cultural APPRECIATING
anthropology
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
SEVENTEENTH EDITION
Conrad Phillip Kottak
University of Michigan
contents in brief
List of Boxes xvi
About the Author xviii
Preface xx
PA R T 1 Introduction to Anthropology
1 WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY? 1
2 CULTURE 17
3 METHOD AND THEORY IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 35
PA R T 2 Appreciating Cultural Diversity
4 APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY 60
5 LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION 79
6 ETHNICITY AND RACE 101
7 MAKING A LIVING 129
8 POLITICAL SYSTEMS 152
9 GENDER 175
10 FAMILIES, KINSHIP, AND DESCENT 198
11 MARRIAGE 216
12 RELIGION 235
13 ARTS, MEDIA, AND SPORTS 254
PA R T 3 The Changing World
14 THE WORLD SYSTEM, COLONIALISM, AND INEQUALITY 278
15 ANTHROPOLOGY’S ROLE IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD 300
Glossary 319
Bibliography 325
Index 342
v
contents
List of Boxes xvi
About the Author xviii
Preface xx
1 What Is Anthropology? 1
INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
General Anthropology 4
The Subdisciplines of Anthropology 6
Cultural Anthropology 6
Anthropological Archaeology 6
FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: World Events 7
Biological Anthropology 8
Linguistic Anthropology 8
Applied Anthropology 9
Anthropology and Other Academic Fields 10
Cultural Anthropology and Sociology 10
Anthropology and Psychology 11
The Scientific Method 12
Theories, Associations, and
Explanations 12
Case Study: Explaining the Postpartum
Taboo 12
PART 1
APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: Anorexia Goes
Global 14
The Value, and Limitations, of Science 15
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 2
Summary 15
Human Diversity 2
Key Terms 16
Adaptation, Variation, and Change 3
Critical Thinking 16
Cultural Forces Shape Human Biology 4
vi
2 Culture 17
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 18
What Is Culture? 18
Culture Is Learned 19
Culture Is Symbolic 19
Culture Is Shared 20
Culture and Nature 20
Culture Is All-Encompassing 21
Culture Is Integrated 21
Culture Is Instrumental, Adaptive, and
Maladaptive 22
Culture’s Evolutionary Basis 22
What We Share with Other Primates 23
How We Differ from Other Primates 23
Universality, Generality, and Particularity 24
Universals and Generalities 24
Particularity: Patterns of Culture 25
Culture and the Individual: Agency and
Practice 26
Levels of Culture 26
Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, and Globalization 31
Human Rights 27 Globalization: Its Meaning and Its Nature 32
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Who Owns Summary 33
Culture? 28
Key Terms 34
Mechanisms of Cultural Change 31
Critical Thinking 34
3 Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology 35
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 36
Ethnography: Anthropology’s Distinctive
Strategy 36
Ethnographic Techniques 37
Observation and Participant
Observation 37
Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview
Schedules 37
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Even Anthropologists Get
Culture Shock 38
The Genealogical Method 40
Key Cultural Consultants 40
Life Histories 40
Problem-Oriented Ethnography 41
Longitudinal Research 41
Team Research 42
Contents vii
Ethnographic Perspectives 42 Evolutionism Returns 51
Emic and Etic 42 Cultural Materialism 52
Expansion in Analytic Scale 43 Cultural Determinism: Culturology, the
Online Ethnography 43 Superorganic, and Social Facts 53
Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology 53
Survey Research 44
Structuralism 54
Doing Anthropology Right and Wrong: Processual Approaches 55
Ethical Issues 45
World-System Theory and Political
The Code of Ethics 46 Economy 55
Anthropologists and Terrorism 46 Culture, History, Power 57
Theory in Anthropology over Time 47
Anthropology Today 57
Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism 47
Summary 58
Historical Particularism 48
Functionalism 49 Key Terms 59
Configurationalism 51 Critical Thinking 59
4 Applying Anthropology 60
APPRECIATING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Strategies for Innovation 65
Overinnovation 66
Underdifferentiation 66
Indigenous Models 67
Anthropology and Education 67
Urban Anthropology 68
Medical Anthropology 69
Disease-Theory Systems 70
Scientific Medicine versus Western
Medicine 71
Industrialization, Globalization,
and Health 71
FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: The Deadliest Global
Pandemic of Our Time 73
Anthropology and Business 74
Public and Applied Anthropology 74
PART 2
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Culturally Appropriate
Marketing 75
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 61
Careers and Anthropology 76
The Role of the Applied Anthropologist 62
Summary 77
Early Applications 62
Key Terms 77
Academic and Applied Anthropology 63
