- people see themselves and their environments, described
dents, the professor, video equipment, and so on. You might her perception of reality as she looked out the window of
spend an entire semester without ever seeing the cracks in her house: “I see trees, some of which I like to be there, and
the ceiling, the pattern of the carpeting, or the color of the some of which I intend to cut down to keep them from
walls. Yet these things are as physically present as the chairs encroaching further upon the small clearing I made for my

C U LT U R A L LY S PE C I F I C D I S E A S E S: T H E CA S E O F L I A L E E
Because all human beings are biologically extremely from her body. Though Lia’s condition needed a cure,
similar, all are subject to the same biologically based it also meant that she could have spiritual powers and
diseases. However, the ways in which people classify, might become a shaman.
experience, and understand health and illness differ
dramatically among cultures. Anthropologist Arthur Doctors, social workers, and the Lee family fought
Kleinman (1988) differentiates between disease, a bitterly over Lia’s treatment. At one point, Lia was
patient’s biological problem, and illness, the social and placed in foster care for a year because her parents
cultural context in which the disease is experienced refused to administer her medications, treating her
and the ways in which it is classified. instead with herbs and shamanic ritual. In 1986, when
she was four years old, Lia suffered a profound seizure,
Anthropologists have identified many culturally followed by an infection. She lost most brain function
bound syndromes, or illnesses that are identified in and was expected to die, but she didn’t. Although
only one or a small number of cultures. Fan death, doctors and medical personnel at hospitals that treated
the commonly held Korean belief that running a fan her often spoke of her as if she were dead, she lived for
overnight in a room with the windows and doors another 26 years, never regaining consciousness but
closed can lead to the death of those sleeping in the still cared for by her family and central to their lives.
room, is one example (Jennings, 2013). Bangungot, Though Fadiman (2012) acknowledges that it’s not a
the name for another culturally specific syndrome, medical explanation, she feels that Lia was kept alive
is a term originating from the Tagalog word for “bad by the constant love of her family.
dream” and is found in the Philippines and elsewhere
in Southeast Asia. Bangungot is diagnosed when Fadiman’s account of Lia’s story and the role of
young people, particularly adolescent and young adult different cultural understandings in health care is
men, die suddenly in their sleep. Eating disorders such required reading in many medical and social work
as anorexia nervosa are culturally bound syndromes programs. It was one of many cases that led to
often found in rapidly industrializing societies, greater sensitivity regarding issues of language and
particularly in western European countries, the United
States, and Asia. FIGURE 3.3 Foua Yang, Lia Lee’s mother,
holds Lia Lee’s picture in 2012.
Different ways of classifying and understanding illness
and treating disease present enormous challenges to
Manny Crisostomo/Sacramento Bee/MCT via Getty Images

health care systems around the world and particularly
in multicultural societies such as the United States.
The case of Lia Lee, described in Anne Fadiman’s
now-classic 1997 The Sprit Catches You and You Fall
Down, presents a powerful example and a cautionary
tale. Lia Lee was the 14th child born to Foua Yang and
Nao Kao Lee, Hmong refugees from Laos living in
California (Figure 3.3). When Lia was three months
old, she began to experience seizures, but the Lees
were unable to explain Lia’s condition to health care
workers who spoke no Hmong and had no experience
of Hmong culture. For the Lees, the seizures were
evidence that Lia’s soul was being touched or taken by
something from a different realm. Health care workers
could not understand this, and it took a long time to
diagnose Lia with epilepsy. However, this was only the
beginning of the problem, not the end. For the doctors,
epilepsy was a disease to be treated with medicines,
and they demanded that the Lees comply with their
prescriptions, some of which were quite difficult and
unpleasant to administer to a toddler. For the Lees,
Lia’s symptoms showed that she had qaug dab peg, an
illness caused when a person’s soul becomes separated
culture in health care delivery in the United States. cultures that have different conceptions of health
In an interview after Lia’s death in the summer of and illness. Doctors must understand that treatment
2012, Fadiman said that one of the key lessons of is not something they can dictate but something
Lia’s case is that Western medical personnel must try that must be created through collaboration between
to understand illness from the point of view of their patients and health care providers (Fadiman, 2012;
patients, particularly when they have patients from Fox, 2012).
house” (1987: 1). However, she noted that Black Elk, a holy resonance for us. People are literally willing to fight and die
man of the Oglala (Sioux), “saw trees as having rights to the for their religious and moral beliefs and, sometimes, the
land, equal to his own. He saw them as the standing peoples, symbols that express these beliefs. Actions that challenge
in whom the winged ones built their lodges and reared their the central meanings of our culture, such as flag burning or
families” (Lee, 1987: 1). the desecration of religious symbols, often bring immediate
Anthropologists who are particularly interested in and passionate response. As anthropologist Clifford Geertz
describing the systems of organization and classification used put it, a human being is “an animal suspended in webs of
by individual cultures sometimes use a theoretical perspec-
tive called ethnoscience. Generally, these anthropologists
are interested in capturing the understanding of members of
FIGURE 3.4 Classifications of health, sickness,
a culture. Ethnoscience is one position or technique within a
and medicine vary among cultures. Here, a
broader perspective called cognitive anthropology, which
woman in Trujillos, Peru, offers medicinal herbs
focuses on the relationship between the mind and society.
for sale. She holds a bottle gourd. Traditional
Understanding classification systems is also extremely import-
healers use these gourds to cure people of
ant for scholars interested in ethnobotany and ethnomedicine.
insomnia caused by susto, or fright sickness. Most
Ethnobotany focuses on the relationship between humans
Americans recognize neither the disease nor the
and plants in different cultures. Ethnomedicine examines the
cure.
ways in which people in different cultures understand health
and sicknesses as well as how they attempt to cure disease
Nathan Benn/Corbis/Getty Images

(Figure 3.4). In each case, discovering how people classify and
organize their world is a key focus of research.
Other anthropologists believe that although the details
of a system of classification may be unique to an individual
culture, there are grand overall patterns to these systems that
are common to all humanity. The study of this aspect of cul-
ture is generally called structural anthropology. Perhaps the
most important scholar in this school is the French anthro-
pologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. Lévi-Strauss and his follow-
ers compared the myths and beliefs of different cultures to
isolate common patterns. They believed that these patterns
reflect a universal underlying patterning of human thought:
the tendency to divide everything into two opposing classes
(male/female, good/bad, right/left) as well as a third class that
crosses the boundary between the two.
Human beings not only classify the world, but they also
fill it with meaning. Members of every culture imbue their
world with stories and symbols. Ideas, words, and actions
have both practical value and symbolic meaning and
emotional force. Human behavior signifies something.
The central histories, legends, and lore of religions and cul-
tures are not simply stories; they have powerful emotional
significance which he himself has spun” (1973b: 30). To say

this another way, a culture is a story people tell themselves FIGURE 3.5 Symbols do not have a single
about themselves. Culture is the way people understand who meaning but stand for large numbers of ideas and
they are and how they should act in the world. It is the context feelings. For many people in the United States,
within which human actions can be understood. patriotic symbols such as the flag have deep
Symbols are the key mechanism people use to fill their intellectual and emotional content.
world with meaning. The simplest definition of a symbol
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call Group/Getty Images

is something that stands for something else. Words (both
spoken and written), objects, and ideas can all be symbols.
Symbols enable us to store information. The book you are
currently holding, for example, contains a huge amount
of information all stored symbolically. Nonhuman ani-
mals must learn through experience or imitation. Because
humans can store information symbolically, as stories and
teachings passed from generation to generation or as writ-
ten words, their learning is not so limited. Human cultures
can be endlessly large.
Symbols also have the ability to condense meaning.
People may take a single symbol and make it stand for an
entire constellation of ideas and emotions. Religious sym-
bols and national symbols often have this characteristic. The
meaning of a national flag or a religious symbol cannot be in public events, celebrations, and rituals. Analyzing them
summed up in a word or two; these stand for vast complexes gives us clues and insights into the meaning of culture for its
of history, ideas, and emotions (Figure 3.5). participants.
Symbolic anthropologists try to understand a culture by Consider the American fascination with football.
discovering and analyzing the symbols that are most import- American football has little appeal outside the United States,
ant to its members. These symbols often reflect the deep con- but here it draws more fans than any other sport. To explain
cerns of the culture’s members in ways that may be difficult its popularity, analysts have studied the key themes of the
for them to articulate. For example, among the Ndembu of game. They point out that the game is heavily laden with
East Africa, the mudyi tree is a central symbol that plays an sexuality. Dundes (1980) noted that the vocabulary of foot-
important role in girls’ puberty rites. The tree has a white, ball has many sexual overtones. Expressions such as “pene-
milky sap, which symbolizes breastfeeding, the relationship tration,” “scoring,” “hitting the hole,” “making a touchdown
between mother and child, inheritance through the moth- in the end zone,” “going all the way,” and so on are common.
er’s family line, and, at the most abstract level, the unity and Football uniforms accentuate the male physique, resulting in
continuity of Ndembu society itself. It is unlikely that all an enlarged head and shoulders, a narrow waist, and a lower
Ndembu think deeply about all of these meanings during a torso “poured into skintight pants accentuated only by a
girl’s puberty rite. However, this complex symbolism helps metal codpiece” (Arens, 1975). Dressed this way, men tackle
hold Ndembu society together by reaffirming its central ten- each other, hold hands, hug each other, and pat each other’s
ants (Turner, 1967). For anthropologists, understanding the bottoms.
meaning of the mudyi tree and the role it plays in Ndembu However, sexuality is not the only important aspect of
society is to have penetrated deeply into the Ndembu view of the sport. Football is, in Geertz’s terms, “playing with fire”
the world. (1973b). It attracts us because, more than other sports, it dis-
Culture can also be analyzed using the tools of litera- plays and manipulates topics such as the violence and sexu-
ture; this is the job of interpretive anthropology. Clifford ality underlying competition between men, the social role of
Geertz, one of the best-known interpretive anthropologists, women, the relationship of the individual to the group, rules
said that in a sense, culture is like a novel. It is an “ensemble and their infringement, gaining and surrendering territory,
of texts . . . which the anthropologist strains to read over and racial character (Oriard, 1993:18). As we watch football,
the shoulders of those to whom they properly belong” we see these topics displayed and manipulated or implied.
(2008: 574). Like all good stories, culture engrosses us and Football is just a game, but so is checkers. Millions watch
helps us understand the nature and meaning of life. It com- football because it is meaningful in ways that checkers is not.
ments on who we are and how we should act in the world. For interpretive anthropologists, football’s meaning derives
Interpretive anthropologists often find these cultural texts from the ways in which it explores and comments on critical
FIGURE 3.6 Football in the United States and bullfighting in Spain are both popular because they illustrate
important themes of their respective cultures. They are exciting in part because they tell stories loaded with
cultural meaning.
Jonathan Daniel/Staff/Getty Images
Albert Knapp/Alamy Stock Photo

themes in American culture (See Figure 3.6.). It is a text that plants and animals. Foraging groups must be quite small,
we read, and those who would understand Americans must and foraging is an activity that requires little direction or
learn to read it as well (see also our discussion of deep play coordination. Thus, people who forage for their food will
and the Balinese cockfight on page 315 in Chapter 13). probably have relatively loosely defined social groups with
Interpretive and symbolic anthropologists use meth- changing membership. Farming requires more coordination
ods drawn from the humanities rather than the sciences to than foraging, and therefore people who farm will likely have
uncover and interpret the deep emotional and psychological a society with a more rigid structure and a more stable mem-
structure of societies. Their goal is to understand the experi- bership. If a group were to move from foraging to farming, we
ence of being a member of a culture and to make that experi- would expect it to develop an increasingly well-defined social
ence available to their readers (Marcus & Fischer, 1986). structure.
Anthropologists drawn to the study of the relationships
among different elements of culture and the ways in which
Culture Is an Integrated these elements support one another were called function-
System—Or Is It? alists. These anthropologists often sought to find laws of
cultural behavior. In the first half of the 20th century, func-
Consider a biological organism. The heart pumps its blood, tionalists such as A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw
the lungs supply it with oxygen, the liver purifies it, and so on. Malinowski searched for such laws in the mutually support-
The various organs work together to create a properly func- ive relationships among kinship, religion, and politics. For
tioning whole. An early insight in anthropology was that it example, Radcliffe-Brown argued that religion supports
is useful to compare societies to organisms. The subsistence social structure by giving individuals a sense of dependence
system provides food, the economic and political systems on their society (1965: 176).
determine how the food is distributed, religion provides the More recently, ecological functionalists have focused on
justification for the distribution system, and so on. Societies, the relationship between the environment and society. Rather
like bodies, are integrated systems. than seeing cultures as being like organisms, these anthro-
This organic analogy has strengths and weaknesses. It pologists view social institutions and practices as elements
allows us to think about society as being composed of differ- in broader ecological systems. They are particularly con-
ent elements (such as kinship, religion, and subsistence), and cerned with ways cultural practices both alter and are altered
it implies that anthropologists should describe the shape and by the ecosystem in which they occur. For example, Marvin
role of these elements as well as the ways in which changes Harris’s (1966) classic explanation of the Hindu taboo on
in one affect the others. For example, subsistence and social eating beef focused on the effect of cattle in the Indian envi-
structure are two identifiable social elements and are related ronment rather than on the Hindu belief system (Figure 3.7).
to each other. Many small-scale societies provision them- Harris noted that historically, despite widespread poverty and
selves through foraging—the collection and hunting of wild periodic famine in India, Hindus refuse to eat their cattle.
FIGURE 3.7 Many Hindus explain their
Alex Ogle/AFP/Getty Images

reverence for cows in religious terms,
but ecological functionalists such as
Marvin Harris explain it in terms of
the roles that cattle play in the Indian
environment. Here, a woman sprinkles
yogurt paste onto a cow’s forehead
during the annual Vatsa Dwadashi
festival in Udaipur, India. During Vatsa
Dwadashi, cows are revered and women
fast in hopes of having male children
and assuring longevity and good fortune
for those children.
Although this seems unreasonable superficially, it makes change. Anthropologists who rely on their insights are often
good ecological sense. Cows are important in India because referred to as neo-Marxists.
they provide dung for fertilizer and cooking fuel, and they Consider the relationship between the American family
give birth to bullocks, the draft animals that pull plows and and the workplace as an example of conflict in society. Does
carts essential to agriculture. If a family ate its cows during the family system really fit well with the demands made by
a famine, it would deprive itself of the source of bullocks jobs? Most Americans probably want to maintain long-term
and could not continue farming. Thus, the Hindu religious marriage commitments, raise families, and live middle-class
taboo on eating beef is part of a larger ecological pattern that lifestyles, but most jobs in the United States provide inad-
includes the subsistence system. It functions to keep that sys- equate income for this purpose. Furthermore, jobs often
tem stable. require mobility, long hours, and flexibility, all of which
Functionalism is a powerful way of thinking about soci- conflict with the stability and dependability families need.
ety, and it provides important insights. However, the compar- Americans must negotiate the conflicts among the lifestyle
ison of societies to organisms has some significant problems. they desire, the demands of their families, and the require-
The organic analogy implies that properly functioning soci- ments of their jobs. For most people, there is no way to sat-
eties should be stable and free of conflict. The parts of a bio- isfy all of these demands simultaneously. Some interests are
logical organism work together to keep the entire being alive always sacrificed to others.
and well. The lungs do not declare war on the liver. If such Consider that in socially stratified societies, different
conflict occurs (an autoimmune disease, for example), we groups have different and often opposing interests, and
understand that the organism is not functioning properly this creates conflict. Institutional arrangements within
and that failure to restore the system will result in sickness or and between societies may favor one group over another.
death. Thinking of cultures as systems may similarly suggest Societies may be divided into castes, or individuals of a par-
that their parts should work in harmony and that conflict and ticular ethnic origin may be relegated to undesirable posi-
struggle are deviations from normality that need correction. tions. For example, consider any large corporation. Both
But are cultures really like that? Do their elements really fit the workers and the owners want the company to do well,
well together? but within this context, the owners hope to maximize their
Although they accept that cultures are patterned sys- profit, and the workers want to maximize their pay. Because
tems, anthropologists today argue that the elements of these increases in the cost of labor come at some expense to prof-
systems never fit together perfectly. Because of this, conflict its, there is a structural conflict between the owners and the
and struggle are fundamental parts of all cultures rather than workers. This conflict does not occur because society is not
problems needing remedies. This position often reflects the working properly. Rather, it is a fundamental condition of
influence of the work of Karl Marx and of Max Weber, who capitalist society. The conflict between workers and own-
was a sociologist in the early 20th century. Both Marx and ers has the potential to erupt in violence. In the late 19th
Weber saw conflict in society as a key factor driving social and early 20th centuries, labor strikes in the United States
repeatedly resulted in death and injury as security forces, they do are not exactly the same. For example, among
police, the National Guard, and the army battled strikers. upper-middle-class Hindus living in large cities in India, the
Even during World War II, a time we usually think of as char- norm of social equality among all classes of society is widely
acterized by great internal solidarity, the United States expe- accepted. However, this norm is considerably different from
rienced 14,471 strikes involving 6,774,000 workers (Brecher, actual behavior, which rarely involves social interaction
1972). between people of the highest and lowest castes on a basis of
There is nothing uniquely American or modern about equality.
contradiction and conflict within culture. Although con- Norms may also be contradictory and can be manipu-
flicts are exacerbated in socially stratified societies, social lated for personal and group ends. For example, people in
life in all societies is characterized by conflict as well as con- India believe that women should be in their home and not out
cord. People in nonindustrialized societies must also handle socializing with their friends. They also believe that women
conflicting commitments to their families and other social should spend a lot of time in religious activities. Modern
groups, such as secret societies or religious associations. Indian women use the second of these ideals to get around
Even in societies that lack social groups beyond the family, the first. By forming clubs whose activities are religious, they
the interests of men and women may differ, or those of the have an excuse to get out of the house to which their elders
old and young. Culture is certainly patterned and surely cannot object too strongly.
a system, but its parts rub, chafe, and grind against one These examples raise important questions about norms
another. and values. How do we determine the norms and values of
any society? Do all people in society agree on these things?
Culture Is a Shared System of Norms How many people must agree on something before it is con-
and Values—Or Is It? sidered a norm or a value? Who gets to decide these sorts of
things? Historically, anthropologists tended not to worry
What would a person with his or her own private culture be much about these issues, assuming that the small non-West-
like? Perhaps he or she would be like Temple Grandin, Tim ern societies they studied were homogeneous. It followed that
Page, or other high-functioning people with autism—able to people in such societies always acted in the same way in the
exist in the social world but unable to “get it.” Alternatively, same situation and attached the same meanings and values to
such a person might live in a world in which everything cultural patterns. As early as 1936, however, Ralph Linton, an
would have one set of meanings to them but different mean- important American anthropologist, noted that not everyone
ings to everyone else. People with certain forms of schizo- participates equally in a culture.
phrenia seem to have just this problem; they live in worlds Research shows that even in small societies, norms are
filled with symbols that have meaning only to themselves. It not always followed and values are not universal (Figure 3.8).
would be very difficult for such people to interact with oth- Individuals differ in their knowledge, understanding, and
ers; they would probably be isolated and, in some cases, obvi- beliefs. For example, one might expect that all members in
ously insane. It is clear, then, that at some level, members of a a small fishing society would be able to agree on the proper
culture must share ways of thinking and behaving. Often, we names for different kinds of fish, but on Pukapuka, the small
refer to these as norms and values. Pacific atoll that Robert Borofsky (1994) studied, this is not
Norms and values are two sorts of ideas that members of the case. Even experienced fishermen disagree about fish
a culture might share. Norms are the ideas members of a cul- names much of the time.
ture share about the way things ought to be done. For exam- Differences among individuals or groups within a soci-
ple, shaking hands rather than bowing when introduced to a ety may be significant when values and beliefs are at issue.
stranger is an American norm. Values are shared ideas about A close look at societies with significant sex segregation,
what is true, right, and beautiful. For example, the notion such as those in Papua New Guinea (Hammar, 1989) and
that advances in technology are good is an American value; the Amazon (Murphy & Murphy, 1974), makes it clear that
most Americans agree that humans can and should trans- men and women do not attach the same meanings to many
form nature to meet human ends. Norms and values are often of the myths and rituals that maintain the system of male
embedded in rules of behavior that reflect and reinforce cul- dominance.
ture. In many cases, they seem to cluster around certain iden- The degree to which people do not share a single culture
tities, roles, or positions in society. Members of all cultures is even more obvious in larger societies. Sometimes the term
have ideas about how people such as parents, politicians, or subculture is used to designate groups within a single soci-
priests ought to think and behave. ety that share norms and values significantly different from
Human behavior is not always consistent with cul- those of the dominant culture (Figure 3.9). The terms domi-
tural norms or values. What people do and what they say nant culture and subculture do not refer to better and worse,
FIGURE 3.8 Not everyone in a culture must FIGURE 3.9 The Amish are members of an
conform. Although cultures demand a certain American subculture. Some of their customs,
amount of consensus, members often show great language, and values are different from those of
variability in knowledge, style, and beliefs. most Americans. However, in this picture, they
are seen playing bocce, a game played in many
Roger Spooner/The Image Bank/Getty Images
cultures.
Robert Ginn/Photo library/Getty Images

men tended to be framed in terms of intractable problems.
However, issues of historical injustice and persistent bias were
generally ignored by the media.
Although domination of one group by another may
be extreme in some situations, it is rarely complete. People
contest their subjugation through cultural, political, eco-
nomic, and military means. Sometimes, when domination
superior and inferior, but rather to the idea that the dominant is intense, people can contest it only through religious faith
culture is the more powerful in a society. and tales that cast themselves in positions of power and
Dominant cultures retain their power partly through their oppressors in weak roles (J. Scott, 1992). The result of
control of institutions like the legal system, criminalizing struggles between groups in society is that norms and values,
practices that conflict with their own (Norgren & Nanda, ideas we sometimes think of as timeless and consensual, are
2006). In contemporary society, public schools help main- constantly changing and being renegotiated. This dynamic
tain the values of the dominant culture, and the media play process involves conflict and subjugation as well as consen-
an important role in encouraging people to perceive subcul- sus. Understanding that norms and values are the result of
tures in stereotypical (and usually negative) ways. For exam- such processes is critical because these cultural ideas influ-
ple, in a study that focused on television news and reality ence and are influenced by real issues of wealth, power, and
shows, Oliver (2003) found that images of race and crime sys- status.
tematically overrepresented African Americans as criminal. In the United States, for example, do we see individuals as
Further, such shows tended to portray black men as particu- responsible for their own destinies or as the product of social
larly dangerous and present information about black suspects circumstances? The question is extremely complicated and
that assumed their guilt. A 2011 study by the Tides Center has very important political ramifications. In the standard
found that black men were underrepresented in the media in version of the American Dream, people compete with one
general. However, when they did appear, they were often pre- another, and the most talented and hardest-working individ-
sented with exaggerated negative associations, particularly uals achieve material success. But is this really how the United
criminality, unemployment, and poverty. When they were States works? For people’s hard work and talent to be justly
presented with positive associations, it was usually in con- rewarded, everyone must start out with a more-or-less equal
nection with sports. Even sympathetic discussions of black chance for success. Some Americans insist that this is the case
and people do start out with approximately equal chances. in that process. This issue is examined in more detail in
Thus, failure is the result of lack of talent, poor individual Chapters 7 and 8.
choices, and incorrect actions, and society bears little respon-
sibility for helping people to succeed. Other Americans reject
this notion, proposing instead that success or failure depends Culture Is the Way Human Beings
to a considerable extent on accidents of birth and the many Adapt to the World
forms of prejudice institutionalized in American society. If
this is true, it follows that society has an obligation to provide All animals, including human beings, have biologically based
services and programs that benefit historically oppressed needs. All need food and a place to live, and each species must
groups. This point of view is common among the poor and reproduce. All creatures are adapted to meet these needs.
among members of minority groups (Hochschild, 1995). For Adaptation is a change in the biological structure or lifeways
example, a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in August 2011 of an individual or population by which it becomes better fit-
found that only 19% of non-Hispanic whites thought the gov- ted to survive and reproduce in its environment. Nonhuman
ernment should play a major role in trying to improve the animals fill their needs primarily through biological adap-
social and economic position of blacks and other minorities tation. Lions, for example, have a series of biologically based
in the United States, but 59% of blacks thought that it should adaptations that are superbly designed to enable them to feed
(Gallup, 2011). This and related issues are discussed more themselves (and their mates). They have large muscles for
fully in Chapter 8. speed as well as sharp teeth and claws to capture and eat their
Believing either that blame for failure is individual or prey.
that family and ethnic background play the most import- Humans are different. We are lacking in offensive biolog-
ant role in social advancement does not make one individ- ical weaponry, and if left to get our food like lions, we would
ual more or less American than another. However, which of surely starve. There is little evidence that we have an instinct
these notions those in power hold is critical. It determines to hunt or consume any particular kind of food, to build any
public support for social welfare programs that, for good particular sort of structure, or to have a single fixed social
or ill, have direct economic impact on the lives of many arrangement. Instead, human beings, in groups, develop
Americans. forms of knowledge and technologies that enable us to feed
To avoid the predicament of the people with schizophre- ourselves and to survive in our environments. We pass this
nia described at the beginning of this section, members of a knowledge from generation to generation and group to
culture must have a great deal in common. However, deter- group. In other words, human beings develop and use culture
mining exactly what they share is not easy. Anthropologists to adapt to the world.
have generally assumed that people need to share informa- Most of a lion’s adaptation to the world is set biologically.
tion to form a society. It may well be, however, that people The growth of its teeth and claws, its instinct to hunt, and the
share certain information because they have learned how to social arrangement of a pride are largely expressions of the
interact with one another. In other words, shared ideas and lion’s genetic code. Humans also have a biological adaptation
the sense of community may be the result of human interac- to the world: the ability to learn the specifics of a culture. All
tion rather than its cause. humans automatically learn the culture of their social group.
Historically, the notion of culture as a shared set of norms The only exceptions are people with profound biologically
and values was associated with American anthropology in based difficulties (such as autism) and, sometimes, victims
the first half of the 20th century. Many students of the pio- of extreme abuse. The fact that humans universally learn and
neering anthropologist Franz Boas, including A. L. Kroeber, use culture strongly suggests that such learning is a manifes-
Paul Radin, Robert Lowie, Ruth Benedict, and Cora DuBois, tation of our genetic code.
saw shared norms and values as central to culture and tried Although our biology compels us to learn culture, it does
to identify and describe the beliefs, values, and psychological not compel us to learn a particular culture. An infant from
characteristics that were central to individual specific cul- one cultural group adopted by parents of another will learn
tures. In contrast, some contemporary neo-Marxist, post- its adoptive parents’ culture. The range of human beliefs and
modern, and feminist anthropologists hold that culture is a practices is enormous. Despite this variation, culture must do
context in which norms and values are contested. Rather than certain things. People everywhere learn to fill their basic needs,
assuming a cultural core of shared beliefs and values, these such as food and shelter, through cultural practices. Therefore,
anthropologists try to describe the processes through which culture everywhere must, to some extent, be adaptive.
norms and values are both subverted and maintained. They Cultural adaptation has some distinct advantages over
often focus on the role of governments and other institutions biological adaptation. Because humans adapt through
learned behavior, they can change their approach to solv- are susceptible, all will die except those that, by chance, have
ing problems more quickly and easily than creatures whose a genetic makeup that allows them to survive in polluted
adaptations are primarily biological. Furthermore, biologi- water. These will go on to give birth to the next generation of
cal or evolutionary change is based on the presence of more fish. If such a variation does not exist, none will survive, and
highly adapted variations within the gene pool of a species. the fish will become extinct. There is no way a fish can learn
These variations occur as chance mutations. If the variations how to live in the polluted water. Either the genetic variation
happen not to be present, no change is possible. For exam- that allows some of them to survive is present or it is not.
ple, imagine a species of fish living in a pond of fresh water. Human beings, on the other hand, can learn to live in many
If the pond is polluted by industrial waste to which the fish polluted environments. They can develop ways to clean the
Ethnography
BUILDING A HOUSE IN NORTHWESTERN THAIL AND
One way of thinking about culture is to see

it as an adaptation to the environment. All
living things are biologically adapted to their
environments, and all use these adaptations
to survive and reproduce. For example, the
giraffe’s long neck allows it to feed on leaves
that other creatures cannot reach; the polar MYANMAR
THAILAND
bear’s white fur protects it from the cold and
allows it to blend into its environment and
more easily catch its prey. Human beings
are also adapted to the environment in INDIA
many ways. Our bodies were shaped in the
CHINA
evolutionary process of adaptation.
The necessity for humans to learn a culture

is a biologically based aspect of the human
brain. All neurologically normal people MYANMAR
learn the culture they grow up in, and this
Naypyidaw LAOS
culture always functions as an adaptation to VIETNAM
their economic, social, political, and physical
environment. Just as long necks enable
giraffes to get their food and white fur helps
polar bears hunt, human culture allows us
to survive in specific environments. The THAILAND
adaptive aspects of culture can often be Bangkok
seen in the ways in which humans satisfy Andaman CAMBODIA
their basic needs for food, shelter, and safety. S ea
Anthropologist James Hamilton found out
about the adaptive nature of traditional
shelter the hard way when he tried to build Gulf of
Thailand South
a house for himself while doing fieldwork
China
among the Pwo Karen of northwestern Pwo Karen
Sea
Thailand (J. Hamilton, 1987).
0 200 mi
To learn about house construction, Hamilton
0 200 km
carefully observed the details of building a INDONESIA MALAYSIA
house. A Karen house is essentially a wooden
post structure, raised about six feet off the
ground, with bamboo walls, a peaked roof, and a serves for light and ventilation. The kitchen is in
veranda. There are no windows; the space between the house, with a water storage area on one side of
the thatch of the roof and the height of the walls the veranda. This is an important feature of a house
because Karen customs of sociability require that Because the house had been built low to the ground
visitors and guests be offered water. (by Karen standards) in a shady, cool, wet area,
there was insufficient ventilation and drying in and
Although Hamilton knew a great deal about Karen around the house to prevent mildew. This meant
house construction, when he went to build his own that Hamilton had to sweep the walls and wipe
home, he decided to incorporate his American all leather objects once a week and tightly seal
notions of what a proper, comfortable house should all his belongings, especially his field notes. The
be. First, because the climate was very hot, he typical Pwo Karen house was well adapted to the
insisted that his house be in a shaded area under environment. Hamilton changed it in ways that
some tall trees. The Karen villagers suggested that seemed natural and logical to him but that worked
this was a bad location but failed to dissuade him. very poorly in the Pwo Karen environment.
Like many Americans, Hamilton also liked his
lawn—a wide grassy area in front of his house—and Hamilton’s ideas about what constituted a proper
protested when the villagers started pulling up house reflected the ecology, political structure, and
the grass. He said he was not concerned about the economy of his own culture. Americans who grow
snakes and scorpions that might be in the grass; up in suburbia may consider a lawn a normal part
besides, he had a flashlight and boots in case he of housing, while those who grow up in the city may
had to go out at night. In a traditional Karen house, sometimes long for somewhere that’s green. We
a person cannot stand up straight because the side may consider something like the desire for a green
walls are less than five feet high. To accommodate lawn a personal choice: Some people like to have a
his belief that people ought to be able to stand up house with a lawn; others do not. However, the story
in their houses, Hamilton lowered the floor to about is much more complex than that. For most people in
two feet off the ground. Furthermore, because the the world, the choice of whether or not to have a lawn
Karen house is dark and, to Americans, rather small, would never arise. Lawns have an ecological, social,
Hamilton decided to have his kitchen outside the symbolic, and economic context. They are specific to
house. Despite Karen grumbling that this was not the certain social, economic, and geographical groups in
proper way to build a house, he built an extension America and are found only rarely in other cultures.
on one side of the house with a lean-to roof covering
made of leaves, and this became his kitchen. Lawns probably originated with the aristocratic
Finally, when the Karen started to cut off the long English notions of landscape in the 18th century.
overhanging thatch from the roof, Hamilton asked The notion that average middle-class citizens
that they let it remain, because it gave him some should have lawns was promoted in the United
privacy from eyes peering over the wall, which did States after the Civil War, particularly by landscape
not meet the top of the house. architect Frederick Law Olmstead. Lawns were first
popularized in the Chicago area and on the East
After the house was finished and Hamilton had lived Coast, environments where grass grew easily and
in it for a while, he found out why the Karen did not venomous pests were rare. However, lawns didn’t
like the alterations he had made to their traditional really take off in America until after World War II.
design. The part of Thailand where he lived has a At that time, Americans began moving out of
heavy rainy season. Because the house was under cities and into newly built suburban areas in large
the trees, the roof could not dry out properly, and it numbers. Single-family housing with lawns was
rotted. In addition, so many twigs and branches fell promoted as healthful. For example, a pamphlet
through the roof that it became like a sieve, barely given to new homeowners in Levittown, a large
providing any protection from the rain at all. The new suburb outside New York City, stated, “No
slope of the lean-to over the kitchen was not steep single feature of a suburban residential community
enough; instead of running off, the water came contributes so much to the charm and beauty
through the roof. The roof on that whole side of the of the individual home and locality as well-kept
house had to be torn off and replaced with a steeper lawns” (Levitt & Sons, 1953; Figure 3.10). In this
roof, made of sturdier and more expensive thatch. era, lawns became so closely tied to the idea of
the proper American middle-class lifestyle that
The nice lawn combined with the reachable thatch of they were frequently installed in southwest desert
the roof offered too great a temptation for the local suburbs around cities such as Phoenix and Tucson
cows, who tried to eat them. One morning, Hamilton where environmental conditions were extremely
woke to find his lawn covered with piles of cow dung, unfavorable to them. Lawns also depended directly
with hundreds of dung beetles rolling little balls on technology. First, the suburbs themselves, where
of dung all around the yard. He cut off the thatch most lawns were found, depended on each family
overhang that was left under the trees and pulled up having a car. Second, lawns had to be mowed. Before
all the grass. the invention of the lawnmower in 1830, lawns
(Continued)
(Continued)
had to be cut by hand, a laborious FIGURE 3.10 In the 1950s, builders, planners, and industries
and expensive process. Larger lawns promoted a vision of middle-class American lifestyle that
did not become widely popular
included single-family suburban houses with lawns.
until the mass production of power
lawnmowers, and that did not happen
until the 1950s. Lawns also depended
on fertilizers and pesticides (Jenkins,
1994), and they were heavily promoted
by the industries that manufactured
these products.
The Pwo Karen, of course, lacked

a history that linked lawns with
wealth and power, suburban housing,
automobiles, and lawnmowers. Having
a lawn was not a choice that would
occur to them. Like Hamilton’s idea of
proper housing, the Pwo Karen’s idea
was matched to the history and the
physical and social environment of their
culture. Hamilton and the Pwo Karen
each found the other’s
ideas of what constituted a proper
house strange. However, in this case,
the Pwo Karen’s ideas about housing
worked. Hamilton’s ideas may have
worked well at his home in the United
States, but they failed when he tried
them among the Pwo Karen.

1. James Hamilton’s experience shows
that even though traditional Karen
housing ideals did not match U.S.
notions of housing, they were well
adapted to the Pwo Karen environ-
ment. What particular design fea-
tures of housing are adaptations to
the environment where you live? adaptations. For example, the Shoshone Indians
lived in the deserts of the American West and sup-
2. Is housing in the United States generally well ported themselves by hunting animals and gath-
adapted to the environment? Consider both mod- ering plants. They lived in family groups of fewer
ern and older construction. Is modern construc- than 20 people. In what way was living in such
tion better adapted to the environment than older small groups an adaptation to their environment?
construction?
Source: James W. Hamilton, “This Old House: A Karen Ideal.”
3. Because it is a physical object, it is easy to see a In Daniel W. Ingersoll Jr. and Gordon Bronitsky (Eds.), Mirror
house as an adaptation. But intangible things such and Metaphor: Material and Social Constructions of Reality
as social structure and family type can also be (pp. 248–276). Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987.
environment or mechanisms to enable their survival within human beings today do not live like humans of three or
it. People can teach these things to others. No biological four generations ago, let alone like our distant ancestors.
change is necessary. Our means of feeding ourselves, our culture, has changed.
Lions hunt and eat today in much the same way as they Plasticity—the ability to change behavior in response to
have for tens of thousands of years. The vast majority of a range of environmental demands—has allowed human
beings to thrive under a wide variety of ecological conditions

(Figure 3.11). FIGURE 3.11 At Inle Lake in Burma, members
Cultural adaptation has some disadvantages too. of the Intha ethnic group adapt to the humid and
Misinformation may creep into human behavior, leading wet environment by building houses on stilts.
to cultural practices that hinder rather than aid survival. The lightweight and loose weave of the building
For example, before 1820, most Americans considered the materials allows for ventilation that helps keep
tomato to be poisonous and therefore did not use this valu- the residents relatively comfortable.
able food source. Cultural practices that encourage over-
Apexphotos/RF/Getty Images
population or the destructive depletion or contamination of
natural resources may lead to short-term success but long-
term disaster. Further, it is clear that many human practices
are not adaptive, even in the short run. Political movements
such as policies of ethnic cleansing and genocide that urge
people to murder their neighbors may benefit their leaders,
but it is hard to see any meaningful way in which they are
adaptive. A normal lion will always inherit the muscle, tooth,
and claw that let it survive. Normal humans, on the other
hand, may inherit a great deal of cultural misinformation that
hinders their survival.
Anthropologists who view culture as an adaptation tend
to be concerned with people’s behavior, particularly as it
relates to their physical well-being. They ask questions about
subsistence technology and its relationship to family struc- the past several hundred years and has become extremely
ture, religion, and other elements of society. They investigate rapid in the past century.
the ways in which cultures adapt to specific environments The most important source of culture change since the
and the ways in which cultures have changed in response 16th century has been the development of a world economic
to new physical and social environments. Such anthropol- system based primarily in the wealthy nations of Europe and
ogists may identify themselves as belonging to theoreti- Asia. This has involved invasions, revolutions, and epidemic
cal schools such as cultural ecology, cultural materialism, diseases. These historic processes and the resultant global
neo-evolutionism, neo-Marxism, evolutionary psychology, economic system are the primary topics of Chapters 14 and
or human behavioral ecology. 15. In this chapter, we focus on some of the more traditional
ways anthropologists have examined culture change.
Culture Is Constantly Changing Anthropologists usually discuss cultural change in terms
of innovation and diffusion. An innovation is a new object,
In the popular press and movies, one often hears of “Stone way of thinking, or way of behaving that is qualitatively dif-
Age peoples.” The implication is that a group of people has ferent from existing forms (Barnett, 1953: 7; Figure 3.12).
been living in precisely the same way for thousands of years. Although we are likely to think of innovations as techno-
This romantic notion is incorrect. As we saw in “The Global logical, they are not limited to the material aspects of cul-
and the Local” box in Chapter 1, even people who seem to ture. New art forms and new ideas can also be considered
have no contact with the outside world are usually those who innovations.
fled from past contact. Cultures are constantly changing, and Some innovations seem to be genuinely new and differ-
change often involves issues of conflict and oppression as well ent. Anthropologists sometimes call these primary innova-
as consensus and solidarity. tions. Primary innovations are often chance discoveries and
Cultures change because of conflict among different accidents. In our own society, some examples of primary
elements within them. They change because of contact innovations include penicillin, discovered when British
with outsiders. Innovation, population growth, disease, cli- researcher Alexander Fleming noticed that bacteria samples
mate change, and natural disaster all drive culture change. he had left by a window were contaminated by mold spores,
However, cultures do not always change at the same speed. and Teflon, discovered by Roy Plunkett, who was trying
Cultural change may happen in small increments, or it may to find new substances to use in refrigeration. Microwave
happen in revolutionary bursts. Historically, in most places ranges were invented by Percy LeBaron Spencer while he was
and at most times, culture change has been a relatively slow working on radar. And the artificial sweetener aspartame was
process. However, the pace of change has been increasing for discovered by James Schlatter, who was trying to develop a
objects are broken into their parts and placed in new per-
FIGURE 3.12 Innovation involves repurposing old spectives. In genetic engineering, strands of DNA are broken
materials to create something new. In this photo, a apart and reassembled. Blending is bringing two or more dif-
man in Khartoum, Sudan, makes sandals from old ferent ideas together. The smart phones that most of us carry
tires. are examples of blending. A phone used to be an instrument
used for the sole purpose of talking to other people in real
SIMON MAINA/Stringer/Getty Images
time. We now use our phones for everything from entertain-

ment to finance to finding romantic partners.
All innovations involve human ingenuity and creativity,
and these exist in the same quantity in all societies. However,
even geniuses are limited by the nature of their cultures. Had
Einstein been born among a group that did not have Western
notions of science, he could never have found the theory of
relativity. If Beethoven had been a Bororo (a member of
a Brazilian hunting, gathering, and gardening group), he
would never have composed a symphony. An old cliché has
it that we all stand on the shoulders of giants. This means that
everyone in a culture builds on what has gone before.
Innovations tend to move from one culture to another.
This process is known as diffusion. Diffusion can hap-
drug to treat ulcers. Of course, such accidental discovery is pen in many ways; trade, travel, and warfare all promote it.
not limited to our own society or time. For example, the fact Direct contact among cultures generally results in the most
that clay hardens and becomes durable when it is fired was far-reaching changes. That is why cultures located on major
probably accidentally discovered in many different cultures. trade routes tend to change more rapidly than those in more
Primary innovations are sometimes called inventions. isolated places. However, because no human society has
We resist this term, however. The idea of invention seems to ever been isolated from all others for a long time, diffusion
imply something wholly new and completely different, but has always been an important factor in culture. This implies
no innovation is really totally new. Even the examples listed that “pure” cultures, free from outside influences, have never
previously happened within a cultural context that provided existed.
the background, critical ideas, and history that made them Innovation and diffusion are not simple processes. People
possible. For example, although it is true that Fleming dis- do not “naturally” realize that one way of doing things is bet-
covered penicillin by “accident,” it is also true that Fleming ter than another or that one style of dress, religion, or behav-
was able to understand the importance of penicillin mold ior is superior. For innovation and diffusion to occur, new
because he was a trained bacteriologist who had been look- ideas must be accepted, and that is a very complex process.
ing for a substance to fight infection for more than a decade. The discovery of penicillin again provides a good example.
The effects of mold on some forms of bacteria had been noted Although Fleming understood some of the importance of
several times in the late 19th century—by Joseph Lister in his discovery in 1928, he was not able to purify the drug and
1871, John Tyndale in 1875, Louis Pasteur and Jules Joubert believed that it was useful only for surface infections. It wasn’t
in 1877, and Ernest Duchesne in 1897 (Macfarlane, 1985). until 1940 that Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were able to
Fleming was aware of all this research. It does not diminish purify penicillin and show that it could be used to cure inter-
his achievement to point out that he, like every other inventor nal bacterial infections. Penicillin was used extensively to
or discoverer, did not create something totally new. He real- treat wounded servicemen in the later years of World War II,
ized the critical importance of new combinations of things but American physicians did not commonly prescribe it until
that already existed. His culture provided him with the train- the mid-to-late 1950s. John Sheehan developed the com-
ing, tools, and context in which his discovery could be made. mercial process to manufacture large quantities of the drug
Recently, composer Anthony Brandt and neuroscientist in the late 1950s. Then drug companies played a critical role
David Eagleman (2017) have described creativity as a process in popularizing penicillin and promoting its acceptance by
of bending, breaking, and blending. We bend things when we often reluctant physicians in the United States and elsewhere
take something that already exists and provide a new varia- (Sheehan, 1982; T. Williams, 1984).
tion or twist, like a jazz musician creating a new interpreta- As the example of penicillin shows, even when the desir-
tion of a classic tune. We break when we take things apart to ability of an innovation is very clear, gaining its acceptance is
create something new. For example, in cubist painting solid often far from straightforward. Part of the problem may be
comprehension. People may not fully understand the new

idea or its implications. But, more frequently, other factors FIGURE 3.13 Norman Borlaug, seen here, was
lead to slow acceptance of innovation. First, people vary in one of the architects of the Green Revolution. It
their willingness to adopt change; some are, by temperament promoted changes in farming techniques that
and personal history, early adopters of change. Others are enabled people to grow much more food but that
much more conservative. Additionally, innovations do not also provided disproportionate benefit to wealthy
necessarily benefit all segments of a society and rarely do they landowners and created environmental problems.
benefit all segments equally. New agricultural techniques, for
Micheline Pelletier/Sygma via Getty Images

example, may benefit wealthy landowners but impoverish
small family farms. An examination of the green revolution
(the use of highly productive and technological farming tech-
niques heavily promoted by the United States and European
nations from the 1950s to the 1970s) shows that it did raise
yields in many poor nations but also had other, less desirable
effects. Large landowners received the greater part of the ben-
efit. However, conditions for others grew worse and worse
(Das, 1998). Small landowners found they could neither
afford the technologies promoted by the green revolution
nor compete with those who could. The many landless labor-
ers found themselves replaced by machinery. Additionally,
in some cases, the green revolution caused extensive envi-
ronmental damage as pesticides and fertilizers poisoned
land, waterways, and often workers (Hazell, 2009). Norman
Borlaug (2000), one of the architects of the green revolution,
noted that although food supplies worldwide have increased,
tens of millions go hungry because they lack the resources to
purchase food (Figure 3.13). The same process that increased
the food supply impoverished some people, making them
unable to purchase the food. as important in British society. Changes in the meanings of
Change is often promoted or resisted by powerful forces. cultural elements are of particular interest to archaeologists.
Innovations that have strong political, economic, or moral Archaeologists who find the same material item in two dif-
forces behind them may be rapidly accepted, but when those ferent cultures cannot assume that it has the same meaning in
forces are arrayed against an innovation, it can be profoundly both.
delayed. New technologies may face powerful resistance Like innovation, diffusion is often accompanied by con-
from those who have invested heavily in older ones. For flict. Cultures often confront one another in war, and people
example, FM radio broadcasting is clearly superior to AM who are captured or colonized by others are forced to assume
broadcasting; it has greater fidelity and is much less suscep- new cultural practices. New rulers may require that traditions
tible to static and interference. FM broadcasting was invented be abandoned. Economic demands by governments or credi-
in 1933, but because of the resistance of CBS, NBC, and RCA, tors often compel the adoption of new technologies and prac-
extremely powerful corporations heavily invested in AM tices. Although these processes happen in most places where
technology, FM did not gain popularity until the late 1960s cultures confront one another, they have been particularly
(T. Lewis, 1991). important in the past 500 years. During this time, cultures
Innovations are often altered to fit new cultural settings. have been increasingly tied together in an economic system
Thus, cultural elements that move from one society to another centered in northern Europe, North America, and Japan. The
frequently undergo changes in both form and meaning as expansion of powers located in these regions has involved
they become part of an existing cultural pattern. For example, the diffusion of many cultural traits to all areas of the world.
American football has its origins in British rugby. Football Such diffusion has sometimes been peaceful, but often it has
was born when U.S. colleges modified rugby rules in the late involved conflict and unspeakable violence (Wolf, 1982). We
19th century (Oriard, 1993: 26–27), an example of the kind examine this process more fully in Chapter 14.
of bending that Brant and Eagleman discussed. In the post– The rapid pace of cultural change and diffusion, partic-
World War II era, football took on new meanings and has now ularly in the past 100 years, raises the question of cultural
become a central symbol of U.S. culture. Rugby is not nearly homogenization. Are cultural differences being erased? Are
we all being submerged in a single global culture? There are of modern life in places throughout the world. It is used
no simple answers to these questions. On one hand, modern by governments to broadcast messages they want their cit-
technological culture now penetrates virtually every place on izens and the rest of the world to hear. However, it is also
earth. People in almost every country have access to radio, used by a great many antigovernment groups. For example,
cell phones, e-mail, television, and other aspects of mod- the radical Islamist organization ISIS makes extensive use
ern technology. On the other hand, this access is extremely of the Internet. It has published the online magazines Dar
uneven. Wealth is increasingly intertwined with access to al Islam and Rumiyah and used a wide variety of sophisti-
technology and communication. People in wealthy coun- cated apps including Hushmail, CyberGhost, and Locker
tries have much more access to international data flows than to promote its message and keep in touch with its members
people in poor countries. Even within countries, wealthier (Velocci, 2016). The group has also employed hackers to
and more highly educated people have more access than the conduct malware campaigns against both individuals and
poorer and less educated (for example, see Howard et al., institutions they view as enemies (Frenkel, 2016). Thus, the
2010). It comes as no surprise that the countries with the tools originally developed by projects funded by the U.S.
most Internet users are also the world’s wealthiest nations and European governments have easily been turned against
while places with the lowest number of users are some of those societies.
the poorest (Internet Society, 2018; Figure 3.14). People and The Internet also clearly played an important role in the
businesses that can pay for access to the Internet and pay for presidential election of 2016. The campaigns of both Hillary
services such as data mining are able to find information and Clinton and Donald Trump made extensive use of social
make connections that generate wealth. Thus, although web media and the Internet. But so did people around the world,
access may improve the lives of many people throughout the often high school students, who saw an opportunity to make
world, it is also one of the forces that increases both homoge- money by writing false news articles for the American pub-
neity and inequality within and between nations. lic. False stories about the candidates originating in Serbia,
The world dominance of wealthy nations has affected Croatia, Macedonia, and Georgia (the nation, not the U.S.
cultures everywhere, but rather than annihilating local state) earned small fortunes for their authors, who had no
culture, the result may be what Ortiz (1947) described as interest in the elections beyond earning money (Higgins
transculturation. Cultural traits are transformed as they et al., 2016; Kirby, 2016). Russia, which did have an interest
are adopted, and new cultural forms result. The Internet in the election’s outcome, used a wide variety of web-based
and the many websites and applications that make use of tools to try to influence it. For example, according to the U.S.
it are good examples. The Internet began in the late 1960s House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Twitter
as a U.S. Department of Defense project called ARPANET. identified 2,752 accounts controlled by Russia and more than
The World Wide Web began in the 1980s and was based on 36,000 bots (automated bits of software) that had tweeted
research done at CERN, a research organization based in 1.4 million times during the election (Fandos et al., 2017).
Switzerland and funded by European governments. Over The Internet and social networking tools were certainly not
the past several decades, it has become a ubiquitous aspect created with these uses in mind. However, people’s ideas and
FIGURE 3.14 Internet

A-SA 3.0 Unported License.
Image of internet access worldwide by Jeff Odgen, provided via CC
access throughout the

world in 2015.
inventions have far-reaching and often unintended conse- patterns of culture. The fact that human lifeways are shared,
quences. Individuals, institutions, and cultures use tools and learned, and symbolic, that we don’t simply adapt to our envi-
traits for their own purposes. ronment but fill it with meaning, results in extraordinary dif-
Anthropology began in the 19th century, an era of ferences in human cultures. However, because all societies are
great social change, so even though anthropologists some- based around these fundamental cultural patterns, no society
times imagined societies as static, they were always inter- is utterly incomprehensible to members of another.
ested in change. As the pace of change has accelerated, so In the opening paragraphs of this book, we defined cul-
has anthropological interest in it. Today, large numbers of ture as the answer people have devised to the basic questions
anthropologists are engaged in studying change in a variety of human social life. These questions concern things such as
of ways. Some are directly involved in change: promoting how to feed oneself, how to live with other groups, and how
and defending the interests of the people they study, work- to lend meaning to life. In considering ways to explore and
ing for governments and private agencies that promote social understand these cultural answers, anthropologists have
change, and sometimes working for corporations as well. looked at different aspects of culture. The studies they have
They bring many different theoretical tools to the study of done reflect the facets of culture they chose to explore. In
change. Some might describe themselves as globalization this chapter, we have described some of these different ways
theorists, combining ideas from postmodernist and inter- of looking at culture. Taken together, they do not make up a
pretivist anthropology with ideas from economics, Marxist unified whole but rather involve contending views of what it
anthropology, and ecology to create new complex analyses means to be human.
that help us understand our dynamic and changing world. Anthropologists are always involved in fractious
debate over the nature of culture and the proper ways to
Culture Counts study and describe it. However, as Geertz has written,
“Anthropology . . . draws the greater part of its vitality from
Culture is many different things. It is learning, symbolism the controversies that animate it. It is not much destined for
and meaning, patterns of thought and behavior, the things we secured positions and settled issues” (1995: 4). By thinking
share with those around us, the ways in which we survive in about the nature of culture, we arrive at new understandings
our world, and dynamism and change. It incorporates both of ourselves and our subject matter. We come to a keener
consensus and conflict. Culture makes us human and ties us appreciation of the nature of culture and, ultimately, what it
to others everywhere. Enormous variability is built into the means to be human.

I S T H E R E A N A M E R I CA N C U LT U R E ?
Are Americans members of a single culture? If so, what are its characteristics?
Throughout this chapter, we have identified culture cultural experience. Even identical twins don’t end up
as something shared by a group of people. This is with identical lives. So, are you then a culture of one?
a necessary aspect of culture. However, it is also
problematic. We often think of groups as neat, The problem of culture is particularly acute when
bounded collections of individuals or families. But we talk about very large and complex groups. The
think for a moment: How many groups do you belong United States is a nation of more than 320 million
to? You almost certainly have a nationality, a place people who have different geographical origins,
where you grew up, a school (potentially more than ethnicities, beliefs, sexualities, and so on. New
one), perhaps an ethnic identity, perhaps a religious immigrants and visitors from other cultures may
identity, maybe you were or are a member of a group have a very different view of American culture, too
like the military, and, of course, you certainly have (see Chapter 15, pp. 359—360). Further, over the past
some kind of family identity. These identities overlap several decades, Americans have tended to move
but are different. All of them have characteristics to areas where people share their political views
of culture such as processes of enculturation and and often their ethnicity or race. For example, the
symbolism. Now, which of them is your culture? There presidential election of 1976 pitted Democrat Jimmy
is no one on the planet who shares precisely your Carter against Republican Gerald Ford. Then, only
(Continued!)
(Continued)
about 27% of Americans lived in “landslide counties,” culture are utilitarian individualism and expressive
places where Carter either won or lost by at least individualism. Utilitarian individualism is the claim
20%. In the 2016 presidential election, however, 60% that humans have a right to behave in their own
of Americans lived in counties that voted for either self-interest, pursuing the satisfaction of their goals,
Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton by more than 20%. appetites, and fears. Bellah sees this as countered and
The phenomenon of Americans choosing to live in moderated by expressive individualism, the belief
places where people share their views (and often that each person has the right to express a unique
other characteristics) is sometimes called The Big core of creativity and individuality. Bellah and others
Sort (Bishop, 2009). In a vast, diverse country where have also noted that ideas such as utilitarian and
divisions among people seem to be increasing, can expressive individualism are reinforced constantly
there really be anything such as American culture? in schools, films, and television. They also work well
with American capitalism.
If the question is whether or not there are things
upon which 100% of Americans agree, then the Numerous other attributes have been proposed. A
answer is almost certainly no. It’s difficult if not typical list includes things such as the belief that
impossible to find that kind of consensus even in a the environment can and should be controlled for
very small community. However, as we have seen in the benefit of people, belief that progress is good
this chapter, discord, argument, and even violence and that things in the future will probably be better,
are not aberrations; they are common parts of all a strong sense of good and bad (combined with a
cultures. To have a culture, we don’t all need to agree, belief that we can know what is morally good and we
but we do need to share some things, not in the sense should act upon that), the notion that there should be
that we all partake of them equally, but rather that we a schedule and that people should stick rigorously
overwhelmingly have some significant connection to it, a fundamental belief in human equality (often
with them. combined with a deep prejudice toward particular
groups of people), and the idea that people should be
So what kinds of things do Americans share? There’s friendly and open. However, we’re sure that you can
no definitive list, but here are some ideas. We share think of many cases where you and people you know
and are shaped to some degree by the critical do not behave in ways this list suggests you should.
institutions of our society: the federal government, Does this mean that American culture is a fiction or
court system, and education system. Although that American culture contains much friction?
many languages are spoken in the United States,
we are overwhelmingly an English-speaking nation,
and, historically, virtually all grandchildren of non- Key Questions
English-speaking immigrants are monolingual 1. Do you believe there is such a thing as American
English speakers. culture? Support your position with at least three
examples.
Anthropologists and other social scientists have
proposed a variety of other American characteristics. 2. Briefly explain the connections between values
Anthropologists Clyde and Florence Kluckhohn such as effort optimism, utilitarian individualism,
(1947) described American culture as characterized and the American economic system.
by “effort optimism”: the belief that if a person tries
hard enough at anything, he or she will succeed. 3. In the future, will Americans be increasingly
Sociologist Robert Bellah and his colleagues (1985) united by their culture or increasingly divided
said that the dominant elements of American by it?
SUMMARY
1. What might human beings without culture be like? It’s 2. How do anthropologists define culture? Culture is
hard to tell since there are no humans who do not have the learned, symbolic, at least partially adaptive, and
culture. However, we might gain some insight from peo- ever-changing patterns of behavior and meaning shared
ple on the autism spectrum who seem to have a different by members of a group.
relationship with culture than others.
3. What is the importance of learning in human cultural adaptive mechanism of the human species. Whereas
behavior? For humans, almost all behavior is at least other animals adapt primarily through biological
partially learned; even those things that are biological mechanisms, humans satisfy their needs for food,
necessities, such as eating, involve cultural learning. shelter, and safety largely through the use of culture.
Cultural adaptation has advantages of speed and flex-
4. What is the importance of symbols in human cultural ibility but disadvantages of misinformation and mal-
behavior? Cultures are symbolic systems, mental tem- adaptive practices.
plates for organizing the world. Every culture has a sys-
tem of classification through which its people identify 9. How did James Hamilton’s attempt to build a house in
and organize the aspects of the world that are import- Thailand reflect cultural adaptation and maladaptation?
ant to them. Culture is also a collection of symbols and Hamilton attempted modifications to Pwo Karen house
meanings that permit us to understand others, under- design to fit American ideas of proper housing. He found
stand ourselves, and experience our humanity. It is the that the original design of Pwo Karen homes was well
web of significance that gives meaning to our lives and adapted to the environment and the changes he made
actions. worked poorly and caused numerous problems.
5. How does the case of Lia Lee illuminate the importance 10. Are there any cultures that are static and unchanging?
of classification in medical diagnosis? Doctors and Lia’s Cultures are constantly changing. There have been no
parents understood and classified her symptoms in very “Stone Age people” since the Stone Age. Cultural change
different ways. This resulted in bitter fights over how Lia often occurs as part of the domination of one culture by
should be treated and probably resulted in her spending another. This process has occurred throughout human
most of her life in a coma. history, but it has been particularly important in the past
few centuries.
6. In what ways are cultures like biological organisms,
and what are the problems with this organic analogy? 11. Define innovation and diffusion and describe their
Cultures, like biological organisms, can be thought of importance to culture. An innovation is a new variation
as systems composed of interrelated parts. Changes in on an existing cultural pattern. Diffusion is the spread of
one aspect of culture result in changes in other aspects elements from one culture to another. Both are present in
as well. However, unlike biological organisms, conflicts all cultures. However, both depend on cultural context.
between different elements of culture are found in all New cultural traits build upon older traits, and the use
cultural systems. The parts of cultural systems do not fit and meaning of symbols and objects may change as they
together easily or well. move among cultures. Within society, new traits may
favor some groups and be opposed by others.
7. What are norms and values? Do people within a cul-
ture agree upon them? Norms are shared ideas about 12. Do anthropologists agree on the definition and meaning
the way things ought to be done. Values are shared ideas of culture? Anthropologists argue frequently over the
about what is true, right, and beautiful. Norms and val- proper definition of culture and the right ways to study
ues are not necessarily held consistently by all members and understand it. We make progress in understanding
of a culture and may not be shared in the same way by culture through such discussion and debate.
all members. Individuals and groups manipulate them,
13. Is there such a thing as American culture? The United
renegotiate them, and battle over them. Norms and val-
States, like other large nations, is made up of hundreds of
ues involve conflict and subjugation as well as accommo-
millions of individuals and tens of thousands of groups
dation and consensus.
with competing ideas, interests, and goals. Although
8. How is culture similar to the biological adaptations there is probably no single “American” trait shared by all
of nonhuman animals to their environments? Many American citizens, there may be some shared by a large
anthropologists understand culture as the major percentage of them.

1. Culture depends on learned behavior. What sorts of 2. No one doubts that elements of culture are related to one
behaviors do children in the United States learn before another, but clashes between different aspects of culture
the age of five and how are these behaviors reflected are common. What parts of your life fit well together and
throughout their lives? what parts clash?
3. Because everyone’s life experiences are different, each diffused most widely from their points of origin.What’s
person has a different experience of his or her own wrong with this idea? What promotes or retards the dif-
culture. How can we reconcile the shared nature of fusion of cultural traits?
culture with our different experiences of it? What exactly
do we share when we share culture? 5. Anthropologists argue that culture is unique to human
beings, but many other animals live in social groups and
4. In the early 20th century, anthropologist Clarke Wissler have learned behavior. What separates human culture
argued that the oldest cultural traits were those that had from the behavior of social animals?
KE Y TE RM S
adaptation 67 ethnoscience 61 plasticity 70

anthropological theory 56 functionalism 63 structural anthropology 61
cognitive anthropology 61 habitus 53 subculture 65
culture and personality theorists 59 innovation 71 symbol 54
diffusion 72 interpretive anthropology 62 transculturation 74
ecological functionalists 63 neo-Marxists 64 value 65
enculturation 58 norms 65
G LO S SARY
adaptation A change in the biological structure or lifeways functionalists Adherents of the anthropological theory
of an individual or population by which it becomes better that holds specific cultural institutions function to support
fitted to survive and reproduce in its environment. the structure of society or serve the needs of individuals in
society.
anthropological theory A set of propositions about
which aspects of culture are critical, how these aspects habitus The often taken-for-granted ways of acting that are
should be studied, and what the goal of studying them acquired through both individual and social experience.
should be.
innovation A new object, way of thinking, or way of
cognitive anthropology A theoretical approach that behaving that is qualitatively different from previously
defines culture in terms of the rules and meanings existing forms.
underlying human behavior rather than behavior itself.
interpretive anthropology A theoretical approach that
culture and personality theorists Adherents of an emphasizes culture as a system of meaning and proposes
anthropological perspective that focuses on culture as the that the aim of cultural anthropology is to interpret the
principal force in shaping the typical personality of a society meanings that cultural acts have for their participants.
as well as on the role of personality in the maintenance of
cultural institutions. neo-Marxists Anthropologists who apply the insights of
Marx and Weber to the analysis of society and who treat the
diffusion The movement of objects and ideas from one ideas of these thinkers as starting points for analysis rather
culture to another. than doctrine that must be followed.
ecological functionalists Anthropologists who focus on norms The ideas members of a culture share about the way
the relationship between environment and society and things ought to be done.
explain social institutions and practices as elements in
broad ecological systems. organic analogy The idea that society can be fruitfully
compared to a living organism in which various parts work
enculturation The process of learning to be a member of a together to create a properly functioning whole.
particular cultural group.
plasticity The ability of humans to change their behavior
ethnoscience A theoretical approach that focuses on the in response to a wide range of environmental demands.
ways in which members of a culture classify their world
and holds that anthropology should be the study of cultural structural anthropology A theoretical perspective that
systems of classification. holds all cultures reflect similar deep, underlying patterns
and that anthropologists should attempt to decipher these transculturation The transformation of adopted cultural
patterns. traits, resulting in new cultural forms.
subculture A system of perceptions, values, beliefs, and values Culturally defined ideas of what is true, right, and
customs that are significantly different from those of a beautiful.
larger, dominant culture within the same society.
symbol Something that stands for something else.

Human communication includes words, gestures, dress, and other features, as is evident in this interaction among Peruvians
waiting for the bus outside the main market in Ayacucho.
Communication 4
Communication is the act of transmitting a message that influences the LEARNING OBJECTIVES
behavior of another organism. Communication, and hence interaction, in all
animal species depends on a consistent set of signals by which individuals will be able to:
convey information. These signals are channeled through visual, olfactory,
4.1 List some of the characteristics
auditory, and tactile senses.
of human languages
Many animals use sounds and movements to share information. Such 4.2 Describe the process by which
communication can be quite complex. For example, a scout honeybee uses humans learn language
stereotyped and patterned movements to communicate information about the 4.3 Summarize the meanings of
direction and distance of a field of pollen-bearing flowers to others in its hive. phonology, morphology, syntax, and
But although bees can say a lot about where flowers are, they cannot say much semantics
about anything else. Crows caw as a signal of danger, and crickets chirp when 4.4 Discuss the relationship
they are ready to mate. Dolphins have signature whistles that enable them to between language as a system and
identify each other as individuals (Janik & Slater, 1998). Among primates, far the performance of language
greater amounts of information can be transmitted about many more subjects. 4.5 Evaluate the relationships
between language, race, ethnicity,
Although communication among nonhuman animals is critical to their survival, and social class
it is quite limited compared with human language. An animal system of verbal 4.6 Summarize the Sapir-Whorf
communication is referred to as a call system. These systems are restricted hypothesis and debate the
to a set number of signals generally uttered in response to specific events. relationship between language and
Human language, on the other hand, whether spoken, signed, or written, is thought
capable of re-creating complex thought patterns and experiences in words. Our 4.7 List several different forms of
linguistic abilities allow enormous variety in how we act, think, and adapt to our nonverbal communication
surroundings. 4.8 Compare different ways in which
language changes
Human language is first and foremost a system of symbols. As discussed in
the last chapter, a symbol is just something that stands for something else. 4.9 Analyze the importance and
effects of globalization in language
Words are symbols, and they only stand for things, actions, and ideas because and change
speakers of a language agree that they do, a feature of human language called
conventionality. An animal is no more a dog than it is a chien (French), a perro
(Spanish), or a kutta (Hindi).
This seemingly trivial fact is critical for two reasons. First, because the
relationship between a series of sounds (a word) and its meaning is symbolic,
relatively few sounds can be used to refer to an infinitely large number of
meanings. For nonhuman animals, there is a direct connection between a sound
and its meaning; 60 sounds equals 60 meanings. Most human languages have
only 30 to 40 different sounds. However, used in combination, these sounds
can produce an endless variety of words and meanings. There is no maximum
number of words or sentences in any human language. People constantly create
new ones—a characteristic known as productivity.
81
Second, symbols enable humans to transmit and store information, a capacity that makes
our cultures possible. If humans had to learn everything they know by trial and error
or by watching others, our lives would be vastly different and much simpler than they
are. Human beings do learn by these methods, but they also learn by talking. Among
other animals, communication is generally about the present: A particular thing is in a
particular place at this particular time. Humans, on the other hand, can talk about the
particular (“The tree in front of my house needs trimming”) and the general (“I think that
I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree”). We can move our language in time (“The trees
in this forest were enormous before the fire”) and in space (“I wonder if we could grow
trees on Mars?”). We tell each other our experiences and pass down the things we have
learned from our elders. We discuss the past and plan for the future using words. This
human ability to speak about different times and places is called displacement.
In all cultures, language allows us to store enormous amounts of information. In cultures

with writing, the information stored symbolically can be incredibly vast. Consider, for
example, that no one individual could possibly know everything written in the books in
even a relatively small university library. However, because we can store our knowledge
symbolically as words, we can have access to everything that is there. And with the
Internet . . . well, you get the point!
Origins and Acquisition of combining breakfast and lunch to make brunch). Duality
of patterning would be like combining the sound units that
Human Language compose the words breakfast and lunch to make a great many
Like the communication systems of all animals, human lan- different new words, such as bench, bunch, chest, fun, less, lust,
guage reflects the character of our adaptation. Language and so on (Salzmann, 1993: 84).
and human culture evolved together. The more elaborate Estimates of when language emerged vary tremendously.
the culture of our human ancestors grew, the more complex Certainly our most distant ancestors communicated, but they
the system of communication among them had to become. probably used call systems similar to those of modern-day
Conversely, increases in the sophistication of communica- nonhuman primates. Some believe that language might have
tion led to increases in the complexity of culture (Salzmann, begun as early as 2 million years ago, at the time of the emer-
1993: 88). gence of the genus Homo (see Schepartz, 1993: 119), but most
No one really knows how human language originated, anthropologists think that language has been limited to mem-
but in the early 1970s, Charles Hockett (1973) suggested that bers of our own species. The earliest Homo sapiens date from
language evolved in two steps. The first step, which he called about 200,000 years ago, and language may well have emerged
blending, occurred when human ancestors began to produce at that time. A third position holds that language emerged
new calls by combining old ones. Although a communication about 50,000 years ago in connection with a big jump in the
system based on blending greatly increases the number of sophistication of human toolmaking and symbolic expression
possible messages in a call system, it is still limited compared (Bickerton, 1998). Quentin Atkinson (2011) used a statistical
with modern language. model to place the origins of modern language in Africa
Hockett called the second step in the evolution of lan- between 80,000 and 160,000 years ago, but others are skeptical
guage “duality of patterning.” At this stage, human ancestors of his methods (Berdicevskis & Piperski, 2011).
acquired the ability to produce different arrangements of Whichever date is correct, anthropologists generally agree
blended sounds and to combine these sounds into a virtu- that language is part of our biological adaptation more than
ally limitless number of utterances (Hockett, 1973: 106). simply a capacity or ability. People have the capacity or ability to
Although early language sounded nothing like modern learn skills like algebra or ice-skating. They may or may not do
language, we can use current-day English to get a sense of the it, as their culture and their individual choices dictate. Language
blending and duality of patterning. Blending would be like is different. Unless prevented by total social isolation or physi-
combining two words to make a third word (for example, cal incapacity, all humans learn a first language as part of the
developmental process of childhood. All go through the same which the individual is socialized. There is no biological basis
stages of language, learning in the same sequence and at roughly for learning one language over another; for example, an infant
the same speed, regardless of the language being learned. born to French-speaking parents but raised in an English-
Although some people in every culture talk with greater or speaking family has no predisposition to speak French.
lesser artistry than others, all physiologically normal individuals If you are wondering what language a human being
in every culture develop adequate language skills. would speak if raised without any language, several anecdotes
Our use of language rests on certain features of human report historical experiments in which just this was done.
biology. The visual and auditory areas of the human brain are Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, wrote that to learn
directly connected to each other, and both are connected to the original language of humankind, the Egyptian pharaoh
the brain region concerned with touch. Thus, human chil- Psammetichus (664–610 BCE) ordered two infants reared
dren can make the association between the visible image, the where they could hear no human voices. Psammetichus
feel of an object, and the sound pattern or word used to desig- assumed that the children would “naturally” manifest the
nate it. Furthermore, the structure of the human air and food language that was innate to all humans. To his ears, their bab-
tract is different from that of our closest ape relations. Among bling sounded like Phrygian (Phrygia was an ancient king-
apes, food and air pass through separate passageways. As any dom located in what is today west central Turkey), which he
person who has ever tried to speak while eating knows, the concluded was the original human language. According to
food and air tracts are connected in humans. This increases Robert Lindsay, the 16th century chronicler of Scotland, King
the possibility of choking but also greatly expands our ability James IV (1473–1513) supposedly tried a similar experiment,
to make different sounds (see Figure 4.1). and he claimed that the two infants spoke Hebrew. Biblical
Humans have what Steven Pinker (1994) called a scholars of his time asserted that Adam and Eve had spoken
“language instinct.” However, Pinker pointed out that the Hebrew, and people believed that it was the original, natural
language instinct in humans is very different from instinc- language of all humans. Although Psammetichus interpreted
tive communication in other animals. Among animals, the what he heard as Phrygian and James IV interpreted what he
instinct for communication means that patterns of commu- heard as Hebrew, all modern evidence shows that such chil-
nication are the expression of underlying genetic codes. Dogs dren would not speak any intelligible language.
do not learn to wag their tails when they are content and growl Although it has a clear biological basis, speech must be
when they are angry; these innate behaviors are dictated by learned as part of a speech community, a group of people
canine biology. Dog behavior is species-wide. A growl means who share a set of norms and rules for the use of language
the same thing to a dog in Vladivostok as it does to a dog in (Romaine, 1994: 22). The need for community is illustrated
Manhattan. But language is not instinctual in this way. The by cases of children brought up in isolation. For example,
human instinct is to learn the language of the group into Genie, a child discovered in the 1970s by social workers in
FIGURE 4.1 The human vocal tract is different from that of our nearest ape relations. The lower position
of the larynx in relation to the trachea (which transports air to the lungs) and the esophagus (which
transports food to the stomach) in humans allows us greater flexibility in making sounds, but this comes at
the cost of an increased hazard of choking.
Source: Laitman, J. T. and Heimbuch, R. C. (1982), “The basicranium of Plio-Pleistocene hominids as an indicator of their upper respiratory systems.”
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 59: 323–343.
California, had been locked in an attic for the first 12

years of her life. With training and good living con- FIGURE 4.2 Interaction between infants and others
ditions, she rapidly acquired a large vocabulary but is critical to learning language. By the time children
never mastered English syntax. For example, she are six months old, their babbling includes many of the
spoke in sentences like, “Genie have Momma have sounds and sequences of the language that surrounds
baby grow up” (Pinker, 1994: 292). them.
Cases such as Genie’s imply that there is a criti-
©iStockphoto/NicolasMcComber
cal period of language development for humans. All
children are capable of learning language before the
age of six, but it becomes increasingly difficult there-
after. You have probably experienced the time-limited
nature of human ability to learn language. All college
students (and indeed all people) speak the language
they learned as children with ease and fluency. Most
students, however, struggle to learn a second language,
and very few will ever learn to speak one with the profi-
ciency of a native speaker.
Studies of how children learn language show that
they recognize the sounds of their language within days
of birth. By the time children are six months old, their
babbling includes consonant and vowel sequences and
repetitive patterns. Even when children do not under-
stand what they are saying, they can speak grammati- computer is a conscious, voluntary task. Children learn lan-
cally, using the different parts of speech in correct relation to one guage automatically, without conscious effort. Furthermore,
another. no computer application has yet been able to equal the sub-
The universality of the process of learning a first language tlety and complexity of human language.
as well as the underlying similarities that unite all human lan- Anthropologists point out that speaking is far more than
guages led Noam Chomsky and many others to propose that simply learning words and grammar. Children must learn the
there is a universal grammar—a basic set of principles, con- social rules about how to use language to participate in their
ditions, and rules that form the foundation of all languages society. These rules include when to speak and when not to
(Chomsky, 1975). Children learn language by applying this speak, whom to speak to and in what manner, what to talk
unconscious universal grammar to the sounds they hear about, and many other aspects of participation (Duranti, 1997:
(Figure 4.2). They process the sequences of words in their 20–21). Elinor Ochs and Bambi Schieffelin (1984) examined
parents’ speech to figure out their language’s grammar. They language acquisition among white middle-class Americans,
model their utterances on those they hear until their version Samoans, and the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea. They found
matches, or almost matches, the one being used around them. that parents relate to infants very differently in these cultures.
One good way to understand universal grammar is by American parents spend a great deal of time talking with their
using the analogy of computer languages. A computer lan- infants, using simplified “baby talk” and encouraging them to
guage is a set of symbols and rules in which instructions for speak. They believe that their young children’s utterances are
a computer to follow are written. Some examples are Java, very important. Like most Americans, the Kaluli think quite a
Python, C, and Ruby. Such languages are used to write pro- bit about the language development of their children. However,
grams or apps. Many kinds of programs or apps can be writ- they speak to children as if they were adults. Samoans, on the
ten using a single computer language. However, because they other hand, rarely talk to their infants at all, except for an occa-
all ultimately derive from the same set of principles and rules, sional rebuke. They do not consider the utterances of young
the programs will have certain fundamental similarities. In children to have any importance. In all three societies, children
the same way, Chomsky and his followers argue, everyone learn to speak at the same speed and with the same level of com-
is born with an instinctive universal grammar, analogous to petence. However, in each society, children learn different rules
a programming language. A child “programs” his or her lan- about when to speak, whom to speak to, their responsibility for
guage by interacting verbally with other people. The result the words they say, and other aspects of communication. Thus,
is that although humans speak many different languages, all although the actual process of learning to produce grammatical
languages share fundamental underlying similarities. The speech is largely a function of biology, learning to be a member
computer analogy is not perfect, however. Programming a of a speech community is clearly a function of culture.
The Structure of Language

FIGURE 4.3 Bassekou Kouyate plays ngoni with
Every language has a structure—an internal logic and a sys- his band, Ngoni Ba. It is easy for English speakers
tem of relationships among its parts. The study of the struc- to pronounce the /ng/ sound at the end of a word
ture and content of specific languages is called descriptive but difficult for most of them to pronounce it at
or structural linguistics. Descriptive or structural linguists the start of a word. However, the /ng/ sound at
study language separately from the social context in which the beginning of a word is common in Bambara.
speaking takes place. Their work suggests that the structure
C Brandon/Redferns/Getty Images
of any language consists of four subsystems: phonology (a
system of sounds), morphology (a system for creating words
from sounds), syntax (a system of rules for combining words
into meaningful sentences), and semantics (a system that
relates words to meaning).
Phonology
At a very basic level, all language is made up of sounds, and
humans use a vast array of sounds in their languages. A system
of writing called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
has been devised to represent all these sounds in writing. The
IPA has more than 100 base symbols that can be altered by
55 modifiers. The total set of sounds that are used in all the
world’s languages is called the set of phones. news broadcasts, the sound /d/ in the English word den and
Sounds used in one language may be absent in other lan- the sound /th/ in then are phonemes. The words den and
guages. English, for example, does not use the click sound then have different meanings, and this difference in mean-
of the language of the Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) of southern Africa ing is indicated by the initial consonant sound (/d/ or /th/).
or many of the tonal sounds of Chinese. In addition, com- Spanish also uses these sounds, but in Spanish, although the
binations of sounds are used in different ways in different sounds /d/ and /th/ are different, they do not distinguish
languages. For example, an English speaker can easily pro- words from one another. Rather, these sounds are used in
nounce the /ng/ sound in thing at the end of an utterance but different contexts. The /d/ sound is used at the beginning of
not at the beginning; however, this sound is used in the initial a word and the /th/ sound is used in the middle of a word.
position in Bambara, a language of Africa. The words thing A person who says día, which is Spanish for day and a word
and ngoni (the name of a musical instrument in Bambara; that begins with the /d/ phoneme, using the /th/ sound from
Figure 4.3) use the same ng sound, but although most English nada will still be understood to be saying day, although peo-
speakers say the word thing with ease, it is difficult for them to ple may think the accent is wrong or foreign. When, in cases
correctly pronounce ngoni. like this, two sounds indicate only one phoneme they are
Note that humans can make many sounds that are not called allophones.
used in any language and thus are not phones. For example, Like Spanish, English has many allophones. For example,
people may learn to make the sound of an elephant trum- the English phoneme /t/ includes at least six different phones
peting. But there is no human language that incorporates (Ladefoged, 1982). Consider the /t/ sounds in stick, tick, and
that sound as part of a word. Although you may have experi- little. The /t/ sound in each of these words is different. Say
enced great difficulty in correctly producing the sounds of a “stick, tick, little.” As you pronounce the /t/ sound in one word
language you learned, all humans are biologically capable of after another, you can feel your tongue change position. Now,
making all the sounds of the world’s languages. hold your hand in front of your mouth and say stick and then
Humans as a species have a single set of phones. tick. You will feel a puff of air as you say the /t/ in tick but not
However, individual human languages use only a small when you say stick. This demonstrates that the sounds are dif-
number of this total set. The set of phones used in a single ferent, even though you may have a difficult time describing
language is referred to as the phonemes of that language. precisely how. Although we know that the /t/ sounds in these
A phoneme is the smallest sound unit that distinguishes words are different, we do not focus on that difference and it
meaning within a specific language. An example will help does not change the meaning of the words (saying stick with
to make this clear. In Standard Spoken American English the /t/ sound from tick would feel strange but you would still
(SSAE), the English accent you generally hear on network be understood).
In many languages, the tones with which vowel sounds are complex, highly irregular rules for their combination. In
spoken are phonemes. In English and most other European agglutinating or synthetic languages, translating a single word
languages, you cannot change the meaning of a word by rais- may require an entire English sentence. For example, the
ing or lowering the tone of a vowel. But languages such as Inuktitut word qasuirrsarvigssarsingitluinarnarpuq contains
Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Wolof, and Oklahoma 10 morphemes and is best translated as “someone did not find
Cherokee, as well as many others, have tonal systems. In a tonal a completely suitable resting place” (Bonvillain, 1997: 19).
language, changing the pitch of a vowel changes the mean- In all languages, the rules used to combine morphemes
ing of the word. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, the word into words can be quite complex. For example, one of the
ma spoken with a high, level tone means mother. However, rules of English morphology is that a plural is formed by
the word ma spoken so that the pitch of the vowel sound first adding the morpheme -s following the element that is being
dips then rises means horse. These words sound as different to pluralized. However, there are many exceptions. The plural
Mandarin speakers as bat and cat sound to English speakers. of dog is made by adding -s, but the plural of child is made by
Because different speakers have different accents, cal- adding -ren. A description of the morphology of a language
culating the precise number of phonemes in any language must specify both the general rules for the combination of
is difficult and controversial. Most of the world’s languages morphemes as well as their exceptions.
have between 20 and 40 phonemes. There are, however, some
radical departures from this. The languages with the small-
est number of phonemes may have only 11 or 12. Mura, an Syntax
indigenous language from Brazil, is one of these. At the other Syntax is the arrangement of words to form phrases and
end of the spectrum, some languages have well over 120 pho- sentences. Languages differ in their syntactic structures. In
nemes. For example, some of the Khoisan “click” languages English, word order is important because it conveys meaning.
of southern Africa have over 140 (Crystal, 1997). English is The syntax of the English language gives a different meaning
believed to have between 40 and 45 phonemes (Clark et al., to these two sentences: “The dog bit the man” and “The man
2007: 118–124). Perhaps surprisingly, there is no relation- bit the dog.” However, word order is not equally important
ship between the number of phonemes in a language and the in all languages. In Japanese, the subject and object of a sen-
number of things that can be said in that language. Anything tence are indicated by word endings, and order is less import-
that can be said in Khoisan can also be said in Mura. ant. For example, “John gave Mary the book” is translated as
“John-san ga Mary-san ni hon o ageta.” The same word order
with the word endings ga and ni reversed (“John-san ni Mary-
Morphology san ga hon o agata”) would be “Mary gave John the book.”
All languages are made up of morphemes, which are units When they analyze the syntactic structure of a language,
that have meaning. A word is the smallest part of an utterance descriptive linguists establish the different form classes, or
that can stand alone and still have meaning, but not all mor- parts of speech, for that language. All languages have a word
phemes are words. For example, in English, /s/ is a morpheme class of nouns, but different languages have different sub-
in many contexts. It has meaning but is not a word: -s, as in classes of nouns; one such subclass is frequently referred to
dogs, means “plural.” There are many similar examples: un-, as as the gender class. Gender classification can apply to verbs,
in undo, means “negative”; -er, as in teacher, means “one who indefinite and definite articles, and adjectives, all of which
does.” Because -s, un-, and -er are not used by themselves but must agree with the gender classification of the noun.
only in association with another unit of meaning, they are Many Americans have some experience of Spanish,
called bound morphemes. A morpheme that can stand alone, French, or another Romance language. In these languages,
such as giraffe, is called a free morpheme. nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine, so using
Words may be composed of any number of bound and the word gender seems logical. However, the use of gender in
free morphemes, but languages differ in the extent to which linguistics has nothing to do with sex roles. Many languages
their words tend to one or many morphemes as well as in have genders that are in no way related to ideas about mascu-
their rules for combining morphemes. Some languages, such line or feminine. For example, German and Latin have a neu-
as English and Chinese, are isolating. They have relatively ter gender, and Kivunjo, a language spoken in East Africa, has
few morphemes per word, and the rules for combining mor- 16 genders (Pinker, 1994: 27). O’odham (Papago), a Native
phemes are fairly simple. Agglutinating languages, such as American language, has only two genders, but rather than
Turkish, allow a great number of morphemes per word and masculine and feminine, they are “living things” and “grow-
have highly regular rules for combining them. Synthetic lan- ing things.” Living things include all animated objects, such
guages, such as Mohawk or Inuktitut (an Arctic Canadian as people and animals; growing things refer to inanimate
language), have words with a great many morphemes and objects such as plants and rocks (Mathiot, 1962).
Applying the rules of grammar turns meaningless systems. In English, for example, the term brother-in-law can
sequences of words into meaningful utterances, but some- include one’s sister’s husband, one’s spouse’s brother, and the
times grammar seems to have a meaning of its own. We can husbands of all one’s spouse’s sisters. The use of a single term
recognize a sentence as grammatical even if it makes no for all of these relations reflects the similarity of our behav-
sense. To use a now-classic example (Chomsky, 1965), con- ior toward the men in those different kinship statuses. Hindi,
sider the following sentences: “Colorless green ideas sleep a language of northern India, has many separate terms for
furiously.” “Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.” Both sen- a brother-in-law. Which term one uses depends first on
tences are meaningless in English. But the first is easily rec- whether the speaker is male or female. For women, a sister’s
ognized as grammatical by an English speaker, whereas the husband is behnoi, a husband’s elder brother is jait, a husband’s
second is both meaningless and ungrammatical. The first younger brother is deva, and the spouses of one’s husband’s
sentence has the parts of speech in English in their proper sisters are nandoya. The variety of words in Hindi reflects the
relation to one another, so it seems as if it should make sense. fact that a woman treats the members of each of these categories
The second sentence does not. differently. (For more detail, see pp. 219–220 in Chapter 9.)
Semantics: The Lexicon Language and Culture

The total stock of words in a language is called a lexicon. We have been describing the structure of language. However,
Because the lexicon of any culture reflects many of the objects language is much more than its structure. Anthropologists
and ideas that are important to that culture, lexicons illustrate want to know about the ways in which language conveys cul-
the relationship between culture and language. For example, tural meaning. The work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de
whereas the average American can name only about 50 to 100 Saussure (1857–1913) is important in this study. Saussure was
species of plants, members of societies based on hunting and among the founders of semiotics, the study of the role of signs
gathering or on gardening can typically name 500 to 1,000 and symbols in communication and meaning. He focused his
species (Harris, 1989: 72). Such lexical specialization is not attention on the idea of a sign. A sign is anything that can be
limited to nonindustrial societies. Germans in Munich have used to communicate meaning. The Italian essayist and philos-
a vocabulary of more than 70 words to describe the strength, opher Umberto Eco (1979) said that a sign was anything that
color, fizziness, clarity, and age of beer (Hage, 1972, cited in could be used to tell a lie—a definition worth thinking about.
Salzmann, 1993: 256; Figure 4.4). Words are signs, but other things can be signs too: events,
The lexicon gives us clues to the ways members of a cul- features of the natural world, physical objects, and so on. For
ture understand their physical and social environments. our purposes, we will limit our discussion to words. A sign can
Sometimes, knowing how people use language to classify be broken into two parts: the signifier and the signified. The
their world can give us an insider’s view of their understand- signifier is the word itself. The signified is the thing, action, or
ings. This is particularly true concerning families and kinship quality to which the word refers. Consider the word rose. The
signifier is the actual sounds we hear when the word is spoken
or our recognition of the word on the page. The signified is a
type of flower. However, the relationship between the signifier
FIGURE 4.4 Languages build vocabularies and the signified is complex. Signifiers have both denotative
around ideas and things important to their and connotative meanings. The denotative meaning is the
speakers. Germans in Munich have more than rose itself—simply a flower. But in our culture, a rose is rarely
70 words to describe beer. just a flower. It has other complex cultural meanings associ-
ated with it, including love, passion, and many other things.
Joerg Koch/Getty Images
These are the sign’s connotative meanings. The denotative

meanings of signs are relatively easy to discover, but the con-
notative meanings are deeply cultural, often multilayered, and
vary enormously from place to place and time to time.
Saussure also distinguished between langue (language)
and parole (speech). He argued that langue is an arbitrary and
abstract system of signs that exists independently of any speaker.
Parole is the actual performance of language by an individ-
ual speaker. Our description of the structure of language has
focused on examining langue, or language as an abstract system.
However, anthropologists are also interested in understanding
Ethnography
C E L L PH O N E U S E I N JA M A I CA
There is no question that the past 20 years have seen worked had highly irregular access to sources of
a revolution in communication. The Internet, instant income and support. In Marshfield, only 20% of
messaging, digital television, and other technologies households had members with regular jobs. In
have changed the way we communicate. However, rural Orange Valley, that number was even less.
the cell phone has probably been the most important In both areas, other sources of income included
part of this revolution. Sometime in 2006 or 2007, remittances from family members abroad and in
the number of cell phone subscriptions worldwide other communities as well as payments from the
reached 3.3 billion—half of the world’s population. government or aid agencies. However, all of these
Some people had more than one subscription, while sources were extremely undependable.
in some places, cell phones were rare. Many of the
statistics regarding cell phones are surprising. Some Horst and Miller originally set out to analyze
of the biggest markets for cell phones are in poorer the content of phone conversations. However,
countries. By the end of 2017, China alone had more they found that most conversations were very
than 1.4 billion cell phones, and India had more than short and uninteresting. For example, a complete
1.2 billion. Even some very poor areas of the world conversation might consist of a question like “Hi,
have large numbers of cell phones. For example, how is everything?” and a response of “Oh, I’m OK,
Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, has more I’m just enjoying the summer.” Although people
than 6.3 million cell phone subscribers, and Uganda did make some longer calls, the average length of a
has close to 22.8 million (World Bank, 2018d). In call was only 19 seconds (Horst & Miller, 2006: 96).
2016, there were more than 700 million cell phone The short length of the phone calls, however, was
subscribers in Africa, an eightfold increase since counterbalanced by the number of contacts that
2000 (Ligami, 2016). individuals kept and the frequency with which they
called them. Horst and Miller found that most of
Jamaica is a good example of the success of cell the 100 people they interviewed knew exactly how
phones. In 2004, the population of the island was many names they had on their phone’s contact list.
about 2.6 million, and there were 2 million cell Although some had as few as 13, many had more
phone subscriptions. It was estimated that 86% than 100, and the average was 95. Two things were
of Jamaicans over age 15 owned a cell phone. By of further interest about these phone lists. First,
comparison, relatively few Jamaicans had access to although Jamaicans kept in close contact with their
landline telephones—only about 7% of families in kin, relatively few of the names on the phone lists
2004 (Horst & Miller, 2006: 19). The popularity of cell were relatives—on average only 13 of the 95. Second,
phones was particularly impressive because making people put a great deal of effort into keeping the lists
calls on cell phones was, in most cases, far more up to date and active. They made brief calls to a high
expensive than making the same calls on landlines. percentage of the people on their list at least every
Despite this, families claimed that they used cell couple of weeks, a style of communication that Horst
phones to save money. and Miller call “linking up” (2006: 96–97).
Anthropologists Heather Horst and Daniel Miller So, why do Jamaicans “link up?” There are clearly
investigated cell phone use between two low-income functional advantages to these large lists of names.
Jamaican communities, urban Marshfield and rural They create wide webs of resources that individuals
Orange Valley. The average family they studied had can call on for gifts of money or aid in times of need.
three cell phones. Horst and Miller were interested These webs stretch out from Jamaica to include
in how these phones were used and whether their people living throughout the world. For example,
use provided an economic benefit. They argued Keisha, a 33-year-old living in Marshfield, decided
that these questions could only be answered in that she wanted to go back to school but required
relation to the economic and cultural context of significant financial help to do so. She used her
the communities they studied. Several elements of phone list to call 14 people, each of whom she asked
background knowledge are necessary. First, although for help in paying for the books and clothing she
Jamaicans are highly individualistic, they place a needed for school. Some of those were local, others
great emphasis on social connectedness. Jamaicans lived in nearby cities, and some lived in the United
retain close connections not only with their families States. Although only some of those she contacted
but also with large numbers of unrelated individuals. helped her, she was able to acquire enough money
Second, the people among whom Horst and Miller to return to school (Horst & Miller, 2006: 109–110).
Many Jamaican families need daily financial help

to make ends meet. They get this by asking others
for money and assistance. In Orange Valley in 2006,
34% of households had no regular income and met
their daily needs through asking for money from
others. The cell phone greatly facilitated the ease and UNITED JAMAICA
STATES
efficiency with which this could be done.
In some cases, people successfully begged for

money and favors from relatives. However, most
requests made and granted were from friends and Gulf of
acquaintances. In most of these cases, the person Mexico
who gave was not returning an earlier favor. Neither ATL A NTIC
did the person who received the money feel that they
O CE A N
owed a return favor to the giver. This lack of direct
CU
reciprocity leads to an interesting question: What BA TURKS AND
motivates people to give to others? Two factors help CAICOS IS.
explain this. First, although givers do not necessarily CAYMAN IS.

DOMINICAN
HAITI
expect to receive a return directly from the person to REPUBLIC
whom they give, they do know that in an uncertain JAMAICA Kingston PUERTO
RICO (US)
economy, they will probably have to ask for money
from someone in the future. Although they may Ca
ribb
never receive money from the person to whom they ea n Sea
have given, being known to many people, and being NICARAGUA
known as a person who gives, increases their chances
of receiving money or other gifts. Perhaps more
COSTA RICA
importantly, Horst and Miller argue that constantly COLOMBIA 0 200 mi
PANAMA
giving gifts enables those who do it to expand their
0 200 km
social networks. Giving is a further opportunity to
create or reinforce link-ups. In creating such link-
“What do people use cell phones for?” was “Men use
ups, Jamaicans create “a kind of demonstrable
them to target the people they are going to shoot”
expansion of the self, distributed and confirmed by
(2006: 129). Finally, although cell phones do not
one’s presence in the lives of others” (Horst & Miller,
cause Jamaicans to beg for money, they have enabled
2006: 121). This was an important goal in its own
Jamaicans to ask more people faster than ever
right. Ultimately, although there are vital economic
before. Thus, any money in the community is rapidly
components to Jamaican use of cell phones, their
redistributed. This makes it very difficult for any
popularity cannot be understood apart from the
community member to accumulate enough capital to
desire for these rich and deep networks of social
escape from poverty (Horst & Miller, 2006: 165–166).
connection.
According to Horst and Miller, for low-income

Jamaicans the phone is not a luxury but an essential
survival tool. It may cost money, but it enables 1. Jamaicans create large lists of phone contacts. Do
them to reach and activate extensive networks of some Americans do the same thing? What factors
people who provide them with physical, financial, motivate Americans to create large cell phone
and emotional aid. In this sense, it has improved contact lists?
the quality of their lives. However, cell phones come
with problems as well. For example, for Jamaican 2. The “link-up” described here is only one use of
teens, cell phones have become “as essential and the cell phone in poor countries. What are other
inseparable as clothing,” and their phones distract ways that cell phones might improve the quality
them from education (Horst & Miller, 2006: 147). of life for people in poor nations? What things in
Educational achievement in Jamaica has declined your life would be different if you had no access to
as cell phone usage has increased (Horst & Miller, telephones?
2006: 147, 151). In addition, although cell phones can
sometimes be used in preventing crime, they may 3. Describe some of the problems cell phones create.
also be used to plan crime. In fact, one of the common Do they create different problems in wealthy and
responses Horst and Miller found to the question poor nations?
parole: the actual encounters that involve verbal (and also

accompanying nonverbal) communication between human
beings. Consider the following example of parole:
Arizona
San Carlos Apache
Scene: It’s a clear, hot evening in July. J and K have fin- Indian Reservation
ished their meal. The children are sitting nearby. There is
a knock at the door. J rises, answers the knock, and finds L
standing outside. U tah
N evad a
J: Hello, my friend! How’re you doing? How are you feel-
ing, L? You feeling good? (J now turns in the direction of
K and addresses her.)
J: Look who here, everybody! Look who just come in.
Sure, it’s my Indian friend, L. Pretty good, all right.
A ri z o na
(J laps L on the shoulder and, looking him directly in the
eyes, seizes his hand and pumps it wildly up and down.) N ew
M exi co
J: Come right in, my friend! Don’t stay outside in the rain.
Better you come in right now. (J now drapes his arm
around L’s shoulder and moves him in the direction of a
chair.)
J: Sit down! Sit right down! Take your loads off you ass. 0 100 mi
You hungry? You want crackers? Maybe you want some MEXICO
0 100 km
beer? You want some wine? Bread? You want some
sandwich? How about it? You hungry? I don’t know.
Maybe you sick. Maybe you don’t eat again long time.
use of such questions connotes insincerity. The Apache
(K has now stopped what she is doing and is looking on
believe that one should enter and leave a room as unobtru-
with amusement. L has seated himself and has a look of
sively as possible, so J making a big to-do about L coming
bemused resignation on his face.)
into the room is inappropriate as well. Actions such as put-
J: You sure looking good to me, L. You looking pretty fat! ting an arm around another man’s shoulder or asking repeat-
Pretty good all right! You got new boots? Where you edly if he wants something to eat connote friendship and
buy them? Sure pretty good boots! I glad . . . (At this concern among whites, but for the Western Apache they are
point, J breaks into laughter. K joins in. L shakes his head signs of both willingness to violate the other’s dignity and of
and smiles. The joke is over.) overwhelming bossiness. To the Apache, such actions sug-
gest that the speaker thinks the person he or she is talking
The joke is over . . . so, what was the joke? The joke, from to is unimportant and that his wishes can be safely ignored.
the Western Apache, recorded by Keith Basso (1979), is Suggesting that another might be sick is perhaps the worst
about how the Apache see white people communicating with social gaffe of all. Not only is this a violation of privacy, but
them and with each other. Also, it plays with the denotative the Apache also fear that talking about misfortune may well
and connotative meanings of signs. In the joke, J pretends he bring it on.
is a white man. The joke depends on the fact that although If we knew only the technical grammatical aspects of lan-
phrases such as “Are you hungry?” or “Are you sick?” might guage, we would never be able to understand J’s speech. His
have similar denotative meanings in white and Western performance embodies critical cultural concepts and values.
Apache speech, their connotative meanings are very differ- Without understanding Apache culture, an observer cannot
ent. White speech, as J presents it, is highly inappropriate and possibly get the joke.
offensive. Language is so heavily freighted with culture that under-
For starters, you do not publicly call someone a friend or standing one is almost always a key to understanding the
ask how he or she is feeling. For the Western Apache, these other. One way anthropologists analyze this relationship is
are very personal statements and questions. For white peo- to think in terms of speech performance. Such performance
ple, these questions connote either polite concern or generic includes what people are saying as well as what they are com-
greeting. However, for Western Apache, the highly public municating beyond the actual words. Sociolinguistics is
the study of the relationship between language and culture. children, but children use the formal term to address their par-
Sociolinguists study speech performances and attempt to ents. In the Spanish spoken in Costa Rica, many people use
identify, describe, and understand the ways in which lan- three forms: the informal tú is used by an adult speaking to a
guage is used in different social contexts. child (or lover), the formal usted is used among strangers, and
The ways in which people speak are highly dependent the intermediate term vos can be used among friends. In India,
on the context of their speech as well as on issues such as the status of a husband is higher than that of a wife, and among
class, gender, ethnicity, and geography. For example, a pub- most Hindi speakers, a wife never addresses her husband by his
lic political speech has different purposes and is limited by name (and certainly not in public). Instead, she uses a round-
different norms than a political discussion among friends. about expression that would translate into English as some-
Consider that American presidents since Ronald Reagan thing like “I am speaking to you, sir.”
have almost always ended their annual State of the Union
Address with the words “God bless America” or something
very similar. However, it would be strange if you ended a Language and Social Stratification
political discussion with friends with these words. And From a linguistic perspective, all languages are equally
different cultures have different norms regarding polit- sophisticated and serve the needs of their speakers equally
ical speeches: who can participate as speaker and audi- well, and every human being speaks with equal grammatical
ence, the appropriate topics and cultural themes for such a sophistication. Despite this, in complex, stratified societies
speech, where such speeches can take place, the relationship such as the United States, some speech is considered “correct”
between the speaker and hearer, the language used in a mul- and other speech judged inferior.
tilingual community, and so forth. So, what is good English? Consider the example of the
Speech is critical in the construction of identity. Penelope double negative. Almost everyone reading this book has
Eckert (2000) has studied the way children and adolescents in heard someone (perhaps a teacher) claim that a double neg-
American schools use language to create and enforce social ative is really a positive. Thus, saying “I don’t want no” is really
roles and identities. This process starts with teasing in elemen- saying “I want some.” This is simply incorrect. When Mick
tary and junior high schools. It continues for girls in the form Jagger sings “I can’t get no satisfaction,” no native English
of both true and false compliments that “establish and enforce speaker believes he is saying how satisfied he is. And no one
social hierarchies and boundaries” (Eckert, 2004: 386) and for imagines that the kids singing on Pink Floyd’s The Wall are
boys with increased use of language styles specifically opposed telling us how much they want to go to school. But sometimes
by teachers and other powerful adults, including sexual ref- two negatives do make a positive, as when a child who refuses
erences and obscenities. In high schools, verbal labels indi- to do her homework says, “I won’t not do my homework if
cate social terrain and frequently physical location within the you buy me some ice cream.” And two or more positives can
school. In the Detroit high school Eckert studied, the critical sometimes make a negative, as in:
labels were jocks and burnouts. Jocks identified with the insti-
tution, with adolescence, and with the white suburban middle Speaker A: “Yes, I will do it.”
class. Burnouts saw themselves as opposed to the institution, Speaker B: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure you will.”
wanted to be adults, and identified with the urban working
class. Jock and burnout groups used language differently: Jock The point is that from a linguistic perspective, one way of
girls were the most standard speakers (i.e., spoke in ways that speaking is as good as the next. There is no reason to prefer
their English teachers probably approved of), and burnout “I don’t have any money” to “I ain’t got no money,” and there
girls used the most vernacular language (used slang the most). is no reason that saying, “I’m about to go get lunch” is better
Boys’ language was between these two groups. Burnout girls than saying, “I’m fixin’ to get me some lunch.” All these state-
made frequent use of multiple negatives and other stigmatized ments are fully logical, comprehensible, and communicate
speech forms. These differences involved not only the use of the information the speaker desires.
different vocabularies but changes in the sounds of the lan- In hierarchical societies, the most powerful group gen-
guages they used as well (Eckert, 1989). erally determines what is “proper” in language. Indeed, the
In some cultures, different speech forms are used depend- grammatical constructions used by the social elites are con-
ing on whether the speaker and hearer are intimate friends, sidered language, whereas any deviation from them is often
acquaintances on equal footing, or people of distinctly differ- called a dialect (Figure 4.5). Because the social power of the
ent social statuses. French, German, and Yoruba, among many speaker, rather than any inherent qualities of a speech form,
other languages, have formal and informal pronouns that are determines a language’s acceptability, linguist Max Weinreich
not found in English. The rules for their use vary among cul- has defined a language as “a dialect with an army and a navy”
tures. In France, parents use the informal term to address their (quoted in Pinker, 1994: 28).
FIGURE 4.5 Dialects are versions of
Britain/Alamy Stock Photo

languages that deviate from the grammatical
constructions and pronunciations used by the
elites. Here we see a handwritten road sign in
the dialect of Cumbria, an area of Northern
England.

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS
Everyone speaks with an accent. That is, they speak of death. A forensic linguist examined the suicide note
their language with a particular set of phonemes. Most and compared the wording and sentence structure
native speakers of American English can use these to diaries and other writings by Sandra and Garry
accents to guess at some of the characteristics of the Weddell. The linguist concluded that it was extremely
speaker: their geographical origin and perhaps their unlikely that Sandra Weddell could have written the
ethnic background. In addition to marking group suicide note but that the writing was a good match for
membership, our speech and our writing contain her husband’s (Wright, 2008; Narayanaswami, 2010).
mannerisms that are ours alone. We may favor certain Garry was arrested for the murder of his wife.
words or combinations of words. We may even use
Forensic linguistics is often extremely important in
particular forms of punctuation. Forensic linguistic
determining what is said in voice recordings. Such
anthropologists use the details of speech and writing to
recordings are problematic because a lot of meaning
provide legal evidence in a wide variety of situations.
in conversation is carried in visual expression,
Immigration and customs officials often make use of hand gestures, and other nonverbal aspects of
linguistics experts to find out if the accent, slang, and communication. These aspects are missing in such
idiomatic expressions used by asylum seekers are recordings. Additionally, we tend to hear what we want
the same as those of the countries they claim to be to hear: Our existing ideas and prejudices can deeply
from. Information identifying the regional origin of affect how we interpret what is said. In this circumstance,
an individual can play an important role in criminal a forensic linguist’s close attention to the specifics
investigation as well. For example, forensic linguist of phonetics can often clarify meaning, sometimes
Roger Shuy helped solve a kidnapping in Illinois. In reversing what people think they hear (Hitt, 2012).
this case, the kidnapper had left a ransom note that
Forensic linguistics is a powerful tool but needs to
instructed that money be left in a trash can on the devil’s
be used cautiously. Attempts at detection based on
strip at a street corner. Shuy knew that there is only one
writing can sometimes fail spectacularly. For example,
place in the United States where the term devil’s strip is
in 2003, English professor Donald Foster, who had used
used to identify the small grass area sometimes found
a literary forensics technique to reveal the author of
between a sidewalk and the street: Akron, Ohio. There
an anonymously published popular book, claimed to
was only one suspect from Akron, and, when confronted
have used the same technique to discover the identity
with this evidence, he confessed (Hitt, 2012; Dahl, 2008).
of the person who sent anthrax spores to the offices
In some cases, forensic linguists may be able to identify of politicians and news media in 2001, killing five and
a particular individual rather than just the region infecting 17 others (Foster, 2003). However, Steven
a person comes from. For example, in 2006, Garry Hatfill, the man identified, was innocent and later sued
Weddell, a police inspector who lived near London, both Foster and the magazines that published the article
claimed he came home to find that his wife Sandra, a (D. Freed, 2010). It may be fine for amateurs to speculate
nurse, had committed suicide, leaving a typed suicide on the authorship of literary works, but court cases
note. However, police were suspicious about the cause demand careful work by highly trained professionals.
The relation of language usage to social class and power speech of these children, which they characterized as coarse,
is reflected in the speech of different social groups in the simple, and irrational, was due to a culturally deprived home
United States. In a classic study, sociolinguist William Labov environment (Ammon & Ammon, 1971). They proposed
(1972) noted that elites and working-class people have differ- that if people could be taught to speak Standard English,
ent vocabularies and pronounce words differently. The forms they would be able to think more logically and this would
associated with higher socioeconomic status are considered help lift them from poverty (Bereiter & Engelmann, 1966;
“proper,” whereas forms spoken by those in lower socioeco- Engelmann & Engelmann, 1966).
nomic statuses are considered incorrect and are stigmatized. The work of William Labov and others was central to
Labov found that speakers often vary their vocabulary debunking the arguments of the deficit theorists. Through
and pronunciation in different contexts and that the degree analysis of dialogues, Labov showed that inner-city black
of such variation is related to the speaker’s social class. At the speech, particularly the speech of children living in poverty,
bottom and top of the social hierarchy, there is little variation: was no more or less complex, rational, or orderly than that
Elites use privileged forms of speech and the poor use stig- of other English speakers. It simply followed different rules,
matized forms. However, members of the lower middle class many of which were also found in other languages. For exam-
often use stigmatized forms in casual speech but privileged ple, while SSAE uses the word there as a meaningless sub-
forms in careful speech. One interpretation of this is that peo- ject (as in “If there is a God . . .”), AAVE uses the word it (as
ple at the bottom and top of the social hierarchy do not vary in “If it is a God . . .”). Like SSAE, AAVE allows certain kinds
their speech because their social position is stable; the very of contractions. For example, in both you may contract the
poor do not believe they have much chance to rise, and the verb to be. However, you do it in different ways. In SSAE, for
wealthy are secure in their positions. Members of the lower instance, “you are” may be replaced with “you’re,” or “I am”
middle class, however, are concerned with raising their social may become “I’m.” In AAVE, the verb are may be left out
position and in consequence copy the speech patterns of the entirely. Thus, “If you are bad” may be replaced with “If you
wealthy in some social situations. However, they are also con- bad” (Pinker, 1994: 30). Labov demonstrated that AAVE is
cerned with maintaining connections to family and friends just a different way of speaking, and, from a linguistic point of
and therefore use stigmatized speech with them. Labov’s view, it is neither better nor worse than any other.
study makes clear what many of us know but do not like to Even though AAVE is simply a language like any other,
admit: We do judge a person’s social status by the way they it is stigmatized in American society. Marcyliena Morgan
speak. What we say and how we say it are ways of telling peo- noted that people in families that speak both AAVE and
ple who we are socially or, perhaps, who we would like to be. SSAE don’t necessarily value one over the other. In fact,
AAVE may deliver “formal and informal knowledge as well
as local knowledge and wisdom” (2004: 12). However, they
African American Vernacular are also aware that AAVE is stigmatized and symbolizes devi-
English (AAVE) ance and ignorance in the dominant cultural system. SSAE,
on the other hand, symbolizes normality and intelligence.
Although there are many stigmatized variants of American Through school, exposure to mass media, and the need
English, including Appalachian English, Dutchified to work in the world outside the local community, most
Pennsylvania English, Hawaiian Creole, Gullah, and emer- speakers of AAVE become effective speakers of several vari-
gent Hispanic Englishes, the most stigmatized is African eties of English. Like others who are bilingual, they must
American Vernacular English (AAVE), also called Ebonics. engage in code switching. Code switching is the ability of
AAVE is simply a variant of Standard English, neither better speakers to move seamlessly between two languages. Those
nor worse than any other. Further, AAVE has strongly influ- who code-switch use each language in the setting that is
enced American art, speech, literature, and music, as it has appropriate to it. For example, speaking about black women
been and is used by a wide variety of authors and entertainers, in America, Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden
including Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, wrote, “They shift ‘white’ at the office, in the classroom, when
Maya Angelou, George Gershwin, Usher, and The Weekend. addressing the community board during a public forum;
AAVE has deep roots in the African American commu- and they shift ‘black’ at church, during book club meetings,
nity, particularly among rural and urban working-class urban among family and friends” (2003: 7).
blacks. Although not all Americans of African origin speak it,
AAVE has become emblematic of black speech in the minds
of many Americans. From the 1950s to the 1970s, a group
of linguists, psychologists, and educators known as cultural The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
deficit theorists argued that African American children did The close relationship between culture and language raises
poorly in school because of general cognitive deficiencies in interesting questions about the connections between lan-
which language played a key role. They argued that the poor guage and thought. In the previous section, we pointed out
that in the 1950s and 1960s, some social scientists believed, effect is sleepiness. In the second, the effect is sleepiness and
incorrectly, that AAVE was less logical than SSAE and that as the side effect is a dry mouth, nose, or throat.
a result, AAVE speakers thought illogically. In so doing, they The use of the term side effect encourages us to think in
assumed a strong relationship between speaking and think- a certain way. But does it force us to think in that way? In the
ing. The existence of such a relationship is an old and con- late 1950s and early 1960s, thalidomide was prescribed to
troversial idea in anthropology. It is often associated with the calm the stomachs of pregnant mothers. The drug was effec-
work of Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and his student Benjamin tive but had the horrible side effect of causing severe deformi-
Lee Whorf (1897–1941). Sapir and Whorf believed that lan- ties in babies born to those mothers. Calling the deformities
guages played a critical role in creating and shaping the social side effects did not prevent people from thinking that they
and physical world in which people lived and that languages were more important than the drug’s effect. In fact, the thalid-
guided people’s understandings of that world (Sapir, 1949: omide case led to special testing of drugs prescribed during
162). In other words, they suggested that we perceive the pregnancy. The thalidomide example shows us that words
world in certain ways because we talk about the world in cer- cannot force people to think in one way or another. Even a
tain ways. They argued that even ideas such as time, space, government that controlled all the words people used could
and matter are conditioned by the structure of our languages. not control their thoughts. People merely invent new words
If this is so, it follows that people who speak different lan- or give the old ones new and ironic meanings.
guages necessarily understand the world in different ways. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis went well beyond the issue
This idea came to be known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. of word choice. Its proponents argued that the grammatical
There are unquestionably some connections among lan- structure of languages compelled their speakers to think and
guage, perception, and thought. We clearly choose our words behave in certain ways. Whorf claimed, for example, that
to guide and direct others’ thoughts. Politicians, for example, because tenses in the Hopi language were very different from
routinely search for derogatory words and phrases to char- tenses in English, Hopi speakers necessarily understood time
acterize their opponents. Or consider the term side effect. A in ways very different from English speakers (Whorf, 1941).
side effect is an unwanted consequence of something such as This position is sometimes called strong determinism, and it
a drug. However, the term side effect encourages us to think has some serious problems. For example, consider the differ-
of it as something off to the side and therefore less important ences in how we speak about missing a person in English and
than the central effect of the drug. What is effect and what is French. In English, we say, “I miss you.” I, the person doing
side effect can change according to the use of the drug. For the missing, is the subject, and you, the person being missed,
example, diphenhydramine is a chemical compound that is the object. In French, however, the order is reversed: You
both slows down allergic reactions and makes those who take say, “Tu me manques.” The person being missed is the subject
it sleepy. It is the main ingredient in both the allergy relief and the person doing the missing the object. Literally trans-
medicine Benadryl ® and the sleep aid Unisom ® (Figure 4.6). lated, the French sentence appears to mean “You miss me.” A
In the first medication, the effect is allergy relief and the side strong determinist would expect this structural difference to
indicate that speakers of French and English have different
understandings of missing a person. However, there is no evi-
dence to suggest that this is so.
FIGURE 4.6 Calling something a side effect This is not to say that language structure and thought
draws attention away from it. Diphenhydramine are completely unrelated. For example, Peter Gordon (2004)
is used in different medicines for both allergy reported that members of the Piraha, a Brazilian tribe he
relief and sleep. What is effect and what is side studied, have difficulty understanding and recalling numbers
effect depends on the intended use. for which they have no words. Fausey and Boroditsky (2011)
found small differences in eyewitness memories for speakers
Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo
of Spanish and English. Experiments done by Gilbert et al.

(2005) suggest that language affects color perception in the
right visual field but not the left. This corresponds to the fact
that language processing is located primarily on the left side
of the brain. Casasanto (2008) conducted studies on the way
that Greek and English speakers estimate time. He noted that
all languages use space and the accumulation of material as
metaphors for time. For example, in English we talk about a
long time or visualize time as sand in an hourglass. However,
languages use these metaphors unequally. For example,
English uses mostly distance metaphors whereas Greek uses of Edward Hall (1959), an influential analyst of nonverbal
mostly material metaphors. Casasanto showed that, in an behavior, “time talks” and “space speaks.” Nonverbal commu-
experimental situation, Greek and English speakers esti- nication includes artifacts, haptics, chronemics, proxemics,
mated time differently because of this. However, a brief train- and kinesics (Figure 4.7).
ing session caused these differences to disappear. Casasanto’s In the context of nonverbal communication, artifacts
work, like that of Gilbert and colleagues, shows the complex- such as clothing, jewelry, tattoos, piercings, and other visi-
ity of the relationship between language and perception. But ble body modifications send messages. For example, among
it also shows that this relationship is fairly weak and easily the Tuareg, a people of the Sahara, men often wear veils and
overcome. The linguist John McWhorter (2014) has said that, use the position of the veil as an important part of nonverbal
for the most part, the world looks the same in any language. communication (R. Murphy, 1964). A Tuareg man lowers his
Beyond the technical difficulties with tests of the Sapir- veil only among intimates and people of lower social status.
Whorf hypothesis, the idea itself seems to miss one of He raises it high when he wishes to appear noncommittal. In
the most compelling aspects of human communication. the United States, we are very aware of the use of artifacts to
Although scholars often argue about the subtleties and send messages about ourselves. A pierced ear means some-
poetics of translation, all languages are sufficiently similar thing different from a pierced lip or tongue. Some students
so that anything said in one language can be translated into come to class in torn jeans and T-shirts; others wear designer
every other human language. It is true that sometimes a sin- labels or a white shirt and tie. All are trying to send messages
gle word in one language requires many words in another. about who they are.
Additionally, a great deal of study may be required to fully Haptics refers to the study and analysis of touch.
appreciate the meaning of a foreign term (although the same Handshakes, pats on the back or head, kisses, and hugs are
may be true of fully understanding a word in one’s own lan- all ways we communicate by touch. Many American males,
guage). However, no one has ever found a meaning in one for example, believe that the quality of a handshake commu-
language that was simply incomprehensible to speakers of nicates important information. Strong, firm handshakes are
other languages. taken to indicate power, self-confidence, and strength of char-
acter; limp handshakes may be interpreted as suggesting lack
of interest, indecisiveness, or effeminacy. Americans generally
Nonverbal Communication feel free to use their left hands for virtually anything, but in
Before returning to our discussion of spoken language, it is many cultures, particularly in the Middle East, the left hand is
important to note that anthropologists also study the non- considered unclean and people scrupulously avoid using it for
verbal ways in which humans communicate. Our use of eating, handling money, and many other social interactions.
our bodies, interpersonal space, physical objects, and even Some anthropologists suggest that societies can be
time can communicate worlds of information. In the words divided into “contact” cultures, in which people tend to inter-
act at close distances and touch one another frequently, and
“noncontact” cultures, in which people tend to interact at
greater distance and avoid touching (Hall, 1966; Montagu,
FIGURE 4.7 In addition to speaking, people 1978). Contact cultures are common in the Middle East,
use their hands and facial expressions as well as India, the Mediterranean, and Latin America. Noncontact
interpersonal space to communicate. cultures include those of northern Europe, North America,
and Japan. But this dichotomy is too simplistic: India, for
Peter Cavanagh/Alamy Stock Photo
example, may be a contact culture between equals, but is

very much a noncontact culture between people regarded as
socially unequal. In the United States, in public social rela-
tionships, the person who touches another is likely to have
more power than the person who is touched. Bosses touch
their subordinates, but subordinates rarely touch their bosses
(Leathers, 1997: 126).
Chronemics refers to the study of cultural understand-
ings of time. For example, in North American culture, what
does it say when a person shows up for an appointment 40
minutes late? Does it mean something different if he or she
shows up 10 minutes early? Is a Latin American who shows
up late for an appointment saying the same thing?
Edward Hall (1983) divided cultures into those with and laughter are likely to be involved in creating cooperative
monochronic time (M-time), such as the United States and relationships (Mehu & Dunbar, 2008).
northern European countries, and those with polychronic But smiling also shows the powerful effects of culture
time (P-time). Hall argued that in M-time cultures, time is on biology. A smile does not mean the same thing in all cul-
perceived as inflexible and people organize their lives accord- tures. Americans generally equate smiling with happiness,
ing to schedules. In P-time cultures, time is understood as but people in many cultures smile when they experience sur-
fluid; the emphasis is on social interaction, and activities prise, wonder, or embarrassment (Ferraro, 1994). A guide
are not expected to proceed like clockwork. Thus, being late book on international business advises American managers
for an appointment in P-time cultures does not convey the that the Japanese often smile to make their guests feel com-
unspoken messages that it would convey in an M-time cul- fortable rather than because they are happy (R. Lewis, 1996:
ture (Victor, 1992). 267). Despite this, Japanese and Americans agree that smil-
Like the contact/noncontact dichotomy, M-time and ing faces are more sociable than neutral faces (Matsumoto
P-time seem to capture a basic truth about cultural variation & Kudoh, 1993) and most often interpret smiles in the same
but fail to account for the enormous variability within cul- way (Nagashima & Schellenberg, 1997).
tures. For example, how long an individual is kept waiting for
an appointment may have more to do with power than with Language Change
cultural perceptions of time. People are more likely to be on
time for their superiors but keep their subordinates waiting. Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum
Proxemics is the social use of space. Hall (1968) identi-
Si þin nama gehalgod
fied three different ranges of personal communicative space.
Intimate distance, from 1 to 18 inches, is typical for lovers and to becume þin rice
very intimate friends. Personal distance, from 18 inches to gewurþe ðin willa
4 feet, characterizes relationships among friends, and social
distance, from 4 to 12 feet, is common among relative strang- on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
ers. However, these distances are also affected by circum- urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg
stances, culture, gender, and aspects of individual personality. and forgyf us ure gyltas
We speak to strangers at a much closer distance at a movie
theater or in a classroom than we would in an unconfined swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
space. In the United States, women and mixed-gender pairs and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
talk to each other at closer distances than do men. In Turkey, ac alys us of yfele soþlice
on the other hand, men and women talk at close distances
with members of their own sex but at very large distances This 11th-century version of the Lord’s Prayer1 shows
with members of the opposite sex (Leathers, 1997). how much English has changed in the past thousand years.
Finally, kinesics is the study of body position, movement, All language is constantly changing on many levels, such as
facial expressions, and gaze. We use our posture, our visual sound, structure, and vocabulary, and some of the change
expression, eye contact, and other body movements to com- happens in patterned ways.
municate interest, boredom, and many additional things. Consider sound. When we imagine people speaking
Virtually all body movements can have significance. But, English hundreds of years ago, we often think of them using
of course, not all do. Clifford Geertz (1973b) famously sug- different words than we do but otherwise sounding pretty
gested that the job of an ethnographer was learning to tell the much like us. But this is incorrect. English spoken in the 14th
winks from the twitches—that is, to tell the meaningful com- century sounded very different from the English of today.
munication from the meaningless. Geertz meant this meta- Between 1400 and 1600, there was a change in the sound of
phorically, but those who study kinesics do it literally. English that is called the Great Vowel Shift. A correct reading
The case of smiling is a particularly interesting example aloud of the Lord’s Prayer at the start of this section would
of kinesic research. It is likely that smiling and some other
facial expressions are biologically based human universals. 1
In modern-day English, the Lord’s Prayer is, “Our father who art in heaven,
There are no societies in which people do not smile. In fact, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in
smiling is also found in chimpanzees and gorillas, our near- heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but
est nonhuman relations. Moreover, some aspects of smiling deliver us from evil, amen.” You can hear how the 11th century version printed
seem to transcend cultural variation. In any society, social here probably sounded at http://bit.ly/1T8E82U. The nonstandard symbols
are from the International Phonetic Alphabet mentioned on page 85. You can
interactions are more likely to have a positive outcome if peo- find additional information on the International Phonetic Alphabet at www
ple are smiling than if they are frowning or scowling. Smiling .internationalphoneticalalphabet.org or http://bit.ly/1UBuN2Y.
TABLE 4.1(The Great Vowel Shift
IS
MIDDLE MODERN MIDDLE PRONOUNCED
ENGLISH ENGLISH ENDLISH TO RHYME MODERN MODERN
VOWEL SHIFTS TO VOWEL WORD WITH WORD BECOMES WORD
i aj mis piece mice
u aw mus moose mouse
e i ges place geese
o u gos close goose
ε e brεk trek break
c o brck squawk broke
a e name comma name
require speaking with the sounds used in English more something that an individual likes (as in “What’s your bag?”
than 600 years ago (Table 4.1). For example, the fifth word or “Reading anthropology is really my bag”). Many of us still
of the last line, yfele, gives us the modern English word evil. understand the slang expressions of the 1960s, but terms from
The medieval pronunciation is close to “oo-vah-la.” When the 19th and early 20th centuries are almost entirely lost: Do
Americans think of the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare, you know what a hobbledehoy or a man of four outs is?2
they often imagine them being performed with the modern New words are constantly added to language. In the
accent of southern England; this accent is sometimes called past 10 to 20 years, for example, an entire vocabulary has
received pronunciation. However, the sounds of English have grown up around computers and the Internet. Words such
changed so much since Shakespeare’s time that two-thirds of as software, dot-com, gigabyte, and e-mail would have been
his sonnets no longer rhyme. For example, Sonnet 116 makes unintelligible to most people in 1980. Wi-Fi, spyware,
it clear that for Shakespeare, proved and loved rhymed, but domain name, text message, and many others would have
this is no longer the case (National Public Radio, 2012). been meaningless to people in the mid-1990s. In the past
Shifting sounds are not just something out of the past. few years, gaming, instant messaging, and cell phones have
Language sounds are constantly changing. For example, spawned a new vocabulary of acronyms and abbreviations,
since about 1950, some vowel sounds in U.S. cities around such as IMHO, LOL, noob, and TTYL. Before 2006, no one
the Great Lakes have been changing, a process linguists call would have known what a “tweet” was (other than a sound a
the Northern City Shift (Labov et al., 2005). For example, if bird makes).
you pronounce the word cot more or less the same way you
pronounce the word cat, you probably grew up in the Great
Lakes region of the United States. Language and Culture Contact
The grammatical structures of a language (its syntax) The meeting of cultures through travel, trade, war, and con-
also change. For example, as we have seen, meaning in mod- quest is a fundamental force in linguistic change. Languages
ern English is tightly tied to word order. But in Old English, thus reflect the histories of their speakers. Current-day
as in Latin, the endings of nouns indicate whether they were English contains French words such as reason, joy, mutton,
subjects or objects, making word order within sentences less and liberty that came into the language after the Norman
important. Thus, in Old English, the two sentences “The dog Conquest of England in the 11th century. Other words speak
bit the child” and “The dog the child bit” would have the same of more recent political events. For example, cot, pajamas,
meaning and be equally grammatical. and jungle come from Hindi and reflect the British coloniza-
Vocabulary is the most noticeable aspect of language tion of India. Gumbo, funky, and zebra come from Kongo and
change, and this is easily seen in slang. Consider slang terms
from the 1950s and 1960s, such as boss to mean great (as in 2
A hobbledehoy is an awkward adolescent. A man of four outs is a vulgar
“The new Little Richard album is really boss”) or bag to mean person without wit, money, credit, or manners.
reflect the slave trade. Nahuatl, a language spoken in Mexico

and Central America, gave us tomato, coyote, shack, and avo- FIGURE 4.8 Pidgins develop when people who
cado. In 1970, most Americans probably did not know what speak different languages come together. This
words such as sunni, jihad, or ayatollah meant. Today, we do. church banner, in Papua New Guinea where
When societies where different languages are spoken meet, people speak more than 750 different languages,
they often develop a new language that combines features of means “Jesus is Lord.”
each of the original ones. Such a language is called a pidgin. No
Fredrick Atwood
one speaks a pidgin as a first language, and the vocabulary of a
pidgin is often limited to the words appropriate to the sorts of
interactions engaged in by the people speaking it.
As culture contact deepens and time passes, pidgins are
sometimes lost and people speak only the language of the
dominant power. Or, pidgin languages may become creoles.
A creole is a language composed of elements of two or more
different languages. But, unlike a pidgin, people do speak cre-
oles as their first language, and the vocabulary of a creole is as
complex and rich as any other.
Many creoles were formed as Europeans expanded into
Asia and the Americas. Often, in countries that were col-
onized, upper classes speak the language of the colonizing
power, and the lower classes speak creoles. In Haiti, for exam-
ple, from 70% to 90% of the population speaks only a creole,
but almost all governmental and administrative functions are human language? And, second, in the future will there be a
performed in French, the language of the elite. world with one language? Neither of these questions is fully
answerable, but we can speculate about both of them.
We do not know if there was ever a single, original human
Tracing Relationships Among Languages language. The agreed-upon techniques of comparative lin-
Comparative linguistics is a field of study that traces the guistics can tell us a great deal about the history of languages
relationships of different languages by searching for similar- in the past several thousand years. There are, however, no
ities among them. When such similarities are numerous, reg- accepted techniques for establishing the patterns and con-
ular, and basic, it is likely that the languages are derived from tent of language that reach back tens of thousands of years.
the same ancestral language. Some anthropologists, biologists, and linguists looking at
Linguists have identified a core vocabulary of 100 or 200 this question claim they can describe the original human lan-
words, including terms such as I, you, man, woman, blood, guage (Ruhlen, 1994; Shevoroshkin & Woodford, 1991). For
skin, red, and green, that designate things, actions, and activ- example, Alec Knight and his colleagues (2003), using tech-
ities likely to be named in all the world’s languages. Many niques from both comparative linguistics and biology, argued
believe that core vocabularies change at a predictable rate that there was an original language and it had many of the
(about 14% per 1,000 years). Glottochronology is a statisti- characteristics associated with modern-day African “click”
cal technique that uses this idea to estimate the date of separa- languages. Gell-Mann and Ruhlen (2011) have argued that
tion of related languages. For example, if linguists examined although most modern languages use a subject–verb–object
the core vocabularies of two related languages and found they word order, the original human language must have had a
were 28% different, they would propose that the languages subject–object–verb word order. Such claims are extremely
separated from each other 1,000 years ago (because both controversial and, for the moment, not widely accepted.
languages are changing, the total percentage change must However, the development of language almost certainly
be divided in half). Using glottochronology, linguists can involved specific genetic changes. Such changes probably
discover the historic relationships among languages and use happened in a single small group. If this is the case, an origi-
that knowledge to group languages into families. However, nal language probably did exist.
the accuracy of the technique has long been controversial, The question of whether a single world language is
and many modifications have been employed to improve it emerging is provocative. We are certainly moving toward
(Renfrew et al., 2000). linguistic homogenization. The total number of languages
Considering the history of language raises two interest- in the world has declined. About 10,000 years ago, there
ing questions: First, was there at any point a single, original may have been as many as 15,000 different languages; today
TABLE 4.2
NUMBER OF FIRST-LANGUAGE
NUMBER LANGUAGE PRIMARY COUNTRY SPEAKERS IN MILLIONS
0 Chinese (all types) China 1,284
1 Chinese (Mandarin) China 898
2 Spanish Spain 437
3 English United Kingdom 372
4 Arabic (all types) Saudi Arabia 295
5 Hindi India 260
6 Bengali Bangladesh 242
7 Portuguese Portugal 219
8 Russian Russian Federation 154
9 Japanese Japan 128
10 Lahnda Pakistan 119
11 Javanese Indonesia 84.4
12 Korean South Korea 77.2
13 German Germany 76.8
14 French France 76.1
15 Telugu India 74.2
16 Marathi India 71.8
17 Turkish Turkey 71.1
18 Urdu Pakistan 69.1
19 Vietnamese Vietnam 68.1
20 Tamil India 68.0
Source: Ethnologue. (2017). Summary by Language Size. Retrieved from https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
there are between 6,000 and 7,000. Of these, the United Affairs schools. Children were beaten and otherwise pun-
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ished for speaking their tribal languages (Coleman, 1999).
lists 43% as endangered (Moseley, 2010). About 95% of the Nation–states often try to suppress linguistic diversity
world’s languages are spoken by only 3% of the world’s total within their borders, insisting that government, the court
population (Noack & Gamio, 2015). About a quarter of the system, and other aspects of public life be conducted in the
world’s languages are each spoken by fewer than 1,000 people language of the most numerous and politically powerful
(S. Anderson, 2010). At the same time, more than half of the groups. Global trade favors people who speak the languages
world’s population speaks one of the 20 most common lan- of the wealthiest and most populous nations. Similarly, the
guages listed in Table 4.2. vast majority of television and radio broadcasts are in a very
Languages may disappear for various reasons. All their few languages, as are most Internet sites. In the face of such
speakers may be killed by disease or genocide. Government obstacles, people who are members of linguistic minorities
policies may deliberately seek to eliminate certain languages. often abandon their languages because they find it more con-
For example, in 1885, the American government explic- venient, prestigious, or profitable to speak the languages of
itly forbade the use of Indian languages in Bureau of Indian wealth and power.
In some senses, linguistic homogenization is a positive Russian, French, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Portuguese, and sev-
development. Today, more people can speak to each other eral others. None of these languages seems likely to disappear
than ever before. In the future, this may be true to an even in the foreseeable future. Second, although the number of
greater extent. However, the global movement toward fewer languages spoken in the world has diminished, the diversity
languages is also troubling. There is generally a strong con- within each language has increased. People in New York City;
nection between language and ethnic identity. Language Kingston, Jamaica; Glasgow, Scotland; and Mumbai, India,
is often rooted in culture and entwined with it. As lan- may all speak English, but that does not necessarily mean they
guage is lost, so are important elements of cultural identity. can understand one another. In many cases, the differences
Additionally, the disappearance of languages reduces our between their Englishes are so great a translator is needed.
ability to understand the underlying structures of language Perhaps more important, the nature of language—the human
and the range of variability these enable. ability to create new meanings, new words, and new gram-
Not all global forces lead toward language homogeniza- matical structures—means that language adapts to the needs,
tion. First, there is no language spoken by the majority of the interests, and environments of its speakers. Thus, even as glo-
world’s people. Mandarin Chinese, with more than 1 billion balizing forces move humans toward cultural and linguistic
speakers, is by far the most commonly spoken language, homogeneity, spaces are created in which linguistic and cul-
while hundreds of millions of people speak English, Spanish, tural diversity can also flourish.

L A N G UAG E , I D E N T IT Y, A N D A S S I M I L AT I O N
Question: Do you need to speak English to be a true American?
For many—perhaps most—people, the language many others). And, in both cases, minority linguistic
or languages they speak are an important part of communities continue to exist.
their identity. And language can be an important
part of national identity as well. The pioneering There are also many nations where linguistic
anthropological linguist Edward Sapir (1963: 16) and national identities are separate. For example,
wrote that language is probably the greatest force of Switzerland has four official languages: French,
socialization. He pointed out that groups of all kinds German, Italian, and Romansh. India, the world’s
are held together by shared language and referred largest democracy, designates Hindi and English as
to an experience many of us have had. He imagined the languages used to conduct national government
a family where a young child could not
pronounce the name of an older family
member. Instead of saying “Gregory,” the FIGURE 4.9 Between 2006 and 2016, Gino’s,
child says “Doody.” Soon, all the members a popular cheesesteak spot in Philadelphia,
of the family call Gregory “Doody.” This garnered both fame and controversy with a sign
both marks and creates family solidarity.
asking customers to speak English.
But, woe betide the outsider who presumes
to call Gregory “Doody.” That is a privilege
Images
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images News/Getty
reserved to family members, and using it

indicates a profound intimacy.
National identity has also frequently been

tied to language. This linkage is so common
that it often seems logical and inevitable.
For example, we think of the French as those
who speak French and the Italians as those
who speak Italian. However, in both cases,
the creation of linguistic identity involved
the suppression of other languages (In the
case of France, these languages include
Breton, Alsatian, and Occitan; in the case
of Italy, Ladin, Friulian, Sardinian, and
business. However, less than half of the population (Dewaele, 2004; Salome, 2010: 72). However, it is
speaks either language. Indian states can recognize almost impossible to be socially and financially
their own languages, and there are currently 22 successful in broader society without speaking the
officially designated languages. majority language. Additionally, nonnative speakers
continually receive the message that their first
English has long been seen as fundamental to language marks them as inferior.
American identity. A recent study from the Pew
Research Center found that in 2016, more than The result is enormous pressure for linguistic
70% of people in the United States thought that conformity. Linguists often speak of a three-
speaking English was very important for being generation rule—the tendency for immigrants to
truly American (Figure 4.9). Only 32% thought that lose their native language within three generations.
it was necessary to be born in America, and only Members of the immigrant generation usually
40% said that it was necessary to share American speak the new language with some difficulty. Their
customs and traditions to be truly American. children understand and sometimes speak their
Strong majorities viewed language as critical to parents’ language, but they are most comfortable in
national identity across European countries as well the language of the nation they live in. Their children
(Stokes, 2017). (the grandchildren of the immigrants) speak only
the language of the nation where they were born.
In the United States, the tools of government There are certainly many exceptions to this rule.
and education have often been used to impose For example, isolated communities like the Amish
linguistic uniformity. For example, as briefly or Hutterites may still speak German even after
mentioned above, from 1887 well into the second hundreds of years of living in the United States. On
half of the 20th century, the U.S. government the other hand, even when maintaining a language
operated schools for Native Americans where is a specific goal for a family, that language may
students were forbidden from speaking their native disappear (Field, 2011: 179).
languages. The government did not officially
repudiate this policy until the Native American
Key Questions
Languages Act of 1990.
1. Do you speak a language other than English as
Although policies officially banning the use of a first language? If so, do you want your children
languages other than English no longer exist, and grandchildren to speak that language?
schools often adopt practices and policies that make
languages other than English invisible. They “create 2. If English is your first language, did your parents
the impression in the minds of. . .children that their or grandparents speak a different first language?
first language is backward, useless, of low status. How do you feel about your ability (or lack of
[This] negative impression is indelibly carved into ability) in that language?
their identities.” (Salome, 2010: 75).
3. Bilingualism broadens our connections with
The demands of society create conflict for people the world and has many other benefits as well,
whose first language is not English. Many aspects including improved brain functioning and
of the identity of these individuals are tied to their heightened sensitivity to the environment
first language. The deep emotionality of people’s (Bhattacharjee, 2012). Should schools focus on
first language is evidenced by the fact that bilingual assuring that children are fluent in at least two
people tend to pray and swear in their first language languages rather than focusing only on English?
SUMMARY
1. In what ways is human language distinct from animal 2. When did human language originate? Anthropologists
communication? All animals communicate. However, disagree about the origins of language. Human ances-
human communication differs from that of other ani- tors certainly communicated with one another.
mals in its flexibility and its ability to convey new ideas However, the linguistic abilities of current-day Homo
and abstract concepts. Some key elements believed to sapiens may have emerged between 200,000 and 50,000
be unique to human language are recursion, productiv- years ago.
ity, and displacement.
3. How do children learn language? In all cultures, chil- speakers of different languages perceive their worlds in
dren go through the same stages of language learning different ways. Although some evidence supports the
in the same sequence and at roughly the same speed Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, most linguists argue that the
regardless of the language being learned. This sug- similarities among languages far outweigh their differ-
gests that humans have an innate language-learning ences and that language does not have a systematic effect
capacity. However, this potential for speech is realized on thought or perception.
only through social interaction with other humans.
Children deprived of such interaction do not learn 9. What forms of nonverbal communication are used in
language. human societies? Humans everywhere communicate
nonverbally as well as verbally. In every society, people
4. What are the principal components of all human use gestures, facial expressions, posture, and time to
language? The components of a language are a sound communicate with one another. However, the meaning
system (phonology), rules that pattern word forma- of a gesture or expression may vary greatly from culture
tion (morphology), a system for combining words into to culture.
meaningful utterances (syntax), and linkages between
words and their meanings (lexicon). 10. Describe two key ways in which language changes.
Both the sound and vocabulary of languages change
5. What is the relationship between the rules of language and over time. For example, many sounds of medieval
the performance of language? Language can be described English do not exist in current-day English. New
by a series of rules, but actually speaking and understand- words enter a vocabulary through innovation as well
ing language requires deep understanding of culture. as through contact between cultures. Vocabularies
6. Are some forms of speech better than other forms? reflect histories, which frequently include conquest and
Stratified societies often have many different forms of submission.
language. When this is the case, some forms are often
11. Was there ever a single human language? Linguists
considered to be correct and others improper or inferior.
have developed techniques to trace the histories of lan-
Although society may stigmatize some forms of speech,
guages and the relationships among them. However,
there is no scientific sense in which one grammatical pat-
these techniques cannot determine if there was ever a
tern or accent is better or worse than another.
single human language. The development of language
7. Define and describe African American Vernacular involved genetic changes, and these are likely to happen
English (AAVE). AAVE is the speech pattern common in a single small group. Hence, there probably was a sin-
to rural and urban working-class African American gle, original language.
communities. Historically highly stigmatized, AAVE
12. Are we moving toward a world with only a single lan-
uses grammatical rules that are different from but no
guage? Linguistic diversity has decreased dramati-
less logical than Standard Spoken American English.
cally, and many languages face the threat of extinction.
American literature, poetry, and music has been
strongly influenced by AAVE. However, many languages have millions of speakers and
are unlikely to disappear. As languages expand to include
8. What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? The Sapir-Whorf more speakers, the diversity within them may increase.
hypothesis is the notion that grammar and vocabulary People who speak the same language may one day not
influence perception of the environment and therefore understand one another.
CRITICAL THINKIN G Q U E S TION S
1. In what ways is the learning and use of language by 3. How closely related do you believe language and
humans different from the use of call systems by other thought to be? During the production of Chapter 3
animals? in this book, the authors and editors debated whether
we should use the word autistics or the phrase peo-
2. Language use is closely related to culture. What aspects ple with autism. Do you think which is used makes a
of your use of language reflect your particular ethnic and difference?
geographical background?
4. Describe American styles of nonverbal communica- created Esperanto, which he hoped would be a univer-
tion. Are there different styles of nonverbal communi- sal language, to foster peace and harmony. Today, lin-
cation in different areas of the United States? guistic diversity is rapidly disappearing. Is this a good
or bad thing?
5. In the 1890s, L. L. Zamenhof believed that different
language was a key source of strife between people. He
KE Y TE RM S
African American Vernacular English free morpheme 86 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 94

(AAVE) 93 gender 86 semantics 85
allophones 85 glottochronology 98 semiotics 87
artifacts 95 haptics 95 sign 87
bound morpheme 86 International Phonetic Alphabet sociolinguistics 90
call system 81 (IPA) 85 speech community 83
chronemics 95 kinesics 96 Standard Spoken American English
code-switching 93 lexicon 87 (SSAE) 85
communication 81 morphemes 86 syntax 85
comparative linguistics 98 morphology 85 universal grammar 84
conventionality 81 phones 85 word 86
core vocabulary 98 phoneme 85
creole 98 phonology 85
descriptive or structural linguistics 85 pidgin 98
dialect 91 productivity 81
displacement 82 proxemics 96
G LO S SARY
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) A communication The act of transmitting information
form of English spoken by many African Americans,
particularly those of rural or urban working-class comparative linguistics The science of documenting the
backgrounds. Also known as Ebonics. relationships between languages and grouping them into
language families.
allophones Two or more different phones that can be
used to make the same phoneme in a specific language. conventionality The notion that in human language,
words are only arbitrarily or conventionally connected to
artifacts (nonverbal communication) Forms of body the things for which they stand.
ornamentation or modification that communicate
messages about individual or group identity. core vocabulary A group of words that designate things,
actions, and activities likely to be named in all the world’s
bound morpheme A unit of meaning that must be languages.
associated with another.
creole A first language that is composed of elements of
call system The form of communication among two or more different languages. (Compare with pidgin.)
nonhuman primates composed of a limited number of
sounds that are tied to specific stimuli in the environment. descriptive or structural linguistics The study and
analysis of the structure and content of particular
chronemics The study of the different ways that cultures languages.
understand time and use it to communicate.
dialect Grammatical constructions that deviate
code-switching The ability of individuals who speak from those used by the socially dominant group in a
multiple languages to move seamlessly between them. society.
displacement The capacity of all human languages to pidgin A language of contact and trade composed of
describe things not happening in the present. features of the original languages of two or more societies.
(Compare with creole.)
free morpheme A unit of meaning that may stand alone
as a word. productivity The ability of humans to combine words
and sounds into new meaningful utterances.
gender (linguistics) A system of agreement classes
found in some languages. Gender classes usually proxemics The study of the cultural use of interpersonal
govern agreement between nouns, pronouns, and space.
adjectives.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis The hypothesis that perceptions
glottochronology A statistical technique that linguists and understandings of time, space, and matter are
have developed to estimate the date of separation of conditioned by the structure of a language.
related languages.
semantics The subsystem of a language that relates words
haptics The analysis and study of touch. to meaning.
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) A system of semiotics The study of the role of signs and symbols in
writing designed to represent all the sounds used in the communication and meaning.
different languages of the world.
sign Anything that can be used to communicate meaning.
kinesics The study of body position, movement, facial
expressions, and gaze. sociolinguistics A specialization within anthropological
linguistics that focuses on speech performance.
lexicon The total stock of words in a language.
speech community A group of people who share a set of
morphemes The smallest units of language that have a norms and rules for the use of language.
meaning.
Standard Spoken American English (SSAE) The form
morphology A system for creating words from sounds. of English spoken by most of the American middle class.
phones The sounds made by humans and used in any syntax The part of grammar that has to do with the
language. arrangement of words to form phrases and sentences.
phoneme The smallest significant unit of sound in a universal grammar A basic set of principles, conditions,
language. A phonemic system is the sound system of a and rules that underlie all languages.
language.
word The smallest part of a sentence that can be said
phonology The sound system of a language. alone and still retain its meaning.
Rosemarie Stennull/Alamy Stock Photo
Producing food is basic to all cultures and most have typical ways in which their members do so. The man in this photo is a Sikh
from Punjab in India, one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the world. However, he is shown here harvesting celery at an
industrial farm located in Holland Marsh, a wetlands area north of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, in 2017.
Making a Living 5
All societies survive by using their environments to provide people with the LEARNING OBJECTIVES
basic material requirements of life: food, clothing, and shelter. In this chapter,
we focus on the different subsistence strategies, or ways in which societies will be able to:
transform the material resources of the environment into food.
5.1 Explain the relationship
between environment and
Anthropologists have always been interested in the interactions between human subsistence strategy
cultures and their environments. We seek to understand both how the physical
environment affects patterns of culture and how culture, in turn, changes the 5.2 Summarize the major
characteristics of foraging,
environment. Although we are used to thinking about the physical environment pastoralism, and horticulture and
as natural, it is important to keep in mind that it is also a cultural construction. The give an example of each
ways that people use their environment affect their understanding of it. But how
5.3 Analyze the differences between
people understand their environment also has implications for the ways they use it. horticulture and agriculture and
Speaking of Australian Aboriginal people, Ambelin Kwaymullina (2005) wrote that discuss the environmental impact
of each
country is much more than a place. Rock, tree, river, hill, animal, human—all
5.4 Explain what a peasant is and
were formed of the same substance by the Ancestors who continue to live evaluate the role that landlords, the
in land, water, sky. Country is filled with relations speaking language and state, and other large social entities
following Law, no matter whether the shape of that relation is human, rock, play in peasant life
crow, wattle. 5.5 Differentiate between
agriculture and industrialism
This worldview might be informed by the Aboriginal foraging lifestyle. and assess the advantages and
However, it also informs how Aboriginal people might use their land when they disadvantages of each
are not foraging.
Human Adaptation and the cities, and many different economic systems and forms of
social organization. These human technologies and cultural
Environment adaptations have led to great increases in population den-
Human beings, unlike most other animals, live in an extremely sity, which in turn have intensified the human effects on the
broad range of environments. Some of these environments, environment. Today, the world supports many more people
such as the Arctic or the Great Australian Desert, present than ever before. However, humans also have a far greater
extreme challenges to human existence and are relatively lim- effect on the world than ever before. The ability to support
ited in the number of people and types of subsistence strategies populations in the billions is one of the great achievements of
they can support. The productivity of any specific environ- humanity; whether or not this is a sustainable achievement is
ment is related to the type of technology used to exploit it. In not yet clear.
the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, the American Great Up until about 11,000 years ago, all humans lived by
Plains supported a relatively small population that survived foraging—fishing, hunting, and collecting vegetable food.
mainly by hunting bison. With intensive mechanized agricul- As tools became more sophisticated, foragers spread out
ture, the same region today supports millions of people. into many environments and developed diverse cultures. By
Technological development has enabled humans to cre- 16,000 to 12,500 years ago, humans had spread to every con-
ate many kinds of artificial environments, such as farms and tinent except Antarctica (see Stanyon et al., 2009). Foraging
107
108 PART II • EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES
sets limits on population growth and density and, conse-

quently, on the complexity of social organization in these FIGURE 5.1 Hunting, a form of foraging, is a
societies. recreational pastime and a marker of identity,
About 11,000 to 10,000 years ago, human groups in the and it makes an important contribution to family
Old World began to domesticate plants and animals, a change diets.
that occurred about 1,000 years later in the New World
nesneJkraM/RF/Getty images
(Bryant, 2003). This change is called the agricultural revolu-
tion or sometimes the Neolithic revolution. The transition to
food production happened over centuries—more like evolu-
tion than sudden revolution. However, it was revolutionary
in the possibilities it opened for the development of complex
social organization.
The question of why cultivation did not arise
everywhere—and why some populations, such as the
Aboriginal peoples of Australia or the Inuit, never made
the transition from foraging to food production—has sev-
eral answers. First, although domestication almost always
produces far greater quantities of food than foraging, it
also involves mch more work in most cases. Thus, people
tend not to move away from foraging unless they must. In
some areas, such as in the Arctic, climate and soil composi-
tion precluded agriculture. In other areas, such as the fertile With the domestication of plants and animals, larger
valleys of California, aboriginal foraging was so productive populations could be supported, and sedentary village life
that there was little pressure to make the transition to food became widespread. More intensive means of cultivation
production. and animal management developed, and human labor was
Second, foraging is often far less work than cultivation. more closely coordinated and controlled, leading eventually
Farming requires field preparation, weeding and tend- to complex social forms such as the state. Although the broad
ing, harvesting, and storage of the harvest. Foraging does historical trend has been toward people remaking the envi-
not. Farming requires long-term commitment to living in ronment and increasing human population, specific environ-
a single place, and this may not be possible in all places at mental and historical conditions explain the exact sequence
all times. Lack of year-round water or political conditions of events in any particular place.
such as raiding and warfare may make permanent residence Pre-industrial farming technologies led to steady popu-
impossible. lation increases. Large civilizations such as Rome, China, the
Third, in some cases, foraging strategies are more Inca, and Japan were based on these technologies. However,
dependable than cultivation or keeping herds of animals. in all pre-industrial farming societies, more than 80% of
The introduction of new technology can make foraging the population was directly involved in food production.
strategies more effective than cultivation. For example, This limited the total population possible. The world’s pop-
when the Spanish introduced the horse and gun to the ulation reached 1 billion in the early 19th century. At this
American plains, some Native American cultures, such as the time, the largest cities in the world were London, England,
Cheyenne, did so well with bison hunting that they gave up and Beijing, China. Each had a population of slightly over
the farming strategies they had previously used (Figure 5.1). 1 million, about the size of current-day San Jose, California;
Even today, many foraging and pastoral populations resist Glasgow, Scotland; or Sendai, Japan. In 2018, the world’s
abandoning these occupations for cultivation because they population was around 7.6 billion, and urban areas like
prefer the economic, social, and psychological satisfactions Shanghai, Mumbai, and Tokyo had populations over
of a foraging or pastoral way of life. In these societies, hunt- 20,000,000.
ing and pastoralism are highly valued occupations, intimately The rapid population growth of the last 200 years
connected to a people’s cultural identity. Many Americans is closely linked to the industrial revolution of the late
today forage; they hunt, fish, and gather wild foods. These 18th and early 19th centuries. The industrial revolution
activities are simultaneously recreational pastimes and mark- involved the replacement of human and animal energy
ers of identity, and they make important contributions to the by machines. It was truly revolutionary, both in the speed
family diet. with which it developed and in its effects on society.
Although consumers in wealthy nations are responsible for

FIGURE 5.2 High levels of pollution are often most of the world’s pollution, populations in China, India, and
one effect of industrialization. Here, a child with a many other nations contribute increasing amounts and will
balloon wears a mask to provide some protection contribute even more in the future. In mid-January 2013, the
against the smog in Beijing in December 2015. Air Quality Index for Beijing climbed to 755. Any reading over
400 is considered hazardous (“Beijing’s Air Pollution,” 2013).
VCG/VCG/Getty Images
In December 2015, the Chinese government issued a red alert,

closing schools and limiting outdoor construction for several
days because of high air pollution levels (“China Pollution,”
2015; Figure 5.2.)
The environmental problems resulting from indus-
trial and postindustrial society have reawakened interest in
and respect for the subsistence adaptations of nonindustrial
people. Through detailed knowledge of their environment
and using ingenious, if simple, technology, many nonin-
dustrial societies live in ways that are sustainable and that
create fewer environmental problems than industrializa-
tion. However, it is important to realize that current world
population levels cannot be maintained by nonindustrial
subsistence techniques. We have much to learn from under-
standing nonindustrial subsistence patterns, but we cannot
simply copy them.
An Overview of Subsistence Strategies

An anthropological understanding of the interactions among
culture, the ways in which people make their living, and the
environment can be approached using a typology of sub-
sistence strategies. Each strategy uses the environment in
different ways, and each has a different impact on the envi-
ronment. The five basic subsistence strategies identified
by anthropologists are foraging, pastoralism, horticulture,
Industrialism greatly increased human productivity, agriculture, and industrialism (Cohen, 1971). Each of these
significantly reducing the percentage of the population strategies is an ideal type. Most societies use a combination of
involved in agriculture. Additionally, industrialization strategies to survive; this has particularly been the case in the
produced a relatively high standard of living for enormous last 500 years.
numbers of people. Foraging depends on the use of plant and animal
However, the price of industrialization has been high. resources naturally available in the environment. Pastoralism
Industrial societies have elevated levels of inequality. On the primarily involves the care of domesticated herd animals,
one hand, even relatively poor people today have access to whose dairy and meat products are a major part of the pas-
goods and technologies unimaginable to the wealthiest peo- toralist diet. Horticulture refers to the production of plants
ple of earlier eras. On the other hand, the economic distance using a simple, nonmechanized technology. Agriculture
between the wealthy and poor is greater than ever. In addi- involves the production of food using the plow, draft ani-
tion, industry is a major source of environmental degrada- mals, and more complex techniques of water and soil control
tion and climate change. The energy and production needs so that land is permanently cultivated and needs no fallow
of businesses and the consumer desires of the world’s people period. Finally, industrialism involves the use of machine
have had a devastating effect on the environment: the U.S. technology and chemical processes for the production of
Environmental Protection Agency (2017) regulates over 180 food and other goods. Within these basic types of subsistence
hazardous air pollutants alone. Oil and gas exploration, log- strategies, however, there is much diversity.
ging, mining, dams, and many other large projects can funda- Each subsistence strategy supports a characteristic
mentally change the environment. level of population density (number of people per square
unit of land) and has a different level of productivity (yield Foraging societies vary in productivity; in most cases,
per person per unit of land) and efficiency (yield per per- foraging can support only a low population density.
son per hour of labor invested). These criteria, in turn, tend Foragers generally live in communities of from 20 to 50
to be associated with characteristic forms of social organiza- individuals. Even at this low density, few of the marginal
tion and certain cultural practices and patterns. For example, areas where current-day foragers are found can support
in most horticultural societies, productivity is relatively low. a year-round human population. Therefore, foraging
Therefore, populations must also be kept low. However, safe, almost always involves seasonal movement to gain access
reliable methods of artificial contraception are unknown. In to water or food. Thus, foraging requires independence
most of these societies, people limit population growth using and mobility. For this reason, foraging bands tend to
cultural practices that function to eliminate or space out have highly flexible social arrangements. Such flexibil-
births. These include sexual abstinence, abortion, infanticide, ity means that there is very little hierarchy in foraging
late weaning, and prohibitions on sexual intercourse while a societies.
child is breastfeeding. In some environments, like those of the Inuit and
Controlling births matches population to resources. Pintupi described below and in the first ethnography sec-
However, resources can be increased through trade. Trade tion, foraging is unquestionably a harsh and dangerous
occurs in all types of societies, including among foragers. way of life. In less demanding environments, foragers often
For example, in the Ituri rain forest in Central Africa, Mbuti live in relative abundance. They generally have plenty to
foragers have complex, hereditary exchange relationships eat. However, they rarely have many possessions. Seasonal
with the Lese, their horticultural neighbors. In exchange for movement is a strong disincentive for the accumulation of
meat, mushrooms, honey, building materials, medicine, and material goods. Because they must transport everything
agricultural labor, the Mbuti receive manioc, plantains, pea- they own frequently, they tend to have only those items
nuts, and rice, which together form more than 50% of their essential to their survival.
diet. The Lese also provide the Mbuti with metal for knives At one time, perhaps 10,000 years ago, all human beings
and arrowheads, cotton cloth, and aluminum cooking pots lived by foraging, but today only a very small portion of the
(Wilkie, 1988: 123). This trading relationship both increases world’s people live primarily by foraging. As other forms of
the number of Mbuti and Lese that the environment will sup- production developed, foragers were pushed to marginal
port and materially improves their standard of living. areas such as deserts, Arctic tundra, and deep forests.
Australian Foragers, the Pintupi

Foraging
The Pintupi people of the Gibson Desert of Australia are a
Foraging is a diverse strategy that includes the hunting of very different example of a foraging people than the Inuit
large and small game, fishing, and the collecting of various described in the “Ethnography” box that accompanies this
plant foods. Foragers do not produce food either through section. Like the Inuit, they live in an extreme environment.
planting or by controlling the reproduction of animals or However, they must contend with extreme heat and drought
keeping domestic animals for the consumption of their meat rather than extreme cold. The key to their adaptation was the
or milk. In most cases, foragers use simple tools such as dig- use of a wide variety of seasonally available plant and animal
ging sticks, spatulas, spears, and bow and arrow. However, foods and their detailed knowledge of their environment.
in some places, such as the Arctic, foraging technology can Even with access to only simple technology, this made for-
be quite complex. Because foragers do not consciously alter aging a reliable strategy, though a very difficult way of life in
their surroundings to produce food, they have less impact on certain seasons.
their environment than people following other subsistence The Pintupi recognize and can name 126 plants serving
strategies. 138 different social, economic, and medicinal functions. They
Foragers use a variety of strategies. In some extreme envi- use more than 75 different plants for edible seeds. Their diet
ronments, such as the Arctic, they may depend almost solely also includes tubers, fruits, nectars, sap, and edible insects as
on hunting. However, in most cases, they rely primarily on well as birds, bird eggs, lizards, and small mammals. The main
gathered vegetable foods, and women are typically respon- constraint on the Pintupi is the scarcity of water during the
sible for gathering. Successful foraging requires extensive driest and hottest months, which influences the distance they
and highly detailed knowledge of the environment. Studies travel, the places they stay, and how much time they spend in
among Ju/’hoansi foragers show that women can identify each place. Thus, the Western Desert societies consist of small,
more than 150 species of edible plants, and men recognize isolated family groups and have population densities as low as
more than 40 species of edible animals (Lee, 1979). one person per 150 to 200 square miles.
Ethnography
I N U IT F O R AG I N G S T R AT E GY A N D G L O B A L WA R M I N G
rituals provide effective outlets for the isolation and

tension of the long, dark winters; and their flexible
kinship organization allows local populations to
expand and contract in response to the seasonal
Alaska, variation in resources. For the Inuit of Baffin Island, this
U.S.
involves a set of economic practices called ningiqtuq,
UNITED
Inuit STATES best translated as “sharing.” Ningiqtuq orders the flow
Gwich'in of goods and food across individuals, families, and
entire communities. Among the Inuit, no one need
go without food or shelter. Inuit subsistence isn’t just
about food; it is also about practices that provide
individuals with security (Wenzel, 2009: 92–93).
Kaktovik
As with many other foragers, however, the 20th and
21st centuries have brought great changes in Inuit
le
Arct
Arc
Arctic
rc V Vill
Vil
Village
Villa
laage
ag
ge Circ subsistence strategies (Condon et al., 1996; Chance,
Arctic
1990). Most Inuit now base their livelihoods on a
combination of subsistence foraging and cash income
Alaska CANADA from a variety of sources. By the early 20th century,
(U.S.) the Western demand for furs had replaced the Inuit
subsistence hunting with commercial trapping,
providing many Inuit with guns and cash, which
they then used to buy food, tobacco, tea, canvas tents,
and clothing. Sources of Inuit income today include
Bering Gulf of
Sea Alaska handicrafts, tourism, various kinds of government
subsidies, and, for the Alaska Inuit, payments from
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
0 250 mi
0 250 km The use of wild foods such as moose, caribou,

whales, ducks, fish, and other wildlife continue to
All foragers exploit the diversity of their provide half or more of the Inuit diet. However,
environments, which, in most cases, means they Inuit foragers today make significant use of
rely more on collecting vegetable food than on modern technology such as snowmobiles, gasoline,
hunting. One exception is the Inuit of the Arctic fishing nets, and sleeping bags. Many Inuit
Circle, whose subsistence strategy includes almost households enjoy modern conveniences, and the
no collecting of plant food as this food source is costs of these conveniences require household
virtually absent in their environment. However, as is members to work full-time or seasonally in the cash
typical for most foragers, the Inuit food quest does economy (Kofinas, 2007).
follow the seasonal variation of their climate—a long,
cold winter during which the water areas become Global warming is yet another change to which the
sheets of ice and a short, cool summer. Inuit must adapt. The transformation of water areas
into ice during the long, cold winters has always been
For thousands of years, the Inuit hunted large land and essential to the Inuit foraging strategy. Sea ice is
sea animals such as caribou, polar bear, seal, walrus, used as a highway, formerly for dog sleds and now for
and whales. They devised technologies that effectively snowmobiles; for building materials; and for hunting
utilized the materials of their environment for survival, platforms. However, winter ice is disappearing.
building shelters of snow, which hold the heat and keep Danny Gordon, a 70-year-old Inuit man from the
out the wind, and expertly fashioning layered clothing Yukon in Canada, said, “In the summer 40 years ago,
that keeps out the cold yet prevents overheating. Their we had lots of icebergs, and you could land your boat
culture and social organization are also adapted to on them and climb on them even in summer. . . . Now
their environment and foraging strategy. Their values in the winter they are tiny. The weather has changed”
emphasize cooperation and mutual aid; their religious (in Myers et al., 2005: A1).
(Continued)
(Continued)
Due to global warming, icebergs and the permafrost FIGURE 5.3 Sea ice is critical to the survival of
are melting at an accelerating rate, making it more animals such as polar bears, seals, and walruses
difficult for Inuit marine hunters to maintain their as well as to the people who depend on hunting
culture and their historic ways of making a living. these animals.
The shrinking ice makes it harder for polar bears
to fatten up on seals, and the bears are becoming
SeppFriedhuber/RF/Getty Images
emaciated. Alaskan whale hunters in the open seas
have seen walruses try to climb onto their white
boats, mistaking them for ice floes. The pelts of
fox, marten, and other game are thinning, and even
seasoned hunters are falling into water that used to
be ice.
The Gwich’in are one of the many foraging groups

in northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada
that have been affected by global warming. Matthew
Gilbert, a member of the Gwich’in nation, wrote,
“Gwich’in elders long ago predicted that a day would
come when the world would warm and things would
not be the same with the animals. That time is now. . . .
The lakes, the rivers, the waterfowl and, most of all, the
caribou that we depend on are under threat” (Gilbert, FIGURE 5.4 The average Arctic sea ice
2007). minimum reached every year in September has
The 8,000 Gwich’in live in small villages spread declined steadily since 1980.
across the huge subarctic tundra and forest, which 8
contains thousands of lakes and scores of rivers.
Caribou herds that also occupy this area are the 7
million square km
main source of Gwich’in subsistence, but climate 6

change has decreased the number of caribou,
5
and the animals are also less healthy than they
were formerly. Because of early river thaws, many 4
caribou calves are drowned crossing the rushing
3
river waters, the glaciers and snow pockets that 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
provide essential resting places for mothers and YEAR

Source: climate.nasa.gov
their calves are disappearing, and the caribou must
move farther north, out of their usual territory.
This makes it harder for the hunters to find them, become locally active in resisting oil exploitation of
and hunting has to begin later in the season than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other Arctic
normal. areas where oil companies are now able to capitalize
on offshore energy resources revealed by global
Like many other Arctic groups, the Gwich’in also warming (Matthiessen, 2007).
hunt animals such as polar bear, seals, walruses. Sea
ice is critical to the survival of these animals, but it is Most of the economic activities that are the likely
disappearing (Figure 5.3). Although there are year- cause of global warming are located far from the
to-year variations, satellite data show an Arctic sea Arctic, and Inuit people can do little about global
ice decline of more than 13% per decade (National climate change. However, it is clear that their
Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2015). The culture will be deeply affected by the warming of
2015 ice minimum (the measurement in September the planet. Gilbert (2007) noted that nature is the
before waters begin to freeze again) was almost 30% fabric of Gwich’in lives and that because of this
less than the 1981–2000 average (Perovich et. al.,
2015; Figure 5.4). As the climate warms and ice melts, we cannot really separate “the climate” from our
hunting becomes more difficult, and the cultural human selves. . . . So, when we talk about the
patterns it sustains become more fragile. environment and especially about the decline of
caribou, we are talking about who we are and who
Oil exploration in the Arctic is another threat facing we want to continue to be. It is a question of our
the Gwich’in. Some (though not all) of the Inuit have very survival as a people.
One Canadian Inuit sadly noted, “The next 2. Describe some major changes in Arctic food-
generation . . . is not going to experience what getting strategies due to contact with industrial-
we did. . . . We can’t pass the traditions on as our ized cultures.
ancestors passed them on to us” (Myers et al., 2005).
3. How does global warming affect Arctic
Critical Thinking Questions food-getting strategies?
1. What have been the main food-getting strategies
of Arctic peoples?
stimulates the growth of new grass seeds and tubers for the
FIGURE 5.5 A wide variety of plant foods and following year. Both men and women spend most of the day
small animals allows people to survive in the in the food quest, hunting monitor lizards and kangaroos and
harsh environment of the Gibson Desert. Here, gathering the remaining fruits, vegetables, and seeds, which
Pintupi women hold goanna lizards. are both eaten and stored.
November is the harshest time of year. The heat is
Frans Lanting Studio/Alamy Stock Photo
intense, and families travel to the largest rock holes for

water, but even these occasionally run dry. Food becomes
less available, and many seeds and tubers run out com-
pletely. If the rain has not come by December, foraging
ceases almost entirely. People try to take it easy to conserve
food and water. Women remain in camp looking after the
children and the elderly while the men search for food,
sometimes traveling as far as 12 miles a day from camp.
Average daily intake may be reduced to 800 calories per per-
son. Heat stress and the shortage of water prevent the whole
camp from moving to areas where food might be more
available, and people are thus trapped in the areas around
the larger water holes. Under conditions of starvation, weak
individuals may be fed blood from healthier people to get
Climatic changes in the Gibson Desert are extreme. them through the worst weeks.
Summer temperatures reach 120 degrees, and winter tem- The Pintupi and other Australian foragers demonstrate
peratures average around 72 degrees. Rainfall is very low, and the extraordinary ability of human beings to adapt to the
rain evaporates quickly. In the wet season, December through most extreme environments. Their detailed knowledge of
February, water is available, and families spread across the their environment has permitted them to survive for thou-
desert. They move great distances to search for food and to sands of years as well as to develop highly complex ceremo-
attend ceremonies. Since new plants have not had time to grow, nial, religious, kinship, and artistic cultural patterns. These
food is scarce at this time of year and is limited mainly to foods Australian tribes survived using foraging strategies until the
left over from the previous year. Men and women gather lizards mid-20th century. Due to prolonged drought, in the 1920s
and edible toads, which are relatively easy to collect (Figure 5.5). the Pintupi began moving to mission stations, cattle sta-
At the end of the wet season, when temperatures mod- tions, government settlements, and towns around the des-
erate, families move near the large surface water holes. June ert fringe. The last Pintupi left the Western Desert in 1966
and July bring the greatest material prosperity; tubers, fruits, (F. Myers, 1986). From their point of view, food was easier to
and grass seeds are all abundantly available. Edible fruits are get elsewhere.
collected from 12 different plants and stored for the “hungry The Pintupi subsistence strategy demonstrates that for-
time.” People live around the water holes until August, when aging in extreme environments can be a harsh existence
food availability decreases and temperatures rise steadily, with periods of desperation. However, in less extreme envi-
reaching over 100 degrees. The landscape begins to dry ronments where predictable vegetal foods can be supple-
out, and people fall back to large rock holes where there is mented by hunting, foragers may experience abundant
water. They set fires on the plains to attract game, which also leisure time and generally good health. For example, Richard
Lee estimated that an adult Dobe Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari Alps region of Europe as well as among the Navajo in the
Desert in southern Africa spends an average of only two and southwestern United States. In these cases, people estab-
a half six-hour days a week in subsistence activities, and a lish permanent villages. Men and boys move the animals
woman can gather enough in one day to feed her family for to different areas as pastures become available at differ-
three days (1984: 50–53). ent altitudes or in different climatic zones. Women, chil-
Today, like the Pintupi, most foragers have moved to dren, and some men remain at the permanent village site.
permanent settlements, either by choice or as the result of In nomadic pastoralism, the whole population—men,
government pressure. Old trading relationships between women, and children—moves with the herds throughout
foragers and nonforaging people have, in most places, dis- the year, and there are no permanent villages.
appeared or become greatly diminished. Although people Pastoralism involves complex interactions among ani-
throughout the world continue to forage for food when they mals, land, and people. With domestication, animals became
can, members of contemporary foraging bands rely on the dependent on their human keepers for pasture, water, breed-
market for much of their food. ing, shelter, salt, and protection from predators. Pastoralists,
therefore, must be highly knowledgeable about the num-
ber of animals their land can support as well as the number
Pastoralism needed to provide subsistence for the human population
(Barfield, 1993: 6).
Pastoralism is a specialized adaptation to an environment Pastoralism is usually a mixed subsistence strategy.
that, because of mountainous terrain, dry climate, or unsuit- Although there are some groups, such as the indigenous
able soil, cannot support a large human population through people of Chukota (far northeast Siberia, near Alaska),
agriculture but can support enough vegetation for animals if whose diets are almost entirely composed of meat and fish
they are allowed to range over a large area. Because human (Berezovikova & Mamleeva, 2001), most pastoralists need
beings cannot digest grass, raising animals that can live on access to grains and other agricultural foods. In some cases,
grasses makes pastoralism an efficient way to exploit semi- pastoralists’ survival depends upon relationships with their
arid natural grasslands. Unlike commercial animal hus- sedentary neighbors, with whom they trade meat animals,
bandry in which livestock are fed grain to produce meat or wool, milk products, and hides for grain and manufactured
milk, pastoralism does not require direct competition with goods. In other cases, pastoralists spend part of the year rais-
humans for the same resources (Barfield, 1993: 13). ing grain and other crops.
Pastoralists may herd cattle, sheep, goats, yaks, or camels, The key to the pastoralist economy is herd growth, which
all of which produce both meat and milk. The major areas of depends primarily on reproduction by female animals. The
pastoralism are found in East Africa (cattle), North Africa number of animals needed to support a family is a perennial
(camels), southwestern Asia (sheep and goats), central focus of decision making in pastoralist societies. Eating or
Asia (yak), the Andes (alpaca and llama) and the subarctic selling too many animals in a single year may lead to insol-
(caribou and reindeer). vency, so pastoralists must always balance their present needs
Pastoralism can be either transhumant or nomadic. against future herd production. Pastoralism is a risky busi-
Transhumant pastoralism is found in many places is ness; weather disasters such as drought or storms, disease, or
the world, including East Africa, the Middle East, and the theft can easily decimate a herd.
Ethnography
T H E M A A SA I O F E A S T A F R I CA: A T R A N S H U M A N T PA S TO R A L A DA P TAT I O N
The Maasai, one of the many cattle cultures The Maasai environment is full of uncertainties.
of East Africa, live in the semiarid grasslands Under these conditions, the Maasai have survived
(savanna) of southern Kenya and northern by developing a flexible subsistence strategy
Tanzania, an area characterized by many different that exploits multiple ecological niches and
microenvironments. Like other cattle-herding includes measures to deal with environmental
groups in the region, the Maasai’s diet historically unpredictability and even occasional catastrophes
consisted primarily of the blood and milk of their such as droughts that kill crops and livestock.
cattle, supplemented by other resources such as The knowledge necessary to survive under
grain or fish (Figure 5.6). these conditions is passed down from parents
phones play a critical role in providing information

about rainfall and pasturage (Mason, 2007).
Maasai resource management is a system of

specialized herding well suited to East Africa’s
savanna and crucially determined by various
environmental factors such as elevation, the
KENYA distribution of lakes and rivers, seasonal rainfall,
TANZANIA ETHIOPIA and vegetation. The most important factor is
seasonal rainfall. The year is divided into a rainy
season that generally lasts from about November
SOMALIA through May and a dry season from June through
UGANDA KENYA October. The dry season is often a period of hunger
and scarcity. Maasai communities and livestock
concentrate around permanent water points.
Lake
Victoria Nairobi Permanent homesteads are built around this area
RWANDA so that everyone has equal access to water but are
built far enough away from each other to reduce the
BURUNDI
likelihood of overgrazing. At least some members of
Maasai households inhabit these homes year-round.
Indian
Dodoma O cean The number of animals concentrated around
TANZANIA permanent water during the dry season often reaches
several thousand, so cattle are permitted to drink
only according to the elaborate rotation schedules
0 400 mi the elders set up. The system depends on a waiting
Maasai Territory
0 400 km
area, the water point itself, and a large dry-season
pasturage area, as well as having livestock well able
to resist drought. Livestock are watered on alternate
days. On their days to be watered, livestock are taken
FIGURE 5.6 Among the Maasai, as in many
to the queuing area in the morning then in their turn
herding cultures, blood and milk are dietary moved to the water point. After watering they are
staples. Cattle are killed for meat only on moved to the dry-season pasture. There they graze,
ceremonial occasions. Here, Maasai men bleed returning home in the evening. On days when they
a cow. are not watered, the livestock graze away from the
permanent water source in different part of the dry-
season pasture.
PhotoStock-Israel/Alamy Stock Photo
When the rains begin, usually in November or

December, the young men take the mature and
healthy stock to the wet-season pasturage areas,
where they live in temporary camps and there is an
abundance of water and rich pasture. This allows the
dry-season pasture to recover. Most of the women,
children, and elder men remain in the permanent
homesteads with the sick, immature, and lactating
animals. Household heads check on their sons and
herds periodically. At the end of the wet season, in
May or June, the young men return with the livestock
to the permanent homesteads and a new cycle begins.
to children. Men’s knowledge focuses primarily A critical adaptive feature of the Maasai strategy
on information most necessary to effectively is the drought reserve. Members of the community
move and control livestock. Women’s knowledge agree to set aside relatively large areas of water
focuses more on types of medicinal plants and the and pasture that never dry up, even during the
availability of water. Up-to-date information about worst years of drought. These areas are usually
the different areas in the region is shared through swamps, lakes, or mountain springs at relatively
extended kin and trading networks and at markets high elevations. During normal years, the Maasai
and ritual celebrations. In contemporary times, cell do not bring their herds to these areas. When a
(Continued)
(Continued)
drought occurs, herders will come from as far as 100 economies. Inspired by the wildlife conservation
miles away. Although animals do die during severe movement, the governments began to set aside huge
droughts, the drought reserve permits enough to tracts of land for national parks and game reserves
survive so that the herd can recover in less than five to attract tourism. Although the Maasai themselves
years. became an internationally known tourist attraction,
they very rarely profited from this in any substantial
The Maasai also build flexibility into their adaptive way, although this may be slowly changing (Rushby,
strategy by treating land as common property. 2011). They were, however, evicted from much of
Access to pasture and water is regulated and their land, and their herding areas were narrowed
negotiated by a council of local elders representing substantially.
the community. Kinship, clan membership, and
membership in the age-grade system build extensive As Maasai herding has been increasingly
social networks that ensure maximum flexibility, circumscribed, much herding knowledge has been
giving herders multiple options for moving herds. lost. Although the Maasai had coexisted with wild
The flexibility of the Maasai adaptation also depends grazing herds and indeed imitated the seasonal
on exchange; in some areas, the Maasai exchange patterns of the herds, today they are largely shut
small stock and milk for honey, an essential out of conservation policymaking. Development
ingredient in the honey beer used on all Maasai planners often regard them as obstacles to the
ceremonial occasions. Some Maasai also encourage most effective use of the Maasai’s own land. The
farmers to settle among them. When small farmers changing Maasai subsistence strategy illustrates
settle on riverbanks, they exchange fish as well as the effect of global economics and global
grains, fruit, and vegetables with the Maasai. When values such as wildlife conservation on local
the farmers earn cash by selling their products in the communities.
markets, they use it to buy livestock and milk from
the Maasai, who in turn use the cash to buy clothing, Critical Thinking Questions
phones, aluminium cooking pots, iron spearheads, 1. What are the main things the Maasai must know
and veterinary medicine. to adapt to their environment?
The Maasai lived successfully in the Great Rift 2. How do the Maasai build flexibility into their sub-
Valley region for hundreds of years, but since the sistence strategy?
late 19th century, it has become more and more
difficult for them to practice their transhumant 3. How can the needs of the Maasai, the economic
pastoralist strategy. Much of their best grazing land development of Kenya, and the ideology of wild-
and drought reserves were also suitable for forestry, life conservation be reconciled as they interact in
agriculture, and stall-fed livestock, and Europeans the African savannah?
took over these areas during the colonial period and
still own much of this land. After World War I, and Source: Partially based on Jim Igoe, Conservation and
increasingly after their independence, Kenya and Globalization: A Case Study of Maasai Herders and National
Tanzania looked for new ways to improve their Parks in East Africa. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2004.
Nomadic pastoralist societies tend to be based on patri- Balochistan. The Yarahmadzai provide an example of a
lineal kinship. In southwest Asia, these societies are char- mixed pastoralist adaptation that has undergone changes
acteristically organized into supratribal confederations, due to both a global economy and the restraints of adapt-
with powerful leaders allied in regional political networks. ing to the control of the national state (Salzman, 2000). The
In the past, these confederations were technically subordi- Yarahmadzai occupy a plateau at 5,000 feet above sea level,
nated to various empires on the Iranian and Anatolian pla- and their chief environmental problem is finding adequate
teaus. However, they were rarely effectively controlled by water and pasture year-round. They solve this by moving to
the empires. For the past 200 years, pastoralists have had to seek pasture according to the seasons (Figure 5.7). For much
adapt to the policies set by distant governments of centralized of the year, the Yarahmadzai live in small camps of between
nation–states and have lost most of their political and mili- 5 and 20 families. When information about good pasture
tary autonomy (Barfield, 1993: 206). becomes available, the whole Yarahmadzai camp migrates.
Because even good pasturage is quickly exhausted, the camp
migrates frequently, anywhere from 5 to 25 miles in each
The Yarahmadzai: Nomadic Pastoralists move.
Yarahmadzai is the traditional name of camel nomads who Most of the six-inch annual rainfall occurs in the
live in the southeastern corner of Iran, which is known as winter. This means that there is good pasturage on the
grains, dates, and processed date pits that their keepers pro-
FIGURE 5.7 In transhumant pastoralism, people vide. The people depend on food stores from the previous
do not establish permanent villages. Men and year, and since winter is the rainy season, water is normally
boys move the animals to different areas as available.
pastures become available at different altitudes Milk is the staple food of the Yarahmadzai and is con-
or in different climatic zones. Here we see sumed in many different forms, both fresh and preserved
transhumant pastoralists in Mauritania. as dried milk solids and butter. Milk and milk products are
also sold and exchanged for grain. Milk is the main source of
protein, fat, calcium, and other nutrients. The Yarahmadzai,
Aldo Pavan/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images
like most other pastoral peoples, do not eat much meat.

