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Introduction

Right now, someone somewhere is excavating an ancient relic — perhaps a stone tool a million years old or the remains of an ancient Greek wine jug. That one artifact may not be much, but it’s a piece in the vast jigsaw puzzle of humanity’s ancient past.

Right now, someone somewhere is interviewing a hunter–gatherer — maybe in the Arctic or in Africa. That one interview — maybe about why the hunter-gatherer is going to split away from the main group with his family — may not be much, but it’s a page in the encyclopedia of human cultural behavior.

Right now, someone somewhere is decoding ancient Neanderthal DNA, trying to identify how living humans are related to this fascinating proto-human species. The fragment of DNA is microscopic, but it can tell humanity a tremendous amount about our biology and evolution.

And right now, someone somewhere is studying a rapidly vanishing language — maybe in Polynesia or Southeast Asia — by learning it from a tribal group’s elders. The words and phrases she’s learning are short, but each language provides a new way to understand the world in a uniquely human way.

All of those someones are anthropologists, like me — people who professionally study the human species in all its aspects, from biology to culture. Of course, it’s not just anthropologists who love to learn about humanity; people from every culture and walk of life have an interest in what humanity is today and what it’s been in the past.

And that’s why I’ve written Anthropology For Dummies — to share what remarkable things anthropologists have discovered and continue to discover with folks like you who are fascinated with the human species (or at least fascinated with passing your Intro to Anthropology class). Join me for a grand tour of the human species, across the world and through millions of years. If that doesn’t get your blood going, I can’t help you!

About This Book

The study of humanity today (and for the past few million years) has created a vast storehouse of anthropological knowledge printed in millions of pages of research reports and thousands of books. Even professional anthropologists simply can’t keep up with the speed and volume of published research. I can’t possibly recount what all this research has revealed, but I can — and in this book I do — boil down 150 years of anthropological discoveries into a nuts-and-bolts reference describing the essentials of human evolution, both cultural and biological. I also describe just how anthropologists work so you can understand the pros and cons of different methods.

If you’re taking an introductory course in anthropology, this book can help clarify some ideas that can be pretty confusing and aren’t often clearly explained, even in textbooks. If you’re reading this book out of sheer curiosity, let me assure you that I’ve trimmed away a lot of technical material that may otherwise get in the way of your understanding the essential lessons of anthropology. Lots of popular-science books cover some aspects of anthropology, but few if any really cover anthropology as a whole in a clear, no-nonsense way. I’ve worked hard to provide just such a handbook in Anthropology For Dummies.

Each chapter is divided into concise sections, and each section breaks down the essentials of anthropology, including

 Terms and definitions

 The lowdown about competing theories

 How anthropology understood certain topics in the past and how it understands them today

I’ve written this book so that you can start anywhere; if you’re most interested in human language, you can jump to that chapter and understand it without knowing about human evolution. But because every aspect of humanity is tied to some other aspect, I’d be surprised if you don’t eventually end up reading it all!

Finally, you should be aware of a few conventions I follow throughout the text:

 It’s tough to write a book about humanity without using the collective term we, so when I use it, keep in mind that I’m talking about humanity at large and not anthropologists (unless otherwise noted).

 I often refer to the past because humanity is an old species, and we can learn a lot from our past. When I do this, I often use the convention BP for “before present” (which basically means years ago). When talking about the history of Western civilization, I use the conventional terms BC for “Before Christ” and AD for “Anno Domini” (which marks the year of Christ’s birth); some people instead use BCE (“Before the Common Era”) and CE (“Common Era”) to avoid valuing the timescale of Western civilization, but these terms still just point exactly to BC and AD. Because so much information about the past uses BC and AD, I stick with this convention. Don’t worry, I’m not pushing a religion or valuing one timescale over another; I’m just using a common way to indicate the passage of time.

 The term hominin refers to any of the many species of large, bipedal (walking on two legs) primates; this includes modern humans and all our ancestors and relatives back to the time of our split from the lineage that led to modern chimpanzees. Some earlier texts use the term hominid, but that term is largely replaced today with hominin, and I follow that convention in this book.

 Anthropologists often use the terms society and culture interchangeably. I do this as well. It’s an old convention that’s not technically accurate, but unless you’re studying for your PhD, the difference isn’t that important. (Don’t worry; I define both society and culture in the book so you’re aware of the difference.)

 When I refer to the scientific names of various life forms, I capitalize the genus but don’t capitalize the species, or subspecies. For example, modern humans are all Homo sapiens sapiens. I don’t always use subspecies names (like the second sapiens), and sometimes, for convenience, I just indicate the genus with a capital letter while writing out the species name, as in H. sapiens. Don’t worry, this kind of terminology isn’t a large or important point of this book, and these designations will all be very clear when you come upon them.

 Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and you want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

I don’t think I’m going too far out on a flimsy limb to make these assumptions about you as a reader:

 You’re someone — just about anyone who can read, really — interested in the human species. Bring that interest to the reading and you’ll be rewarded.

 You’re taking an Introduction to Anthropology course and your textbook just isn’t making things clear; all you want is a friendly, digestible resource that gives you the info you need in plain English.

 You either believe that evolution happens or that it’s a sound biological theory. Evolution is the basis of modern biology, and nothing in the world of living things makes sense without it. Even if you have some doubts about evolution, I’m assuming that you can keep your mind open to the fact that humanity is very ancient; evolution is a foundation of the scientific study of our species.

 You’re anyone who wants a handy reference to settle a friendly argument about some aspect of humanity. When did the first civilizations arise? How many human languages exist? What did our earliest ancestors eat? You’ll find these answers and plenty more.

Icons Used in This Book

To make this book easier to read and simpler to use, I include some icons that can help you find and fathom key ideas and information.

Any time you see this icon, you know the information that follows is so important that it’s worth reading more than once.

This icon presents historical, case-specific, or otherwise interesting information that you can read for further understanding; however, the info isn’t necessary for grasping the concept.

This icon warns about potential traps that can derail you in your quest to understand anthropology.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free Cheat Sheet for information on how anthropologists group the early hominins, linguistic anthropology, and more. To access the Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type Anthropology For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

Where to Go from Here

I’ve organized this book so that you can go wherever you want to find complete information. Want to know about the evolution of civilization, for example? Check out Chapter 10. If you’re interested in Neanderthals and why they became extinct, you want Chapter 7. If the complexities of language or religion flip your switch, head for Chapter 13 or 16. You get the idea. You can use the table of contents to find broad categories of information or the index to look up more specific topics.

If you’re not sure where you want to go, you may want to start with Part I. It gets you started with what anthropology studies, and how, and you can follow your interests from there.