Applied Anthropology Today 63 Critical Thinking 77
Development Anthropology 64
Equity 65
Negative Equity Impact 65
viii Contents
5 Language and Communication 79
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 80
What Is Language? 80
Nonhuman Primate Communication 81
Call Systems 81
Sign Language 81
The Origin of Language 83
Nonverbal Communication 83
The Structure of Language 84
Language, Thought, and Culture 86
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 86
Focal Vocabulary 87
Meaning 87
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Words of
the Year 88
Sociolinguistics 89
Linguistic Diversity within
Nations 90
Gender Speech Contrasts 90
Historical Linguistics 95
Language and Status Position 91
Language, Culture, and History 98
Stratification 91
Language Loss 98
APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: I Wish They All Could
Summary 99
Be California Vowels 92
African American Vernacular English Key Terms 100
(AAVE) 94 Critical Thinking 100
6 Ethnicity and Race 101
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 102
Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity 103
Status and Identity 103
Minority Groups and Stratification 104
Human Biological Diversity and the Race
Concept 104
Races Are Not Biologically Distinct 105
Explaining Skin Color 107
The AAA RACE Project 110
Race And Ethnicity 111
The Social Construction of Race 112
Hypodescent: Race in the United States 112
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Why Are the Greens So
White? 113
Race in the Census 114
Not Us: Race in Japan 115
Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in Brazil 116
Contents ix
Ethnic Groups, Nations, and Nationalities 118 FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: The Gray and the
Ethnic Diversity by Region 118 Brown 122
Nationalities without Nations 118 Ethnic Conflict 123
Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation 118 Prejudice and Discrimination 124
Assimilation 119 Black Lives Matter 124
The Plural Society 119 Anti-ethnic Discrimination 125
Multiculturalism 120 Summary 127
Changing Demographics 120 Key terms 128
The Backlash to Multiculturalism: Ethno-
Critical thinking 128
nationalism 121
7 Making a Living 129
The Cultivation Continuum 136
Intensification: People and the
Environment 136
Pastoralism 137
Modes of Production 138
Production in Nonindustrial Societies 139
Means of Production 139
Alienation in Industrial Economies 140
FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: Our Global
Economy 141
Economizing and Maximization 142
Alternative Ends 143
Distribution, Exchange 143
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Scarcity and the
Betsileo 144
The Market Principle 144
Redistribution 145
Reciprocity 146
Coexistence of Exchange Principles 147
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 130
Potlatching 148
Adaptive Strategies 131
Summary 150
Foraging 131
Key Terms 151
Geographic Distribution of Foragers 132
Correlates of Foraging 133 Critical Thinking 151
Adaptive Strategies Based on Food
Production 134
Horticulture 134
Agriculture 135
x Contents
8 Political Systems 152
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 153
What Is “The Political”? 154
Types and Trends 154
Bands and Tribes 155
Foraging Bands 155
Tribal Cultivators 157
The Village Head 157
The “Big Man” 158
Pantribal Sodalities 159
Nomadic Politics 160
Chiefdoms 162
Political and Economic Systems 162
Status Systems 163
The Emergence of Stratification 163
State Systems 164
Population Control 164
Judiciary 165
Enforcement 165
Fiscal Support 165
The Igbo Women’s War 170
FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: The Political Role of
New Media 166 Resistance via Social Media:
A Case Study 171
Social Control 167
Summary 173
Hegemony and Resistance 167
Weapons of the Weak 167 Key Terms 174
Shame and Gossip 168 Critical Thinking 174
9 Gender 175
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 176
Sex and Gender 176
Recurrent Gender Patterns 178
Gender Roles and Gender Stratification 181
Reduced Gender Stratification—
Matrilineal-Matrilocal Societies 182
Matriarchy 182
Increased Gender Stratification—
Patrilineal-Patrilocal Societies 182
Patriarchy and Violence 183
Gender in Industrial Societies 184
Work and Family: Reality and Stereotypes 186
The Feminization of Poverty 187
FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: Measuring and Reducing
Gender Stratification 188
Work and Happiness 189
Contents xi
Beyond Male and Female 190 Summary 196
APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: Hidden Women, Key Terms 197
Public Men—Public Women, Hidden Men 192
Critical Thinking 197
Sexual Orientation 194
10 Families, Kinship, and Descent 198
APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: American Family Life
in the 21st Century 206
The Family among Foragers 207
Descent 207
Attributes of Descent Groups 207
Lineages, Clans, and Residence Rules 208