Their flocks are their capital, and the Yarahmadzai hope
to increase their size. Because killing animals for food
works against this objective, the Yarahmadzai rarely do so
(Salzman, 1999: 24).
Like most contemporary pastoralists, then, the
Yarahmadzai combine herding with other subsistence strat-
egies to earn a living. Many pastoralists today now depend
less on consuming the direct products of their herds—meat,
wool, milk—and more on the sale of animals and animal
products for cash. In this sense, many nomadic pastoralists
are becoming ranchers: pastoral specialists in a cash econ-
omy. Pastoralists today are often successful in adapting
their products to local and even global markets. Nomads
in Afghanistan and Iran, for example, are highly integrated
into national and international trade networks. They spe-
cialize in selling meat animals to local markets, lambskins
to international buyers, and sheep intestines to meet the
huge German demand for natural sausage casings (Barfield,
1993: 211).
Critics of nomadic pastoralism claim that the individ-
ual pastoralist’s desire to increase the size of his herds inev-
itably leads to collective overgrazing and the destruction of
grasslands. However, pastoralists are aware of this poten-
tial problem and in varied ways restrict access to com-
mon pasture (Barfield, 1993: 214). Indeed, government
policies that attempt to restrict nomadic use of pastoralist
territories in order to make those territories productive
Yarahmadzai’s high plateau in the spring. However, by June for agriculture often directly and indirectly exacerbate
and July, the animals have eaten all of the spring’s growth environmental degradation. This and many other issues
and the season has turned very dry and hot. In response, have led to long-standing and violent conflict between the
the Yarahmadzai migrate to areas served by government government, the Yarahmadzai, and other Baloch nomadic
irrigation projects to earn money by harvesting grain. They groups. Baloch groups have fought against the different
remain there until the harvest ends in early autumn. Then governments of Iran and Pakistan since the end of World
they migrate to the lowland desert where there are groves War II. The conflict has been relatively small in scale since
of date palms, leaving their tents as well as their goats and 2012, but state control over these nomadic people is tenu-
sheep on the plateau in the care of young boys. During this ous (Katona, 2016).
time, they harvest dates and prepare date preserves for the Pastoralism cannot support an indefinitely increasing
return journey to their winter camps. Those who also farm population, and many pastoralists have already become
plant grain, and many women work for cash in nearby sedentary. But with pastoralists’ knowledge of their envi-
towns. In November, the Yarahmadzai return to their winter ronment, their creative use of multiple resources, and global
camps. At this time, the Yarahmadzai plateau is almost com- demand for their products, pastoralism as a subsistence strat-
pletely barren, with very little for the animals to eat. They egy has a strong future in exploiting the planet’s large arid and
live on their accumulated fat and small quantities of roots, semiarid zones.
Horticulture not exceeding 150 people per square mile (Netting, 1977).
Despite this, horticultural villages may be quite large, ranging
Horticultural societies depend primarily on the production from 100 to 1,000 people.
of plants using simple, nonmechanized technology. In hor- Horticulture may be practiced in dry lands, such as
ticulture, cultivated fields are not used year after year but among the Hopi Indians of northeastern Arizona, who culti-
remain fallow for some time after being cultivated. This is an vate maize, beans, and squash, but it is typically a tropical for-
important contrast between horticulture and agriculture. est adaptation found mainly in southeast Asia, sub-Saharan
Horticulturalists plant and harvest with simple tools such Africa, some Pacific islands, and the Amazon Basin in South
as hoes or digging sticks, and they do not use draft animals, America. In these environments, people practice swidden
irrigation techniques, or plows. In most cases, horticulture (slash-and-burn) cultivation. In slash-and-burn cultivation,
produces a lower yield per acre and uses less human labor a field is cleared by felling the trees and burning the brush.
than agriculture. Horticulturalists grow enough food in The burned vegetation is allowed to remain on the ground,
their fields or gardens to support the local group, but they do which prevents the soil from drying out. The resulting bed
not produce large surpluses and usually have only minimal of ash acts as a fertilizer, returning nutrients to the soil. Fields
involvement with wider market systems. Population den- are used for one to five years and then allowed to lie fallow for
sities among horticultural peoples are generally low, usually a longer period (up to 20 years) so that the forest cover can
be rebuilt and fertility can be restored. Swidden cultivators
require five to six times as much fallow land as they are actu-
ally cultivating.
FIGURE 5.8 In areas where it has been Swidden cultivation can have a deteriorating effect on the
practiced for centuries, swidden (slash- environment if fields are cultivated before they have lain fal-
and-burn) horticulture is based on a deep low long enough to recover their forest growth. If the land is
understanding of the forest environment. continually overused, the forest will not grow back and grass-
Here, a woman from the Akha ethnic group in lands will replace the tree cover. Because of the possibility of
northern Thailand walks to her garden. irreversible ecological deterioration, governments often con-
sider swidden cultivation to be both inefficient and destruc-
Rio Helmi/LightRocket/Getty Images
tive. However, modern industrial strategies such as logging

and giant agribusiness, not swidden cultivation, are mainly
responsible for the deterioration and disappearance of trop-
ical forests (Sponsel, 1995).
Horticulture is also a mixed subsistence strategy. Most
swidden cultivators grow several crops. Because their gar-
dens do not provide all the necessary proteins for human
health, they may also hunt and fish or raise some domes-
tic animals. In Papua New Guinea, for example, domestic
pigs are an important source of protein. The horticulturalist
Kofyar of Nigeria keep goats, chickens, sheep, and cows. The
Yanomamö of the Amazon rain forest hunt monkeys and
other forest animals.
Because of the very diverse environments of swidden
cultivation, horticulturalists have diverse cultures. Most hor-
ticulturalists shift residences as they move their fields, but
some occupy villages permanently or at least on a long-term
basis (Figure 5.8).
The Lua’: Swidden Cultivators in Thailand

The Lua’ of northern Thailand are swidden horticultural-
ists. After using a block of land for one or two years, villagers
allow it to lie fallow for about nine years to restore its fertility.
Swidden blocks around the village are cultivated in a regular
rotational sequence. Each household normally returns to the
same field it cultivated 10 years before, marking their swid-

den field boundaries with charred logs.
In January, village elders inspect the gardens they expect
CHINA
to use the following year to confirm that the forest regrowth
is adequate for cultivation. Using long steel-bladed knives,
MYANMAR THAILAND
the men clear their fields by felling small trees. They leave
strips of trees along watercourses and at the tops of ridges
to prevent erosion and provide seed sources for forest
regrowth during the fallow period. They leave taller trees
standing but trim their branches so they will not shade the
crops. Such Lua’ practices encourage ecosystem diversity THAILAND
(Rerkasem et al., 2009). Bangkok
The fields cleared in January and February dry until the Andaman
AM
CAMBODIA
end of March, when a day is chosen to burn them. First, a fire- S ea
TN
E
VI
break is cleared around the field so that fire does not acciden-
tally spread into the forest. Then the swidden is burned. The Gulf of
Thailand
men doing the work usually carry guns, hoping game ani-
South
mals such as boar or barking deer will run toward them out China
of the burning fields, although this happens less today than in Sea
the past. MALAYSIA
Each section of a swidden is planted with crops chosen IN Lua’ Territory
D
to make the best use of its fertility, soil moisture, and poten- O
N
E
tial for erosion. The cultivators plant cotton and corn on the 0 200 mi S
I SINGAPORE
slopes of the fields and yams on the lower, wetter portions. 0 200 km
A
By mid-April, they begin to plant the main subsistence crop,
upland rice, jabbing the earth loose with 10-foot iron-tipped
planting poles. They hope the rice will take root and sprout for homespun clothing, and material for weaving baskets and
before the heavy monsoon rains come. Different types of rice building houses. The wild fruits and yams that grow on fallow
are sown in different areas of the field. Quick-ripening rice is land are particularly important during food shortages.
planted near the field shelter, where it can be easily watched. Like most horticulturalists, the Lua’ maintain a pattern
Drought-resistant varieties are planted on the drier, sandier of varied vegetation zones around the village. The villagers
tops of the slopes, along with millet. In addition, there are gar- are forbidden to cut lumber or make swiddens or gardens in
dens with mustard greens, peppers, beans, and other vegeta- mature forests, which are thus preserved. Uncut forest strips
bles. Vine plants are grown in places particularly susceptible are also maintained between swidden blocks, around the
to erosion. By May, weeding begins, with mainly women and village, along stream courses and headwaters, and at the
older children using short-handled tools to scrape and hack tops of ridges, all of which reduce erosion.
at the weeds on the surface; weeds are not dug or pulled out By the mid-20th century, many newcomers had begun
by the roots. to settle in Lua’ territory, which threatened Lua’ production
Both men and women harvest the rice, using small practices. Due to the increased population, the animals were
handheld sickles, cutting the stems of each bunch of rice overhunted and the streams polluted. Since the newcomers
close to the ground. The stalks are spread out to dry for a few had not traditionally practiced swidden, they were less care-
days, then young men beat them against a threshing mat to ful gardeners than the Lua’, and the quality of the land began
knock the rice grains loose, separating them as completely to deteriorate. Additionally, through environmental regula-
as possible. Older men beat the broken stalks with bamboo tions and the promotion of development projects, the gov-
threshing sticks and use bamboo winnowing fans to separate ernment has pressured the Lua’ to limit their use of swiddens
the grain and chaff. After a second winnowing, the cleaned (Delcore, 2007: 96). The result has been an increase in inten-
rice is loaded into baskets and kept in a temporary barn near sive agriculture and cattle herding. Many crops such as sor-
the field shelter. ghum and cotton have been severely reduced or eliminated.
After the harvest, swiddens are allowed to lie fallow. The Cattle now graze the fallow swiddens, leaving few plants for
Lua’ also keep pigs, water buffalo, cattle, and chickens, and human use. The increase of cash cropping in soybeans has
these animals eat the plants that grow on the fallow gardens. transformed the previously clear and free-flowing streams
Villagers also use these fields as a source of medicines, dyes to muddy, polluted pools that the Lua’ consider too dirty to
wash their clothes in, and year-round irrigation has brought In hilly areas, agriculture requires some form of terracing
in year-round mosquitoes. to prevent crops and good soil from being washed down
The changes in swidden practices among the Lua’ are typ- the hillside. Preindustrial agriculture also uses techniques
ical of trends in Southeast Asia and perhaps worldwide. A ris- of natural fertilization, selective breeding of livestock and
ing population, pressure toward industrial agriculture from crops, and crop rotation, all of which increase productivity.
governments and corporations, and the desire of farmers to Whereas horticulturalists must increase the amount of land
raise and sell cash crops all work against swidden agriculture. under cultivation to support a larger population, agriculture
A recent analysis showed that other agricultural systems are can support population increases by more intensive use of the
replacing swidden farming in Southeast Asia and that fallow same piece of land.
times are growing shorter where it is still being practiced. The Agriculture generally supports higher population den-
authors noted, however, that farmers maintain short fallow sities than horticulture. In Indonesia, for example, the island
swidden farming alongside other agricultural practices, so it of Java is only about 2,200 square miles but is home to more
is unlikely to disappear entirely (Schmidt-Vogt et al., 2009). than 135 million people. That makes it one of the most
Despite this, the move away from swidden farming will densely populated places in the world. This population is
have profound cultural consequences for the Lua’ and other largely supported by intensive wet rice cultivation by farmers
groups. using elaborate irrigation terraces and planting up to three
crops a year. (Figure 5.9) Although Indonesia achieved food
self-sufficiency in the 1980s, it has struggled to maintain it
Agriculture since. Climate change has exacerbated this problem (McBeth,
In agriculture, the same piece of land is permanently culti- 2016; Indonesia, 1997).
vated, often with the use of the plow, draft animals, and more The greater productivity of agriculture also results from
complex techniques of water and soil control than horticul- more intensive use of labor. Farmers must work long and
turalists use. Plows are more efficient at loosening the soil hard to make the land productive. For example, growing
than are digging sticks or hoes, and turning the soil brings rice in an irrigated paddy requires about 233 person-days of
nutrients to the surface. Plowing requires a much more thor- labor a year for each hectare (A person-day is the amount
ough clearing of the land, but, when combined with a system of work done by a single individual on a single day. A hect-
to increase land fertility, it allows land to be used year after are is about 2.5 acres) (Barker et al., 1985: 128). Agriculture
year. also requires more capital investment than horticulture;
Irrigation is also frequently important in agriculture. plows and other equipment must be bought and draft ani-
Although some horticulturalists practice simple methods of mals raised and cared for. Agriculturalists may also be
water conservation and control, agriculture in dry areas can more vulnerable to the environment than horticulturalists.
be carried out only with sophisticated irrigation techniques. Horticulturalists tend to plant many different crops and
maintain gardens in several locations. If one crop or loca-
tion fails, others are likely to succeed. However, agriculture
usually depends on one or two crops. For farmers, a crop
FIGURE 5.9 Growing rice produces a very large failure or a disease that strikes draft animals may become an
amount of food but also requires a great deal of economic disaster.
labor and often irrigation as well. Agriculture is generally associated with sedentary vil-
lages, occupational diversity, social stratification, the rise of
Earl & Nazima Kowall/Getty Images
cities and the state, and other complex forms of social organi-
zation. In contrast to horticulturalists, who most often form
independent villages and grow food mainly for the subsis-
tence of their households, agricultural farmers are enmeshed
within larger, complex societies. Part of their food production
is used to support occupational specialists such as religious or
ruling elites who do not produce food themselves. In many
cases, agricultural production is done by peasants. Peasants
are members of agricultural households that rely on family
labor both for their own subsistence and to pay rents, taxes,
and other charges demanded by the individuals, communi-
ties, and states that ultimately control the land.
Musha: A Peasant Village in Egypt

Musha is an agricultural village about 250 miles south of
Cairo in Egypt’s Nile Valley. Musha’s farmers practice a two-
year crop rotation system based on both summer and winter
EGYPT
crops (Figure 5.10). The cycle begins with cotton in the first
summer, followed by wheat in the first winter. Maize or sor-
ghum follows in the second summer, or the land may be left
fallow. The cycle is completed in the second winter with mil-
Mediter ranean S eaa
let, lentils, and chickpeas. In addition, farmers grow grapes
and pomegranates and raise a variety of vegetables for home
consumption. They also depend on the milk, cheese, and ISRAEL
butter from water buffalo, cows, sheep, and goats. A portion JORDAN
of the production must be used to pay taxes (currently about Cairo
14% of the value of the land) or for rent if farmers do not own Lower Egypt
all of the land they plant. Far more must be used to acquire
other things the household needs. SAUDI
ARABIA
The household is central in Musha cultivation, with extra
laborers hired as needed. Women do not work in the fields
Ni
Musha
le
but instead keep house, care for animals, and make cheese.
Ri
ve
r
Children, who often both work for their own families and are
EGYPT
Re
hired by others, cut clover for animals and help harvest cot-
d
Se
ton. The head of the household plays a key managerial role
a
supervising others, making agricultural purchases, hiring Upper Egypt
labor, and managing the household budget. Aswan Dam
Historically, Musha farmers relied on either animal

Lake
power or human effort and a few basic wooden tools. Shallow Nasser
plows and threshing sleds were pulled by oxen. Winnowing
relied on the wind and a winnowing fork and sieves for the 0 150 mi
SUDAN
final cleaning. Donkeys and camels were also used to haul 0 150 km
crops, people, and equipment. Starting in the 1950s, however,
Musha farmers began to move to mechanized agriculture. By
1980, almost all farmers used machines at least some of the
time. They also came to depend on chemical fertilizers and FIGURE 5.10 In peasant villages in Egypt,
pesticides as well as animal manure. farmers make important decisions about
In the 1960s, when the completion of the Aswan High allocating labor, buying products for home and
Dam brought an end to the annual flooding of the Nile, the farm, scheduling machinery, and dealing with
government constructed feed canals, and these became the the government.
main source of water for the fields. The new system made
Jason Larkin/Getty Images
double cropping and cotton cultivation possible but also
increased land values, led to the creation of large land hold-
ings, and increased demand for labor. The government
maintains the canals, but farmers must raise the water from
the canals to the level of the fields. Pumps that perform this
task are generally owned by several people who share the
work of guarding and maintaining them, maintaining the
ditches that bring the water from the canals to the fields,
arranging for the distribution of water to the farmers’ fields,
and keeping accounts. Each farmer provides the necessary
labor to open a break in the ditch band so that the water
will flow into his field. After arranging for the distribution
of water to his fields, the farmer must hire a driver and trac- Farmers today must know the skills of farming as well as
tor to plow the fields if he, like many small farmers, does how to manage a wide range of other activities. They must
not own one. Fertilizer and seed are hauled from the village interact with family members and government officials and
bank to the farmer’s home and from his home to the field negotiate with day laborers, the owners of tractors, and many
(Hopkins, 1987). others. They supervise agricultural work and manage a wide
Wheat is one of the most important crops in Musha. It is range of activities, making important decisions at every step.
planted in November and harvested in May and June. Hired Farmers are affected by global prices for the commodities
laborers usually harvest wheat using a small sickle. The they produce as well as the policies of their own national
reaped wheat is bundled into sheaves, which are transported government and foreign governments. All over the world,
by camel or wagon to the threshing ground where they are fed farmers are increasingly part of a globalized, industrialized
into a threshing machine. The threshed grain is winnowed economy.
and sifted by specialists who are paid piece rates. Finally, the
grain and straw are hauled from the threshing ground back to Industrialism
the farmer’s storeroom.
For thousands of years, Musha’s farmers have been incor- In industrialism, the focus of production moves away
porated into state-level societies. Musha was near ancient from food to the production of other goods and services.
Lycopolis (modern-day Asyut), the capital of the 13th Nome Investments in machinery and technologies of communica-
of Upper Egypt, and was part of the area ruled by the ancient tion and information become increasingly important.
Egyptian empires, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman In industrialized societies, agriculture is patterned after
Empire. Thus, in deciding on their strategies for making a manufacturing. Farms are businesses, and their owners and
living, Musha farmers have always had to adapt both to the managers try to find the combination of capital investment
physical environment and to the policies of the various gov- in land, equipment, and labor that will yield the largest eco-
ernments that controlled them and their lands. Musha’s farm- nomic return. This system favors very large farms that can
ers today are enmeshed in the global economy. However, it is use vast amounts of capital to grow massive amounts of food
important to remember that this was also true 2,000 years ago and fiber.
when the grain produced there fed the citizens of Rome. Industrial farming has no definitive date of origin.
For much of the 20th century, the Egyptian govern- Rather, it is the result of a series of political and technical
ment controlled prices for key crops such as wheat and cot- changes that began in the 18th century. Over a 200-year
ton. However, direct government intervention was greatly period, land was increasingly brought under private con-
reduced or eliminated in the 1980s and 1990s. Despite this, trol, and technologies of various kinds were used to increase
the government is still heavily involved in agriculture. The production. Although the methods of production vary from
government has remodeled the very landscape on which crop to crop, the general direction of these changes was
the farmer works. Government organizations make loans toward increased command and control of the agricultural
to farmers, distribute agricultural inputs such as seed and landscape to maximize yields.
fertilizer, subsidize the production of particular agricultural By 1945, agriculture had shifted strongly toward indus-
products, and buy some of the farmers’ crops. State policies trial production in the United States and other wealthy
such as importing wheat from the United States affect the nations. In the years since then, this pattern has spread to
prices farmers receive. The state sets land ownership policy include most of the rest of the world. Today, almost all the
and makes rules governing land tenancy. The state affects land that can be effectively farmed by industrial meth-
the labor market through policies that encourage migration. ods is under cultivation. The UN Food and Agriculture
Although these specific policies are recent, some, such as the Organization predicts slow growth in farmland. However,
fact that the state sets land ownership policy, have been basic others argue that “peak farmland” has already been
to life in Musha since ancient times. reached and that any expansion now must be onto lands
Profits from farming are uncertain, and most families that will rapidly erode and become useless for agriculture
have several sources of income. Sales of animals, fruits and (Ausubel et al., 2013).
vegetables, and handicrafts supplement household income. Commercial production of row crops such as soybeans,
In fact, 70% of village households derive their major income wheat, corn, cotton, and sugar beets depends on heavy till-
from activities other than farming; these activities include age with little or no rotation of crops and the use of synthetic
day labor, government jobs, craft trades, and specialist agri- fertilizer and pesticides, as well as other inputs. For exam-
cultural work. Remittances from family members who have ple, growing an acre of corn in Iowa in 2012 required inputs
migrated or payments from rents and pensions also may play such as machinery to prep fields; seed; fertilizers; herbicides;
a role. insecticides; crop insurance, machinery to harvest, haul, and
Ethnography
T H E A M E R I CA N B E E F I N D U S T RY
The American beef industry is a good if disturbing under tightly managed conditions. This results in the
example of industrial agricultural production. rapid and efficient production of highly standardized
Americans have long had a love affair with beef. meat. It also enables operations to buy raw materials
Because meat was expensive for the average family such as feed at lower prices and, since such facilities
during much of the country’s past, beef became both can be located near slaughterhouses, reduces
the symbol and the substance of having made it into transportation costs. However, these commercial
the middle class. Immigrants to the United States improvements also result in harsh conditions for both
viewed the regular eating of steaks and chops as a animals and humans and exact a heavy environmental
symbol of their upward mobility. For Americans, steak price in destruction of the land and disposal of the
is symbolic of manliness, and “meat and potatoes” vast amount of waste the animals produce.
are still considered the iconic American meal.
As rural America became dominated by large
As the standard of living in the United States farming operations linked through the purchase of
rose after World War II, so did the demand for equipment, seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides—as well
inexpensive beef, pork, and poultry. The postwar era as through debt to multinational corporations—rural
also brought the rise of the suburbs and, particularly poverty increased. Young would-be farmers saw little
after 1960, the entry of large numbers of women future for themselves. Some remained in America’s
into the workforce. These developments increased rural areas and took the dangerous and poorly paid
the complexity of American family life and reduced jobs offered by the corporate meat and poultry
the amount of time available for cooking and dining processing industry; others left the countryside
together. Thus, people began to favor packaged altogether. Local governments recruited agribusiness
convenience foods and meat that could be rapidly by offering free land and tax breaks, putting a greater
prepared. Additionally, the expansion of fast food revenue burden on farmers and small-town residents
industries beginning in the 1960s greatly increased already in a downward economic spiral.
American consumption of hamburgers and hence
increased the demand for beef. In 2007, McDonald’s In many cases, large-scale meatpacking industry has
alone sold close to 1 billion pounds of beef in the had disastrous environmental impacts. U.S. livestock
United States, requiring about 5.5 million head of production creates about 900 million tons of waste
cattle (Roybal, 2007; Lubin, 2012). annually. In Iowa, hog farming alone produces 50
million tons of manure each year. This waste often
Until the mid-20th century, American dinner seeps into local streams and groundwater supplies,
tables were supplied with meat that came through polluting critical resources (Bittman, 2008). Thus,
a production chain that started with the livestock although some rural regions have experienced short-
on a family farm and ended in the neighborhood term job increases from the meatpacking and poultry
butcher shop. Selling a few animals supplemented processing industries, there has been a hidden cost
farm income and reduced the risk of crop failures. and a long-term downside for many communities
However, this system of production could not (Stull & Broadway, 2004).
generate the levels of supply that families and
the fast food industry began to demand (and that The cost of labor is a significant factor in the
advertising and the meat industry promoted). production of meat. Through the 1970s and 1980s,
meat processors led by Iowa Beef Processors Inc.
America’s love affair with cheap beef and poultry (the predecessor of the current-day corporation
came at a significant price to the nation’s rural culture Tyson Fresh Meats) succeeded in driving down the
and environment. The high demand for inexpensive wages paid to labor. The key to this was their use
meat favored large corporations that could employ of nonunion workers—frequently immigrants from
mass production technologies over small family- Latin America and Southeast Asia. Such workers
owned farming operations. By the late 1980s, most were not easily (or very willingly) absorbed into
small farms were no longer economically viable, and tightly knit farm communities and small towns.
many small farmers lost their land through sale or As the rural economy declined, resentment of
foreclosure. Animal production became part of an immigrants increased, as did social problems such
industrialized system. At concentrated animal feeding as crime and child abuse. Strains on health care,
operations (CAFOs), vast numbers of animals are kept schools, and social services have materialized (Artz
in small spaces and fed and prepared for slaughter et al., 2007). Binge drinking is far more common
(Continued)
(Continued)
among rural than urban children (age 12–17). Use of FIGURE 5.11 In industrial agriculture, food is
methamphetamine and OxyContin among young processed using techniques similar to those used in
adults (age 18–25) in rural areas is about twice as
other manufacturing processes.
high as the use of these drugs among their urban
counterparts (Main Rural Health Research Center,
David Clynch/Alamy Stock Photo

2007).
The cost efficiency of assembly-line beef processing

has high human costs. The meatpacking industry has
a long history of horrific working conditions. In 1906,
Upton Sinclair described the deeply impoverished
lives, terrible working conditions, and hopelessness
of workers in Chicago’s slaughterhouses. Although
the meatpacking industry today is vastly different
from the industry of 100 years ago, working
conditions are still extremely disturbing in many
cases. The low cost and high availability of American
meat is made possible only by cheap labor and
getting the maximum product out the door 24/7/365
(Figure 5.11). On the floor, this translates into a large The working conditions of meat processing affect
proportion of unskilled, poorly trained, low-paid not only the health of the workers but also the quality
hourly workers; a speeded-up “disassembly” line; of the product. This was dramatically demonstrated
an insufficiency of lunch and bathroom breaks; and in early 2008, when the Westland/Hallmark
unpaid “donning and doffing” time when workers meatpacking company recalled 143 million pounds of
clean off the blood that bespatters them and change meat, some of which had been used in school lunch
their clothing at the end of their shift. programs! Smaller recalls are frequent; for example,
in 2017 there were 131 meat recalls totalling almost
Work in the meatpacking industry is difficult and 21 million pounds (U.S. Department of Agriculture,
dangerous even in the best plants. The processing 2018). Despite this, demand for inexpensive beef
operations on the line involve thousands of panicked remains high, and meaningful reform of the industry
animals moving through a treadmill to be stun- does not seem likely in the near future.
gunned by a “knocker,” axed in half by “splitters” on
a moving platform, and deboned and cut up with Critical Thinking Questions
sharp knives wielded by an assortment of specialists
1. What are the main features of the beef industry in
such as “stickers,” “gutters,” “tail rippers,” and “head
the United States?
droppers,” whose names suggest their roles in the
process—and the possibilities for injuries. The 2. How has the industrial processing of beef affected
blood, intestines, ears, hooves, and other animal the small Midwest towns in which these factories
by-products used for making perfumes, bonemeal, are located?
paintbrushes, and hundreds of other items are
supposed to be continually cleaned up or removed 3. What are some connections between U.S. food
to separate locations for later use, but they are culture and other social and economic values and
sometimes left to decay, emitting noxious fumes. the industrial processing of beef?
handle the crop; and substantial expenses in fuel, land costs, by 24–48 row combines. Other equipment has increased
and labor. In 2007, Iowa farmers planted 13.9 million acres of in size as well.
corn, involving a total capital investment of over $11 billion When we think about farms, we often imagine small fam-
dollars (Iowacorn.org, 2012). ilies trying to make a living, but farming is big business. The
The high investment demands of commercial farm- United States has about 2 million farms, but most of these are
ing have led to increases in the size of farms and in the size noncommercial and are not the primary source of their own-
(and cost) of the equipment needed to effectively operate ers’ income. About 87% of them produce less than $250,000
these farms. Tractors of 60–80 horsepower were consid- worth of crops each year, and the substantial majority pro-
ered huge in the 1950s and 1960s but had been replaced duce less than $10,000 (USDA, 2017). Taken together, these
by tractors of 200–300 horsepower by the early 2000s. noncommercial farms account for 23% of U.S. agricultural
Similarly, small combines of 6–12 rows have been replaced production. However, virtually all of this comes from the
the whole world has gradually been drawn into the global
FIGURE 5.12 Industrialized farming employs economy—a process we call globalization.
increasingly large and costly machinery that can Contemporary industrial and postindustrial societies
only be efficiently operated on very large farms. are characterized by well-coordinated and highly special-
This picture shows combines harvesting wheat in ized labor forces that produce goods and services and much
Washington State. smaller elite and managerial classes that oversee day-to-day
operations of the workplace and control what is produced
Rick Dalton - Ag /Alamy Stock Photo
and how it is distributed. Increasingly, mobility, skill, and

education are required for success.
Because industrialized societies generate much higher
levels of inequality than societies based on foraging, pastoral-
ism, or horticulture, and because industrial systems require
continued expansion, wealth and poverty become critical
social issues. The unequal distribution of opportunity, eco-
nomic failure, illness, and misfortune limit the life chances
of vast numbers of people in industrialized society. Poverty
punishes weakness, failure, or ill fortune in a way that is much
harsher than the subsistence strategies of foraging, pastoral-
ism, horticulture, and agriculture. Conversely, economic
success creates lifestyles well above poverty for large numbers
largest 40% of these farms. On the other hand, about 4% of and conditions of truly extraordinary wealth for a very small
U.S. farms are very large, each producing more than $1 mil- number. Inequalities characterize relations among as well as
lion worth of crops every year. These farms account for 47% within nations. The creation of complex global systems of
of U.S. production (Figure 5.12). The overwhelming major- exchange between (1) those who supply raw materials and
ity of all U.S. farms, even the very large ones, are “family those who use them in manufacturing and (2) manufactur-
farms” in that members of a single family own them (Hoppe ers and consumers has resulted in increasing disparities of
et al., 2010). However, Walmart, Ford Motor Company, and wealth both within and among nations around the world.
Tyson Foods are also “family businesses” (Peterson-Withorn,
2015). Members of a single family hold the majority of
their stock. Nineteen percent of the businesses listed in the The Global Marketplace
Fortune Global 500, a list of the world’s biggest companies, The contemporary world is characterized by connectedness
are family-controlled firms (“Business in the Blood,” 2014). and change of a magnitude greater than anything seen ear-
Some families are very big business indeed. lier. For some people, the expansion of the global economy
Industrialism has had an explosive effect on many aspects has meant new and more satisfying means of making a living.
of economy, society, and culture. It has led to vastly increased However, these opportunities are not equally available to all
population growth, expanded consumption of resources peoples or to all individuals within a culture. For many peo-
(especially energy), the expansion of international trade, ple, the promise of prosperity offered by the global economy
occupational specialization, and a shift from subsistence has yet to be fulfilled.
strategies to wage labor. In every industrialized society, most Anthropology is particularly sensitive to the complex
people work for wages that they use to purchase food, goods, linkages between local, regional, national, and global con-
and services. Although cash transactions are found in other texts that structure the modern world. Anthropologists
production systems, almost all transactions in industrial today can play an important role in shaping government
economies are mediated by money. and global economic policies that take into account the
Industrial economies are based on the principles that environmental impact of different ways of making a living,
consumption should constantly expand and material stan- the values and practices of local cultures, international plant
dards of living should always rise. This contrasts with econo- and animal conservation efforts, and corporate- and state-
mies created by the production systems previously discussed, driven efforts to participate in global markets. The postin-
such as foraging and pastoralism, which put limits on both dustrial, globalized society requires new responses from
production and consumption and thus usually make lighter individuals, governments, and businesses as they adapt to
demands on their environments. Industrialism today has large-scale changes in the production and distribution of
vastly outgrown national boundaries. The result has been goods. We explore some of these changes in the next chapter
great movement of resources, capital, and population as on economics.

A N T H R O P O L O GY, S U B S I S T E N C E PAT T E R N S, A N D C L I M AT E C H A N G E
Question: How have global and local subsistence patterns been changed by global warming?
Anthropology has a long history of studying the Anthropologists study these by examining
relationship between climate, environment, and (1) how climate changes impact local knowledge
culture. Anthropologists such as Leslie White and environmental understandings, (2) how
and Julian Steward examined culture change local technologies and social systems show both
and environment in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, resilience and vulnerability to climate changes,
anthropologists are vigorously studying the ways (3) how communities manage their resources,
in which global warming is affecting both local and (4) how communities respond to disasters
communities and global patterns of culture. They are (Crate, 2011: 180). In some cases, the changing
critically involved in developing climate policy for climate has made indigenous knowledge obsolete.
the future (Crate, 2011). However, as Orlove et al. (2010: 262) noted, native
peoples have developed sophisticated cultural
In the first “Ethnography” section of this chapter, we models for understanding climate. This makes
examined how global warming has affected culture them very sensitive and responsive to changing
and subsistence patterns in the Arctic. Thus far, climatic conditions. While indigenous peoples
the greatest effects of climate change have been in can undoubtedly learn from scientists, their fine-
the Arctic and in high mountain regions; however, grained and long-term understandings of climate
anthropologists have described the effects of climate can provide meteorologists with useful information
change on culture in places as disparate as the as well.
rain forests of Papua New Guinea and the shrimp
fisheries of Bangladesh (Crate & Nuttall, 2009). Climate change also has profound global effects. A
recent report from the Adelphi think tank (Nett &
One good example of this Joanna Davidson’s (2016) Ruttinger, 2016) noted that although climate change
study of rice farming in West Africa, where rice does not, by itself, cause mass migration, civil
production was critical to historic economies and strife, and radicalism, it acts as a threat multiplier
cultures and remains so today. Locally grown rice was and is a key contributor to these issues. As the
instrumental in the emergence of the great African climate changes and people in some places lose
precolonial states. In Guinea-Bissau, the Diola people the ability to feed themselves, individuals look for
understand themselves as rice cultivators. Rice plays both alternate sources of income and alternate
a critical role in their economic, social, and religious identities. Migration, either within a single country
life. However, as Davidson noted, “Diola villagers or between countries, offers a possibility for new
are on the frontlines of global climate change” (2016: livelihoods. In the mid-2010s, hundreds of thousands
177). Over the past several decades, desertification, of Africans immigrated to Europe. In 2017, more
erosion, and drought have made it increasingly than 3,100 of these migrants died trying to cross the
difficult for the Diola to produce enough rice to feed Mediterranean (Raphelson, 2018). Climate change
themselves. Now, most families can produce only was a key contributor to this migration (Torelli,
enough to last three months. When Davidson asked 2017).
Diola people what they did to get by, they replied,
“kuji-kuji son,” an expression that refers to the actions Radicalism offers both new identities and alternative,
of chickens trying to find insects and grubs (2016: often violent livelihoods. Nonstate armed groups
180). such as ISIS draw recruits from areas deeply affected
by climate change (Schwartzstein, 2017). Climate
The effects of climate change (and government change has also been implicated in violence in Syria,
policy) have raised profound questions for the Diola. Nigeria, Afghanistan, Guatemala, and many other
If you understand yourself as a rice cultivator but places (Nett & Ruttinger, 2016: 10–46).
can no longer grow rice, who are you? Can the Diola
people survive without rice? Davidson says that the The American Anthropological Association has
Diola are both literally and metaphorically hungry. issued an official statement on humanity and
Some are coping with famine, but others hunger for climate change (2015), and it sent a delegation
security, new identities, and escape. to the UN Climate Change Conference in
2017. Anthropologists today play crucial roles
Changes like the ones the Diola are undergoing in developing responses to climate change,
clearly have profound local-level implications. sometimes working in federal and international
agencies where they both seek to respond to Key Questions

climate change and attempt to slow it. They have
1. Given that it is very unlikely that the effects of
become advocates for groups affected by climate
climate change can be undone, what policies and
change, assisting organizations such as Many
practices can diminish the effects of the disloca-
Strong Voices (www.manystrongvoices.org; Crate,
tions it is causing?
2011), an NGO that works with Arctic peoples
and those living in small island nations—places 2. What kinds of roles can anthropologists take in
most immediately affected by climate change. helping to mitigate the effects of climate change?
As specialists on the cultures of small places
and analysts of the global flow of people, ideas, 3. Climates have changed numerous times in the
and wealth, anthropologists are well suited to past. How did cultures in the past cope with cli-
contributing to climate policy. mate change?
SUMMARY
1. What is the relationship between the environment and subsisted primarily on large land and sea animals. Today,
the subsistence (food-getting) pattern of a society? they combine this with other income sources. With the
Different physical environments present different prob- gradual decrease in Arctic ice, many Inuit have had to
lems, opportunities, and limitations to human popu- change the timing and focus of their foraging strategy
lations. The subsistence pattern of a society develops in and seek alternative ways of getting food. Changes in
response to seasonal variation in the environment, the subsistence strategy are likely to have a profound impact
culture of the society, and factors such as drought, flood, on Inuit culture.
or disease. As populations have increased and more
complex forms of social and economic organization have 5. What are the different kinds of pastoralism and what is
developed, humans have had an increasing impact on the Yarahmadzai’s subsistence strategy? Pastoralists rely
their environments. on herd animals. Nomadic pastoralists move with their
herds. Transhumant pastoralists establish permanent
2. What are the major subsistence strategies of human pop- villages and part of the population moves with the herds.
ulations? The five major subsistence patterns of human Because animals cannot provide an adequate human
populations are foraging (fishing, hunting, and gather- diet, supplementary foods such as grains are required.
ing), pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture, and industri- Therefore, pastoralists cultivate crops or develop trading
alism. Over the course of history, humankind has moved relations with food cultivators. The Yarahmadzai com-
in the direction of using more complex technology, bine nomadic pastoralism with paid work in farming to
increasing its numbers, and developing more complex gain access to both agricultural products and cash.
sociocultural systems.
6. What are the major values and strategies in the Maasai
3. What is foraging and how is it exemplified by the transhumant pastoralist society? What are some import-
Pintupi? Foraging is reliance on food that is naturally ant challenges to their subsistence strategy? The Maasai
available in the environment and acquired through subsistence strategy depends heavily on their extensive
hunting, fishing, and gathering. It was the major knowledge of their environment and features the flexible
food-getting pattern during almost all of the time exploitation of multiple ecological niches. In addition to
humans have been on earth. The Pintupi, foragers liv- herding cattle, they trade small animals for honey, fish,
ing in the Gibson Desert in Australia, use their detailed grains, fruit, and vegetables. The Maasai strategy is being
knowledge of the environment to find plants and ani- challenged as their herding grounds give way to conser-
mals to eat. They follow a yearly migration pattern that vation and national parks, an important source of tourist
is linked to the presence of water and includes periods of income for Kenya.
significant hardship.
7. What are the major dimensions of horticulture as a sub-
4. What is the Inuit foraging strategy and how has it been sistence strategy? Horticulturalists rely on gardens and
affected by global warming? The Inuit historically fields. Horticulture is typically (though not exclusively)
a tropical forest adaptation and requires the cutting and some occupational specialties. Peasant farmers make
burning of jungle to clear areas for cultivation. Gardens important decisions about their work within a larger
are used for several years and then are allowed to lie fal- economic and regulatory structure imposed by the state,
low for long periods to restore fertility. landlords, and others. Debt may play an important role
in their lives.
8. Describe the subsistence strategy of the Lua’ of Thailand.
How have Lua’ swidden practices been modified by 11. What are the main characteristics of industrialism?
the Lua’ being in contact with other groups? The Lua’ How is industrialism related to the global economy?
are swidden cultivators in the mountainous region of Industrialism is a system in which mechanical and
northern Thailand. Their major crops are cotton, corn, chemical processes are used to produce goods. In indus-
yams, rice, and sorghum; they also grow vegetables and trialized societies, very small agricultural populations
keep pigs, water buffalo, cattle, and chickens. In addition can support vast numbers of people who are not directly
to relying on their gardens, they sell products at local engaged in food production. Industrialism requires
markets. Thus, they are becoming more enmeshed in the a large, mobile labor force. The global economy links
local and global economies. This is increasingly typical of markets into a worldwide network, resulting in the
horticulturalists in the modern world. movement of goods, capital, and people among widely
disparate locations. Industrialism has resulted in great
9. What are the major characteristics of the agricultural material prosperity for many people but at the cost of
subsistence strategy? Agriculturalists farm on stable high levels of inequality and environmental destruction.
fields using crop rotation and fertilization to maintain
land fertility. Agriculture may involve the use of irriga- 12. What are some of the economic and cultural factors
tion, animal-drawn plows, and other technology. This associated with the rise of the American beef industry?
food-getting pattern generally supports greater popula- The American preference for beef is related to the asso-
tion densities than all but industrial patterns. It is association of meat eating with social status and the increased
ciated with sedentary village life and the rise of the state. use of packaged convenience meat and poultry, espe-
cially after World War II. The meatpacking industry is
10. How does Musha, an Egyptian village, illustrate a typical associated with high use of immigrant labor, a difficult
peasant economy? In what ways does the state impact and dangerous production assembly line, the spoiling
the economic and social life of this peasant community? of local soil and water, and social change and conflict in
Peasants like those in Musha are household-based cul- rural communities. Propelled in part by U.S. agribusi-
tivators who produce mainly for the subsistence of their ness and fast food chains, the taste for beef is becoming
families and who are part of larger political entities, such increasingly international. Because beef production
as the state. For peasants, agriculture is the main source requires a high level of resources, it may have profound
of subsistence, but they also participate in the larger cash environmental implications.
economy of the state, engage in wage labor, and have
1. In what ways does the environment limit human cul- 4. Is government necessary to stable field agriculture?
ture? Consider that Salt Lake City, Utah, has an average Under what conditions, if any, could people have agricul-
rainfall of only 15 inches but that almost a million people ture without government?
live in the Salt Lake area.
5. In some ways, industrial food production is extremely
2. Foraging is an extremely effective subsistence strategy. inefficient. For example, eating a frozen prepared meal
However, relatively few foragers remain in the world might give you 500 calories of energy, but the farming,
today, and most of them live in very harsh environments. processing, and transportation of that meal required far
Why is this the case? more calories than that. What are the implications of
this fact?
3. Most pastoralists are reluctant to kill and eat their ani-
mals and instead survive largely on milk and blood
products. Why is this so and what are the long-term con-
sequences of this practice?
KE Y TE RM S
agriculture 120 industrialism 122 productivity 110
efficiency 110 nomadic pastoralism 114 subsistence strategies 107
foraging 110 pastoralism 114 swidden (slash-and-burn)
globalization 125 peasants 120 cultivation 118
horticulture 118 population density 109 transhumant pastoralism 114
G LO S SARY
agriculture A form of food production in which fields pastoralism A food-getting strategy that depends on the
are in permanent cultivation using plows, animals, and care of domesticated herd animals.
techniques of soil and water control.
peasants Rural cultivators who produce for the subsistence
efficiency Yield per person per hour of labor invested. of their households but who are also integrated into larger,
complex state societies.
foraging A food-getting strategy that does not involve
food production or domestication of animals and that population density The number of people inhabiting a
involves no conscious effort to alter the environment. given area of land.
globalization The integration of resources, labor, and productivity Yield per person per unit of land.
capital into a global network.
subsistence strategy The way a society transforms
environmental resources into food.
horticulture Production of plants using a simple,
nonmechanized technology; fields are not used subsistence strategies Systems through which societies
continuously. transform the material resources of the environment into
food.
industrialism A system of production dependent on
investments in machinery, technology, communication, swidden (slash-and-burn) cultivation A form of
and information. Industrial agriculture is patterned after cultivation in which a field is cleared by felling the trees
manufacturing. and burning the brush; typical of horticulture.
nomadic pastoralism A form of pastoralism in which the transhumant pastoralism A form of pastoralism in
whole social group (men, women, and children) and their which herd animals are moved regularly throughout the
animals move in search of pasture. year to different areas as pasture becomes available.
Insights/UIG/Getty Images
Markets play an important role in many societies. In large-scale industrial and postindustrial societies, they are the primary way
that people exchange goods. Here, a woman sells charms and ritual items with her dog at the Witches’ Market in La Paz, Bolivia.
Economics 6
All human societies have economic systems within which goods and services LEARNING OBJECTIVES
are produced, distributed, and consumed. In one sense, the economic aspect
of culture is simply the sum of the choices people make regarding this area of After you have read this chapter, you
will be able to:
their lives. Such choices have important ramifications. For example, choosing
to become a farmer rather than an insurance broker may determine where you 6.1 Define economics, describe
live, who whom are likely to meet, and the sorts of behaviors you will expect economizing behavior, and give
examples of situations when people
in your spouse and offspring. However, such choices are not unlimited; they use economizing behavior and when
are constrained by our cultures, traditions, and technologies. Furthermore, our they do not
environments set the boundaries within which choices about the production,
6.2 Summarize the ways in which
distribution, and consumption of goods and services are made. people in foraging, pastoral,
horticultural, and agricultural
Every society must have an economic system in the sense that each group of societies generally allocate
people must produce, distribute, and consume. Economics deals partly with resources
things—with the tools used to produce goods and the goods themselves. More 6.3 Differentiate between
important, it deals with the relationship of things to people and people to one generalized, balanced, and negative
another in the process of producing, distributing, and consuming goods. reciprocity and give an example of
each
Anthropologists are interested in understanding the relationship between the 6.4 Discuss the differences
economy and the rest of a culture. One aspect of this relationship is that culture between redistribution and
defines or shapes the goals sought by individuals and the means of achieving reciprocity using the examples of the
potlatch and kula trade
those goals. Society and economy are interdependent in other ways. The way
in which production is organized has consequences for the institution of the 6.5 Define market exchange and
family and for the political system. For example, in southern Mali, where most analyze the ways in which it differs
from other systems of distribution
people live by agriculture and where land is abundant, children can help farm
when they are very young. Thus, families tend to have as many children as they 6.6 Summarize the key
possibly can. Large families can cultivate more land and therefore are generally characteristics of capitalism
wealthier than small families. Their leaders acquire political power and social 6.7 Describe the ways in which
prestige from wealth and from having many supporters. people in wealthy nations both
participate in and resist capitalism
and debate the advantages of each
Although economists often attempt to do so, it is difficult to separate the
of these actions
economic system from the rest of culture. Economics is embedded in the total
social process and cultural pattern. In nonindustrial and kin-based societies, for
example, few groups are organized solely for the purpose of production; their
economic activities are only one aspect of what they do. Production is carried
out by groups such as families, larger kinship groups, or local communities.
The distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods are thus embedded in
relationships that have social and political purposes as well as economic ones.
131
Economic Behavior cash profit and are assumed to be rational—that is, based on
the desire to maximize profit (Figure 6.1).
We define economics as the study of the ways in which However, the notion of financial profit does not completely
the choices people make as individuals and as members of explain economic behavior. Consider a choice you may make
societies combine to determine how their society uses its this evening. After you finish reading this chapter, you may well
scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and ser- be confronted with a series of decisions: Should you reread it for
vices. The academic discipline of economics developed in a better comprehension? Should you study for another course?
Western market economy, and there has been much debate Call and get a pizza delivered? Play with your kids? Socialize
within anthropology over its applicability to other cultures with your friends? Take care of that project for work? Get some
(Isaac, 1993). sleep? Of course, there are many other possibilities.
The idea of scarcity is a fundamental assumption of You will make your choice based on some calculation of
Western microeconomic theory. Economists assume that benefit, but that benefit is not necessarily reducible to finan-
human wants are unlimited but the means for achieving cial profit. It is quite possible for you to believe you would
them are not. If this is correct, organizations and individuals ultimately make more money if you studied and got higher
must make decisions about the best way to apply their limited grades. However, your choice is set in a context in which
means to meet their unlimited desires. Economists assume money is unlikely to be the most important element of value;
that individuals and organizations will make these choices in we value our friends, our children, our leisure time, and many
the way they believe will provide them with the greatest bene- other things as well. If you choose to socialize instead of hit-
fit. Economists call such choices economizing behavior. ting the books, your choice is rational because it is based on
Some scholars have equated benefit with material some calculation of your needs and goals, although not nec-
well-being and profit (see Dalton, 1961). Will a business firm essarily on those that lead to greater profit. If we were to pre-
cut down or expand its production? Will it purchase a new dict your behavior on the assumption that you are always
machine or hire more laborers? Where will it locate its plant? motivated by financial rewards and will always act to increase
Will it manufacture shoes or gloves? How much will be spent your material well-being, our predictions would often be
on advertising its product? Such decisions are assumed to be wrong. We would do better by asking what motivates you.
motivated by an analysis designed to produce the greatest Just as you might value an evening spent with friends over
getting an A in this class, members of other cultures might value
family connections, cultural tradition, social prestige, leisure
time, or other things over monetary profit. People everywhere
FIGURE 6.1 Decisions made on the floor of a make rational choices based on their needs and their guesses
stock exchange are based almost entirely on about the future, but culture, values, and institutions provide
profit and loss. However, most of the time, our the framework within which these choices are made. For exam-
decisions are motivated by other considerations ple, Western culture is dominated by capitalism, and we place
as well. We may prefer relaxation and free time an extremely high value on wealth and material prosperity. We
to financial return. This picture shows traders are constantly bombarded by advertisements, examples, and
and clerks on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile stories that emphasize the link between happiness and con-
Exchange in 2005. Today, almost all trading is sumption. Thus, it seems natural for us to think that many of
done electronically. our goals are best achieved through earning money and using it
to make purchases through the marketplace.
Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images
On the other hand, some societies appear to be in busi-

ness mainly for their health (Sahlins, 1972). For example, the
Hadza live in an area of Tanzania that has an abundance of
plants they can gather and animals they can hunt. They have
considerable leisure time but make no attempt to use it to
increase their wealth. Though they know how to farm, they
don’t because it would require too much work (Woodburn,
1968). Thus, they value their leisure time (and the socializing
they use it for) over what they could produce farming.
Leisure time is only one of the ends toward which
people expend effort. They may also direct their energies
toward increasing social status or respect. In Western soci-
ety, prestige is primarily tied to the increased consumption
and display of goods and services. This is not universal, environment, but they never gather these randomly; specific
however. In many societies, prestige is associated with giv- groups of people do specific tasks. Most often, men hunt and
ing away goods. Conspicuous consumers and stingy people women gather. Thus, they are organized to produce. They
become objects of scorn and may be shunned or accused of never simply eat whatever they catch and collect; they dis-
witchcraft (for examples, see Danfulani, 1999, and Offiong, tribute plant and animal foods in different ways. Who eats
1983). The notion that prestige can be gained through giv- what depends on factors such as family membership, gender,
ing is also well established in our own society. Universities age, and participation in production. Thus, they organize
have buildings bearing the names of their most generous distribution and consumption in specific ways as well. In
donors, and Bill Gates is not only the chair of Microsoft but the remainder of this chapter, we will explore how different
also the head of the world’s largest charitable foundation. The societies tackle the problems of allocating resources, orga-
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had over $40 billion in nizing labor, and distributing and consuming the results of
assets in 2018 and in 2016 gave away more than $4.6 billion production.
(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, n.d.).
To understand the economies of various cultures, anthro- Allocating Resources
pologists face two related problems. First, they must analyze
the broad institutional and social contexts within which peo- Productive resources are the things that members of a society
ple make decisions. Second, they must determine and evalu- need to participate in the economy. How people access these
ate the factors that motivate individual decision making. resources is basic to every culture. People everywhere require
One way we can think about any economic system is to access to land and water. Access to the knowledge that allows
consider a series of fundamental issues that all societies must one to make and use tools plays an important role in all soci-
face. Because all societies must acquire the food and other eties. Other important forms of knowledge can be controlled
materials necessary to their lives, all must engage in pro- as well, such as the knowledge of healing or of religious rituals.
duction. To do so, all societies must acquire resources such The important role played by access to education in
as land and water, and all must have some system through American society is shown by the strong relationship
which the rights to use such resources are allocated. between university degrees and income. Universities are
However, resources in and of themselves do nothing. not the only place to get knowledge. However, it is clear that
Rather, people must be organized in specific ways to use possession of a university degree and, hopefully, the knowl-
resources in the production of the goods and services. Thus, edge that this implies has a direct impact on an individual’s
each society has a division of labor: a pattern by which dif- economic role in society and certainly on their earnings.
ferent tasks are given to different members of society. For According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Torpey,
example, foragers rely on the plants and animals in their 2017; Figure 6.2), the median income for high school
FIGURE 6.2 This figure shows the relationship between education, employment, and earnings in the
United States in 2017.
Unemployment rate (%) Median usual weekly earnings ($)
Doctoral degree 1.5 1,743
Professional degree 1.5 1,836
Master's degree 2.2 1,401
Bachelor's degree 2.5 1,173
Associate's degree 3.4 836
Some college, no degree 4.0 774
High school diploma 4.6 712
Less than a high school diploma 6.5 520
Total: 3.6% All workers: $907

graduates in 2016 was $35,984. The median for those with value: Ranges can be adjusted as the availability of resources
a bachelor’s degree was a bit above $60,000, and those with changes (Figure 6.3).
a doctoral degree earned a median income of more than The abundance and predictability of resources also affect
$86,000—almost 2.5 times the income of those with only a territorial boundaries. Territorial boundaries tend not to
high school diploma. People with undergraduate and grad- be defended where resources are scarce and large areas are
uate degrees are also much more likely to be employed than needed to support the population. Where resources are more
those without. abundant and people move less, groups may be more inclined
An important point of contrast between economic sys- to defend their territory (Cashdan, 1989: 42).
tems is the extent to which individuals and groups have The Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari were typical foragers.
access to productive resources. In general, differential access Although today most Ju/’hoansi are settled, in earlier times
to resources develops as population and social complexity their camps were located near water holes, and the area a
increase. In some societies, most people have access to the local group used was measured by one day’s round-trip
resources necessary to survive and fully participate in soci- walk, which was about 12 miles. Each camp had a core area
ety. In others, access to these resources may be exclusively best conceived of as a circle with the water hole at the cen-
or disproportionately invested in specific social groups. ter and a radius of about six miles. Points beyond this were
Again, examining access to knowledge in the United States is rarely used. Although camps were moved five or six times a
instructive. Only 3% of the students at the most selective uni- year, they were not moved far. Sometimes they were shifted
versities in the country come from households in the lowest only a few hundred yards; the farthest move was about 10
25% of the income scale, whereas 72% of students at these or 12 miles (R. Lee, 1968). Ju/’hoansi territories were asso-
schools come from the wealthiest 25% of American families ciated with long-standing residents who were spoken of as
(Giancola & Kahlenberg, 2016). The Ivy League includes owners. Although they did not have exclusive rights to the
some of the most prestigious universities in the United States. land, their permission had to be asked when others wished
At five of the eight Ivy League schools, there are more stu- to use the land’s resources. Such permission was rarely
dents from the wealthiest 1% of U.S. families than from the
poorest 60% (Aisch et al., 2017). This clearly shows that fam-
ily wealth plays a critical role in determining access to knowl- FIGURE 6.3 In foraging societies, people do
edge, and access to knowledge plays a critical role in future not consciously raise the productivity of their
wealth and social position. land, relying instead upon the animal, plant,
Small-scale economies have a limited number of produc- and insect foods naturally occurring in the
tive resources, and most everyone has access to them. Large- environment. Here, a Hadza boy gathers edible
scale societies have a great many more resources, but access berries for his family.
to them is limited. This can be seen by comparing access to
resources among foragers, pastoralists, horticulturalists, and
Nigel Pavitt/AWL Images/Getty Images

agriculturalists.
Foragers
Among foragers, productive resources include weapons used
in hunting animals and tools used in gathering plants as well
as the knowledge to make and use these items. The technol-
ogy is simple, and tools are made by hand. People take great
care to ensure that they have access to the tools necessary
for their individual survival. Among the Hadza of Tanzania,
men spend much time gambling. However, a man’s bow, bird
arrows, and leather bag are never shared or gambled because
these items are essential to survival (Woodburn, 1998).
Besides knowledge and tools, land and water are the most
critical resources for foragers, and many forms of land ten-
ure are found among these societies. The requirements of a
foraging lifestyle generally mean that a group of people must
spread out over a large area. Hunting grounds are not exclu-
sively owned because flexible boundaries have an adaptive
refused, although visitors might be made to feel unwelcome

(Cashdan, 1989: 41). FIGURE 6.4 Pastoralists require access
Hunters and gatherers require freedom of movement to grazing land rather than ownership of
not only as a condition of success in their search for food it. Historically, the yak-herding Drokba
but also as a way of dealing with social conflict. Hunting of northwest Tibet accessed land through
bands are kept small in order to exploit the environment arrangements with the Buddhist monasteries
successfully. In such small groups, conflict must be kept to that owned it.
a minimum. When arguments break out, individuals can
Photo
Craig Lovell/Eagle Visions Photography/Alamy Stock
move to other groups without fear that they are cutting
themselves off from access to vital resources. If land were
individually or even communally defended against outsid-
ers, the freedom of movement in hunting societies would be
severely limited.
Pastoralists
Among pastoralists, the most critical resources are livestock
and land. Access to grassland and water is gained through
membership in kin groups. Within pastoralist camps, all
members share equal access to pastures. It is this right of
access, rather than ownership, that is important.
Animals require a substantial investment in labor. They
must be tended and fed. In some cases, corrals or other struc- altered to fit family herd size and composition. The system
tures must be built to house them. When they are ill, they worked well because the land could be managed to provide
must be cared for. If they are neglected, they do not often sur- sufficient lands for each family (Barfield, 1993: 188).
vive. Thus, individual families own animals.
In pastoralist societies, animals are kept as wealth. The
prosperity and status of a family are linked to the number of Horticulturalists
animals it owns, and people are very reluctant to kill and eat In addition to land, tools, and knowledge, horticulturalists
their animals, often doing so only as part of religious celebra- often require storage facilities. In such societies, land tends to
tions. Instead, pastoralists live off animal products such as be communally owned by an extended kin group, although
milk and blood. These products as well as the animals them- the right to use a piece of land may be given to a household
selves may be traded for grain or other goods. or even an individual. For example, among the Ibo, swidden
In most places, pastoral tribes are migratory, moving farmers in Nigeria, no individual owns land or has perma-
from pasture to pasture as rain, drought, heat, and cold dic- nent rights to it. Instead, land is vested in kinship groups and
tate. Such migrations often traverse the lands of agricultural allocated to individuals by leaders of these groups (Acheson,
people. In these cases, access to pasturage and migration 1989). But even the group that has the right to use the land
routes are determined through negotiation with local author- may not dispose of it at will; land is “inalienable” and may
ities. Contemporary pastoralists often establish access to land not be sold. With this type of land ownership, few people are
by contracts with the landowners of villages through which deprived of access to basic resources because almost every
they move. These contracts, which must be renewed every person belongs to a landholding group.
year, specify the rent for the pasture, the borders of the area, Where population densities are low or large areas of land
and the date by which the area must be vacated. However, are available for cultivation, rights to land use are very loosely
pastoralism and agriculture are very different lifestyles, and held. For example, among the Machiguenga of Peru, a group
conflict between pastoralists and sedentary villagers is not with extensive lands, there is little sense of exclusive territory
uncommon. (A. Johnson, 1989: 58). But when specific geographical con-
The yak-herding Drokba of northwest Tibet (Figure 6.4) ditions limit the amount of land available or when population
present an interesting historical example of pastoralism. The pressures increase, land shortages do occur. The Enga in the
Drokba were under the control of large Buddhist monas- Papua New Guinea Highlands are a horticulture group that
teries that owned all the grassland in the area. Families were often lacks sufficient land. They frequently attempt to deal
granted rights to use pastures in return for tax payments. with this problem by using violence to drive smaller, weaker
Allocation of pastureland was reviewed every third year and groups off their land and annexing it (A. Johnson, 1989: 62).
In societies based on horticulture, the work involved productive resources take many forms, including complex
in clearing, cultivating, and maintaining the land is a large tools and the technological knowledge required to make
investment. The rights to the products of such land are them. Ownership of these critical resources may be limited to
vested in those who work it, most often the domestic group a small group whose members thereby gain power over oth-
or household. Because the user of the land may die while the ers and control their labor.
land is still productive, some system of inheritance of use In some societies, productive resources are continually
rights is usually provided for. Among the Lacandon Maya in reinvested to generate profit for their owners beyond their
the highlands of Chiapas in Mexico, for example, individuals subsistence needs. Such resources are referred to as capital.
may farm any unused piece of land. However, clearing virgin Although the use of capital occurs in many different sorts
land is very difficult, so individuals retain rights to land they of societies (Berdan, 1989), it becomes the principal form of
have cleared and are likely to reuse, even if it is not currently economic organization in capitalist societies (discussed later
in production. People who migrate from the area may lose in this chapter).
rights to land they have cleared, but their families retain own- Under conditions of intensive cultivation, the material
ership of any fruit trees that have been planted on it. Should a and labor investment in land becomes substantial. People
man die after investing time and labor in clearing and plant- often undertake enormous work to bring land into cultiva-
ing land, his wife and children retain rights to use the land tion, including the construction of farming terraces and rice
(McGee, 1990). paddies (Figure 6.5). However, large quantities of food are
generated. This food supports not only those who work the
land but substantial nonagricultural populations as well. In
Agriculturalists many cases, cities and towns develop. Under these circum-
In more politically and technologically complex societies, stances, land becomes a valuable (and limited) resource, and
agriculture comes to dominate production. In these societies, private ownership or control of the land becomes common.
FIGURE 6.5 In agricultural societies, land ownership becomes an important source of wealth and power.
Enormous amounts of labor are often invested in land that is difficult to farm but pressed into agricultural
production, as is the case with these terraced hillsides in Uganda.
©iStockphoto/prill
Individual land ownership may grow out of popula- of production and of consumption (B. White, 1980). The
tion pressures that produce land scarcity and lead to inten- household is an economic unit—a group of people united
sified methods of agriculture. Under these conditions, by kinship or other links who share a residence and orga-
communal control of land creates conflict as people begin nize production, consumption, and distribution of goods
to grumble about not receiving their fair share. Those who among themselves. A household is different from a fam-
have improved the land are unwilling to see the invest- ily because it may include lodgers, apprentices, servants,
ment of their labor revert to a kin-based pool. This may and others who are not counted as family members.
be particularly true in the case of cash crops such as cof- Household members use most of the goods they produce
fee, which require long-term care and yield harvests over themselves.
many years. Individuals thus become tied to specific plots Households and kin groups do seek financial gain, but
of land. this is not their primary purpose. Their goals are often social
Private ownership of rigidly defined fields does not or religious rather than monetary. Labor is not a commod-
necessarily mean that landowners work their fields. ity bought and sold in the market; rather, it is an important
Instead, fields are usually rented to laborers whose efforts aspect of membership in a social group. The labor that peo-
support both themselves and the landowners. For example both perform and receive situates them with respect to
ple, a study of rural households in India showed that others in their family and gives them a sense of identity and
almost 80% owned less than one hectare (about 2.2 acres), meaning.
an area insufficient to support themselves. Ten percent The gendered division of labor is a good example of the
were totally landless and had to rent land from large relationship between work and identity. In all human soci-
landowners or work for others to survive (Haque, 2010). eties, some tasks are considered appropriate for women and
Under such conditions, a peasantry emerges. Peasants others appropriate for men. At some level, the sexual division
are family-based agriculturalists who are integrated into of labor is biological because only women can bear and nurse
large state-level societies (see Chapter 5). Part of their pro- children. Thus, caring for infants is almost always primarily a
duction is taken by a ruling class in the form of rents and female role and usually central to female identity (see Nielsen,
taxes. In some cases, peasants may hold land by usufruct 1990: 147–168). Beyond this, few jobs are universally identi-
right: An individual or family has the right to use a piece of fied as male or female work. However, in almost all societies,
land and may pass this right to descendants but cannot sell some sorts of work are considered proper only for men and
or trade the land. However, in most places, the peasants’ others proper only for women, and these jobs are import-
access to land is contingent on payment of rents, and they ant elements of male or female identity. For example, for the
can be dispossessed if they fail to pay rent or if the land- Navajo, weaving is both a sacred activity and a model for
owner finds a more profitable use for the land. womanhood. In Navajo religious belief, Spider Woman wove
In societies with peasantries, landowners enjoy high lev- the universe itself (Berlo, 1993: 37–38). On the other hand,
els of consumption and standards of living based on rents in most West African societies, weaving is considered a male
and services they receive from the peasants. Landowners task, part of male identity (Figures 6.6a and 6.6b). A survey of
use these to command the services of craft workers, ser- 48 societies in which people milked animals showed that in
vants, and sometimes armed forces. Agriculture therefore 15 of them, milking was exclusively men’s work and in 21 it
tends to be associated with a political organization charac- was exclusively women’s work. In the remaining 12, the work
terized by a ruling landowning class and with occupational was shared among men and women (Murdock & Provost,
specialization. 1973: 207).
Most current-day societies rely on agriculture but, as we In Western society, work also has very important social
saw in Chapter 5, only a minuscule percentage of the pop- implications. People work to put food on their table and a
ulation in contemporary societies is involved in farming. roof over their head. But, as anthropologist Pamela Crespin
Therefore, access to productive land is not important for (2005) has noted, an individual’s self-image and social sta-
most people. In wealthy nations, most people earn their live- tus in our society is bound up with work. Joblessness or the
lihood by working for wages for businesses and other orga- inability to earn a living wage diminishes an adult’s identity
nizations that provide goods and services. These are usually and status (2005: 20). This is a particularly important issue in
organized as capitalist enterprises. a nation such as the United States, where unemployment is a
perennial problem. Economists often consider “full employ-
Organizing Labor ment” to be somewhere between 4% and 5%. They worry
that unemployment rates lower than that will result in high
In small-scale preindustrial and peasant economies, the inflation (“What Full Employment,” 2017). Although that
household or some extended kin group is the basic unit worry may be justified, it leaves many people unemployed. In
FIGURE 6.6 Societies typically have a gendered division of labor: Some jobs are considered appropriate only
for men, others only for women. However, which tasks are associated with which gender vary. Among the
Navajo, weaving is a task for women, but among the Senufo in West Africa, it is a task for men.
DeAgostini/Getty Images
August 2018, the unemployment rate was 3.9% and the num- Specialization in Complex Societies
ber of unemployed people was 6.2 million (Bureau of Labor
Among foragers and most horticulturalists, all adult men
Statistics, 2018).
and women are actively engaged in the quest for food.
Economic organization by household contrasts with
Technologies are simple and do not require skills beyond
organization by firm. A firm is an institution composed of
those that can be learned through informal socialization.
kin and/or nonkin that is organized primarily for financial
The few specialists (for example, religious practitioners)
gain. Individuals are usually tied to firms through the sale of
their labor for wages. Labor is thus a commodity, bought and are usually also engaged in food and tool production.
sold on the market. A firm does not produce goods for the The characteristic division of labor is not by job but by
use of its members; the items it produces are sold for profit. age and sex.
In economies where households are the units of pro- The division of labor in society becomes more special-
duction, there can be little economic growth. Households ized as the population increases and agricultural produc-
cannot easily expand or contract as the economy fluctuates. tion intensifies. This is particularly the case when a society
They cannot easily fire their members or acquire new ones. is dependent on grain agriculture. Grains are hard, durable,
Large-scale production and distribution systems tend not to and storable. Landlords and rulers who can control them
develop under such conditions. Firms, on the other hand, are have access to wealth and power in new and important
geared toward economic growth. Their goal is to find the mix ways. As occupational specialization spreads through soci-
of capital and labor that will most increase the firm’s finan- ety, individuals are able to exchange their services or the
cial value to its owners. This usually means that firms wish to products they produce for food and wealth. Specialists are
increase their size indefinitely. likely to include soldiers, government officials, and mem-
Households and firms are not mutually exclusive. As bers of the priesthood as well as artisans, craftsmen, and
we noted in Chapter 5, firms, even very large ones, may be merchants.
controlled by a single family. Further, firms often use the Traditional areas of contemporary India provide an
vocabulary of family and team to promote their goals. As excellent example of occupational specialization. There,
Casey (1999: 156) noted, many firms—from supermarket only people belonging to specific hereditary kinship
chains to hospitals and airlines—promote themselves as groups can perform certain services or produce certain
communities, inviting employees and customers to “come kinds of goods. Literally thousands of specialized activ-
join our family.” Thus, economic relationships between ities—washing clothes, drumming at festivals, presiding
employers and employee or firm and customer are partially over religious ceremonies, making pots, painting pic-
disguised by ideas about social relationships within a family tures—are traditionally performed by specific, named
or household. hereditary groups called castes (see Figure 6.7).
little decision-making ability. Through public speeches, com-

FIGURE 6.7 Historically, Indian society has pany policies, and employment practices, companies such
been organized into hierarchically ranked as Ford sought to redefine masculinity, associating it with
hereditary groups that have specific occupations. “working hard—in the company of other men, on a useful
Here, a Dhobi, a member of the clothes washing product, and being paid well for it” rather than with skill and
hereditary group, cleans laundry in Mumbai. independence (Lewchuk, 1993: 852).
Olivier Polet/Corbis/Getty Images
Distribution: Systems of Exchange and

Consumption
In all societies, goods and services are exchanged. In fact,
some anthropologists have long held that the exchange of
goods is one of the fundamental bases of culture. In the
early 20th century, French anthropologist Marcel Mauss
(1990/1924) theorized that societies were held together by
patterns of giving and receiving. He pointed out that because
gifts invariably must be repaid, we are obligated to each other
through exchange.
There are three main patterns of exchange: reciprocity,
redistribution, and the market. Although more than one kind
Much of the world’s population today lives in industrial of exchange system exists in most societies, each system is
or postindustrial societies, and almost everyone is a specialist predominantly associated with a certain kind of political and
of one kind or another. In the United States, the Department social organization (Polyani, 1944).
of Labor recognizes 840 numbered occupational cate-
gories, but this greatly condenses the variety of occupa-
tions. For example, category 33-2022 is Fire Inspectors and Reciprocity
Investigators, but unnumbered categories that further sub- The mutual give-and-take of goods and services among peo-
divide this include Arson Investigator, Certified Vehicle Fire ple of similar status is known as reciprocity. Three types of
Investigator, Fire Hazard Inspector, and Fire Prevention reciprocity can be distinguished from one another by the
Inspector (Standard Occupational Classification Policy degree of social distance between the exchanging partners
Committee, 2010). (Sahlins, 1972).
Industrialism and the high degree of specialization it
requires have produced unprecedented material wealth. Generalized Reciprocity
There is no doubt that more people today have greater Generalized reciprocity involves a distribution of goods
access to a wider variety of goods and services than ever in which no overt account is kept of what is given and no
before in the history of humanity. However, specialization immediate or specific return is expected. Generalized
can also take a large physical and emotional toll. Since the reciprocity is usually carried out among close kin and is
beginning of the Industrial Age, many factory jobs have common in foraging bands. Ideally, such transactions
involved repetitious and mind-numbing labor often per- are done without any thought of economic or other self-
formed under hazardous conditions. In the American auto- interest. In Western society, we are familiar with generalized
mobile plants of the early 20th century, for example, almost reciprocity as it exists between parents and children. Parents
all skilled tasks were mechanized. Workers simply inserted constantly give things and provide services to their children
pieces into machines, turned a switch, and waited until the out of love or a sense of responsibility (Figure 6.9, p. 142).
machine completed its task. The machinery determined What would we think of a parent who kept an account of
the pace of work and the tasks performed. In the 1920s, one what a child cost and then expected the child to repay this
worker summed it up simply by saying, “The machine is my amount? What parents usually expect is some gratitude,
boss” (in S. Meyer, 2004). love, respect, and the child’s happiness.
Factory labor often led to new notions of identity. For Generalized reciprocity involving food is an important
example, in the 19th century, many U.S. workers associated social mechanism among foraging peoples. In these societ-
masculinity with skilled labor, independence, and decision ies, a hunter or group of hunters distributes meat among the
making. On the assembly lines in early 20th-century United kin group or camp. Each person or family gets either an equal
States, labor was boring and monotonous and workers had share or a share dependent on its kinship relationship to the
Ethnography
F O O D, C U LT U R E , H I S TO RY, A N D E C O N O M I C S I N B E L IZ E
economy, exporting raw goods, importing food

and manufactures, and, more recently, cultivating
international tourism.
The early settlers of Belize were buccaneers—sailors

BELIZE and privateers who stole, traded, and occasionally
grew food as well. Often known as Baymen, their
habitual diet had been formed by years of living
on ship rations, which consisted of processed and
UNITED STATES
preserved breads and meats. As they settled, they
continued to prize preserved European products
AT L AN
ANTIC
T IC
and European styles of dining despite the fact that
O C EAN
Gulf of
local foods were easily available. They found an
Mexico important source of income in logwood, a thorny
BAHAMAS bush that is used to make purple and black dyes.
Logwood was highly prized in the European cloth
CUBA
industry, and trading it gave them money to buy
European foods. Meat, long associated with wealth
HAITI
BELIZE and power in Europe, was also an important and
MEXICO JAMAICA
Belmopan prestigious element of diet, and Baymen hunted
HONDURAS and ate everything from manatee to armadillos and
C ar ibbean
GUATEMALA S ea parrots. The Baymen borrowed few foods or culinary
EL SALVADOR
traditions from indigenous people. Even in a new and
NICARAGUA PANAMA
different environment, ideas of proper eating were
COSTA RICA tied to Europe and to international trade.
PAC I F IC
OCEAN In the 18th century, the economy of Belize shifted
COLOMBIA
0 500 mi
from dependence on logwood to the cutting and
0 500 km
export of mahogany. Mahogany cutting required
large amounts of labor, and this was often done
by African slaves. Many slaves were fed with
As we have seen throughout this chapter, economics imported rations, as were other workers throughout
concerns the choices people make in production, the Americas. Such rations consisted of some
distribution, and consumption. These choices are sort of preserved meat, wheat flour, and beans
set within systems of production such as foraging or other legumes, washed down with alcohol or
or capitalism and within systems of exchange stimulants such as coffee or tea. Wilk reported
such as reciprocity or the market. However, they that these rations were “the first global diet, a kind
are also set within the critical contexts of culture of nineteenth-century equivalent of McDonald’s
and history. Richard Wilk’s book on the history of hamburgers” (2006b: 63). A huge network of
food production and consumption in Belize, Home suppliers in Europe and the Americas grew to
Cooking in the Global Village, gives us insight into provide, package, and transport these foods. Because
the complex ways in which economics, national the diet was deeply unhealthy, it also created a
culture, international patterns of trade, and individual constant demand for patent medicines, and Wilk
identity are linked together. noted that everywhere extractive industries went,
“the ground is still littered with patent medicine
Wilk pointed out that although we often think of bottles” (2006b: 64).
globalization as a feature of recent world history, it
is a very old force in many places. Europeans first England effectively controlled Belize after the Battle
visited the area that today is Belize, on the eastern of St. George’s Caye in 1798, but the area did not
coast of Central America, in the early 16th century formally become the colony of British Honduras
but did not establish firm permanent settlements until 1862. Despite the outlawing of slavery,
there until the late 17th century. However, since that there was little change in the overall patterns of
time, Belize has been deeply immersed in the global production under colonial rule. However, patterns
of consumption altered to fit a colonial model. In FIGURE 6.8 A street-side restaurant in

that system, people gained respectability though
Belmopan, Belize.
close emulation or even exaggeration of the lifestyle
of the home country. In practice, this translated
©iStockphoto/Roijoy
to consumption of foods and other products
manufactured in Europe and North America as
well as other social practices. Although the colonial
administration sometimes tried to promote food
self-sufficiency, it was frustrated in this both by
the fact that exporting mahogany was much more
profitable than producing food and by the symbolic
importance of the consumption of European
products for all elements of the Belizean population.
Because being both “modern” and “civilized” were
linked to European styles of consumption, imports
increased steadily, and food accounted for 60% of
all imports by value (Wilk, 2006b: 91). However, it
is important to understand that although Belizeans for them. Essentially, they have now imported their
prized imported food, they also consumed many own cuisine! Second, the Belizean economy has
locally produced foods as well, and a local cuisine come to depend increasingly on tourism. This has
did develop (Figure 6.8). led to the construction of resorts and restaurants that
Moves toward Belizean nationalism and cater to the tastes of foreign visitors from wealthy
independence began as early as the 1930s, and nations. Although the food served in these places is
ideas about imported and locally produced food often billed as “local,” it is for the most part generic
were important from the start. They presented a international cuisine that imports both ingredients
contradiction, however: On the one hand, the idea and cooking styles from other places.
of a national cuisine was important to the newly
This survey of Belizean cuisine shows us that
independent nation, and nationalist leaders such
economy is deeply entangled both with history
as George Price urged Belizeans to consume local
and with cultural ideas about what is good to eat
foods. On the other hand, being an independent
and the social-status values of different sorts of
nation was closely tied to Belizeans’ ideas about
consumption. Belize is not a nation that has been
wealth and progress. Belizeans viewed local foods as
drawn into the global economy. Rather, it is a
signs of poverty, so they believed consuming them
nation whose entire existence has been intertwined
was moving away from the values of nationalism. The
with the global economy. Production in Belize has
result was that food imports continued to increase,
long depended on the types of goods and services
as did consumption of international-style foods
demanded and valued by people in Europe and
produced locally. However, pride in local cuisine did
North America—for example, logwood in the 17th
grow. In 1985, Queen Elizabeth visited Belize and,
century and beautiful sites for scuba diving and
at a state banquet, was served gibnut, a large rodent
relaxation today. The styles of consumption that
that is a local delicacy. The queen made no comment,
developed depended on Belizean connections to
but the British tabloid press claimed that Belizeans
these distant places, from the connections with the
were savages who had served rat to the monarch.
British in colonial society to the greater realization
This led to an outburst of local pride as well as
of Belizean ethnic identity in diaspora communities
charges of racism against the British. Today, gibnut is
in the United States.
often and proudly served in Belizean restaurants as
“royal rat.”
Questions
The last two decades of Belize’s international 1. Describe the ways in which Belize’s economy has
food history have been characterized by two been connected with the economies of Europe
contradictory trends. First, Belizeans have migrated and North America.
in large numbers to the United States and created
communities here. Members of these communities 2. How important do you think it is for places to
have opened restaurants serving Belizean food have a local cuisine?
and, in some cases, have returned to Belize to
open restaurants there as well. This process has 3. In the Belizean case, local cuisine has, in a sense,
made Belizeans more aware that they do have an been created by globalization. Can you think of
indigenous cuisine and also legitimized that cuisine other cases where this is true?
horticultural group in Brazil, distributing meat gives a man

FIGURE 6.9 People practice generalized prestige and an opportunity to display the culture’s most val-
reciprocity by giving and receiving without ued trait, generosity, while simultaneously building his credit
keeping a strict accounting or expecting a for future reciprocity (von Graeve, 1989: 66). In our own soci-
specific return. Gift giving among family ety, although parents may give freely to children, we all know
members usually follows this pattern. that most have strong expectations for their children’s future
behavior as well. It may well be that no one ever truly gives
without any consideration of what the return might be.
FatCamera/Getty Images
Balanced Reciprocity
Balanced reciprocity involves a clear obligation to return,
within a specified time limit, goods of nearly equal value to
those given. Balanced reciprocity is often the dominant form
of exchange among nonindustrialized peoples without mar-
ket economies. However, it also occurs among individuals
and groups characterized by production strategies such as
pastoralism or industrialism. Partners in balanced reciprocity
hope to gain access to valued goods and services while at the
same time strengthening social relationships between giver
and receiver.
A gift that is accepted obligates the recipient to make
hunter. Robert Dentan described an instance of generalized a return gift. A refusal to receive or a failure to reciprocate
reciprocity among the Semai of Malaysia: a gift is taken as a withdrawal from a social relationship.
Sometimes a return gift may be given immediately. In some
After several days of fruitless hunting, an East Semai man marriages, friendship compacts, and peace agreements, peo-
kills a large pig. He lugs it back through the moist heat to ple may give one another exactly the same types and quan-
his settlement. Everyone gathers around. Two other men tities of goods (Sahlins, 1972: 194). For example, 100 yams
meticulously divide the pig into portions sufficient to feed may be exchanged for 100 yams. More often, the payoff is not
two adults each (children are not supposed to eat pork). immediate. In fact, sometimes an attempt to reciprocate the
As nearly as possible, each portion contains exactly the gift immediately is an indication of unwillingness to be obli-
same amount of meat, fat, liver, and innards as every other gated and shows that a trusting social relationship is neither
portion. The adult men take the leaf-wrapped portions present nor desired (Mauss, 1924/1990).
home to redistribute them among the members of the In the United States, we participate in balanced reciproc-
house group. (1979: 48) ity when we give gifts at weddings or birthdays, exchange
invitations, or buy a round of drinks for friends. The eco-
Similar systems are used by the Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari nomic aspect of these exchanges is repressed; we say it is the
and the Inuit. A North American might wonder: What does spirit of the gift and the social relationship between the givers
the hunter get out of it? Aren’t some people always in the posi- that is important. However, we also know that the individual
tion of providing and others always receiving? Dentan has who fails to ever return gifts or who returns gifts that are dis-
pointed out that among the Semai, no one ever says “thanks” proportionally large or small is unlikely to remain our friend
and that doing so is very rude. Part of the answer is simply for very long.
practical: Some of the animals hunted are very large, and Balanced reciprocity is most typical of trading relations
a single family would be unable to consume or preserve the among nonindustrialized peoples without market econ-
meat before it rotted. However, hunters have several other omies. Such trade is frequently carried out over long dis-
motivations for sharing. Hunters gain satisfaction from tances and between different tribes or villages. It is often
accomplishing a highly skilled and difficult task (Woodburn, done between trading partners: men or women who have
1998), and there are other rewards as well. Although not all a long-standing and personalized relationship with one
people in foraging societies give and receive equally, all are another. Trading partners know each other’s personali-
obligated to both give and receive. Gifted hunters may give ties, histories, and other aspects of their social lives. Plattner
more than they receive, but the gifts they do receive may be (1989a) has noted that the greater the risk of economic loss,
critical for their survival. Hunters may also gain status from betrayal of confidence, or unfair dealing, the more important
food distribution. For example, among the Pacaa Nova, a such personalized relations are.
The Kula Ring economic intensification, both the kula trade itself and the
Bronislaw Malinowski’s (1984/1922) analysis of the kula ring preparations for it reinforce ties among participants and
is one of the most famous anthropological studies of recipro- help ensure that relations among trading partners are rela-
cal trading. The kula ring is an extensive system of intertribal tively friendly. This is important because there is no formal
trade among a ring of islands off New Guinea (today part government incorporating the different groups that take
of the nation of Papua New Guinea). Among these are the active roles in the kula.
Trobriand Islands, where Malinowski did his fieldwork. Although the actual kula partners are men in many cases,
Although many kinds of goods are traded, Malinowski both men and women play important roles in the kula trade.
focused his study on two goods: soulava and mwali. Soulava On the Trobriand Islands, women’s wealth and status connec-
are long necklaces of red shell that are always traded in a clock- tions are more enduring than those of men. Women use their
wise direction. Mwali, bracelets of white shell, are always traded power and wealth to support men in both kula and other
in the opposite direction (Figure 6.10). Kula items are almost forms of trade (Weiner, 1976).
always traded between specific partners, and such partnerships On one level, the kula is simply an exchange of goods.
are usually enduring. In the trade, one partner presents the However, Malinowski demonstrated that the trade is infused
other with a mwali or soulava. Months or years later, the receiv- with a great many cultural norms and values related to
ing partner will in turn present the giver with the other kind of Trobriand life. It has complex cultural, social, and psycho-
kula valuable. Although kula items can be permanently owned, logical meanings for its participants. Kinship and political
people generally hold them for a while and then pass them on. structure, magic, prestige, economy, technology, myth, rit-
Their goal is to have valuable, famous, and beautiful objects in ual, feasting, and especially friendship and alliance all come
their possession and circulating among their friends and kula together in the kula. Weiner (1976) extended this analysis,
partners (Weiner, 1992: 144–146). pointing out that kula items and other elements of trade have
In addition to the trade in kula valuables, there is a sec- important symbolic significance and that exchanges help
ond, less public system of trade called gimwali that includes their participants both maintain and represent their social
foods such as yams and bananas, manufactured items such order. Thus, the system of balanced reciprocity found in the
as canoes, axe blades, and many other goods (Damon, kula trade contributes to the integration of Trobriand society
1983a; Fortune, 1932). These goods are often unavailable as well as the maintenance of economic and social relations
in the district in which they are given. Thus, the kula trade among all its participants.
allows groups to specialize in different aspects of produc-
tion, and this leads to an increase in both the amount of Negative Reciprocity
food and the quantity and quality of craft production within Negative reciprocity happens when trade is conducted
the region (Spielmann, 2002). In addition to promoting for material advantage and is based on the desire to get
something for nothing (e.g., gambling, theft, cheating).
Negative reciprocity is characteristic of both impersonal
and unfriendly transactions. It is the unsociable extreme in
FIGURE 6.10 The kula ring is an extensive exchange.
system of intertribal trade. Partners trade kula Tribal and peasant societies often distinguish between
valuables that include soulava, long necklaces of the insider, whom it is morally wrong to cheat, and the out-
red shell, and mwali bracelets like the ones in this sider, from whom every advantage may be gained. Clyde
photo. Kluckhohn (1959), who studied the Navajo in the 1940s and
1950s, reported that their rules for interaction varied with
©Collection du Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie
the situation; to deceive when trading with outsiders was a

morally accepted practice.
Another good example of negative reciprocity is the
historic relationship between traditional dynastic China
and the nomadic empires of Mongolia. The ability of
Mongol empires to benefit their constituent tribes was
based on their capacity to extract wealth and resources from
China. They did this by following a policy of violent raid-
ing. Because the nomads were highly mobile, war against
them was prohibitively expensive, and the Chinese were
repeatedly forced to buy peace from the nomads, essen-
tially paying protection money. The threat of violence lay
under the surface of all interactions between the two groups

(Barfield, 1993: 150–155). FIGURE 6.11 Potlatches are competitive feasts
Negative reciprocity may be characteristic of certain held among Native Americans of the Pacific
types of transactions in market economies as well. The e-mail Northwest coast. Potlatching chiefs gain
scam artist offering to deposit millions in your bank account prestige by redistributing a wide variety of
if you will only provide your account number and other per- goods. Here, a group of Haida Indians wearing
sonal information is engaged in negative reciprocity, as is the potlatch regalia pose in 1901.
Wall Street manager who offers high returns on investment
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

but who then steals your money. The issue of honesty in mar-
ket transactions is further explored later in the chapter within
the section on market exchange.
Redistribution
In redistribution, goods are collected from or contributed by
members of a group and then given out to the group in a new
pattern. There is a social center to which goods are brought
and from which they are distributed. Redistribution occurs in
many different contexts. In household food sharing, pooled
resources are reallocated among family members. In state
societies, this is achieved through taxation: Governments
collect resources and then redistribute them in accordance
with their political goals.
Redistribution can be especially important in horticul-
tural societies. where political organization includes bigmen,
self-made leaders who gain power and authority through
personal achievement. Such individuals collect goods and
food from their supporters. Often these items are given
away in communal feasts that the bigman sponsors to sus- large quantities of food as well as goods such as blankets and
tain his political power and raise his prestige. Redistribution carved wooden boxes. As these items were given or destroyed,
also occurred in some chiefdoms. In these cases, however, the individual and his supporters boasted of their wealth
a distinct hierarchy was involved. Chiefs collected goods and power. In the early 20th century, Franz Boas collected
and staple foods from many communities to support their speeches given at potlatches, such as this one:
households and attendants as well as to finance large public
feasts that helped solidify their power (Earle, 1987; also see I am Yaqatlentlis. . . . I am Great Inviter. . . .Therefore I feel
Chapter 8, page 185). like laughing at what the lower chiefs say, for they try in vain
to down me by talking against my name. Who approaches
The Potlatch what was done by my ancestors, the chiefs? Therefore I am
Potlatch feasting is a good example of redistribution. known by all the tribes over all the world. Only the chief my
Native American groups of the Pacific Northwest, includ- ancestor gave away property in a great feast, and all the rest
ing the Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl), and Tlingit, can only try to imitate me. (Benedict, 1934: 191)
hold potlatches to honor and to validate the rank of chiefs
and other notables (Figure 6.11). Historically, potlatches The feasting and gifts given at a potlatch demonstrated
were frequently held in connection with births, deaths, and the host’s right to the titles and rights he claimed and created
marriages, and they often involved an element of rivalry. prestige for him and his followers. Guests either acknowl-
(Rosman & Rubel, 1971). A leader holding a potlatch called edged the host’s claims or refuted them by staging an even
on his followers to supply food and other goods to be con- larger potlatch. Thus, potlatching involved friendship but
sumed and distributed during a feast to which he invited also competition and rivalry.
group members and rivals. At a potlatch, the host publicly From an economic perspective, the drive for prestige
traced his line of descent and claimed the right to certain engendered by the potlatch encouraged people to produce
titles and privileges. Each of these claims was accompanied more food and goods than they would otherwise consume,
by the giving away of, and sometimes the destruction of, even though this increased the amount of work they did.
Because this wealth was given to people who traveled sub- production by households. As mentioned earlier, economic
stantial distances to come to a potlatch, it was distributed to a expansion and accumulation of wealth are limited when
fairly large population and ecological area. households, rather than business firms, are the produc-
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canadian gov- tive units. A second factor in Amatenango is inheritance:
ernment authorities saw the potlatch as a waste of resources All a man’s children share equally in his estate. This makes
and evidence of native irrationality. They believed that saving it difficult for large estates to persist over generations.
was the key to economic success and, to them, the potlatch Accusations of witchcraft are a third leveling mechanism.
focus on consumption and destruction of goods was both Should anyone in Amatenango manage to accumulate
disturbing and wasteful. As a result, potlatching was out- more than their neighbors, members of other families
lawed between 1884 and 1951 (Bracken, 1997). Since then, are likely to accuse that person of witchcraft, and people
the potlatch has been revived but primarily as a symbol of thought to be witches are often killed. Witchcraft accusa-
tribal identity rather than a major element in tribal economy. tions are most often leveled at those who are rich but not
Simeone (1995) and Stearns (1975), for example, reported generous.
that the Tanacross and Haida people consider the potlatch Finally, Amatenango and many other villages have
a central symbol of cooperation and respect that separates cargo systems. In a cargo system, men in the village must
native from nonnative peoples. annually assume a number of different cargos, or religious
Although the term potlatch refers specifically to the feast- offices. Assuming such a cargo is an expensive proposition.
ing of Northwest Coast people, Rosman and Rubel (1971: xii) The officeholder cannot work full time, and the obliga-
reported that rivalrous, competitive feasting is found among tions of the cargo involve substantial purchases and dona-
many peoples. It is common, for example, throughout the tions, which take up some of a family’s extra resources. A
Pacific Islands. We may even see some elements of it in our man must serve in 12 such cargos before he can retire from
own society. There may be competition within families or public life, so the cost continues throughout adulthood. In
between communities to throw the largest and most elabo- addition to these 12 offices, there is the position of alférez,
rate holiday parties, weddings, or coming-of-age celebrations a ritual office filled by a younger man. One of the require-
(such as a confirmation, bar or bat mitzvah, or quinceañera). ments of being alférez is sponsoring a community feast,
In all these cases, the prestige that accrues to the people who which involves paying for the food and liquor and renting
give the party is a critical factor. This reminds us that there is costumes. Men are selected for the cargos and the alférez by
much more to giving a gift than simply trying to determine their ability to pay. Thus, the cargo system is a way of forc-
what another person desires. ing the most prosperous households of the village to redis-
tribute some of their wealth.
Leveling Mechanisms Community obligations such as a system of expensive
Redistribution may either increase or decrease inequality religious offices may help to limit the economic gap between
within a society. A leveling mechanism is a practice, value, or the relatively rich and the poor, but they do not eliminate
form of social organization that results in evening out the dis- it. In fact, they may help preserve it. Men who take cargos
tribution of wealth by forcing accumulated resources or capi- gain in prestige, differentiating themselves from the poor
tal to be used in ways that reduce economic differences. Such of the village. Increased prestige often leads to increased
mechanisms ensure that social goals are considered along wealth. Cancian (1989) showed that in Zinacantan, which
with economic ones. has a system of cargos or religious offices similar to that
Leveling mechanisms take many different forms. For of Amatenango, men who took on cargos remained rich
example, if an economy is based around redistribution and throughout their lives, whereas poor families incapable of
generosity is the basis of prestige, those who desire power filling such offices remained poor. Thus, although it does
and prestige will distribute as much wealth as they receive. redistribute some of the wealth in the community, the cargo
The potlatch, described earlier, is a good example of this. system in Mexican villages may serve to reinforce eco-
The moka, a type of large feast in the highlands of Papua New nomic differences among families rather than equalize them
Guinea, is another. There, men who wish to gain prestige pre- (Cancian, 1989: 147).
pare for many years for these events, accumulating wealth in The cargo system still exists throughout Mesoamerica,
the form of pigs, shells, cassowary, and, in the modern world, but it may be losing influence. For example, Mary O’Conner
money and manufactured goods. At the feast, all this wealth (2016: 88) has noted that in recent years, fewer people among
is given away to those who attend. the Mixtec are willing take cargo offices. She links this to the
Manning Nash (1967) described many leveling mech- increasing presence of modern-day consumer goods and
anisms that operate in the village of Amatenango in the argues that, like holding cargo offices, these also give their
Chiapas district of Mexico. One is the organization of owners prestige but don’t require giving anything away.
Market Exchange
FIGURE 6.12 Markets usually occur when
Today, market exchange is the principal distribution mecha-
political authorities can enforce fair, impersonal
nism in most of the world’s societies. Goods and services are
exchange. However, the phrase “let the buyer
bought and sold at a price determined, at least in theory, by
beware” captures the idea that even the rules of
impersonal market forces. Unlike reciprocity and redistri-
trade may not always be enforced. Here, Danny
bution, in which the social and political roles of those who
DeVito plays a dishonest used car salesman in
exchange are important, a market exchange in principle is
the 1996 film Matilda.
impersonal and occurs without regard to the social position
of the participants.
Getty Images/Stringer
The market involves a series of cultural and moral
assumptions. For an impersonal market to run smoothly,
most participants must believe that they will usually be
treated fairly by people they do not know. Of course, the
ideal of fair and impersonal exchange is just that—an ideal.
Because of this, markets are almost always regulated by a
political power that sets the rules for trade, enforces peace
in the market, and punishes violations. What constitutes fair
exchange varies from culture to culture, but markets are full
of conflicts, inequities, and outright cheats. However, in most
cases, individuals who believe they have been cheated or oth-
erwise treated unfairly in the market can appeal to authorities
and institutions such as rulers and court systems to redress
their grievances. or impossible to purchase through markets. All societies limit
The continued importance of social connections among what may be bought and sold. We live in a market-dominated
market participants is well illustrated by electronic mar- society, but for moral, social, and political reasons, govern-
ketplaces such as eBay, where buyers and sellers come close ments limit trade in certain goods and regulate trade in others.
to true anonymity. In these cases, a sophisticated system of For example, there are restrictions on the sale of drugs, guns,
ratings simulates social connections and knowledge. This children, and college degrees.
gives trading partners a degree of certainty that the terms of In most societies where markets play an important role,
trade will be fair. But eBay participants know that the fewer black markets develop. These are institutions and arrange-
and worse the ratings of their trading partners, the greater the ments that escape social regulation. In principle, anything
risk for a hostile exchange. The phrase caveat emptor, or “let may be purchased through black markets, including children
the buyer beware,” neatly captures the notion that the rules of and college degrees. However, not only do participants in
even trade are not always in force (Figure 6.12). black markets have no recourse from courts or other author-
In principle, the primary factors that set prices and wages ities if they are cheated, governments and international agen-
in a market are related to supply and demand. Individuals par- cies pursue and penalize them. An example of this was Silk
ticipate freely in a market, choosing what they buy and sell. Road, a website that people used primarily to buy and sell
These principles are almost never perfectly attained. In some drugs. U.S. authorities shut down Silk Road, and its founder
cases, wealthy and powerful individuals, organizations, and and owner, Ross Ulbricht, is currently serving a sentence of
industries fix prices or wages, forcing people into wage labor life without parole. However, other websites have emerged
or into the market at disadvantageous terms. In other cases, to take its place, such as Silk Road 2.0 and 3.0, AlphaBay, and
cultural ideas about the proper or “just price” of a good or ser- Dream Market. These will no doubt be shut down as well, but
vice are more important than supply and demand. Sometimes others will emerge, aided, perhaps, by the increasing popular-
governments control or influence the prices of commodities ity and importance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and
such as grain, setting them either high (to encourage farmers) Ethereum that make transactions difficult to trace.
or low (to feed often rebellious city dwellers cheaply).
The types of goods and services available in the market Capitalism
are almost always restricted in some way. As we have seen,
people in many societies gain access to land, labor, and some In the past 300 years, capitalism has become the world’s
goods through ties of kinship or obligations of reciprocity predominant economic system. Capitalism expanded
and redistribution. In such places, land and labor are difficult from northern Europe, North America, and Japan and has
transformed economies worldwide, connecting them in a rents and taxes. In capitalist societies, firms produce goods
complex, integrated international economy (Wallerstein, to create wealth. For example, General Motors (GM) is not
1995). In Chapter 14, we describe this historic process, and in really in business to make cars. General Motors is in business
Chapter 15, we examine and analyze the problems and prom- to increase the wealth of its shareholders. Manufacturing
ises of the global economy. Here, we focus on describing capi- automobiles is one (though only one) of the ways it tries to
talism and pointing out some of its most salient features. achieve that end. GM is also heavily involved in banking and
In noncapitalist societies, most people produce goods was historically involved in aviation, military contracting,
to consume them, to trade them for other goods, or to pay and consumer products. You probably don’t think of GM as

UX (U S E R E X PE R I E N C E )
In the past several decades, greater numbers of with context, expectations, past experiences, and
anthropologists have sought employment in business the ways people actually use things in their lives.
and have been involved in designing some well- Anthropological techniques such as participant
known consumer products. For example, ethnographic observation are particularly useful in studying UX.
research conducted by Susan Squires and Bryan Byrne
was instrumental in the development of Go-Gurt, a For Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel Rasmussen (2014),
popular sweetened yogurt product marketed to parents two of the principals of the anthropological consulting
of young children. company ReD, the core of UX is sensemaking—the
ways in which people bring “the complex interplay
More recently, technology companies have become one between their interior lives and their social, cultural,
of the biggest consumers of anthropology. Microsoft and physical worlds” to bear on the ways in which they
is reportedly the world’s second-largest employer understand and use goods and services. They point to
of anthropologists (D. Baer, 2014), and Women in their work with the toymaker Lego as an example. In
Technology International Hall of Fame member and the mid-2000s, Lego was failing in its attempt to move
anthropologist Genevieve Bell is a vice president and into new markets such as video games and action
fellow at Intel as well as director of the company’s figures. The company produced products that looked
Corporate Sensing and Insights group. Bell (n.d.) has said cool but were not popular. To find out what parents
her job is “to make sense of what makes people tick, what and children wanted from Lego, the company did
delights and frustrates them, and to use those insights to ethnographic research. Researchers spent time with
help shape the next generation of technology insights.” families, interviewed parents and children, shopped
with families, and took pictures. They found that what
George Anders (2015) noted that “throughout the major kids wanted from Legos was to escape from their overly
U.S. tech hubs. . .software companies are discovering structured lives and hone their skills. The new, more
that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger.” There structured products didn’t allow kids to reach these
is a good reason for this. As technology progresses, goals in the ways that the old ones did. To survive,
many jobs on the technical side, such as software Lego needed to focus on its core business and make
engineering, become automated. Fewer (but very products that allowed kids greater freedom to play.
highly skilled) people are needed to fill them. On the
other hand, jobs related to how people use technology Anthropologists have made products more friendly
and how to market technology increase. For example, in and businesses more money. However, UX also raises
the spring of 2015, Facebook was advertising 146 jobs some ethical problems. For example, anthropologists
for software developers but 225 for sales and business mine information from their informants. If corporations
development specialists. then profit from this information, is payment owed
to the informants? Most anthropologists publish
A key intersection of anthropology and business is their research findings, but corporate research is
the development of the field of UX, or user experience. usually private. Should it be? Some key consumers of
UX refers to the ways in which people interact with anthropological research are beverage and packaged
products, services, and companies and how end users food companies, but should anthropologists be
feel about the systems and objects they use and how promoting the sale of sugary drinks and junk food?
these things fit into their lives. Part of this is simply Should anthropology be used to help corporations
measuring ease of use. However, a lot of it has to do make more money?
a refrigerator company, but it owned the appliance manufac- The third attribute is that the value of workers’ contri-
turer Frigidaire from 1918 to 1978. Today, Frigidaire is owned bution to production is always intended to be greater than
by the Sweden-based company Electrolux, best known for the wages they receive. The difference between these two
making vacuum cleaners. is the profit that accrues to those who own the productive
Productive resources become capital when they are resources—generally the shareholders of a corporation
used with the primary goal of increasing their owner’s finan- (Plattner, 1989b: 382–384). The extremely high wages of some
cial wealth (Figure 6.13). In capitalism, this becomes the professional athletes and entertainers provide a good illustra-
most common (though not the only) use of such resources. tion of this principle. For example, Cleveland Cavaliers player
Capitalism is further characterized by three fundamental LeBron James signed a hundred-million-dollar three-year
attributes. First, most productive resources are owned by a contract in 2016 (Badenhausen, 2016). For the team owner,
small portion of the population. Banks, corporations, and Dan Gilbert, James’s high salary was easily justified. Gilbert
wealthy individuals own the vast majority of farms, factories, rightly believes that James’s presence on the team increases
and business of all kinds. Although many Americans invest his own wealth. When James returned to the Cavaliers in
in business through ownership of stocks, mutual funds, and 2014, their arena revenue jumped more than 40%. Gilbert
retirement plans, substantial wealth is highly concentrated. bought the Cavaliers for $375 million in 2005, but by 2018 it
For example, in the United States in 2017, about 54% of was valued at more than $1.3 billion (“Daniel Gilbert,” 2018).
households had money invested in stocks or mutual funds James’s work has accounted for a significant percentage of that
and thus owned some share of a business. However, 89% increase. James’s contract, along with more than $45 million
of households with an annual income above $100,000 did in endorsement deals, has made him a very wealthy man. His
(J. Jones, 2017). The median value of all financial assets (bank net worth is believed to be more than $400 million (Archer,
accounts, retirement accounts, stocks, mutual funds, and so 2018). However, James’s wealth pales next to that of Gilbert,
on) held by U.S. families in 2016 was only $23,500 (Bricker who is believed to be worth about $6.3 billion, placing him at
et al., 2014). According to G. William Domhoff (2013), in #91 on Forbes’s list of the wealthiest Americans (“Cleveland
2010, the wealthiest 10% of American households held over Cavaliers,” 2018).
90% of all stocks and mutual funds owned in the nation. In general, workers wish to receive as close to the full
Thus, although a great many people held some ownership of value of their labor as possible, while owners wish to pay as
business, the vast majority was held by comparatively few. small a portion of that labor’s value as possible. This fre-
The second attribute of capitalism is that most individ- quently results in conflict between the two groups.
uals’ primary resource is their labor. To survive, people sell
their labor for a salary or an hourly wage. Most Americans, Capitalism and Social Relations in Turkey
for example, work for large or small corporations that they do Modern capitalist economies are dominated by market
not own, or they are employed by government. exchange, but this does not mean that people always experi-
ence their economy in terms of buying and selling at whatever
price the market will bear. Capitalism always occurs within
the context of other social relationships, and sometimes these
FIGURE 6.13 Productive resources, such as the relationships provide a mask behind which it can hide. In other
mechanical plow of this farmer in Bali, become words, capitalist relationships are sometimes camouflaged by
capital when they are used in ways intended to family ties or social obligations. When this happens, entrepre-
increase their owner’s financial wealth. neurs may be able to extract extra profits. The production of
knitted sweaters in Turkey is a good example of this.
CBuchananstock/Alamy Stock Photo
Turkey produces many goods and services used in

wealthy capitalist nations. Most of the inhabitants of Istanbul,
its largest city, are part of a capitalist economy, selling their
labor in enterprises aimed at generating a profit. However, as
Jenny B. White (1994) reported, many of them, particularly
women, understand their work in terms of reciprocity and
kin obligations rather than capitalism and the marketplace.
Turkey is a patrilineal and patriarchal society. Turkish
women live in complex social networks that are characterized
by social obligations and relations of reciprocity. To a great
degree, they measure their worth by the work they do for
family members. A married women lives with her husband’s
However, these capitalist relationships are masked by social

relations of balanced or generalized reciprocity with the labor
organizer. Because they understand their work in terms of a
social obligation, women rarely think about how much they
are earning an hour or how they might use their time and tal-
TURKEY ents to make more money. Thus, they are willing to accept far
lower wages than might otherwise be the case.
M
UKRAINE
E
In some ways, the system serves the women well. They
OL
DO
can fulfill their roles as wives and in-laws, and their social
VA
ROMANIA connections with labor organizers may give them some

RUSSIA
degree of security. This is important in a country like Turkey
where most people are poor and social services are few.
Black Sea
BULGARIA
G E O RG I
However, it is clear that the greatest beneficiaries of this sys-
A
Istanbul tem are firms and consumers in wealthy nations. The fact
Ankara that reciprocity masks capitalism for poor women in Turkey
allows rich consumers in Europe and the United States to buy
TURKEY hand-knitted sweaters at very low prices and the firms based
in these nations to make high profits.
IRAQ
SYRIA
Mediter ranean CYPRUS 0 500 mi
FIGURE 6.14 For many Turkish women, knitting
S ea 0 500 km
is a social obligation. This is one factor that
leads them to accept very low wages for the
family and is expected to manage the household and to keep knitting they do. However, these sweaters enter
her hands busy with knitting and other skilled tasks. Such a globalized trade system and are sold for high
tasks are not considered work (in the sense of work outside of prices in wealthy nations.
the home) but are rather understood as necessary obligations
Yaacov Dagan/Alamy Stock Photo

of married life.
Business in Turkey is often patterned on social life, and
this can be seen clearly in women’s piecework. Women pro-
duce garments that are sold in the United States and other
Western nations. The materials they use are generally sup-
plied to them by an organizer, who also finds a buyer for the
finished product. The organizers are often relatives, neigh-
bors, and friends of the women who do the work.
In the Istanbul neighborhood White investigated, almost
everyone believed that women should not work for money,
yet about two-thirds of them were involved in piecework
(White, 1994: 13). How is this contradiction explained? The
women who do piecework see it as a way for them to keep
their hands busy and thus fulfill part of their duty as wives
rather than as a form of paid labor (Figure 6.14). Their work
fulfill part of their obligation to their husband’s family and to
the organizers with whom they have social connections. The
women consider their work a gift of labor and understand the
payments they receive as gifts from someone with whom they
have established social relationships.
Because the women’s work is set within a context of global
capitalism, work organizers may be friends and neighbors,
but they are also capitalist entrepreneurs hoping to make
money. In the end, women produce goods for the capital-
ist marketplace, and their wages derive from that market.
Although there are probably some individuals who act as Not all societies, nor all individuals within a society,
capitalists in most monetized economies, societies organized are able or willing to participate in the capitalist economy.
primarily by capitalism are a late development in the history Historically, the expansion of capitalism was accompanied
of humankind. Such societies were not a natural and inevita- by the wide-scale destruction of noncapitalist societies, a
ble outcome of economic evolution. Rather, they owed their process examined in more detail in Chapter 14. Further,
origin to the specific conditions of the industrial revolution although capitalism has now expanded into every part of the
in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and have become world, there are probably no countries where all of the pop-
increasingly prevalent in the world in the past 150 years. ulation is directly involved in it. In many areas, noncapitalist
As the case of the Turkish women shows, capitalism has groups remain, although they are often pushed to geographi-
outgrown national boundaries. The result has been great cally marginal areas, such as the border between Pakistan and
movement of resources and capital and migrations of popu- Afghanistan or the jungles of Brazil. In other places, issues
lation as the whole world has gradually been drawn into the of race, gender, and ethnicity prevent people from fully par-
global economy, a system we call globalization. For the most ticipating in the capitalist economy. However, even in these
part, members of traditional societies enter the market as locations, mass-produced goods, media, and fashions from
low-wage laborers. Most of the wealth they produce accrues capitalist societies are easily found.
to elites within poor nations as well as owners and consumers Despite the international success of capitalism, it has from
in wealthy nations (E. Wolf, 1982). its origins encountered frequent and sometimes violent resis-
tance. In the early 19th century, Luddites smashed the weav-
ing machines of early capitalists in a futile attempt to preserve
Resistance to Capitalism skilled labor and cottage industry. By the late 19th and early
Capitalism is a powerful economic system. It undoubtedly
provides a greater number of goods and services to larger
populations than other ways of organizing an economy, but FIGURE 6.15 Garage sales, gardening, raising
it does so at a cost. When some individuals or groups own livestock, and doing odd jobs help many
or control basic resources, others must inevitably be denied Americans avoid full participation in the
access to these resources. This results in permanently dif- capitalist economy.
ferentiated economic and social classes. Capitalism dictates
imac/Alamy Stock Photo

that there will always be rich and poor. Often, part of the
population lives in extreme poverty, without access to basic
resources—in American society, this includes the homeless,
the landless rural poor, and the permanently unemployed.
Poverty in capitalist societies punishes weakness, failure,
or ill fortune in a way that is harsher than in other forms of
economic organization described in this chapter. Foraging,
herding, gardening, and most nonindustrial agricultural
societies provide work for all. Although there is inequality
in these societies, in most cases, for most of the population,
differences in wealth are relatively small. Contemporary cap-
italist societies, which are characterized by well-coordinated,
specialized labor forces, increasingly require that individuals
be skilled, mobile, and educated to succeed. They provide
extraordinary rewards to some (but certainly not all) people
who are highly educated, highly creative, or both, as well as to
people who are members of what billionaire investor Warren
Buffett has called “the lucky sperm club”—those who happen
to be born to wealth. However, even when economic times
are good, many people are left out.
The creation of complex global systems of exchange
between suppliers of money, suppliers of goods, and consum-
ers of those goods results in complex patterns of inequality both
within and between nations. The overwhelming power of inter-
national capitalism connects and alters cultures in new ways.
20th centuries, radical unions such as the Industrial Workers throughout the world neither work for wages nor hire work-
of the World campaigned for the abolition of capitalism and ers and make investments to increase their wealth. In the
wage labor. In the 1960s, anticapitalist protests broke out United States, they often get by using a combination of tech-
across Europe, Japan, and the United States. Protests in France niques that include subsistence gardening, garage sales, and
in 1968 were particularly widespread as workers joined stu- trading their labor with others (Figure 6.15). They work for
dent protesters to bring the nation to the brink of revolution. others only when they absolutely must, taking part-time jobs
Protests continued in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with or leaving full-time employment as soon as they have enough
riots and mass arrests accompanying meetings of major cap- cash for an immediate need (Halperin, 1990; Hansen, 1995).
italist institutions such as the World Bank and World Trade And this is not only an American phenomenon: Wilson
Organization. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, protests found that people who drove horse carriages (jarveys) in
broke out again in many places. The best known of these was Ireland were often fleeing wage labor. Other members of their
the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011, which began in families worked in factories, and they themselves had previ-
New York but rapidly became global, with rallies held in more ous experience with wage labor but had given it up. One man
than 900 cities throughout the world (Adam, 2011). Although said that even if they paid him twice as much to work in a fac-
support for the movement eventually diminished, resistance tory, he’d rather drive a carriage (Wilson, 2003: 303).
to the current distribution of wealth continues. In 2015, a In the United States, individuals are often very proud of
Gallup Poll reported that 63% of Americans believe that their ability to support themselves outside the boundaries of
wealth should be distributed more evenly (Newport, 2015). wage labor. However, the fact that they are able to resist prin-
In addition to taking to the street in protest, people resist cipal elements of capitalism (perhaps unknowingly) reminds
capitalism in other, more subtle ways. The fundamental social us that economic systems are not natural and inevitable. The
arrangement of capitalism is that most people sell their labor ways in which we organize our economy are the result of his-
for wages to capitalists who reinvest profit to create greater tory, politics, economics, and individual choices—a creation
wealth. However, many people in the United States and of culture, not natural law.

G I F T S, B R I B E S, A N D S O C I A L N E T WO R K S
Question: What’s the difference between a gift and a bribe?
Many classic anthropological studies have focused most places in the former Soviet Union, but money
on gift exchange in relatively small societies without to buy them is not. Abel Polese (2008) examined gift
money. However, using gifts to build social networks giving and corruption in Ukraine in the early 2000s
that may serve instrumental purposes is part of large, and found a wide gray area between the two. The
current-day monetized societies as well. When this Ukrainian government was unable to adequately
happens, it raises important questions about the line provide many services to its citizens. Salaries paid to
between a gift and a bribe. Good examples of this government workers, including doctors and teachers,
come from the countries of the former Soviet Union were inadequate to cover their living expenses. In
(though they certainly exist in our own society as this context, money and goods received by doctors
well). In Soviet times (1917–1991), having at least and teachers from their patients and students were
some money was relatively common, but goods that extremely important to their economic survival,
could be bought with the money were scarce. In and it became very common for people receiving
this condition, a system called blat pervaded many services to offer such gifts. However, were these gifts
aspects of life. Blat referred to social connections or bribes? The Ukrainian government declared that
reinforced by gift giving that allowed people to it was illegal for government employees (including
gain access to goods, services, employment, and doctors and teachers) to receive gifts of any kind.
often admission to universities. A proverb of the era However, the government tolerated these practices to
claimed, “Better 100 friends than 100 rubles.” avoid paying higher wages.
In the post-Soviet Union era, blat and other The perspectives of the participants themselves
arrangements persist, but they are increasingly were nuanced. In at least some cases, people giving
complicated. Now, goods are widely available in gifts and payments saw these as signs of gratitude
(Continued)
(Continued)
rather than bribes. For many, the sequence of events publicly spoke about the value of anatabine, hosted
was important: A payment received before taking an events for Star Scientific at the governor’s mansion,
exam or undergoing surgery was a bribe; payment and encouraged researchers at the University of
afterwards, a gift. The specific actions of the service Virginia to apply for state funding to study anatabine.
provider also made a difference. Teachers might Was this corruption or just gift giving among
allow students to pass exams and doctors might friends? A U.S. district court found McDonnell and
provide services in expectation of receiving a gift, his wife guilty of corruption. However, the Supreme
but they believed that was different from requiring Court reversed this decision, arguing that corruption
an up-front payment. As one of Polese’s informants required a more specific quid pro quo.
expressed it, “If I receive it, it’s a gift. If I demand it,
then it is a bribe” (2008: 53). More recently, New Jersey senator Bob Menendez
was similarly accused. Menendez received both gifts
Neither gift givers nor gift receivers understood and political donations from Salomon Melgen, a
their actions as simple corruption. But neither did Florida eye doctor. Menendez received free flights on
these transactions create the ongoing social ties Melgen’s private jets, and Menendez’s political action
typical of most gift giving. Such transactions were committee received more than half a million dollars
not exactly gifts and not exactly bribes, and Polese from Melgen. For his part, Menendez helped three
proposed the term brift, something halfway between of Melgen’s foreign-born girlfriends get U.S. visas
a gift and a bribe, to describe them. He argued that and helped Melgen settle an $8.9 million dispute
brifting was a fundamental aspect of Ukrainian with Medicare. Again, gift giving among friends or
social life and that although brifts in some cases corruption? An 11-week trial ended in a hung jury.
did harm Ukraine’s social and economic structures, The U.S. Justice Department attempted to retry
they were “complementary to an economic system Menendez, but in January 2018, all charges against
that does not guarantee even distribution of welfare” him were dropped. Perhaps both these politicians
(2008: 57). However, as Ukraine’s economic situation and those who gave to them were brifters.
deteriorated throughout the first fifteen years
of the 21st century, its problems with corruption Key Questions
increased. In 2015, the watchdog group Transparency
1. In what ways does gift giving reduce inequality in
International ranked Ukraine as #130 out of 167
society? In what ways does it increase it?
countries on its corruption index and said it was by
far the most corrupt nation in Europe. Government 2. For the U.S. justice system, the line between a gift
corruption was a significant cause of the political and a bribe seems to have little to do with the size
events that led to the Russian military intervention of the gift or bribe and a lot to do with the giver
that began in 2014 (E. Merry, 2016). and recipient agreeing on what specific favors will
result from the gift or bribe. Do you believe this to
Recent corruption trials in the United States seem to be a reasonable standard?
hinge on some of the same issues Polese described
in Ukraine. In 2014, former Virginia governor Bob 3. Do you believe that politicians and service pro-
McDonnell and his wife were indicted on federal viders favor those who they believe will give them
corruption charges. McDonnell had received more gifts? Is there a relationship between one’s occupa-
than $175,000 from Jonnie Williams, then the head tion and the degree to which one is susceptible to
of Star Scientific, a company that produced a dietary bribes? For example, are politicians, doctors, and
supplement called anatabine. The McDonnells trash collectors all equally easy or difficult to bribe?
SUMMARY
1. What is economics and what is economic behavior? their scarce goods and resources in ways that maximize
Economics is the study of how the choices people make their benefit.
combine to determine the ways their societies use their
scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and 2. What are productive resources? Give some examples.
services. Economists assume that people will generally Productive resources are the things that members of a
engage in economizing behavior—that they will allocate society need to participate in the economy, and access to
them is basic to every culture. Such resources generally 8. What is redistribution and in what kinds of societies is it
include land, labor, and knowledge. commonly found? In redistribution, goods are collected
at a social center from which they are given out to the
3. How does the allocation of productive resources differ group in a new pattern. Redistribution occurs in many
in foraging, pastoral, horticultural, and agricultural soci- different contexts but is particularly common in societies
eties? In general, as social complexity increases, access that have bigmen, in chiefdoms, and in states. Potlatches
to productive resources becomes more restricted. In among Northwest Coast Native Americans provide an
foraging societies, all people usually have access to all example of redistribution. Some forms of redistribu-
resources. Among pastoralists, ownership of animals is tion act as leveling mechanisms, forcing wealthier indi-
vested in families and kin groups. Among horticultural- viduals to disburse part of their riches to the rest of the
ists, people may control land in which they have invested community.
labor. Among agriculturalists, specific individuals own
many productive resources. 9. How does the economic history of Belize reflect connec-
tions between economy and culture? Belize has always
4. What is the organization of labor and what are its key ele- been integrated into an international system of trade,
ments in most preindustrial societies? All societies assign from its earlier days exporting logwood and mahog-
specific jobs to specific groups of people. Labor must be any to its more recent foray into tourism. This has had
organized in order for production to take place. In most a deep impact on consumption patterns as ideas of the
preindustrial societies, labor is organized by gender and proper ways to eat were closely linked with European
by household or kin group. Work that people both per- notions of propriety. The development of indigenous
form and receive helps establish them with respect in cuisine has been influenced by both nationalism and
their social network and is often integral to their identity. emigration as Belizeans have created ethnic restaurants
in the United States and then imported that cuisine back
5. What is the relationship between population, social
to Belize.
complexity, and specialization? As societies become
more populous and complex, the number of specialized 10. What are the chief characteristics of market exchange
jobs found in them increases. This is particularly true and where is it found? In market exchange, goods and
when societies are dependent on agriculture or indus- services are bought and sold at a money price deter-
trialism. In preindustrial societies, like traditional India, mined by market forces. In principle, market exchange
kin groups may have rights or duties to perform specific is impersonal and occurs without regard to the social
jobs. Current-day wealthy societies have extremely high position of the participants. However, markets are
degrees of specialization. This creates great efficiency almost always regulated by a political power that sets
but involves changing notions of identity and often has the rules for trade, enforces peace, and punishes infrac-
heavy human costs. tions. Market exchange is the most common mechanism
of exchange in the world today and is found in most
6. What different systems of distribution are described
societies.
in this chapter? There are systems for distributing and
consuming goods and services in all societies. Every 11. What are the defining characteristics of capitalism? In
society uses some combination of reciprocity, redistri- capitalism, the owners of productive resources use them
bution, and the market to redistribute goods and ser- to increase their financial wealth. In capitalist societies,
vices and to provide patterns and standards for their productive resources are held primarily by a small per-
consumption. centage of the population, most people sell their labor
for wages, and the value of people’s labor is always more
7. Define reciprocity and describe different types of reci- than the wages they receive. Capitalism can be masked
procity. Reciprocity is the mutual give and take of goods by other relationships, such as reciprocity.
and services among people. In generalized reciprocity,
individuals at a close social distance give and take with- 12. What is UX and how does it involve anthropologists?
out expecting immediate or specific return. Balanced UX stands for user experience and refers to the ways in
reciprocity involves individuals at a medium social dis- which people interact with products, services, and com-
tance and includes a clear obligation to return goods of panies. Anthropological techniques are very useful in
nearly equal value to those given. The kula trade in the studying this. Many companies hire anthropologists to
Trobriand Islands is an example. Negative reciprocity is study the ways in which their products and services are
characteristic of impersonal or unfriendly relations and used. This has made products more friendly and made
involves attempting to get the better of a trade. businesses more money.
13. Where is resistance to capitalism found and what forms corruption can be difficult to determine. In Ukraine,
does it take? Resistance to capitalism is found in almost people once gave gifts to doctors and teachers but
all capitalist societies. Sometimes this resistance may understood these as demonstrations of gratitude
take the form of movements for social change or violent rather than bribes, despite the role the gifts played in
revolution. However, in many places, people resist capi- increasing the income of doctors and teachers and
talism by owning productive resources that they use only assuring the givers access to medical services and
for their own subsistence, avoiding wage labor and limit-
passing grades. In the United States, courts have held
ing their participation in the market.
that if no specific quid pro quo can be demonstrated,
14. How are gifts and bribes related in Ukraine and in the large payments to politicians are gifts, even when the
United States? The difference between gift giving and recipients provide many services to the gift givers.
1. If one compares foragers, pastoralists, horticulturalists, 3. What kinds of leveling mechanisms are present in cur-
and agriculturalists, is there a pattern of change in the rent-day capitalist society? Are they effective in reducing
allocation and control of resources? economic inequality?
2. Give some examples of the role reciprocity plays in cur- 4. All market-based societies place limits on what can be
rent-day life in the United States. Do you believe there bought and sold. What determines when it is appropri-
is any such thing as truly generalized reciprocity in U.S. ate to restrict the market? For example, should people be
society? If not, do you believe it exists anywhere? able to sell one of their kidneys? Why or why not?
KE Y TE RM S
balanced reciprocity 142 economics 132 market exchange 146
bigmen 144 economizing behavior 132 negative reciprocity 143
capital 136 firm 138 potlatch 144
capitalism 148 generalized reciprocity 139 productive resources 133
cargo system 145 household 137 reciprocity 139
division of labor 133 kula ring 143 redistribution 144
economic system 131 leveling mechanism 145 usufruct 137
G LO S SARY
balanced reciprocity The giving and receiving of goods economic system The patterned way in which people
of nearly equal value with a clear obligation to return a produce, distribute, and consume food and other goods.
gift within a specified time limit.
economics The study of the ways in which the choices
bigmen Self-made leaders who gain power and authority people make combine to determine how their society uses
through personal achievement. its scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and
services.
capital Productive resources that are used with the
primary goal of increasing their owner’s financial wealth. economizing behavior Choosing a course of action to
maximize perceived benefit.
capitalism An economic system in which people work
for wages, land and capital goods are privately owned, and firm An institution composed of kin and/or nonkin that
capital is invested for profit. is organized primarily for financial gain.
cargo system A ritual system common in Central and generalized reciprocity Giving and receiving goods with
South America in which wealthy people are required to no immediate or specific return expected.
hold a series of costly ceremonial offices.
household A group of people united by kinship or other
division of labor The pattern by which different tasks are links who share a residence and organize production,
given to different members of a society. consumption, and distribution among themselves.
kula ring A pattern of exchange among trading partners productive resources Materia l goods, natura l
in the South Pacific islands. resources, or information used to create other goods or
information.
leveling mechanism A practice, value, or form of social
organization that evens out wealth within a society. reciprocity A mutual give-and-take among people of
equal status.
market exchange An economic system in which goods
and services are bought and sold at a money price redistribution Exchange in which goods are collected
determined primarily by the forces of supply and demand. and then distributed to members of a group.
negative reciprocity Exchange conducted for the purpose usufruct The right of an individual or family to use a
of material advantage and the desire to get something for piece of land and pass that land on to descendants but not
nothing. to sell or trade the land.
potlatch A form of redistribution involving competitive

feasting practiced among Northwest Coast Native Americans.
ERIC LAFFORGUE/Alamy Stock Photo
Kalla Gezahegn Woldedawit, chief of the Konso in southern Ethiopia. Trained as a civil engineer, Woldedawit returned to lead
his village and mediate disputes between villages. You can see a short video about him at http://bit.ly/gezahegn.
Political Organization 7
All societies must address the problem of how to maintain themselves over LEARNING OBJECTIVES
time with a minimum of social disorder and discontent. This means that every
society must provide a means of managing conflicts, dissent, and deviance and will be able to:
attempt to regulate behavior so that it is consistent with social order. Political
7.1 Contrast egalitarian, rank, and
organization refers to the patterned ways in which power and authority
stratified societies and illustrate key
are used to achieve these goals. Societies vary in their systems of political features of each
organization, and this diversity is a primary interest of anthropology.
7.2 Describe the features of
leadership in band, tribe, chiefdom,
A society’s specific type of political organization is related to many factors. and state-level societies
One of the most important of these is the ways in which the society produces
and distributes valued goods. This, in turn, is connected to the degree of access 7.3 Assess the role that violence
plays in different forms of political
individuals and groups have to basic material resources, power, and prestige. organization
Differential access to these things produces systems of social differentiation.
Social differentiation is also related to social complexity. Societies differ in 7.4 Describe the social stratification
typical of state-level societies
the number of diverse kinds of groups they have and the ways in which these and give examples of how it is
groups are connected to one another. Although political organization, social maintained
differentiation, and social complexity are sometimes studied separately, they are
7.5 Explain how a nation–state is
intimately connected. different from a state-level society
This chapter describes social differentiation and social complexity in bands, 7.6 Describe the role that ethnicity
tribes, chiefdoms, states, and modern-day nation–states. However, each and ethnic conflict play within
nation–states
of these is a theoretical construct, an “ideal type,” useful for analysis and
understanding. Please remember that although these typologies are useful 7.7 Assess the degree to which
analytically, they hide a much more complex reality. Every ideal type includes globalization challenges the idea of
the nation–state
many variations.
Social Differentiation for social respect, but these statuses are not the basis for dif-
ferences in the accumulation of wealth. In egalitarian soci-
Inequalities exist in all societies: Individuals differ in talents, eties, there is no inheritance of prestige or material goods
physical attractiveness, mental abilities, and skills. But not between generations. Egalitarian societies have no fixed
all societies formally recognize these inequalities, nor do number of social positions for which individuals must com-
individual differences in talents and skills necessarily affect pete. The status of “good hunter” or “wise elder” can be filled
access to important resources. Rather, inequalities are socially by as many people as meet the cultural criteria. Egalitarian
patterned. Anthropologists commonly distinguish three societies usually operate on the principle of generalized or
patterns of social differentiation: egalitarian societies, rank balanced reciprocity in the exchange of goods and services
societies, and stratified societies. (see Chapter 6, page 139) and are associated with the forms
In an egalitarian society, individual differences in skills of political organization called bands and tribes (Fried, 1967).
and personality qualities are recognized, but no individual In rank societies, there are formal differences among
or group is denied the right to a livelihood or is subject to the individuals and groups in prestige and symbolic resources
control of others. Age and sex/gender differences are a basis such as religious artifacts, clothing, or special forms of
157
knowledge. Such social attributes may be inherited and thus Power and Social Control
limited to certain groups of people. However, all members of
society have access to basic resources necessary to life, such as The ability to cause individuals or groups to take actions
land, water, and tools, through their membership in kinship that of their own accord they might prefer not to take is
groups. Rank societies are normally based on highly pro- called power. Power ultimately derives from the control of
ductive horticulture or pastoralism, which permit sufficient resources that people need or desire. For example, professors
accumulation of food so that a surplus can be appropriated by hold a degree of power in classrooms. They control grades,
leaders and redistributed throughout the society. Both redis- and because students need and desire good grades, they do
tribution and balanced reciprocity are characteristic modes things they would probably prefer not to do, such as take
of exchange in rank societies. Social ranking is associated quizzes and exams or write papers.
with the form of political organization called a chiefdom. Authority is the ability to cause others to act based on
Stratified societies have formal and permanent social perceived personal characteristics such as honor, status,
and economic inequalities. Wealth, prestige, and office are knowledge, ability, lineage, and/or the holding of formal pub-
frequently inherited, and some individuals and groups are lic office. Authority is often an important aspect of power
denied access to the basic material resources needed to sur- (Figure 7.1). For example, you may listen to your profes-
vive. Stratified societies are characterized by permanent dif- sors because of their knowledge, their ability to engage stu-
ferences among groups and individuals in their standard of dents, and the position they hold (their authority) as well as
living, security, prestige, political power, and the opportunity because they control your grades (their power). Similarly, the
to fulfill one’s potential. Such differences may often be dra- power of a political officeholder may derive from the respect
matic. They may be based on birth or result from individual accorded him or her but also because political offices gen-
accomplishments. Stratified societies are based on agricul- erally include a coercive ability that comes from control of
ture, industrialism, and information technologies. Most cur- resources. However, people without authority can also hold
rent-day stratified societies are economically organized power. An armed robber certainly has power, but most peo-
around market exchange, but in the past, hereditary obliga- ple do not obey his commands because of their respect for
tions, dues and rents paid to overlords and landlords, and him or because of the high social position he holds.
physical coercion and forced labor played important roles The shared values and beliefs that legitimize the distri-
in maintaining social hierarchies. Stratified societies are the bution and uses of power and authority in a specific society
most socially complex kinds of societies and are associated make up its political ideology. Not everyone in a society may
with the form of political organization called the state. agree with a dominant political ideology, and any ideology
may be accepted to a greater extent by those who benefit the
most from it and to a lesser extent by those who benefit less.
When fewer people in a society accept its reigning political
ideology, the society may rely on a greater use of coercion
FIGURE 7.1 Religious leaders such as Pope and even perhaps violence to maintain itself. Although polit-
Francis, seen here, may have great authority ical systems differ in how much they rely on coercion, both
derived from the respect people grant them. coercion and consensus contribute to maintaining order in
However, they have little coercive power over almost all societies.
most people. People conform to the political ideology of their soci-
ety for complex and wide-ranging reasons. They may have a
Giuseppe Ciccia/LightRocket/Getty Images
deep and abiding belief in the values the ideology represents.

They may expect a short- or long-term benefit from the exer-
cise of power and authority. They may fear the consequences
of resistance to power. They may see no practical alterna-
tive. They may believe in the worth of their political system
despite its failure to return benefits to them.
Contemporary anthropologists are very interested in
political processes—the ways in which groups and individ-
uals use power and authority to achieve various public goals.
These goals may include changing the relationships between
groups in society (for example, between labor unions and cor-
porations), changing the relationship of a group to its environ-
ment (for example, building a road or clearing public land),
waging war, making peace, or changing a group’s position in

the social hierarchy. Political goals have many motivations. FIGURE 7.2 Women play important political
Although by definition all political behavior affects the public roles in many groups. Here, King Peggielene
interest, it is not necessarily in the public interest. Groups and “Peggy” Bartels stands for an official portrait.
individuals may be motivated by personal profit or prestige or
Jane Hahn/Getty Images News/Getty Images

by altruism and idealism, although these are not necessarily
mutually exclusive. In politically complex societies, those in
power use various means to establish hegemony—an under-
standing of the world that establishes a close identification
between their own goals and those of the larger society (see
the “Ethnography” section on page 167 for a description of
hegemony in the Asante state).
Formal political institutions are a source of power and
authority, but power and authority may also have more
informal bases. Leadership, or the ability to direct an enter-
prise or action, may be a function of political office, but it
can also be wielded through more informal means, such
as the manipulation of kinship networks, control over the
distribution of wealth, or the ability to harness and catalyze
discontents or hatreds. Vision and charisma—the ability
of some leaders to inspire popular loyalty or enthusiasm—
may be a critical part of leadership, as was the case with
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
In many small-scale societies, authority, decision mak-
ing, the use of power, and the coordination and regulation Mercer, the company’s co-CEO, has given over $22.5 mil-
of human behavior are not formally separated from other lion to Republican candidates, mostly to Trump. This kind
aspects of culture; they are embedded in social institutions of money certainly buys political influence. Mercer and
such as kinship, economics, and religion. Leadership may be Trump have met frequently, but few people have ever heard
based on an individual’s position as the head of a family, lin- of Mercer, and he holds no political office (Mayer, 2017).
eage, or clan. In regions where supernatural intervention is There are many relationships in American politics similar
an important aspect of decision making (e.g., where to hunt, to the Trump–Mercer connection.
when to move camp, how to find a thief), individuals with In the small-scale societies often studied by anthropol-
perceived access to supernatural power have important polit- ogists, positions of formal political power are often held by
ical roles in society. men. However, there are some important exceptions, partic-
Politics almost always involves control over the distribu- ularly in Africa (Matory, 1994; Potash, 1989: 205). Among
tion of goods and services. Power and authority are embed- the Yoruba of Nigeria, certain offices are reserved to repre-
ded in economic roles and modes of exchange. Chiefs on the sent women’s interests. Also in Nigeria, some Igbo groups
Northwest Coast of North America and the bigmen of Papua have a female ruler and a council that parallels that of the
New Guinea, described in Chapter 6, are examples of leaders king but is concerned with women’s affairs. The Mende in
who hold both economic and political roles Sierra Leone have women paramount chiefs who are seen as
The connections between economics and politics “mothers writ large”—that is, they derive their authority and
are clear in complex societies such as our own. For exam- power from the reproductive and supportive roles of women
ple, Donald Trump appointed Wall Street executives to as mothers. The Mende women’s secret society, the Sande,
top roles in his administration, relying particularly on is very powerful, reflecting the important economic roles of
executives from the powerful investment firm Goldman wives, who are authority figures and who might even succeed
Sachs (Elstein, 2017; Cheng, 2017). Often the connections a chief in office. One of the most famous Mende women of
between wealth and politics are more subtle, such as when power was Madam Yoko. Taking advantage of the opportu-
people with great wealth exert their dominance through nities offered by the changing political status of Sierra Leone
lobbying and campaign contributions rather than by hold- in the 19th century, she succeeded her husband in office and
ing political office. For instance, executives associated was recognized as a paramount chief in 1884 (Hoffer, 1974).
with Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund, have been Far more recently, Peggielene Bartels (Figure 7.2) a member
enormous contributors to presidential campaigns. Robert of the Fante ethnic group in Ghana, was named king of the
Ekumfi Otuam traditional area after the death of her uncle.

