Animals
Taxonomically, animals belong to the kingdom Animalia, which is one of several kingdoms of living beings. Although there is disagreement on how to best classify the various forms of life on Earth, other major groups of living beings include the bacteria, protists, fungi, and plants. The traits that define the kingdom Animalia are Mobility. With few exceptions, such as the sea lily class Crinoidea , animals are able to freely move about their habitats and are not attached to a substrate....
Agricultural Revolution
The agricultural revolution is a notion applied to a wide spectrum of new kinds of human activities and a variety of new forms of social and cultural life resulting from the practice of soil cultivation, cattle breeding, and livestock raising. In some cases, it could be understood as opposition to the Neolithic revolution concept, proposed in the 1920s by W. G. Childe in order to characterize the origin of self-sufficient societies that produce their food. Such understanding emphasizes a...
About The Editor
H. James Birx PhD, DSci is Professor of Anthropology at Canisius College. He received his MA in anthropology and his PhD with distinction in philosophy from SUNY University at Buffalo. Dr. Birx has twice been an invited Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and has lectured worldwide at universities from Australia to Russia, including Oxford, Princeton, and Yale. His research has taken him from the Galapagos Islands and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center to Koobi Fora in Kenya, Africa and the State...
Major Contributors
The term aesthetics was first used in 1735 by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, a German philosopher who separated the study of knowledge into two subgroups logic as the study of abstract ideas and aesthetics as the study of how feelings influence sensory perception. The topic itself is much older, having been explored by ancient Greek philosophers. Plato 427-347 bc believed that true reality exists in perfect forms of concepts like good, beauty, triangle, and so on. People and objects can at best...
Zuni Indians Evolution
Adaptation, biological Ape biogeography Aquatic ape hypothesis Arboreal hypothesis Ardrey, Robert Australopithecines Biological anthropology Biological anthropology and neo-Darwinism Black, Davidson Brain, evolution of primate Catastrophism Cladistics Creationism versus geology Darrow, Clarence Dart, Raymond A. Darwin and Germany Darwin and India Darwin and Italy Darwin, Charles Darwinism versus Lamarckism Darwinism, modern Darwinism, social Dawkins, Richard Dennett, Daniel C. Diamond, Jared...
Anthropic Principle
The anthropic or, literally, human-centered principle entails several propositions, all focusing on the relationship, if any, between the natural physical universe and the existence of human beings in this universe. It grew out of discussions in astronomy and cosmology, where some argued that the existence of life in the universe automatically set constraints on how the universe could possibly exist and how it got to be this way since the Big Bang. There are several versions of the argument....
The New World
with their status in a hierarchy, with a chief at the top and slaves at the bottom. During the nomadic summer hunting seasons, a hole would be dug at their choice of camp for sleeping, and woven mats of grass would be used to cover the ground or for blankets. Their parkas would be laid on top of the mats for warmth and insulation. Parkas were made from the fur of walrus, seals, caribou, bear, and bird skins. Waterproof overshirts were made from sewn strips of walrus intestines. There was no...
Animism
The ultimate source of the term animism is the Latin word, anima, meaning spirit, soul, or life force. In contemporary anthropology, animism is the generic term for numerous and diverse religions focused on the belief that nature includes spirits, sacred forces, and similar extraordinary phenomena. This is reflected in the classic minimal definition of religion, a belief in spiritual beings, that was originally formulated by the famous British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor in his 1871...
Alchemy
The last few decades have seen the growth of a vigorous research program investigating alchemy and a subsequent increase in our understanding of how it functioned both in late antiquity and early Europe. The ultimate origins of alchemy, however, are still obscure. Different scholars place its genesis either in Egypt, India, or China. In fact, the difficulties posed by a historical field of study that spans three continents and nearly two millennia are increasingly leading students to speak in...
CulturalSocial Anthropology
Aborigines Adaptation, cultural Agricultural revolution Agriculture, intensive Agriculture, slash-and-burn Aleuts Cultural conservation Cultural constraints Cultural convergence Cultural ecology Cultural relativism Cultural traits Cultural tree of life Culture Culture and personality Culture area concept Culture change Culture of poverty Culture shock Culture, characteristics of Cyberculture controversy Diffusionism Dowry El Ceren Elders Emics Endogamy Eskimo acculturation Eskimos Ethnocentrism...
