Chapter 1. Introduction to Anthropology
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Married Too Young? the Behavioral Ecology of 'Child Marriage'
social sciences $€ £ ¥ Review Married Too Young? The Behavioral Ecology of ‘Child Marriage’ Susan B. Schaffnit 1,* and David W. Lawson 2 1 Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801, USA 2 Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: For girls and women, marriage under 18 years is commonplace in many low-income nations today and was culturally widespread historically. Global health campaigns refer to marriage below this threshold as ‘child marriage’ and increasingly aim for its universal eradication, citing its apparent negative wellbeing consequences. Here, we outline and evaluate four alternative hypotheses for the persistence of early marriage, despite its associations with poor wellbeing, arising from the theoretical framework of human behavioral ecology. First, early marriage may be adaptive (e.g., it maximizes reproductive success), even if detrimental to wellbeing, when life expectancy is short. Second, parent– offspring conflict may explain early marriage, with parents profiting economically at the expense of their daughter’s best interests. Third, early marriage may be explained by intergenerational conflict, whereby girls marry young to emancipate themselves from continued labor within natal households. Finally, both daughters and parents from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds favor early marriage as a ‘best of a bad job strategy’ when it represents the best option given a lack of feasible alternatives. The explanatory power of each hypothesis is context-dependent, highlighting the complex drivers of life history transitions and reinforcing the need for context-specific policies Citation: Schaffnit, Susan B., and addressing the vulnerabilities of adolescence worldwide. -
Linguistics for the Use of African History and the Comparative Study of Bantu Pottery Vocabulary
LINGUISTICS FOR THE USE OF AFRICAN HISTORY AND THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BANTU POTTERY VOCABULARY Koen Bostoen Université Libre de Bruxelles1 Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren 1. Introduction Ever since African historical linguistics emerged in the 19th century, it has served a double purpose. It has not only been practiced with the aim of studying language evolution, its methods have also been put to use for the reconstruction of human history. The promotion of linguistics to one of the key disciplines of African historiography is an inevitable consequence of the lack of ancient written records in sub-Saharan Africa. Scholars of the African past generally fall back on two kinds of linguistic research: linguistic classifi- cation and linguistic reconstruction. The aim of this paper is to present a con- cise application of both disciplines to the field of Bantu linguistics and to offer two interesting comparative case studies in the field of Bantu pottery vocabulary. The diachronic analysis of this lexical domain constitutes a promising field for interdisciplinary historical research. At the same time, the examples presented here urge history scholars to be cautious in the applica- tion of words-and-things studies for the use of historical reconstruction. The neglect of diachronic semantic evolutions and the impact of ancient lexical copies may lead to oversimplified and hence false historical conclusions. 2. Bantu languages and the synchronic nature of historical linguistics Exact estimations being complicated by the lack of good descriptive ma- terial, the Bantu languages are believed to number at present between 400 and 600. They are spoken in almost half of all sub-Saharan countries: Camer- 1 My acknowledgement goes to Yvonne Bastin, Claire Grégoire, Jacqueline Renard, Ellen Vandendorpe and Annemie Van Geldre who assisted me in the preparation of this paper. -
Contesting Regimes of Variation: Critical Groundwork for Pedagogies of Mobile Experience and Restorative Justice
Robert W. Train Sonoma State University, California CONTESTING REGIMES OF VARIATION: CRITICAL GROUNDWORK FOR PEDAGOGIES OF MOBILE EXPERIENCE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Abstract: This paper examines from a critical transdisciplinary perspective the concept of variation and its fraught binary association with standard language as part of the conceptual toolbox and vocabulary for language educators and researchers. “Variation” is shown to be imbricated a historically-contingent metadiscursive regime in language study as scientific description and education supporting problematic speaker identities (e.g., “non/native”, “heritage”, “foreign”) around an ideology of reduction through which complex sociolinguistic and sociocultural spaces of diversity and variability have been reduced to the “problem” of governing people and spaces legitimated and embodied in idealized teachers and learners of languages invented as the “zero degree of observation” (Castro-Gómez 2005; Mignolo 2011) in ongoing contexts of Western modernity and coloniality. This paper explores how regimes of variation have been constructed in a “sociolinguistics of distribution” (Blommaert 2010) constituted around the delimitation of borders—linguistic, temporal, social and territorial—rather than a “sociolinguistics of mobility” focused on interrogating and problematizing the validity and relevance of those borders in a world characterized by diverse transcultural and translingual experiences of human flow and migration. This paper reframes “variation” as mobile modes-of-experiencing- the-world in order to expand the critical, historical, and ethical vocabularies and knowledge base of language educators and lay the groundwork for pedagogies of experience that impact human lives in the service of restorative social justice. Keywords: metadiscursive regimes w sociolinguistic variation w standard language w sociolinguistics of mobility w pedagogies of experience Train, Robert W. -
Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia an Introduction
Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia An Introduction Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto We are living in a utopian moment. The majority of humans are already be- ing negatively affected by a number of coupled social and environmental crises. These conditions are created in large part by hegemony of thought and practice that ontologically separates humans from nature, rationalizes the externalization of the social and environmental costs of production and consumption, justifi es extreme inequality, and sees solutions only in a continuation of the same systems that generated the problems in the fi rst place. Together these and other problems constitute a crisis that demands imaginative responses and viable alternatives. We contend that anthropol- ogy must fi nd ways to engage with such existing possibilities. The present crises are not new; the fundamental idea that the current situation cannot continue was recognized decades ago with the rise of international discourse on the topic of sustainable development (Brundt- land 1987). The widely promoted concept of sustainability is ultimately utopian in nature; it is the good state that we must strive for but may not actually exist except in theory. Despite our best efforts, we do not know exactly what a sustainable society looks like. This has been the paradox of utopianism since Sir Thomas More ([1516] 1906) coined the term “utopia” in 1516, and it is the paradox of sustainability today. The premise underlying this volume is the basic belief that, at its best, anthropology has always -
Evolutionary Psychology, Cognitive Archaeology, and Psychological Prehistory Course Description: This Course Is PSY 325, Evoluti
Evolutionary Psychology, Cognitive Archaeology, and Psychological Prehistory Course Description: This course is PSY 325, Evolutionary Psychology, as offered in the Spring of 2020 Text: Henley, T., Rossano, M., & Kardas, E. (2020). Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology: Psychology in Prehistory. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Note – I know this book is expensive, so there will be a copy placed on reserve in the library that you can use The Basics: Keep in mind that a syllabus sometimes shifts a little as a course unfolds. I say that by way of noting the importance of class attendance, as you will be held responsible for any change in plans announced in class. The other basic admonition every syllabus must include is that cheating (broadly defined) is not allowed. Or, as the university likes me to say: "All students enrolled at the University shall follow the tenets of common decency and acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment (see Student's Guide Handbook, Policies and Procedures, Conduct).” And, note that “Students requesting accommodations for disabilities must go through the Academic Support Committee. For more information, please contact the Director of Disability Resources & Services, Gee Library, Room 132, (903) 886-5835.” Last: Only qualified law enforcement officers or those who are otherwise authorized to carry a concealed handgun in the State of Texas are permitted to do so. Pursuant to Penal Code (PC) 46.035 and A&M-Commerce Rule 34.06.02.R1, even license holders may not carry a concealed handgun in restricted locations. Readings: The readings are listed on the Schedule of Events as follows: key required; required; suggested; and optional. -
1 the Politics of Ethnopoetics by Gary Snyder This “Politics” Is
1 The Politics of Ethnopoetics by Gary Snyder This \politics" is fundamentally the question of what occidental and indus- trial technological civilization is doing to the earth. The earth: (I'm just going to remind us of a few facts), is 57 million square miles, 3.7 billion human be- ings, evolved over the last 4 million years; plus, 2 million species of insects, 1 million species of plants, 20 thousand species of fish, and 8,700 species of birds; constructed out of 97 naturally occurring surface elements with the power of the annual solar income of the sun. That is a lot of diversity. Yesterday, (who was it), David Antin, I believe, told how the Tragedians asked Plato to let them put on some tragedies. Plato said, \Very interesting, gentlemen, but I must tell you something. We have prepared here the greatest tragedy of all. It is called The State." From a very early age I found myself standing in an undefinable awe before the natural world. An attitude of gratitude, wonder, and a sense of protection especially as I began to see the hills being bulldozed down for roads, and the forests of the Pacific Nothwest magically float away on logging trucks. I grew up in a rural family in the state of Washington. My grandfather was a homesteader in the Pacific Northwest. The economic base of the whole region was logging. In trying to grasp the dynamics of what was happening, rural state of Washington, 1930's, depression, white boy out in the country, German on one side, Scotch- Irish on the other side, radical, that is to say, sort of grass roots Union, I.W.W., and socialist-radical parents, I found nothing in their orientation, (critical as it was of American politics and economics), that could give me an access to understanding what was happening. -