Ambilineal Descent 209
Family versus Descent 209
Kinship Calculation 210
Kin Terms and Genealogical Kin Types 210
Kin Terms in America 211
Kinship Terminology 211
Lineal Terminology 212
Bifurcate Merging Terminology 212
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 199 Generational Terminology 213
Families 199 Bifurcate Collateral Terminology 214
Nuclear and Extended Families 200 Summary 214
Industrialism and Family Organization 201
Key Terms 215
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: Social Security,
Critical Thinking 215
Kinship Style 202
Changes in North American Kinship 203
11 Marriage 216
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 217
Defining Marriage? 217
Exogamy and Incest 218
Incest and Its Avoidance 220
The Occurrence of Incest 220
Incest Avoidance 221
Endogamy 221
Caste 222
Royal Endogamy 222
Same-Sex Marriage 223
Romantic Love and Marriage 225
Marriage as Group Alliance 225
xii Contents
APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: What Anthropologists Polygyny 230
Could Teach the Supreme Court about the Polyandry 231
Definition of Marriage 226
The Online Marriage Market 231
Gifts at Marriage 226
Durable Alliances 228 Summary 233
Divorce 229 Key Terms 234
Plural Marriages 230 Critical Thinking 234
12 Religion 235
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 236
What Is Religion? 236
Expressions of Religion 238
Spiritual Beings 238
Powers and Forces 238
Magic and Religion 239
Uncertainty, Anxiety, Solace 239
Rituals 240
Rites of Passage 240
Totemism 242
Religion and Cultural Ecology 242
Social Control 243
Kinds of Religion 244
Religious Specialists and Deities 244
Protestant Values and Capitalism 244
World Religions 245
Religion and Change 245
Revitalization Movements 246
New and Alternative Religious
Movements 247
Religion and Cultural Globalization 247
Evangelical Protestantism and
Pentecostalism 247
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY: This New-Time
Religion 248
Homogenization, Indigenization, or
Summary 252
Hybridization? 250
Antimodernism and Fundamentalism 251 Key Terms 253
The Spread of Islam 251 Critical Thinking 253
Secular Rituals 252
Contents xiii
13 Arts, Media, and Sports 254
APRECIATING DIVERSITY:Asian American Musicians:
Internet Stars, Mainstream Wannabes 260
Art, Society, and Culture 261
Ethnomusicology 262
Representations of Art and Culture 263
Art and Communication 264
Art and Politics 264
The Cultural Transmission of the Arts 265
APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: I’ll Get You, My
Pretty, and Your Little R2 266
Continuity and Change 268
Media and Culture 269
Using the Media 269
Assessing the Effects of Television 270
Networking and Sociability On- and
Offline 271
Sports and Culture 272
American Football 272
What Determines International Sports
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 255 Success? 273
The Fall from Grace: The Celebrity
What Is Art? 256
Scandal 275
Art and Religion 256
Summary 276
Locating Art 257
Art and Individuality 258 Key Terms 277
The Work of Art 259 Critical Thinking 277
14 The World System, Colonialism, and
THE CHANGING WORLD
Inequality 278
Industrialization 281
Causes of the Industrial Revolution 281
Socioeconomic Changes Associated with the
Industrial Revolution 282
Industrial Stratification 282
FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION: Where in the World Are
the Jobs? 284
The Persistence of Inequality 284
Wealth Distribution in the
PART 3
United States 284
Environmental Risks on the
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 279 American Periphery 286
The World System 280 Colonialism and Imperialism 287
World-System Theory 280 The First Phase of European Colonialism: Spain
The Emergence of the World System 280 and Portugal 287
xiv Contents
Commercial Expansion and European APPRECIATING ANTHROPOLOGY: Is Mining
Imperialism 288 Sustainable? 294
The British Colonial Empire 288 The Second World 296
French Colonialism 289 Communism 296
Colonialism and Identity 290 Postsocialist Transitions 296
Postcolonial Studies 290
The World System Today 297
Development 291
Summary 298
Neoliberalism 292
Key Terms 299
NAFTA’s Economic Refugees 292
Critical Thinking 299
15 Anthropology’s Role in a Globalizing World 300
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES 301
Diversity under Siege:
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY:
Global Forces and Indigenous Peoples 302
Energy Consumption and Industrial
Degradation 302
Global Climate Change 304
Environmental Anthropology 305
Global Assaults on Local Autonomy 307
Deforestation 308
Emerging Diseases 309
Interethnic Contact 310
Cultural Imperialism and Indigenization 310
A Global System of Images 312
A Global Culture of Consumption 312
People in Motion 313
Indigenous Peoples 314
Anthropology’s Lessons 316 Glossary 319
Summary 316 Bibliography 325
Key Terms 317 Index 342
Critical Thinking 317
Contents xv