She recently published a book on her experiences (Bartels
& Herman, 2012) and has said that an important part of her
mission is to empower women.
Women also have informal sources of power. In some
West African communities, for example, women derive
power from their control over marketing agricultural and
other products (Potash, 1989). In matrilineal societies, as
Ethnic group
we have seen among the Minangkabau of Indonesia or the
Hopi, women’s power is interwoven with their roles in the
kinship, ceremonial, and economic systems (see Chapter 9, MAURITANIA
page 167, and Chapter 10, page 247).
MALI
The study of political processes emphasizes how power SENEGAL NIGER
changes hands and how new kinds of political organization BURKINA

FASO
and ideologies develop. Political processes are never static. GUINEA
BENIN NIGERIA
Even very small societies are composed of groups that have dif- SIERRA
LEONE CÔTE GHANA
ferent and conflicting interests, so there is always some amount Mende D’IVOIRE Yoruba
of unrest and change. The use of power and authority may sta- LIBERIA
TOGO CAMEROON
Otuam
bilize a social order, avoid or resolve conflicts, and promote the
0 500 mi
general welfare or the special rights and privileges of an elite. Atl anti c O c e an
However, power and authority may also be used to contest 0 500 km
prevailing political ideologies and to change or even destroy

existing political systems. Groups or factions within a society
Law: Social Control and Conflict
as well as governments themselves use various means to gain
their ends. Some of these means, such as elections in the United Management
States, are socially sanctioned; some, such as political assassina- No human society has eternal peace and harmony.
tion and terrorism in the United States, are not. But acts that are Individuals do not always conform to the rules, and they
not socially sanctioned are no less political than those that are. often act in ways that cause conflict and disrupt the social
Conflict and violence do not necessarily destroy social order. Thus, all societies must have means of regulating dis-
order. In some societies, violence is a legitimate means of putes among their members.
dealing with conflict and solving disputes; blood feuds The processes of enculturation are one of the critical ways
or legally sanctioned death penalties are examples of this. that behavior is regulated to minimize conflict. In all societies,
Conflict may even support the social order since competi- people are taught norms and values from earliest childhood
tion over goals makes those goals seem worth fighting over. throughout their lives. In societies organized through kinship
Even violent conflict for political office does not necessar- and face-to-face social relations, there are rarely formal insti-
ily destroy the power or authority of the office being sought tutions for inculcating norms and values. However, in more
since the struggle itself emphasizes that the conflicting complex societies, particularly states, a broad range of institu-
groups view the office as politically important. For example, tions—from schools to religious establishments to courts of
for much of European history, aristocrats fought viciously law—are involved in teaching and enforcing the norms and
over the crown. However, in most cases, such fighting rein- values of society. Governments are willing to use force to pre-
forced rather than damaged the institution of kingship. vent challenges to at least some of these norms and values.
Much of the conflict within political systems either Every society has some social mechanisms to deal with
occurs as part of the normal functioning of the system or as nonnormative behavior and conflict. In face-to-face commu-
rebellions intended to reallocate resources within an existing nities and informal groups within complex societies, infor-
political structure. Revolutions, attempts to overthrow the mal mechanisms such as gossip and ridicule can be effective
existing political structure and put another type of political ways to ensure conformity (S. Merry, 1981). Fear of witch-
structure in its place, are much less common. For example, craft accusations is another informal control mechanism
the failed military coup in Turkey in 2016 was a rebellion, not (Evans-Pritchard, 1958/1937; Lemert, 1997). In societies with
a revolution. Coup leaders hoped to take over the machinery witchcraft beliefs, when something goes wrong, witchcraft
of the existing Turkish state. The ISIS takeover of large area of accusations are directed at people who stand above the group,
Iraq and Syria in 2014, on the other hand, was revolutionary. are malicious, have a nasty temper, or refuse to observe group
ISIS members hoped to overthrow and replace the entire sys- norms. The fear of being accused of witchcraft exerts pressure
tems of government in those countries. on people to conform.
Small-scale communities also use avoidance to sanction which tend to be egalitarian. Band societies have few special-
social deviants, and a person shunned by others is at a great ized roles and few differences of wealth, prestige, or power.
psychological and economic disadvantage. In complex soci- Bands are fairly independent of one another, with few higher
eties, avoidance is effective in smaller groups within larger levels of social integration or centralized mechanisms of lead-
institutions, such as the workplace in an industrial society. ership. Bands tend to be exogamous, with ties between them
Supernatural sanctions regulate human behavior in established mainly by marriage. Bilateral kinship systems link
almost all societies. A sin is a violation of an important social individuals to many different bands through ties of descent
norm that calls forth punishment by supernatural forces. In and marriage. Trading relations also link individuals to other
the Trobriand Islands, incest is a sin that brings a divinely band members. Membership in bands is flexible, and usually
imposed skin affliction caused by an insect that is spon- people can change their residence from one band to another
taneously generated by the taboo sexual act (Malinowski, with ease. This is particularly adaptive for a foraging way of
1929b: 504). life and low population density.
In every society, some offenses are considered so dis-
ruptive that force or the threat of force is applied to those Leadership in Band Societies
who commit them. Law refers to a situation where the In most band societies, there are few resources that can be
whole community, or some part of it, understands itself and controlled by a single individual or group. All members have
is understood by others as authorized to punish an indi- more or less equal access to resources, and this means that
vidual who offends certain social norms. Proximally, such formal leaders with power are rare. However, there may be
authorization comes either from consensus or from a more many informal leaders—important people with authority.
powerful authority. Where such authority ultimately comes These are usually older men and women whose experience,
from is a vexing question for political philosophers in all traditional knowledge, and special skills or success in for-
traditions. aging are a source of prestige. Among some Inuit, the local
Law may also be used to resolve a conflict or correct a leader is called “The One to Whom All Listen,” “He Who
wrong. In large-scale societies such as states, the functions Thinks,” or “He Who Knows Everything Best” (Hoebel,
of law belong to separate legal institutions, such as courts. In 1954). Despite these names, leaders must seek consensus
smaller-scale societies, law, like power, is often embedded in and cannot enforce their decisions. They can only persuade
other social institutions, such as religion and kinship. and attract others to their leadership on the basis of past
Law addresses conflicts that would otherwise disrupt performance.
community life. In politically complex societies such as con- In foraging bands, sharing and generosity are import-
temporary nation–states, law addresses both crimes against ant values and an important source of respect. Among some
the state and conflicts between individuals. In structurally whaling Inuit, for example, successful captains who do not
simpler societies, disputes between individuals are treated as generously distribute their accumulated wealth are merely
potential threats to society because they have ripple effects called “rich men”—not a title of great respect. They are dis-
throughout the community. Unlike Western law, however, tinguished from those whose superior ability and generosity
conflict management in egalitarian societies is more often gives them far greater prestige and makes them leaders in the
directed at maintaining existing social relationships than village.
defining winners and losers.
Violence and Conflict Resolution
Social order in band societies is usually maintained infor-
Types of Political Organization mally by gossip, ridicule, and avoidance. However, in extreme
As noted previously, all cultures have political organization. cases, a person may be killed or driven out of the community.
Anthropologists have identified four ideal types of political Among the Inuit, supernatural sanctions are an important
organization: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Typically, means of social control (Balikci, 1970). Violations of com-
bands and tribes are egalitarian societies, chiefdoms are rank munity norms are considered a form of sickness, and the
societies, and states are stratified societies (Service, 1962). offender is defined as a patient rather than a criminal. He
or she may be cured through a ritual such as public confes-
sion directed by a shaman. In this ritual, the individual is
Band Societies led to confess all the taboos he or she has violated. The local
Band organization is characteristic of foragers. A band is villagers form the audience and participate as a background
a small group of people, usually about 20 to 50, comprising chorus. These confessions are mainly voluntary, although a
nuclear families who live together and are loosely associated forceful shaman may denounce a member of the community
with their foraging territory. Generalized or balanced rec- he feels has engaged in acts repulsive to the spirits and there-
iprocity dominates economic exchanges in band societies, fore dangerous to the whole group.
If warfare is defined as (1) formally organized and cultur- primarily among pastoralists and horticulturists. Their char-
ally recognized patterns of collective violence against another acteristic economic institutions are reciprocity and redis-
society or as (2) organized violence between segments within tribution, although, as part of larger states, they may also
a larger society, band societies do not have warfare. They lack participate in market systems. Like bands, tribes are basically
the strong formal leadership that warfare usually requires. egalitarian, with no important differences among members
There is generally no formal organization for war, no position in wealth, status, and power. Also like bands, most tribes do
of warrior, little or no production for war, and no cultural or not have distinct or centralized political institutions or roles.
social support for sustained armed conflict. Power and social control are embedded in kinship, religion,
Lack of sustained warfare, however, is not the same as or other cultural institutions.
lack of violence. Members of band societies do often fight Tribes are usually organized into unilineal kin groups,
with each other. When they do so, the objectives are personal, which are the units of political activity that control the eco-
and fighting takes place in short skirmishes. The Ju/’hoansi, nomic resources necessary to survival. The emergence of local
for example, do not engage in collective violence against kin groups larger than the nuclear family is consistent with both
other groups, but men frequently fight, mostly over women, the larger populations of horticultural and pastoral societies
and these fights often result in death (R. Lee, 2003). and their need for coordinated labor. The effective political unit
Because quarrels and conflicts between individuals in tribal societies may shift depending on the issues and prob-
may disrupt the group, band societies have developed social lems they confront. Most of the time, the local units of a tribe
mechanisms to inhibit conflict from spreading. Flexible band operate independently. In some societies, such as the Nuer (see
membership is one such mechanism. Among the Mbuti of the discussion of Nuer kinship in Chapter 9) or the Yanomamö,
the Ituri Forest, for example, bands regularly break up into the local units may be in a state of ongoing violent conflict
smaller units and re-form into larger ones throughout the among themselves. A higher-level unity among tribal seg-
year. Breaking the band down into smaller units separates ments most often occurs in response to the threat of attack from
people who have been in conflict with one another, thus pre- another society or the opportunity to attack another society.
venting prolonged hostilities (Turnbull, 1968).
In Inuit bands, disputes are sometimes resolved through Political Integration in Tribes
public contests that involve physical action, such as head butt- The local segments of a tribal society are integrated in vari-
ing or boxing, or verbal contests, such as song duels. Here, the ous ways. Age and sex may be the basis of organized groups
weapons are words: “little, sharp words like the wooden splin- of individuals who move through life’s stages together. Cross-
ters which I hack off with my ax” (Hoebel, 1974: 93). Song cultural comparison of societies in which such age groups
duels can serve a variety of purposes in conflict resolution. In are an important basis of organization suggests that they are
these duels, participants use wit, irony, and satire to accuse and associated with frequent warfare and unstable local groups.
criticize one another. Song duels can also be used to declare Where men cannot rely on their kin as allies in warfare
brotherhood and even, in some cases, to avenge murder. When because their kin may not be nearby, age groupings provide a
songs are used to accuse and defend, each singer contrasts his more dependable source of allies (Ritter, 1980).
own modesty and exemplary behavior with the bad charac- Age grades among the Maasai are one example of this
ter and uncooperative behavior of his opponent. Participants type of tribal integration. In this herding society of Kenya
exchange insults and ridicule each other but may not show and Tanzania, males follow a well-ordered progression
anger. Winners of song duels are determined by audience through a series of age grades. Entry into each grade
response (Hulan, 2002; Eckett & Newmark, 1980). Although requires a formalized rite of passage. A new age grade is
winning a song duel is not based on the facts of the conflict, it opened for recruitment for groups of boys every 14 years.
does resolve the quarrel and restore normal relations between After childhood, boys are initiated as warriors, a stage in
the hostile parties. The contestants accept the judgment of the which they remain for about 15 years. Warriorhood is a
community, and the original complaint is laid to rest. period of training in social, political, and military skills, and
When band societies encounter technologically and cul- it is traditionally geared to warfare and cattle raiding. The
turally dominant groups, bands tend to retreat and isolate warriors then ceremonially graduate to a less active status,
themselves in marginal areas rather than fight. Alternatively, during which they can marry. Finally, the original age grade
they may form peaceful relations with their neighbors. retires to early elderhood status in another great ceremony
called Orngesherr (Tignor, 1972).
Maasai age-mates are a cohesive group. They provide
Tribal Societies reciprocal hospitality when they visit each other’s villages,
A tribe is a culturally distinct population whose mem- expressing a warm and intimate relationship. Age-grade cer-
bers understand themselves as descended from the same emonies periodically bring together Maasai from different
ancestor or as part of the same people. Tribes are found sections of the tribe (Figure 7.3). These gatherings renew
As discussed in Chapter 6, another kind of tribal leader

FIGURE 7.3 Maasai men are divided into age found throughout Melanesia and Papua New Guinea is the
grades. Entry into each age grade requires a bigman—a self-made leader who gains power and authority
formalized rite of passage. In this picture, young through personal achievements rather than through hold-
Maasai men are shaved by their mothers in ing a specific established office. A bigman begins his career
preparation for the ceremony that will admit as the leader of a small kin group. Through a series of pub-
them to the Moran, or warrior, age grade. lic actions such as generous loans, the bigman attracts fol-
lowers. He skillfully builds up his capital and increases his
YASUYOSHI CHIBA /Contributor/Getty Images
number of wives. Because women take care of pigs, a polyg-

ynous bigman can increase the size of his pig herds. He dis-
tributes his wealth in ways that build his reputation as a rich
and generous man: sponsoring feasts, paying subsidies to
military allies, purchasing high ranks in secret societies, and
paying the bridewealth of young men seeking wives. By giv-
ing generously, the bigman places many other people under
obligation to him. Bigmen command obedience from their
followers through this personal relationship of gratitude and
obligation.
A bigman’s activities provide leadership above the
local level, but bigmen are a fragile mechanism of tribal
integration. Bigman systems do not involve the creation
of permanent office but depend on the personality and
their shared identity and sense of unity and cooperation and constant striving of individuals. Bigmen rise and fall. And
confirm a system of leadership under age-grade spokesmen. they cannot pass on their status; with their deaths, their
This lends political coherence to a people who live dispersed followings usually dissolve. Most important the bigman
from one another and have no centralized government must spur his local group on to ever-greater production
(Saitoti, 1986). if he is to hold his own against other tribal bigmen. To
In addition to age grades, there are other associations maintain prestige, he must give his competitors more than
that cut across and thus integrate the local segments of a they can give him. The demand to give ever-increasing
tribe. Examples of these are military societies among some amounts to competitors means bigmen must begin to
Plains Indian tribes in North America, secret societies that withhold gifts from their followers. The resulting discon-
are found in West Africa (such as Poro society for males tent may lead to defection among these followers or even
and Sande society for females), and social structures such to the murder of the bigman.
as the segmentary lineage system described in Chapter 9
(page 213). Social Control and Conflict Resolution
Tribes, like bands, depend mainly on informal mechanisms
Leadership in Tribal Societies for controlling deviant behavior and settling conflicts, but
Tribal societies have leaders but no centralized government they also have more formal mechanisms of control. Among
and few positions of authority. Many Native American soci- the Cheyenne, for example, formal social control mecha-
eties had different kinds of leaders for different kinds of activ- nisms came into play during the summer season when the
ities. The Cheyenne had war leaders and peace leaders. The Cheyenne bands came together for communal buffalo hunts
Ojibwa of Canada had different leaders for war, hunting, cer- and tribal ceremonies. On the buffalo hunt, strict discipline
emonies, and clans. was required because an individual hunter could ruin the
Europeans who first encountered groups such as the hunt for others by alarming and scattering the buffalo. The
Ojibwa often misinterpreted their political system. The tribal gatherings and communal hunts were policed by mem-
Europeans came from societies with strong centralized bers of military associations. These associations not only pun-
leadership and expected other societies to be organized in ished offenders but also tried to rehabilitate them and bring
a similar way. Therefore, they imposed the concept of a sin- them back within the tribal structure. The function of these
gle supreme leader on many societies that did not have such tribal “police” was to get the deviant to conform to tribal law
leaders. When the Canadian government insisted that the in the interest of the welfare of the tribe. People were punished
Ojibwa must have a chief, the Ojibwa appointed one and in various ways: Their tepees might be ripped to shreds, or the
coined a native word, okimakkan, best translated as “fake ears of their horses cut off—a mark of shame. Offenders might
chief,” to describe him (Hockett, 1973: 148). be whipped or killed on the spot if they resisted punishment.
However, if an offender accepted the punishment and neighborhoods, and the workplace; and even international
appeared to have learned a lesson, they were accepted back disputes between nations.
into the group and their belongings were often replaced. The
Cheyenne military societies operated only during the hunt Violence in Tribal Societies
period. At other times, more informal sanctions and leader- Compared to band societies, tribal societies experience a
ship operated at the band level (Hoebel, 1960). high degree of warfare. Anthropologists have proposed
In many tribal societies, conflicts between parties with numerous explanations for this fact. One explanation is
ongoing relationships are resolved by mediation, a way of based in ecology and argues that warfare is one of the mecha-
managing disputes that uses the offices of a third party to nisms through which tribal societies balance population with
achieve voluntary agreement between opposing parties. resources. For example, Rappaport (1984) famously argued
Mediation resolves disputes so that social relationships that among the Tsembaga of the New Guinea Highlands,
between the disputants are maintained and harmony is warfare was a critical element of a complex system that con-
restored to the social order. Among the Kpelle of Liberia, trolled the relationships between land, agriculture, pig rais-
conflict between individuals is addressed by a moot, a form ing, and the human population. In this system, ritual served
of mediation that takes place before an assembled group of as a type of control mechanism, turning on and off cycles of
kinsmen and neighbors. After an opening ritual, the medi-
ator reminds the audience of its members of their common
interests and unity. The two disputing parties may question
each other directly, but the mediator or others may interrupt FIGURE 7.4 Many tribal societies have
with questions. After everyone has been heard, the mediator mediation mechanisms that help settle disputes.
proposes a solution to the conflict that expresses the con- In Tonga, kava circles play an important role
sensus of the disputing parties and the audience. The party in allowing men to air their grievances and
found to be at fault apologizes to the other party, and a ritual reconcile their differences. Here, a man prepares
distribution of food and drink again unites the group. In kava by squeezing crushed kava root in warm
concluding, the mediator again stresses the importance of water.
the restoration of community harmony. Through the moot,
reconciliation is achieved with a minimum of resentment,
so that conflicts do not continue and disrupt the social order
(J. Gibbs, 1988).
The kava-drinking circle in the Pacific Island kingdom of
Tonga (Figure 7.4) is another example of a community-ori-
ented mechanism for dispute resolution. Kava is an indig-
enous alcoholic drink often consumed in ritual contexts
throughout Oceania. In Tonga, drinking kava is a semi-ritu-
alized male activity that serves as a nonviolent alternative to
alcohol-drinking events. The kava circle is an informal social
context in which the status distinctions otherwise so import-
ant in Tonga are dissolved, and men air their grievances
and reconcile their differences in an atmosphere of social
camaraderie.
The principles of the West African moot, the kava circle
in Tonga, and other nonadversarial conflict management
systems have been widely incorporated into the U.S. legal
system. Most formal legal dispute resolution in the United
States operates through courts in which two sides appear as
adversaries and present opposing arguments to judge and
jury. In many cases, this system is necessary, but it is slow
and expensive, and disputants are often dissatisfied with the
results. Mediation is increasingly used to resolve many kinds
of disputes, especially when the disputants are in long-term
relationships. Such disputes include divorce proceedings;
minor civil disputes; conflicts in schools, housing projects,
pig consumption, warfare, and land expansion. The effect of

the entire system was to keep the Tsembaga and other groups FIGURE 7.5 Warfare plays an important
around them in balance with their environment. Warfare role in many tribal societies. Anthropologist
is then one way for societies to expand when they are expe- Napoleon Chagnon views warfare as central to
riencing a population increase or have reached the limits of Yanomamö culture. In this unposed photograph
expansion into unoccupied land (Vayda, 1976). But it is not taken in 1989, a Yanomamö man threatens the
inevitable. When there are other effective ways for distrib- photographer with bow and arrow.
uting population, such as expansion into unoccupied land,
tribes may not engage in war.
Robert Madden/Contributor
Another explanation focuses on social structure. Many
tribes that conduct warfare are patrilineal and patrilocal. This
structure promotes male solidarity and makes the use of force
in resolving local conflicts more feasible than in matrilin-
eal, matrilocal societies, which emphasize solidarity among
women. However, matrilineal societies such as the Iroquois
did carry out warfare over long distances (Ember & Ember,
1971).
It is also important to note that the economic struc-
ture of many tribal societies may be conducive to warfare.
In these societies, bigmen compete for prestige with mem-
bers of their own group and members of other groups.
Bigmen use their own hard work and their skills of orga-
nization and persuasion to get their followers to engage in
high levels of production. They often use the results of such
production to engage in feasts where they display their gen-
erosity and demand prestige from those they have invited.
Tensions in such competitive feasts are often high. Guests
are placed in the position of granting prestige to their hosts,
responding with an even more generous feast, or violence.
It is important to note that the combination of hard work,
organizational ability, and charisma that helps to make
one a bigman may also make one a great war leader. The
ability to achieve prestige through generosity and feasting
competes with the ability to achieve prestige through vio-
lence. Thus, in some cases, tribes may fight because they
are involved in a system that generates the competitive pas-
sions, organizational skills, and leadership talents condu- but indirectly through female infanticide (Divale & Harris,
cive to warfare. 1976). In societies with constant warfare, there is a cultural
The Yanomamö of the Amazon areas of Venezuela and preference for male children who can become fierce and
Brazil are well known for their high level of personal violence aggressive warriors. Because male children are preferred over
and frequent warfare (Figure 7.5). Anthropologist Napoleon females, they are treated better and are more likely to survive
Chagnon (1997) views Yanomamö violence as central to childhood. Additionally, some female infants may be killed
Yanomamö culture. Chagnon explains ongoing Yanomamö outright—victims of female infanticide. These practices
warfare and violence as a way of preserving village autonomy. result in a shortage of women and strong conscious motiva-
The high degree of violent conflict between men within tion for warfare: The Yanomamö say they fight for women. In
villages leads to the division of villages into hostile camps. a Yanomamö raid on another village, as many women as pos-
To survive as an independent unit in an environment of con- sible are captured.
stant warfare, a village adopts a hostile and aggressive stance Other anthropologists (Ferguson, 1992; Good &
toward other villages, perpetuating intervillage warfare in an Chanoff, 1996) challenge the idea that warfare is a core fea-
endless cycle. ture of Yanomamö society. For example, Ferguson (1992)
Another view of Yanomamö violence and warfare is that has argued that the extreme Yanomamö violence Chagnon
it helps control population, not by causing deaths in battles, documented in the 1960s was precipitated by the movement
of outside missionaries into previously isolated areas. These Political Integration and Leadership
outsiders brought goods that were highly desired by the Whereas tribes consist of structurally and functionally simi-
Yanomamö, and because of this, the Yanomamö moved their lar segments (lineages and villages, for example), a chiefdom
settlements to be close to government outposts and mission- is made up of parts that are structurally and functionally
ary stations. However, this had a series of deleterious effects. different from one another and are integrated into a larger
With higher population densities, game was depleted, result- political organization. Chiefdoms are found mainly among
ing in the breakdown of norms of reciprocity and leading to cultivators and pastoralists (and the few foraging societ-
increased conflict within villages. The outsiders brought dis- ies where food resources are unusually plentiful, such as the
ease, which drastically depleted the population. Competition groups of the Northwest Coast of North America). In these
for manufactured goods brought men increasingly into con- societies, a relative abundance of food means that chiefs do
flict, and because these goods included firearms, the con- not necessarily need to put excessive burdens on commoners
flict was more often fatal. The declining population made to extract surpluses (Peoples, 1990).
marriages more difficult to negotiate. All of these factors led Although chiefdoms, like tribes, are organized through
to increased fighting that in turn reinforced the low status of kinship, there is one important difference: Tribes have no
Yanomamö women and helped further male violence against centralized government, but chiefdoms have centralized
them, perpetuating the cycle of female infanticide, shortage leadership—the political office of the chief. This chiefly office
of women, and raids for women. Thus, for Ferguson, rather is usually inherited and is sustained by religious authority.
than being a core feature of Yanomamö society, violence was Chiefdoms often keep lengthy genealogical records of the
the result of outside influences. names and acts of specific chiefs, which are used to verify
Ferguson’s analysis of Yanomamö violence points to a claims to rank and chiefly title.
critical aspect of anthropological explanation. A wide vari- In most cases, the rise of a governing center is related
ety of factors, such as ecology, social structure, and econ- to a redistributive exchange pattern in which goods move
omy, may help create the preconditions for violence among from the producers to the chief and are then redistrib-
the Yanomamö or other groups. However, these factors uted by him in the form of offices, benefits, and other
alone can rarely provide sufficient explanation. Warfare payments, as well as feasts and rituals. The ways in which
happens in the context of specific events, such as the production is moved to the chief may vary. In some cases,
advance of missionary outposts into Yanomamö territory gifts are made to the chief; in others, socially accepted
or the rise and fall of specific bigmen leaders. The structure norms require payments to the chief. Chiefs may also
and ecology of societies like the Yanomamö probably makes make demands for tribute and be willing to enforce these
some level of violence inevitable. But how much violence demands with violence (Wolf, 1982: 80).
will occur, when it will happen, and the forms that it will Chiefdoms vary in the equity with which goods and
take depend on the specific history of a specific people at a wealth are redistributed. In some chiefdoms, a reputation
specific place and time. for generosity helps the leader retain power, and thus most
people receive benefits. In other cases, redistributions occur
relatively infrequently or are limited to key supporters of the
Chiefdoms chief. Populations might be controlled by consensus, but
Robert Carneiro defined the chiefdom as “an autonomous coercion and despotism are often employed as well (Earle,
political unit comprising a number of villages or commu- 1987). The demands for food and other goods by the chief
nities under the permanent control of a paramount chief ” usually lead to a higher level of organization and productivity
(1981: 45) Carneiro holds that chiefdoms are extremely than is found in tribes.
important because these were the societies in which people Chiefdoms are ranked societies. Certain lineages and
first surrendered their political autonomy to leaders from some people in them have higher social status than others,
other villages, thereby creating a society with multiple levels and these statuses are inherited. For example, among the
of political authority. Nootka, who live on the Northwest Coast of North America,
Although the idea of the chiefdom has a long history in individuals held rights to manage all economic resources,
anthropology, the term is used less consistently than band, such as fishing, hunting, and gathering grounds. Inheritance
tribe, or state. Some anthropologists argue that it encom- of property rights passed only through the line of the eldest
passes such a diverse group of societies that lumping them son. This was also true for inheritance of the office of chief.
together obscures more than it clarifies (Earle, 1987). The position of younger sons was lower than that of eldest
Nevertheless, the term chiefdom is still useful if we keep in sons, and this difference in rank was typically expressed
mind that ideal types such as tribe and chiefdom are theoreti- in terms of wealth. Although such wealth consisted partly
cal devices and reality is much more diverse than any classifi- of important economic resources, it was also symbolic in
cation system. form, such as the right to use special names, perform certain
Ethnography
W E A LT H A N D P OW E R I N T H E PR E C O L O N I A L A SA N T E S TAT E
luxury goods for the wealthy. The prodigious food

requirements of Kumasi reflected the association
of high social status and material well-being
characteristic of elites in state societies. The
Asantehene’s household alone—his royal wives and
children—daily consumed large quantities of locally
grown food, along with imported delicacies such
GHANA
as mutton, turkey, duck, wild game, rice, European
biscuits, tea, sugar, and wine. Some of these were
MALI gifts from foreign visitors, which were reciprocated
BURKINA with local food supplies.
FASO
G
BENIN Asante society was composed of several social

UI
NE
classes: unfree, alien slaves; peasant commoners

A
NIGERIA
TOGO
living in outlying villages; urban specialists offering

CÔTE GHANA
D'IVOIRE their services to the elite; government officials of
various classes and positions; and, at the top of
LI
B
R
E
IA the hierarchy, the Asantehene himself, with his

Accra
0 300 mi
royal family. It was a dynamic social system, based
Atl anti c O c e an on inheritance, achievement, competition, and
0 300 km
accumulation of wealth, with widely different levels
of material well-being and many opportunities for
The Asante, a Twi-speaking Akan people, have social competition and social mobility.
long occupied the tropical forest area of what
is now south-central Ghana in West Africa. The Precolonial Asante used espionage, detention, fines,
Asante state emerged in 1701, when the Asante confiscation of property, exile, and execution to
decisively defeated a rival Akan power, and state keep its people in line. However, like all successful
expansion and elaboration occurred throughout states, it promoted a hegemonic ideology to support
the 18th century. its social organization. At its core, this ideology
linked wealth and power. The Ashanti held that
The resource bases of the Asante state were these went hand in hand and both benefitted
agriculture; substantial, accessible deposits of society. Accumulating wealth resulted in high office,
alluvial and shallow-reef gold; and participation and holding high office had to be justified by the
in the European slave trade in the 17th and 18th accumulation and display of wealth.
centuries (Wilks, 1993). Asante agricultural
productivity rested on a simple, labor-intensive Wealth among the Ashanti had many sources, such
technology, producing staple crops of yam, plantain, as the control of human labor, ownership of land,
cocoyam, cassava, and several other crops. Oil palm and the holding of high office. Ultimately, though,
fruits, palm wine, fungi, and wild yams provided the key factor determining wealth and social status
additional dietary support, as did wild game, was control of gold. Gold was the currency of the
freshwater fish, and, on a lesser scale, domestic state and was used to pay taxes and fines. It was used
sheep, fowl, goats, and pigs, which were used as in ritual and worn to display social status. It could
food mainly on ritual occasions. This economy was also be used to buy European goods such as guns,
organized, overseen, and given direction by the gunpowder, cloth, and luxury articles. Thus, gold was
state. The economic productivity supported the rural in huge demand, and, in addition to displaying and
population, and a surplus was appropriated by the spending it, the Ashanti accumulated and hoarded
state to support a nonproducing urban elite centered it. There was an extensive system of borrowing and
in Kumasi, the capital. lending of gold at high interest rates.
The highly productive Asante economy was the The state itself accumulated large quantities of
basis of a complex social hierarchy ruled by the gold. In theory, it accepted only gold for payment
Asantehene, or king. The urban elite were mainly of fines, tributes, taxes, and levies. However, those
involved in transacting government business, without gold could provide land and laborers instead,
performing elaborate state ceremonies, or producing enriching the state’s coffers since it then didn’t have
(Continued!)
(Continued)
FIGURE 7.6 The current Asantehene, a powerful symbol of political authority. The
Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, meets with Queen Golden Elephant’s Tail symbolized the wealth of
the state and the idea that wealth flowed upward
Elizabeth II in 2000.
from the people to the state. The elephant tail was
the “helper” of the stool: Wealth helps power. This
Fiona Hanson/PA Images/Getty Images
symbolic conjunction, reinforced in ritual, promoted

the political ideology that Asante culture and
society were “helped” into being by the processes of
accumulation activated by the state. The Asantehene
could grant people who successfully accumulated
wealth the right to have a regular elephant’s tail
carried before them—a symbol of their wealth and
their connection with the state.
Understanding that foreign practices and ideas,

particularly as they related to the accumulation
and distribution of wealth, might undermine the
control of the Asante state, the government tried to
to buy the land or pay for the laborers itself. The state control the entry of foreign culture into the Asante
also accrued wealth by using discretion in applying kingdom. However, as European contact increased
legal sanctions. For example, an individual could buy in the mid-19th century, the Asante state suffered
himself out of a mandatory death sentence with a from both internal and external pressures, and by
payment of gold to the state. The state also imposed the late 19th century, it had become a British colony.
a “death tax” on self-acquired movable property, Upon independence from Britain in 1957, the Asante
and it might also impose inheritance taxes on land became an ethnic group within the Republic of
before the remainder of the deceased person’s wealth Ghana, but the Asantehene today retains his high
was restored to the heirs or successors. These death position as a ritual, spiritual, and cultural leader
assessments were made on a case-by-case basis, of the Asante people. The current Asantehene,
allowing the state to fine-tune its control over the elite Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is active in both national and
and prevent the emergence of a class of hereditary international politics. Trained in accounting and
property owners that might be a threat to its own public administration, he once worked for Mutual of
power. The state also controlled the opportunities Omaha. Before becoming Asantehene, he founded
to accumulate wealth on the largest scale; it could and ran a company that dealt in mining equipment.
bestow gifts such as being named commander of the As Asantehene, he has been particularly active in
state’s armies or conductor of the state’s trade, or it promoting education and health care.
could award an individual a state office or the status
of favored beneficiary of the state’s law. Critical Thinking Questions
The state also controlled symbolic capital. Only 1. What were some of the local economic factors that
the state could bestow titles or other symbols of enabled the Asante state to maintain its power?
high status on individuals. Complex rituals and
2. What were some important global factors that
ceremonies, which combined public display with
both supported and undermined the power of the
public acclamation, included symbolic and historical
Asante state?
references aimed at glorifying the state and recalling
the role of public officials as providers and protectors 3. Compare the ideology of the relation between
of the people. The Asantehene possessed the Golden wealth and power in the Asante state with that of
Stool and the Golden Elephant’s Tail, symbols of the United States.
political power and wealth. The Golden Stool was
said to have descended from heaven to the lap of Source: Adapted from T. C. McCaskie, State and Society in
the first Asantehene and was believed to embody Pre-Colonial Asante. Cambridge: Cambridge University
the soul of the Ashanti people. It was (and remains) Press, 1995.
ceremonial functions, sponsor potlatches, and wear certain a kin group received resources that formally acknowledged
items of clothing and decoration. For example, only chiefs his rank, such as the first of the salmon catch, the best parts
could wear abalone shell jewelry and sea otter fur on their of sea mammals that had been killed, blankets, and furs. The
robes. The right to direct the use of economic resources sup- chief could use these resources to sponsor a potlatch, at which
ported the symbolic ranking system. As manager, the chief of most of these goods were given away.
Some of the most complex chiefdoms were found in

Polynesia (Figure 7.7). In Tahiti, society was divided into the FIGURE 7.7 Chiefdoms are ranked, hierarchical
ari’i, who were the immediate families of the chiefs of the societies. Here, Makirau Haurua is invested with
most important lineages in the larger districts; the ra’atira, the title of Teurukura Ariki, or supreme chief of
who were the heads of less important lineages and their Aitutaki, in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
families; and the manahune, which included the remain-
Marco Pompeo Photography/Alamy Stock Photo

der of the population. These ranks had economic, political,
and religious aspects. All people possessed mana, a spiritual
power, but in different degrees depending on rank. The ari’i
had the most mana because they were closest to the ancestral
gods, who were the source of mana. Elaborate taboos sepa-
rated those with more mana from those with less and regu-
lated social relations among the three ranks. For example,
higher-ranked people could not eat with those of lower rank.
Because men had higher rank than women and children,
they could not eat together. The highest-ranking ari’i were so
sacred that anything they touched became poison for those
below them. In some Polynesian islands, the highest chief was
kept completely away from other people and even used a spe-
cial vocabulary that was forbidden to others (Claessen & Van
Bakel, 2006).
Chiefdoms are also frequently found among pastoral
nomads, such as the Basseri of Iran. To avoid exhaustive graz-
ing of an area, famine of the flocks, and intertribal fighting,
nomads such as the Basseri stick to fixed migration schedules
and routes. Thus, an important role of the chief is to coordi-
nate movements of the tribe and conduct relations with out-
siders through whose territories nomadic pastoralists must
move (Barth, 1964).
Social Control and Conflict Resolution

Internal violence within chiefdoms is lower than in tribes
because the chief has authority to make judgments, punish
deviant individuals, and resolve disputes. Some of the chief ’s
power is material: Chiefs may impose fines, confiscate prop- of stability absent in tribes. However, violence does occur
erty, and, on occasion, have people killed. However, in many both between and within chiefdoms. The organizing power
cases, part of the chief ’s power is magical. For example, in the of chiefs makes them better able to maintain peace within
Trobriand Islands, the power of a chief to punish people is the society but also better able to pursue war with others.
achieved partly by hiring sorcerers to kill the offender by magic. Because chiefs are more likely to have wealth than tribal
The greatest power of the Trobriand chief lies in his control of leaders, violent competition for the office of chief does some-
garden magic. As garden magician, he not only organizes the times occur. Chiefs generally suppress any attempt at rebel-
efforts of the villagers under his control but also performs the lion or threats from competitors and deal harshly with those
rituals considered necessary for success at every step of garden- who try to take their power. Offenses against a chief are often
ing. The ultimate power of the Trobriand chief is his magical punished by death.
control of rain: He is believed to be able to produce a prolonged
drought, which will cause many people to starve. This power
is used when the chief is angry as a means of collective punish- State Societies
ment and enforcement of his will (Malinowski, 1935). A state is a hierarchical form of political organization in
Social order in chiefdoms is maintained through both which a central government has a monopoly over the use
fear and consensus. Often people have genuine respect for of force. Unlike chiefdoms, where ranking is based on kin-
and loyalty to the chief. However, the chief ’s power is backed ship, kinship ties in state societies do not extend throughout
by his control of symbolic, supernatural, administrative, the whole society, and kinship does not regulate relations
economic, and military force. This power offers a source between the different social classes.
In states, many different groups are incorporated into the larger areas continued, centralization of authority increased.
society. States at least partially disconnect the idea of mem- Finally, the entire area was brought under the control of one
bership from marriage, blood, and ethnicity. Thus, the state chief. The next step was the conquest of weaker valley chief-
can expand, incorporating different linguistic, ethnic, reli- doms by stronger ones until powerful empires emerged, most
gious, and social groups without splitting. These groups may notably that of the Inca (Figure 7.8).
have different rights within the state. For example, many Most theories of state formation tend to emphasize either
states have included large groups of enslaved people. Because conflict (Fried, 1967) or integration and function (Service,
of their ability to encompass diverse people, states can 1971). Conflict theories tend to emphasize the emergence of
become much more populous, heterogeneous, and powerful the state as directly connected with the emergence of an elite
than any other kind of political organization. class that protects its power and privileges through coercive
power and management of political ideology. Functionalist
The Rise of State Societies theories emphasize the benefits of the state to its members.
State societies are associated with the abilities to organize States, they argue, are beneficial because they can provide the
large populations for collective and coordinated action, to stability needed for growth and technological development,
suppress internal disorder through monopoly over the use of effective mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes,
force, and to defend against external threats. More than any protection of trade and finance, and defense against external
other form of political organization, the state can carry out enemies. They also possess the ability to expand.
military action for both defensive and offensive purposes.
The origin of the state, one of humankind’s most sig- Political Integration and Leadership
nificant cultural achievements, cannot be explained by any States are characterized by centralized government, an inter-
one theory. States are formed as a result of various interre- related set of status and power roles that become at least par-
lated events feeding back on one another in complex ways. tially separate from other aspects of social organization, such
Pre-state societies respond to different selective pressures as kinship and religion. In state societies, groups based on
by changing some of their internal structures, by subduing a territory become central and individuals belong to the state
competing group, or by establishing themselves as dominant primarily as a result of their residence. The administrative
in a region. This initial shift sets off a chain reaction that may divisions of a state are territorial units, cities, districts, and so
lead to state formation. Some states emerged as cultural solu- on. Each unit has its own government, which is, in turn, sub-
tions to problems that demanded highly centralized coor- ject to the central government.
dination and regulation of human populations (Cohen & In state societies, the government emerges as a social
Service, 1978; Fried, 1967). Other states emerged because of institution specifically concerned with making and enforc-
particular historical or ecological conditions, such as the shift ing public policy. The state, for example, intervenes in the
from rainfall to irrigation farming, and still others, like the economic process. It sets the legal framework in which eco-
Asante (see this chapter’s “Ethnography” section), emerged nomic exchange takes place. It may tax production and
out of military triumph.
Carneiro (1970) emphasized the importance of ecology
in state formation. He has argued that states may emerge FIGURE 7.8 Machu Picchu, perhaps the most
when agricultural land is limited and population is expand- famous Inca archaeological site, may have been a
ing. This seems to have occurred in pre-Columbian Peru, ritual center or a retreat for Inca elites.
where independent farming villages were confined to narrow
© iStockphoto/Siempreverde22
valleys bounded by the sea, the desert, or mountains. As the

population grew, villages split, and populations dispersed
until all the available land was used. At this point, more inten-
sive methods of agriculture were applied to land already
being farmed, and previously unusable land was brought
under cultivation by terracing and irrigation. As population
continued to increase, pressure for land intensified, result-
ing in war. Because of the constraints of the environment,
villages that lost wars had nowhere to go and had to accept a
politically subordinate role to remain on their land. As more
villages were subjugated and defeated, the political organiza-
tion of the area became more complex, and chiefdoms devel-
oped. The warring units were now larger, and as conquest of
consumption, control the conditions of labor, and use vast In most cases, such states rested on agriculture. The produc-
numbers of people in bureaucracies, armies, and state-con- tivity of agriculture makes it possible for state rulers to use
trolled enterprises. The state also intervenes in the exchange taxation to appropriate wealth. Much of this wealth is used
and distribution of goods and services through complex mar- to support the activities of the state itself, such as maintain-
ket networks. It protects the distribution of goods by making ing administrative and religious bureaucracies and standing
travel safe for traders as they move their goods from one place armies. However, this wealth also supports the luxurious
to another and by keeping peace in the marketplace. The state lifestyle of the elite, which differs substantially from that of
also intervenes in the consumption process, outlawing certain ordinary people. States thus create at least three social levels:
kinds of purchases. Historically, states often had sumptuary (1) those who grow the food and do other jobs in society that
laws that limited consumption of certain luxuries to specific are directly productive (such as peasant farmers, miners, and
classes of people. Such laws were intended to preserve and many types of craftspeople); (2) the elite, who live by appro-
reinforce the social order and were often quite specific. For priating some of what the producers create (such as mem-
example, in 1574, Queen Elizabeth I of England commanded, bers of an aristocracy); and (3) a bureaucracy that supports
and carries out the dictates of the elite (such as members of a
None shall wear in his apparel any silk of the color of pur- standing army). The elite classes in state societies are jealous
ple, cloth of gold tissued, nor fur of sables, but only the of their control and wealth and strive to guard it.
King, Queen, King’s mother, children, brethren, and sis- In addition to controlling the integration of power and
ters, uncles and aunts; and except dukes, marquises, and wealth, state elites maintain their power in two ways. First,
earls, who may wear the same in doublets, jerkins, linings they maintain control over the centralized government and its
of cloaks, gowns, and hose; and those of the Garter, purple institutions, particularly its institutions of coercion. Second,
in mantles only. (Quoted in Aughterson, 1998: 165) they attempt to establish a hegemonic ideology encoded in
law and culture that identifies their own interests with those
States may also restrict, control, or ban consumption of of society at large. As illustrated by the Asante, the elite’s hege-
goods ranging from drugs to radios and computers. mony in culturally legitimating the connection between
The many economic, coordinating, and controlling func- wealth and power is essential in maintaining state stability.
tions of states in peace and war require extensive record keep- Even with their great coercive and hegemonic power,
ing, which gave rise to writing and systems of weights and however, states are not generally peaceful and stable. They
measures. In some states, cities arose as administrative, reli- persistently experience rebellion directed at overthrowing
gious, and economic centers. These centers then stimulated those who control the government and sometimes revolu-
important cultural achievements in science, art, architecture, tionary attempts to overthrow the entire structure of gov-
and philosophy. ernment. The state is constantly on alert to ward off threats
A major defining characteristic of state societies is the to depose the government, outbreaks of violence that might
government’s monopoly over the use of force. A state forbids result in civil war, or the disruption of the privileges of vested
individuals or groups to use force except under the state’s autho- interests. To the extent that a state wins the loyalty of its
rization. Laws (usually written) are enforced by formal and spe- people, the constant use of force is not necessary to achieve
cialized institutions. Courts and police forces, for example, have these ends. However, it is always there in the background as a
the authority to impose all kinds of punishments: fines, confis- potential instrument of social control (Nagengast, 1994: 116).
cation of property, imprisonment, and even death.
Warfare may play an important role in state forma-
tion and operation. Engaging successfully in warfare often The Nation–State
strengthens the power of the state. Warfare leads to the sup-
pression of internal conflict and, usually, more centralized As we have noted, states are created through the incorpora-
control over production. Because going to war in state soci- tion of disparate people into a single political entity. However,
eties benefits some economic and political groups more than historically, this did not necessarily mean creation of a sin-
others, states also take increasing control over information gle identity. For example, although there is much debate
and channels of communication, using propaganda to mask about the size of the population of the Roman Empire under
the unequal benefits of war. This strengthens not only the war Augustus (Scheidel, 2007), there is no doubt that it included
effort but also the power of the state. people of many different ethnic groups speaking myriad
languages and that only a relatively small percentage of these
The State and Social Stratification people were Roman citizens. Similarly, the Angevin Empire
The Asante state (described in the “Ethnography” box) illus- created by Henry II, king of England, covered an area stretch-
trates many typical qualities of preindustrial state societies. ing from Ireland to northern Spain. The people living in this
FIGURE 7.9 Political maps
©iStock.com/bergserg
of the world reinforce the
idea that it is natural for
nation–states to exist as
territorial units.
area had no sense of themselves as English, and Henry II

himself spoke only Latin and French. FIGURE 7.10 Nation–states make extensive use
The nation–state, a government and territory that is of symbols and rituals to give people the sense
identified with a (relatively) culturally homogeneous popula- of shared membership. Here, children recite the
tion and a national history, is a recent development in human Pledge of Allegiance in an American classroom.
history. Although there are precedents for it, the idea that a
© iStockphoto/Jbryson
nation is a geographical area with a single government and a
people sharing a common identity and destiny dates only to
the 18th and 19th centuries.
Nation–states are popularly felt by their members to be
natural entities based on common descent, language, culture,
history, and territory. In fact, nation–states are composed of
many heterogeneous groups, and the things their members
share must be constructed. Benedict Anderson (1991) called
nation–states “imagined communities” because people in
them feel community with millions whom they will never
meet and with whom they have no connection other than
national identity. It takes an act of imagination to weld the
many different groups that make up the state into a coherent
national community. Anthropologists are particularly inter-
ested in the historical circumstances under which nation– The importance of the spatial dimension of the nation–state
states arise, the processes by which they are constructed and is continually impressed on us by colorful world maps, which
maintained, and the circumstances under which they are visually represent the world as a collection of nation–states
challenged and destabilized. (Alonso, 1994: 382; Figure 7.9).
The nation–state has many resources available as it seeks A common interpretation of the past is essential in cre-
to repress loyalties to smaller cultural groups and conceal the ating national identities. Thus, nation–states are constructed
invented or imagined nature of the nation. One way nation– by attaching people to time as well as space. Education plays
states construct national identities is to draw boundaries a key role in this. Consider the names of some grade school
between spatially defined insiders and outsiders (Bornstein, social studies books: America: History of Our Nation (2011),
2002; Handler, 1988). Regardless of cultural differences, The American Journey (2007), Our America (2011). All
people who live within the boundaries of the nation–state emphasize the idea of shared nationhood. However, because
are encouraged through education, law, and ritual to under- different groups within the nation have different interpreta-
stand themselves as having a common identity. People out- tions of its history, the content of history education is often
side the national boundary are viewed as different or other. controversial. Political fights about the contents of American
history textbooks have broken out in Texas, Tennessee, Attempts by nation–states to create common identity are
Oregon, and other places (J. Williams, 2016). dynamic and in tension with the efforts of groups that wish
Nation–states actively invent tradition and history to to preserve their own identity and autonomy. In many cases,
align with contemporary national interests. National iden- these groups form separatist movements that demand either
tity is reproduced through rituals, symbols, ceremonies, the creation of a new nation or increased autonomy within
memorials, and representations in museums and other cul- the existing nation. Virtually every European nation has
tural institutions (Hobsbawm & Ranger, 1983; Nanda, 2005). separatist movements. Some of the best known are in Spain
Activities such as coronations, inaugurations, pledging alle- (Basque and Catalonian), the United Kingdom (Northern
giance to the flag, singing national anthems, and parades are Ireland and Scotland) and Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia)
some of the tools that create and maintain the nation–state (Henley et al., 2017). Numerous political groups in the
(Figure 7.10). United States and Canada have also proposed new nations,
States use education, law, and the media to create a most notably in Quebec, Canada.
national culture and identity that become the only authorized Nation–states may also fail in their attempt to impose
representation of society. Through law, the state can suppress national identity. Fragile states are those nation–states that,
certain aspects of minority cultures, particularly their lan- because of failures of government, education, security, and
guages, thus undermining their cultural cohesion. The state economy, are unable to create coherent national identity.
may also promote nationalism by incorporating elements of In most cases, they are profoundly violent places in which
subcultures into the national culture. For example, in many no group has the power to either firmly suppress others or
nations of Central and South America, indigenous Indian enforce agreements with them. Some of the weakest states in
ethnicity, where not totally repressed, is defined in ways that 2017 were South Sudan, Somalia, Central Africa Republic,
serve nationalistic purposes. In Guatemala, many indig- Yemen, Sudan, and Syria (Fund for Peace, 2018).
enous people live in deep poverty, and many of the wealthy
claim Spanish descent. However, Tecún Umán, the last ruler
of the K’iche-Maya people who was killed fighting against
The Nation–State and Ethnic Conflict
the Spanish in 1524, is celebrated. Statues, paintings, and Ethnicity, like the nation, is a social construction. Ethnicity
poems identify him as a hero, and Tecún Umán Day is cele- refers to perceived differences—such as culture, religion,
brated every February 20th. Even when indigenous peoples language, national origin—by which groups of people dis-
are not identified as backward cultures standing in the way tinguish themselves and are distinguished from others in
of national development, their cultures may be incorporated the same social environment. Like the nation itself, ethnic-
into national identity only as a fossilized past or an artistic ity is often understood as a natural aspect of society based
expression that encourages the increase of foreign tourism on some unchanging essence (Geertz, 1973b: 277; Meier &
(Alonso, 1994: 398). Ribera, 1993), but ethnic identities emerge from interactions

THE RISE OF POPULISM
The past several years have seen the rise and increased movements split society in two. They claim to speak
prominence of populist regimes. Leaders that are for or be guided by the will of the people. However, in
widely viewed as populist include Vladimir Putin doing so, they define their supporters as “the people”
in Russia, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Recep Tayyip and all others as enemies of “the people.” Second,
Erdoğan in Turkey, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Evo populism is, in the words of the political scientist Cas
Morales in Bolivia, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Mudde, (2004) a “thin ideology.” That is, it calls for the
and Donald Trump in the United States. But what elimination of enemies of “the people” and usually the
exactly is populism and how does it tie these nations end of “elite” control of the political establishment but
together? says nothing about how the state should be organized
once this is accomplished. Therefore, there are
The definition of populism is much debated, but it has populists across the political spectrum—from the leftist
two widely agreed upon characteristics. First, populist populism of the late Hugo Chávez and his current heir
(Continued!)
(Continued)
Nicolás Maduro to the right-wing populism of Viktor individuals with desires they cannot fulfil, and this
Orbán and the Islamic populism of Recep Tayyip leads to “an impulse to hate everything” (in Meaney,
Erdoğan. 2018). Politicians such as Donald Trump, whom
Sloterdijk considers “an innovator when it comes to
Economic and political trends of the past decade have fear” use this frustration to create and maintain their
provided fertile grounds for emerging populism. The positions. (in Meaney, 2018).
move away from manufacturing in the economies
of North America and Europe has led to a steady Anthropologists have explored and analyzed populist
erosion of the middle classes in those places. Industrial movements from a variety of perspectives. In her
jobs have increasingly been replaced by service and examination of advertising in Hungary, Timmer
information jobs, most of which pay less. The pain looked not only at the content of government
of this dislocation was exacerbated by the financial billboards but also at the ways in which people
crisis of the late 2000s, which led to widespread had resisted or modified these messages. Agnes
unemployment and the erosion or disappearance of Mondragón and Stephen Schwartz have done a
assets, particularly real estate. In the mid-2010s, this similar thing for wall murals of Hugo Chávez in
was coupled with waves of political refugees and Venezuela. Salih Aciksoz and Zeynep Korkman
economic migrants seeking better lives (or in some (2017) have investigated the ways in which populism
cases simple survival) in Europe and North America. intersects with gender—particularly how leaders
such as Donald Trump, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and
Politicians such as Orbán capitalize on these trends. Vladimir Putin attempt to portray hypermasculinity
Anthropologist Andria Timmer (2017) has shown and how such portrayals are resisted and subverted by
how Orbán used billboards to display nationalist and their opponents and artists. And Sally Galman (2017)
xenophobic rhetoric. Billboards with messages like, “If has addressed the ways in which populism affects
you come to Hungary, you must keep our laws” were transgendered people.
printed in Hungarian and clearly aimed at Hungarian
citizens, not immigrants. Their intended effect was Populism presents interesting and significant
to catalyze anger against refugees. In Venezuela, challenges for anthropologists. Anthropology
volunteers at a local TV station were taught to base investigates and, in most cases, celebrates the
their understanding around class distinctions. A course diversity of cultures. Anthropologists are not moral
instructor declared, “We are totally partial toward the relativists, but their embrace of the techniques of
people.…The country is divided in two and this is a cultural relativism leads them to understand the world
class struggle” (in Samet & Schiller, 2017: 4). Clearly the through many different points of view. Populism insists
instructor was not partial toward all the nation’s people, on the erasure of differences and the primacy of a
only those who supported Chávez and Meduro’s United single people and single point of view. Despite this
Socialist Party. tension, anthropologists have the tools to analyze and
understand populism as a form of culture, to expose its
The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk claims structure and its roots, and, perhaps, in some cases, to
modern capitalism presents irritated and isolated resist it.
and conflicts that differentiate groups of people. Such con- It is certainly true that ambitious politicians often use
flicts are shaped by politics, economics, and history. Ethnicity ethnicity and ethnic conflict to gain power. They mobilize a
thus becomes more or less important in a society and takes its rhetoric of historical abuses and inequities, arousing fears of
particular shape under specific historical, demographic, and victimization among members of different groups. However,
economic conditions (De Vos & Romanucci-Ross, 1995). although ethnic conflicts may have old precedents, they are
Popular media often attribute conflict and violence generally rooted in relatively recent circumstances. Such
to ethnicity. Conflicts between groups such as Arabs and conflicts are shaped by contemporary political events and
Israelis, Irish and English, Hutu and Tutsi, and many oth- disputes over economic resources. For example, much of
ers are presented as natural eruptions of age-old ethnic the violence in Iraq in the 2000s was portrayed as part of an
hatreds. Seeing them in this way promotes the idea that they endless and endlessly violent struggle between Shi’a and
are unsolvable. If, for example, Hindus and Muslims hate Sunni—two groups of Muslims with different traditions and
each other and commit violence against one another simply somewhat different beliefs. It is true that Shi’a and Sunni dif-
because they are Hindus and Muslims, it is unlikely that any- ferentiated themselves early in the history of Islam and have
thing could create peace between them. often had conflicts. However, it is also true that most of the
However, the ethnic conflict of the 1990s was not caused

FIGURE 7.11 A Bosnian woman from by age-old hatreds among the different ethnic groups of the
Srebrenica holds a picture of her grandsons, area (Judt, 2005: 665–684). Rather, a selectively remembered
who were murdered in the civil wars following past of cultural differences was mobilized in the struggle for
the breakup of Yugoslavia. economic and political power in the collapsing Yugoslav
state. This can be seen with clarity in the creation of Croatia.
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP/Getty Images
In 1981, after Tito’s death, the new political leadership of

Yugoslavia introduced an economic austerity program in an
attempt to shore up the nation’s import/export imbalance.
The resulting shortages of consumer goods undermined faith
in the government, and people depended even more than
usual on kinship and friendship networks within their eth-
nic groups to survive. Hostility was mainly directed toward
the national government, which exploited long-standing
cultural differences among the main ethnic groups to secure
its own political power. A Croat nationalist leader, Franjo
Tudjman, gained supporters by urging Croats to claim their
national rights against Serbs, Muslims, and others. These
nearly 14 centuries since the prophet’s death have been char- FIGURE 7.12 Yugoslavia in 1989 and the nations
acterized by peace and cohabitation far more than by warfare. that resulted from its breakup.
To understand the current conflict between Shi’a and Sunni,
one must consider the impact of British colonialism, the cre-
ation of the Iraqi state, the emergence of the Ba’athist politi-
cal movement, the oil boom, and the Iran–Iraq war, as well
as the U.S. invasion of 2003 and the policies enacted during
the occupation. None of these has much to do with religion.
Instead, these conflicts are historic and economic ones, in
which groups that are differentiated in part by religion have
fought for power and control (Saleh, 2009; Toensing, 2008).
Ethnic conflict in the former state of Yugoslavia in the
1990s illustrates the role of history and politics well. Before
World War I, this area of Eastern Europe and the Balkans
was either part of the Ottoman Empire, was ruled by Muslim
Turks, or was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It
included a large population of Christian Serbs and numer-
ous other ethnic groups. Conflict between the Turks and
Austria
Christian Europeans was a central force generating Serbian Hungary
nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Italy
Solvenia
At the end of World War I, the first of a series of multieth- Croatia Romania
nic states dominated by Serbs was created. After World War

Bosnia and
II, Yugoslavia was controlled by a powerful, Serb-dominated, Herzegovina
central government supported by the Soviet Union. However, Serbia
after the death of Yugoslav dictator Josip Tito and the collapse
of the Soviet Union, the nation disintegrated into ethnic vio-
Bulgaria
lence. Throughout the 1990s, bitter conflicts among different Montenegro

Kosovo
ethnic and religious groups—Serbs, Croats, Bosnians (many
of them Muslim), Macedonians, and Albanians—led to deaths
Macedonia
Albania
that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. By the early

2000s, six new nations, divided largely along ethnic lines, had Greece
emerged from the former Yugoslavia (Figure 7.12).

moves reignited the bitter divisions between Croats and

Serbs that had emerged in World War II when the Ustashe, FIGURE 7.13 McDonald’s is closely identified
the Croat fascist party, pursued genocidal policies against with the United States, but most of its revenue
Serbs, Jews, Roma, and other minorities in Croatia. In 1990, comes from locations outside the country. In
after the breakup of the Yugoslav Communist Party, Tudjman 2017, McDonald’s had about 2,500 restaurants in
led his own nationalist party to victory in Croatian elec- China, including this one in Xiangyang, Hubei
tions and declared an independent state in Croatia, result- province.
ing in a bloody war with the Serbs that ended with Croatian
© iStockphoto/TonyV3112
independence.
Thus, claims to nationalist identity resulted in the cre-
ation of Croatia. However, it must be remembered that
Croats and Serbs had frequently allied with one another in
battling both the Ottomans and the Austro-Hungarians. Pan-
Slavic nationalism, which united Croats and Serbs, was one
of the causes of World War I, and, following that war, Croats
and Serbs joined in creating the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats,
and Slovenes. During these alliances, politicians pointed to
the facts that Croats and Serbs speak the same language and
are Christians to promote unity. However, in the context of
the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, precisely the same
traits were cited as differences: Serbs are Eastern Orthodox
Christians, but Croats are Roman Catholics; they speak
the same language but use different writing systems. Thus,
the cultural differences between Serbs and Croats could be
ignored when historical and political forces favored unity but
emphasized when Serb and Croat interests diverged. Conflict
between Serbs and Croats is not the inevitable working out
of age-old hatred. Rather, ethnic differences catalyzed a fight
over power and material resources.
The Nation–State and Globalization

Nation–states began to develop in the 18th and 19th
centuries and will probably persist for the foreseeable future.
Globalization has provided some benefits to them but
also poses strong challenges. As Chapter 14 will show, the
processes tying disparate parts of the world together into
a single economy date back centuries, but technological
changes in communication, transportation, and finance have However, these international connections present
greatly accelerated in the past half century. These changes problems. In the past, governments and elites focused on
extend the reach of nation–states but can create difficulties integrating national economies and identities. Road, rail-
for them as well. road, telegraph, and telephone systems were constructed
The technological and military power of wealthy nation– to bring all parts of the nation together as an economic unit.
states enables them to advance their political agendas and Education systems promoted a national history and identity.
protect their identities and borders. The promotion of media Today, much of the integration is global, happening among
such as films, games, and music turn national identity into a rather than within nations. Vast quantities of goods and
kind of brand (Anholt, 2013), and this is used by corporations information move across international borders. As anyone
to promote sales and profits. Just as Hollywood is linked to who has ever phoned for tech support knows, a call made to a
the United States, the Indian, Chinese, and Hong Kong film local number is often answered on the other side of the world.
industries promote their own national identities. As brands In addition, corporations, their shareholders, and their
such as McDonald’s, Levi Strauss, Harley Davidson, and managerial teams are increasingly international. For exam-
Caterpillar are linked to American national identity, so Sony ple, McDonald’s was founded in by Richard and Maurice
is linked to Japan and Samsung to Korea. McDonald in 1940 and purchased by Ray Kroc in 1955.
Kroc expanded the business through franchising, creating critical point is that large corporations such as those men-
the company we know today. McDonald’s is closely identi- tioned control a substantial portion of the world’s economy.
fied with the United States. However, about 60% of its 36,000 They are able to engage in political and social action not only
restaurants are in other nations, and about two-thirds of in their country of origin but also throughout the world.
its annual revenue comes from its international operations Although they may have many interests, their main focus is
(Patton & Giammona, 2016; Figure 7.13). on returning profits to their shareholders. It is possible that
McDonald’s stock is owned throughout the world, and this coincides with the interests of the nation–states where
companies in which McDonald’s owns large interests are such corporations are based . . . but more likely that it does
based in many countries. In this, McDonald’s is typical of not.
many international corporations. For example, more than Further, the executives of these corporations and many
half of the revenue for Ford, IBM, Dow Chemical, Apple, others are increasingly multinational themselves. They may
and Intel comes from overseas. Conversely, many products own residences in multiple nations, and their children may
closely identified with the United States are actually produced be educated internationally. Their investments are often sim-
by companies owned in other countries. Budweiser is pro- ilarly multinational. None of this is necessarily a bad thing.
duced by the Belgian company ImBev, which also produces However, it does create a dynamic and changing situation.
Corona, Beck’s, and Stella Artois. French’s Mustard and Lysol In state societies, elites tended to promote hegemonic ideas
are owned by Reckitt Benckiser, an Anglo-Dutch company, of culture. In nation–states, these ideas often centered on
and “Vermont’s Finest,” Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, is owned notions of national identity. Today, although nationalism is
by Unilever, another Anglo-Dutch company. Or, if it’s more a powerful political force, it may not be very meaningful for
your style, Wild Turkey Kentucky Bourbon was owned by the wealthy and powerful themselves. About 30 million peo-
the French company Pernod Ricard but is now owned by the ple live in households worth more than $1 million; together,
Italian multinational Gruppo Campari, which also owns Irish they control almost 40% of the world’s wealth (Frank, 2011)
Mist, a liqueur made in Dublin. but comprise less than half of 1% of the world’s population.
Some of the issues and concerns surrounding multina- Members of this group are likely to have strong bonds with
tional corporations will be discussed in Chapter 15. Here, the other elites but only weak ties to any particular nation.

C ITIZ E N S H I P A N D S TAT E L E S S N E S S
Question: Should everyone be a citizen of a nation–state?
Following the emergence of the nation–state, the if the country where a child is born does not permit
world has been divided into countries with agreed- nationality based on birth alone. Only 33 of the
upon national boundaries. Although border disputes roughly 195 countries in the world have jus soli (“law
continue to exist, the result of this division is that, of the soil”), the legal principle that grants automatic
in principle, every person in the world lives within citizenship to everyone born within their borders
the borders of a nation–state. And, in principle, (Cabaniss, 2015). Twenty-seven countries restrict the
every person is a citizen of such a state. However, in rights of women to pass their citizenship on to their
practice, there are significant exceptions to this rule. children (Theodorou, 2014).
According to the United Nations High Commission
on Refugees, there are at least 10 million people in Statelessness may occur as the result of the
the world who are stateless and denied a nationality. emergence of new states or changes in borders. It
can also occur when states declare entire groups or
There are numerous ways in which individuals peoples to not belong to the state. The most famous
and groups can become stateless. Individuals may recent case of this is the Rohingya Muslims. In the
become stateless because of gaps in nationality laws. mid-2000s, more than 1.1 million Rohingya lived in
For example, in Kuwait, if a child’s mother is not Myanmar and had no other citizenship. However, the
Kuwaiti and is unmarried, the child does not have state, which is predominantly Buddhist, has declared
Kuwaiti citizenship and may be stateless (Mahdavi, them “non-nationals” and views them as illegal
2015: 73). A second way statelessness can occur is immigrants. There are many other cases of groups
(Continued!)
(Continued)
of people being denied nationality, such as Haitians prisoners to death (Lone et al., 2018). Similar incidents
in the Dominican Republic, Russians in Estonia and have taken place throughout Rakhine State, a region
Latvia, members of indigenous groups in Thailand, of Myanmar bordering Bangladesh. As of late 2017,
and the Karana in Madagascar. at least 680,000 Rohingya had fled from their homes
in Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh, and at
Statelessness presents profound problems for its least 10,000 had either been murdered by Myanmar
victims. In the current world, people gain rights military forces or died in the attempt to flee from
and opportunities through their citizenship. People them (Wilkinson, 2018; Bearak, 2017).
with no citizenship may have very few rights. Of
course they cannot vote in elections, and they are The concept of citizenship is intimately bound with the
routinely denied access to social services. However, idea of the nation–state. Before the nation–state, people
in many places, they may also be denied the right to in states and chiefdoms were usually considered
go to school, visit a doctor, hold a job, open a bank subjects of their rulers, not citizens. And people in
account, or even get married (United Nations High bands and tribes understood themselves primarily as
Commissioner for Refugees, n.d.). Think of how family and lineage members rather than as members
many times you are asked for your Social Security of larger political units. These forms of identification
number and consider how difficult life would be if continue to exist and remain important for many
you could never have one. And be aware that in many indigenous people. However, it is clear that rights of
other nations, you’d be asked for your identification national citizenship are important to every person in
far more frequently than you are in the United States. the world today and that those without citizenship are
disadvantaged and, in some cases, in mortal danger.
The most dangerous form of statelessness is when
groups are deprived of their citizenship. Before the Key Questions
Holocaust, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped
1. Does statelessness exist in wealthy countries such
Jews and members of some other minorities of
as the United States? How does the status of the
their citizenship. This is an apt example because
“Dreamers” (people who entered the United States
people stripped of any citizenship can be denied all
illegally as young children) compare with that of
rights, including the right to remain alive. Laws that
the stateless?
identify people as stateless place them beyond the
nation and community and, in many cases, mark 2. What are the responsibilities of the governments
them as targets for hatred and violence. For example, toward the stateless? Do the United States and
the government of Myanmar has pursued policies other powerful nations have responsibilities
against the stateless Rohingya that some have labeled toward groups such as the Rohingya?
genocide (Nebehay & Lewis, 2018). The Myanmar
military, aided by paramilitary groups and Myanmar 3. The United States and Canada are two of only 33
citizens, have conducted campaigns of intimidation countries that have jus soli, the right to citizenship
and violence against the Rohingya. In one incident, of any individual born on their soil. Why do you
the military and paramilitary police organized think this right is so limited and do you believe it
villagers to burn Rohingya homes and hack Rohingya should be expanded?
SUMMARY
1. How does political organization relate to social differ- both nonstratified systems of social differentiation.
entiation? What are the major systems of social differen- Egalitarian societies, which are mainly found among
tiation? Social differentiation is a key feature of political foragers and in some horticultural societies, give
organization. Anthropologists have identified three major every individual and group in society equal access
systems of social differentiation: egalitarian, rank, and to basic resources, power, and prestige. Rank societ-
stratified societies. Each of these is typically associated ies, or chiefdoms, recognize differences in prestige
with different economic, social, and political features. among individuals and groups, but no one is denied
access to the resources necessary for survival. Rank
2. What are the main characteristics of the various sys- societies are organized through kinship and chiefly
tems of social differentiation within egalitarian and positions are maintained largely through redistribu-
rank societies? Egalitarian and rank societies are tion of goods.
3. What are stratified societies and what kinds of social and peasants, with the king at the top of the social sys-
systems are they identified with? Stratified societies tem. The centralized government controlled the sources,
are associated with the state. Social, political, and eco- distribution, and ritual display of wealth, maintaining
nomic inequalities are institutionalized and maintained itself through an ideology which held that accumu-
through a combination of internalized controls, political lated wealth in the hands of the elite benefited the whole
power, and force. Kinship ties between the upper and society.
lower classes no longer integrate the society, there are
wide gaps in standards of living, and some people have 9. What are some of the economic, social, political, and
no access to basic resources. cultural features of state societies? State societies usu-
ally depend on agriculture that provides economic
4. What are some of the functions of political organization surpluses that permit the development of centralized
and law? What are some of the means for achieving these government, cities, occupational specialization, trade,
aims? Political organization and law address the universal taxation, social stratification, and bureaucracy. In state
human problems of coordinating and regulating human societies, the government controls the legitimate use
behavior through making and enforcing decisions affect- of force, which it may use against its citizens and other
ing the common good and resolving conflicts. This is peoples, but states also maintain themselves by develop-
accomplished through both formal and informal means. ing hegemonic ideologies that justify the elite’s control
Informal social control is achieved through gossip, ridi- of the population.
cule, and ostracism; formal sanctions include exile, death,
and punishments meted out by courts, judges, police, and 10. What is a nation–state and how is it an imagined com-
other institutionalized forms of regulation. munity? The nation–state, a relatively recent form of
political organization, is a government or territory iden-
5. What are the four major types of political organization tified with a (relatively) culturally homogenous popula-
identified by anthropologists and what is the basis of this tion and a national history. Nation–states are imagined
typology? Four major forms of political organization are communities because they depend on people of different
bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Anthropologists backgrounds who have never met one another agreeing
base this classification on the degree of specialization of that they share a common identity. Nation–states main-
political functions, the extent to which authority is cen- tain power by drawing cultural boundaries between
tralized, and the number of different groups found in the members and outsiders, by promoting historical narra-
society. tives that support nationalism, by creating laws that sup-
press minority cultures, and by sponsoring rituals that
6. What are the differentiating characteristics of bands declare national identity.
and tribes? Band societies, found mainly among forag-
ers, have little integration of groups beyond the level of 11. What are the characteristics of populism? Populism
the band, with no central leadership or formal means is a type of political movement in which leaders claim
of social control. Tribal organization, found mainly to speak for the people. However, in doing so, they
among horticulturists and pastoralists, is based on divide the nation into two groups, one of which they
localized kin groups who typically act independently identify as good, one of which they claim is bad or evil.
but under certain conditions may also act collectively. Populism is a “thin ideology.” Populist politicians may
use its techniques to promote very different political
7. What are the differentiating characteristics of chiefdoms ideologies. Economic and social conditions in many
and states? In chiefdoms, kinship is the most important places have favored the rise of populism since the
principle of social organization. Chiefdoms concentrate mid-2000s.
power in the office of the chief. Chiefs exert control over
the redistribution of food and other goods. A state is a 12. What is ethnicity and how does it relate to conflict?
hierarchical, centralized form of political organization. Ethnicity refers to perceived differences in culture, lan-
States are characterized by high levels of social strati- guage, and religion between groups of people who expe-
fication. Kinship plays a smaller role in states than in rience themselves as sharing an identity. Anthropologists
chiefdoms. emphasize that ethnic identity is fluid and that most
of the time members of different ethnic groups do not
8. How is the connection between social stratification and experience violent conflict. However, ethnicity can be
the state illustrated in the ethnography of the Asante exploited in situations of conflict over political power
kingdom? The Asante state consisted of political elites and economic resources.
13. How does globalization both support and threaten the 14. What is statelessness and why is it a problem? Stateless
nation–state? Globalism supports the nation–state through people are those denied citizenship in any nation–state
information technologies and business practices that pro- because of the specific conditions of their birth, their
mote the interests of nation–states, making them effectively ethnicity, or changes in law. Stateless people are fre-
commercial brands. It threatens the state through its cre- quently unable to access basic services such as educa-
ation of multinational elites, the spread of globalized com- tion or health care. When groups of people are denied
panies with interests other than those of the nation–state, citizenship, they may become targets of genocidal
and the rapid movement of large numbers of political refu- violence.
gees and economic migrants between states.
1. Distinguish between power, authority, and leadership 4. What are some distinguishing characteristics of nation–
and give some examples of each. states? Give some examples of state societies that are
not nation–states and some that are. Explain why your
2. Anthropologists often say that all societies have politics examples are or are not nation–states.
but not all societies have government. What do they
mean by this? Explain what politics means with and 5. Carefully consider the relationship between global-
without government. ization and the nation–state. In what ways did his-
toric patterns of globalization play an important role
3. In this chapter, we explored the political difference in the creation of nation–states? To what degree is cur-
between bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. If you rent globalization compatible with the success of the
imagined a society moving through these different polit- nation–state?
ical forms, what general trends would emerge as the
group passed through the sequence?
KE Y TE RM S
authority 158 law 161 rebellion 160

band 161 leadership 159 revolution 160
bigman 163 mediation 164 state 169
chiefdom 166 nation–state 172 stratified society 158
egalitarian society 157 political ideology 158 sumptuary laws 171
ethnicity 173 political organization 157 tribe 162
government 170 power 158
hegemony 159 rank society 157
G LO S SARY
authority The ability to cause others to act based on chiefdom A society with social ranking in which political
characteristics such as honor, status, knowledge, ability, integration is achieved through an office of centralized
respect, or the holding of formal public office. leadership called the chief.
band A small group of people related by blood or egalitarian society A society in which no individual or
marriage who live together and are loosely associated with group has more privileged access to resources than any
a territory in which they forage. other.
bigman A self-made leader who gains power through ethnicity Perceived differences in culture, national origin,
personal achievements rather than through political and historical experience by which groups of people are
office. distinguished from others in the same social environment.
government An interrelated set of status roles that becomes power The ability to compel other individuals to do
separate from other aspects of social organization, such as things that they would not choose to do of their own
kinship, in exercising control over a population. accord.
hegemony The dominance of political elites based on a rank society A society characterized by institutionalized
close identification between their own goals and those of differences in prestige but no important restrictions on
the larger society. access to basic resources.
law A means of social control and dispute management rebellion The attempt of a group within society to force a
through the systematic application of force by a politically redistribution of resources and power.
constituted authority.
revolution An attempt to overthrow an existing form of
leadership The ability to direct an enterprise or action. political organization and put another type of political
structure in its place.
mediation A form of managing disputes that uses the
offices of a third party to achieve voluntary agreement state A hierarchical, centralized form of political
between the disputing parties. organization in which a central government has a legal
monopoly over the use of force.
nation–state A sovereign, geographically based state that
identifies itself as having a distinctive national culture and stratified society A society characterized by formal,
historical experience. permanent social and economic inequality in which some
people are denied access to basic resources.
political ideology The shared beliefs and values that
legitimize the distribution and use of power in a particular sumptuary laws Laws limiting the consumption of
society. certain goods to particular classes of people.
political organization The patterned ways in which tribe A culturally distinct population whose members
power is used in a society. consider themselves descended from the same ancestor.
Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler
In Mali, blacksmiths are members of an endogamous caste-like group. Their social status is ambiguous. Sometimes members
of high-ranked and chiefly families look down on them. However, they are also respected for their knowledge and skills and
sometimes feared for the spiritual powers they are widely understood as possessing.
Stratification 8
In this chapter, we look at how class, caste, race, and ethnicity are constructed LEARNING OBJECTIVES
in our own and other socially stratified societies. This involves the intersection
of culturally constructed categories that change over time within specific After you have read this chapter,
you will be able to:
economic and historical contexts. Social stratification is the structure that
results from unequal access to resources and the unequal distribution of goods 8.1 Summarize the differences
and services in a society. It is related to both the organization of production and between functionalist and conflict
approaches to inequality and
cultural values. list some of the strengths and
weakness of each approach
8.2 Discuss the relationship

between wealth, power, and prestige
Explaining Social Stratification 8.3 Explain the differences between

a class system and a caste system
As we noted in Chapter 7, social stratification, the social hierarchy that results from and give examples of each
the relatively permanent unequal distribution of goods and services in a society, 8.4 Analyze income inequality in
is related to social complexity and is one of the criteria by which state-level society is the United States
defined. No society has ever successfully organized a large and diverse population
without stratification and inequalities. 8.5 Compare the understanding of
race in the United States with the
Two basic perspectives on social stratification are functionalism and conflict
understanding of race in Brazil
theory. Functionalism holds that social stratification generally benefits the whole
society by rewarding people socially and economically for working harder, taking 8.6 Describe the relationship
risks, doing difficult jobs, or spending more time in school or occupational training. between social stratification and
For example, the rewards of prestige and high income motivate some people to become ethnicity and give examples when
ethnicity is and is not important in
medical doctors, a profession that requires more than 10 years of higher education and social stratification
the completion of many difficult tasks but that is necessary for the well-being of the
whole society. 8.7 Compare and contrast different
There is no question that functionalism works in the sense of motivating people models of assimilation to U.S.
culture
to take risks and undergo training for the rewards of wealth and prestige (Figure 8.1).
If college students were completely assured that their future status and prosperity had
nothing at all to do with college education, enrollments would drop precipitously. It
is also clear that, although inequality creates many problems, current-day state-level
societies are well served by some degree of inequality. It is hard to imagine what would
motivate people to undergo the lengthy training and risk that many jobs in such
societies entail if prestige and wealth were not in some way payoffs for this.
However, the functionalist theory also poses problems for society, several of which
are worthy of note. First, if it worked perfectly, inequality should draw the brightest,
most capable people to the most challenging positions where their talents could be best
used and provide the most benefit to society. However, structures in stratified society
almost always work against this goal. The wealth and power of parents, other family
members, and friends may have far more to do with access to prestige and power than
any personal characteristics. In premodern states, being born to wealth or the aristoc-
racy assured one’s success. In some cases, actually showing talent was frowned upon.
In current-day states, it is possible for the children of the poor to rise to great success
and the children of the rich to end up impoverished, but the betting odds do not go that
way. It’s much easier for the children of the wealthy to meet and make connections with
183
between social benefit and inequality in general, the link

FIGURE 8.1 In the United States, high-prestige jobs between the pay and prestige of individual jobs and social
often require lengthy training and risk taking. Here, good is tenuous at best. Of course, there is no agreed-upon
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin wears a T-shirt that way to measure social good. An example might clarify the
makes the point. point, though. Consider trash collectors and brain surgeons.
The former have low prestige while the latter have high pres-
tige. However, trash collectors certainly provide more social
Dan Callister/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
good to more people than do brain surgeons. Very few of us,

especially those among us who live in large cities, could get
through the week without the services of trash collectors. If
trash collection fails, cities rapidly become difficult to inhabit.
On the other hand, most of us will rarely if ever need the ser-
vices a brain surgeon. Yet we do not want to live in a society
where brain surgery is not available for those who need it. This
involves granting higher wealth and prestige to those who fol-
low the arduous path to become brain surgeons than to those
who follow the far simpler path to becoming trash collectors.
Beyond considerations of the efficiency of society and
the tasks that must be done, inequality involves conditions
of the human spirit. Although inequality seems inevitable
in human societies, resentment, however repressed, always
seems to accompany substantial inequalities (Scott, 1992).
This is especially true when the inequalities are based on
such ascribed factors as race, gender, caste, or other attributes
an individual is born with and cannot change (Berreman,
1988). All societies have some degree of social stratification,
although in band and tribal society this is relatively small and
largely determined by gender. No chiefdom or state-level
society offers everyone the same opportunities to achieve
economic and social success. In all stratified societies, family
background and social connections, gender, ethnicity, race,
accumulated wealth, and other factors play important roles in
other wealthy people than it is for children of the poor to do determining the sorts of opportunities available to individu-
so. This contributes to the fact that typically the children of als. Resentment between people of different levels of wealth
the poor stay poor and those of the rich stay rich, regardless of and power is particularly likely when inequalities between
hard work or talents. groups are large and are perceived to be unfair.
A second consideration concerns the motivating power Conflict theory offers a second approach to under-
of wealth. For example, though it is obvious that wealth is a standing inequality. In conflict theory, social stratification
powerful motivating force in many contemporary societies, results from the constant struggle for scarce goods and ser-
money’s ability to motivate a person may have limits. A per- vices. Inequalities exist because individuals and groups seize
son making $25,000 a year would work harder for a salary of control of scarce or productive resources. They use these
$50,000 a year, but would a person making $400,000 a year resources to acquire power, wealth, and prestige, and then
be motivated to work harder for $425,000 a year? Yet $25,000 they use their assets and their power to maintain control
is still a great deal of money. In other words, although we can over the system of production and the apparatus of the state.
agree that inequality motivates people and provides many When these attempts to establish dominance falter or are
benefits to societies, how much inequality is necessary to challenged, elites may fall back on the threat or actual use of
achieve these benefits is not clear. It may be possible to moti- force to maintain the status quo. Conflict theorists under-
vate people just as much with far less inequality than is pres- stand these actions as dividing society into different groups
ent in many current societies. with different interests. For conflict theorists, understanding
Some analysts argue that the pay for any specific job that society is composed of different groups pursuing differ-
should have some relation to the social good the job creates. ent goals and that this often leads to conflict is essential to
However, although we can argue that there is a connection analyzing social stratification.
Conflict theory is central to the work of Karl Marx and The proponents of functionalist approaches tend to see
his collaborator Friedrich Engels (Figure 8.2). For Marx and inequality as a good thing. Marx and many of his follow-
those who follow his thinking, the economic system is the ers saw it as ultimately bad and dreamed of a future society
critical factor in explaining social stratification. Marx dif- without inequality. However, from our perspective, func-
ferentiated two main social classes in capitalist society: the tionalist and conflict theories are complementary ways of
capitalists, who own the means of production, and the work- looking at society. On the one hand, it is hard to envision a
ers, who must sell their labor to survive. According to Marx, working, complex, modern state society that does not employ
the relationship of individuals to the means of production inequality in the form of prestige and wealth as a key factor
is critical in determining their wealth, power, and prestige. in its social and economic system. Certainly, there are no suc-
Marx viewed the conflict between the workers and the own- cessful historic or current examples of such a society. On the
ers of the means of production as central to capitalism and other hand, issues such as the relationship between birth and
predicted this would eventually lead to capitalism’s downfall. life chances, the degree of inequality society needs, the social
By asking “cui bono,” or who benefits economically, con- value of different jobs, and the damage that inequality—
flict theory enables us to understand some of the hidden particularly inequality caused by characteristics such as
motivations of social actors and to assess institutions by their gender or race—does to the human spirit are entrenched
economic and social consequences as well as by their stated aspects of social stratification. Social stratification necessar-
intentions. However, just as the functional view of inequal- ily divides society into groups with different interests and,
ity may lead theorists to ignore the possibility of structural though social groups often cooperate, conflict among them
conflict, conflict theorists may sometimes ignore the social is basic to stratified societies. Not all such conflicts relate to
mechanisms that promote solidarity across class, racial, eth- issues of wealth, social class, and ownership of productive
nic, and caste lines. resources, but many of them do.
Criteria of Stratification: Power,

FIGURE 8.2 Karl Marx (far left) and Friedrich Wealth, and Prestige
Engels, shown here with Marx’s wife and two of
his daughters, believed that analyzing conflict The social stratification system of any society depends on the
among economically defined groups was basic complex interaction of the three main dimensions of stratifi-
to understanding the structure and history of cation: power, wealth, and prestige. Anthropologists analyze
society. power (the ability to control resources in one’s own interest)
by examining its sources, the channels through which it is
exercised, and the goals it is deployed to achieve.
Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images
Wealth is the accumulation of material resources or

access to the means of producing these resources. Although
wealth is not the sole criterion of social status even in cap-
italist societies, it can eventually translate into high social
position and power. In our society, wealth enables people
to send their children to the most prestigious schools, buy
homes in the best neighborhoods, and join the right social
clubs. It enables people to gain access to politicians by giving
large campaign contributions. It may also allow them to run
for political office themselves. Wealth can also translate into
symbolic power, which in turn reinforces political power, as
we described in Chapter 7 with regard to the Asante.
Prestige, or social honor, is the third dimension of social
stratification. The cultural bases of prestige are different in
different societies: They may be related to race and ethnicity,
income, accumulated wealth, power, and/or personal char-
acteristics such as integrity, family history, and the display
of material goods. Not all wealth is a source of prestige. For
example, people who earn their incomes illegally have less
prestige than do those whose incomes are legally earned. The
head of an illegal gambling syndicate or an illegal drug cartel
may make hundreds of millions of dollars but have little pres- by barbers and was a lower-class occupation, at least partially
tige. On the other hand, few winners of the Nobel Peace Prize because it was dirty: Surgeons dealt in blood, pus, and bodily
have made a great deal of money, but they surely have high fluids. In contemporary North America, surgeons rank very
prestige. And committing oneself to poverty, as Indian inde- high in prestige, not only because they make a great deal of
pendence leader Mahatma Gandhi did, may paradoxically be money but also because surgery requires great skill and train-
a source of greater prestige than the display of wealth. ing. The cultural images of blood and filth that accompanied
A key source of prestige in all societies is the way one surgery in earlier eras have been replaced by images of purity
makes a living, both for its relation to income and for the and cleanliness.
cultural values attached to it, though different societies rank China has undergone numerous shifts in the pres-
occupations differently. In the Hindu caste system (see page tige ranking of different jobs over the past century. Before
187), occupations are ranked according to their level of spir- the Communist Revolution of 1949, China followed a
itual purity or pollution, a concept formally absent from Confucian value system in which scholars had the high-
occupational rankings in the United States. Americans do, est honor. Workers in manual trades, particularly farming,
however, make some connections between prestige—or lack had low status. After the revolution, these workers gained
of it—and the “dirt” involved in various occupations, though prestige, and during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976,
this is not always voiced aloud. Dirty jobs such as trash scholars were explicitly ridiculed and despised. And from
removal are generally not prestigious jobs (Figure 8.3). 1973 until the death of Mao Zedong, the leader of China’s
As socioeconomic conditions change, the value system Communist Revolution, a political campaign took place
that supports a system of ranking occupational prestige may attacking Confucius and Confucianism. Throughout both of
also change. In 18th-century Europe, surgery was performed these periods, merchants and businesspeople had low pres-
tige. However, in the past 40 years, China has become one
of the most economically powerful nations in the world. Its
FIGURE 8.3 Societies often rank jobs according total economy was second only to the United States in 2016.
to their level of perceived purity of pollution. The social prestige of business has risen accordingly, and
Dirty jobs are rarely high-prestige jobs. Here, Confucian temples have been reopened and restored.
28-year-old Manoj Kumar cleans a sewer in New Social scientists have long debated whether prestige
Delhi, India. He is one of thousands occupied in or economic factors are more important in explaining the
this task, one of the lowest prestige, dirtiest, and behavior of people in complex, stratified societies. Karl Marx
most dangerous in New Delhi society. argued for the primacy of economic or class interests, while
Max Weber, a German sociologist of the late 19th century,
argued for the importance of status rather than economic
Sagar Kaul/Barcroft Media/Getty Images
interests. Whereas Marx thought that people were (or should

be) most conscious of their class membership (their eco-
nomic status), Weber believed that people may value prestige
and the symbolic aspects of status even more than their eco-
nomic position. Weber further argued that political action
can be motivated by a group’s desire to defend its social posi-
tion as well as, or even in opposition to, its economic self-
interest, a position Marx called “false consciousness.” In the
American South, for example, poor whites did not join poor
blacks in working to improve their common economic posi-
tion because they were more committed to maintaining the
prestige based on race than on economic improvement that
might make all more equal.
Class and Caste in Social Stratification

Anthropologists and sociologists frequently use the words caste
and class to describe social stratification in state-level societies
and in some chiefdoms. Both classes and castes are hierarchi-
cally ranked social groups with differential access to wealth,
prestige, and power. In other words, members of a class or caste Both caste and class are “ideal types,” useful intellectual
share similar social and economic status. They may also share tools to help us think about social organization. But societies
other aspects of culture, such as similar education, the practice are rarely organized only by class or by caste. Many societ-
of similar rites and rituals, and similar belief systems. Viewed ies are organized by both. For example, in medieval Europe,
from this perspective, in states and chiefdoms, society is com- there were three “estates.” The first estate was the clergy,
posed of a series of ranked classes or castes. those who prayed; the second was the aristocracy, those who
The critical difference between classes and castes is that, fought; and the third was the peasantry, those who worked.
at least in theory, a class is a power, wealth, and prestige group The aristocracy and peasantry were castes: Membership was
based on achieved status whereas a caste is a power, wealth, by birth and was understood as being a permanent and, ulti-
and prestige group based on ascribed status. To say that a sta- mately, a biological aspect of being (aristocratic “blue bloods”
tus is ascribed means that it is based on those aspects of iden- really did believe their blood was different and purer than
tity that are understood by a society to be the result of biology that of other people). Both peasants and aristocrats were
and birth and viewed as permanent, unchanging aspects of endogamous. Membership in the clergy, on the other hand,
identity. This includes things such as race, ethnicity, biolog- was achieved. Both aristocrats and peasants could, under the
ical sex, and, in many cases, caste membership. To say that a right circumstances, become members of the clergy. And,
status is achieved means that it is based on those aspects of because the clergy was, at least in principle, celibate, no one
identity that society understands as changeable. These are could be born with this attribute.
often aspects of identity such as education, wealth, marital In reality, class and caste are probably never found in
status, and job title (Foladare, 1969). their pure form. There are no societies in which permanent,
In a caste system, social stratification is based on ascribed unchanging aspects of an individual’s identity such as family
status and, at least in theory, social mobility is impossible. Each of origin, gender, and race play no role in their social rank-
individual is a member of a hierarchically ranked caste. Caste ing. Similarly, there are unlikely to be any societies in which
membership is set by birth and understood as a permanent, at least some people do not struggle against membership in
unchangeable aspect of identity. People who are members of a groups determined by such characteristics.
caste are understood as physically embodying caste attributes. Elite classes and castes wield hegemonic ideology, backed
They are understood as being members of a caste because their by force of arms when necessary. Most of the time, this com-
being contains some fundamental, essential aspect of their bination serves to keep the caste and class structure stable.
caste. For this reason, anthropologists sometimes refer to caste However, there is probably no society in which all members
as an essential system. It is important to understand that this of subordinate classes or castes are happy with their positions.
does not mean it is a necessary system. Rather, it means that it People use all sorts of techniques—from “passing” to insurrec-
is a system in which people are understood as having essences tion—to change their class and caste positions. It’s good to keep
and this understanding is used to rank them. in mind that although most people, most of the time, live in
At least in theory, individuals in a caste system may peace and more or less willingly accept their position in society,
pursue wealth, different job opportunities, or education. rebellions and revolutions are common in state societies.
However, none of these can change caste identity or, hence,
social rank. In a caste system, marriage is generally endoga-
mous. People must marry members of their own caste, and Caste in India
their offspring are necessarily also members of that caste. We As we have learned, caste systems are based on ascribed sta-
will explore caste at greater length later and give examples tus, and movement of an individual from one caste to another
that will help to clarify these points. is, at least according to tradition, not possible. Caste systems
In a class system, an individual’s class membership is the- are widespread. For example, in many West African societ-
oretically determined by achievement. Although castes are ies, blacksmiths, praise singers, and leather workers func-
impermeable groups (you can get neither in nor out of them), tion as endogamous castes. In Japan, the Burakumin people,
classes are in principle permeable. You may, at least in the- who historically were set apart based on their participation
ory, be born into one class, live most of your life in another, in “unclean” occupations, represented a caste, although they
and die in a third. In a caste system, the caste of your birth were defined in racial terms. At least some elements of the
determines your access to wealth, power, and prestige. In a ascribed status associated with caste are probably present in
class system, the ways in which you use resources to acquire all stratified societies. Most frequently, however, caste is iden-
wealth, power, and prestige determine your class member- tified with India, where it is deeply and historically embedded
ship. Class members can be exogamous; they can marry in culture and plays a central role in social stratification.
members of other classes (and may move up or down in class Unique elements of the Indian caste system include its
status as a result). complexity, its relation to Hindu religious beliefs and rituals,
and the degree to which the castes (or, more accurately, sub- in a previous life. Strict social rules maintain caste boundar-
castes) are cohesive and self-regulating groups. The Hindu ies: Intercaste marriage and eating together is prohibited, and
caste system contains four main categories, called varna, a higher-caste person will not accept most kinds of food or
ranked according to their ritual purity, which is largely based drink from a lower-caste person. In Indian villages, the low-
on traditional occupations. The highest-ranked varna, the est castes are spatially and socially segregated and prohibited
Brahmins, are priests and scholars; next highest are the from using high-caste wells and temples.
Kshatriyas, members of the ruling and warrior caste; ranked In its rural setting, the Indian caste system historically
third are the Vaisyas, or merchants; and fourth are the Shudras, involved traditional exchanges of goods and services between
or menial workers and artisans. Below these four varnas is a higher and lower castes called the jajmani system. Families
fifth group of individuals, previously called “untouchables” of various artisan and serving castes (called kamins), such as
but now called Dalits, who perform “unclean” work such carpenters, potters, blacksmiths, water carriers, and leather-
as cleaning latrines or tanning leather. They are considered workers, performed their services for high-caste landowning
so ritually impure that their mere touch, or even the touch of families (called jajmans) and in return received food, grain,
their shadow, contaminates the purity of the higher castes. clothing, fodder for animals, butter, milk, small amounts
According to India’s 2011 census, there are more than 200 mil- of cash, and many other things. These relationships, which
lion Dalits in India, accounting for 16% of the total population sometimes continued over several generations, were viewed
(Sivakumar, 2013; Figure 8.4). by the higher castes as of social benefit to all: Landowners had
A person’s birth into any one of these caste categories is a steady supply of available workers while the serving castes
believed to be a reward or punishment for his or her actions gained a relatively reliable source of subsistence. The lower
castes, however, emphasized their exploitation in the system
rather than its mutual benefits. These resentments some-
FIGURE 8.4 India’s 200 million Dalits occupy times led to violence as, for example, when Dalits joined in
the lowest spot in the caste hierarchy. Here, a a communist rebellion against upper-caste landowners in
Dalit woman wears a “Cast out Caste” headband Bihar in northeastern India in the 1980s (Kunnath, 2009).
as she demonstrates near the Indian Parliament Indian castes are ranked based on prestige rather than
house for programs to improve economic wealth. Because a great many new occupations are available
conditions for Dalits. in modern India, it is sometimes possible for people with low
caste positions to become rich. For example, Rajesh Saraiya
is a Dalit who is now the CEO of a metal trading company
Indranil Mukherjee/Stringer
based in Germany, and Sushil Patil, another Dalit, is an oil

trader (Katiyar, 2016; Aiyar, 2011). However, the story of
Ovinda Pal is more typical. Despite having a master’s degree
in history from a major Indian university, Pal was unable to
find prestigious work and thus followed his father into work
as a skinner of dead animals, one of the lowest-prestige occu-
pations (Rai, 2016). Higher caste position most often trans-
lates into higher economic position. The higher castes use
their connections and their considerable political power to
gain access to and maintain material benefits and resist any
efforts by lower castes to change the system. They are aided
in this by the widely shared Hindu beliefs that social position
reflects an individual’s spiritual achievement over the course
of many lifetimes and that the best way to holiness is to follow
the social rules of one’s position. These beliefs promote the
idea that individuals deserve their social position and rein-
force the stability of society.
Although religious beliefs promote acceptance of the
social order, the conformity of the lower castes also hinges on
their awareness that economic sanctions and physical force
will be used against them if they try to resist or rise above the
system. And indeed, in both local and regional arenas, violent
conflict between castes has been frequent in rural India.
Changes in the Caste System Class in the United States

The caste system in India, like any system of social strat-
The nature of class in the United States is hotly debated.
ification, is not static. An important change occurred at
Some analysts insist that the United States is a society without
Indian independence when the new constitution outlawed
classes. Sociologist Paul Blumberg (1980) called the notion
“untouchability” and affirmative action programs were initi-
that the United States is a class-based society “America’s for-
ated for Dalits.
bidden thought.” Cultural historian Paul Fussell wrote that
In addition to government action, groups may try to
when he told people he was writing a book about class in
change their own caste status. Unlike a class system, change in
America, they reacted as if he had said he was working on a
the Indian caste system relies in some cases on group rather
book “urging the beating to death of baby whales using the
than individual mobility. A caste that has been economically
dead bodies of baby seals” (1992: 15).
successful in some new occupation may try to raise its prestige
U.S. ideology both praises social mobility, the ability of
by adopting the customs of a higher caste, claiming a new rank
people to move from one social strata to another, and defines
for itself. As part of its attempt to increase its ranking, a lower
the United States as a middle-class nation. The overwhelming
caste may also invent a new origin myth, claiming it originally
majority of Americans define themselves as middle class. In
belonged to a higher-ranked varna than it is presently assigned.
These dynamics are illustrated by the Camars of Agra, a a 2017 Gallup poll, only 8% of Americans identified them-
previously untouchable caste of leatherworkers and shoe- selves as lower class and only 2% as upper class. Even more
makers who became more prosperous due to global demand revealing, in a poll of people with family incomes of $100,000
for leather shoes. As their wealth increased, the Camars a year or more, 40% described themselves as upper or upper
began to claim they were actually Kshatriyas (the warrior middle class, but 51% said they were middle class and 8% said
caste), outlawed the eating of beef and buffalo among their they were lower middle class (Pew Research Center, 2015).
members, and adopted some high-caste rituals. This attempt However, a household earning $100,000 in 2016 was in the
to raise their caste status was rejected by the high castes, how- top one-third of American households ranked by income
ever, who maintained the traditional caste boundaries lim- and, as Table 8.1 shows, an income of $112,000 placed a
iting social interaction, including marriage. Subsequently, household in the top 20% of American households.
the Camars tried a different strategy—that of conversion to There is certainly some reality behind these perceptions.
Buddhism—which put them outside the Hindu caste system In 2016, the top 10% of American households had an annual
altogether (Lynch, 1969). income of $150,000 or above (data retrieved using the U.S.
India’s economic growth has meant that, in addition to Census Bureau fact finder). To be certain, $150,000 is good
caste, class is now a significant factor in the Indian system of money. However, very few people making only that much
social stratification (Luce, 2007). Caste is changing under the will feel wealthy. For example, the average monthly rental of
impact of globalization, which has resulted in increasing dif- a three-bedroom apartment in New York City’s Manhattan
ferentiation of wealth, prestige, and power within each caste. in 2017 was $5,500 (Zimmer, 2017). According to the real
New occupations such as factory work, government service, estate website Zillow, to afford that rent, you need an after-
information technology, and the professions have opened tax yearly income of almost $170,000, or at least $264,000
opportunities, especially for the middle- and lower-level before taxes.
castes. Still, a connection between caste status and economic When Americans think about the rich, they tend to
success continues as the higher castes have primarily bene- imagine palatial mansions, servants, private jets, and so forth
fited from new economic opportunities because of their pre- (Figure 8.5). All of these are well beyond the means of peo-
vious accumulation of capital, their higher education, their ple making $150,000. Living the Hollywood image of wealth
business and social contacts, and their ability to speak English probably requires a personal fortune well in excess of $10 mil-
(Beteille, 1998). At the same time, the negative impact of glo- lion, and very few Americans have that much money. Indeed,
balization has tended to fall heavily on people in lower castes. in 2016, half of U. S. households had a yearly income of only
Many occupations with which they have been associated, such $55,322 or less, and about 43.1 million Americans were liv-
as potter and metalworker, have been replaced by imported ing in poverty (with poverty defined as $24,563 or less for a
mass-produced products. Globalization has also particularly family of four). However, even these people are likely to have
affected cotton farmers. Because of their poverty, they have many of the trappings of the middle class: Almost 100% of
often been unable to afford the new seeds that would enable poor households own a refrigerator and a television, and
them to grow cotton salable on the global market. Crises of almost 80% have some type of air conditioning (Thompson,
personal debt and hopelessness have led as many as a quarter 2011). This does not, of course, change the fact that these
of a million Indian farmers to commit suicide in the past two individuals are poor, but it probably does help them think of
decades (International Dalit Solidarity Network, 2011). themselves as middle class.
households take home 23% of the national paycheck, while

FIGURE 8.5 In the United States in 2016, the the poorest 40% take home less than 12%.
wealthiest 10% of households had a yearly However, this chart substantially understates the
income greater than $150,000. However, the [SA] degree of wealth inequality in the United States. This is
symbols of the opulent lifestyles that Americans because real wealth is not equal to income alone but rather
associate with wealth (such as this Miami Beach is income plus assets, and the distribution of assets in the
mansion) require incomes well above that level. United States greatly favors the nation’s wealthiest fam-
ilies. Income information is collected by the government
and is therefore very reliable. However, wealth includes
Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG/Getty Images
assets such as the ownership of stock, land, and physical

objects such as artwork and jewelry, and there is no sys-
tematic accounting of such things in the United States.
Therefore, statistics about the distribution of wealth
including assets is more speculative. Economist Edward
N. Wolff has been tracking wealth trends in the United
States over the past two decades. Table 8.2 shows Wolff ’s
(2017) analysis of the distribution of wealth (as opposed to
income) in the United States in 2016.
These tables show the high degree of wealth inequality
in the United States. The wealthiest 20% of U.S. households
control the overwhelming majority of wealth in the coun-
Income Inequality in the United States try. However, even within this group, there is great inequity.
The common notion that almost everyone in the United The top 5% of households control far more wealth than the
States is middle class tends to camouflage the relatively high rest of the nation combined. On the other side of the wealth
levels of income inequality. One conventional way of analyz- spectrum, we see that official statistics probably understate
ing income is to divide the population into quintiles and ask the amount of poverty in the United States. Officially, 12.7%
what income levels and percentages of income are held by of Americans were living in poverty in 2016 (Semega et al.,
different fifths of the population. Table 8.1 presents this infor- 2017). However, the tables show us that 20% of households
mation for the United States in 2016. had an income of less than $22,558. Because the poverty
The chart shows the degree of household income threshold for a single-person household was $12,060 in 2017,
inequality in the United States as reported by the U.S. Census many of these households are not officially poor, but you
Bureau. Several indicators stand out. The average income are not doing very well at this income level, no matter how
of the first four quintiles combined (80% of the population) few people are in your family. Further, according to Wolff
is less than the average yearly income of the top 20% of the (2017: 5), 21.2% of American households had a zero or nega-
population. The share of the national income (aggregate tive net worth in 2016. A negative net worth means a house-
household income) made by the first through fourth quin- hold owes more money than the total of its assets. There is no
tiles is, at 48.62%, substantially less than the share of income money available for emergencies and financial shocks such as
made by the wealthiest 20%. The wealthiest 5% of the nation’s medical expenses, car repairs, or the loss of a job. Thus, even
TABLE 8.1!Household Income by Quintiles
AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SHARE OF AGGREGATE

INCOME UPPER LIMITS OF QUINTILE HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Lowest Quintile $12,243 $22,558 3.15
Second Quintile $32,709 $43,263 8.4
Third Quintile $55,754 $69,767 14.32
Fourth Quintile $88,586 $111,894 22.75
Highest Quintile $200,035 Unlimited 51.38
Top 5% $358,316 $209,414 (lower limit of top 5%) 23.01
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables: Households.

of Oracle software and the seventh-wealthiest person in the

TABLE 8.2!Distribution of Wealth in the United United States in 2018) came from an economically marginal
States, 2016 background. Further, there’s no doubt that the United States
(and many other wealthy nations) attract people from all over
PERCENTAGE SHARE OF the world hoping for better, wealthier lives. However, what
WEALTH HELD BY . . . do the statistics actually say about the odds of social mobility
Top 1% 39.6 in the United States?
Next 4% 27.1 The evidence is mixed. A 2017 report from the Federal
Next 5% 12.1 Reserve Bank of Chicago found that intergenerational mobil-
Next 10% 11.1 ity was high for people born between 1942 and 1953 but
Highest Quintile 89.9 declined after that. It was substantially lower for people who
Combined entered the job market after 1980 (Davis & Mazumder, 2017).
Fourth Quintile 8.2 Today, children raised in poor households have very different
Third Quintile 2.4 economic prospects than those raised in wealthy households.
Lowest Two Quintiles −0.5
About half of the income advantage of parents is passed on to
Combined their children. The result of this is that the expected income of
men born in the bottom 10% of the population is one-third
Source: Wolff, 2017.
the expected income of men born in the top 10% of the popu-
lation (Mitnik & Grusky, 2015).
Intergenerational mobility is complicated both by loca-
if such households have steady incomes and consider them- tion and by race. A 2014 study by Chetty et al. determined
selves middle class, it is very easy for them to fall into poverty. that social mobility is much greater in some areas of the
Together, the tables show that the United States is probably best United States than in others. Economic mobility is lowest in
characterized as a middle-class and poor nation with a small the states of the Southeast, including Mississippi, Alabama,
and extraordinarily wealthy upper class. Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. It is
highest in Midwest states such as Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota,
Class Mobility in the United States and the Dakotas. The West Coast and the Northeast states fall
Gloria Castillo, 22, a child of undocumented immigrants, was between these two.
married, had two children, and lived in a tough neighbor- Recent studies also point to racial disparities in mobil-
hood in Dallas, Texas. She worked the night shift at the drive- ity. The children of black and white families that have the
thru window at a highway Burger King from 10:30 p.m. to same level of wealth experience different outcomes. The
6:30 a.m. for $252 a week before taxes and received no health daughters of black and white families at the same income
care benefits. To help make ends meet, she worked a second level have similar earnings, with black women earning
job, earning $150 a night for the 1.5 hours it took her to clean slightly more than white women. However, the story is dif-
three bathrooms in a local bar. Her husband worked at an ferent for sons. The sons of white families have far higher
auto parts place during the day, so Gloria took the children, incomes than the sons of black families at the same income
ages seven and eight, for a fast food breakfast before dropping level. In other words, if we consider two families, one black
them at school. Then she returned home, slept until 2 p.m., and one white, that are both wealthy and have the same
picked up the kids, prepared their frozen food dinners, put income, the daughters of both families are likely to earn
them to bed at 7 p.m., spent a few hours with her husband, approximately the same income, but the sons of the white
and left for work. On Saturdays, she attended a commu- family will earn much more than the sons of the black fam-
nity college, working toward a degree as a paralegal. “I got ily (Chetty et al., 2018).
dreams,” she said (LeDuff, 2006: A12). American culture tends to portray the United
The notion that people can improve their economic posi- States as offering more upward income mobility than
tion and gain access to both wealth and prestige regardless of other nations, but statistical studies do not support this
their origin is another core American cultural understand- assertion. A study of social mobility between generations
ing. Almost all American children are told that anyone can in different nations shows that the United States compares
become president, and belief in the United States as a land of poorly with many other wealthy nations. In the United
economic and cultural opportunity is deeply embedded in States, parents pass on 50% to 60% of their earnings
our culture. Of course, there is no question that some people position to their offspring. This makes the United
do succeed in moving from poverty to great wealth. Oprah States similar to countries such as the United Kingdom,
Winfrey was born in poverty, and Larry Ellison (the founder Argentina, Italy, and Switzerland but different from
Denmark, Canada, South Korea, and Australia, where In times of financial crisis, downward mobility becomes
parents pass on only 20% of their earnings position. Thus, highly visible. In the recession of 2007–2009, many types
there is far more intergenerational wealth change in these of workers—factory employees, retail clerks, truck driv-
latter countries (both increasing and decreasing wealth) ers, store managers, computer technicians, middle man-
than in the United States (Corak, 2016; Figure 8.6). agers, engineers, architects, CEOs, and others—lost their
Although much of American cultural ideology focuses place in what was once a secure middle or upper-middle
on hopes of upward mobility, downward mobility plays a class (Greenhouse, 2008). Instead of reading stories like
strong role in our culture as well. About a third of Americans those about Gloria Castillo, we read about people like Mark
who are born in families between the 30th and 70th income Cooper, who lost his $70,000-a-year job as a security man-
percentiles will be downwardly mobile. Education, marital ager for a Fortune 500 company and is now working as a jan-
status, and drug use have particularly strong influences in itor for $12 an hour (and feels lucky to have that job) (Luo,
determining who is downwardly mobile (Acs, 2011: 1). In 2009). During the Great Recession, 41% of job losses were
times of economic prosperity, downward mobility tends to in high-wage jobs. By 2017, the unemployment rate had
be invisible. People in the United States celebrate wealth with returned to its level before the recession. However, high-wage
purchases of cars, houses, and other visible trappings of con- jobs were very slow to recover. Most of the job growth was in
spicuous consumption. They tend to hide economic failure lower-wage jobs (Alter, 2014; DePillis, 2017). This resulted
for as long as they can. Katherine Newman (1999), an astute in widespread downward mobility. This downward mobility
observer of downward mobility, has emphasized that job loss has been linked to the rise of populist and nationalist politics
entails not only economic decline but also a decline in pres- both in the United States and in Europe, although for right-
tige: Individuals who lose their jobs lose their place in society wing populism, cultural backlash also plays an important role
and, with it, their sense of honor and self-esteem. (Inglehart & Norris, 2016).
FIGURE 8.6 This figure shows Peru

select countries ranked by the South Africa
strength of the relationship China
between father and son earnings.
Brazil
The position on the chart reflects
Chile
the degree to which the earnings of
fathers predict the earnings of their Italy
sons. Positions farthest to the left United Kingdom
(Denmark and Norway) have the Argentina
greatest intergenerational mobility. United States
Those farthest to the right (Peru Switzerland
and South Africa) have the least.
Pakistan
Singapore
France
Spain
Germany
Japan
New Zealand
Sweden
Australia
South Korea
Canada
Finland
Norway
Denmark
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
American Classes as Subcultures and now dominate the Malaysian economy. Because they
In addition to material differences, social classes also differ in have taken over the economic position that the Portuguese
attitudes, behavior, consumption patterns, values, and social formerly occupied, Nanda’s friend sees the Chinese as taking
connections. The members of a social class tend to share sim- over their racial category as well.
ilar life experiences, occupational roles, and other aspects The conversation in Malaysia illustrates the social,
of culture. Class status isn’t just income; how that income political, and economic nature of race. As we saw in Chapter
is spent counts, too. Members of social classes spend their 1 (pp. 11–12), race is not a meaningful biological cate-
money in ways that confirm their class membership. This is, gory, and there is no scientifically accepted way to organize
of course, particularly true of those with large amounts of dis- humans into races. However, although it is not a biological
posable income. reality, race is very much a social reality. It is used to justify
In the United States, residence is a critical aspect of class differential treatment and discrimination, and it affects the
identification. The wealthy can buy homes in residential lives of everyone living in societies where it is a major factor.
areas restricted to those with a great deal of money. This Often, current-day Americans think about race in terms
translates into a high base for property tax and other local of physical differences. However, other differences, such as
taxes that support the community. This, in turn, results in class, ethnicity, and caste, are often conceptualized in racial
high-quality schools, police departments that are effective in terms. For example, the 19th-century English theologian
creating a secure community, the presence of parks and other Charles Kingsley described the Irish in racial terms, calling
green spaces, and effective zoning that restricts polluting them “human chimpanzees . . . a race of utter savages, truly
industry, all of which lead to high levels of environmental barbarous and brutish”; however, he also noted unhappily
quality. that “[their] skins are as white as ours” (in Curtis, 1968: 84).
Members of a social class also tend to associate more The idea that the Irish were racially inferior to the English
with one another than with people in other classes. Thus, the was a key justification for British control of Ireland. When
cultural and interactional dimensions of social class rein- many Irish migrated to the United States in the 19th cen-
force one another. Through interaction based on common tury, the idea that they were members of an alien and infe-
residence and schooling, religious participation, voluntary rior race became common in this country as well (Shanklin,
associations, and other social institutions, people learn the 1994: 3–7). The explicitly racist anti-Irish and anti-German
lifestyle of their social class. Because lifestyle is an important “Know-Nothing” Party won numerous elections in the
part of sociability, informal and intimate social relationships United States in the 1850s.
such as friendship and marriage also tend to bring together Similarly, in Japan, the concept of race is applied to the
people from the same social class. This partly explains why Burakumin, a stigmatized and oppressed group that many
social classes tend to be largely endogamous. Japanese perceive as innately, physically, and morally dis-
tinct from other Japanese (Figure 8.7). There are no physi-
cally visible differences between the Burakumin and other
Stratification and Race Japanese. The Burakumin are thus an “invisible race,” dis-
tinguished by differences in family name, occupation, and
While traveling in Malaysia, Nanda asked a friend to explain
this exceptionally diverse society. The friend began by say-
ing, “The Indians are the black people,” referring to the dark
FIGURE 8.7 Burakumin demonstrate against
skin color of Indians in Malaysia who are mainly from South
the government in Tokyo in 2016.
India. Joking with him, Nanda asked, “If the Indians are the
black people, who are the white people?” “Oh,” the friend
Alessandro Di Ciommo/NurPhoto/Getty Images
replied, without missing a beat, “the Portuguese used to be

the white people but now the Chinese are the white people.”
To make sense of the conversation between Nanda
and her friend, we need to understand Malaysia’s history.
Malaysia has three primary ethnic groups—Chinese, Indian,
and Malay—as well as a small group descended from the
Portuguese who came to the region in the 16th century and
controlled much of the economy for many years. Portuguese
control was followed by Dutch and then British control, but
few Dutch or British nationals settled permanently in the
area. When the British left after World War II, the Chinese
moved into many commercial and professional positions
place of residence. Despite their official emancipation in black nor white. Social order in the United States thus histor-
1871 and the fact that they have no cultural differences from ically consisted of clearly distinguished races. Although the
other Japanese, the stigma against the Burakumin lives on legal status of these races varied from state to state, races in
(De Vos & Wagatsuma, 1966; Onishi, 2009). general lived in separate places, were subject to separate laws
These examples emphasize that race is a cultural con- or differential law enforcement, and were understood as fun-
struction rather than a system of biological classification. damentally different kinds of people. In other words, as John
The confusion occurs because racial classification is a Dollard (1937) pointed out, most of a century ago race in the
metaphor of biology. When people classify by race, they United States was historically a form of caste.
understand personal characteristics such as character, Racial laws in the United States focused on ideas about
morality, and intelligence to be linked with group white purity and assured white social and economic superi-
characteristics such as ethnicity, caste, or class. They ority (Figure 8.8). Although the exact percentage of African
then imagine that all of these have their foundation in ancestry required to be considered black varied from place
biological characteristics that may be visible (such as skin to place and time to time, the overarching idea was the “one
color) or invisible (such as heredity or essence). There is, drop rule”—the notion that any African ancestry at all made
of course, no scientific validity to such thinking. However, one black (Dominguez, 1986; Loewen, 1988). In an ironic
this thinking has profound influences on social organiza- comment on the construction of race in the United States,
tion and on the lives of those who live in societies where it Haitian dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1907–1971)
is dominant. once told a U.S. reporter that 96% of Haitians were white.
Surprised and puzzled, the reporter asked on what grounds
he arrived at this percentage. Duvalier explained that Haiti
Race in the United States and Brazil used the same procedure for counting whites that Americans
Racial stratification occurs in societies with different cul- used for counting blacks: A drop of white blood made one
turally constructed views of race. In Brazil, race is viewed white (Hirschfeld, 1996).
as a continuum. In the United States, race is defined
largely as a binary opposition between black and
white. FIGURE 8.8 In the past, laws in many places in
the United States separated races and guaranteed
Race and Caste in the United States white social and economic superiority. The Leland,
Although numerous groups have long histories in Mississippi, theater in this 1937 picture by Dorothea
the United States, the cultural understanding of race Lange is a good example of legally enforced race
in our society has been most deeply affected by dis- separation.
tinctions between black and white. This division is
Dorothea Lange/Archive Photos/Getty Images

culturally constructed largely on the basis of a few
observable traits, such as skin color, hair texture, and
presumed ancestry. This dichotomy ignores biolog-
ical reality. Traits like skin color and hair texture do
not classify into two categories. They are continu-
ous. All possible shades of color and textures of hair
are present. Mixing among human populations has
always occurred and has been particularly common
in the past 500 years. And there is no biological reason
to believe a trait such as skin color is more important
than any other trait, such as blood type, fingerprint
shape, or variation among internal organs. However,
none of these latter traits correlates with racial
classification.
The binary form of racial classification in the
United States grew out of historical conditions of
slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, and legal seg-
regation. For these systems to work, people had to be
assigned to unambiguous groups. There was no pro-
vision in the laws for people who were neither clearly
Ideas about race purity and hierarchy based on the rela- perceptions of race relations grew steadily worse between
tionships between blacks and whites expanded to include 2014 and 2018. According to an Economist/YouGov.com
other groups, particularly Hispanics in the Southwest and poll, in 2014 solid majorities of both white and black people
Asians in California and in the railroad and mining camps characterized race relations as good, but in early 2018, 63% of
of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In each case, people white people and 77% of black people characterized race rela-
were divided into mutually exclusive groups based on their tions as bad. Forty-five percent of white people and almost
birth. These groups were understood as hierarchically ranked three-quarters of black people said they thought that race
and possessing specific characteristics. In other words, the relations had grown worse under President Donald Trump
caste system of black/white relations was replicated with (Frankovic, 2018).
other groups. There is much academic debate over whether social class
No reputable biologist or social scientist today supports or race is more important in explaining the U.S. stratification
the idea that there are such things as biologically pure races system. However, it is very clear that when people are
and that races can be ranked as inferior or superior. However, understood as self-identified racial groups, there are strong
in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the racial stereotypes that differences in economic position and in life chances, or the
were used to justify slavery and, later, segregation were sup- opportunities people have to fulfil their potential in society,
ported by the then-emerging biological and social sciences, among the different groups. For example, infant mortality
which legitimized races as hierarchically arranged natural is twice as high among blacks as among whites (Centers for
categories characterized by physical, cultural, intellectual, Disease Control and Prevention, 2017.), and life expectancy
and moral differences (Smedley, 1998). However, follow- at birth in 2015 was about four years longer for white males
ing the work of Franz Boas, most (though not all) anthro- than for black males (U.S. Department of Health and Human
pologists took strong stands against the scientific validity of Services, 2017). Almost 70% of poor people in the United
race. In 1942, more than 75 years ago, Boas’s student, Ashley States are white. However, about 22% of the black population
Montague, published Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy and 19% of the Hispanic population lives in poverty, while
of Race, an attack on the idea of race, much of which is still only about 8.8% of the white population does (Semega, 2017).
valid today. Racial disparities are also revealed in access to health
In the United States, we think of race mainly in terms of care and health care outcomes. Death rates from cancer,
African, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, or Native American—that heart disease, and HIV/AIDS, as well as complications
is, in terms of minority races. But white is also a racial iden- from diseases like diabetes, such as loss of a limb or kidney
tity. Because being white is a cultural norm in the United disease, are all substantially higher for African Americans
States, however, the privileges and advantages that go with it than for whites. The causes of these and many other health
are unconsciously assumed and largely invisible (DiAngelo, disparities are clearly linked to unequal treatment and
2011; McIntosh, 1989). For most white people, ordinary expe- unequal access to health care, which themselves are linked
riences such as shopping, buying or renting a place to live, significantly to possession of medical insurance. Even with
finding a hairdresser, or using a credit card do not generally very substantial gains in access to health insurance as a
involve a reflection on their racial identity. But for Hispanic/ result of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, differences
Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and, persist. A 2017 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation
particularly, African Americans, these everyday activities found that nonelderly Hispanics had an uninsured rate of
cannot be taken for granted (McIntosh, 1989). 17%; nonelderly blacks, 12%; and nonelderly whites, 8%
Although it is clear that the historical system of racial (Artiga et al., 2018).
identity in the United States was based around notions of Race and racism are highly correlated with industrial pollu-
caste hierarchy, there is intense debate around the role of tion, as we will see in this chapter’s “Ethnography” section. Race
race in the United States today. For more than a half century, and class can also interact with environmental disasters. For
legal, economic, and social policies in the United States have example, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005,
been designed to weaken and ultimately destroy the race/ death came most often for the poor—those who had no private
caste system. Few doubt that some progress has been made transportation, no credit cards, no wealthy relatives to rely on,
toward this goal. In a 2011 poll, 90% of respondents, both no home insurance, and no resources to evacuate the young
black and white, said that civil rights for African Americans and the aged. In New Orleans, this population was strongly
have improved in their lifetimes. However, people differed linked to race. Patrick Sharkey wrote that the footprint of race
starkly about how much progress has been made. The same in the pattern of Katrina deaths is unmistakable: “African
poll found that almost 60% of blacks thought discrimination Americans were disproportionately represented among both
was a problem in finding a job, whereas most whites believed elderly and nonelderly victims” and among those still missing
that it was not (Page & Mallenbaum, 2011). Most troubling, (2007: 497). As anthropologist Neil Smith (2006) noted, not
just the effect of the hurricane but the government’s response government followed a policy of “whitening” by encouraging
to it deepened the social grooves of class and race already built immigration of Europeans. However, unlike in the United
into New Orleans society. A similar pattern occurred when States, after the era of slavery, racial distinctions were not
Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August 2017. Although encoded into law in Brazil. Further, for both historical and
Houston fared far better than New Orleans, poor communities cultural reasons, marriage between members of different
and communities of color were hit much harder than wealthy groups were not prohibited, and mixing among many differ-
white communities (May, 2017). ent ethnicities was common (Goldstein, 1999; Sheriff, 2001).
Education is among the social institutions that reflect the This is reflected in Brazilian racial self-identity. Today, indi-
stratified nature of class, race, ethnicity, and indigenous status viduals of African descent account for about 53% of Brazil’s
in the United States. Anthropologists differ in explaining the population—the largest black population outside of Africa
variation in educational achievements among different U.S. (Barbara, 2015). Yet only about 15% of these people identify
minority groups. John Ogbu argued for the importance of themselves as preta (black) on the census forms. The rest
culture. He believed that “voluntary minorities,” or those who self-identify as parda (brown, of partially African ancestry).
came to the United States voluntarily to better their lives, were This self-identification is tied to social stratification: Brazilian
higher educational achievers than involuntary minorities. understandings of race may be flexible, but the distribution
To Ogbu, “involuntary minorities” included those who were of wealth and education in Brazil is profoundly unequal and
brought to the United States by capture, such as African slaves, correlates strongly with color: whites at the top, blacks at the
and people who lived on land incorporated into the United bottom, and parda somewhere between the two.
States through warfare or treaty, such as Native Americans Brazilian racial classification is extremely complex,
and some Hispanics. Ogbu (1991a, 1991b) wrote that mem- particularly among those who self-identify as of African
bers of voluntary minorities are likely to believe in the possi- descent. In one community studied by anthropologist
bilities for social mobility and thus emphasize education as a Conrad Kottak (1992: 67), almost everyone had slave ances-
route to getting ahead, whereas involuntary minorities view try, and most would have been considered black in the
the social hierarchy of the United States as unfair, perma- United States. However, almost half identified themselves
nent, and systemically discriminatory. They are less likely to as mulatto, an intermediate category between black and
believe that educational achievement will lead to success in white. In contrast to the United States, where full siblings
life (Gibson & Ogbu, 1991: 211–218). These views are based are always considered to be of the same race, brothers and
in historical realities: For most of U.S. history, economic sisters in this village were often classified as belonging to
advancement through education was not a real possibility for different races (Figure 8.9). The village people based their
most minority peoples. However, rejecting education today assessment of race on multiple physical criteria, such as
certainly hurts members of minority communities. skin color, nose length and shape, eye color and shape, hair
Ogbu’s ideas are provocative, but racism, economy, and type and color, and shape of the lips. They used more than
social structure also clearly play a role in educational achieve- 10 different racial categories including mulatto, mulatto
ment. The schools that many minority students attend are claro (light mulatto), or sarara, meaning a person with
often plagued with overcrowding, lack of funding, low expec- reddish skin and light curly hair. The terms were applied
tations, and poorly paid teachers with fewer qualifications
than teachers in wealthier neighborhoods. A significant
amount of social science research has found that most inner- FIGURE 8.9 Members of the Rocha de Lucean
city residents support mainstream cultural norms and behav- and Mattos Corra families in Brazil are closely
iors, especially educational achievement (Bodovski, 2010; related but identify as members of different races.
Small et al., 2010).
Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Where Ogbu’s cultural model puts the burden on invol-

untary minority families to change their culture, a model
based on poverty and social structure points out that greater
educational achievement among minorities depends on a
fairer distribution of resources, more equitable educational
policies, and the transformation of schools into safer, more
disciplined environments.
Racial Stratification in Brazil

As in the southern United States, Brazil had a plantation
economy whose core labor force consisted of African slaves.
After 1888, when Brazil abolished slavery, the Brazilian

T H E R AC E PR OJ E C T
FIGURE 8.10 The American As former project director Mary Margaret Overbey
Anthropological Association’s RACE: noted, “We like to think that America has moved
beyond race, but race remains a powerful, if unspoken,
Are We So Different? project is a web
idea in the United States” (2007: 15). Through videos,
presentation and traveling exhibition that oral histories, visuals, and provocative interactive
challenges American ideas about race. computer exercises, the RACE exhibit demonstrates
that race is embedded in almost all areas of U.S. life:
home and neighborhood, health and medicine, and
Boston Globe/ Contributor/Getty Images
education and schools. Race and racism are not just

inside our heads but are built into U.S. laws, culture,
and social institutions.
The RACE project takes a historical perspective,

underlining the fact that racial and ethnic categories
are made by humans and change over time. The exhibit
draws on contemporary science to demonstrate that
human beings are more genetically alike than they are
different and that no one gene or set of genes supports
the idea of race. Sorting people by physical differences
is a recent invention, not more than a few hundred
years old. In the United States, it is closely linked to the
growth of the plantation economy. In other countries,
it is also often linked to specific political and economic
histories.
“Racism is not about how you look, it is about how Research for the RACE project seeks to discover how
people assign meaning to how you look” (PBS, 2003). people think and talk about race through interviews
This idea, from the historian Robin D. G. Kelley, with high school students, community groups,
underlies the RACE: Are We So Different? project, an museum visitors, and focus groups. The project
exhibit developed by the American Anthropological also involves collaboration with many scientific
Association (AAA). The project is aimed at educating institutions and scholars from different disciplines.
the public about the reality—and the unreality—of race. The interactive website includes a virtual tour of the
It began in the mid-1990s and continues today under RACE exhibit, videos, historical timelines, quizzes,
the directorship of two former presidents of the AAA, scholarly papers and a bibliography, and a family
biological anthropologist Alan Goodman and cultural guide that helps parents talk to children about race.
anthropologist Yolanda Moses, who is also a former With its four-field holistic approach, anthropology
president of the City College of New York. RACE is was a natural to tackle the long-standing issue of race
both a website (www.understandingrace.org) and a in American life. In addition to the RACE project,
physical traveling museum exhibition (Figure 8.10). anthropologists have been involved in several other
In 2017 and 2018, it made stops at the North Carolina recent examinations of race as well. These include the
Natural Science Museum, the San Diego Museum of PBS project Race—The Power of an Illusion (www
Man, and the Science Museum of Minnesota. A book, .pbs.org/race) and the April 2018 issue of National
How Real Is Race? (Mukhopadhyay, 2014), is also Geographic, in which the magazine not only explored
associated with the exhibit. race but also confronted its own racist legacy.
The three main messages of the project are (1) race Check out both the RACE project website and
is a recent human invention, (2) race is about culture, the Power of an Illusion website. In particular
not biology, and (3) race and racism continue to be make sure you take the quizzes available on both
embedded in U.S. culture, social institutions, and (under “Human Variation” on the RACE site and
everyday life. The project uses the lenses of history, under “Sorting People” on the PBS site). You’ll
science, and lived experience to explore the everyday learn interesting things about race and about your
reality of race, the contemporary science that is own understandings. We know you’ll agree that
challenging commonly held ideas about race, and the anthropology makes an important contribution in
chronicle of the idea of race in the United States. addressing this issue.
inconsistently, and the villagers disagreed about which cate- student of Franz Boas at Columbia, adopted many of Boas’s
gories individuals should be placed in. Placements were fre- understandings of race and racial equality (Sánchez-Eppler,
quently mediated by social and economic class standings. 1992). His influence gave race mixing in Brazil a positive
Wealthier and higher-status people tended to be placed in connotation.
“whiter” categories regardless of their appearance. Freire’s work was used to promote the notion among pol-
Although Brazilian culture has in the past emphasized iticians, academics, and the culture at large that Brazil was a
its Euro-Brazilian history, Brazil, like many nations racial democracy. The 1970 census, for example, did not ask
throughout Latin America today, promotes its mixed people’s race; the government argued that there was no need
racial/ethnic heritage as a central aspect of its national to ask the question because there was no race issue in Brazil
identity and ideology. In the 1940s, the influential Brazilian (Bailey & Telles, 2006: 77). The public denial of race in Brazil
anthropologist and politician Gilberto Freyre promoted has had some positive effects. The linkage between Brazilian
the idea that Brazilian national identity resulted from identity and mixed ancestry has probably made it easier for
mixing people of European, African, and indigenous many Brazilians to negotiate their racial identity. It has also
ancestry (Bailey & Telles, 2006; Freyre, 1946). Freyre, a led to a society where, at least in theory, opportunity is open
Ethnography
R AC E , H E A LT H , A N D T H E E N V I R O N M E N T I N H Y D E PA R K , G E O R G I A
FIGURE 8.11 Contaminated drainage ditch Agency’s southeast region, three-quarters of the
and houses in Hyde Park, Georgia, in 1998. largest hazardous waste landfills sit in majority
black areas. When it comes to the environment, race
trumps class. Checker (2005: 14) found that middle-
Photo taken by Dr. Robert Bullard
class Hispanics and African Americans suffered

greater exposure to lead, dioxin, and mercury
poisoning than lower-class whites.
The residents of Hyde Park, the community

Checker studied, were mainly sharecroppers from
rural Georgia who after World War II used their
savings to buy plots of land in a swampy area
on the outskirts of Augusta. Beginning around
1970, Hyde Park residents began noticing the
environmental and health problems besetting the
community, including T-cell lymphoma, children
fainting in school, children with asthma, and fruit
trees and vegetables rotting in previously healthy
The relationship between pollution, health, race, gardens. The citizens’ growing awareness that local
and class in the United States is well documented. people were getting sick and dying at an alarming
Middle-class and upper-middle-class professionally rate paralleled the growth of industrial plants
oriented people often think of environmentalism in the area. A power plant, a ceramics factory, a
in terms of protecting wild spaces from human junkyard, a wood treatment plant, and more than 35
intervention. Popular environmental organizations chemical plants were all built near middle- and low-
such as The Sierra Club and The Nature income black subdivisions, including Hyde Park.
Conservancy are based on this idea. However, in These facilities operated with low environmental
many poor communities, particularly communities standards and ineffective enforcement of
of color, environment is something poisonous from environmental laws. According to Checker, “This
which people need to be protected. positioned Hyde Park residents [and the residents
of other African American communities] on the
Melissa Checker’s 2005 ethnography of a suburban front line of toxic hazards. . .. [The] ceramic factory
Augusta, Georgia, community deeply affected by left white dust on cars; its smokestack penetrated
both racism and pollution showed that race is a the skyline, pyramids of tires from the junkyards
potent predictor of where hazardous waste facilities were higher than the houses” (2005: 64). When
are located. Environmental pollution is 500% higher it rained, open drainage ditches filled with foul
in African-American communities than in white smelling water (Figure 8.11). The nearby chemical
communities, and in the Environmental Protection plants polluted the air, the water, and the soil.
As Hyde Park became identified with decline and

destruction, many residents ceased investing in their
homes, and the neighborhood became run-down.
0 100 mi
Georgia These individuals had come to Hyde Park to escape
0 100 km from the poverty of sharecropping and to search for a
better life only to find themselves trapped in a cycle
of poverty.
Te nnessee Checker called the environmentalist movement

that grew out of Hyde Park’s attempts to deal with
contamination an environmental justice movement.
It aimed to redress the disproportionate incidence of
South environmental contamination in poor communities
Atlanta Ca roli na and communities of color and to enable those
residents to live unthreatened by the risks that
Hyde Park, environmental degradation and contamination pose.
Augusta Checker demonstrated that mainstream U.S. culture,
Alabama
Georgia which views black urban communities as isolated,
apathetic enclaves of violence and crime, engenders
public policies that dismiss the voices of these
ATLANTIC community members and leads to the proliferation
OCEAN of toxic waste sites in their midst. Her ethnography
documented not only the racism of environmental
injustice but also the ways in which the
environmental movement in Hyde Park was shaped
Florid a
by the past history of racism and its continuation
Gulf of M exico into the present. In her ethnographic study of one
small community, Checker illustrated the many
issues at stake in the fight for environmental justice.
By 1990, community members noticed residents
were falling ill with mysterious or uncommon Ultimately, the movement achieved some successes,
forms of cancer and skin diseases. One possible both by joining with mainstream environmentalists
culprit was discovered: a nearby wood-preserving and by continuing its own culturally unique
factory. The factory had been sued by a nearby processes of political and civil rights activism.
white community, but the black community was Cleanup efforts began in 1999, but by 2006 it was
not informed about the findings of contamination. evident that all of Hyde Park’s residents would
They were not party to the lawsuit and so were have to be relocated and their houses demolished.
not eligible for compensation. They decided to It took another six years for relocations to begin
investigate on their own and found many other and a further five years for them to be completed.
sources of pollution. However, as of spring 2018, there are still abandoned
houses and the neighborhood has become an illegal
In 1991, the University of Georgia analyzed produce dumping ground for trash of all kinds. The city
and soil from Hyde Park gardens and found intends to turn the neighborhood into a 40-acre
elevated levels of arsenic and chromium; there storm water retention pond, but it is not clear when
were also well-founded fears that the groundwater that will happen (Eskola, 2018, 2017; Edison, 2014).
serving Hyde Park was contaminated. In the
absence of gas lines, which were not installed until Critical Thinking Questions
1970, community residents cooked on leftover
1. How does racism impact the health and life
creosote-treated wood chips from the wood factory,
chances of African Americans?
not knowing at that time that creosote was a
cancer-causing agent. The noise pollution in the 2. How does the intersection of race and class
community was also an unbearable source of stress: impact environmental pollution?
Release sirens from the ceramics plant sometimes
blared for eight hours straight. As information about 3. What are some of the formal and informal factors
the poisoned land in Hyde Park spread, it became that have become built into the racial stratifica-
impossible for residents to sell their property. The tion system in the United States?
Hyde Park inhabitants were caught in a deadly bind:
Too poor to move, they were tied to an environment Source: Melissa Checker, Polluted Promises: Environmental
dangerous to their health. Their poverty made Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town. New
health care unavailable for many. York: New York University Press, 2005.
to people of diverse physical characteristics and ancestry. been systematically denied political and economic rights.
However, most of its effects are surely negative. The per- For example, in many European countries, Gypsies and
sistent denial that race is a social issue has led to a widespread Travellers have been denied human rights (Cemlyn, 2008). In
refusal to take discrimination and racial stratification seri- some cases, people’s right to exist at all has been denied. In the
ously (Reichman, 1995), despite many studies that show that 20th century, genocide was practiced against Jews in Europe,
racial inequality exacts a high toll. Alexandre Emboaba Da Armenians in Turkey, Tutsis in Rwanda, and in numerous
Costa (2014) noted that it has resulted not in a transcending other instances.
of race but in a reinforcement of the racial caste system. On
every measure of social and economic well-being, Brazilians
who self-identify as having African ancestry are far worse off Ethnicity in the United States
than those who self-identify as white. In the United Nations Understandings of American ethnicity begin with the
Human Development Index, which measures national qual- 19th-century idea of the United States as a nation of immi-
ity of life, Brazil ranked 74th in the world in 2000. However, grants—people who came voluntarily to this country to pur-
if using the same criteria but ranking white and African- sue the American Dream. This idea is accompanied by the
descended populations separately, the white population notion of a uniquely American identity arising from a com-
would rank 44th and the African-descended population bination of the social and political conditions of the United
105th (Gatehouse, 2012). States and the many different immigrant groups. Forging an
In Brazil, the educational disparities between whites and American identity has been a theme in our nation’s history
nonwhites are much greater than in the United States—a since its earliest days. However, the role that immigrants play
difference based partly on different traditions of public edu- has often been contentious.
cation (G. Andrews, 1992: 243). In the United States, pro- From the beginning, ethnicity has been implicated in
viding education is a major obligation of the state and local the U.S. system of social stratification. The early, idealistic
government, but in Brazil, governments have assumed that visions of the United States as a land of economic opportu-
responsibility only since World War II. Thus, the general level nity, upward mobility, and political freedom were largely
of education in Brazil for both whites and nonwhites is much restricted to immigrants from northern and western Europe.
lower than in the United States; Brazil has a high rate of illit- The U.S. Constitution limited citizenship to those who were
eracy, and higher education is almost entirely the province of “free and white” (and male) and excluded Native Americans,
white elites (Danaher & Shellenberger, 1995: 91). In contrast, Mexican Americans, African Americans, and, later, Asians
most Americans, white and black, are literate, and most are and others from Latin America, southern and eastern
high school graduates, though black education levels lag far Europe, and the Middle East.
behind those of whites. Immigrants to the United States were identified by
The comparison of Brazil and the United States clearly their national origins—the countries they came from
shows that racial stratification can occur in societies with and the cultures they brought with them—what today we
very different cultural constructions of race. call their ethnicity. But, beginning in the late 19th cen-
tury, immigrants also came to be defined in racial terms.
Stratification and Ethnicity Southern and Eastern Europeans, such as Greeks and Poles,
were understood as representing different (and inferior)
In Chapter 7, we learned that ethnicity is a cultural construc- racial groups to Northern and Western Europeans. Until
tion that changes over time (page 173). As anthropologist 1875, there were very few laws restricting immigration to
Fredrik Barth (1998/1969) argued, ethnicity has important the United States and the nation’s borders were open. In
cultural content, but ethnic identity is constructed by groups 1875, laws were passed against “undesirables” and Asians
to differentiate themselves from other, similar groups. Barth brought to the United States without their consent. A few
further argued that ethnicity must be viewed as an aspect of years later, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act severely
relationships among groups in a society that may be com- restricted the immigration of people from China and
petitive, conflictual, cooperative, or a combination of these. marked the beginning of the idea of illegal immigration.
Ethnicity is a vehicle for association, collective action, and Laws passed between 1882 and 1924 further restricted
personal identity. In other words, ethnicity is a quality that immigration to 150,000 individuals a year and placed
people experience as a group and in opposition to other peo- quotas on immigrants from some countries. These laws
ple. In hierarchical societies, it is often part of a classification effectively limited immigration to Northern and Western
system that helps determine people’s access to wealth and Europeans; these individuals were seen as both culturally
power. Frequently, ethnicity is closely related to stratification and politically similar to members of the groups who held
as groups compete over political and economic resources. political power in the United States and were therefore
In many places, members of minority ethnic groups have deemed racially superior to others.
Proponents of restrictive immigration policies, such immigrants bring with them cultural values and practices
as the influential amateur anthropologist Madison Grant such as republicanism, individualism, hard work, thrift, a
(1916), claimed that because they were biologically inferior to commitment to freedom, and reason that are consistent with
Northern Europeans, members of the Southern and Eastern U.S. culture. Just as they did 100 years ago, issues of language,
European “races” could never become good American cit- religion, and racial identity play important roles in debates
izens and that the United States would degenerate if it tried about immigration.
to incorporate them. For many in the United States, the
immigration of people from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Models of Immigrant Adaptation
and Latin America was even more problematic and was Until the mid-20th century, the dominant U.S. ideology
all but completely halted. The nexus between national ori- regarding immigrants was assimilation, a process through
gin and race in this period led to several legal cases in which which immigrants were expected to abandon their distinctive
the Supreme Court grappled with the definition of white as cultures in favor of an American identity. Settlement houses,
immigrants from India, Lebanon, and other places appealed public schools, and citizenship classes were formed to teach
their denial of entry into the United States based on their immigrants “American” ways and to motivate them to assim-
nonwhite racial status (Lopez, 2006; K. Moore, 2002). ilate. The famous melting pot analogy compared U.S. society
After the Immigration Act of 1924, very few people to a stew in which all ethnicities were blended to produce an
from non-European nations were permitted to immigrate American identity. Sometimes this idea of assimilation is
to the United States. This continued until the Immigration called straight-line convergence. The idea is that immigrant
and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished national quotas groups continually become more similar to the dominant
and allowed for a far greater number of immigrants. This culture over time.
resulted in a huge increase in immigration from non-Euro- To some extent, the melting pot was an accurate analogy.
pean nations. For example, between 1946 and 1962, average By the 1950s, much of the cultural distinctiveness of many
yearly legal immigration was about 250,000, and almost 60% ethnic groups had been lost. However, the melting pot anal-
of these were from Europe. By the 1990s, however, although ogy referred primarily to ethnic groups descended from
legal immigration had risen to almost 1 million a year, less European populations. The “pot” excluded racially defined
than 15% of immigrants were from Europe (Cohn, 2010). minorities such as Mexican Americans, African Americans,
We are today more a nation of immigrants than we have been and Native Americans as well as Asians and people from the
since the early part of the 20th century (Figure 8.12). And we Middle East. Ethnic identity did not entirely disappear, how-
are probably more of a nation experiencing backlash against ever. Some cultural practices remained, as did a tendency to
immigrants than we have been since that time as well. organize around political goals and to mobilize for access to
One result of high immigration is that the debates of the economic resources (Glazer & Moynihan, 1970).
early 20th century are once again current. Today, as then, A second model of assimilation emphasizes the fact that
there are debates about whether or not particular groups of all groups do not necessarily assimilate at the same rate, and
some may assimilate very little. This racial and ethnic disad-
vantage model focuses on the discrimination and barriers to
FIGURE 8.12 In the past 50 years, both
opportunities that are a part of the lives of many immigrants.
immigration and backlash against it have
A third model, segmented assimilation, combines elements
increased. Here, a woman holding Chinese and
of both of the other two models. This model tries to account
American flags celebrates Chinese New Year on
for the wide variety of immigrant experiences and the fact
February 25, 2018.
that members of a single immigrant group do not necessarily
share the same experiences of immigration and assimilation.
Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Proponents of this theory argue that although there are very real
racial and ethnic barriers to assimilation, different people expe-
rience these barriers differently. Those members of an immi-
grant group that are particularly disadvantaged by poverty, lack
of education, or other problems may experience little assimila-
tion, whereas group members who do not have these encum-
brances may be far more successful (Brown & Bean, 2006).
All of these models view assimilation as a desirable
objective. Indeed, to the extent that assimilation means free-
dom from discrimination; equal access to the law; access to
opportunities in employment, housing, education, and other
aspects of society; and a sense of membership in American
between 1924 and 1965. However, during the 20th century,

FIGURE 8.13 In 2018, new U.S. citizens James members of most of these groups became more or less assim-
Maina (center) from Kenya and Esther Ranfla (right) ilated to American culture. They faced hostility, accusations
from Mexico take the citizenship oath along with of racial inferiority, and assertions that their presence would
more than 7,200 others representing more than 100 undermine American culture. The notion that immigrants
countries. from Poland, Italy, Hungary, or Spain would destroy
American culture will probably strike most current-day
Americans as odd, but these nations were deeply affected
Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images
by the changes in immigration policy. For example, in the

early 20th century, an average of 200,000 people immigrated
to the United States from Italy each year. The 1924 quotas cut
this to a total of 3,845 (History Matters, 2018).
Immigrants arriving in the past several decades have
also faced frequent hostility (Figure 8.13). Movements to
restrict immigration and attacks on immigrant cultures have
become common. Since 9/11, Muslim immigrants and oth-
ers who look as if they might be from the Middle East have
faced intense and occasionally lethal hostility. For example,
even though no attempt to enact Islamic (sharia) law has been
proposed anywhere in the United States, anti-sharia law bills
culture, it is hard to see it in anything but a positive light. have been introduced in 43 states and enacted in Texas and
However, assimilation also entails loss. With assimilation Arkansas (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2018). In 2017, the
comes loss of language, of cultural customs, and of connec- Trump administration’s Executive Order 13769 temporar-
tion to one’s past. Scholars, observing the fact that many ily barred people from seven majority Muslim nations from
groups of long-term immigrants to the United States retain entering the United States. The administration cited fears of
some cultural distinctiveness, propose a mosaic or salad bowl terrorism to justify its ban. However, as of early 2018, no fatal
model of assimilation. They argue that ethnic groups fail to terror attack had ever been committed on American soil by
assimilate completely and that, if opportunities and protec- an individual from a nation covered by the ban. In another
tions are equal for all, this is a good thing. A multiplicity of instance of anti-immigrant sentiment, in February 2018, the
cultures and identities makes for a rich and dynamic soci- words “nation of immigrants,” a phrase popularized by John
ety. Multiculturalism fills society with the customs, points F. Kennedy in a 1958 book of that title, was removed from
of view, experiences, foods, and celebrations of many of the the mission statement of the United States Citizenship and
world’s people. The additional knowledge from this informs Immigration Services (Jordan, 2018).
our understandings and, hopefully, allows us to make better In the early 2010s, laws proposed in 10 states focused on
decision than a single, uniform American identity would. Hispanic immigrants. These laws require or authorize offi-
cials to demand proof of citizenship or legal residency from all
people who look as if they might be immigrants. The Supreme
Ethnicity, Immigration, and Globalization Court declared many of these laws illegal, however. More
Since the earliest days of the United States, people have come important, large numbers of illegal Hispanic immigrants form
to this country fleeing oppression in their homelands or seek- a sort of unofficial underclass. Frequently laboring under dif-
ing the economic and social opportunities they believed the ficult conditions in agriculture, construction, and domestic
United States offered. Most often, they were both pushed from service, usually for very low wages, they form an easily exploit-
their homelands by difficult political and economic situations able group. They lack the full protection of the law granted to
and pulled by the attractions the United States offered. citizens and legal residents and often do not take advantage
Each group entering the United States faced opposi- of the rights they do legally have for fear of deportation and
tion and resistance from those already here (although some other penalties. In 2017, approximately 250,000 illegal immi-
groups certainly faced stronger opposition than others). grants were deported from the United States, a slight decrease
Political opposition to German and Irish immigration was from previous years. However, the number of suspected illegal
strong in the mid-19th century. Asian immigrants as well immigrants arrested rose by more than 40% (Torbati, 2017).
as those from southern and eastern Europe faced deep prej- Under previous administrations, illegal immigrants who com-
udices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These issues mitted civil or criminal offenses were more likely to be subject
resulted in strong barriers to immigration and a quota system to deportation. However, under the Trump administration, all
illegal immigrants are subject to deportation, and who is actu- on tourism in Ireland and their support of Irish political
ally deported seems more arbitrary (Chokshi & Yee, 2018). causes can have significant effects on that nation.
This greatly increases uncertainty and instability for these The entire idea of a home culture linked to a specific place
immigrants and their families. may be declining. Ethnic groups today are often enormous
Historically, immigration resulted in immigrants being diasporas of people living throughout the world. In 2015,
effectively cut off from their lands of origin. Although they 244 million foreign-born or foreign residents were living in
often came to the United States with the idea of return- countries throughout the world (United Nations, 2016c). This
ing, and many did keep in touch with family members and number would be much higher if we added the number of
friends they left behind, immigrants’ ties to home countries people who were born in one country yet consider themselves
were generally loose due to poor communication, expensive members of an ethnic group associated with a different nation.
and sometimes dangerous travel, and increasing assimilation For example, there are about 40.3 million overseas Chinese
into American culture. However, this might be changing. (Chinese nationals and Chinese descendants living outside of
In many cases, the Internet has reduced the cost of instant China) residing in 148 different countries (Poston & Wong,
communication between countries to near zero. Relatively 2016). This is a population about the same size as Canada’s.
inexpensive and safe air transportation makes frequent vis- The population of the Republic of Ireland and Northern
its between immigrants and family members more attain- Ireland together is about 6 million. However, about 35 mil-
able for vast numbers of people. These technological and lion people of Irish ancestry are living in the United States,
economic forces mean that connections between recent and the global population of such people living in other
immigrants and their home cultures are likely to remain far countries may be as high as 70 million (Globalirish.ie, n.d.).
stronger than in the past. Additionally, these forces enable the In another example, about 4 million Malians are living
descendants of people who came to the United States many abroad, compared with 15 million actually living in Mali
years ago to connect with people and influence politics in (Cissé, 2004). The impact of these people on their cultures
their places of origin. For example, most Irish Americans are of origin is hard to gauge; however, they are likely to have
many generations removed from emigration and have few meaningful effects on what it means to be a member of an
actual family ties in Ireland. However, the money they spend ethnic group.

Undesirable Elements
T H E VO I C E S O F N E W I M M I G R A N T S
FIGURE 8.14 Director, choreographer, and Immigrants come to the United States for many
artist Ping Chong at the White House in 2015. reasons. Some are in search of better economic
opportunities, and many come to escape ethnic
conflict, civil wars, and human rights abuses. Many
Leigh Vogel/WireImage/Getty Images
of these new migrants are from places such as

Sudan, Somalia, El Salvador, Kurdistan, Vietnam, or
Iraq. These countries may be familiar to Americans
because of U.S. political or military interventions,
but most Americans have little knowledge of these
cultures. New migrants find homes not only in
ethnically diverse urban centers but also in diverse
places such as rural Wisconsin or Georgia, small
cities in the Southwest, or the far reaches of Maine.
Putting a human face on a member of a different

ethnic group helps us understand how the lives of
these migrants have been shaped by the difficulties
Question: What is the experience of American culture they face in trying to understand and fit into
like for new arrivals? American society. Director Ping Chong (Figure 8.14)
(Continued!)
(Continued)
is a National Medal of Arts award winner who often we arrive in America, they are not. This [diversity] is
creates theater works that address issues of cultural the real America.” Another Kurdish migrant said, “I
diversity. One of Chong’s most important works don’t speak English. It’s hard. I look different. I have
is an ongoing theatrical project titled Undesirable black eyes and black hair. The kids in my class think
Elements. For this project, Chong interviews people I’m weird.” Another migrant teenager, who had fled
who are outsiders in their communities, develops the violence accompanying the fall of the shah in
these interviews into a script, and then has the Iran, a strong American ally, couldn’t understand the
interviewees perform as themselves. Chong began anti-Iranian bumper stickers she saw on cars or the
the project in 1992 and, as of 2018, had created over restaurant signs saying Iranians would not be served.
40 different productions with a variety of performers “I am very confused,” she said, “I thought I was an
in multiple locations. Originally the productions American.” Saul, a teenage Mexican immigrant,
focused on living between cultures, but more recent related his experience shopping in a mall in Atlanta,
ones have addressed issues of gender identity and Georgia, and noticing a white salesperson following
poverty. In 2018, Undesirable Elements presented him. Now, when Saul enters a shop, he tells the
productions dealing with Arab American identity in salesperson, “Yeah, I’m Mexican, but don’t worry. I’m
Dearborn, Michigan; the relationship between the old not going to steal anything. I have money.”
Indian village and the downtown Willoughby District
in Juneau, Alaska; and the voices of diverse young Perhaps the most telling comment on American
adults in New York City. Chong’s title, Undesirable stratification came from a migrant applying for college:
Elements, plays on the term used in the American
political culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries I had to check a box: Caucasian, black, Hispanic,
to describe non-European immigrants. Asian, other. I don’t know which one to check. The
administrator tells me, you are from Venezuela,
Similar to an anthropologist, Ping Chong has the check Hispanic. I say, but Hispanic is someone
double vision of an insider/outsider. He was born in from Spain. I’m half Lebanese, half Venezuelan,
Canada and grew up in the ethnic enclave of New half Catholic, half Druze from the Middle East.
York City’s Chinatown. He has stated that when he left People here talk about race and color, but that
his ethnic community, he found himself feeling like doesn’t happen in Venezuela or Lebanon. What
a Martian, living in a world he could not understand. does it have to do with what people are?
Like an anthropologist studying a new culture, he
learned the culture by participating in it. Ultimately,
he became very successful, but he still describes Key Questions
himself as sitting on a cultural fence (Sommers, 1988). 1. How have you experienced American class, race,
and ethnic stratification in the United States?
The stories told in Ping’s plays frequently emphasize How does your experience relate to the ideal of
the comparisons his interviewees see between the the American Dream?
diverse ethnic and racial stratification system in the
United States and their own societies as well as the 2. The historical narrative in the United States empha-
contrast between American ideals and the reality sizes both the assimilation of American immigrants
of ethnic and racial stratification. Chong’s plays and multiculturalism, a respect for cultural differ-
encourage us to think about the nature of American ences. Which narrative do you think best describes
identity and about the ways in which power, wealth, the contemporary United States and why?
and poverty are distributed in our society.
3. How would you check the box declaring your
In one of Chong’s productions in 2012, a migrant from racial and ethnic identity? What does this “have
Kurdistan stated, “Everyone we watched on American to do with what people are?” Or with “being
TV shows was blond-haired and blue-eyed, but when American?”
SUMMARY
1. What are the differences between functionalist and jobs necessary for the society to survive. Conflict the-
conflict theories of social stratification? Functionalist ory emphasizes the conflicts that occur within stratified
theory holds that social stratification benefits the whole societies as different social strata with opposing interests
society because it motivates people to undertake all the clash with one another over goals and resources.
2. What are the major dimensions of social stratifica- sharing similar physical and other characteristics
tion and how do they relate to other aspects of cul- transmitted by heredity. The RACE project, a web-
ture and society? The major dimensions of social site and traveling museum exhibit, demonstrates that
stratification are power, wealth, and prestige, which although race is a scientifically invalid concept, racial
are closely tied to a person’s occupation. The value categories are important in many systems of social
system of a culture determines how these factors stratification.
interact to determine where a person is placed in the
stratification system. 7. What are the differences between the racial systems
and racial stratification systems of the United States
3. What are the core elements of social class and caste sys- and Brazil? In the United States, race is historically a
tems? Both class and caste are systems of hierarchical system of caste. Racial identity is fixed at birth, and
ranking. In a caste system, social status is based on birth people are understood primarily as members of one of
and is understood as permanent. In a class system, social a small number of races. In Brazil, there are many more
position is achieved. Although birth is important, people racial categories, and members of a single family may
can move between the social classes. Classes are largely identify with different categories. The Brazilian gov-
based on differences of income and wealth but are also ernment has promoted a multiracial idea of national
characterized by different lifestyles and cultural differ- identity. There is strong racial inequality in both coun-
ences. Both caste and class are ideal types. In real soci- tries, with people classified as white enjoying bet-
eties, caste always has elements of class, and class always ter access to wealth, education, health, and prestige
has elements of caste. occupations.
4. What are the main characteristics of the Indian caste 8. How did class and race intersect with pollution in Hyde
system and how is this system changing? In India, Park, Georgia? An ethnography of Hyde Park found
caste distinctions are embedded in society and reli- that this lower-class black neighborhood was subject
gion. There are Dalits, who perform “unclean” work, to high levels of pollution. Lacking political and eco-
and four higher castes. Historically, caste boundar- nomic power, the citizens of Hyde Park could not pre-
ies were defined by prohibitions on intercaste mar- vent industries from polluting their environment, and
riage, food sharing, and many other aspects of culture. this resulted in high rates of diseases such as cancers and
Current-day India both prohibits caste discrimination respiratory problems. Hyde Park residents successfully
and provides a type of affirmative action for Dalits. fought the polluters and, eventually, they were relocated
However, although caste identity is weakening in cur- and most of their houses demolished. The process took
rent-day urban India, it is still a strong component of more than 30 years, however, and as of spring 2018 was
Indian culture. Both groups and individuals some- still not fully complete.
times attempt to change their caste position to a more
desirable one. 9. What are some models of ethnic assimilation in the
United States? The melting pot or straight-line assim-
5. What are the main features of the American class sys- ilation model has been a strong cultural model in the
tem? The culture of the United States emphasizes the United States. This model argues that members of differ-
idea that birth is not destiny and that one can and should ent ethnic groups blend to produce an American iden-
improve one’s status and material wealth. Americans tity. Other models note that not all groups assimilate and
overwhelmingly consider themselves middle class. not all members of a group assimilate at the same rate.
However, there is a strikingly unequal distribution of A salad bowl or mosaic model of assimilation proposes
wealth in the nation, and a very small percentage of that assimilation is always partial but that this can be a
Americans possess extreme wealth. There is substantial benefit to society.
social mobility in the United States, both up and down,
but the odds favor immobility, particularly for the rich. 10. How open to immigration is United States? There were
Social mobility is strongly affected by factors such as race no laws restricting immigration to the United States until
and geography. the late 1800s. Cultural backlash to immigration began
in the first half of the 19th century. Laws became increas-
6. What is the purpose of the RACE project? How is ingly restrictive, eliminating most immigration by 1924.
it based on an anthropological definition of race? Immigration increased rapidly after legal changes in
Anthropologists define race as a culturally constructed 1965. In recent years, backlash to immigration has again
category that refers to a group of people perceived as become strong.
11. What effect has globalization had on ethnicity and 12. What is Undesirable Elements and how does it illustrate
assimilation? Increasingly, simple and inexpensive com- issues of ethnicity and social stratification? Undesirable
munication and transportation means that members Elements is a series of theater pieces by director Ping
of ethnic groups are spread over a wider area than ever Chong. In more than 40 plays, immigrants, young peo-
before and that communication between members is far ple, native people, and others describe their experiences
greater than in previous eras. One result of this is that the of outsider status. Chong’s plays encourage us to think
idea of ethnicity is less tied to a single geographical place. about the nature of American identity and about the
Another is that members of ethnic groups living outside ways in which power, wealth, and poverty are distributed
their place of origin can have significant effects on both in our society.
their new homes and the ones they left behind.
1. Functionalist and conflict approaches to understanding 4. Assess the relationship between race and caste. In societ-
stratification may appear to be opposites, but there are ies where opinions about race are strong, are notions that
areas of overlap between them. Where do these theories could easily be considered caste-like necessarily strong as
agree and where do they disagree? well?
2. Critique the notion that the United States is purely a 5. Relate the different models of assimilation in the United
class-based society with no elements of caste. List some States to the idea of a future in which social stratification
caste characteristics that are common in U.S. society. has no relationship with race or ethnicity. To what extent
have we achieved that goal? How likely do you think it is
3. Brazil has many more racial classifications than the United to be achieved in the next 100 years?
States. Does this suggest that Brazil is more or less racist
than the United States? Argue both sides of this question.
KE Y TE RM S
achieved status 187 class 187 social mobility 189

ascribed status 187 class system 187 social stratification 183
assimilation 202 conflict theory 184 wealth 185
caste 187 functionalism 183
caste system 187 life chances 195
G LO S SARY
achieved status A social position that is substantially class A category of people who all have about the same
based on life experiences. opportunity to obtain economic resources, power, and
prestige and who are ranked relative to other categories.
ascribed status A social position based entirely on birth.
class system A form of social stratification in which the
assimilation A process through which immigrants were different strata form a continuum and social mobility is
expected to abandon their distinctive cultures in favor of possible.
an American identity.
conflict theory A perspective on social stratification that
caste An endogamous, ranked, and permanent group focuses on economic inequality as a source of conflict and
based on ascribed status. change.
caste system Social stratification based on birth or functionalism (functionalist perspective) The
ascribed status in which social mobility between castes is anthropological theory that specific cultural institutions
not possible.
function to support the structure of a society or serve the social stratification A social hierarchy resulting from the
needs of its people. relatively permanent unequal distribution of goods and
services in a society.
life chances The opportunities that people have to fulfil
their potential in society. wealth The accumulation of material resources or access
to the means of producing these resources.
social mobility Movement from one social strata to
another.
Courtesy of Tom Curtin
Kinship is the way in which we understand who we are related to and how we are related to them. Different societies have
different patterns of kinship. This collage shows family pictures from early 20th-century Belarus.
Kinship 9
In American society, when you meet someone for the first time, you generally LEARNING OBJECTIVES
try to find some area of common interest. You may ask where the other person
is from, what schools they went to, what their occupation is, or what hobbies or will be able to:
interests they have. Even though kinship is important in American society, most
9.1 Define kinship and kinship
people are quite unlikely to ask a new acquaintance about their grandparents,
systems
parents, and siblings. However, in most societies and in most of history, these
are among the first questions new acquaintances might ask one another. In most 9.2 Explain three basic functions
of kinship systems and compare
places and at most times, kinship has been central to both identity and social
unilineal kinship systems to
organization. Through kinship people often gain access to political power, land, nonunilineal kinship systems
trade, and marriage partners, as well as protection from all those who are not kin,
9.3 Summarize the key differences
whether neighbors or strangers. In this chapter, we explore the nature of kinship,
between patrilineal kinship and
the different systems of kinship found around the world, and the implications matrilineal kinship
kinship systems have for the societies that use them.
9.4 Assess the relative position of
men and women in matrilineal and
patrilineal kinship societies
9.5 Discuss the differences

between bilateral and ambilineal
Kinship: Relationships Through Descent and Marriage descent systems
9.6 List some of the principles

Kinship refers to those relationships understood in a society as connecting people commonly used for classifying kin
through descent and marriage. In almost all societies, kinship is a basis of group forma- and compare kin classification and
tion, and relationships between individuals are governed mainly by kinship norms. The behavior in the United States and
extension of kinship ties is the main way of allying groups to one another and incorpo- North India
rating strangers into a group. In most of the world’s cultures, kinship is central in deter-
9.7 Articulate the major systems of
mining people’s rights and responsibilities. kinship
In current-day industrial and postindustrial societies, principles of social organi-
zation other than kinship, such as work, interests, religion, and politics, are important
as bases for group formation and are frameworks within which individual rights and
obligations are articulated. This does not mean that kinship is insignificant, however.
Inheritance of property occurs mainly along kinship lines. A person claiming a kin
relation is regarded differently than someone who is not a relative, and there is a strong
sentiment that “blood is thicker than water.” Groups of relatives are important on rit-
ual occasions. For example, in the United States, Thanksgiving and religious occasions
such as baptisms, confirmations, bar and bat mitzvahs, quinceañeras, weddings, and
funerals are all occasions for the gathering of kin and frequently the celebration of kin-
ship. Family membership also plays an important role in determining the wealth and
life chances of people (Figure 9.1).
Kinship includes relationships based on descent and relationships formed through
marriage. In every society, the formation of groups and the regulation of behavior
depend to some extent on socially recognized ties of kinship. Because aspects of kinship
such as behavior, ideology, and terminology are closely related, anthropologists refer to
kinship as a system. A kinship system includes all relationships based on descent and
marriage that link people in a web of rights and obligations, the groups formed in a
society based on such rights and obligations, and the terms used to classify different kin.
209
210 PART III • FAMILIES IN SOCIETY
generations. In most societies, descent is an important

FIGURE 9.1 The continuing importance of families basis of social group formation. A descent group is a group
in the United States is illustrated by politically of people who understand themselves as similar because
powerful families such as the Kennedys. they share ancestry. Descent groups have important func-
tions in the organization of domestic life, the enculturation
Hulton Archive /Stringer/Getty Images
of children, the use and transfer of property and politi-

cal and ritual offices, the carrying out of religious rituals,
the settlement of disputes, and political organization and
warfare.
Two basic types of descent rules, or kinship ideology,
operate in society: unilineal and bilateral. In a cultural sys-
tem with a rule of unilineal descent, descent group mem-
bership is based on links through either the paternal or the
maternal line, but not both. There are two principal types
of unilineal descent: patrilineal descent and matrilineal
descent. In societies with patrilineal descent, a person
belongs to the descent group of their father. In societies
with matrilineal descent, a person belongs to the descent
group of their mother. These unilineal systems contrast
with the bilateral system of descent. In societies using bilat-
eral descent, both maternal and paternal lines are used as
The ways in which a society classifies kin are cultural and the basis for reckoning descent and for establishing the rights
may or may not reflect a scientifically accurate assessment of and obligations of kinship. To summarize, in a unilineal
biological ties. Consider the ways in which we use the word descent society, a person is understood as being descended
father. The person you call father may or may not be your bio- from either their mother’s line or their father’s line, but not
logical father. If you are adopted, the person you call father from both. In a bilateral society, an individual is understood
may not be biologically related to you, but he is nevertheless as being descendent from both their mother’s line and their
your father. You may also use the same term for priests and father’s line. For most people in U.S. society, family names
ministers. move patrilineally (you carry your father’s surname), but we
Because kinship systems are cultural creations, different consider ourselves equally related to both sides of our family.
societies classify relatives in very different ways. The kinds of A major distinction between systems of unilineal and
social groups formed by kinship and the ways in which kin bilateral descent is that in unilineal kinship systems, kin
are expected to behave toward one another also vary widely. groups do not overlap. In bilateral kin systems, they do. For
Culturally defined ties of kinship have at least three basic example, consider your father’s brother’s children (your
functions that are necessary for the continuation of soci- paternal cousins). In the U.S. bilateral kinship system,
ety. First, kinship provides continuity between generations. they are your cousins and therefore members of your kin.
In all societies, children must be cared for and educated so However, they are equally related to their mother’s family,
that they can become functioning members of their soci- but this family is unlikely to be related to you. Thus, they are
ety. The kinship unit plays a critical role in this task. Second, members of two kin groups: They are members of your kin
a society must also provide for the orderly transmission of group and of their mother’s kin group (to which you do not
property and social position between generations. In most belong). If the system were patrilineal, your paternal cous-
human societies, inheritance (the transfer of property) and ins would be part of your kin group but would not be part of
succession (the transfer of social position) take place within their mother’s kin group. They would belong to only one kin
kin groups. Finally, kinship defines a universe of others upon group. Unilineal descent thus provides unambiguous mem-
whom a person can depend for aid. People in all societies are bership in a single kin group for everyone in the society.
likely to turn to their relatives for support and alliances. If all families had the same number of children, more
people would be kin to each other in a bilateral system than in
a unilineal system. However, because kinship is overlapping
Rules of Descent and the Formation
in a bilateral system, people in a unilineal system are bound
of Descent Groups more tightly to one another than those in a bilateral system.
In anthropological terminology, descent refers to the ways Most societies throughout the world have unilineal kin-
in which people calculate kin relations from earlier to later ship. However, many of the world’s largest societies practice
bilateral kinship, and it is particularly common in Western have political and religious functions rather than primarily
industrial societies. domestic and economic ones.
One of the most important functions of a clan is to regu-
late marriage. In most societies, clans are governed by a rule
Unilineal Descent Groups of exogamy: Clan members must choose a marriage part-
ner from outside the clan. The prohibition against marriage
A lineage is a group of kin who trace their connections within the clan strengthens its unilineal character. If a per-
through known historic links to a common ancestor. son married within the clan, his or her children would find
Lineages may vary in time depth, from three generations it impossible to make the sharp distinction between maternal
upward. Lineages formed by descent through the male line and paternal relatives required by unilineal systems. Robert
are called patrilineages. Lineages formed by descent H. Lowie wrote of the Crow Indians of North America,
through the female line are called matrilineages. Lineages among whom clans are very important, that a Crow who
are frequently members of larger groups called clans. A clan married within his clan would
is a group of kin who trace their connections to a common
ancestor, but the precise historical nature of the connections lose his bearings and perplex his tribesmen. For he owes
is unclear. It is common for clans to trace their ancestry to specific obligations to his father’s relatives and others to his
animals, culture heroes, or gods. Clans are often named and mother’s, who are now hopelessly confused. The sons of
may have a totem—a feature of the natural environment with his father’s clan ought to be censors, whereas his mother’s
which they are closely identified and toward which the clan are bound to shield him from criticism; but now the very
members behave in a special way. Although it is possible to same persons are his joking relatives and his clansmen!
have a society with lineages but no clans or a society with (1948: 237)
clans but no lineages, many societies have both.
A lineage is often a local residential or domestic group Such a person would not know how to act toward oth-
whose members cooperate on a daily basis. In many cases, ers, nor would others know how to act toward him. The
lineages are corporate groups: They hold ownership of land requirement to marry outside of one’s clan also extends the
and other productive resources. Clans, on the other hand, network of peaceful social relations within a society since
are generally not residential units. Their members are usu- clans connect with each other through the marriages of
ally spread out over many villages. Therefore, clans often their members.