Text-Aided Archeology
ARCHAEOLOGY – Vol. I - Text-Aided Archaeology - Nancy C. Wilkie TEXT-AIDED ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy C. Wilkie Classics and Anthropology, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA Keywords: Culture history, Documents, Historical archaeology, Iconography, Literature, Nationalism, Oral history, Philology, Postprocessual archaeology, Prehistoric, Processual archaeology, Protohistoric, Texts. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Texts and material remains 3. Texts and historical archaeology 3.1. Literary texts 3.2. Documents 3.3. Oral traditions 3.4. Iconography and images 4. Culture History, Processual, and Postprocessual Archaeology 5. Examples of Text-Aided Archaeology 5.1. Text-aided historical archaeology in the Mediterranean, Near East and Egypt 5.1.1. Greece 5.1.2. Biblical Lands 5.1.3. Mesopotamia 5.1.4. Egypt 5.2. India and Nepal 5.3. China 5.4. Africa 5.5. North America 5.6. Mesoamerica 6. Text-aided prehistoric/protohistoric archaeology 6.1. Bronze Age Greece and Homeric archaeology 6.2. Plato and Atlantis 6.3. Sanskrit Epics 7. Conclusion Glossary BibliographyUNESCO – EOLSS Biographical Sketch SAMPLE CHAPTERS Summary Texts have been used in archaeological research since the inception of the discipline. The first archaeological explorations took place in circum-Mediterranean lands at a time when the tradition of classical scholarship was strong and where there were numerous texts, such as those of ancient geographers and historians, that could be consulted in order to identify and date ancient sites and monuments. ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) ARCHAEOLOGY – Vol. I - Text-Aided Archaeology - Nancy C. Wilkie With the development of culture history as an approach to the study of the past during the nineteenth century, the use of texts in archaeological research became even more important, as archaeologists strove to define the ethnic groups responsible for the production of the artifacts that they were collecting and classifying. -
Hilton Portland Downtown Portland, Oregon March 19-23, 2019
Society for Applied Anthropology • 79th Annual Meeting Hilton Portland Downtown Portland, Oregon March 19-23, 2019 Contents Hilton Portland Downtown Map .................................................................................................... ii Welcome from the Program Chair ................................................................................................ iii SfAA 2019 Program Committee .................................................................................................... iv Officers of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Board of Directors, and Editors ............... iv Special Thanks and Co-Sponsors ...................................................................................................v Past Presidents and Annual Meeting Sites .................................................................................. viii General Information How to Use This Program .................................................................................................1 A Note About Abstracts .....................................................................................................1 Registration .......................................................................................................................1 Book Exhibit .....................................................................................................................1 Plenary Sessions ................................................................................................................1 Social Events -
Monuments, Materiality, and Meaning in the Classical Archaeology of Anatolia
MONUMENTS, MATERIALITY, AND MEANING IN THE CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANATOLIA by Daniel David Shoup A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Classical Art and Archaeology) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Elaine K. Gazda, Co-Chair Professor John F. Cherry, Co-Chair, Brown University Professor Fatma Müge Göçek Professor Christopher John Ratté Professor Norman Yoffee Acknowledgments Athena may have sprung from Zeus’ brow alone, but dissertations never have a solitary birth: especially this one, which is largely made up of the voices of others. I have been fortunate to have the support of many friends, colleagues, and mentors, whose ideas and suggestions have fundamentally shaped this work. I would also like to thank the dozens of people who agreed to be interviewed, whose ideas and voices animate this text and the sites where they work. I offer this dissertation in hope that it contributes, in some small way, to a bright future for archaeology in Turkey. My committee members have been unstinting in their support of what has proved to be an unconventional project. John Cherry’s able teaching and broad perspective on archaeology formed the matrix in which the ideas for this dissertation grew; Elaine Gazda’s support, guidance, and advocacy of the project was indispensible to its completion. Norman Yoffee provided ideas and support from the first draft of a very different prospectus – including very necessary encouragement to go out on a limb. Chris Ratté has been a generous host at the site of Aphrodisias and helpful commentator during the writing process. -
