Anthropology Notes: 492 Pages Karl Widerquist
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Georgetown University From the SelectedWorks of Karl Widerquist 2019 Anthropology Notes: 492 pages Karl Widerquist Available at: https://works.bepress.com/widerquist/100/ Four-hundred and Ninety-two pages of anthropology notes Accumulated by Karl Widerquist ([email protected]) Abstract Here are 492 pages of notes, mostly in anthropology, some in history and other disciplines. I accumulated them in the process of researching two books (Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy and the Prehistory of Private Property), both of which use(d) sources from anthropology and other disciplines to criticize empirical claims philosophers and political theorists often accept without sufficient skepticism. These notes are not a broad-based coverage of the discipline as a whole; they involve only information relevant to the claims addressed in those books. I’m posting them publicly (in both DOCX and PDF formats) in case anyone doing related work will benefit from them in any way. I hope some people find these notes to be a useful aid for their own research. NOTE: The coauthor of those two books, Grant S. McCall keeps his own notes separately. Any problems with these notes are my fault alone. Asad, Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter Asad, Talal (ed.) Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. New York, Humanities Press, 1973 Qatar Stacks GN17 .A57 1973 Talal Asas, “Introduction,” pp. 9-19 14: “It is not a matter of dispute that social anthropoloty emerged as a distinctive discipline at the beginning of the colonial era, that it [15] became a flourishing academic profession towards its close, or that throughout this period its efforts were devoted to a description and analysis—carried out by Europeans, for a European audience—of non- European societies dominated by European power. And yet there is a strange reluctance on the part of most professional anthropologists to consider seriously the power structure within which their discipline has taken shape.” 17: “We must begin from the fact that the basic reality which made pre-war social anthropology a feasible and effective enterprise was the power relationship between dominating (European) and dmoninated (non-European) cultures. We then need to ask ourselves how this relationship has affected the practical pre-conditions of social anthropology; the uses to which its knowledge was put; the theoretical threatment of particular topics; the mode of perceived and objectifying alien societies; and the anthropologist claim of political neutrality.” 18: “I believe it is a mistake to view social anthropology in the colonial era as primarily an aid to colonial administration, or as the simple relfection of colonial ideology. I say this not because I subscribe to the anthropological establishment’s comfortable view of itself, but because bourgeois consciousness, of which social anthropology is merely one gragment, has laywas contained within itself profound contraditions and amibiguities— and therefore the potentialities for transcending itself.” 19: “The papers that follow analyse and document ways in which anthropological thinking and practice have been affected by British colonialism, but they approach this topic from difference points of view and at different levels.” Aiello: Paleofantasy http://www.wennergren.org/about/leslie-c-aiello Aiello, Leslie C.: E-mail: [email protected] Emailed her about “Paleofantasy.” She said she might have coined the term, but never wrote on it. Aykroyd: Nasty, Brutish, but Not Necessarily Short “Nasty, Brutish, but Not Necessarily Short: A Reconsideration of the Statistical Methods Used to Calculate Age at Death from Adult Human Skeletal and Dental Age Indicators” Robert G. Aykroyd, David Lucy, A. Mark Pollard, Charlotte A. Roberts. American Antiquity, Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jan., 1999), pp. 55-70 COPIED TO ARTICLES FOLDER & CONVERTED TO AUDIO. Altman: Hunter-Gatherers Today Altman, Jon C., Hunter-gatherers today: an Aboriginal economy in north Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, c1987 Kim Hill says see it. Balfour Libr. BAL Main Libr (UA) KSL K Available library guide for BAL Rhodes House RHO Stack C90.R00352 Suggested by Kim Hill Altman, Jon C., Hunter-gatherers today: an Aboriginal economy in north Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, c1987. 1: participant observation between 1979 and 1981 of a group of people in a remote village in northern Australia. They had been in contact with the Australian welfare state for 25 years, but who had maintained a lot of HG practices. 31: data on the diet of the Gunwinggu people in a band at the Momega out station was collected for 296 days between Oct 79 and Nov 80. 