K I N S H I P R U L E S A N D R E A L IT I E S I N A KO R E A N V I L L AG E
The rules of kinship in Korean villages emphasize According to the local rules of inheritance in Pine Tree,
patrilineality, seniority, Confucian ethics that stress a Korean village studied by anthropologist Soo Ho
the obligations of sons to their fathers, patriarchal Choi, the eldest son gets the lion’s share of his family’s
authority and control, and the eldest son inheriting all property, including his parents’ house and more than
of his father’s property (primogeniture). However, one half their land. In return, he must care for his elderly
of the ways in which anthropology makes a difference parents and worship them as ancestors after their
is that it opens our eyes to the realities of kinship deaths. However, the realities of contemporary life
dynamics as people depart from the rules and adapt to often lead to conflict and departure from these rules.
changing circumstances. Factors such as the financial contributions of family
members to purchase land, the money spent on the
In Korea, as elsewhere, people manipulate kinship rules education of some family members, and the extensive
for their own advantage. Inheritance and succession to gifts and financial support that some women receive at
family headship are contested as family members try the time of their marriages often involve modification
to ensure that their contributions are acknowledged to the system.
and rewarded. Times when family property is divided
are particularly important occasions for the reckoning In-depth ethnography enables anthropologists to see
of the balance of credits and debts among family how the realities of relationships play out to subvert
members. the rules of kinship. In one family studied by Choi,
(Continued!)
(Continued)
Sungjo, a frail boy who had one brother and two FIGURE 9.2 Many Koreans perform ancestral
sisters, was his mother’s favorite. Sungjo’s frailty did
not bode well for success in farming, and his mother
rituals at Chusok, offering food from the new
was determined to have him educated in the city. harvest to their ancestors.
She persuaded her husband to sell one-third of their
land to finance Sungjo’s education. The sale was
Hemis/Alamy Stock Photo

opposed by his siblings, who now had to work much
harder to compensate for the lost income. To earn
additional cash, the women family members wove
cotton and silk cloth, and Sungjo’s elder brother
collected and sold natural lacquer extracted from the
nearby woods.
After Sungjo’s graduation from university, he worked

for a big corporation and lived comfortably in Seoul.
From his family’s perspective, he neglected those left
behind in the village, failing to fulfill their expectations
of compassionate generosity and to perform the ritual
duties of ancestor worship.
Sungjo’s elder brother, Sungman, had no sons

and died young. According to the cultural rules,
Sungman’s wife should have adopted Sungjo’s oldest
elder sister sided with him. She argued that she had
son, entitling this boy to perform the ancestral rites
sacrificed for Sungjo’s education but had received
and ultimately inherit Sungman’s property. However,
nothing.
Sungman’s wife and daughters felt that this was
keenly unjust. They believed that since the family At the time of Choi’s research, it was not clear if
had sacrificed to send Sungjo to school, his family Sungjo’s claim, which was based on traditional
had already received its inheritance. Sungman’s practices and rules of inheritance, would prevail or if
wife refused to adopt Sungjo’s son and performed Sungman’s daughter’s family, who based their case
the ancestor rites herself. Performing these rites on debts they believed Sungjo owed, would retain the
is critical because it leads to eventual ownership land.
of ancestral land (Figure 9.2). Sungman’s wife
performed the ancestral rites for 20 years until she A central function of kinship rules is to smooth the
became senile, at which point her eldest daughter transfer of office and property between generations.
took over the performance and claimed the right to But, as Sungjo’s family history illustrates, cultural
Sungman’s property. rules may be contested. Cultural institutions like
kinship are closely intertwined with important issues
Sungjo opposed his brother’s daughter’s claim and such as access to land, wealth, and property. It is rare
insisted that his eldest son should be adopted into for individual behavior and the actual structure of
Sungman’s lineage. He used a legal maneuver to families to perfectly match cultural expectations. As a
get his son ownership of Sungman’s land. However, result, people disadvantaged by rules of kinship and
Sungman’s daughter refused to acknowledge this inheritance frequently feel they have good grounds for
change in ownership and continued farming the land contesting these rules. As economic systems change,
and performing the ancestral rituals. She married but people’s behavior is likely to depart further from the
continued to claim the rights to Sungman’s property rules, and this leads to both increased conflict and
and to perform the ancestor rites. However, her changes in the rules themselves.
marriage considerably weakened her claims. Although
she remained part of her father’s lineage, her children Source: Adapted by permission of the author and publisher
belonged to the lineage of her husband. Therefore, from Soo Ho Choi, “The Struggle for Family Succession
property she inherited would pass from her father’s and Inheritance in a Rural Korean Village,” Journal of
lineage to her husband’s. For this reason, Sungjo’s Anthropological Research, 51 (1995):329–346.
Patrilineal Descent Groups

FIGURE 9.3 A patrilineal descent group.
In societies with patrilineal descent groups, a person
In societies with patrilineal descent groups,
(whether male or female) belongs to the descent group of
membership is based on links through the father
their father, their father’s father, and so on (see Figure 9.3).
only. Sons and daughters are members of their
Thus, a man, his sisters and brothers, his brother’s children
father’s descent group (shown in dark green), as
(but not his sister’s children), his own children, and his son’s
are the children of the sons, but not of daughters.
children (but not his daughter’s children) all belong to the
same group. Inheritance moves from father to son, as does ––
succession to office.
Nuer Patriliny
The Nuer, a pastoral people who live in the South Sudan in
East Africa, have a patrilineal society. Among the Nuer, all –– ––
rights, privileges, obligations, and interpersonal relationships
are regulated by kinship; one is either a kinsman or an enemy.
Membership in a patrilineal descent group is a critical fact of
life, and a man or woman’s father, brothers, and children are –– –– –– ––
considered the closest kin. Membership in a patrilineage con-
fers rights to land, requires participation in certain religious
ceremonies, and determines political and judicial obligations,
such as making alliances in feuds and warfare.
The Nuer are divided into about 20 clans, each of which
is further divided into lineages. Below the level of the clan are
segments called maximal lineages, which are broken down
into major lineages. Major lineages are subdivided into minor lineages function as contingent alliance networks rather than
lineages, which in turn are made up of minimal lineages. The as formal parts of the political structure. This kind of political
minimal lineage contains three to five generations and is the structure is called a segmentary lineage system.
basic descent group that functions in day-to-day activities. Segmentary lineage systems are particularly effective in
Members of a minimal lineage live in the same village and conflict. The lack of centralized leadership combined with
regard one another as close relatives. the strong tendency of lineages to ally when faced with out-
Groups above the minimal lineage spread over several side attack direct the energies of the society away from com-
villages and thus help create alliances between otherwise petition between kin to an outside enemy. Lineage segments
independent villages. Nuer clans composed of related lin- on the borders of other tribes know that if they attack an
eages are spread over a larger area. Because a person cannot enemy, they will be helped by other lineages related to them at
marry someone from within his or her own lineage or clan or these higher levels of organization.
from the lineage of his or her mother, kinship relations extend The Nuer segmentary lineage shows the continued
widely throughout the tribe. importance of both kin groupings and anthropological
The Nuer have no centralized system of political author- thinking. The original fieldwork among the Nuer was done in
ity; instead, the system of lineages and clans serves to regulate the 1920s and 1930s but remains highly relevant today. The
conflict. Minimal lineages are politically independent, and Nuer and numerous other groups that use similar kin systems
higher-order lineages and clans do not really have any corpo- live in South Sudan and parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. These
rate life. Their members do not live together or hold property are some of the world’s most violent places. The Nuer home-
in common. Rather, they are called upon to function mainly land in South Sudan has been the center of a horrific civil war.
in the context of conflict. In a serious dispute between mem- As of January 2018, more than 4 million people had been
bers of different lower-order lineages, the higher-order lin- uprooted, and nearly 1.1 million children under the age of
eage members take the side of their nearest kin. Because the five were believed to be suffering from malnutrition (United
Nuer believe that kin should not fight with one another, dis- Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
putes within the lineage or clan tend to be kept small and set- 2018; Figure 9.4). Most wars are fought over economic and
tled rapidly (Evans-Pritchard, 1968/1940). However, because political power, and this one is no exception. However, the
all who are not in some way kin are enemies, an attack on one pattern of alliances, killings, and depredations is strongly
lineage segment may cause all members of a clan to coalesce linked to kinship patterns. Carol Berger (2014) has noted that
against a common enemy (Sahlins, 1961). Thus, clans and kinship networks have reinforced and magnified the cycle of
these analyses gloss over many of the conflicts, doubts, and

FIGURE 9.4 A Nuer man, his forehead showing arguments of life as it is really lived. Abu-Lughod challenged
traditional scarification, smokes a pipe at a United the notion of the Arab woman dominated and controlled
Nations camp for internally displaced people in by a patriarchal system by analyzing the stories Bedouin
South Sudan. women tell about themselves: women who refuse their fam-
ily’s choice of a spouse, women who get along (or don’t) with
CHARLES LOMODONG/AFP/Getty Images
their co-wives, women who are sometimes disappointed in

their sons, women who assert themselves against their hus-
band’s wishes—in short, women who rebel against the norms
of their society in small and sometimes effective ways.
Social institutions, economies, and cultural ideologies
are closely intertwined. There are no cultures in which peo-
ple always behave as the rules tell them to behave. However,
as economic systems change, people’s behavior tends to
depart more frequently from the rules. When there is rapid
economic change, as in Korea, exceptions to the rules become
more and more common. Under the pressure of chang-
ing economic realities and behavioral adjustments, kinship
systems—the rules themselves—may also change, but they
tend to change much more slowly than behavior.
killing and revenge and that kin ties reveal much more about
power than do charts of government or military command.
Matrilineal Descent Groups
Lineages and clans in Somalia have a structure similar to that
of the Nuer, and this is part of the reason for continued vio- Two fundamental ties recognized by every society are the tie
lence and the failure of centralized government in that coun- between a woman and her children and the tie between sib-
try. Settling disputes in these places will require a wealth of lings (brothers and sisters). In patrilineal societies, the most
anthropological knowledge. important source of male authority and control is the man’s
position as father and husband. In matrilineal societies, the
Gender Relations in Patrilineal Societies most important male position is a mother’s brother. In a matri-
The degree to which women are incorporated into the lineal system, a man gains sexual and economic rights over a
patrilineage of their husbands and the degree of autonomy woman when he marries her, but he does not gain rights over
they have vary in different societies. In some cases, women her children. Children belong to the mother’s descent group,
may retain rights of inheritance in their father’s lineage. In a not the father’s, and many rights and responsibilities belong to
patrilineal system in general, however, great care is taken to the mother’s brother. The membership of a matrilineal descent
guarantee the husband’s rights and control over his wife (or group consists of a woman, her brothers and sisters, her chil-
wives) and children because the continuity of the descent dren, her sisters’ (but not her brothers’) children, and the chil-
group depends on this. Patrilineal systems most often have dren of her daughters (but not of her sons). (See Figure 9.6,
patrilocal rules of residence: A wife lives with her husband’s p. 217, and Figure 9.7, p. 219.)
family. Thus, women are separated from their families of Matrilineal systems tend to be correlated with a matrilocal
origin and may have few who know or support them in their rule of residence: A man goes to live with or near his wife’s
husbands’ families. kin after marriage. This means the man is among strangers,
Anthropologists have had a long-standing interest in whereas his wife is surrounded by her kin. The husband plays
understanding the complexity and conflict present within a far less important role in the household in a matrilineal sys-
patrilineal families and in understanding women’s roles in tem than in a patrilineal one, and marriages in matrilineal
kin groups dominated by men. Lila Abu-Lughod’s (1993) societies tend to be less stable than those in other systems. In
analysis of families in the Arab world is a good example. some cases, as among the Nayar of India, described in a clas-
Many analyses of Arab families have focused on male dom- sic ethnography by Kathleen Gough (1961), it is possible for
ination of women and on issues of honor and shame, with a matrilineally organized group to do away with the presence
honor revolving around the male’s ability to control the sex- of husbands and fathers altogether if there are brothers who
uality of women in his family. But, like the description of the assume responsibilities.
Korean village in the “Anthropology Makes a Difference” sec- It is important to remember that although women usually
tion of this chapter, Abu-Lughod’s ethnography reveals that have higher status in societies in which there is a matrilineal
Ethnography
T H E M AT R I L I N E A L M I N A N G K A B AU O F S U M AT R A
THAILAND
CAMBODIA S outh
China PHILIPPINES
VIETNAM
S ea
MYANMAR PALAU
INDONESIA
BRUNEI Sumatra
A Y S
A L I A
S M
u
m SINGAPORE
a
t
r
a
Jakarta I N D O N E S I A
PAPUA
Jav a S ea NEW GUINEA
TIMOR- Araf ura S ea
INDIAN OCEAN LESTE
Minangkabau 0 500 mi C oral S ea

0 500 km
AUSTRALIA
FIGURE 9.5 Among the Minangkabau, matrilineages. They own rice land and participate in
decisions regarding life-cycle ceremonies. Residence
matrilineages own houses composed of many
is matrilocal, so their daughters’ husbands move
rooms. The house has a central pillar that is into their houses. Inheritance is matrilineal, so most
identified with the most senior woman. land and property are transmitted from mothers to
daughters.
Leisa Tyler/LightRocket/Getty Images
The big house, or matrihouse (Figure 9.5), is a

central site of Minangkabau social relations and
usually contains an extended family of three or
four generations, including a senior woman, her
daughters, their husbands, and their children. There
are rooms at the back and along one side of the big
house for the mother and her daughters. This side
ends with a kitchen. Much of the rest of the house is
open space for public gatherings and ceremonies.
Each house has a central post located near one end
that is identified with the senior woman, who is
called “the central pillar of the big house.”
The Minangkabau, a rice-growing society in West When a daughter marries, she and her husband move
Sumatra, Indonesia, is one of the few matrilineal into her mother’s big house. Each newly married
Islamic societies in South Asia. In Minangkabau daughter resides with her husband in an annex room
villages, kinship relations and families are organized farthest from the central house post. As younger
around mothers and their daughters and sons. daughters are married, their elder married sisters
Anthropologist Evelyn Blackwood has worked move down the line of rooms toward the central post.
among the Minangkabau since the late 1980s, The oldest woman sleeps in the room next to the
and her work gives us insight into Minangkabau kitchen and central post (Ng, 2006). Sons leave the
culture. Minangkabau women wield both formal house at marriage to move in with their wives, but
and informal power in their families and in their one room next to the kitchen is designated as the
(Continued)
(Continued)
men’s room for any divorced or widowed men forced Boys and girls watch younger siblings, girls help
to return home. their mothers clean the house, and boys tend to small
animals. Unmarried daughters weed the rice fields;
Women dominate the house. Because sons marry out, adult daughters plant, weed, and harvest rice on the
they are not part of the daily life of the house, and family land. Unmarried sons help with the harvest
even senior men take center stage only temporarily and transport unhusked rice to be milled. As senior
when they preside over ceremonies. The conjugal women become elderly, the management of the
unit of husband and wife is a subsidiary unit within household falls more to their daughters, as do the
the matrilineal extended family, and husbands are work and supervision of the rice fields.
peripheral to household affairs. They are most often
away during the day working and return to the house Although married sons are not present in the daily
only in the evenings. life of the matrihouse, they remain kinsmen and have
responsibilities and obligations that are contingent
The composition of a matrihouse varies: It may on their age and rank. Sons maintain a strong
contain a several-generation extended family or be interest in and support for their natal kin group, and
a two-generation household of adult women (that is, a son’s cooperation with his mother helps ensure
a mother and recently married daughter). Mother– her continued support of his interests. A mother
daughter relations are the key to the composition of displeased with her son may take back some rice land
a matrihouse. Matrihouses endure from generation she has given him or refuse him the right to return
to generation as daughters are born, marry, bear to the house after a divorce. Apart from practical
children, and eventually become senior women considerations, a man feels emotionally tied to his
themselves. When there are many daughters, those mother. Young unmarried Minangkabau men who
daughters and their descendants who cannot be work for wages in other parts of Indonesia usually
accommodated within the matrihouse may split and send home some of their wages to their mothers.
establish their own houses, often close by. Thus, over These filial obligations last throughout a man’s
generations, matrihouses may develop into clusters lifetime. Even after marriage, a son remains part of
of houses of related kinswomen. the matrilineal family with a voice in family matters
and even substantial influence if he has proven a
Matrilineal inheritance of property is key to female reliable helper to the matrihouse.
power in the household. Women have rights as
heirs to and controllers of matrilineal property. Most Sons-in-law, unlike sons, are peripheral to the
property passes from mother to daughters. Mothers matrihouse. In the past, a son-in-law was only a
give land to their daughters after the daughters temporary resident in his wife’s family house,
marry, and each daughter receives an equal share of visiting at night and returning to his mother’s house
land (Chadwick, 1991). Daughters decide how to use in the morning. Although husbands are now more
this land and what to do with its produce. Sons may permanent parts of their wives’ houses, they are still
be given usage rights to land if land is available and regarded as honored but relatively insecure guests
their mothers are willing to help them out, but they rather than as part of the family. Husbands provide
cannot pass matrilineal land on to their children. additional labor, land, or income to the household
but do not participate in decision making in their
The members of a matrihouse share resources wives’ lineage affairs. Husbands are expected to have
in complex ways, guided by the high value the their own source of income through agricultural
Minangkabau place on cooperation and assistance or wage labor, which they usually use for expenses
among kin as well as on their belief that those who associated with raising their children. Men have
earn an income have some rights over how to dispose discretion in spending their income but are subject
of it. A family’s main income comes from the rice to strong pressure to be good providers for their
land belonging to the matrihouse and is used to pay wives’ families.
for common household needs. In some matrihouses,
mother and daughters share the produce of their The duty to provide material assistance to both
undivided rice fields. Women may also have access his own matrilineage and his wife’s family creates
to their own income, either from their husbands, tensions for men. Mothers and sisters feel they
through their own labor, or from small-scale have a right to make claims to a man’s income,
businesses, and they may use some of this income for but so do their wives, and there are no set rules for
joint projects benefiting the matrihouse. dividing income between these contenders. Men also
maintain enduring ties with their children, even after
The senior woman manages the household, and all divorce or remarriage. This, too, may cause tension as
matrihouse members are expected to contribute men are pulled between leaving their assets to their
some form of unpaid labor or cash to the household. own children or to their sisters’ children.
The matrilineal orientation of the Minangkabau Critical Thinking Questions

conflicts with the patrilineal and patriarchal
1. What are the sources of women’s power among
orientation of other ideologies to which the
the Minangkabau?
Minangkabau are subjected. In the 19th century,
Dutch colonialists attempted to put land in men’s 2. What are the most important male and female
hands, consistent with Western ideals. In most roles in Minangkabau society?
places in Indonesia, men are heads of households
and women are dependent caretakers of home and 3. Compare the sources of conflict in a matrilineal
family. This is further reinforced by Islam, and almost society like the Minangkabau with those in a
90% of Indonesians are Muslims. Participation in patrilineal society.
the capitalist global economy may also favor men
and support the movement from female to male Source: Evelyn Blackwood, Webs of Power: Women, Kin, and
dominance in families. Despite these influences, Community in a Sumatran Village. New York: Rowman &
however, a matrilineal ideology and its associated Littlefield, 2000.
practices continue to hold a dominant place in
Minangkabau life.
authority and respect. His heirs and successors are his sis-
FIGURE 9.6 A matrilineal descent group. ter’s children rather than his own. One result of this is that
In a society with matrilineal descent groups, the relationship between a man and his son is likely to be
membership in the group is defined by links affectionate and loving because it is free of the problems of
through the mother (shown here in green). Sons authority and control that exist between fathers and sons in
and daughters are members of their mother’s a patrilineal society. A man may feel emotionally close to his
descent group, as are the children of daughters, sons, but he is committed to passing on his knowledge, prop-
but not the children of sons. erty, and offices to the sons of his sister. They are subject to
his control, and because of this he may have less friendly and
––
more formal relations or even conflicts with them. Thus, in a
matrilineal system, a man’s loyalties are split between his own
sons and the sons of his sister; in a patrilineal system, this ten-
sion does not occur as part of the kinship structure.
–– ––
Double Descent
When descent is traced through a combination of matri-
–– –– –– –– lineal and patrilineal principles, the system is referred to as
double descent. Double descent systems occur in only 5% of
the world’s cultures. In these societies, a person belongs both
to the patrilineal group of the father and to the matrilineal
group of the mother, but these descent groups operate in dif-
ferent areas of life.
The Yako of Nigeria have a system of double descent
(Forde, 1950). Cooperation in daily domestic life is stron-
reckoning of descent rather than a patrilineal one, matrilin- gest among patrilineally related kinsmen, who live near
eality is not the same as matriarchy, in which women hold the one another and who jointly control and farm plots of land.
formal positions of power. With a few possible exceptions (see Membership in the patrilineage is the source of rights over
A. Wallace, 1970), the most important resources and highest farmland and forest products. Membership in the men’s asso-
political positions in matrilineal societies are in the control ciations and the right to fruit trees are also inherited through
of males. The critical difference is that the fathers do not hold the male line. The arbitration of disputes is in the hands of
power, but rather brothers and uncles do. senior members of the patrilineage.
The role of mother’s brother is one of great importance Matrilineal bonds and clan membership are also import-
in matrilineal societies. In a family, this man is the figure of ant in Yako society, even though matrilineage members do
land or other resources. Rather, it is a network of relations.

FIGURE 9.7 Matrilineal societies such as the With the exception of brothers and sisters, in a bilateral sys-
Navajo emphasize consanguineal relationships in tem, every individual’s kindred is different from that of every
the female line. In this picture, taken at a December other individual. For example, your set of relations is differ-
2017 powwow in Denver, a Navajo family prepares ent from your cousin’s set of relations or from the relations of
for a dance. Leanne Anthony-Portalita arranges the your stepsibling or half-sibling.
headband of her daughter, Dina Anthony, while her Because they are focused around siblings and parents but
husband, Alton Portalita, fixes Dina’s mantle. Notice provide connections to large numbers of different kinds of
that Dina carries her mother’s surname rather than relations, bilateral kinship systems appear to be particularly
her father’s. adaptive in societies in which mobility and independence are
important. They are basic to most current-day industrial and
postindustrial societies, and they predominate among forag-
Joe Amon/Contributor/Getty Images
ing societies as well.

In an ambilineal descent system, individuals choose
to affiliate with either their mother’s or their father’s descent
group, but not simultaneously with both. Ambilineal descent
is found in many Pacific Island societies. In these societies,
when a couple is married, they can choose to live with and
identify with either spouse’s descent group. Which descent
group a couple chooses depends on a variety of factors. The
most important of these is access to land, which is a resource
in particularly short supply on many Pacific Islands and that
might be available only through either the father’s or mother’s
family. However, friendships and politics also play important
not live near one another and do not cooperate as a group roles in the choice.
in everyday activities. Rights in the transfer of accumulated
wealth such as currency and livestock, but not land, belong The Classification of Kin
to the matrilineal kinship group. Women’s movable property
passes to their daughters. Matrilineages are responsible for In all societies, kin are referred to by special terms. In our
the debts of their kin, for making loans to one another at rea- society, brother, mother, uncle, and cousin are examples of
sonable rates, and for providing part of the bridewealth trans- such terms. In a kinship system, some relatives are differenti-
ferred at the marriage of a sister’s son. The members of the ated from each other (called by different terms) and some are
matrilineage supervise funerals and arrange for the disposal classed together (called by the same kinship term). For exam-
of the personal property of the dead. Additionally, there are ple, you probably differentiate your brother from your sister,
specific religious offices held by matrilineage members. but cousins are classed together regardless of sex. Kinship sys-
Thus, for the Yako, paternity and maternity play import- tems vary in the degree to which they have different kinship
ant complementary roles. Everyone inherits different terms for different relatives. Some kinship systems have only
nonoverlapping rights, obligations, and benefits through a small number of kinship terms, but others have a different
maternal and paternal lines. term for almost every relative.
The ways in which kin are classified are associated with
the roles they play in society. If a person refers to his father
Nonunilineal Kinship Systems and his father’s brothers by the same term, the social roles he
plays with respect to these individuals will tend to be similar.
About 40% of the world’s societies have nonunilineal descent By the same token, if he uses one term to refer to his father
and use both the mother’s and father’s lines to reckon kinship. and another to refer to his father’s brothers, there will prob-
These systems are divided into bilateral and ambilineal descent. ably be a difference in behavior as well. For example, in U.S.
In systems of bilateral descent, an individual is consid- society, a mother-in-law and a mother’s brother’s wife (an
ered to be related equally to both their mother’s and father’s aunt) are both relations by marriage. However, only one of
families. Both maternal and paternal lines are used in reckon- them is distinguished terminologically. Mother-in-law is
ing descent—in establishing the rights and obligations of kin- always distinguished from mother. Your aunt is your aunt,
ship. The people linked by bilateral kin networks are called a whether she is your mother’s sister or your mother’s brother’s
kindred. A kindred is not a corporate group. It does not own wife. Given this, an anthropologist would expect from that
your behavior toward your mother would be different from The principle of relative age, an aspect of hierarchy, is criti-
that toward your mother-in-law but that you would behave cal in the Indian kinship. A man uses different terms to refer to
the same toward your mother’s sister and your mother’s his father’s elder brothers (tau) and his father’s younger broth-
brother’s wife. Of course, although kinship terms correspond ers (chacha), and this carries over to his father’s brothers’ wives;
with behavioral expectations, actual behavior is modified by his father’s elder brothers’ wives are tai and his father’s younger
individual personality differences and special circumstances. brothers’ wives are chachi. This terminological difference
Understanding kinship classification systems is not just reflects the respect attached to seniority. Out of respect for
an interesting anthropological game. Kinship classification is the principle of hierarchy, it is still common for many North
one of the important regulators of behavior in most societies, Indian women to cover their hair, if not their faces, in the pres-
outlining each person’s rights and obligations and specify- ence of both the father-in-law and the husband’s elder brother.
ing the ways in which people should act toward each other. The principle of differentiating the mother’s side from
Kinship classification systems are also related to other aspects the father’s side of the family is known as bifurcation and is
of culture, such as the types of social groups that are formed, absent in most North American kinship terminology. In
the systems of marriage and inheritance, and even deeper North India, the father’s brothers and the mother’s brothers
and broader cultural values. are called by different terms, as are the father’s and moth-
er’s parents. These distinctions reflect the Indian principle
Comparing Kin Classification of respect and formality associated with the male side of the
family and the more open show of affection permitted with
in North India and the United States the maternal side of the family.
Nanda, (one of the authors of this text) is an American The Indian principles of hierarchy and patrilineality
woman married to a North Indian man. After her marriage, feature again in the higher status accorded the family of the
her husband’s family instructed her on how to behave with husband’s relatives. Kinship terminology reflects this unequal
various relatives. Her relationship with her husband’s brothers status in many ways. For example, most Americans would
and their wives is regulated by the principle of seniority. Her call a man’s wife’s brother and a man’s sister’s husband by a
husband’s elder brother is her jait, and his wife is her jaitani. single term: brother-in-law. In North India, the wife’s brother
She must treat both of them with deference, similar to that is sala but a sister’s husband is jija. A jija is treated with great
shown to her father-in-law, by adding the suffix -ji to their respect, whereas a wife’s brother may be treated more ambiv-
kinship terms, touching their feet when she meets them, and alently and may be the target of jokes.
refraining from using their first names. But her husband’s Cultural rules structure relations between kin in North
younger brother, who is her deva, and his wife, who is her India. But their functions in guiding behavior, just like their
devrani, may be treated with the friendly informality more functions in succession and inheritance, may be resisted and
characteristic of sister and brother-in-law relations in the manipulated in response to pragmatic interest, social circum-
United States. On her trips to India, she can greet her hus- stances, and emotion. Contesting claims over family prop-
band’s younger brother with an embrace and talk with him erty may lead to alliances within the family that contrast with
in a joking, familiar manner, but she must never embrace her cultural rules about seniority and patriarchal power. Family
husband’s elder brother, even though she feels equally friendly crises such as illness also may direct the flow of resources in
toward him and likes him equally well. Notice that the dif- directions not delineated by and even in opposition to kinship.
ference in her behavior reflects the different terms for these As a close examination of kinship in any society reveals,
relatives. our understanding of culture and society must be based
Northern Indians have many more kinship terms and not just on people’s notions about ideal behavior but also on
distinguish many more kinds of relations than do most the real strategies people use to negotiate life’s contingencies.
Americans. Americans generally distinguish about 22 dif- “The Global and the Local” feature at the end of this chapter
ferent kinds of kin, but Northern Indians distinguish 45. relates some of the ways in which global migration has altered
Thus, the North Indian system distinguishes several kinds the realities of kinship relations among many immigrant
of kin that North Americans group together. This reflects the communities.
greater flexibility in behavior toward kin that is acceptable in In addition to informing us about the behavior of peo-
North America (Figure 9.8). ple in other societies, the study of kinship systems relates to
The North Indian kin system reflects two principles a fundamental point of anthropology. Most Americans con-
absent in the system most Americans use: relative age and sider it normal and natural to use our kin system. We “natu-
differentiating the mother’s from the father’s family. These rally” call our parents’ brothers and sisters aunt and uncle and
principles reflect the central importance of hierarchy and their children cousins. We feel that this represents an obvious
patrilineality in North Indian society (Figure 9.9). underlying biological reality and find it hard to understand
FIGURE 9.8 Kinship classification of North India: Terms of reference from a male’s perspective. (Note:
There is no term for a man’s nieces and nephews on his wife’s side. They are referred to descriptively as wife’s
sister’s daughters or sons.) Not shown on the diagram are the terms a wife uses for her husband’s sister, her
husband’s sister’s husband, her husband’s elder brother, her husband’s elder brother’s wife, her husband’s
younger brother, and her husband’s younger brother’s wife, which adds six terms to the 39 used by a male to
describe his kin.
–
– –
–
Dada Dadi Nana Nani
–
– –
– –
– –
– –
– –
– –
–
Phupad Bhua Tai Tau Chachi Chacha Pita Mata Mama Mami Mama Mami Masi Masad
(elder (younger
brother) brother) –
–
Sasur Sas
–
– –
– –
– –
– –
– –
–
Jija Bhen Bhabi Bhai Bhabi Bhai Ego Boti Sali Sandhu Sala Salahar
(younger (elder
brother) brother)
–
– –
– –
– –
– –
– –
– –
– –
–
Bhanja Bhanji Bhatija Bhatiji Nu Putr Putri Ja
Wai
Dota Doti Dota Doti
how other people could use different systems. We tend to

FIGURE 9.9 Indian families such as this one (which ignore questions our system raises, such as why we use the
is not Nanda’s) have many more kinship terms than same word for our mother’s sister and our mother’s brother’s
most American families. North Indian kinship wife, or why we don’t use separate terms for male and female
terms distinguish relative age and differentiate cousins but we do differentiate nieces from nephews. These
between the mother’s and father’s family. discrepancies point to a basic fact: Kinship systems use terms
that seem to be based in biology, but they are social systems,
pixelfusion3d/Getty Images
not biological ones. The systems other societies use feel as

natural to their members as ours does to us.
Principles for Classifying Kin

Kinship can be described using a series of abstract, logical
principles. The combination of these principles results in
kinship systems that are extremely logical yet very different
from our own. Societies differ in the categories of relatives
they distinguish and the principles by which kin are classi-
fied. To understand the rules for using kin terms in any soci-
ety, we must first establish the position of the individual from
whose perspective the system is seen. We refer to this person Side of the Family Some societies use a kinship system
as “Ego.” You are Ego when you describe your family. You in which kin terms distinguish between relatives from the
may say something like, “I have three siblings, two aunts, and mother’s side of the family and those from the father’s side.
two uncles on my mother’s side.” If you were to do the same This principle is called bifurcation. As we saw previously,
thing from your cousin’s perspective, then he or she would be this principle is used in North Indian society but not usually
Ego. Once we have established Ego, we can use the following in our own.
seven principles to examine how different categories of kin Sex of Linking Relative In societies that distinguish lin-
are grouped and distinguished. eal from collateral relatives, the sex of the linking relative may
Generation The generation principle distinguishes also be important. A linking relative is an individual related
ascending and descending generations from Ego. In U.S. to you consanguineously who connects you to another rela-
society, you, your brothers and sisters, and the children of tive. For example, if your mother’s sister has children, you are
your parents’ brothers and sisters are members of the same linked to those children through your mother’s sister. If your
generation. Your parents and their brothers and sisters mother’s brother has children, you are linked to those chil-
(as well as the spouses of those brothers and sisters) are dren through your mother’s brother. When the sex of your
members of the ascending generation. Your children, as well parent and the linking relative are the same (mother’s sis-
as those of your siblings and cousins, are members of the ter or father’s brother), the children to whom you are linked
descending generation. It is important to understand that are known as parallel cousins. If the sex of your parent and
generation is different from age. It is not unusual for some the linking relative are different (mother’s brother or father’s
members of your parents’ generation to be the same age as sister), the children to whom you are linked are known as
some members of your generation, or even younger. your cross-cousins. In many societies (though not for most
Relative Age A kinship system that uses the relative age Americans), people use different kin terms for parallel and
principle has different kinship terms for family members cross-cousins. These cousins are often further distinguished
who are older than oneself and family members who are by whether the linking relative is from the matrilineal or
younger than oneself. The requirement who Nanda distin- patrilineal line. This is particularly important in societies
guish between her husband’s older brother (her jait) and her where Ego is prohibited from marrying a parallel cousin but
husband’s younger brother (her deva) is an example of this. may—or even must—marry a cross-cousin.
Most U.S. kinship terminology does not use this principle.
Lineality Versus Collaterality Kin related in a single Types of Kinship Systems
unbroken line, such as grandfather–father–son, are called
lineal kin. Collateral kin are the siblings of these people The seven principles just listed are combined to form six
and their descendants. In U.S. society, this includes broth- different systems of kinship. Lewis Henry Morgan first
ers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins as well as many other described these systems in the 19th century. With one excep-
categories. In many societies, collaterality is not always dis- tion, he gave them the names of Native American groups:
tinguished by kinship terminology. Ego may refer to both his Hawaiian, Eskimo, Iroquois, Omaha, Crow, and Sudanese.
father and his father’s brother as father. Both his mother and In some cases, these names reflect 19th-century terminology.
her sisters may similarly be called mother. For example, even though the Eskimo call themselves Inuit,
Gender Kinship systems that use the principle of gender we still talk about Eskimo kinship terminology. Although the
have different kin terms for people of different genders. In groups that Morgan identified do use the kin terminology he
U.S. kinship, some kinship terms differentiate by gender, such associated with them, Morgan hoped to create a system to
as aunt, uncle, and brother; the term cousin, however, does not classify all the world’s peoples. So, for example, the Iroquois
differentiate by gender. In some other cultures, all kinship use the Iroquois kin system, but so do the Yanomamö, a
terms distinguish gender. South American group; some villages in rural China; and
Consanguineal Versus Affinal Kin People related to many other groups around the world.
Ego by descent (consanguinity) are distinguished from Systems of kinship terminology reflect the kinds of kin
those related by marriage (affinal kin). For example, groups that are most important in a society. Each of these sys-
English kinship terminology distinguishes sister from sis- tems is described briefly. You will find that careful attention
ter-in-law, father from father-in-law, and so on. The English to the accompanying diagrams will help you understand the
word uncle, however, does not distinguish between consan- descriptions:
guineal and affinal relationships; it is applied equally to the Hawaiian As its name suggests, the Hawaiian system
brother of one’s father or mother and to the husband of one’s is found in Polynesia. It uses the fewest kinship terms of
father’s or mother’s sister. any of the systems. The Hawaiian system emphasizes the
distinctions between generations and reflects the equality

between the mother’s and the father’s sides of the family. All FIGURE 9.10 Hawaiian kinship. The primary
relatives of the same generation and sex—for example, father, distinctions in Hawaiian kinship are between
father’s brother, and mother’s brother—are referred to by the men and women and between generations. All
same kinship term. Male and female kin in Ego’s generation members of Ego’s generation are designated by
are distinguished in the terminology, but the terms for sister the same terms Ego uses for brother and sister.
and brother are the same as those for the children of one’s All members of Ego’s parents’ generation are
parents’ siblings (Figure 9.10). This system correlates with designated by the same terms Ego uses for mother
ambilineality and ambilocality, which means that depending and father.
on circumstances and choice, a person may belong to and live
with either their mother’s or father’s descent group. Using the –
– –
– –
– –
– –
–
same terms for parents and their siblings establishes closeness A B A B A B B A A B
with many relatives in the ascending generation, giving Ego a
wide choice in deciding which group to affiliate and live with.
Eskimo Eskimo terminology, found among hunt- C D C D C Ego D C D C D
ing-and-gathering peoples in North America and in many
current industrial and postindustrial societies, is correlated
with bilateral descent. The Eskimo system singles out the
nuclear family and treats more distant kin more or less
FIGURE 9.11 Eskimo kinship. A critical
equally. It uses specialized terms for nuclear family mem-
distinction in Eskimo kinship is between lineal
bers (mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son). Outside the
and collateral relations. Ego uses one set of terms
nuclear family, many kinds of relatives that are distinguished
to refer to lineal relations (A, B, C, and D) and a
in other systems are lumped together (Figure 9.11).
second set to refer to collateral relations
Iroquois The Iroquois system is associated with matri-
(E, F, and G).
lineal or double descent and emphasizes the importance
of unilineal descent groups. In this system, the same term
–– –– –– –– ––
is used for mother and mother’s sister, and a common term
F E F E A B E F F E
also applies to father and father’s brother. Parallel cousins are
referred to by the same terms as those for brother and sister.
Father’s sister and mother’s brother are distinguished from
other kin, as are the children of father’s sister and mother’s G G G G C Ego D G G G G
brother (Ego’s cross-cousins) (Figure 9.12).
Omaha The Omaha system is found among patrilin-
eal peoples, including the Native Americans whose name position of Ego in relation to these kin. Generational differ-
it bears. In this system, the same term is used for father and ences are important on the father’s side because members of
father’s brother and for mother and mother’s sister. Parallel the ascending generation are likely to have some authority
cousins are equated with siblings, but cross-cousins are over Ego (as his father does) and be treated differently from
referred to by separate terms. A man refers to his brother’s patrilineage members of Ego’s own generation. The mother’s
children by the same terms he applies to his own children, patrilineage is unimportant to Ego in this system, and this is
but he refers to his sister’s children by different terms. These reflected by the use of the same kin terms for members of dif-
terms are extended to all relations who are classified as Ego’s ferent generations on the mother’s side.
brothers and sisters (Figure 9.13). In this system, there is a Crow The Crow system, named for the Crow Indians of
merging of generations on the mother’s side. All men who are North America, is the matrilineal equivalent of the Omaha
members of Ego’s mother’s patrilineage will be called moth- system. This means that the relations on the male side (Ego’s
er’s brother regardless of their age or generational relation- father’s matrilineage) are lumped together, whereas genera-
ship to Ego. Thus, the term applied to mother’s brother is also tional differences are recognized in the mother’s matrilineal
applied to the son of mother’s brother. group (Figure 9.14). In both the Omaha and Crow systems,
This generational merging is not applied to relations on the overriding importance of lineality leads to the subordina-
the father’s side. Although father and his brothers are referred tion of other principles of classifying kin, such as relative age
to by the same term, this does not extend to the descending or generation.
generation. The different terminology applied to the father’s Sudanese No North American groups use Morgan’s
and the mother’s patrilineal groups reflects the different final kinship system, so he named it Sudanese after the
FIGURE 9.12 Iroquois kinship. The

Iroquois system is found in societies –– –– –– –– –
–
with unilineal descent. It distinguishes C A A B B D
mother’s side of the family (B and D) from
father’s side of the family (A and C) and
cross-cousins (G and H) from parallel
cousins (E and F). G H E F E Ego F E F G H
FIGURE 9.13 Omaha kinship. The Omaha is a bifurcate merging system found among patrilineal people.
Like the Iroquois system, it merges father and father’s brother and mother and mother’s sister. However,
in addition, the Omaha system merges generation on the mother’s side. So, men who are members of Ego’s
mother’s patrilineage are referred to by the same term as for mother’s brother, regardless of age or generation.
–– –– –– –– ––
C A A B B D
–– –– –– –– ––
G H E F E Ego F E F D B
J I J I G H D B E F
FIGURE 9.14 Crow kinship. The Crow system is similar to the Omaha but is found among
matrilineal people. Like the Omaha and Iroquois, it merges father with father’s brother and mother
with mother’s sister. However, unlike the Omaha, it merges generation on the father’s side so that all
women who are members of the father’s matrilineage are referred to with the term for father’s sister,
regardless of age or generation.
–– –– –– –– ––
D A A B
–– –– –– ––
A D E F E Ego F E F G H
African groups (primarily in Ethiopia) who do use it. cross-cousins. Ego refers to his or her parents by terms
It is also used in some places in Turkey and was used in distinct from those for father’s brother, father’s sister,
ancient Rome. Sudanese is the most descriptive termi- mother’s sister, and mother’s brother (Figure 9.15). The
nology system and uses different terms for practically groups using Sudanese kinship tend to be strongly patri-
every relative: siblings, paternal parallel cousins, mater- lineal and very concerned with issues of wealth, class, and
nal parallel cousins, paternal cross-cousins, and maternal political power.
FIGURE 9.15 Sudanese kinship. The

Sudanese system occurs most frequently –– –– –– –– ––
in societies with substantial hierarchy and K L M N O P Q R S T
distinction of class. It includes a separate
term for each type of relative.
C D E F A Ego B G H I J
The great variety of kinship terminologies under- terms leaves the way open for flexibility in choosing one’s
scores the fact that kinship systems reflect social rela- descent group.
tionships and are not based simply on biological relations Anthropologists study kinship as one piece in under-
between people. Each type of classification emphasizes the standing the different worlds of meaning as well as the eco-
most important kinship groupings and relationships in logical, economic, and political conditions under which
the societies that use it. Thus, the Eskimo system empha- families and societies exist. Kinship has become a frame-
sizes the importance of the nuclear family, setting it apart work for examining a wide range of studies, including new
from more distant relations on the maternal and paternal family forms such as domestic partnerships, new reproduc-
sides. The Iroquois, Omaha, and Crow systems, found tive technologies, mobility within family genealogies, and
in unilineal societies, emphasize the importance of lin- gender relations in both colonial and contemporary societ-
eage and clan. In the Hawaiian system, the simplicity of ies. We will take up some of these topics in the next chapter.

T R A N S M I G R ATI O N A N D K I N S H I P
Kinship relations are an important factor in almost 9%, and by 2015, it was more than 13% (Pew
the migration of people across state borders—a Research Center, 2015b).
significant dimension of globalization. The
importance of kinship in this process is apparent There are important differences between
in the criteria by which immigration rights and immigration today and immigration 100 years ago.
citizenship are granted in most nations of the world. In the past, most immigrants more or less severed
In the United States, the priority of kinship and the ties with kin who stayed behind. Travel was difficult
cultural importance of bilateral kin relations are and expensive. The only way most kin could keep
basic to immigration policy. In 1965, 1978, and 1990, in contact was by letters. Immigrants today live in
new immigration laws abolished the discriminatory a world where communication by telephone, e-mail,
national origins quota system of the 1920s and and the Internet is abundant, relatively simple,
emphasized family reunification. The current and inexpensive. Air travel is within the reach
preference system, which gives highest priority to of the middle and working classes. Thus, many
members of the nuclear family, indicates U.S. cultural immigrants, especially those from nearby areas such
priorities and reflects U.S. bilateral kinship: First as the Caribbean, are able to retain much closer
preference is given to spouses and married and social and economic ties with family members and
unmarried sons and daughters and their children. A cultures in their homelands than was previously
lower preference is given to brothers and sisters, their possible. This pattern of close ties and frequent
spouses, and their children. visits by immigrants to their home countries is
called transnationalism.
Immigration policies that make it easier for kin to
come to the United States as well as high levels of The term transmigrant refers to immigrants who
illegal immigration (often to join family members) maintain close relations with their home countries
have led to a large foreign-born population in the (Glick-Schiller et al., 1995). Transmigrants move
country. In 1970, less than 5% of the U.S. population culture, money, and information around the world
was foreign born. By 1994, that number had risen to rapidly, often through kin networks. The substantial
amounts of money migrants send to their families been an important factor in business success. More
back home are critical in the economies of many than 90% of new immigrant businesses in the San
nations and, by extension, in the global economy. Francisco Bay Area are family firms, initiated and
According to a 2017 report from the International built on family resources and kinship networks. As
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), these firms grow, the family may depend on fictive
immigrants around the world sent more than $445 kinship, incorporating people from the same village
billion to their home countries in 2016. The IFAD or those with the same last name but no known
(2017) estimates that between 2015 and 2030, relationship (Wong, 1988). Things are changing,
immigrants in wealthy nations will have sent $6.5 however. The social networks of newer successful
trillion back to their nations of origin. According Chinese immigrant professionals in the high-tech
to the United Nations, remittances sent home by businesses of Silicon Valley have become more
immigrants support more than 750 million people like those of other Americans. Kinship and village
worldwide (United Nations 2017a, 2017b). In 2016, networks are giving way to professional organizations,
over $138 billion was sent from the United States nonrelated friends, political organizations, and
alone (Pew Research Center, 2018). This figure was transnational business partners (Wong, 2006).
more than five times the total U.S. budget for foreign
economic and development aid. (Bearak & Gamio, Kinship networks continue to be important for many
2016). In some cases, remittances play a significant immigrant groups. However, the Chinese in Silicon
role in national budgets. For example, in Nepal, Valley indicate that as immigrant situations change,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Liberia, and Haiti, remittances the previous emphasis on kinship networks as a
in 2016 were equivalent to more than a quarter of each source of support may give way to or be balanced by
nation’s total economic output (DeSilver 2018). Money other relationships.
sent home by migrants offers assistance for those
kin left behind both in their domestic lives and in the Key Questions
building of communities. However, it also leaves these 1. What are some important connections between
relatives vulnerable to changes in the global economy. kinship and transmigration?
Kinship ties have also long been an important route 2. Discuss how your own kinship relations (or those
for social networking and earning a living in a new of a recent immigrant or child of immigrants
country. Among Chinese immigrants to the United whom you know) function in both a global and a
States, for example, pooling resources with kin has local context.
SUMMARY
1. What does kinship system refer to and why is it import- the male or female line. In societies with bilateral descent,
ant? Kinship system refers to the relationships based on group membership is based on both male and female lines.
descent and marriage that link people in a web of rights
4. How are the contradictions between the prescriptions
and obligations, the groups formed in a society based on
of kinship systems and the realities of life exemplified by
such rights and obligations, and the terms used to classify
Pine Tree, Korea? Kinship systems are social rules, but
different kin. Kinship is one of the major ways societies are
individual circumstances, personalities, and family his-
organized and plays an important role in our own society.
tory may modify them. In the Pine Tree example, Sungjo,
2. What are the functions of a kinship system? Kinship the son of one individual, should have had rights to the
provides continuity between generations, provides for ancestral land. However, the daughter of Sungjo’s older
the orderly transmission of property and social position brother, whose family had sacrificed to send Sungjo to
between generations, and defines a universe of others school, refused to surrender the rights. The case pitted
upon whom a person can depend for aid. the obligation to follow the kin rules against the debt
owed by Sungjo. This matter was not easily settled.
3. What is a descent group and what is the difference
between unilineal and bilateral descent? A descent group 5. What is a lineage and how does it relate to a descent
is a group of people who understand themselves as simi- group? A lineage is a group of kin whose members can
lar because they share ancestry. In societies with a unilin- trace their descent from a common ancestor. In unilineal
eal descent, descent group membership is based on either systems of descent, lineage membership is based either
on patrilineage, which is descent through the male line, mother. Each group functions in different social contexts.
or on matrilineage, which is descent through the female The Yako of Nigeria have a system of double descent.
line, but not both.
11. What is bilateral descent and what are its central character-
6. What are the central dynamics that characterize patri- istics? In bilateral systems, an individual is equally related
lineal kinship systems? In patrilineal systems, a man’s to their mother’s kin and father’s kin. This results in the for-
children belong to his lineage, as do the children mation of overlapping kinship networks called kindreds.
of his sons but not of his daughters; husbands have Kindreds connect large numbers of people with loose kin
strong control over wives and children; and the com- bonds. This highly flexible system is found predominantly
mon economic interests of brothers is a major feature among foragers and in industrial and postindustrial states.
of the society. Patrilineality is often associated with
patrilocality. 12. What are some of the principles used to categorize rel-
atives in different systems of kinship terminology?
7. How do the Nuer demonstrate both the dynamics of Kinship terminologies group together or distinguish
some kinds of patrilineality and the continuing rel- relatives according to generation, relative age, lineality or
evance of anthropology? Politics for the Nuer oper- collaterality, sex, consanguinity or affinity, bifurcation,
ates through kinship. There is no central government. and sex of the linking relative. Different societies may use
Rather, people are members of lineage, clan, and high- all or some of these principles. For example, the U.S. kin-
er-level groups. This is called a segmentary lineage sys- ship terminology does not distinguish relative age, nor
tem. Such systems suppress disputes at the level of the does it distinguish the mother’s from the father’s side of
family but tend to expand them at higher levels. This the family, as is done in North India.
anthropological analysis helps explain current-day
13. What are the six major types of kinship classification
instability in South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia—
systems and what do such systems reveal about a soci-
regions where wars are caused by politics and econom-
ety? The six major systems of kinship classification are
ics but fought along kinship lines.
the Hawaiian, Eskimo, Iroquois, Omaha, Crow, and
8. What are the central dynamics that characterize matri- Sudanese. Because kinship is a principal organizing
lineal kinship systems? In matrilineal systems, a woman’s structure in many societies and because using differ-
children belong to her lineage, not that of their father. ent kin terms reflects different behaviors expected
The mother’s brother has authority over his sister’s chil- toward different types of relatives, understanding kin
dren, and relations between husband and wife are more systems helps anthropologists understand important
fragile than in patrilineal societies. Matrilineality is often aspects of social organization and behavior in differ-
associated with matrilocality. ent societies.
9. How does Minangkabau matrilineal kinship illustrate 14. What roles does kinship play in immigration and
female power in society? Women are the property own- transmigration? Kin relationships have been crit-
ers in Minangkabau society. They are the “central pillars” ical in gaining access to immigration rights in many
of their houses and control family land, which is divided countries and have also played key roles in helping
evenly among daughters as they marry. Minangkabau immigrants successfully adapt to their new homes.
men live in the homes of their wives and contribute to But as the social status of immigrants changes, the
these homes. However, their primary influence is in the importance of kin might also change. For example,
families of their sisters. among Chinese immigrants in the San Francisco Bay
Area, kinship was historically very important, but
10. What is double descent and how does it function? In sys- among contemporary Chinese professionals, occupa-
tems of double descent, the individual belongs to both tional organizations and other nonkin networks play
the patrilineage of the father and the matrilineage of the increasingly large roles.

1. Anthropologists have long been interested in kinship, 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of social
especially in societies without centralized government. organization through unilineal or bilateral kinship?
Why should this be the case? Are there particular circumstances in which societies
organized by one might have an advantage over societies who are not biological kin. For example, we may call
organized by the other? a Catholic nun sister. What does it mean when we do
this?
3. Describe the position of women in patrilineal and matri-
lineal families and the difference between a matrilineal 5. Most Americans address their family members using
society and a matriarchal society. the Eskimo kinship system. Is this system adequate to
a society with frequent divorce, remarriage, and both
4. Assess the relationship between kinship terms and formal and informal adoption? Are any new kin terms
behavior. In our society, we extend kin terms to many emerging?
KE Y TE RM S
affinal 221 double descent 217 matrilineal descent 210

ambilineal descent 218 exogamy 211 nonunilineal descent 218
bifurcation 221 inheritance 210 parallel cousins 221
bilateral descent 210 kindred 218 patrilineage 211
clan 211 kinship 209 patrilineal descent 210
collateral kin 221 kinship system 209 segmentary lineage system 213
consanguineal 221 kinship terminology 219 succession 210
cross-cousins 221 lineage 211 transmigrant 224
descent 210 lineal kin 221 transnationalism 224
descent group 210 matrilineage 211 unilineal descent 210
G LO S SARY
affinal Relatives by marriage; in-laws. double descent The tracing of descent through both
matrilineal and patrilineal links, each of which is used for
ambilineal descent A form of bilateral descent in which different purposes.
an individual may choose to affiliate with either their
father’s or mother’s descent group. exogamy A rule specifying that a person must marry
outside a particular group.
bifurcation A principle of classifying kin under which
different kinship terms are used for the mother’s side of inheritance The transfer of property between generations.
the family and the father’s side of the family.
kindred A unique kin network made up of all the people
bilateral descent System of descent under which related to a specific individual in a bilateral kinship
individuals are equally affiliated with their mother’s and system.
their father’s descent group.
clan A unilineal kinship group whose members believe kinship A culturally defined relationship established on
themselves to be descended from a common ancestor but the basis of descent ties or formed through marriage.
who cannot trace this link through known relatives.
kinship system The totality of kin relations, kin groups,
collateral kin Kin descended from a common ancestor and terms for classifying kin in a society.
but not in a direct ascendant or descendant line, such as
siblings and cousins. kinship terminology The words used to identify
consanguineal Describes relations by descent. different categories of kin in a particular culture.
cross-cousins The children of a parent’s siblings of the lineage A group of kin whose members trace descent
opposite sex (mother’s brothers, father’s sisters). from a known common ancestor.
descent The culturally established affiliation between a
lineal kin Kin related in a single unbroken line, such as
child and one or both parents.
grandfather–father–son.
descent group A group of kin who are descendants of a
common ancestor, extending beyond two generations. matrilineage A lineage formed by descent in the female line.
matrilineal descent A rule that affiliates a person to kin segmentary lineage system A form of sociopolitical
of both sexes through females only. organization in which multiple descent groups (usually
patrilineages) form at different levels and function in
matrilocal residence A system of residence in which a different contexts.
husband lives with or near his wife’s kin after marriage.
succession The transfer of office or social position
nonunilineal descent Any system of descent in which between generations.
both the father’s and mother’s lineages have equal claim
to the individual. transmigrant Immigrants who maintain close relations
with their home countries.
parallel cousins The children of a parent’s same-sex
siblings (mother’s sisters, father’s brothers). transnationalism The pattern of close ties and frequent
visits by immigrants to their home countries.
patrilineage A lineage formed by descent in the male line.
unilineal descent Descent group membership based on
patrilineal descent A rule that affiliates a person to kin links through either the maternal or the paternal line, but
of both sexes through males only. not both.
patrilocal A system of residence in which the bride and her
children live with her husband’s family after marriage.
Courtesy of Tom Curtin
In Pictures Ltd./Corbis Historical/Getty Images
In almost all societies, marriage is central to the formation of families and is a critical link in many relationships. In India, as
elsewhere, marriage ceremonies include many ritual elements. Here a bride and groom in Rajasthan make an offering of
puffed rice to Agni, the god of re, a divine witness at Hindu weddings.
Marriage, Family, and
Domestic Groups 10
All human societies face the problems of regulating sexual access between LEARNING OBJECTIVES
males and females, finding satisfactory ways to organize labor, assigning
responsibility for child care, providing a clear framework for organizing will be able to:
individual rights and responsibilities, and, in many cases, transferring property
10.1 Describe and explain the
and social position between generations. For most societies, marriage and
functions and roles that marriage
family life offer the best solutions to these challenges. Ideals, forms, and and family play in society
structures of family are related to cultural values. However, they also grow out
10.2 Relate what the incest taboo is
of the realities of life: Individuals make choices that do not always accord with
and compare at least two different
the rules. In studying marriage, the family, and households, anthropologists pay explanations for it
attention to both rules and realities.
10.3 Define endogamy and exogamy
and give examples of each
10.4 Summarize the differences

between monogamy, polygyny, and
polyandry and give examples of
Functions of Marriage and the Family societies that follow each of these
marriage rules
Unlike the members of many other species, men and women are continuously recep- 10.5 Explain the difference
tive to sexual activity rather than only receptive at certain times of the year. Sexual com- between bride service, bridewealth,
petition is thus continually present in human society. Therefore, the need to regulate and dowry and discuss the ways
sexual access is among the foremost requirements of human society. Further, unlike the societies that practice each of these
offspring of many other species, children are totally dependent on adults for a very long are likely to differ
period after they are born. The formation of stable, socially approved relationships is 10.6 Identify the differences
one way of controlling sexual competition and assuring a relatively stable environment between nuclear, composite, and
for raising children. Such relationships need not be permanent, and theoretically some extended families and give examples
system other than marriage could have developed. But a relatively stable union between of matrilineal and patrilineal families
a male and female that involves responsibility for children as well as economic exchange 10.7 Evaluate the ways in which the
became one of the bases for most, though not all, human societies. American family has changed over
Differences in average strength and mobility between males and females as well the past quarter century
as the biological role of women in infant nurturing led to a general gendered division
10.8 Compare the effects of
of labor in nonindustrial societies. Marriage is the way most societies arrange for the
globalization in poor and wealthy
products and services of men and women to be exchanged and provide for the care of countries
children. An ongoing relationship between partners supplies a structure (a family) in
which food, nurturing, and security can be provided to help assure the healthy devel-
opment of children. Marriage also extends social alliances by linking different fami-
lies and kin groups together, leading to cooperation among larger groups of people.
This expansion of the social group within which people can work together and share
resources is very advantageous for survival.
Marriage refers to the customs, rules, and obligations that establish a socially
endorsed relationship between adults, between adults and children, and between the
kin groups of the married people. Like kinship, marriage and family rest on the bio-
logical base of human reproduction. However, also like kinship, marriage and family
231
of marriageable women, a man would pay bridewealth

FIGURE 10.1 In the 2010s, the movement for for a young man to become his wife. The two men would
marriage equality swept across many countries. be socially recognized as a married couple having sexual
Here, we see a lesbian couple in Medellin, Colombia, relations.
with their son and daughter. Colombia began to Just as any one understanding of marriage finds many
extend legal protections to same-sex couples in exceptions, so, too, does the concept of the family. In the
2007, and same-sex marriage became fully legal United States, the normative idea of family is two marriage
there in 2016. partners of different sexes and their offspring. But the fam-
ilies we really live in often have only one parent or include
RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images
stepparents and both half- and stepsiblings. In 1960, 73%

of children in the U.S. lived in families consisting of their
biological parents and siblings, but today less than half do.
Thirty-four percent of children live with an unmarried par-
ent, and about 5% don’t live with either parent (Pew Research
Center, 2015d). More than half of U.S. household units do not
involve a marriage at all. Of these, about half consist either
of men or women living alone and half are people living in
other arrangements (Vespa et al., 2013). Grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins, unrelated children, and unrelated adults all
form family units in the United States.
Marriage Rules
are ultimately cultural rather than biological phenomena.
Because of this, the ways in which marriage and family All societies construct rules about sex, infant care, labor, and
are understood vary greatly from society to society and rights and obligations between generations, but they do so in
change over time and with different political and economic very different ways. All societies have an incest taboo. That is,
circumstances. they categorically prohibit members of certain groups from
Anthropological research has long documented the having sex with each other. Societies may also have rules
widespread existence and effectiveness of a broad array of encouraging marriage between members of certain groups
family types, including families built on multiple husbands and prohibiting it among others, rules determining the num-
or multiple wives, same-sex partnerships, and a wealth of ber of spouses an individual may have, and rules concern-
other possibilities (Lathrop, 2004: 23). Marriage may or may ing what happens to a marriage upon the death of one of the
not be necessary to establish the legitimacy or status rights partners.
of children. For example, among the Navajo, a woman’s In the United States, marriage is primarily an affair of
children, whether she is married or not, become full legiti- individuals, and the married couple tends to make a new
mate members of her clan (Stone, 2004: 10). We may think home apart from the parents. Although choice is not as free
of the acceptance of marriage between same-sex partners as in practice as American ideals would lead one to believe,
being a recent development found only in technologically people theoretically choose their own mates. Because sexual
advanced, wealthy societies (Figure 10.1), but in fact, mar- compatibility and emotional needs are considered import-
riages between same-sex partners is fairly common in the ant, mates are chosen on the basis of personal qualities such
world’s cultures. For example, woman–woman marriage is as physical attractiveness and the complex set of feelings
found among numerous African groups (Cadigan, 1998). Americans call romantic love. Economic considerations are
In some cases, as among the Nuer, a barren woman may supposed to be subordinated to these aspects.
divorce her husband, take another woman as her wife, then However, in most societies (and historically in European
arrange for a surrogate to impregnate this woman. Children and American society), marriage is less an affair of individual
born from this arrangement, which did not involve sexual romantic love and more a link that binds two families or kin-
relations between the wives, become members of the barren ship groups together. In these societies, the choice of a mate is
woman’s patrilineage and refer to her as their father. A sim- directly linked to the interests of the family group and most
ilar cultural pattern involving two males was found among marriages are arranged. In arranged marriage, parents and
the Azande (Kilbride, 2004: 17), where royal power was sus- other relatives determine the choice of spouse for their off-
tained by having multiple wives. When there was a shortage spring. In most cases, a key purpose of such marriages is to
Ethnography
I S M A R R I AG E U N I V E R SA L? T H E N A O F C H I N A
The Na (often called the Mosuo) and some other simultaneously. No records are kept to ascertain
allied societies of southwest China provide an paternity of children, although in reality, people
example of a society whose cultural traditions raise frequently have knowledge of biological paternity
questions about the universality of marriage and (Mattison, 2009). There are, however, no Na words for
the family (Blumenfield, 2004; Hua, 2001; Hong, illegitimate child, infidelity, or promiscuity; the Na
2017). Na society does not have a word for marriage. visit is culturally treated as a mutually enjoyable but
The culturally normative and most frequent Na singular occurrence that entails no future conditions
institution that joins men and women in sexual (Figure 10.2).
and reproductive partnerships is called sese. In this
relationship, men pass a night in a lover’s household The sese relationship is made—and kept—voluntarily
and return to their own families in the morning. and is largely free of contractual economic bonds.
All sexual (and potentially reproductive) activity Although these relationships are generally not
takes place at night during these concealed visits made public unless they become stable, sese is a
of Na men to the households of the women who culturally regulated custom the boundaries of which
have agreed beforehand to lie with them. The Na are clearly understood by all. There is nothing of
term for this visit suggests affection, respect, and brute force or coercion in the Na visits. Either party
intimacy, and the partners are called lovers. The may offer, accept, or decline an invitation for a visit.
sese relationship does not, however, include notions To spare the other’s feelings, one may say, “Tonight
of fidelity, permanence, paternal responsibility for is not possible. I already have one for tonight,” and
children, or economic obligations (Shih, 2001). Both a woman may even turn away an invited lover at
women and men have multiple partners, serially or the door if she chooses. Jealousy is reported not to
FIGURE 10.2 A Na woman in traditional

costume.
Patrick AVENTURIER/Contributor
Na peoples
CHINA
MONGOLIA
A
Beijing
Tianjin
Xi'an Zhengzhou
CHINA
Chengdu
Hangzhou
Chongqing
Lugu Lake
Changsha
Fuzhou
Yunnan
Province
Nanning
MYANMAR VIETNAM Shenzhen
0 500 mi South China
0 500 km
Sea
(Continued!)
(Continued)
exist as any man can choose to visit any woman. But women equally, though almost all agree that women
although either the woman or the man may initiate work much harder than men and have many more
the visit, it is always the man who comes secretly household responsibilities than their brothers.
to the woman’s house. Concealment is necessary
because of a Na taboo forbidding a household’s male In Na culture, love among members of the
members to hear or see any sexual talk or activities matrilineage is considered more essential and longer
involving household females. Males will never lasting than romantic love. Many Na believe that
answer the door after dark, lest they encounter a people should not marry because marriage creates
woman’s lover. The lover himself makes every effort conflict within households. On the other hand, some
to avoid detection, often bringing food to prevent Na say that as they become wealthier, they will marry
the guard dogs’ barking, speaking only in whispers and move out of their matrilineal households. Indeed,
during intercourse, and leaving quietly before there are now a variety of family types among the Na
daybreak. (Walsh, 2004).
The Na are a matrilineal society (see page 247), and, Historically, within the patrilineal, patriarchal, and
as in many other matrilineal societies, children stay ancestor-worshipping structure of mainstream
with the mother’s household for their entire lives. The Han Chinese culture, the Na have been officially
household includes both boys and girls by a variety identified as a primitive matriarchy and the visit
of fathers and relatives of two or more generations. was condemned as a barbarous practice. However,
Ideas of motherhood and fatherhood are fluid. When in more recent times, the government has marketed
a generation lacks females, a situation that threatens the Na as a tourist attraction. This has led to
the continuity of the household, a household may increased exposure of the Na to the majority Han
adopt a relative’s child or encourage a son to bring Chinese and also to non-Chinese. New jobs in the
his lover into the household. tourism industry and opportunities to sell land and
to produce commercial crops threaten both the Na
The males in a Na household are boy children born family system and the traditional subsistence system
in the various generations who are brothers, uncles, (Booth, 2017).
and granduncles. Unlike some other matrilineal
societies (see pages 214–217), Na families have no It is possible that the expansion of China’s public
husbands, fathers, nuclear families, or structures of education system as well as the penetration of
affinal relationships such as in-laws. The Na consider media imbued with mainstream Han mores and
the matrilineal household as the family, and both lifestyles into the formerly isolated Na villages will
household and family are diverse and flexible. change the Na family. The Na, like many others,
may desire the material benefits of the burgeoning
Anthropologists disagree on whether marriage Chinese middle class, but they may also find that
is truly absent among the Na (Harrell, 2002). integrating their families with the expectations
Although the sese is the dominant sexual and of the Chinese state and Chinese companies is
reproductive relationship in Na culture, marriage difficult. In spite of a strong ethnic identity that
has existed as a parallel cultural institution among includes the sese, as the Na enter the wider world,
the elites. In addition, there are two other, though their “walking marriage” may be one more example
rather infrequent, patterns of sexual encounter: of human cultural diversity that ultimately faces
the conspicuous visit and cohabitation. In the extinction. If so, the world will be a poorer place
conspicuous visit, which always follows a series of for it.
furtive visits, the effort to conceal the relationship
is abandoned. This usually occurs in a long-term Critical Thinking Questions
relationship that the community is presumed to 1. Can you envision a society without marriage?
know about in any case. Cohabitation, which is even What do you think that society would look like?
rarer, occurs when a household is short of women to
produce children or short of men to labor in its fields; 2. What are some of the advantages and disadvan-
under these circumstances, a woman may bring her tages, from the Na point of view, of their system of
lover home as a husband. “walking marriage” and matrilineal families?
The sese relationship does not undermine the 3. How well adapted is the Na family to the indus-
very strong matrilineal household stability or the trial and postindustrial world? Are there reasons
economic position of women or children. Male and why Na family structure would be unlikely to
female Na describe their society as valuing men and succeed in a modern city?
forge or continue alliances between families or kin groups. In

arranging such matches, families in most places tend to look FIGURE 10.3 Among the Wodaabe of Niger,
to the economic potential of the groom. For brides, reproduc- marriages are arranged, but physical attraction
tive potential and health are important. In addition, each cul- is important too. Male dancers at the annual
ture has its own special emphases. In many African cultures, Gerewol celebration dance, apply makeup,
heavier women are preferred partners. Groups such as the and make facial expressions that display the
Efik people have practices specifically designed to fatten girls whiteness of their eyes and teeth to appear
(Nesbitt-Ahmed, 2016). The Wodaabe, (Figure 10.3) on the attractive to young women.
other hand, emphasize tallness, and very white eyes and teeth
ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images

for men (Bovin, 2001). In India, where a woman is expected
to live in a joint family, or at least spend much of her time
with her husband’s family, a demeanor of submissiveness and
modesty is essential. Also, no one wants to arrange a marriage
with a family that has the reputation of being quarrelsome or
gossipy (Nanda, 1999).
In societies where marriages are arranged, go-betweens
are often used. A go-between, or marriage broker, has more
information about a wider network of families than any one
family can have. Furthermore, neither the family of the bride
nor that of the groom loses face if the other party rejects its
offer. Although the arranged marriage system tends to
become less rigid as societies urbanize and industrialize,
families and larger kin groups in most societies have a great
marriages in which researchers could determine the degree
deal of control over marriage and the choice of a spouse.
of kin occurred between people listed as full brothers and
Important cultural rules guide the arranging of marriages,
sisters. However, interpreting these statistics is difficult.
with, to a variable degree, some leeway for individual varia-
Huebner (2007), for example, has claimed that these were
tion. Different patterns of choosing a mate are closely related
really marriages between biological and adopted children
to other social and cultural patterns, such as kinship rules,
conducted to provide lineage continuity. But Remijsen and
ideals of family structure, transfer of property at marriage,
Clarysse (2008) and Parker (1996) have argued that these
and core cultural values, all of which are rooted in how people
were indeed marriages between biological siblings (though
make a living.
they may also have had the purpose of preserving lineage
and property).
Incest Taboos In many societies, people beyond immediate family
Incest taboos are rules that prohibit sexual relationships with members are also included in the incest taboo. Sometimes
specific categories of kin. All societies have incest taboos, but sexual relations between members of a lineage are prohibited.
the types of kin covered by these rules vary from group to Sometimes the prohibition on sex extends to include all clan
group. Because in most instances sexual access is one of the members, and, in some cases, those with whom an individ-
key rights given to marriage partners, incest taboos are a criti- ual is prohibited from having sex may include half of the total
cal factor in determining who may marry whom. population.
In almost every case, incest taboos ban sex between Most Americans consider all the children of their par-
parents and their children and between brothers and sis- ents’ brothers and sisters to be cousins. However, many soci-
ters. However, there have been exceptions to even this eties use kinship terminology that separates cross-cousins
rule. Brother–sister marriage was practiced by Egyptian (mother’s brothers’ or father’s sisters’ children) and parallel
royalty, in traditional Hawaiian society, and among the cousins (mother’s sisters’ or father’s brothers’ children). In
Inca in Peru. In these cases, such marriages probably these societies, it is common for sex between either cross- or
served to keep family wealth and power intact and limit parallel cousins (but not both) to be considered incest. This
rivalries for succession to kingship (Middleton, 1962). is important because it shows that the incest taboo is social,
Brother–sister marriage may have been relatively common not biological. People have the same genetic relationship with
in Roman Egypt. Official Roman census rolls from the their cross- and parallel cousins. However, they often have
1st to 3rd century AD show that more than 16% of different social relations with them.
Many different explanations have been proposed for the possible to imagine a society where individuals must marry
universal existence of the incest taboo. However, none of outside of their family groups but are permitted to have sex
them is entirely satisfactory. Theories about the incest taboo within those groups, but no such society exists.
fall into three broad categories: biological, psychological,
and sociological. Biologically based theories argue that the
Exogamy and Endogamy
incest taboo prevents inbreeding that would have a deleteri-
ous effect on humanity. In other animal species, sex between Incest taboos and other aspects of social organization cre-
parent and offspring or siblings is often prevented by expel- ate rules that restrict the selection of marriage partners to
ling junior members from family groups as they reach sexual members of certain groups. The marriage rule of exogamy
maturity. Humans have no such biological mechanism but specifies that a person must marry outside specific groups.
accomplish the same function with the incest taboo. In every society, one must marry outside of the groups with
There are problems with this theory, however. First, whom sexual relations are considered incestuous. However,
although there is no doubt that sex between close biological exogamy may also apply to groups far beyond those. Most
relatives leads to increased birth defects, it is not clear that often, groups based on descent, such as lineages and clans, are
this would be visible in premodern societies, which typi- exogamous.
cally have extremely high infant mortality. Thus, it would be The advantages of exogamy include the reduction of
extremely difficult for society members to see the biological conflict over sex within the cooperating group, such as
effects of having offspring with close relatives. Second, as we the hunting band, and the promotion of alliances between
have seen, the incest taboo often treats people with the same groups larger than the primary family. Such alliances may
degree of biological relatedness differently. Finally, people have economic, political, or religious components. Indeed,
who are both closely and distantly related are often taboo to these intergroup rights and obligations are among the most
each other. important kinds of relationships established by marriage.
Psychologically based theories argue either that we Early humans living in foraging bands exchanged
have an innate aversion to those with whom we are raised members through marriage in order to live in peace with
(Westermarck, 1894; Spiro et al., 1994) or that sexual com- one another and to extend the social ties of cooperation.
petition among siblings or parents and children would create One outstanding feature of marriage arrangements among
disruption and kin role confusion in the family (Malinowski, contemporary foragers is a system of exchange and alliance
1927). However, these theories do not account for the pat- between groups that exchange wives. These alliances are
terns of incest and avoidance shown in all different societ- important among peoples who must move frequently to
ies. Nor is it clear that incest taboos would be the only way find food. Different groups take turns visiting and playing
to solve the problems they raise. For example, if aversion to host to one another. This intergroup sociability is made eas-
some people is innate, there should be no need for a social ier by exogamy. One consequence of exchanging women is
rule against it. that each foraging camp becomes dependent on others for a
Finally, sociological theories argue that incest taboos force supply of wives and is allied with others through the bonds
families to marry outside of their group and that this creates that result from marriage. This system contributes to the
bonds between social groups that are useful in helping these maintenance of peaceful relations among groups that move
groups survive, particularly in difficult times. Lévi-Strauss, for around, camp with one another, and exploit overlapping ter-
example, quoted the response Margaret Mead received when ritories. It does not entirely eliminate intergroup aggression
she asked about a man marrying his sisters: but helps keep it to a manageable level.
In peasant societies, rules of exogamy may apply to entire
What, you would like to marry your sister? What is villages. In northern India, a man must take a wife from out-
the matter with you? Don’t you want a brother-in-law? side his village. Through exogamy, each village becomes a
Don’t you realize that if you marry another man’s sis- center in a kinship network that spreads over hundreds of vil-
ter and another man marries your sister, you will have at lages. The fact that wives come from many different villages
least two brothers-in-law, while if you marry your own gives the typical Indian village a cosmopolitan character.
sister you will have none? With whom will you hunt, Village exogamy also affects other aspects of life. For exam-
with whom will you garden, with whom will you visit? ple, in a household where brothers’ wives come from different
(in Lévi-Strauss, 1969: 485) places and are strangers to one another, conflicts are likely to
occur. This potential for conflict helps explain rules of con-
This is a powerful argument; however, the alliance theory duct such as the repression of aggression common in north-
really concerns marriage rather than sexual relations. It is ern Indian families.
Endogamy is a rule that requires marriage within one’s

own group, however that group is defined. Endogamy tends FIGURE 10.4 In the United States, racial groups
to keep the privileges and wealth of a group intact, and this is have been mostly endogamous. In 1967, when the
often a key reason for its existence. In India, society is com- Supreme Court ruled that laws banning racial
posed of groups often called castes. Castes are hierarchically exogamy were illegal, 16 states still had such laws.
ranked and are endogamous. A person must marry someone Unenforced laws banning interracial marriage
of their own caste and frequently within the specific section of remained on the books in South Carolina and
the caste to which they belong. The offspring of such endog- Alabama until the end of the 20th century.
amous marriages have the same group membership as their
© iStockphoto/Halfpoint
parents. This, in theory, keeps group membership boundaries
clear and preserves the status ranking of the groups.
In the past, racial endogamy in the United States was
enforced by law in many states and by very strong social cus-
toms in others. This was critical to the maintenance of white
social and economic superiority. In a society where there are
different laws and different social expectations for members
of different races, people who are acknowledged to be bira-
cial upset the logic of the social system. Thus, there must be
strong social and legal discouragement from race mixing,
and racially mixed people must be assigned an unambiguous
group identity. In the United States, this idea was sometimes
called “the one-drop rule,” a social and legal principle that
identified an individual with any noticeable African ancestry We saw previously that in societies that differentiate
as unambiguously black. between cross-cousins and parallel cousins, sex with mem-
In the current-day United States, there are no legal bers of one or the other of these categories may be consid-
restrictions on marriage between groups, and marriage ered incestuous. However, it is also the case that marriage to
among people of different racial and ethnic groups has risen a member of one or the other of them might be preferential
sharply (Figure 10.4). In 2015, about one in six new mar- (Figure 10.5). Preferential cousin marriage is related to the
riages was between partners of different ethnic or racial organization of kinship units larger than the nuclear family.
groups. About 10% of all married people wed someone of a Where descent groups are unilineal, an individual’s cross-
different racial or ethnic group (Bialik, 2017). However, old cousin will be a member of a kin group other than his or her
patterns remain. We tend to marry those who are mem- own. Thus, a marriage with that cross-cousin will be exoga-
bers of our own social group, and many, if not most, social mous. Preferred cross-cousin marriage will then reinforce
groups remain divided by class, ethnicity, religion, and race. ties between kin groups established in the preceding genera-
An old proverb says that it is just as easy to love a rich person tion and thus establish a multigenerational alliance between
as a poor one. That may be true, but most often rich people these groups. In societies where there are unilineal descent
meet and socialize with other rich people. You are unlikely to groups that practice lineage endogamy, parallel-cousin mar-
socialize with rich people unless you are rich yourself. riage might be preferential. Parallel cousins are members of
an individual’s own kinship group, and marriage to one will
reinforce the individual’s own lineage but at the price of weak-
Preferential Marriages ening ties between lineages. For example, Muslim Arabs of
In all societies, relatives are classified according to the rules North Africa have the social norm of preferential marriage to
of kinship that are part of the culture. These classifications of parallel cousins. In this patrilineal society, both descent and
kin are an important basis for choosing marriage partners. inheritance follow the male line. Parallel-cousin marriage
In addition to rules about whom one may not marry and the keeps economic resources within the family and helps pre-
group within which one must marry, some societies have vent their fragmentation. It also reinforces the solidarity of
rules about the preferred categories of relatives from which brothers, but, by socially isolating groups of brothers, it adds
marriage partners are drawn. Preferred marriage partners are to factional disputes and disunity within larger social systems.
often children of siblings of the parental generation (cousins, Many Americans look down on cousin marriage.
in our kin terminology) who are biologically related but who However, marrying one’s first cousin was extremely common
may not culturally be defined as such. in the United States and western Europe until the mid-19th
FIGURE 10.5 This diagram indicates the Father’s Father’s

Father Mother
Mother’s Mother’s
relationships of cross-cousins and parallel sister brother sister brother
cousins. In many cultures, these

–
– –
– –
– –
– –
–
relationships are important for determining
who can and cannot marry and for
designating preferred marriage partners.
Western cultures distinguish cousins by
degree of biological closeness but do not
distinguish between cross-cousins and Ego’s cross- Ego’s parallel Ego Ego’s parallel Ego’s cross-
parallel cousins for purposes of marriage. cousins cousins cousins cousins
century. Also, there does not seem to be much risk of genetic The offspring of ghost marriages are designated as children
problems from such unions. Children of first cousins face a of the deceased. This practice enables the continuation of
2% or 3% higher risk of genetic issues than the population at the brother’s family line despite his having died childless.
large—about the same as any child born to a woman older Both of these examples emphasize the role of the levirate in
than 40. Anthropologist Robin Fox has estimated that about maintaining family names and alliances despite the deaths of
80% of all marriages in history have been between first or sec- marriage partners.
ond cousins (Conniff, 2003). Currently, all U.S. states allow When there are no available marriage partners in the right
second cousins to marry, and 20 allow first cousins to do so. relationship for a preferential marriage, other kin may be sub-
stituted. For example, if a man is supposed to marry his father’s
sister’s daughter, the daughters of all women classified as his
The Levirate and the Sororate father’s sisters (whether or not they are biologically in this
The levirate is a custom whereby a widow is married to relationship) are eligible as marriage partners. Sometimes, if
the brother of her deceased husband. This is sometimes no brother, sister, or other qualifying relative is available, or if
referred to as wife inheritance. The sororate is a custom the brother or sister is undesirable, the levirate or sororate will
whereby a widower is married to the sister of his deceased not take place. A point to note here is that the levirate and the
wife. Sometimes, particularly in the case of the levirate, this sororate are ideals; they refer to what people say should happen
is done out of concern for the widow, who may otherwise in their society, not to what necessarily does happen.
have no place in her husband’s family. However, the primary
importance of both levirate and sororate is to maintain the Monogamy, Polygyny, and Polyandry
link between the families of the marriage partners. Marriage
in most societies is a type of contract of alliance between All societies have rules about how many spouses a person
families. The contract specifies the transfer of people, rights, may have at one time. Societies that have the rule of monog-
and property. The early deaths of marriage partners threaten amy allow only two partners to be married to each other at
the marriage contract and the alliance between families. The any given time. Monogamous marriage is typical of most
levirate and sororate allow for family alliances to survive the current-day wealthy, industrialized societies. Polygamy is
deaths of individual family members. the term anthropologists use to refer to marriages in which
Ombretta Ingrasci (in Pipyrou, 2016) reported on the there are more than two partners. It includes polygyny, the
levirate in southern Italy. In this region, widows are seen as marriage of one husband to several wives, and polyandry,
sexually promiscuous and it is difficult for them to remarry. the marriage of one wife to several husbands. Most soci-
Further, children of such widows are at a disadvantage because eties permit (and prefer) polygyny. In a classic study of the
their family name is perceived to be stained. In this situation, world’s societies, George Peter Murdock (1949) found that
the brother of a dead husband marries his brother’s widow to about 75% permitted and encouraged polygyny. Murdock
preserve the family name and ensure respectable marriages believed that polyandry was extremely rare. However, more
for his nieces. This action further helps to keep peace among recent analyses have found that it is fairly common, par-
families in an area where vendettas are common. ticularly in small-scale foraging and gardening societies
Ghost marriage is a related concept. Among the Nuer, (Starkweather & Hames, 2012). Although polygyny and
if a man dies childless, his brother may marry a woman in polyandry are permitted and often encouraged in many
his deceased brother’s name. Thus, the brother has wives in societies, even in these cases, most people are married
his own name and wives in the name of his deceased brother. monogamously.
Polygyny
FIGURE 10.6 In polygynous societies, men are
In a polygynous household, a husband has several wives
permitted to marry more than one wife. Polygyny
(Figure 10.6). Polygyny tends to occur in situations where
can greatly increase the number of children in a
the labor of a large number of wives and their children can
family. In this photo taken in South Africa, Robert
increase a family’s wealth. This often happens in regions
Chauke sits with some of his six wives and 28
where agricultural or horticultural labor is critical and where
children.
land is plentiful compared to population. Polygyny also
allows a husband to make marriage alliances with many dif-
ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images

ferent family groups. Thus, important men may use it to take
wives from many different clans or villages.
In the United States, we often equate large numbers of
children with poverty. In our society, children are expensive
to raise and rarely provide direct economic benefit to par-
ents. However, in societies in which children do economi-
cally productive work, the more children a family has, the
greater its wealth. Polygyny increases the number of chil-
dren in the families that practice it. Families in which hus-
bands have multiple wives are likely to be wealthier than
those in which marriage is monogamous. The alliances
with other families created through polygyny as well as
the size of polygynous families confer political advantages
as well. Thus, in societies that practice polygyny, wives are societies. Jealousy may indeed occur, but relations between
often in the position of marrying monogamously and being co-wives may also be friendly and helpful. Some polygynous
relatively poor or marrying polygynously and being better societies have mechanisms to minimize conflict between
off. Women’s attitudes toward polygyny vary both within co-wives. For example, in sororal polygyny, a man mar-
and among societies. Among the Yoruba and the Kaguru ries a set of sisters who may get along with each other more
(two African societies), polygyny is common. A study easily than women who are strangers to each other. Also,
of polygyny among the Yoruba found that most women co-wives usually live in separate dwellings. A husband who
said they would be pleased with a polygynous marriage. wants to avoid conflict will attempt to distribute his economic
However, most Kaguru women do not support it (Meekers resources and sexual attentions evenly among his wives so
& Franklin, 1995). there will be no accusations of favoritism.
All societies have approximately equal numbers of men
and women (although these numbers may sometimes be Polygyny Among the Tiwi
altered by war or by child-rearing practices that favor one sex Although polygyny is mainly found in herding, agricultural,
over another). Thus, if some husbands have many wives, oth- and horticultural societies, the foraging Tiwi of Australia
ers must have few or none. There are two important results of also engage in it (Martin & Voorhies, 1975). Within the con-
this. First, most men in the society cannot be married polyg- straints of the marriage rules, a Tiwi father betroths his infant
ynously at any single time. Second, in these societies, women daughter to a friend or potential ally who he thinks will bring
tend to marry early and men late. This means that husbands him the most economic and social advantage, or to a man
often predecease their wives, who then become available for who has given a daughter as a wife to him or one of his sons
remarriage. (Hart & Pilling, 1960: 15). If he is looking for old-age insur-
Although many advantages in polygynous families seem ance, a father might choose a man much younger than him-
to go to men, women often benefit as well. First, as we have self who shows signs of being a good hunter and fighter and
seen, polygynous families tend to be wealthier families. who seems likely to rise in influence. When the older man
Beyond this, in some societies, women welcome the addition can no longer hunt, his son-in-law will still be young enough
of a co-wife because it eases their own workload and provides to provide him with food. Because the girl is an infant when
daily companionship. When women live with their husband’s her future marriage is decided, husbands are a great deal
family, having co-wives may also provide a measure of pro- older than their wives.
tection against brutal husbands. As a young man who looks good to one girl’s father is
People from cultures where sexual fidelity in marriage is usually attractive to other fathers as well, some men rapidly
considered essential (particularly in the context of roman- acquire several wives. As these wives begin to have children,
tic love) may expect to find sexual jealousy in polygynous husbands betroth their daughters to other men while still
acquiring more wives for themselves. Young men who do not the same woman, land can be kept within the family rather
seem particularly promising to potential fathers-in-law have than fragmented over the generations.
difficulty getting wives and will marry widows (and because The Toda of southern India were a classic case of frater-
men are much older than women in marriage, there are nal polyandry. A Toda woman married one man and at the
many widows). same time became the wife of his brothers. If other brothers
The large, multiple-wife Tiwi household is an adaptation were born after the original marriage, they also shared in the
to Tiwi ecological conditions. The more wives a man has, the marital rights. Sexual access to the wife rotated rather equally,
more food they can collect, and old wives are particularly and there was little reported friction or jealousy. When all the
useful in this respect because they know the environment brothers lived with their wife in one hut, a brother who was
well and are experienced in finding food. Younger wives having sexual relations with the wife placed his cloak and staff
serve as apprentices and reinforcements for older wives. For outside as a warning to others. When a wife became preg-
this reason, every man tries to marry an older woman first. nant, determining the biological father was not considered
Households with only one or two wives have a much lower necessary. Rather, a ceremony called “giving the bow,” held
standard of living than those with many wives, especially if in the 7th month of pregnancy, assigned the child a legal or
both wives are young. social father. In this ritual, a man presented a ceremonial bow
Because girls are betrothed when they are infants, a and arrow made from twigs and grass to the wife in front of
girl’s mother is introduced to the man who will become her his relatives. Usually the eldest brother performed this cere-
son-in-law long before the marriage takes place. The relation- mony first, and subsequent children were considered his.
ship between a woman and her prospective son-in-law is very After two or three children were born, another brother usu-
important. The son-in-law must immediately begin to pro- ally gave the bow. Occasionally a woman married several
vide food and favors to his mother-in-law, and he often joins men who were not biological brothers. When these men lived
her camp at this time. This strong relationship continues for in different villages, the wife lived in the village of each hus-
the remainder of the mother-in-law’s life. band for a month. The men arranged among themselves who
From a Western perspective, Tiwi women may appear to gave the bow when she became pregnant. Because the prac-
be pawns in a marriage game over which they have little con- tice of female infanticide has largely ceased among the Toda,
trol, but Tiwi women see themselves not simply as wives but the male–female ratio has evened out. For this reason, as well
also as women who have a fluctuating inventory of husbands as the influence of Christian missionaries, the Toda today are
(Goodale, 1971). Until their first pregnancy, Tiwi wives enjoy largely monogamous (Queen & Haberstein, 1974).
both sexual and social freedom. Young Tiwi women tradi-
tionally engage in several extramarital sexual unions with
lovers of their own age, a practice that is tolerated although Exchange of Goods and Rights in
not officially approved of. As a Tiwi woman gets older, her Marriage
respect and power increase. As a senior wife, she has power
in the domestic group and considerable influence over her As we have seen, marriage is a publicly accepted relationship
sons. Co-wives and their daughters form a cohesive eco- involving the transfer of certain rights and obligations. The
nomic and social unit, and Tiwi women have prestige, power, public nature of marriage is demonstrated by the ritual and
and independence based on solidarity with other women and ceremony that surround it in almost every society. The pres-
economic complementarity with men. ence of members of the community at these ceremonies is
a way of bearing witness to the lawfulness of the marriage.
Polyandry These publicly witnessed and acknowledged ceremonies
Polyandry (the marriage of one woman to more than one distinguish marriage from other kinds of unions that
man) is found in parts of Tibet and Nepal and among the resemble it.
Toda and Pahari Hindus of India. Polyandry may be an adap- We can think of marriages as having two parts. One part
tation to a shortage of females, but in these cases, the shortage involves rights of people. Marriage involves the granting
is created by female infanticide. In a society where men must of rights of sexual access of husband and wife to each other,
be away from home for long periods of time, polyandry pro- rights over any children born to the wife, obligations by one
vides a woman with more than one husband to support the or both parents to care for children born to the union, and
family. In Tibet, polyandry appears to be related to the short- rights of husband and wife to the economic services of each
age of land. If several men marry one woman, this limits the other. A second part of the marriage process is the exchange
number of children a man has to support. If brothers marry of goods and sometimes labor between individuals and

R E F U G E E S A N D FA M I L I E S
We live in an era of unprecedented civil violence. claims them, children belong to the family of their
Wars, particularly those within states, have resulted in mother’s husband regardless of their biological
tens of millions of refugees. In 2016, one person was parentage. Perhaps most important, as McGranahan
forcibly displaced every three seconds. By the end of has pointed out, families are always about more
that year, there were more than 65 million displaced than genetics. Families are made in different ways
people worldwide. Most of these individuals sought in different places, and “care, commitment, shared
refuge within their own country. However, more than stories, and social recognition of claimed family
22 million of them sought safety in other countries, status” are more important than DNA (McGranahan,
and 2.8 million were actively seeking asylum 2015). As an anthropological consultant, McGranahan
(Edwards, 2017). unsuccessfully argued these points to Canadian
officials. As of 2015, Tashi’s family remained at a
Families play a central role in virtually every aspect of refugee camp in South Asia.
the international refugee crisis. Many refugees come
from families that have been destroyed by war or When children arrive as refugees in new countries,
other violence. Lila, a young refugee in Canada, said, they face extraordinary problems. Sometimes, as
“My parents and my family, yes, they were affected. in the case of Lila and Peter, they are survivors of
They were killed” (in Blanchet-Cohen & Denov, profound trauma who arrive without families and
2015: 120). Peter from Sierra Leone was kidnapped who must be integrated into their new societies.
and forced to become a child soldier. Compelled to Other times, families arrive together, but the social
become an adult overnight, his fellow soldiers became connections and networks that helped them survive
his family. Peter was completely separated from his have been ruptured and adults cannot provide
family for more than 10 years and was able to find for children’s safety and care. Families are further
a degree of peace only after seeing his mother and weakened by culture shock.
gaining some acceptance from her (Blanchet-Cohen &
Denov, 2015). The tendency in the past has been to treat refugees
as individuals with problems. However, anthropology
Changes to families and differences in the way family points to better ways of helping them. Natasha
is understood in different cultures present profound Blanchet-Cohen and Myriam Denov (2015) conducted
challenges both to refugees and to the societies that anthropological research among war refugee children
take them in. Who exactly are the members of your in Quebec. They found that for these children, the key
family? Carole McGranahan (2015) recounted the case to survival was re-creating family and social networks.
of Tashi, a Tibetan who was granted refugee status in Children found surrogate families and communities
Canada. In the United States and Canada, refugees through which they could get aid and support and feel
may petition for their spouse and children to join them. at home. In some cases, these units were composed of
Tashi did so, but the immigration officials demanded other refugees, but they also sometimes included social
DNA testing of his children. The testing showed that service workers and members of the children’s host
two of the children were not biologically related to him. communities.
However, Tashi had been their father since their birth,
and they knew no other. Young people valued the efforts of psychologists and
social workers, but they knew these efforts weren’t
Superficially, DNA testing seems to be a reliable enough. These children were taking active roles in
scientific way of determining family membership. reconstructing the family and social networks of
However, it is flawed because it confuses the their lives. Blanchet-Cohen and Denov argue that
biological with the social. In Tibetan society, there people and governments that want to help refugees
are many ways for a man to have children. Fraternal need to focus on enabling, guiding, and reinforcing
polyandry, in which a wife has multiple husbands the networks the children create. Anthropological
who are brothers to each other, may play a part. research can help with that. It starts with listening
Adoption and stepparenting are both common. In to families and children and taking what they say
this patrilineal society, unless their biological father seriously.
societies where bridewealth is customary, a person can claim

FIGURE 10.7 Bridewealth often includes the compensation for a violation of marriage rights only if the
presentation of goods from the family of the bridewealth has been paid. Furthermore, bridewealth paid
husband to the family of the wife. Here, Fulani at marriage is returned (subject to specified conditions) if a
women from a village in Guinea Bissau examine marriage is terminated.
goods given in bridewealth for a member of their Although most studies of bridewealth emphasize its role
family. in entitling the husband with domestic, economic, sexual,
and reproductive rights to his wife, bridewealth also confers
Ami Vitale/Alamy Stock Photo
rights on the wife. By establishing the marriage as legal—

that is, recognized and supported by public sanctions—
bridewealth allows wives to hold their husbands accountable
for violations of conjugal rights. By sanctioning the proper
exchanges of rights and obligations of both husbands and
wives, bridewealth serves to stabilize marriage by giving
both families a vested interest in keeping the couple together.
However, that does not mean that divorce does not occur in
societies with bridewealth.
Bridewealth transactions occur around the world
but are particularly common in Africa, especially among
East African pastoralists such as the Gusii, Turkana, and
Kipsigis. Cattle, which dominate these societies culturally
and economically, traditionally make up the greater part of
bridewealth. Bridewealth payments are embedded in the eco-
family groups. If these exchanges are not completed, the nomic strategies of households; they are related to the ways in
rights in marriage can be forfeited. Three kinds of exchanges which men and women engage in labor, distribute property,
made in connection with marriage are bride service, bride- and maintain or enhance status. Thus, the amount of bride-
wealth, and dowry. wealth paid varies as people adapt to changing economic,
demographic, and social conditions.
Bridewealth Among the Kipsigis The ways in which
Bride Service and Bridewealth bridewealth can adapt to changing conditions is illus-
In bride service, the husband must work for a specified trated by the Kipsigis, a pastoral/horticultural society
period for his wife’s family in exchange for marital rights. in East Africa. Although bridewealth payments extend
Bride service is common in societies where there is relatively over many years in some societies, the Kipsigis make a
little material wealth, such as in many foraging and gardening single bridewealth payment, which historically consisted
societies. For example, among the Orang Rimba of Sumara of livestock but now includes some cash, at the time of
in Indonesia, bride service can last for several years (Sager, marriage. The Kipsigis distribute the bridewealth within
2016). There is a similar practice among the Yanomamö. the immediate families of the bride and the groom. The
In this society, bride service consists mainly of the husband groom’s father pays for the first marriage, and the groom
hunting to provide meat to his bride’s family (Chagnon et al., himself pays for subsequent marriages, although grooms
2017). During bride service, a man works under the direc- working for wages may also help with the first payment.
tion of his future father-in-law, who may control the man’s The bride’s parents are primarily responsible for the
access to his bride. Marriage arrangements do not always sur- negotiation and final acceptance of the bridewealth offer
vive the period of bride service. Either party may break the (Borgerhoff Mulder, 1995: 576). Most marriages are
agreement. arranged, and sometimes offspring are brought into line
The most common form of marriage exchange is bride- by threats of disinheritance. Kipsigi parents negotiat-
wealth, in which cash or goods are given by the groom’s ing a marriage must balance their desire for high bride-
kin to the bride’s kin to seal a marriage (Figure 10.7). wealth payments with their concern for their daughter’s
Bridewealth was sometimes called bride price, an inaccurate happiness, the need to attract a good son-in-law, and the
term conveying the misleading perception that marriage desire to avoid impoverishing the daughter in her new
was merely an economic exchange (Ogbu, 1978). A major household.
function of bridewealth is legitimating the new reproduc- Kipsigis bridewealth amounts have fluctuated as
tive and socioeconomic unit created by the marriage. In economic circumstances have changed. In the past, when
agricultural land was available and prices for crops were high, and household goods that constitute the main portion of
bridewealth was high because of the importance of women’s Indian dowries today.
labor in cultivation. In the 20th century, population increased Another theory holds that because upper-class and
and land became scarce. Therefore, the value of women’s upper-caste women in India are not supposed to work, dowry
labor in agriculture declined. At the same time, increased compensates the groom’s family for taking on an economic
urbanization and participation in the national and global burden. Dowry from this standpoint is a compensatory
economy have opened numerous new opportunities for men payment from the bride’s family, which is losing an eco-
to invest their wealth. Both of these trends have pushed the nomic liability, to the groom’s family, which is taking one on
average bridewealth down. However, economic changes also (Srinivasen & Lee, 2004).
opened new avenues for women. Parents of girls educated Although dowry is a practice of great antiquity, its terms
beyond elementary school often began to demand substan- were changed under British colonialism and as Indians
tial bridewealth both as compensation for the high school became increasingly involved in the cash economy. The
fees they spent on their daughter and because of the benefit British imposed heavy taxation and prohibited women from
her increased earning potential would bring to her marital owning property. This led many families to look at dowry as a
home. crucial source of income. Thus, demands for dowry payments
Many Westerners who encounter bridewealth practice increased, and families of husbands began demanding addi-
assume that it is both a cause and a symbol of a very low sta- tional money from their in-laws at other times, such as at the
tus for women. This is not necessarily the case. John Ogbu birth of children. Women and their families were sometimes
(1978) argued that such payments enhance rather than harassed and threatened over these financial demands. In
diminish the status of women by enabling both husband 1961, laws were passed making dowry illegal, and additional
and wife to acquire reciprocal rights in each other. Indeed, laws against dowry have been passed since then. However,
as the Kipsigis illustrate, the families of higher-status, more these laws have proven extremely ineffective, and families
educated women demand higher bridewealth. Surveying continue to demand dowries and take actions against women
bridewealth globally, Caroline Jones (2011: 105) reported and families that are unable to pay the prices to which they
that the practice is complex and variable. She reports that have agreed. In extreme cases, women are murdered or driven
bridewealth, by itself, does not determine female status in to suicide when they fail to meet dowry demands. Each year
society. in India, about 8,000 “dowry deaths” are reported (Bundhun,
2017; Seeger, 2013). Most of these deaths are reported among
the poorest segments of society, but not all. In 2016, a member
Dowry of the Indian Parliament, his wife, and his son were arrested
Dowry—a presentation of goods by the bride’s kin to the for the dowry-related death of the son’s wife (“BSP MP,” 2016).
groom’s family—is less common than other forms of exchange Globalization is beginning to influence the dowry sys-
at marriage. Like bridewealth, dowry has different meanings tem in parts of India where lower-class women have begun
and functions in different societies. In some cases, this trans- to work in factory production. In South India, work in gar-
fer of wealth represents a woman’s share of her family inheri- ment factories now allows these women to earn salaries that,
tance. It may be used by her and her husband to set up a new although generally lower than those of men, are nevertheless
household, kept by her as insurance in case her husband dies, becoming essential for family subsistence. In the past, the
or spent by her on her children. In other cases, dowry is a pay- families of these women amassed dowries for their daugh-
ment transferred from the bride’s family to the groom’s family. ters (even if they had to borrow much of it), but now many
of the women are saving for their own dowries. This has led
Dowry in India to greater independence for young, unmarried women, who
Dowry has been common among wealthier groups in India now demand greater rights to choose their own mates rather
for hundreds of years, and its functions are much debated. than accepting the matches their families arrange. However,
One view is that it may have served as a type of inheritance this also disrupts the kin support networks that traditionally
for women. In a society in which only men inherit family accompany those marriages (Lessinger, 2008).
property, women’s possession of their dowry gave them an
independent source of wealth. There are some issues with Different Kinds of Families
this idea, however. Most women have no control over their
dowries, which remain in the custody of their mother-in- Three basic types of families identified by anthropologists are
law or their husband. Further, if the purpose of a dowry the nuclear family, the composite family, and the extended
really was economic security, it would consist of productive family. Nuclear families are organized around the conjugal
resources such as land or a shop rather than the personal tie (the relationship between husband and wife). Composite
(compound) families are composed of nuclear fami-

lies linked by a common spouse, most often the husband. FIGURE 10.8 One of the most important
Extended families are based on relations of descent extending changes impacting the family in the United
over three or more generations. States over the past 50 years has been the
A domestic group, or household, is not the same as a fam- increasing number of women who work outside
ily. Although households most often contain related people, the home. In most families, women’s domestic
nonkin may also be part of a household. In addition, mem- responsibilities have not decreased, but in
bers of a family may be spread out over several households. some two-career families, there is a movement
The composition of a household is affected by the cultural toward more equal sharing of domestic work and
rules about where a newly married couple will live. childcare.
© iStockphoto/Geber86
The Nuclear Family
A nuclear family consists of a married couple and their chil-
dren. It is most often associated with neolocal residence, in
which the married couple establishes an independent house-
hold. This type of family may exist as an isolated and inde-
pendent unit, or it may be embedded within larger kinship
units. Only 5% of the world’s societies are neolocal.
The nuclear family is adapted in many ways to the
requirements of industrial society. In societies where most
jobs do not depend on productive resources that are often
owned by family groups (such as land) and in societies where
mobility may be required for obtaining employment and
career success, a small, flexible unit such as the independent
nuclear family has its advantages. Independence and flexibil- and their biological children as well as nonrelatives. In recent
ity are also requirements of foraging lifestyles, and more than times, high rates of divorce and remarriage as well as techno-
three-quarters of all foraging societies live in nuclear family logical changes have remade the family to some degree.
groups. In such societies, however, the nuclear family is not Divorce and remarriage enmesh families in ever-larger
nearly as independent or isolated as it is in U.S. society. The and more complicated kinship networks. Sometimes called
family unit almost always camps together with the kin of the blended families, these networks include divorced spouses
husband or the wife. and their new marriage partners, children from previous
marriages, and multiple sets of grandparents and other rela-
The Changing American Family tions. Relationships between children and their divorced,
In the United States, the monogamous, independent, neolo- noncustodial parent are often extremely limited. For exam-
cal nuclear family is a cultural ideal. This is related to the high ple, only one child in six averages a weekly visit with a
degree of mobility required in an industrial system and to a divorced, noncustodial father, and only one in four sees him
culture that places emphasis on romantic love, the emotional once a month. Almost half of the children of divorced parents
bond between husband and wife, privacy, and personal inde- have not seen their biological father for more than a year, and
pendence. In U.S. society, a newly married couple is expected more than two-thirds lose contact with their father within 10
to occupy its own residence and to function as an indepen- years of their parents’ divorce (Hacker, 2002: 22).
dent domestic and economic unit. Another important trend in the United States is the
Although the nuclear family consisting only of parents increasing number of children living with unmarried
and their biological children has played an important role in parents. In 1960, only about 9% of children lived with an
politics and in media, particularly in the mid-20th century, unmarried parent; by 2015, 34% did. Of these cases, the
it is not really that common in the United States. Only about overwhelming majority were single-mother households
one in five households in the United States is a nuclear family (Pew Research Center, 2015d; Figure 10.8). More than half
(at least in this sense). Throughout most of U.S. history, the children in the United States spend at least some of their
households limited to two parents and their biological childhood in a single-parent family (Waldfogel, 2010).
offspring have probably been the exception rather than the One of the most important trends in U.S. family life
rule. U.S. households have frequently included more than two is the increasing number of children born to unmarried
generations and often included relatives other than parents mothers. Although pregnancy before marriage has always
been common in the United States, in the 1930s, only 8% of income those jobs generates is also far greater than what the
first births occurred to unmarried women (Bachu, 1999). uneducated earn. College-educated women can generally
This figure increased only slightly until 1970, when 11% of support themselves and their children without male assis-
children were born outside of marriage. By 2015, the num- tance, and many choose to do so. However, marriage is a far
ber was over 40%, and most of births to women under 30 better economic prospect for them than for the less educated.
occurred outside of marriage (Centers for Disease Control A family in which both partners have a well-paying job will
and Prevention, 2015). This trend has affected other wealthy not only be far more prosperous than in cases where this is
countries as well. For example, in Sweden, most children have not true, but it will also be more economically stable. If one
been born outside of marriage since 1993. By 2015, almost partner loses a job, the other may still have one or be able to
55% of births were to unmarried mothers (Eurostat, 2015). find a job with comparative ease. The association of mar-
France and the United Kingdom both have higher rates than riage with the educated and prosperous has led sociologist
the United States (Ventura, 2009). In the past, unmarried Frank Furstenberg to label marriage a “luxury good” (in
mothers giving birth was often considered a particular prob- Tavernise, 2012). However, this is a bit deceptive. It is not that
lem of teenagers. Today, although teenage pregnancy has the wealthy get married for pleasure or to demonstrate their
hardly disappeared, most unmarried mothers are women wealth the way they might buy a yacht or an expensive piece
aged 20 to 30. Although rates of birth to unmarried mothers of jewelry. Rather, those from prosperous backgrounds are
in the United States are up for all ethnic groups, the rates have more likely to be well educated. For them, marriage is likely to
risen particularly sharply among Hispanic women and black increase their prosperity and stability, further differentiating
women, accounting for 53% and 73% of all births, respec- them from the poor.
tively (Wildsmith et al., 2011). Politicians and social commentators have sometimes
It is particularly revealing that the one group in the argued that single-parent families are the cause rather than
United States that has largely resisted the trend toward single the result of poverty. They deplore the lack of “family values”
parenthood is college graduates. This suggests the powerful that have led to this situation. However, the fact is that lim-
economic forces that are behind these trends. The unskilled iting and reducing welfare payments, promoting abstinence,
or minimally skilled jobs that earned good salaries for men and preaching the value of marriage have done nothing to
with a high school education or less in much of the 20th cen- reduce the number of children born out of wedlock. On the
tury have largely disappeared. They have been replaced with contrary, this number has only continued to rise.
jobs in the service sector that do not require the strength or
endurance men brought to manufacturing or other kinds of
labor. In fact, the culture men created in assembly line and Composite Families
construction jobs probably hindered them from getting ser- Composite (compound) families are aggregates of nuclear
vice sector jobs (for a now-classic example, see Bourgois, families linked by a common spouse, most often the hus-
1995). Women with limited education can find jobs that will band. Composite families are thus mainly patrilocal, struc-
support themselves and their children. Given the weak and tured by rules that require a woman to live in her husband’s
irregular job prospects for men, marriage may frequently home after marriage. A polygynous household, consisting
lead to working women supporting husbands as well. Under of one man with several wives and their respective children,
these circumstances, choosing not to marry makes good eco- constitutes a composite family. In this case, each wife and her
nomic sense. It is important to note that the decision not to children normally occupy a separate residence.
marry is not necessarily a decision to live alone: More than The dynamics of composite families are different from
half of the births to unmarried women occur to couples that those of a family that consists of one husband, one wife, and
are cohabiting. However, cohabiting couples usually have their children, all of whom occupy a common residence. As
very different economic expectations of each other than we saw previously, polygyny produces (and is produced by)
do married couples. Few cohabiting couples get married, wealthy and powerful families. It benefits men and women by
and those who do generally do not stay married for very increasing their wealth and also frequently benefits women
long (Wildsmith et al., 2011). It is very clear that as a group, by reducing their workload and increasing their security.
single-mother families are far poorer than other families. However, polygyny creates complex and sometimes prob-
Seven in ten children living with a single mother are poor or lematic family dynamics. For example, in composite families
low income, more than twice as many as children living in the ties between mothers and their children are particularly
other arrangements (Mather, 2010). strong. Ties between children and their fathers tend to be
The economic situation for college-educated Americans weaker. Further, bonds between children who share the same
is quite different. Not only are the prospects of getting a job mother tend to be far stronger than between children who
far better for both male and female college graduates, but the have the same father but different mothers. Children who
Extended families prevail in many societies that are based

FIGURE 10.9 The patrilineal, patrilocal on agriculture or herding. In these cases, the extended fam-
extended family was the ideal family form in ily is usually a corporate group, owning both land and herds.
premodern China. Father, son, and grandson were People gain access to productive resources through their
the backbone of the family. This historic picture family membership. Extended families provide the extensive
shows three generations of a Chinese family labor required to work the land or maintain the herds.
around 1900. The extended family is the ideal in more than half of the
world’s societies. However, in stratified societies, even if it is
Bettmann/Getty Images
ideal, it is found most often among landowners and prosper-

ous merchants. Less prosperous people more frequently live
in smaller domestic units.
Patrilineal, Patrilocal Families

A patrilineal extended family is organized around a man,
his sons, and the sons’ wives and children. Societies with
patrilineal extended families also tend to have patrilocal
residence rules—that is, after marriage, a man remains in his
father’s household and his wife moves into this household.
Thus, patrilineal families consist of generations of brothers
and their wives. In this situation, wives are, to some degree,
outsiders in their husbands’ families. Men own the land and
other productive resources and are responsible for providing
for their wives and children.
share the same father but have different mothers may tend to Patrilineal Families in Premodern China The patri-
show solidarity with each other when they face outsiders but lineal, patrilocal extended family was the ideal family form
fight with each other when outsiders are not present. in premodern China. Lineal descendants—father, son, and
Interactions between co-wives are also an important grandson—were the backbone of family organization. The
factor in these families. As we have seen, jealousy is not an family continued through time as a permanent social entity.
inevitable part of polygynous marriage, but it is fairly com- As older members were lost through death, new ones were
mon. Husbands ideally try to maintain equity between the added through birth.
different segments of their family. They should be equally Families in China tended to view marriage in terms of
sexually active with each wife and should provide equally for acquiring daughters-in-law. Marriages were arranged by
each family segment. However, in practice, this is often very parents, and the new couple lived with the husband’s fam-
difficult. If the family in question has enormous wealth (like ily. The obedient relationship of the son to his father and the
members of the Saudi royal family), assuring that each wife loyalty and solidarity of brothers were more important than
and her children are well provided for is relatively simple. the ties between husband and wife. Public demonstrations
However, most polygynous families live in relative poverty, of affection between husbands and wives were severely crit-
and assuring equal and adequate sustenance for each fam- icized because it was feared that a husband’s feelings for his
ily segment is a continuous challenge. Disputes are likely to wife would interfere with carrying out responsibilities to his
occur even when all members of the family get along reason- siblings and parents.
ably well. A good wife was a good daughter-in-law. She had to work
hard under the eyes of her mother-in-law and her husband’s
elder brothers’ wives. With the birth of a son, a woman gained
Extended Families more acceptance in the household. As the years went by, if she
The extended family consists of two or more lineally related was patient and played her role well, the relationship between
kinfolk of the same sex and their spouses and their offspring. husband and wife developed into one of companionship and
Extended families usually occupy a single household or a more equal division of power. As her sons grew up, the wife
homestead and are under the authority of a household head achieved even more power as she began to arrange for their
(Figure 10.9). An extended family is not just a collection marriages. When several sons were married, a woman might
of nuclear families. In the extended family system, ties of be the dominant person in the household, even ordering her
descent between generations are more important than ties of husband about as his economic power and, consequently, his
marriage. Extended families may be patrilineal or matrilineal. authority waned.
Matrilineal Families
A matrilineal family is organized around descent through FIGURE 10.10 Hopi women in the early
women and their daughters and the daughters’ husbands 20th century. Their “squash blossom” or
and children. Matrilineal families may have matrilocal “butterfly whorl” hairstyles indicate that they are
residence rules (a husband lives in the household of his wife’s eligible to marry. For the Hopi, squash blossoms
family) or avunculocal residence rules (at adolescence, a are symbolic of fertility. Married women generally
boy leaves his parents’ household to join the household of his wore their hair in a single braid.
maternal uncle. When he marries, his wife joins him in this
/Getty Images
household).
klahoma Historical Society/Archive Photos

In the matrilineal extended family, the most important
ties are between mothers and daughters and between sib-
lings. Husbands gain sexual access to and some economic
rights over their wives, but husbands do not gain control over
their children. Children belong to the descent groups of their
mothers, not their fathers. In a matrilineal society, the rights
and responsibilities of protection, provision, and control
fall primarily to the mother’s brother. He, along with other
male members of his lineage, controls family property. Thus,
women live in and children grow up in households with hus-
bands and fathers who do not control the family property of
their wives and children (the husbands control the property
of their sisters, nieces, and nephews). This limits the power
of husbands and may increase options for women, decrease The strongest and most permanent tie in Hopi society
cooperation between women and their husbands, reduce is between sisters. The foundation of the household group is
domestic violence, and result in better health and education the relation of sisters to one another and to their mother. The
outcomes for children (Lowes, 2017). children of sisters are raised together; if one sister dies, another
Matrilineal Families Among the Hopi The Hopi, a sister looks after her children. Sisters cooperate in all domes-
Pueblo group in the American Southwest, are a matrilineal tic tasks. There are usually few quarrels, and when they occur,
society (Figure 10.10). The matrilineage is conceived of as they are settled by the mother’s brother or the sisters’ own
timeless, stretching backward to the beginnings of the Hopi brothers.
people. Both male and female members of the lineage con- As in all matrilineal societies, a man’s relationship to his
sider their mother’s house their home, but men move out to sisters’ sons is very important. As head of his sisters’ lineage
live with their wives after marriage. They return to their natal and household, a Hopi man is in a position of authority and
home for many ritual and ceremonial occasions and in the control. He is the chief disciplinarian and has the primary
case of separation or divorce. The relationship of a man with responsibility for the important task of transmitting the
his father’s lineage and household is affectionate, involving ritual heritage of the lineage and clan. He is consulted in
some economic and ritual obligations but little direct cooper- the choice of a spouse, instructs his nephews in the proper
ation or authority. behavior toward their new relatives, and formally welcomes
The Hopi household revolves around a central and con- his nieces’ husbands into the household. A man usually
tinuing core of women. The mother–daughter relationship is selects his most capable nephew as his successor and trains
exceedingly close, based on descent, common activities, and him in the duties of whatever ceremonial position the man
lifelong residence together. Mothers are responsible for the holds.
economic and ritual training of their daughters. Daughters Whereas a boy’s relationship with his maternal uncle
are expected to behave with respect, obedience, and affection is characterized by reserve, respect, and even fear, his rela-
toward their mothers, and a daughter normally lives with her tionship with his father is more affectionate and involves
mother and mother’s sisters after marriage. Mothers also have little discipline. A Hopi man’s relationship with his daugh-
close relationships with their sons, although a son moves to ter is affectionate and friendly. Hopi fathers give their sons
his wife’s home after marriage. A son belongs to his mother’s miniature bows and arrows to prepare them for hunting
lineage and keeps much of his personal and ritual property in and warfare. They give their daughters kachina dolls, which
her home. A son is expected to show respect for his mother are associated with abundance and fertility. The gifting of
as head of the household and consult her on all important bows and arrows to sons ends with puberty, but the giv-
decisions. ing of kachina dolls continues. This symbolizes the father’s
protection of the daughter but also his role as guardian of his for men. In 2010, one-third of Japanese women entering their
daughter’s fertility (Schlegel, 2008: 132–133) 30s were unmarried, and many of these will never marry
Hopi husbands have important economic functions but (“The Flight From Marriage,” 2011).
do not participate in the matrilineage ritual. Since his pri- Not only is marriage decreasing, so is childbearing. For a
mary responsibilities are to his sisters and his sisters’ children, population to hold steady, women must, on average, have 2.1
a husband may be peripheral in his wife’s household. A Hopi children. If women have fewer children than that and immi-
father’s obligations to his sons are primarily economic. He gration doesn’t occur, a population will decline. As Table 10.1
prepares them to make a living by teaching them to farm and shows, in many wealthy nations, women are having fewer
herd sheep. At his son’s marriage, a father often presents him children than the population replacement rate.
with a portion of the flock and a small piece of land. The eco- In societies based around agricultural labor or herding,
nomic support sons receive from their father is returned in children are a good economic investment. The cost of raising
the father’s old age, when his sons support him. children is relatively low, and they provide a strong economic
In addition to matrilineages, the Hopi also have matrilin- boost to the family. Only a shrinking percentage of the world’s
eal clans that extend over many different villages. A Hopi man population is engaged in these activities, however. In urban
must not marry within his own clan or the clan of his father or settings and in an information and service economy, eco-
his mother’s father. Through marriage, a Hopi man acquires a nomic benefits go to those who have technical training. The
wide range of relatives in addition to those resulting from his costs of raising and educating children become very high,
membership in his mother’s clan. Kinship terms are extended and the economic benefit of children to their families lessens.
to all these people, leading to a vast number of potential sib- In the United States, for example, a middle-income family
ling relationships and the lateral integration of a great num- will spend almost $300,000 to raise a child from birth to age
ber of separate lineages and clans. This extension of kinship 18. That does not include any college expenses (U.S. Dept. of
relates a Hopi in some way to almost everyone in his or her Agriculture, 2017). Costs in other wealthy countries are com-
village, to people in other villages, and even to people in other parable. Families in wealthy nations derive many benefits
Pueblo groups who have similar clans. In the clans, men play from their children, but these are only rarely economic.
important political and religious roles, in contrast to the mar- In poor nations, high child mortality, the relatively high
ginal positions they have in domestic life (Eggan, 1950). percentage of the population involved in agriculture, and
the lower costs of raising children lead to increased fertility
Families and Globalization (Table 10.2). However, even in these places, fertility is declin-
ing, particularly in cities. Costs of raising children in poor
Family structures throughout the world have faced chal- nations are lower, but in the urban areas in which people
lenges from increased globalization, governmental policies, increasingly live, costs are still high, and this has driven family
and new technologies. Extended family structures were well size down dramatically. A study of eight West African coun-
adapted to agrarian and herding societies, and nuclear fam- tries found that rural women had, on average, 6.47 children,
ilies were well adapted both to foraging societies and to the while urban women had only 4.9. The effect was biggest in
industrial societies of the mid-20th century. However, in the cities over 1 million, where women had an average of 3.44
past half century, all of these societies have changed enor- children, a bit above half the number that rural women had
mously. Population increase, the spread of global capitalism, (Corker, 2014: 119).
and urbanization have changed the nature of the family. In In addition to these trends, government policies and tech-
1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities. Today, nological changes have <otiose> affected families. Since the
over half does, and projections show that by 2050, almost late 1970s, China has used a variety of incentives and punish-
70% will (United Nations, 2009). As populations have urban- ments to encourage families to have only a single child (see
ized, people are increasingly employed in industry, infor- Chapter 15, page 359). Although China’s is the best-known
mation, and service sectors. The movement to an urban, policy, many other countries have also strongly promoted fam-
postindustrial economy has affected families worldwide. ily planning. In countries such as China and India, where male
It has led to an increase in the prevalence of small families children are more prestigious than female children, the com-
focused on one or two adults and their children. bination of policies promoting family planning, the high cost
In many places, women have entered the paid workforce of child rearing, and the increasing availability of ultrasound
and play major roles in both manufacturing and service technology that allows people to determine the sex of their
industries. For many segments of the population, as in the unborn children has resulted in many more boys than girls
United States, this has pushed the value of marriage down. being born. In China in 2004, for example, 121.2 boys were
People marry much later than they once did, if they marry at born for every 100 girls. This figure had declined and stood at
all. In Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, the aver- 113.5 in 2015 (Zhou, 2016). The bias toward male children isn’t
age age for marriage is now 29 to 30 for women and 31 to 33 unique to China and India. Some of the world’s most highly
skewed birth rates are found in Liechtenstein in Europe and on If the ratio of boys to girls climbs higher and higher, will girls
the Caribbean island of Curaçao (Eveleth, 2013). become more culturally valued because of their scarcity? No
It is clear that the economic, political, and technologi- one knows the answers to these and many other questions
cal changes that characterize our world will have profound about the family. However, culture gives humanity the abil-
effects on the shape that families take in the future. However, ity to create and adapt to an extraordinarily broad spectrum
it is anything but clear what shape these families will take. For of environmental, economic, and political circumstances. A
example, if the economic value of marriage and children con- brave new world may be coming for families everywhere, but
tinues to decline, will two-parent families all but disappear? we will surely devise new cultural forms to go with it.
TABLE 10.1" TABLE 10.2"
FERTILITY RATE IN 2015 FERTILITY RATE IN 2015

NATION (CHILDREN PER WOMAN) NATION (CHILDREN PER WOMAN)
Singapore 1.2 Niger 7.3
Spain 1.3 Burkina Faso 5.4
Japan 1.5 Afghanistan 4.8
Germany 1.5 Ghana 4.0
Denmark 1.7 Pakistan 3.5
United Kingdom 1.8 Bolivia 2.9
United States 1.8 Turkey 2.1
Source: World Bank Data. Source: World Bank Data.

G E T TI N G O L D I N D I F F E R E N T C U LT U R E S
Aging is a universal biological aspect of being a reported the most loneliness for people over 60, with
person, but we understand what it means and how totals as high as 34% in Ukraine. Western Europeans
to deal with it in a cultural context. Current-day reported the least, with only 3.2% of Danes reporting
Americans tend to associate old age with death, but frequent loneliness (Yang & Victor, 2011).
this is not universal. Before the advent of modern
medicine, death tended to be associated with younger Students sometimes romanticize old age in more
people. High infant mortality, childhood diseases, traditional societies. It is true that when age
and accidents and sickness in adulthood meant that brings control over resources and knowledge,
in any given year, the young were more likely to die accomplishments, and the accumulation of
than the old. With modern medicine, the death of descendants, the elderly may be deeply respected.
the young has been greatly reduced, and old age has However, in many cases, elderly individuals who
become associated with a long dying process and do not have wealth, power, or descendants are not
diseases that are almost absent in some nonindustrial likely to be particularly respected (Counts & Counts,
societies, such as hypertension, cancer, coronary heart 1985: 261). In fact, the experience of growing old and
disease, and Alzheimer’s. But even with the physical treatment of the elderly are usually dependent on
problems associated with increased longevity, almost the ability of elderly individuals to be productive and
40% of Americans over 65 say they are very happy, the availability of resources to care for them. Even
compared to less than 30% of people between 18 in societies with extended family systems, aging
and 29 (Pew Research Center, 2010). A study of 25 may be difficult. When sons begin to raise families
European nations found that loneliness does increase of their own, patrilineal extended families often split
with age. However, there were great differences apart, and as the father loses productive abilities, he
between nations. Russians and Eastern Europeans is slowly divested of his status and power. In Fiji, for
(Continued!)
(Continued)
FIGURE 10.11 Among the Ju/’hoansi, younger people to help. However, in current-day
wealthy societies where small nuclear families are
elderly people remain surrounded by kin and
emphasized, it can be extremely difficult. In response
continue to make important contributions to to this problem, assisted living and nursing home
community life. facilities specifically tailored to Muslim clientele
are become more common. Such facilities often
have communal prayer rooms, serve halal food,
Fernando Quevedo de liveira/Alamy Stock
provide same-sex medical and nursing care, and have

multilingual staff (Clemetson, 2006).
One society well known for its positive treatment

of the elderly is the Ju/’hoansi of Botswana
(H. Rosenberg, 2013; Figure 10.11). Formerly foragers,
the Ju/’hoansi are now mainly sedentary pastoralists
and agriculturalists, but their values, particularly
their ideology of sharing, remain largely intact. Elder
caregiving is an important Ju/’hoansi value and the
Photo
responsibility of all adult children. Ju/’hoansi elders

are independent and autonomous. The able-bodied
example, although ideally an old father should be continue to forage or participate in other economic
properly cared for by his brothers and sons, in many activities; they fetch water, visit, trade gifts, make
cases, he is barely kept alive, his counsel is never crafts, dance, and exercise their healing powers.
sought, and he is more often considered silly rather Ju/’hoansi elders are not considered a burden, not
than wise (Sahlins, 1957: 451). even those who cannot care for themselves. The
difficulties of old age, including the decline of sexual
In societies where aging is linked to physical decline, prowess and interest among both men and women,
decreasing productive participation in society, and are a source of Ju/’hoansi humor, and even the very
scarce material resources, it is experienced negatively old and helpless do not experience a sharp decline of
by the elderly themselves and by the families, kin, or social status. Elders are associated with generative
communities who care for them. Thus, the concept and life-giving activities in the community, are felt
of caring for the elderly as a burden is culturally to have special powers, and may occupy strong
widespread, occurring even in societies like Japan, leadership roles. The Ju/’hoansi elders do not have
where integration and group harmony are valued fears of pauperization or anxieties about personal
over competitive independence. The Japanese security, interpersonal violence or abuse, loneliness,
elderly are frequently anxious about becoming a or abandonment by their families.
burden because they fear incurring obligations that
cannot be paid back (Traphagan, 1998). The Ju/’hoansi illustrate that even in a society with very
limited material resources, the situation of the elderly
In societies where family care of the aged at home might well be envied by those in societies with a much
is embedded in traditional cultural values, current richer material base. This is particularly impressive
economic changes are leading to changing practices. because, as foragers without property to pass on,
In China, for example, as the young migrate to cities, Ju/’hoansi elders lack the leverage of inheritance to
old people are left in the villages, and the traditional exact compliance from their children. Things may
obligations for a son to provide for his parents in be changing, however. As the Ju/’hoansi become
their old age are breaking down (French, 2006). Some pastoralists, livestock becomes an important asset,
urban communities shame people who neglect their and inheritance of property may become increasingly
elderly parents by posting their names on public significant in the status and treatment of the elderly.
bulletin boards. In others, local homes for the elderly
fine children who miss weekend parental visits. Key Questions
Elder care presents a challenge for many American 1. When, in your opinion, does someone enter old
Muslims. The Koran emphasizes responsibility age? How old is “elderly”?
for the elderly. Historically, many Muslims have 2. How are elderly people taken care of in your
interpreted this as a responsibility to care for aging family? Do aged relatives live at home, in senior
relatives at home, even when they have severe communities, or in nursing homes? Do you think
medical needs. The only exception has been for those your responses have anything to do with your
suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, who require race or ethnicity?
round-the-clock care (Ajrouch, 2016: 10). When
people lived in large, extended families, caring for 3. In U.S. society, what factors determine whether
the elderly was possible since there were many age increases or decreases a person’s status?
SUMMARY
1. What are the major functions of marriage and the fam- 7. What are polygyny and polyandry and what are their
ily? Three major functions of marriage and the family principal correlates? Polygyny occurs when a husband
are regulating sexual access between males and females, has more than one wife. It is usually found in herding,
arranging for the exchange of services between males agricultural, and horticultural societies—societies in
and females, and assigning responsibility for child care. which having many children is particularly valuable—
but it also occurs in some foraging societies. Polyandry
2. How do the Na of China and other cross-cultural exam- is much rarer and occurs when a wife has more than one
ples raise questions about the universality of marriage? husband. It tends to happen in societies where living
Although marriage and family are grounded in the bio- conditions are particularly harsh or where men must be
logical process of reproduction, there is great variety in away from home for long periods of time.
the forms and functions of families. The Na do not tradi-
tionally practice marriage, and children remain in their 8. What are bride service, bridewealth, and dowry? Bride
mother’s household throughout their life. Groups such as service, bridewealth, and dowry are exchanges of goods
the Na raise the question of whether marriage is univer- and services that accompany marriage. In brideservice,
sal and whether procreation is a universal function of the grooms work for the family of the bride for an agreed-
family. Same-sex marriages in some African cultures and upon period. In bridewealth, the family of the husband
in the United States raise similar questions. gives goods, livestock, and sometimes money to the family
of the bride. In dowry, the family of the bride gives money
3. What is an incest taboo? What are some theories of why and property to the family of the groom or the new couple.
incest taboos are universal? Incest taboos are prohibi-
tions on mating between certain groups of relatives. 9. How have families been affected by war and violence?
Biological theories of incest argue that inbreeding is del- Through the end of 2016, violence had displaced more
eterious to the species. Psychological theories argue that than 65 million people, and 22 million of these had
incest would cause family disruption. Sociological theo- sought refuge in another country. Wars break fami-
ries argue that the alliances created by marriage to mem- lies, killing members and destroying social networks.
bers of other groups are beneficial to survival. No single Refugees may be unable to reunite their families because
theory offers an adequate explanation. authorities rely on biological models of family. Child ref-
ugees attempt to re-create family and social networks in
4. What is the difference between exogamy and endogamy? new settings. Anthropologists can help by encouraging
How do these rules function in different cultural con- authorities to focus on the social networks of refugees
texts? Exogamy requires that people marry outside their and away from treating refugees as individuals with
group. This rule is adaptive in forging alliances between pathologies.
families within a society. Endogamy requires marriage
within a specified group. Its function may be to maintain 10. What are the differences between nuclear, composite,
group status and keep wealth within the group. and extended families? How is each type of family struc-
ture related to economic factors? The nuclear family
5. What are cross-cousin and parallel-cousin marriages is organized around the tie between husband and wife
and what are their effects? Cross-cousin marriage unites and is found predominantly in industrial and foraging
an individual with a child of their mother’s brother or societies. It is adaptive where geographical mobility is
father’s sister. These unions reinforce ties between kin important. Composite families are created by polygyny
groups established in the preceding generation. Parallel- or polyandry. They are composed of different family sub-
cousin marriage unites an individual with a child of their units linked by a common spouse. The extended fam-
mother’s sister or father’s brother. This helps prevent the ily joins multiple generations of kinfolk along descent
fragmentation of family property and strengthens soli- lines through either husband or wife. Composite and
darity between brothers. extended families are more common in agricultural soci-
eties where large families create wealth.
6. What are the levirate and sororate? In a levirate, a wife is
“inherited” by her deceased husband’s younger brother. 11. How have families changed in the United States in the
In a sororate, a deceased wife is replaced by her younger past half century? American ideology often stresses
sister. Both attest to marriage as an alliance between the importance of the neolocal, independent, nuclear,
groups and allow the continuation of the marriage con- monogamous family. However, this form is challenged
tract even if one partner dies. by the many people who choose not to marry, the high
divorce rate among those that do marry, increasing prevalence of small families focused around one or two
number of single-parent (especially single-mother) fam- adults and their children and has been accompanied by
ilies, and the increasing presence of women in the labor declining fertility, especially in wealthy nations.
market.
14. Describe variation in the treatment of the elderly in dif-
12. How do patrilineal, patrilocal families differ from matri- ferent cultures. Studies of wealthy nations have shown
lineal families? In patrilocal families, wives live with that older people are more likely than young adults to
their husbands’ families and fathers are the heads of their describe themselves as very happy, but they have also
families and lineages. In matrilineal families, husbands revealed that loneliness increases with age. In traditional
usually live with their wives’ families but are the heads of societies, the treatment of the elderly varies. The old may
their sisters’ lineage and families. be respected, but caring for them is often treated as a bur-
den. The elderly are sometimes anxious about becom-
13. How has globalization changed the family? Globalization ing burdens on their families. The Ju/’hoansi present
has led to increasing levels of urbanization and rising an example of society where elderly people play vitally
expenses of child rearing. This has favored increasing the important roles.
1. Anthropologist Philip Kilbride (1994) has suggested whether you think these changes will continue in the
that polygyny would be a good marriage arrange- future, and speculate on the cultural changes that you
ment in the modern world, and anthropologist Yehudi think may result.
Cohen (1978) has suggested that the incest taboo
is obsolete. Can you argue for or against these two 4. Explain the ways in which relations between siblings in
positions? a polygynous family who share the same mother and
father are likely to be different from relations between
2. To what degree are endogamy and exogamy practiced siblings who share the same father but have different
within American society? What kinds of groups are mothers.
endogamous and exogamous?
5. Describe some of the ways that globalization has affected
3. The past half century has seen dramatic changes in fam- families and predict how families might change in the
ilies in the United States. List some of the changes, tell next 25 years.
KE Y TE RM S
arranged marriage 232 exogamy 236 neolocal residence 244

avunculocal residence 247 extended family 246 nuclear family 244
blended families 244 fraternal polyandry 240 patrilocal residence 246
bride service 242 incest taboos 235 polyandry 238
bridewealth 242 levirate 238 polygamy 238
composite (compound) family 245 marriage 231 polygyny 238
dowry 243 matrilocal residence 247 sororal polygyny 239
endogamy 237 monogamy 238 sororate 238
G LO S SARY
arranged marriage The process by which senior family levirate The custom whereby a man marries the widow of
members exercise a great degree of control over the choice a deceased brother.
of their children’s spouses.
marriage The customs, rules, and obligations that
avunculocal residence System under which a married establish a socially endorsed relationship between adults
couple lives with the husband’s mother’s brother. and children as well as between the kin groups of the
married partners.
blended families Kinship networks occasioned by
divorce and remarriage in the United States that include matrilocal residence System under which a husband
the previously divorced spouses and their new marriage lives with his wife’s family after marriage.
partners as well as stepsiblings and half-siblings.
monogamy A rule that limits a person to be married to
bride service The cultural rule that a man must work for only one spouse at a time.
his bride’s family for a variable length of time either before
or after the marriage. neolocal residence System under which a couple
establishes an independent household after marriage.
bridewealth Goods presented by the groom’s kin to the
bride’s kin to legitimize a marriage (formerly called bride nuclear family A family organized around the
price). conjugal tie (the relationship between husband and
wife) and consisting of a husband, a wife, and their
composite (compound) family An aggregate of nuclear children.
families linked by a common spouse.
patrilocal residence System under which a bride lives
dowry Presentation of goods by the bride’s kin to the with her husband’s family after marriage.
family of the groom or to the couple.
polyandry A rule permitting a woman to have more than
endogamy A rule prescribing that a person must marry one husband at a time.
within a particular group.
polygamy A rule allowing more than one spouse.
exogamy A rule specifying that a person must marry
outside a particular group. polygyny A rule permitting a man to have more than one
wife at a time.
extended family Family based on blood relations
extending over three or more generations. sororal polygyny A form of polygyny in which a man
marries sisters.
fraternal polyandry A custom whereby a woman marries
a man and his brothers. sororate The custom whereby when a man’s wife dies, her
sister is given to him as a wife.
incest taboos Prohibitions on sexual relations between
relatives.
There is enormous variation in behavior and dress considered masculine or feminine. Here, a young boy in Myanmar is dressed
for the Shinbyu Pwe, a ceremony that initiates him as a Buddhist novice. Many boys in Myanmar spend some time as novice
monks, but most return to their normal lives after a few months.
Gender 11
Margaret Mead (1901–1978; Figure 11.1) was one of the first anthropologists LEARNING OBJECTIVES
to question the relationship between biology and behavior considered to be
masculine or feminine. She organized much of her ethnographic research After you have read this chapter, you
will be able to:
around the question of whether characteristics that Americans in her era
thought of as masculine and feminine were universal. In one of her many field 11.1 Differentiate between sex,
research projects, she considered three groups in New Guinea: the Arapesh, sexuality, and gender
the Mundugumor, and the Tchambuli (Mead, 1963/1935). She reported that 11.2 Illustrate the ways in which
among the Arapesh, men and women both were expected to act in ways that gender is culturally constructed and
Americans considered feminine. Both sexes were concerned with taking provide at least two examples
care of children and nurturing. Neither sex was expected to be aggressive. 11.3 Analyze the role of gender
In Mundugumor society, both sexes were what American culture would call ideology in the construction of
masculine: aggressive, violent, and with little interest in children. And among gender and give examples
the Tchambuli, traditional American notions of masculine and feminine were, 11.4 Explain what alternative gender
to some degree, reversed. Women had the major economic role and were noted roles are and give examples of them
for common sense and business shrewdness. Men were more interested in
11.5 Compare sexuality practices
aesthetics. They spent much time decorating themselves and gossiping. Their from different cultures and assess
feelings were easily hurt, and they sulked a lot. From this study, Mead concluded the range of culturally acceptable
that although many of the behaviors, emotions, and roles that go into being sexual behavior in the world’s
cultures
masculine and feminine may have biological roots, they are patterned by culture.
11.6 Summarize different theories
In addition to its importance in gender studies, Mead’s work is significant offered to explain the existence of
gender hierarchies.
because it reinforces a central anthropological thesis: To grasp the potential
and limits of diversity in human life, we must look at the full range of human 11.7 Compare and contrast
societies, particularly those outside Western historical, cultural, and economic gender relations typical of foraging,
horticultural, pastoral, and
traditions. In nonindustrial, small-scale, kinship-based, more egalitarian
agricultural societies
societies, gender relationships clearly differ from those of the West. Indeed,
research on gender diversity indicates that the very construction of sex and 11.8 Assess the changes in
understanding of gender in the past
gender is extraordinarily diverse, as are the relationships between sex, gender,
decades and relate them to changes
and other aspects of culture. in family and economy
FIGURE 11.1 Margaret Mead was a

pioneering researcher on gender and

sexuality. In this 1953 picture, she visits
a mother and child on Manus, a Pacific
Island near Papua New Guinea.
255
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender The anthropological approach to gender emphasizes the
central role of gender relations as a basic building block of
To begin, it is extremely useful to differentiate between sex, culture and society (Yanagisako & Collier, 1994: 190–203).
sexuality, and gender. Sex is the term used to describe the Gender is central to social relations of power, individual and
biological differences between male and female, particularly group identities, the formation of kinship and other groups,
the visible differences in external genitalia and the role each and meaning and value.
sex plays in the reproductive process. Overwhelmingly, peo-
ple are born with either male or female genitalia. However,
somewhere between 1 in 1,500 to 1 in 2,000 people are born The Cultural Construction of Gender
with genitals that are not easily classified as either male or
female (American Psychological Association, 2018). Thus, Except for a few thinkers like Mead, the idea that maleness
this type of intersex people accounts for about 0.075% and femaleness were biologically determined prevailed in
to 0.05% of the population. That’s a small number . . . the social sciences until the 1970s. Given this assumption,
but it’s a big world. This means that of the U.S. population of the different roles, behaviors, personality characteristics,
323 million, as many as a quarter million may have genitalia emotions, and development of men and women were viewed
that cannot be easily classified as male or female. as a function of sex differences and thus as universal. This
Sexuality is difficult to define. However, for our purposes, meant that many important questions about the role of gen-
it refers to sexual desire. Sigmund Freud proposed that chil- der in culture and society were never asked. The emergence
dren are all “polymorphously perverse,” by which he meant of feminist anthropology in the 1970s focused attention on
that they can experience pleasure through every surface of cross-cultural variability in the meaning of gender. Biological
their bodies (in Bordo, 2015: 233). This seems to be true of determinism began to give way to understanding gender as
adults as well. People in every society may desire physical established by social norms and values rather than by biology
contact and sex with all manner of others. Sexual desire may (Ortner & Whitehead, 1981).
vary depending on age, social conditions, and any number of Most anthropologists understand genders as cultural
other factors. Whether people are inclined to be attracted to constructions. The traits considered to be masculine or fem-
members of their own or the other sex seems to be biologi- inine have some basis in biology but are molded by cultural
cally determined. However, whether they express that attrac- forces. They are related to the specific history of each cul-
tion and how they do so is molded by culture. ture but also to the distribution of power within each culture
Gender is the term for the sex-related cultural and social and the ways in which members of the culture earn their
roles that individuals play. It is a social, cultural, and psycho- livelihood. For example, as we saw in Chapter 6 (page 139),
logical construct that society superimposes on the biological moving from agricultural and craft production to industrial
differences of sex and temperament (Worthman, 1995: 598). production involved a change in the way people in the United
Gender is a type of performance— the way we enact our bio- States and western Europe viewed masculinity.
logical sex and our biopsychological sexuality. However, it is a People in all cultures consider the ways that their fellow
performance that is channeled by the social ideas and specific members express masculinity, femininity, and other gender
roles available in any specific society. roles to be normal and natural—as simply the result of the
Every culture recognizes a variety of gender roles, or way people are. However, gender roles are learned and chan-
behaviors that societies consider appropriate for people of neled by culture. Because learning gender starts so early in
different sexes. However, cultures have different numbers of people’s lives and is so pervasive in their cultures, people often
named roles. These roles differ in the meanings people attach mistake the cultural for the natural.
to them, the supposed sources of the differences between Consider American child-rearing behavior. From
them, and the relationship of these categories to other cultural the moment that parents learn the sex of their child, often
and social facts. All cultures recognize at least two sexes (male months before the child is born, many of them begin to pre-
and female) and two genders (masculine and feminine), but pare to teach the child about his or her gender role. If parents
some cultures recognize additional sexes and genders. For are fortunate enough to have a room set aside for the child,
example, among the Bugis, an ethnic group with a popula- they will often begin to decorate it. Boys get rooms decorated
tion of about 6 million in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, five gen- in primary colors with sports, science, or transportation
ders are recognized: male, female, calalai (biological woman themes (airplanes are popular). Girls get rooms decorated in
but living as a man), calabai (biological man but living as a pastel colors with flowers, cute animals, or fairy tale themes
woman), and bissu (a priest embodying equal elements of (princesses are popular). Of course, not all parents do this,
male and female). The Bugis believe that all five must be pres- and there is nothing wrong with decorating your child’s room
ent for harmony to exist in the world (Davies, 2006). this way. But these choices help teach children what kinds of
Anthropologists who focus on the cultural construc-

FIGURE 11.2 We begin to learn what sorts tion of gender emphasize the different ways people in dif-
of colors, objects, and ideas are appropriate ferent cultures think about, distinguish, and symbolize the
to our gender as young children. Here, a girl nature of maleness and femaleness. They focus attention
surrounded by pinks and pastels reads to her on historical changes in gender relations (Lancaster, 1989;
stuffed animals. Zihlman, 1989), the role of gender in human development
(Chodorow, 1974, 1978), the constructions of feminine
© iStockphoto/Choreograph
and masculine in different cultures, and the connections

between gender systems and other sociocultural patterns
(Ortner & Whitehead, 1981). They also raise questions
about the effect of European expansion on gender rela-
tions in non-European societies (Nash & Safa, 1986) and
the changes in gender relations within Europe and North
America resulting from industrialism, capitalism, and
expansion of the global economy (Andersen & Collins,
1995; Warren & Bourque, 1989).
A culture’s construction of gender always includes
reference to the differences between male and female
sexuality. Such understandings are often used to support
sexual ideologies that intersect with the construction of
colors, objects, behaviors, and professions are appropriate for race, class, and other forms of social hierarchy. People are
their gender (Figure 11.2). not just male and female. Rather, they live at the intersec-
Learning gender continues as children grow. Parents, tion of many different identities. They are, for example,
teachers, and, most important, children’s peers monitor, male, black, gay, urban, middle class, and college edu-
police, and channel their behavior. Children (and adults) cated, or they are female, straight, rural, poor, and have a
are given almost continual feedback on their performance of GED. All of these identities can be critical in understand-
gender. They are told “boys do this” (play baseball for exam- ing how people experience themselves and how they
ple) or “boys don’t do this” (cry, or tell on others). They are interact in society.
told “girls do this” (dance, wear dresses) or “girls don’t do
this” (play rough sports, use profane language). In our own
culture, these messages are reinforced through the media. Gender Ideologies: Women’s Sexuality
Mainstream Hollywood films often valorize male heroes who
use violence to achieve their goals and female heroines who
and Male Prestige Behavior
use beauty and innocence to achieve theirs. These archetypes
are drawn from American culture. However, other cultures “Beautiful girls never have any pain with anything that
have parallel features. makes them beautiful . . . . When a Rangerette goes
Of course, people differ greatly in the degree to which in to get a job from somebody, if they find out she’s a
they are able to or desire to fit into the dominant gender Rangerette, she will always get the job because they know
roles in their society. In some societies, like the Bugis, there she will always look well groomed.” Gussie Nell Davis,
are alternate gender roles available. However, in societies 1906–1993 (in Erwitt, 1973)
where only male and female gender roles exist, people may
understand themselves, both positively and negatively, by A gender ideology is the totality of ideas about sex,
the degree to which they are able to perform their gender gender, and the natures of men and women within a cul-
roles. Even in a society that offers many possibilities for the ture. Gender ideologies are ideas, usually stereotypical,
expression of gender, some people may not be easily “legi- about what the abilities, characters, and proper roles of dif-
ble”; their performance of gender may not fit into any socially ferent genders are. Gender ideologies are linked to social
established role. For example, David Valentine (2003) con- stratification and justify the distribution of power between
ducted research on trans people in New York City. He found members of different genders. The quote that begins
that members of the lesbian, straight, and gay communities this section is an expression of gender ideology. Gussie
all had difficulty in understanding how to respond to them. Nell Davis was the founder and director of the Kilgore
None of the ways that outsiders attempted to classify them Rangerettes, a revolutionary precision dance team founded
captured the experience of their community. in 1940 at Kilgore College in Texas. The Rangerettes
performed at football halftime shows and were the fore- on the streets, in bars, or in warfare) is a widespread cul-
runners of much of modern American precision dancing. tural pattern. On the island of Truk, a U.S. trust territory
Most large universities and many high schools now have in Micronesia, masculinity is defined in terms of compet-
dance teams similar to the Rangerettes. In the quote, Davis itiveness, assertiveness, risk taking in the face of danger,
expresses beliefs about how women should behave and and physical strength. In the past, young men were war-
what they should do in society. They should be effortlessly riors. Now they are hard drinkers and violent brawlers (M.
desirable to men and, if they work, they should do so in Marshall, 1979).
positions in which their employer’s primary concern will David Gilmore (1990) has argued that the idea of man-
be how they look. In the early 1970s, when Davis said this, hood as something that must be sought through rigorous
she was probably expressing part of the dominant gender tests of skill, endurance, or power is ubiquitous. The call for
ideology in the United States. boys to “act like men” is found in cultures throughout the
world. This points to critical aspects of the nature of male-
ness (Figure 11.3).
Gender Ideology in Fairy Tales There is certainly no one way of being male across dif-
Gender ideologies are articulated in societies in many ways. ferent cultures. The specific types of behavior that consti-
They are shown in classrooms, in games, in rituals, in dress, tute maleness vary enormously from place to place. Even
and in the ways men and women are portrayed in myths and within a culture, there are almost always numerous roles
stories. For example, Sherry Ortner (2006) has examined the men play. In a small foraging society, the way that one dis-
way women are portrayed in the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales. plays maleness as a shaman is different from the way one
She notes that women who take active roles and have goals of displays maleness as a hunter or fighter. In large and com-
their own are inevitably wicked. These tales feature wicked plex societies, the range of different male roles and male
witches and evil stepmothers who have antisocial goals and behaviors is enormous.
use evil means such as poison, gossip, and magic to carry However, it is also true that demands for men to display
them out. Girls often play heroic roles in these stories, but traits such as bravery, strength, fortitude, creativity, and intel-
they do so first as victims. They only become active because lect are extremely common across cultures (Figure 11.3).
bad things happen to them. Frequently, their heroism is This is probably linked to a male desire for prestige that is
linked to their passivity. universal and that might ultimately be based in human biol-
The story “The Six Swans” is typical. An evil witch ogy. There are many ways of showing maleness and many
forces a king to marry her equally evil daughter. The king ways of gaining prestige, but there is no culture in which pres-
has six sons and one daughter from a previous marriage. tige is not an issue.
Knowing that his new wife is evil, he hides the children
from her. But she finds them and turns the sons into swans.
To save her brothers, the daughter is forced to remain silent FIGURE 11.3 Displaying maleness through
for six years while she sews six shirts from flowers. While competition, assertiveness, or risk-taking
she is engaged in this task, another king falls in love with her behavior is common in many societies. In this
and marries her. However, her husband’s wicked mother image a jockey holds on to the tails of cattle racing
conspires against her daughter-in-law by stealing her chil- through muddy rice paddy fields in the annual
dren and accusing her of cannibalism. After six years, her Pacu Jawi race in Batusangkar, Indonesia.
brothers are saved, and the daughter can speak against her
mother-in-law, who is then burned to death. In this story,
Barcroft Media/Contributor/Getty Images
the women who have active plans (marry her daughter to

the king, discredit her daughter-in-law) are evil. The hero-
ine acts only because something has happened (her broth-
ers are turned into swans), and her action is really inaction
(she must remain totally silent and sew). It is her inaction
that saves her brothers and proves her value.
Proving Manhood
The concept of a “real man” as one who proves himself to
be virile, controls women, is successful in competition with
other men, and is daring, heroic, and aggressive (whether
Richard Lee, an anthropologist who worked among a complex and elaborate process that makes violence not
the Ju/’hoansi, a foraging group in South Africa, tells only acceptable but also beautiful. The point of a bullfight is
the now-classic story of his attempt to hold a feast for his not simply to kill a bull. That would be easy and would lack
Ju/’hoansi friends. Lee bought an ox to slaughter. Returning any cultural meaning. Rather, the skill, grace, and courage of
to the camp, he informed his friends of his purchase, but the bullfighter are central to the performance. The bullfight
rather than praising him, they insulted him, telling him that embodies the values of male competition in defense of honor.
he was gypped and the ox he had purchased would never be The key to the bullfight is understanding that it symbol-
sufficient for the camp. However, when they had the feast, izes a public physical showdown between two men. The mat-
food was plentiful. Of course, as hunters, the Ju/’hoansi have ador symbolizes the honorable male. He appears in formal
keen eyes for appraising animals. They must have known dress that does not overtly suggest violence. Although mata-
that the ox would be sufficient. Why did they tell him it was dors are certainly athletic, they do not appear obviously big,
not? When Lee asked this question, his friends told him that strong, or particularly aggressive. The bull symbolizes the
whenever a hunter bragged about the size of his kill or the dishonorable male. The bull is angry, out of control, but obvi-
way he was providing for others, they always insulted him. ously powerful. In the fight, the matador demonstrates enor-
Such bragging was a sign of arrogance. Lee’s friend Tomazo mous skill with a calm, self-controlled attitude (Figure 11.4).
said, “When a young man kills much meat he comes to think He uses violence but without becoming violent himself. For
of himself as a chief or big man, and he thinks of the rest of spectators, the aesthetics and style of this performance are
us as his servants or inferiors. We can’t accept this . . . so we central.
always speak of his meat as worthless” (R. Lee, 1969). The kill is the most dangerous part of the performance for
Lee’s story shows two very important things. First, even the matador. Ideally, the matador dispatches the bull with a
in an extremely egalitarian society such as the Ju/’hoansi, single sword thrust that severs the animal’s aorta, causing it to
issues of male prestige are important. The practice of insult- collapse immediately. A matador who needs many attempts
ing or ignoring someone who boasts can exist only if peo- to kill the bull or fails to enact a speedy death is judged poorly
ple searching for prestige through boasting also exist. That by spectators and may be called a murderer. Boxing is unpop-
argues for the universality of such searching. However, it also ular in Spain, where it is frequently interpreted as men indulg-
reminds us of the critical importance of culture. It is possible ing their animal nature, and it is considered an underground
that the male search for prestige is biologically based (though activity for delinquents (Gibson, 2015). But a bullfight is a
no one has yet found a gene for it). But even if this is the case, performance that allows man to transcend his animal nature
it is expressed only through culture. Culture, as among the as it distinguishes a man of honor from a man of anger.
Ju/’hoansi, can serve to suppress and tamp down the desire The construction of gender identity is complex, and peo-
for prestige. Alternatively, hierarchical societies such as chief- ple have probably always challenged gender roles. There is a
doms (or our own society for that matter), emphasize it. deep and well-established connection between bullfighting
Gender and Bullfighting in Spain