Is Altruism Natural
In the interpersonal relation to the Other, is the human being naturally inclined to altruism or to egoism This crucial question, from which depends largely the definition of the most appropriate ethical theory, has to be answered according to David Hume 1711-1776 , only after a systematic research on human nature, inspired by natural science. The evolutionist thesis concerning human species expressed by Charles Darwin 1809-1882 has been used therefore as a foundation for the theories...
ResearchTheoretical Frameworks
Anthropic principle Anthropocentrism Anthropology and business Anthropology and epistemology Anthropology and sociology Anthropology of men Anthropology of religion Anthropology of women Anthropology, characteristics of Anthropology, humanistic Anthropology, philosophical Anthropology, subdivisions of Anthropology, theory in Anthropomorphism Ape biogeography Apollonian Aquatic ape hypothesis Arboreal hypothesis Architectural anthropology Art, universals in Artificial life Big bang theory...
Central Algonquian
The Shawnee frequently relocated but lived mainly in Oklahoma. Sauk-Fox was spoken in central Oklahoma and on the Kansas-Nebraska boundary. Kickapoo was spoken in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Coahuila, A list of Algonquian languages arranged within the three general North American locations. Eastern Algonquian Micmac Mi'kmaq Maliseet Malecite Passamaquoddy Etchemin Caniba, Aroosagunticook, Pigwacket Western Abenaki Abnaki St.Francis Loup A Nipmuck Loup B North Shore, Natick, Wampanoag...
Agriculture Intensive
Agricultural intensification can affect any of the inputs of an agricultural system the crops planted, the labor expended, and the productivity exacted from the land. It can be driven by increasing population relative to the land available or by changes in market prices and demand for crops. It can result in dramatic investments in and transformations of the landscape, and it can be accompanied by, but will not necessarily result in, intensive social change. There are several ways of...
Theories and Premises
One of the earliest explanations of the origin of agriculture was proposed by G. Childe, in his idea of Neolithic revolution. According to Childe, drought and supply shortage stimulated food production in oases. Later, demographic agency has been put forward as a necessary background of transition to the productive economy L. Binford , alongside a wide spectrum of social and ecological factors R. Braidwood, K. Flannery, C. Renfrew, V. Masson, V. Shnirelman, L. White, and many others . Today,...
African American Thought
African American thought has been uniquely influenced by the African love of nature, cruelties of aggression, and an increasing need to adapt to hostile environments and to contribute creatively to overcome the challenges of new worlds, civilizations, and lifestyles tremendously different from the African ancestral heritage. The resistance of Africans to the hardships of life in the new world, including enslavement, sexual exploitation, and cultural genocide was strongly articulated in the...
New Contemporary Expressions of Altruism
We would like to conclude here by mentioning that during the last half of the 20th century, new expressions of altruism emerged. As communications and means of transfer have greatly developed, news about victims of natural disasters, diseases, transgressions of human rights, or armed conflicts travel around the globe quickly. We remark that many associations or individuals around the world show a great sensibility and eagerness to assist, in various ways, their fellow humans in need. We might...
The Parthenon
Built around 440 BC and dedicated to the city's patron goddess Athena Parthenos, the Parthenon's creators were Pericles, the Athenian sculptor Pheidias, and architects Kallikrates and Iktinos. The cella or center of the temple was designed to shelter Pheidias's statue of Athena. On four sides of the Parthenon, a frieze of the Procession of the Panathenaea, one of ancient Athens's most holy religious festivals, depicts the figures of more than 300 human beings as well as gods and beasts in...
The Erechtheion
Built about 20 years after the Parthenon, the Erechtheion sits on a sacred site of the Acropolis, the site where Greek legend claims the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon-Erechtheus battled over which would be the patron of the city. Athena won. The Erechtheion's main temple was divided so that Athenians could worship both Athena and Poseidon. The monument's most famous feature is the porch of the Caryatids or maidens, in which statues of maidens border the porch's perimeter. One of these was...