72: “There have been only three studies of work effort in hunter-gatherer societies: McCarthy and McArthur’s (1960) study of Aborigines at Fish Creek and Hemple Bay in 1948; a study by lee (1968) of the !Kung bushmen; and Van Arsdale’s (1978) study of Asmat hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea. Sahlins (1972, 1043) used data from the first two studies … the data he used have been called to question (Johnson 1975; Jones 1980). In McCarthy and McArthur’s work for example, while the study is detailed, the sample surveyed is unrepresentative of demographically normal groups and the seasonal cycle. Furthermore it was conducted under somewhat artificial circumstances as subjects were required not to consume market foods to which they had access. Nowhere in his essay does Sahlins note that both studies were conducted in post-contact situations. Van Arsdale’s study of Asmat activity patters is brief but appears rigorous—the brevity of the study period (three weeks) resulting in a seasonal bias. All three studies despite their differing locations and methodologies, conclude that hunter-gatherers work three to five hours per day. In Van Arsdale’s study this time includes working for missionaries for cash.” 80: He finds an average of 3.6 hours per day in productive activities, and 5.4 hours in nonproductive activities. 81: 2.6 hours in subsistence; 0.8 in market exchange; 0.3 miscellaneous. (The market exchange for this group is mostly production of arts and crafts for sale on the market.) 89: He argues that they are better off today than before contact “because work effort requirements in subsistence activities have decreased.” Their subsistence efforts have benefited from market technologies (I think he means things like guns.). 94: “by accepting McCarthy and McArthur’s data, Sahlins grossly over-estimated the amount of leisure time available to Arnhem Land Aborigines.” Ames. The Archaeology of Rank KM Ames. 2007. “The Archaeology of Rank.” Handbook of Archaeological Theories. Edited by R. Alexander Bentley, Herbert D. G. Maschner and Christopher Chippindale. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press. COPIED AS IMAGE TO ARTICLES FOLDER SEE HARDCOPY HIGHLIGHTS 487: “This chapter reviews methods archeologists use to investigate the presence and forms of permanent inequality in ancient societies.” 490: “The key element in all of this terminology is the concept of differential access. In egalitarian societies, there is equal access to positions of prestige and to basic resources; in rank societies there is differential access to positions of prestige but equal access to both positions of prestige and basic resources, with people in high strata also having structural organizational power. Differential access to resources can be reflected in nutrition, health, and life expectancy. … Despite their utility, terms like bands, tribe, and chiefdoms obscure variability …, and many workers prefer to distinguish among small societies (essentially bands), middle-level (or transegalitarian …) societies, and states only. … No coherent single body of social theory explains the origins of evolution of permanent social inequality … Until quite recently, however, they all assumed that humans are, by default, egalitarian in their social organization, so that all recently evolved systems of permanent social inequality are departures”. Table 28.2: Types of societies defined by anthropologists and archaeologists, based on sociopolitical organization Bands Egalitarian, demographically small (25-50 people), fluid membership based on kinship, friendship, hunter-gatherers Tribes Egalitarian, demographically larger (500+), membership fixed, based on kinship, hunter-gatherers, and farmers; concept of tribe controversial Chiefdoms Ranked, ascribed leadership positions, demographically larger (2,000+), decision making centralized with a two-tier decision-making hierarchy, leadership lacks coercive power; chiefs usually have social power. States Stratified, with minimally a three-tier decision-making hierarchy; leadership has both tactical and strategic power; states usually have a territorial base. Transegalitarian Term for societies that are neither egalitarian nor ranked. societies There may be unequal access to prestige, but numbers of high-prestige positions fluid, positions are achieved based on generosity, ability to attract followers, social power. Middle-range societies Broad term for societies falling between bands and states Complex societies Can have three meanings (1): ‘civilization’; (2) societies with many parts, implying social hierarchies and/or occupational specializations (the usage here); or more narrowly (3) societies with permanent ranking. At a basic level, all human societies are complex, some more than others. Start now: copying notes from hardcopy 491: “Hayden (2001) postulates that egalitarianism has existed for perhaps the past