Showing papers in "Annual Review of Anthropology in 1999"
TL;DR: A review of the emergence of the new ecology and the highlighting of contrasts with earlier “balance of nature” perspectives is presented in this paper, with a focus on nonequilibrium dynamics, spatial and temporal variation, complexity, and uncertainty.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review asks the question: What new avenues of social science enquiry are suggested by new ecological thinking, with its focus on nonequilibrium dynamics, spatial and temporal variation, complexity, and uncertainty? Following a review of the emergence of the “new ecology” and the highlighting of contrasts with earlier “balance of nature” perspectives, work emerging from ecological anthropology, political ecology, environmental and ecological economics, and debates about nature and culture are examined. With some important exceptions, much social science work and associated popular and policy debates remain firmly wedded to a static and equilibrial view. This review turns to three areas where a more dynamic perspective has emerged. Each has the potential to take central elements of new ecological thinking seriously, sometimes with major practical consequences for planning, intervention design, and management. First is the concern with spatial and temporal dynamics developed in detailed and s...
645 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combine energetic and demographic approaches in order to examine the human life course from an optimality perspective, which solves related problems across two generations by solving the problems of trade-offs between current and future reproduction and quality versus quantity of offspring.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Life history theory offers evolutionary explanations for the timing of life events, with a particular focus on age-schedules of fertility and mortality and growth. Traditional models examine trade-offs between current and future reproduction and quality versus quantity of offspring. These models can be used to understand questions concerning time of gestation, age of weaning, juvenile mortality profiles, age at maturation, adult body size, fertility rates, senescence, menopause, and the length of the life span. The trajectory of energy acquisition and its allocations is also an important part of life history theory. Modifications of these models have been developed to examine the period of learning, postweaning parental investment, and patterns of development. In this article, we combine energetic and demographic approaches in order to examine the human life course from an optimality perspective. The evolved life history solves related problems across two generations. The first set of decisions...
503 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that infants start to engage with other persons in various kinds of joint attentional activities involving gaze following, social referencing, and gestural communication at approximately 1 year of age.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Human beings are biologically adapted for culture in ways that other primates are not, as evidenced most clearly by the fact that only human cultural traditions accumulate modifications over historical time (the ratchet effect). The key adaptation is one that enables individuals to understand other individuals as intentional agents like the self. This species-unique form of social cognition emerges in human ontogeny at approximately 1 year of age, as infants begin to engage with other persons in various kinds of joint attentional activities involving gaze following, social referencing, and gestural communication. Young children's joint attentional skills then engender some uniquely powerful forms of cultural learning, enabling the acquisition of language, discourse skills, tool-use practices, and other conventional activities. These novel forms of cultural learning allow human beings to, in effect, pool their cognitive resources both contemporaneously and over historical time in ways that are u...
429 citations
TL;DR: A review of human-animal relationships with animals can be found in this article, with a focus on the relationship between anthropologists and historians, as well as sociocultural research on human-human relationships.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Humans' relationships with animals, increasingly the subject of controversy, have long been of interest to those whose primary aim has been the better understanding of humans' relationships with other humans. Since this topic was last reviewed here, human-animal relationships have undergone considerable reexamination, reflecting key trends in the history of social analysis, including concerns with connections between anthropology and colonialism and with the construction of race, class, and gender identities. There have been many attempts to integrate structuralist or symbolic approaches with those focused on environmental, political, and economic dimensions. Human-animal relationships are now much more likely to be considered in dynamic terms, and consequently, there has been much interdisciplinary exchange between anthropologists and historians. Some research directly engages moral and political concerns about animals, but it is likely that sociocultural research on human-animal relationships...
282 citations
TL;DR: A review of the most widely attested forms of sound symbolism and the research programs linked to sound symbolism that have influenced linguists and anthropologists most can be found in this paper.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract The proposal that linguistic sounds such as phonemes, features, syllables, or tones can be meaningful, or sound-symbolic, contradicts the principles of arbitrariness and double articulation that are axiomatic to structural linguistics. Nevertheless, a considerable body of research that supports principles of sound symbolism has accumulated. This review discusses the most widely attested forms of sound symbolism and the research programs linked to sound symbolism that have influenced linguists and anthropologists most. Numerous reports of magnitude sound symbolism in the form of experimental studies and comparative surveys have been integrated into a biologically based theory of its motivation. Magnitude sound symbolism also catalyzed a number of experimental studies by psychologists and linguists in search of a universal sound-symbolic substrate underlying all languages. Although the search for a sound-symbolic substrate has been abandoned, the success rates of these studies have never been sat...
265 citations
TL;DR: A broad reflection on some of the major surprises to anthropological theory occasioned by the history, and in a number of instances the tenacity, of indigenous cultures in the twentieth century can be found in this article.
