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Social Anthropology and Human Origins
The study of human origins is one of the most fascinating branches of anthropology. Yet it has rarely been considered by social or cultural anthropologists, who represent the largest subfield of the discipline. In this powerful study Alan Barnard aims to bridge this gap. Barnard argues that social anthropological theory has much to contribute to our understanding of human evolution, including changes in technology, subsistence and exchange, family and kinship, as well as to the study of language, art, ritual and belief. This book places social anthropology in the context of a widely-conceived constellation of anthropological sciences. It incorporates recent findings in many fields, including primate studies, archaeology, linguistics and human genetics. In clear, accessible style Barnard addresses the fundamental questions surrounding the evolution of human society and the prehistory of culture, suggesting a new direction for social anthropology that will open up debate across the discipline as a whole.
196 pages, Hardcover
First published May 4, 2011
About the author
Alan Barnard
48 books5 followersAlan Barnard is a world class communications strategist with a vast experience in devising and executing successful landmark campaigns. He made a major impact during his ten years working for the Labour Party and played a pivotal role in their 1997 general election victory. His work as Labour's Director of Campaigns and Elections helped change political campaigning in the United Kingdom. Now, as a founding Director of BBM Campaigns, he is taking campaigning into new territories.
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April 29, 2022
I was incredibly excited when I first found this book, as it seemed to represent a link between social and biological anthropology that I myself have sought during my education. As someone who studied one year of social anthropology, then took an undergraduate in archaeology and finally a master's in biological anthropology and human origins, this book seemed to be the bridge between my various fields of experience that I hadn't quite managed to create for myself. To some degree, that is true, and I think the most important implication of this book is as an initial statement in a discussion between social and biological anthropology that sadly should be much more pronounced than it currently is. Unfortunately, I also found the book to be an example of just why these discussions are so rare and difficult: a social anthropologist who focuses on explaining social anthropological theories without really taking into account the type and quantity of information available to archaeologists and paleoanthropologists. If people working with human origins have yet to utilize social anthropological theories, it's because those theories are ill-suited to the type of data we have available. Simply stating that social anthropological theory is too great not to be used in studies of human origins without ever really grappling with the fundamental problems of a fragmentary fossil record and without acknowledging that social anthropology might be a little too detail-oriented to be directly applicable to an archaeological context... how is that good for anything?
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