FIGURE 11.4 A formally dressed matador, Jose
Games and sports such as football in the United States, cock-
Ortega Cano, shows a calm display of skill as a
fighting in Bali, rugby in Tonga, or bullfighting in Spain are
bull passes within inches of him.
all ways of both learning and reinforcing culturally con-
structed gender ideologies. Clifford Geertz called these
AFP Contributor/Getty Images
activities “deep play” (Geertz, 1973a) because they heighten
emotions, display compelling aspects of social structure and
culture, and reinforce culturally constructed identities (see
Chapter 2, p. 43). The construction of masculinity in the
Spanish bullfight is a good example.
Honor is a central concept in Spanish masculine
identity—and indeed in much of Mediterranean culture
(Gilmore, 1996). The art of the bullfight is one of the ways
in which this cultural value is expressed. Although many
outsiders and a growing number of Spaniards consider bull-
fighting a cruel assault on animals, people who enjoy bull-
fighting view it as a sport and an aesthetic ritual, not as a form
of violence or cruelty (Eller, 2006: 104). Bullfights involve
and masculinity wherever the sport is practiced. Matadors

have almost always been men. However, there is evidence of FIGURE 11.5 Society’s control of women is often
a few female matadors going back to the mid-17th century. inscribed on their bodies. In China, foot binding
A female matador known as “La Pajuelera” is depicted in an was once common. The practice was banned
etching by Francisco Goya from the early 1800s. The 20th in 1912 but continued in some places. In Liuyi,
century saw numerous female matadors, including Bette a village in Yunnan province, over 100 elderly
Ford, an American actress who became the first woman women still had bound feet in 2007.
to perform on foot at the world’s largest bullfight arena in
China Photos/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Mexico City. Christina Sanchez was one of the most success-
ful female bullfighters of the late 20th century, but she retired
after three seasons. On the one hand, Sanchez’s bullfight-
ing success brought debates about modern Spanish gender
roles into the open. On the other hand, she was the victim of
attacks and slurs by male matadors (Pink, 2003).
Controlling Female Sexuality

Ideas about distinctions in gender and sexuality are central
to the ways in which societies are organized. Often, they are
part of a gender hierarchy that associates specific forms of
male performance with power and justifies control of female
sexuality. This is often linked to notions of honor and shame,
and thus to cultural understandings of masculinity (Gilmore, and communities as well (Milillo, 2006). In recent years, it has
1996; Wikan, 2008). In some cases, the belief that women are been associated with war, genocide, and “ethnic cleansing” in
more sexually voracious than men is used to justify men’s Bosnia, Congo, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, and other places. It may also
control over women. However, even when this is not the case, be used to maintain male economic superiority. For example,
most societies exercise far greater control over women than in 2012, Jyoti Singh was a young woman working nights at a
over men. Frequently this includes cultural practices such as tech company’s call center in Delhi in India. She was accom-
the seclusion of women, control over women’s dress, laws that panied by a male friend when she was gang raped and brutally
favor men in marriage and divorce, and laws regarding adul- beaten by six men while riding on a bus. She survived long
tery and abortion. It may also include discrimination against enough to report the details of the incident, such as the fact that
women who work, go to school, or appear outside their the bus driver joined in the rape, but ultimately she died of her
homes without a male escort. injuries. The incident resulted in international publicity and
Society’s control of female sexuality is often physically highlighted violence against working women. The perpetra-
inscribed on female bodies. One example of this is the female tors were convicted. However, between 2012 and 2014, there
genital operations performed in some African and Middle were more than 31,000 other crimes against women in Delhi
Eastern societies. In these procedures, the clitoris is removed, but only 150 convictions (Chamberlain & Bhabani, 2017).
both the clitoris and labia are removed, or, in some cases, all Closer to home, the #MeToo movement of the fall of 2017
external genitalia are removed and the vaginal opening is sewn revealed the commonality of sexual violence in American
partially closed (Barnes-Dean, 1989). A second example is business and political culture. The movement began with
Chinese foot binding, which may have affected 40% to 50% of accusations against Harvey Weinstein, one of the most pow-
Chinese women in the 19th century (Lim, 2007). Foot binding erful movie producers in Hollywood. By the end of October,
involved modifying the shape of feet by breaking the toes and over 80 women had accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
the arch of the foot, then using tightly wrapped cloth to shape As accusations against Weinstein mounted, others began to
the foot as the breaks healed. (Rossi, 1976; Figure 11.5). The be accused as well. By early February 2018, 71 men, includ-
practice was banned in 1912. Gang rape in the United States ing U.S. Senator Al Franken; Stephen Wynn, the finance
(Sanday, 1992) and sati, the practice of women being burned chair of the Republican National Committee; and Larry
to death on their husbands’ funeral pyres (Narasimhan, 1990), Nassar, the doctor for the USA Gymnastics national team,
provide additional examples. had been fired or forced to resign their positions. In the case
Violence against women is both a political and economic of Nassar, he was sent to prison. The scandal included politi-
tool. Rape has long been used as a tactic of warfare. It is not cians, entertainers, and the executives of major corporations
only devastating for the individual woman, it destroys families (Almuktar et. al., 2018). The #MeToo movement spread to
other wealthy nations as well. In France, women used the Taliban, women were required to wear a burqa, or full body
hashtag #BalanceTonPorc, loosely translated as “out your pig” and face covering.
(Beardsley, 2017). The variations in Islamic practice are the subject of
It is no accident that women are increasingly demanding intense debate. For example, both wearing and not wearing
an end to oppression. Women have often been almost silent in the hijab can be symbolic of resistance. Some see wearing
deeply oppressive societies. However, education and globaliza- the hijab as a rejection of the modern world and of progres-
tion are giving women increasing economic power. In 1940, sive values (Alibhai-Brown, 2015). Others see wearing it as a
only 3.8% of women in the United States had college degrees. protest against Islamophobia. A 2005 poll of Muslim women
In 2016, more than 33% did—a figure slightly higher than the asked what they disliked the most about their own societies.
percentage of men with college degrees (Statistica, 2018c). In The answers ranged from violence to lack of unity to cor-
India and other nations, the spread of international business ruption. However, the hijab and other forms of body cover-
has opened job opportunities for women where few existed ing were never mentioned. Dalia Mogahed, the director of a
before. In these and in many other cases, increased economic nonprofit that works to empower Muslim women, has noted
power leads to increased political power. People with economic that “a woman wearing a hijab is only covering her body and
and political power are less likely to submit to oppression. hair, not her voice or intellect” (Abbasi, 2017). The concern
However, their resistance can sometimes result in violence. and interest of many Americans and Europeans in patterns of
Islamic dress may tell us much more about their own ethno-
centrism and fear of outsiders than it does about the oppres-
Modest Dress in Islam sion of women.
The issue of female modesty and control of sexuality in Western understandings of the hijab and other forms
Islam provides a useful example of variability in the con- of modest dress also exact a heavy toll on Muslim men.
trol of female sexuality. Islam is practiced in many different Anthropologist Katherine Ewing (2008b) examined the posi-
societies and gender ideologies, and practices regarding tion of Turkish men in German society. She found that they
women’s sexuality and requirements for modest dress were often demonized and that one aspect of this was the
vary among these communities. This is illustrated by the widespread belief that they oppressed their wives and daugh-
debates over the wearing of the hijab, or headscarf. For some ters. Ewing argues that these assumptions about Turkish
Muslims as well as for many non-Muslim Westerners, the masculinity play an important role in the construction of
hijab is a sign of the oppression of women, making them German national identity and are reinforced by the popular
invisible and restricting their freedom of choice. But some media, films, social work policies, and public policy. Ewing
young Muslim women in Europe and the United States view notes that European ideas about Middle Eastern gender rela-
the hijab as a liberating garment that forces the world to see tions are based on long-standing fantasies that imagined the
them as more than sexual objects and establishes their iden- Middle East as exotic, autocratic, and oppressive.
tity as Muslims (Bowen, 2007).
The Qur’anic injunction requiring modest dress for
Muslim women (Sura 24: 30–31) does not command any
FIGURE 11.6 An Iranian athlete wearing a hijab
specific styles, nor specifically mention hijab, making room
demonstrates a kick at the World Taekwondo
for much local variation and interpretation. Practices regard-
Championship in Lima, Peru, in 2016.
ing female modesty are shaped by the history, culture, reli-
gious politics, and degree of male dominance in a society. Fotoholica Press/LightRocket/Getty Images
Within Islamic groups, actors influencing modest female
dress vary among social classes, between rural and urban
populations, and between generations. They range from the
strict restrictions on women’s autonomy in Saudi Arabia to
the relatively liberal atmosphere of cosmopolitan Dubai. In
some societies, most Muslim women wear a hijab that only
loosely covers their hair and neck. In others, like Yemen,
women wear full head and body coverings as well as a face
veil. On Emirates airline flights, air hostesses wear “jaunty
little caps with attached gauzy scarves that hint at hijab”
(Zoepf, 2008: A1). In international sporting events, women
wear sports hijabs (Figure 11.6), some made by famous inter-
national brands such as Nike®. In Afghanistan, under the
Variability in Gender and Sexuality Among the Igbo of Nigeria, Amadiume (1987) noted
that members of either sex can fill male roles. Daughters can
Research shows that there is a great deal of variation in the fill sons’ roles and women can be husbands without being
ways in which different cultures construct sex and gender. considered masculine or losing their femininity. Before the
Cultures differ on (1) the extent to which this variation is rec- influence of Christianity, Igbo women and men could use
ognized, (2) whether this variation is ritualized, (3) the degree wealth to take titles (achieve rank) and acquire wives. In
to which sex and gender transformations are considered to fact, although Christian missionaries attempted to eliminate
be complete, (4) the association of sex and gender transfor- woman–woman marriage in many places, the presence of
mations with males or females, (5) the special functions of female husbands has been reported for more than 40 African
alternative sexes and genders, such as healing or acting as groups (B. Greene, 1998). In some African societies that prac-
go-betweens in marriages, and (6) the value or stigma placed tice woman–woman marriages, such as the Nandi of Kenya,
on such variations (Nanda, 2000). the female husband is considered to be a man and adopts
many aspects of the male gender role, such as participating
in male initiation ceremonies and public political discussions
Variation in Gender Roles
(Oboler, 1980). Woman–woman marriage provides descen-
Sex and gender alternatives occur under many conditions dants to wealthy women who are childless. It assures mar-
and in many cultures around the world. In some cases— riages for women who might not otherwise be able to marry
for example, among some Native American groups or in and may offer greater social and sexual freedom to them as
Polynesia—sex and gender diversity is associated with an well (N. Levine, 2008).
ideology that recognizes all individuals as having their own Alternative gender roles—neither man nor woman—
special characteristics, including sex and gender variation. have been described for many societies. The xanith of Oman
In other cases, such as in Thai culture, there is little concern on the Saudi Arabian peninsula (Wikan, 1977), the mahu of
for an individual’s private life. As long as people observe pub- Tahiti (Besnier, 1996; Levy, 1973), the muxe of Mexico (Lacey,
lic social obligations, sex and gender diversity is not severely 2008), and the hijra of India (Nanda, 1999; Reddy, 2005) are
stigmatized. In India, the sex/gender alternative of the hijra examples of in-between genders in which men take on some
(see “Ethnography” section) is related to the Hindu philoso- of the attributes of women.
phy of dharma that instructs each person to follow his or her The Native American two-spirit, an alternative gender in
own life path, no matter how different or even painful that some Native American societies (often called berdache before
may be. Hinduism also has a great ability to incorporate cul- the late 20th century), has long been a subject of anthropo-
tural contradictions and ambiguities, and this, too, is conge- logical interest. Two-spirits took different forms in different
nial to the emergence of sex and gender diversity. Native American cultures, but the two-spirit was most often
In some cases, sex and gender alternatives appear to be a man who dressed in women’s clothing, engaged in wom-
related to cultural systems with relatively little gender dif- en’s work, and was often considered to have special super-
ferentiation, or distinction between male and female gen- natural powers and privileges in society (Whitehead, 1981).
der roles. However, this is not an explanation because these There were also female two-spirits (Blackwood, 1984).
alternatives also appear in cultures such as Brazil, where gen- Although alternative-gendered people were not equally val-
der differentiation is high. Sex and gender alternatives also ued in all Native American cultures, they were very highly
are found in cultures where belief in transformations of all valued in some, such as the Zuni (W. Roscoe, 1991). We’wah
kinds—for example, of humans into animals or vice versa— (Figure 11.7) was a Zuni two-spirit who was a religious leader
are common, such as in some African and African diasporic and a highly respected potter and weaver. In 1886, We’wah
cultures. In societies where androgyny (the mixture of male visited Washington D.C., and met with President Grover
and female) is considered sacred and powerful, such as in Cleveland (W. Roscoe, 1988).
island cultures in Southeast Asia, sex/gender alternatives also
frequently appear. And in cultures where continuation of a
patrilineage is central to a society’s kinship structure, such as Variable Norms of Sexual Behavior
in the Balkans or among the Igbo of Nigeria, one way of mak- Understanding gender systems as being culturally con-
ing sure there are people to fill all important kin positions is structed helps explain the cultural variations in sexual behav-
to permit women to take on male roles and also other male ior. People of all cultures tend to believe that sexual activity is
gender characteristics. As in all things, from the seemingly doing what comes naturally. However, a cross-cultural per-
most ordinary to the seemingly most exotic, anthropology spective demonstrates this isn’t the case. In sexuality, we do
not only documents human diversity but also tries to explain what comes culturally. Every aspect of human sexual activity
that diversity by drawing on the ethnographic record and the is patterned by culture and influenced by learning, some-
related aspects of culture and society. times in contradictory or paradoxical ways.
Culture patterns the habitual responses of different peo-

FIGURE 11.7 We’wha (1849–1896) was a Zuni ples to different parts of the body. Things that are considered
two-spirit. Two-spirits are members of an erotic in some cultures evoke indifference or disgust in others.
alternative gender in many Native American For example, there are many societies in which people do not
cultures. We’wha was a potter, a weaver, and a kiss. The Samoans learned to kiss from the Europeans, but
religious leader. before this cultural contact, they began sexual intimacy by
sniffing. The patterns of social and sexual preliminaries also
H.S. Photos/Alamy Stock Photo
differ among cultures. For example, Westerners might find it

disgusting that Trobriand Islanders “inspect each other’s hair
for lice and eat them . . . [which is] to the natives a natural and
pleasant occupation between two who are fond of each other”
(Malinowski, 1929b: 327). In contrast, Malinowski also
reported that the Trobrianders believe “the idea of European
boys and girls going out for a picnic with a knapsack full of
eatables is . . . disgusting and indecent” (1929b: 327).
Who is considered an appropriate sexual partner also
differs in different cultures. In some societies, for example,
same-sex sexual activity is considered shameful and abnor-
mal, but in other societies, it is a matter of indifference or
approval. In some cultures, it is even required. The Sambia of
Papua New Guinea believe that boys are made men through
the receipt of semen during an initiation. These rites include
boys receiving semen through oral and anal sex with older
males, a process anthropologist Gilbert Herdt (2014) has
referred to as “boy insemination.” This process is under-
stood as masculinizing boys. As boys grow through puberty,
they progress from being inseminated to inseminating other
boys. The process of marriage begins for boys when they are
around 16 years old. At this time, they are expected to reduce
Ethnography
T H E H IJ R A S: A N A LT E R N AT I V E G E N D E R R O L E I N I N D I A
The hijra of India is a gender role that is neither are transferred to them. The first official government
masculine nor feminine. Hijras are born as men, but count of hijra, held in 2014, identified 490,000 hirjas
they dress and live as women. The hijras undergo (Nagarajan, 2014). There are also hijras in Pakistan
an operation in which their genitals are surgically and Bangladesh.
removed, but unlike postoperative transsexuals in
the West who understand themselves as women, Traditionally, the hijras earn their living by
this operation turns men into hijra, not into women. performing at life-cycle ceremonies, such as the birth
Hijras are followers of a Hindu goddess, Bahuchara of a child (formerly only for male children, who are
Mata, and the hijra subculture is partly a religious much desired in India, but sometimes for female
group centered on the worship of this goddess. children today) and at marriages. Because the hijras
By dressing as women, and especially through are vehicles of the goddess’s powers of procreation,
emasculation as a ritual expression of their religious many people understand their presence as necessary
devotion, the hijras attempt to completely identify on these occasions. They ask the goddess to bless the
with the goddess. Through this operation, the hijras newborn or the married couple with prosperity and
believe that the procreative powers of the goddess fertility. Hijras also serve the goddess in her temples.
(Continued!)
(Continued)
The word hijra may be translated as either eunuch or

hermaphrodite; in both cases, male sexual impotence
is emphasized. Few hijras are born hermaphrodite;
almost all are born biologically male. To the British
colonizers, the hijra seemed to be people who failed
at being men. In Victorian Britain, impotence was
a marker of failed masculinity, so British colonial
authorities often class hijra as impotent. This was
and still is rarely true. In India, hijra are understood
as either unable or disinclined to have sex with
women (Hinchy, 2013). In some parts of India, it is
believed if such men do not become hijra, they will
be reborn impotent for seven future lives.
The concept of the hijra as neither man nor woman

emphasizes that hijras are not men because they
cannot function sexually as men, though they were
assigned to the male sex at birth. Hijras also claim
that they do not have sexual feelings for women,
and a real hijra is not supposed to have ever had
sexual relations with a woman. But if hijras, as a third
gender, are “man minus man,” they are also “man
plus woman.” The most obvious aspect of hijras as
women is in their dress. Wearing female attire is a value comes from the difference between themselves,
defining characteristic of hijras. They are required to acting as women, and the real women they imitate.
dress as women when they perform their traditional Hijras often use obscene and abusive language,
roles of singing and dancing at births and weddings which again is contrary to acceptable Indian
and whenever they are in the temple of their goddess. feminine behavior. In some parts of India, hijras
Hijras enjoy dressing as women, and their feminine smoke the hookah (water pipe) and cigarettes, which
dress is accompanied by traditionally feminine only men normally do.
jewelry and body decoration. Hijras must also wear
their hair long like women. The major reason hijras are not considered women,
however, is that they cannot give birth. Many hijras
Hijras also adopt female behavior. They imitate a wish to be women so that they can give birth, and
woman’s walk, they sit and stand like women, and there are many stories within the community that
they carry pots on their hips as women do. Hijras express this wish. But all hijras acknowledge that
adopt female names when they join the community, this can never be. As neither man nor woman, the
and they use female kinship terms for each other, hijras identify themselves with many third-gender
such as aunt or sister. They also have a special figures in Hindu mythology and Indian culture: male
linguistic dialect that includes feminine expressions deities who change into or disguise themselves as
and intonations. In public buildings, such as the females temporarily, deities who have both male and
movies, or on buses and trains, hijras often request female characteristics, male religious devotees who
“ladies-only” seating. dress and act as women in religious ceremonies,
and the eunuchs who served in the Muslim courts.
Although hijras are like women in many ways, Indian culture thus not only accommodates such
they are clearly not women. Their female dress androgynous figures but views them as meaningful
and mannerisms are often exaggerations almost and even powerful.
to the point of caricature, especially when they
act in a sexually suggestive manner. Their sexual The emphasis in this ethnography is on the cultural
aggressiveness is considered outrageous and very conception of the hijra role. The realities of hijra
much the opposite of the expected demure behavior life do not always match the ideal, and, as in all
of ordinary Indian women in their roles of wives, other societies, there are tensions between the
mothers, and daughters. Hijra performances are ways in which hijras understand themselves and
essentially burlesques of women; the entertainment the realities of their lives. A significant source of
conflict among hijras is their widespread practice of FIGURE 11.8 Hijras are members of a third
prostitution. Hijras serve as sexual partners for men, gender group. Born male or intersex, they
which contradicts their identity as ascetics. Hijras
dress as women and refer to themselves using
see prostitution as deviant within their community,
and many deny that it occurs. Others justify it by female forms of address. Here, we see a hijra in
pointing to their declining incomes from traditional Mumbai, India.
performances.
Frédéric Soltan/Corbis News/Getty Images

In many societies, alternative gender roles declined
because they were suppressed by colonial authorities
and Christian missionaries. Hijras, however, continue
to function as an integral part of Indian culture,
both in traditional roles and in changing roles that
reflect new adaptations. One new role for hijras is
in contemporary Indian politics, where they have
achieved some notable success. In recent years,
hijras have stood for and sometimes won election to
local, state, and even national office (Reddy & Nanda,
2005). Significantly, hijra success in politics has been
achieved by emphasizing rather than denying their
ambiguous gender.
When they enter politics, hijras explicitly construct The continued recognition of hijras in Indian society
themselves as individuals without the obligations is a strong testimony to the cultural construction of
of family, gender, or caste and emphasize that they genders. Unlike many other traditional alternative
are therefore free from the corrupting influence of genders among indigenous peoples that have been
nepotism, which plagues Indian politics. They also stamped out or repressed by the powerful states
emphasize their identity as ascetics—Hindu religious in which they live, the hijras continue both in their
figures who renounce sexual relations—and claim traditional roles and in new roles, contributing to the
historical continuities with many Hindu political cultural variation that characterizes the human species.
reformers. Many Indians believe that hijras are more
empathetic to issues of poverty and social stigma Critical Thinking Questions
because of their own low social status, and this has 1. How does a study of the hijras contribute
enabled hijras to defeat traditionally powerful upper- to an understanding of gender as culturally
caste opponents. constructed?
Hijra participation in Indian politics is sometimes 2. Discuss some of the similarities and differences
contested. For example, the election of one hijra between the hijras and similar gender roles in
was overturned on the grounds that because they other societies.
are not women, hijras cannot stand for election to
seats reserved for women. In this case, we see the 3. In what ways do elements of Indian culture relate
clash between a political system based largely on to the maintenance of the hijra role?
Western models that recognize only two genders and
Indian understandings that recognize in-between or Source: Serena Nanda, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of
alternative genders. India (2nd ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1999.
their sexual activity with other boys. After the birth of their sexuality. Western cultures have, in the past 150 years, insti-
first child, the vast majority of Sambia men are exclusively tutionalized the idea that engaging in certain types of behav-
heterosexual (Herdt, 2004). ior makes one a certain type of person. The historian and
Often, students in the United States ask if the practices sociologist Michel Foucault argued that throughout most of
just described mean that Sambia men are gay. This question Western history, although certain types of sexual acts may
reveals something profound about our own understanding of have been encouraged or forbidden, they did not define a
certain type of person. It was only with the expansion of state to refuse to have intercourse is considered a mortal sin among
and institutional power in the second half of the 19th century these Roman Catholic people. There appears to be widespread
that sexual acts and desires became ways to classify types of ignorance in Inis Beag of the female capacity for orgasm,
people. Foucault (1990: 43) dated the birth of the homosexual which is considered deviant behavior. Nudity is abhorred, and
to the appearance in 1870 of the first article describing homo- there is no tradition of dirty jokes. The main style of dancing
sexuality as a psychiatric disorder. In the following years, a allows little bodily contact among the participants; even so,
new understanding that identified and classified people by some girls refuse to dance at all because it means touching a
the nature of their desires and the types of sexual activity in boy. The separation of the sexes begins very early in Inis Beag
which they engaged became prevalent in Western Europe and lasts into adulthood. In sexual relations, there is a virtual
and the United States. Thus, our notion that engaging in spe- absence of sexual foreplay, almost no premarital sex, and a
cific types of sexual behavior classifies one as a specific type high percentage of celibate males. In explaining the extraor-
of person is as culturally particular as the Sambian idea that dinarily late age of marriage, one female informant told the
the process of growing men requires that boys both receive anthropologist, “Men can wait a long time before wanting ‘it’
semen from and then later give semen to other boys. but we [women] can wait a lot longer” (Messenger, 1971: 16).
The ages at which sexual response is believed to begin The extreme sexual repression in Inis Beag can be use-
and end, the ways in which people make themselves attrac- fully compared to sexual ideology in Mangaia, one of the
tive, the importance of sexual activity in human life, and vari- Cook Islands in the South Pacific, which was described by
ation in sexual activity according to gender are all patterned Donald Marshall (1971). Fantasies of complete sexual free-
and regulated by culture and affect sexual response and dom in the South Seas have long been a part of Western
behavior. Two classic ethnographies that highlight the role culture. In fact, no society has complete sexual freedom,
of culture in impacting sexuality are John Messenger’s work but compared to the traditional Puritan culture of the West,
on the Irish of Inis Beag, an island in the north Atlantic Polynesia comes perhaps closest. In Mangaia, sexual inter-
near Galway, Ireland, and Donald Marshal’s work on the course is one of life’s major interests. Sex is not discussed at
Polynesians of Mangaia. home, but Mangaia elders teach sexual information to boys
Messenger described Inis Beag (Figure 11.9) as “one of and girls at puberty. For adolescent boys, this formal instruc-
the most sexually naive of the world’s societies” (1971: 15) tion about the techniques of intercourse is followed by a cul-
Sex is never discussed at home when children are near, and turally approved experience with a mature woman in the
parents provide practically no sexual instruction to children. village. After this, the boy is considered a man. This contrasts
According to Messenger (1971: 109), adults believe that “after with Inis Beag, where a man is considered a “lad” until he is
marriage nature takes its course.” (As we shall see, nature takes about 40. In Mangaia, there is continual public reference
a very different course in Inis Beag than it does in Polynesia!) to sexual activity: Sexual jokes, expressions, and references
Women are expected to endure but not enjoy sexual relations; are expected as part of the preliminaries to public meetings.
And yet, in public, sex segregation is the norm. Boys and girls
should not be seen together in public, but practically every
girl and boy has had intercourse before marriage. The act of
FIGURE 11.9 Inis Beag, an island in the northern
sexual intercourse itself is the focus of sexual activity. Both
Atlantic near Galway, Ireland, is known as one of
men and women are expected to take pleasure in the sexual
the most world’s most sexually repressive places.
act and to reach orgasm. Celibacy is practically unknown.
Here, an Aran Islands couple at home, sometime
The contrast between Inis Beag and Mangaia indicates
around 1950.
clearly that societies’ different attitudes pattern the sexual
responsiveness of males and females in each society.
Independent News And Media/Hulton
Archive/Getty Images
Theories of Gender and Stratification

Fueled by European and American concerns about male
dominance and women’s subordination, theories of gender
from the 1970s to the 1990s focused on the hierarchy and
the status of women. Studies examined (1) the significance
of women’s roles as mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters,
(2) women’s economic contributions, (3) women’s percep-
tions of their cultures, (4) women’s roles in creating symbolic
and collective worlds within the context of ideologies of male
superiority, (5) the sources of women’s power and influence, emphasizing the cultural and historical variation in women’s
(6) the development of women’s identities, and (7) the ways in status, particularly the effects of the expansion of capitalism
which violence against women is related to gender hierarchy. and European colonialism. Eleanor Leacock’s (1981) work on
The question of whether male dominance is universal the Innu (Montagnais) people of far northeastern Quebec,
emerged as an early debate in the anthropology of gender. for example, documented the equality of men and women
One theoretical position held that women’s subordination before European contact and demonstrated how European
to men is universal, based on women’s roles as mothers and expansion led to gender inequalities. Leacock’s work resulted
homemakers (Rosaldo & Lamphere, 1974). In this view, all in a greater focus on changes in gender relations wrought by
societies are divided into a less prestigious domestic (private) the European encounter.
world inhabited by women and a more prestigious public In yet another approach to understanding the cultural
world dominated by men. This private/public dichotomy variability in male dominance, Peggy Sanday (1981) used a
emerged most sharply in highly stratified 19th-century cap- controlled cross-cultural comparison to ascertain whether
italist societies, such as those of Victorian Europe and the male dominance was universal and, if not, under what condi-
United States, as productive relationships moved out of the tions it emerged. Sanday concluded that male dominance was
household and middle-class women (but not working-class not universal, but it was correlated with ecological stress and
women) retreated into the home. There, they were supposed warfare. She showed that when the survival of a group rested
to concern themselves solely with domestic affairs, repress more on male actions such as warfare, women accepted male
their sexuality, bear children, and accept a subordinate and dominance for the sake of social and cultural survival.
dependent role (E. Martin, 1987). However, anthropologists Although all of these theories remain valuable, they all
debate how common the public/private dichotomy really tended to consider women and men as two unified classes.
was. It may have been far more typical of 19th- and 20th-cen- They focused their attention on looking at status distributions
tury capitalist societies than of others. In many cases, home, and tensions between men and women. More recent work
family, economics, and politics are not easily separated. breaks away from this mold. In 1989, in a landmark essay, the
Indeed, analyzing society in terms of a private/public dichot- legal scholar Kimberé Crenshaw pointed out that women are
omy can hide the relationships among power, workplace, and not necessarily a unified group of people with single interests.
family structures critical to understanding gender relations. Both men and women are members of multiple overlapping
Ernestine Friedl was an early critic of the notion that the groups. In addition to their gender identity, women may be
private/public dichotomy was the key to women’s status. She members of different races, have different educational lev-
attributed widespread male dominance to economic factors. els, be wealthy or poor, be young or old, and experience their
In her comparative examination of foraging and horticultural sexuality differently. Crenshaw termed this intersectional-
societies, Friedl (1975) noted that one key factor in women’s ity. Thinking about intersectionality forces us to focus on the
status was the degree to which they controlled the distribu- fact that gender, class, sexual orientation, and other aspects
tion and exchange of goods and services outside the domes- of people’s experience of society do not exist independently.
tic unit. She argued that in foraging societies, the fact that Rather, they are woven together in complex patterns.
men exercised control over the distribution of meat within The sociologist Patricia Hill Collins focused Crenshaw’s
the larger community gave them more power and status in theory on the experience of black women in the United States.
society than women. In horticultural societies, men cleared Collins (1990) traced the history of black feminism and
the forest for new gardens and thus were able to exercise pointed to the vast differences between the historical experi-
control over the allocation of land, which put them in a posi- ences of white women and black women in the United States.
tion of power. On the other hand, in societies where women She coined the term outsider-within to describe the position
had control over resources beyond distribution within the of black women who worked for and had in-depth knowledge
domestic unit (such as some West African societies, where of white families. Such individuals gained a profound knowl-
women sold produce in the market), their status increased. edge of the nature, limitations, and flaws of the power hierar-
Friedl also suggested that because the care of small children chy but remained outsiders to it. Similar positionality affects
can be shared by older children, neighbors, relatives, and oth- others, such as lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.
ers, women’s low status cannot be explained by their obliga- Many anthropologists, including Lynn Bolles (2016),
tions in child-rearing. Thus, cultural norms regarding family Tom Boellstorff (2016), and Louise Lamphere (2016), have
size and systems of child care are arranged to conform with built on the insights of intersectionality. Thinking about
women’s productive work, rather than the norms of work cultures in terms of intersectionality increases our analyt-
being an adaptation to pregnancy and childcare. ical insight. It leads us to expect that people will not neces-
Marxist-oriented feminist anthropologists added sarily experience solidarity based on their gender identity.
another dimension to the importance of economic factors, Current-day wealthy societies are composed of innumerable
overlapping social groups. At any moment, an individual’s equal power and prestige with men. Important Tlingit social
identity as a white person, a person of color, a wealthy per- roles are based on individual ability, training, and personal-
son, an educated person, or a person with any other charac- ity rather than on gender (Klein, 1995). Both Tlingit women
teristic may override their gender identity. However, even in and men achieve prestige through their own efforts and
small-scale, structurally simple societies, it’s never as straight- their own kin relationships. Women may be heads of clans
forward as all men and all women. Young people have differ- or tribes, and Tlingit aristocrats are both male and female.
ent interests than old people. People with one sort of talent Titles of high rank are used for both men and women, and
have different interests than those with other sorts of talents. the ideal marriage is between a man and woman of equal
Society is never as simple as men dominating women. rank. The prestige the Tlingit achieve through extensive trade
with other coastal societies is open to both men and women.
Although long-distance trade centered on men in the past,
Gender Relations and Systems women often accompanied the men, acting as negotiators
of Production and handling the money, and both girls and boys were—and
are today—expected to “work, save, get wealth and goods”
Because each cultural situation is complex and unique, it is (Klein, 1995: 35).
difficult to generalize the ways in which gender affects the Gender egalitarianism continues to be a core Tlingit
distribution of prestige and power. Local conditions must cultural value. Today, women occupy the highest offices
always be considered, and variability is the rule rather than of the native corporations administering Tlingit land and
the exception. Despite this, it remains useful to offer some are employed in government, social action groups, busi-
generalizations about the ways in which the productive sys- ness and cultural organizations, and voluntary associations
tems that are the essential basis of society tend to affect and (Klein, 1976). Tlingit women take advantage of educational
correlate with systems of gender hierarchy. As will be seen, opportunities and easily enter modern professions. Unlike
relations between men and women are related to their partic- in many non-Western societies, where European contact
ipation in the economic system. diminished women’s economic roles and influence, mod-
ernization expanded Tlingit women’s roles, and modern
gender egalitarianism is not experienced as diminishing
Gender Relations in Foraging Societies men, who encourage their wives and daughters to go into
Earlier anthropological descriptions of foraging societies public life.
viewed male hunting as the major source of the food supply,
thus providing the basis of male dominance in these societ-
ies. Later ethnographic studies modified this view. In many Gender Relations in Horticultural Societies
foraging societies, such as the Tiwi of Australia and the Women usually have less autonomy and power in horti-
Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, women make cultural societies than in foraging ones, but, again, there is
very significant contributions to the food supply by gathering great cross-cultural variation. For example, the Iroquois of
vegetable foods (Hart & Pilling, 1960; R. Lee, 2003). In other the eastern United States are highly egalitarian (J. Brown,
societies, like the Agta of the Philippines, women also sub- 1975), whereas the Yanomamö of Venezuela and Brazil
stantially contribute to the food supply by hunting (Estioko- are highly sex segregated and male dominated (Chagnon,
Griffin, 1986), although in different ways and for different 1997), as are most societies in highland New Guinea
kinds of animals than men. The large contributions to the (Strathern, 1995).
food supply made by Tiwi, Ju/’hoansi, and Agta women are The importance of male ritual may well be linked to the
typical of many foraging societies. Such contributions are an prevalence of violence in gardening societies. Certainly not
important source of female power and have led to greater all horticultural societies are violent. However, many of them
gender equality than is present in most other types of societ- are. Anthropologists debate the amount of violence that
ies. In addition, women frequently participate in making alli- existed in societies such as the Yanomamö before they had
ances outside of the household, and this is also important in contact with outsiders. However, there is little doubt that vio-
women’s power. However, even in these societies, men have lence was present. Horticultural societies in New Guinea and
avenues to prestige that are unavailable to women. In many in other places also historically experienced high levels of vio-
cases, as among the Inuit, only men hunt large animals and lence (Keeley, 1996; Blick, 1988). In societies where violence
gain the prestige associated with the distribution of meat between villages, kin groups, or members of different ethnic
from these kills. Men often dominate ritual activities as well. groups is common, the prestige and power gap between men
The Tlingit of the Northwest Coast of North America and women tends to widen. Men gain social prestige through
are a foraging society in which women traditionally have had their effective use of violence.
The presence of warfare may also be linked to rituals that Gender Relations in Pastoral Societies
focus on men and create solidarity among them. Among Pastoral societies tend to be male dominated, though some
the Mundurucu of the Brazilian Amazon, for example, ado- variation exists. In pastoral societies, women’s status depends
lescent boys are initiated into the men’s cult and thereafter on the degree to which the society combines herding with cul-
spend most of their lives in the men’s house, only making tivation, the society’s specific historical situation, and the dif-
visits to their wives, who live with the children in the village. fusion of cultural ideas, such as those associated with Islam.
The men’s cults exclude women and are surrounded by great Women usually make a smaller contribution to the food sup-
secrecy. The men’s house itself usually is the most impos- ply than men in pastoral societies (Martin & Voorhies, 1975).
Men do almost all the herding and most of the dairy work as
ing structure in the village. It houses the cult paraphernalia
well. Male dominance in pastoral society is partly based on the
and sacred musical instruments, which are flutelike in shape
fact that handling large animals requires strength, but females
(like male genitals) and are the symbolic expressions of male sometimes do handle smaller animals, engage in dairy work,
dominance, just as the men’s house is an institution of male carry water, and process animal by-products such as milk,
solidarity (Murphy & Murphy, 1974; Figure 11.10). Of course, wool, and hides (O’Kelly & Carney, 1986). Pastoral societies
women may be skeptical of men’s ritual power. One woman’s generally do not have the rigid distinction between public and
comment on hearing the men play their sacred flutes was a domestic roles. Herders’ camps are typically divided into male
rather unimpressed “There they go again” (Gregor & Tuzin, and female spaces, but both men and women work in public,
2001: 332). blurring the private/public dichotomy.
In pastoral societies, men predominantly own and have
control over the disposition of livestock, which represents
FIGURE 11.10 Horticultural societies often have an important source of power and prestige. However, such
a high degree of sexual segregation. Men may control is always subject to kinship rules and responsibilities,
control important ritual objects such as flutes. and in some instances, animals may be held jointly by men
Here, a flute player performs at a festival in Papua and women. Still, the male economic dominance in pastoral
New Guinea. societies seems to be associated with general social and cul-
tural male dominance and reinforced by patricentric kinship
systems and the warfare frequently present in these societies
(Sanday, 1981).
Within this broad pattern, there is considerable varia-
tion in gender relations. Among the Tuareg, a largely Muslim
society of the central Sahara, for example, women generally
have high prestige and substantial influence (Rasmussan,
2005). The Tuareg herd camels, sheep, goats, and donkeys.
Because the Tuareg are matrilineal, Tuareg women enjoy
considerable rights and privileges: They have minimal social
and economic separation from men and do not veil their
faces. Women are singers and musicians and organize many
social events. They generally enjoy freedom of choice in sex-
ual involvements, though this has been somewhat modified
among those Tuareg who are more devout Muslims. The
high status of Tuareg women—and matrilineality itself—
are also undermined today by the migration of men to cit-
ies, where they work for wages, and the incorporation of the
Tuareg into larger nation–states with their patrilineal cul-
tures. Cities, however, may also provide increasing opportu-
nities and freedom for Tuareg women. The Tuareg appear to
be an unusual exception to the generally patriarchal nature
of pastoral—and Muslim—societies, but they are also an
essential reminder that gender roles vary greatly, even within
similar economic types of societies and within religious
traditions.

A DVO CATI N G F O R F E M A L E FAC TO RY WO R K E R S I N C H I N A
The importance of women’s work in meeting the FIGURE 11.11 Dagongmei are women who
demand for cheaper goods in the national and global emigrate from the countryside to work in
economies is clear in the People’s Republic of China. China’s factories. Here, women work in a cloth
Global capitalism is expanding, and harsh working
factory in Huaibei.
conditions in factories that produce goods for a global
market particularly affect women.
Jie Zhao/Corbis News/Getty Images

Pun Ngai (2005), a Hong Kong anthropologist, spent
eight months tightening screws in computer hardware
at an electronics factory in Shenzhen as part of her
ethnographic study of how dagongmei, or “working
girls,” are responding to the pressure of China’s
increasing participation in the global economy. The
factory directors were interested in Pun’s work because
they hoped to learn more about what the workers
wanted so they would know better how to deal with
their employees. At first, the factory directors assumed
that Pun would focus on the factory’s operations and
inundated her with personnel and administrative
documents. They were astounded when she told them
she wanted to work on the line and live with the workers,
in the participant-observation mode of anthropology. dagongmei as cheap labor but then do not want to take
Although the dagongmei were initially suspicious of Pun, proper care of them. When unemployment hits, the first
when they saw she was really interested in their lives, thing people want to do is send the dagongmei back to
they were so eager to talk with her that she didn’t have their rural villages, but after years of urban living and
enough time to listen to them all. Even though she was an participation in a consumer-oriented global lifestyle,
outsider, Pun quickly became a confidante, dealing with dagongmei find it difficult to readapt to village life.
workers’ complaints, offering academic guidance, and
In spite of all these hardships, dagongmei see
giving advice on love and other personal relationships.
advantages in their factory work. It exposes them to a
Pun found the factory work interesting for the first week, wider view of the world and permits some escape from
but it soon became a monotonous routine. Dagongmei, the rigid patriarchal structure of the village. Dagongmei
most of whom are in their late teens or early 20s, spend enjoy having boyfriends, keeping up with the latest
15 hours a day in the factory. They sleep in dormitory- fashions, and searching for the secrets of success,
type accommodations called cage houses. In addition especially in the form of making money (toward which
to boredom on the job, dagongmei also suffer from goal many are determinedly studying English) and
many physical ailments. Long working hours cause maybe finding a husband (Chang, 2008). By pooling
menstrual pain and anemia. Those who weld microchips their earnings, some dagongmei have managed
suffer eyesight problems, and those who wash plates to open small factories. Others have ambitions for
with acids are constantly at risk for chemical poisoning. business careers or seek to improve their education.
Accommodation and other expenses are deducted from Urban migration offers the opportunity to take a
their already low wages. The dagongmei also work and computer class or learn a little English, which can lead
live under very strict rules. They must wait their turn to go to switching jobs and earning more money. Indeed,
to the restroom. They are thoroughly searched before they it may be that dagongmei are at the cutting edge of
can leave the factory premises. Security guards wielding a changing Chinese culture: moving from traditional
electric batons guard the locked quarters at night. commitments and filial loyalty to the cultural values of
upward social mobility, individualism, and the pursuit of
Pun has followed up her field study with a continuing a more prosperous future. However, Pun cautions that
commitment to improving conditions for dagongmei few of the 70 million dagongmei succeed in this.
in China. She represents the interests of dagongmei at
labor conferences and fights for their rights. As migrants Multinational corporations’ desire for cheap labor will
to urban areas, Dagongmei have difficulties establishing lead to more women working in the global factory.
residency. They are overcharged for medical and other Anthropologists such as Pun Ngai are trying to make sure
services and consumer goods. Urban factories recruit the rights of these women are protected when they do.
Gender Relations in Agricultural Societies Globalization began or augmented processes of population

growth and urbanization and has opened new roles for both
Generally, agricultural societies are a good example of the
men and women. For example, in Mata Chico, Peru, in the
principle that women lose status in society as the impor-
1930s, access to land was critical, and the only way for women
tance of their economic contribution declines. In most cases,
to get land was to marry. By the 1980s, however, Peru had
women are less directly involved in food production in agri-
become increasingly urbanized, and many occupations were
cultural societies than in the other systems we have discussed,
available to both men and women. Because women could
and their social status is correspondingly lower. However, this
support themselves and their children through employment
does vary. For example, women tend to play larger roles in
in urban areas, they remained single longer or, in some cases,
wet rice agriculture than in plow agriculture.
chose not to marry at all (Vincent, 1998).
As women’s economic contribution declines, they
In the past 25 years, industrial production by multina-
lose status, and this is also generally accompanied by their
tional corporations in Latin America, Asia, and Africa has
increasing isolation in domestic work in the home and
exploded. Clothing manufacturing, food processing, phar-
greater numbers of children (Ember, 1983). Machine tech-
maceutical production, electronics assembly, and other types
nology reduces the overall labor force, and this also partic-
of manufacturing have opened job possibilities for both men
ularly affects women, who are disproportionately excluded
and women worldwide. Young women are frequently con-
from mechanized agriculture. Women are also paid lower
sidered ideal employees for manufacturing processes that
wages as agricultural laborers and are concentrated in such
require concentration and dexterity. These jobs give women
labor-intensive agricultural tasks as weeding, transplant-
a chance to earn money on their own and offer women an
ing, and harvesting. Also, men more easily enter a cash
important opportunity to act in their own interests. The
economy—selling crops and animals, for example—and the
move away from agriculture and the production of raw
transition to this economic system typically also lowers wom-
materials and toward urban factory employment may thus
en’s status and makes them more dependent on men.
reduce the power differentials between men and women.
However, the conditions of employment in factories, partic-
Gender and Globalization ularly in poor nations, are often extremely difficult (see the
“Anthropology Makes a Difference” section in this chapter).
Over the past 500 years, the processes of invasion, coloniza-
tion, trade, and, ultimately, globalization have transformed
Gender and Family in Current-Day
economies worldwide, leading to a tightly interwoven global
economy; a process we will examine more fully in Chapter Wealthy Societies
14. This process altered the nature of gender relations in soci- As societies have moved to highly industrialized agriculture,
eties around the world and continues to have a deep impact. the importance of direct participation in agriculture has
Until the late 20th century, much of globalization involved diminished greatly. In current-day wealthy nations, less than
enmeshing societies throughout the world in an increasingly 2% of the population is engaged in agriculture, and the gen-
industrialized economy centered in Europe, North America, dered distribution of this kind of labor is no longer a crucial
and Japan. Vast areas of Latin America, Africa, and Asia were pattern for the rest of the society.
forcibly joined to this economy, functioning largely as areas Current-day societies are increasingly characterized by
that produced the raw materials for industry and consumed substantial population levels, increased degrees of urbaniza-
some of the production of that industry. For this to work, tion, high values placed on education, job uncertainty, and
economies had to be drawn into the financial systems centered mobility. These characteristics have been correlated with dra-
in the wealthy nations. This way, raw materials could be paid matic changes in the family and in our understanding of our-
for and the money used to purchase manufactured goods. selves and our genders. Movement in this direction has gone
This process changed gender relations. In many cases, the furthest in the wealthy nations of North America, Europe,
men had control of the raw materials that wealthy nations and Asia, but it is increasing throughout the world, particu-
wanted, such as cotton, rubber, oil seed, and grain. The larly in urban settings where, even in poor nations, the major-
result was that men’s labor was increasingly paid for in cash. ity of people increasingly live.
However, women’s labor was often in the home and in craft In most societies for most of human history, the fam-
production. Household labor was not compensated in cash, ily was central to people’s identity. No matter how society
and although crafts could be sold, their value was much less was organized, family played a vital role. In societies with-
than the value of industrial raw materials. Thus, women’s out centralized governments, all politics was based around
position and power tended to decline relative to men’s. family. Most societies with centralized governments had
However, the processes of globalization have not had few if any social and economic institutions dedicated to
a single uniform effect and also have changed with time. raising children, caring for the sick, or caring for the elderly.
These activities were carried out primarily within the family. improved sanitation—meant that more children survived.
Except in foraging societies, large families tended to be the Urbanization, industrialization, and, later, the emergence of
rule rather than the exception. And, as we saw in Chapter 10, the information economy led to an increasing emphasis on
the large families were linked to both economic wealth and mobility, a greater investment in children, and a rise in child-
political power. In these circumstances, building, managing, care costs. At the same time, the state and private institutions
and organizing families was a crucial social concern, and this began to increasingly provide education, health care, and
had important implications for understandings of gender. old-age care. Although the very rich still controlled dynas-
Historically, one of the most basic concerns of almost tic fortunes, these patterns reduced the importance of fam-
every family was to assure its survival and growth. Almost ily connections and family size in assuring prosperity and
every family aggressively sought to create kinship networks security. This is reflected in the steadily diminishing number
that promoted its prosperity and its safety. The key to this was of children born per married couple throughout the world’s
marriage and offspring. Thus, pressure for people to get mar- wealthy nations (see Chapter 10, pp. 248–249).
ried and have children was enormous. As we have seen, mar- As the family’s importance diminished, family control
riage in many societies was arranged by families. Frequently, over marriage lost importance. When a family’s economic,
spouses did not meet before their marriage and had little social, and political futures are no longer tied to trying to
knowledge of each other. This was not terribly important achieve certain marriage alliances and having large numbers
because the purpose of marriage was to produce and legiti- of children, family interest in controlling marriage declines.
mize children and to create alliances between networks of In this context, although some people certainly still marry for
families. Whether marriage partners liked each other or were money or status, marriages built around the idea of romantic
sexually attracted to each other was not central to the mean- love have tended to replace other forms.
ing and function of marriage. Problems in marriage hap- The rise of romantic love as the dominant social form in
pened when there were no children or when alliances failed, wealthy nations has had profound consequences for the ways
not when partners discovered that they did not care for one in which we express gender and sexuality. When the purpose
another. of sex and marriage is to produce children and make alli-
Under these circumstances, love and sexual desire were ances, people may experience and express their sexuality in
secondary, and, in most cases, people did not seek emotional many different ways, but there are unlikely to be many differ-
fulfillment in their marriages. It is important to understand ent genders. Most people marry and have children regardless
that, as far as we can tell, love and sexual desire exist equally of their sexuality. But when the purpose of sex and marriage
in all societies. There is no reason to believe that people in is to achieve personal fulfillment through romantic love and
gardening or agricultural societies or in societies 100 or when people are no longer critically concerned with achiev-
10,000 years ago felt love or desire less often that people do ing success and security through family, a multiplicity of gen-
today. However, they did not necessarily expect to feel it in ders can flourish (Figure 11.12).
marriage. People formed intense bonds with their siblings, This is what has happened and will almost certainly con-
their parents, and their children. They sought sexual part- tinue to happen in the United States and in all other wealthy
ners outside of marriage and may have experienced them- nations. Modernity has created the social and economic
selves as more or less sexual and more or less attracted to conditions that allow people to believe that personal fulfill-
members of the opposite sex. In most cases, as long as mar- ment, rather than simply survival or family preservation and
riage partners remained together and fulfilled their obli- power, should be a basic goal of life. The idea that we should as
gations to have children, none of this was important. Most individuals live lives in which we achieve happiness through
people neither defined themselves by their sexuality nor reaching our potential is a fundamental part of the ideology
understood their marriages as successful or unsuccessful as of almost all current-day wealthy societies. Since the ideol-
a consequence of the degree to which they were emotion- ogy (if not the reality) of all current-day wealthy nations also
ally satisfying. Certainly, some people married for romantic insists on the legal equality of all citizens, it becomes increas-
love in almost every society, but this was the exception rather ingly difficult to deny people the rights to pursue love and
than the rule. happiness through whatever mechanism they see fit (as long
Patterns of marriage and family underwent fundamental as that mechanism does not cause obvious harm to others). In
shifts with industrialization, improvements in health care, 2014, the social media site Facebook allowed people to choose
urbanization, and the emergence of a large middle-class pop- from among 50 gender identities. However, within a year, its
ulation in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th administrators determined that even this was insufficient and
centuries. These shifts continued as industrialization and added an additional 10 customizable fields (Facebook, 2015).
urbanization spread to many other places in the world in the At one time, the idea that there are more than 50 gen-
20th and 21st centuries. Better health care—in particular, ders would have struck people in the majority of societies
as extremely strange. It would definitely have seemed

FIGURE 11.12 The prevalence of the idea that unusual to earlier generations of Americans and Europeans.
personal fulfillment through romantic love However, it is very important to remember that the idea
should be central to our identities allows for a that people be personally fulfilled would also have seemed
proliferation of gender identities. Here, some highly unusual to them. The ability of individuals to pursue
of the hundreds of thousands celebrating the their own economic, social, and emotional desires and the
40th annual LGBT Mardi Gras parade in Sydney, achievement of satisfaction through deeply committed and
Australia, on March 3, 2018. emotionally engaged marriages and partnerships is a great
triumph of current-day society—though admittedly one
SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images
only partially achieved. The authors of this book (and prob-

ably most of its readers) look forward to a day when all peo-
ple can achieve their social, economic, and emotional desires.
However, it is wise for us to remember that this liberation
comes at a price. In earlier generations of almost all human
societies, individuals were enmeshed in powerful webs of
kinship. Most lived in large families connected through sys-
tems of marriage and alliance. The greatly diminished size
and social importance of our families today has stripped us
of most of these connections. We are far freer to express our-
selves and become fully ourselves, but we may be more iso-
lated and lonely as well.

WO M E N’S R I G H T S I N G L O B A L PE R S PE C T I V E
How Much Does Poverty Count?
In fall 2017, the Georgetown Institute for Women, lived, and the level of domestic violence. Some of the
Peace, and Security published a report on global results of the study are listed in Table 11.1.
inclusion, justice, and security for women (Klugman,
2017). The report included a ranking of nations by their There are several things about this chart that
treatment of women that covered 153 countries and immediately stand out. First, the countries at the top
accounted for more than 98% of the world’s population. of the chart are much wealthier than the countries at
The ranking’s first criterion was inclusion, which was the bottom. The average yearly income of the top 10
based on measurements of education, employment, nations is about $52,000; that of the countries at the
cell phone use, economy, and political engagement as bottom is less than 10% of that amount. Second, except
shown by the number of women elected to positions in for Singapore, all the nations at the top of the list are
national government. The second criterion was justice, European; the countries at the bottom are in Africa
which included discrimination as measured by (1) the and in the Middle East. Third, active warfare persists in
percentage of men who agreed with the statement, “It many of the countries at the bottom. And, lastly, many
is perfectly acceptable for any women in your family countries in which readers might be interested are
to have a paid job outside the home if she wants one,” neither in the top nor bottom 10. Here are the rankings
(2) the degree to which the number of boys born in for some of these countries: Germany and the United
the country exceeded the number of girls, and (3) Kingdom tie at #12. France is #21; Japan, #29; the
the extent to which there were legal restrictions on Russian Federation, #55; China, #87; and India, #131.
women that did not apply to men. The third criterion
was security, which included the presence of armed The presence of so many European nations at the top
conflict, the degree to which women said they felt safe of the list and Middle Eastern and African nations
walking alone at night in the city or area where they at the bottom may make anthropologists uneasy.
(Continued!)
(Continued)
as acceptable parts of culture in the places at the

TABLE 11.1,Domestic Violence and bottom of the list—a position that also makes
anthropologists uncomfortable.
Income. The table ranks the countries of
the world by their treatment of women, The chart shows a strong correlation between wealth
with 1 being the best treatment and and women’s rights. This fits with the analysis
presented in the last section of the chapter. It also
152 being the worst.
suggests that perhaps the best thing that we can
do to improve conditions for women is to improve
COUNTRY GDP PER conditions for everyone. It may be that in current-
RANKING COUNTRY CAPITA day societies, wealth is a necessary precondition for
improvements to the position of women.
1 Iceland 52,150
2 Norway 59,302 Wealth may be necessary, but it’s certainly not
sufficient on its own. There are many countries with
3 Switzerland 61.400 high levels of wealth that do not rank as high as others
that are far poorer. The world’s wealthiest countries
4 Slovenia 34,100
are Qatar and Luxembourg, which are #64 and #15,
5 Spain 38,171 respectively. Slovenia and Slovakia are only about 125
miles away from each other (separated by Austria and
6 Finland 44,050
Hungary) and have almost identical average incomes,
7 (tie) Canada 48,141 but Slovenia is #4 and Slovakia #35. Similarly, Namibia
and Swaziland are both in southern Africa and have
7 (tie) Netherlands 53,582 similar average incomes, but Namibia is ranked #48
7 (tie) Sweden 51,264 and Swaziland #133. Clearly culture counts!
10 (tie) Belgium 46,301 And what about the United States? The United States
ranks #22, within the top 20% but well out of the top
10 (tie) Singapore 90,531
10 and far below where it would be expected to rank
142 Cameroon 3,350 based on wealth alone. Some of the things that kept
the United States out of the top rankings were the low
143 Lebanon 19,486
number of women elected to public office, the absence
144 Niger 1,153 of a law mandating equal pay or paid maternity leave,
and the high level of domestic and gun violence. The
145 Sudan 4,580 United States also ranks low on people’s perception
146 Mali 2,169 of safety. Forty-six percent of men in the Georgetown
Institute survey said they felt safe walking alone in
147 Iraq 17,004 their community, but only 26% of women did. A recent
148 Democratic 785 Gallup survey on the same issue reported that 45%
Republic of Congo of women said they did not feel safe walking alone at
night compared to 27% of men (Dugan, 2014). Both of
149 Central African 681 these surveys show a gender gap of 20%, which is far
Republic greater than the global average of 7%.
150 Pakistan 5,354
Key Questions
151 Yemen 2,300
1. Do you believe that the United States should take
152 (tie) Afghanistan 1,889 legal and political steps to reduce the levels of inequal-
ity between men and women? Why or why not?
152 (tie) Syrian Arab 2,900
Republic 2. Disparities in inclusion, justice, and security for
women are clearly affected by culture. What spe-
cific cultural practices and beliefs might explain
the differences between countries at similar
It asks that we consider the possibility that what income levels?
the index measures is the degree to which other
nations conform to the behavioral expectations of 3. By placing all nations on a single scale, the index
wealthy European nations. Is the list an exercise in assumes that inclusion, justice, and security for
ethnocentrism? Perhaps. But that implies that we women can be measured in a universally acceptable
should treat things such as domestic violence and way. Do you believe that this belief is correct or should
laws that systematically favor men over women there be different standards for different societies?
SUMMARY
1. What are the differences between sex, sexuality, and gen- childbirths. In India, hijras are widely accepted as a third
der? Sex refers to biological differences between male gender category—neither man nor woman. Although
and female. Sexuality refers to people’s emotional and there is great gender diversity in the United States, there
physical desires. Gender refers to the sex-related social is no similar broadly accepted category.
and cultural roles that individuals play in society.
8. Give some examples of the variability of sexual behavior.
2. What does it mean to say that gender is culturally con- What is considered proper sexual behavior varies greatly
structed? People in all societies think that gender is the among societies. For example, among the Sambia, boys
“natural” expression of underlying biological differences. become men through the oral and anal receipt of semen
However, anthropology shows that gender is learned and from other men. People on the Pacific Island of Mangaia
is shaped by society. We are (mostly) born with male or engage in sex when they are young, but on the Irish
female genitalia, but our culture teaches us how to be island of Inis Beag, men and women wait a very long
men and women. time to have sexual relations.
3. What is a gender ideology and how is it expressed in 9. What are some theories of gender stratification? Early
society? A gender ideology is the totality of ideas about work in feminist anthropology assumed universal male
sex, gender, and the nature of men and women. Gender dominance. However, more recent work shows that the
ideologies justify the distribution of power between position of women is extremely complex in most soci-
members of different genders. Gender ideologies are eties. Two factors that affect women’s position are their
expressed in many aspects of society, such as stories, frequent association with the domestic sphere rather
sports, games, and art. than the public sphere and the fact that men often con-
4. How is proving manhood related to gender ideology and trol more economic resources than women. More recent
how is it expressed in society? The idea of manhood as dar- work focuses on gender variation and intersectionality,
ing, heroic, and aggressive is widespread. The call for boys or the ways in which sexuality and gender interact with
to “act like men” is found in almost all cultures. However, factors such as race, class, and education.
what this means varies widely. Bullfighting in Spain pro- 10. What is the relationship between how societies produce
vides an example of maleness understood as the ability to their livelihoods and gender stratification? Although
exert lethal violence in calm, rational, and artistic ways. there is much variability, power differentials between
5. What role does the control of female sexuality have in men and women are related to their economic contribu-
establishing gender hierarchies? Female sexuality is often tions and the degree to which these contributions can be
perceived as dangerous to society. This justifies male monetized. Men and women have substantial equality in
control and feeds back into gender ideology. In many foraging societies, but this diminishes in horticultural,
cases, control over women is inscribed on female bodies pastoral, and agricultural societies where warfare and
in dress and in physical alterations. However, private sex- trade tend to lead to male dominance.
ual violence also plays a large role. The #MeToo move-
11. How has globalization affected gender relations? Because
ment of 2017–2018 is a response to this violence and
it involved monetizing societies and incorporating them
shows the increasing power of women.
as suppliers of raw materials to industry, most global-
6. How does cross-cultural evidence raise questions ization increased men’s status at the expense of women.
about the division of humanity into male and female? However, globalization also opened new possibilities
Although all cultures distinguish between masculine and for women and, as production shifts from supply of raw
feminine, some cultures also include alternative, in-be- materials to skilled factory jobs, may lead to reducing
tween, or third gender roles. These include the two-spirit power differentials between men and women.
role among Native Americans and the hijras of India.
12. What are dagongmei and how do they inform us of
7. What are hijras and how is their position in Indian soci- the new roles that women play in the global economy?
ety different from sex/gender roles in U.S. culture? Hijras Dagongmei are young Chinese women who emigrate
are men who dress and act like women, who are regarded from rural areas to cities in search of factory employ-
as ritually powerful devotees of the goddess Bahuchara ment. They face hardships and discrimination but are
Mata, and who perform ritually at weddings and also able to earn money and gain personal freedoms.
13. How have rising populations, urbanization, mobility, sexuality a greater role in society and opened the possibili-
and increasing dependence on manufacturing and infor- ties for vastly increased numbers of gender identifications.
mation affected family and gender? These factors (and
others) have led to a steep reduction in the importance 14. What is the relationship between women’s rights and
of family. This has propelled a shift from marriages that wealth? A 2017 survey found a strong correlation
focus on perpetuating family to marriages that focus on between national wealth and women’s rights as mea-
personal fulfillment. This has given love, romance, and sured by inclusion, justice, and security. However,
the wildly divergent rankings of nations with similar
incomes shows that culture also plays a strong role.
1. Describe the difference between sex and gender and give 4. Compare and contrast gender relations in foraging, hor-
several examples of different genders. ticultural, pastoral, and agricultural societies.
2. Present an analysis of the degree to which gender and 5. Analyze the ways in which globalization and the spread
sexuality are determined by genetic inheritance and biol- of market economies have changed gender roles in dif-
ogy and the degree to which they are socially and cultur- ferent societies. Give several examples.
ally determined.
3. Interpret the role of prestige behavior for both men and

women and discuss its effect on gender relations and
social hierarchy.
KE Y TE RM S
gender 256 gender role 256 private/public dichotomy 267
gender hierarchy 260 hijra 263 sex 256
gender ideology 257 intersectionality 267 two-spirit 262
G LO S SARY
gender A cultural construction that makes biological and intersectionality The overlapping nature of social
physical differences between male and female into socially categories such as race, education, wealth, age, and
meaningful categories. gender.
gender hierarchy The ways in which gendered activities private/public dichotomy A gender system in which
and attributes are differentially valued and related to the women’s status is lowered by their almost exclusive
distribution of resources, prestige, and power in a society. cultural identification with the home and children,
whereas men are identified with public, prestigious,
gender ideology The totality of ideas about sex, gender, economic, and political roles.
and the natures of men and women within a culture.
sex The biological difference between male and
gender roles Behaviors that societies consider appropriate female.
for people of different sexes.
two-spirit role An alternative gender role in native North
hijra An alternative gender role in India conceptualized America (formerly called berdache).
as neither man nor woman.
Photo by Peace-On-Earth.org
During Semana Santa (Holy Week), the week before Easter, in Antigua, Guatemala, worshipers dressed in purple robes march
in procession and carry floats with images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary through town.
Religion 12
In Trinidad, before harvesting, farmers make sacrifices to the di, the spirits of the LEARNING OBJECTIVES
first owners of their fields. They believe that failure to do so will result in a poor
12.1 Analyze the ways in which
harvest. Because absentee landlords own many fields, farmers also set aside religion is related to order and
a portion of the harvest to pay rent. Most people from industrialized societies meaning in life, anxiety and social
would say that sacrifices to the di are supernatural and rent payments are part of control, and reinforcing or modifying
social order
the natural world. But is it really so simple? After all, as anthropologist Morton
Klass (1995) pointed out, the farmer may have never seen either a di or the 12.2 Summarize the critical
landlord. He knows of people who have been evicted because they failed to pay characteristics all religions share
the rent, but he also knows people whose crops have failed when they did not 12.3 Discuss the types of ritual
sacrifice to the di. Some people say that the di do not really exist, but others say commonly found in religion and give
that landlords really do not exist and everyone has a right to the land on which examples of rites of passage and
rites of intensification
they live and work. If we assume that the payments the farmer makes to the di
are part of religion and those he makes to the landlord have nothing to do with 12.4 Explain the differences
religion, we seem to miss something essential. between priests and shamans
and give examples of the kinds of
societies in which each is found
All societies have spiritual beliefs and practices, and anthropologists generally
refer to these as religion. However, as Klass’s example of the di and the landlord 12.5 Define magic and give
suggests, defining religion is surprisingly difficult because not all societies examples of its use in different
societies
distinguish between the natural and supernatural the way most Americans
do. It is unlikely that all the world’s people share any single belief. Differences 12.6 Examine the roles that
vary on issues as grand as the nature of life itself (e.g., whether we live once, accusations of witchcraft or sorcery
play in society
as the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition teaches, or repeatedly, as the Hindu
and Buddhist traditions teach) and as specific as sexual relations between men 12.7 Summarize the role of religion
(discouraged by the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition but, as discussed in in social change and assess the
conditions under which it is likely
Chapter 11, compulsory among the Sambia of Papua New Guinea [Herdt, 1987]). to be an important factor in such
change, speeding up or slowing
Despite the bewildering variety of religious beliefs and practices, there is change
something that anthropologists identify as religion in every society—although
it is important to note the members of a society do not necessarily agree with
this. Although it is very difficult to formulate a concise definition of religion,
we can say that all religions share at least six characteristics. First, religions
are composed of stories that members believe are important. Second, religions
make extensive use of symbols and symbolism. Third, religions propose
the existence of beings, powers, states, places, and qualities that cannot be
measured by any agreed-upon scientific means. Fourth, religions include rituals
and specific means of addressing the supernatural. Fifth, there are individuals
in all societies who are particularly expert in the practice of religion. And, lastly,
like other aspects of culture, all religions are subject to change.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many anthropologists were concerned
with trying to find the origin of religion and tracing its development. E. B. Tylor,
one of the founders of anthropology, saw religion as beginning with animism,
the notion that all objects (living and nonliving) are imbued with spirit, and
279
280 PART IV • SYMBOLS AND MEANINGS
he believed that religion evolved from animism to polytheism to monotheism. Tylor

and many of his contemporaries thought the evolution of religion was part of the more
general human progression toward logic and rationality. This view of religion has long
been discredited; no religion is any more or less logical than any other, and none is more
evolved than another. Although some anthropologists today still puzzle over the origins
of religion, most are more concerned with the ways in which it operates in societies and
how it creates meaning in human life. In this chapter, we will briefly discuss some of the
things that religion does in society before turning to a more thorough examination of
each of the six points enumerated previously.
What Religion Does in Society

FIGURE 12.1 Over 100,000 Buddhist monks and
Religion has many functions in a society. It may novices gather at Wat Dhammakaya Temple to
provide meaning and order in people’s lives. It may mark Earth Day 2016. Their event focused on giving
reduce social anxiety and give people a sense of con- generously and observance of the precepts of
trol over their destinies. It may promote and reinforce Buddhism.
the status quo. It does not always do these things,
however. In some cases, religion may make peo-
Guillaume Payen/LightRocket/Getty Images

ple profoundly disquieted or fearful. It may be an
important force in resisting the status quo, and it may
catalyze radical politics and even sometimes murder-
ous violence.
Searching for Order and Meaning

From a purely materialist, objective point of view,
the world appears to lack any purpose or meaning.
However, human beings seem ill suited to living in
such a world. Even in desperate situations, in which
all hope and reason seem gone, humans strive to find
meaning, and they survive better when they do find
it. For example, psychologist Viktor Frankl, a survi-
vor of the Nazi death camps, found that those whose
lives retained meaning, even in the camps, were more by explaining aspects of the physical and social environ-
likely to retain their sanity and to survive than those whose ment. Religions provide cosmologies—sets of principles or
lives lost meaning. Frankl came to believe that taking respon- beliefs about the nature of life and death, the creation of the
sibility for finding meaning under all circumstances was a universe, the origin of society, the relationship of individuals
central task of life (1962: 113). and groups to one another, and the relation of humankind to
There are many possible ways to give one’s life meaning, nature. Cosmologies give meaning to the lives of believers.
but religion is historically and cross-culturally the principal By defining the place of the individual in society and
means that people have used. In a sense, religions are mod- through the establishment of moral codes, religions pro-
els of reality that serve as a framework for interpreting events vide people with a sense of personal identity, belonging, and
and experiences. Through religion, humans impose order meaning. When people suffer a profound personal loss or
and meaning on their world and often gain the feeling that when life loses meaning because of radically changed circum-
they have some measure of control over it (Figure 12.1). stances, religion can supply a new identity and become the
Although there is no single question answered by every basis for personal and cultural survival.
religion, belief systems all provide responses to some of the All of this may make it sound like religion is a force for
central concerns of their believers. A key way they do so is peace and tranquility, and often it is. However, this is clearly
not always the case. Beliefs give meaning to people’s lives in social values sacred authority. Religious ritual also intensifies
a wide variety of ways. Sometimes this involves denying the social solidarity by creating an atmosphere in which people
physical reality or importance of the material world, even experience their common identity in emotionally moving
to the point of suicidal individual or group action (as in the ways. Finally, religion is an important educational institu-
cases of Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, the Branch Davidians, and tion, inculcating the values and understandings central to the
many other groups). Sometimes models of meaning include culture. Initiation rites, for example, almost always include
unspeakable violence practiced against other peoples. transmission of information about cultural practices and
Sometimes meaning is found in oppressing or murdering tradition.
others. The meanings that religion creates can be a chaotic In reinforcing the social order, religion often serves the
wilderness of violence and destruction. interests of the powerful. Religions generally teach that the
supernatural gives wealth and power to certain individuals
or families. Thus, any attack on wealth and power is an attack
Reducing Anxiety and Increasing Control on the supernatural. An example of this was the divine right
of kings in Europe, which was the notion that kings derived
Many religious practices are aimed at ensuring success in
their right to rule directly from God. If this is held to be true,
human activities. Prayers, sacrifice, and magic are often used
then kings are not subject to the will of those they govern, and
in the hope that they will aid a particular person or commu-
attacks against them are attacks against God. King James I of
nity. Rituals are performed to call on supernatural beings and
England wrote, “God gives not kings the style of Gods in vain,
to control forces that appear to be unpredictable. Although
for on his throne his Scepter do they sway.” In other words,
such practices are widespread, their presence is usually
kings speak for God.
related to risk. The less predictable an outcome is, the greater
However, religion may serve the powerless as well. At
likelihood prayer, magic, and sacrifice will be used. For exam-
times, religion provides an escape from a grim political real-
ple, if you have studied for a test and know the material well,
ity. Through the religious belief in a glorious future or the
you are unlikely to spend much time praying for success. You
coming of a savior, powerless people who live in harsh and
are more likely to pray if you have not studied, and you may
deprived circumstances can create an illusion of power.
even bring your lucky pencil or another charm to the test.
Under such conditions, religion provides an outlet for frus-
Prayer and magic are prevalent in sports and games of
tration, resentment, and anger. It can serve to drain off energy
chance. Anthropologist and former minor league ballplayer
that might otherwise be futilely (and perhaps fatally) turned
George Gmelch (2000) has noted that professional baseball
against overwhelmingly powerful social systems. In this way,
players are likely to use magic for the least predictable aspects
religion contributes indirectly to maintaining the social order.
of the game: hitting and pitching. Fielding has little uncer-
Religion might also challenge the social order and be a
tainty, and few magical practices are connected with it.
catalyst for change. English monarchs may have believed that
The efficacy of prayer and magic has never been demon-
they ruled in God’s name, but those who challenged them
strated by convincing scientific experiments (see Flamm,
also used religion to justify their actions. For example, the
2002; Tessman & Tessman, 2000). Despite this, prayer and
priest John Ball, one of the leaders of the English Peasants’
magic can be effective in achieving results indirectly. They
Revolt of 1381, asked the question, “When Adam delved
may alter the emotional state of those who practice them
and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” In other words,
(or whom they are practiced upon), reducing or increas-
Adam and Eve worked as equals and so should all.
ing their anxiety and perhaps creating other psychological
When the image of the social order that a religion pres-
states as well. In many cultures worldwide, much of prayer
ents fails to correspond to the daily experience of its follow-
and magic concerns curing disease or creating it in others.
ers, prophets may emerge who create new religious ideas or
There is surely a strong connection between our psycholog-
call for a purification of existing practices. Sometimes proph-
ical and physiological states, but this connection is poorly
ecies encourage people to invest themselves in purely magi-
understood.
cal practices that have little real effect on the social order. At
other times, however, prophets call on their followers to pur-
sue their goals through political or military means, which
Reinforcing or Changing the Social Order may result in rapid social change. The American civil rights
Religion is closely connected with the survival of society movement, the Iranian revolution, the rise of the Taliban gov-
and generally works to preserve the social order. Through ernment in Afghanistan, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq,
religion, beliefs about good and evil are reinforced by super- and the conflict between Pakistan and India over the state of
natural means of social control. Sacred stories and rituals Kashmir are all examples of social movements in which reli-
provide a rationale for the present social order and give gion has played a critical role.
Characteristics of Religion powerful ways of communicating religious ideas. These nar-

ratives sometimes have a sacred power in themselves that
Anthropologists may attempt to analyze what religion does is evoked when they are told or acted out. Sacred narratives
in a society. However, members of the society do not experi- may speak of magical or miraculous times, may explain
ence religion in these terms. They experience it through their aspects of the world, and/or may recall historic events. They
beliefs and practices. are often clothed in poetic and sometimes esoteric language.
Sacred stories or narratives are often called myths, but
this is problematic. In some ways, it seems appropriate to use
Stories, Sacred Narratives, and Myths the term myth. When we think of myth, we think of stories
At a fundamental level, all religions consist of a series of of great deeds; origin stories of people, the world, or partic-
stories told by members of a group. Sacred narratives are ular worldly practices; and stories of heroes such as Athena

R E L I G I O N A N D F E R TI L IT Y
Most preindustrial and industrializing societies have FIGURE 12.2 This Fulani boy has an odd
very high rates of population growth. For example, in haircut to prevent the attention of malicious
many African nations, women have between six and
spirits.
seven children each, on average. In wealthier countries
such as Canada, Italy, and Spain, the rate is between

one and two children per woman. This shift from high
to low rates of fertility is known as the demographic
transition. Because high levels of population growth
are often linked to poverty, land scarcity, migration, and
the loss of culture, anthropologists, economists, and
experts on international poverty have been extremely
concerned with the demographic transition.
Some experts believe that a basic understanding of

mathematics is part of the demographic transition.
They argue that people in many societies simply do not
think about numbers and therefore have few notions
about the size of their families, how many children the
average woman has, or how many children they desire.
Because they do not count, they do not believe they
have any control over these factors. If these beliefs are
correct, the first step to limiting population growth is
to teach people to count their children and understand
that they can decide on the number of children they
want. For example, Etienne van de Walle, a past
president of the Population Association of America,
has argued that numeracy about children is central
to population control and that “a fertility decline is
not very far away when people start conceptualizing
their family size, and it cannot take place without such
conceptualizing” (1992: 501).
Anthropologist Sarah Castle, on the other hand, argues Castle (2001), among the Fulani, a herding and farming
that the idea that people do not count their children society in Mali, West Africa, women rarely give
is often rooted in a failure to understand that the numeric answers when asked how many children they
statements people make about fertility and family want, frequently answering that it is “up to God.” They
size are often based on religious ideas. According to do not count their children or even point at them to
confirm that the children are theirs. Not only that, but Castle found that families keep careful track of the
they seem to show a lack of regard for their children, average number of children women have in their
describing them as “not at all nice,” “ugly,” or “useless.” communities. When communities experience more
Children are sometimes dressed in rags and straw; bits child deaths than expected, people become particularly
of broken gourd are woven into their hair (Figure 12.2). cautious, taking measures to make sure their children
Mothers often appear indifferent to their fate, seeming do not draw the attention of spirits. Calling children
not to care when their children are sick and grieving ugly or worthless, dressing them in rags, or, in some
little if they die. Given these observations, outsiders cases, hobbling them at night as one would a donkey
can easily conclude that Fulani do not care deeply for are, in fact, measures to keep children safe from the
their children and take an extremely fatalistic view of attention of sorcerers and spirits and make sure they
them, believing that whether or not they have children, survive.
the number of their children, and whether or not their
children survive are matters strictly in God’s hands. Similarly, parents’ show of indifference might
camouflage their feelings rather than demonstrate
Castle argues, however, that understanding the them. Fulani believe in a code of honor they call
statements and actions of Fulani parents requires pulaaku. One aspect of this is to appear self-controlled
knowledge of their belief system. Fulani actions and stoic on all occasions, including the sickness and
do not indicate an inability to count children or a death of a child. Thus, members of the community
lack of caring for them but rather the reverse. The understand that parents who appear extremely
Fulani believe many aspects of the supernatural indifferent to a sick child are telegraphing their
world are dangerous. They believe in sorcerers who concern, demonstrating that they are deeply worried
inhabit human forms, or who are invisible or take about their child’s health (Castle, 2001: 1836).
animal shape. Other spirits exist that are also hostile
to humankind. These sorcerers and spirits attack Castle’s findings and others like them are extremely
anything present in excess. As a result, it is very important. If the high birth rate among the Fulani
important that children (and other things as well) not is not based on an inability to count and plan for
be counted since counting may show excess and draw children but is intended to counter the frequent deaths
the attention of spirits and sorcerers. Counting one’s of children, programs to educate them about family
children or saying that one wants a certain number planning, fertility, and conception will fail. Among the
of them may cause the spirit world to reclaim them Fulani—and perhaps the vast majority of people in poor
or prevent their births (Castle, 2001: 1836). Children nations—reducing family size is linked to reducing the
should never be praised as beautiful, smart, or helpful high rate of child mortality and improving economic
because this, too, is likely to draw the attention of conditions. This will lead to a short-term rise in family
spirits who might then make them ill or kill them. size but then a long-term decline in it.
or Hercules—stories where time is compressed or expanded tradition and endow it with a greater value and prestige by
and reality is composed of many levels. These are indeed tracing it back to a higher, better, more supernatural reality of
characteristics of religious stories. However, we also use the initial events” (Malinowski, 1992: 146).
word myth to denote a false belief or a religious belief we do A clear example of what Malinowski meant is pro-
not share. Thus, we are likely to claim that our own religion is vided by a portion of the origin narrative of the Hopi, an
composed of history and sacred story but other people have agricultural people who live in Arizona and New Mexico.
myths. For example, we may say that Christians, Jews, and Traditionally, blue corn was the staple of their diet. Blue corn
Muslims have Bible stories, but Ancient Greeks or Native is more difficult to grow than most other varieties, but it is a
Americans have myths. We should apply the same terminol- strong, resistant strain. Hopi life is difficult; the Hopi say, “It
ogy to the religious beliefs of others that we apply to our own. is hard to be a Hopi but good to be a Hopi” (Loftin, 1991: 5).
By explaining that things came to be the way they are Through the growing of blue corn, the Hopi reexperience
because of the activities of sacred beings, sacred narratives the creation of their world. According to Hopi belief, they
validate or legitimize beliefs, values, customs, and practices originally lived underground in earlier, imperfect versions
(Figure 12.3). As Bronislaw Malinowski (1992) pointed out, of the world. Just before the Hopi appeared on the earth’s
there is an intimate connection between the sacred tales of surface, they were given their choice of subsistence activi-
a society and its ritual acts, moral deeds, and social organi- ties. They chose blue corn and were given the sooya, or dig-
zation. Malinowski wrote that these stories are not merely ging stick, to plant it. The techniques for farming blue corn
idle tales “but a hard-worked active force” (1992: 101). He were established by the god Maasaw, who taught the Hopi to
explained that “the function of myth . . . is to strengthen treat the earth respectfully, as a relative. The Hopi believe that
wealth, poverty, and many more. It represents all these

FIGURE 12.3 Religious narratives legitimize beliefs things simultaneously.
and social arrangements. In this image, the gods Set Because it carries so many meanings, the cross
(left) and Horus (right) crown Pharaoh Seti I (ruled has enormous emotional and intellectual power
1294–1279 BCE). for Christians. As a result, it can be used in leader-
ship. For example, the cross was a prominent mili-
Ivy Close Images/Alamy Stock Photo
tary symbol from 312 CE, when the Roman emperor

Constantine ordered his soldiers to paint it on their
shields (Nicholson, 2000: 158), until the 20th century,
when it was a frequent feature of military insignia and
propaganda in World Wars I and II. Desecration of the
cross may inflame passions and provoke very strong
reactions.
Symbolic representation allows people to grasp
the often complex and abstract ideas of religion
without much concern for the specifics of theology
that underlie them. For example, the ritual of the
Eucharist, in which Christians consume wine and
wafer, symbolizes the Christian Bible story of the
Last Supper and communicates the abstract idea of
communion with God. This idea is present in other
doing so re-creates the feelings of humility and harmony that religions but is represented by different symbolism.
the ancestors chose when they selected the blue corn. Before For instance, in Hinduism, one of the most popular repre-
the 20th century, the Hopi farmed their fields in work groups sentations of communion with a god is the love between the
made up of clan members. Because their tradition holds that divine Krishna, in the form of a cowherd, and the gopis, or
clans were given land to farm together as they became mem- milkmaids, who are devoted to him (Figure 12.4). In the dra-
bers of the tribe, Hopi reexperience the settlement of their matic enactment of the stories of Krishna and in the singing
land by various clans as they farm (Loftin, 1991: 5–9). of songs to him, the Hindu religion offers a path to commu-
It is easy to see how the Hopi creation story serves as a nion with god that ordinary people can understand.
charter for society. The Hopi live their religious understand-
ing of their world as they grow blue corn. The telling of such
Supernatural Beings, Powers, States,
stories as well as the actions that accompany these stories or
are implied in them reinforce social tradition and enhance and Qualities
solidarity. A great many important religious narratives and symbols
concern the world of spirits and sacred powers. Although
many religions do not separate the natural from the super-
Symbols and Symbolism natural, all propose that there are important beings, powers,
As the tale of Hopi blue corn shows, religious stories make states, or qualities that exist apart from human beings. These
critical use of symbolism. Religious symbolism may also be beings, powers, states, and qualities are nonempirical. That is
expressed in material objects such as the cross, the Star of to say, there is no scientifically agreed-upon way to measure
David, and the crescent moon and star of Islam. Masks, stat- their presence. Consider the god of Christian, Jewish, and
ues, paintings, costumes, body decorations, or objects in the Islamic tradition. Many people in these religions claim to see
physical environment may also be used as symbols. In addi- proof of God’s existence everywhere. However, there is noth-
tion, religions frequently use verbal symbols. The names for ing that members of all religious traditions as well as those
gods and spirits as well as certain words, phrases, or songs are who do not believe in God could agree upon to measure
often believed to be powerful. the presence of God. Thus, science, which depends on such
Religious symbols are intrinsically multivalent: They empirical measurement, can neither prove nor disprove the
pack many different and sometimes contradictory meanings existence of God. God is nonempirical.
into a single word, idea, or object. Consider the Christian Most religions populate the world with nonempirical
cross. Christians have been pondering the meaning of the beings or spirits. Such spirits may be anthropomorphic, or
cross for most of the last 2,000 years. Among its meanings human in form; zoomorphic, or animal in form; or naturalis-
are death, love, sacrifice, identity, history, power, weakness, tic, associated with features of the natural environment.
god of the Igbo of Nigeria. Like other remote gods, he is

FIGURE 12.4 Religious symbols may allow people accessible only through prayer to lesser spirits (Uchendu,
to grasp complex ideas. Here, Krishna dances 1965: 94).
with one of the gopis (milkmaids), symbolizing A religion may be polytheistic (having many gods)
communion with the god. or monotheistic (having only one god). However, the
difference between these two is not always clear-cut. In
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
polytheistic religions, the many gods may really be differ-

ent aspects of one god. Among Hindus, for example, it is
said that there are literally millions of gods, yet all Hindus
understand that in some way these gods are all aspects of
a single divine essence. Conversely, in monotheistic reli-
gions, the one god may have several aspects. In Roman
Catholicism, for example, there is God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, yet Catholics under-
stand these as parts of a single, unitary god.
One class of spirit that may be singled out for special
attention is the trickster. Trickster spirits come in many
guises, but their key characteristic is that they are more
interested in their own benefit than that of human beings.
Some tricksters, such as the Christian Devil, are person-
ifications of evil. Others are much more sympathetic.
They often combine attributes such as greed, lust, and
envy with humor and wisdom. Tricksters are powerful,
but they themselves are often fooled. In African religions,
monkey, spider, and hyena spirits are often tricksters. In
many Native American cultures, the key trickster spirit is
Coyote (Figure 12.5).
Spirits can act in the material world. They can be happy In addition to nonempirical or supernatural beings,
or unhappy, stingy or generous, or experience any other religions posit the existence of states, qualities, or pow-
human emotion. The understanding of the spirits and souls ers whose existence cannot be scientifically measured.
of animals in hunting societies provides a good illustration. Enlightenment in the Buddhist tradition is a state of being
Among the Netsilik Inuit, the souls of bears, caribou, and that is not subject to measurement and verification. In
seals were particularly important. The Netsilik believed that if another example, groups such as the Society for Ethical
the soul of an animal they killed received the proper religious Culture search for Truth, a quality whose objective descrip-
attention, it would be pleased. Such an animal would rein- tion has eluded philosophers for millennia.
carnate in another animal body and let the same hunter kill it Religious beliefs often include the notion of an imper-
again. In this sense, a hunter who properly treated the spirits sonal spiritual force that infuses the universe. In the early
of the animals he killed would always hunt and kill the same 20th century, R. R. Marett coined the term animatism to
animals. An animal soul that did not receive proper attention, refer to this force. Today, it is probably best known as mana.
however, would be angered and would not let itself be killed Mana may be concentrated in individuals or in objects. For
a second time. As a result, the hunt would fail. Particularly example, as noted in Chapter 7, chiefs in Tahiti had a much
offended animal souls might become bloodthirsty monsters higher degree of mana than ordinary people. Mana gives one
and terrorize people (Balikci, 1970: 200–201). spiritual power, but it can also be dangerous and is therefore
The term god is generally used for a named spirit who often associated with an elaborate system of taboos, or pro-
is believed to have created or to control some aspect of the hibitions. Mana is like electricity; it is a powerful force, but
world. In some religions, gods are of central importance, but it can be dangerous when not approached with the proper
this is not always the case. High gods—that is, gods under- caution.
stood as the creator of the world and as the ultimate power in Mana is most often found in areas (spatial, temporal, ver-
it—are present in only about half of all societies (Levinson, bal, or physical) that are the boundaries between clear-cut
1996: 229). In about one-third of these societies, such gods categories. Hair, for example, is believed to contain supernat-
are distant, withdrawn, and have little interest in people. ural power in many different cultures (as in the Bible story
Prayer to them is unnecessary. An example is the creator of Samson and Delilah). Hair is a symbol of the boundary
The Power of the Liminal

FIGURE 12.5 Trickster spirits combine attributes such
The word liminal refers to those objects, places, peo-
as greed, lust, and envy with humor and wisdom. Here,
ple, and statuses that are understood as existing in an
Coyote tricks the Fire Beings to steal fire from them in a
indeterminate state—between clear-cut categories.
widely told Native American tale.
Objects that are liminal, such as the hair and doorways
described earlier, often play important roles in religious
ritual.
Anthropologist Victor Turner (1969) wrote that
rituals frequently generate liminal states and statuses
in which the structured and hierarchical classifica-
tions that normally separate people into groups such
Rashevska Nataliia/Shutterstock.com
as caste, class, or kinship categories are temporarily

dissolved. Because of this, in ritual, people can behave
in ways that would be clearly unacceptable under other
circumstances. In some cases, this includes role rever-
sals. For example, many Japanese festivals include ritual
transvestism, where community members dance in
the clothing of the opposite sex (Norbeck, 1974: 51). In
the Wubwang’u ritual among the Ndembu of Zambia,
men and women publicly insult each other’s sexual
abilities and extol their own, but no one is allowed to
take offense (Turner, 1969: 78–79). Ritual role reversals
include class as well as gender. In Holi, the Hindu spring har-
between the self and the not-self, both part of a person and
vest festival, members of the lower class and castes tradition-
separable from the person. Doorways and gates, which sep-
ally throw colored powder (and in the old days, excrement
arate the inside from the outside and can thus serve as sym-
and urine) at males of the middle and upper classes. Today,
bols of moral categories such as good and evil or pure and
the holiday has changed so that everyone is likely to throw
impure, are also considered to contain power in many reli-
colored powder at everyone else (Figure 12.6).
gions. Because these boundary symbols contain supernatural
More controversially, Turner argued that people in lim-
power, they are often used in religious rituals and surrounded
inal states experience a state of equality and oneness he called
by taboos.
communitas. In communitas, the wealthy and the poor, the
powerful and the powerless are, for a short time, all equals.
Rituals and Ways of Addressing the One example of communitas in the United States is the
Supernatural incredibly diverse crowd of over a million people who gather
on New Year’s Eve to watch the falling of the illuminated ball
Sacred narratives, symbols, spirits, and sacred power all in the center of Times Square.
find their place in religious ritual. A ritual is a ceremonial In state-level societies, institutionalized liminal statuses
act, or a repeated stylized gesture used for specific occasions sometimes emerge. Organizations such as monasteries and
(Cunningham et al., 1995). A religious ritual connects the convents where people live permanently as members of a reli-
people practicing it to the supernatural as they understand gious community embody liminality. Although members of
it. Through ritual, people enact their religion. Rituals may religious communities may have high status, liminal groups
involve the telling or acting out of sacred stories as well as the often have low status and an ambiguous nature. This is illus-
use of music, dance, drugs, or pain to move worshippers to an trated by the hijras of India (see the “Ethnography” section
ecstatic state of trance. in Chapter 11), whose sexual ambiguity contains the power
The specific content of religious rituals—the stories and both to bless and to curse.
symbols they use and the spirits and powers they address— Anthropologists often refer to rituals and statuses involv-
varies enormously from culture to culture. However, certain ing liminality as antistructure. Although all societies must
patterns of religious behavior are extremely widespread, if be structured to provide order and meaning, according to
not universal. Most religious rituals involve a combination of Turner (1969: 131), antistructure—the temporary ritual dis-
prayer, sacrifices, and magic to contact and control supernat- solution of the established order—is also important, helping
ural spirits and powers. In addition, rites of passage and rites people to more fully realize the oneness of the self and the
of intensification are found in almost all cultures. other.
dating. Marriages mediate between single and couple sta-

FIGURE 12.6 At the popular festival of Holi, roles tus. Funerals mediate between the living and the dead.
can be reversed. Members of lower castes can throw Basic training for military service is an example of
colored powder (and in earlier times, more noxious a rite of passage with which many Americans are famil-
materials) at anyone. Here a child throws powder in iar. In basic training, recruits are separated from their
Bangalore, India, in March 2018. friends, families, and places of origin. They are taken to a
military post where they are given identical haircuts and
MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images
identical uniforms. All signs of differences among them

are minimized. No matter their position in life before
joining the military, ideally, they are treated identically
during training. Training itself involves a wide variety of
rigorous exercises and tasks designed to impart knowl-
edge and build trust and camaraderie. In this state, the
recruits experience communitas, a shared identity, along
with the breaking down of barriers between individuals.
Training ends with a large ceremony that reintegrates the
recruits—now soldiers—into society with a new identity.
Rites of Intensification
In addition to rites of passage, most societies have rites
Though Turner’s ideas are provocative, they are also con- of intensification. These are rituals directed toward the
troversial. In a stratified society, the powerful person in a rit- welfare of the group or community rather than the individ-
ual may feel or claim to feel great unity with the powerless. It ual. These rituals are structured to reinforce the values and
is not clear that the powerless share this feeling. Even if they norms of the community and to strengthen group identity.
do, they need to be far more cautious in saying so: The aris- Through rites of intensification, the community maintains
tocrat may freely claim to feel at one with the peasant, but it is continuity with the past, enhances the feeling of social unity
likely to be dangerous for peasants to say they feel at one with in the present, and renews the sentiments on which cohesion
an aristocrat. depends (Elkin, 1967).
In some groups, rites of intensification are connected
with totems. A totem is an object, an animal species, or a
Rites of Passage feature of the natural world that is associated with a descent
A public event that marks the transition of a person from one group. Totemism is a prominent feature of the religions of
social status to another is known as a rite of passage. Rites the Australian Aborigines. In Aboriginal society, people are
of passage almost always mark birth, puberty, marriage, and grouped into societies or lodges, each of which is linked with
death and may include many other transitions as well. Rites a plant or animal that is its totem and which they are usu-
of passage involve three phases (van Gennep, 1960/1909). ally forbidden to eat. Members of societies or lodges come
The first phase is separation, in which the person or group together to celebrate their totems in religious rituals. The
is detached from a former status. The second phase is tran- ceremonies explain the origin of the totem (and hence, of the
sition and is often characterized by liminality. Individuals in group) and reenact the time of the ancestors. Through sing-
this phase have been detached from their old status but not ing and dancing, both performers and onlookers are trans-
yet attached to a new one. The third stage is reincorporation, ported to an ecstatic state. In a classic description, French
in which the passage from one status to another is symboli- sociologist Émile Durkheim wrote,
cally completed. After reincorporation, the person takes on
the rights and obligations of his or her new social status. When they are once come together, a sort of electricity is
In many societies, people undergo rites of passage as formed by their collecting which quickly transports them
they move from childhood to adulthood. Other rites of to an extraordinary degree of exaltation . . . . On every
passage effect similar changes of status. Baptisms and cere- side one sees nothing but violent gestures, cries, veritable
monies around birth move the new child from the status of howls, and deafening noises of every sort . . . . One can
not-a-community-member to membership in the commu- readily conceive how, when arrived at this state . . . a man
nity. Quinceañeras mediate between the status of childhood does not recognize himself any longer . . . [and feels] him-
and that of young womanhood, in which a girl is eligible for self dominated and carried away by some sort of external
power . . . . Everything is just as though he really

were transported into a special world. (1961/1915: FIGURE 12.7 Rites of intensification strengthen
247–251) group identity and are found in both religious and
secular life. Football can be a formidable rite of
Thus, in dance and worship, the Aborigines intensification for college students . . . and college
achieved an ecstatic religious experience of their mascots bear some resemblance to religious totems.
shared identity. Durkheim argued that such experi- Here, the University of Iowa’s mascot, Herky the
ences helped to bind the members of society together. Hawk, at the Rose Bowl in 2016.
For Durkheim, totems were symbols of common
Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

social identity. When people worshipped them, they
were at the same time worshipping the moral and
social order of their society.
The religious rituals of the Australian Aborigines
may seem exotic, but Americans participate in simi-
lar observances all the time—and to the same effect.
Some American rites of intensification are religious,
but many are secular. One with which most students
are familiar is the college football game and the rallies
associated with it. If the game is “good” or the school
has “spirit,” these gatherings produce enormous
excitement among their fans and transport them to
“a special world,” as Durkheim called it. They also
increase collective identity. If you are a fan, you will
probably feel intense identification with your school
and your team at such an event. Identification with
your team and the excitement of sporting events will Sacrifice
help keep you loyal to your school (and hopefully encourage
Sacrifice occurs when people make offerings to gods or spir-
you to donate to it as an alumnus/a). Schools have totems
its to increase their spiritual purity or the efficacy of their
(animal mascots) as well (Figure 12.7).
prayers. People may sacrifice the first fruits of a harvest, ani-
mal lives, or, on occasion, human lives. Changes in behav-
Prayer ior are also often offered as sacrifices. Many Americans are
Any conversation held with spirits and gods is prayer. In familiar with the practice of giving up something for the
prayer, people petition, invoke, praise, give thanks, dedicate, Christian holiday of Lent, a form of sacrifice intended to
supplicate, intercede, confess, repent, and bless (Levinson, help the worshipper identify with Jesus, show devotion, and
1996). Prayer may be done without any expectation of a increase purity. In many religions, including Christianity, it is
response from the beings or forces prayed to. However, common to make a vow to carry out a certain kind of behav-
prayer often involves making requests of the supernatural. ior, such as going on a pilgrimage or building a place of wor-
In these cases, the failure of a spirit to respond to a request is ship, if a request for divine assistance is answered.
understood as resulting from its disinclination rather than Some sacrifices may have important material functions.
from improper human action. Thus, a critical feature of For example, the essence of the East African cattle complex,
prayer is that people believe its results depend on the will of as practiced by groups such as the Nuer and the Pokot, is
the spirit world rather than on actions humans perform. that cattle are killed and eaten only in a ritual context. This is
When Westerners think of prayer, most probably think clearly adaptive. In the absence of refrigeration, animals must
of words that are recited aloud or silently. However, there are be consumed rapidly after they are slaughtered. One family
many forms of prayer. For example, in Buddhist tradition, cannot consume a whole steer by itself, but this problem is
people may pray by hoisting flags or spinning wheels with solved by offering it to the community in a ceremonial set-
prayers written inside them (Figure 12.8). Words addressed ting. Cattle sacrifices happen in community feasts that occur
to gods and spirits are not always humble compliments either. about once a week. Because the portions are distributed
For example, Benedict (1961/1934: 221) reported that when according to age and sex using a rigid formula, meat can be
calamities fell among the Northwest Coast tribes of North shared without quarreling over the supply (Schneider, 1973).
America or their prayers were not answered, people vented Furthermore, the religious taboo common in these societies
their anger against the gods by saying, “You are a great slave.” in which a person who eats ritually slaughtered meat may not
contact with famous or notorious people. Signed base-

FIGURE 12.8 There are many styles of prayer. In balls, bits of costumes worn by movie stars, and pens used
Buddhism, praying by spinning wheels with prayers to sign famous documents all become collector’s items
written on them is common. Here, a woman spins and are imbued with special power and importance.
prayer wheels at Langmusi monastery in Tibet. In many cultures, magical practices accompany most
human activities. Among the people who live along the
© iStockphoto/guenterguni
upper Asaro River in Papua New Guinea, when a child is

born, its umbilical cord is buried so that a sorcerer can-
not later use it to cause harm. To prevent an infant’s cry-
ing at night, a bundle of sweet-smelling grass is placed
on the mother’s head and her wish for uninterrupted
sleep is blown into the grass. The grass is then crushed
over the head of the child who, in breathing its aroma,
also breathes in the mother’s command not to cry. When
a young boy kills his first animal, his hand is magically
“locked” into the position of the successful kill. When he
later tries to court a girl, he will use love magic, which in a
particularly powerful form will make him appear in front
of her wearing the face of another man she is known to
be attracted to. Both magical and technical skills are used
take milk on the same day has the effect of making milk more to make gardens and pigs grow. One technique is to blow
available to those who have no meat. smoke into the ear of a wild pig to tame it. This is based on
the belief that the smoke cools and dries the pig’s “hot” dis-
position. Magical techniques are also used to treat serious ill-
Magic nesses, such as blowing smoke over a patient to cool a fever
Magic is an attempt to mechanistically control supernatural (which is hot) or administering sweet-smelling leaves with a
forces. When people do magic, they believe that their words command for the illness to depart (P. Newman, 1977: 413).
and actions compel the spirit world to behave in certain ways.
When magic fails to achieve its desired result, people believe Cargo Cults, Colonialism, and Magic
that it has been done incorrectly. Failure thus is the result of Cargo cults are religions known for their focus on rituals that
improper performance of the ritual rather than the refusal of involve the use of magic to acquire consumer goods. They
spirits to act. were first described on the islands of Melanesia, including
Two of the most common magical practices are imitation the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, where Western
and contagion. In imitative magic, the procedure performed culture has been spreading for the past several hundred years.
resembles the result desired. A voodoo doll is a form of imi- Initially, Melanesians were receptive to Western culture,
tative magic with which many people are familiar. The prin- which reached them primarily through trade goods, called
ciple is that mistreatment of a doll-like image of a person will “cargo” in pidgin English. Islanders believed that welcoming
cause injury to that person. The Christian practice of infant missionaries and colonial governments would bring them
baptism can also be seen as a form of imitative magic. Most cargo and riches. However, not only did Melanesians fail to
Christians believe that the holy water used in baptism washes gain wealth and power but, in many cases, they grew poorer
away original sin, which is often ritually compared with dirt and were more deeply oppressed.
or a stain. Christians generally do not see themselves as com- In Melanesian society, secret knowledge and ritual
pelling God in the baptism ritual, but they do believe that action were major sources of power. Unsurprisingly, many
God will not fail to remove original sin from the child if a duly Melanesians concluded that these were the source of the
constituted authority does the ceremony properly. wealth and power of the whites as well. Melanesians observed
With contagious magic, the idea is that an object that that whites did not seem to work (at least as Melanesians
has been in contact with a person retains a magical connec- understood work) but instead made “secret signs” on scraps
tion with that person. For example, a person might attempt of paper, built strange structures, and behaved in seemingly
to increase the effectiveness of a voodoo doll by attaching to it unusual ways. For example, they built airports and seaports
a piece of clothing, hair, or other object belonging to the per- with towers and wires, and they drilled soldiers to march in
son they wish to injure. People in the United States often attri- formation. When the whites did these things, planes and
bute special power and meaning to objects that have come in ships arrived, disgorging a seemingly endless supply of
material goods. Melanesians, who did so much hard physical Melanesian perspective. They pointed out that cargo cults
labor, got nothing. Plainly, the whites’ actions were a kind of were based on the experiences of Melanesians, particu-
secret knowledge, and the Melanesians could rid their soci- larly during World War II, when they witnessed Americans,
eties of oppressive colonial governments and gain access to Japanese, and others arrive and engage in seemingly odd rit-
immense wealth if they could learn it. ualistic behavior. Such behavior was followed by planes and
Religious groups that outsiders called cargo cults ships bearing an apparently endless supply of goods and by
appeared all over Melanesia. Though there was some vari- cataclysmic battles. Thus, Melanesians were not irrational but
ety, the groups shared certain common features. A local rather working with the objective knowledge derived from
prophet announced that the world was about to end in a ter- their limited experiences. Furthermore, anthropologists
rible catastrophe, after which God (or the ancestors, or a local pointed out that these observations and practices dovetailed
culture hero) would appear, and a paradise on earth would neatly with central themes in Melanesian culture: the impor-
begin. The end of the world could be caused or hastened by tance of wealth, the search for economic advantage through
the performance of ritual that copied what they had observed ritual activities, and the role of a ritual leader as a supernatu-
the whites do. In some places, the faithful sat around tables rally inspired prophet.
dressed in European clothes, making signs on paper. In oth- Anthropologists also interpreted the movements as
ers, they drilled with wooden rifles and built wharves, store- symbolic of the Melanesian desire for social equality with
houses, airfields, and lookout towers in the hopes that such Europeans. Cargo cults were a form of religious resistance
ritual would cause planes to land or ships to dock and dis- against colonial rule and, later, postcolonial governments
gorge cargo (Figure 12.9). (Worsley, 1959). The repressive colonial regime made it nec-
The first Europeans to write about cargo cults were colo- essary to clothe resistance in the form of religion because
nial administrators who saw them as the irrational beliefs and political rebellion would have been immediately suppressed.
activities of primitive people who had succumbed to a kind In the postcolonial era, the John Frum movement continues
of “madness.” This view explicitly opposed Melanesian irra- to be an important way to mobilize and express political dis-
tionality to European rationality and justified the Australian content. In some cases, this has meant distancing the group
colonial administration’s control over New Guinea (Buck, from identification with the United States. The American
1989; Lindstrom, 1993). war in Iraq was unpopular among many John Frum follow-
Anthropologists, who began describing cargo cults in ers, who considered it similar to the colonialism they fought
the 1950s, attempted to understand their logic from the against. Chief Isak Wan, the John Frum leader, distanced the
PAC I F I C O C E A N
West Papua
MELA
MEL
MELANESIA
ELAN
ELA
LLAN
LA
ANESI
NES
ES
ESIA
SIA
SI
N e w Guinea
SOLOMON
PAPUA ISLANDS
NEW GUINEA
Araf ura S ea
Port Moresby Honiara
C oral S ea
FIJI
VANUATU
Port-Vila
AUSTRALIA Ne w Ca l e doni a
(FRANCE) Nouméa 0 500 mi
0 500 km
2006 reported that 31% of American Christians believed

FIGURE 12.9 The John Frum movement has that if you give your money to God, God will bless you
been used to protest both colonial and postcolonial with more money. Some of America’s best-known
authorities through ritual. John Frum members model preachers promote prosperity theology, including Joel
their actions on those of the U.S. military. They believe Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and Benny
that their actions will bring them wealth and power. Hinn (as well as the late Oral Roberts). These preachers
appear on hundreds of television stations both in the
Thierry Falise/LightRocket/Getty Images
United States and abroad. Many of these stations are part

of TBN, the Trinity Broadcast Network, founded by Paul
and Jan Crouch and currently headed by their son, Matt
Crouch. TBN remains the world’s largest religious televi-
sion network, despite having had to pay millions of dol-
lars in lawsuits brought by employees and Crouch family
members alleging sexual and financial improprieties
(Hamilton & Grad, 2017).
Some scholars have also wondered if the U.S. eco-
nomic system itself is a bit like a cargo cult. Lamont
Lindstrom (1993) has argued that Westerners are
obsessed with cargo—with desire for wealth and material
goods—and that they increasingly turn to ritual strategies
to obtain it. The endless desire for consumer goods and
beliefs that purchasing specific brands of cars, drinks, or
clothing will make us forever young, sexy, and powerful
may not create happiness or give us the lifestyles featured
in advertisements, but they do serve the market well.
Divination
Divination, a ritual practice directed toward obtain-
ing useful information from a supernatural authority,
is found in many societies. Divination discovers the
unknown or the hidden. It may be used to predict the
future, diagnose disease, find hidden objects, or discover
something about the past. In many cultures, divination is
used to discover who committed a crime.
The Naskapi, who hunt caribou on the Labrador
group from U.S. policy by declaring that the government of Peninsula, use a form of divination called scapulomancy.
George W. Bush was possessed by an evil spirit and required In this divination ritual, the shoulder blade (scapula) of a car-
John Frum’s help to free itself (Tabani, 2009: 43). ibou or other animal is scorched by fire. The scorched bone is
Numerous aspects of American society have similari- used as a map of the hunting area, and the cracks in the bone
ties to cargo cults. One good example is prosperity theology, are read as giving information about the best place to hunt (O.
or the Word-Faith movement. The central tenet of prosper- Moore, 1969). This technique was also used in ancient China
ity theology is that God wants Christians to be wealthy. If and Japan (de Waal Malefijt, 1968: 220).
Christians give money to churches (the more, the better) and Most Americans are familiar with a wide variety of divi-
pray with enough sincerity, devotion, and frequency, God nation techniques. Tarot cards, palmistry, flipping coins, and
will reward them with material wealth in the form of cash or reading auras are all forms of divination. Some farmers use a
objects such as cars and houses. In other words, if they per- divination technique called water witching or dowsing to find
form the correct rituals, they will receive cargo. Conversely, sources of well water. In one technique, the dowser holds a
if they are poor, it is because they have failed to properly ask forked willow branch (a willow is a tree found by river banks
God for wealth. and is therefore “sympathetic” to water) in his hands as he
Prosperity theology has become extremely popular in the walks over a property. When he stands above water, the wand
United States and in Latin America. A Time Magazine poll in is supposed to bend downward. Although dousing has a wide
following in the United States, when subject to scientific test- common among many Native American groups, was an
ing, dousing does no better than chance (Vogt & Hyman, example of this. In these cultures, a person was expected to
2000: xvii). develop a special relationship with an individual spirit that
The practice of divination makes people more confi- gave the person power and knowledge. The spirit acted as a
dent in their choices when they do not have all the informa- personal protector or guardian. People seeking visions had
tion they need or when several alternative courses of action very strong expectations of success and used fasting, isola-
appear equal. Divination may also be practiced when a group tion in a lonely spot, and sometimes self-mutilation to move
decision has to be made and there is disagreement. If the themselves to an ecstatic religious state in which such a vision
choice is made by divination, no member of the group feels was possible.
rejected. For example, among the Thompson River Salish Indians
Prayer, sacrifice, and magic can be found in most reli- of western Canada, a boy would begin to search for guard-
gious traditions, and the distinctions between them are more ian spirits between the ages of 12 and 16. He would prepare
a matter of degree than of exclusive classification. For exam- himself through ordeals such as running until exhausted
ple, a great many prayers contain elements of sacrifice, and and diving into ice-cold water. He would paint his face and
most magical practitioners agree that, in theory, it is possible wear special clothing. The nights before the quest were spent
that the spirit world will not honor their request, although in dancing, singing, and praying around a fire on a nearby
they argue that it does not happen in practice. mountain peak.
The boy then went on lonely pilgrimages into the moun-
tains, eating nothing for days on end. He intensified his phys-
Religious Practitioners ical suffering by sweating himself with heated rocks over
which he threw water and by whipping his body with nettles.
Every society has people who are considered to have a special
This strenuous regimen continued until the boy had a reli-
relationship with the religious world. These religious practi-
gious experience. In an ecstatic state, he would experience
tioners are charged with organizing and leading major ritual
meeting with his guardian spirit, usually an animal or bird,
events. There are many kinds of religious practitioners, but
and receiving instruction from it. The guardian spirit would
anthropologists generally organize them into two broad cat-
teach the boy a spirit song by which the spirit could be called
egories: shamans and priests.
and how to prepare a medicine bundle of powerful magical
objects (Pettitt, 1972).
Shamans Although the vision quest was an intensely individual
experience, it was shaped by culture (Figure 12.10). Among
Shamans are part-time practitioners. In many respects, sha-
the Crow Indians, for example, several informants related the
mans are average members of the community; they must
same vision and interpretation to the anthropologist Robert
hunt, gather, garden, or get up and go to work like anyone
Lowie (1963/1954). They told Lowie that they saw a spirit
else. Their shamanic activities are reserved for specific cere-
or several spirits riding along and that the rocks and trees
monies, times of illness, or crisis.
around the riders turned into enemies who attacked them
Although learning to be a shaman may involve arduous
but were unable to do any harm. They interpreted this to
training, study alone is never sufficient. To be a shaman, one
mean that the spirits were making themselves invulnerable.
must have direct personal experiences of the supernatural
This motif is common in Crow religious narratives, and the
that other members of the community accept as authentic.
vision seekers worked it unconsciously into their experience.
Shamans believe they are chosen by the spirit world and can
In another example of cultural influence, most Crow Indians
enter into it. They use prayer, meditation, song, dance, pain,
obtained their spiritual blessing on the fourth night of their
drugs, or any combination of techniques to achieve trance
seclusion, and four is considered a mystical number among
states in which they understand themselves (and are under-
the Crow.
stood by their followers) as transported to the supernatu-
ral world. They may use such contact to bring guidance to
themselves or their groups, heal sick people, or divine the Shamanic Curing
future. Almost all societies have some shamans, but they Before the advent of modern technological medicine, illness
are likely to be the only religious practitioners in band and was usually treated by means that we would today consider
tribal societies. spiritual. Shamans frequently played important roles in cur-
ing people. Illnesses were often thought to be caused by bro-
Vision Quest ken taboos, sorcery, witchcraft, or actions that caused the ill
In some cultures, most adults may be expected to achieve person to fall out of spiritual balance. In shamanic curing,
direct contact with the supernatural. The vision quest, the shaman, usually in a trance, travels into the supernatural
they . . . drove the tupiliqs back into the igloo through

FIGURE 12.10 The vision quest was an intensely the entrance; the audience encouraged the evil spirits,
individual experience of meeting with a guardian shouting: “Come in, come in, somebody is here waiting
spirit. Here, Mike Anderson, an artist from the Ojibwe for you.” No sooner had the tupiliqs entered the igloo
Nation, holds his sculpture, Vision Quest, in which he than the shaman, with his snow knife, attacked them and
has depicted an eagle and a dancing human figure. killed as many as he could; his successful fight was evi-
denced by the evil spirits’ blood on his hands. (Balikci,
Ron Bull/Toronto Star/Getty Images
1970: 226–227)
If the patient died, it was said that the tupiliqs were

too numerous for the shaman to kill or that evil spirits
again attacked the patient after the performance.
In the modern world, shamanic curing often exists
alongside modern technological medicine. People go
to shamans for healing when they have diseases that
technological medicine does not recognize, they lack
money to pay for modern medical treatment, or they
have tried modern treatment and it has failed. For
example, in South Africa, traditional healers, called
sangomas, are much more common than medical doc-
tors and provide effective diagnosis and treatment for
many diseases, such as respiratory problems, gastroin-
testinal problems, and other conditions (Figure 12.11).
The government has tried to enlist them in its fight
against HIV/AIDS (Cook, 2009). In the past few years,
the government has also sought to standardize and
regulate the practice of traditional medicine (Street &
Rautenbach, 2016).
Shamanistic curing does have important therapeutic
effects. First, shamans generally do treat their patients
with drugs. All cultures have a pharmacopoeia, or col-
lection of preparations used as medication. Scientific
testing has shown that some (though not all) traditional
medicines are effective (Fábrega, 1997: 144). Second, sha-
manic curing ritual uses story, symbolism, and dramatic
action to bring together cultural beliefs and religious
practices in a way that enables patients to understand the
source of their illness. In other words, such rituals present
world to discover the source of illness and what might be a coherent model of sickness and health, explaining how
done to cure it. The following description of a Netsilik Inuit the patient got ill and how he or she may become well again.
curing performance shows the shaman battling with evil These models can exert a powerful curative force (Roberts
spirits: et al., 1993; Kaptchuk & Miller, 2015). Curing rituals express
and reinforce the values of a culture and the solidarity of a
The shaman, adorned with his paraphernalia, crouched society. They often involve participation by the audience,
in a corner of the igloo . . . and covered himself with a whose members may experience various degrees of ecstasy
caribou skin. The lamps were extinguished. A protec- themselves. Shamanic curing ceremonies work by cultivating
tive spirit called by the shaman entered his body and, an awareness that “one’s body is located at a central intersec-
through his mouth, started to speak very rapidly . . . . tion within a system of relations. Illness ruptures this pattern
While the shaman was in trance, the tupiliq [an evil spirit and healing restores the perception of harmony” (Glucklich,
believed to be round in shape and filled with blood] left 1997: 95). The ceremonies are cathartic in the sense that they
the patient’s body and hid outside the igloo. The shaman release the anxiety caused by various disturbing events. The
then dispatched his protective spirits after the tupiliqs; natural and supernatural forces that have the power to do evil
offices may be the result of family and political connec-

tions rather than piety or training. For example, Giovanni
FIGURE 12.11 A woman training to be a sangoma, a
de Medici (1475–1521), who became Pope Leo X in 1513,
traditional South African shamanic healer, falls into
was made abbot (head religious officer) of a monastery
a trance during her initiation ceremony.
at the age of eight. He was, not coincidentally, the second
son of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–1492), ruler of the
Patrick Durand/Sygma/Getty Images
Florentine Republic.
In most mainstream religions in the United States,
it is not considered essential for priests to have ecstatic
religious experiences. However, this is not the case in all
priestly religions. Although a priest’s authority ultimately
derives from certification, such status may give a person
the right to seek direct contact with gods and spirits. For
example, in ancient Maya states, priests were members
of a ranked bureaucracy. In many cases, they were also
political leaders and, as such, exercised both priestly and
political authority. Their religious and political posi-
tions gave them the right to use ecstatic techniques to
travel in the spiritual world. At the dedication of build-
ings consecrated to the royal lineage, priests, as well as
in a society are brought under control, and seemingly inex- the king and other nobles, took hallucinogenic drugs
plicable misfortunes are given meaning within the cultural and let blood by perforating their penises and other body
pattern. parts with special lancets or ropes studded with obsidian
blades (Figure 12.12). This created ecstatic states in which
they would travel to the supernatural underworld to inform
Priests their ancestors of the new building and invite the souls of
In most state societies, religion is bureaucratized—that is, it these former rulers to inhabit it. A Mayan ritual might have
is an established institution consisting of a series of ranked looked like this:
offices that exist independently of the people who fill them. Against a backdrop of terraced architecture, elaborately
Anthropologists use the term priest to refer to a person costumed dancers, musicians, warriors, and nobles
who is formally elected, appointed, or hired to a full-time entered the courts in long processions . . . . A crowd of
religious office. Priests are responsible for performing cer- participants wearing bloodletting paper or cloth tied
tain rituals on behalf of individuals, groups, or the entire in triple knots sat on platforms and terraces around the
community. plaza . . . . Well into the ceremony, the ruler and his wife
Priests are most often associated with gods who are would emerge from within a building high above the
believed to have great power. They may be members of a court, and in full public view, he would lacerate his penis,
religion that worships several high gods, as in the religions she her tongue. Ropes drawn through their wounds car-
of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans, or only one ried the flowing blood to paper strips. The saturated
high god, as in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. Where paper . . . [was] placed in large plates, then carried to
priests exist, there is a division between the lay and priestly braziers and burned, creating columns of black smoke.
roles. Laypeople participate in ritual largely as passive respon- The participants, already dazed through deprivation,
dents or audience members rather than as managers or public hysteria, and massive blood loss, were culturally
performers. conditioned to expect a hallucinatory experience. (Schele
People generally become priests through training and & Miller, 1986: 178)
apprenticeship. For example, to become a cleric in any main-
stream American religion, you would enter the training pro- As among the Maya, priests in state societies may pur-
gram (usually a seminary) of the appropriate religion. If you sue ecstatic religious experience. However, states generally
were successful, you would be certified by the religious body attempt to suppress independent shamans or bring them
(or church) at graduation and generally given an assign- under bureaucratic control. Shamans claim the ability to
ment. However, priestly authority derives from certification directly contact the supernatural without certification by any
by the religious institution the priest represents, and this institutionalized religion, and this challenges the authority of
may sometimes be given with little or no training. Religious church and state.
allows them to cause misfortune and death to others

FIGURE 12.2 Maya rulers sought ecstatic states (Evans-Pritchard, 1958/1937). This sort of witchcraft is
through violent rituals. Here, in Lintel 24 from always understood as causing evil to others. Thoughts
Structure 23 at Yaxchilan, a Maya site in Chiapas, such as jealousy, envy, and rage cause disease and ill
Mexico, the ruler Shield Jaguar (left) holds a flaming fortune. A witch’s positive thoughts do not help others.
torch above his wife, Lady Xoc (right), as she lets People are suspected of having the witchcraft substance
blood by drawing a studded rope through her tongue. when evil befalls those around them, particularly fam-
ily members. Such witches are generally believed to be
unable to prevent themselves from causing evil.
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
The conscious manipulation of words and ritual

objects with the intent of magically causing either harm
or good is sorcery. Bone pointing, a magical technique
of sorcerers in Melanesia, is a good example of the use of
sorcery to cause illness. The sorcerer first makes a magi-
cal arrow of a pointed object. Then he catches sight of his
victim and viciously stabs the air as if to wound his victim
and twist the point in the wound. Malinowski reported
that “this, if carried out properly and not counteracted
by a still more powerful magician, will never fail to kill a
man” (1984/1922: 75).
Anthropologists in many parts of the world have
observed cases of death from sorcery. In a study of such
reports, Walter Cannon (1942) argued that an individ-
ual who was psychologically vulnerable to begin with
and aware that they were being attacked by sorcery
would exhibit an extreme stress reaction that would
have profound physiological effects. Such an individual
might despair, lose his or her appetite, and slowly starve
to death, unable to overcome the inertia caused by the
belief that he or she was a victim. Persistent terror and
the weakening effects of hunger might make the victim
vulnerable to infectious agents as well as stroke and heart
attack. Much work in biomedicine in the past 60 years
confirms Cannon’s ideas and details the specific bio-
chemical pathways through which such reactions may
occur (Sternberg, 2002; Barber, 2012).
Witches and Sorcerers Accusations of Witchcraft or Sorcery

Although not universal, belief in the existence of witches Although people do actually practice witchcraft and sorcery,
and sorcerers is a common element of many of the world’s their main effects on society are probably achieved through
cultures. accusations. Leveling witchcraft or sorcery accusations
against friends and neighbors is common in many cultures
What Are Witchcraft and Sorcery? and serves various purposes.
In some societies, witchcraft is understood as a physical The most frequent form of witchcraft accusation serves
aspect of a person. People are witches because their bod- to stigmatize differences. People who do not fit into conven-
ies contain a magical witchcraft substance. They gener- tional social categories are often suspected of witchcraft. The
ally acquire this substance through inheritance and may European and American image of the witch as an evil old hag
not even be conscious that they possess it. If a person’s dressed in black is a good example. Until relatively recent times,
body contains the witchcraft substance, their malevolent social norms in western European society dictated that women
thoughts will cause ill to befall those around them. For should have husbands and children (or, alternatively, they
example, the Azande, an East African group, believe that might become nuns). Impoverished women who remained
witches’ bodies contain a substance called mangu, which in the community yet were unmarried or widowed without
children violated this social convention and might be

subject to witchcraft accusations. Thus, the image of FIGURE 12.13 Witchcraft accusations were common
the witch—elderly, dressed in black, living alone— in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, a time of social
is the image of the impoverished European widow upheaval and disease. This illustration from the 1608
(Brain, 1989; Horsley, 1979). Those accused of witch- witch-hunting manual Compendium Maleficarum
craft because they fail to conform may be ostracized shows a devil ordering witches to defile the cross.
and harassed but are unlikely to be killed or driven out
of the community. They are valuable as negative role
models—examples of what not to be. The lesson that a
young girl might derive from the witch is, get married
and have children or you might end up a witch.
Witchcraft and sorcery accusations may also be
used to scapegoat. In times of great social change,
when war, disease, calamity, or technological change
undermines the social order, people’s lives lose mean-
ing. Under such circumstances, they may turn to
accusations of witchcraft, concluding that witches
and sorcerers are responsible for their misfortunes
and must be found and destroyed for their own lives
to be improved.
Although we often think of witch hunting as
belonging to the Middle Ages, during that era, the
social order remained stable and accusations of
witchcraft were fairly rare. The witch craze belongs
to the 1500s and 1600s, a time of great artistic and
technological achievement but also a time of social Gardner claimed to have rediscovered the ancient beliefs of
disaster. Plague swept repeatedly through Europe, and the an aboriginal fairy race, and many Wiccans today say that
medieval social and religious order collapsed in war and they practice an ancient pre-Christian religion of nature wor-
chaos. In regions where governments and religious insti- ship. However, most scholars believe that Gardner composed
tutions remained strong, witchcraft accusations were rel- his religion from a variety of modern sources (Hutton, 1999;
atively scarce. However, in areas where these institutions A. Kelly, 1991; Orion, 1995). This is not important to most
collapsed, accusations were frequent (Behringer, 2004). Wiccans. For example, Diotima Mantineia, associate editor of
When living under conditions of instability, people were the Witch’s Voice website (www.witchvox.com), has said, “It
willing to believe that witches were the cause of their mis- doesn’t matter to me how old Wicca is because when I con-
ery and to pursue reprisals against those they suspected of nect with Deity as Lady and Lord I know I am connecting
witchcraft (Figure 12.13). The accused witch who was a with something much larger and vaster than I can fully com-
social deviant might be scorned and ostracized, but witches prehend” (in Allen, 2001: 22).
who were believed to be responsible for widespread social It is not clear how many Wiccans and neopagans there are.
disaster were more likely to be killed or banished. Current Many current estimates put the figure at somewhere between
scholarship estimates that about 50,000 Europeans were 100,000 and 200,000. Loretta Orion’s 1995 study of American
murdered as witches, half of these within the borders of Wiccans showed that about two-thirds of these were female
current-day Germany (Behringer, 2004: 149–150). and that they tended to have a higher-than-average level of
education (Orion, 1995: 66). More recent analyses of Wiccans
Modern Witches, Wiccans, and Neopagans and neopagans in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the
Recent times in Europe and the United States have seen the United Kingdom have found a similarly high percentage of
emergence of religious worshippers who call themselves female adherents (Lewis & Tollefsen, 2013).
witches, Wiccans, or neopagans. A basic principle of most Neopaganism in Europe is closely associated with nation-
Wiccan belief is the threefold law, which proclaims that what- alism and right-wing political causes. Paganism was associ-
ever good or ill people do in the world returns to them three ated with the rise of Nazi Germany in general and Heinrich
times. Wiccans are no more likely to commit evil acts than are Himmler, the head of Hitler’s SS secret police, in particu-
members of more mainstream religions. lar (Kurlander, 2017). It remains connected with extreme
Many Wiccan beliefs are derived from the work of 19th- right-wing politics in Ukraine (Ivakhiv, 2005), Germany,
and 20th-century authors, particularly Gerald Gardner. and Scandinavia (von Schnurbein, 2016). Most people in the
United States who call themselves neopagans are not asso- prophets may also give their followers convincing models of
ciated with the political extreme right. However, those who society that cannot exist in our material, social, and political
identify as Odinists often are (Berger, 2005). world. When that happens, the results may be explosive.
Varieties of Religious Prophesy

Religion and Change
To begin a new religion or create a substantial modification
As we have seen, religion is generally a force that preserves in an existing religion, prophets must have a code that con-
the social order. This may be particularly evident in strat- sists of at least three elements: They must identify what is
ified societies where the elite invoke religious authority to wrong with the world, present a vision of what a better world
control the poor. In such situations, religion acts as a way to come might look like, and describe a method of transition
of maintaining social, economic, and political inequality. from the existing world to the better world. Religious move-
However, even when religion does not support oppression, ments can, to some degree, be characterized by the nature of
it is usually a conservative force, promoting the idea that the their understanding of the world to come and their methods
way that society has historically been ordered is right and for achieving that world.
proper. Many religious movements are either nativistic or vitalis-
Most religions contain implicit or explicit visions of the tic. A nativistic movement aims to restore what its followers
ideal society—images of a correct, just social order. No soci- believe was a golden age of the past. The nativistic message
ety achieves this vision; people never live exactly the way they is that things were far better in the past and have degener-
are supposed to. However, most of the time religion validates ated because people have fallen away from traditional prac-
society; the image of society as it should be is not so different tices. The glorious past may be regained if rules and policies
from life in society as it is. As a result, people tend to feel that advocated by the prophet are followed. The Ghost Dance,
the society they live in is reasonably good (or the best avail- described in the next section, is a good example of a nativistic
able). If it hasn’t achieved the perfection their beliefs tell them prophecy.
to strive for, it is at least on the right path. A vitalistic prophecy looks to the future rather than
However, if societies change very rapidly (because of col- the past. For vitalists, the past is seen as either evil or neu-
onization, disease, or technological change) or if groups are tral. The golden age is in the future and can be achieved
systematically enslaved and oppressed, the vision of the ideal by following the teachings of the prophet. The Rastafarian
world painted by people’s religious beliefs may be very differ- religion described in the “Ethnography” section in this
ent than their daily experience. People may feel that they are chapter is a good example of a vitalist religion. Though it is
lost, that their vision of the ideal cannot be attained, or that, not specifically religious, another example of a vitalism with
in light of new developments, their vision is simply wrong. which most Americans are familiar is Martin Luther King’s
Under these conditions, prophets may emerge, and new reli- “I Have a Dream” speech. In that speech, King described
gions may be created. Religious movements vary in the effec- a future where “the sons of former slaves and the sons of
tiveness with which they bring social and political change. former slave owners will be able to sit down together at
Even those that fail in these respects may create powerful new the table of brotherhood” and where children “will not be
identities among their members. judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
In the United States, rapid cultural and economic character.” King thus looked ahead to a then-unprecedented
change, economic oppression, powerlessness, and anomie chapter in U.S. history.
experienced by different social groups have frequently led Often, the poor and powerless in a society create religions
to new religious movements, sometimes with dire results. that challenge those of the mainstream. Such religions may
The prophecies of People’s Temple leader Jim Jones or the rationalize their lower social position and emphasize an after-
Branch Davidian David Koresh provided new lives for their life in which their suffering will be rewarded. In some cases,
followers, giving them consistent and meaningful ways these religions have a messianic outlook: They focus on the
of understanding the world (even though others believed coming of a special individual who will usher in a utopian
these ways were misguided). However, these prophecies world. Other religions are millenarian: They look to a future
also led to the deaths of Jones, Koresh, and most of their cataclysm or disaster that will destroy the current world
followers. and establish in its wake a world characterized by their ver-
Religion can be a powerful force for social change, pro- sion of justice. In many messianic and millenarian religions,
viding people with the rationale and motivation for polit- members participate in rituals that give them direct access to
ical involvement and personal renewal. From ISIS and the supernatural power. They experience states of ecstasy height-
Taliban to the Christian Coalition and the 700 Club, reli- ened by singing, dancing, handling dangerous creatures such
gious leaders can have a powerful political impact. However, as snakes, or using drugs.
Ethnography
T H E R A S TA FA R I: R E L I G I O N A N D R E S I S TA N C E TO D O M I N AT I O N
The Rastafari religion began on the Caribbean island FIGURE 12.14 Rastafarianism has spread to
of Jamaica in the 1930s, a time when much of the many countries from its origins in Jamaica.
Jamaican peasantry was being incorporated into the
Here, a Rastafarian man teaches a child to
emerging capitalist economy as wage labor. Since
that time, the Rastafari have spread throughout the drum in South London.
Caribbean, into parts of the Africa, and to the urban
Photofusion/Getty Images
centers of the United States, western Europe, and
Canada (Figure 12.14). The Rastafari began as a new
religion of resistance. Today, Rastafarians continue
to try to resist more mainstream Jamaican culture.
However, because of the international success
of reggae music, since the 1970s the Jamaican
government has marketed the movement as a
key part of the island’s cultural heritage (King &
Foster, 2001). Due to the success of this marketing,
Rastafarians are increasingly part of the mainstream
culture.
In the 19th century, after the end of slavery, Jamaica

developed a peasant economy organized around a
system of small-scale exchanges involving networks
of extended kin. But by the 1920s, capitalism,
primarily in the form of the American-owned
United Fruit Company, had undermined this UNITED JAMAICA
economy. Some Jamaicans benefited, but there was STATES
substantial racial stratification. Whites and biracial
people accumulated wealth at the expense of black
peasants. As Jamaica became increasingly tied to the
international economy, the pool of impoverished and Gulf of
landless unemployed grew. By the mid-1930s, they Mexico
numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and many ATL A NTIC
had moved to urban areas, particularly Kingston. O CEA N
Rastafarianism emerged among these people. CU
BA TURKS AND
In 1930, Ras (Duke) Tafari (1892–1975) was crowned CAICOS IS.
emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia in an elaborate CAYMAN IS.

DOMINICAN
HAITI
coronation ceremony. During the ceremony, Tafari REPUBLIC
was proclaimed “King of Kings” and “Lion of Judah.” JAMAICA Kingston PUERTO
RICO (US)
A retinue of European dignitaries paid homage to Ca
him. The event drew enormous publicity in Jamaica. ribb
e an
Shortly after this, Leonard Howell, a former cook in Sea
NICARAGUA
the U.S. Army, had a prophetic revelation (R. Lewis,
1998). Born in 1898, Howell lived in the United States
from 1918 to 1932. He was probably influenced by COSTA RICA
PANAMA COLOMBIA 0 200 mi
Trinidadian black nationalist George Padmore
(Chevannes, 1994). On his return to Jamaica in 1932, 0 200 km
Howell declared that the coronation of Haile Selassie

fulfilled biblical prophecies: Haile Selassie was the Although Howell is generally credited with being
messiah and the hope of freedom for all black people. the first preacher of Rastafari, others had similar
Howell proclaimed, “People, you are poor, but you visions, including Robert Hinds, Joseph (Teacher)
are rich, because God planted mines of diamonds Hibbert, and Archibald Dunkley. The Rasta leaders
and gold for you in Africa, your homeland. Our King founded communities in and around Kingston that
has come to redeem you home to your motherland, emphasized what they understood as traditional
Africa” (in W. Lewis, 1993: 3).
African values. Haile Selassie became their central prefixes as under- and sub- by their opposites. For
symbol, embodying the value of cooperative work example, understand is rendered overstand. For
efforts, respect for life, and the unity of all peoples Rastas, the use of I-centered words focuses attention
of African descent. Through their belief that Haile on the radical equality of all people and their identity
Selassie is the messiah (a faith that his overthrow with God. As one said, “Who is you? There is no you.
and assassination in 1974 have not diminished), There is only I, I, and I. I is you, I is God, I is I . . . .
the Rastas affirm blackness and their African roots. We are all each other and one with God because it is
Through him, they proclaim their rejection of the the same life energy that flows within all of us” (in
values of capitalist society and the competitive Homiak, 1998: 167).
marketplace.
Rejecting aspirations of social mobility and
A central theme in Rasta philosophy is return to participation in wage labor, the Rastas instead form
Africa. The concept of return has several meanings. networks of cooperation. In Jamaica, they engage
It may mean a literal passage to Africa, and some in fishing, handicrafts, and hustling in the cities.
Rastas did move to Africa to settle on land given to In the rural areas, they engage in family-based
them by Haile Salassie. Alternatively, return may be subsistence agriculture with minimal involvement
interpreted as a call to live what Rastafarians believe in the market economy. The small group of Rastas
are African lifestyles in whichever country they find living in Shashamane, Ethiopia, rely on their
themselves. agricultural produce and financial donations
from abroad. In urban England, Canada, and the
Two other important symbols of Rastafarian culture United States, Rasta economic activities tend to
are marijuana (ganja) and the use of a special be small-scale cooperative businesses such as
vocabulary. The use of ganja has been common restaurants, craft shops, small clothing stores, and
on Jamaican agricultural estates since the turn of the sale of marijuana. These enterprises are based
the 20th century and is part of Jamaican working- on the productivity of extended family networks,
class life. Although it was illegal, the upper classes and Rastafari circulate their wealth through the
approved it because it acted as a stimulant and an community in the form of gifts, loans, parties, and
incentive to work. Rastafari, however, have reversed many other personalized relationships.
these meanings. To them, ganja became a tool of
illumination to be used at “reasoning sessions,” From their founding until the 1970s, Rastas faced
where they gather to interpret biblical passages and discrimination and resistance in Jamaica. This
to share beliefs about freedom, slavery, colonialism, included confrontations between Rastas and the
and racism. Ganja, they believe, allows them to police in 1958, 1959, and 1960 as well as an attack
see through the evils of the bourgeois world, on the Rasta community at Coral Gardens in 1963
understand the roots of their oppression, and verify that claimed eight lives and led to the arrest of
the authenticity of the Rasta lifestyle. Thus, whereas more than 150 people. However, beginning in the
traditional use of ganja in Jamaica supported the 1970s, because of the popularity of reggae stars
dominant society, Rasta use subverts it. such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, and
Burning Spear, the government began to promote
In addition, the illegal sale of ganja is part of the reggae music and Rasta styles as part of Jamaica’s
underground economy of many Rasta groups. cultural heritage. It has sought to draw tourists to
The networks for growing it, preparing it for sale, reggae music festivals such as Reggae Sunsplash
and distributing it are all based on friendship, and its successor, Reggae Sumfest. Government
alliances, and reciprocity. Although the Rastas have and music industry officials have considered
encountered difficulties with law enforcement, trying to control the reggae brand through
ganja has provided them with a livelihood that the creation of an official “authentic reggae”
allows them independence and freedom from the designation (Associated Press, 2015). In 2017, the
capitalist system, a position they value highly. Jamaican government officially apologized for
Ultimately, many Rastafarians hope that their the Coral Gardens attack and offered reparations
world will become more and more based on in the form of a trust fund and land (Wilkinson,
reciprocity and redistribution and that money as 2017). Many Rastafarians still consider their
a medium of exchange will disappear from their lifestyle to be a form of resistance, but the
community. increasing linkage between Rastafarians and the
Jamaican government has led to their decline as
Rastafarian linguistic usages include the invention a political and social force (King, 2002; King &
of I-centered words, phrases, and suffixes, such as Foster, 2001)
ital for vital; and the replacement of such diminutive
(Continued!)
(Continued) specific religious beliefs. Consider a reggae

song by a major artist such as Bob Marley,
Burning Spear, or Peter Tosh (do some research if
1. The Rasta movement arose in Jamaica but has you are not familiar with any of these artists).
gained enormous popularity worldwide. What How do the lyrics reflect Rasta religious belief?
sorts of people are likely to be attracted to the
Rasta message, and what elements of that message 3. There are many new religions in the United
are likely to be particularly appealing to them? States. Are any of them similar to the Rasta
movement? If so, how are they similar?
2. Rastafarians are probably better known worldwide
for their association with reggae music than with
The holiness churches common in Appalachia among In syncretism, people merge two or more religious tra-
coal miners and other rural poor who lead difficult and dan- ditions, hiding the beliefs, symbols, and practices of one
gerous lives are a good example of a religion that has emerged behind similar attributes of the other. Religious syncretism
in response to poverty and hardship. During church services, is often found among deeply oppressed people. Santeria, an
loud music, singing, and dancing cause some members to African-based religion originating in Cuba, is a good exam-
experience “being filled with the Holy Spirit.” In this ecstatic ple (J. Murphy, 1989). Santeria emerged from slave society.
state, they handle poisonous snakes, frequently throwing them Europeans attempted to suppress African religions, but the
at each other (Figure 12.15). Snake handlers are frequently slaves resisted by combining African religion, Catholicism, and
bitten and sometimes die. However, for members, snake han- French spiritualism to create a new religion (Lefever, 1996).
dling proves that “Jesus has the power to deliver them from They identified African deities, called orichas, with Catholic
death here and now” (Daugherty, 1993: 344). For holiness saints and used them for purposes such as curing, casting
congregation members, practices such as snake handling, spells, and influencing other aspects of worshippers’ lives. In
faith healing, and glossolalia (speaking in tongues) are daily this way, they could appear to practice Catholicism to their
demonstrations of their ability to gain access to God’s power. masters as they continued to practice their own religions as
The fact that social elites are rarely members of such groups well. Each oricha-saint has distinct attributes and is believed to
is proof that holiness members have access to forms of power control a specific aspect of human life. For example, Orunmila,
that social elites lack (T. Burton, 1993; Covington, 1995). identified with Saint Francis of Assisi, is believed to know each
person’s destiny and can therefore give guidance about
how to improve one’s fate. Santeria has spread through the
FIGURE 12.15 In states of religious ecstasy, Spanish Caribbean, Brazil, and North America, taking dif-
members of holiness churches in Appalachia handle ferent forms in different locations.
poisonous snakes. They believe this demonstrates
God’s power and, for them, serves as proof of their
access to forms of power that social elites lack. Here, The Ghost Dance and Religious Change in
Pastor Chris Wolford holds a rattlesnake during a Native North America
service in West Virginia in May 2018. The history of native North America provides a particu-
larly good example of religious innovation. The European
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Contributor
and (involuntary) African invasion brought disaster to

Native American societies. Disease, warfare, and tech-
nological change undermined native lifeways and belief
systems. In this context, a series of prophets and religious
movements emerged, including the prophetic movements
of Handsome Lake, the Delaware Prophet, the Shawnee
Prophet, and the Ghost Dance.
The visions of the Ghost Dance prophets of the sec-
ond half of the 19th century were directly related to the
expansion of Euro-American power. In the late 1860s,
Wodziwab, a Northern Paiute Indian living in the Sierra
Nevada, became the first Ghost Dance prophet. Wovoka,
the second Ghost Dance prophet, was the son of an early fol- The Ghost Dance spread among the Sioux during the fall
lower of Wodziwab and had probably seen the Ghost Dance of 1890. Government agents were frightened by the popu-
and heard its prophecies as a boy. Both prophets foresaw that larity of the dance and the Sioux belief that the whites would
the ancestors would return on an immense train. Following shortly disappear. They ordered the Sioux to stop the dance;
this event, a cataclysm would swallow up all the whites but some but not all Sioux obeyed. The government tried to sup-
leave their goods behind for the Native Americans who press the remaining dancers, but they fled into the badlands
became followers of the prophets. Heaven on earth would to perform Ghost Dance ceremonies and await the cataclysm
follow, and the Great Spirit would return to live with the that would sweep the oppressors from the plains. A complex
people (de Waal Malefijt, 1968: 344; Mooney, 1973/1896: series of moves followed as the government tried to force an
771). Wodziwab and Wovoka taught that the arrival of par- end to the Ghost Dance. The final act of the drama occurred
adise could be hastened by specific rituals, including a series on December 28 and 29, 1890, when the Seventh Cavalry,
of dances, songs, and, in the case of Wovoka, the wearing of the same unit that had been destroyed by the Sioux at Little
special clothing painted with designs he saw in his visions. Bighorn, captured the last remaining band of Ghost Dancers.
Some of Wovoka’s followers believed that these shirts had the In the battle that ensued at Wounded Knee, about 350 Sioux
power to protect them from bullets. Although Wovoka called Ghost Dancers, including many women and children, were
for peace with the whites, he also taught that the whites would killed, and the notion that doing Ghost Dance rituals would
either be carried away by high winds or become Indians hasten the disappearance of the whites or protect Native
(Lesser, 1933), and he urged Indians to live as they had before Americans from them lost credibility (Figure 12.16).
the whites arrives. The Ghost Dance religion did not end with the bat-
The Ghost Dance prophecy was welcomed by many tle at Wounded Knee, however. People continued to do the
Native Americans, who sent representatives to speak with Ghost Dance into the 1930s, especially in Oklahoma, and
Wovoka and learn its rituals. The tribes understood the one group of adherents continued to practice until the 1960s
Ghost Dance vision in diverse ways, but it received its most (Kehoe, 1989). But after Wounded Knee, the Ghost Dance
radical interpretation among the Sioux, for whom the con- declined, and by the first years of the 20th century, few people
ditions of conquest and reservation life were particularly practiced it.
oppressive. Although the Sioux had defeated Custer at the However, another religion that appeared at about the
Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, they were eventually same time as the Ghost Dance prospered and has become a
forced into submission. Starved and expected to survive major force in Native American communities. The Native
by agriculture on nonproductive lands, they found a vision American Church, sometimes known as the peyote reli-
that promised the disappearance of their oppressors and the gion, now has between 250,000 and 500,000 members in the
return of earlier times extremely appealing. United States and Canada (“For Indian Church,” 1995; “Field
Full of Buttons,” 1999).
Peyote, a small, hallucinogenic cactus, grows only
FIGURE 12.16 In January 1891, the bodies of those in southern Texas and northern Mexico. Although
killed at the Wounded Knee massacre are buried in a indigenous peoples in Mexico and southern Texas have
mass grave. long used peyote in religious rituals, it did not diffuse
from this area until the late 19th century. The spread
ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images
of the modern peyote ceremony was due largely to the

efforts of Comanche, Kiowa, and Caddo leaders, includ-
ing Quanah Parker, Apiaton (Wooden Lance), and
John Wilson. Some of them had visited Wovoka, the
Ghost Dance prophet, but all had rejected his teachings
(Stewart, 1987:80). Peyote leaders (called roadmen) teach
that God is accessible to Indians through the sacrament
of peyote. In all-night meetings, members of the Native
American Church chew peyote, pray and sing, and expe-
rience the presence of God. Quanah Parker said, “When
an Indian Peyotist goes to [a peyote ceremonial meeting]
he talks to God, and not about what man has written in
the scriptures about what God said” (in Brito, 1989: 14).
Although the use of a hallucinogen to achieve com-
munion with the supernatural may seem an affront
to mainstream American society, church leaders preached attacks occurred in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium,
a vision they called the Peyote Road. The elements of the Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, France, Germany,
Peyote Road include abstinence from alcohol, attentiveness India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jordan Libya, Nigeria,
to family obligations, marital fidelity, self-support, helpful- Pakistan, Somalia, Turkey, the United States, and Yemen.
ness among members of the group, and attempting to live Islamists are far from having a monopoly on terror attacks,
at peace with all peoples (Brito, 1989; Stewart, 1987). These however. Between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2017,
are all values that Americans of any ethnic origin are likely to there were at least 16 terror attacks in the United States linked
support. The teachings of the Native American Church pro- to white supremacist movements, whose members often
vide a pathway through which Native Americans can operate consider themselves Christian fundamentalists (Mathis-
successfully in mainstream U.S. society. At the same time, Lilley, 2017). Buddhism is deeply implicated in genocidal
the notion that communion with God is possible for Native violence and terror against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar
Americans through the use of peyote and the rituals sur- (J. Freeman, 2017). And hundreds of attacks by Hindu fun-
rounding it separates them from other Americans and allows damentalists against Indian religious minorities have been
them to affirm their identity. Thus, the church has been suc- reported since 2014 (Safi, 2017).
cessful because it simultaneously allows its members to rein- Although members of fundamentalist groups some-
force their identity and adapt to the demands of the larger times see their religious beliefs as unchanging, the rise of
society. fundamentalism is itself an important religious change.
Fundamentalist movements usually have specific origi-
nal leaders and points of origin. As we saw, the American
Fundamentalism and Religious Change Christian fundamentalist movement began with the publica-
In the past two decades, there has been an increase in reli- tion of The Fundamentals. Modern Islamic fundamentalism
gious groups that can be described as fundamentalist. is associated with the work of Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966, born
The term fundamentalist comes from the Christian reli- in the Egyptian village of Musha described in Chapter 5) and
gious tradition, particularly from the publication of The the Muslim Brotherhood. Hindu fundamentalist organi-
Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, a series of books zations date to the founding of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
that appeared between 1910 and 1915. Publication of The Sangh (RSS) political party in 1925. Its descendant, the
Fundamentals was funded by Lyman and Milton Stewart, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has played a critical role in
wealthy California oilmen who were disturbed by scholarly Indian politics since the 1990s, has held a majority in the
analysis of the Bible and who argued for literalism and against Indian Parliament since 2014, and became the largest politi-
Catholicism, socialism, evolutionism, and many other reli- cal party in the world in 2015 (“BJP Becomes,” 2015).
gious, social, and scientific movements of the time. The rise of fundamentalism raises important questions
Because of its origins in Christianity, the term funda- for anthropologists. Two questions seem particularly critical.
mentalism is not easily applied to other religious traditions. First, what forces have led to the rise of fundamentalisms in
However, scholar of Islam Malise Ruthven (2004) has argued so many places? Second, is fundamentalism a problem and,
that the term is still useful and that groups identified as fun- if so, what should be done about it? These questions cannot
damentalist have “family resemblances.” Fundamentalists be answered easily or definitively, but we can propose some
tend to see religion as the basis for both personal and com- partial explanations.
munal history. Thus, fundamentalism is often connected To some degree, the pattern of the emergence of funda-
with nationalism. Fundamentalists tend to believe that there mentalism fits the model described in this chapter. In the past
is a single unified truth that they can possess and understand. 50 years, the world has faced truly revolutionary changes. The
They tend to envision themselves as fighting in a cosmic forces of technology and global capitalism have permeated
struggle of good against evil. In this battle, demonizing the societies and brought people of disparate cultures together
opposition is a perfectly acceptable tactic. Fundamentalists in a vast global network. However, this process has not been
tend to perceive themselves as a persecuted minority even peaceful and has not produced equity. Livelihoods in all
when this is, objectively, not the case. They are selective about regions, from cloth dyeing in West Africa to family farm-
which parts of their tradition they emphasize and which ing in America’s Midwest, have been undermined. The gap
parts of modernity they accept and reject. Fundamentalism between the wealthy and the poor, both within societies and
is very frequently connected with control of female sexuality between them, has grown. Governments that seemed to offer
(Almond et al., 1995; Juergensmeyer, 2003). the possibility of peace and prosperity have been discredited.
Islamic fundamentalism, often called Salafism or When faced with profound change, people look for
Islamism, has been implicated in the rise of the ISIS in 2014 stability and certainty. For some, fundamentalism of var-
as well as in terror attacks around the world. In 2016, such ious kinds seems to hold this promise. Much (but not all)
fundamentalism is nativistic; it presents a call to purifica- beliefs. The vast majority of people who might be classified
tion, to a return to the society and values of an earlier time, a as fundamentalist are innocent of any wrongdoing; they nei-
time that believers understand as better and more holy than ther promote nor condone violence. They live peacefully with
the current era. For this reason, it is often tied to political neighbors of different religious beliefs. On the other hand,
nationalism. However, specific local histories also play an fundamentalist beliefs have been repeatedly implicated in
extremely important role in the emergence of fundamen- murderous violence.
talisms. It would be impossible, for example, to explain the There is no doubt that much violence is inflamed by the
appearance of the fundamentalist radical group Hamas harsh political and economic conditions of life and by the
without reference to specific aspects of the long Israeli– subversion of long-standing cultural practices. Promoting
Palestinian conflict. Similarly, the development of ISIS is prosperity, more equitable distribution of resources, greater
directly related to the events surrounding the American cultural sensitivity, and more responsive and honest gov-
invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. ernment will certainly reduce popular support for violence.
The forces that provide rich ground for fundamentalism However, some believers in all fundamentalist traditions
do not seem likely to abate any time soon. In fact, continual understand the world in absolutist terms and see vio-
political and technological change seems likely to create even lence as a divinely ordained response. In some cases, they
more extreme dislocations in the future. The various fun- look to violence as a sign of the world’s end, the return or
damentalisms will probably continue to experience strong appearance of a messiah, and/or the beginning of an age of
growth. This poses an extraordinarily difficult problem. On redemption (Sells, 2013). Programs of social and political
the one hand, people are surely entitled to their religious advancement will not change their minds.

