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Humans Unmasked: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Humans Unmasked: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Author(s): Arnaud Lambert

Edition: 4

Copyright: 2024

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ISBN 9798385133765

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Humans Unmasked is intended to provide students with an engaging introduction to the discipline of cultural anthropology as a distinct way to understand people in societies around the world and why they do the things they do. Students will explore how people make a living in very different (sometimes hostile) environments, how they organize themselves into various groups, how they communicate with one another, and how they make sense of the world around them. The approach of this introductory textbook is comparative and holistic in order to highlight major cultural patterns around the world and to help students contextualize different customs and patterns of human behavior they will learn about in class. Along the way, this textbook will also examine some of the historical, political and economic changes that have affected indigenous peoples over the last 500 years and the role that anthropologists can play in these processes of globalization.

New features of the fourth edition:

  • Expands coverage of historical linguistics, endangered languages, and sociolinguistics
  • Broadens the discussion of gender and sexuality in cross-cultural perspective
  • Includes a straight-forward discussion of how anthropologists create and use kinship charts
  • Discusses new ethnographic data on the lifestyles of foragers around the world, including the consequences of having worldviews based on animism and totemism
  • Provides more ethnographic examples of warfare and exchange systems in tribal societies and chiefdoms
  • Provides more in-depth coverage of variations in the political and economic organization of historic and prehistoric chiefdoms around the world
  • Provides more in-depth coverage of variations in the political and economic organization of chiefdoms
  • Uses “learning activity” boxes throughout the book in order to foster in-class discussions and active learning

SECTION I: The Study of Culture

Chapter 1 Introduction
What is anthropology?
Is anthropology a science?
How is anthropology different from other social science disciplines?
What are the guiding principles of anthropology?
Why is anthropology important?

Chapter 2 The Meaning of Culture
What is culture?
What are the main characteristics of culture?
What is the relationship between culture and society?
Do (non-human) Animals have culture?
Is cultural variation related to biological differences?
The problem of race and scientific racism
Are there cultural universals?

Chapter 3 Learning Culture – The Process of Enculturation
How does culture influence the way we behave?
Do human beings have instincts?
How does enculturation shape our mental development?
How does enculturation help us to understand different codes of sexual behavior?
What is deviance and in what sense is deviance relative to culture?

Chapter 4 Expressive Culture: Symbols and Language
Does culture have a symbolic basis?
How does culture shape the way we communicate?
What is language and how does it differ from other forms of animal communication?
What is the structure of language?
How do language vary?
How do languages change over time?
What is the relationship between language, culture and human cognition

Chapter 5 Making Sense of Culture: The Fieldwork Experience and Understanding Sociocultural Systems
What is fieldwork?
How is fieldwork carried out?
What are some of the challenges of fieldwork?
Are there other ways to study other culture?
What kinds of sociocultural variables do anthropologists study?
Where does anthropology come from?
Early anthropological theories of culture
Anthropological modernism: Classic theories of culture
Anthropological postmodernism: New Views of culture

SECTION II: Comparing Cultures

Chapter 6 Bands (Hunting-Gathering Societies)
What are the main sociocultural features of foraging bands?
Do foraging bands represent the earliest form of human society?
How do foraging bands control population growth?
Are bands communistic?
Do bands represent the original affluent society?
In what sense are foraging bands egalitarian?
What is the status of women in foraging societies?
How are bands organized?
Do Bands have conflicts and wars?
Do bands have religion and art?

Chapter 7 Tribal Societies
What are the main sociocultural features of tribal societies?
How do tribes maintain their populations?
Why do some tribes use money and emphasize private ownership?
How do these economic patterns influence the way tribes are organized?
Why are some tribes organized in terms of age-grades?
What is the status of women in tribal societies?
What role do leaders play in tribal societies?
Why is warfare more common among tribes than foraging bands?
How do tribes maintain order?
How do tribal religions and art differ from the religions and art of bands?

Chapter 8 Chiefdoms: Ranked Societies
What are the main sociocultural features of chiefdoms?
Why do chiefdoms have large populations?
What is the purpose economic redistribution in chiefdoms?
Why are chiefdoms characterized by social inequality?
How does the political authority of chiefs in chiefdoms differ from patterns of leadership in bands and tribes?
Does religion have a political function in chiefdoms?

