What, If Anything, Is a Darwinian Anthropology?
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American Cultural Anthropology and British Social Anthropology
Anthropology News • January 2006 IN FOCUS ANTHROPOLOGY ON A GLOBAL SCALE In light of the AAA's objective to develop its international relations and collaborations, AN invited international anthropologists to engage with questions about the practice of anthropology today, particularly issues of anthropology and its relationships to globaliza- IN FOCUS tion and postcolonialism, and what this might mean for the future of anthropology and future collaborations between anthropologists and others around the world. Please send your responses in 400 words or less to Stacy Lathrop at [email protected]. One former US colleague pointed out American Cultural Anthropology that Boas’s four-field approach is today presented at the undergradu- ate level in some departments in the and British Social Anthropology US as the feature that distinguishes Connections and Four-Field Approach that the all-embracing nature of the social anthropology from sociology, Most of our colleagues’ comments AAA, as opposed to the separate cre- highlighting the fact that, as a Differences German colleague noted, British began by highlighting the strength ation of the Royal Anthropological anthropologists seem more secure of the “four-field” approach in the Institute (in 1907) and the Associa- ROBERT LAYTON AND ADAM R KAUL about an affinity with sociology. US. One argued that this approach is tion of Social Anthropologists (in U DURHAM Clearly British anthropology traces in fact on the decline following the 1946) in Britain, contributes to a its lineage to the sociological found- deeper impact that postmodernism higher national profile of anthropol- ing fathers—Durkheim, Weber and consistent self-critique has had in the US relative to the UK. -
Are Male Orangutans a Threat to Infants? Evidence of Mother–Offspring Counterstrategies to Infanticide in Bornean Orangutans (Pongo Pygmaeus Wurmbii)
Are Male Orangutans a Threat to Infants? Evidence of Mother–Offspring Counterstrategies to Infanticide in Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) Amy M. Scott, Cheryl D. Knott & Tri Wahyu Susanto International Journal of Primatology The Official Journal of the International Primatological Society ISSN 0164-0291 Int J Primatol DOI 10.1007/s10764-019-00097-8 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self- archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy International Journal of Primatology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-019-00097-8 Are Male Orangutans a Threat to Infants? Evidence of Mother–Offspring Counterstrategies to Infanticide in Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) Amy M. Scott, et al. [full author details at the end of the article] Received: 25 March 2019 /Accepted: 2 April 2019/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Sexually selected infanticide by males is widespread in primates. -
Structuralism 1. the Nature of Meaning Or Understanding
Structuralism 1. The nature of meaning or understanding. A. The role of structure as the system of relationships Something can only be understood (i.e., a meaning can be constructed) within a certain system of relationships (or structure). For example, a word which is a linguistic sign (something that stands for something else) can only be understood within a certain conventional system of signs, which is language, and not by itself (cf. the word / sound and “shark” in English and Arabic). A particular relationship within a شرق combination society (e.g., between a male offspring and his maternal uncle) can only be understood in the context of the whole system of kinship (e.g., matrilineal or patrilineal). Structuralism holds that, according to the human way of understanding things, particular elements have no absolute meaning or value: their meaning or value is relative to other elements. Everything makes sense only in relation to something else. An element cannot be perceived by itself. In order to understand a particular element we need to study the whole system of relationships or structure (this approach is also exactly the same as Malinowski’s: one cannot understand particular elements of culture out of the context of that culture). A particular element can only be studied as part of a greater structure. In fact, the only thing that can be studied is not particular elements or objects but relationships within a system. Our human world, so to speak, is made up of relationships, which make up permanent structures of the human mind. B. The role of oppositions / pairs of binary oppositions Structuralism holds that understanding can only happen if clearly defined or “significant” (= essential) differences are present which are called oppositions (or binary oppositions since they come in pairs). -
1 Book Review the God Delusion Richard Dawkins New
Book review The God delusion Richard Dawkins New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006 Renato Zamora Flores* * PhD. Professor, Department of Genetics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. “The achievements of theologians don’t do anything, don’t affect anything, don’t mean anything. What makes anyone think that “theology” is a subject at all?” (Richard Dawkins)1 On September 15, 2001, only 4 days after the terrorist attack to the World Trade Center in New York, Richard Dawkins – evolutionary biologist, 65 years, professor of public understanding of science at the University of Oxford – published an incisive article on the renowned English newspaper The Guardian, with the impressive title “Religion’s misguided missiles,” where he stated: “Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from. It came from religion. Religion is also, of course, the underlying source of the divisiveness in the Middle East... To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used”.2 1 Without losing the courage and creativity that have characterized Dawkins since his first book, The selfish gene,3 launched 30 years ago, the British scientist now launches a dense and solid critical work on the logical and scientific bases of religious thinking: The God delusion. The title is a bit more sarcastic than it looks. -