T H E G L O B A L IZ AT I O N O F R E L I G I O N I N T H E U N IT E D S TAT E S
Will America be more or less religious in the future?
The United States is one of the world’s most religious weekly, down from more than one in three a quarter
industrialized nations. When the French traveler and century earlier (Gallup, 2018). Church membership is
political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville visited falling particularly drastically among young people.
America in 1831, the religiosity of Americans was the About 26% of Americans 65 and older identify as
first thing that struck his attention (1956/1835–1840: white Evangelical Protestants, but only 8% of those
319). Additionally, the United States has a long between 18 and 29 do. Some of this may be due to
history of religious diversity. In that same era, the the association of these churches with conservative
French diplomat Talleyrand is reported to have social policies and political causes (Cox, 2018a)
complained that the United States had 32 religions
but only one sauce (T. Smith, 2002). At the same time, U.S. religious diversity is
increasing. There have been Muslim, Hindu, and
Today, the United States is still a very religious Buddhist communities in the United States since
nation: About 90% of Americans say they believe the 19th century—and, in some cases, earlier—but
in God, though this may overstate the true number these groups have grown enormously over the past
(Cox, 2018b). However, Americans appear to be several decades. In A New Religious America (2001),
becoming less religious and less likely to identify Diana Eck of Harvard University’s Pluralism Project
with any particular religion. Gallup has been closely reported that the changes in U.S. immigration
tracking religion in the United States for many years. policies that have drawn new immigrants from India,
According to surveys it has conducted, in 1961, 70% Pakistan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere have
of Americans identified as Protestant and only 2% resulted in large increases in minority religions.
said they had no religious identification. In 2017, These religions have drawn new American converts
only 38% identified as Protestant and 20% said they as well.
had no religion. In 2017, 73% of Americans surveyed
said that religion was losing influence. Fewer than In the 1970s, members of non–Judeo-Christian
one in four said they attended a religious service religions accounted for less than 1% of the U.S.
(Continued!)
(Continued#)
population. By 2014, that number had grown to about attacks of 9/11. Although about 700 hate crimes
4%. Estimates of the membership of many religions were committed against Muslims and Hindus in the
are controversial, but in rough numbers, the Hindu month that followed the attack, the overwhelming
population in the United States is probably around majority of Americans rejected hatred and reacted
2.3 million, and the Buddhist population is also with support. In one incident, an attack on a mosque
currently about 2.3 million. According to Eck (2003: in Toledo, a Christian radio station called for people
38), Los Angeles, home to many Asian immigrants, to come to the mosque and pray in solidarity with its
is “the most complex Buddhist city on Earth.” There members. More than 1,500 individuals of all faiths
are probably about 3 million Muslims in the country came to join hands around the mosque. Around the
(Pew Research Center, 2015a). nation, political and religious leaders from all groups
and parties called for tolerance and support for the
One result of the growth of these religions has been American Muslim community. More recently, after
an explosion in the construction of places of worship. an arsonist attacked a mosque in Tampa, Florida,
There are Buddhist and Hindu temples, mosques, in February 2017, members of the region’s Jewish
and Islamic learning centers in most large U.S. community donated tens of thousands of dollars
cities. Although these religious centers celebrate toward its repair (Marrero, 2017).
their respective traditions, in many cases they
have become Americanized, offering classes, youth Mosques and temples are increasingly joining
programs, and scout troops—programs similar to churches and synagogues on the American landscape.
those often offered by churches and synagogues. But if the acceptance of religious diversity holds a
promise for members of minority religions, it hides a
As religions expand, they often meet with hostility. In danger as well. Pressures for assimilation are strong,
a 2017 Pew Research Center poll, two-thirds of white and it is difficult for members of minority religions to
Evangelical Christians said that Islam is not part of preserve their beliefs, practices, and identity.
mainstream American society. Hindus and Buddhists
have also frequently faced opposition. Zoning boards Key Questions
have sometimes denied them permission to build 1. Do you believe the increasing diversity of religion
places of worship, and some corporations have tried in the United States will result in meaningful
to prohibit traditional garb such as headscarves. The changes in U.S. politics?
conservative Christian Family Research Council
attacked the U.S. House of Representatives for allowing 2. In many countries, religious groups have fought
a Hindu to offer the daily prayer. Pat Robertson, each other. Thus far, this has not happened in the
founder of the Christian Coalition, has repeatedly United States. Why do you think this is the case?
attacked Islam, calling it a religion that seeks to control, Will there be religious violence in the American
dominate, or, if need be, destroy others. future?
Despite some incidents of bigotry, however, most 3. How have religions in the United States
Americans have responded with tolerance to the influenced one another? Have you incorporated
expansion of religious diversity. A good indication beliefs and practices from various religions in
of this was the public reaction to the terrorist your own beliefs? Will you in the future?
SUMMARY
1. What characteristics do all religions have in common? reduce anxiety in risky situations, and increase social
The enormous variety in people’s beliefs and practices solidarity. Religion plays a role in education, in the main-
worldwide makes religion difficult to define. However, tenance of social boundaries and inequalities, and in
all religions are composed of stories; make extensive regulating the relationship of a group of people to their
use of symbols; have immeasurable beings, powers, and natural environment.
states; involve rituals; have specific practitioners; and
3. What are sacred narratives and what role do they play
undergo change.
in religion? Sacred narratives, sometimes called myths,
2. Describe several functions of religion. Through religion, are stories that express religious ideas. Sacred narratives
people create meaning and order in their world. They explain and validate or legitimize beliefs, values, and
explain aspects of the physical and social environment, customs.
4. What is the importance of symbols in religion? Religious 10. What are shamans and where are they found? Shamans,
symbols are a means by which abstract ideas can be who are found in most societies, are religious practi-
expressed in terms that most people can grasp. tioners whose legitimacy depends on their ability to
achieve direct contact with the supernatural world. In
5. What roles do supernatural beings and powers play some cases, they achieve this ability through vision quest.
in religion? Most religions assume the world to be Shamans are not members of bureaucracies and often
populated with nonempirical beings. Religions teach mediate between their communities and the supernat-
that such beings have life, personality, and power. ural world. They often have an extensive knowledge
Some common forms are gods, spirits, and tricksters. of local medicines and are key health care providers in
Additionally, religions usually postulate that peo- many societies.
ple, objects, or places may be imbued with spiritual
power, or mana. This chapter’s “Anthropology Makes 11. What are priests and where are they found? Priests are
a Difference” box relates how beliefs about spirits professional religious specialists who hold offices in
are related to the treatment of children among the bureaucracies. Although a priest’s authority depends on
Fulani. their official position, they may also use ecstatic tech-
niques to contact the supernatural. Priests are typical of
6. What is a religious ritual and what is the role of limin- socially stratified societies.
ality in ritual? A religious ritual is a ceremonial act or a
repeated stylized gesture involving religious symbols 12. What is the difference between witchcraft and sorcery?
that is used for specific occasions. Through ritual, people Witchcraft and sorcery are common elements of belief
enact their religion. Many rituals involve liminality, or in many societies. Some anthropologists differenti-
“betweenness.” In states of liminality, normal social rules ate between witches and sorcerers. Witches are people
may be overturned, and people may experience tempo- whose evil thoughts have the ability to harm people.
rary states of equality and oneness, or communitas. Sorcerers are believed to manipulate objects to magically
affect people for both good and evil purposes.
7. What are rites of passage and rites of intensification?
13. What are the effects of accusations of witchcraft and
A rite of passage is a public ritual that marks a person’s
sorcery? Although people do perform magic, accusa-
transition from one status to another. Examples of rites of
tions that others are sorcerers or witches probably have
passage include initiation rituals, marriages, and funer-
a greater effect on society. Such accusations may func-
als. A rite of intensification is a ritual that strengthens
tion to promote conformity and explain catastrophic
group identity and reinforces the values and norms of the
events.
community. Rites of intensification often involve the use
of totems, animals, plants, or other aspects of the natural 14. What are the varieties of religious prophecy and
world that are held to be ancestral to a group or have a under what conditions are they most likely to occur?
strong relationship with it. Prophecies generally look back to a previous time (nativ-
istic), look forward to a utopian future (vitalistic), or
8. What are prayer, sacrifice, and magic? What are key dif-
merge elements of two or more religious systems (syn-
ferences among them? Prayer, sacrifice, and magic are
cretic). Prophecies are most likely to be successful under
rituals that individuals and groups use to interact with
conditions of oppression, radical change, and loss of
the world of the supernatural. Most religions include
identity. The ethnography of the Rastafari in this chap-
examples of all three. The key difference between the
ter provides an example of a community built around a
three is the degree to which people believe their own
vitalistic religious prophesy.
actions determine outcomes. One common ritual is
divination, a religious technique used to discover the 15. What was the Ghost Dance and what is the Native
hidden. American Church? The Ghost Dance was a Native
American religious movement of the late 19th cen-
9. What are cargo cults and what is their relation to protest? tury. Ghost Dance prophets envisioned the resto-
Cargo cults are religions in which people believe that ration of Native American power in the western United
ritual actions will lead to financial and political success. States. Ghost Dance practices were involved in the
First identified on Pacific Islands, they are common in 1890 Wounded Knee massacre. The Native American
many places, including the United States. They are often Church, which also originated in the 19th century, is a
a form of resistance against the economic and political religious movement teaching that God is accessible to
power structure. Native Americans through the use of peyote.
16. Under what conditions does fundamentalism occur 17. How has religious practice changed in the United
and what are its characteristics? Fundamentalism tends States? Today, religion in the United States is increas-
to occur in times of rapid change. Fundamentalists view ing in diversity but decreasing in practice. The per-
religion as the basis for both personal and communal centage of Americans identifying as Protestant has
identity and believe that there is a single truth that they fallen sharply, and the number of those who claim no
can know. They understand the world as a battle between religious identification has risen tenfold. Only 4%
good and evil and believe they are a persecuted minority of Americans identify as members of non–Judeo-
even when this is not the case. Fundamentalists are selec- Christian religions today, but this is more than the 1%
tive about the parts of their tradition they emphasize and who did so in the late 1970s.
the parts of modernity they reject.
1. Popular books such as The God Delusion (Dawkins, priests, but priests may deeply oppose shamans. Why
2008) and God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons should this be the case?
Everything (Hitchens, 2007) make a strong case against
religion. But religion plays an important role in society. 4. The term witch hunt is often applied to political and
Can society exist without something anthropologists social events like the communist scares of the Cold War.
would identify as religion? Analyze these events using an anthropological under-
standing of witchcraft accusations.
2. Rites of passage, rites of intensification, prayer, and
magic are important in most people’s lives. How have you 5. Anthropologists see a strong correlation between social
experienced any of these in your own life? and religious change. Given the rapid globalization of
the international economy, do you believe that religious
3. In cases where shamans and priests exist in the same violence is likely to increase or decrease in the next
society, shamans are unlikely to dispute the power of century?
KE Y TE RM S
animatism 285 messianic 297 sacred narratives 282

animism 279 millenarian 297 sacrifice 288
antistructure 286 monotheism 285 shaman 292
communitas 286 myths 282 sorcery 295
contagious magic 289 nativism 297 syncretism 300
cosmologies 280 pharmacopoeia 293 totem 287
divination 291 polytheism 285 totemism 287
Ghost Dance 300 prayer 288 trickster 285
god 285 priest 294 vision quest 292
imitative magic 289 religion 279 vitalism 297
liminal 286 rite of intensification 287 Wiccan (or neopagan) 296
magic 289 rite of passage 287 witchcraft 295
mana 285 ritual 286
G LO S SARY
animatism Belief in an impersonal spiritual force that communitas A state of perceived solidarity, equality,
infuses the universe. and unity among people sharing a religious ritual, often
animism The notion that all objects, living and characterized by intense emotion.
nonliving, are imbued with spirits.
contagious magic The belief that things once in contact
antistructure The socially sanctioned use of behavior
that radically violates social norms. Antistructure is with a person or object retain an invisible connection with
frequently found in religious ritual. that person or object.
cosmology A system of beliefs that deals with funda- religion A social institution characterized by sacred
mental questions in the religious and social order. stories; symbols and symbolism; the proposed existence of
immeasurable beings, powers, states, places, and qualities;
divination A religious ritual performed to find hidden rituals and means of addressing the supernatural; specific
objects or information. practitioners; and change.
Ghost Dance A Native American religious movement of rites of intensification Rituals structured to reinforce
the late 19th century. the values and norms of a community and to strengthen
group identity.
god A named spirit who is believed to have created or to
control some aspect of the world. rite of passage A ritual that marks a person’s transition
from one status to another.
imitative magic The belief that imitating an action in
a religious ritual will cause the action to happen in the ritual A patterned act that involves the manipulation of
material world. religious symbols.
liminal Objects, places, people, and statuses that are sacred narratives Stories held to be holy and true by
understood as existing in an indeterminate state between members of a religious tradition.
clear-cut categories.
sacrifice An offering made to increase the efficacy of a
magic An attempt to mechanistica l ly control prayer or the religious purity of an individual.
supernatural forces. The belief that certain words, actions,
and states of mind compel the supernatural to behave in shaman An individual who is socially recognized
predictable ways. as having the ability to mediate between the world of
humanity and the world of gods or spirits but who is not a
mana Religious power or energy that is concentrated in recognized official of any religious organization.
individuals or objects.
sorcery The conscious and intentional use of magic.
messianic Focusing on the coming of an individual who
will usher in a utopian world. syncretism The merging of elements of two or more
religious traditions to produce a new religion.
millenarian Focusing on a coming catastrophe that
will signal the beginning of a new age and the eventual totem An animal, plant, or other aspect of the natural
establishment of paradise. world held to be ancestral or to have other intimate
relationships with members of a group.
monotheistic Characterized by belief in a single god.
totemism Religious practices centered on animals,
myths Sacred stories or narratives. plants, or other aspects of the natural world held to be
ancestral or to have other intimate relationships with
nativistic Focusing on the return of society to an earlier members of a group.
time that believers understand as better and more holy
than the current era. trickster A supernatural entity that does not act in the
best interests of humans.
neopagan A member of a new religion that claims
descent from pre-Christian nature worship. A modern- vision quest A practice common among many Native
day witch. American groups in which individuals seek to achieve
direct contact with the supernatural.
pharmacopoeia A collection of preparations used as
medications. vitalistic Looking toward the creation of a utopian future
that does not resemble a past golden age.
polytheistic Characterized by belief in many gods.
Wiccan A member of a new religion that claims
prayer Any communication between people and spirits descent from pre-Christian nature worship. A modern-
or gods in which people praise, plead, or request without day witch.
assurance of results.
witchcraft The ability to harm others by harboring
priest One who is formally elected or appointed to a full- malevolent thoughts about them; the practice of
time religious office. sorcery.
SOPA Images/Contributor/Getty Images
Body art is found in cultures worldwide. This picture of 70 year old Amina Abdel Majid Suleyman from Kobani, Syria, shows
tattooing typical of the Kurdish people of that region. The tattoos, called deq, are were used to increase women’s beauty,
identify their family and tribe, and to magically protect them and increase their fertility.
Creative Expression
Anthropology and the Arts 13
Art is a universal aspect of human experience; there is no known culture without LEARNING OBJECTIVES
art. In every society, people express themselves in ways that go beyond the need
for physical survival. Everywhere there are forms of creative expression that are 13.1 Summarize some of the
functions of art in both political and
guided by aesthetic principles involving imagination, beauty, skill, and style. ritual context
These expressive activities are sometimes called the arts. In this chapter, we use
the broadest definition of that term and include painting, architecture, sculpture, 13.2 Using examples, describe the
ways art can symbolize key cultural
carving, pottery, weaving, music, song, dance, sport, and dramatic performance concepts and themes
as well as written or spoken forms such as stories and poetry. From the very
broad anthropological perspective used in this chapter, tea drinking is an art 13.3 Explain what deep play is and
give examples of it
form in Japan, bullfighting is an art form in Spain, and calligraphy is an art form
in China and the Islamic Middle East. 13.4 Analyze the roles that art can
play in politics. Give examples of the
use of art to promote political ends
Evidence of human artistic expression goes back to the very dawn of the
human species. Tools manufactured according to aesthetic principles, the 13.5 Assess the degree to which
embellishment of burial sites, and the sophisticated cave paintings and art reflects cultural identity and
personal identity in different
sculptures of prehistoric peoples all indicate the connection between the
societies
arts and being human. Archaeological sites in Zambia provide some of the
earliest evidence for art. At these sites, archaeologists have found pigments 13.6 Describe the relationship
between art made for use within
and grinding equipment apparently used to make paints between 350,000 and
a culture and the international art
400,000 years ago (BBC, 2000). No culture today, no matter how simple its market
technology or how difficult its environment, lacks art.
Art in Its Cultural Context of the object (Auger, 2005). This does not mean that the
Inuit do not have aesthetic values; it means that their art
Art has different forms and functions in different societies, was traditionally applied to the manufacture of objects that
and an important characteristic of all art is the expression— had primarily instrumental value, such as tools, amulets,
whether conscious or unconscious—of cultural themes. and weapons. Similarly, many creative acts (such as danc-
Thus, for anthropologists, art must be understood in relation ing, weaving, singing, and playing a musical instrument)
to the culture in which it originates. that comprise a special category of behavior called the arts
Although artistic expression is universal, creative are used in other societies as part of cultural activities such
expression in different cultures attaches to different aspects as religion, exchange, or storytelling. In all societies, some
of culture and has different meanings. For example, the people are recognized as more competent in these skills
high value currently placed on art for art’s sake in wealthy than others, but this competence does not necessarily trans-
countries is unusual. In most societies, art is not produced late into the specialized role of artist.
or performed solely for the purpose of giving pleasure but Current-day wealthy societies often emphasize original-
is inseparable from other activities. In nonindustrial societ- ity and innovation. The image of the artist as a tortured loner
ies, art is embedded in many aspects of culture. Most Inuit or an eccentric has become popular, especially in Western
languages, for example, do not have a separate word for art. countries in the past two centuries. However, this is not the
Rather, artificial objects are often lumped together as “that case in most societies at most times (and may be more myth
which has been made by hand” regardless of the purpose than reality even in Western society). In the majority of
309
societies, art is a social skill. Artists create their work for oth- Art as Ritual: Paleolithic Cave Art
ers to use and to celebrate and support, or they create it to cri-
Our understanding of the early connections between art
tique key aspects of social structure. They are, in other ways,
and ritual owes much to the study of Paleolithic cave art.
ordinary members of their societies.
Cave paintings are among the most spectacular cultural
Evidence indicates that the making of art in all cultures
remains left by early Homo sapiens. The earliest cave paint-
is recognized as a creative process, though not necessarily an
ings are about 39,000 years old and are found in Australia
innovative one (Price, 1989). Many cultures do not prize orig-
and Indonesia (Marchant, 2016), but the best known are
inality in their arts. In many societies in Africa, for example,
located in caves in Europe, particularly in the protected val-
improvisation is more highly valued than artistic original-
leys in eastern France and northern Spain.
ity, and creativity in these cultures is expressed by creating
The cave of Altamira in Spain and the Lascaux and Grotte
interesting and endless variations on an already established
Chauvet caves in France are the sites of the most elaborate
artistic theme (Vogel, 1991: 20). Indifference to or even inhi-
cave paintings (Figure 13.1). Ice Age hunters of reindeer,
bition of originality in art occurs particularly when the arts
mammoth, bison, and horses put images on rock faces deep
are connected with religion. Among the Navajo, for example,
in these caves. The artists used naturally occurring bulges and
song is an essential part of religion, and there is believed to be
dips in the rock to make their animal portrayals more realis-
only one right way to sing a song. In other Navajo arts, such
tic. In addition to painting, they made jewelry and carved and
as weaving, styles remain stable but innovation is permitted.
engraved human figures and ritual and ceremonial objects.
When marketing is the motive, traders may encourage inno-
They placed elaborate grave goods in burial sites and made
vation to increase sales.
patterned notations that may indicate some form of record
keeping.
Some Functions of Art The hills and river valleys of France and northern Spain
were home to many diverse species of plants and animals
Art has many functions in society. These include express-
that these Ice Age artists depicted. The hunters clearly knew
ing the symbolic elements in ritual, displaying cultural
every detail of the anatomy and behavior of the animals in
themes, confirming social hierarchies by making visible
their territory. Deep in the caves, with no animal models to
the power of the state or the governmental elite, resisting
copy, their paintings are rendered with magnificent realism.
authority by giving expression to voices from the margins,
Many of the images indicate the sexual and seasonal charac-
and expressing personal and social identities. Both early
teristics or behavior of various animal species. For example,
and modern states use art to symbolize their own
power, as we saw in the ethnography on the Asante state
in Chapter 7. Sometimes the rules for the creation and
display of artistic endeavors are determined by elites in FIGURE 13.1 Ancient paintings in European caves
order to confirm and extend their power. For example, show animals, human figures, and actions that have
the sumptuary laws described in Chapter 7 help elites been interpreted as rituals. Here, a painting made
control the symbols of power. Art may also be used to more than 12,000 years ago in Altamira cave in
resist the domination of the state and elites. Graffiti is Spain seems to depict a hunt.
sometimes an example of this. Art is also used to inten-
sify ideas of nationhood, to express ethnic identities and
Universal History Archive/Contributor/Getty Images
record ethnic histories, and to make political statements.

Art is used to express personal identity, social status, or
identification with a particular group in society. This is
illustrated in art as varied as the ways in which Pakistani
truck drivers paint their trucks or the use of tattoos by
U.S. college students.
Art is often central to ritual, whether in artifact,
movement, or sound. In many cultures, artistic expres-
sion in ritual is a powerful way of communicating with
and attempting to control the natural and supernatural
worlds. In hunting-and-gathering cultures, for example,
dance movements that imitate the movements of animals
are often believed to exert control over those animals,
leading to successful hunts.
stags are shown baying in the autumn rut. A bison bull bel- Art, Culture, and Symbolism
lows and mammoth bulls butt each other. One bison licks a
summer insect bite and another is shown with molting fur in The arts are a means of using symbols to interpret the world.
the summer. Art expresses the basic themes, values, and perceptions of
Archeologists speculate that these images played a role reality in ways that are culturally meaningful. Art is thus a
in ritual, religion, and storytelling and might have been used reflection of cultural values and patterns and at the same time
in curing ceremonies or rites of passage. People did not live a means of intensifying the experience of these values. Much
in the painted caves. Perhaps they visited them seasonally, of the power of the arts comes from their symbolic nature,
or maybe only for special occasions. In caves used as homes, which leaves their production and performance open to a
entirely different images, such as signs and symbols in differ- variety of interpretations. An artistic product or performance
ent shapes, were engraved on stones, bones, and sometimes may convey a basic cultural theme, or it may combine several
broken ivory. themes, some of which may even be in opposition to one
Archaeologists offer different interpretations of cave art. another. An important anthropological perspective on the
Because many of the images are of animals that were com- arts is to understand both the surface and the deep symbolic
monly eaten, some anthropologists argue that they were structures through which the arts communicate and elicit
drawn as part of ceremonies intended to magically increase responses from their participants and audiences.
the chances of a successful hunt. The images might contain However, to say that art uses symbols is not to say that
encoded information about hunting techniques and other it is exclusively symbolic. In some cultures, art products
information useful for survival in the harsh conditions or performances—whether paintings, masks, sculptures,
of the Ice Age (Strauss, 1991). However, one weakness of sounds, or movements—are understood as the thing visu-
this theory is that the paintings include images of animals alized. For example, mask dancing in many African cultures
that do not seem to have been commonly eaten. Lions, for is both symbolic and real. It is symbolic in that the costumes
example, were not intended as a food source, nor would the worn and their different elements have specific meanings, but
hunter have sought their increase, but portrayals of them it is real in the sense that the masked dancer does not repre-
are common. sent the supernatural being but is understood to have become
A more accepted theory is that many of the images were the supernatural being. Similarly, objects may represent
made for ritual use. The association of animals with varying power, or objects may be powerful in themselves. For exam-
signs and symbols reinforces this view: Some animals are ple, among the Bakongo people of the Democratic Republic
marked with handprints or abstract signs, whereas others of Congo, an nkisinkondi is a sculpture that is a container of
are pictured with plant forms. One hand marking appears spiritual forces (Figure 13.2). Nknondi means “hunter” in the
to be that of an adult holding an infant’s hand to the wall by Kongo language, and the nkisinkondi figures are made to help
the child’s wrist, and this has been interpreted as an act of magically find sources of trouble. Nkisi are created by a sculp-
ritual participation performed by the adult for the infant tor and a ritual specialist working together (Lagamma, 2008).
(Marshack, 1978). Infrared photography indicates that many The magical power of the nkisinkondi is activated by driving a
of the animals were painted over other animals or reused by nail into it.
repainting and adding symbols. This suggests that the ritual The idea of an object of art being itself powerful may
of painting the animal may have been more important than seem distant from our own experience, but in a sense, it really
the finished image—the process was more important than isn’t. Consider, for example, a painting by Rembrandt. The
the product. painting is symbolic of something. However, the painting
Yet another, more controversial, interpretation is that itself also has a certain kind of power. A replica, no matter
these paintings depict things seen by shamans in altered how perfect, may have the same symbolic content but would
states of consciousness and that the caves were painted as part never be as valuable or important as the original. We are will-
of religious rituals or were designed to intensify the experi- ing to travel and to pay to see originals. A museum of perfect
ence of such rituals. This is supported by the fact that many replicas would have few visitors.
figures have both animal and human characteristics. This is When objects, dances, songs, or other artistic forms are
typical of some types of hallucination (Lewis-Williams & believed to be powerful, they are often created in ways that
Dowson, 1988). are very strictly guided and resistant to variation or change.
Because cave paintings were made by many different art- One important cultural factor that may limit the range of
ists over a 20,000-year period, show many different subjects, variation an artist displays is the relationship between art and
and are painted in many different locations, it is unlikely that religion. Where art and religion are entwined, there is little
any single theory can explain them all, and each of the theo- variation in the creation of images. For example, there are a
ries mentioned may hold true for some cases. great many similar images of the Virgin Mary. Where religion
FIGURE 13.2 Sometimes art is not only symbolic FIGURE 13.3 Shiva, Lord of the Dance, is a
but contains or enacts aspects of the physical common religious representation in India. Each
or spiritual world. This nkisi figure from the of Shiva’s actions is associated with a specific
Democratic Republic of Congo is understood as symbolism. This painting is from the 10th-century
physically containing the nkisi spiritual force. Chidambaram Nataraja Temple in Tamil Nadu,
India.
Science & Society Picture Library/Contributor/Getty Images
NurPhoto/Contributor/Getty Images
In Hindu culture, the image of Shiva, Lord of the Dance,
is deeply symbolic. In this very common sculpture or paint-
ing, Shiva is always shown the same way (Figure 13.3). He
stands crushing the dwarf demon Apasmara, who embod-
ies ignorance. He is surrounded by a ring of fire, symboliz-
ing the entirety of existence. His upper-right and upper-left
hands hold a drum symbolizing creation and a flame
symbolizing destruction. His lower-right hand gestures,
and art have become separated, as in much of the contempo- bestowing protection, and his lower-left hand points to his
rary world, experimentation, innovation, and real change in foot, reminding us that all must join the dance of creation
artistic style are more likely to occur. and destruction.
Even in cultures where artistic forms are not themselves Each artistic endeavor embodies an artistic style,
viewed as containing spiritual power, the arts are always which refers to a characteristic manner of expression.
powerful means of symbolic communication. They convey Different cultures (as well as different artists) have differ-
knowledge and provoke emotions that have both individual ent artistic styles. Although all cultures experience stylis-
and cultural dimensions. Each culture has specific artistic tic changes in their arts, aesthetic principles change slowly.
symbols that stand for things or events in nature and human Archaeological evidence indicates that the artistic styles
society or that are associated with particular emotions. Thus, of many cultures changed very slowly over very long peri-
one needs to know the particular cultural meanings assigned ods. Because of this, archaeologists often use artistic styles
to a particular artistic element to understand what it means to characterize different chronological periods in a cul-
within its culture of origin. ture, to differentiate cultures in a region from each other,
In Western music, for example, the use of the minor scale to trace the connections between various prehistoric cul-
conveys the emotion of sadness. Various other musical forms tures, and to speculate about life and social structures in
are traditionally associated with other emotions. These artis- ancient cultures.
tic conventions can be used to evoke emotions because peo- Cultures also differ in their artistic emphases. In some
ple in that culture have been taught the association. Similarly, cultures, masks and painting are the most important media
in the United States, a story that begins “Once upon a time” for the expression of aesthetic values and technical skill. In
signals that it is not about real events and people. This knowl- other cultures, verbal skills are more important, and this is
edge sets the stage for the audience to respond to the story reflected in the wealth of myths, folktales, and word games
emotionally in certain ways. present in these societies. Even where cultures seem to have
a similar emphasis on an artistic form, the meanings attached children’s toys, Internet content, and commercial prod-
to that form may be very different. For example, calligraphy ucts. These popular art forms have been taken up by a
(decorative writing) is an important art form in both China pop art movement, whose work is displayed in muse-
and the Islamic Middle East, but it is associated with quite dif- ums and art galleries in Japan and abroad. They have also
ferent meanings in these cultures. In China, written language spawned a subculture in Japan called otaku. The term was
is considered one of the defining attributes of Chinese civi- popularized by Nakamori Akio, who was critical of the
lization and is a key source of Chinese cultural identity and subculture and saw its members as obsessed and socially
unity. Writing was the ruler’s instrument of legitimacy, and isolated. The otaku were further defamed by their associa-
it appeared on state monuments and documents. Gradually, tion with a famous serial killer of the late 1980s, who, the
it became revered as an art form. In Islam, calligraphy is the media claimed, was unable to differentiate fact from fic-
most respected of the graphic arts because it is the visual rep- tion. However, both of these criticisms are unfair. Otaku
resentation of the Koran. Islam forbids creating images of are members of groups of friends who are deeply immersed
humans, and this prohibition is often extended to the depic- in the world of manga and anime. They take possession
tion of animals. The result has often been an emphasis on of the imaginary worlds of games, manga, and anime
abstract geometric designs and calligraphy in much Islamic and approach them creatively, building on them through
art (Schuyler, 1995). drawing, customization, fan fiction, and cosplay, a phe-
nomenon called nijisousaku or “secondary production” in
Japan (Rich, 2016). In Tokyo, otaku culture is centered in
Art and the Expression of Akihabara, a section of the city previously dominated by
Cultural Themes electronics stores (Morikawa, 2012).
Manga and anime are also sometimes associated with
Because artistic performances and products emerge from another major pop culture theme, kawaii, or “cuteness”
widely shared cultural themes, the arts can heighten the feel- (Figure 13.4). Cuteness is often displayed in images of
ing of belonging to a particular group by generating intense Lolita-like, preadolescent, seemingly innocent school-
emotions. Thus, art forms are not only mirrors of culture but girls who convey a sexual knowingness that belies their
also heighten cultural and social integration by displaying appearance. Hello Kitty is a well-known expression of
and confirming the values that members of a society hold in kawaii. Hello Kitty is a big-eyed, beribboned, expressionless
common. The powerful artistic symbols of a society express pussycat character (without a mouth to express emotion)
universal themes such as death, pride, and gender relations whose image appears on over 50,000 products in Japan
in ways that are culturally particular and therefore cultur- and throughout the world. The brand makes about $800
ally compelling, even when their content is not consciously million annually, much of this from outside of Japan, and
articulated. is estimated to be worth over $7 billion dollars. The public
Art may express the unconscious, repressed aspects of relations manager for Sanrio, the owner of the Hello Kitty
a culture. Popular art and culture have often been analyzed design, explains its success by saying, “Hello Kitty doesn’t
in terms of how they provide a particularly direct view of judge. She lets you feel how you feel without forcing you
the repressed unconscious of cultures. In Chapter 11, we to question why” (Fitzpatrick, 2014). According to Sanrio,
examined the ways in which bullfighting in Spain sym- Hello Kitty is a cartoon character who represents a third-
bolically and artistically represents ideals of male gender grade girl who lives outside of London. The Hello Kitty
behavior. In the examples of manga and anime in Japanese character is never seen on all fours—in fact, she has a pet cat
popular culture and the cockfight in Bali, all discussed of her own called Charmmy Kitty (Petri, 2014).
below, we see examples of how diverse arts function in the On the apocalyptic side of this popular culture format are
display and confirmation of cultural themes. Later in the monsters like Godzilla, who was awakened from eons of sub-
chapter, we show that art may often subvert rather than marine sleep by a hydrogen bomb explosion. Godzilla exhib-
support culture as well. its radiation-induced physical deformities and engages in
nightly attacks on Tokyo that reduce the city and its scream-
ing population to ashes.
Manga and Anime in Japan Artist and analyst Takashi Murakami sees both kawaii
Among the most important aspects of post–World War and disaster movies such as the Godzilla series in the con-
II popular culture in Japan are anime (animation) and text of World War II and the relationship between Japan
manga (comic book art). Anime, the animation of manga, and the United States. He argues that Japan has not really
is very familiar in the West and, indeed, throughout the examined its responsibility for the trauma caused by its
world, as it can be found in animation films, video games, militarism, its role in World War II, the atomic bombings
become hugely popular worldwide. There has been a rich

FIGURE 13.4 Kawaii, or cuteness, is a major theme cross-fertilization between American and Japanese popular
in Japanese popular culture. Here, artist and culture in manga and anime. In the United States, numer-
student Kanpaiis is seen dressed in kawaii style in ous Japanese-style cartoons and films have been produced,
the Harajuku section of Tokyo in 2017. including Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack, Michael
Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s Avatar: The Last
Onnie A Koski/Contributor/Getty Images
Airbender, and Rooster Teeth’s RWBY.

This cultural exchange goes in both directions, and
American culture has been incorporated into anime and
manga. In Japan, Tokashi Okazaki’s Afro Samurai manga
relied heavily on elements of hip-hop and other aspects
of American culture; it spawned an anime series, a TV
movie, and a video game. Tenjho Tenge, Infinite Ryvius, and
Samurai Champloo also include American elements, par-
ticularly hip-hop dance and music. As Condry (2005) has
noted, the intense interchange between Japanese and U.S.
youth culture is often ahead of commercialization. The
Internet, television, and other media allow almost instant
access to events and fashion in New York, Los Angeles, and
Tokyo. Members of different cultures pick up styles and
statements that appeal to them. They recast elements of cul-
ture to give them meaning within their own context. Hip-
hop, for example, has deep roots in the African American
urban experience, but this doesn’t prevent Japanese artists
from making it their own as well.
Deep Play
There are many kinds of cultural performances, such as
games and sports, in which participants and spectators are
joined together in experiences that have functions similar to
those of the arts (Geertz, 1973a). Clifford Geertz called these
performances deep play. Examples of deep play include
cockfighting in Bali, falcon hunting in Pakistan and other
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the prolonged U.S. occu- parts of Muslim Asia, football in the United States, and bull-
pation that followed the Japanese defeat. Murakami holds fighting in Spain. All of these are expressive forms of culture
that the denial of these traumas has created displaced emo- that heighten emotions, display compelling aspects of social
tions such as anxiety, shame, and a pervasive sense of impo- structure and culture, reinforce cultural identities, and, per-
tence that find their outlet in popular culture (R. Smith, haps most important, allow people to viscerally experience
2005). This infantilism is reflected in Japanese fascination (and maybe think about) aspects of their own cultures.
with fantasies of violence and power, such as the Godzilla-
like monsters and mushroom-cloud explosions that are so The Balinese Cockfight
frequently used in Japanese animation. In a seeming con- Cockfights are a consuming passion of the Balinese that
tradiction, this infantilism and sense of powerlessness also reveal much about Balinese culture, particularly the compe-
shows up in the obsession with “cuteness.” Murakami’s anal- tition for prestige among men of different families and social
ysis fails to account for the diversity of manga and anime, groups. Balinese men have an intense identification with
their intense creativity, and the worldwide appeal of these their fighting animals and spend much time caring for them,
Japanese art forms. However, it does point to the role of art discussing them, and admiring them. The cock (the pun
in helping us understand and come to terms with a world works both in English and Balinese) embodies two oppos-
that is both dangerous and out of our control. ing Balinese cultural themes. It is both a magnification of the
Although anime and manga display cultural and psy- owner’s masculine self and an expression of animality, which
chological themes that are particularly Japanese, they have in Bali is the direct inversion of what it means to be human.
kin group rivalries and hostilities in “play” form. It comes dan-

FIGURE 13.5 Cockfighting in Bali expresses gerously and entrancingly close to the expression of open inter-
cultural ideas of masculinity, danger, group personal and intergroup aggression, something that almost
solidarity, and hierarchy. Here, two men prepare never actually happens in the course of ordinary Balinese life.
their cocks for fighting near Canggu, Bali. But then, the Balinese say, cockfights are not quite the same
as real aggression because, after all, it is only a cockfight. That
Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Getty Images
is, although people at the cockfight can experience changes

in prestige—the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat—
cockfights change nothing. A person’s position in the Balinese
status hierarchy is set by larger social and economic forces.
Winning or losing a cockfight can never really change anything.
In a way, this is similar to college (and other) sports. If you are
a college basketball fan, in late March you might get to savor
that one shining moment as your school defeats its rival for a
national title. However, the game doesn’t really change anything
about either school. The prestige of universities is set by overar-
ching social forces and cannot be changed by a basketball game.
Art and Politics

In identifying with his animal, the Balinese man is identify- Another important function of the arts is the expression of
ing with his ideal masculine self but also with what his cul- social structure, particularly the social hierarchy and its rela-
ture most fears, hates, and is fascinated by: the powers of tion to power. In politically complex and hierarchical soci-
darkness that the animals represent. The cockfight embodies eties, the power embodied in the ruler or the state may be
the opposition of man and beast, good and evil, the creative represented through the graphic, oral, architectural, or per-
power of aroused masculinity, and the destructive power of forming arts. These artistic displays reiterate and legitimate
loosened animality, fused in a bloody drama of violence as the sources of the ruler’s power and the political structure
cocks with razor sharp steel spurs attached to their legs fight through which the society is governed.
to the death (Figure 13.5). The sculptural portrayal of Roman emperors presents
Gambling is central to Balinese cockfighting, and bets an interesting example of how art is pressed into the ser-
on the cockfight are a basic part of the competition for vice of power. Statues of many Roman emperors expressed
prestige that forms its deep play aspect. Cocks represent a series of ideals, some of which seem contradictory. In
men, families, and social groups. When the individuals and many cases, the emperor’s face was made to show family
groups represented have little connection with each other, resemblance to previous emperors, even when they were
the betting is likely to be light. However, when the individ- unrelated and probably had little in common physically. In
uals or groups are closely related in status competition or addition, since wisdom was associated with age, emperors
closely linked in the social hierarchy, bets are likely to be tended to be portrayed with older faces. However, since
substantial. An individual does not bet on the bird that he emperors were war leaders, it was important that they be
believes has the greatest chance of victory (only men bet) shown as physically strong. The result was that emperors
but on the cock that represents his group. These matches are were often depicted with the facial characteristics of middle
likely to be deeply emotional. age but the physique of athletes in their teens and twenties
The Balinese cockfight is a symbolic contest between (Trentinella, 2003; Figure 13.6).
male egos, but it is also a symbolic expression of Balinese Another example of how the arts legitimate social hier-
social hierarchy. Prestige is a driving force in Balinese society archy and power, thus contributing to stability (especially in
and the central driving force of the cockfight, transforming transitional times), are the paintings of colonial Peru. After
the fight into what Geertz called a “status bloodbath.” When the Spanish conquest, Inca royalty commissioned indige-
a match involves men of equal status, especially high-status nous artists to paint portraits of the Inca kings to keep alive
men or men who are personal enemies, the match is felt to be the memory of Inca rulers for those claiming royal descent
deeper and more emotional. and noble status. Upper-class natives of Peru thus asserted
The Balinese are aware of the important status concerns their claims to high status and power in the colonial hierarchy
involved in cockfighting, which they refer to as “playing with by depicting their own illustrious forebears in paintings, the
fire without getting burned.” Cockfighting activates village and visual language of European culture.
The arts were also central in legitimizing the ruling class

FIGURE 13.6 Statues of the Roman emperor in imperial China, especially the emperor (Hearn, 1996). The
Hadrian show him with middle-aged facial Chinese believed that only those with knowledge of the past
characteristics, indicating wisdom, but with the could have a vision of the future. Thus, it was essential for the
athletic body of a far younger man, indicating imperial courts to possess historical writings and paintings
strength. to display that knowledge. Throughout Chinese imperial
history, figure painting was focused on commemorating the
DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/Getty Images
emperor. These often life-sized portraits of the emperor had

to incorporate the two main Chinese ideals of imperial rule:
moral authority and the power of the emperor’s central role
in a controlled bureaucratic administration. Therefore, art-
ists had to depict the emperor with individualized features
representing the humanistic Confucian values of compassion
and virtue while at the same time conveying the imposing
demeanor of the absolute ruler, the Son of Heaven. Another
artistic representation that conveyed imperial power was a
series of almost life-sized portraits of Chinese cultural heroes,
commissioned by emperors in the 12th century. By display-
ing these paintings in the court, an emperor demonstrated his
identification with a mythologized past and his rightful place
in the lineage of Confucian rulers.
While the arts can help stabilize a society by validating
its social hierarchy and expressing its common cultural ele-
ments, they can also provide powerful ways to express dis-
unity and conflict within a society, to resist state authority,
and to give voice to members of oppressed or marginalized
classes or social groups. Resistance to prevailing social struc-
ture is often an important dimension in folktales and other
oral traditions. These oral traditions may reverse, ridicule, or
question the social order.

M U S E U M S A N D C U LT U R E 1 : W H O G E T S TO SAY?
Museum exhibits were—and are—a major point of Most museum collections were originally based on
contact between members of different cultures. a fascination with physical objects. This generally
Museums originated as private collections, national stripped such objects of their cultural context. Whether
treasure houses, and scientific institutions that sought the objects displayed were European paintings,
to preserve disappearing cultures. The earliest museum sculptures from the Mediterranean antiquity, African
may have been created more than 2,500 years ago in masks, or Chinese silk screens, they were shown with
the Babylonian city of Ur (Fowler, 2003). Many of the little commentary. Visitors marveled at their beauty,
great European museums, such as the Louvre in Paris oddity, or craftsmanship, but neither collectors nor
and the British Museum in London, date back to the viewers knew much of the cultural context of their
mid- to late 1700s. The oldest museum in the United creation or use. For example, African art strongly
States, the Charleston Museum in South Carolina, influenced modernist artists such as Pablo Picasso and
opened to the public in 1824. The Tokyo National Henri Matisse, but they were rarely interested in the
Museum, the oldest in Japan, opened in 1872. cultural context of the art. They simply were fascinated
by its forms. Art historians and museum directors strove to collaborate with leaders of First Nation
similarly focused away from the context in which art (as Native American tribes are called in Canada)
was created and toward display without explanation. communities. He organized exhibitions that were
focused on the educational goals of First Nation
Anthropologists generally had different perspectives. peoples and consulted with tribal leaders at every
Anthropologists tended to see art in its cultural stage of the process. Ames set a high standard for
context. They tried to understand the roles that art collaboration, but he also created controversy both
played in culture and the conditions of its production among anthropologists and between the museum
and use. They wanted to understand the social and and the communities it served (Shelton, 2007). Ames
symbolic worlds the art referenced. They argued that later said, “No one promised that decolonization
museums should present art in its cultural context, would be a stroll in the garden” (2005: 49). His work
explaining what the objects displayed meant to the had a profound influence, and similar models of
people who made and used them. In the late 19th collaboration have taken place throughout the world.
century, Franz Boas and Otis Mason disagreed One good example of this is the National Museum
about how material from different cultures should be of the American Indian in Washington D.C., where
displayed. Mason believed that artifacts from different anthropologists, museologists, and Native Americans
places that looked similar or served similar purposes are engaged in a practice of “community curating”
should be shown together. Boas far more persuasively (Shannon, 2015). The opening of the museum in 2004
argued that objects should be shown in context: All the was celebrated by a procession of some 20,000 Native
objects from a single culture should be shown together Americans, one of the largest gatherings of its kind
(Dall & Boas, 1887). For Boas, objects from a culture (Lovgren, 2004).
could only be properly understood in relation to each
other and to the worldview of their culture of origin. Not all of the effects of NAGPRA have been positive.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York
Despite Boas’s concern with the contextual display of City has one of the greatest ethnographic collections in
museum artifacts, with the exception of a few notable the United States. However, its frequently visited cultural
exceptions, the people whose culture was depicted in exhibitions are woefully out of date; they range from 30
museums or whose artwork was displayed were rarely to 116 years old. Emily Martin and Susan Harding (2017)
involved in creating or analyzing the displays. Cultures have reported that there are many reasons the museum
and their material productions were presented by has failed to bring its exhibits up to date. Some of these
outsiders. However, this began to change rapidly are material and financial; for example, renovating the
in the 1990s. One impetus for this was the 1990 exhibits will be very expensive. Museum directors have
passage of the Native American Graves Protection also shifted resources toward exhibits that focus on
and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which required the physics and biology, which they believe will bring in
return of human remains and many cultural artifacts more revenue. However, the directors also use NAGPRA
to Native communities. This encouraged engagement as an excuse for not changing the exhibits. They argue
between the museums that held these items and the that changes would be very complicated because they
Native Americans they belonged to. would involve the museum in extended negotiations
with Native communities. Dinosaurs, on the other hand,
One example of successful engagement in this don’t talk back.
endeavor was the leadership of Michal M. Ames,
the director of the Museum of Anthropology at the Our discussion of museums and culture continues in
University of British Columbia from 1974–1997. Ames “The Global and the Local” section of the next chapter.
African American oral traditions, for example, com- under certain conditions, be outsmarted and undone. They
monly include a trickster character who is smaller and also provide a comedic outlet for the frustration and anger
weaker than his opponent but triumphs through his wits that result from oppression.
rather than through force. The trickster tales, a popular As the U.S. social structure changed in the 1960s and
example of which are the Br’er Rabbit stories, are probably 1970s, and as the possibility of open protest against the
descendants of African trickster tales and have a deep con- racial caste system increased, African American oral tradi-
nection with both slavery and the later oppression of African tions also changed. The “badman” who openly displayed his
Americans. They are both a representation of the race-based arrogance and virility came to supplant the trickster as hero
social structure and messages about how the system can, (Abrahams, 1970), and this archetype began to appear in
blaxploitation films of the 1970s, such as Sweet Sweetback’s

Baadasssss Song (1971) and Foxy Brown (1974), and in the FIGURE 13.7 Ledger drawings recorded Native
hip-hop and gangsta rap of Dr. Dre and Death Row Records American lifeways and history. Pictured here
in the 1980s and 1990s. is a drawing called “Off to War” (c.1882) by the
In the mid- and late 2010s, controversies broke out over Arapaho artist Frank Henderson (1862–1885).
statues and names of schools and public buildings that com-
Alamy Stock Photo

Artokoloro Quint Lox Limited/
memorated Confederate figures from the Civil War. The
political importance of these controversies was highlighted
by the intense resistance that sometimes accompanied the
removal of the names and monuments. In Texas, Maryland,
Tennessee, Louisiana, and many other places, statues of
Confederates were removed overnight to limit protest.
These statues were strongly implicated in the racist social
order that developed in the United States after the Civil War.
Ask yourself how different America would be if, instead of
every statue honoring a Confederate officer, a statue of a
slave breaking the bonds of captivity had been erected. This
would have reflected and celebrated an entirely different The ledger drawings were made only by men, and at
kind of politics. first they served mainly to record the lost lifeways of war-
fare, hunting, and tribal identity. At the turn of the 19th cen-
tury, Native Americans were already using drawings on skin
Art and Cultural History shirts, robes, and teepee covers to record personal histories.
Another important function of the arts is to express a peo- By the 1860s, these drawings had become more elaborate,
ple’s sense of their cultural identity through depictions of used more color, and were more carefully composed, and
the past. The use of art to link the present with the past is the original material of war deeds had expanded to include
widespread. In many cultures, the most important artistic social customs and communal history. Ledger drawing
efforts and performances are those representing ancestors flourished as an art form from approximately the 1870s to
and the continuity of group identity. Because they display the 1920s, during the early reservation period, a time of pro-
cultural identity and history in ways that are visible, tangi- found cultural change. It expanded when about 70 Native
ble, and emotionally compelling, the arts are an important Americans, mostly southern Cheyenne, were imprisoned
way of interpreting and remembering both an actual and a for a time at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. They pro-
legendary past. duced scores of ledger drawings for personal pleasure, for sale
Native Americans recorded their histories in various to tourists, and as gifts for the whites with whom they inter-
ways. All groups told stories that combined historical and acted. This period was a time of profound cultural trauma as
fantastical elements and passed these stories from genera- Native Americans left the old, free life of the bison-hunting
tion to generation. Some groups used material artifacts. For days for a new life almost as prisoners living on government
example, the Iroquois carved a record of their chiefs into rations, under official pressure to abandon their religion,
canes (Frisch, 1976). Such records, whether material or oral, traditional ceremonies, and old ways of communal living.
embody the effort of a people to define, explain, and amuse Ledger drawings serve not only as an important expression
themselves and to keep alive their cultural identity. Many of of Native American arts but also as important documents in
the old stories told by Native American groups incorporate the recording of real-life events that can be used to expand
jokes and demonstrate the resilience of people who have knowledge about the past.
experienced great hardship.
The ledger drawings of some Native American groups Art and the Expression of Identities
are an example of the use of art to record history and preserve
cultural identity (C. Greene, 2001; Powers, 2005). Ledger One key aspect of art in all cultures is the way in which it is
drawings got their name from the ledger books obtained used to express both individual and cultural identity.
from trading posts in which the Native Americans drew their
records. They provide a readable historical record, a way for
Native Americans to anchor themselves in the real world Body Art and Cultural Identity
and locate themselves in history beyond myths and legends For thousands of years, people all over the world have been
(Figure 13.7). marking and adorning their bodies. Members of almost all
cultures alter their bodies. Circumcision and other genital

operations, scarification, piercing, and tattooing are com- FIGURE 13.8 Scarification is a way of
mon throughout the world. These body modifications are permanently engraving group membership on
used to announce identification with particular groups and the body. This woman’s facial scars identify her
to display social position. Tattooing, scarification, and gen- as a member of the Mossi ethnic group of Burkina
ital operations are ways of permanently engraving group Faso, West Africa.
membership on the body (Figure 13.8). Applying tattoos or
facial scars marks one as a member of a group in a visible
Joerg Boethling/Alamy Stock Photo

way that cannot be easily denied. Such body changes may
denote elements of particular status as well as member-
ship. For example, body marking has been used in western
Europe since ancient times, and tattoos and body painting
have been used to mark outlaws, nobility, soldiers, slaves,
and various kinds of religious observance and statuses
throughout history (Schildkrout, 2004). In his study of tat-
tooing in Polynesia, Gell (1993) argued that tattooing both
creates and reinforces status hierarchy differences among
people and is critical in the relationship of humans to the
sacred. But Gell’s work also found enormous variation
in the meanings of tattoos in different Polynesian Island
societies. take place. They also provide occasions where women are
In many cultures, body art is associated with enhanc- the center of attention. The application of henna designs
ing beauty and thus is related to gender. In India and the has spread from its original home (probably in India) and
Middle East, henna, an orange-red dye made from the is now common among non-Indians in the United States,
leaves of a small shrub, is used to dye fingernails and other functioning less as a display of a group identity than as an
parts of the hands and feet to enhance a woman’s beauty, expression of an individual’s assertion of choice and per-
especially on ceremonial occasions such as religious hol- sonal preference.
idays or marriage (Messina, 1988). In Morocco, where
anthropologist Maria Messina studied the body art of
henna application, a young girl is first decorated with henna Art and Personal Identity
at age three or four in preparation for the important Muslim For people in European-based cultures, one of the more
holiday of Ramadan. The cultural importance of henna is obvious functions of the arts is the expression of personal
primarily related to marriage, however, and it marks the identity. Indeed, in these cultures, personal identity is
transition of a girl to a woman. The “night of henna” is the assumed to be deeply connected to an artist’s body of work.
first night in the three-day marriage celebration. Women However, such art must also deal with and reflect broader
are also decorated with henna toward the end of their cultural themes. Frida Kahlo and Fritz Scholder are two art-
pregnancies. The month of Muharram, which marks the ists whose work reflects both profound issues of individual
Muslim New Year, is another occasion for decorating mar- identity and themes relevant to many in current Western
ried women with henna. culture.
Henna parties—events at which women are decorated
with henna—are also viewed as a way of preventing illness Frida Kahlo
or misfortune by placating malevolent spirits called jinn. The work of Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), a 20th-century
Sometimes a woman hires a specialist to apply henna designs Mexican painter, illustrates particularly well how works of art
on the skin, but the application may also be done by a mem- combine elements of the artist’s personality, life experiences,
ber of her family. Although certain designs are traditional in political ideology, and national identity. Kahlo’s background
certain regions, henna specialists also innovate in styles, and combined elements of European, Jewish, Mexican, and
designs change according to the occasion and according to Native American identity. Polio and a childhood bus accident
fashion. Most of the designs have no explicit meaning since left her leg deformed and her body in frequent pain. Her mar-
art depicting figures is forbidden in Islam. riage to the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera was filled
In addition to the cosmetic function of henna and with conflict, and her attempts to have a child ended in a mis-
the prevention of illness, henna parties are celebrations carriage. All of these cultural and personal issues are reflected
during which friends visit, and singing and dancing may in her paintings, the subjects of which deal with issues of
of power between Mexico and the United States, and the

FIGURE 13.9 The work of artist Frida Kahlo images of her broken body reflect the shattered dreams of the
combined personal and cultural themes. In this Mexican Revolution.
1939 photo, Kahlo stands next to her self-portrait, Kahlo achieved international acclaim in the late
Me Twice, in which she portrayed herself both as 1930s when she had one-person exhibitions in both New
a 19th-century Spanish Mexican and as a native York and Paris. In 1940, her paintings were shown at the
Mexican. International Exhibition of Surrealism in Mexico City.
Later that decade, her work was included in major exhibi-
tions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and

in museums in Boston and Philadelphia. However, much
of Kahlo’s fame is more recent. She became an international
pop culture icon in the 1990s and a major draw for muse-
ums around the world. Hundreds of exhibitions of her work
have been mounted in places as diverse as San Francisco,
London, Budapest, Milan, and Poznan, Poland. (These five
locations had major Kahlo exhibitions in 2018). Her art
has appeared on everything from coffee mugs to tote bags.
There is even a Frida Kahlo Barbie Doll (although, as of fall
2018, it was the subject of a copyright dispute).
Kahlo’s art seems to speak to women, especially to wom-
en’s experiences of physical pain, of childbirth, and of the
emotional pain of love. Her defiance of the norms of beauty
and the conventional gender roles of her era, as well as her
personal vision of individuality, make her a critical fig-
ure for many people trying to explore and understand new
illness and health, female sexuality and gender identity, mar- social roles. In her work, we see the important role of art in
ginality, cultural identity, power, and pain. expressing the many strands—cultural, political, physical,
Kahlo was profoundly influenced by the Mexican and familial—that make up an artist’s personal identity.
Revolution; to demonstrate her identification with the poor However, we also see that for Kahlo, as for most artists, these
and the peasants in whose name the revolution was car- expressions are made for a wider public. Although Kahlo
ried out, she claimed that she was born in 1910, the year of was successful during her lifetime, the political, cultural, and
the revolution (she was actually born in 1907). The Mexican commercial conditions of the past three decades have made
Revolution ushered in a time of political freedom that led to her a household name.
a new pride in Mexican identity. This fostered the incorpora-
tion of indigenous Mexican art, craft, and native traditions. Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian
Artists of this era looked to pre-Columbian Mexico for their Fritz Scholder (1937–2005) was another interesting and
roots while at the same time embracing European-trained or controversial artist who explored his self and cultural iden-
European-influenced painters such as Kahlo and Rivera. tity through his paintings, particularly his Indian/Not Indian
Kahlo painted many elements of Mexican culture, such works. Scholder’s father was half Native American and
as retablos (votive paintings of Christian saints and martyrs); half German, and his family did not live on a reservation.
the folkloric image of La Llorona, the archetypical, sexually Although Scholder enrolled in his father’s tribe (the Luiseño),
voracious predator and evil woman who stands in contrast to he often said he was not Indian.
the saintly wife and mother; and the Tehuana costume, com- Until the emergence of Scholder’s work in the 1960s, the
monly found in southern Mexico, with its long embroidered majority of American Indian paintings by both Native and
skirts and blouses. These images expressed her solidarity non-Native artists romanticized Indian life and the natural
with the peasants and the poor. She also wore the Tehuana world and reflected popular clichés about the lives of Native
herself to demonstrate the cultural independence of Mexico peoples. In contrast, Scholder’s works, which combined his-
(the dress had the added benefit of hiding her deformed leg). torical images with abstract expressionism and pop art, pre-
Kahlo’s paintings, especially her self-portraits, also evidence sented a provocative challenge to these clichés. He addressed
dualistic principles, like contrasts of dark and light and of directly some uncomfortable truths about contemporary
night and day, which have their origin in pre-Columbian Native American life, such as alcoholism, poverty, and injus-
myth (Figure 13.9). Kahlo’s paintings examine the imbalance tice. Scholder’s painting Indian With Beer Can in particular
generated outraged responses from both Native and non-Na- of Western and non-Western art implicitly distinguished
tive viewers because it broke the taboo on talking about between the “civilized” us of the West and the non-Western
the ways that alcoholism devastated so many Indian lives. “primitive” other.
Another of his powerful and controversial paintings is that In the 19th century, Europeans explored, conquered,
of a Buffalo Dancer with an ice cream cone. Whereas many and then wrote about and painted North Africa, Arabia, the
viewers found this image disrespectful, for Scholder it cast a Levant, and parts of the Ottoman Empire. This region,
realistic look at the contact between the traditional and the today called the Middle East, was then called the Orient.
modern in contemporary Native life. European artists of the 19th and 20th centuries offered arm-
Scholder’s ambivalence about his Indian identity, chair travelers a vividly graphic image of the Islamic, largely
reflected in his art and in his frequent statements that he Arabic, cultures inhabiting this world. One important
was not Indian, led other Native artists to criticize what they impetus for these representations, particularly in France,
saw as his denial of the very source of his artistic success. was the Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt (1798–1799).
Scholder’s powerful art, recently exhibited at the National By the mid-19th century, the Egyptian experience had
Museum of the American Indian, illustrates both his own become part of the French cultural spirit and was found
shifting identities and new perspectives on his culture as well in a wide range of artistic representations in a style called
as how the two are intertwined (Ringlero, 2008). Orientalism (Hauptman, 1985: 48).
Europeans saw the Orient as “other” in both positive
Art and Representing the Other and negative senses. They saw their own society as dem-
ocratic, dynamic, and rational but viewed the Orient as
So far in this chapter we have discussed some of the import- despotic, static, and irrational. However, the Orient was
ant aspects of art as they relate to cultural and individual also enchanting: a land of mystery, fairy tales, and exotic
identities. But in representing cultural identities, art depicts beauty. This perception of the Orient was reflected in and
not only the “we”—that is, the cultural in-group—but also reinforced by European paintings that emphasized the
the “other”—the alien, the foreigner, the outsider. Indeed, exoticism and glamour of markets, caravans, mosques, and
artistic forms are important aspects of cultural ideologies of private domestic places, all portrayed in lavish, opulent
difference, communicating in subtle but significant ways the detail. Although many Europeans traveled to the Orient,
nature of “we–they” distinctions. painters generally worked from secondhand sources or, in
The rendering of the “other” appears in art all over the some cases, purely from imagination. However, the exqui-
world. An artistic product may reflect the subject(s) of the art, site detail of their work gave viewers a sense of historical
but it is also a source of insight into the mindset of the art- accuracy.
ist, reflecting, perhaps, the cultural fantasies one group of Gender roles and relationships were a central theme in
people entertains about another (Bassani & Fagg, 1988). Orientalist painting. Men were shown as clearly dominant
Artistic images of outsiders may be useful as historical doc- and pictured in public places where women were mostly
uments, providing details of the behavior and dress of these absent. The Arab warrior was the most common symbol
individuals, but the unknown aspects of foreigners also act of Oriental masculinity, but men were also painted in more
as an invitation to the imagination in which the reality of the relaxed poses, drinking coffee or smoking the hookah.
observed becomes subordinate to the fantasies of the observ- But it was Oriental women who were central to European
ers (Tsuruta, 1989). fantasies of the period (Thornton, 1994). The difficulty of
finding women to pose in no way inhibited their depic-
tion. Indeed, this gave free rein to artists’ imaginations.
Orientalism in European Art: Picturing
Women were portrayed as the Orient’s greatest temptation,
the Middle East whether hidden behind the veil or revealed in the harem
One result of the encounters between Europeans and (Figure 13.10).
other peoples was a profound rethinking of European Harems and slave markets, painted for male patrons by
cultural identity. Although these encounters were experi- male artists, offered a convenient way of feeding European
enced differently in different times and places, Europeans lust by displaying the dominant men and vulnerable women
most often responded by creating opposite categories of another culture, far removed from home. Pornographic
of “them” and “us” (Bitterli, 1986). These dichotomies scenes disguised as either documentation or art were integral
took many forms: East and West; primitive (or barbar- to the European market for Orientalist painting (Thubron,
ian) and civilized; traditional and modern; developed and 2009).
undeveloped. As we note in the “Anthropology Makes a These images were not confined to fine art but found
Difference” section, the differences in museum exhibits frequent expression in other elements of culture, such as
as we have seen, the presentation of indigenous arts in

FIGURE 13.10 Orientalist paintings by Western museums. As a result of this global context, the
European artists portrayed a glamorous, exotic, boundaries between “high” and “low” art and stereo-
and sensual world. Odalisque, an 1870 work by typed concepts of “primitive” or “tribal” art are being
French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, contested (Bright & Bakewell, 1995). More and more
shows an Algerian woman reclining in a harem. often, anthropologists and art historians speak of world
art. The concept of world art incorporates an exam-
Leemage/Contributor/Getty Images
ination of the Western and international art worlds, in

which the arts of indigenous peoples are increasingly
being circulated (Marcus & Myers, 1995; Venbrux et al.,
2006).
Contemporary anthropological interest in world art
includes a new look at the role of the artist in society, par-
ticularly as art becomes part of the international market.
Historically, most of the artwork produced by non-West-
ern peoples (with perhaps the exception of China and
Japan) was considered “tribal” art or “primitive” art. An
important dimension of this understanding was the idea
that the individual artists were anonymous. Thus, even
when an individual artist could be tracked down, dealers
the picture postcard, a genre that the Algerian poet and and collectors were generally not interested in doing so
critic Malek Alloula called the “comic strip of colonial (S. Price, 1989). This was often exploited by art middle-
morality” (1986: 4). These postcards revealed the preoc- men, who learned that objects were worth more to buyers
cupation of Europeans with the veiled female body. The from Europe and the United States if they were portrayed
native models for these postcards were photographed in as coming from unknown, preferably long-deceased art-
studios reenacting exotic rituals in costumes the photog- ists in remote villages. The middlemen were quite willing
raphers provided. The models represented the French fan- to manipulate both the art objects and the information
tasy of the inaccessible Oriental female—more tempting about their production to meet these demands (Steiner,
because she was behind the veil in the forbidden harem. 1995: 157). In the last few decades, however, this has
Alloula (1986: 122) connected Orientalist fantasies to changed, and the identification of tribal artists has become
colonial reality, noting that the raiding of women has an important factor in both understanding and marketing
always been the dream and the obsession of the total vic- their arts.
tor: “These raided bodies are the spoils of victory, the war-
rior’s reward.” The postcards are an “enterprise in seduction
directed to the troops, the leering wink in the encamp- Maria Martinez and Pueblo Pottery
ment” (Alloula, 1986: 122). The importance of the artist in some native North
Orientalist representations of women also reflected American societies contrasted with the more general
the long-standing conflict between Christian Europeans emphasis on the anonymous artist in indigenous societies.
and Middle Eastern Muslims. Ever since the Middle Ages, The interest of non-native art dealers in developing and
Europeans had criticized Muslims for their practice of marketing indigenous arts in the United States helped cre-
polygyny, which Europeans associated with promiscuity. ate the status of artist where it did not previously exist. One
Thus, popular images of slave girls, harems, and concu- of the best-known examples is found in the life and work
bines provided a continual source of horror and titillation of the renowned potter Maria Martinez (1887–1980) of
for Western critics of the Muslim world. Even today, much the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico (Babcock, 1995;
Western thinking about the contemporary Middle East is Figure 13.11).
concerned with the veiling, segregation, and oppression of In 1908 and 1909, Edgar Lee Hewett, an archaeologist
women. and the director of the Museum of New Mexico, conducted
excavations near San Ildefonso. Hewett asked Martinez to
Marketing World Art make pottery modeled on the ancient designs he discovered
in the excavations. Martinez and her husband Julian refined
Anthropologists are interested in the role of the arts in and elaborated their techniques and designs, producing
the global economic and cultural system, including, a style of pottery that was black and had both glossy and
matte finishes. Maria and Julian took an active interest in

FIGURE 13.11 In the mid-20th century, Maria popularizing and promoting their work to a wide audience,
Martinez became the best-known Native American and they demonstrated their pottery at the 1914 Panama-
artist. Here, Martinez (far left) poses with her California Exposition in San Diego and the 1934 Chicago
daughter and granddaughter (all holding her World’s Fair. At the same time, an extremely important art
signature black-on-black pottery) in a 1976 publicity colony was growing around Santa Fe and Taos in north-
photo. ern New Mexico. Artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel
Adams, Dorothy Brett, and numerous others came to work
Bob Kreisel/Alamy Stock Photo
and live in the area. This greatly raised interest in the art of
the Southwest among collectors in the United States and
Europe. After Julian’s death in 1943, Maria began to work
with younger family members, including her daughter-
in-law Santana and her son Popovi Da (1922–1971, born
Antonio Jose Martinez). Popovi Da was a talented artist
and also a talented promoter. He was a member of the New
Mexico Arts Commission and the School of American
Research Board of Managers (See Figure 13.11).
The success of Maria Martinez and San Ildefonso pot-
tery is based on the convergence of many factors: first and
foremost, the artistic talents of Maria and the rest of the
Martinez family. However, the work and the art world
connections of Edgar Lee Hewett, the willingness of the
Martinez family to promote their work, the broader inter-
national interest in Southwest American art created by the
Taos art colony, the marketing talents of Popovi Da and
his son Tony Da (1940–2008), and the eagerness of the
art world for “authentic” native arts all played important
roles, as did events such as the World’s Fair. The result of
all these factors was that San Ildefonso as a community
became identified with fine pottery, and Maria Martinez
became a star of the art world. Her signed pottery now
sells for thousands of dollars. Ironically, she became a
romanticized image of the Native American woman potter
because of her connections to the national and global art
market.
Ethnography
T H E A R T S, TO U R I S M , A N D I D E N T IT Y I N TA N A TO R A JA , I N D O N E S I A
The connection between the arts, tourism, and the tau-tau, wooden or bamboo effigies of nobles carved
construction of cultural identity is illustrated by the in connection with mortuary ritual.
Toraja, who live in the highlands of South Sulawesi,
Indonesia. The Toraja are mainly subsistence Kathleen Adams (2006) has described the
cultivators, but they also raise water buffalo, pigs, importance of the tongkonan and tau-tau in the
and chickens. Two artistic Toraja products that are culture and politics of the Toraja. Both have deep
particularly important and for which they are widely significance within Torajan culture. They have
known are tongkonan, or ancestral houses, and emotional power that makes them important
(Continued!)
(Continued)
PHILIPPINES
BRUNEI
A Y S
A L I A
M Sulawesi
SINGAPORE
Sulawesi
Toraja
NEW GUINEA
PAPUA
Jakarta I N D O N E S I A
Jav a S ea
TIMOR- Araf ura S ea

INDIAN OCEAN LESTE
0 500 mi
0 500 km
AU ST RA L I A
vehicles for both affirming and challenging Torajan questioned whether the Toraja should be permitted
identity and social hierarchy. However, both are also to live in their houses because human occupancy
important in regional and national politics, and both could damage these valuable tourist attractions
engage the Toraja in international tourism and in the (Adams, 1990: 33).
international art market.
The tongkonan also situate the Toraja in the context
The large, frequently heavily decorated tongkonan of regional ethnic politics. The predominantly
are closely linked to family prestige. They are visual Christian Toraja both cooperate and compete with
symbols of one’s descent group and are the seats the Muslim Bugis and Makassarese, who live in
of extended families. Each tongkonan has a unique the adjacent lowlands. In the past, the Toraja elite
history, and they are ranked in terms of prestige occasionally intermarried and traded with the elites
accorded both to their age and to the illustriousness in both of these groups, but Toraja narratives of
of their founding families. The visual aspect of this ethnic interaction focus more on themselves
the tongkonan also communicates the status of its
members: The tongkonan of the nobility are fully
Insights/Contributor/Getty Images
carved and adorned with intricate patterns, whereas
commoners were traditionally restricted to carving
only small portions of their houses, and slaves were
prohibited from decorating their houses at all. The
relationship between the tongkonan, family prestige,
and power is reinforced by the consecrating of
tongkonan in public rituals. These rituals invoke
glorious memories of one’s ancestral kin and, by
implication, boost one’s own prestige.
The Indonesian government’s use of tongkonan

imagery on its currency and stamps gives the Toraja
an important identity as part of the Indonesian state.
Indonesia’s tourist development program, aimed at
increasing the inflow of Western capital, has focused FIGURE 13.12 Tau-tau, carved effigy figures of
on Tana Toraja and particularly on the spectacularly the deceased, are a marker of Torajan identity but
carved tongkonan. In fact, because of the tourist are also valued by international art collectors.
interest in the tongkonan, Indonesian officials forbid
Modern miniature tau-taus are popular tourist
the Toraja to alter them. Some officials have even
souvenirs.
as victims of slave raids and exploited workers in tau-tau. Through some early tourist-oriented films,
the coffee fields. Also, the Bugis, who dominate and later through the Internet, the Toraja became
the lowland coastal area of South Sulawesi, once known throughout Europe in connection with their
controlled Toraja access to the outside world. rituals and their art.
However, the fame of Torajan art and the promotion
of tourism to Tana Toraja by the Indonesian Both tongkonan and tau-taus are now carved
government have raised Torajan status in the in miniature for sale in tourist shops. Thus,
competition for ethnic superiority and become through tourism, ritually significant objects have
another source of regional ethnic conflict. been transformed into art objects of economic
significance. As the tau-taus became known as art
The tau-tau funeral effigy is another unique artistic objects in the Western world, hundreds of them
element in Torajan cultural identity (Figure 13.12). were stolen and sold to American, European, and
Because they are carved only for the wealthiest Asian art collectors. Tau-taus today are sold for
Toraja nobility, tau-taus are also an important symbol thousands of dollars in international art galleries.
of aristocratic status. Tau-taus are commissioned Redesignated by Western curators and collectors
by the families of the deceased, and the carving is as archaic Indonesian art, some effigies have also
surrounded at every step by religious ritual. When found a home in Western museums. For the Toraja,
the funeral begins, the tau-tau is adorned with finely the theft of a tau-tau is tantamount to the abduction
woven clothing, a betel nut bag filled with silver and of an ancestor, and the loss must be redressed by
bamboo utensils, a head dressing, gold jewelry, and a ritual propitiation. However, the Toraja realize that
sacred knife—all heirlooms associated with nobility without the tau-taus, tourism will decline, depriving
or deities. The tau-tau is supposed to resemble the them of an important source of income and prestige.
dead person; it makes his or her soul visible. During Paradox and pathos thus attend the tau-tau today. Its
the funeral, the tau-tau is placed near the body of the meaning has changed from ritual object to art object,
deceased, from which point it observes the mortuary and where once the tau-tau served as protection for
ritual. When the mortuary rites are completed, the the family of the deceased, today the family of the
tau-tau is placed with its relatives on platforms deceased must protect the tau-tau.
chiselled into limestone cliffs, where it becomes a
visual link between the community of the living and Critical Thinking Questions
the community of the dead. 1. One of the effects of tourism is to make people
more self-conscious about their culture. This
Although the Toraja today are predominantly
can have both positive and negative effects.
Christian, the tau-tau remains an important element
What effects has tourism had on Toraja cultural
of their cultural identity. To reconcile the belief in the
identity?
importance of tau-taus with Christianity, the Toraja
have made some changes in both the form and the 2. What forms of artistic expression are particularly
concept of the tau-tau. Today, the tau-tau is viewed important in relation to your own cultural
less as a “vessel of the Torajan soul” (Adams, 1993) identity?
than as a realistic portrait of the dead person. Tau-
taus have lost some of their spiritual identity, while at 3. What does it mean to say that culture has become
the same time incorporating such Christian elements a commodity? How does the buying and selling of
as Bibles and crosses. cultural symbols affect the identities of those who
sell them and those who buy them?
In the 1960s, tourism began to expand in the Toraja
area, almost all of it oriented toward viewing the
Source: Adapted from Kathleen M. Adams, Art as Politics:
Toraja mortuary rituals of animal sacrifice, the Re-Crafting Identities, Tourism, and Power in Tana Toraja,
spectacularly carved tongkonan, and the eerie Indonesia. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2006.
Tourism and World Art cultures, the worldwide sale of ethnic arts, traveling museum
shows in which indigenous peoples are represented through
In the past, the arts were important in marking cultural
their arts, the circulation of tribal arts among Western art col-
boundaries, and they retain that importance in the contem- lectors, and, particularly, tourism. Through tourism, artistic
porary world, especially with regard to the construction of objects and performances that originated from ritual and
the ethnic identities of indigenous peoples and the relation social life may become a core around which modern cultural
of this to tourism. The linking of the arts to cultural identity identities are constructed, and they may be an important
is promoted by popular television shows about non-Western source of income as well.
Tourism can turn indigenous, culturally authentic, cre- important alternative source of income for the Inuit, espe-
ative art into mass-produced souvenirs and performances cially as hunting declines. The relationship between art, tour-
lacking any cultural meaning. On the other hand, tourism ism, and the strengthening of cultural identity is also seen in
can also support and reaffirm cultural identities by reviving the weaving of Native American women in Guatemala and
respect for traditional art forms. These are not necessarily Mexico.
mutually exclusive results. As we have seen, in the American Ritually and socially significant cultural elements
Southwest, the 20th century saw a resurgence of interest in change meaning as they become part of staged perfor-
Native American arts, and this resulted in the production of mances for tourists or move from their original cultural
a great deal of outstanding art in both traditional and new contexts into the world art market. This is part of a larger
media. This continues today, and both older and more recent process in which culture itself has become a marketable
Native American artwork fetches high prices on the interna- commodity, reshaped and packaged partly in response to
tional market. (However, as anyone who has traveled in the the demands of globalization. Recently, anthropologists
area knows, the Southwest is also awash with cheap bric- have become interested in how the artworks of nonindus-
a-brac often mass produced in Asia.) In Bali, the interest of trial societies have become commodities in the process of
tourists in cultural performances has given these events an globalization and the ways in which they have been recon-
economic boost and allowed local troupes to buy new instru- ceptualized functionally and stylistically to meet a world-
ments and costumes for their musical ensembles. It also has wide demand. Will this marketing of culture move the
encouraged the opening of schools and institutes throughout world inevitably toward cultural homogenization? Or will
Indonesia for training people in creating traditional art forms the global economy and the global village always leave room
(Esperanza, 2010). Similarly, interest in the Inuit arts and for the emergence of meaningful local artistic expressions of
the sale of such artwork to tourists has become an extremely cultural identity?

WO R L D M U S I C
Despite the close connection between artistic works However, he is backed by a band of Western drums,
and the cultural themes of specific societies, the arts guitars, basses, and keyboards. Western musicians,
today have a global reach. One of the fastest-growing for their part, have adopted many of the styles and
global phenomena is the emergence of world music. instruments of traditional music and modern world
World music incorporates different musical styles music. Paul Simon, Sting, David Byrne, Vampire
from cultures throughout the world; it includes Weekend, Rusted Root, Fool’s Gold, and many others
Caribbean sounds such as reggae and salsa, Celtic have recorded albums very heavily influenced by
folk songs, Louisiana blues and Cajun songs, and African musical traditions.
songs from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Musical fusion involves cultures throughout the
World music is based on local musical traditions and world, but African culture has been particularly
is produced for local occasions in local languages. influential. The hundreds of years of the slave trade
Communications technology and the movement of and more recent voluntary migrations have spread
people have spread these musical traditions around African culture far and wide, but particularly to
the world and often made them very popular. For the Americas and the Caribbean. African music
example, reggae was originally a Jamaican musical merged with European musical styles has given us
style linked to religion and resistance. Its popularity numerous types of music, from ragtime and New
spread, due in large part to singer-songwriter Bob Orleans jazz to salsa, samba, pop, rock and roll, and
Marley (Jelly-Schapiro, 2009), and today reggae hip-hop. African music even influenced European
songs are written and performed by Africans, Asians, classical music through the work of individuals such
and Europeans as well as Jamaicans. as Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Born
on the Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, Chavalier
Musical traditions often fuse. For example, Mory de Saint-Georges was the son of a French plantation
Kanté is an African musician who plays traditional owner and an African slave. In the mid-1700s, he
African instruments: the balafon and the kora. became famous as a composer, orchestra director,
and swordsman. In 1776, he was proposed as the elements within those communities). To the young,
director of the Paris Opera, but objections to his urban, British-born South Asians who created it,
race prevented him from taking the position (Banat, bhangra was often music of resistance. It united
2006). African music continues to influence classical South Asians of many different backgrounds—
music through the work of composers such as David Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sikhs, Muslims,
Fanshawe and John Cage. and Jains—in a common community. Its lyrics, which
were often in Punjabi but sometimes in English,
The music of African Americans is also popular articulated the problems of South Asians living
worldwide: The hip-hop music of urban African in Britain—especially racism and the balancing
American culture is found in places as distant from of tradition and modernity. Bhangra was thus a
its origin as Japan, Cambodia (Mydans, 2008), and distinctly new musical form, a music of and by South
China (Wang, 2009). In Marseille, a large city in the Asians in Britain (Lipsitz, 1994).
south of France that is home to many immigrant
groups, hip-hop helps transcend differences between Bhangra was perceived differently in British towns
Muslims, Jews, and members of other communities with small South Asian populations. Here, South
and helps to prevent the interethnic violence that has Asians understood bhangra as a more traditional art
characterized other French cities (Kimmelman, 2007). form, and they used bhangra parties as occasions to
dress in traditional Indian clothing (Bennett, 1997).
Bhangra is another musical style that has been As one participant in bhangra parties said, “It’s
widely diffused from its place of origin and that has good to go to a bhangra gig because . . . it brings
changed in the process. Bhangra, which originated back memories . . . . It’s like tradition . . . . It gives
in the folk music of Punjab, a region that includes you a buzz to be doing something a bit traditional”
parts of northern India and eastern Pakistan, was (Bennett, 1997: 110).
first performed to celebrate harvest festivals, By the
1970s, the large South Asian population of Britain In the United States, bhangra is increasing in
began mixing bhangra beats and lyrics with British popularity, but it may divide young and old. For
pop music and reggae. This trend continued, and youth, bhangra represents a connection to South
today bhangra is an amalgam of Punjabi, rock, Asian traditions, but some of their elders consider
pop, reggae, and hip-hop styles (Figure 13.13). It it a Western pollution of tradition. These elders
has spread from London and other large British particularly object to bhangra dance styles that
cities to big cities in the United States, Canada, and involve close contact between men and women
many other nations with substantial South Asian (Katrak, 2002).
populations. It has become popular in India and
Pakistan as well. All this shows that although bhangra is an art form
linked tightly to South Asian ethnic identity, it has
Bhangra is a music of identity, but it means different different, sometimes even inconsistent, meanings
things to different communities (and to different and messages. Some listeners hear the music
of resistance, separating South Asians from the
larger communities they live in; others hear the
NARINDER NANU/Stringer/Getty Images
sounds of assimilation and believe bhangra draws

on multicultural traditions and addresses current
problems. Still others recognize the sounds and
traditions of the land they or their parents left. Like
all music, bhangra retains its connection with its
local identity but has also changed as it has diffused
around the world.
Key Questions
1. Discuss how world music incorporates both the
local and the global elements of song, dance,
music, and performance.
FIGURE 13.13 Bhangra is an amalgam of
Punjabi, rock, reggae, and hip-hop musical 2. How may musical forms and meanings be
styles. Here, Bhangra superstar Malkit Singh transformed as they diffuse from their original
locations to other parts of the world? You might
performs at a college event in Amritsar, India,
give the example of bhangra or any other musical
in 2016. form you are familiar with.
SUMMARY
1. What is the core approach to an anthropology of art? For 6. How is art used in support of social structure and power?
anthropologists, a key perspective on art is to examine it Art often validates both the social order and the power of
in its cultural and functional contexts. Anthropologists political leaders. Among the Inca, in Ancient Rome, and
examine the wide range of activities and material prod- in current-day societies, art was and is used in the service
ucts in which creative expression is guided by standards of power. But art can also challenge existing social and
of beauty in a culture. They ask how these artistic prod- political structures by mocking those in power or ques-
ucts and performances function in ritual and social tioning society’s rules. Art may also be used to record
relationships. history and remember important past events, as illus-
trated by Native American ledger drawings.
2. What are some of the ways in which the arts of var-
ious cultures differ from each other? Cultures differ 7. What changes have taken place in the ways in which
in the rules by which art is created, the importance of museums portray cultures? For more than 200 years,
originality in art forms, the expected interactions of museums have made art and artifacts available to the
the artist with his or her audience, and the concept of public. Most early museums displayed art with lit-
art for art’s sake. In modern-day wealthy nations, the tle context. However, more recently museums have
artist occupies a specialized status. In many societ- increased their focus on the explanation of art and
ies, art production is not separated from other social collaboration with both individual artists and com-
activities but is embedded in crafts, economics, or munities that produce art. In some cases, the return
rituals. of items held by museums to the cultures that created
them has been required by law. This has sometimes led
3. How is the power of art related to performance and to disputes over what can be displayed and how culture
emotion? In some cases, the power of an art piece or per- should be represented.
formance is emotional because it draws upon cultural
themes meaningful in a particular society. Sometimes, 8. What are some of the connections between the arts
however, an artistic piece or performance itself may be and personal identities? Body art such as tattooing may
regarded as inherently powerful. This may be the case identify group membership and status but can also be
when art is performed as part of a ritual—for example, linked to cultural ideas of beauty and personal identity.
when prehistoric hunters painted pictures of animals to Twentieth-century artists such as Frida Kahlo and Fritz
achieve control over hunting. Scholder used art to explore both their cultural and indi-
vidual identities
4. What is the relationship between art and cultural
themes? Art is always symbolic, and artistic creations 9. How does art express boundaries between the cultural
most often have multiple levels of meaning and commu- in-group and the cultural “other?” Art can be used to
nicate different cultural themes. In Japan, one interpre- express the cultural identity of an in-group and may also
tation of some anime and manga is that these art forms reinforce that identity by depicting the “other”—those
display the repressed themes of Japanese militarism in felt to be different in basic ways from oneself. In Europe,
World War II, the trauma caused by the atomic bomb- Orientalism was an art style that represented both pos-
ing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the postwar depen- itive and negative European fantasies of the Middle
dence of the Japanese on the United States and resulting East, particularly through paintings and photographs of
feelings of powerlessness. women in Middle Eastern harems.
5. What is deep play and how is it reflected in the Balinese 10. How has the market for art affected the artistic produc-
cockfight? Deep play is the use of social activities to tion of indigenous people? The international market has
heighten emotions, display compelling aspects of social created a demand for the artistic production of indig-
structure and culture, reinforce cultural identities, and enous people that has had both positive and negative
allow people to viscerally experience (and perhaps think effects on local arts. In some cases, both the identity and
about) aspects of their own cultures. In Bali, the cock- creativity of local artists has been suppressed in favor of
fight expresses the family, the village, and the social hier- stereotypical production. However, some native artists,
archy. It helps people both experience and sometimes such as Maria Martinez, have become internationally
critique key themes of their society. famous.
11. How does art become an important factor in cultural 12. What has been the effect of globalization on world
identity as people interact with others in a globalized music? Globalization has increased interest in the music
context? Today, many indigenous societies, such as the of different people. Musical groups from all over the
Toraja of Indonesia, are known throughout the world world tour internationally. It has also spurred the devel-
because of their art forms. The global context for indig- opment of styles such as bhangra that combine elements
enous art includes collectors, museums, and, partic- of many different musical traditions.
ularly, tourism. Tourism may have economic benefits,
but it can also result in the transformation of art into
staged displays and commodities.
1. Art pervades almost every aspect of human social life. However, even in these societies, not all such events
Give examples of art in the ways people make a living, in are deep. What makes an event deep? Give examples
religion, in social structure, and in family life. of events from your own experiences that are and are
not deep.
2. Some analysts make a distinction between art and craft
(the application of aesthetic principles to the production 4. Are tourism and the global art market a benefit or
of utilitarian objects). Discuss and debate whether or not a detriment to art? Propose several ways in which
this is a useful distinction. tourism and capitalism benefit artistic produc-
tion and several ways in which they harm this same
3. In this chapter, we explored Balinese cockfighting production.
and Spanish bullfighting as examples of deep play.
KE Y TE RM S
anime 313 deep play 314 Orientalism 321
arts 309 ledger drawings 318 world art 322
bhangra 327 manga 313 world music 326
G LO S SARY
anime Animation, as in the popular culture of Japan; ledger drawings Drawings in ledger books made by
usually refers to the animation of manga, or comic book some Native American peoples to record personal and
graphic art. historical events.
arts Forms of creative expression that are guided by manga Japanese comic book art.
aesthetic principles and involve imagination, skill, and
style. Orientalism Scholarship and art generated by
Europeans that represented their views of the
bhangra A musical form that originated in the folk Middle East.
music of Punjab in northern India and eastern Pakistan;
bhangra is being mixed with British pop music and world art The contemporary visual arts and cultural
reggae and has become a popular form of world music. performances of non-Western peoples.
deep play Performances (like sports) that are expressive world music World music incorporates different musical
forms of culture with functions similar to the other arts. styles from cultures throughout the world.
A Malian man holds medals that the French awarded to his father, a veteran of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais. The Tirailleurs
Sénégalais was an army regiment the French drafted and recruited from their colonial possessions in West Africa between
1857 and 1960.
Power, Conquest, and a
World System 14
Even though we know things change, most of the time, most people tend to treat LEARNING OBJECTIVES
the world as static. We assume that the social arrangements we see today, the
distribution of wealth and poverty and of power and powerlessness, have great 14.1 Identify some of the critical
reasons for the European expansion
historical depth. If we think of history at all, we tend to think of the histories of of the 16th century
individual nations. But thinking about the world this way fails to account for the
broader picture of change and its truly revolutionary nature. Our world is the 14.2 Summarize the key methods
Europeans used to gain wealth from
current result of far-reaching historic processes that involved the ebb and flow their global expansion
of wealth and power among different areas of the world and the creation of the
modern idea of both person and nation. These processes have had a particularly 14.3 Outline the role of disease in
European expansion and compare
important impact on the kinds of small, seemingly isolated societies that its effects in the Americas and in
anthropologists often study. Africa and Asia
14.4 Assess the roles of joint

The pace of change over the past several centuries has been enormous.
stock companies and monoculture
Consider that the earliest writing probably appeared about 5,500 years ago. plantations in creating European
The first movable-type printing press was invented in China about 1,000 years wealth
ago, and Gutenberg was the first European to use movable type in about 1440.
14.5 Compare and contrast the era
The telegraph was invented in the 1830s, the telephone in the 1870s, and radio of colonization between 1500 and
in the early years of the 20th century. TV was first demonstrated in the 1920s 1800 with colonizing in the 19th
but didn’t become common until the 1950s. The first communications satellite century
was launched in 1962. The first web browser, 1990. Cell phones have become 14.6 Analyze the ways in which
ubiquitous within the last 25 years. Google was founded in 1998, Skype in 2003, Europeans attempted to extract
Facebook in 2004, Instagram and Groupme in 2010, and Tinder in 2012. wealth from their colonies in the
19th and 20th centuries
Although we are aware that the world has changed profoundly, we are mostly 14.7 Discuss the reasons why
unaware of the patterns of change and their effects on cultures around the almost all colonies had achieved
world. The story of these patterns is complex and diverse. It is a story of contact independence by the end of the
1960s
between cultures stretching over hundreds of years and occurring in thousands
of locations. Sometimes cultural contact was accidentally genocidal, sometimes
intentionally so. Many traditional cultures were destroyed, but others prospered,
albeit in altered forms. Members of different cultures often confronted each
other through a veil of ignorance, suspicion, and accusations of savagery. But
sometimes common interests, common enemies, mutual curiosity, and even
occasionally friendship overrode their differences.
In this chapter, we describe the overall pattern of change during the past
several hundred years. In the broadest sense, this involved the incorporation
of relatively separate cultures and economies into a vast and chaotic—yet
integrated—world economic system. The formation of this system resulted in
enormous inequality both within and among nations. Wealth and labor flowed
from one area of the world to another. It created the financial accumulation
necessary for the industrial revolution and the development of capitalism.
Empires rose and fell as powers competed for dominance within their own
borders and with each other. The Ottoman Empire and the growth of Russia and
331
332 PART V • CULTURE CHANGE
FIGURE 14.1 Medieval Islamic societies
Werner Forman/Contributor/Getty Images

made important discoveries in the
sciences. The astrolabe, an instrument used
to solve problems relating to the specific
positions of the sun and stars, was in use
in the Islamic world by the 9th century,
hundreds of years before it was used in
Europe. This example is from Cairo in the
late 13th century.
of Japan played critical roles in the story. However, it was the expanding influence and
power of western European states that probably had the greatest impact worldwide. For
that reason, we begin with a bird’s-eye view of Europe and the rest of the world as it might
have appeared in 1400.
As surprising as it may seem now, a visitor touring the world in 1400 on the eve of
European expansion might well have been amused by the notion that European societies
would soon become enormously wealthy and powerful. Other areas of the globe would
have seemed much more likely prospects for this. Europeans had devised oceangoing
vessels, but Arab and Chinese ships regularly made much longer voyages. Compared
to the cities of India and China, those of Europe looked like mere villages. Almost no
European states could effectively administer more than a few hundred square kilometers.
Certainly, there was nothing that could compare to China’s vast wealth and centralized
bureaucracy. Europeans were masters of cathedral and castle construction, but other
than that, their technology was backward. War, plague, and economic depression
were the order of the day (Scammell, 1989). Moreover, other areas of the world seemed
to be growing in wealth and power. Despite occasional setbacks, the Islamic powers
had expanded steadily in the five centuries leading up to 1400, and Muslim societies
stretched from Spain to Indonesia. Not only had these empires preserved the scholarship
of India and the ancient Mediterranean civilizations but they had also greatly improved
on it, making important discoveries in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, chemistry,
zoology, mineralogy, and meteorology (Lapidus, 1988: 96, 241–252; Figure 14.1).
China’s ancient civilization was extraordinarily powerful. As late as 1793, Emperor Ch’ien
Lung, believing China to be the most powerful state in the world (or perhaps showing
bravado in the face of foreign traders), responded to a British delegation’s attempt to
open trade by writing to King George II,
Our dynasty’s majestic virtue has penetrated into every country under heaven
and kings of all nations have offered their costly tribute by land and sea. As your
Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things . . . . We have never valued
ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country’s manufacturers.
(Peyrefitte, 1992: 288–292)
Unfortunately for the Chinese, by the time the emperor wrote this letter, advances
in military technology and the industrial revolution were giving Europeans decisive
advantages. Within a half century, at the end of the First Opium War, Britain and other
European powers virtually controlled China.
European Expansion: Motives

FIGURE 14.2 Bernal Díaz del Castillo
and Methods (1490–1584) was a Spanish conquistador and a
In contrast to its slow beginnings in the 15th century, chronicler of the conquest of Mexico. In The True
European power grew rapidly from the 16th to the 19th cen- History of the Conquest of New Spain, he wrote,
turies. Many theories have been suggested to account for the “We came here to serve God, and the King, and
causes and motives of European expansion. Although it was also to get rich.”
often a cover for more worldly aims, the desire of the pious to
UniversalImagesGroup/Contributor/Getty Images
Christianize the world was certainly a motivating factor. The
archives of the Jesuit order include more than 15,000 letters
written between 1550 and 1771 from people who wanted to
be missionaries (Scammell, 1989: 60). The desire to find won-
ders, both real and imagined, was also important. Europeans
searched for the mythical kingdom of Prester John, a power-
ful but hidden Christian monarch; the fountain of youth; and
the seven cities of Cibola.
Of course, there was always the desire for wealth as well.
Nations and nobles quickly lost their aversion to explora-
tion as gold and diamonds were discovered. Bernal Díaz del
Castillo, a chronicler of the Spanish conquest of the Americas
and a swordsman under the command of Cortés, perhaps put
it best: “We came here to serve God, and the King, and also to
get rich” (Simmons, 1991: 40; Figure 14.2). The wealthy and
powerful looked for easy trade routes to the wealth of Eastern
empires such as China and Japan. The poor and oppressed
of Europe saw opportunities for wealth and respect in the
colonies. Once they arrived in the colonies, they sometimes
fulfilled these dreams of wealth by re-creating the very social
order they had fled.
Europeans were aided in their pursuit of expansion
by various social and technological developments. These In many cases, however, the key advantage Europeans
included the rise of a banking and merchant class, a growing had over other people was the diseases they carried. Almost
population, and the development of the caravel, a new ship every time Europeans met others who had been isolated from
that was better at sailing into the wind. Two other develop- the European, African, and Asian landmasses, they brought
ments, the monoculture plantation and the joint stock com- death and cultural destruction in the form of microbes.
pany, also had critical impacts on the world. In many instances, virtually the entire native population
of a region perished of imported diseases within 20 years. silver. When they found such valuables, they moved quickly
Although Europeans also died of diseases, they did so in far to seize them. Metals belonging to indigenous peoples were
smaller numbers (Karlen, 1995; Mann, 2005). soon dispatched back to Europe, and mines were placed
The European search for wealth depended on tactics under European control. The profits of these enterprises
that, in their basic form, were ancient. Two of the quickest were enormous. For example, in 1531, Francisco Pizarro
ways to accumulate wealth are to steal it from others and to captured the Inca emperor Atahuallpa and received a ran-
get other people to work for you for free. State societies have som of 6.5 tons of gold and almost 13 tons of silver (Orlove,
always practiced these methods. War, slavery, exploitation, 1985). At 2018 prices, a ton of gold is worth approximately
and inequality were present in most of the world before $40 million. A gang of Indian smiths worked nine forges
European contact, so there was nothing fundamentally new day and night to melt down this treasure, which was then
about their use by Europeans. However, no earlier empire shipped back to Spain (D. E. Duncan 1995: 158). Of course,
had been able to practice these tactics on a global scale. All the payment of the ransom did not save Atahuallpa, who
previous empires, however large, were regional affairs. For was executed by the Spanish in 1533. Between 1500 and
the first time in history, European expansion linked the 1660, Spanish colonies in the Americas exported 300 tons
entire world into an economic system. For example, in the of gold and 25,000 tons of silver (Scammell, 1989: 133). At
late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British consumed an current prices, this would be worth almost $40 billion. Such
average of 1.5 pounds of tea (grown almost entirely in India) looting was not limited to the New World. After the British
and 11 pounds of sugar (mostly produced on Caribbean East India Company came to power in India, it plundered
islands using African slave labor) per capita each year the treasury of Bengal, sending wealth back to investors
(Johnstone, 1976: 60; Mintz, 1985). Although these had pre- in England (Wolf, 1982: 244). In 1860, during the Second
viously been luxury products consumed only by the wealthy, Opium War, the Summer Palace northwest of Beijing was
falling prices made these commodities available to the vast looted, and its contents auctioned off to the looters for
majority of the British population. Thus, Britons of almost £26,000 (Hevia, 2007). Art, artifacts, curiosities, and occa-
all social classes expressed the economic unification of the sionally human bodies were stolen around the world and
world in their daily patterns of consumption. The global sent to museums and private collections in Europe. Some
economic system created by European trade and expan- Europeans became known for the scale and daring of their
sion linked regions of the world great distances from one plundering. Giovanni Belzoni, sometimes known as The
another and created much of the wealth of Europe and North Great Belzoni, plundered the seven-ton head of Ramesses
America. At the same time, it systematically impoverished from the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II. The
much of the rest of the world. head was sent to the British Museum, where it remains
today. Later, with the help of a battering ram, Belzoni
plundered four tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including
Pillage that of Seti I (Aufderheide, 2003: 520). Belzoni went on to
One of the most important means of wealth transfer was pil- great fame touring and exhibiting his “findings”in Europe.
lage. In the early years of expansion, Europeans were driven His work was widely followed in the United States, and a
by the search for precious metals, particularly gold and small town in Mississippi is named after him.
Museums and Anthropology II

W H O OW N S H I S TO RY?
In February 2009, controversy broke out in the art story took a strange turn when the dealer announced
world. Two Chinese bronzes depicting signs of the that he had no intention of paying the bid and
Chinese zodiac were being held in the collection of demanded that the bronzes be voluntarily returned to
Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. Despite the China. He argued that the bronzes had been looted
protests of the Chinese government, they were to be from China in the 19th century and formed part of that
auctioned off by Christie’s. Similar pieces had fetched country’s patrimony. At first, Bergé rejected all legal
very high prices in 2007, so multimillion-dollar bids claims but said that he would be glad to return the
were expected. The auction was won by a Chinese art bronzes if the Chinese government “[gave] in return
dealer with a bid of about $40 million. However, the human rights, the liberation of Tibet, and a welcome
for the Dalai Lama” (Eakin, 2009: 19). However, in 2013, FIGURE 14.3 The Parthenon sculptures were
with much ceremony, Francois-Henri Pinault, the chair removed to England in the early 19th century.
of both Christie’s auction house and the corporate
Greece has been demanding their return for almost
group that owns Saint Laurent, returned the bronzes
to China. 200 years. One small section of the Parthenon
frieze (the band of sculpture that surrounded
This incident highlights the persistent controversy the top of the building) is seen here. Lord Elgin
over the ownership and possession of objects of acquired 274 linear feet of the frieze.
historical and artistic value. Nations in which such
objects were made have long attempted to claim
Fine Art/Contributor/Getty Images

ownership of them and demand their repatriation. The
Elgin Marbles are one of the most famous examples.
In the early 19th century, the British diplomat Thomas
Bruce, the 7th earl of Elgin, removed much of the
Parthenon’s marble sculpture and, in 1816, sold it to the
British government, which displayed it at the British
Museum in London (Figure 14.3). Controversy erupted
almost immediately. Today, more than 200 years later,
the Elgin Marbles remain on display in London, and
the Greek government continues to demand their
return.
Another famous example of looting involved James analyzes the repatriation of Australian Aboriginal
Bruce, the 8th earl of Elgin and the son of Thomas material and the role this has played in debates about
Bruce. James Bruce ordered the destruction of the community, representation, and belonging among
Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 at the end of the members of the indigenous community.
Second Opium War. Thousands of objects such as
statues, silks, porcelains, and books were stolen. The In addition to bones, museums have held many other
bronzes that Pinault returned to China in 2013 were objects considered sacred by their creators and former
part of this plunder. The Chinese government has owners. Often, members of these groups object to the
demanded the return of all the looted objects, and it display of sacred objects, no matter how respectfully or
has purchased some. It is also possible that the Chinese highly contextualized it is. Some forms of knowledge
government and Chinese collectors are connected and some objects are private.
to a string of thefts of Summer Palace artifacts from
Anthropologists have been heavily involved in helping
European museums and private collections that began
to negotiate disputes between native peoples and
in 2010 (K. Meyer, 2015).
museums as well as in helping native communities
The issue of stolen material particularly affects recover privately held material (which is not covered
indigenous people in the Americas and elsewhere. by NAGPRA). For example, anthropologist Margaret
Although materials were sometimes purchased legally Bruchac helped the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) prevent
from tribal and other native peoples, in many cases the sale of two wampum belts. The belts, considered
they were simply taken. This is particularly true of both spiritually and politically important objects, had
human remains. Museums and other institutions been taken in the early 20th century by non-Native
in the United States have held and still hold large collectors for the Museum of the American Indian
collections of skeletal remains. The Native American and were among the 43,000 objects the museum
Graves Protection Act (NAGPRA), passed by the U. S. later sold to private collectors in the 1970s. Bruchac
government in 1990, requires institutions that receive has also helped with the recovery of material from
federal funding to return many objects, particularly the collection of Yale University and other places
bones, to the native groups from which they were (Bruchac, 2010, 2018), and Monica L. Udvardy played
taken. As of 2015, the National Park Service estimated an important role in securing the return of statues
that the remains of more than 50,000 individuals had stolen from Kenya and displayed at U.S. museums
been returned. This sounds like a lot. However, U.S. (Lacey, 2006).
museums are estimated to hold the remains of an
The ownership and repatriation of historical objects
additional half million Native Americans (Redman,
is often controversial and raises both practical and
2016). Repatriations of bones and artifacts have
philosophical questions. On the practical side, many
occurred in other nations as well. Katherine Lambert-
claims of ownership are problematic. For example,
Pennington (2007), for example, documents and
much of the ancient Byzantine Empire was located
(Continued!)
(Continued)
in what is now the modern-day nation of Turkey. The sculptures to define Iraquiness . . . and so on” (Eakin,
Byzantines often looted art from ancient Greece, and 2009: 18). According to Cuno, the connections between
a substantial amount of this art is now in Western the modern populations of these nations and the
museums. Does it belong to Turkey, from which it was ancient cultures are dubious, and museums press such
taken in modern times, or to Greece, from which it was objects into the service of a spurious nationalism that
taken in ancient times? denies evidence of cultural diversity and promotes
ethnic chauvinism.
There are also important concerns about the uses to
which such objects are put. Major museums are more Anthropologists often find themselves caught in
than simply research institutions and holding places the middle of debates about the repatriation of
for antiquities. They are building blocks in creating historical objects. On the one hand, in most cases,
national identity. For example, the British Museum, anthropologists identify with the aspirations and
founded in the mid-18th century, collected art from interests of the people they study. Thus, they often
around the world. It promoted the idea of Britain as a support what they view as people’s legitimate desire
national and imperial power. Through the display of to have their objects (and, in some cases, the bodies
objects such as the Elgin Marbles, Britain laid claim to of their relatives and ancestors) returned to them.
status as the modern heir of ancient empires. National On the other hand, anthropologists are also aware
museums today often have similar functions. James that the return of such objects sometimes makes
Cuno has argued that such museums frequently use them more difficult to study. Indeed, returned objects
artifacts found within their borders to bolster national may be reburied or destroyed, making further study
mythologies that are, to a great degree, fictional: impossible. Also, large museums often promote
“Etruscan pots (more often than not manufactured the appreciation of cultural diversity, a goal that
in Athens) are used to define Italianness; Sumerian anthropologists support.
Slavery the peoples whose lands they conquered and their own lower
classes into vassalage.
Forced labor was another key element of European expan-
Europeans did not invent slavery in general or African
sion. The most notorious example was African slavery, but
slavery in particular. For example, non-Europeans probably
impressing local inhabitants for labor, debt servitude, and
transported more than 7 million African slaves to the Islamic
other forms of peonage was common. Europeans forced both
world between 650 and 1600 (Lovejoy, 1983). However,
Europeans did practice African slavery on a larger scale than
any people before them. Moreover, in the Americas, slaves
and their descendants were property that could be owned
and disposed of at will and across generations. This was not
FIGURE 14.4 Almost 12 million slaves were
usually true of slavery elsewhere.
transported from Africa to the Americas. This
Between the late 15th and late 19th century, approxi-
diagram from 1843 shows the way that slaves
mately 11.7 million slaves were transported from Africa to
were positioned during the transatlantic voyage.
the Americas (Figure 14.4). More than 6 million left Africa
in the 19th century alone (Coquery-Vidrovitch, 1988). No
DEA/BIBLIOTECA AMBROSIAN/Contributor/
Getty Images
one really knows how many individuals died during the

capturing and transferring of slaves within Africa. However,
scholars estimate that for each African slave that success-
fully landed in the Americas, anywhere from one to five
other Africans died in the process of capture, holding, and
transportation.
The massive transport of people had two important eco-
nomic effects. First, the use of slave labor was extremely prof-
itable for both slave shippers and plantation owners. Second,
slave labor created continuous warfare and impoverishment
in the areas from which slaves were drawn. Although some
in Africa undoubtedly grew rich on the profits of slavery, the lacked. Because they frequently were empowered to monop-
loss of so many people and the violence and political instabil- olize trade, raise armies and conduct wars, and engage in dip-
ity resulting from the capture and transport of slaves radically lomatic negotiations, they could have devastating effects on
altered African societies (Coquery-Vidrovitch, 1988). the societies they penetrated.
The demand for slaves was created by monoculture
plantations—farms devoted to the production of a single
crop for sale to distant consumers. Sugar and cotton pro- The Dutch East India Company
duced in the Americas and spices produced in Asia were The Dutch East India Company (or VOC, after its ini-
sold to consumers located primarily in Europe. Throughout tials in Dutch) is a model example of a joint stock company.
the 19th century, sugar was the most important monocul- Using money raised from the sale of shares, the VOC was
ture crop. British consumption of sugar increased some chartered by the Dutch government to hold the monop-
2,500% between 1650 and 1800. Between 1800 and 1890, oly on all Dutch trade with the societies of the Indian and
sugar production grew another 2,500%, from 245,000 Pacific Oceans. Shares in the VOC were available on reason-
tons to more than 6 million tons per year (Mintz, 1985: able terms and were held by a wide cross-section of Dutch
73). Slaves largely provided the massive amount of labor society (Scammell, 1989: 101). In many ways, the company
required for growing and processing sugar. Between 1701 functioned as a government. Led by a board of directors
and 1810, for example, Barbados, a small island given over called the Heeren XVII (the “Gentlemen Seventeen”), it was
almost entirely to sugar production, imported 252,500 empowered to make treaties with local rulers in the name of
slaves, almost all of whom were involved in growing and the Dutch Republic, occupy lands, levy taxes, raise armies,
processing sugar (Mintz, 1985: 53). and declare war. The fundamental difference between a gov-
ernment and the VOC was that governments are to some
degree beholden to those they govern, whereas the VOC was
Joint Stock Companies interested solely in returning dividends to its shareholders.
The joint stock company was another innovation that Throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, the VOC dis-
allowed extremely rapid European expansion and led to enor- tributed annual dividends of 15.5% to 50%. It returned divi-
mous abuses of power. Most early European exploration was dends of 40% per year for six consecutive years from 1715 to
financed and supported by aristocratic governments or small 1720 (Boxer, 1965: 46). By comparison, the average annual
private firms. By the turn of the 17th century, however, the
British and Dutch had established joint stock companies. The
French, Swedes, Danes, Germans, and Portuguese followed
FIGURE 14.5 The world’s oldest known share
by midcentury. The best known of these companies were
certificate, issued by the Dutch East India
the Dutch East India Company (founded 1602), the British
Company in 1606. Joint stock companies could
East India Company (founded 1600), the Massachusetts Bay
raise large amounts of capital based on the
Company (founded 1629), and the Hudson’s Bay Company
sale of shares. Such companies had a single-
(founded 1670). Joint stock companies were the predecessors
minded devotion to profit that earlier European
of today’s publicly held corporations. The idea was simple: To
exploration lacked.
raise the capital necessary for large-scale ventures, companies
would sell shares (Figure 14.5). Each share entitled its pur-
Michel Porro/Contributor/Getty Images
chaser to a portion of the profits (or losses) from the compa-
ny’s business.
Exploration and trade conducted by joint stock compa-
nies had some critical advantages over earlier forms. First, a
great deal of capital could be raised rapidly so business ven-
tures could be much larger than previously possible. Second,
joint stock companies existed simply to provide profits to
their shareholders. This differentiated them from the aristo-
cratic governments that had previously dominated European
exploration. These governments wanted to make money, but
they were also motivated by missionary zeal and the desire
for prestige. Joint stock companies pursued wealth with a
single-mindedness and efficiency that governments often
dividend paid by a Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index com- VOC intervened on its behalf in hopes of cash payments and
pany between 1960 and 2007 was between 2% and 5%. trade concessions. In a bloody campaign, the combined VOC
Throughout the 17th century, the VOC used its power and Mataram forces crushed the rebellion and established
to seize control of many of the Indian Ocean islands. Among Emperor Amangkurat II on the throne. Trouble ensued
these were Java, including the port of Jakarta (which became when the VOC received neither payments nor concessions
its headquarters and which it renamed Batavia); Sri Lanka for its assistance. In 1686, the company sent an armed force
(Ceylon); and Malacca. In addition, the VOC acquired the to make its demands but was defeated by Amangkurat II. The
right to control the production and trade of cloves, nutmeg, company was unable to recoup its losses or claim its trad-
and mace, the most valuable spices of the area, and took bru- ing privileges (Ricklefs, 1990; Ward, 2011). This was just the
tal steps to maintain this monopoly. For example, during beginning of a series of extremely brutal wars pitting different
the 1620s, virtually the entire population of the nutmeg- factions of Javanese kingdoms against each other and against
producing island of Banda was deported, starved to death, the VOC. Kingdoms alternately allied with and fought
or massacred. They were replaced with Dutch colonists who against the VOC as their interests dictated. These conflicts
then used slave labor to operate the plantations (Ricklefs, lasted until 1757.
1990). By the 1670s, the Dutch had gained complete con- The VOC often acted with extraordinary brutality.
trol of all spice production in what is now Indonesia (Wolf, The treatment of the Chinese in Batavia is a good exam-
1982). The VOC acquired slaves through warfare, purchase, ple. The Chinese had come to Batavia as traders, skilled
and levy from China, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, and artisans, sugar millers, and shopkeepers. Despite harsh
East Africa. Phillip Winn described the system that resulted measures levied against them by the VOC, by 1740
as “a totalizing administrative order encompassing labor roughly 15,000 Chinese lived in the city and formed the
and environment (including both slaves and estate-holders” beginnings of a non-European middle class. VOC offi-
(2010: 366). cials accused the Chinese of plotting rebellion, and, after
Natives of this region did not submit passively to VOC an incident in which several Europeans were killed, VOC
control, and the company did not have a clear-cut military governor general Adriaan Valckenier hinted that a massa-
advantage. Instead, the VOC rapidly (and ultimately disas- cre would not be unwelcome. In the melee that followed,
trously) became embroiled in the area’s wars. For example, Europeans and their slaves killed 10,000 Chinese (Figure
in the 17th century, the Mataram dynasty controlled most of 14.6). The Chinese quarter of the city burned for several
central Java. In 1677, when the dynasty faced rebellion, the days, and the VOC was able to stop the looting only by
paying its soldiers a premium to return to duty (Ricklefs,
1993: 90).
The burden of continual warfare, as well as internal cor-
FIGURE 14.6 The VOC frequently used brutal
ruption and inefficiency, forced the VOC into serious finan-
methods to maintain control. In 1740, VOC
cial difficulties. By the last quarter of the 18th century, large
soldiers massacred 10,000 Chinese in Batavia
areas of coastal Java had been depopulated by years of war-
and burned the Chinese parts of town. The
fare, but the VOC had still not succeeded in controlling the
massacre is illustrated in this 18th-century
principal kingdoms of the island. The members of the Heeren
engraving.
XVII were dismissed by the Netherlands government in 1796
after an investigation revealed corruption and mismanage-
De Agostini Picture Library/Contributor/Getty Images
ment in all areas of the company. On December 31, 1799, the

VOC was formally dissolved and its possessions were turned
over to the Dutch government.
The story of the VOC was, in large measure, repeated
by other mercantilist trading firms organized by the British,
French, Germans, Portuguese, Danes, and Swedes. In each
case, the company generated enormous profits but eventually
fell into disarray and either was dissolved or was taken over
by its national government. Despite their eventual failure,
however, the trading companies placed fantastic riches in the
hands of European elites. Europeans invested this wealth in
many different ways: in the arts, in luxury goods, in archi-
tecture, and in science and industry. This supply of wealth
became one of the sources for the industrial revolution and varied from place to place. The Americas were colonized
the rise of capitalism itself. in the 1500s and 1600s, but most other areas of the world
The effects were far less pleasant for the regions in which did not come under colonial control until the 19th century.
the trading companies operated. The VOC and compa- When Europeans confronted others with broadly sim-
nies like it left poverty and chaos in their wake. In every ilar weaponry and military tactics, as they did most places
case, Europeans fundamentally altered the communities in Asia, the results were indecisive, and local governments
with which they came into contact. Brutal policies and dis- were able to retain some autonomy and power. By the 19th
ease frequently destroyed entire cultures. However, in most century, however, the industrial revolution gave Europeans
cases, societies were not simply overrun. Before the 19th (and their North American descendants) a decisive advan-
century, Europeans did not have a truly decisive technolog- tage in the technological sophistication of their weaponry
ical advantage over others. As a result, in instances where and the quantity of arms they could produce. Although
disease did not play a role, they were unable to simply defeat European colonizers faced frequent rebellions and proved
and dominate other cultures. Instead, as with the VOC and unable to entirely subdue guerrilla activity across all regions,
the Mataram dynasty, Europeans had to collaborate with no other government or army could offer effective resistance
local elites, who were often able to use their contact with the to them.
foreigners to increase their own wealth and power. However,
their societies suffered. For example, the British came to
power in India through alliances with local elites. Although Colonization, 1500 to 1800
the British gained de facto control of almost all of India, until Before the 1800s, very little of Africa or Asia was colonized.
the mid 19th century, they were legally considered subjects Europeans were able to establish small coastal settlements
of the Mughal emperor in Delhi. It was a relationship that in these areas, which were profitable for them and for at
existed in name only. In 1857, a savage war broke out between least some local elites. In most cases, local powers had the
the British and their supporters and the supporters of the ability to expel Europeans or to strictly limit their activi-
Mughal emperor. The British won this war a year later and ties. Relatively few Europeans settled permanently in these
formally abolished the Mughal Empire. The British referred colonies.
to the war as “The Great Mutiny” and understood it as an In the Americas, the situation was radically different.
uprising against British rule. However, technically, it was the Europeans quickly established colonies in these regions and
British who mutinied, overthrowing the Mughal emperor, immigrated in large numbers. For example, between 1492
their nominal ruler (Dalrymple, 2007). and 1600, more than 55,000 Spaniards immigrated to the
New World. In the 50 years that followed, another quarter
The Era of Colonialism million joined them (Boyd-Bowman, 1975). By comparison,
in the first half of the 19th century, the total Dutch population
Colonialism differs in important ways from the earlier of Indonesia, Holland’s most important colonial possession,
expansion of European power. Whereas much of the ini- was about 2,100 (Zeegers et al., 2004).
tial phase of European expansion was carried out by pri- Although there was stiff resistance to European expan-
vate companies and often took the form of raid and pillage, sion in the Americas and Indian wars continued until the
colonialism involved the active possession of foreign ter- late 19th century, Europeans were quickly victorious almost
ritory by European governments. Colonies were created everywhere they wanted to expand. The main reason for this
when nations established and maintained political domi- success was disease. Europeans, Africans, and Asians shared
nation over geographically separate areas and political units similar diseases and immunities; New World natives did not.
(Kohn, 1958). In the wake of contact with Europeans, as much as 95% of the
There were several different types of European colonies. total population of the New World died (Karlen, 1995; Mann,
Some, such as the Belgian Congo in Africa, existed primarily 2005; Palkovich, 1994).
to exploit native people and resources. In other areas, such Although epidemics may have occasionally been caused
as North America and Australia, the key goal was the settle- intentionally, neither Europeans nor natives had any knowl-
ment of surplus European population. Still other locales, such edge of contagion or germs. The vast majority of deaths were
as Yemen, which borders on the Red Sea and thus controlled not premeditated. However, Europeans came to see the hand-
shipping through the Suez Canal, were seized because they iwork of God in the disappearance of native populations.
occupied key strategic locations. In their view, God clearly intended them to populate the
At one time or another, much of the world came under Americas and was removing the native population to make
direct European colonization, but the timing of colonialism that possible (Figure 14.7).
conquistador Francisco Pizarro reached Peru, the Inca

FIGURE 14.7 In the wake of contact with Empire had already been decimated.
Europeans, as much as 95% of the population of The die-off of Native Americans had dire effects through-
the Americas died. Colonial settlers interpreted out the Americas. The increasing numbers of Europeans and
this to mean that God intended them to populate the diminishing population of indigenous peoples ensured
the land. This colonial-era woodcut shows the that resistance to European settlement was not very effec-
Wampanoags grieving for smallpox deaths in tive. When John Winthrop, one of the first governors of
Massachusetts. Massachusetts, declared that the settlers had fair title to the
land because it was vacuum domicilium (empty land), he was
North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy Stock Photo
creating a legal fiction as he was well aware of the Natives and

their need for agricultural and hunting land (Kiernan, 2007:
218). He also knew, however, that the Native population was
declining sharply.
If not for disease, the Europeans’ experience in the
Americas would probably have been very similar to their
experience in Asia and Africa. Rather than establishing
control over vast amounts of territory, Europeans probably
would have been confined to small coastal settlements and
involved in protracted battles with powerful local kingdoms,
as they were in the Indian Ocean region.
Colonizing in the 19th Century

By the beginning of the 19th century, industrialization was
under way in Europe and North America. This had two
immediate consequences. First, it enabled Europeans and
New World natives lacked immunity to European dis- Americans to produce weapons in greater quantity and
eases for two principal reasons. First, the primary diseases quality than any other people. Second, it created an enor-
that killed indigenous populations, such as smallpox, influ- mous demand for raw materials that could not be satisfied in
enza, and tuberculosis, require large reservoirs of population, Europe. In addition, discoveries in medicine, particularly vac-
up to a half million individuals in some cases (Diamond, cines and antimalarial drugs, improved the odds of survival
1992). Many North American groups were too small to sus- for Europeans in places previously considered pestilential.
tain such crowd diseases and therefore lacked immunity to Thus, Europeans had both motives and means to colonize.
them. Second, although some Central and South American Acting in their own self-interest, Europeans and
groups did have large populations, most crowd diseases orig- Americans generally did not move rapidly to place other
inate in domesticated animals, which were largely absent in areas under their colonial control. The primary goal of
the Americas. European expansion continued to be the pursuit of wealth
Hernan Cortés’s conquest of Mexico is a good example of and plunder. Mercantilist firms were rapid, cost-effective
the effects of disease. When Cortés first appeared in 1519, the ways to get these. The financial burden of establishing com-
Aztec leader Montezuma, following tradition, gave Cortés panies such as the VOC was borne by their shareholders.
gifts and opened the city of Tenochtitlan to the Spanish. However, colonizing an area required some level of govern-
When it became clear that the Spanish were their enemies, ment expenditure. At the very least, this included govern-
the Aztecs expelled them from the city in a fierce battle that ment officials and the troops to back them, all of whom had
cost the Spanish and their allies perhaps two-thirds of their to be equipped and paid out of government funds. In most
total army. By the time Cortés returned in 1521, a smallpox cases, infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and railways
epidemic had killed up to half the Aztecs. Despite this crush- had to be built. These were expensive undertakings, and
ing loss, however, the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan still European taxpayers and governments were generally not
took more than four months to accomplish (Berdan, 1982; enthusiastic about funding them.
Clendinnen, 1991; Karlen, 1995). Had the Aztecs not been As we have seen, in the 16th and 17th centuries,
devastated by disease, they might have again defeated Cortés. European mercantilist firms began to assume important roles
Disease played an even bigger part in the conquest of the throughout the world. In many cases, they became govern-
Incas in Peru. It swept across Central and South America well ing authorities. However, by the 19th century, corruption,
in advance of the Europeans themselves. By the time Spanish scandal, and warfare created by these firms had led European
MAP 14.1 Colonial Partition of Africa, 1884–1885
Me d
iter ra
nean Sea
I NDIAN
AT L A N T I C O CEAN
OCEAN
Belgium
Britain
France
Germany
Italy
Portugal
Spain
Independent
Modern-day 0 1000 mi
boundaries
0 1000 km
This map shows some political divisions in Africa after the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885.
governments to assume colonial control of areas such as controlled trade between European powers in Africa and
India and Indonesia previously controlled by joint stock prevented Europeans from fighting each other over control
companies. of African territory. Unsurprisingly, no representatives of any
In other cases, particularly in Africa during the 19th African society were present at the conference.
century, when mercantilist firms were expanding rapidly, Europeans used a combination of diplomacy and mili-
European nations colonized out of fear of each other. Each tary conquest to force colonization on subject populations. In
nation thought the others threatened its national commer- most cases, they created military forces of native troops led by
cial interests. During the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, European officers and used these forces to conquer the areas
European nations determined the colonial partition of Africa they wished to colonize. The Tirailleurs Sénégalais described
(Map 14.1). At the time of the conference, Europeans did not in the “Ethnography” section accompanying this chapter was
yet control most of Africa. The conference set up rules that one such force.
European politicians and military leaders often cre- required to make up the difference between colonial income
ated colonies without the full backing of the citizens of their and expenses.
nations (and sometimes without the support of their own Despite the frequent insufficiencies of tax collection,
legislatures). Thus, after colonies were established, European colonies were extremely profitable. Colonies gave busi-
governments had to convince both their own populations nesses based in the colonizing country places in which
and their colonial subjects that colonization was beneficial. they could operate free of competition. This was partic-
They attempted to do this by cloaking their actions in the ide- ularly significant for Britain and France, two of the most
ology of social betterment. In Britain, citizens were encour- important colonial powers. The industrial revolution had
aged, in the words of the poet Rudyard Kipling, to take up begun in Britain in the late 1700s, and by the end of the
“the white man’s burden” of bringing civilization to the “sav- 19th century, its factories were aging. New, more efficient
age.” In France, the population was told that it had a mission industrial processes developed in the United States and
civilisatrice—a civilizing mission that would both help the Germany that enabled these countries to produce cheaper
“savages” in the colonized areas and increase French political manufactured goods (Allitt, 2002). France came to indus-
and cultural power throughout the world. The government trialization fairly late and had a relatively weak road and
portrayed its colonial practices as rayonnement, lighting the rail network. As a result, it had difficulty competing with
way for others (Cole & Raymond, 2006: 158–159). In the col- the United States, Germany, and Britain. Colonies created
onies, as we will see next, subjects were taught that they were zones of protection for older British industries and newer
colonized for their own good and that their societies would French manufacturers, thus enabling high profits for firms
advance as a result. in these nations.
As noted previously, the costs of the colonies were born
(unequally) by subject colonial populations and by colo-
Making Colonialism Pay nizing-country taxpayers. The windfall profits from colo-
Once colonies were seized, they had to be administered, and nialism went to shareholders of companies operating in the
they had to be made profitable. Colonizing powers hoped colonies. Finding ways to extract taxes and create the condi-
that tax revenues from colonial subjects would support the tions in which corporations could make money often meant
cost of colonial government as well as the construction of the systematic undermining of indigenous ways of life. The
various public works. However, in many cases, taxes were newly colonized communities had traded with other regional
insufficient, and taxpayers in the colonizing country were communities and frequently with Europeans for centuries.
However, trading had generally accounted for only a small
percentage of their economy. For the most part, their eco-
nomic relations were drawn along kinship lines, and most
FIGURE 14.8 Colonial powers often ruled of their production was for their own consumption. For
indirectly through local chiefs. Here, Frederick colonialism to be profitable, these patterns had to change.
Lugard (1858–1945), the first governor-general Colonial subjects had to be made to produce the goods that
of Nigeria and a pioneer of indirect rule, visits colonizing societies wanted and to labor in ways that would
the London Zoo accompanied by African chiefs be profitable to the colonizers. From the colonizers’ perspec-
in 1934. tive, the key problem was determining how to implement
these changes. Some of the methods they used were control
Fox Photos/Stringer/Getty Images
of local leaders, forced labor, forced production of specific

commodities, taxation, and direct propaganda through
education.
Sometimes colonial powers seized direct control of a
colony’s political leadership, but this was expensive, and for-
eign colonial leaders often lacked sufficient knowledge of
local language and culture. More often, colonialists ruled
indirectly through native leaders (Figure 14.8). Promises of
power and wealth as well as the realization that colonial gov-
ernments held the reins of power and were unlikely to lose
them any time soon persuaded colonial subjects to support
colonizers. In some cases, colonial powers (and Christian
missionaries) offered education, employment, and improved
status to people who were previously oppressed or outcast in
a society, and, as a result, these individuals were particularly colonialists and missionaries forged entire new ethnic
drawn to support the colonizers. groups, lumping together people with different traditions
A well-organized chain of command was needed for and even different languages (Harries, 1987). For exam-
colonial powers to rule effectively. In hierarchical societies ple, the Bété, an ethnic group of the central Ivory Coast in
where kings or chiefs already existed, this did not pose a dif- Africa, did not exist before the era of colonialism but was
ficult problem. Most often, local elites sympathetic to the col- created by the actions of colonial and postcolonial govern-
onizers were able to retain a degree of power, although they ments (Dozon, 1985).
became answerable to the colonial authorities. Those unsym- In the long run, policies of indirect rule created the pre-
pathetic to colonial rule were rapidly replaced. conditions for instability and violence. Political leaders
Regions where precolonial relationships were largely were compromised by their close connections with colonial
egalitarian posed a more difficult problem. If there was no authorities and lost the confidence and respect of those they
chief or there were many co-reigning chiefs, establishing purported to lead. Ethnic groups created for the purposes of
colonial authority was far harder. Colonizers tried to solve colonial rule tended to fragment as the power of colonial gov-
this problem by creating new chiefly offices. Sometimes ernments diminished.
Ethnography
A F R I CA N S O L D I E R S O F M I S F O R T U N E
Volta (now Burkina Faso) in West Africa.

I spent most of my time working in small
villages, but I’d also wander around the
town. Frequently on my wanderings, I’d be
stopped by a grizzled-looking old man who
would start yelling at me in German. Then
in French (the language of government and
education in Upper Volta), he’d inform me
WEST that he’d been a prisoner of the Germans
AFRICA
in World War II. At first, I took him to be
a crazy person and a drunk (he always
recruiting area stopped me near a bar). But, as I got to
know him and other residents of the town
better, I learned he had indeed been a
ALGERIA German prisoner. That left me wondering
MAURITANIA how it was possible. After all, I didn’t think
he could have been visiting Europe when
MALI the war broke out. As I spoke to him and to
SENEGAL NIGER many others like him over the 15 years that
Ouahigouya CHAD
Bougoni followed, I learned a story that had been left
BURKINA
FASO out of my high school and college history
GUINEA
GUINEA-
BISSAU BENIN lessons.
NIGERIA
SIERRA CÔTE
LEONE D'IVOIRE Europeans saw in their colonies not only
LIBERIA CAMEROON opportunities for the extraction of mineral
GHANA and agricultural wealth but also reservoirs
TOGO
0 500 mi of manpower. This was particularly true
Atl anti c O c e an in Africa, which had traditionally served
0 500 km
Europeans as a source of labor. Both the
British and the French saw the military
When I (Rich Warms) was young, I served as a potential of African labor, and both formed armies
Peace Corps volunteer and lived in a town called composed of colonized Africans. The British unit was
Ouahigouya in the country then called Upper known as the King’s African Rifles, and the French
(Continued!)
(Continued)
FIGURE 14.9 Veterans of the Tirailleurs The role African troops played was critical for France
Sénégalais in Bougouni, Mali, 1994 in World War II. Most people with some familiarity
with history have heard of General Charles de
Gaulle’s Free French Army, but few realize that
between the fall of France in 1940 and the summer
of 1944, most of the members of the Free French
Army were Africans. Even in late 1944, sub-Saharan
Africans constituted as much as one-fifth of the total
French army. For political reasons, both during and
after the war, de Gaulle concealed the importance of
African contributions, but events in France might
have taken a very different course without African
soldiers (Echenberg, 1991: 104).
After the war, the returned soldiers occupied

an important place in African society. Veterans
were often respected by their peers because they
unit was the Tirailleurs Sénégalais (Senegalese understood modernity, foreigners, and, in particular,
riflemen). The Tirailleurs Sénégalais was officially the French (Lawler, 1992: 212). In addition, the
created in 1857. At that time, most of its soldiers were sacrifices veterans had made gave them a degree
slaves, bought by the French for army service. Armed of moral suasion over the French colonialists.
with French weaponry and led by French officers, Veterans emerged as leaders, organizers, and
their first task was the capture and control of colonies agitators in the fight for African independence. The
in sub-Saharan Africa. French, meanwhile, continued to enlist Africans in
the Tirailleurs Sénégalais and used them against
The French completed their empire in Africa by the natives fighting wars of independence in Indochina
turn of the century, but the Tirailleurs Sénégalais was (Vietnam) and Algeria in the 1950s.
not disbanded. Instead, powerful interests in France
argued that Africans had an obligation to serve the Most of the French colonies in Africa received
French state and could revitalize its army. The first their independence in the early 1960s. The years
practical trial of this idea was in 1912, when Africans since then have not been kind to the veterans of
were used to quell a rebellion in Morocco, but the real the Tirailleurs Sénégalais. The military service
test came in World War I. More than 135,000 African that gave them moral power as subjects of
troops, mostly drafted conscripts, served for the France was something of an embarrassment after
French in the trenches of Europe, and almost 30,000 independence. Members of radical governments
of them died there (Page, 1987). Those who survived and younger people saw them as men who had
made their way back to Africa between 1918 and wasted their time in the service of a discredited
1919. Like many other veterans of World War I, they authority. They were considered promoters of
had witnessed horrors incomprehensible to most of colonialism rather than, more accurately, its
their countrymen. And like European and American victims. Today, the veterans of the Tirailleurs
soldiers suffering from “shell shock,” members of this Sénégalais are rapidly aging and all but forgotten.
group were often considered deranged. Their struggles and trials seem irrelevant to the
young. Most rarely talk about their experiences
Though manpower needs lessened after World War except with those who shared them.
I, France continued to draft African men into the
Tirailleurs Sénégalais. Historian Myron Echenberg I was privileged to interview veterans of the
wrote that French conscription in West Africa was Tirailleurs Sénégalais in Bougouni, Mali, in the
“indeed a tax in sweat and blood” (1991: 47). Between 1980s and 1990s (Figure 14.9). Some veterans had
World Wars I and II, hundreds of thousands of used pensions they received to marry several wives
Africans were conscripted into the army, and by 1939, and raise large families. These men often became
on the eve of World War II, about 9% of the French prosperous and well-respected members of their
army in France was composed of Africans. By the end communities. Some of the veterans look back on
of that war, France had recruited (most often drafted) their military careers with pride and some fondness.
more than 200,000 Africans; of these, as many One said, “Well, [my military career was] the work of
as 25,000 perished. In addition, France’s African God. It’s the way God made it to be . . . . I had love for
possessions were also taxed heavily to provide food the army, and because of my love for the army, I was
and raw materials for the war effort (Lawler, 1992). able to continue serving” (in Warms, 1995).
Most veterans, however, received no pension. When The story of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais and Mory
they returned home, they often faced hostility or Samake’s anger with the French remind us of
isolation. Fellow villagers couldn’t understand several significant points. A cliché has it that
their experiences and often thought poorly of them history is written by the winners. It might be
because they had returned with nothing to show for more accurate to say that history is written by the
their labors. For these veterans, military service was powerful and often presented as a narrative of
best forgotten. One said, their inevitable triumph. But such a history ignores
inconvenient truths or relegates them to footnotes
When you come back, you have to follow the ideas and appendices. The relationships between wealth
of the people in the village. If not, if you try to tell and poverty and between the powerful and the
them all about the army and what you have seen, powerless—or, in this case, between the colonized
they are never going to understand you. You can and the colonizer—are among the most important
explain things and there are those who will just say of these truths.
you are lying. You just let them alone, at least that’s
the way I’ve gotten along. (in Warms, 1996: 15) Critical Thinking Questions
Even those veterans who received pensions were 1. Although the Tirailleurs Sénégalais played an
given far less than French veterans and receive important role in World War II, most readers of
few services. Though they are proud of their this book probably haven’t heard of them. Why do
accomplishments, they often feel like forgotten men, you think that is so?
and many are profoundly disillusioned. In 1991, Mory
2. Most West African veterans live in conditions
Samake, a veteran of World War II, told me,
that would be considered deep poverty in France.
When we were there fighting the war, no one said What obligations, if any, does France have to
“this one is white, this one is black.” . . . We gave these men and their families?
our blood and our bodies so that France could be
3. Veterans of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais fought for
liberated. But now, since they have their freedom,
the French, sometimes against other colonized
they have thrown us away, forgotten us. If you eat
people. How do you think they justified their par-
the meat, you throw away the bone. France has
ticipation in these colonial wars?
done just that to us. (in Warms, 1996: 3)
Forced Labor 1 million peasants to grow cotton. The colonial govern-

ment controlled what these growers produced, where they
One of the most direct ways that European governments
lived, with whom they traded, and how they organized their
tried to make their colonies profitable was by requiring
labor. Although a few growers prospered, the great majority
them to provide manpower. Governments required cor-
became impoverished and struggled to survive famine and
vée labor—unpaid work from the native populations. The
British often compelled their subjects to work for up to one hardship (Isaacman 1996). By the 1960s, the brutality and
month per year; the Dutch, two months. In 1926, the French terror used by the colonial regime resulted in a civil war that
enacted a law that permitted an annual draft of labor for their continued into the 1990s.
West African colonies. Conscripts were compelled to work At the turn of the century, conditions were perhaps worst
for three years on bridge and road building, irrigation proj- in the Congo, which was ruled between 1885 and 1908 as
ects, and other public works. The mortality rates of workers the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium. There,
on these projects were very high, making corvée labor one of each native owed the government 40 hours of labor a month
the most hated institutions of colonialism. Natives resisted in exchange for a token wage (Bodley, 1999: 116). Failure
colonial demands by concealing workers or by fleeing from to work sufficiently or to produce the proper quantities of
authorities when such work was required (Evans, 2000; goods (particularly rubber) was met with extreme mea-
Ishemo, 1995). Most corvée labor requirements continued sures. Leopold’s subjects were held hostage, were beaten or
until World War II. whipped, had their hands cut off, and, in many cases, were
Even when subject populations were not forced into killed outright (Figure 14.10). By the time the Belgian gov-
labor gangs, economic and social policies of colonial regimes ernment stripped Leopold of his control of Congo, between
required them to radically alter their cultures. For example, 4 million and 8 million Congolese had been killed or had
Portuguese colonial policy in Mozambique forced almost starved to death (A. Hochschild, 1998).
system. Taxes generally had to be paid in colonial money,

FIGURE 14.10 Congo was ruled between 1885 and which native subjects could obtain only by working for a col-
1908 as the personal property of King Leopold II of onist or by producing something that the colonists wanted to
Belgium and exploited for its rubber production. buy. Participation in the market and in wage labor was viewed
Natives were forced to collect rubber for the Belgian as the essential precondition for “civilizing” the natives.
king. Failure to meet quota was punished by torture Taxation often forced colonial subjects into a vicious
or death. An estimated 4 to 8 million Congolese cycle of dependency on the market system. To raise money
were either murdered or starved during this era. for taxes, subjects had to work directly for the colonizers or
Here, photos of some individuals who were shot and produce things that colonizers desired. But spending time
tortured by rubber traders. on these tasks meant that less time could be spent making
goods or raising crops for one’s own consumption. This,
Everett Collection Historical /
Alamy Stock Photo
in turn, meant that food and goods had to increasingly be

purchased from the market, which was dominated by com-
panies owned by colonialists. This process meant that colo-
nial subjects became more and more enmeshed in a global
capitalist economy. They entered this economy as produc-
ers of raw materials and consumers of manufactured goods.
Thus, they received relatively low prices for the goods they
produced but paid relatively high prices for those they pur-
chased. Both the manufacturing processes and ownership
of the corporations were located in the colonizing coun-
tries, and this helped wealthy countries profit from their
colonies.
In addition to forced labor and forced production, the
British and French both drafted natives into their armed
forces. They used these armies to capture and control their Education
colonies, fight colonial wars, and augment their regular In addition to policies aimed at forcing subjects to take part
armies wherever needed. One such unit, the Tirailleurs in an economy centered in the industrial world, colonial
Sénégalais, is described in this chapter’s “Ethnography” governments took more direct aim at indigenous cultures
Section. Additional tirailleurs units included groups from through educational policies. Colonial education was often
Algeria, Morocco, Madagascar, Vietnam, Cambodia, designed to convince subjects that they were the cultural,
and other French colonial possessions. In East Africa, the moral, and intellectual inferiors of those who ruled them.
British drafted and recruited the King’s African Rifles. For example, education in 19th-century India encour-
In India, the British created an entire army led by British aged children to aspire to be like the ideal Englishman
officers but consisting almost entirely of colonial subjects (Viswanathan, 1988). In France’s African colonies, children
drawn primarily from ethnic groups the British consid- were taught to obey their colonial masters, as illustrated in
ered particularly warlike. According to the UK’s National this passage from a turn-of-the-century reader designed to
Archives, about 1.3 million members of the Indian Army teach French to schoolchildren:
served in World War I, primarily on the Western Front but
also in the Middle East. It is . . . an advantage for a native to work for a white man,
because the Whites are better educated, more advanced in
civilization than the natives, and because, thanks to them,
Taxation the natives will make more rapid progress . . . and become
Although particular projects might use forced labor, to make a one day really useful men . . . .You who are intelligent and
colony truly profitable, colonial masters needed to encourage industrious, my children, always help the Whites in their
the population to work for them voluntarily or to produce the task. (Cited in Bodley, 1999: 104)
goods they desired. Taxation was a key mechanism for accom-
plishing this goal. Taxation helped support the colonial gov- Instructors trained in France to teach in African colonies
ernment, but because colonizers knew that colonial economies were warned against providing too much information about
were small and their tax receipts low, they rarely expected taxes Europe to their students. An instruction manual for such
to provide the full cost of governing. However, taxing colonial teachers warned them that “the African has no need to learn
subjects had another purpose: to force them into the market of our troubles” (cited in G. Kelly, 1984: 538).
the colonizers’ position and created a subservient educated

FIGURE 14.11 Education was key to the colonial class convinced of its own superiority (G. Kelly, 1986).
project. Here, students in the French colony of
Algeria in 1950 write, “When I grow up I would love
Colonialism and Anthropology
to visit France” on a classroom chalkboard.
The origins and practice of modern anthropology are
bound up with the colonial era. Both anthropology and
Keystone-France/Contributor/Getty Images
19th-century colonialism are products of the 18th-century

age of European Enlightenment, the Romantic retrench-
ment of the 19th century, the industrial revolution, the
birth of modern science, and other historical and philo-
sophical forces. For example, the evolutionary theories of
19th-century anthropologists described a world in which
all societies were evolving toward perfection. This idea
shows elements of Enlightenment rationality (the anthro-
pologists were systematizing knowledge and trying to
discover laws of social development) and 19th-century
romanticism (the idea that nations were moving toward
perfection) and was very clearly influenced by the scien-
tific theories of Charles Darwin and the social theories of
Herbert Spencer. It was also a convenient philosophy that
could be pressed into service as a rationale for colonization
(Ghosh, 1991; Godelier, 1993).
One of the most important impacts colonialism had on
anthropology was in determining the locations of fieldwork.
British Commonwealth anthropologists tended to work in
British colonies, French anthropologists in their colonies, and
Americans within U.S. borders in areas “protected” by the
Monroe Doctrine or in regions under American influence
and control in the Pacific.
Education was often aimed at the children of elites. In some cases, colonialism may have played a role in
For example, in the 1860s, Louis Faidherbe, the gover- determining the topics of anthropological research. Studies
nor-general of the French West African colony of Senegal, of indigenous political systems or laws were of interest to
established a “school for hostages” (école des otages) and colonial governments. For example, Evans-Pritchard’s
“requested” that newly conquered chiefs send their sons to classic exploration of the segmentary lineage system of the
be educated. Although the name of the school was even- Nuer (discussed in Chapter 9) was done at a time when
tually changed to the “school for chiefs” (école des chefs), the British rulers of Sudan were particularly interested in
many of the students really were hostages. Chiefs and learning how to rule groups like the Nuer that lacked uni-
other notables often sent the sons of slaves and prison- fied political leadership (D. Johnson, 1982). Colonialism
ers rather than their own children (Bouche, 1966: 234). At and, more important, the discourse of rationalism and sci-
these schools, colonizing powers tried to create a class of ence also tended to promote a kind of anthropology where
literate subjects who would serve as junior-grade civil ser- the anthropologist spoke as an active authority claiming
vants. The children were taught skills that would be useful to objectively describe essentially passive native subjects.
to them in such occupations. They were also taught that, Anthropologists, anxious to find funding for their research,
although they might never reach the level of the colonists, argued that their studies had practical value to colonial
they were considerably more advanced than their uned- administrators (see Malinowski 1929a, for example).
ucated countrymen (Figure 14.11). In France’s African However, anthropology did not come into being to promote
colonies, individuals who were educated and assimilated or enable colonialism, which would have gone on with or
to French culture were known both by the French and by without it (J. Burton, 1992).
themselves as evolues, or evolved people. This increased the Anthropologists did not generally question the polit-
perception of the uneducated and unassimilated as being ical reality of colonialism, but they often self-consciously
backward and primitive. Thus, schooling both reinforced tried to advance the interests of the people they studied.
The result was that colonial officials generally mistrusted the beginning. Strikes, acts of terrorism, and guerrilla war-
anthropologists, believing they were much too sympa- fare were common in some regions throughout the colonial
thetic to colonial subjects (Prah, 1990). Evans-Pritchard, era. However, for several reasons, there was a substantial
for example, hoped that some of his work would change upsurge in these tactics following World War II. One reason
British colonialism and make it more humane for the was the return of combat veterans. Veterans knew how to
natives. However, British colonial officials found him fight European-style warfare. Moreover, they and their sup-
arrogant and skeptical, sometimes claiming that he was a porters felt that colonizing countries owed them a debt for
“wild anthropologist” and “one of those de-nationalized their service—a debt to be paid partially in increased political
scientists who take pride in advertising their freedom liberties.
from the simpler loyalties” (D. Johnson, 1982: 244). Most In some places, resistance took the form of agitation
anthropological research was financed by private char- and demonstrations. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire (West
itable organizations with reformist agendas and not by Africa), French attempts to rig elections in the late 1940s
governments (Goody, 1995). Sometimes anthropologists were answered with hunger strikes, mass demonstrations,
financed their own research. The great French ethnog- acts of civil disobedience, and street fighting that resulted
rapher Marcel Griaule, for example, put on a circus and in scores of deaths, hundreds of injuries, and thousands of
promoted boxing matches to finance his ethnographic arrests (T. Smith, 1978: 87). In India, Mahatma Gandhi led
expeditions. supporters in hunger strikes and mass protest. Bitter anti-
colonial wars broke out around the world (Figure 14.12). In
Decolonization Madagascar, for example, almost 90,000 died in a rebellion
in 1947 and 1948. Between 1954 and 1962, France fought a
The eras of Western expansion and colonization radically protracted war in Algeria that left at least a quarter of a mil-
and permanently changed the world. By the time of World lion dead (Kepel, 2005). Anticolonial wars also broke out
War II, all peoples had been affected by Western expan- in Vietnam, Mozambique, Angola, and numerous other
sion and their cultures had been altered by this experience. places.
Some, in an attempt to resist foreign influences and protect The end of World War II also created a fundamen-
their ways of life, had moved as far away from outsiders as tally different balance of world power. European nations,
possible (for example, see Breusers, 1999). However, most which held the largest number of colonies, were greatly
people lived in societies where the presence and influence weakened, which left the United States and the Soviet
of outsiders, their demands for goods and labor, and their
attempts to change native cultures were fundamental facts
of life.
Most of the nations of the Americas gained their inde-
pendence in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Africa and Asia, FIGURE 14.12 Morocco 1954-French colonial
independence from European colonialism was not achieved authorities deposed and exiled Sultan Mohammaed
until after World War II. Many nations that were part of the Ben Youssef, later known as Mohammed V. Protests
Soviet Union received their independence only in the late erupted as a result.
1980s and early 1990s. Some colonies persist today, although
AFP/Stringer/Getty Images
usually with the consent of the majority of their residents. For

example, Britain has some 14 “overseas territories,” including
Bermuda, Gibraltar, and the Pitcairn Islands. French “over-
seas departments” include Martinique and French Guiana.
U.S. “organized unincorporated territories” include the U.S.
Virgin Islands and Guam. Many consider the U.S. relation-
ship with Puerto Rico colonial as well (Grosfoguel, 2003;
Melendez, 1993).
There were as many reasons for granting colonies their
independence as there were for exploring and colonizing
them in the first place, but the three most important were
civil disobedience, changing political structures, and chang-
ing economic structures. Governing colonies was never a
simple affair, and natives rebelled against colonial rule from
Union as the dominant superpowers. They quickly raw materials for European, American, and Asian indus-
engaged each other in a Cold War that was to last for more tries. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire, the number of French
than four decades. Neither the United States nor the Soviet expatriates actually increased after independence, rising
Union had a strong interest in preserving the colonial sta- from 30,000 in 1960 to almost 60,000 by 1980 (Handloff
tus quo. Based on the belief that they could bring former & Roberts, 1991: 93). In the 1960s, the word neocolonial-
colonies into their own economic and political orbit, both ism came to express the idea that although nations were no
promoted rapid independence for colonial possessions longer colonized, many of the institutions of colonialism
and supplied money and weaponry to their supporters remained intact in them.
within the colonies.
Finally, international economics was also changing. In An Interconnected but Unstable World
many cases, colonies had been created to allow European
corporations access to areas where they could operate free The European expansion and the era of colonization were
of competition from corporations based in other nations. historic processes that changed the world from a collec-
However, in the wake of World War II, corporate ownership tion of relatively independent economies and societies to a
began to become multinational, and corporations were less complex world system. The UN resolution declaring that
tied to their nations of origin—a shift that continues today. all people had the right to self-determination was intended
This process undercut an important economic rationale of to end colonialism but instead exposed severe fault lines
colonialism. in colonies and states. As we saw in Chapter 7 on political
By December 1960, when the United Nations declared in systems, nation–states are imagined communities com-
Resolution 1514 that “all peoples have the right to self deter- posed of members of different groups. These groups almost
mination” and that “immediate steps shall be taken . . . to always share geographical territory. If every group within
transfer all powers to the peoples of [countries that have not a state has the right to self-determination, the state cannot
yet achieved independence],” the process of decolonization exist.
was already well under way. At that time, recently decolo- The late 20th and early 21st centuries have been char-
nized nations included India and Pakistan (1947), Cambodia acterized by frequent intense conflicts within and among
(1953), Vietnam (1954), Ghana (1957), Guinea (1958), and nation–states as groups have fought both for self-deter-
many others. mination and to impose their vision of the state on others.
By the late 1970s, almost all colonies held by western Several nations have disintegrated under this pressure,
European nations had achieved independence. With the including Czechoslovakia (split into the Czech Republic
formal end of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the collapse of and Slovakia in 1992), Yugoslavia (dissolved 1992–2008),
South African apartheid in 1994, almost all areas of the world Ethiopia (split, creating the nation of Eritrea in 1993),
had some form of home rule. Colonized areas became inde- and Sudan (split, creating the nation of Southern Sudan
pendent under a variety of circumstances and with many in 2011). In other places, such as Iraq, Chechnya, Syria,
different levels of preparedness. In some, like Ghana, the and Ukraine, bitter wars were (and in many cases still are)
transition to independence was reasonably orderly, and a being fought over ethnic and state identity. In still other
sizable (though still inadequate) number of individuals had places, such as Belgium, the United Kingdom, Canada,
been trained as administrators. In others, like the Congo, the and Spain, there is little risk of large-scale violence, but
transition was profoundly violent, and very few colonial sub- political and economic disputes are often increased by
jects had any experience with running government. Despite ethnic tensions.
their differences, however, all came to independence as rel- Despite the violence and instability of the world, the
atively poor nations in a world that was increasingly divided interconnections among societies have only increased. Our
into the wealthy and the poor rather than the independent world is characterized by enormous disparities in wealth
and the colonized. and power and by an increasingly dense fabric of interwo-
Formal independence was critical for former colo- ven technology, finance, communication, and politics. There
nies. However, compelling connections between newly is no doubt that modernity has spread to virtually all places
independent nations and their former colonial powers in the world. This process of extreme globalization interacts
remained. In most cases, diplomatic, cultural, and eco- with and may replace both neocolonialism and postcolonial-
nomic ties between nations and their former colonies con- ism. However, for the foreseeable future, societies provide
tinued to be strong. European and American corporations enormous hope for their people but face enormous problems
continued their operations, albeit frequently with new and inequities as well. We turn to some of those hopes and
names, and many former colonies continued to supply the problems in the next chapter.

G L O B A L IZ AT I O N , N AT I O N A L I S M , A N D C O L O N I A L I S M
Question: Are nationalism and globalization forces that oppose each other?
While campaigning in 2016, Donald Trump declared almost synonymous with poverty, had by 2017
that the United States would “no longer surrender become the world’s sixth-largest economy (World
this country or its people to the false song of Bank, 2018e).
globalism” (in Rosenboim, 2017). Britain’s 2016
Brexit vote to leave the European Union and the This change in the economic position of countries
success of Italy’s right-wing Five Star Movement was accompanied by political changes as well.
in 2018 have been widely viewed as a rejection of The colonial empires that had aided and sustained
globalization (CNN, 2018; Elliott, 2018). In all three nationalism in western Europe collapsed after
of these cases, and many more besides, leaders World War II. The United States and Soviet Union
broadly identified as nationalist have condemned competed to extend and consolidate their spheres
globalization. Globalization thus sounds a bit like of interest throughout the Cold War. In the 21st
the opposite of nationalism. century, however, it is the newly rising economies,
particularly China, that have been expanding their
However, we should consider that globalization and political dominion. In 2013, China’s “one belt, one
nationalism, rather than being opposites, are two road” initiative was instituted to create a network
parts of the same phenomenon. As this chapter has of roads, transportation corridors, and shipping
shown, although the processes of globalization have lanes anchored in China and stretching through
speeded up in the last half century, the modern era southern and central countries of Asia; the Middle
of globalization has roots dating back to at least East; and northern Europe. When completed,
the 15th century. Globalization began in a world of China’s belt and road system will reach about
competing kingdoms and empires. 65% of the world’s population and could carry a
third of all the goods and services produced in the
The modern nation–state and the concept of world. Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are
nationalism developed in the 19th century, not part of the project, but China has expanded its
within the context of globalization. However, economic and political influence in these places
globalization soon became a project of nation– as well.
states. This was expressed in terms of both
economic trade and political empire. For example, Clearly, globalization is an ongoing process.
the British nation–state and British identity grew However, political and economic centers are
as industrialization boomed. Industrialization shifting rapidly. As the balance of power moves
required raw materials that had to be acquired away from the United States and northern Europe,
through global trade and, in the 19th and early people in these places are viewing globalization
20th centuries, the security of this trade was in increasingly negative terms and seeing it as a
believed to depend on Britain’s extensive colonial force opposed to nationalism. A 2016 YouGov.com
empire. Britons pointed with pride to the fact poll showed that globalization was least popular
that the sun never set on the British Empire. in France, the United States, and the UK. At the
Globalization built the nation. same time, people in Asia understand globalization
as contributing to nationalism. The poll found
Throughout the 20th century, the centers of world globalization was most popular in East and
industry, finance, and banking remained in western Southeast Asia, where over 70% said that it had been
Europe and in North America. American and “a force for good” (M. Smith, 2016). Current political
European industrial exports dominated world trade. leaders in the United States and western Europe rail
However, by the end of the century, the balance of against globalization and claim they will negotiate
world trade was beginning to shift. Until the 1960s, better trade deals. However, in 2017 China’s
the world’s largest economies were the United nationalist leader, Xi Jinping, called globalization
States, the Soviet Union, West Germany, France, an “irreversible historical trend” (Hsueh, 2017), and
and the United Kingdom. However, by the end of the nationalist Indian prime minister, Narendra
the century, Japan had become the world’s second- Modi, has said that threats to globalization are as
largest economy. By 2010, it had been surpassed dangerous as global warming or terrorism (Horner
by China. India, which in the 1960s and 1970s was et. al. 2018).
Key Questions 3. Must the economic ascent of nations such as

China and India come at the price of decline in
1. Are there parallels between today’s wealthy nations
Europe and North America, or is it possible for
in Europe and North America and the 19th-century
economic conditions to simultaneously improve
colonies of these same nations? If so, what are they?
in all nations?
2. Do you believe that policies promoting eco-
nomic nationalism are likely to affect the pace of
globalization?
SUMMARY
1. To what degree is the current distribution of wealth and plantations, and the joint stock company were all instru-
power in the world today similar to what it was 1,000 mental in creating wealth for Europeans. Additionally,
years ago? Although we are aware of history, we tend to military and diplomatic maneuvering helped funnel
think of current world conditions as similar to past con- wealth from around the world into Europe.
ditions. This is incorrect. The world as we see it is the
result of historical processes that have moved wealth and 6. What roles have art and artifacts played in colonialism
power from one area to another. Places that are impover- and the expansion of European and North American
ished today were in many cases wealthy 1,000 years ago. power? In the “Anthropology Makes a Difference” sec-
Globalization has involved the transfer of wealth from tion, we explored the role of artifacts and museums in
areas of the globe that are now poor to those that are now this process. The theft of art and artifacts often accom-
wealthy. Thus, the economic development of today’s panied expansion. Art and artifacts are held in both
wealthy nations is linked with poverty in other places in museums and private collections. In museums, they
the world. often contribute to ideas of national power. Nations and
native peoples have demanded the return of property
2. What was the condition of Europe in the 15th century? they consider stolen. In the United States and elsewhere,
In the 15th century, Europe was neither wealthy nor laws have required the return of some of this property.
technologically advanced. The centers of world power Anthropologists have often helped cultures regain their
lay primarily in the Middle East and Asia. However, lost objects.
Europe was poised on the brink of a great expansion.
7. What was colonialism and when did it happen?
3. What were the primary motivations for European Colonialism is the active possession of a foreign territory
expansion? A combination of religious faith, greed, and the maintenance of political dominance over that
new social arrangements, and new technologies drove territory. The Americas were first colonized in the 16th
European expansion. century. However, elsewhere in the world, colonization
did not happen until the 19th century.
4. In what parts of the world were Europeans most suc-
cessful at capturing and controlling new lands and why? 8. Why did Europeans colonize regions in the 19th century
Europeans were most successful in controlling lands in and how did they justify taking colonial possessions?
the Americas because Native Americans lacked resis- Europeans colonized because of the collapse of earlier
tance to European diseases. As a result, these indigenous mercantilist firms or to protect their national companies
societies were depopulated and succumbed to European from competition from other Europeans. They wished to
military pressure. increase their wealth and protect their trade. They justi-
fied colonialism by calling it a “civilizing mission.”
5. What were the key mechanisms Europeans used to
make their control of foreign territories financially lucra- 9. What methods did Europeans use to try to make colo-
tive from the 16th to the 18th centuries? The plunder of nialism pay in the 19th and 20th centuries? Europeans
precious metals, the use of slave labor on monocultural pressed colonial subjects into forced labor on roads and
other projects. They used taxes (to be paid in colonial to promote colonialism, which would have gone on with
money) to fund the government and force natives to or without it.
participate in the European-dominated cash economy.
They used education programs to discredit local culture 12. When did the colonies taken in the 19th century gain
and create a class of people who could help with colonial their independence and what key factors were respon-
administration. sible for this? Most colonies gained their independence
between the end of World War II and 1965. Civil unrest
10. What was the Tirailleurs Sénégalais and what was its in the colonies, the emergence of the United States and
political role? In the “Ethnography” section, we inves- the Soviet Union as superpowers, and changes in the
tigated the Tirailleurs Sénégalais, an army regiment the structure of international economics all played critical
French recruited and drafted from their West African roles in the timing of independence.
colonies. In the 19th century, the Tirailleurs Sénégalais
helped the French conquer additional colonies, and in 13. What is the relationship between globalization and
the 20th century, the regiment fought in France’s wars, nationalism in the current-day world? In “The Global
including World Wars I and II. These soldiers also and the Local” section, we examined the connections
played an important role in ending colonialism in West between globalization and nationalism. Economic pow-
Africa. ers that perceive themselves as strong and growing tend
to see globalization as a key force that helps build the
11. What was the role of anthropology in colonialism? nation, and these powers promote globalization as part
Anthropological knowledge was sometimes used in of nationalism. Economic powers that perceive them-
the process of colonialism, and some anthropologists selves in relative decline tend to view globalization as a
sought to make themselves useful to colonial govern- threat. In these places, globalization appears as the oppo-
ments. However, anthropology did not come into being site of nationalism.
1. The brief historical description in this chapter may be 3. Explain the importance of the idea of a “civilizing mis-
very different from what you were taught in high school sion” to both people living under colonialism and people
and some college classes. What are the differences and in the colonizing countries.
how can they be explained?
4. By modern standards, many injustices were committed
2. This chapter examines the role of exploration, inva- in the path that today’s wealthy nations took to power.
sion, and conquest in Europe’s rise to power. However, Do these past injustices demand compensation by cur-
European society was also a source of great innovation. rent-day people? Does history impose obligations on
What is the relationship between European expansion- today’s wealthy nations?
ism and European innovation?
KE Y TE RM S
civilizing mission 342 Dutch East India Company 337 pillage 334
colonialism 339 Heeren XVII 337 Tirailleurs Sénégalais 344
colonies 339 joint stock company 337
corvée labor 345 monoculture plantations 337
G LO S SARY
civilizing mission The notion that colonialism was a corvée labor Unpaid labor required by a governing
duty for Europeans and a benefit for the colonized. authority.
colonialism The active possession of a foreign territory Dutch East India Company A joint stock company
and the maintenance of political domination over that
chartered by the Dutch government to control all Dutch
territory.
trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Also known by
colonies Territories under the immediate political its Dutch initials, VOC, for Verenigde Oostindische
control of a nation–state. Compagnie.
Heeren XVII The members of the board of directors of pillage To strip an area of money, goods, or raw materials
the Dutch East India Company. through the threat or use of physical violence.
joint stock company A firm that is managed by Tirailleurs Sénégalais A regiment of Senegalese riflemen
a centralized board of directors but owned by its that existed from 1857 to 1960. It was composed largely of
shareholders. soldiers from French West African colonies led by officers
from Metropolitan France.
monoculture plantations Agricultural plantations
specializing in the large-scale production of a single crop
to be sold on the market.
© iStock.com/jcfmorata
The last three decades have seen rapid economic growth throughout the world. Communications technology has boomed
and plays a critical role in creating and maintaining a global economy. This street scene in Delhi, India, shows the myriad of
communication and electrical wires that ser e near y shops and apartments as well as foot motorcycle and cart traf c.
Culture, Change, and the
Modern World 15
As imperialist powers gave up their colonies in the two decades after World LEARNING OBJECTIVES
War II, new nations emerged into a profoundly unsettled world. The decline
15.1 Describe the successes and
of the European powers and Japan was counterbalanced by the increasing failures of attempts to eliminate
importance of the global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet poverty between the end of World
Union. The period between the end of World War II and 1989 is often referred War II and the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1991
to as the Cold War. It was given this name because mass armed conflict did not
erupt in Europe and U.S. and Soviet troops did not clash directly. However, it is 15.2 Describe some of the critical
critical to remember that the war was only “cold” in Europe. The United States, social and technological changes
that have affected the world since
the Soviet Union, European countries, and allies of the United States and Soviet the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991
Union engaged both directly and indirectly in intense armed conflicts in other
regions around the world. Millions of lives were lost. 15.3 Evaluate the ways in which
poverty, violence, and governmental
instability continue to be important
The number of these wars increased steadily from the 1950s until the collapse forces in the world
of the Soviet Union in 1991. For example, between 1965 and 1978, more than 50
wars broke out, and more than 30 of these involved the direct participation of 15.4 Assess the role of
multinational corporations in the
troops from another country (Kende, 1979). In most cases, wars were fought for world and explain their relationship
reasons that were not directly related to the struggle between the United States to wealth, poverty, and cultural
and the Soviet Union. However, in almost every case, warring parties engaged change
with the United States and its allies or the Soviet Union and its allies. Both sides 15.5 Summarize the role and
used each other: Warring parties pursuing their own goals looked to the United importance of urbanization in the
States and Soviet Union for money, weaponry, and troops, and, for their part, the world and describe some of the
ways in which cities change culture
United States and Soviet Union understood domestic and nationalist conflicts
in terms of their own global strategies. This led to an enormous amount of 15.6 Evaluate the significance of
violence and bloodshed around the world. In 1970, the most violent year of this population growth and analyze the
effects of government policy and
period, there were almost 380,000 battlefield deaths (Roser, 2018). It is difficult
economics in controlling population
to assess the number of civilian deaths, but it was almost certainly much higher. growth
(Roberts, 2010).
15.7 Discuss some of the key
environmental challenges facing the
In addition to this violence, in the 1950s and 1960s, most of the world was deeply world and describe the differences
impoverished. Bourguignon and Morrison (2002) estimated that in 1960, almost between pollution in wealthy and
two-thirds of the total world population was living in poverty. The majority of poor nations
these individuals were living in extreme poverty, which is defined as an income 15.8 Examine the role of indigenous
of less than $1 a day. In the United States, more than one in five was poor people in modern-day nations
(Morrill, 2015). In China, the Great Famine of 1959–1961 led to tens of millions of and describe the challenges that
starvation deaths (Lim, 2012). Vast numbers of extremely poor people lived in confront them
the formerly colonized nations of Africa and Asia and in Latin America.
Colonization was aimed at bringing raw materials and wealth to the

colonizing nations, not at creating prosperity among the colonized. However,
newly independent nations needed to return benefits to their people. New
governments could be stable only if their citizens were prosperous. But this the
355
legitimate desire for prosperity also fed into great power rivalries. The United States, the
Soviet Union, and allies of these two nations offered technical advice and development
aid to impoverished nations around the world in return for political and military support.
The United States and its European allies wanted to create wealth and prosperity in
nations throughout the world. But they also wanted to tie the economic and political
systems of the nations they aided to their own. Had this worked, it might have been
a mutually beneficial arrangement. However, it was largely both a political and an
economic failure.
Aid planners in wealthy nations tried numerous approaches to assisting the economies
of poor nations. In the 1950s, following a dual-sector approach, they encouraged
the movement of people to cities. The 1960s were dominated by modernization
theory. W. W. Rostow, the theory’s greatest proponent, proposed that investments in
infrastructure such as roads and railways would create the preconditions for growth and
then lead to an age of high mass consumption (Rostow, 1960). In the 1970s, development
efforts focused on providing basic human necessities such as clean water and literacy
to the world’s poorest people. In the 1980s, the focus changed to structural adjustment,
which largely meant forcing poor nations to open their markets to free trade, get rid of
state-owned companies, and reduce social services.
For the most part, these programs did not work, and they often fed government
corruption. The conditions for most people in poor nations in the 1980s were as bad as
or worse than they had been in the 1950s. The ineffectiveness of foreign aid was part of
the larger failure of governments to bring prosperity or provide for the needs of their
people. This led to chronic instability. In Africa alone, between 1960 and 1982, there were
52 successful military takeovers, 56 unsuccessful attempts, and more than 100 coup plots.
By 1982, 84% of African nations had experienced some form of military intervention
(Johnson et al., 1984).
It’s important to note that not all attempts at foreign aid were failures. The most
successful were probably medical campaigns. In the 20th century, smallpox killed 300
million people around the world. In the 1960s, it was the cause of 10 to 15 million deaths
annually. However, in 1967, the World Health Organization launched a systematic
international vaccination campaign (Figure 15.1), and by 1977 naturally occurring
smallpox had been completely eliminated (Flight, 2017). Vaccination campaigns against
polio have been almost as effective, reducing disease rates by 99% (World Health
Organization, 2017). There have been stunning successes against other diseases as well.
In 1986, there were 3.5 million cases of Guinea worm, a horrific waterborne parasite, but
the illness has been virtually eliminated today. Enormous progress has also been made
against measles, mumps, rubella, river blindness, and lymphatic filariasis (Breene, 2017).
Major successes in the fight against HIV/AIDS have been achieved as well. In the 21
most affected African nations, new HIV infections among children dropped 60% between
2009 and 2017 (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, 2017). It is very hard to
overstate the importance of these successes. Literally billions of people are now free of
the fear of diseases that were once a basic aspect of their lives.
There have been successes in other areas as well. Aid agencies such as the World Food
Program, CARE, Oxfam, the Red Cross, and Crescent have provided critical emergency
relief to the victims of violence and ecological disasters. Microfinance organizations
FIGURE 15.1 In the 1960s,
Smith Collection/Gado/Contributor/Getty Images

smallpox killed 10 to 15 million
people annually, but by 1977
naturally occurring smallpox
had been completely eliminated.
Here, children in Cameroon
in 1975 hold certificates that
show they have been vaccinated
against the disease.
such as the Grameen Bank have provided loans that helped people survive difficult times
or start small businesses. American Peace Corps volunteers have improved the lives
of hundreds of thousands of people. These organizations and others continue to work
in impoverished communities around the world. Although they have not ended global
poverty, their ability to help individuals and communities has been proven by over a half
century of experience.
The Changing Political and money from the United States and Soviet Union ended vir-
Economic Environment tually overnight. By 1996, worldwide battlefield deaths had
fallen to under 50,000 (Roser, 2018), less than one-seventh
The nature of the global economy began to change dramati- of what they were in 1970. Government-sponsored foreign
cally in the 1990s. A series of trends converged that has made aid, both humanitarian and military, diminished, rapidly
life almost everywhere very different today from what it was in shifting from 2% of the federal budget in 1985 to 0.7% in
the 1980s. Among the most important of these events were the 1997 (“U.S. Foreign Aid,” 2011). At the same time, political
collapse of the Soviet Union, political and economic changes and economic changes in China and India encouraged both
in China and India, and changes in global shipping, transpor- the development of capitalist enterprises in these nations and
tation, and communication. In addition, almost everyone in the expansion of multinational corporations. Two billion
the world has been profoundly affected by the development of people—roughly one-third of the world’s population— were
more and more powerful digital technologies. integrated more firmly into the global economic system.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 had almost imme- New technologies were also altering the nature of com-
diate effects. In some cases, it led to disaster. For example, it was merce and communication. One of the most important
a key element in the collapse of Yugoslavia and the ensuing of these was the development of containerized shipping.
violence in that region (explored in Chapter 7, pp. 357–358). Everyone today is familiar with shipping containers; how-
Perhaps the worst events happened in Central Africa, where ever, they are a relatively recent innovation. They originated
the end of the Cold War was implicated in the 1994 genocide in the 1950s but were not standardized until the 1970s. Today,
of Tutsi people in Rwanda and the ensuing war that spilled about 20 million containers are in transit at any given time
over into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (George, 2013). The result has been an extraordinary reduc-
(Prunier, 1995; Destexhe, 1995). By the early 2000s, these wars tion in the cost of shipping. For example, by 2009, it was
had killed more than 5 million. Although the level of violence cheaper to ship cod caught off the coast of Scotland to Asia
has diminished since then, more than 3,000 still died in 2017 to be processed and back again to Scotland to be sold than
(Burke, 2017). it was simply to have it processed in Scotland (“Scotland to
However, in many places, particularly in Africa and China,” 2009). Or consider the iPhone. One shipping con-
Latin America, wars that had been fueled by weaponry and tainer can hold about 44,000 of them. It costs about $3,000
to send a shipping container from China to the United States At the same time, the global middle class has expanded.
(Petersen, 2015). So, the international shipping cost of an According to Homi Kharas of the Brookings Institution, in
iPhone works out to about seven cents! This means that for 2016 the global middle class included about 3.2 billion peo-
many items, the cost difference between shipping them 10 ple, and he estimates that by 2020, the majority of the world’s
miles or 10,000 miles is negligible, and production can take population will be members.
place anywhere in the world.
The cost of moving people has also declined, and the
number of people traveling has greatly increased. In 1974, The Persistence of Poverty
the least expensive round-trip ticket from New York to Los and Instability
Angeles was about $250 (around $1,340 in 2018 dollars). In
2018, the least expensive round-trip ticket for the same flight The movement of so many people out of extreme poverty and
was between $100 and $200 (in 2018 dollars). In 1960, air the expansion of the global middle class is an amazing achieve-
travel was rare—the preserve of elite “jet-setters.” By 1990, ment. It might mark a critical moment—a turning point in
about 1 billion passengers flew each year. In 2017, that num- human history. However, there are numerous reasons to tem-
ber had risen to about 4 billion (Statistica, 2018b). In 2016, per our enthusiasm. Although virtually all analysts agree that
there were almost 10,000 planes carrying 1.25 million people poverty has been greatly reduced, not all are as optimistic as
in the air at any given time (Avakian, 2017). the United Nations and World Bank. Estimates of the numbers
The declines in world poverty have been stunning of people remaining in extreme poverty range from a low of
(Figure 15.2). According to the United Nations, the number about 750 million to a high of 1.6 billion (Qiu, 2016). And vast
of people around the world living in extreme poverty fell by numbers of individuals, though no longer extremely poor, still
58% between 1990 and 2011. The World Bank, an interna- contend with great economic insecurity. Further, prosperity
tional agency that provides technical assistance and loans to is not evenly distributed. Poverty has decreased fastest in Asia
promote international trade and economic development, and the Pacific. It has changed far more slowly in other areas of
especially to poor nations, uses a different measure. It found the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 40% of the popu-
an even greater decline: a 74% drop between 1990 and 2015. lation remains extremely poor (Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2018).
In 1981, about 44% of the world’s population lived in extreme Indeed, economic inequality is a growing problem through-
poverty; by 2018, that number was about 10%. This hap- out the world. Income inequality varies greatly across nations.
pened despite the fact that the world’s population increased It is lowest in Europe and in China and highest in Brazil, India,
by two-thirds during this period. The rate of economic and the Middle East. Inequality has grown rapidly in the United
growth has greatly exceeded the rate of population growth. States, China, Russia, and India and more slowly in Europe.
FIGURE 15.2 Share of the population living in extreme poverty by world region.
60%
50%
40% Sub-Saharan Africa
30%
20%
South Asia
10% World
Latin America and the Caribbean
East Asia and Pacific
Europe and Central Asia
Middle East and North Africa
0%
1987 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2013
Source: PovcalNet World Bank.
However, almost every nation is becoming more

unequal. The global economy has grown, improving the FIGURE 15.3 Migrants and refugees take enormous
life chances of most people. However, the global top 1% risks to flee conditions of poverty and violence.
has captured twice as much of this growth as the bottom Here, two refugees rescued from the Mediterranean
50% (Alverado et. al., 2018). Sea between Libya and Italy, one of the world’s most
In addition, many places in the world remain vio- dangerous crossings, are wrapped in foil emergency
lent. In the spring of 2018, hostile armies faced each blankets.
other across national borders in India and Pakistan,
ANDREAS SOLARO/Staff/Getty Images

in North and South Korea, and in several other places.
Civil wars are ongoing in the Middle East and in parts
of Africa. Criminal violence plagues numerous coun-
tries in Central America. Religious violence and ter-
ror as well as desperate poverty persist in many places.
In these regions, life is often so intolerable that tens or
FOP
hundreds of thousands are willing to risk their lives,
and often those of their children, to undertake peril-
ous journeys of migration.
Violence, instability, and poverty are related
issues. Many of the most violent places in the world
are also among the poorest. The world’s least peace-
ful places are Yemen, Afghanistan, Central African
Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic
of Congo. All of these are extremely poor coun-
tries with average yearly incomes well below $2,000
(World Bank, 2017). The widespread persistence of violence (Bloomberg, 2017). About 400 died trying to make the cross-
and poverty highlights the continuing need for both eco- ing (“U.S.–Mexico Border Migrant Deaths,” 2018).
nomic aid and measures to increase stability—although, as Migrants come to new nations to escape violence and
we noted above, the success of these has been limited. poverty, but they frequently face discrimination in the places
they settle. They are often able to increase their wealth, but
this may come at the price of decreasing their social status
Migration (Haines, 2007: 62). Isolation and alienation have led to unrest
Violence, poverty, and instability continue to lead to wide- in immigrant communities in Europe, particularly among
spread migration of people whose lives are in danger and Africans and Muslims. Illegal immigrants are in a partic-
those hoping to find better futures for themselves and their ularly weak position. Their status makes them extremely
families. As we saw in the “Anthropology Makes a Difference” vulnerable to exploitation. Further, although host countries
section of Chapter 10, in 2016 more than 65 million people may create programs to attract migrants in times of eco-
worldwide were forced to move due to armed conflict or nat- nomic prosperity, in hard economic times they frequently
ural or man-made disasters. turn against migrants. As we saw in Chapter 7 on political
Violence and poverty have led people to undertake organization, although economic data show that migrants
extraordinarily dangerous journeys for a chance at safety contribute substantially to their new countries, they are often
and a better life. Between 2014 and 2017, for example, more political targets. Increasing migration is among the most fre-
than 1.7 million migrants and refugees traveled to Europe via quently cited causes of the rise of nationalist populism.
the Mediterranean Sea (Eurostat, 2018). The International When migrants leave their home communities, they
Organization for Migration reported that during this deprive those communities of their skills and labor. It is diffi-
period, 22,500 died or disappeared while attempting this cult to convince people to remain in poor, unstable countries
route, more than half of them between Libya and Italy when the salaries paid for their skills may be 30 or more times
(Dehghan, 2017; Figure 15.3). Migrants also face the higher in wealthy nations. However, this migration may be
possibility of being raped, enslaved, or murdered by those the key to improving conditions in the regions left behind.
who transport them (Sherlock & Al-Arian, 2018). Migrants provide their communities of origin with contact to
Between the beginning of October 2016 and the end of the rest of the world, creating a broad network of support for
September 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection appre- community members. People in seemingly isolated villages
hended more than 300,000 people, many of whom were often have connections with family and friends through-
seeking asylum. The total number trying to cross into the out the world. These connections bring information, ideas,
United States was probably between 375,000 and 600,000 products, and—perhaps most important—money. In 2016,
the total humanitarian aid from all national governments made a profit of about $48.3 billion—about 57 times the
worldwide was about $27.3 billion, whereas migrants sent total economy of the nation of Samoa (Fortune, 2018; World
over $600 billion to people in their home countries. India Bank, 2018g). In 2018, online retail giant Amazon searched
alone received $65 billion. In some nations, remittances from for a new corporate headquarters. U.S. cities competed to be
migrants constitute a substantial percentage of the national selected, and some offered substantial financial incentives.
economy. For example, remittances account for 35% of gross Montgomery County in Maryland offered the most—over
domestic product (GDP) in Tajikistan, 25% in Lesotho, and $8.5 billion in tax rebates and infrastructure and transporta-
23% in Nepal (World Bank, 2011). tion improvements (Garfield, 2018). The financial power of
large MNCs allows them to exert enormous influence and
makes it extremely difficult for nations to regulate them.
Multinational Corporations MNCs are also problematic because, like all capitalist cor-
A business that own enterprises and seeks to market its porations, their fundamental goal is to return wealth to their
goods and services in more than one nation is known as a shareholders, the vast majority of whom are already wealthy.
multinational corporation (MNC). MNCs provide employ- MNCs employ people throughout the world and provide
ment opportunities as well as goods and services to people goods and services to them. In so doing, they usually improve
who otherwise would not have them. They have clearly people’s standards of living. However, they also redistribute
played an important role in creating the rising global mid- wealth from their workers and customers, most of whom
dle class. At the same time, they are the source of major and have relatively little money, to corporate shareholders, most
controversial changes in the natural, economic, social, and of whom have much more. Thus, they are generators of
cultural environments. inequality. Through their actions, wealth moves from the rel-
Because MNCs control vast amounts of wealth, they atively poor to the relatively rich.
are significant political forces throughout the world. They
are private companies, but they can have enormous effects
on politics and culture. For example, in 2008 and 2009, the Sweatshop Labor
problems of multinational financial corporations threatened Low costs of transportation enable MNCs to locate their pro-
the global economy. Wealthy nations discovered that some duction facilities in the places that are least expensive for them.
MNCs were too big to let fail and were forced to provide pub- Since labor is often a major component of the cost of produc-
lic funding for them. The effects of the corporate decline and tion, MNCs seek places where labor is extremely inexpensive.
failure reverberated around the world, leading to job losses, In many cases, production is outsourced to other corporations
bankruptcy, migration, and culture change in many places. that employ people under sweatshop conditions. Sweatshops
Poor nations are particularly vulnerable to MNCs. No are factories where workers, often women and children, are
corporation controls more than a small percentage of the employed for long hours under difficult conditions at low pay.
economy of any rich nation. But many MNCs have yearly South and East Asia—a sweatshop belt, which includes China,
budgets that are greater than those of the governments of South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Bangladesh—
poor nations. For example, in 2017, each of the world’s 10 larg- accounts for about one-fourth of the global economy (Kristoff
est companies had a gross revenue of more than $190 billion, & WuDunn, 2000). Not all production in southern and east-
more than the total value of the economy (the GDP) of all but ern Asia is sweatshop labor, however, and sweatshops exist in
46 of the countries tracked by the World Bank. In 2017, Apple many other countries, including the United States.