The Uniqueness of Humans and an Anthropological Perspective
Conferences and Lectures 2009 Maternal and Child Health Seminar The Uniqueness of Humans and an Anthropological Perspective JMAJ 54(4): 229–233, 2011 Mariko HASEGAWA*1 Key words Human evolution, Childhood, Communal breeding, Triadic representation, Language Introduction until 6 million years ago, chimpanzees remain in an ecological position similar to that of many Although I majored in physical anthropology other mammalian species, while humans have during my undergraduate and graduate studies, accomplished an “unnatural” success that may the focus of my academic interest was not human even endanger the global environment. Actually, beings. I studied the behavior of wild chimpan- no other animal species have caused such drastic zees in Africa during my years at the anthro- alteration to the planet’s surface in such short pology department because I wanted to explore time, driven many other species to extinction, virgin territories and observe wildlife in its natu- developed science, and deliberated about their ral state. Later, I studied deer, sheep, peacocks, condition. What have been the keys to the etc., and only after that did my interest eventually achievement of this ability? turn to human beings. This was because the study Anthropology is the study of the evolutionary of various animal species instilled in me a renewed history of humanity. It is often regarded as the understanding of the peculiarity of humans as a study of the past records of human evolution, strange species, and also because I felt a sense of such as fossils. Although this in itself is interest- responsibility as an anthropologist to study the ing, anthropology has been accumulating a large evolution of the human species. -
An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology By C. Nadia Seremetakis An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology By C. Nadia Seremetakis This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by C. Nadia Seremetakis All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-7334-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-7334-5 To my students anywhere anytime CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Part I: Exploring Cultures Chapter One ................................................................................................. 4 Redefining Culture and Civilization: The Birth of Anthropology Fieldwork versus Comparative Taxonomic Methodology Diffusion or Independent Invention? Acculturation Culture as Process A Four-Field Discipline Social or Cultural Anthropology? Defining Culture Waiting for the Barbarians Part II: Writing the Other Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 30 Science/Literature Chapter Three ........................................................................................... -
A New Archaeology W Iny the New Deal
NEW DEAL ARCHAEOLOGY A NEWW ARCHAEOLOGYY IN THE NEWW DEAL THE RISE OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGYY IN THE 1930S Benjamin C. Pykles Benjamin C. Pykles is ann Assistantt Professorr inn thee Departmentt off Anthropologyy att the State University off New York att Potsdam. istorical archaeology—the archaeologyy off the Mod- only standing architectural ern World (approximately the last 500 years off remains from the seven- Hhuman history)—has its disciplinaryy roots in the teenth century. It was not historic preservation movementt off the United States during until 1934, however, when the late nineteenth and earlyy twentieth centuries (Pykles the National Park Service 2008). Historical archaeology’s true institutional beginnings, (NPS) secured possession of however, are tied to the federally sponsored archaeologyy proj- the main portion of ects conducted under the auspices off the Neww Deal pro- Jamestown Island, that a grams off the 1930s. Chieff among those projects in terms of large-scale archaeological the developmentt off historical archaeology in the United program at the site was insti- States were the 1934–1941 excavations at Jamestown, Vir- tuted, relying on the labor of ginia, directed byy J. C. Harrington (Figure 1). During this young African-American critical time in the historyy off the field, Harrington estab- men enrolled in the Civilian lished some off the fundamental methods and practices used Conservation Corps (CCC). Figuree 1. Jeann Carll Harrington by historical archaeologists todayy and did much to promote Because there were few, iff any, (1901-1998), the “founding and legitimize the emerging discipline. As a resultt off these professionally trained archae- ffather”” off historicall archaeology efforts, Harrington is widely recognized as the “founding ologists with any experience, in the Unitedd States.