The Strange Survival and Apparent Resurgence of Sociobiology
This is a repository copy of The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/118157/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Dennis, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-4625-1123 (2018) The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. History of the Human Sciences, 31 (1). pp. 19-35. ISSN 0952- 6951 https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695117735966 Dennis A. The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. History of the Human Sciences. 2018;31(1):19-35. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695117735966. Article available under the terms of the CC- BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence only allows you to download this work and share it with others as long as you credit the authors, but you can’t change the article in any way or use it commercially. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology Abstract A recent dispute between Richard Dawkins and Edward O. Wilson concerning fundamental concepts in sociobiology is examined. -
1. a Dangerous Idea
About This Guide This guide is intended to assist in the use of the DVD Daniel Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. The following pages provide an organizational schema for the DVD along with general notes for each section, key quotes from the DVD,and suggested discussion questions relevant to the section. The program is divided into seven parts, each clearly distinguished by a section title during the program. Contents Seven-Part DVD A Dangerous Idea. 3 Darwin’s Inversion . 4 Cranes: Getting Here from There . 8 Fruits of the Tree of Life . 11 Humans without Skyhooks . 13 Gradualism . 17 Memetic Revolution . 20 Articles by Daniel Dennett Could There Be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?. 25 From Typo to Thinko: When Evolution Graduated to Semantic Norms. 33 In Darwin’s Wake, Where Am I?. 41 2 Darwin's Dangerous Idea 1. A Dangerous Idea Dennett considers Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection the best single idea that anyone ever had.But it has also turned out to be a dangerous one. Science has accepted the theory as the most accurate explanation of the intricate design of living beings,but when it was first proposed,and again in recent times,the theory has met with a backlash from many people.What makes evolution so threatening,when theories in physics and chemistry seem so harmless? One problem with the introduction of Darwin’s great idea is that almost no one was prepared for such a revolutionary view of creation. Dennett gives an analogy between this inversion and Sweden’s change in driving direction: I’m going to imagine, would it be dangerous if tomorrow the people in Great Britain started driving on the right? It would be a really dangerous place to be because they’ve been driving on the left all these years…. -
Richard Dawkins
RICHARD DAWKINS HOW A SCIENTIST CHANGED THE WAY WE THINK Reflections by scientists, writers, and philosophers Edited by ALAN GRAFEN AND MARK RIDLEY 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 2006 with the exception of To Rise Above © Marek Kohn 2006 and Every Indication of Inadvertent Solicitude © Philip Pullman 2006 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should -
Ten Misunderstandings About Evolution a Very Brief Guide for the Curious and the Confused by Dr
Ten Misunderstandings About Evolution A Very Brief Guide for the Curious and the Confused By Dr. Mike Webster, Dept. of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University ([email protected]); February 2010 The current debate over evolution and “intelligent design” (ID) is being driven by a relatively small group of individuals who object to the theory of evolution for religious reasons. The debate is fueled, though, by misunderstandings on the part of the American public about what evolutionary biology is and what it says. These misunderstandings are exploited by proponents of ID, intentionally or not, and are often echoed in the media. In this booklet I briefly outline and explain 10 of the most common (and serious) misunderstandings. It is impossible to treat each point thoroughly in this limited space; I encourage you to read further on these topics and also by visiting the websites given on the resource sheet. In addition, I am happy to send a somewhat expanded version of this booklet to anybody who is interested – just send me an email to ask for one! What are the misunderstandings? 1. Evolution is progressive improvement of species Evolution, particularly human evolution, is often pictured in textbooks as a string of organisms marching in single file from “simple” organisms (usually a single celled organism or a monkey) on one side of the page and advancing to “complex” organisms on the opposite side of the page (almost invariably a human being). We have all seen this enduring image and likely have some version of it burned into our brains. -
Integrating Behaviour Into Wildlife Conservation: the Multiple Ways That Behaviour Can Reduce Ne Laura L
Biological Conservation 95 (2000) 303±315 www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon Integrating behaviour into wildlife conservation: the multiple ways that behaviour can reduce Ne Laura L. Anthony a, Daniel T. Blumstein a,b,c,* aDepartment of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia bDepartment of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia cThe Cooperative Research Centre for the Conservation and Management of Marsupials, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia Received 10 June 1999; received in revised form 19 August 1999; accepted 16 October 1999 Abstract There has been a recent interest in integrating an understanding of behaviour into conservation biology. Unfortunately, there has been no paradigm for such a process. Without a clear framework for integration, conservation biologists may have diculties recognising how behavioural knowledge can help solve real-world conservation problems. Eective population size (Ne) is a key demographic parameter used to understand population viability. A variety of behaviours and behavioural traits impact Ne, yet their importance for conservation is under-appreciated. We suggest that identifying behavioural traits that aect Ne provides a paradigm for integrating behavioural biology into conservation biology. Behaviour can aect Ne through at least three dierent mechanisms: reducing N Ð the population size; reducing r Ð the population growth rate, and/or by increasing reproductive skew. We discuss how nine common behavioural traits can reduce Ne, and suggest how an understanding of these traits may inform management of both free-living and captive animals. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Behaviour and conservation; Eective population size; Population viability 1. Introduction knowledge of animal behaviour to conservation pro- blems, there is no clear framework to help conservation Conservation biology is a crisis discipline aimed at biologists identify the speci®c cases when they should be saving biodiversity (Soule , 1986). -
