Biological anthropology

Abstract: Anthropology, with its dual emphasis on biology and culture, is--or should be--the discipline most suited to the study of the complex interactions between these aspects of our lives. Unfortunately, since the early decades of this century, biological and cultural anthropology have grown distinct, and a holistic vision of anthropology has suffered. This book brings culture and biology back together in new and refreshing ways. Directly addressing earlier criticisms of biological anthropology, Building a New Biocultural Synthesis concerns how culture and political economy affect human biology--e.g., people's nutritional status, the spread of disease, exposure to pollution--and how biological consequences might then have further effects on cultural, social, and economic systems. Contributors to the volume offer case studies on health, nutrition, and violence among prehistoric and historical peoples in the Americas; theoretical chapters on nonracial approaches to human variation and the development of critical, humanistic and political ecological approaches in biocultural anthropology; and explorations of biological conditions in contemporary societies in relationship to global changes. Building a New Biocultural Synthesis will sharpen and enrich the relevance of anthropology for understanding a wide variety of struggles to cope with and combat persistent human suffering. It should appeal to all anthropologists and be of interest to sister disciplines such as nutrition and sociology. Alan H. Goodman is Professor of Anthropology, Hampshire College. Thomas L. Leatherman is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of South Carolina.

Abstract: Part 1 Physical anthropology: organic evolution the human pedigree and human nature the first hominids the origins of "homo sapiens" race, human variation, and the force of evolution. Part 2 Language and culture: the nature of culture language. Part 3 Archaeology and prehistory: the old world paleolithic the neolithic and the rise of the states the second earth. Part 4 Infrastructure: production reproduction. Part 5 Structure: economic organization domestic life kinship, locality, and descent law, order, and war in prestate societies the political economy of chiefdoms and states stratified groups gender and hierarchy sexuality. Part 6 Superstructure: personality and culture religion art. Part 7 Anthropology and modern life: applied anthropology the antrhopology of a hyperindustrial society. Appendix: a history of theories of culture.

Abstract: ‘Show me your teeth and I will tell you who you are’, Baron Georges Cuvier, the great eighteenth–nineteenth century zoologist and anatomist, is supposed to have said. This comment was really in the context of comparative anatomy, and refers to Cuvier's delight in reconstructing whole extinct animals from fossil fragments of their dentitions, but it will do just as well for human teeth. For anthropologists studying archaeological, fossil and forensic remains, the teeth are possibly the most valuable source of evidence in understanding the biology of ancient communities, following the course of evolution and identifying an individual from their fragmentary remains. Dental anthropology might therefore be defined as a study of people (and their close relatives) from the evidence provided by teeth. Teeth have a distinct anatomy and physiology, all their own and wholly different to the biology of the skeleton, and teeth are also unique amongst the resistant parts of archaeological and fossil remains in having been exposed on the surface of the body throughout life. Dental anthropology can therefore be studied in the mouths of living people, using much the same techniques as are employed for ancient remains. It is thus not surprising that practising dentists have always been prominent amongst dental anthropologists, with anatomists and other oral biologists from schools of dentistry, in addition to researchers whose training lies more in biological anthropology. The exposure of teeth in the living mouth is also very useful when training anthropologists, as everyone carries their own reference material with them – students can just open their mouths and look in a mirror.