Abstract: Figure 1 ▪ Abstract A broad reflection on some of the major surprises to anthropological theory occasioned by the history, and in a number of instances the tenacity, of indigenous cultures in the twentieth century. We are not leaving the century with the same ideas that got us there. Contrary to the inherited notions of progressive development, whether of the political left or right, the surviving victims of imperial capitalism neither became all alike nor just like us. Contrary to the “despondency theory” of mid-century, the logical and historical precursor of dependency theory, surviving indigenous peoples aim to take cultural responsibility for what has been done to them. Across large parts of northern North America, even hunters and gatherers live, largely by hunting and gathering. The Eskimo are still there, and they are still Eskimo. Around the world the peoples give the lie to received theoretical oppositions between tradition and change, indigenous culture and modernity, townsmen and tribesmen, a...
263 citations
TL;DR: The author concludes that the human adolescent growth spurt in stature and skeletal maturation is species-specific and not found in any other primate species.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract To better understand both the shared and special features of human growth, this article explores the evolution of growth patterns of mammals in general and primates in particular. Special attention is paid to several competing hypotheses concerning the adaptive value of the juvenile stage to the life history of the social mammals. One hypothesis claims that all social mammals have a juvenile stage of life, but although most primate species are social, not all primates show a juvenile stage of life history. There is also controversy over whether the adolescent growth spurt is a uniquely human feature. On the basis of empirical observations and evolutionary considerations, I conclude that the human adolescent growth spurt in stature and skeletal maturation is species specific, not found in any other primate species. Finally, data and theory are used to advance a philosophy of human growth. An acceptable philosophy must acknowledge the mammalian and primate foundations for the human pattern of gro...
227 citations
TL;DR: A recent review as mentioned in this paper describes a paradigmatic shift in anthropological studies of human movement, from an observationist view of behavior to a conception of body movement as dynamically embodied action.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review describes a paradigmatic shift in anthropological studies of human movement, from an observationist view of behavior to a conception of body movement as dynamically embodied action. After outlining the scope of such study, historical and cultural reasons for the relative neglect of body movement in anthropological enquiry are examined critically and placed in the wider context of recent social and cultural theorizing about the body and the problem of dynamic embodiment. A historical overview situates earlier approaches, such as kinesics and proxemics, in relation to more recent developments in theory and method, such as those offered by semasiology and the concept of the “action sign.” Overlapping interests with linguistic and cognitive anthropology are described. The emergence of a holistic “anthropology of human movement” has raised new research questions that require new resources. Theoretical insights have challenged researchers to devise new methods and to adopt or devise new t...
223 citations
TL;DR: The authors provide an overview of the main approaches to the discursive analysis of racist utterances and discuss the notions of racism and race historically and from the point of view of different cultures and languages.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper provides an overview of the main approaches to the discursive analysis of racist utterances. Moreover, we discuss the notions of racism and race historically and from the point of view of different cultures and languages. We restrict ourselves to the discourse analytical concepts and methodologies, which vary greatly, both in theory and in analysis. We present one example and analyze it in detail as an illustration of the linguistic tools that help make hidden and latent meanings transparent.
152 citations
TL;DR: A review focusing on two general fields of anthropological environmental research: ecological anthropology and the anthropology of environmentalism is presented in this article, with the concept of environment as its organizing motif.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract With the concept of environment as its organizing motif, this review focuses on two general fields of anthropological environmental research: ecological anthropology and the anthropology of environmentalism. Analysis of the complementary political and human ecology research programs is structured around four theoretical and methodological areas: transformations in the ecological paradigm, levels of analysis and articulation, the use of history, and the reemergence of space. Ethnographic analyses of the social forces of environmentalism point to civil society as an emerging and important protagonist with regard to environmental issues, and these social forces are reviewed within the categories of environmental movements, rights, territories, and discourses. A final prospective section looks at contemporary urban, viral, virtual, and warfare environments and postulates that the combination of empirical and political approaches can provide for anthropology an expanded role, one that has strong bio...
124 citations
TL;DR: Apocalypticism and millennialism are the dark and light sides of a historical sensibility transfixed by the possibility of imminent catastrophe, cosmic redemption, spiritual transformation, and a new world order as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Apocalypticism and millennialism are the dark and light sides of a historical sensibility transfixed by the possibility of imminent catastrophe, cosmic redemption, spiritual transformation, and a new world order. This essay briefly surveys work by anthropologists and like-minded scholars that focuses directly on endtime movements. It then reviews at more length a varied literature focusing on American apocalypticisms and millennialisms. Turning to contemporary America, we survey the ways in which an apocalyptic/millennial sensibility—as a mode of attention, mode of knowing, and voice—has come to inhabit and structure modern American life across a wide range of registers.