Chapter 9 Agricultural States
What are the main sociocultural features of agricultural states?
 How did state societies develop?
What is the relationship between agriculture and state-level societies?
How do state economies function?
How are state societies organized?
How do religions reflect the structure of states?
Why do some state collapse?

Chapter 10 Industrial and Post-Industrial States
What are the main sociocultural features of industrial and post-industrial states?
How did the commercial, scientific, and industrial revolutions alter agricultural states?
Why did early industrial states experience rapid urbanization and then a demographic transition?
How are the economies of industrial and post-industrial states different from those of agricultural states?
How has industrialization affected family life, notions of descent, and the status of the aged?
Has industrialization undermined patriarchy?
How does social stratification in industrial and post-industrial states differ from stratification in agricultural states?
How has industrialization affected the nature of war?
What role does religion play in industrial and post-industrial states?

SECTION III: Culture Change and Globalization

Chapter 11 Colonialism, the World System, and Globalization
What is colonialism and how has it impacted indigenous cultures?
How did colonialism lead to the contemporary world system?
What is globalization?
How has globalization impacted indigenous peoples?
How have indigenous peoples resisted culture change and globalization?

Chapter 12 Applied Anthropology
What is applied anthropology?
What roles do anthropologists play in planning culture change?
Can we reconcile human rights and cultural relativism?

Glossary
Bibliography

Arnaud Lambert
Arnaud F. Lambert (BA, University of Rhode Island, 1996; MA, University of Iowa, 1999; PhD, Brandeis University, 2011) is professor of anthropology at Onondaga Community College where he has taught since 2007. Although his graduate training was primarily in cultural anthropology and archaeology, Professor Lambert has maintained a strong commitment to the four sub-fields of general anthropology throughout his career. Before coming to Onondaga, he taught courses in anthropology and sociology at a number of community colleges and universities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Professor Lambert has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the United States and archaeological fieldwork in both Mexico (2005) and Guatemala (2009). His general interests include the anthropology of religion, ancient writing systems, material culture studies, the origins of complex societies, rock art research, and Mesoamerican (particularly Olmec) studies. His research has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals such as Mexicon, Expression, Rock Art Research, American Indian Rock Art, and Adoranten among others.

Humans Unmasked is intended to provide students with an engaging introduction to the discipline of cultural anthropology as a distinct way to understand people in societies around the world and why they do the things they do. Students will explore how people make a living in very different (sometimes hostile) environments, how they organize themselves into various groups, how they communicate with one another, and how they make sense of the world around them. The approach of this introductory textbook is comparative and holistic in order to highlight major cultural patterns around the world and to help students contextualize different customs and patterns of human behavior they will learn about in class. Along the way, this textbook will also examine some of the historical, political and economic changes that have affected indigenous peoples over the last 500 years and the role that anthropologists can play in these processes of globalization.

New features of the fourth edition:

  • Expands coverage of historical linguistics, endangered languages, and sociolinguistics
  • Broadens the discussion of gender and sexuality in cross-cultural perspective
  • Includes a straight-forward discussion of how anthropologists create and use kinship charts
  • Discusses new ethnographic data on the lifestyles of foragers around the world, including the consequences of having worldviews based on animism and totemism
  • Provides more ethnographic examples of warfare and exchange systems in tribal societies and chiefdoms
  • Provides more in-depth coverage of variations in the political and economic organization of historic and prehistoric chiefdoms around the world
  • Provides more in-depth coverage of variations in the political and economic organization of chiefdoms
  • Uses “learning activity” boxes throughout the book in order to foster in-class discussions and active learning

SECTION I: The Study of Culture

Chapter 1 Introduction
What is anthropology?
Is anthropology a science?
How is anthropology different from other social science disciplines?
What are the guiding principles of anthropology?
Why is anthropology important?

Chapter 2 The Meaning of Culture
What is culture?
What are the main characteristics of culture?
What is the relationship between culture and society?
Do (non-human) Animals have culture?
Is cultural variation related to biological differences?
The problem of race and scientific racism
Are there cultural universals?

Chapter 3 Learning Culture – The Process of Enculturation
How does culture influence the way we behave?
Do human beings have instincts?
How does enculturation shape our mental development?
How does enculturation help us to understand different codes of sexual behavior?
What is deviance and in what sense is deviance relative to culture?