African Americans
The quest for equality among African Americans has always been difficult, and some may argue with good reason that our present-day society has much further to go in reaching a semblance of equity for this minority group in American society. A casual perusal of economic, social, and political situations in the United States makes this quite evident. African Americans are unique in a number of ways. Their skin color distinguishes them from other citizens, and their history is distinct in that...
Anthropology and Business
Business and industry are fundamental ways of organizing economic activity to meet basic human needs in modern market societies. Business means the buying and selling of goods and services in the marketplace also known as commerce or trade , while industry refers to the organized production of goods and services on a large scale. When we use these terms in the anthropological context for example, business or industrial anthropology , we may refer to one or more of the three major domains of...
The Fragmentation of Industrial Anthropology in Academe
After the demise of the Human Relations School, industrial anthropology splintered into several branches, the principal ones being 1 Marxist and neoMarxist critiques of industry at home and abroad, 2 the ethnography of industrial occupations and professions, and 3 the study of industrialization processes outside the West. Academic anthropologists who did not practice inside corporations, but studied them from the outside, at a distance, were responsible for much of the research and conceptual...
Altamira Cave
Often called the Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic Art, the prehistoric Altamira Cave contains paintings and artifacts dating from 18,000 to 13,000 years ago BP . Located on Monte Vispieres in Cantabria, Northern Spain, it was first explored in 1879 by Don Marcelino Sanz de Santuola. Early controversy raged over the age of the site, as many doubted that prehistoric humans could produce such sophisticated art however, its significance was recognized by the early 1900s, and Altamira Cave was listed...
Major Culture Regions
Marking the ecological and cultural transition between the Andes and the Amazon, the monta a region is characterized by specious forests that support complex swidden horticultural systems and subsistence economies that stress the importance of hunting. Bitter manioc is absent from the monta a, although sweet varieties yucca are present. The area is populated by numerous localized language families, such as Panoan and Jivaroan, as well as many linguistic isolates. The monta a region serves an...
Components
Depending on the choice of approach, various combinations of the following four empirical components are used a samples, taken in a local population of a species, of individual variants in a set of pheno-typic traits known or thought to affect a specified vital activity, such as getting food or obtaining mates b samples of proximate effects performances of these variants, whether functional or otherwise c a quantitative optimality model of one or a combination of traits and corresponding...
Foreword
When Dr. H. James Birx, the editor of the Encyclopedia of Anthropology, and I first met over lunch in a restaurant near the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, we discovered that, in addition to our commitment to anthropology, we both have a passion for Charles Darwin and the profound way that his writings have permeated the fabric of Western science and culture. At that lunch, James proposed that I write the foreword to the encyclopedia, a foreword that relates to my life in anthropology....
Advisory Board
Carleton University, Trent University Rochester Museum amp Science Center University of California at Berkeley
Key Beliefs
The core organizing principle for Amish society is their religion, which is embedded in every aspect of their lives. Amish behavior is guided by a number of key principles. Perhaps the most important of these is Gelassenheit, which roughly translates as acting with humility and simplicity at all times. The Amish believe that true grace can best be achieved by living in isolation from the temptations of the non-Amish world. Separation from the world is fostered by the utilization of symbols,...
List Of Entries
Aborigines Acheulean culture Acropolis Action anthropology Adaptation, biological Adaptation, cultural Aesthetic appreciation Affirmative action Africa, socialist schools in African American thought African Americans African thinkers Aggression Ape aggression Agricultural revolution Agriculture, intensive Agriculture, origins of Agriculture, slash-and-burn Alchemy Alienation Altamira cave Altruism Amazonia Amish Anasazi Ancestor worship Angkor Wat Animals Animatism Animism Anthropic principle...
Affirmative Action
Just as with many phrases, affirmative action can mean different things to different people. Not only do we find a difference in definition, but we find a difference among people in how they view it. Perhaps an individual's view of affirmative action is sometimes affected by how it personally affects that person or someone close to that person. It is understandable that if one is personally helped by its presence, a person might be inclined to be in favor of it. Of course, if one believes that...