D E V E L O PM E N T A N T H R O P O L O GY
In the second half of the 20th century, wealthy nations effect on the deeply entrenched problems of poverty.
and newly independent poor nations turned their In response, major development organizations such
attention to the eradication of poverty. Early efforts as the World Bank and the United Nations moved
based on modernization theory concentrated on large- toward a basic human needs approach. This meant
scale infrastructure projects—the building of roads, turning their focus to projects aimed more directly at
dams, and power plants. However, by the 1970s, it was improving the welfare of the poor, particularly in rural
clear that such construction projects were having little areas.
Few anthropologists had been involved in the places. She has designed instructions for midwives
modernization approaches to development. However, and training materials for Peace Corps volunteers.
the basic human needs approach required providing Clarke notes that economists and development
services to the sorts of small rural communities planners often assume that all people think alike and
that anthropologists often studied. Governmental respond to the same incentives. Anthropologists, on
aid agencies did not know how to operate in such the other hand, think in terms of understanding the
communities and looked to anthropologists for entire system rather than single elements of it. They
expertise. Anthropologists were often deeply look for links between different facets of society that
sympathetic to the people who were the targets of others may miss. Anthropologists try to understand
basic human needs projects and saw such projects local people’s perceptions of the world and to access
as beneficial. Thus, anthropologists were drawn into their knowledge, a process that makes for better project
development both by the needs of governments designs (Clarke, 2000). Anthropologist Jim Igoe’s work
and their own desire to help. This conjuncture of with national parks and indigenous communities in
interests gave birth to a new specialty: development East Africa provides a good example. Igoe explores the
anthropology. Anthropologists drawn to development difficulties in communication between donors and the
anthropology viewed economic development as both local organizations and indigenous peoples they work
desirable and, in the long run, inevitable. with. He has reported that development in general and
conservation in particular are never as simple as they
In 1974, the United States Agency for International may seem. When working with the Maasai, Igoe found
Development (USAID) employed one full-time that the ideas and plans of Western-based conservation
anthropologist; by 1980, it employed more than 50 agencies were oversimplified and ignored local history.
(Escobar, 1997). Development anthropologists are They were based primarily on Western ideas about the
trained to act as culture brokers—intermediaries place of human beings in nature and the ways in which
between development organizations and the recipients society and economy should be organized. Igoe wrote
of aid. Due to their interest in the local aspects of that because such ideas resonate with Western culture
globalization, their ethnographically based knowledge and Western history, “these simple solutions seem
of remote communities, and their ability to provide plausible to Westerners, but usually less plausible to
cogent analysis and assessment, they have made the non-Western people who they target” (2004: 133).
important contributions to development projects.
Sometimes anthropological interventions are aimed
The World Bank’s current president (as of 2018) is Jim at mitigating the worst effects of development
Yong Kim, a medical anthropologist who is a global projects. Several good examples of this concern
health expert and a cofounder with Paul Farmer of the construction of large hydroelectric dams. Such
Partners In Health, a charitable agency that focuses projects often involve the forced resettlement of entire
on improving health care delivery systems in the communities. In 2008, anthropologists served on
poorest nations. Responding to criticism that the panels reviewing resettlement programs necessitated
World Bank prioritizes Western cultural solutions and by dam construction in Laos, Turkey, and Uganda. In
marginalizes local cultural approaches to development, all three cases, anthropologists documented significant
Kim emphasizes an anthropological approach that failures in the environmental and social programs that
“amplifies the voices of developing countries and accompanied these projects. In two of the three cases,
draws on the expertise and experience of the people we anthropological contributions resulted in substantial
serve” (World Bank, 2012). changes to the programs (Checker, 2009: 165).
Although Kim’s public health projects have saved Although nonmilitary foreign aid has diminished since
many lives, he has not generally opposed or called the end of the Cold War, there is still a strong need
into question the neoliberal economic policies and for both assistance programs and anthropological
structures that impede solutions to improving health thinking about culture and economic development.
among the very poorest countries. And herein lies the The websites of large governmental development
tension in development anthropology: While engaged organizations such as the World Bank (www.worldbank
anthropologists strongly favor development aid, they .org), the U.S. Agency for International Development
note that development may reinforce the structures (www.usaid.gov), and the United Nations (www.un.org)
of inequality that create poverty in the first place, and contain an enormous wealth of information. Volunteer
they call for programs that empower the oppressed (see opportunities also abound on the Web. The Peace
Crush, 1995; Pigg, 2001). Corps (www.peacecorps.gov) maintains an extensive
and highly informative website, including information
Anthropologists play important roles in the planning on volunteering and stories from former volunteers.
of development. For example, anthropologist Mari Two other volunteer associations with interesting
H. Clarke has worked on projects for health care and websites are WorldTeach (www.worldteach.org) and
education in Kenya, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, and other International Volunteer HQ (www.ivhq.org).
There is much debate over the role of sweatshops

FIGURE 15.4 The worst sweatshop disaster in history in the world economy. There is no question that they
occurred on April 24, 2013, when over 1,000 people keep prices low for consumers and profits high for
making clothing for U.S. brands such as Walmart died corporations. However, the degree to which they pro-
in a building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh. vide benefits to their workers is disputed. On the one
hand, people are often willing to work under terrible
SK Hasan Ali/Alamy Stock Photo
conditions because the alternatives are even worse.

For the deeply impoverished, especially the land-
less poor, the money earned in factory work, even if
it is inadequate, means the difference between food
and a roof over their heads and hunger on the streets.
Furthermore, advocates argue, both conditions and
wages tend to improve over time. For example, the
current Cambodian minimum wage of $170 a month
is less than is required to support a family of two adults
and two children. However, it is far better than the
$61 a month that Cambodian workers earned in 2012
(Reuters, 2017, Trading Economics, 2018).
Opponents of sweatshops argue that conditions
in sweatshops are fundamentally dehumanizing and
insist that governments should apply global standards
Much sweatshop production is funneled into the United to labor conditions. They point out that sweatshops were
States in the form of cheap consumer goods. Major brands once common in the United States and other wealthy nations.
such as Walmart, Gap, Marks & Spencer (a popular British It took strong government intervention to improve factory
store), H&M, Adidas, Nike, and many others produce cloth- conditions, limit child labor, and impose minimum wages.
ing and consumer products under sweatshop conditions. In Today’s poor nations are often discouraged from taking the
2016 more than 500 workers in Cambodian factories mak- actions that enabled wealthy nations to restrict sweatshop
ing Nike, Asics, and Puma products were hospitalized after labor and create a strong middle class (Rothstein, 2005).
collapsing on the job. That so many workers would collapse In some cases, there are better alternatives to factory
is not surprising since temperatures in these factories fre- labor. In a study in Ethiopia, Christopher Blattman and
quently rise to almost 100 degrees (McVeigh, 2017). Nike in Stefan Dercon (2017) followed almost 1,000 people who had
particular has faced repeated criticism over its use of sweat- applied for factory jobs. They found that those who did not
shop labor. In 1998, the company committed to changing its get these jobs often ended up in market selling, agriculture,
policies, but in 2017 it was again under fire for its practices, and construction, where they made about as much as those
which included contracting with factories that verbally who did get factory jobs. Additionally, two-thirds of those
abused their workers, stole wages from workers, and fired who got factory jobs quit within a year.
those who participated in organizing unions (Bain, 2017). As has been noted, sweatshops are not limited to
Sweatshops have been the scenes of frequent disasters. poor nations today. The garment industry in Los Angeles
The largest of these occurred on April 24, 2013, when Rana employs about 45,000 workers, many under difficult
Plaza, a commercial building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, col- conditions and at very low pay. A 2015 survey by the
lapsed, killing 1,134 and injuring at least 2,500 (Figure 15.4). Garment Worker Center showed that more than 20%
The building housed several factories where workers, mainly experienced on-the-job violence or harassment, almost
women and children, made clothing for Children’s Place, J.C. half worked 10 hours a day or more without overtime,
Penney, Walmart, and other U.S. brands. In the wake of the and, because they are paid by the piece rather than by the
disaster, several private and government agreements were hour, more than half received less than the minimum wage
made to improve worker safety. These included changes such (Garment Worker Center, 2015).
as adding sprinkler systems and emergency exits. Those who Politicians and pundits sometimes point to the
signed the agreements were supposed to correct critical safety sweatshops of multinational corporations as the cause for
issues by 2018, but a report in February of that year showed the economic decline in the United States. It is certainly
that only about 3% of factories were fully in compliance and true that the United States once supported a thriving man-
only 15% had implemented half of the required changes ufacturing sector that provided middle-class lifestyles for
(Kashyap, 2018). its employees. However, in 2018, the median wage for an
Ethnography
CHILD L ABOR IN BRAZIL
For the middle and upper classes in both wealthy Anthropologist Mary Kenny studied child workers
and poor countries, childhood is understood as a in Olinda, a town of about 400,000 in northeast
period of life distinct and separate from adulthood. Brazil. Because Olinda was an important town in the
Relationships between parents and children should 17th century and has preserved some of its colonial
be permanent and characterized by love, and the heritage, it is a destination for tourists. However, it is
proper place for children is in school. Certain also an impoverished town in a deeply impoverished
types of labor, including schoolwork, household part of Brazil. Kenny reported that during her study,
chores, and working alongside adult relatives, are about 60% of Olinda’s population lived in favelas
considered appropriate for children. However, work (shantytowns) or other poor neighborhoods (Figure
that occupies most of a child’s life and is directly 15.5). She described the favelas as mazes of small
remunerated in cash, such as begging or employment pathways leading to two- and three-room homes made
in manufacturing, is considered inappropriate. Many of brick, wood, paper, and tin. Each building is home
of these values are enshrined in law in the United to an average of 10 people. Throughout the favela
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, are “open cement drains filled with a grey liquid with
which declares that children should “grow up in a bubbles on top, emitting a wretched stench that never
family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, quits” (Kenny, 1997: 90). According to Kenny, relations
love, and understanding.” The convention further among residents of favelas are neither friendly nor
states that “children should be protected from cooperative. Although solidarity, pooling of resources,
economic exploitation and from performing any
work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere
with the child’s education, or to be harmful to . . .
[their] development.” However, millions of children
worldwide live in conditions that are very far removed
from this ideal of childhood. Although the numbers
are controversial, the World Bank has reported that
BRAZIL
more than 350 million children worldwide live in
extreme poverty. Children are twice as likely as adults
to live in extreme poverty (World Bank 2016). Tens
of millions of children live on the streets (Thomas de
Benitez, 2011), and hundreds of millions do dangerous
GUYANA
work, are exposed to hazardous conditions, and face VENEZUELA SURINAME
family conditions of violence and instability. Fr. Guiana (Fr.)
COLOMBIA
ATL A NTIC
FIGURE 15.5 Much of the population O CEA N
of Olinda, Brazil, lives in favelas
(shantytowns) where conditions are
very harsh. Here, children of Olinda’s
BRAZIL Olinda
favelas pose for a picture.
PERU
VINCENZO PINTO/Staff/Getty Images
Brasilia
BOLIVIA
PACI FI C O CE AN
Rio de Janeiro
CHILE PARAGUAY
São Paulo
ARGENTINA
0 500 mi
URUGUAY 0 500 km
(Continued)
(Continued)
borrowing, and sharing do occur, they are obliterated dates only to the early years of the 20th century. In
by suspicion and scarcity (Kenny, 2007: 59). places such as Olinda, families are able to survive
only because of the income-generating activities of
For adult residents of the favela, regular paid their children. In fact, in many cases, children have
work is very difficult to find. Some men are day higher earning abilities than adults.
laborers; others wash cars or sell peanuts and ice
pops. Women sometimes work as laundresses, Kenny’s study noted that for the children of Olinda’s
hairdressers, or seamstresses. However, none of these favelas, the efforts of well-intentioned reformers
jobs provides enough money to support even a small are often ineffective or, worse yet, work against the
family. In these circumstances, the labor of even interests of those they are intended to help. Such
very young children becomes essential. Children efforts are based on the norms of the middle and
under the age of 12 sell small items, guard cars, carry upper classes, which are assumed to be universal.
goods, wash dishes, and clean. Garbage picking also Reformers promote policies intended to keep
is another key occupation for them. Conditions for families together, but the families of Olinda’s poor
garbage pickers are harsh, and the health of children are often brutally exploitative of children. Reformers
and adults is jeopardized by a wide range of diseases, promote education, but education is not only
infections, parasites, and rodents. Horrors abound expensive, it reduces the time children can spend
at the dumps; for example, during Kenny’s study, earning money and thus threatens their families’
at least two human bodies were found there each survival. Further, education is economically valuable
week (Kenny, 1997:105). However, with the labor only when it provides access to higher-paying jobs.
of children, a family of garbage pickers can earn In the favelas, this simply is not the case.
enough to survive. Children and adults may also find
food that is still edible in the dumps. Kenny’s study of Brazilian child workers makes
it clear that the exploitation of children is not the
Children under 12 can also make money as beggars. problem. Rather, it is a symptom of poverty. She
Kenny spoke with Dalva, a 12-year-who organized noted that although child advocates drawn from the
the four younger children in her family to beg from middle and wealthy classes call for the elimination
tourists in the old colonial district of town. Because of child labor, child laborers themselves advocate
Dalva’s parents produced very little income, the better wages and more secure jobs. These demands
family was able to survive only because of Dalva’s are the same as those made by adults from the same
abilities to beg. Davla said, “If I don’t work, my family areas “who work in conditions as damaging to health
will go hungry . . . . I can take it. It’s my fate” (Kenny, and as exploitative as those faced by their children”
1997: 108). Although Dalva gave her parents most of (Kenny, 1997: 216).
the money she and the younger children received,
she did retain some for herself. She also begged and In the time since her original field research, Kenny
bought a variety of food and small items during her has continued to return regularly to Brazil. Many
workday. Dalva lived with her mother, and her father of the children with whom she worked have moved
was sometimes present, but Kenny reported that on, migrated to Rio de Janeiro, or, sadly, passed
Dalva’s income-generating abilities effectively made away. However, in the past decade, the level of
her a household head. Beggars, trash pickers, and poverty in Brazil has dropped significantly. Financial
other working children do sometimes go to school, assistance programs and interventions such as the
but this is expensive. Even though there is no tuition, Bolsa Família (BFP) have provided a solid base of
students require proper clothes and school supplies support for addressing poverty, access to education,
that families often cannot afford. and health care. One of the programs of the BFP
provides financial assistance to poor families as long
Stories of children such as Dalva are disturbing as they keep their children in school and maintain
to us not only because of the horrific conditions basic health care standards. Benefits are cancelled
under which these children live but also because if these conditions are not met. More children now
they challenge our notion of childhood. However, attend school and remain in school than ever before.
although childhood is a biological state at some Until recently, Brazil had one of the highest levels of
level, it is clear that the roles and behaviors income inequality in the world, but this has dropped
appropriate to young children vary enormously from substantially since 1998; the direct cash transfers and
culture to culture. In today’s wealthy nations, child improvements to education are responsible for about
labor was the rule rather than the exception until the two-thirds of this improvement (Hailu, 2009).
late 19th century. Then, as industrial and agricultural
processes changed, increased emphasis was placed Unfortunately, Brazil’s economy was hit hard by the
on childhood as a time of schooling rather than work. financial crisis of 2008. The Brazilian economy grew
Universal compulsory education in the United States sharply during the 2000s, with annual growth rates as
high as 7.5%. However, in 2011, growth was only 2.7%, 2. Some studies of the poor have documented their
and this figure continued to decline in 2012 (Reuters, use of networks of cooperation to survive, but
2012). It is not clear how long this decline will last or these are not characteristic of life in Olinda’s
what effects it will have on programs like the BFP. favelas. What forces do you think prevent such
networks from forming?
3. Anthropologists have often favored a human
1. This ethnography suggests that our notions about
needs approach to economic development.
childhood are often culturally bound. Do you
Would that approach benefit the children of
believe there are any aspects of childhood that are
Olinda?
or should be universal?
assembly line worker in the country was $12.71 (Payscale in Taiwan but with production facilities in China, Mexico,
.com, 2018), which provides an annual income well below the Brazil, and other countries, assembles about 40% of the
national poverty line for a family of four. Even so, this wage is world’s electronics. Foxconn is mainland China’s single
more than three times three times the average factory wage largest employer, with 1.3 million workers (Figure 15.6). In
in China, and manufacturing wages in China are five times 2017, Foxconn announced that it would build a TV manufac-
those of India (Yan, 2017). According to several polls, 70% turing facility in Wisconsin.
to 75% of Americans say they would prefer to buy products Foxconn facilities, particularly those in China, have been
made in the United States. However, the same polls say that plagued with labor problems. Workers have logged exces-
only about 30% were willing to pay more for such products sive overtime, often laboring seven days a week. They live
(Long, 2017). in crowded dorms, and some who work on assembly lines
stand for so long that their legs swell and they cannot walk.
Underage workers are common, and there are issues with
Electronics, Apple, and Foxconn
record falsification and disposal of hazardous waste. Between
Americans and many others around the world are heavily 2009 and 2011, over 18 Foxconn workers jumped from build-
dependent on computers, cell phones, and other electronics. ings or fell in ways that suggested suicide. In spring 2011,
However, we are often unaware of the conditions under there was a fatal explosion at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu.
which these items are made. Foxconn, a company based In early 2012, over 300 workers at the plant that makes Xbox
360s threatened to jump to their deaths when they were
denied money they had been promised. Deaths at Foxconn
have continued at a slower pace since then (Sin, 2016). One
FIGURE 15.6 Foxconn is China’s largest worker interviewed said that little has changed, however,
single employer, with 1.3 million workers. Here, and that “it wouldn’t be Foxconn without people dying”
workers wear “I heart Foxconn” shirts at a (Merchant, 2017).
morale-boosting rally in 2010. Foxconn is not the only electronics company experienc-
ing such problems. In 2009, 140 workers at a Wintek facility
in China were hospitalized after being poisoned with n-hex-
AFP/Stringer/Getty Images
ane, a cleaning agent that can cause nerve damage and paral-
ysis. And an explosion in late 2011 at a Shanghai plant owned
by Pegatron sent 23 workers to the hospital. In 2017, a total
of 38,000 workplace deaths occurred in China, although it
should be noted this was a significant improvement from the
66,000 in 2015 (“Deaths from Workplace Accidents,” 2018;
“66,000 Workplace Deaths,” 2016).
In a New York Times article, reporters Charles Duhigg
and David Barboza (2012) discussed the experiences of
Lai Xiaodong, a worker killed in the Foxconn explosion of
early 2011. Lai, a college graduate, had come to Chengdu to
work for Foxconn in fall 2010. At the factory, he found an
environment where the assembly lines ran 24 hours a day and in part by deflecting blame away from itself to the companies
workers stood, crouched, or sat on backless chairs. The work that produce its products, like Foxconn. How blame should
week was limited to 60 hours, but many individuals, includ- be apportioned between Apple and its suppliers is not clear.
ing Lai, worked more. Employees who arrived late were pun- It is also unclear if consumers will pay the higher prices that
ished, and workers sometimes had to do two shifts in a row. improving conditions for workers will probably demand.
Lai was fortunate to have his own tiny bedroom; in company
dorms, as many as 20 people lived in a three-room apartment.
For his labor, including overtime, Lai earned about $22 a day. MNCs: McDonaldization
By spring 2011, Lai was in charge of a team of workers Anthropologists are deeply concerned about labor abuses
who operated machines that polished iPad cases. They by MNCs, but they also are interested in the ways MNCs
worked in an area where the air was filled with aluminum are changing social structures and cultural ideals. Although
particles. Although Apple and Foxconn knew of the MNCs usually tailor their operations to make some accom-
excessive airborne aluminum dust, nothing was done to modation to local culture, their great reach means that people
eliminate it. With the iPad newly on sale, demand was very around the world have similar experiences when dealing with
high and the pace of work frantic. Airborne dust can be them. The sociologist George Ritzer (1993) coined the phrase
explosive, and this is what happened at Chengdu. A series of “McDonaldization” to refer to this increasing homogeniza-
explosions shook the building, killing four people and injur- tion of culture. According to Ritter, experiences of all kinds
ing 18. Lai was burned on over 90% of his body, but he sur- are increasingly dominated by efficiency, calculability (basing
vived for two days. assessment on quantifiable, objective outcomes), standard-
Electronics made for many different companies are pro- ization, and control.
duced under equally harsh conditions. However, because McDonald’s itself is perhaps the greatest practitioner
Apple is the largest of the world’s electronics companies, it of McDonaldization. In early 2018, the company had more
is involved in more of these incidents than any other. Apple than 36,000 locations in 101 countries. However, Subway
outsources 100% of its manufacturing and frequently claims was larger, with almost 44,000 locations in 112 countries.
to hold the companies with which it does business to the KFC was in more countries than either of these two (125) but
highest standards (Chen, 2012). Since 2005, Apple has had had only 20,500 locations (Rosenberg, 2018). The interna-
a code of conduct that, at least in theory, ensures safe condi- tional spread of businesses that deal directly with consumers
tions for its workers and requires they be treated with respect. isn’t limited to the fast food industry or to U.S. corpora-
Apple also conducts audits to be sure that its code of conduct tions. Walmart has more than 6,200 international stores and
is followed. However, these audits have shown consistent pat- employs more than 800,000 workers worldwide (Walmart,
terns of violation. Every year the audits are carried out, they 2018). French retailer Carrefour operates 12,000 shops in
show safety violations, involuntary labor, workers employed more than 30 countries, and German food retailers Lidl
for too many hours, and workers receiving less than min- and Aldi operate thousands of stores across Europe and the
imum wages. In early 2012, a Fair Labor Association report United States.
on Foxconn commissioned by Apple showed at least 43 The media is also significantly internationalized. CNN
violations of Chinese laws and found that 43% of work- has 12 branded networks and is available to almost one-third
ers had witnessed or experienced an accident (Duhigg & of the world’s population in more than 200 countries and
Greenhouse, 2012). territories (CNN, 2018). Google has 70 offices in 50 coun-
Apple’s public commitment to worker welfare is impres- tries. As of spring 2018, there were more Facebook users in
sive; however, the practices of companies such as Foxconn India than in the United States, and Indonesia and Brazil both
create conditions under which workers’ rights are easily vio- had more than 130 million users. The Philippines was not far
lated. Apple has invested in preventing underage labor and behind (Statistica, 2018a). Movies are also becoming increas-
in training workers to understand their rights, but very few ingly international in their reach. As of May 2018, the U.S.
suppliers have ever been terminated by Apple for violating blockbuster Black Panther had earned more than 48% of its
workers’ rights. Further, like many other multinational cor- $1.3 billion dollar revenue outside the United States, and the
porations, Apple has enormous economic power and is able far less successful Ready Player One had earned more than
to negotiate very low prices from its suppliers. This often three-quarters of its revenue from foreign sales (Box Office
means that suppliers cut corners and push their workers Mojo, 2018a, 2018b).
harder. None of these facts are necessarily bad things. Part of the
Thus far, despite substantial publicity about working con- success and usefulness of these companies and products is
ditions in its facilities, Apple has successfully avoided major that they are available in so many places. If people in Thailand
consumer resistance both in the United States and in China, did not wish to buy KFC, the company’s locations there
Apple’s third-largest market (Hollander, 2017). It has done so would soon close. If people in Bulgaria were not interested in
Black Panther, it probably wouldn’t have been released there. In 1950, seven of the world’s 10 largest cities were in
However, all this does mean a reduction in cultural variation. Europe, Russia, Japan, and the United States. The average
It means that billions of people throughout the world have population of these cities was about 6.7 million. In 2016,
cultural experiences that are in some ways similar. And the only two cities in these nations made the top 10: Tokyo and
more time people spend on Facebook, in Walmart locations, New York. There are 31 cities with populations greater than
or watching international movies, the less time they spend 10 million, and only seven of these are in Europe, the United
doing other things. States, or Japan. Six are in China; five are in India. The aver-
age population of the world’s 10 largest cities was 22 million
in 2018. Almost all the urban population growth between
MNCs: Gender now and 2050 is expected to occur in the world’s poor nations
In many places, MNCs have had significant effects on gen- (United Nations, 2017d). Some of the cities that will result
der issues and thus on the structure of society as well. MNCs from this will be truly enormous. For example, in 2025, the
and their close links with the world economy have pro- population of Dhaka in Bangladesh is projected to be almost
vided new economic power to men. In Papua New Guinea, 23 million. Lagos, Nigeria, will be home to almost 19 million,
for example, oil revenues paid to male groups have enabled and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will
them to expand their social networks but have alienated have a population of 14.5 million (United Nations, 2012).
them from earlier exchange networks and from women These truly will be megacities. Providing basic services to
(Gilberthorpe, 2007). In other places, MNCs employ large such large populations in these poor nations will be an enor-
numbers of female workers because women are perceived as mous challenge.
more easily controlled than men. Indeed, women are victims Rural people move to cities in search of jobs and other
of some of the worst labor abuses. However, money earned social, material, and cultural advantages. They are forced
from working may give a woman economic power that can out of the countryside by high population levels, inability to
improve her position in society as well as that of her family acquire land, environmental degradation, and, sometimes,
(Freeman, 2007). Reeves reported that the young female violence. When new migrants arrive in urban areas, they
Indonesian immigrant workers he studied were drawn to often find dismal living conditions. In 2014, about one-third
wage labor for many disparate reasons, including “a desire of the urban population of poor nations lived in slums. This is
for financial independence from family . . . a commit- a substantial improvement from the almost 40% in 2000, but
ment to improve one’s family’s economic outcomes . . . per- it still means that about one out of every eight people lives in
sonal development goals, [and] a long-term hope of saving a slum. (United Nations, 2016b). However, as bad as life can
enough seed capital to open small businesses upon return to be in places like the slums of Mumbai, most people are there
Indonesia” (2006: 8). because they believe their lives and prospects are better than
The far-reaching operation of MNCs raises import- in the rural villages they left behind.
ant questions that people in wealthy and poor nations alike With urbanization comes the development of a great
must face. Can low-wage jobs lead to prosperity? Can groups variety of social groups based on voluntary membership.
maintain cultural distinctiveness in the face of an increasingly Such associations may serve as mutual aid societies—
uniform society? What are the consequences of a system that lending money to members, providing scholarships for
makes people wealthier and increases their access to con- students, arranging funerals, and taking care of marriage
sumer goods but that also increases the disparity between arrangements for urban migrants. Some develop along
the rich and the poor and makes people increasingly aware of kinship or ethnic lines that were relevant in the traditional
that disparity? culture; others, such as labor unions, are based on
relationships deriving from new economic contexts and have
Urbanization no parallel in rural society.
Urban life can be extremely difficult. Many of the
In 1950, only about 16% of the total population of nonindus- urban poor face hunger, unsafe drinking water, inad-
trialized nations lived in large cities. By 2000, this figure had equate sanitation facilities, and substandard shelter.
reached 40%. By 2008, more than half of the world’s popu- Disease and early death are rampant in the slums of the
lation lived in cities. And in 2016, the number had grown to world’s largest cities. The experience of the urban poor is
54%, with almost a quarter of the world’s population living not necessarily characterized by association and solidar-
in cities of at least a million people (World Bank, 2018f). By ity. Survival on the margins of the urban environment is
2045, the world’s urban population is expected to exceed 6 often ruthlessly competitive. As Katherine Boo related in
billion. Rural populations, on the other hand, are expected Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012), in-fighting, crime,
to decline to about 3.1 billion by 2050 (United Nations, and violence are common in deeply impoverished urban
2014) communities (Figure 15.7). People struggle for any
Urban people receive far more exposure to edu-

FIGURE 15.7 About one of every eight people in the cation and the media, both of which tend to reflect
world lives in an urban slum. Here, a new luxury hotel and enforce the views of cultural majorities and those
rises behind Annawadi, the slum in Mumbai described with power. To fit in and to be economically success-
by Katherine Boo in Behind the Beautiful Forevers. ful, urban dwellers may have to suppress cultural dif-
ferences. Migration may result in loss of language,
NDRANIL MUKHERJEE/Staff/Getty Images
social structures, values, and support networks.

Anthropologist Maurice Eisenruch (1991) coined
the term cultural bereavement to describe the state of
mind of refugees fleeing from wars—their sorrow and
psychological distress at being separated from their
cultures and thrust into a new environment. Dinesh
Bhugra and Matthew Becker (2005) noted that the
term frequently applies to voluntary migrants as well.
There is no doubt that many of the cultural practices
and ideas that anthropologists studied in the 19th and
20th centuries are disappearing as people leave rural
areas for cities.
However, cities are also great incubators of cul-
tural innovation. Some of the cultural ideas and prac-
tices people bring with them to urban areas often
advantage that might allow them and their children to survive, though frequently in new forms. The exposure of
escape crushing poverty. They face laws that protect the urban people to members of different cultures and different
interests of the wealthy and powerful and are often forced lifeways can be profoundly generative of new types of art,
into illegal activities merely to survive. Frequently, police ritual, food, and music. According to anthropologist Gisela
and justice systems do not provide protection but rather Welz (2003), anthropology has frequently shown that con-
extort what little money people have. Yet despite these tact between different cultures creates opportunities for
difficulties, cities continue to grow. This is a reflection innovation. Cities engender this because they place many
of both the truly profound poverty and desperation that different people in close contact with each other. Ulf Hannerz
characterizes so much of the rural areas of poor nations wrote that cities promote unexpected discoveries: “You find
and the fervent desire of hundreds of millions of the things without specifically looking for them because they are
world’s poor for economic advancement. around you all the time” (1992: 203). Hannerz calls the inter-
Any solution to the problems caused by urbanization activity of culture and the flow of ideas and practices among
must focus on both rural and urban areas. Nations must individuals and cultures the “urban swirl.” Many—perhaps
provide adequate services, including water, sewage, most—anthropologists today work in urban areas investigat-
education, and health care, to their urban populations. ing the ways in which people have adapted to urban lifestyles
However, unless life chances and opportunities are greatly and the cultural innovations that have resulted.
improved for rural populations, better services in the cities
will only draw more migrants who will quickly overwhelm Population Pressure
any advances made.
Urbanization has had and will continue to have The rate of population growth provides a dramatic index of
enormous cultural impacts. Cities are engines of cultural the increasing speed of social change. About 2 million years
change. Many of the customs, traditions, and lifeways of ago, our remote ancestors numbered perhaps 100,000. By
people in rural areas are often lost or greatly diminished the time the first agricultural societies were developing
when they move to the city. Cultural practices having to do 10,000 years ago, the world population had reached 5 to
with the agricultural cycle are no longer necessary. Rituals, 10 million. Two thousand years ago, there were about 250
beliefs, and ideas that are particular to specific villages million people in the world. By 1750, this number had tri-
and communities often die out when members of these pled to 750 million. Then, population growth really began
communities migrate to cities. Sometimes migration leaves to accelerate. Fifty years later, in 1800, there were 1 billion
too few people in rural areas to carry on customs, and those people on earth; by 1930, there were 2 billion. Since then,
who have moved to urban areas may be isolated from others the world population has more than tripled, surpassing
with whom they shared these practices. the 6 billion mark in the summer of 1999 (Erickson, 1995;
Fetto, 1999). In spring 2018, the world population stood at triplets). Families faced stiff financial penalties for additional
7.6 billion. The world population will continue to increase children. This policy may have been a key factor in reducing
and is expected reach almost 10 billion by 2050 and 11.2 fertility in China from about five births per women 30 years
billion by 2100 (United Nations 2017c). ago to fewer than two by the early 2000s (Baochang et al.,
Fertility rates vary dramatically among nations. In 2007). However, the cultural effects of the policy have been
general, high levels of fertility tend to be associated with dramatic.
poverty, low levels of education, and low urbanization. In The most evident effect has been a skewing of births in
nations with high fertility rates, the average woman has five favor of males. In 2004, the year with the greatest birth dis-
or more children. Nineteen of these nations are in Africa; parity, 121.2 boys were born for every 100 girls (Guilford,
the remaining two are in Asia. Nine nations—India, Nigeria, 2013). In some poor regions of the country, there were twice
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, as many male births as female births. Although the numbers
Tanzania, the United States, Uganda, and Indonesia—are have become a little more equal since then, in 2017 there were
expected to account for half of the world’s population growth still 115 male births for every 100 female births (World Bank,
between 2017 and 2050. On the other hand, population is 2018h). Demographers estimate that China is missing some
expected to decrease in 51 countries between 2017 and 2050 60 million women and girls. These are people who should
(United Nations, 2017d). have been born, but, because of gender-selective abortion,
In 1961, the average amount of farming land per per- were not (“A Distorted Sex Ratio,” 2017).
son in the world was a bit less than an acre. By 2015, this had In China, historically boys have been preferred because
declined to under a half acre (World Bank, 2018a). As pop- they were expected to live with their parents and provide sup-
ulations increase, it will decline still further. Agricultural port for them as they aged. A daughter, on the other hand,
land is increasingly valuable and must be farmed using very lived with her husband and took care of his parents. However,
intensive agricultural techniques in order for the world to in some places, particularly cities, this is changing. According
feed itself. This has resulted in profound cultural changes. to anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh (2005, 2007a), among
For example, among the Waluguru in Tanzania, population the newly prosperous urban Chinese, girls now are consid-
increase resulted in land shortage, which in turn resulted ered as good as or even preferable to boys because girls are
in the privatization of land. Prior to the mid-20th century, believed to be emotionally closer to their parents and more
the Waluguru gained access to land through their lineages, willing to provide support in their parents’ old age. However,
and lineage heads were powerful figures. Today, however, girls fare less well in poorer rural areas. The continued strong
land must be purchased, and not only has the institution of preference for boys is shown by the fact that in some areas, up
the lineage head completely disappeared, it is hardly even to 90% of second pregnancies are aborted if the fetus is female.
remembered. Van Donge (1992) reported that as land has
become scarce, women in this matrilineal society have tight-
ened their hold over it. This has weakened the position of
FIGURE 15.8 Between 1979 and 2013, the
men in marriage to the point where many prefer to migrate to
Chinese government enforced regulations
the cities to marry. More than 37% of women over 20 are now
limiting families to a single child. Posters and
unmarried, compared with 15% of men.
billboards promoted the idea of the single-child
In other cases, the rising value of land leads to the
family. This one reads, “If you want to prosper,
eviction of people who have lived on it for generations. For
you must control the population.”
example, according to Kate Hodal (2013), more than 400,000
Cambodian farmers were forced off their land between 2003
David Pollack/Contributor/Getty Images
and 2013, often without compensation. The land was then

turned over to sugar and rubber companies. More than 10%
of the country has been displaced in this way.
China’s One-Child Policy

Programs to control population growth are often extremely
controversial. They both affect and are affected by culture.
China’s attempt to control its population is a good example
(Figure 15.8). Between 1979 and 2013, the Chinese govern-
ment enforced a radical population policy limiting families to
a single child (although parents were allowed to keep twins or
NORTH
TH
EUROPE
EU
E UR
RO
OP
O PE
PE
AMER
AMERICA
MERICA
A ASIA
AS
SA PACIFIC
OCEAN
PACIFIC ATLANTIC
OCEAN OCEAN
AFRICA
AF
FRIC
RIC
R CA
CA
Fertility ranges by
number of children
per household SOUTH
High fertility AMERICA
AM
AM
ME
ER
ER
ERICA
RICA
RIC
CA
A INDIAN
(5 or more)
OCEAN A
AUSTRALIA
A
Intermediate fertility
(2-5)
Low fertility
( 2 or less)
No data Data Source: World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision
The extreme sex imbalance resulting from China’s policy strong evidence that it included human rights abuses such as
created fundamental changes in society. Wealthy men have forced abortions and sterilizations (S. Gordon, 2015). And it
no trouble finding mates, but it is much more difficult for might have all been unnecessary. Fertility in China has fallen
the rural poor. In Chinese society, a husband’s family pays a very sharply, from almost six children per women in 1960 to
bride price to the family of the wife. The shortage of women 1.6 in 2016. However, fertility in South Korea fell even further
has led to an escalation of price demands. Families in China during the same period, from over six children per woman
save a great deal of money, but much of it is to pay bride prices to 1.2, and there was a similar decline in Taiwan. Rates have
for their sons (Wei & Zhang, 2011). The difficulty of marriage fallen almost as fast in India and Indonesia as well; in these
has led to the importation of women from poorer countries two countries in 1960 there were about six children per
such as Vietnam and Myanmar, informal polyandry, the sale woman, but by 2016 this number was only 2.3 (World Bank,
of young women, and a trade in kidnapped girls. Because 2018c). None of these countries have instituted harsh regula-
these women are essentially captives in their husband’s home, tions limiting family size. Like China, India suffers from an
physical and emotional abuses are rife. In 2016, Chinese imbalanced sex ratio, but this is not the case in Taiwan, South
authorities rescued over 200 Vietnamese women who had Korea, or Indonesia. Clearly, there are factors other than gov-
been trafficked by more than 61 criminal gangs (Hodal, ernment regulation involved in the decline of fertility.
2017).
China’s limits on family size and the emphasis the
nation places on creating “quality children” have produced Fertility, Politics, and Economics
a generation of the most prosperous and best-educated Although China’s population issues are unique to its histor-
children in the nation’s history. However, they also are the ical and cultural circumstances, population control is prob-
subjects of intense familial affection and pressure to succeed. lematic in many places. In many cultures, a woman’s value
Greenhalgh (2007a) has described them as little emper- is measured to some degree by the number of children she
ors and empresses, “talented and savvy, but also spoiled and bears. Religious and political authorities often take an active
self-centered.” She wonders if when such children grow up, stand against the use of birth control. Furthermore, intellec-
they will be the sort of decisive and culturally sophisticated tuals and governments in many poor nations are deeply sus-
leaders who are able to make wise decisions on behalf of their picious of population control programs coming from wealthy
nation. nations. They note that the economies of wealthy nations
China’s one-child policy is one of the best-known gov- have often prospered in times of population growth, and they
ernmental efforts at controlling population increase. It was a suspect that wealthy nations are promoting their own inter-
profound intervention into the lives of most Chinese families ests when they attempt to limit population in other countries.
and left some families longing for additional children and Sometimes they accuse the promoters of population control
others trying to hide children from the government. There is of racist intentions, observing that such programs usually
consist of efforts by wealthy white people to limit the popu- the world move into the global middle class, their consump-
lation growth of poor nonwhite people (Lichtenberg, 1994). tion of both energy and consumer products increases. People
Beneath these accusations lies a series of difficult polit- who just a generation ago used relatively few disposable
ical and economic issues. It is often asserted that there is a goods now live lifestyles characterized by many throwaway
maximum population the earth can support—its “carrying products. Further, many of these products are highly dura-
capacity”—and some analysts worry that we are approaching ble. Consider, for example, the plastic grocery bag. Although
that number. They argue that we must control population or plastic grocery bags were invented in the 1960s, they were
face widespread starvation. They see population growth as a essentially unknown in most places, including the United
“bomb” that will destroy society. This position ignores sev- States, until the early 1980s (Laskow, 2014). By 2015, how-
eral important factors. First, the number of people supported ever, the United States used more than 380 billion plastic bags
by any environment depends on the technologies used in and wraps yearly. Plastic is made of petrochemicals, and each
this support. Because technological change is unpredictable, year we use the equivalent of about 12 million barrels of oil
estimates of future carrying capacity are inaccurate. More to make plastic bags alone. Worldwide, up to 1 trillion plas-
important, populations cannot be considered separate from tic bags are used every year (Anderson, 2016). The numbers
their levels of consumption. The number of people who can are similarly staggering for the usage of other everyday dis-
be supported living a typical American lifestyle is far different posable objects. For example, Americans are believed to use
from the number of people who could be supported if people about 500 million plastic straws every day (Parker, 2018b),
consumed more like the foragers discussed in earlier chap- and China uses about 80 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks
ters of this book. Finally, the number of people who could yearly (M. Moore, 2013).
be supported is dependent on assumptions we make about As people become wealthier, their meat consumption
the value of the natural world. If we desire to preserve forest increases as well. For example, the average person in China
land, tropical rain forest, or other environments, we dimin- now consumes more than 20 times the amount of meat than
ish the amount of land that is available for human population half a century ago, and the nation as a whole consumes a
growth. Thus, the issues central to problems of population quarter of the world’s meat (Smith, 2014; Myers, 2016). When
growth are primarily cultural, social, political, and moral, not people think about India, they often associate it with vegetar-
scientific. ianism. However, as of 2014, 71% of Indians over the age of
The high level of population growth and the low level of 15 were not vegetarians, and meat consumption was climbing
wealth in poor nations are closely related. When life expec- rapidly (Rowland, 2017).
tancy at birth is low and poverty is rampant, it makes good A similar pattern has occurred with energy consump-
economic sense for families to have large numbers of chil- tion. Between 1980 and 2014, per capita energy consumption
dren. It helps to ensure that at least some will survive to in India more than doubled. In China, it almost quadrupled.
adulthood, increases the labor pool available to the family, In Nigeria, it went from the equivalent of 665 kilograms of oil
and improves the odds that one or more child will prosper, in 1980 to 763 kilograms in 2014, and in the same period in
increasing overall family wealth. Guatemala, this amount rose from 520 to 830. In these same
As the wealth and consumption level of a population years, United States per capita energy consumption fell by
increase family size almost always declines, a process often more than 13%. However, it remains at about three times the
called the demographic transition. People choose to have Chinese consumption and more than 10 times the consump-
fewer children for a series of reasons. When health conditions tion in India (World Bank, 2018b). World energy consump-
improve, children are more likely to survive. When jobs that tion is expected to increase 28% between 2015 and 2040.
pay livable salaries are available, fewer children are neces- Most of this increase will be in Asia (U.S. Energy Information
sary to support a family. Increasing wealth and consumption Administration, 2017).
makes raising children far more expensive. Thus, in general, The environmental consequences of these vast increases
the benefits of large families decline, and their disadvantages in production and consumption are hard to fathom.
increase. Greater prosperity, which moves people into the However, we already have some gloomy indications. An
global middle class, is almost certainly the best and most suc- enormous patch of trash swirls in the Pacific Ocean between
cessful form of population control. Hawaii and California. A second patch lies off the west coast
of Japan. The eastern patch, off the coast of California, is
Environmental Challenges believed to be about double the size of Texas (Liu, 2018).
By weight, much of the trash is gear from the fishing indus-
Many of the gravest challenges to culture and, indeed, to try. However, there are also about 1.8 trillion pieces of plas-
human survival are environmental. The deterioration of the tic (Parker, 2018a; Figure 15.9).This is a problem not only
environment threatens people everywhere. As people around because of the marine life killed by such garbage but also
because more than 100 species of fish consume small

FIGURE 15.9 The great Pacific garbage patch contains
bits of plastic, which then enters the food supply of
more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. Here, marine
other, larger animals and humans (Parker, 2017).
researcher Charles Moore holds a sample of ocean
Pollution problems are not limited to the Pacific
water taken from it.
Ocean. The Gulf of Mexico contains a dead zone
the size of the state of New Jersey. The Mississippi
Bloomberg /Contributor/Getty Images

River collects runoff from farming and urban areas.
When this nutrient-rich water enters the Gulf of
Mexico, it creates enormous algae blooms that, when
they decompose, consume all the available oxygen,
making the water uninhabitable by most other life
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
2017).
Global Warming
Global warming is probably the most highly publi-
cized and certainly one of the most important aspects
of environmental change. Unfortunately, despite
overwhelming scientific consensus, the issue of
global warming has become highly politicized. We
can only report that in survey after survey, between
90% and 100% of scientists with relevant qualifica-
tions have affirmed both the reality of climate change
and the importance of humans’ role in it. Nearly 200
worldwide scientific organizations have made pub-
lic statements affirming that global warming is real
and that human activity is a key part of it (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2018). Some
brief facts: In 2017, atmospheric carbon dioxide, the
primary greenhouse gas, was at its highest level in
650,000 years. The global average temperature has
risen almost two degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, and
20 of the warmest years on record have happened
since 1995. Sea level has risen seven inches in the past
century. islands in the Indian Ocean, is only 1.3 meters above sea level.
It is unclear what the long-term effects of this warming The Seychelles (also in the Indian Ocean) and the Solomon
trend will be. For example, there are some possible benefits to Islands, located east of Papua New Guinea, are also threat-
global warming, particularly in northern Europe and Russia, ened (Astaiza, 2012). However, the largest threats are in far
where it may extend the growing season through increased more populous places. Some models of climate change now
rainfall and reduce fuel consumption for heating. However, predict that by 2100, average temperatures will be almost six
the impacts of warming are expected to be largely nega- degrees Fahrenheit higher than they were in the 19th century.
tive and to fall disproportionately on the poor. Many of the If this happens, almost 300 million people will be displaced.
world’s poor live in the tropics, where the effects of climate Cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro,
change are expected to be particularly severe. Warming may Miami, and The Hague will be profoundly affected (Holder
cut the growing season and reduce crop yields. The inten- et al., 2017).
sity of tropical storms is also expected to increase, which Wealthy nations have the resources to respond to cli-
could have devastating effects. As we saw in Chapter 5, global mate change. They can build levees to control flooding, move
warming has already had profound effects on Arctic cultures. their populations and their industries, and open new land
Rising sea levels pose a threat in numerous countries. to cultivation. Poor nations simply do not have the means at
On average, the Maldives, a nation consisting of over 1,000 their disposal to do such things. In regions where survival is
precarious today, climate change is likely to precipi-

tate disaster. FIGURE 15.10 People in poor nations consume far
less than those in wealthy nations but often live in far
more polluted environments. Here, people in Bamako,
The Effect of Pollution on the Poor Mali, scavenge among the refuse along the banks of the
Even though the world’s poor consume only a small Niger River.
fraction of the earth’s resources, they face some of
UniversalImagesGroup/Contributor/Getty Images
the worst problems of pollution and environmental
deterioration. Although the world’s wealthiest peo-
ple consume much more than the poorest, they tend
to live in far cleaner environments. Consider the city
of Bamako, the capital of Mali, on any late afternoon
in the dry season. Most streets are unpaved, and auto-
mobiles, trucks, carts, bicycles, and foot traffic have
been stirring up dust all day. Because most of the city
lacks regular trash pickup or a sewage system, waste
from humans and animals has been churned into the
air. People are beginning to cook their evening meal.
Many, perhaps the majority, of the city’s 2 million
residents cook either on charcoal or wood fires that
consume about 1 million tons of wood a year (Cissé,
2007), and the smoke from cook fires joins the dust in
the air. The combined effect of smoke and dust is like that production and the waste by-products it will create can
a thick, hot, dry fog. Because most houses are relatively open be solved is very much an open question. How to fulfil people’s
and lack glass windows or doors that seal, the dust permeates desire for prosperity while at the same time preventing pro-
the indoors as well as the outdoors. And Bamako’s population duction and consumption from making the planet unfit for
suffers. Pollution contributes to respiratory ailments, malaria, human life is perhaps the greatest challenge of the 21st century.
many diseases borne by sewage-contaminated water and air, Some trends point in the right direction. Renewable
and high childhood mortality. Meanwhile, rubbish piles up power sources such as wind and solar are the world’s fast-
in more than 40 unauthorized dumps along the Niger River est-growing energy sources. In the United States, they
(Observers, 2018; Figure 15.10). accounted for more than 13% of electricity production in
Compare this with a similarly sized U.S. city—say San 2015. In Sweden, renewables account for 52% of total energy
Antonio, Texas, a city of about 1.5 million. In San Antonio, usage. And Costa Rica has announced that it will be carbon
most streets are paved, and almost all homes have access to neutral by 2021. Ninety-eight percent of its electricity already
safe, publicly maintained water and sewage systems. Meals comes from renewable sources. Worldwide, electricity gener-
are cooked on appliances powered by electricity or gas. There ation from renewables is expected to surpass generation from
is a huge amount of vehicular traffic, but cars and trucks are coal by 2040 (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2017).
equipped with pollution-controlling devices. Although San In 2015, most nations of the world signed the Paris Climate
Antonio is not one of the wealthier U.S. cities, its population Agreement, which included pledges to hold the global average
consumes many times the resources than does the popula- temperature to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above 19th-century
tion of Bamako. But almost all of San Antonio’s population levels (the United States withdrew from this agreement in
lives in environments that are healthier and far less polluted 2017). In another promising development, in early 2017,
than Bamako. China halted plans to build more than 100 coal-fired electric-
ity generation plants. And Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat has
Reasons for Hope? developed technology that he hopes will remove half of the
trash from the Pacific garbage patch within five years, though
The desire of people around the world to have lifestyles that many remain skeptical that his plan will work (Loria, 2017).
are materially similar to those currently enjoyed by people in In addition, manufacturing responds to both public pres-
wealthy nations is wholly understandable. The technical prob- sure and to the cost of raw materials. Manufacturers are usu-
lem of producing enough food and goods for a world popula- ally moved toward efficiency, which means doing more with
tion in 2100 of 11.2 billion can probably be solved. However, less. For example, the first IBM personal computer, which
whether the problems generated by the energy required for was introduced in 1981, weighed 34 pounds when including
the keyboard but not the monitor. The monitor added an oil company denied the existence of indigenous people
additional 17 pounds. A typical smart phone in 2018 is many and retracted this only when he was shown photos of them
thousand times more powerful than that IBM machine but (Terborgh, 2012).
weighs only a few ounces. Digital electronics is an extreme
example, but advances have been made in other areas of man-
ufacturing as well. Saami Reindeer Herders and Norway
These are hopeful signs. But are they too little and too Even when a nation has both the resources and the will to
late? The question is urgent, and most readers of this book work with indigenous people, the course is still difficult. In
will probably live long enough to learn the answer. Norway, the Saami reindeer herders are an indigenous peo-
ple attempting to retain their traditional livelihood and cul-
The Rights of Indigenous People ture while participating in the global economy (Figure 15.11).
These two objectives sit uneasily with each other, however,
All over the world, indigenous peoples are an important part and are complicated by the actions of the Norwegian state.
of the ethnic landscape. Indigenous peoples are members In addition to reindeer herding, the Saami engage in fishing,
of relatively small-scale societies—usually bands, tribes, or small-scale agriculture, crafts, logging, and road building,
chiefdoms—that have been incorporated into large nation– and they receive government welfare payments. Although
states. Generally, indigenous people are closely identified the Saami now participate in the global economy, reindeer
with their land, are relatively egalitarian, manage resources at continue to have intrinsic value to the Saami, both as a form
the community level, and historically had high levels of eco- of wealth and a source of cultural distinctiveness.
nomic self-sufficiency. Members of indigenous groups are The Norwegian government considers the Saami a cul-
often determined to maintain their autonomy, their lands, turally distinct ethnic group and is officially committed to
and their culture. This frequently brings them into conflict furthering the Saami reindeer-herding way of life. At the
with other groups and with the governments of the nation– same time, Norway is committed to national economic
states within which they reside. development and environmental conservation, both of
Because indigenous peoples require control over their which the government says are impeded by unregulated
land base to remain self-sufficient and politically autono- Saami herding (Paine, 1994). In attempting to achieve its
mous, loss of this land has often been accompanied by eco- goals as a progressive, modern, egalitarian, multicultural
nomic marginalization. Without land, indigenous peoples nation, Norway regulates Saami reindeer herding in ways
are pushed into participation in the global market economy, that impinge on Saami cultural values and practices and
usually in a position of poverty. For example, between 1955 bring the Saami into conflict with the government.
and 1993, the Agta, a foraging group in the Philippines, was The Norwegian government regards many tradi-
increasingly encroached upon by loggers and migrant farm- tional Saami herd-management practices as unproductive,
ers. By 1993, the Agta had become landless migrant workers
living at the lowest level of Philippine society (Early &
Headland, 1998). Indigenous people have also been
pulled into the global economy by their desire for FIGURE 15.11 The Saami are an indigenous Arctic
consumer goods and modern lifestyles. group that depends on reindeer herding. Here, they
The United Nations has made several statements round up reindeer to prepare for the winter months.
affirming the human rights and rights of self-deter-
Barry Lewis/Contributor/Getty Images
mination of indigenous people. Organizations such

as Survival International view self-determination as
an inalienable right of indigenous people, arguing
that such people must have the right to remain unmo-
lested on their historic lands. These are positive devel-
opments. However, they may not have much effect
on national policy. Many countries that have rela-
tively large populations of indigenous people, such as
Brazil and Peru, also have large frontier areas where
the scramble for natural resources occurs and laws
are not well enforced. Many governments have nei-
ther the will nor the resources to defend indigenous
rights. For example, the director of Peru’s state-run
irrational, and detrimental to the environment. The govern- internationally (Stephens, 1987: 37). These forces push
ment’s aims are to reduce the overall number of Saami rein- the Saami toward reindeer herding as a system of capitalist
deer, to equalize the number of reindeer in each family’s herd, ranching that is very different from their historic practices.
and to rationalize reindeer-marketing practices. To this end, The Norwegian government promotes both the survival
the government restricts reindeer pastureland and the num- of and (relative) independence of the Saami. Laws passed in
ber of herders. This regulation directly conflicts with Saami 2005 and 2011 formally recognized Saami rights to land and
historical ways of herding reindeer. It is not clear whether natural resources and established tribunals to settle disputes
Saami or Norwegian governmental ways of herding are more (United Nations, 2016a). However, in the final analysis, the
ecologically sound. It is clear, however, that the Norwegian Norwegian state views the Saami pastoral way of life as a gift
government has the power to impose its understandings and from the state that must be balanced against other national
practices on the Saami. objectives, including tourism, mining, hydroelectric develop-
The situation is complicated by the fact that, like many ment, and military bases. Although Norwegian government
indigenous peoples, the Saami have become fully engaged in policy protects Saami reindeer herding to a degree, it gives
the cash-based global economy. At one time, reindeer herd- priority to its own goals. The conflict between the Saami and
ing supplied the Saami with their basic needs, but now Saami the Norwegian state illustrates that even a benevolent state,
want money to buy all manner of items, from processed food one based on universalism, bureaucracy, and economic ratio-
to smart phones and snowmobiles. And now they are able to nalism, offers little reassurance of a secure future for indige-
sell their reindeer products, such as meat and antler powder, nous peoples.

L O O K I N G TO T H E F U T U R E
As this chapter has shown, cultures and societies contributions to make. With its holistic
around the world are faced with grave concerns. approach and emphasis on the importance of
Keeping abreast of current events is often a cultural differences, anthropology can develop
depressing task. However, our study of anthropology frameworks for analyzing and understanding
gives us reasons for hope. Although the world is events and processes. We can help governments,
grappling with serious problems, we have more organizations, and other groups find solutions
means at our disposal to solve these problems that are sensitive to local cultural traditions and
and to improve people’s lives than ever before. that respond to people’s needs and aspirations.
Anthropology can play a critical role in this process. Anthropology can help with problems as diverse
The anthropological methodology and perspective as how to provide the best medical care for a
emphasize understanding the meaning and society or how to create the best customer service
experiences of cultural differences. Anthropologists experiences.
certainly don’t approve of all cultural practices.
However, participant observation encourages us to Anthropology also has a significant role to play in
experience the radical empathy that can defeat the documentation. Anthropologists have been doing
division of the world into “us” and “them.” high-quality fieldwork around the world for almost
150 years, ensuring that people’s stories are not
Anthropology teaches us about the dynamic forgotten. Some of the cultures that anthropologists
elements of social organization. In this book, we have studied in the early 20th century have practically
seen how anthropologists study economics, systems disappeared, and almost everyone in the world today
of production, political organization, stratification, lives very differently than they did in the late 19th
beliefs and meaning, art, and history to develop century. Anthropology provides an important record
analyses of culture. Anthropologists create models of of the human experience that might otherwise be lost
cultures that explain the interrelationships between or forgotten.
cultural elements and allow us to think productively
about change, power, inequality, and meaning. Anthropology offers hope to humanity because it
shows us that biology is not destiny. Human culture
Anthropology cannot solve all of the world’s rests on biological foundations. We have culture
problems, but it does have important because our brains and bodies have evolved to
(Continued!)
(Continued)
create it, learn it, and be dependent on it. Biology successfully together. In this book, we’ve explored
may predispose us to behave in certain ways, but no hundreds of different cultures, practices, beliefs, and
aspect of human culture can be firmly tied to a gene, anthropological principles. Now, it’s your turn to
and while predispositions may encourage people to think about how to apply these lessons to your life, to
behave in certain ways, they do not require it. Social your job, and to your relationships with your friends,
rules may easily go against predispositions. family, and community.
Anthropologists have shown over and over More than a century ago, E. B. Tylor, the man often
that culture is enormously flexible, fantastically considered the founder of British anthropology, wrote
changeable, and almost incredibly varied. The that anthropology was a reformer’s science. By this,
problems we face are not the result of a fixed and he meant that if we could first understand that culture
unchanging human nature. Violence, poverty, racism, was not simply a reflection of human biology, and if
and hatreds of all kinds are caused by and shaped we could then analyze and understand culture itself,
by culture. They do not exist because humans are we could discover ways to improve humanity’s lot.
invariably given to warfare and hatred or because Understanding that culture is flexible and variable
human nature somehow demands extreme wealth gives us hope for a better future. Anthropology gives
and desperate poverty. These are social facts—aspects us some of the analytical tools to act on that hope.
of human culture and human society. Because they
are cultural, they can be changed. We can continue to Key Questions
invent new cultural forms—new designs for living. 1. What is the most important thing you’ve learned
from studying anthropology?
In the first chapter of this book, we said that there
were three key reasons to study anthropology. The 2. What do you think is the single largest problem
first was that it helps us to understand other people. facing the world today? What contributions can
The second was that it helps us think about what anthropology make to understanding and solving
it means to be a human being, both in the sense this problem?
of being heirs to the endless variety of different
beliefs and practices of people in all cultures 3. If you could change a single thing in your com-
throughout time and in the commonalities we munity, what would it be? How do you think
share with all people. Finally, we use anthropology this change would affect other aspects of your
to think creatively about culture and how to live community?
SUMMARY
1. Describe the key political and economic patterns 3. Have world poverty and instability ended? Emphatically
between the end of World War II and the fall of the no! Almost a billion people remain extremely poor,
Soviet Union in 1991. After World War II, most colo- and violence and instability blight lives in many places.
nies achieved independence, but much of the world was Migrants, refugees, and displaced persons have pro-
impoverished. The Cold War between the United States found effects both on the communities they leave and on
and the Soviet Union propelled violent confrontations the communities they relocate to. Migration has become
around the world in which millions died. a major political issue.
2. What principal political and economic changes occurred 4. What is development aid and what roles have anthro-
after 1990? The collapse of the Soviet Union led to vio- pologists played in it? In our “Anthropology Makes a
lence in some places but greatly reduced it in others. Difference” section, we noted that development aid
Technical changes in transportation and communica- refers to attempts by wealthy nations to improve eco-
tions decreased the costs of moving goods and people, nomic and life conditions in poor nations. It was an
allowing for tighter world economic integration. Digital aspect of the Cold War but remains important in many
technologies also enabled and increased political and places today. Although there have been many develop-
economic changes. Enormous numbers of people were ment failures, dramatic successes have occurred as well.
lifted from extreme poverty Anthropologists often play important roles in tailoring
development projects to local communities and in facil- increased urbanization. However, historically, popu-
itating communication between these communities and lation increase and prosperity have often gone hand in
the governments and agencies funding the projects. hand. Also, the appropriate level of human population
for any area is a political question involving assumptions
5. What are multinational corporations (MNCs) and what about distribution of resources and the types of environ-
role do they play in world poverty? MNCs are corpo- ments people consider desirable.
rations that own business enterprises in more than one
nation. They are able to seek the most profitable ven- 11. What was China’s one-child policy and was it success-
ues to produce and market goods regardless of national ful? China’s one-child policy was a series of laws limiting
boundaries. Many MNCs have annual budgets far larger families to a single child in most cases. Fertility dropped
than most countries. This, combined with their mobil- dramatically in China from the 1980s to the 2010s.
ity, gives them huge economic and political power. However, fertility also dropped in nearby countries that
MNCs search for the most profitable places to buy, sell, did not have similar policies. Fertility seems to be closely
and manufacture goods. Their effects on poor nations linked to urbanization and wealth. As both of these
are extremely controversial. However, it is clear that the increase, fertility declines, with or without government
shareholders of MNCs, who are located primarily in policies.
wealthy nations, are the main beneficiaries of the corpo-
12. How severe are the environmental problems fac-
rations’ activities.
ing humanity and how do they relate to poverty?
6. What are some of the ways in which MNCs change cul- Environmental problems are extremely severe. As global
ture? MNCs contribute to the standardization of expe- wealth has grown, so have issues of waste, pollution, and
riences worldwide—a phenomenon sometimes called global warming. These may now be the biggest problems
McDonaldization. Their operations tend to diminish humanity faces. Such problems particularly affect the
differences between cultures. They also have an impact poor. Although the poor consume only a small portion
on gender roles, often making new forms of work avail- of the world’s production, they live in some of its most
able to men and women. polluted environments. Global warming is anticipated
to have more harmful effects in poor countries because
7. What important roles do children play in extremely many of these countries are located in ecologically fragile
impoverished communities? An ethnography of chil- zones that have limited financial resources to cope with
dren in Olinda, Brazil, found that children in deeply environmental change.
impoverished areas take on adult roles in supporting
families. Often, children can earn more money than 13. What are some of the most significant problems fac-
adults. However, they live extraordinarily difficult lives ing indigenous people in the current-day world? Most
of danger and poverty. indigenous people are incorporated into nations and
therefore do not have full control of their lands. They
8. What are the major trends in urbanization? The world are pushed into global market participation by disrup-
is becoming increasingly urbanized. More than half of tion of earlier subsistence patterns and pulled into glo-
the world’s population currently lives in cities, and that balization by their desire for consumer goods and some
number is expected to double in the next four decades. aspects of modern-day lifestyle. Although the UN and
In the future, most of the world’s largest cities will be in most nations officially support self-determination and
poor countries. Providing services to poor people in rights for indigenous people, many nations are unwill-
these cities is beyond the financial capacity of many ing or unable to enforce these rights. Even in coun-
nations. tries where indigenous rights are supported, conflict is
common.
9. In what ways does urbanization change culture? The
mass migration of people to cities tends to diminish
14. What are the prospects for the future of humanity? In
cultural differences. Some cultural practices cannot be
“The Global and the Local” section, we see that despite
performed in cities. Others are lost as people attempt to
the difficulties facing us, the future is not necessarily
blend in. However, bringing people together in cities also
bleak. Anthropology gives us the tools to deal with a
allows new cultural trends to emerge.
world characterized by diversity and instructs us that
10. Is overpopulation a critical problem? Overpopulation humans are cultural beings. Cultures can be changed
is an important problem because, in some areas, sub- and perhaps improved. For humans, biology is never
sistence strategies have collapsed. It has also led to destiny.
1. How have political and economic changes since 4. How can the demands of people for increased prosperity
the end of World War II affected cultures around the and better standards of living be balanced with the envi-
world? ronmental problems that the consumption of high levels
of goods and energy creates?
2. What will be the likely effects of the increasing size and
power of multinational corporations on world politics? 5. Many people argue governments should assure that
indigenous people can determine their own future. What
Will the enormous power of these corporations result in
are the advantages and disadvantages to this approach?
a more homogenous world?
What are possible alternatives to it?
3. Are education programs likely to be effective in con- 6. Summarize the important ways in which anthropology
trolling world population growth? What types of policies can help us understand today’s world and help us plan for
may increase or decrease population growth? the future.
KE Y TE RM S
basic human needs approach 360 modernization theory 356 sweatshops 360
demographic transition 370 multinational corporation 360 World Bank 358
indigenous peoples 373 structural adjustment 356
G LO S SARY
basic human needs approach Projects aimed at structural adjustment A development policy promoted
providing access to clean water, education, and health care by Western nations, particularly the United States, that
for the poorest of the world’s people. requires poor nations to pursue free-market reforms to
get new loans from the International Monetary Fund and
demographic transition The tendency for family
size and fertility to decline as societies transition from World Bank.
majorities that are poor and rural to majorities that have
sweatshops Generally, a pejorative term for factories
more wealth and are urban.
with working conditions that may include low wages, long
indigenous peoples Members of societies that have hours, inadequate ventilation, and/or physical, mental, or
occupied a region for a long time and are recognized by sexual abuse.
other groups as its original (or very ancient) inhabitants.
World Bank Officially called the International Bank
modernization theory A model of development that for Reconstruction and Development, an international
predicts nonindustrial societies will move in the social
agency that provides technical assistance and loans to
and technological direction of industrialized nations.
promote international trade and economic development,
multinational corporation A corporation that owns especially to poor nations. The World Bank has often been
business enterprises or plants in more than one nation. criticized for interfering in the affairs of these nations.
Appendix
A Brief Historical Guide to Anthropological Theory
P
eople have probably been curious about their organisms and proposed that both progressed by increasing
neighbors since the emergence of the species Homo in complexity. Although much of Spencer’s theoretical posi-
sapiens. They have investigated these neighbors sys- tion was established before Darwin published his theory of
tematically in many places and at many times. However, for our natural selection, Spencer rapidly incorporated some ele-
purposes, we may date the origins of anthropology as an intel- ments of Darwin’s work into his own.
lectual and academic discipline to the beginning of the 19th The Englishman Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917)
century. The word anthropologist was first used in print in 1805 and the American Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) both
in The Edinburgh Review (Kuklick 1991: 6). Since that time, proposed that all human societies progressed from a state of
numerous different theoretical schools have appeared, each savagery, through barbarism, to civilization. Societies pro-
related to its predecessors, but each with its own understanding gressed at different speeds, however. Western European and
of the critical issues that surround the analysis of culture. In this European American societies had achieved the fastest prog-
appendix, we provide very brief chronological descriptions of ress. Others, such as the Australian Aborigines, had been left
the principal schools of anthropological thought and introduce far behind in savagery. Although from our perspective this
some of the key thinkers in each school. notion is profoundly ethnocentric, it is important to point out
that the evolutionary anthropological theorists were deeply
critical of their own societies, particularly the entrenched
19th-Century Evolutionism hereditary privilege of the aristocracy and upper classes.
Various forms of social evolutionary theory held sway Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820–
throughout most of the 19th century. These theories were 1895) viewed evolution in terms of conflict between dif-
loosely based on evolutionary models drawn from biology, ferent social groups, usually classes. For Marx and Engels,
particularly the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) understanding the way that societies produced their live-
and Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Lamarck is best known lihoods was the key to social analysis. People organized to
for his notion of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. produce, but these forms of organization divided people and
He argued that organs improve with repeated use and grow created conflict. Evolution was the historical working out of
weak with disuse and that living things are able to pass these this conflict in a series of stages separated by revolutionary
strengths and weaknesses on to their offspring. Lamarck change. The works of Marx and Engels left a deep imprint on
reasoned that over time this process would give rise to new anthropology.
species. Darwin, on the other hand, showed that chance Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) wrote in the 20th century
endowed certain individuals with traits that allowed them but drew largely on 19th-century sources. He saw evolu-
to produce relatively more offspring and that such individ- tion as a mental process and believed that the psychological
uals were able to pass along these successful traits to their development of the individual mirrored that of human soci-
offspring. Darwin’s theory accurately describes biological ety. The children of the “civilized” were thus the emotional
evolution. However, cultural and social change may happen equals of adult “savages.” Although almost all anthropologists
in the ways Lamarck characterized. Humans do pass cul- rejected the evolutionary aspects of Freud’s work, it incorpo-
tural traits acquired during their lifetimes to their offspring. rated many elements of his ideas about sexuality, repression,
Synthesizing these ideas, 19th-century anthropologists and the importance of childhood.
argued that the history of humanity could be described as
progress toward increasingly complex forms of society. This The Early Sociologists
progress followed discoverable natural laws and could be
understood by using scientific methodology. The key sociological thinker in turn-of-the-century France
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was a key early thinker was Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Durkheim believed
in social evolutionism. He compared societies to biological that each group of people shared a collective conscience that
379
380 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
included a shared system of understandings, beliefs, and val- controlled cultural comparison was possible and general laws
ues that molded and constrained individual behavior. This of growth could be found (1988/1896), his insistence that
notion was similar to what many anthropologists today call each culture was the unique result of its history and context
culture. Durkheim thought that the collective conscience had suggests that this would be virtually impossible. Formulating
an existence independent of the people who shared it. It was general laws requires comparing similar elements of different
something that operated by its own laws and could be stud- cultures. However, such comparison necessarily removes ele-
ied on its own terms. The task of sociologists was to discover ments from their historical and social context and thus vio-
the contents of the collective conscience (which Durkheim lates Boasian principles. Boas and his students assiduously
believed included social facts and collective representations) avoided making such comparisons or proposing general
and the laws by which its elements functioned. One of the laws. Instead, Boasians focused on collecting ethnographic
key laws that Durkheim believed he discovered was that the data through fieldwork and explaining cultural patterns as
human mind divided things into opposites. The most basic of the result of culture history and psychology.
these divisions was between the sacred and the profane. Boas’s influence on American anthropology was extraor-
Durkheim and his students are often referred to as dinary. During his long career at Columbia University, he
L’Année Sociologique school, after a journal they pub- trained many of the most important American anthropol-
lished that reviewed each year’s developments in sociology. ogists of the first half of the 20th century, including A. L.
Durkheim’s students were some of the brightest minds of Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, Paul
Europe, including his nephew Marcel Mauss (1872–1950) Radin, and Ashley Montagu.
and Robert Hertz (1881–1915). Sadly, most of Durkheim’s
students died fighting in World War I.
Whereas Durkheim and his students focused on Functionalism
questions of social cohesion or solidarity, Max Weber In Europe, the trauma of World War I led to the abandon-
(1864–1920) was more concerned with conflict. Weber was ment of social evolutionism. However, many of the ideas of
profoundly influenced by Marx, but he did not believe that Spencer and Durkheim were retained in British functional-
social classes necessarily acted in solidarity. Weber is also ism. Like Spencer, functionalists tended to view societies as
known for promoting the notion that social scientists must analogous to biological organisms. Instead of being interested
develop empathetic understanding of those they study to in their evolution, however, functionalists were concerned
understand their behavior. with the operations of each part of society and the relations
among these parts.
Boas and American Anthropology Two critical thinkers in functionalism were A. R.
Radcliffe-Brown (1881–1955) and Bronislaw Malinowski
In the United States, much of anthropology in the late 19th (1884–1942). Radcliffe-Brown is associated with struc-
and early 20th centuries was devoted to the attempt to find tural functionalism. Profoundly influenced by his reading
scientific justifications for institutionalized racism. The of Durkheim, he wanted to discern and describe the role of
German-trained scholar Franz Boas (1858–1942) created a social structure, particularly institutions such as kinship, in
new American anthropology that was utterly opposed to this maintaining the smooth working of society and preserving
thinking. Boas asserted that all human beings were biological social solidarity. Malinowski’s psychological functionalism
equals and that differences among human societies were the focused on human physical and psychological needs. He
result of culture alone. The form each culture took depended proposed seven universal human needs: nutrition, repro-
almost entirely on its own specific history (Boas’s position duction, bodily comfort, safety, relaxation, movement,
was sometimes called historical particularism, a term coined and growth. He examined cultural institutions in terms of
long after his death) rather than on any panhuman pattern how they functioned to meet these needs. Malinowski is
of development, as the evolutionists proposed. Boas went on also known for his pioneering use of participant observa-
to debunk many 19th-century thinkers, demonstrating that tion and empathy as well as his vivid descriptions of Pacific
the cultural traits they believed showed a universal pattern Island culture.
of human development actually arose from quite different Although their theoretical positions were very different,
sources and histories. Boas and Malinowski shared some interesting similarities.
The claim that cultures were sui generis, or created by Like Boas, Malinowski set extremely high standards for field-
their own histories, had important implications. First, it work among his students. Also like Boas, Malinowski trained
meant that cultures could be evaluated only on their own many important anthropologists, including E. E. Evans-
terms rather than by using any universal yardstick of devel- Pritchard, Meyer Fortes, Audrey Richards, and Raymond
opment. Therefore, cultural relativism became a cornerstone Firth, during his long academic career at the London School
of Boasian anthropology. Second, though Boas wrote that of Economics.
Appendix 381
Culture and Personality similar institutions. His work thus depended on cross-
cultural comparisons.
Boas transmitted to his students his insistence on the his- Leslie White was deeply influenced by his reading of
torical uniqueness of each culture, but he did not give them Morgan and Marx. This led him to a concern with cul-
any unifying principle around which to organize their tural evolution and the nature of production. He proposed
work. To remedy this, many of them turned to the notion that cultures evolve as the amount of energy they capture
of personality. Ruth Benedict (1887–1948), Margaret Mead increases, an idea known as White’s law. White believed that
(1901–1978), and others analyzed culture as “personality revolutionary changes in technology were critical to increas-
writ large.” They believed that each culture had a unique ing the ability to capture energy.
configuration that shaped the personality of its members, George Peter Murdock was an intellectual descendant of
molding them to fit the culture’s dominant type. Benedict, Spencer. He believed that general principles of culture could
for example, characterized the Zuni as reserved and level- be derived from cross-cultural analysis on a massive scale.
headed. She argued that they avoided excesses of any kind. Thus, he began a project to index and tabulate information
She referred to this complex of traits as an Apollonian cul- on all the world’s known cultures. This project, known as the
tural configuration. Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), still continues today.
To solve the problem of how cultural configurations were
formed and maintained, culture and personality theorists,
particularly Abram Kardiner (1891–1981) and Cora DuBois Neomaterialism: Evolutionary,
(1903–1991), turned to Freud. Although they rejected Functionalist, Ecological, and Marxist
Freud’s evolutionary theories, they accepted the notion that
Steward, White, Murdock, and others set the stage for many
early childhood experiences determine later life personality.
of the anthropological theorists of the 1960s and 1970s.
Thus, they saw child-rearing practices as critical to under-
These theorists combined earlier anthropological work with
standing cultural institutions.
insights from the physical and biological sciences and, some-
With the coming of World War II, the culture and per-
times, a deep understanding and appropriation of Marxist
sonality theorists turned to writing national character stud-
thought.
ies of the United States and its allies and opponents. These
Evolutionary theorists such as Morton Fried (1923–
works, produced by analyzing written data rather than field-
1986), Marshall Sahlins (1930–), and Elman Service (1915–
work, were substantially less successful than their earlier
1996) looked for ways to combine the insights of Steward and
efforts. Although few anthropologists today would consider
White into a single theory of cultural evolution. They devel-
themselves culture and personality theorists, some of the
oped the band–tribe–chiefdom–state model commonly used
best-known books in 20th century American anthropology
in much of modern anthropology (see Chapter 8).
are associated with this school of thought. These include
Ecological functionalists took the position that cultures
Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) and Sex and
were adaptations that permitted their members to exploit
Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) and Ruth
their environments successfully. They examined the ways in
Benedict’s Patterns of Culture (1934).
which cultural practices were related to physical, technologi-
cal, and economic aspects of the environment. Marvin Harris
Cultural Ecology and (1927–2001) used the term cultural materialism to describe
Neo-Evolutionism this approach. Harris’s analysis of Indian cattle worship (see
Chapter 3) is a good example.
By the mid-1930s, a second school of American anthro- Neo-Marxists were a third group of thinkers within this
pological thought emerged to compete with the ideas of tradition. Most neo-Marxists were especially concerned
Boas and his intellectual descendants. Cultural ecology with issues of political economy, particularly colonialism,
and neo-evolutionism reevaluated the insights of the 19th- international economic relations, and, more recently, global-
century evolutionists and, through new research, attempted ization. Their approaches to these issues varied. In Europe,
to raise their scientific standards. Key thinkers in this enter- French scholars such as Claude Meillassoux (1925–2005)
prise were Julian Steward (1902–1972), Leslie White (1900– and Maurice Godelier (1934–) broke with the Soviet schol-
1975), and George Peter Murdock (1897–1985). All three ars who had dominated Marxist anthropology and proposed
searched for general laws of cultural development. new ways of adapting Marx’s critical insights to the anthro-
Steward, who coined the term cultural ecology, was par- pology of nonindustrial society. In the United States, political
ticularly interested in the relationship between culture and economy theorists led by Eric Wolf (1923–1999) focused on
environment. He believed that cultures at similar technolog- the historical development of capitalism and the conflicts it
ical levels in similar environments would develop broadly generated. Wolf and others rejected the notion of cultures as
bounded wholes that could be studied independently. They Quinn. Ethnoscience is based on a critique of anthropologi-
urged anthropologists to see issues of conflict, domination of cal method but draws heavily on Boasian anthropology and
one group by another, and appropriation of wealth as central structuralism.
to understanding culture. Ethnoscientists and cognitive anthropologists claimed
that existing anthropological reporting was unreliable
because anthropology lacked consistent methodology.
Structuralism Projects such as Murdock’s HRAF were flawed because dif-
Structural anthropology is based largely on the work of ferent ethnographers observed and reported on differing
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009). Lévi-Strauss was inspired aspects of the societies they studied. Thus, generalizations
by Durkheim’s work on the nature of human thought as well about cultures could not be made. Ethnoscientists and cog-
as advances made in linguistics in the first half of the 20th nitive anthropologists proposed a way around this dilemma.
century. At that time, linguists were concerned with identify- They asserted that culture was a shared mental model
ing the most fundamental units of language. In a similar fash- through which people organized their world. Further, they
ion, Lévi-Strauss sought to uncover the basic units of culture claimed that language was the key means through which this
and the rules by which they operated. organization was accomplished. Thus, the distinctions that
Lévi-Strauss believed that the same basic units and rules people made in speaking could be used to construct a model
of culture found expression in all societies. He reasoned that for each culture.
these could best be discovered through analysis of the folk- Ethnoscientists and cognitive anthropologists devel-
tales and mythologies of primitive people. Like Durkheim, oped a fieldwork method designed to discover the linguistic
Lévi-Strauss held that the most fundamental rule of culture models that members of different cultures used to classify
is the tendency of human thinking to make binary distinc- their worlds. They claimed fieldwork done using this method
tions. He proposed, however, that human thinking is not sat- would be consistent and would provide anthropologists the
isfied with such distinctions and always adds a third category information needed to behave like members of the culture.
that in some way transcends or reconciles the opposition. Some suggested that a person who fully understood the men-
The process of structural anthropology involves analyzing tal model of another culture could think like a member of
cultures to show fundamental oppositions as well as the ele- that culture as well, though this was hotly disputed.
ments that transcend them. Lévi-Strauss hoped that as this Ethnoscientists and cognitive anthropologists believed
process was completed for more and more cultures, general that each culture had a unique mental model. Like Boas, they
patterns would emerge, illuminating the fundamental pat- argued that given enough time and data collection, some uni-
ternings that underlie all human culture. versal theory of culture might emerge. However, such a the-
Although Lévi-Strauss’s ideas have always been contro- ory was only a long-term possibility.
versial, structural anthropology has proven a useful source In the 1980s and 1990s, cognitive anthropologists turned
of insight into the interpretation of the symbolic aspects of away from the linguistic model. Realizing that many forms
culture. It has had a profound effect not only on anthropol- of knowledge and behavior did not involve linguistic pro-
ogy but on thinking in literature, political science, and psy- cessing, they began to look at insights from psychology and
chology as well. Not surprisingly, this impact was felt first physiology. The result was the emergence of schema theory
and most strongly in France. Some of the scholars strongly and connectivism. Schema theory describes knowledge in
influenced by Lévi-Strauss include Louis Althusser, Roland terms of generalized representations of experiences, events,
Barthes, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida, although and objects that are stored in memory. Connectivists argue
many of these were critical of structuralism as well. that knowledge is structured in “processing units,” and they
Scholars such as these were fundamental to the poststruc- examine the ways in which such units might be distributed,
turalist and postmodern anthropology of the United States linked, and networked. Current cognitive anthropologists
in the 1980s and 1990s. are interested in how the organization of cultural schemas is
related to the physiology of the brain and the ways in which
cultural knowledge is learned, shared, and distributed.
Ethnoscience and Cognitive
Anthropology
Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology,
Ethnoscience and cognitive anthropology were largely and Behavioral Ecology
American developments. Some of the key scholars asso-
ciated with these approaches are Ward Goodenough Perhaps the most controversial theoretical position in
(1919–2013), Harold Conklin (1926–2016), James Spradley anthropology is sociobiology. It was developed and pro-
(1933–1981), Roy D’Andrade (1931–2016), and Naomi moted largely by biologists and anthropologists in the
Appendix 383
1960s and 1970s. Some of its key thinkers include biologists women’s position in society. Much of feminist anthropology
W. D. Hamilton (1936–2000), Robert Trivers (1943–), and in the 1970s was concerned with trying to explain female
E. O. Wilson (1929–); sociologist Lionel Tiger (1937–); and subordination, which some scholars considered to be uni-
anthropologists Lee Cronk, Rebecca Bleige Bird, Robin Fox versal. More recently, feminist anthropologists have focused
(1934–), and Napoleon Chagnon (1938–). on the social construction of gender; the relationship of gen-
Sociobiologists applied the Darwinian idea of natural der to social, economic, and political power; and the cultural
selection directly to human cultural behavior. They believed variation among different groups of women. They have been
that culture reflected an underlying genetic patterning. joined by others who focus on gay, lesbian, and transgender
Further, as in biology, those genetically based culture traits populations. Some prominent anthropologists interested
that led to increased reproduction would be selected and in these issues are William Leap (1946–), Tom Boellstorff
transmitted and thus would increasingly appear in the popu- (1969–), Ellen Lewin (1946–), and Tanya Erzen (1972–).
lation. Therefore, they viewed much of cultural behavior as a The organizing theme that holds these disparate interests
mechanism through which individuals tried to increase their together is the idea that gender and relations among genders
chances of reproduction. are a central patterning element of society. Understanding
In the 1970s, sociobiologists were particularly concerned society involves elucidating gender relationships and show-
with the problem of altruism, defined as an individual’s sac- ing the effect these relationships have on other aspects of
rifice of his or her own reproductive chances to benefit those culture.
of another, and they tried to show how such a trait could
evolve. In the 1980s and 1990s, sociobiologists split into three Symbolic and Interpretive
groups: evolutionary psychologists, human behavioral ecol-
ogists, and those who study human universals. Evolutionary Anthropology
psychologists theorize that the mind is composed of a collec- Like ethnoscientists and cognitive anthropologists, sym-
tion of specialized suborgans designed for particular tasks. bolic and interpretive anthropologists are fundamentally
They try to describe these suborgans and show what they concerned with the ways in which people formulate their
were designed to accomplish. Human behavioral ecologists reality. However, unlike the former, who thought of culture
emphasize human populations rather than cultures and try in terms of formal linguistic models, symbolic and interpre-
to test the hypothesis that culturally patterned traits enhance tive anthropologists use models from psychology and the
fitness. Some anthropologists focus on discovering and study of literary texts to analyze culture. Some major figures
describing human universals, or characteristics found in all in this group are Clifford Geertz (1926–2006), Mary Douglas
societies. (1921–2007), and Victor Turner (1920–1983). Geertz, one
Sociobiologists have insisted that understanding the con- of the best-known modern-day anthropologists, believed
nections between biology and culture should be the focus of that people use symbols to help them understand their own
anthropology. The vast majority of cultural anthropologists, culture. Culture is like a story that people tell themselves
however, believe that culture is almost completely indepen- about themselves, and in so doing, they give meaning and
dent of biology. As a result, sociobiology has been strongly poignancy to their lives. Turner, on the other hand, followed
criticized by cultural anthropologists. the tradition of Durkheim and British functionalist anthro-
pology, viewing symbols in terms of their role in the mainte-
Anthropology and Gender nance of society. He was particularly interested in the study
of ritual and outlined the characteristics of symbols. Douglas
The feminist critique of anthropology developed along with also drew inspiration from her reading of Durkheim. She
the women’s movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. Until this suggested that shared symbols helped hold societies together.
period, despite the fact that some very prominent anthropol- Douglas was particularly interested in beliefs about purity
ogists had been women, anthropology in general had been and contamination and held that such notions symbolized
overwhelmingly concerned with men’s activities. Though beliefs about the social order.
women constituted half the population, they were often Historically, most anthropologists have argued that their
invisible in ethnographic writing. Feminist anthropologists theoretical positions rest on scientific principles. Symbolic
such as Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo (1944–1981), Louise and interpretive anthropologists make no such claim.
Lamphere (1940–), Sherry Ortner (1941–), and Micaela di Rather, they suggest that anthropology is an art of cultural
Leonardo (1949–) tried to rectify this situation by focusing interpretation, more of a branch of the humanities than a sci-
attention on women’s worlds. ence. Its goal is often to provide people with a deep, empathic
Feminist anthropologists actually took many different understanding of the nature of meaning to members of dif-
theoretical positions, from structuralism to neo-Marxism ferent cultures rather than to discover general principles or
to postmodernism. However, they all shared an interest in testable laws.
Postmodernism navigate and negotiate identity, economy, and politics within

the context of global connectedness and inequality. Several
Postmodernism in anthropology grew from the insights different theoretical threads have emerged. One of the first
of the feminist anthropologists, interpretive and symbolic spokespeople for this school of thought is Arjun Appadurai
anthropologists, and neo-Marxists, but its development (1949–). Appadurai’s influential 1996 book Modernity at
was critically dependent on the thinking of French philoso- Large envisioned the cultural world as composed of a series
phers, historians, and literary critics. These included Michel of overlapping “scapes,” or understandings of reality, that are
Foucault (1926–1984), Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), and at the same time physical, virtual, and cognitive. Appadurai
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998). Anthropological post- distinguishes five “scapes”: ethnoscapes, technoscapes, finan-
modernists hold that all accounts of culture are partial and cescapes, mediascapes, and ideoscapes.
conditioned by the observer’s personal history and expe- Appadurai, along with fellow globalization theorist Ulf
riences. One result, according to postmodernists, is that Hannerz (1942–), is a cautious optimist, focusing on the ways
anthropological writing tells us a great deal about anthropol- in which global interconnections are linked to improvisa-
ogists and their society but rather little about the societies that tion and cultural creativity. Other globalization theorists are
anthropologists observe. far more pessimistic. Jonathan Friedman (1946–) and Kajsa
Issues of power and “voice” are critical to postmodern Ekholm Friedman (1939–), for example, focus on global-
scholars. They assert that a great many different interpre- ization as an aspect of deep history. They view the world as
tations of history or culture are valid. The interpretations subject to historical waves of increasing and decreasing inter-
held by the wealthy and powerful are likely to be consid- national integration. They see the emphasis on globalization
ered legitimate, while others are discredited. For postmod- found among Western elites as a sign of the declining eco-
ernists, culture is often viewed as a constant battle between nomic fortunes of western Europe and North America and
opposing, contesting interpretations. Some, such as Renato the increasing power of Asian societies. Akhil Gupta (1959–),
Rosaldo (born 1941), focus on explanations of culture that another prominent theorist of globalization, has focused
highlight conflicting interpretations. Others, such as Vincent on the relationship between the state and multinational cor-
Crapanzano (1939–) and Gananath Obeyesekere (1930–), porations and how this relationship affects the experiences
study anthropological writing itself. They analyze ethnog- of peasants and marginalized groups in the world capitalist
raphies to show the ways in which they are constructed and economy.
explain what they tell us about anthropologists and Western
society.
Structure and Agency: Practice
At its most radical, postmodernism asserts that objectiv-
ity is impossible, implying that no interpretation or analysis Theory Approaches
can ever be better or worse than another. If this is the case, The position of the individual with respect to society has
fieldwork is irrelevant and anthropology should be under- always been problematic in anthropology. On the one hand,
stood as a branch of literature, less accurate than fiction anthropologists have ignored individuals as they searched
because of its pretensions to authority and fact. For these rea- for general principles. One anthropologist famously claimed
sons, many anthropologists have been loud in their denunci- that individuals had no more influence on culture than “a
ation of postmodernism. Critics assert that for anthropology sack of sawdust.” However, on the other hand, some anthro-
to be useful, it must be based on a scientific model of study pologists focused on individual experience and clearly hoped
rather than a literary one. However, even postmodernism’s that individuals could influence culture. In the 1980s, anthro-
detractors would agree that it has made anthropologists more pologists began to focus on theorizing the role of the indi-
sensitive to how knowledge is generated in anthropology and vidual with respect to society. The works of Pierre Bourdieu
to issues of whose story they are telling and their own motiva- (1930–2002) and Anthony Giddens (1938–) were central to
tions and agendas in telling that story. this effort. Both of these theorists focused on the relationship
between the individual’s life experience and the social struc-
Anthropology and Globalization tures within which these experiences occurred. Bourdieu
developed the idea of habitus, which he famously described
Changes in politics and economics in the late 20th and early as “systems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured
21st centuries have led anthropologists to theorize globaliza- structures predisposed to serve as structuring structures”
tion in several different ways. Globalization theories combine (1990: 53). What he meant was that all people live and act
elements of Marxist thinking with approaches from cognitive within sociocultural frameworks. These frameworks both
and symbolic anthropology. They focus on the ways in which provide the possibilities for our actions and weight those pos-
the connections between societies both pattern and change sibilities in specific ways. However, within those frameworks,
culture and the ways in which individuals and societies individuals do have possibilities and choices. They are guided
Appendix 385
by their individual life histories and experiences and, per- historical appearance. This can be deceptive because it seems
haps, by inborn temperamental predispositions as well. This to imply that one theory simply supersedes another. For
freedom within structure is referred to as agency. example, the fact that postmodernism appears after symbolic
In American anthropology, Sherry Ortner (who also anthropology might lead you to believe that anthropologists
appears in the “Symbolic Anthropology” section of this abandoned symbolic anthropology and took up postmod-
appendix) has been one of the foremost spokespeople for ernism. This is not the case at all. In some sense, all these
practice theory. The approach is perhaps best represented theories are alive and well. Although very few people today
in her 2006 book Anthropology and Social Theory. Many would call themselves historical particularists or psycho-
other anthropologists have also been strongly influenced by logical functionalists, the problems, issues, and insights that
this approach. Ruth Gomberg-Munoz (1975–) uses it mas- informed these schools of thought are still with us. Debates
terfully in her work on Mexican immigrants in Chicago, echoing the discussions of earlier times repeatedly occur
as does Holly Wardlow (1965–) in her work on kinship both in anthropology and in broader public discourse. Today,
and sex work among Huli women in Papua New Guinea. anthropologists disagree, often virulently, about the best
Practice theory is compelling in anthropology because it ways to analyze culture, the importance of different aspects
gives anthropologists a framework within which they can of culture, the role of biology and evolution in culture, and
analyze the pressures and conflicts within social structures even what the goals of anthropology should be. This debate is
while at the same time paying attention to the rich details of the sign of a healthy, complex, and intellectually challenging
individual lives. discipline. It generates new ways of looking at culture, new
The brief analysis of anthropological theories in this understandings of human diversity, and, perhaps, new possi-
appendix has been presented in rough order of their bilities for humanity.
References
#12 Miami Heat. (2008). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www Aijmer, G., & Abbink, J. (Eds.). (2000). Meanings of vio-
.forbes.com/lists/2008/32/nba08_Miami-Heat_329036 lence: A cross cultural perspective. New York: New York
.html University Press.
66,000 workplace deaths in China last year: Report. Aisch, G., Pearce, A., & Yourish, K. (2016, November 10).
(2016, December 22). The Indian Express. Retrieved The divide between red and blue America grew even
from http://indianexpress.com/article/world/66000- deeper in 2016. The New York Times. Retrieved from
workplace-deaths-in-china-last-year-report-4440205/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/10/us/
Abbasi, W. (2017, March 15). Hijab becomes a symbol of politics/red-blue-divide-grew-stronger-in-2016.html
resistance, feminism in the age of Trump. USA Today. Aisch, G., Buchanan, L., Cox, A., & Quealy, K. (2017,
Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/ January 18). Some colleges have more students from
news/nation-now/2017/03/15/hijab-becomes-sym- the top 1 percent than the bottom 60. Find yours. The
bol-resistance-feminism-age-trump/98475212/ New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes
Abel, J. R., & Deitz, R. (2015). Agglomeration and job .com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-
matching among college graduates. Regional Science have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-
and Urban Economics, 51, 14–24. bottom-60.html
Abrahams, R. D. (1970). Deep down in the jungle. Chicago, Aiyer, S. A. (2011, July 31). The unexpected rise of Dalit mil-
IL: Aldine. lionaires. The Times of India. Retrieved from https://
Abu-Lughod, L. D. (1993). Writing women’s worlds: blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/
Bedouin stories. Berkeley: University of California the-unexpected-rise-of-dalit-millionaires/
Press. Ajrouch, K. J. (2016). Caring for aging Muslim families:
Acheson, J. M. (1989). Management of common-property A needs assessment. Institute for Social Policy and
resources. In S. Plattner (Ed.), Economic anthropol- Understanding. Retrieved from https://www.ispu
ogy (pp. 351–378). Stanford, CA: Stanford University .org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Caring-for-Aging-
Press. Muslim-Families-full-report.pdf
Aciksoz, S. C., & Korkman, Z. K. (2017). “Grab 'em by the Aker, J. C., & Mbiti, I. M. (2010). Mobile phones and eco-
patriarchy.” Anthropology News, 58, 10–13. nomic development in Africa. Journal of Economic
Acs, G. (2011). Downward mobility from the middle class: Perspectives, 24, 207–232.
Waking up from the American Dream. Pew Charitable Alibhai-Brown, Y. (2015, March 20). As a Muslim
Trusts. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/Up woman, I see the veil as a rejection of progressive
loadedPDF/1001603-Downward-Mobility-from-the values. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www
-Middle-Class.pdf .theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/20/
Adam, K. (2011, October 15). Occupy Wall Street pro- muslim-woman-veil-hijab
tests go global. The Washington Post. Retrieved from Allen, C. (2001). The scholars and the goddess. Atlantic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ Monthly, 287, 18–22.
occupy-wall-street-protests-go-global/2011/10/15/ Allen, T. W. (1997). The invention of the white race (Vols. 1
gIQAp7kimL_story.html?utm_term=.775d6e82cbd1 and 2). London, England: Verso.
Adams, K. M. (1990). Cultural commoditization in Tana Allitt, P. (2002). Victorian Britain [Audio recording].
Toraja, Indonesia. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 40, 31–34. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company.
Adams, K. M. (1993). Theologians, tourists and thieves: Alloula, M. (1986). The colonial harem. (G. Myrna &
The Torajan effigy of the dead in modernizing W. Godzich, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of
Indonesia. Kyoto Journal, 22, 38–45. Minnesota Press.
Adams, K. M. (1995). Making-up the Toraja? The appro- Almond, G., Sivan, E., & Appleby, R. S. (1995).
priation of tourism, anthropology, and museums for Fundamentalism: Genus and species. In M. E. Marty
politics in Upland Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ethnology, 34, & R. S. Appleby (Eds.), Fundamentalisms compre-
143–152. hended (pp. 399–424). Chicago, IL: University of
Adams, K. M. (2006). Art as politics: Re-crafting identi- Chicago Press.
ties, tourism, and power in Tana Toraja, Indonesia. Almukhtar, S., Gold, M., & Buchanan, L. (2018, February
Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. 8). After Weinstein: 71 men accused of sexual
386
References 387
misconduct and their fall from power. The New York Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on
Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/ the origin and spread of nationalism. New York, NY:
interactive/2017/11/10/us/men-accused-sexual-mis- Verso.
conduct-weinstein.html Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the streets. New York, NY:
Alonso, A. M. (1994). The politics of space, time and Norton.
substance: State formation, nationalism, and ethnic- Anderson, M. (2016). Confronting plastic pollution one bag
ity. In B. J. Siegel (Ed.), Annual review of anthropol- at a time. The EPA Blog. Retrieved from https://blog
ogy (Vol. 23, pp. 379–405). Stanford, CA: Stanford .epa.gov/blog/tag/plastic-bags
University Press. Anderson, S. R. (2010). How many languages are there in
Alter, C. (2014, April 28). Report: Low-pay jobs replace the world? Linguistic Society of America. Retrieved
high-pay jobs since recession. Time. Retrieved from from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/
http://time.com/79061/report-low-pay-jobs-replace how-many-languages-are-there-world
-high-pay-jobs-since-recession/ Andrews, G. R. (1992). Racial inequality in Brazil and the
Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, United States: A statistical comparison. Journal of
G. (2018). World inequality report 2018. Cambridge, Social History, 26, 229–263.
MA: Belknap. Anholt, S. (2013). Beyond the nation brand: The role of
Amadiume, I. (1987). Male daughters, female husbands. image and identity in international relations. Exchange:
Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books. The Journal of Public Diplomacy, 2. Retrieved from
American Anthropological Association. (1986). https://surface.syr.edu/exchange/vol2/iss1/1
Statements on ethics: Principles of professional respon- Annahatak, B. (2014). Silatuniq: Respectful state of being
sibility. Retrieved from www.aaanet.org/stmts/eth in the world. Etudes/Inuit/Studies, 38, 23–31.
stmnt.htm Archer, B. (2018). Lebron James net worth: How much is
American Anthropological Association. (1998). Statement NBA and Cleveland Cavaliers star worth? Express.
on race. Retrieved from www.aaanet.org/stmts/ Retrieved from https://www.express.co.uk/sport/oth-
racepp.htm ersport/916244/Lebron-James-net-worth-how-much-
American Anthropological Association. (2012). Principles is-NBA-star-worth
of professional responsibility. Retrieved from http:// Arens, W. (1975). The great American football ritual.
ethics.americananthro.org/category/statement Natural History, 84, 72–80.
American Anthropological Association. (2014). Artiga, S., Foutz, J., & Damico, A. (2018). Health coverage
Emergency initiative on the Ebola outbreaks [Video by race and ethnicity: Changes under the ACA. Henry
file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from https://
watch?v=Zr-EFDxG54Q www.kff.org/disparities-policy/issue-brief/health-cov
American Anthropological Association. (2015). AAA erage-by-race-and-ethnicity-changes-under-the-aca/
statement on humanity and climate change. Retrieved Artz, G., Orazem, P. F., & Otto, D. M. (2007). Measuring
from http://practicinganthropology.org/docs/01-29- the impact of meat packing and processing facilities in
15_AAA_CCS.pdf nonmetropolitan counties: A difference-in-differences
American Psychological Association. (2018). Answers to approach. American Journal of Agricultural Economics,
your questions about individuals with intersex condi- 89, 557–570.
tions. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/ Associated Press. (2015, March 8). Jamaica moving to
intersex.aspx reclaim global dominance in Reggae. Billboard.
Ames, M. (2005). Museology interrupted. Museum Retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/articles/
International, 57, 44–50. news/6494810/jamaica-moving-to-reclaim-global-dom
Ammon, P. R., & Ammon, M. S. (1971). Effects of training inance-in-reggae
black preschool children in vocabulary versus sen- Astaiza, R. (2012, October 12). 11 islands that will vanish
tence construction. Journal of Educational Psychology, when sea levels rise. Business Insider. Retrieved from
62, 421–426. https://www.businessinsider.com/islands-threatened
Amnesty International. (2005). Iraq: Decades of suffer- -by-climate-change-2012-10
ing, now women deserve better. Retrieved from http:// Atkinson, Q. D. (2011). Phonemic diversity supports a
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE14/001/2005 serial founder effect model of language expansion
Anders, G. (2015, August 17). That “useless” liberal arts from Africa. Science, 332, 346–349.
degree has become tech’s hottest ticket. Forbes. Aufderheide, A. (2003). The scientific study of mummies.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/george Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
anders/2015/07/29/liberal-arts-degree-tech/#570b2 Auger, E. E. (2005). The way of Inuit art: Aesthetics and his-
568745d tory in and beyond the Arctic. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Andersen, M. L., & Collins, P. H. (Eds.). (1995). Race, class, Aughterson, K. (1998). The English renaissance: An anthol-
and gender: An anthology (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: ogy of sources and documents. London, England:
Wadsworth. Routledge.
Ausubel, J. H., Wernick, I. K., & Waggoner, P. E. (2013). Barbara, V. (2015, March 23). In denial over racism in
Peak farmland and the prospect for land sparing. Brazil. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://
Population and Development Review, 38, 221–242. www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/opinion/vanessa-bar
Avakian, T. (2017, May 19). Here’s how many planes bara-in-denial-over-racism-in-brazil.html
are in the air at any moment. Travel and Leisure. Barfield, T. J. (1993). The nomadic alternative. Englewood
Retrieved from http://www.travelandleisure.com/ Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
airlines-airports/number-of-planes-in-air Barker, R., Herdt, R. W., & Rose, B. (1985). The rice econ-
Average farm landholding size shrinks to 1.1 ha. (2018, omy of Asia. Washington, DC: Resources for the
August 17). The Hindu BusinessLine. Retrieved from Future.
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/ Barlow, K., & Chapin, B. L. (2010). The practice of mother-
agri-business/average-farm-landholding-size-shrinks ing: An introduction. Ethos, 38, 324–338.
-to-11-ha/article24719240.ece Barnes, V. L., & Boddy, J. (1994). Aman: The story of a
Babcock, B. (1995). Marketing Maria: The tribal artist in Somali girl as told to Virginia Lee Barnes and Janice
the age of mechanical reproduction. In B. J. Bright Boddy. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
& L. Bakewell (Eds.), Looking high and low: Art and Barnes-Dean, V. L. (1989). Clitoridectomy and infibula-
cultural identity (pp. 125–150). Tucson: University of tion. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 9, 26–30.
Arizona Press. Barnett, H. (1953). Innovation: The basis of cultural change.
Bachu, A. (1999). Trends in premarital childbearing. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports. Barrouquere, B. (2017, November 13). FBI: Hate crimes reach
Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/ 5-year high in 2016, jumped as Trump rolled toward pres-
p23-197.pdf idency. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved from
Badenhausen, K. (2016, December 13). LeBron James’ https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/11/13/
net worth: $275 million in 2016. Forbes. Retrieved f bi-hate-crimes-reach-5-year-high-2016-jumped-
from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhau trump-rolled-toward-presidency-0
sen/2016/12/13/lebron-james-net-worth-275-million-in Bartels, P., & Herman, E. (2012). King Peggy: An American
-2016/#414e9b3c4be9 secretary, her royal destiny, and the inspiring story of
Baer, D. (2014, March 27). Here’s why companies are how she changed an African village. New York, NY:
desperate to hire anthropologists. Business Insider. Doubleday.
Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/ Barth, F. (1964). Capital investment and social structure of
heres-why-companies-aredesperateto-hireanthropol a pastoral nomad group in South Persia. In R. Firth &
ogists-2014-3 B. S. Yamey (Eds.), Capital savings and credit in peas-
Baer, H. A., Singer, M., & Susser, I. (1997). Medical anthro- ant societies (pp. 69–81). London, England: George
pology and the world system: A critical perspective. Allen and Unwin.
Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Barth, F. (1998/1969). Ethnic groups and boundaries: The
Bagley, J. M. (2016). A history of Boston in 50 artifacts. social organization of culture difference. Prospect
Boston, MA: University Press of New England. Heights, IL: Waveland.
Bailey, S. R., & Telles, E. E. (2006). Multiracial versus col- Bassani, E., & Fagg, W. (1988). Africa and the renaissance:
lective black categories: Examining census classifica- Art in ivory. New York, NY: Center for African Art.
tion debates in Brazil. Ethnicities, 6, 74–101. Basso, K. (1979). Portraits of “the whitemen.” New York,
Bain, M. (2017). Nike is facing a new wave of anti-sweat- NY: Cambridge University Press.
shop protests. Quartz. Retrieved from https://qz.com/ Bates, M. (1967). Gluttons and libertines: Human prob-
1042298/nike-is-facing-a-new-wave-of-anti-sweat lems of being natural. New York, NY: Random
shop-protests/ House.
Baker, L. D. (2000). Lee D. Baker interview. PBS. BBC. (2000). Earliest evidence of art found. Retrieved from
Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/733747.stm
baker.htm Bearak, M. (2017, December 14). Aid group says at least
Balikci, A. (1970). The Netsilik Eskimo. Prospect Heights, 6,700 Rohingya were killed in Burma in first month of
IL: Waveland. “ethnic cleansing.” Washington Post. Retrieved from
Banat, G. (2006). The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/
of the sword and bow. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon. wp/2017/12/14/aid-group-says-at-least-6700-rohingya-
Bao, J. (2015). Creating a Buddhist community: A Thai killed-in-burma-in-first-month-of-ethnic-cleansing/
temple in Silicon Valley. Philadelphia, PA: Temple ?utm_term=.0565e0bacb8e
University Press. Bearak, M., & Gamio, L. (2016, October 18). The U.S. for-
Baochang, G., Feng, W., Zhigang, G., & Erli, Z. (2007). eign aid budget, visualized. The Washington Post.
China’s local and national fertility policies at the end Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/
of the twentieth century. Population and Development graphics/world/which-countries-get-the-most-foreign-
Review, 33, 129–147. aid/?noredirect=on&tid=pm_world_pop_b
References 389
Beardsley, E. (2017, November 3). Instead of #MeToo, French Beteille, A. (1998). Society and politics in India: Essays in
women say “out your pig.” NPR. Retrieved from https:// a comparative perspective. New Delhi, India: Oxford
www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/11/03/561677686/ India.
instead-of-metoo-french-women-say-out-your-pig Bhattacharjee, Y. (2012, March 17). Why bilinguals are
Behringer, W. (2004). Witches and witch-hunts: A global smarter. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www
history. Malden, MA: Polity Press. .nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-bene
Beijing’s air pollution: Blackest day. (2013, January 14). The fits-of-bilingualism.html
Economist. Retrieved from https://www.economist Bhugra, D., & Becker, M. A. (2005). Migration, cultural
.com/analects/2013/01/14/blackest-day bereavement, and cultural identity. World Psychology,
Bell, G. (n.d.). LinkedIn profile. Retrieved from https:// 4, 18–24.
www.linkedin.com/in/genevievebell/ Bialik, K. (2017). Key facts about race and marriage, 50
Bellah, R.N., Sullivan, W. M., Madsen, R., Swidler, A., & years after Loving v. Virginia. Pew Research Center.
Tipton, S. M. (1985). Habits of the heart: Individualism Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
and commitment in American life. Berkeley: University tank/2017/06/12/key-facts-about-race-and-marriage-
of California Press. 50-years-after-loving-v-virginia/
Benedict, R. (1934). Anthropology and the abnormal. Bickerton, D. (1998). Catastrophic evolution: The case for a
Journal of General Psychology, 10, 791–808. single step from protolanguage to full human language.
Benedict, R. (1961/1934). Patterns of culture. Boston, MA: In C. Knight, M. Studdert-Kennedy, & J. R. Hurford
Houghton and Mifflin. (Eds.), The evolutionary emergence of language: Social
Bennett, A. (1997). Bhangra in Newcastle: Music, function and the origins of linguistic form (pp. 341–358).
ethnic identity and the role of local knowledge. Cambridge, IL: Cambridge University Press.
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (n.d.). Foundation fact
10, 107–117. sheet. Retrieved from https://www.gatesfoundation
Berdan, F. F. (1982). The Aztecs of central Mexico: An impe- .org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Foundation
rial society. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. -Factsheet
Berdan, F. F. (1989). Trade and markets in precapitalist Bishop, B. (2009). The big sort: Why the clustering of like-
states. In S. Plattner (Ed.), Economic anthropology minded America is tearing us apart. Boston, MA:
(pp. 78–107). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Mariner.
Berdicevskis, A., & Piperski, A. C. (2011, December 8). Bitterli, U. (1986). Cultures in conflict: Encounters between
Doubts about a serial founder-effect model of lan- European and non-European cultures, 1432–1800.
guage expansion. Science (E-Letters). Retrieved from Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6027/346/reply Bittman, M. (2008, February 10). The meat of the matter.
Bereiter, C., & Engelmann, S. (1966). Teaching disadvan- The Dallas Morning News.
taged children in preschool. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Blackwood, E. (1984). Sexuality and gender in certain
Prentice Hall. Native American tribes: The case of cross-gender
Berezovikova, I. P., & Mamleeva, F. R. (2001). Traditional females. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
foods in the diet of Chukota natives. International Society, 10, 27–42.
Journal of Circumpolar Health, 60, 138–142. BJP becomes largest political party in the world. (2015,
Berger, C. (2014). South Sudan: Kith, kin and peace agree- March 30). Times of India. Retrieved from https://time
ments. African Arguments. Retrieved from http:// sofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BJP-becomes-largest-
africanarguments.org/2014/05/14/south-sudan-kith- political-party-in-the-world/articleshow/46739025
kin-and-peace-agreements-by-carol-berger/ .cms
Berger, H. A. (2005). Witchcraft and neopaganism. In Blanchet-Cohen, N., & Denov, M. (2015). War-affected
H. A. Berger (Ed.), Witchcraft and Magic: Contem- children’s approach to resettlement: Implications for
porary North America (pp 28–54). Philadelphia: child and family services. Annals of Anthropological
University of Pennsylvania. Practice, 39, 120–133.
Berlo, J. C. (1993). Dreaming of double woman: The ambiv- Blaser, M. (2009). The threat of the Yrmo: The political
alent role of the female artist in North American ontology of a sustainable hunting program. American
Indian myth. American Indian Quarterly, 17, 31–43. Anthropologist, 111, 10–20.
Berreman, G. D. (1988). Race, caste, and other invidious Blattman, C., & Dercon, S. (2017, June 22). The
distinctions in social stratification. In J. Cole (Ed.), impacts of industrial and entrepreneurial work on
Anthropology for the nineties: Introductory readings income and health: Experimental evidence from
(pp. 485–518). New York, NY: Free Press. Ethiopia. SSRN. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/
Besnier, N. (1996). Polynesian gender liminality through abstract=2843595
time and space. In G. Herdt (Ed.), Third sex, third gen- Blick, J. P. (1988). Genocidal warfare in tribal societies as
der: Beyond sexual dimorphism in culture and history a result of European-induced culture conflict. Man,
(pp. 285–328). New York, NY: Zone. 23, 654–670.
Bloomberg. (2017). Here’s what we know about Trump’s Bornstein, A. S. (2002). Crossing the green line between
Mexico wall. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg the West Bank and Israel. Philadelphia: University of
.com/graphics/2017-trump-mexico-wall/how-many Pennsylvania Press.
-people-currently-cross/ Borofsky, R. (1994). On the knowledge and knowing of
Bloomberg News. (2011, October 19). China becomes cultural activities. In R. Borofsky (Ed.), Assessing
Apple’s second-largest market, Cook says. Retrieved cultural anthropology (pp. 331–347). New York, NY:
from www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/china-be McGraw-Hill.
comes-apple-s-second-largest-market-by-sales-cook Botswana’s mobile penetration to hit record high. (2015,
-says.html February 25). Sunday Standard. Retrieved from http://
Blumberg, P. (1980). Inequality in an age of decline. New www.sundaystandard.info/botswana%E2%80%99s
York, NY: Oxford University Press. -mobile-penetration-hit-record-high-study
Blumenfield, T. (2004). Walking marriages. Anthropology Bouche, D. (1966). Les écoles françaises au Soudan à
Newsletter, 45, 15. l’époque de la conquête. 1884–1900. Cahiers d’Etudes
Boas, F. (1988/1896). The limitations of the compara- Africainnes, 7, 228–267.
tive method of anthropology. In P. Bohannan & M. Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Stanford, CA:
Glazer (Eds.), High points in anthropology (2nd ed., Stanford University Press.
pp. 85–93). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Bourgois, P. (1995). In search of respect: Selling crack in El
Bodley, J. H. (1999). Victims of progress (4th ed.). Mountain Barrio. New York, NY: Cambridge.
View, CA: Mayfield. Bourgois, P. (1996). Confronting anthropology, education,
Bodley, J. H. (2007). Anthropology and contemporary and inner-city apartheid. American Anthropologist,
human problems (5th ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman 98, 249–265.
and Littlefield. Bourgois, P., & Schonberg, J. (2009). Righteous dopefiend.
Bodovski, K. (2010). Parental practices and educational Berkeley: University of California Press.
achievement: Social class, race, and habitus. British Bourguignon, F., & Morrison, C. (2002). Inequality among
Journal of Sociology of Education, 31, 139–156. world citizens: 1820–1992. The American Economic
Boellstorff, T. (2016). Epilogue. In E. Lewin & L. M. Review, 92, 727–744.
Silverstein (Eds.), Mapping feminist anthropology in Bovin, M. (2001). Nomads who cultivate beauty: Wodaabe
the twenty-first century (pp. 276–284). Brunswick, NJ: dances and visual arts in Niger. Uppsala, Sweden:
Rutgers. Nordic Africa Institute.
Bolles, A. L. (2016). The curious relationship of feminist Bowen, J. R. (2007). Why the French don’t like headscarves:
anthropology and women’s studies. In E. Lewin & L. Islam, the state, and public space. Princeton, NJ:
M. Silverstein (Eds.), Mapping feminist anthropology Princeton University Press.
in the twenty-first century (pp. 84–102). Brunswick, NJ: Bowlby, C. (2015, February 2). The palace of shame that
Rutgers. makes China angry. BBC Magazine. Retrieved from
Bonvillain, N. (1997). Language, culture, and communica- http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30810596
tion (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Box Office Mojo. (2018a). Black Panther. Retrieved from
Boo, K. (2012). Behind the beautiful forevers. New York, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marve
NY: Random House. l2017b.htm
Booth, H. (2017, April 1). The kingdom of women: The Box Office Mojo. (2018b.) Ready Player One. Retrieved
society where a man is never the boss. The Guardian. f rom ht t ps://w w w.boxof f icemojo.com/mov-
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/ ies/?id=readyplayerone.htm
lifeandstyle/2017/apr/01/the-kingdom-of-women-the Boxer, C. R. (1965). The Dutch seaborne empire 1600–1800.
-tibetan-tribe-where-a-man-is-never-the-boss New York, NY: Knopf.
Bordo, S. (2015). Feminists reimagine the body. In S. Boyd-Bowman, P. (1975). A sample of sixteenth century
M. Bordo, M. C. Alcalde, & E. Rosenman (Eds.), “Caribbean” Spanish phonology. In W. Milan, J.
Provocations: A transnational reader in the his- Staczek, & J. Zamora (Eds.), 1974 colloquium on Spanish
tory of feminist thought (pp. 231–259). Los Angeles: and Portuguese linguistics (pp. 1–11). Washington, DC:
University of California Press. Georgetown University Press.
Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (1995). Bridewealth and its cor- Bracken, C. (1997). The potlatch papers: A colonial
relates: Quantifying changes over time. Current case history. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Anthropology, 36, 573–603. Press.
Borlaug, N. (2000). The green revolution revisited and the Brain, J. L. (1989). An anthropological perspective on the
road ahead. Lecture to the Norwegian Nobel Institute. witchcraze. In J. R. Brink, A. P. Coudert, & M. C.
Retrieved from https://assets.nobelprize.org/uploads/ Horowitz (Eds.), The politics of gender in early mod-
2018/06/borlaug-lecture.pdf?_ga=2.13851952.64291 ern Europe (pp. 15–27). Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth
0473.1536171898-1706762762.1536171898 Century Journal Publishers.
References 391
Brandt, A., & Eagleman, D. (2017). The runaway species: Burke, J. (2018, January 25). Congo “state agents” murdered
How human creativity remakes the world. La Vergne, hundreds in 2017, says UN report. The Guardian.
TN: Catapult. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/
Brecher, J. (1972). Strike. San Francisco, CA: Straight world/2018/jan/25/congo-state-agents-murdered-hun
Arrow Books. dreds-in-2017-says-un-report
Breene, K. (2017, May 26). 7 deadly diseases the world has Burton, J. W. (1992). Representing Africa: Colonial
(almost) eradicated. World Economic Forum. Retrieved anthropology revisited. Journal of Asian and African
from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/ Studies, 27, 181–201.
7-deadly-diseases-the-world-has-almost-eradicated/ Burton, T. G. (1993). Serpent-handling believers. Knoxville:
Breusers, M. (1999). On the move: Mobility, land use and live- University of Tennessee Press.
stock practices on the central plateau in Burkina Faso. Business in the blood. (2014, November 1). The Economist.
Münster, Germany; London, England: LIT Verlag. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/business/
Bricker, J., Dettling, L. J., Henriques, A., Hsu, J. W., Jacobs, 2014/11/01/business-in-the-blood
L., Moore, K. B., . . . & Llanes, E. (2014). Changes in Cabaniss, W. (2015, August 23). S. E. Cupp: Only about 30
U.S. family finances from 2013 to 2016: Evidence from other countries offer birthright citizenship, making
the Survey of Consumer Finances. Federal Reserve U.S. “anomaly.” Politifact. Retrieved from http://www
Bulletin,103. Retrieved from https://www.federal .politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/aug/23/
reserve.gov/publications/files/scf17.pdf se-cupp/se-cupp-only-about-30-other-countries-offer
Briggs, J. L. (1991). Expecting the unexpected: Canadian -birthr/
Inuit training for an experimental lifestyle. Ethos, 19, Cabral, N. M. (2017). Structures of risk: Lived experiences
259–287. of multi-syndemic clustering in the greater Boston area
Bright, B. J., & Bakewell, L. (Eds.). (1995). Looking high and (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from https://open.bu.edu/
low: Art and cultural identity. Tucson: University of bitstream/handle/2144/23775/Cabral_bu_0017N_
Arizona Press. 12913.pdf?sequence=5
Brito, S. J. (1989). The way of a peyote roadman. New York, Cadigan, R. J. (1998). Woman-to-woman marriage:
NY: Peter Lang. Practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal
Brown, D. (1991). Human universals. New York, NY: of Comparative Family Studies, 29, 89–99.
McGraw-Hill. Campbell, E., & Lassiter, L. (2015). Doing ethnography
Brown, J. (1975). Iroquois women: An ethnohistoric note. today: Theories, methods, exercises. Malden, MA:
In R. R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an anthropology of women Wiley Blackwell.
(pp. 235–251). New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. Campbell, J. R. (2010). The “problem” of ethics in con-
Brown, S. K., & Bean, F. D. (2006). New immigrants, new temporary anthropological research. Anthropology
models of assimilation. Migration Information Source. Matters Journal, 12, 1–17.
Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Campbell, M. C., & Tishkoff, S. A. (2010). The evolution
Bruchac, M. M. (2018). Broken chains of custody: of human genetic and phenotypic variation in Africa.
Possessing, dispossessing, and repossessing lost wam- Current Biology, 20, R166–R173.
pum belts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Canadian Broadcasting Company. (1982, March 21). Ear pull
Society, 162, 56–105. hoopla. Retrieved from http://archives.radio-canada.ca/
Bruchac, M. M. (2010). Ownership, representation, and IDC-1-41-1194-6705/sports/arcticgames/clip4
repatriation. Anthropology News, 53, 41–42. Cancian, F. (1989). Economic behavior in peasant commu-
Bryant, V. M. (2003). Árchaeology: Invisible clues to new nities. In S. Plattner (Ed.), Economic anthropology (pp.
world plant domestication. Science, 299, 1029–1030. 127–170). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
BSP MP, his wife and son arrested in dowry death case. Cannon, W. B. (1942). The “voodoo” death. American
(2016, April 7). Hindustan Times. Retrieved from Anthropologist, 44, 169–180.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/bsp-mp-his Carneiro, R. (1970). A theory of the origin of the state.
-wife-and-son-arrested-in-dowry-death-case/story Science, 169, 733–738.
-kJzYwKyAAgiGgVUEFup9ZN.html Carneiro, R. (1981). The chiefdom: Precursor of the state.
Buck, P. D. (1989). Cargo-cult discourse: Myth and the In G. D. Jones & R. R. Kautz (Eds.), The transition to
rationalization of labor relations in Papua New statehood in the New World (pp. 37–79). Cambridge,
Guinea. Dialectical Anthropology, 13, 157–171. England: Cambridge University Press.
Bundhun, R. (2017). Dowry and death continue apace Carod-Artal, F. J., & Vázquez-Cabrera, C. (2007). An anthro-
in India. The National. Retrieved from https://www pological study about headache and migraine in native
.thenational.ae/world/dowries-and-death-continue cultures from central and South America. Headache:
-apace-in-india-1.81522 The Journal of Head & Face Pain, 47, 834–841.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018). The employment situ- Casasanto, D. (2008). Who’s afraid of the big bad Whorf?
ation: August 2018. Retrieved from https://www.bls Crosslinguistic differences in temporal language and
.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf thought. Language Learning, 58 (Suppl. 1), 63–79.
Casey, C. E. (1999). “Come, join our family”: Discipline -goldman-sachs-alums-trump-admin-inconve-

and integration in corporate organizational culture. nience-n757076
Human Relations, 52, 155–178. Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Jones, M. R., & Porter, S. R.
Cashdan, E. (1989). Hunters and gatherers: Economic (2018). Race and economic opportunity in the United
behavior in bands. In S. Plattner (Ed.), Economic States: An intergenerational perspective. NBER
anthropology (pp. 21–48). Stanford, CA: Stanford Working Paper No. 24441. Cambridge, MA: National
University Press. Bureau of Economic Research.
Castle, S. (2001). “The tongue is venomous”: Perception, Chevannes, B. (1994). Rastafari: Roots and ideology.
verbalisation and the manipulation of mortality and Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
fertility regimes in rural Mali. Social Science and China pollution: First ever red alert in effect in Beijing.
Medicine, 52, 1827–1841. (2015, December 8). BBC News. Retrieved from https://
Cemlyn, S. (2008). Human rights and gypsies and trav- www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35026363
elers: An exploration of the application of a human Chodorow, N. (1974). Family structure and feminine
rights perspective to social work with a minority personality. In M. Z. Rosaldo & L. Lamphere (Eds.),
community in Britain. British Journal of Social Work, Women, culture, and society (pp. 43–66). Stanford,
38, 153–173. CA: Stanford University Press.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering.
Unmarried childbearing. Retrieved from https://www Berkeley: University of California Press.
.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/unmarried-childbearing.htm Chokshi, N., & Yee, V. (2018, February 13). ICE deportation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Infant cases: Your questions answered. The New York Times.
mortality. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/repro Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/
ductivehealth/MaternalInfantHealth/InfantMortality us/immigration-deportation-ice.html
.htm Chomsky, N. (1965). Syntactic structures. London,
Chadwick, R. J. (1991). Matrilineal inheritance and migra- England: Mouton.
tion in a Minangkabau community. Indonesia, 51, Chomsky, N. (1975). The logical structure of linguistic the-
47–81. ory. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Chagnon, N. (1997). Yanomamö (5th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Cissé, A. (2004, February 20). Population-Mali an ever-
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. growing diaspora. Inter Press Service News Agency.
Chagnon, N., Lynch, R. F., Shenk, M. K., Hames, R., & Retrieved from http://www.ipsnews.net/2004/02/
Flinn, M. V. (2017). Cross-cousin marriage among the population-mali-an-ever-growing-diaspora/
Yanomamö shows evidence of parent-offspring con- Cissé, A. (2007, April 13). Mali: Wood—The gift that can’t
flict and mate competition between brothers. PNAS, keep on giving. Inter Press Service News Agency.
114, E2590–E2607. Retrieved from http://www.ipsnews.net/2007/04/
Chamberlin, G., & Bhabani, S. (2017, December 3). Five years energy-mali-wood-the-gift-that-cant-keep-on-giving/
after the gang-rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, what has Clark, J., Yallop, C., & Fletcher, J. (2007). An introduction
changed for women in India? The Guardian. Retrieved to phonetics and phonology (3rd ed.). Oxford, England:
from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/ Blackwell.
dec/03/five-years-after-gang-murder-jyoti-singh-how Clark, L., & Kingsolver, A. (n.d.). Briefing paper on
-has-delhi-changed informed consent. American Anthropological
Chance, N. (1990). The Inupiat and Arctic Alaska: An eth- Association Committee on Ethics. Retrieved from
nography of development. Fort Worth, TX: Holt. www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/bp5.htm
Chang, L. T. (2008). Factory girls: From village to city in a Clarke, M. H. (2000). On the road again: International
changing China. New York, NY: Spiegel & Grau. development consulting. In P. L. W. Sabloff (Ed.),
Checker, M. (2005). Polluted promises: Environmental rac- Careers in anthropology: Profiles of practitioner anthro-
ism and the search for justice in a southern town. New pologists (pp. 71–74). Washington, DC: National
York: New York University Press. Association for the Practice of Anthropology.
Checker, M. (2009). Anthropology in the public sphere: Claessen, H. J. M., & Van Bakel, M. A. (2006). Theme
2008: Emerging trends and significant impacts. and variations: The development of differences in
American Anthropologist, 111, 162–169. Polynesian socio-political organizations. Bijdragen
Chen, H. (2012). Interview: Richard Brubaker on why Apple’s tot de Taal, Land en Volkenkunde [In Dutch], 162,
problems go beyond Foxconn. Asia Society. Retrieved 218–268.
from http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/interview-rich Cleaveland, A. A., Craven, J., & Danfelser, M. (1979).
ard-brubaker-why-apples-problems-go-beyond-foxconn Universals of culture. Intercom, 92/93, 8–10.
Cheng, E. (2017, May 9). Lloyd Blankfein: So many Goldman Clemetson, L. (2006, June 13). U.S. Muslims confront
Sachs alums in Trump admin is “inconvenience.” NBC taboo on nursing homes. New York Times, p. A1.
News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/ Clendinnen, I. (1991). Aztecs: An interpretation.
business/business-news/lloyd-blankfein-so-many Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
References 393
Cleveland Cavaliers. (2018). Forbes. Retrieved from https:// from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent

www.forbes.com/teams/cleveland-cavaliers/ .cgi?article=3055&context=edissertations
CNN. (2018). CNN worldwide fact sheet. Retrieved from Coulin, S. B. (2016). Exiled home: Salvadoran transnational
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/cnn-fact-sheet/ youth in the aftermath of violence. Chapel Hill, NC:
Cohen, R., & Service, E. R. (1978). Origins of the state: The Duke University.
anthropology of political evolution. Philadelphia, PA: Counts, D. A., & Counts, D. R. (1985). Aging and its
Institute for the Study of Human Issues. transformations: Moving toward death in Pacific
Cohen, Y. (1971). Man in adaptation: The institutional societies. New York, NY: Lanham/University Press
framework. Chicago, IL: Aldine. of America.
Cohen, Y. (1978). Disappearance of the incest taboo. Covington, D. (1995). Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake
Human Nature, 1, 72–78. handling and redemption in southern Appalachia.
Cohn, R. L. (2010). Immigration to the United States. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Economic History Association. Retrieved from http:// Cox, D. (2018a, January 24). Are white evangelicals sacrific-
eh.net/encyclopedia/article/cohn.immigration.us ing the future in search of the past? Fivethirtyeight.com.
Cole, A., & Raymond, G. (2006). Redefining the French Retrieved from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/
republic. Manchester, England: Manchester University are-white-evangelicals-sacrificing-the-future-in
Press. -search-of-the-past/
Coleman, M. C. (1999). The responses of American Cox, D. (2018b, May 18). Way more Americans may be athe-
Indian children and Irish children to the school, ists than we thought. Fivethirtyeight.com. Retrieved
1850s–1920s: A comparative study in cross-cultural from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/way-more
education. American Indian Quarterly, 23, 83–112. -americans-may-be-atheists-than-we-thought/
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought. Boston, MA: Crate, S. A. (2011). Climate and culture: Anthropology
Unwin Hyman. in the era of contemporary climate change. Annual
Condon, R. G., Ogina, J., & Elders, H. (1996). The northern Review of Anthropology, 40, 175–194.
Copper Inuit: A history. Toronto, Canada: University Crate, S. A., & Nuttall, M. (2009). Anthropology and
of Toronto Press. climate change: From encounters to actions. Abingdon,
Condry, I. (2005, January). Must-download TV and cool England: Taylor and Francis.
Japan. Anthropology Newsletter, 53. Crespin, P. (2005). The global transformation of work.
Conniff, R. (2003, August). Go ahead, kiss your cousin. Anthropology News, 46, 20–21.
Discover Magazine. Retrieved from http://discoverma Crush, J. (1995). The power of development. New York, NY:
gazine.com/2003/aug/featkiss Routledge.
Connolly, B. (Director), & Anderson, R. (Director). (1983). Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. New York,
First contact [Motion picture]. Watertown, MA: NY: Cambridge.
Documentary Educational Resources. Cunningham, L. S., John Kelsay, R., Barineau, M., &
Connolly, B., & Anderson, R. (1987). First contact: New McVoy, M. J. (1995). The sacred quest: An invitation to
Guinea’s highlanders encounter the outside world. New the study of religion (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
York, NY: Penguin. Prentice Hall.
Conroy, R. (2006). Editorial: Female genital mutilation: Curtis, L. P. (1968). Anglo-Saxons and Celts: A study of anti-
Whose problem, whose solution? British Medical Irish prejudice in Victorian England. Bridgeport, CT:
Journal, 333, 106–107. University of Bridgeport.
Cook, C. (2009). Sangomas: Problem or solution for South Da Costa, A. B. (2017, December 16). Tens of thousands
Africa’s health care system. Journal of the National of Indonesians rally over Trump’s Jerusalem stance.
Medical Association, 2009, 261–265. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/arti
Coon, C. S. (1971). The hunting peoples. Boston, MA: Little, cle/us-usa-trump-israel-indonesia/tens-of-thousands
Brown. -of-indonesians-rally-over-trumps-jerusalem-stance
Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. (1988). Africa: Endurance and -idUSKBN1EB04C
change south of the Sahara. Berkeley: University of Da Costa, A. E. (2014). Confounding anti-racism:
California Press. Mixture, racial democracy, and post-racial politics in
Corak, M. (2016). Economic mobility. Pathways: The Brazil. Critical Sociology, 42, 495–513.
poverty and inequality report 2016. Stanford Center Dahl, D. (2008, April 7). Forensic linguists make a science
on Poverty and Inequality. Retrieved from https:// of syntax. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved
inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways- from http://www.robertleonardassociates.com/PDF/
SOTU-2016-Economic-Mobility-3.pdf LawyersUSA_7april08.pdf
Corker, J. (2014). Urbanization and demographic change in Dall, W. H., & Boas, F. (1887). Museums of ethnology and
sub-Saharan Africa: Three essays on fertility and child their classification. Science, 9, 587–589.
mortality differentials in a rapidly urbanizing context. Dalton, G. (1961). Economic theory and primitive society.
Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. Retrieved American Anthropologist, 63, 1–25.
Damon, F. H. (1983a). The Kula and generalised exchange: Delcore, H. D. (2007). The racial distribution of privilege
Considering some unconsidered aspects of the ele- in a Thai national park. Journal of Southeast Asian
mentary structures of kinship. Man, 15, 267–292. Studies, 38, 83–105.
Damon, F. H. (1983b). What moves the Kula: Opening DeLoache, J. S., & Gottlieb, A. (2000). A world of babies:
and closing gifts on Woodlark Island. In J. W. Leach Imagined childcare guides for seven societies. New York,
& E. Leach (Eds.), The Kula: New perspectives on NY: Cambridge University Press.
Massim exchange (pp. 309–342). Cambridge, England: Deming, D. J. (2017). The growing importance of social
Cambridge University Press. skills in the labor market. National Bureau of
Danaher, K., & Shellenberger, M. (Eds.). (1995). Fighting for Economic Research Working Paper 21473. Retrieved
the soul of Brazil. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. from https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ddeming/files/
D’Andrade, R. G., Scheper-Hughes, N., et al. (1995). deming_socialskills_aug16.pdf
Objectivity and militancy: A debate. Current Dentan, R. K. (1979). The Semai: A nonviolent people of
Anthropology, 36, 399–440. Malaya. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Dalrymple, W. (2007). The last Muchal: The fall of a Deomampo, D. (2016). Transnational reproduction: Race,
dynasty. New York, NY: Knopf. kinship, and commercial surrogacy in India. New York:
Danfulani, U. H. D. (1999). Exorcising witchcraft: The New York University Press.
return of the gods in new religious movements on the DePillis, L. (2017). 10 years after the recession began, have
Jos plateau and the Benue regions of Nigeria. African Americans recovered? CNN. Retrieved from https://
Affairs, 98, 167–193. money.cnn.com/2017/12/01/news/economy/recession
Daniel Gilbert. (2018). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www -anniversary/index.html
.forbes.com/profile/daniel-gilbert/ DeSilver, D. (2018). Remittances from abroad are major eco-
Das, R. (1998). The green revolution, agrarian produc- nomic assets for some developing countries. Pew Research
tivity, and labor. International Journal of Urban and Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/
Regional Research, 22, 122–135. fact-tank/2018/01/29/remittances-from-abroad-are-
The data deluge: Businesses, governments, and society are major-economic-assets-for-some-developing-countries/
only starting to tap its vast potential. (2010a, February Destexhe, A. (1995). Rwanda and genocide in the twenti-
25). The Economist. Retrieved from www.economist eth century. (M. Alison, Trans.). New York: New York
.com/node/15579717 University Press.
Daugherty, M. L. (1993/1976). Serpent-handling as sacra- De Vos, G. A., & Wagatsuma, H. (1966). Japan’s invisible
ment. In P. A. Moro, J. E. Myers, & A. C. Lehmann race: Case studies in culture and personality. Berkeley:
(Eds.), Magic, witchcraft, and religion: An anthropolog- University of California Press.
ical study of the supernatural (pp. 343–348). Mountain De Vos, G., & Romanucci-Ross, L. (1995). Ethnic identity:
View, CA: Mayfield. A psychocultural perspective. In L. Romanucci-Ross
Davidson, J. (2016). Rice and revolution: Agrarian life and & G. DeVos (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Creation, conflict,
global food policy on the Upper Guinea Coast. In and accommodation (3rd ed., pp. 349–380). London,
J. Knorr & C. Kohl (Eds.), The Upper Guinea Coast England: Sage.
in global perspective (pp. 174–196). New York, NY: de Waal Malefijt, A. (1968). Religion and culture: An
Berghahn. introduction to the anthropology of religion. Prospect
Davies, S. G. (2006). Challenging gender norms: Five genders Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
among Bugis in Indonesia. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Dewaele, J. M. (2004). Perceived language dominance
Davis, J., & Mazumder, B. (2017). The decline in inter- and language preference for emotional speech: The
generational mobility after 1980. Federal Reserve implications for attrition research. In M. S. Schmid,
Bank of Chicago Working Paper 2017-05. Retrieved B. Kopke, M. Keijzer, & L. Weilemar (Eds.), First lan-
from https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/ guage attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on meth-
working-papers/2017/wp2017-05 odological issues (pp. 81–104). Amsterdam, England:
Dawkins, R. (2008). The god delusion. Boston, MA: John Benjamins.
Houghton Mifflin. Diamond, J. (1992). The arrow of disease. Discover, 13,
Deaths from workplace accidents in China fall 12pc 64–73.
in 2017 to 38,000. (2018, January 20). South China Diamond, J. (1994). Race without color. Discover, 15,
Morning Post. Retrieved from https://www.scmp 82–89.
.com/news/china/society/article/2131147/deaths-work A distorted sex ratio is playing havoc with marriage in
place-accidents-china-fall-12pc-2017-38000 China. (2017, November 23). The Economist. Retrieved
Dehghan, S. K. (2017, September 10). Migrant sea route to from https://www.economist.com/special-report/
Italy is world’s most lethal. The Guardian. Retrieved 2017/11/23/a-distorted-sex-ratio-is-playing-havoc-with
from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ -marriage-in-china
sep/11/migrant-death-toll-rises-after-clampdown-on DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. International Journal
-east-european-borders of Critical Pedagogy, 3, 54–70.
References 395
Divale, W. T., & Harris, M. (1976). Population, war- Eaton, S. B., & Konner, M. (1989). Ancient genes and mod-
fare and the male supremacist complex. American ern health. In A. Podolefsky & P. J. Brown (Eds.),
Anthropologist, 78, 521–538. Applying anthropology (pp. 43–46). Mountain View,
Dollard, J. (1937). Caste and class in a southern town. New CA: Mayfield.
Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Echenberg, M. (1991). Colonial conscripts: The Tirailleurs
Domhoff, G. W. (2013). Power in America: Wealth, income, Sénégalais in French West Africa, 1857–1960.
and power. Who Rules America? Retrieved from Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html Eck, D. (2001). A new religious America. San Francisco,
Dominguez, V. (1986). White by definition. New CA: Harper.
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Eck, D. (2003). Encountering god: A spiritual journey from
Downum, C. E., & Price, L. J. (1999). Applied archaeology. Bozeman to Banaras. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Human Organization, 58, 226–239. Eckardt, A. (2016, April 24). Obama in Germany: 35,000
Downs, J. F. (1972). The Navajo. New York, NY: Holt, protest TTIP trade deal in Hannover. NBC News.
Rinehart, and Winston. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/
Dozon, J-P. (1985). Les Bété: Une creation coloniale. In J-L. world/obama-germany-25-000-protest-ttip-trade-deal
Amselle & E. M’Bokolo (Eds.), Au Coeur de l’ethnie -hannover-n560956
(pp. 49–85). Paris, France: Editions La Decouverte. Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and burnouts: Social categories and
Dugan, A. (2014, November 24). In U.S., 37% do not feel identity in the high school. New York, NY: Teacher’s
safe walking at night near home. Gallup. Retrieved College Press.
from https://news.gallup.com/poll/179558/not-feel- Eckert, P. (2000). Linguistic variation as social practice.
safe-walking-night-near-home.aspx Oxford, England: Blackwell.
Duhigg, C., & Barboza, D. (2012, January 25). In China, Eckert, P. (2004). Language and gender in adolescence.
human costs are built into an iPad. New York Times. In J. Holmes and M. Meyerhoff (Eds.), The handbook
Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/busi of language and gender (pp. 381–400). Malden, MA:
ness/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs- Blackwell.
for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all Eckett, P., & Newmark, R. (1980). Central Eskimo song
Duhigg, C., & Greenhouse, S. (2012, March 29). Electronic duels: A contextual analysis of ritual ambiguity.
giant vowing reforms in China plants. New York Ethnology, 19, 191–211.
Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/ Eco, U. (1979). A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana
business/apple-supplier-in-china-pledges-changes University Press.
-in-working-conditions.html?pagewanted=all Edwards, A. (2017). Forced displacement worldwide
Duncan, D. E. (1995). Hernando de Soto: A savage quest in at its highest in decades. United Nations High
the Americas. New York, NY: Crown. Commissioner for Refugees. Retrieved from http://
Duncan, D. J. (2000). Second coming. Sierra Club. Retrieved www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2017/6/5941561f4/
from https://vault.sierraclub.org/sierra/200003/ forced-displacement-worldwide-its-highest-decades
salmon1.asp .html
Dundes, A. (Ed.). (1980). Into the endzone for a touchdown: Eggan, F. (1950). The social organization of western pueblos.
A psychoanalytic consideration of American football. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Eidson, S. (2014, September 4). Residents of Hyde Park
Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic anthropology. Cambridge, remain “trapped.” Metrospirit. Retrieved from http://
England: Cambridge University Press. metrospirit.com/residents-hyde-park-remain-trapped/
Durkheim, É. (1961/1915). The elementary forms of the reli- Eisenruch, M. (1991). From post-traumatic stress disor-
gious life. New York, NY: Collier. der to cultural bereavement: Diagnosis of Southeast
Durrenberger, E. P., & Marti, J. (Eds.). (2006). Labor in Asian refugees. Social Science and Medicine, 33,
cross-cultural perspective. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press. 673–680.
Dwyer, M. (2013, October 25). Where did the anti-global- Elkin, A. P. (1967). The nature of Australian totemism.
ization movement go? The New Republic. Retrieved In J. Middleton (Ed.), Gods and rituals (pp. 159–176).
from https://newrepublic.com/article/115360/ Garden City, NY: Natural History Press.
wto-protests-why-have-they-gotten-smaller Eller, J. D. (2006). Violence and culture: A cross-cultural and
Eakin, H. (2009). The affair of the Chinese bronze heads. interdisciplinary approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
New York Review of Books, 56, 19. Elliott, L. (2018, May 20). Italy’s policies make sense—
Earle, T. K. (1987). Chiefdoms in archaeological and It’s Eurozone rules that are absurd. The Guardian.
ethnological perspective. Annual Reviews in Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/
Anthropology, 16, 279–308. business/2018/may/20/italys-policies-make-sense-its
Early, J. D., & Headland, T. N. (1998). Population dynam- -eurozone-rules-that-are-absurd
ics of a Philippine rain forest people: The San Ildefonso El Saadawi, N. (1980). The hidden face of Eve: Women in the
Agta. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Arab World. London, England: Zed Press.
Elstein, A. (2017, January 3). Trump names eighth, Wall Eveleth, R. (2013). Liechtenstein has the most skewed ratio of
Street executive to administration post. Crain’s New baby boys and girls in the world right now. Smithsonian
York. Retrieved from http://www.crainsnewyork.com/ .com. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag
article/20170104/POLITICS/170109972/donald-trump- .com/smart-news/liechtenstein-has-the-most-skewed-
names-eighth-wall-street-executive-to-his-administra ratio-of-baby-boys-and-girls-in-the-world-right-
tion-even-as-the-president-elect-continues-to-prom now-8176140/
ise-to-drain-the-swamp Ewing, K. P. (2008). Stolen honor: Stigmatizing Muslim men
Ember, C. R. (1983). The relative decline in women’s in Berlin. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
contribution to agriculture with intensification. Fábrega, H. (1997). Evolution of sickness and healing.
American Anthropologist, 85, 285–304. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ember, C. R., & Ember, M. (2005). Explaining corpo- Facebook. (2015). Facebook diversity. Retrieved from
ral punishment of children: A cross cultural study. https://www.facebook.com/facebookdiversity/posts/
American Anthropologist, 85, 285–304. 774221582674346
Ember, M., & Ember, C. R. (1971). The conditions favor- Fadiman, A. (2012, December 21). Lia Lee: A disabled life
ing matrilocal vs. patrilocal residence. American that changed the face of Western medicine. Produced
Anthropologist, 73, 571–594. by Joyce Hackel. Public Radio International. Retrieved
Erickson, J. (1995). The human volcano: Population growth from https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-12-21/lia-lee
as geologic force. New York, NY: Facts on File. -disabled-life-changed-face-western-medicine
Erwitt, E. (1972). Beauty knows no pain [Documentary Fandos, N., Kang, C., & Isaac, M. (2017, November 1).
film]. Lanham: National Film Network. House Intelligence Committee releases incendi-
Escobar, A. (1997). The making and unmaking of the ary Russian social media ads. The New York Times.
third world through development. In M. Rahnema Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/
& V. Bawtree (Eds.), The post-development reader us/politics/russia-technology-facebook.html
(pp. 263–273). Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books. Faubion, J., & Marcus, G. E. (2009). Fieldwork is not what it
Eskola, G. (2016, November 17). Hyde Park entering last used to be: Learning anthropology’s method in a time of
relocation phase, mayor would like to see more done transition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell.
with site. WJBF News Channel 6. Retrieved from http:// Fausey, C. M., & Boroditsky, L. (2011). Who dunnit?
www.wjbf.com/news/hyde-park-entering-last-relo Cross-linguistic differences in eye-witness memory.
cation-phase-mayor-would-like-to-see-more-done- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 150–157.
with-site_2018010207501642/896448239 Feinberg, R. (1994). Contested worlds: Politics of culture
Eskola, G. (2018, February 15). Illegal dumping a concern and the politics of anthropology. Anthropology and
as Hyde Park demolitions stop. WJBF News Channel Humanism, 19, 20–35.
6. Retrieved from https://www.wjbf.com/news/illegal Ferraro, G. P. (1994). The cultural dimension of inter-
-dumping-a-concern-as-hyde-park-demolitions-stop national business (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
_20180305061728848/1009296674 Prentice-Hall.
Esperanza, J. S. (2010). Bali’s ethnic arts industry: Crafting Fetto, J. (1999). Six billion served. American Demographics,
global identities amidst a national tourist agenda. 21, 14–16.
Material Culture Review, 71, 37–74. Field, F. W. (2011). Key concepts in bilingualism. New York,
Estioko-Griffin, A. (1986). Daughters of the forest. Natural NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
History, 5, 37–42. Field full of buttons. (1999, Apr 1). The Economist.
Ethnologue. (2018). Statistical summaries. Retrieved from Retrieved from http://w w w.economist.com/
www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp? node/195315
by=size Fitzpatrick, M. (2014). Hello Kitty at 40: The cat that con-
Eurostat. (2015). Marriages and births in Sweden. Retrieved quered the world. BBC. Retrieved from http://www
from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/ .bbc.com/culture/story/20140815-how-hello-kitty
index.php/Marriages_and_births_in_Sweden -invaded-the-world
Eurostat. (2018). Migration and migrant population statis- Flagg, A. (2018, March 30). The myth of the criminal
tics. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/sta immigrant. New York Times. Retrieved from https://
tistics-explained/pdfscache/1275.pdf www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/30/upshot/
Evans, P. (2000). Fighting marginalization with transna- crime-immigration-myth.html
tional networks: Counter-hegemonic globalization. Flamm, B. L. (2002). Faith healing by prayer: Review of
Contemporary Sociology, 29, 230–241. Cha, K.Y., Wirth, D.P., Lobo, R.A. Does prayer influ-
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1958/1937). Witchcraft, oracles, ence the success of in vitro fertilization-embryo
and magic among the Azande. Oxford, England: transfer? The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine,
Clarendon Press. 6, 47–50.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1968/1940). The Nuer. Oxford, Flavelle, D. (2010, January 16). Consumers in the wild.
England: Clarendon Press. Toronto Star, pp. B1–B2.
References 397
Flight, C. (2017). Smallpox: Eradicating the scourge. BBC. Freeman, C. (2007). The “reputation” of neoliberalism.
Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/ American Ethnologist, 34, 252–267.
empire_seapower/smallpox_01.shtml Freeman, J. (2017, September 6). Can anyone stop Burma’s
The flight from marriage. (2011, August 20). The Economist. hardline Buddhist monks? The Atlantic. Retrieved from
Retrieved from www.economist.com/node/21526329 https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/
Flood, M. K. (1994). Changing gender relations in 2017/09/can-anyone-stop-burmas-hardline-buddhist
Zinacantan, Mexico. Research in Economic -monks/538992/
Anthropology, 15, 145–173. French, H. W. (2006, November 3). Rush for wealth in
Fluehr-Lobban, C. (1998). Cultural relativism and uni- China’s cities shatters the ancient assurance of care in
versal human rights. Museum of Natural History old age. New York Times, p. A8.
AnthroNotes, 20. Retrieved from http://anthropology Frenkel, S. (2016). Everything you ever wanted to know about
.si.edu/outreach/anthnote/Winter98/anthnote.html how ISIS uses the Internet. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved
Foladare, I. S. (1969). A clarification of “ascribed status” from https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/every
and “achieved status.” The Sociological Quarterly, 10, thing-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-how-isis-uses-
53–61. the-i?utm_term=.bwOa3X8aE#.rfDVROwV1
Fondacaro, S., & McFate, M. (2008). In memoriam— Freyre, G. (1946). The masters and the slaves: A study in the
Michael Bhatia. Retrieved from http://humanterrain- development of Brazilian civilization. New York, NY:
system.army.mil/bhatia.html Knopf.
For Indian church, a critical shortage. (1995, March 20). Fried, M. (1967). The evolution of political society. New
New York Times, p. A8. York, NY: Random House.
Forde, D. (1950). Double descent among the Yako. In A. R. Friedl, E. (1975). Women and men: An anthropologist’s
Radcliffe-Brown & D. Forde (Eds.), African systems of view. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
kinship and marriage (pp. 285–332). London, England: Frisch, J. A. (1976). Folklore, history, and the Iroquois con-
Oxford University Press. dolence cane. Folklore Forum Bibliographic and Special
Forte, M. C. (2011). The Human Terrain System and Series, 15, 19–25.
anthropology: A review of ongoing public debates. Fund for Peace. (2018). Fragile states index. Retrieved from
American Anthropologist, 113, 149–153. http://fundforpeace.org/fsi/
Fortune. (2006). Global 500. Retrieved from http://money Fussell, P. (1983). Class: A guide through the American sta-
.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/globa1500/2005/ tus system. New York, NY: Summit Books.
Fortune. (2018). Fortune 500. Retrieved from http://fortune Fussell, P. (1992). Class: A guide through the American sta-
.com/fortune500/apple/ tus system. New York, NY: Touchstone.
Fortune, R. F. (1932). Sorcerers of Dobu. Prospect Heights, Gallup. (2011). Race relations. Retrieved from www.gallup
IL: Waveland Press. .com/poll/1687/race-relations.aspx
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality. New York, Gallup. (2018). Religion. Retrieved from https://news.gallup
NY: Vintage. .com/poll/1690/religion.aspx
Fowler, D. D. (2003). A natural history of man: Reflections Galman, S. C. (2017). Research in pain. Anthropology
on anthropology, museums, and science. Fieldiana News, 58, 14–17.
Anthropology, 36, 11–21. Gannon, M. (2016, February 5). Race is a social con-
Fox, M. (2012, September 14). Lia Lee dies: Life went struct, scientists argue. Scientific American. Retrieved
on around her, redefining care. New York Times. from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/ race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/
us/life-went-on-around-her-redefining-care-by-bridg Garfield, L. (2018, April 4). Cities are throwing hundreds
ing-a-divide.html of millions at Amazon to land HQ2—Here’s how they
Frank, R. (2011, October 19). Millionaires control 39% of stack up. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www
global wealth. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from .businessinsider.com/amazon-hq2-cities-developers
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/10/19/millionaires- -economic-tax-incentives-2017-10
control-39-of-global-wealth/? mod=e2tw Garment Worker Center. (2015). State of the LA gar-
Frankl, V. E. (1962). Man’s search for meaning: An introduc- ment industry. Retrieved from http://garmentwork
tion to logotherapy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. ercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Stateof
Frankovic, K. (2018). Americans have more concerns— LAGarmentIndustry.pdf
but some hope—about race relations. Yougov.com. Gatehouse, M. (2012). Brazil’s blind spot: Racism and
Retrieved from https://today.yougov.com/topics/ racial inequality. Lab. Retrieved from https://lab
politics/articles-reports/2018/01/12/americans-have .org.uk/brazils-blind-spot-racism-and-racial-in
-more-concerns-some-hope-about-race- equality/
Freed, D. (2010, May). The wrong man. The Atlantic. Geertz, C. (1973a). Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cock-
Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ fight. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of cultures
archive/2010/05/the-wrong-man/308019/ (pp. 412–453). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Geertz, C. (Ed.). (1973b). The interpretation of cultures. (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Creation, conflict, and accom-
New York, NY: Basic Books. modation (3rd ed., pp. 197–221). London, England:
Geertz, C. (1995). Culture war. New York Review of Books, Sage.
15, 4–6. Gilmore, D. D. (1990). Manhood in the making: Cultural
Geertz, C. (2001, October 18). The visit. New York Review of concepts of masculinity. New Haven, CT: Yale
Books, https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/10/18/ University Press.
the-visit/ Gilmore, D. D. (1996). Above and below: Toward a social
Geertz, C. (2008). Deep play: Notes on the Balinese geometry of gender. American Anthropologist, 98,
cockfight. In R. J. McGee & R. L. Warms (Eds.), 54–66.
Anthropological theory: An introductory history. Ginsberg, D. (2016). Survey respondents at a glance.
Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. American Anthropological Association. Retrieved
Gell, A. (1993). Wrapping in images: Tatooing in Polynesia. from http://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-aaa/files/
Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. production/public/FileDownloads/pdfs/Member
Gell-Mann, M., & Ruhlen, M. (2011, October 10). The ori- Survey2016_Report1.pdf
gin and evolution of word order. PNAS, 108. Retrieved Gladstone, R., & Cowell, A. (2017, December 8). At least
from http://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/17290.full 15 U.N. peacekeepers are killed in Congo. New
George, R. (2013). Ninety percent of everything: Inside ship- York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes
ping, the invisible industry that puts clothes on your .com/2017/12/08/world/africa/congo-un-peacekeep
back, gas in your car, and food on your plate. New York, ers-killed.html
NY: Metropolitan. Glazer, N., & Moynihan, D. P. (1970). Beyond the melting
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. pot (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
(2018). Women peace and security index 2017/18. Glick-Schiller, N., Basch, L., & Szanton Blanc, C. (1995).
Washington, DC: Georgetown University. From immigrant to transmigrant: Theorizing transna-
Ghosh, A. (1991). The structure of structure, or appropria- tional migration. Anthropological Quarterly, 68, 48–63.
tion of anthropological theory. Review, 14, 55–77. Globalirish. (n.d.). How many Irish people live abroad?
Giancola, J., & Kahlenberg, R. D. (2016). True merit. Jack Retrieved from http://www.globalirish.ie/issues/how-
Kent Cooke Foundation. Retrieved from https://files many-irish-people-live-abroad-an-ean-factsheet/
.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED569948.pdf Glucklich, A. (1997). The end of magic. New York, NY:
Gibbs, J. L., Jr. (1988). The Kpelle moot: A therapeutic Oxford University Press.
model for the informal settlement of disputes. In J. B. Gmelch, G. (2000). Baseball magic. In J. Spradley & D. W.
Cole (Ed.), Anthropology of the nineties (pp. 347–359). McCurdy (Eds.), Conformity and conflict (pp. 322–
New York, NY: Free Press. 331). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Gibson, M. A. (1997). Ethnicity and school performance: Godelier, M. (1993). L’Occident, miroir brisé: Une eval-
Complicating the immigrant/involuntary minority typol- uation partielle de l’anthropologie sociale assortie
ogy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 28, 431–454. de quelques perspectives. Annales [In French], 48,
Gibson, M. A., & Ogbu, J. (1991). Minority status and 183–1207.
schooling: A comparative study of immigrant and invol- Goldschmidt, W. (1986). The Sebei: A study in adaptation.
untary minorities. New York, NY: Garland. New York, NY: Holt, Reinhart and Winston.
Gibson, P. (2015, July 30). Why is Spain not interested in Goldstein, D. (1999). “Interracial” sex and racial
boxing? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www democracy in Brazil: Twin concepts? American
.theguardian.com/sport/the-balls-of-wrath/2015/ Anthropologist, 101, 563–578.
jul/30/spain-not-interested-boxing-football-marco Goldstein, D. M. (2014). Qualitative research in dangerous
-mccullough-kiko-martinez places: Becoming an “ethnographer” of violence and
Gilbert, L., Raj, A., Hien, D., Stockman, J., Terlikbayeva, personal safety. DSD Working Papers on Research
A., & Wyatt, G. (2015). Targeting the SAVA (sub- Security No. 1. Social Science Research Council.
stance abuse, violence and AIDS) syndemic among Retrieved from http://webarchive.ssrc.org/work
women and girls: A global review of epidemiology ing-papers/DSD_ResearchSecurity_01_Goldstein.pdf
and integrated interventions. Journal of Acquired Good, K., & Chanoff, D. (1996). Into the heart: One man’s
Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 69, S118–S127. pursuit of love and knowledge among the Yanomamö.
Gilbert, M. (2007, May 7). Farewell, sweet ice. The Nation. Old Tappan, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
Retrieved from https://www.thenation.com/article/ Goodale, J. (1971). Tiwi wives. Seattle: University of
farewell-sweet-ice/ Washington Press.
Gilberthorpe, E. (2007). Fasu solidarity: A case study of kin Goody, J. (1995). The expansive moment: Anthropology in
networks, land tenure and extraction in Kutubu, Papua Britain and Africa 1918–1970. Cambridge, England:
New Guinea. American Anthropologist, 109, 101–112. Cambridge University Press.
Gilliland, M. (1995). Nationalism and ethnogenesis in the Gordon, P. (2004). Numerical cognition without words:
former Yugoslavia. In L. Romanucci-Ross & G. DeVos Evidence from Amazonia. Science, 306, 496–499.
References 399
Gordon, R. J. (1992). The bushman myth: The making of a Haines, D. (2007). Labor migration and anthropology:
Namibian underclass. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Reflections from the work of Philip. L. Martin. City
Gordon, S. (2015, November 13). The welcome demise of and Society, 19, 60–71.
China’s one-child policy. The Diplomat. Retrieved Hale, C. (2001). What is activist research? Items and Issues:
from https://thediplomat.com/2015/11/the-welcome Social Science Research Council, 2, 13–15.
-demise-of-chinas-one-child-policy/ Hall, E. T. (1959). The silent language. Greenwich, CT:
Gough, K. (1961). The Nayar: Central Kerala. In D. M. Fawcett.
Schneider & K. Gough (Eds.), Matrilineal kinship Hall, E. T. (1966). The hidden dimension. New York, NY:
(pp. 298–442). Berkeley: University of California Doubleday.
Press. Hall, E. T. (1968). Proxemics. Current Anthropology, 9,
Graham, L. R. (2006). Anthropologists are obligated to 83–109.
promote human rights and social justice: Especially Hall, E. T. (1983). The dance of life: The other dimension of
among vulnerable communities. Anthropology News, time. New York, NY: Anchor/Doubleday.
47, 32–33. Halperin, R. H. (1990). The livelihood of kin: Making ends
Grant, M. (1916). The passing of the great race. New York, meet “The Kentucky way.” Austin: University of Texas
NY: Scribner. Press.
Greene, B. (1998). The institution of woman-marriage Hamid, A. (1990). The political economy of crack-related
in Africa: A cross-cultural analysis. Ethnology, 37, violence. Contemporary Drug Problems, 17, 31–73.
395–412. Hamid, A. (1992). The developmental cycle of a drug epi-
Greene, C. W. (2001). Silver horn: Master illustrator of the demic: The cocaine smoking epidemic of 1981–1991.
Kiowas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 24, 337–348.
Greenhalgh, S. (2005). Globalization and population gov- Hamid, A. (1998). Drugs in America. Gaithersburg, MD:
ernance in China. In A. Ong & S. J. Collier (Eds.), Aspen.
Global assemblages: Technology, politics, and ethics as Hamilton, J. W. (1987). This old house: A Karen ideal. In
anthropological problems (pp. 354–372). Malden, MA: D. W. Ingersoll Jr., & G. Bronitsky (Eds.), Mirror and
Blackwell. metaphor: Material and social constructions of real-
Greenhalgh, S. (2007a). China’s future with fewer females. ity (pp. 229–245). Lanham, MD: University Press of
China from the inside. Washington, DC: Public America.
Broadcasting Service. Retrieved from www.pbs.org/ Hamilton, M., & Grad, S. (2017, June 6). Molestation scandal
kqued/chinainside/women/population.html is latest setback to once-mighty Trinity Broadcasting
Greenhalgh, S. (2007b). Just one child: Science and policy in Network. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://
Deng’s China. Berkeley: University of California Press. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-tcn-history
Greenhouse, S. (2008). The big squeeze: Tough times for the -20170606-story.html
American worker. New York, NY: Knopf. Hammar, L. (1989). Gender and class on the fringe: A
Gregor, T., & Tuzin, D. (2001). The anguish of gender: feminist critique of ethnographic theory and data in
Men’s cults and moral contradiction in Amazonia and Papua New Guinea. Working Paper 189. Women and
Melanesia. In T. A. Gregor & D. Tuzin (Eds.), Gender International Development Program, Michigan State
in Amazonia and Melanesia. Berkeley: University of University, East Lansing, Michigan.
California Press. Handler, R. (1988). Nationalism and the politics of culture
Grindal, B., & Salamone, F. (Eds.). (1995). Bridges to in Quebec. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
humanity: Narratives on anthropology and friendship. Handloff, R. E., & Roberts, T. D. (1991). Cote D’Ivoire:
Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. A country study (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: The
Grosfoguel, R. (2003). Colonial subjects: Puerto Ricans in Division.
a global perspective. Berkeley: University of California Hannerz, U. (1992). Cultural complexity: Studies in the
Press. social organization of meaning. New York, NY:
Guilford, C. (2013). China’s ratio of boys to girls is still dan- Columbia.
gerously high—And it’s the Chinese government’s Hansen, E. C. (1995). The great Bambi war: Tocquevillians
fault. Quartz. Retrieved from https://qz.com/59398/ versus Keynesians in an upstate New York County. In
chinas-ratio-of-boys-to-girls-is-still-dangerously-high J. Schneider & R. Rapp (Eds.), Articulating hidden his-
-and-its-the-chinese-governments-fault/ tories: Exploring the influence of Eric R. Wolf (pp. 142–
Hacker, J. (2002). The divided welfare state: The battle over 155). Berkeley: University of California Press.
public and private social benefits in the United States. Harrell, S. (2002). Book review of a society without fathers
New York, NY: Cambridge. or husbands: The Na of China (H. Cai & A. Hustvedt,
Hailu, D. (2009). What explains the decline in Brazil’s Trans.). American Anthropologist, 104, 982–983.
inequality? International Policy Center for Inclusive Harries, P. (1987). The roots of ethnicity: Discourse and
Growth. Retrieved from www.ipc-undp.org/pub/ the politics of language construction in South-East
IPCOnePager89.pdf Africa. African Affairs, 87, 25–52.
Harrington, S. (1993). Bones and bureaucrats: New York’s Hirschfeld, L. A. (1996). Race in the making. Cambridge,
great cemetery imbroglio. Archaeology, 46, 28–38. MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books.
Harris, M. (1966). The cultural ecology of India’s sacred History Matters. (2018). Who was shut out?: Immigration
cattle. Current Anthropology, 7, 51–66. quotas 1925–1927. Retrieved from http://historymat
Harris, M. (1989). Our kind: Who we are, where we came ters.gmu.edu/d/5078
from, where we are going. New York, NY: Harper Hitchens, C. (2007). God is not great: How religion poisons
Perennial. everything. New York, NY: Twelve.
Hart, C. W. M., & Pilling, A. R. (1960). The Tiwi of north- Hitt, J. (2012, July 23). Words on trial: Can linguistics solve
ern Australia. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and crimes that stump police? The New Yorker. Retrieved
Winston. from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/
Hauptman, W. (1985). Renoir’s master. European 07/23/words-on-trial
Management Review, 15, 48–66. Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (Eds.). (1983). The invention of
Hazell, P. B. R. (2009). The Asian green revolution. IFPRI tradition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Discussion Paper 00911. International Food Policy Press.
Research Institute, Washington, D.C. Hochschild, A. (1998). King Leopold’s ghost. New York, NY:
Hearn, M. K. (1996). Splendors of imperial China: Treasures Houghton Mifflin.
from the National Palace Museum, Taipei. New York, Hockett, C. F. (1973). Man’s place in nature. New York, NY:
NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art. McGraw-Hill.
Hefner, R. (2002). Global violence and Indonesian Muslim Hodal, K. (2013, July 9). Cambodia’s sugar rush leaves
politics. American Anthropologist, 104, 754–765. farmers feeling bitter at “land grab.” The Guardian.
Henley, J., Sheehy, F., Swann, G., & Fenn, C. (2017, October Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/
27). Beyond Catalonia: Pro-independence movements 2013/jul/09/cambodia-sugar-land-grab-claims
in Europe. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www Hodal, K. (2017, August 26). “I hope you’re ready to get mar-
.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2017/oct/27/ ried”: In search of Vietnam’s kidnapped brides. The
beyond-catalonia-pro-independence-movements-in Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian
-europe-map .com/global-development/2017/aug/26/ready-married
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., -kidnapped-brides-vietnam-china
& Gintis, H. (2004). Foundations of human social- Hodzic, S. (2017). The twilight of cutting: African activ-
ity: Economic experiments and ethnographic evidence ism and life after NGOs. Oakland: University of
from 15 small-scale societies. Oxford, England: Oxford California.
University Press. Hoebel, E. A. (1954). The law of primitive man: A study in
Henricks, T. S. (2015). Play and the human condition. comparative legal dynamics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Urbana: University of Illinois Press. University Press.
Herdt, G. H. (1987). The Sambia. New York, NY: Holt, Hoebel, E. A. (1960). The Cheyennes: Indians of the Great
Rinehart and Winston. Plains. New York, NY: Holt.
Herdt, G. (2004). Sambia women’s positionality and men’s Hoebel, E. A. (1974). The law of primitive man. New York,
rituals. In P. Bonnemere (Ed.), Male ritual in Papua NY: Henry Holt.
New Guinea (pp. 16–33). Philadelphia: University of Hoffer, C. P. (1974). Madam Yoko: Ruler of the Kpa Mende
Pennsylvania Press. Confederacy. In M. Z. Rosaldo & L. Lamphere (Eds.),
Herdt, G. (2014). The Sambia: Ritual, sexuality, and change Women, culture and society (pp. 173–188). Stanford,
in Papua New Guinea. Belmont, Australia: Cengage. CA: Stanford University Press.
Hevia, J. (2007). Plunder, markets, and museums: The Hoffman, D. (2003). Like beasts in the bush: Synonyms
biographies of Chinese imperial objects in Europe of childhood and youth in Sierra Leone. Postcolonial
and North America. In J. Mrazek & M. Pitelka (Eds.), Studies, 6, 295–308.
What’s the use of art? Asian visual and material cul- Holder, J., Kommenda, N., & Watts, J. (2017, November 3).
ture in context (pp. 29–141). Honolulu: University of The three-degree world: The cities that will be drowned
Hawai’i Press. by global warming. The Guardian. Retrieved from
Higgins, A., McIntire, M., & Dance, G. J. X. (2016, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/
November 25). Inside a fake news sausage factory: 2017/nov/03/three-degree-world-cities-drowned-glob
“This is all about income.” New York Times. Retrieved al-warming
from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/world/ Hollander, R. (2017, December 5). As Apple’s third largest
europe/fake-news-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-geor market by sales, China is an attractive growth oppor-
gia.html. tunity. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www
Hinchy, J. (2013). Troubling bodies: “Eunuchs,” mascu- .businessinsider.com/china-is-apples-third-largest
linity and impotence in colonial North India. South -market-2017-12
Asian History and Culture, 4. doi:10.1080/19472498.2 Homiak, J. P. (1998). Dub history: Soundings on Rastafari
013.768845 livity and language. In B. Chevannes (Ed.), Rastafari
References 401
and other African-Caribbean worldviews (pp. 127–181). Hutton, R. (1999). Triumph of the moon. Oxford, England:
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Oxford University Press.
Hong, C. W. (2017). The kingdom of women: Life, love, and Igoe, J. (2004). Conservation and globalization: A case study
death in China’s hidden mountains. London, England: of Maasai herders and national parks in East Africa.
I. B. Tauris and Co. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Hopkins, N. (1987). Mechanized irrigation in Upper Indonesia. (1997). Issues and perspectives: A solution
Egypt: The role of technology and the state in agricul- to Java’s overcrowding. Embassy of the Republic of
ture. In B. Turner II & S. B. Brush (Eds.), Comparative Indonesia in London—United Kingdom. Retrieved
farming systems (pp. 223–247). New York, NY: from www.indonesianembassy.org.uk/transmigration
Guilford. -7.htm
Hoppe, R., MacDonald, J. M., & Korb, P. (2010). Small Inglehart, R. F., & Norris, P. (2016). Trump, Brexit, and the
farms in the United States: Persistence under pressure. rise of populism: Economic have-nots and cultural
United States Department of Agriculture. Economic backlash. Faculty Research Working Paper RWP16-
Information Bulletin, 63. Retrieved from https://www 026. Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA.
.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=44463 Institute for Economics and Peace. (2017). Global peace
Horner, R., Haberly, D., Schindler, S., & Aoyama, Y. index. Retrieved from http://visionofhumanity.org/
(2018). How anti-globalization switched from a left app/uploads/2017/06/GPI17-Report.pdf
to a right-wing issue—And where it will go next. The International Dalit Solidarity Network. (2011). The cost
Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation of cotton—Every 30 minutes an Indian farmer com-
.com/how-anti-globalisation-switched-from-a-left-to- mits suicide. Retrieved from http://idsn.org/news-
a-right-wing-issue-and-where-it-will-go-next-90587 resources/idsn-news/read/archive/2011/may/article/
Horowitz, I. L. (Ed.). (1967). The rise and fall of project the-cost-of-cotton-every-30-minutes-an-indian-far
Camelot. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. mer-commits-suicide/128/
Horsley, R. A. (1979). Who were the witches? The social International Fund for Agricultural Development. (2017).
roles of the accused in the European witch trials. Sending money home: Contributing to the SDGs,
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 9, 689–715. one family at a time. Retrieved from https://www
Horst, H. A., & Miller, D. (2006). The cell phone: An anthro- .ifad.org/documents/38714170/39135645/Sending
pology of communication. Oxford, England: Berg. +Money+Home+-+Contributing+to+the+SDGs%2
Horton, S. B. (2016). The leave their kidneys in the fields: C+one+family+at+a+time.pdf/c207b5f1-9fef-4877
Illness, injury, and illegality among U.S. farmworkers. -9315-75463fccfaa7
Oakland: University of California Press. Internet Society. (2018). Global Internet maps. Retrieved
Howard, P. N., Busch, L., & Sheets, P. (2010). Comparing from https://www.internetsociety.org/map/global
digital divides: Internet access and social inequality -internet-report/
in Canada and the United States. Canadian Journal of Iowacorn.org. (2012). FAQ. Retrieved from www.iowacorn
Communication, 35, 109–128. .org/en/corn_use_education/faq/
Howell, N. (1990). Surviving fieldwork. Washington, DC: Isaac, B. L. (1993). Retrospective on the formalist-substan-
American Anthropological Association. tivist debate. Research in Economic Anthropology, 14,
Hsueh, R. (2017, November 13). China’s three new eco- 213–233.
nomic challenges for the U.S. The Washington Post. Isaacman, A. (1996). Cotton is the mother of pov-
Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/ erty: Peasants, work, and rural struggle in colo-
news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/11/13/chinas-three- nial Mozambique (1938–1961). Portsmouth, NH:
new-economic-challenges-for-the-u-s/?utm_term= Heinemann.
.0fc9392b0674 Ishemo, S. L. (1995). Cultural response to forced labour
Hua, C. (2001). A society without fathers or husbands: The and commodity production in Portugal’s African col-
Na of China. New York, NY: Zone Books. onies. Social Identities, 1, 95–110.
Huber, B. R., Breedlove, W. L., & Danaher, W. F. Ivakhiv, A. (2005). In search of deeper identities, neopa-
(2011). Material resource investments at marriage: ganism, and “native faith” in contemporary Ukraine.
Evolutionary, social, and ecological perspectives. The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 8,
Ethnology, 50, 281–304. 7–38.
Huebner, S. R. (2007). “Brother-sister” marriage in Roman Janik, V. M., & Slater, P. J. B. (1998). Context-specific use
Egypt: A curiosity of humankind or a widespread suggests that bottlenose dolphin signature whistles
family strategy? Journal of Roman Studies, 97, 21–49. are cohesion calls. Animal Behaviour, 56, 829–838.
Hulan, R. (2002). Everybody likes the Inuit: Inuit revision Jelly-Schapiro, J. (2009, April 9). The Bob Marley story.
and representations of the North. In H. Renée (Ed.), New York Review of Books, 34–37.
Northern experience and the myths of Canadian cul- Jenkins, V. S. (1994). The lawn: A history of an American
ture (pp. 60–97). Toronto, Canada: McGill-Queen’s obsession. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution
University Press. Press.
Jennings, K. (2013, January 22). Is your electric fan trying Karlen, A. (1995). Man and microbes: Disease and plagues
to kill you? Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/ in history and modern times. New York, NY: G. P.
articles/life/foreigners/2013/01/fan_death_korean_ Putnam’s Sons.
moms_think_that_your_electric_fan_will_kill_you Kashyap, A. (2018, May 24). The April 24 ritual—Rana
.html Plaza’s unfinished legacy. Human Rights Watch.
Johnson, A. (1989). Horticulturalists: Economic behavior Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/24/
in tribes. In S. Plattner (Ed.), Economic anthropology april-24-ritual-rana-plazas-unfinished-legacy
(pp. 49–77). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Katiyar, P. (2016, August 14). SteelMont’s Rajesh Saraiya
Johnson, D. H. (1982). Evans-Pritchard, the Nuer, and the to set up cooperative unit in food processing
Sudan civil service. African Affairs, 81, 231–246. industry. Economic Times. Retrieved from https://
Johnson, T., Slater, R. O., & McGowan, P. (1984). Explaining economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/cor
African military coups d’etat. 1960–1982. American porate-trends/steelmonts-rajesh-saraiya-to-set-up-co
Political Science Review, 78, 622–640. operative-unit-in-food-processing-industry/article
Johnstone, G. N. (1976). The growth of the sugar trade and show/53688527.cms
refining industry. In D. J. Oddy & D. Millar (Eds.), Katona, N. (2016, August 8). The Baloch in Sistan and
The making of the modern British diet (pp. 58–64). Baluchistan. Sarjau. Retrieved from http://sarjau
Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield. .blogspot.com/2016/08/the-baloch-in-sistan-and-bal
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. uchistan.html
(2017). UNAIDS data 2017. Retrieved from http:// Katrak, K. H. (2002). Changing traditions: South
www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/ Asian Americans and cultural/communal politics.
2017_data-book_en.pdf Massachusetts Review, 43, 75–88.
Jones, C. (2011). Women’s worth: A Western misconcep- Keeley, L. (1996). War before civilization. New York, NY:
tion. Nebraska Anthropologist, 26, 162. Oxford.
Jones, C., & Shorter-Gooden, K. (2003). Shifting: The dou- Keenan-Devlin, L. S. (2014). The weight of structural
ble lives of black women in America. New York, NY: violence: Syndemic stress and obesity among black
Perennial. urban youth in the U.S. (Doctoral dissertation).
Jones, D. J. (1995). Anthropology and the oppressed: A Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
reflection on “native” anthropology. In E. L. Cerroni- Kehoe, A. B. (1989). The Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and
Long (Ed.), Insider anthropology (Napa Bulletin, revitalization. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and
Vol. 16, pp. 58–70). Washington, DC: American Winston.
Anthropological Association. Kelly, A. A. (1991). Crafting the art of magic. St. Paul, MN:
Jones, J. M. (2017, May 24). U. S. stock ownership Llewellyn.
down among all but older, higher-income. Gallup. Kelly, G. P. (1984). The presentation of indigenous society
Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/211052/ in the schools of French West Africa and Indochina.
stock-ownership-down-among-older-higher-income Comparative Studies in Society and History, 26,
.aspx 523–542.
Jones, T. Y. (2013, June 28). Two bronze animal heads, sto- Kelly, G. P. (1986). Learning to be marginal: Schooling in
len 153 years ago, returned to China. Reuters. Retrieved interwar French West Africa. Journal of Asian and
from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-sculp African Studies, 21, 171–184.
tures/two-bronze-animal-heads-stolen-153-years-ago Kende, I. (1979). Wars from 1965 to 1978. Peace Research,
-returned-to-china-idUSBRE95R0HW20130628 11, 197–199.
Jordan, M. (2018, February 22). Is America a “nation of Kenny, M. (1997). Hidden heads of households: Child labor
immigrants?” Immigration agency says no. New in northeast Brazil. (Doctoral dissertation). Columbia
York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes University, New York, NY.
.com/2018/02/22/us/uscis-nation-of-immigrants Kenny, M. (2007). Hidden heads of households: Child labor
.html in urban Northeast Brazil. Peterborough, Canada:
Judt, T. (2005). Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945. New Broadview Press.
York, NY: Penguin. Kepel, G. (2005). The roots of radical Islam. London,
Juergensmeyer, M. (2003). Terror in the mind of God: The England: Saqi.
global rise of religious violence. Berkeley: University Khanna, S. K. (2010). Fetal/fatal knowledge: New reproduc-
of California Press. tive technologies and family building strategies in India.
Kahn, H. E. (2006). Seeing and being seen: The Q’eqchi’ Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Maya of Livingston, Guatamala, and beyond. Austin: Kharas, H. (2017). The unprecedented expansion of the
University of Texas. global middle class: An update. Brookings. Retrieved
Kaptchuk, T. J. & Miller, F. G. (2015). Perspective: Placebo from https://w w w.brookings.edu/wp-content/
effects in medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, uploads/2017/02/global_20170228_global-middle
373, 8–9. -class.pdf
References 403
Kiernan, B. (2007). Blood and soil: A world history of geno- (2003). African Y chromosome and mtDNA diver-
cide and extermination from Sparta to Darfur. New gence provides insight into the history of click lan-
Haven, CT: Yale University. guages. Current Biology, 13, 464–473.
Kilbride, P. L. (1994). Plural marriage for our times: A rein- Kofinas, G. (2007). Subsistence hunting in a global econ-
vented option? Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey. omy. Retrieved from http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/
Kilbride, P. L. (2004). Plural and same-sex marriage. NatResources/subsistglobal.html
Anthropology News, 45, 17. Kohn, H. (1958). Reflections on colonialism. In R. Strausz-
Kimmelman, M. (2007, December 19). In Marseille, rap Hupe & H. W. Hazard (Eds.), The idea of colonialism
helps keep the peace. New York Times, p. C1. (pp. 2–16). New York, NY: Praeger.
King, S. A. (2002). Reggae, Rastafari, and the rhetoric of Kottak, C. P. (1992). Assault on paradise: Social change in a
social control. Biloxi: University of Mississippi. Brazilian village (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
King, S. A., & Foster, R. (2001). “No problem, mon”: Kovats-Bernat, J. C. (2002). Negotiating dangerous fields:
Strategies used to promote reggae music as Jamaica’s Pragmatic strategies for fieldwork amid violence and
cultural heritage. Journal of Nonprofit and Public terror. American Anthropologist, 104, 208–222.
Sector Marketing, 8, 3–16. Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S. (2000, September 24). Two
Kirby, E. J. (2016, December 5). The city getting rich from cheers for sweatshops. New York Times. Retrieved from
fake news. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/ https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/24/magazine/
news/magazine-38168281 two-cheers-for-sweatshops.html
Klass, M. (1995). Ordered universes: Approaches to the Kunnath, G. J. (2009). Smoldering Dalit fires in Bihar,
anthropology of religion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. India. Dialectical Anthropology, 33, 309‒325.
Klein, L. F. (1976). “She’s one of us, you know”: The public Kurlander, E. (2017). Lucifer’s court: Ario-Germanic
life of Tlingit women: Traditional, historical, and con- paganism, Indo-Aryan spirituality, and the Nazi
temporary perspectives. Western Canadian Journal of search for alternative religions. In E. Kurlander,
Anthropology, 6, 164–183. Hitler’s monsters: A supernatural history of the Third
Klein, L. F., & Ackerman, L. A. (Eds.). (1995). Woman and Reich (pp. 162–194). New Haven, CT: Yale.
power in native North America. Norman: University of Kwaymullina, A. (2005). Seeing the light: Aboriginal law,
Oklahoma Press. learning and sustainable living in country. Indigenous
Kleinman, A. (1995). Writing at the margin: Discourse Law Bulletin, 6. Retrieved from http://classic.austlii
between anthropology and medicine. Berkeley: .edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2005/27.html
University of California Press. Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia:
Kleinman, A. (1980). Patients and healers in the context University of Pennsylvania Press.
of culture: An exploration of the borderland between Labov, W., Ash, S., & Boburg, C. (2005). Atlas of North
anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry. Berkeley: American English: Phonetics, phonology and sound
University of California Press. change. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kleinman, A. (1981). On illness meanings and clinical Lacey, M. (2006, April 16). The case of the stolen statues:
interpretation: Not “rational man,” but a rational Solving a Kenyan mystery. New York Times. Retrieved
approach to man the sufferer/man the healer. Culture, from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/world/
Medicine, and Psychiatry, 5, 373–377. africa/16artifacts.html
Kleinman, A. (1988). The illness narratives: Suffering, heal- Lacey, M. (2008, December 6). A lifestyle distinct: The
ing and the human condition. New York, NY: Basic muxe of Mexico. New York Times, p. 4.
Books. Ladefoged, P. (1982). A course in phonetics. New York, NY:
Kluckhohn, C. (1959). The philosophy of the Navajo Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Indians. In M. H. Fried (Ed.), Readings in anthropol- LaFraniere, S. (2009, April 10). Chinese bias for baby boys
ogy (Vol. 2, pp. 674–699). New York, NY: Crowell. creates a gap of 32 million. New York Times, p. 5
Kluckhohn, C., & Kluckhohn, F. (1947). American cul- Lagamma, A. (2008). The recently acquired Kongo
ture: Generalized organization and class patterns. In Mangaaka power figure. Metropolitan Museum
L. Bryson, L. Finkelstein, and R. M. McIver (Eds.), Journal, 43, 201–210.
Conflicts of power in modern culture: Symposium Lambert-Pennington, K. (2007). What remains?
conference in science, philosophy, and religion Reconciling repatriation, Aboriginal culture, repre-
(pp 106–128). New York, NY: Harper. sentation and the past. Oceania, 77, 313–336.
Klugman, J. (2017). Women peace and security index Lamphere, L. (2016). Feminist anthropology engages
2017/2018. Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, social movements: Theory, ethnography, and activ-
and Security. Retrieved from https://giwps.george- ism. In E. Lewin and L. Silverstein (Eds.), Mapping
town.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/WPS-Index- feminist anthropology in the twenty-first century (pp.
Report-2017-18.pdf 41–64). New Brunswick: Rutgers.
Knight, A., Underhill, P. A., Mortensen, H. M., Zhivtovsky, Lancaster, J. B. (1989). Women in biosocial perspective. In S.
L. A., Lin, A. A., Henn, B. M., . . . Mountain, J. L. Morgen (Ed.), Gender and anthropology: Critical reviews
for research and teaching (pp. 95–115). Washington, Levine, N. E. (2008). Alternative kinship, marriage, and
DC: American Anthropological Association. reproduction. Annual Review of Anthropology, 37,
Lapidus, I. M. (1988). A history of Islamic societies. 375–389.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Levinson, D. (1996). Religion: A cross-cultural dictionary.
Laskow, S. (2014, October 10). How the plastic bag New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
became so popular. Atlantic. Retrieved from https:// Lévi-Strauss, C. (1969). The elementary structures of kin-
www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/10/ ship. Boston, MA: Beacon.
how-the-plastic-bag-became-so-popular/381065/ Levitt & Sons. (1953). Building the suburban dream.
Lassiter, L. E. (2004). Collaborative ethnography. Retrieved from http://statemuseumpa.org/levittown/
AnthroNotes, 25, 1–9. one/default.html
Lathrop, S. (2004). Broadening the marriage debate. Levy, R. (1973). Tahitians: Mind and experience in the
Anthropology News, 45, 23. Society Islands. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Lawler, N. E. (1992). Soldiers of misfortune: Ivoirien tirail- Press.
leurs of World War II. Athens: Ohio University Press. Lewchuk, W. A. (1993). Men and monotony: Fraternalism
Leacock, E. B. (1981). Myths of male dominance. New York. as a managerial strategy at the Ford Motor Company.
NY: Monthly Review Press. Journal of Economic History, 53, 824–856.
Leathers, D. G. (1997). Successful nonverbal communication Lewis, J. R., & Tollefsen, I. B. (2013). Gender and pagan-
(3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. ism in census and survey data. The Pomegranate, 15,
LeDuff, C. (2006, November 27). Dreams in the dark at 61–78.
the drive-through window. New York Times, p. A12. Lewis, R. (1998). Marcus Garvey and the early
Lee, D. (1987). Freedom and culture. Prospect Heights, IL: Rastafarians: Continuity and discontinuity. In N. S.
Waveland. Murrell, W. D. Spencer, & A. A. McFarlane (Eds.),
Lee, R. B. (1968). What hunters do for a living, or how Chanting down Babylon: The Rastafari reader (pp.
to make out on scarce resources. In R. B. Lee & I. 145–158). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
DeVore (Eds.), Man the hunter (pp. 30–48). Chicago, Lewis, R. D. (1996). When cultures collide: Managing success-
IL: Aldine. fully across cultures. London, England: Nicholas Brealey.
Lee, R. B. (1969, December). Eating Christmas in the Lewis, T. (1991). Empire of the air: The men who made
Kalahari. Natural History Magazine. Retrieved from radio. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/master Lewis, W. F. (1993). Soul rebels: The Rastafari. Prospect
.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/ Heights, IL: Waveland.
editors_pick/1969_12_pick.html Lewis-Williams, J. D., & Dowson, T. A. (1988). The signs
Lee, R. B. (1979). The !Kung San: Men, women, and work of all times. Current Anthropology, 29, 201–217.
in a foraging society. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Lichtenberg, J. (1994). Population policy and the clash of
University Press. cultures. In L. A. Mazur (Ed.), Beyond the numbers: A
Lee, R. B. (1984). The Dobe !Kung. New York, NY: Holt, reader on population, consumption, and environment
Rinehart and Winston. (pp. 273–280). Washington, DC: Island Press.
Lee, R. B. (2003). The Dobe Ju/’hoansi (3rd ed.). Belmont, Ligami, C. (2016, February 13). Africa’s phone users reach
CA: Wadsworth. 700 million. The East African. Retrieved from http://
Lefever, H. G. (1996). When the saints go riding in: www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Africa-s-phone
Santeria in Cuba and the United States. Journal for the -users-reach-700-million/2560-3074894-129ap0oz/
Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 318–330. index.html
Lemert, E. M. (1997). The trouble with evil: Social control at Lim, L. (2007). Painful memories for China’s footbinding
the edge of morality. Albany: State University of New survivors. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/
York Press. templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942
Lesser, A. (1933). The Pawnee Ghost Dance hand game: Lim, L. (2012). A grim chronicle of China’s great famine.
Ghost Dance revival and ethnic identity. Lincoln: NPR. https://www.npr.org/2012/11/10/164732497/
University of Nebraska. a-grim-chronicle-of-chinas-great-famine
Lessinger, H. (2008). Love and marriage in the shadow Lindstrom, L. (1993). Cargo cult: Strange stories of desire
of the sewing machine: Case studies from Chennai, from Melanesia and beyond. Honolulu: University of
India. Paper presented at the conference Marriage Hawaii Press.
in Globalizing Contexts, Exploring Change and Lino, M. (2017, January 13). The cost of raising a child.
Continuity in South Asia, New Delhi, India, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved from
December 25–27. https://w w w.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/
Levine, M. A., & Wright, R. (1999). COSWA cor- cost-raising-child
ner. Society for American Archaeology Bulletin, 17. Lipsitz, G. (1994). Dangerous crossroads: Popular music,
Retrieved from http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/ postmodernism, and the poetics of place. London,
Publications/SAABulletin/18-2/saa7.html England: Verso.
References 405
Lister, T. (2018, March 5). Italy is the latest European country http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/04/30/
to feel a populist surge. CNN. Retrieved from https:// 13-Disturbing-Facts-About-McDonalds
www.cnn.com/2018/03/05/europe/italy-populist Luce, E. (2007). In spite of the gods: The strange rise of mod-
-surge-analysis-intl/index.html ern India. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Liu, M. (2018, March 23). Great Pacific garbage patch now Luo, M. (2009, February 28). Forced from executive pay to
three times the size of France. CNN. Retrieved from hourly wage. New York Times, p. A1.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/23/world/plastic-great Lynch, O. K. (1969). The politics of untouchability. New
-pacific-garbage-patch-intl/index.html Retrieved York, NY: Columbia University Press.
5/21/2018 Lyon-Callo, V. (2004). Inequality, poverty and neolib-
Lodish, E. (2014, August 12). Global parenting habits eral governance: Activist ethnography in the homeless
that haven’t caught on in the U.S. NPR. Retrieved sheltering industry. Peterborough (ONT), England:
from https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/ Broadview Press.
08/12/339825261/global-parenting-habits-that-havent- Madsbjerg, C., & Rasmussen, M. B. (2014, March). An
caught-on-in-the-u-s anthropologist walks into a bar … Harvard Business
Loewen, J. W. (1988). The Mississippi Chinese: Between Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/03/
black and white. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. an-anthropologist-walks-into-a-bar
Loftin, J. D. (1991). Religion and Hopi life in the twentieth Macfarlane, G. (1985). Alexander Fleming: The man and
century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. the myth. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Lone, W. A., Kyaw S., Lewis, S., & Slodkowski, A. (2018, Mahdavi, P. (2015). Children of the emir: Perverse integra-
February 8). How Myanmar forces burned, looted tion and incorporation in the Gulf. In S. L. Friedman
and killed in a remote village. Reuters. Retrieved from & P. Mahdavi (Eds.), Migrant encounters: Intimate
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ labor, the state, and mobility across Asia. Philadelphia:
myanmar-rakhine-events/ University of Pennsylvania.
Long, H. (2017, July 21). Analysis: Americans say they Maine Rural Health Research Center. (2007). Substance
want products “made in America” but price comes abuse among rural youth. Muskie School of Public
first. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www Service. Retrieved from http://muskie.usm.maine
.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-made-in-america- .edu/Publications/rural/pb35a.pdf
attitudes-20170721-story.html Malinowski, B. (1927). Sex and repression in savage
Lopez, H. (2006). White by law: The legal construction of society. London, England: Routledge and Kegan
race (Revised and updated 10th anniversary ed.). New Paul.
York: New York University Press. Malinowski, B. (1929a). Practical anthropology. Africa, 2,
Loria, K. (2017, May 11). A 22-year-old is moving ahead with 22–38.
a controversial plan to trap plastic floating in the great Malinowski, B. (1929b). The sexual life of savages. New
Pacific garbage patch. The Business Insider. Retrieved York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and World.
from https://www.businessinsider.in/a-22-year-old- Malinowski, B. (1935). Coral gardens and their magic. New
is-moving-ahead-with-a-controversial-plan-to-trap- York, NY: American Book Company.
plastic-floating-in-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/ Malinowski, B. (1948). Magic, science and religion and other
articleshow/58635894.cms essays. New York, NY: Free Press.
Lovejoy, P. E. (1983). Transformations in slavery: A history Malinowski, B. (1954/1948). Magic, science and religion.
of slavery in Africa. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.
University Press. Malinowski, B. (1984/1922). Argonauts of the western
Lovgren, S. (2004). 20,000 Indians march at national Pacific. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
museum opening. National Geographic. Retrieved Malinowski, B. (1992/1954). Magic, science, and religion.
from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/ Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
2004/09/0914_040915_indian_museum_opening. Marchant, J. (2016). A journey to the oldest cave paint-
html. ings in the world. Smithsonian. Retrieved from
Lowes, S. (2017). Matrilineal kinship and spousal coop- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journey
eration: Evidence from the matrilineal belt. Harvard -oldest-cave-paintings-world-180957685/
University. Retrieved from https://scholar.harvard Marcus, G. E., & Fischer, M. M. J. (1986). Anthropology
.edu/slowes/publications/matrilineal-spousal-co as culture critique: An experimental moment in the
operation human sciences. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Lowie, R. H. (1948). Social organization. New York, NY: Press.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Marcus, G. E., & Myers, F. R. (Eds.). (1995). The traffic
Lowie, R. H. (1963/1954). Indians of the plains. Garden in culture: Refiguring art and anthropology. Berkeley:
City, NY: Natural History Press. University of California Press.
Lubin, G. (2012, April 30). 13 Disturbing facts about Marrero, T. (2017, March 2). Jewish donors boost fundrais-
McDonald’s. The Fiscal Times. Retrieved from ing effort after Thonotosassa mosque arson. Tampa
Bay Times. Retrieved from http://www.tbo.com/news/ Mayer, J. (2017, March 27). The reclusive hedge-fund
jewish-donors-boost-fundraising-effort-after-thono tycoon behind the Trump presidency. The New Yorker.
tosassa-mosque-arson-20170302/ Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/maga
Marshack, A. (1978). Ice Age art: 35,000–10,000. New York, zine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-
NY: American Museum of Natural History. behind-the-trump-presidency
Marshall, D. (1971). Sexual behavior on Mangaia. In D. S. McBeth, J. (2016, December 16). Indonesia’s troubled quest
Marshall & R. C. Suggs (Eds.), Human sexual behav- for food self-sufficiency. Australian Strategic Policy
ior: Variations in the ethnographic spectrum (pp. 163– Institute. Retrieved from https://www.aspistrategist
172). New York, NY: Basic Books. .org.au/indonesias-troubled-quest-food-self-suffi
Marshall, M. (1979). Weekend warriors. Palo Alto, CA: ciency/
Mayfield. McDaniel, B. (2017). Out of thin air: Configurability, cho-
Martin, E. (1987). The woman in the body. New York, NY: reography and the air guitar world championships.
Beacon Press. Ethnomusicology, 61, 419–445.
Martin, E., & Harding, S. (2017). Anthropology now and McFate, M., & Laurence, J. H. (2015). Social science
then in the American Museum of Natural History: goes to war: The Human Terrain System in Iraq and
An alternative museum. Anthropology Now, 9, 1–13. Afghanistan. New York, NY: Oxford.
Martin, M. K., & Voorhies, B. (1975). Female of the species. McGee, R. J. (1990). Life, ritual, and religion among the
New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Lacandon Maya. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Mason, P. (2007). Kenya in crisis. BBC News. Retrieved McGee, R. J., & Warms, R. L. (2008). Anthropological the-
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6242305 ory: An introductory history. Boston, MA: McGraw
.stm Hill.
Mateu-Gelabert, P., & Lune, H. (2007). Street codes in high McGranahan, C. (2015). What is a family? Refugee DNA
school: School as an educational deterrent. Report for and the possible truths of kinship. Somatosphere.
National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. Retrieved from http://somatosphere.net/2015/12/
(NDRI). Retrieved from http://www.hunter.cuny what-is-a-family-refugee-dna-and-the-possible-
.edu/sociology/faculty/howard-lune/repository/files/ truths-of-kinship.html
MateuGelabert-Lune07.pdf McIntosh, P. (1989, July/August). White privilege:
Mather, M. (2010, May). U.S. children in single-mother fam- Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace and Freedom
ilies. Population Reference Bureau. Retrieved from Magazine, 10–12.
www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs/singlemother McVeigh. K. (2017, June 25). Cambodian female work-
families.aspx ers in Nike, Asics, and Puma factories suffer mass
Mathiot, M. (1962). Noun classes and folk taxonomy in faintings. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://
Papago. American Anthropologist, 64, 340–350. www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/25/female
Mathis-Lilley, B. (2017, August 14). The long list of killings -cambodian-garment-workers-mass-fainting
committed by white extremists since the Oklahoma McWhorter, J. H. (2014). The language hoax: Why the world
City bombing. Slate. Retrieved from https://slate.com/ looks the same in any language. New York, NY: Oxford.
news-and-politics/2017/08/white-extremist-murders- Mead, M. (1963/1935). Sex and temperament in three prim-
killed-at-least-70-in-u-s-since-1995.html itive societies. New York, NY: Dell.
Matory, J. L. (1994). Sex and the empire that is no more: Mead, M. (1971/1928). Coming of age in Samoa. New York,
Gender and the politics of metaphor in Oyo Yoruba NY: Morrow.
religion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Meaney, T. (2018, February 26). A celebrity philoso-
Press. pher explains the populist insurgency. New Yorker.
Matsumoto, D., & Kudoh, T. (1993). American-Japanese Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/maga
cultural differences in attributions of personality zine/2018/02/26/a-celebrity-philosopher-explains-the
based on smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Communication, -populist-insurgency
17, 231–243. Meekers, D., & Franklin, N. (1995). Women’s percep-
Matthiessen, P. (2007, November 22). Alaska: Big oil and tions of polygyny among the Kaguru of Tanzania.
the whales. New York Review of Books, 57–64. Ethnology, 34, 315–330.
Mauss, M. (1990/1924). The gift: Form and reason of exchange Mehu, M., & Dunbar, R. (2008). Naturalistic observations
in archaic societies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. of smiling and laughter in human group interactions.
May, C. (2017, September 16). Hurricane Harvey’s Behaviour, 145, 1747–1780.
toxic floods poisoned Houston along race and class Meier, M. S., & Ribera, F. (1993). Mexican Americans/
lines. Salon. Retrieved from https://www.salon American Mexicans: From conquistadors to Chicanos.
.com/2017/09/16/hurricane-harveys-toxic-f loods- New York, NY: Hill & Wang.
poisoned-houston-along-race-and-class-lines/ Melendez, E. (1993). Colonial subjects: Critical perspectives
Maybury-Lewis, D. (1997). Indigenous peoples, ethnic on contemporary Puerto Ricans. Boston, MA: South
groups, and the state. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. End Press.
References 407
Mendenhall, E., Kohrt, B. A., Norris, S. A., Ndetei, D., & Moore, K. (2002, Spring). “United we stand”: American
Prabhakaran, D. (2017). Non-communicable disease attitudes toward (Muslim) immigration post-9/11.
syndemics: Poverty, depression, and diabetes among Muslim World, 92 (1 and 2), 30–58.
low-income populations. Lancet, 389, 951–963. Moore, M. (2013, March 13). Chinese “must swap chop-
Merchant, B. (2017, June 18). Life and death in Apple’s for- sticks for knife and fork.” The Telegraph. Retrieved
bidden city. The Guardian. Retrieved from https:// from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/
www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/18/ asia/china/9926599/Chinese-must-swap-chopsticks
foxconn-life-death-forbidden-city-longhua-suicide -for-knife-and-fork.html
-apple-iphone-brian-merchant-one-device-extract Moore, O. K. (1969). Divination: A new perspective. In A.
Merry, E. W. (2015). Dealing with the Ukrainian cri- P. Vayda (Ed.), Environment and cultural behavior (pp.
sis: Transatlantic strategy dilemmas. Istituto Affari 121–128). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Internazionali. Retrieved from http://www.iai.it/sites/ Morgan, L. M. (1996). When does life begin? A cross-
default/files/iaiwp1551.pdf cultural perspective on the personhood of fetuses and
Merry, S. E. (1981). Urban danger: Life in a neighborhood of young children. In W. A. Haviland & R. J. Gordon
strangers. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. (Eds.), Talking about people: Readings in contemporary
Mervis, J. (2012). Science indicators 2012: Report notes cultural anthropology (2nd ed., pp. 24–34). Mountain
China’s influence in emerging Asian science zone. View, CA: Mayfield.
Science, 335, 274–275. Morgan, M. (2004). Speech community. In D. Alassandro
Merwine, M. (1993, November 24). How Africa under- (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology
stands female circumcision. New York Times. (pp. 3–33). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/24/ Morikawa, K. (2012). Otaku and the city: The rebirth
opinion/l-how-africa-understands-female-circumci of Akihabara. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & I. Tsuji (Eds.),
sion-114993.html Fandom unbound: Otaku culture in a connected world
Messenger, J. C. (1971). Sex and repression in an Irish folk (pp. 133–157). New Haven, CT: Yale.
community. In D. S. Marshall & R. C. Suggs (Eds.), Morin, R. (1998, January 12). Keeping the faith. The
Human sexual behavior: Variations in the ethnographic Washington Post, p. 37.
spectrum (pp. 3–37). New York, NY: Basic Books. Morrill, R. (2015, February 19). 50 years of U.S. pov-
Messina, M. (1988). Henna party. Natural History, 97, 40. erty: 1960 to 2010. New Geography. Retrieved from
Meyer, K. E. (2015, June 20). The Chinese want their art http://www.newgeography.com/content/004852-50
back. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www -years-us-poverty-1960-2010
.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/the-chinese-want Moseley, C. (Ed.). 2010. Atlas of the world’s languages in
-their-art-back.html danger (3rd ed.). Paris, France: UNESCO Publishing.
Meyer, S. (2004). The degradation of work revisited: Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/
Workers and technology in the American auto industry, endangeredlanguages/atlas
1900–2000. Automobile in American Life and Society. Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and
Retrieved from http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/ opposition, 39, 542–563.
Labor/L_Overview/L_Overview1.htm Mukerjee, M. (2003). The land of naked people. New York,
Middleton, R. (1962). Brother-sister and father-daughter NY: Houghton Mifflin.
marriage in ancient Egypt. American Sociological Mukhopadhyay, C. C. (2014). How real is race? A source-
Review, 27, 603–611. book on race, culture, and biology. Lanham, MD:
Milillo, D. (2006). Rape as a tactic of war: Social and psy- AltaMira.
chological perspectives. Affilia, 21, 196–205. Muk hopadhyay, C. C., & Higgins, P. J. (1988).
Miner, H. (1956). Body ritual among the Nacirema. The Anthropological studies of women’s status revis-
American Anthropologist, 58, 503–507. ited: 1977–1987. Annual Review of Anthropology, 17,
Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and power: The place of 461–495.
sugar in modern history. New York, NY: Penguin. Murdock, G. P. (1945). The common denominator of cul-
Mitnik, P. A., & Grusky, D. B. (2015). Economic mobility ture. In R. Linton (Ed.), The science of man in the world
in the United States. New York, NY: Pew Charitable crisis. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Trusts and the Russell Sage Foundation. Murdock, G. P. (1949). Social structure. New York, NY:
Mobile phones are transforming Africa. (2016, December Free Press.
10). The Economist. Retrieved from https://www Murdock, G. P., & Provost, C. (1973). Factors in the
.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2016/12/10/ division of labor by sex: A cross-cultural analysis.
mobile-phones-are-transforming-africa Ethnologym, 12, 203–225.
Montagu, A. (1978). Touching: The human significance of Murphy, J. M. (1989). Santeria: An African religion in
the skin (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Harper and Row. America. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Mooney, J. (1973/1896). The Ghost-Dance religion and the Murphy, R. (1964). Social distance and the veil. American
Sioux outbreak of 1890. Glorieta, NM: Rio Grande Press. Anthropologist, 66, 1257–1273.
Murphy, Y., & Murphy, R. (1974). Women of the forest. New National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2018).
York, NY: Columbia University Press. Scientific consensus: Earth’s climate is warming. Retrieved
Mydans, S. (2008, November 29). U.S. deportee brings from https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
street dance to street boys of Cambodia. New York National Confederation of Dalit Organisations. (2012).
Times, p. A6. Who are the Dalit? Retrieved from www.nacdor.org/
Myerhoff, B. (1978). Number our days. New York, NY: TEXT%20FILES/Dalit.htm
Simon and Schuster. Nebehay, S., & Lewis, S. (2018). “Acts of genocide” suspected
Myers, F. (1986). Pintupi country, Pintupi self: Sentiment, against Rohingya in Myanmar: U.N. Reuters. Retrieved
place, and politics among Western Desert Aborigines. from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. rohingya-rights/acts-of-genocide-suspected-against-
Myers, J. (2016). China consumes more than a quarter of the rohingya-in-myanmar-u-n-idUSKCN1GJ163
world’s meat. The government wants to change that. Nelson, E. W. (1983). The Eskimo about Bering Strait.
World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www Washington, DC: The Smithsonian Institution Press.
.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/china-consumes-more Nesbitt-Ahmed, Z. D. (2016). The same, but different: The
-than-a-quarter-of-the-worlds-meat-the-government everyday lives of female and male domestic workers in
-wants-to-change-that/ Lagos. Nigeria (Doctoral dissertation). Department of
Myers, S. L., Revkin, A. C., Romero, S., & Krauss, C. (2005, Geography and the Environment, London School of
October 20). Old ways of life are fading as the Arctic Economics, London, England.
thaws. New York Times, p. A1. Nett, K., & Ruttinger, L. (2016). Insurgency, terrorism, and
Nader, L. (2006). Human rights and moral imperialism: A organized crime in a warming climate. Adelphi, Federal
double-edged story. Anthropology News, 47, 6. Foreign Office (Germany). Retrieved from https://
Nagarajan, R. (2014, May 30). First count of third gender www.adelphi.de/en/publication/insurgency-terrorism
in census: 4.9 lakh. The Times of India. Retrieved from -and-organised-crime-warming-climate
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/First- Netting, R. (1977). Cultural ecology. Menlo Park, CA:
count-of-third-gender-in-census-4-9-lakh/article- Cummings.
show/35741613.cms Newman, K. S. (1999). No shame in my game: The working
Nagashima, K., & Schellenberg, J. A. (1997). Situational poor in the inner city. New York, NY: Knopf.
differences in intentional smiling: A cross-cultural Newman, P. L. (1977). When technology fails: Magic and
exploration. Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 297–301. religion in New Guinea. In J. P. Spradley & D. W.
Nagengast, C. (1994). Violence, terror, and the crisis of McCurdy (Eds.), Conformity and conflict: Readings
the state. In B. J. Siegel (Ed.), Annual review of anthro- in cultural anthropology (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Little
pology (Vol. 23, pp. 109–136). Stanford, CA: Stanford Brown.
University Press. Newport, F. (2015, May 4). Americans continue to say U.S.
Nanda, S. (1999). Neither man nor woman: The hijras of wealth distribution is unfair. Gallup. Retrieved from
India (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. https://news.gallup.com/poll/182987/americans-
Nanda, S. (2000). Gender diversity: Crosscultural variations. continue-say-wealth-distribution-unfair.aspx
Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. Newport, F. (2017, June 21). Middle-class identification in
Nanda, S. (2005). South African museums and the the U.S. at pre-recession levels. Gallup. Retrieved from
creation of a new national identity. American http://news.gallup.com/poll/212660/middle-class
Anthropologist, 106, 379–384. -identification-pre-recession-levels.aspx
Narasimhan, S. (1990). Sati: Widow burning in India. New Ng, C. (2006). Raising the house post and feeding the
York, NY: Anchor/ Doubleday. husband givers: The spatial categories of social repro-
Narayan, K. (1993). How native is a “native” anthropolo- duction among the Minangkabau. In J. J. Fox (Ed.),
gist?” American Anthropologist, 95, 671–686. Inside Austronesian houses: Perspectives on domestic
Narayanaswami, V. R. (2010). Linguistics as an identifi- designs for living (pp. 121–144). Canberra, Australia:
cation tool. Livemint. Retrieved from www.livemint The Australian National University.
.com/Opinion/Oseful1LDWVtZkNPuXQACN/ Ngai, P. (2005). Made in China: Women factory workers in a
Linguistics-as-an-identification-tool.html global economy. Durham, England: Duke.
Nash, J., & Safa, H. (Eds.). (1986). Women and change in Nicholson, O. (2000). Constantine’s vision of the cross.
Latin America. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey. Vigiliae Christianae, 54, 309–323.
Nash, M. (1967). The social context of economic choice in Nicolaisen, I. (2006). Anthropology should actively pro-
a small society. In G. Dalton (Ed.), Tribal and peasant mote human rights. Anthropology News, 47, 6.
economies (pp. 524–538). Garden City, NY: Natural Nielsen, J. M. (1990). Sex and gender in society: Perspectives
History Press. on stratification (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2015). Waveland.
Arctic sea ice minimum. Retrieved from https:// National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/ (2017). Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” is the largest ever
References 409
measured. Retrieved from http://www.noaa.gov/ Oman-Reagan, M. P. (2016, February 8). Anthropologists

media-release/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-is-largest in outer space. Sapiens. Retrieved May from https://
-ever-measured www.sapiens.org/column/wanderers/anthropologists
National Public Radio. (2012). Shakespeare’s accent: How -in-outer-space/
did the bard really sound? Retrieved from https:// Onishi, N. (2009, January 15). Japan’s outcasts still wait for
www.npr.org/2012/03/24/149160526/shakespeares acceptance. New York Times, p. A1.
-accent-how-did-the-bard-really-sound Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. (n.d). Poverty
Noack, R., & Gamio, L. (2015, April 23). The world’s and cell phones in Botswana. Retrieved from www
languages, in 7 maps and charts. The Washington .osisa.org/node/9876
Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost Oriard, M. (1993). Reading football: How the popular press
.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/the-worlds- created an American spectacle. Chapel Hill: University
languages-in-7-maps-and-charts/?utm_term=.b5 of North Carolina Press.
ee527db0a6 Orion, L. (1995). Never again the burning times. Prospect
Norbeck, E. (1974). Religion in human life: Anthropological Heights, IL: Waveland.
views. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. Orlove, B. S. (1985). The history of the Andes: A brief over-
Norgren, J., & Nanda, S. (2006). American cultural plural- view. Mountain Research and Development, 5, 45–60.
ism and law (3rd ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger. Orlove, B. S., Roncoli, C., Kabugo, M., & Majugu, A.
The Observers. (2018, February 16). In Mali’s capital, ille- (2010). Indigenous climate knowledge in southern
gally dumped trash is clogging waterways. Retrieved Uganda: The multiple components of a dynamic
from http://observers.france24.com/en/20180216 regional system. Climatic Change, 100, 243–265.
-bamako-niger-river-trash-mali Orr, D. M. R., Preston-Shoot, M., & Braye, S. (2017).
Oboler, R. S. (1980). Is the female husband a man? Meaning in hoarding: Perspectives of people who hoard
Woman/woman marriage among the Nandi of on clutter and agency. Anthropology and Medicine.
Kenya. Ethnology, 19, 69–88. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2017
Ochs, E., & Schiefflelin, M. M. (1984). Language acqui- .1391171
sition and socialization: Three developmental stories Ortiz, F. (1947). Cuban counterpoint: Tobacco and sugar.
and their implications. In R. Shweder & R. LeVine New York, NY: Knopf.
(Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self and emo- Ortner, S. B. (2006). Anthropology and social theory:
tion (pp. 276–320). Cambridge, England: Cambridge Culture, power, and the acting subject. Durham, NC:
University Press. Duke University Press.
O’Connor, M. L. (2016). Four communities com- Ortner, S. B., & Whitehead, H. (1981). Sexual meanings:
pared. In M. I. O’Connor (Ed.). Mixtec evangelicals: The cultural construction of gender and sexuality.
Globalization, migration, and religious change in a Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Oaxacan indigenous group. Boulder: University Press Overbey, M. M. (2007). RACE: Are we so different? A new
of Colorado. public education program. AnthroNotes, 28, 15–17.
Offiong, D. (1983). Witchcraft among the Ibibio of Page, M. E. (1987). Introduction: Black men in a white
Nigeria. African Studies Review, 26, 107–124. men’s war. In M. E. Page (Ed.), Africa and the First
Ogbu, J. (1978). African bridewealth and women’s status. World War (pp. 1–27). New York, NY: St. Martin’s.
American Ethnologist, 5, 241–260. Page, S., & Mallenbaum, C. (2011, August 17). Poll
Ogbu, J. (1991a). Immigrant and involuntary minori- respondents chart racial progress since MLK. USA
ties in comparative perspective. In M. Gibson and Today. Retrieved from www.usatoday.com/news/
J. Ogbu (Eds.), Minority status and schooling: A com- nation/2011-08-17-race-poll-inside_n.htm
parative study of immigrant and involuntary minorities Page, T. (2007, August 20). Parallel play: A life of restless
(pp. 3–36). New York, NY: Garland. isolation explained. The New Yorker. Retrieved from
Ogbu, J. (1991b). Low school performance as an adapta- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/20/
tion: The case of blacks in Stockton, California. In M. parallel-play
Gibson and J. Ogbu (Eds.), Minority status and school- Paiement, J. J. (2007). Anthropology and development.
ing: A comparative study of immigrant and involuntary National Association for the Practice of Anthropology
minorities (pp. 249–287). New York, NY: Garland. Bulletin, 27, 196–223.
O’Kelly, C. G., & Carney, L. S. (1986). Women and men in Paine, R. (1994). Herds of the tundra: A portrait of Saami
society: Cross-cultural perspectives on gender stratifica- reindeer pastoralism. Washington, DC: Smithsonian
tion. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Institution.
Oliver, M. B. (2003). Race and crime in the media: Palkovich, A. M. (1994). Historic epidemics of the
Research from a media effects tradition. In A. American pueblos. In C. S. Larsen & G. R. Milner
Valdivia (Ed.), A companion to media studies (Eds.), In the wake of contact: Biological responses to
(pp. 421–436). London, England: Blackwell. conquest (pp. 87–95). New York, NY: Wiley.
Pandya, V. (2005). Deforesting among Andamanese chil- Peregrine, P. N., Ember, C. R., & Ember, M. (2004). Universal
dren: Political economy and history of schooling. In patterns in cultural evolution: An empirical analysis
B. S. Hewlett & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Hunter-gatherer using Guttmann scaling. American Anthropologist, 106,
childhoods (pp. 385–406). Piscataway, NJ: Aldine. 145–149.
Paredes, A. J. (Ed.). (2006). The impact of the hurricanes Perovich, D., Meier, W., Tschudi, M., Farrell, S., Hendricks,
of 2005 on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the S., Gerland, S., . . . & Webster, M. (2015). Sea ice. NOAA
United States. American Anthropologist, 108, 637–642. Arctic Program. Retrieved from https://www.arctic.noaa
Pareles, J. (1996). A small world after all. But is that good? .gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2017/ArtMID/7798/
New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes ArticleID/699/Sea-Ice
.com/1996/03/24/arts/pop-view-a-small-world-after- Petersen, R. (2015). Does Apple ship iPhones by air or sea?
all-but-is-that-good.html Flexport. Retrieved from https://www.flexport.com/
Parker, L. (2017). Ocean life eats tons of plastic—Here’s blog/does-apple-ship-iphones-by-air-or-sea/
why that matters. National Geographic. Retrieved Peterson-Withorn, C. (2015, April 20). New report reveals
from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ the 500 largest family-owned companies in the world.
ocean-life-eats-plastic-larvaceans-anchovy-environ Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/
ment/ chasewithorn/2015/04/20/new-report-reveals-the-500-
Parker, L. (2018a). The great Pacific garbage patch isn’t largest-family-owned-companies-in-the-world/#7a86
what you think it is. National Geographic. Retrieved 7fa53602
from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/ Petri, A. (2014, August 27). Hello Kitty is not a cat.
great-pacific-garbage-patch-plastics-environment/ Everything is a lie. Washington Post. Retrieved from
Parker, L. (2018b). Straw wars: The fight to rid the oceans https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/
of discarded plastic. National Geographic. Retrieved wp/2014/08/27/hello-kitty-is-not-a-cat-everything-
from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/ is-a-lie/?utm_term=.1ad60cfd7342
plastic-straws-ocean-trash-environment/ Pettitt, G. A. (1972). The vision quest and the guardian
Parker, S. (1996). Full brother–sister marriage in roman spirit. In J. Jennings & E. A. Hoebel (Eds.), Readings
Egypt: Another look. Cultural Anthropology, 11, in anthropology (pp. 265–272). New York, NY:
362–376. McGraw-Hill.
Patton, L., & Giammona, C. (2016). McDonald’s turn- Pew Research Center. (2010). Are we happy yet? Retrieved
around revs up abroad as revenue beats estimates. from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2006/02/13/
Bloomberg. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg are-we-happy-yet/
.com/news/articles/2016-10-21/mcdonald-s-revenue- Pew Research Center. (2015a). America’s changing reli-
beats-estimates-as-breakfast-helps-u-s-gains gious landscape. Retrieved from http://www.pew
Payscale.com. (2018). Assembly line worker, factory salary. forum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religi
Retrieved from https://www.payscale.com/research/ ous-landscape/
US/Job=Assembly_Line_Worker%2C _Factory/ Pew Research Center. (2015b). Modern immigration wave
Hourly_Rate brings 59 million to U.S., driving population growth
PBS. (2003). Interview with Robin D. G. Kelley. Retrieved and change through 2065. Retrieved from http://www
from https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04- .pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/modern-immigration-
background-02-05.htm wave-brings-59-million-to-u-s-driving-population
Peacock, J. (2007, November 4). AAA Commission on the -growth-and-change-through-2065/
Engagement of Anthropology With the U.S. Security and Pew Research Center. (2015c). Most say government pol-
Intelligence Communities: Final report. Washington, icies since recession have done little to help middle
DC: American Anthropological Association. class, poor. Retrieved from http://www.people-press
Peacock, N. R. (1991). Rethinking the sexual division of .org/2015/03/04/most-say-government-policies-since-
labor: Reproduction and women’s work among the recession-have-done-little-to-help-middle-class
Efe. In M. di Leonardo (Ed.), Gender and the cross- -poor/
roads of knowledge: Feminist anthropology in the post- Pew Research Center. (2015d). Parenting in America:
modern era (pp. 339–360). Berkeley: University of Outlook, worries, aspirations are strongly linked to
California Press. financial situation. Retrieved from http://www.pew
Pearson, C. (2015). My two years as an anthropologist socialtrends.org/files/2015/12/2015-12-17_parent
on the Photoshop team. Medium. Retrieved from ing-in-america_FINAL.pdf
https://medium.com/startup-frontier/my-two-years- Pew Research Center. (2017). U.S. Muslims concerned
as-an-anthropologist-on-the-photoshop-team- about their place in society but continue to believe in
e700acb7d3d5 the American Dream. Retrieved from http://www.pew
Peoples, J. G. (1990). The evolution of complex stratification forum.org/2017/07/26/findings-from-pew-research-
in eastern Micronesia. Micronesia, suppl. 2, 291–302. centers-2017-survey-of-us-muslims/
References 411
Pew Research Center. (2018). Remittance flows worldwide Proportion of landless families falls to 7.41% in rural India.
in 2016. Retrieved from http://www.pewglobal.org/ (2015, December 17). The Economic Times. Retrieved
interactives/remittance-map/ from https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/econ
Peyrefitte, A. (1992). The immobile empire. New York, NY: omy/agri-business/average-farm-landholding-size
Knopf. -shrinks-to-11-ha/article24719240.ece
Phillips, W. (2005). Cravings, marks, and open pores: Price, S. (1989). Primitive art in civilized places. Chicago,
Acculturation and preservation of pregnancy-related IL: University of Chicago Press.
beliefs and practices among mothers of African Prunier, G. (1995). The Rwanda crisis: History of a genocide.
descent in the United States. Ethos, 33, 231–255. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Pigg, S. L. (2001). Languages of sex and AIDS in Nepal: Qiu, L. (2016). Did we really reduce extreme poverty by half
Notes on the social production of commensurability. in 30 years? Politifact. Retrieved from http://www
Current Anthropology, 16, 481–541. .politifact.com/global-news/statements/2016/mar/23/
Pink, S. (2003). “She wasn’t tall enough and breasts get gayle-smith/did-we-really-reduce-extreme-poverty
in the way”: Why would a woman bullfighter retire? -half-30-years/
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 10, Queen, S., & Haberstein, R. (1974). The family in various
427–449. cultures. New York, NY: J. B. Lippincott Co.
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York, NY: Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1922). The Andaman Islanders:
William Morrow. A study in social anthropology. Cambridge, England:
Pipyrou, S. (2016). The Grecanici of southern Italy: Cambridge University.
Governance, violence and minority politics. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1965/1952). Structure and function
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. in primitive society. New York, NY: Free Press.
Pitts, L. (2009). Forward from this moment. Chicago, IL: Rai, S. (2016, August 15). “This generation will be the last
Agate. to skin cows in India.” Times of India. Retrieved from
Plattner, S. (1989a). Economic behavior in markets. In S. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/meerut/This-
Plattner (Ed.), Economic anthropology (pp. 209–221). generation-will-be-the-last-to-skin-cows-in-India/arti
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. cleshow/53703122.cms
Plattner, S. (1989b). Marxism. In S. Plattner (Ed.), Ramet, S. P. (1996). Balkan Babel: Politics, culture, and reli-
Economic anthropology (pp. 379–396). Stanford, CA: gion in Yugoslavia (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview.
Stanford University Press. Rand, J. T. (2007, July 4). Why I can’t visit the National
Polese, A. (2008). “If I receive it, it is a gift; if I demand it, Museum of the American Indian: Reflections of an
then it is a bribe.” On the local meaning of economic accidental privileged insider, 1989–1994. Common-
transactions in post-Soviet Ukraine. Anthropology in Place, 7. Retrieved from http://www.common-place-
Action, 15, 47–60. archives.org/vol-07/no-04/rand/
Polyani, K. (1944). The great transformation. New York, Raphelson, S. (2018). More than 3,100 migrants died cross-
NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ing Mediterranean in 2017. NPR. Retrieved from
Poston, D. L., & Wong, J. H. (2016). The Chinese diaspora: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/
The current distribution of the overseas Chinese pop- 06/576223035/more-than-3-100-migrants-died-cross
ulation. Chinese Journal of Sociology, 2, 348–373. ing-mediterranean-in-2017
Potash, B. (1989). Gender relations in sub-Saharan Rappaport, R. (1984). Pigs for the ancestors: Ritual in the
Africa. In S. Morgen (Ed.), Gender and anthropology: ecology of a New Guinea people (2nd ed.). New Haven,
Critical reviews for research and teaching (pp. 189– CT: Yale University Press.
227). Washington, DC: American Anthropological Rasmussan, S. (2005). Pastoral nomadism and gender:
Association. Status, prestige, economic contribution, and division
Powers, T. (2005, April 7). The Indians’ own story. The of labor among the Tuareg of Niger. In C. B. Brettell &
New York Review of Books, 73. C. F. Sargent (Eds.), Gender in cross-cultural perspec-
Prah, K. K. (1990). Anthropologists, colonial adminis- tive (4th ed., pp. 155–168). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
trators, and the Lotuko of eastern Equatoria, Sudan: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
1952–1953. African Journal of Sociology, 3, 70–86. Rastas beaten, forcibly trimmed of their locks after Coral
Price, D. (2009). Counterinsurgency’s free ride. Gardens. (2015, December 16). Jamaica Observer.
Counterpunch. Retrieved from www.counterpunch Retrieved from http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/
.org/2009/04/07/counterinsurgency-s-free-ride/ news/Rastas-beaten--forcibly-trimmed-of-their-locks
Price, D. (2010). Soft power, hard power and the anthro- -after-Coral-Gardens_45946
pological “leveraging” of cultural “assets”: Distilling Reddy, G. (2005). With respect to sex: Negotiating hijra
the politics and ethics of anthropological counterin- identity in South India. Chicago, IL: University of
surgency. In J. D. Kelly, B. Jauregui, S. T. Mitchell, & J. Chicago.
Walton (Eds.), Anthropology and global counterinsur- Reddy, G., & Nanda, S. (2005). Hijras: An “alternative”
gency. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. sex/gender. In C. B. Brettell & C. F. Sargent (Eds.),
Gender in cross-cultural perspective (4th ed.). Upper Romaine, S. (1994). Language in society: An introduction to
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. sociolinguistics. London, England: Blackwell.
Redman, S. J. (2016). How many human skeletons are in Romero, S. (2015). Language and ethnicity among the
U.S. museums? History News Network. Retrieved K’ichee’ Maya. Salt Lake City: University of Utah.
from https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161946 Rosaldo, M. Z., & Lamphere, L. (1974). Introduction. In
Reeves, G. (2006). Pursuing opportunities “away from M. Z. Rosaldo & L. Lamphere (Eds.), Women, cul-
home”: Encountering new challenges and relation- ture, and society (pp. 1–16). Stanford, CA: Stanford
ships. Anthropology News, 47, 8–9. University Press.
Reichman, R. (1995). Brazil’s denial of race. NACLA Report Rosaldo, R. (1993). Culture and truth: The remaking of
on the Americas, 28, 35–43. social analysis. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Remijsen, S., & Clarysse, W. (2008). Incest or adoption? Roscoe, W. (1988). We’wha and Klah: The American
brother–sister marriage in Roman Egypt revisited. Indian berdache as artist and priest. American Indian
The Journal of Roman Studies, 98, 53–61. Quarterly, 12, 127–150.
Renfrew, C., McMahon, A., & Trask, L. (Eds.). (2000). Roscoe, W. (1991). The Zuni man-woman. Albuquerque:
Time depth in historical linguistics (Vols. 1 and 2). University of New Mexico Press.
Cambridge, England: The McDonald Institute for Rosenberg, H. G. (2013). Complaint discourse: Aging and
Archaeological Research. caregiving among the Ju/’hoansi. In R. B. Lee, The
Rerkasem, K., Lawrence, D., Paddoch, C., Schmidt- Dobe Ju/’hoansi (4th ed., pp. 101–120). Belmont, CA:
Vogt, D., Ziegler, A. D., & Bruun, T. B. (2009). Wadsworth.
Consequences of swidden transitions for crop and Rosenberg, M. (2018). Number of McDonald’s restaurants
fallow biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology, worldwide. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www
37, 347–360. .thoughtco.com/number-of-mcdonalds-restaurants
Reuters. (2012, June 11). Analysts cut Brazil GDB growth, -worldwide-1435174
inflation forecasts. Retrieved from www.reuters Rosenberger, N. (2012). Seeking food rights: Nation,
.com/article/2012/06/11/us-brazil-economy-survey inequality and repression in Uzbekistan. Belmont CA:
-idUSBRE85A0JG20120611 Wadsworth.
Reuters. (2017, October 5). Cambodia hikes minimum wage Rosenboim, O. (2017). Globalism and nationalism: Why
for textiles workers by 11 pct from 2018. Retrieved from interconnectedness does not threaten sovereignty.
https://www.reuters.com/article/cambodia-econo Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.for
my-garmentworkers-wages/cambodia-hikes-mini eignaffairs.com/articles/2017-07-10/globalism-and
mum-wage-for-textiles-workers-by-11-pct-from-2018 -nationalism
-idUSL4N1MG1Q6 Roser, M. (2018). War and peace. OurWorldInData.org.
Rich. (2016). How I learned to stop worrying and love being Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/war-and
otaku. Tofugu.com. Retrieved from https://www -peace
.tofugu.com/japan/otaku-meaning/ Roser, M., & Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2018). Global extreme pov-
Ricklefs, M. C. (1990). Balance and military innovation in erty. OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from https://
17th century Java. History Today, 40, 40–47. ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty
Ringlero, A. M. (2008, Fall). Fritz Scholder: The enigma. Rosman, A., & Rubel, P. G. (1971). Feasting with mine
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, enemy: Rank and exchange among Northwest Coast
16–24. societies. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
Ritter, M. L. (1980). The conditions favoring age-set organi- Rossi, W. A. (1976). The sex life of the foot and shoe. London,
zation. Journal of Anthropological Research, 36, 87–104. England: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Ritzer, G. (1993). The McDonaldization of society: An inves- Rostow, W. W. (1960). The stages of growth: A noncommu-
tigation into the changing character of contemporary nist manifesto. New York, NY: Cambridge.
social life. Newbury Park, CA: Pine Forge. Rothstein, R. (2005). Defending sweatshops: Too much
Roberts, A. (2010). Lives and statistics: Are 90% of war logic, too little evidence. Dissent, 52, 41–47.
victims civilians? Survival, 52, 115–136. Rowland, M. P. (2017, December 17). Demand for meat
Roberts, A. H., Kewman, D. G., Mercierm, L., & Hovell, is growing rapidly in India. This could impact all
M. (1993). The power of nonspecific effects in healing: of us. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes
Implications for psychosocial and biological treat- .com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2017/12/17/india
ments. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 375–391. -meat-increase/#23c17a5f33b1
Rodlach, A. (2006). Witches, Westerners, and HIV: AIDS Roybal, J. (2007). Big beef buyers. Beef Magazine.
and cultures of blame in Africa. Walnut Creek, CA: Retrieved from https://www.beefmagazine.com/mag/
Left Coast Press. beef_big_beef_buyers
Rohde, D. L. T., Olsen, S., & Chang, J. T. (2004). Modelling Ruhlen, M. (1994). The origin of language: Tracing the
the recent common ancestry of all living humans. evolution of the mother tongue. New York, NY: John
Nature, 431, 562–566. Wiley.
References 413
Rushby, K. (2011, January 28). Bright new start: How Sanday, P. R. (1992). Fraternity gang rape: Sex, brother-
the Maasai are finally profiting from tourism. The hood, and privilege on campus. New York: New York
Guardian. Retrieved from www.guardian.co.uk/ University Press.
travel/2011/jan/29/kenya-masai-mara-safari-conser Sapir, E. (1949). The status of linguistics as a science. In
vation D. Mandelbaum (Ed.), The selected writings of Edward
Ruthven, M. (2004). Fundamentalism: A very short intro- Sapir in language, culture and personality (pp. 160–
duction. Oxford, England: Oxford University. 166). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sacks, O. (1995). An anthropologist on Mars: Seven para- Sapir, E. (1963/1933). Language. In D. G. Mandelbaum
doxical tales. New York, NY: Knopf. (Ed.), Selected writings of Edward Sapir in lan-
Safi, M. (2017). Rise of Hindu “extremist” spooks guage, culture, and personality (pp. 7–32). Berkeley:
Muslim minority in India’s heartland. The Guardian. University of California Press.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/ Scammell, G. V. (1989). The first Imperial age. London,
world/2017/mar/26/modis-man-flexes-muscular-hin England: HarperCollins Academic.
duism-shock-election Scheidel, W. (2007). Roman population size: The logic of the
Sager, S. (2016). Enchanting the honeybees with magical debate. Stanford University. Retrieved from https://
love songs: An Orang Rimba honey-collecting ritual www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/070706
in Jambi, Sumatra. Asian Ethnology, 75, 377–395. .pdf
Sahlins, M. (1957). Land use and the extended family in Schele, L., & Miller, M. E. (1986). The blood of kings:
Moala, Fiji. American Anthropologist, 59, 449–462. Dynasty and ritual in Maya art. New York, NY:
Sahlins, M. (1961). The segmentary lineage: An organiza- Braziller.
tion of predatory expansion. American Anthropologist, Schensul, S. L. (1997). The anthropologist in medicine:
63, 332–345. Critical perspectives on cancer and street addicts.
Sahlins, M. (1971). Poor man, rich man, big man, chief. Reviews in Anthropology, 26, 57–69.
In J. P. Spradley & D. W. McCurdy (Eds.), Conformity Schepartz, L. A. (1993). Language and modern human ori-
and conflict (pp. 362–376). Boston, MA: Little, Brown. gins. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 36, 91–96.
Sahlins, M. (1972). Stone Age economics. Chicago, IL: Scheper-Hughes, N. (1992). Death without weeping: The
Aldine. violence of everyday life in Brazil. Berkeley: University
Said, E. W. (1993). Culture and imperialism. New York, NY: of California Press.
Knopf. Schildkrout, E. (2004). Inscribing the body. Annual Review
Saitoti, T. O. (1986). The worlds of a Maasai warrior: An of Anthropology, 33, 319–344.
autobiography. Berkeley: University of California Schlegel, A. (2008). Hopi social structure as related to Tihu
Press. symbolism. In E. Glenn, J. R. Wunder, W. H. Rollings,
Saleh, Z. (2009). It is what it is: Conversations about Iraq. & C. L. Martin, Hopi Nation: Essays on indigenous
New York, NY: New Museum. art, culture, history, and law (pp. 129–134). Lincoln:
Salome, R. C. (2010). Language, identity, and belonging. In University of Nebraska.
R. C. Salome (Ed.), True American. Cambridge, MA: Schneider, H. K. (1973). The subsistence role of cattle
Harvard University. among the Pokot in East Africa. In E. P. Skinner (Ed.),
Salzman, P. C. (1999). The anthropology of real life: Events Peoples and cultures of Africa (pp. 159–187). Garden
in human experience. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. City, NY: Natural History Press.
Salzman, P. C. (2000). Hierarchical image and reality: The Schmidt-Vogt, D., Leisz, S. J., Mertz, O., Heinimann,
construction of a tribal chiefship. Comparative Studies A., Thiha, T., Messerli, P., …Truong, M. D. (2009).
in Society and History, 42, 49–66. An assessment of trends in the extent of swidden in
Salzmann, Z. (1993). Language, culture, and society. Southeast Asia. Human Ecology, 37, 269–80.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Schuyler, P. (1995). The arts of the Arabic-speaking Middle
Samet, R., & Schiller, N. (2017). All populisms are not cre- East. In What in the world is culture? (pp. 49–53). 651
ated equal. Anthropology News, 58, 3–5. World Series Festival Booklet. New York, NY: King’s
Sánchez, J. P. (2017). How the Parthenon lost its mar- Majestic Corporation.
bles. National Geographic. Retrieved from https:// Schwartzstein, P. (2017, November 14). Climate change
www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-his and water woes drove ISIS recruiting in Iraq. National
tory/magazine/2017/03-04/parthenon-sculptures Geographic. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeo
-british-museum-controversy/ graphic.com/2017/11/climate-change-drought-drove
Sánchez-Eppler, B. (1992). Telling anthropology: Zora -isis-terrorist-recruiting-iraq/
Neale Hurston and Gilberto Freyre disciplined in Science indicators 2012. Report notes China’s influence
their field-home-work. American Literary History, 4, in emerging Asian science zone. (2012). Science, 335,
464–488. 274–275.
Sanday, P. R. (1981). Female power and male dominance. Scotland to China and back again … cod’s 10,000 mile
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. trip to your table. (2009, August 21). The Herald.
Retrieved from https://www.heraldscotland.com/ Shostak, M. (1983). Nisa: The life and words of a !Kung
news/12765981.scotland-to-china-and-back-again- woman. New York, NY: Random House.
cods-10000-mile-trip-to-your-table/ Sikkink, L. (2010). New cures, old medicines: Women
Scott, E. (2001). Food and social relationships at Nina and the commercialization of traditional medicine in
Plantation. American Anthropologist, 103, 671–691. Bolivia. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Scott, J. (1992). Domination and the arts of resistance: Silvert, L. L. (2006). Methods of study. In L. L. Silvert
Hidden transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University (Ed.), Menopause: A biocultural perspective. New
Press. Brunswick, Canada: Rutgers.
Seeger, L. (2013, July 30). India’s dowry culture. Simeone, W. E. (1995). Rifles, blankets, and beads: Identity,
International Policy Digest. Retrieved from https://int history, and the Northern Athapaskan potlatch.
policydigest.org/2013/07/30/india-s-dowry-culture/ Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Sells, M. A. (2013). Armageddon in Christian, Sunni, and Simmons, M. (1991). The last conquistador: Juan de
Shia traditions. In M. Juergensmeyer, M. Kitts, & Oñate and the settling of the far Southwest. Norman:
M. Jerryson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of religion University of Oklahoma Press.
and violence (pp. 467–495). Oxford, England: Oxford Sin, B. (2016, August 22). Latest Foxconn worker deaths
University. build case for Apple to move operations from China.
Semega, J. L. (2017). Income and poverty in the United Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/
States: 2016. U.S. Census Current Population bensin/2016/08/22/the-real-cost-of-the-iphone-7
Reports. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/ -more-foxconn-worker-deaths/#546d68556088
content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/ Singer, M., Bulled, N., Ostrach, B., & Mendenhall, E.
demo/P60-259.pdf (2017). Syndemics and the biosocial conception of
Service, E. (1962). Primitive social organization. New York, health. The Lancet, 389, 941–950.
NY: Random House. Sivakumar, B. (2013, May 2). Half of India’s Dalit popu-
Service, E. (1971). Profiles in ethnology. New York, NY: lation lives in 4 states. The Times of India. Retrieved
Harper and Row. from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Half-
Shanklin, E. (1994). Anthropology and race. Belmont, CA: of-Indias-dalit-population-lives-in-4-states/article
Wadsworth. show/19827757.cms
Shannon, J. (2015). Artifacts of collaboration at the Skidmore, M. (2003). Darker than midnight: Fear, vul-
National Museum of the American Indian. New nerability, and terror making in urban Burma
Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary (Myanmar). American Ethnologist, 30, 5–21.
Inquiry, 7, 37–55. Small, M. L., Harding, D. J., & Lamont, M. (2010).
Sharkey, P. (2007). Survival and death in New Orleans: Reconsidering culture and poverty. Annals of the
An empirical look at the human impact of Katrina. American Academy of Political and Social Science, 629,
Journal of Black Studies, 37, 482–501. 6–27.
Sheehan, J. (1982). The enchanted ring: The untold story of Smedley, A. (1998). “Race” and the construction of human
penicillin. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. identity. American Anthropologist, 100, 690–702.
Shell-Duncan, B. (2008). From health to human rights: Smith, M. (2016, November 17). International survey:
Female genital cutting and the politics of interven- Globalization is still seen as a force for good in the
tion. American Anthropologist, 110, 225–236. world. YouGov.com. Retrieved from https://today.you
Shelton, A. (2007). Questioning locality: The UBC gov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/11/17/
Museum of Anthropology and its hinterlands. international-survey
Etnográfica, 11, 387–406. Smith, N. (2006, June 11). There’s no such thing as a natural
Sheriff, R. (2001). Dreaming equality: Color, race and rac- disaster. Social Science Research Council. Retrieved
ism in urban Brazil. East Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers from http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/Smith/
University Press. Smith, R. (2005). From a mushroom cloud, a burst of art
Sherlock, R., & Al-Arian, L. (2018). Migrants cap- reflecting Japan’s psyche. New York Times. Retrieved
tured in Libya say they end up sold as slaves. NPR. from https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/arts/design/
Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/paral from-a-mushroom-cloud-a-burst-of-art-reflecting-
lels/2018/03/21/595497429/migrants-passing-through japans-psyche.html
-libya-could-end-up-being-sold-as-slaves Smith, S. (2014). China’s increasing meat consumption and
Shevoroshkin, V., & Woodford, J. (1991). Where linguis- its economic, agricultural, and environmental impacts.
tics, archaeology, and biology meet. In J. Brockman Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Retrieved from
(Ed.), Ways of knowing (pp. 173–197). New York, NY: https://www.asiapacific.ca/blog/chinas-increasing
Prentice Hall. -meat-consumption-and-its-economic
Shih, C-K. (2001). Genesis of marriage among the Moso Smith, T. (1978). A comparative study of French and
and empire-building in late Imperial China. The British decolonization. Comparative Studies in Society
Journal of Asian Studies, 60, 381–412. and History, 20, 70–102.
References 415
Smith, T. (2002). Religious diversity in America: The In G. E. Marcus & F. R. Myers (Eds.), The traffic in
emergence of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and culture: Refiguring art and anthropology (pp. 151–165).
others. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41, Berkeley: University of California Press.
577–585. Stephens, S. (1987, December). Lapp life after Chernobyl.
Sommers, P. (1988, March 6). Ping Chong, at home with the Natural History, 33–40.
angels. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www Stern, P. R. (1999). Learning to be smart: An exploration
.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1988/ of the culture of intelligence in a Canadian Inuit com-
03/06/ping-chong-at-home-with-the-angels/182c973e munity. American Anthropologist, 101, 502–514.
-8784-4a8f-8496-a9bbe4854df4/?utm_term=.0a4f7 Sternberg, E. (2002). Walter B. Cannon and “voodoo”
88ca3b1 death: A perspective from 60 years on. American
Southern Poverty Law Center. (2018). Anti-sharia law Journal of Public Health, 92, 1564–1566.
bills in the United States. Retrieved from https://www Stewart, O. C. (1987). Peyote religion: A history. Norman:
.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/02/05/anti-sharia-law University of Oklahoma Press.
-bills-united-states Stock, J. T., & Migliano, A. B. (2009). Stature, mortality,
Spielmann, K. A. (2002). Feasting, craft specialization, and life history among indigenous populations of the
and the ritual mode of production in small-scale soci- Andaman Islands. Current Anthropology, 50, 713–725.
eties. American Anthropologist, 104, 195–207. Stokes, B. (2017, February 1). What it takes to truly be “one of
Spiro, M. E., Killborne, B., & Langness, L. L. (1994). us.” Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www
Culture and human nature. New Brunswick, NJ: .pewglobal.org/2017/02/01/what-it-takes-to-truly-be
Transaction. -one-of-us/
Sponsel, L. E. (Ed.). (1995). Indigenous peoples and the Stone, L. S. (2004). Gay marriage and anthropology.
future of Amazonia: An ecological anthropology of an Anthropology News, 45, 10.
endangered world. Tucson: University of Arizona Strain, T. (2003). Race: The power of an illusion. San
Press. Francisco, CA: California Newsreel.
Spradley, J. (1970). You owe yourself a drunk. Boston, MA: Strathern, M. (1995). Women in between: Female roles in a
Little, Brown. male world: Mount Hagen, New Guinea. Latham, MD:
Srinivasen, P., & Lee, G. R. (2004). The dowry system in Rowman and Littlefield.
northern India: Women’s attitudes and social change. Strauss, L. G. (1991). Southwestern Europe at the last gla-
Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 1108–1117. cial maximum. Current Anthropology, 32, 189–199.
Standard Occupational Classification Policy Committee. Street, R., & Rautenbach, C. (2016, January 21). South
(2010). 2010 SOC definitions. Retrieved from https:// Africa wants to regulate traditional healers—But it’s
www.bls.gov/soc/soc_2010_definitions.pdf not easy. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://
Stanyon, R., Sazzini, M. & Luiselli, D. (2009). Timing the theconversation.com/south-africa-wants-to-regulate-
first human migration into eastern Asia. Journal of traditional-healers-but-its-not-easy-53122
Biology, 8, 18. Stull, D. D., & Broadway, M. J. (2004). Slaughterhouse
Starkweather, K. E., & Hames, R. (2012). A survey of blues: The meat and poultry industry in North America.
non-classical polyandry. Human Nature, 23, 149–172. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Statistica. (2018a). Leading countries based on number of Sulkin, C. D. L. (2009). Anthropology, liberalism, and
Facebook users as of April 2018 (in millions). Retrieved female genital cutting. Anthropology Today, 25, 17–19.
from https://www.statista.com/statistics/268136/top- Survival International. (2017). Questions and answers:
15-countries-based-on-number-of-facebook-users/ Uncontacted tribes. Retrieved from https://www.sur
Statistica. (2018b). Number of scheduled passengers boarded vivalinternational.org/articles/3109-questions-and
by the global airline industry from 2004 to 2018 (in -answers-uncontacted-tribes
millions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/ Tabani, M. (2009). Dreams of unity, traditions of division:
statistics/564717/airline-industry-passenger-traffic John Frum “kastom” and inter-manipulation strategies
-globally/ as cultural heritage on Tanna (Vanuatu). Paideuma:
Statistica. (2018c). Percentage of the U.S. population who Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde [In German], 55, 27–47.
have completed four years of college or more from 1940 Tavernise, S. (2012, February 17). For women under 30,
to 2017 by gender. Retrieved from https://www.statista most births occur outside marriage. The New York
.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/
-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/ 2012/02/18/us/for-women-under-30-most-births-
Stearns, M. L. (1975). Life cycle rituals of the mod- occur-outside-marriage.html
ern Haida. In D. B. Carlisle (Ed.), Contributions to Taylor, A. (2017, January 21). Photos of the women’s
Canadian ethnology (pp. 129–169). Ottawa, Canada: marches around the world. The Atlantic. Retrieved
National Museum of Man. from https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/01/
Steiner, C. B. (1995). The art of the trade: On the creation photos-of-the-womens-marches-around-the-world/
of value and authenticity in the African art market. 514049/
Templeton, A. R. (1998). Human races: A genetic and evo- from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immig

lutionary perspective. American Anthropologist, 100, ration/u-s-deportations-down-in-2017-but-immigra
632–650. tion-arrests-up-idUSKBN1DZ2O5
Templeton, A. R. (2013). Biological races in humans. Torelli, S. M. (2017). Climate-driven migration in
Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Africa. European Council on Foreign Relations.
Biomedical Sciences, 44, 262–271. Retrieved from https://www.ecfr.eu/article/comm
Terborgh, J. (2012, April 5). Out of contact. New York entary_climate_driven_migration_in_africa
Review of Books. Retrieved from https://www.nybooks Torpey, E. (2018). Measuring the value of education. U.S.
.com/articles/2012/04/05/out-contact-amazon-tribes/ Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from https://
Terrorist atrocities in Western Europe. (2017, March www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2018/data-on-display/
23). The Economist. Retrieved from https://www education-pays.htm
.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/03/23/terrorist Trading Economics. (2018). Cambodia living wage indi-
-atrocities-in-western-europe vidual: 2017–2018. Retrieved from https://tradingeco
Tessman, I., & Tessman, J. (2000). Efficacy of prayer: nomics.com/cambodia/living-wage-individual
A critical examination of claims. Skeptical Inquirer, Traphagan, J. W. (1998). Contesting the transition to old
24, 31–33. age in Japan. Ethnology, 37, 333–350.
Theodorou, A. E. (2014, August 5). 27 countries limit a Traphagan, J. W. (2014). Culture and communication with
woman’s ability to pass citizenship to her child or spouse. extraterrestrial intelligence. In D. A. Vakoch (Ed.),
Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www Archaeology, anthropology, and interstellar communi-
.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/05/27-countries cation (pp. 161–174). Washington, DC: NASA.
-limit-a-womans-ability-to-pass-citizenship-to-her Trentinella, R. (2003). Roman portrait sculpture: The sty-
-child-or-spouse/ listic cycle. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The
Thomas de Benitez, S. (2011). State of the world’s street chil- Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from https://
dren: Research. London, UK: Consortium for Street www.metmuseum.org/toah/
Children. Retrieved from https://www.streetchil Truitt, A. (2008). On the back of a motorbike: Middle-class
dren.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/State_of_ mobility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. American
the_Worlds_Street_Children_Research_final_PDF_ Ethnologist, 35, 3–19.
online.pdf Tsui, C. (2000). A Hong Kong anthropologist spent months
Thompson, D. (2011, July 11). 30 million in poverty aren’t at a mainland electronic plant to study lives of its
as poor as you think, says Heritage Foundation. The female workers: Hardship, hope and dreams in a fac-
Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ tory. South China Morning Post, January 9, p. 1.
business/archive/2011/07/30-million-in-poverty-ar Tsuruta, K. (1989). The walls within: Images of westerners in
ent-as-poor-as-you-think-says-heritage-foundation/ Japan and images of the Japanese abroad. Vancouver,
242191/ Canada: Institute of Asian Research.
Thornton, L. (1994). Women as portrayed in Orientalist Turnbull, C. (1968). The importance of flux in two hunt-
painting. Paris, France: PocheCouleur. ing societies. In R. B. Lee & I. DeVore (Eds.), Man the
Thubron, C. (2009, June 11). Madame Butterfly’s brothel. hunter (pp. 132–137). Chicago, IL: Aldine.
The New York Review of Books, 24–27. Turner, V. (1967). The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu
Tierney, J. (2008, January 14). Sexual consequences of ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
female initiation rites in Africa. New York Times. Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-
Retrieved from https://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes structure. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
.com/2008/03/19/a-compromise-on-female-circum Tylor, E. B. (2017/1871). The science of culture. In R.
cision/ J. McGee & R. L. Warms, Anthropological theory:
Tignor, R. L. (1972). The Maasai warriors: Pattern mainte- An introductory history (pp. 34–49). Lanham, MD:
nance and violence in colonial Kenya. The Journal of Rowman and Littlefield.
African History, 13, 271–290. Uchendu, V. (1965). The Igbo of southeast Nigeria. New
Timmer, A. D. (2017). Advertising populism in Hungary. York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Anthropology News, 58, 6–9. Underhill, P. (1999). Why we buy: The science of shopping.
Tobin, J. J., Wu, D. Y. H., & Davidson, D. (1989). Preschool New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
in three cultures: Japan, China, and the United States. United Nations. (2009). 2009 revision of world urbaniza-
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. tion prospects. Retrieved from http://esa.un.org/unpd/
Tocqueville, A. d. (1956/1835–1840). Democracy in wup/unup/index_panel1.html
America. New York, NY: Penguin. United Nations. (2011). World population to reach 10 billion
Toensing, C. (2008, November 3). Collateral damage. The by 2100 if fertility in all countries converges to replace-
Nation, 25–30. ment level. Retrieved from http://esa.un.org/unpd/
Torbati, Y. (2017, December 5). U.S. deportations down in wpp/Other-Information/Press_Release_WPP2010
2017 but immigration arrests up. Reuters. Retrieved .pdf
References 417
United Nations. (2012). World urbanization prospects: The U.S. Census Bureau. (2011). Income, poverty and health
2011 revision. Retrieved from http://esa.un.org/unpd/ insurance in the United States: 2010 highlights.
wup/index.htm Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/
United Nations. (2014). World’s population increasingly poverty/data/incpovhlth/2010/highlights.html
urban with more than half living in urban areas. U.S. Census Bureau. (2012a). USA state and county quick
Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/development/ facts. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/
desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects states/00000.html
-2014.html U.S. Census Bureau. (2012b). The 2012 statistical abstract.
United Nations. (2016a). Report on the human rights situ- Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/library/
ation of the Sami people in the Sápmi region. Retrieved publications/2011/compendia/statab/131ed/2012-
from http://unsr.vtaulicorpuz.org/site/index.php/ statab.pdf
documents/country-reports/155-report-sapmi-2016 U.S. Census Bureau. (2017a). Household income quintile
United Nations. (2016b). Slum almanac 2015/2016. upper limits. Table B19080. Retrieved from https://
Retrieved from https://unhabitat.org/wp-content/ factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/
uploads/2016/02-old/Slum%20Almanac%202015-2016 productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
_EN.pdf U.S. Census Bureau. (2017b). Mean household income
United Nations. (2016c). 244 million international of quintiles. Table B19081. Retrieved from https://
migrants living abroad worldwide, new UN statis- factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/
tics reveal. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/ productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/01/244-million U.S. Census Bureau. (2017c). Shares of aggregate house-
-international-migrants-living-abroad-worldwide-new hold income by quintile. Table B19082. Retrieved from
-un-statistics-reveal/ https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/
United Nations. (2016d). The world’s cities in 2016. pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/development/ U.S. Census Bureau. (2017d). U.S. poverty statistics.
desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_ Retrieved from http://federalsafetynet.com/us-pover
worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf ty-statistics.html
United Nations. (2017a). Money migrants send home a “criti- U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2017). Farms and land
cal lifeline” for one in seven people worldwide. Retrieved in farms: 2016 summary. Retrieved from https://www
from https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/04/555122- .usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/fnlo0217.pdf
money-migrants-send-home-critical-lifeline-one-sev U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2018). Summary of recall
en-people-worldwide cases in calendar year 2017. Retrieved from https://
United Nations. (2017b). Sharp increase in money migrants www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls
send home lifts millions out of poverty. Retrieved from -and-public-health-alerts/recall-summaries
https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sharp-increase-money U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2017a).
-migrants-send-home-lifts-millions-out-poverty-%E2 Health, United States, 2016. Retrieved from https://
%80%93-un-report www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus16.pdf
United Nations. (2017c). World population projected to reach U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2017b).
9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100. Retrieved Infant mortality and African Americans. Retrieved
from https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/ from https://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/
news/population/world-population-prospects-2017 browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=23
.html U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2017). EIA
United Nations. (2017d). World population prospects. projects 28% increase in world energy use by 2040.
The 2107 revision: Key findings and advance tables. Retrieved from https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/
Retrieved from https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publi detail.php?id=32912
cations/files/wpp2017_keyfindings.pdf U.S-English.org. (2007). Misconceptions about official English.
United Nations High Commission on Refugees. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.usenglish.org/view/15
Statelessness around the world. Retrieved from http:// U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2017). Initial
www.unhcr.org/en-us/statelessness-around-the-world list of hazardous air pollutants with modifications.
.html Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/haps/initial
United Nations Office for the Coordination of -list-hazardous-air-pollutants-modifications
Humanitarian Affairs. (n.d.). South Sudan crisis over- U.S. foreign aid since 1977. (2011, October 3). New York
view. Retrieved from http://www.unocha.org/legacy/ Times. Retrieved from http://archive.nytimes.com/
south-sudan www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/04/us/poli
University of Virginia. (2008). Choosing and using your tics/us-foreign-aid-since-1977.html?ref=politicshttp://
major. University of Virginia University Career archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interac
Services. Retrieved from www.career.virginia.edu/ tive/2011/10/04/us/politics/us-foreign-aid-since-1977
students/resources/handouts/choosing_a_major.pdf .html?ref=politics
U.S.–Mexico border migrant deaths rose in 2017 even Wallace, A. (1970). Death and rebirth of the Seneca. New
as crossings fell, UN says. (2018, February 6). The York, NY: Knopf.
Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian Wallace, S. (2018, August 31). Why revealing uncontacted
.com/us-news/2018/feb/06/us-mexico-border-mig tribes may help save them. National Geographic.
rant-deaths-rose-2017 Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic
Valentine, D. (2003). “I went to bed with my own kind .com/culture-exploration/2018/08/brazil-uncontacted
once”: The erasure of desire in the name of identity. -tribe-indigenous-people-amazon-video/
Language and Communication, 23, 122–138. Wallerstein, I. (1995). Historical capitalism. London,
van de Walle, E. (1992). Fertility transition, conscious England: Verso.
choice, and numeracy. Demography, 29, 487–502. Walley, C. J. (1997). Searching for “voices”: Feminism,
van Donge, J. K. (1992). Agricultural decline in Tanzania: anthropology, and the global debate over female gen-
The case of the Uluguru Mountains. African Affairs, ital operations. Cultural Anthropology, 12, 405–438.
91, 73–94. Walmart. (2018). Our business. Retrieved from https://cor-
van Gennep, A. (1960/1909). The rites of passage. Chicago, porate.walmart.com/our-story/our-business
IL: University of Chicago Press. Walsh, E. (2002). Book review of a society without fathers
Vayda, A. P. (1976). War in ecological perspective. New or husbands: The Na of China. Cai Hua. American
York, NY: Plenum. Ethnologist, 29, 1043–1045.
Velocci, C. (2016). These are the programs ISIS uses to Wang, J. (2009, January 24). Now hip-hop, too, is made in
remain anonymous online. Gizmodo. Retrieved from China. New York Times, p. C1.
https://gizmodo.com/new-report-highlights-the- Ward, K. (2011). Blood ties: Exile, family, and inheritance
kinds-of-programs-isis-uses-t-1784161000 across the Indian Ocean in the early nineteenth cen-
Venbrux, E., Rosi, P. S., & Welsch, R. L. (Eds.). (2006). tury. Journal of Social History, 45, 436–452.
Exploring world art. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Warms, R. L. (1995, November 6). A son’s heroism, a
Ventura, S. J. (2009). Changing patterns of nonmarital mother’s curse: Economics, family structure, and ide-
childbearing in the United States. NCHS Data Brief, ology among veterans of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais in
1–8. Mali. Paper presented at the 38th annual meeting of
Vespa, J., Lewis, J. M, & Kreider, R. M. (2013). America’s the African Studies Association, Orlando, FL.
families and living arrangements: 2012. United States Warms, R. L. (1996). Throwing away the bones: The story
Census Bureau. Retrieved from https://www.census of Mory Samake, an African veteran of the French
.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-570.pdf colonial army. In A. Marcus (Ed.), Anthropology for
Victor, D. A. (1992). International business communication. a small planet: Culture and community in a global
New York, NY: Harper Collins. environment (pp. 1–18). St. James, NY: Brandywine
Vidal, J. (2009, July 24). Are we here just for your amuse- Press.
ment? The Guardian. Retrieved from www.guardian Warren, K. B., & Bourque, S. C. (1989). Women, technol-
.co.uk/travel/2009/jul/25/tribal-adventure-ethical ogy, and development ideologies: Frameworks and
-tourism-jarawa findings. In S. Morgen (Ed.), Gender and anthropol-
Vincent, S. (1998). The family in the household: Women, ogy: Critical reviews for research and teaching (pp. 382–
relationships, and economic history in Peru. Research 410). Washington, DC: American Anthropological
in Economic Anthropology, 19, 179–187. Association.
Viswanathan, G. (1988). Currying favor: The politics of Wei, S-J., & Zhang, X. (2011). The competitive savings
British educational and cultural policy in India 1813– motive: Evidence from rising sex ratios and savings
1854. Social Text, 19–20, 85–104. rates in China. Journal of Political Economy, 119,
Vogel, S. (1991). Africa explores: 20th century African art. 511–564.
New York, NY: Center for African Art. Weinberger, S. (2011, October 18). Pentagon cultural ana-
Vogt, E. Z., & Hyman, R. (2000). Water witching USA. lyst helped with interrogations. Nature. doi:10.1038/
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. news.2011.598
von Graeve, B. (1989). The Pacaa Nova: Clash of cultures Weiner, A. B. (1976). Women of value, men of renown: New
on the Brazilian frontier. Peterborough, Canada: perspectives on Trobriand exchange. Austin: University
Broadview Press. of Texas Press.
von Schnurbein, S. (2016). Norse revival: Transformations Weiner, A. B. (1992). Inalienable possessions: The para-
of Germanic neopaganism. Leiden, Netherlands: dox of keeping-while-giving. Berkeley: University of
Brill. California Press.
Wall, E. (2016, December 8). Standing Rock pipeline pro- Welz, G. (2003). The cultural swirl: Anthropological per-
test leads to enhanced anthropology teaching and spectives on innovation. Global Networks, 3, 255–270.
activist research at Appalachian State University. Wenzel, G. W. (2009). Canadian Inuit subsistence and
Appalachian Magazine. Retrieved from http://appala ecological instability—If the climate changes, must
chianmagazine.org/stories/id/691 the Inuit? Polar Research, 28, 89–99.
References 419
Westermarck, E. (1894). The history of human marriage. Wilks, I. (1993). Forests of gold: Essays on the Akan and the
London, England: Macmillan. Kingdom of Asante. Athens: Ohio University Press.
What full employment really means. (2017, January 29). Williams, J. (2016). Textbooks are the education ground
The Economist. Retrieved from https://www.econo zero of America’s culture wars. Takepart. Retrieved
mist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/01/29/what from http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/11/29/text
-full-employment-really-means books-education-ground-zero-americas-culture-wars/
White, B. (1980). Rural household studies in anthropo- Williams, T. (1984). Howard Florey: Penicillin and after.
logical perspective. In H. Binswanger, R. Evenson, C. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Florencio, & B. White (Eds.), Rural household studies Williams, V. J. Jr. (1996). Rethinking race: Franz Boas and
in Asia (pp. 3–25). Singapore: Singapore University his contemporaries. Lexington: University Press of
Press. Kentucky.
White, J. B. (1994). Money makes us relatives. Austin: Wilson, T. D. (2003). Is semi-informalized self-
University of Texas Press. employment counterhegemonic? A comparison
Whitehead, H. (1981). The bow and the burden strap: A of Irish jarveys and Mexicali brickmakers. Urban
new look at institutionalized homosexuality in native Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and
North America. In S. B. Ortner & H. Whitehead World Economic Development, 32, 281–310.
(Eds.), Sexual meanings: The cultural construction Winn, P. (2010). Slavery and cultural creativity in the
of gender and sexuality (pp. 80–115). Cambridge, IL: Banda Islands. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 41,
Cambridge University Press. 365–389.
Whorf, B. L. (1941). The relation of habitual thought and Witherspoon, D. J., Wooding, S., Rogers, A. R., Marchani,
behavior to language. In L. Spier (Ed.), Language, cul- E. E., Watkins, W. S., Batzer, M. A., & Jorde, L. B.
ture, and personality (pp. 75–93). Menasha, WI: Sapir (2007). Genetic similarities within and between
Memorial Publication Fund. human populations. Genetics, 176, 351–359.
Wierzbicka, A. (2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The Wolf, E. R. (1982). Europe and the people without history.
semantics of human interaction. New York, NY: Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mouton de Gruyter. Wolff, E. N. (2010). Recent trends in household wealth in
Wikan, U. (1977). Man becomes woman: Transsexualism the United States: Rising debt and the middle class
in Oman as a key to gender roles. Man, 12, 304–319. squeeze—An update to 2007. Levy Economics Institute
Wikan, U. (2008). In honor of Fadime: Murder and shame. of Bard College. Working Paper No. 589. Retrieved
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. from http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_589.pdf
Wildsmith, E., Steward-Streng, N. R., & Manlove, J. (2011). Wolff, E. N. (2017). Has middle-class wealth recovered?
Childbearing outside of marriage: Estimates and trends Paper presented at the ASSA Meetings, LERA Session
in the United States. Child Trends. Retrieved from N3, Dimensions of Wealth Inequality. Retrieved
https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/02/ from https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2018/
Child_Trends-2011_11_01_RB_NonmaritalCB.pdf preliminary/paper/5ZFEEf69
Wilk, R. (Ed.). (2006a). Fast food/slow food: The cultural Wong, B. (1988). Ethnicity and entrepreneurship: The new
economy of the global food system. Lanham, MD: Chinese immigrants in the San Francisco Bay area.
AltaMira Press. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Wilk, R. (2006b). Home cooking in the global village: Wong, E. (2006). The Chinese in Silicon Valley:
Caribbean food from buccaneers to ecotourists. Oxford, Globalization, social networks, and ethnic identity.
England: Berg. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Wilkie, D. S. (1988). Hunters and farmers of the African Wong, E. (2008, November 14). Factories shut, China
forest. In J. S. Denslow & C. Padoch (Eds.), People workers are suffering. New York Times, p. A1.
of the tropical rain forest (pp. 111–126). Berkeley: Woodburn, J. (1968). An introduction to Hadza ecology.
University of California Press. In R. B. Lee & I. DeVore (Eds.), Man the Hunter (pp.
Wilkinson, B. (2017, April 21). Jamaican government apol- 49–55). Chicago, IL: Aldine.
ogizes to Rastafari community. New York Amsterdam Woodburn, J. (1998). Sharing is not a form of exchange:
News. Retrieved from http://amsterdamnews.com/ An analysis of property-sharing in immediate return
news/2017/apr/21/jamaican-government-apologizes- hunter-gatherer societies. In C. M. Hann (Ed.),
rastafari-community/ Property relations: Renewing the anthropological tra-
Wilkinson, B. (2018, March 12). UN official convinced of dition (pp. 48–63). Cambridge, England: Cambridge
Myanmar Rohingya “genocide.” CNN. Retrieved from University Press.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/asia/myanmar- World Bank. (2011). Migration and remittances factbook
rohingya-un-violence-genocide-intl/index.html 2011 (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Wilks, I. (1975). Asante in the nineteenth century: The struc- World Bank. (2012). Statement from Dr. Jim Yong Kim
ture and evolution of a political order. New York, NY: regarding his selection by the World Bank’s executive
Cambridge. directors as 12th president of the World Bank. Retrieved
from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press- Worthman, C. M. (1995). Hormones, sex, and gender.

release/2012/04/16/statement-from-dr-jim-yong-kim In D. William, E. Valentine Daniel, & B. Schieffelin
-regarding-his-selection-by-the-world-banks-execu (Eds.), Annual review of anthropology (Vol. 24, pp.
tive-directors-as-12th-president-of-the-world-bank 593–618). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
World Bank. (2016). Nearly 385 million children living Wright, S. (2008, January 28). Bali murder: The story
in extreme poverty, says joint World Bank group— behind the police inspector’s evil plot to kill his wife
UNICEF study. Washington, DC: Author. after she asked for a divorce. Daily Mail. Retrieved
World Bank (2017). GDP per capita, PPP (current interna- from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
tional $). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/ 508046/Bail-murder-The-story-police-inspectors-
indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD evil-plot-kill-wife-asked-divorce.html
World Bank. (2018a). Data: Arable land (hectares per per- Yan, S. (2017). “Made in China” isn’t so cheap anymore, and
son). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indi- that could spell headache for Beijing. CNBC. Retrieved
cator/AG.LND.ARBL.HA.PC from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/27/chinese-wages-
World Bank. (2018b). Data: Energy use (kg of oil equivalent rise-made-in-china-isnt-so-cheap-anymore.html
per capita). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank Yanagisako, S., & Delaney, C. (Eds.). (1994). Naturalizing
.org/indicator/EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE power: Essays in feminist cultural analysis. New York,
World Bank. (2018c). Data: Fertility rate, total (births per NY: Routledge.
woman). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/ Yang, K., & Victor, C. (2011). Age and loneliness in 25
indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN European nations. Aging and Society, 31, 1368–1388.
World Bank. (2018d). Data: Mobile cellular subscriptions Zeegers, M., van Poppel, F., Vlietinck, R., Spruijt, L., &
(per 100 people). Retrieved from https://data.world- Ostrer, H. (2004). Founder mutations among the
bank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS.P2 Dutch. European Journal of Human Genetics, 12,
World Bank. (2018e). Gross domestic product 2017. 591–600.
Retrieved from http://databank.worldbank.org/data/ Zhou, V. (2016). China has world’s most skewed sex
download/GDP.pdf ratio at birth—again. South China Morning Post.
World Bank (2018f). Population in urban agglomerations of October 27.
more than 1 million (% of total population). Retrieved Zihlman, A. L. (1989). Woman the gatherer: The role of
from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.URB woman in early hominid evolution. In S. Morgen
.MCTY.TL.ZS?view=chart (Ed.), Gender and anthropology: Critical reviews for
World Bank. (2018g). Samoa. Retrieved from https://data research and teaching (pp. 21–40). Washington, DC:
.worldbank.org/country/samoa American Anthropological Association.
World Bank. (2018h). Sex ratio at birth. Retrieved from Zimmer, A. (2017). Prices dip for 2 and 3 bedroom apart-
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.BRTH ments in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Dnainfo.
.MF?locations=CN&view=chart Retrieved from https://www.dnainfo.com/new-
World Health Organization. (2017). 10 facts on polio erad- york /20170209/gowanus/t wo-t hree-bedroom-
ication. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/features/ apartment-nyc-rental-prices/
factfiles/polio/en/ Zoepf, K. (2008, December 22). In booming Gulf, some
Worrall, S. (2017, October 14). Why race is not a thing, Arab women find freedom in the skies. New York
according to genetics. National Geographic. Retrieved Times, p. A1.
from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/ Zumwalt, R. L. (2017). The ground beneath our feet: Franz
genetics-history-race-neanderthal-rutherford/ Boas and his women students. Paper presented at
Worsley, P. M. (1959). Cargo cults. Scientific American, the 2017 Meeting of the American Anthropological
200, 117–128. Association, Washington, D.C.
Index
Note: Page numbers in italic refer to figures and tables.
#MeToo movement, 260–261 anthropologist, use of term, 379

anthropology
abortion, 57, 369 critical issues in, 9–18, 37–43
achieved status, 187, 206 ethical considerations, 43–45
Aciksoz, Salih, 174 in historical perspective, 27–31
Adams, Kathleen, 46, 323–325 specialization in, 3–9
adaptation, 67–71, 78 study of, 15–16, 18–20
affinal kin, 221 techniques, 31–35
Africa, 341, 343–345, 356 Anthropology and Social Theory (Ortner), 386
See also specific countries antistructure, 286, 306
African American Vernacular English (AAVE), 93, 103 Apache, 90
African Americans, 66 Appadurai, Arjun, 384
African Burial Ground, 8 Appalachia, 300
agglutinating languages, 86 Apple, Inc., 366
aging, 249–250 applied anthropology, 7–9, 24
agriculture and agricultural societies Arapesh, 255
overview, 120–122, 129 archaeology, 5, 24
economic systems and, 136–137 arranged marriages, 232–235, 253
gender relations in, 271 art
See also subsistence strategies overview, 309, 329
Agta, 268 context of, 309–310
Ahmadu, Fuambai, 47 cultural identity and, 318–321
Akio, Nakamori, 313 cultural themes and, 313–315
Aldrin, Buzz, 184 functions of, 310–311
alférez, 145 marketing of, 322–326
allophones, 85, 103 and the other, 321–322
Alloula, Malek, 322 politics and, 315–318
Althusser, Louis, 382 symbols and symbolism and, 311–313
ambilineal descent, 218 tourism and, 325–326
American Anthropological Association (AAA) artifacts, 5, 24, 95, 103
Code of Ethics of, 16 Asante, 167–168
Principles of Professional Responsibility, 43 ascribed status, 187, 206
RACE: Are We So Different? project, 197 Asperger’s syndrome, 53–54
statement on humanity and climate change, 126–127 assimilation, 100–101, 201, 206
American beef industry, 123–124 Atahuallpa, 334
American culture, 75–76 Atkinson, Quentin, 82
American Dream, 66–67, 200 Atlas.ti software, 35
Ames, Michal M., 317 Australia, 268, 287–288
Amish, 66 authenticity, 46
Andaman Islanders, The (Radcliffe-Brown), 14 authority, 158, 180
Anders, George, 18, 147 autism, 53–54
Anderson, Benedict, 172 avunculocal residence rules, 247, 253
animatism, 285, 306 Aztecs, 340
anime, 313–314, 329
animism, 279–280, 306 Bagley, Joseph, 5
L’Année Sociologique school, 380 Bakongo, 311
anthropological theory, 56, 78, 379–385 balanced reciprocity, 142, 154
421
Balinese cockfights, 314–315 Buffett, Warren, 150

Ball, John, 281 Bugis, 256
bands and band societies, 161–162, 180 Burkina Faso, 343–345
Bangladesh, 362 burnouts, 91
Barboza, David, 365 Byrne, Bryan, 147
Bartels, Peggielene, 159–160
Barthes, Roland, 382 CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), 123
basic human needs approach, 360–361, 378 call systems, 81, 103
Basso, Keith, 90 Campbell, Elizabeth, 39
Baymen, 140 Cannon, Walter, 295
beef industry, 123–124 capital, 136, 154
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Boo), 367 capitalism, 146–151, 154, 298
Belize, 140–141 CAQDAS (Computer-Assisted Qualitative
Belzoni, Giovanni, 334 Data Analysis Software), 35
Benedict, Ruth, 67, 380, 381 cargo cults, 289–291
Bergé, Pierre, 334 cargo systems, 145, 154
Bété, 343 Carneiro, Robert, 166
bhangra, 327, 329 castes and caste systems, 186–193, 206
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 302 Castillo, Gloria, 191
bifurcation, 221 Castle, Sarah, 282–283
bigmen, 144, 154, 159, 163, 180 Catching Fire (Wrangham), 3
bilateral descent, 210, 218 cell phone use, 88–89
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 133 Chagnon, Napoleon, 46, 165, 383
biological adaptation, 57 Chain, Ernst, 72
biological anthropology, 3, 8, 24 Chávez, Hugo, 173–174
biological birth, 57 Checker, Melissa, 198–199
biological diversity, 11–13 Cheyenne, 163–164
biopsychological equality, 11–13, 24 chichuru, 57
Bird, Rebecca Bleige, 383 chiefdoms, 166–169, 180
birth, 57 child-rearing practices, 56–59, 137
BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), 302 China
Black Elk, 61 elder care in, 250
black markets, 146 female factory workers in, 270
Blanchet-Cohen, Natasha, 241 female sexuality in, 260
blat, 151 Na society, 233–234
blended families, 244–245, 253 negative reciprocity in, 143–144
blending, 72, 82 one-child policy, 369–370
Blumberg, Paul, 189 patrilineages in, 246
Boas, Franz, 28–29, 37, 144, 317, 380 pillage in, 334
body modifications, 318–319 prestige in, 186
Boellstorff, Tom, 267, 383 Choi, Soo Ho, 211
Bolles, Lynn, 267 Chomsky, Noam, 84
Boo, Katherine, 367 Christianity, 262, 291
Boone, Richard, 44 chronemics, 95–96, 103
Borlaug, Norman, 73 citizenship, 177–178
Borofsky, Robert, 65 civilizing missions, 342, 352
Botswana, 250 clans, 211
bound morphemes, 86, 103 Clarke, Mari H., 361
Bourdieu, Pierre, 53, 384 classes and class systems, 186–193, 206
Bourgois, Philippe, 36–37 climate change, 111–112, 126–127
boy insemination, 263 Clinton, Hillary, 74
Branch Davidians, 297 cockfights, 314–315
Brandt, Anthony, 72 code-switching, 93, 103
Brazil, 142, 196–200, 363–365 cognitive anthropology, 55, 61, 78, 382
bribes, 151–152 collaborative anthropology, 39–40, 50
bride service, 242, 253 Collateral kin, 221
bridewealth, 242, 253 Collins, Patricia Hill, 267
Brown v. Board of Education (1954), 29 colonies and colonialism
Bruce, James, 335 anthropologists and, 13–14
Bruchac, Margaret, 335 cargo cults and, 289–291
Index 423
decolonization, 348–349 Boas’s core beliefs on, 29

defined, 352 changes in, 71–75
economics and, 342–348 characteristics of, 20, 54–55
European expansion, 333–339 child-rearing practices in, 56–59
historical overview of, 331–333, 339–342 defined, 24, 54–56
Coming of Age in Samoa (Mead), 59, 381 importance of, 75
communication learned behaviors and, 56–59
changes in, 4, 17 norms and values and, 65–67
defined, 81, 103 phenomenon of, 6
to ensure conformity, 160–161 role of, 59–63
See also human languages sharing, 65–67
communitas, 286, 306 symbols, rituals, and events in, 59–63
comparative linguistics, 98, 103 as a system, 63–65
composite (compound) families, 245–246, 253 understanding of, 55
computer languages, 84 culture and personality theorists, 59, 78, 381
Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis culture shock, 33, 50
Software (CAQDAS), 35
concentrated animal feeding operations Da Costa, Alexandre Emboaba, 200
(CAFOs), 123 dagongmei, 270
conflict resolution, 161–164, 169 Dakota Access Pipeline, 45
conflict theory, 184, 206 Dalits, 188
conformity, 160–161 D’Andrade, Roy, 382
Congo, 345–346 Darwin, Charles, 379
Conklin, Harold, 382 data gathering, 34
consanguineal kin, 221 Davidson, Joanna, 126
consultants, 33, 50 de Tocqueville, Alexis, 303
contact cultures, 95 decolonization, 348–349
contagious magic, 289, 306 deep play, 314–315, 329
conventionality, 81, 103 Deming, David J., 18
core vocabulary, 98, 103 Democratic Republic of Congo, 311, 312
corporations, 176–177 demographic transition, 282–283, 371, 378
Cortés, Hernan, 340 Denov, Myriam, 241
corvée labor, 345, 352 Dentan, Robert, 142
cosmologies, 280, 307 Derrida, Jacques, 382, 384
coups, 160 descent and descent groups
Crapanzano, Vincent, 384 double descent, 217–218
creativity, 72 matrilineal descent groups, 210, 214–217
Crenshaw, Kimberé, 267 patrilineal descent groups, 210, 213–214
creole, 98, 103 rules and formation of, 210–211
Crespin, Pamela, 137 descriptive linguistics, 85, 103
Croatia, 175–176 Descriptive Sociology, 35
Cronk, Lee, 383 di Leonardo, Micaela, 383
cross-cousins, 221 dialects, 91, 92, 104
Cross-Cultural Survey, 35 Díaz del Castillo, Bernal, 333
Crow kinship system, 222, 223 diffusion, 72–73, 78
cultivation, 108, 120–122 Diola, 126
cultural anthropology disease, 7–8, 60–61, 340, 356, 357
overview, 6–7 displacement, 80–81, 104
defined, 24 distribution within economic systems, 139–146
goal of, 1 divination, 291–292, 307
cultural bereavement, 368 division of labor, 133, 137–138, 154
cultural ecology, 55, 381 Dogon, 10
cultural homogenization, 73–74, 98–99 domestication, 108
cultural identity, 318–321 Domhoff, G. William, 148
cultural relativism, 10–11, 24, 29, 50, 380 dominant cultures, 65–66
cultural resource management (CRM), 5, 24 See also culture
cultural themes, 313–315 double descent, 217–218
culture Douglas, Mary, 383
overview, 53–54 Downs, James F., 32
as an adaptation, 67–71 dowry, 243, 253
Drokba, 135 ethnobotany, 61

drug use, 36–37, 299–302 ethnocentrism, 9–10, 24, 29, 50
duality of patterning, 82 ethnography
DuBois, Cora, 67, 381 overview, 6–7
Duchesne, Ernest, 72 defined, 24, 27, 50
Duhigg, Charles, 365 new roles for, 45–46
Durkheim, Émile, 287–288, 379–380 ethnology, 6, 24, 35, 50
Dutch East India Company, 337–339, 352 ethnomedicine, 61
ethnoscience, 55, 61, 78, 382
Eagleman, David, 72 etic ethnography, 6, 24, 33, 50
eating European expansion, 333–339
learned behaviors about, 56, 63–64 Evans-Pritchard, E. E., 380
local cuisine, 141 evolutionary theory, 381
eBay, 146 evolutionism, 28–29, 379
Ebonics, 93, 103 Ewing, Katherine, 261
Eck, Diana, 303 exogamy, 211, 236, 253
ecological functionalism, 381 extended families, 246–248, 253
ecological functionalists, 63, 78
ecological materialism, 55 facial expressions, 96
economic system, 71 facial scars, 319
economic systems Fadiman, Anne, 60–61
overview, 131–133, 154 failure, 67
black markets, 146 faith healing, 300
capitalism, 146–151 false consciousness, 186
distribution and, 139–146 families
labor organization and, 137–139 functions of, 231–232
market exchange, 146 globalization and, 248–249
reciprocity, 139–144 kinds of, 243–248
redistribution, 144–145 refugees and, 241
resource allocation and, 133–137 See also marriage
economics, 154 family farms, 125
economizing behavior, 132, 154 Farmer, Paul, 361
education, 133–134, 172–173, 346–347 farming, 108, 120–122
efficiency, 110, 129 female genital operations (FGOs), 47
egalitarian societies, 157, 180 female infanticide, 165–166
Egypt, 121–122, 235 female sexuality, 260–266
Eisenruch, Maurice, 368 feminist anthropology, 37–38, 383
elder care, 249–250 fertility, 282–283, 369–371
Elgin Marbles, 335–336 fieldwork, 31, 50
Elizabeth I (queen of England), 171 financial help, 88–89
Elizabeth II (queen of England), 141, 168 firms, 138, 154
emic ethnography, 6, 24, 33, 50 First Contact (Connolly & Anderson), 21
enculturation, 58–59, 78, 160 Firth, Raymond, 380
endogamy, 237, 253 Fleming, Alexander, 71–72
Enga, 135 Florey, Howard, 72
engaged anthropology, 39–40, 50 food
Engels, Friedrich, 185, 379 learned behaviors about, 56, 63–64
Enlightenment, 347 local cuisine, 141
environment See also subsistence strategies
challenges and, 371–374 football, 62–63, 73, 288
climate change and, 111–112, 126–127 foraging and foraging societies
subsistence strategies and, 107–109 overview, 110–114, 129
Erdogan, Recep Tayyip, 173–174 art in, 310
Erzen, Tanya, 383 economic systems and, 134–135
Eskimo kinship system, 222 environment and, 108
ethnicity gender relations in, 268
defined, 180 See also subsistence strategies
language and, 91 forced labor, 345–346
nation–states and, 173–176 forensic anthropologists, 8, 9
social stratification and, 200–203 forensic linguistics, 92
Index 425
Forte, Maximilian, 45 global warming, 111–112, 126–127, 372–373

Fortes, Meyer, 380 globalization
Foster, Donald, 92 overview, 14–15, 55
Foucault, Michel, 265–266, 384 anthropology and, 384
Fox, Robin, 383 effects of, 357–358
Foxconn, 365–366 families and, 248–249
Francis (pope), 158 gender and, 271–273
Frankl, Viktor, 279 human rights and, 46
fraternal polyandry, 240, 253 industrialism and, 125
free morphemes, 86, 104 language and, 97–98
Freud, Sigmund, 379 nationalism and, 350
Freyre, Gilberto, 198 nation–states and, 176–177
Fried, Morton, 381 social stratification and, 202–203
Friedl, Ernestine, 267 Stone Age cultures vs., 21–22
Friedman, Jonathan, 384 world music and, 326–327
Friedman, Kajsa Ekholm, 384 glossolalia, 300
Fulani, 282–283 glottochronology, 98, 104
functionalists and functionalism, 55, 63–64, 78, GM (General Motors), 147–148
183–184, 206–207, 380 Gmelch, George, 281
fundamentalism, 302–303 Godelier, Maurice, 381
The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, 302 gods, 285, 307
Furstenberg, Frank, 245 Godzilla, 313
Gomberg-Munoz, Ruth, 385–386
Galdikas, Birute, 3, 4 Goodall, Jane, 3
Galman, Sally, 174 Goodenough, Ward, 382
Gandhi, Mahatma, 186 Goodman, Alan, 197
ganja, 299 Gordon, Danny, 111
Gardner, Gerald, 296 Gordon, Peter, 94
Gates, Bill, 133 gossip, 160
Geertz, Clifford, 61–62, 96, 314–315, 383 Gough, Kathleen, 214
gender governments, 170, 181
anthropology and, 383 Graham, Laura R., 46–47
classification, 86, 104 Grandin, Temple, 53–54
cultural construction of, 256–257 Grant, Madison, 201
defined, 256, 276 gray zones, 36
division of labor and, 137 Great Vowel Shift, 96–97
globalization and, 271–273 green revolution, 73
kinship and kinship systems and, 221 Greenhalgh, Susan, 369
populism and, 174 Griaule, Marcel, 348
relations, 268–271 “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage” (Rosaldo), 38
theories of, 266–268 Guatemala, 173
understanding of, 55 Gupta, Akhil, 384
variability in, 262 Gwich’in, 112
gender hierarchy, 260, 276
gender ideology, 257–260, 276 habitus, 53, 78, 384
gender issues, multinational corporations Haddon, Alfred Cort, 29
(MNCs) effect on, 367 Hadza, 132, 134
gender roles, 256, 276, 321–322 Haile Selassie I (emperor of Ethiopia), 298–299
General Motors (GM), 147–148 Hall, Edward, 95–96
generalized reciprocity, 139–142, 154 Hamilton, James, 68–70
generations, 221 Hamilton, W. D., 383
Georgia, 198–199 handshakes, 95
Ghana, 167–168 Hannerz, Ulf, 368, 384
Ghost Dance, 300–301, 307 haptics, 95, 104
ghost marriages, 238 Harris, Marvin, 63, 381
Giddens, Anthony, 384 Hatfill, Steven, 92
gifts, 142, 151–152 Hawaiian kinship system, 221–222, 235
Gilbert, Dan, 148 headhunting, 38
Gilbert, Matthew, 112–113 Heeren XVII, 337–338, 353
gimwali, 143 hegemony, 159, 181
Hello Kitty, 313 illness, 7–8, 60–61

henna parties, 319 imitative magic, 289, 307
Henricks, Thomas, 59 immigrants, 101, 201–204
Herdt, Gilbert, 263 In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Bourgois), 36–37
Herodotus, 83 incest taboos, 235–236, 253
Hertz, Robert, 380 income inequality, 190–191, 358–360
Hewett, Edgar Lee, 322–323 See also wealth
hijab, 261 India
hijras, 262–265, 276 art in, 312
Hinduism, 262 castes and caste systems in, 187–188
Hindus, 63–64, 174, 312 dowry in, 243
Hinshiranan, Narumon, 39 Dutch East India Company, 337–339, 352
historical linguists, 4, 24 fraternal polyandry and, 240
HIV/AIDS, 7 fundamentalism in, 302
Hockett, Charles, 82 hijras, 262–265, 276
Hodal, Kate, 369 Holi, 287
Hodžic, Saida, 47 kinship and kinship systems in, 219, 220
Hoffman, Danny, 15 pillage and, 334–335
Holi, 287 urbanization in, 367, 368
holistic approach, 2, 24 wealth in, 371
Home Cooking in the Global Village (Wilk), 140 indigenous peoples, 8, 24, 374–375, 378
homelessness, 39–40 Indonesia, 215–217, 242, 256, 323–325
Homo sapiens, 82 industrialism, 122–125, 129, 139
homogenization, 73–74, 98–99 industrialization, 108–109
Hopi, 94, 247–248, 283–284 infanticide, 165–166
Horst, Heather, 88–89 informal interviews, 34
horticulture, 118–120, 135–136 informants, 33–34, 50
See also subsistence strategies informed consent, 43, 50
horticulture and horticultural societies, 268–269 Ingrasci, Ombretta, 238
households, 137–138, 154 inheritance, 210
Howell, Leonard, 298 Inis Beag, 266
HRAF (Human Relations Area Files), 35, 50, 381 innovation, 309–310
HTS (Human Terrain Systems), 44–45 innovations, 71–75, 78
hubris, 20 institutional review boards (IRBs), 32, 50
human languages interlocutors, 33, 50
acquisition of, 82–84 International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), 85, 104
changes in, 96–100 Internet access, 74
characteristics of, 81 interpretive anthropology, 62, 78, 383
common, 99 intersectionality, 267, 276
culture and, 87–95 interview techniques, 34
globalization and, 97–98 Inuit
Great Vowel Shift, 96–97 art and, 309
origins of, 82–84 child-rearing practices of, 58–59
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, 93–95, 104 generalized reciprocity of, 142
structure of, 85–87 political organization of, 161
understanding, 4–5 subsistence strategies of, 111–113
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), 35, 50, 381 supernatural and, 285
human rights, 46–47 inventions, 72
human status, 57 IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), 85, 104
Human Terrain Systems (HTS), 44–45 IRBs (institutional review boards), 32, 50
human variation, 3, 24 Iroquois, 222, 223, 268, 335
Hungary, 174 irrigation, 120
hunting and gathering. See foraging and foraging societies ISIS, 74, 160, 302
Hurricane Katrina, 195–196 Ivy League schools, 134
Ibo, 135 Jamaica, 88–89

idiomatic expressions, 92 James, LeBron, 148
Igbo, 159, 262 James I (king of England), 281
Igoe, Jim, 361 Japan, 313–314
Index 427
Jarawas, 15–16 Labov, William, 93

jobs, 64 Lacan, Jacques, 382
jocks, 91 Lacandon Maya, 136
John Frum movement, 290–291 Lai Xiaodong, 365–366
joint stock companies, 337, 353 Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 379
jokes, 90 Lamphere, Louise, 267, 383
Jones, Caroline, 243 language. See human languages
Jones, Charisse, 93 L’Année Sociologique school, 380
Jones, Delmos, 42–43 Lassiter, Eric, 39
Jones, Jim, 297 law, 161, 171, 181
Joubert, Jules, 72 lawns, 69–70
Ju/’hoansi, 134, 142, 250, 268 Leacock, Eleanor, 267
leadership, 159, 181
Kaguru, 239 Leap, William, 383
Kahlo, Frida, 319–320 learned behaviors, 56–59
Kahn, Hillary, 17 ledger drawings, 318, 329
Kaluli, 84 Lee, Dorothy, 59
Kanté, Mory, 326 Lee, Lia, 60–61
Kardiner, Abram, 381 Lee, Richard, 113–114
kava circle, 164 Lego, 147
kawaii, 313–314 leisure time, 132
Keenan-Devlin, Lauren Slubowski, 7–8 Leopold II (king of Belgium), 345–346
Keller, Albert, 35 Lese, 110
Kelley, Robin D. G., 197 leveling mechanisms, 145, 155
Kenny, Mary, 363–364 levirate, 238, 253
Kenyatta, Jomo, 40 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 61, 236, 382
key informants, 33 Lewin, Ellen, 383
Kim, Jim Yong, 361 lexicon, 87, 104
kindred, 218 life chances, 195, 207
kinesics, 96, 104 liminal states and statuses, 286–287, 307
Kingsley, Charles, 193 Lindsay, Robert, 83
kinship and kinship systems Lindstrom, Lamont, 291
overview, 209–211 lineages, 211
bilateral descent, 210 See also descent and descent groups
classification of, 218–221 lineal kin, 221
double descent, 217–218 linguistic anthropology, 4–5, 24
kinship terminology, 219 linking up, 88
matrilineal descent groups, 210, 214–217 Linton, Ralph, 65
nonunilineal descent groups, 218 Lister, Joseph, 72
patrilineal descent groups, 210, 213–214 living fossils, 28
types of, 221–224 Lowie, Robert H., 67, 211, 380
unilineal descent groups, 211–218 Lua,’ 118–120
Kiowa people, 39 Lugard, Frederick, 342
Kipsigis, 242–243 Lyon-Callo, Vincent, 39–40
Kleinman, Arthur, 60 Lyotard, Jean-François, 384
Kluckhohn, Clyde, 143
Kluckhohn, Clyde and Florence, 76 Maasai, 114–116, 162–163
Korea, 211–212 Machu Picchu, 170
Koresh, David, 297 Madsbjerg, Christian, 147
Korkman, Zeynep, 174 magic, 281, 289–291, 307
Kouyate, Bassekou, 85 Malaysia, 142
Kovats-Bernat, J. Christopher, 15–16 Mali, 131, 282–283, 373
Kroeber, A. L., 67, 380 Malinowski, Bronislaw
kula ring, 143, 155 biographical sketch of, 29–30
Kumar, Manoj, 186 on sacred narratives, 283
Kwaymullina, Ambelin, 107 work of, 63, 143, 380
mana, 169, 285–286, 307
labor organization within economic systems, 137–139 manahune, 169
labor strikes, 64–65 Mandarin Chinese, 86
manga, 313–314, 329 Modernity at Large (Appadurai), 384

Mangaia, 266 modernization theory, 356, 378
Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (Montague), 195 modest dress, 261
Mantineia, Diotima, 296 Mogahed, Dalia, 261
Marett, R. R., 285 moka, 145
market exchange, 146, 155 Moken, 39
marriage Mondragón, Agnes, 174
in China, 370 Mongolia, 143–144
defined, 253 monochronic time (M-time), 96
exchange of goods and rights in, 240–243 monoculture plantations, 337, 353
functions of, 231–232 monogamy, 238, 253
monogamy, 238 monotheistic religion, 285, 307
polyandry, 238, 240 Montagu, Ashley, 380
polygyny, 238–240 Montague, Ashley, 195
rules, 232–238 Moore, Charles, 372
See also families Morgan, Lewis Henry, 27–28, 379
Marshal, Donald, 265–266 Morgan, Marcyliena, 93
Martinez, Maria, 322–323 Morocco, 348
Marx, Karl, 64, 185–186, 379 morphemes, 86, 104
Mason, Otis, 317 morphology, 85–86, 104
matrilineages, 211, 247–248 Moses, Yolanda, 197
matrilineal descent groups, 210, 214–217 Mozambique, 345
matrilineal societies, 165 Mudde, Cas, 173
matrilocal rules of reside, 214, 247, 253 multinational corporations (MNCs), 360–367, 378
Mauss, Marcel, 139, 380 Murakami, Takashi, 313–314
MAXQDA software, 35 Murdock, George Peter, 20, 35, 238, 381
Maya, 136, 294, 295 museums, 316–317, 334–336
Mbuti, 110, 162 Musha, 121–122
McDonald’s, 176–177, 366 Muslims
McDonnell, Bob, 152 elder care and, 250
McGranahan, Carole, 241 ethnicity and, 174–175
McWhorter, John, 95 fundamentalism and, 302
Mead, Margaret, 37, 59, 236, 255, 381 immigration and, 202
meaning, search for, 280–281 modest dress and, 261
meat, 123–124 Rohingya Muslims, 177–178
media, 366 Tuareg, 269
mediation, 164, 181 mwali, 143
medical anthropology, 7–8, 35 Myerhoff, Barbara, 40–42
Meillassoux, Claude, 381 myths, 282–284, 307
Melanesia, 163
Melanesian society, 289–291 Na society, 233–234
Melgen, Salomon, 152 nacirema culture, 41–42
Mende, 159 Nader, Laura, 47
Menendez, Bob, 152 Namibia, 268
Mercer, Robert, 159 Nash, Manning, 145
Messenger, John, 265–266 Nassar, Larry, 260
messianic religions, 297, 307 national identity, 100–101
Messina, Maria, 319 nationalism, globalization and, 350
#MeToo movement, 260–261 nation–states, 171–177, 181
Mexico, 136, 340 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
migration, 359–360 Act (NAGPRA) (1990), 317, 335
military, 44–45 Native American Languages Act (1990), 101
military coups, 160 native anthropologists, 40–42, 50
millenarian religions, 297, 307 nativistic movements, 297, 307
Miller, Daniel, 88–89 Navajo, 137
Minangkabau, 215–217 Navajo, The (Downs), 32
Miner, Horace, 42 Ndembu, 62
misinformation, 71 negative reciprocity, 143–144, 155
MNCs (multinational corporations), 360–367, 378 neo-evolutionism, 55, 381
Index 429
Neolithic revolution, 108 Pasteur, Louis, 72

neolocal residence, 244, 253 pastoralism, 114–117, 129, 135, 269
neo-Marxism, 64, 78, 381–382 See also subsistence strategies
neopagans, 296–297, 307 Patil, Sushil, 188
A New Religious America (Eck), 303 patrilineages, 211, 246
Nigeria, 135, 159, 217–218, 262 patrilineal descent groups, 210, 213–214
Nina Plantation, 5 patrilocal rules of residence, 214, 246, 253
nomadic pastoralism, 114–117, 129 patterning, 82
noncontact cultures, 95 Patterns of Culture (Benedict), 381
nonunilineal descent groups, 218 Peacock, James, 45
nonverbal communication, 95–96, 103 peak farmland, 122
Nootka, 166–168 peasants, 120, 129
norms and values, 65, 78 penicillin, 71–72
Norway, 374–375 People’s Temple, 297
nuclear families, 244–245, 253 personal communicative space, 96
Nuer, 213, 232, 347 peyote, 300–301
Nuremberg Laws, 178 pharmacopoeia, 293, 307
NVivo software, 35 Philippines, 268
Phillips, Wendy, 33
Obama, Barack, 21 phoneme, 85, 104
Obeyesekere, Gananath, 384 phones, 85, 104
occupational specialization, 138–139 phonology, 85–86, 104
Occupy Wall Street movement, 151 physical anthropology, 3, 24
Ochs, Elinor, 84 pidgin, 98, 104
O’Conner, Mary, 145 pillage, 334, 353
Odalisque (Renoir), 322 Ping Chong, 203–204
Ogbu, John, 196 Pinker, Steven, 83
Ojibwa, 163 Pintupi, 110, 113–114
old age, 249–250 Pitts, Leonard, 19
Olmstead, Frederick Law, 69 Pizarro, Francisco, 334
Omaha kinship system, 222, 223 plasticity, 70–71, 78
Orang Rimba, 242 Play and the Human Condition (Henricks), 59
organic analogy, 63, 78 Plunkett, Roy, 71
orichas, 300 Polese, Abel, 151–152
Orientalism, 321–322, 329 political ideology, 158–159, 181
originality, 309–310 political organization
Orion, Loretta, 296 overview, 157, 181
Ortner, Sherry, 383, 386 nation–states, 171–177
Ota Benga, 12 power and, 158–161
otaku, 313 social differentiation, 157–158
Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, 168 types of, 161–171
Overbey, Mary Margaret, 197 politics
art and, 315–318
Pacaa Nova, 142 processes of, 160
Padmore, George, 298 speeches and, 90–91
paganism, 296–297 pollution, 371–373
Page, Tim, 54 polyandry, 238, 240, 253
Pal, Ovinda, 188 polychronic time (P-time), 96
paleoanthropologists, 3, 24 polygamy, 238, 253
Paleolithic cave art, 310–311 polygyny, 238–240, 253
Papua New Guinea polytheistic religion, 285, 307
bigmen, 159, 163 population density, 109–110, 120, 129
kula ring, 143 population growth, 282–283, 368–371
resource allocation in, 135 populism, 173–174
sexuality in, 263–265 positioning, 38, 50
use of magic in, 289 postmodernism, 38–39, 50, 55, 384
parallel cousins, 221 potlatch, 144–145, 155
participant observation, 6, 24, 29–30, 50 poverty, 358–360, 373
particularism, 55, 380 See also wealth
Powell, Dana, 45 revolutions, 160, 181

power, 158, 181, 185–186, 315–316 rice cultivation, 126
See also colonies and colonialism Richards, Audrey, 380
practice theory, 55, 385–386 Righteous Dopefiend (Bourgois), 36–37
prayers, 281, 288, 307 rites of intensification, 287–288, 307
preferential marriages, 237–238 rites of passage, 287, 307
prehistoric societies, 5, 24 rituals, 57, 286–292, 307, 310
prestige, 132–133, 142, 185–186 Ritzer, George, 366
Price, David, 44 Rivera, Diego, 319
Price, George, 141 Rohingya Muslims, 177–178
priests, 294, 307 romantic love, 272–273
primates, 3, 24 Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, 383
private/public dichotomy, 267, 276 Rosaldo, Renato, 38, 384
productive resources, 133, 155 Rostow, W. W., 356
productivity, 81, 104, 110, 129 RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), 302
Project Camelot, 43–44 rugby, 73
proxemics, 96, 104 rural areas, 123–124
Psammetichus, 83
P-time (polychronic time), 96 Saami, 374–375
Pueblo pottery, 322–323 Sacks, Oliver, 53–54
Pun Ngai, 270 sacred narratives, 282–284, 307
Putin, Vladimir, 173–174 sacrifices, 57, 288–289, 307
Sahlins, Marshall, 381
Quinn, Naomi, 382 Sanday, Peggy Reeves, 26, 267
Qutb, Sayyid, 302 Sande, 159
Santeria, 300
ra’atira, 169 Sapir, Edward, 100, 380
race Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, 93–95, 104
biological diversity and, 11–13 Saraiya, Rajesh, 188
language and, 91, 93 scapulomancy, 291
social stratification and, 193–200 scarcity, 132
RACE: Are We So Different? project, 197 scarification, 319
racism, 10, 24, 29 Scheper-Hughes, Nancy, 57
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., 14, 63, 380 Schieffelin, Bambi, 84
radicalism, 126 Schlatter, James, 71
Radin, Paul, 67, 380 Scholder, Fritz, 320–321
rank societies, 157–158, 181 Schonberg, Jeff, 36–37
rape, 260 Schwartz, Stephen, 174
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), 302 Scott, Elizabeth, 5
Rasmussen, Mikkel, 147 Seeing and Being Seen: The Q’eqchi’ Maya of Livingston,
Rastafarianism, 298–300 Guatemala, and Beyond (Kahn), 17
Reagan, Ronald, 90–91 segmentary lineage systems, 213
rebellions, 160, 181 Seligman, Charles, 29
reciprocity, 139–144, 155 Semai, 142
redistribution, 144–145, 155 semantics, 85, 87, 104
refugees, 241 semiotics, 87, 104
relative age, 221 semistructured interviews, 34
religion Service, Elman, 381
overview, 279–280, 307 sex, 256, 267
change and, 297–303 Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
characteristics of, 282–286 (Mead), 381
fertility and, 282–283 sexuality, 62, 256, 260–266
practitioners, 292–297 shamans, 292–294, 307
rituals, 286–292 Sharkey, Patrick, 195
role of, 280–281 Sheehan, John, 72
renewable power sources, 373 Shorter-Gooden, Kumea, 93
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste, 322 Shuy, Roger, 92
resource allocation within economic systems, 133–137 side effects, 94
respondents, 33, 50 Sierra Leone, 159
Index 431
signs, 87, 104 structural anthropology, 55, 61, 78–79, 382

Silk Road, 146 structural linguistics, 85, 103
Sinclair, Upton, 124 structured interviews, 34
Singer, Merrill, 7 subcultures, 65–66, 79, 193, 263–265
Singh, Jyoti, 260 See also culture
Skidmore, Monique, 15 subsistence strategies
slash-and-burn cultivation, 118, 129 overview, 109–110
Slat, Boyan, 373 agriculture, 120–122, 129, 136–137
slavery, 336–337 defined, 107, 129
Sloterdijk, Peter, 174 environment and, 107–109
smallpox, 340 foraging, 108, 110–114, 129, 134–135
smiling, 96 horticulture, 118–120, 135–136
Smith, Neil, 195–196 pastoralism, 114–117, 129, 135
snake handling, 300 See also food
social birth, 57 substance abuse and addiction, 36–37
social class, language and, 91–92 success, 67
social differentiation, 157–158, 171 succession, 210
social evolutionary theory, 379 Sudan, 213
social mobility, 189, 207 Sudanese kinship system, 222–223, 224
social networks, 151–152 Sulkin, Carlos D. Londoño, 47
social order, 281 Sumara, 242
social stratification Sumatra, 215–217
class and caste in, 186–193 Sumner, William Graham, 35
defined, 207 sumptuary laws, 171, 181
ethnicity and, 200–203 supernatural, 284–286
gender and, 266–268 See also rituals
perspectives on, 183–186 supernatural forces, 161
race and, 193–200 sweatshops, 360–365, 378
societies, 6, 24 swidden (slash-and-burn) cultivation, 118, 129
sociobiology, 55, 382–383 symbolic anthropology, 383
sociolinguistics, 90–91, 104 symbols and symbolism
sociology, 379–380 art and, 311–313
song duels, 162 defined, 54, 79
sorcerers and sorcery, 295–297, 307 language and, 80–81
sororal polygyny, 239, 253 use of, 62, 284
sororate, 238, 253 syncretism, 300, 307
soulava, 143 syndemics, 7–8
South Sulawesi, 256 syntax, 85–97, 104
speaking in tongues, 300 synthetic languages, 86
specialization, occupational, 138–139
speech. See human languages taboos, 161, 169
speech community, 83, 104 Tanzania, 132, 134
Spencer, Herbert, 35, 379 tattoos, 319
Spencer, Percy LeBaron, 71 taxation, 346
spirit children, 57 Tchambuli, 255
spirits, 284–286 technology and technology companies, 73–74, 88–89, 97,
Spradley, James, 39, 382 146–147
Sprit Catches You and You Fall Down, The (Fadiman), 60 Tecún Umán, 173
Squires, Susan, 147 textbooks, 172–173
Standard Spoken American English (SSAE), 85, 93, 104 Thailand, 68–70, 118–120
Standing Rock Sioux, 45 “That ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech’s
Star Scientific, 152 Hottest Ticket” (Anders), 18
statelessness, 177–178 Tibet, 135
states and state societies, 169–171, 181 Tiger, Lionel, 383
Steward, Julian, 381 Timmer, Andria, 174
Stone Age cultures, 21–22, 71 Tirailleurs Sénégalais, 344–345, 353
stories, 282–284 Tito, Josip, 175
stratified societies, 158, 181 Tiwi, 239–240, 268
structural adjustment, 356, 378 Tlingit, 268
Toda, 240 vision quests, 292, 293, 307

Tonga, 164 vitalism, 297, 307
Toraja, 46, 323–325 vocabulary, 93, 97–98
totems and totemism, 287–288, 307
touching, 95 Wardlow, Holly, 385–386
tourism, 325–326 warfare, 161–162, 164–165
transculturation, 74, 79 Warms, Rich, 343–345
transhumant pastoralism, 114, 117, 129 wealth
transmigrants, 224–225 capitalism and, 150
transnationalism, 224–225 cargo cults and, 289–291
tribes and tribal societies, 162–166, 181 colonialism and, 342–348
tricksters, 285, 286, 307, 317 defined, 207
Trivers, Robert, 383 environmental challenges and, 371
Trobriand Islands, 29–30, 161, 263 gender and, 271–273
Truitt, Allison, 33 social stratification and, 185–186
Trump, Donald transculturation and, 74
election of, 21–22, 74 in the United States, 190–192
immigration and, 202 See also poverty
politcal appointments by, 159 Weber, Max, 64, 186, 380
populism and, 173–174 Weddell, Sandra and Garry, 92
racism and, 195 Weinstein, Harvey, 260
Tuareg, 269 Welz, Gisela, 368
Tudjman, Franjo, 175 Western Apache, 90
Turkey, 148–150, 160 White, Leslie, 381
Turner, Victor, 286–287, 383 Whorf, Benjamin Lee, 94
Tutankhamun, 5 Wiccans, 296–297, 307
two-spirit, 262, 267 Wilding, Faith, 47
Tylor, E. B., 376 Wilk, Richard, 140
Tylor, Edward Burnett, 27–28, 54, 379 Williams, Jonnie, 152
Tyndale, John, 72 Wilson, E. O., 383
Winthrop, John, 340
Udvardy, Monica L., 335 witches and witchcraft, 160, 295–297, 307
Ukraine, 151–152 Wodaabe, 235
Ulbricht, Ross, 146 Wodziwab, 300–301
uncontacted groups, 21–22 Wolf, Eric, 381–382
unilineal descent groups, 211–218 Wolff, Edward N., 190
United States women’s rights, 273–274
changing families in, 244–245 words, 86, 104
class in, 189–193 world art, 322, 329
ethnicity in, 200–202 World Bank, 358, 378
race in, 194–196 world music, 326–327, 329
wealth in, 190–192 World of Babies, A (DeLoache & Gottlieb), 59
universal grammar, 84, 104 Wounded Knee, 300–301
universal human rights, 46–47 Wovoka, 300–301
unstructured interviews, 34 Wrangham, Richard, 3
Upper Volta, 343–345
urban archaeology, 5 Yako, 217–218
urbanization, 367–368 Yanomamö, 46, 165–166, 242, 268
U.S. Department of Labor, 139 Yarahmadzai, 116–117
U.S. military, 44–45 Yoko, Madam, 159
user experience (UX), 147 Yoruba, 159, 239
usufruct rights, 137, 155 You Owe Yourself a Drunk (Spradley), 39
Yugoslavia, 175
values and norms, 65, 79
van de Walle, Etienne, 282 Zillow, 189

Untitled Notebook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Untitled Notebook

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Untitled Notebook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Students:

• Study your way with mobile-friendly FLASHCARDS and QUIZZES

• Watch VIDEOS that illustrate key chapter concepts in action.

• Access influential RESEARCH IN YOUR FIELD via selected

• SAGE Premium Video EXCLUSIVELY CURATED FOR THIS TEXT

SAGE ANTHROPOLOGY is committed to providing current and relevant content,

• As a STUDENT-FRIENDLY PUBLISHER, we keep our prices affordable and

Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne

SAGE Publications, Inc.

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

PART I • INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

PART II • EQUALITIES AND INEQUALITIES

PART III • FAMILIES IN SOCIETY

PART IV • SYMBOLS AND MEANINGS

PART V • CULTURE CHANGE

Appendix • A Brief Historical Guide to Anthropological

PART I • INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Chapter 2 • Doing Cultural Anthropology 27

Anthropology in Historical Perspective 27

Chapter 3 • The Idea of Culture 53

Origins and Acquisition of Human Language 82

Human Adaptation and the Environment 107

Chapter 6 • Economics 131

Economic Behavior 132

Social Differentiation 157

Chapter 8 • Stratification 183

Explaining Social Stratification 183

Stratification and Ethnicity 200

PART III • FAMILIES IN SOCIETY

Kinship: Relationships Through Descent and Marriage 209

Chapter 10 • Marriage, Family, and Domestic Groups 231

Functions of Marriage and the Family 231

Chapter 11 • Gender 255

Sex, Sexuality, and Gender 256

PART IV • SYMBOLS AND MEANINGS

What Religion Does in Society 280

Chapter 13 • Creative Expression 309

Art in Its Cultural Context 309

PART V: • CULTURE CHANGE

European Expansion: Motives and Methods 333

Chapter 15 • Culture, Change, and the Modern World 355

The Changing Political and Economic Environment 357

Appendix • A Brief Historical Guide to

Serena Nanda is professor emer- Richard L. Warms is profes-

In other academic disciplines, human behavior is usually studied primarily from

Anthropologists bring a holistic approach to understanding and explaining. To say

P Photo B ERN K E LER

Specialization in Anthropology variation map physiological differences among modern

anthropologists want to understand the variation among lan-

people generally talk about the people, places, and objects

Understanding language is also a critical task for

Gordon Wiltsie National Geographic aga ine Getty Images

Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is a complex field with many

oment Getty Images

Anthropology Makes a Difference

social dynamics that underlie culture. This promotes

lems of poverty, education, war, and peace. We don’t

way. The deaf person would think the people jumping

argaret Bour e White Contri utor Getty Images