Chapter 4 Expressive Culture: Symbols and Language
Does culture have a symbolic basis?
How does culture shape the way we communicate?
What is language and how does it differ from other forms of animal communication?
What is the structure of language?
How do language vary?
How do languages change over time?
What is the relationship between language, culture and human cognition

Chapter 5 Making Sense of Culture: The Fieldwork Experience and Understanding Sociocultural Systems
What is fieldwork?
How is fieldwork carried out?
What are some of the challenges of fieldwork?
Are there other ways to study other culture?
What kinds of sociocultural variables do anthropologists study?
Where does anthropology come from?
Early anthropological theories of culture
Anthropological modernism: Classic theories of culture
Anthropological postmodernism: New Views of culture

SECTION II: Comparing Cultures

Chapter 6 Bands (Hunting-Gathering Societies)
What are the main sociocultural features of foraging bands?
Do foraging bands represent the earliest form of human society?
How do foraging bands control population growth?
Are bands communistic?
Do bands represent the original affluent society?
In what sense are foraging bands egalitarian?
What is the status of women in foraging societies?
How are bands organized?
Do Bands have conflicts and wars?
Do bands have religion and art?

Chapter 7 Tribal Societies
What are the main sociocultural features of tribal societies?
How do tribes maintain their populations?
Why do some tribes use money and emphasize private ownership?
How do these economic patterns influence the way tribes are organized?
Why are some tribes organized in terms of age-grades?
What is the status of women in tribal societies?
What role do leaders play in tribal societies?
Why is warfare more common among tribes than foraging bands?
How do tribes maintain order?
How do tribal religions and art differ from the religions and art of bands?

Chapter 8 Chiefdoms: Ranked Societies
What are the main sociocultural features of chiefdoms?
Why do chiefdoms have large populations?
What is the purpose economic redistribution in chiefdoms?
Why are chiefdoms characterized by social inequality?
How does the political authority of chiefs in chiefdoms differ from patterns of leadership in bands and tribes?
Does religion have a political function in chiefdoms?

Chapter 9 Agricultural States
What are the main sociocultural features of agricultural states?
 How did state societies develop?
What is the relationship between agriculture and state-level societies?
How do state economies function?
How are state societies organized?
How do religions reflect the structure of states?
Why do some state collapse?

Chapter 10 Industrial and Post-Industrial States
What are the main sociocultural features of industrial and post-industrial states?
How did the commercial, scientific, and industrial revolutions alter agricultural states?
Why did early industrial states experience rapid urbanization and then a demographic transition?
How are the economies of industrial and post-industrial states different from those of agricultural states?
How has industrialization affected family life, notions of descent, and the status of the aged?
Has industrialization undermined patriarchy?
How does social stratification in industrial and post-industrial states differ from stratification in agricultural states?
How has industrialization affected the nature of war?
What role does religion play in industrial and post-industrial states?

SECTION III: Culture Change and Globalization

Chapter 11 Colonialism, the World System, and Globalization
What is colonialism and how has it impacted indigenous cultures?
How did colonialism lead to the contemporary world system?
What is globalization?
How has globalization impacted indigenous peoples?
How have indigenous peoples resisted culture change and globalization?

Chapter 12 Applied Anthropology
What is applied anthropology?
What roles do anthropologists play in planning culture change?
Can we reconcile human rights and cultural relativism?

Glossary
Bibliography

Arnaud Lambert
Arnaud Lambert
Arnaud F. Lambert (BA, University of Rhode Island, 1996; MA, University of Iowa, 1999; PhD, Brandeis University, 2011) is professor of anthropology at Onondaga Community College where he has taught since 2007. Although his graduate training was primarily in cultural anthropology and archaeology, Professor Lambert has maintained a strong commitment to the four sub-fields of general anthropology throughout his career. Before coming to Onondaga, he taught courses in anthropology and sociology at a number of community colleges and universities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Professor Lambert has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the United States and archaeological fieldwork in both Mexico (2005) and Guatemala (2009). His general interests include the anthropology of religion, ancient writing systems, material culture studies, the origins of complex societies, rock art research, and Mesoamerican (particularly Olmec) studies. His research has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals such as Mexicon, Expression, Rock Art Research, American Indian Rock Art, and Adoranten among others.