TL;DR: In this article, the interaction of nutritional status with political structure in prehistoric New World societies through bioarchaeological analysis was examined, and a general correlation was seen between political complexity and patterns of morbidity among various subsegments of the population.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract The interaction of nutritional status with political structure in prehistoric New World societies is examined through bioarchaeological analysis. Overall, a general correlation is seen between political complexity and patterns of morbidity among various subsegments of the population. This relationship is strongest among egalitarian societies, in which few differences exist, and state-level societies, in which differences are readily apparent and appear to widen over time. At intermediate levels of political complexity, a less consistent picture emerges; various explanations are considered as to why the dietary differences predicted by the ethnohistorical and archaeological records are not reflected in the osteological record. Also addressed are patterns of differences in access to nutritional resources by gender at the various levels of political organization, as well as patterns of access between rural and urban centers. Future directions of study are suggested.
TL;DR: The most important challenges of contemporary ethnographic practice include more than merely (a) the techniques of multilocale or multisited ethnography for strategically accessing different points in broadly spread processes, (b) the technique of multivocal or multiaudience-addressed texts for mapping and acknowledging with greater precision the situatedness of knowledge, (c) the reworking of traditional notions of comparative work for a world that is increasingly a... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Anthropologies of late modernity (also called postmodernity, postindustrial society, knowledge society, or information society) provide a number of stimulating challenges for all levels of social, cultural, and psychological theory, as well as for ethnographic and other genres of anthropological writing. Three key overlapping arenas of attention are the centrality of science and technology; decolonization, postcolonialism, and the reconstruction of societies after social trauma; and the role of the new electronic and visual media. The most important challenges of contemporary ethnographic practice include more than merely (a) the techniques of multilocale or multisited ethnography for strategically accessing different points in broadly spread processes, (b) the techniques of multivocal or multiaudience-addressed texts for mapping and acknowledging with greater precision the situatedness of knowledge, (c) the reworking of traditional notions of comparative work for a world that is increasingly a...
TL;DR: The authors examines the current state of the study of war, described and analyzed by anthropologists and non-anthropologists, who employ concepts like culture in writing about the future of war.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract War is a fraught subject. Those who study it often fight about it. This chapter examines the current state of the study of war, described and analyzed by anthropologists and nonanthropologists who employ concepts like culture in writing about the future of war. Warfare seems bound to keep us revisiting certain aspects of the past. At the same time, nothing induces change quite like conflict. Does war have a future? The preponderance of evidence—biological, archeological, ethnological—suggests that it does. But not all anthropologists agree. This in and of itself represents one of a series of gaps that begs further consideration.
TL;DR: The state of culture theory in the anthropology of Southeast Asia today, focusing on the themes of gender, marginality, violence, and the state, has been examined in this article.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Southeast Asia is probably the part of the world most closely associated by anthropologists with an interpretive concept of culture. Yet do such ideas as culture areas or local cultures retain their analytical salience when our attention turns to processes of domination, displacement, and diaspora? This article considers the state of culture theory in the anthropology of Southeast Asia today, focusing on the themes of gender, marginality, violence, and the state. Culture is increasingly viewed as an attribute of the state—an object of state policy, an ideological zone for the exercise of state power, or literally a creation of the state—whereas the state itself is comprehended in ways analogous to totalizing models of culture.
TL;DR: The hypothesis that selection for nonnutrient ingestive behaviors was a compensatory mechanism for increasing antioxidants is presented within the context of a four-factor model on the origins of human medicine.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Ingested nutrients and nonnutrients are presented as determinants in human evolution. The amount and quality of energy, including fat, various foods supply are important criteria in governing selection. Oxidative stress associated with respiration of energy is a factor in the etiology of dietary diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and in aging. Evolutionary trends such as gains in brain and body sizes, greater ingestion of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol, heating of fatty food, and greater longevity increased oxidative stress while greater reliance on animals foods and less on plants decreased ingestion of exogenous antioxidants. The hypothesis that selection for nonnutrient ingestive behaviors was a compensatory mechanism for increasing antioxidants is presented within the context of a four-factor model on the origins of human medicine.
TL;DR: The authors reviewed issues in the linguistic study of US Latinos, with an emphasis on recent work in sociolinguistics, and discussed the need to connect linguistic variation with other aspects of semiotic meaning.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Issues in the linguistic study of US Latinos are reviewed, with an emphasis on recent work in sociolinguistics. Predominant models of language contact are evaluated, as are factors contributing to variation. Among these factors are (a) the state of changes in progress; (b) the complexity of historical, socioeconomic, and demographic conditions of US Latinos; (c) the community's degree of contact with other ethnic/linguistic groups; (d) language attitudes toward the matrix and embedded languages; (e) the local evaluation and patterns of use of particular variants; and (f) the possibility of autochthonous innovation within the dialect. Questions of US Latino participation in changes beyond those in their immediate communities are addressed. The need to connect linguistic variation with other aspects of semiotic meaning is emphasized.
