Human Origins: Contributions from Social Anthropology

Published by Berghahn Books 2016

Human Origins

Contributions from Social Anthropology

Edited by: Camilla Power , Morna Finnegan and Hilary Callan

Volume 30 in the series Methodology & History in Anthropology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785333798

Overview
Contents

About this book

Human Origins brings together new thinking by social anthropologists and other scholars on the evolution of human culture and society. No other discipline has more relevant expertise to consider the emergence of humans as the symbolic species. Yet, social anthropologists have been conspicuously absent from debates about the origins of modern humans. These contributions explore why that is, and how social anthropology can shed light on early kinship and economic relations, gender politics, ritual, cosmology, ethnobiology, medicine, and the evolution of language.

Author / Editor information

Camilla Power is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of East London. Her research has focused on the evolutionary emergence of symbolic culture, language, art and religion.

Morna Finnegan is an independent researcher who has published on the sexual egalitarianism of Central African hunter-gatherers, with a particular focus on the relationship between ritual and political domains.

Hilary Callan is Director Emerita of the Royal Anthropological Institute, having served as Director from 2000 to 2010. She has held various academic positions in anthropology and international education.

Camilla Power is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of East London. Her research has focused on the evolutionary emergence of symbolic culture, language, art and religion.

Reviews

“As a biological anthropologist, I welcomed the opportunity to read this book, and found it to be thoughtful and relevant to my work and interests. I will certainly encourage my colleagues to read it.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)

“…makes a substantial contribution to what Alan Barnard in his afterword refers to as ‘a new configuration of anthropological ideas,’ a ‘larger’ and more comprehensive anthropology. The volume's two major goals are to reengage social anthropology with research on human origins and, in so doing, to apply insights from sociocultural studies to evolutionary interpretations of symbolic culture, sociality, and cultural variation.” • Choice

“This work provides an important link between social anthropology and evolutionary anthropology, developing a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding human origins.” • Dimitri Bondarenko, The Russian Academy of Sciences

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
ILLUSTRATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION Camilla Power, Morna Finnegan and Hilary Callan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 FORTY YEARS ON: BIOSOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVISITED Hilary Callan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Chapter 2 RETHINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDIES OF ETHNOBIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN CULTURAL COGNITION Roy Ellen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Chapter 3 TOWARDS A THEORY OF EVERYTHING Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
Chapter 4 SEXUAL INSULT AND FEMALE MILITANCY Shirley G. Ardener Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Chapter 5 WHO SEES THE ELEPHANT? SEXUAL EGALITARIANISM IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY’S ROOM Morna Finnegan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Chapter 6 FROM METAPHOR TO SYMBOLS AND GRAMMAR: THE CUMULATIVE CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE Andrew D.M. Smith and Stefan Hoefler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Chapter 7 RECONSTRUCTING A SOURCE COSMOLOGY FOR AFRICAN HUNTER-GATHERERS Camilla Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
Chapter 8 SOUNDS IN THE NIGHT: RITUAL BELLS, THERIANTHROPES AND ELAND RELATIONS AMONG THE HADZA Thea Skaanes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
Chapter 9 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, SAN SHAMANIC HEALING AND THE ‘COGNITIVE REVOLUTION’ Chris Low Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
Chapter 10 RAIN SERPENTS IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTHERN AFRICA: A COMMON ANCESTRY? Ian Watts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	248
Chapter 11 BEDOUIN MATRILINEALITY REVISITED Suzanne E. Joseph Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	272
Chapter 12 ‘FROM LUCY TO LANGUAGE: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SOCIAL BRAIN’ AN OPEN INVITATION FOR SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY TO JOIN THE EVOLUTIONARY DEBATE Wendy James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
AFTERWORD Alan Barnard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 364
Keywords: Anthropology (General)

eBook

Published: December 1, 2016
ISBN: 9781785333798