Other Displays of the Agricultural Revolution
The gradual transition from hunter-gatherers to an agricultural mode of life was accompanied by changes in human morphology. This is displayed in the modification of facial and postcranial connected with the consumption of boiled instead of roasted food , the degradation of human dens because of lack of necessity to chew fresh vegetation , and many diseases and epidemics connected with a stationary mode of life that included constant contact with animals. Alongside the weakening of the human...
The Other to Which Altruism Is Addressed
Altruism is manifest in interpersonal relations. We think that it is appropriate to first develop a little further the crucial notion of the Other toward whom one may behave altruistically. According to evolutional psychology, the notion of Other or alterity develops progressively for the human being as the latter defines more and more the limits of its own self its sameness . It is through our relationship with the Other that we are able to survive physically in our youngest age and to learn...
Chronology
Abu Simbel, Pyramids, Ramses II, Rosetta Stone, Egypt Born Confucius, Chinese philosopher Asia, Confucianism, Daoism, Great Wall of China Born Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher and author of The History of Animals Acropolis,Animals, Aristotle, Naturalism, Teleology Born Titus Lucretius Carus, ancient Roman philosopher and author of On the Nature ofThings Published Systema Naturae by Carolus Linnaeus Carolus Linnaeus, Pongids, Primate taxonomy Discovered Rosetta Stone in the Nile delta, west...
Ancestor Worship
Ancestor worship is often referred to as the ancestral cult, namely, a set of religious beliefs and ritual practices that commemorates the continued existence of the deceased ancestor beyond death. The rites of this cult are meant to cater to the needs of the diseased in the afterlife. The beliefs of this cult center on the ability of the dead to protect kinsmen in return for worship from them. Reciprocity between the living and the dead is the key to ancestor worship. Two forms of ancestor...
Contributors
Canisius College and SUNY Geneseo A. Lynn Bolles University of Northern British Columbia National Center for Science Education Carleton University and Trent University Institute ofArchaeology University College London England University of Florida, Gainesville Bill Cooke California State University, Hayward Central Connecticut State University Georgia College and State University Orangutan Foundation International, and Simon Fraser University California State University, Long Beach National...
Conversion Chart
1 meter per second 1 kilometer per hour 0.04 inch in 0.40 inch in 39.40 inches in 3.28 feet ft 1.09 yards yd 0.62 mile mi 0.16 square inch in2 10.77 square feet ft2 1.20 square yards yd2 0.39 square mile mi2 107,636 square feet ft2 2.5 acres ac 0.061 cubic inch in3 1.31 cubic yards yd3 35.31 cubic feet ft3 2.8 bushels bu 0.035 fluid ounce Imp 1.76 pints Imp 0.88 quart Imp 0.26 U.S. gallon U.S.gal 0.22 Imperial gallons gal 0.035 ounce oz 2.21 pounds lb 1.10 short tons 2,205 pounds lb 3.28 feet...
Africa Socialist Schools in
The African concern for the state and society socioeconomic and political advancement led to the consideration of both capitalist and socialist paths of development, which brought about a wealth of anthropological studies on precapitalist forms of the social organization, colonialist policies innovating the society, and the challenges of postindependence times to carry out sustainable development by the new states. African socialist thought incorporated the African supernatural values,...
Angkor Wat Anthropology
King Jayavarman II founded Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, in the 9th century AD in northeastern Cambodia. Angkor reached its peak of development in the 12 th century under the rule of Kings Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII. Angkor Wat is a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and is the most well-known building in the complex despite the fact that it is only 1 of approximately 100 temples spread throughout 40 miles of jungle. The city of Angkor was planned and constructed to...
The Amazonian Environment
Historical documents and archaeological evidence suggest that densely populated settlements once spanned the varzea regions fostering ongoing debate over the nature of prehistoric and historic chiefdoms in the Amazon. The majority of contemporary indigenous societies, however, live within the upland regions of the Amazon. Emilio Moran's 1993 book Through Amazonian Eyes The Human Ecology of Amazonian Populations carefully documents the internal variety of ecosystems in both the varzea and terra...
