Defense University
Resource Management College
Anthropology
for First year students
Abridged by: Fithatsidk Taddese
Unit 3
Human Diversity, Culture Areas and Contact
Unit 3 - Human Diversity, Culture Areas and Contact
3.1 Human Beings & Being Human: What it is to be human?
3.2 Origin of the Modern Human Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
3.3 The Kinds of Humanity: human physical variation
3.4 Human Races: the history of racial typing
3.5 The Grand Illusion: Race, turns out, is arbitrary
3.6 Why is Everyone Different? Human Cultural Diversity/Variation
3.7 Culture area and cultural contact in Ethiopia
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3. Human Diversity, Culture Areas and Contact
Anthropology holds up a great mirror to man and lets him look at
himself in his infinite variety.
In this case, anthropology helps human beings to look into
themselves by searching for answers to questions that challenge us.
By studying evolution, the change of species through time,
anthropologists tend to treat humanity as one of the biological
species in the animal kingdom.
3.1.1. The bio-cultural animal?
As we have discussed earlier, humanity evolves both as a
result of biological and cultural factors.
For this reason, anthropologists call it bio-cultural
evolution.
Humans survive by using both their biology and cultural
information, all other animals survive mainly through their
biology and by relying on instinct rather than such cultural
information.
E.g., cultural information tells you certain kinds of wood
are good for making a digging stick.
3.1.1. The bio-cultural animal?
This difference may seem trivial, but it’s actually very important.
E.g., consider the following cultural involvement with biological
evolution of our species:
The earliest use of stone tools corresponds with increased
consumption of animal protein.
More animal protein in turn changes the hominid diet and potentially
its anatomy.
Clothing allows human bodies to survive in environments they
wouldn’t normally survive in.
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3.1.1. The bio-cultural animal?
Humanity stands for the human species with the following
characteristics:
Bipedalism, relatively small teeth, relatively large brains, using
modern language, and complex sets of ideas to survive.
Surviving by using a wide array of cultural information
(pottery/farming tools) is the use of culture.
The term humanity can be applied to modern humans (Homo sapiens
sapiens) as well as some of our most recent ancestors.
3.2. Origin of the Modern Human Species
i. Cosmologies and Human Origins
Cosmologies are conceptual frameworks that present the universe as
an orderly system.
Cosmologies account for the ways in which supernatural beings or
forces formed human beings and the planet we live on.
E.g., the Navajo people believe that the Holy People, supernatural and
sacred.
In Taoism, yin and yang are the spiritual and material sources for the
origins of humans and other living forms.
3.2. Origin of the Modern Human Species
Western Traditions of Origins
the ancient Greeks had various mythological explanations for human
origins. One early view was that Prometheus fashioned humans out
of water and earth.
Judaic tradition the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
Yahweh, the Creator, made man, Adam, from “dust” and placed him
in the Garden of Eden.
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3.2. Origin of the Modern Human Species
ii. Evolutionary and paleo-anthropological perspectives
anthropologist rely on scientific views of evolution.
Evolution is used to describe the cumulative effects of three
independent facts. They are:
a. Replication: life forms have offspring
b. Variation: each offspring is slightly different
c. Selection: not all offspring survive, and those that do tend to be the
ones best suited to their environment.
3.3 The Kinds of Humanity: human physical variation
People come in many colours and shapes: the Mediterranean, the
Scandinavians, the Far Eastern, and Samburu of East Africa.
Why is this? How did these variations come about, and what do
they mean for humanity as a species?
The answer comes from the study of human biology by physical
anthropologists.
In this section we will see how human populations have adapted to
their varying environments by the same evolutionary process that
shapes all living things from the perspective of race.
3.3 The Kinds of Humanity: human physical variation
Racial types - anthropological perspectives
A race is a group of organisms of the same species that share
similar genetic attributes/ specific regions.
They are subdivisions of a single species- meaning they can mate
and have offspring
Human beings adapt to their environments through an evolutionary
process.
We survive our environments not because we’ve adapted to them
biologically, but with artefacts and complex behaviour.
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3.3 The Kinds of Humanity: human physical variation
Adaptation can be understood as a process that increases the
likelihood of survival for an organism.
An adaptation can be a mutation that confers an advantage. E.g., a
frog that has better-camouflaged skin than its siblings, and
therefore a stronger chance to survive and have offspring that will
carry the gene for better-adapted camouflage.
These behaviours aren’t passed on genetically but rather culturally.
The lightest, yellowish and darker skin are an adaptation to the
geographical conditions.
3.3 The Kinds of Humanity: human physical variation
Anthropologists about Human Races
Homo sapiens sapiens does feature geographically based
differences within the species.
Here, we must consider two very important points.
First, these genetic differences don’t mean a lot, biologically,
because all healthy humans can mate and have healthy offspring.
Second, and most important - is that cultural behaviour isn’t
genetically linked to those geographical differences, it is culturally
learned.
3.4 Human Races: the history of racial typing
Humans classifying others as certain “types” come from ancient
Egypt, around 1350 BC by skin colour.
During the Age of Discovery, Europeans while voyaging around
the world encountered unknown peoples and start developing their
own.
People weren’t Christian and didn’t share European culture and
values, labelled them Savages.
Many racial supremacists still believe that cultural behaviour
correlates with skin colour, nose shape, hair texture, or what have
you.
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3.4 Human Races: the history of racial typing
By the mid 1800s, naturalists began using cephalic index, the length
: width of the head:
Dolichocephalic and Brachycephalic
The root problem of this was biological determinism.
Marriages, family size, and whether to allow an individual to
reproduce - this practice became known as eugenics.
Using eugenics as the basis for its acts, the Nazi party killed millions
of Jew, Gypsy and others.
The problems with the concept of a master race is that biological
variation.
3.5 The Grand Illusion: Race, turns out, is arbitrary
Anthropologists classified the human species into Caucasian,
African, Asian, and so on.
Where does Africa even begin, genetically speaking? Who’s going
to draw up the lines between “black” and “white”?
Racial classification is of no social value and is positively
destructive of social and human relations.
Bottom line: For most professional anthropologists today, human
“race” is an antiquated concept. Colour coded races, loaded with
behavioural traits, are basically arbitrary.
3.6. Why is Everyone Different? Human Cultural
Diversity/Variation
Although all humans are of the same species, they don’t all act the
same; human behaviour varies.
Cultures differ because people live in different conditions, by their
ecology, economy, social,….
Each culture is ultimately a unique adaptation to the social and
environmental conditions in which it evolves.
This difference is ultimately why human behaviour isn’t the same
worldwide.
Culture has changed very quickly.
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3.7. Culture area and cultural contact in Ethiopia
Culture areas refers to a cluster of related cultures occupying a
certain geographical region.
In the context of Ethiopia, we may come up with different culture
are in relation to subsistence.
These are:
A. Plough culture area - agriculture
B. Enset culture area - Enset centred region
C. Pastoral culture area - with herds and cattle
End of Unit 3
Before you open Unit 4,
attempt the exercises first.
Assignment for Unit 3
Elaborate the following:
1. Humanity evolves both as a result of biological and cultural factors.
Give clue.
2. Evolution is used to describe the cumulative effects of three
independent facts: replication, variation and selection. Verify how?
3. By the mid-1800s, naturalists began classifying humans using
cephalic index, the length : width of the head. What do they mean by
Dolichocephalic and Brachycephalic?
4. What did the Europeans encountered, while voyaging around the
world, during the Age of Discovery?