Social Anthropology
SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY by E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD Profesior of Social Anthropology and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford LONDON : COHEN & WEST LTD COPYRIGHT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. PRINTtD IS GRKAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW b-ZV PREFACE These six lectures were given on the Third Programme of the B.B.C. in the winter of 1950. Except for a few minor verbal alterations they are printed as they were delivered. I thought it unwise to change, or add to, what was written to be spoken within the limits imposed by the medium of expression and for a particular purpose and audience. Social anthropology is still little more than a name to most people, and I hoped that broadcast talks on the subject would make its scope and methods better known. I trust that their publication as a book will serve the same purpose. As there are few brief introductory guides to social anthropology I believe that this book may also be of use to students in anthropological departments in British and American universities. I have therefore added a short bibliography. I have expressed many of the ideas in these lectures before, and sometimes in the same language. I am grateful for permission to use them again to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press and to the Editors of Man, Black- friars, and Africa} I thank Mr. K. O. L. Burridge for assistance in the preparation of the lectures and my colleagues at the Institute of Social Anthropology at Oxford and Mr. T. B. Radley of the B.B.C. -
Ethnography, Cultural and Social Anthropology
UC Berkeley Anthropology Faculty Publications Title Ethnography, Cultural and Social Anthropology Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9t13v9kz Journal American Anthropologist, 55(4) Author Lowie, Robert H. Publication Date 1953-10-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ETHNOGRAPHY, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY By ROBERT H. LOWIE HE discussion by Professors Murdock and Firth, Professor Fortes's T contribution to the debate, Professor Radcliffe-Brown's illuminating letter in a recent issue of this journal, and a number of other statements by American and British colleagues (Murdock 1951; Firth 1951; Radcliffe-Brown 1952; Fortes 1953; Evans-Pritchard 1951) stimulate reflections on cultural and social anthropology. In the present, wholly uncontroversial article I shall first define the aims of cultural anthropology as I understand them and shall then inquire intQ the relations of that discipline with social anthropology as defined by British scholars. I Whatever differences may divide cultural from social anthropologists, they are hardly greater than those which divide self-styled cultural anthropologists. IndeedJ I should say that many of us feel incomparably closer to the English anthropologists referred to above than, say, to Goldenweiser in his later phases. A concrete example will illustrate the issue. In one of his books (Golden weiser 1922) this writer devotes a chapter to the Baganda, relying as he was bound to do on Roscoe's well-known work. He tells us that "maize is perhaps the principal staple food, but plantain trees are also cultivated on a large scale." Now the primary source (Roscoe 1911: 5, 432) states in unmistakable terms that plantains "furnish their staple food," whereas maize "was never grown in any quantity .. -
Book of Abstracts
Dr. John Miller (University of Sheffield) Animals, Capital, Literature and the Victorians: Writing the Fur Trade The difference between what we think of as ‘animal’ and what we think of as ‘human’ is routinely conceptualised as a fullness on the side of the human against a poverty on the side of the animal. In response, animal studies, in its emergence over the last twenty years or so, has set about dismantling this crude logic and broadening the scope of humanities research to include the nonhuman. Although at this juncture of the twenty first century, animal studies has the status of an emerging field of study, many of its central concerns are significant ingredients of nineteenth-century thought. Evolutionary theory radically destabilised entrenched ideas of human–animal difference; animal advocacy flowered, through the work of the RSPCA, the vegetarian society and the humanitarian League amongst others; the connections of discourses of species to discourses of race, class and gender became increasingly clear, and increasingly subject to debate, as the century progressed. At the same time, the use of animal bodies in a developing commodity culture accelerated to a remarkable degree, marking the Victorian period, in particular, as an era of extraordinary violence. This paper explores one of the most disturbing examples of this objectification of animal life: the global fur trade. I am interested especially in the ways in which literary fiction both bolstered and contested the conceptions of value behind the fur trade’s commodifying processes. How, I ask, do literature and capital entwine in the imagining of animals as resources to be consumed? Simone Rebora (Università di Verona) “It’s as semper as oxhousehumper!” James Joyce’s animalisation of the human Few animals can be met through the works of James Joyce.