Algonquians
Algonquian is a linguistic term that describes the language family belonging specifically to a large number of North American Native nations. The Algonquian linguistic family is believed to have originated from a Proto-Algonquian parent language spoken as far back as 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. The area in which it originated is thought to have been located between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario. The Proto-language has since then developed into many variations as a consequence of migration...
Occupations and Professions
While many Marxist and neo-Marxist anthropologists followed the activities of industrial workers who were largely deskilled, other anthropologists in the decades between 1960 and 1980 focused their attention on members of industrial occupations or professions whose remaining or continuing skills afforded them a place of status and distinction within the work context. Members of occupations or professions often have characteristics that parallel those found in small-scale societies, such as a...
Introduction
Anthropology is the study of humankind in terms of scientific inquiry and logical presentation. It strives for a comprehensive and coherent view of our own species within dynamic nature, organic evolution, and socio-cultural development. The discipline consists of five major, interrelated areas physical biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural social anthropology, linguistics, and applied anthropology. The anthropological quest aims for a better understanding of and proper appreciation...
Geographic Definition
Amazonia as a geographic region is named for its major river, the Amazon, the world's largest river by water volume. The term Amazon refers to the female warriors of Greek mythology, who were associated with fabulous accounts of indigenous warriors along the banks of the named river. The river's headwaters are located in the Andean mountains, and the principal channel drains east into the Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon River is approximately the same length 6,400-6,800 kilometers as the Nile and,...
Development of Amazonian Anthropology
Principle of Social Organization, was influential in establishing the importance of affinal categories to Amazonian societies. The dialectical nature of Amazonian societies was also explored by David Maybury-Lewis in his 1979 edited volume, Dialectical Societies The Ge and Bororo of Central Brazil. North American anthropology was also influenced during the late 1970s by contemporary transformations in the Boasian tradition and the growing influence of European schools. Emphasis shifted away...
Globalization to Present
The last two decades of the 20th century witnessed a transformation of capitalist economies, marked by increasing global flows of goods and services, worldwide deregulation, and the diffusion of converging information and telecommunications technologies together, this is sometimes known as globalization. These factors have acted in concert with other important socioeconomic trends, including rising per capita incomes in industrialized and newly industrializing countries and shifts in the...
Alienation
Alienation refers to the process by which individuals become disconnected or divorced from their social worlds. It also operates on a broader societal level when the very forces created by human beings appear to be separate and alien from their creators. The concept is commonly used by economic and political anthropologists questioning the conditions of modernity. Alienation is frequently used in anthropological analyses to describe the general state of estrangement that human beings may feel...
The Propylaea
Pheidias's associate, the architect Mnesicles, built the Propylaea, a monumental gateway entrance to the Acropolis just before the beginning of the Peloponnesian wars. It consisted of a central structure and two wings, with one wing serving as an art gallery. The Propylaea's massive colonnades faced the east and west, and two rows of columns divided the central corridor. Its coffered ceiling was complete with painted decoration. Earthquakes, fires, bombs, vandalism, and war have, through the...
The Human Relations Movement
Ironically, Warner and his colleagues did not have further opportunity to continue their studies at Hawthorne during the 1930s. This was the result of two developments. First, the Hawthorne researchers followed up on the BWOR study by initiating a program of psychological counseling with workers that they believed would contribute to industrial peace. No further studies of social interaction on the shop floor were conducted while industrial psychology as a field expanded . Second, as the Great...
Aggression
Aggression is simply defined as Any form of behavior directed toward the goal of harming another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment. Aggression is most commonly studied in its application to humans and may include both verbal confrontations and physical gestures. Singular aggression between two humans is the most typical form of aggression found in the social world. The most destructive occurrence of aggression is found in warfare between sovereign nations. Numerous studies...
Readers Guide
This list classifies main entries and sidebars into these categories Applied Anthropology, Archaeology, Biography, Cultural Social Anthropology, Evolution, Geography Geology, Linguistics, Paleontology, Philosophy, Psychology, Physical Biological Anthropology, Religion Theology, Sociology, Research Theoretical Frameworks. Some entries may appear in more than one category. Binford, Lewis Roberts Bingham, Hiram Blombos cave Lascaux cave Lazaret cave Leakey, Mary D. Levalloisian tradition Llano...