TL;DR: The professionalization of archaeology in the late nineteenth century was linked to the growth of antiquities markets and the development of museums as institutions of education and social reproduction, and professional archaeologists moved into the universities in large numbers after World War II and then increasingly into the private sector after the mid-1970s as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract The professionalization of archaeology in the late nineteenth century was linked to the growth of antiquities markets and the development of museums as institutions of education and social reproduction. Professional archaeologists moved into the universities in large numbers after World War II and then increasingly into the private sector after the mid-1970s. In the United States, archaeologists currently confront a highly segmented labor market with significant wage and benefits differentials, and increasing numbers face marginal employment. At the same time, descendant communities and government regulations are transforming the ways by which archaeologists have traditionally conducted their investigations.
TL;DR: A critical literature on the ideological and discursive inventions of Africa by the West challenges the very possibility of Africanist anthropology, to which a variety of responses have emerged as discussed by the authors, ranging from historical reexaminations of imperial discourses, colonial interactions, and fieldwork in Africa, including dialogical engagements with the very production of ethnographic texts, to a more dialectical anthropology of colonial spectacle and culture as it was coproduced and reciprocally determined in imperial centers and peripheries.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract As an artifact of imperial culture, Africanist anthropology is historically associated with the colonization of Africa in ways that undermine the subdiscipline's claims of neutrality and objectivity. A critical literature on the ideological and discursive inventions of Africa by the West challenges the very possibility of Africanist anthropology, to which a variety of responses have emerged. These range from historical reexaminations of imperial discourses, colonial interactions, and fieldwork in Africa, including dialogical engagements with the very production of ethnographic texts, to a more dialectical anthropology of colonial spectacle and culture as it was coproduced and reciprocally determined in imperial centers and peripheries. Understood philologically, as an imperial palimpsest in ethnographic writing, the colonial legacy in Africanist ethnography can never be negated, but must be acknowledged under the sign of its erasure.
TL;DR: Grouping and group sizes of primates are explained with reference to effects of predation, defense of resources, and female defense against male infanticide, and nepotism is clearest among the philopatric males in chimpanzees.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Primatology in anthropology began with morphological comparisons of primates to reconstruct the evolution of humans. Naturalistic studies started in the mid-twentieth century and contributed to understanding the functions of morphological variations. Today, research in primatology employs the new paradigm of behavioral ecology and sociobiology for analysis and interpretation of variation in behavior and ecology. Grouping and group sizes of primates are explained with reference to effects of predation, defense of resources, and female defense against male infanticide. Primates avoid close consanguineous mating, usually by dispersal of males from the birthplace, though in bonobos and chimpanzees males are philopatric. In many primates, nepotistic relations among females are explained by kin selection operating on the philopatric sex. In chimpanzees, nepotism is clearest among the philopatric males. Sexual dimorphism, dominance hierarchies, intrasexual competition, and particularly infanticide by ...
TL;DR: This paper reviewed some of the major archeological research and resulting current debates that center around the nature of the formation of Islamic society in the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula from the seventh century AD through the later Middle Ages.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract This article reviews some of the major archeological research and resulting current debates that center around the nature of the formation of Islamic society in the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula from the seventh century AD through the later Middle Ages. Over the last two decades, archeology has played an increasingly important role in working out the details of how this great cultural transformation occurred and has led to considerable revision of historical interpretations of the medieval period in the western Mediterranean region. On a more general anthropological level, research in both regions presents a remarkable potential to contribute to the literature on the archeology of ethnicity, and to research into the impact of changing religion and ideology on such diverse areas of human activity as household organization, gender relations, settlement location and spatial organization, and ceramic production and distribution.
TL;DR: Optimality theory was introduced in the early 1990s as an alternative model of the organization of natural human language sound systems as mentioned in this paper, providing an introduction to the model for the nonlinguist.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Optimality theory was introduced in the early 1990s as an alternative model of the organization of natural human language sound systems. This article provides an introduction to the model for the nonlinguist. The basic principles of optimality theory are introduced and explained (GEN, CON, and EVAL). Three important constraint families are explored (Faithfulness, Alignment, and Markedness). Illustrations are provided involving syllabification and vowel harmony in Tibetan and prosodic phonotactics in Tonkawa. The article closes with two general discussions. The first addresses recurring issues in phonological and linguistic analysis and sketches how optimality theory might account for these. The second points out how the explanations arrived at through optimality theory are providing new answers to familiar questions, as well as raising new questions for study.