Introduction To Physical Anthropology 2013 2014 Edition 14th Edition Ebook PDF

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Brief contents
chAPter 1 Introduction to Physical Anthropology 3
heredity and evolution

chAPter 2 The Development of Evolutionary Theory 25
chAPter 3 The Biological Basis of Life 49
chAPter 4 Heredity and Evolution 77
chAPter 5 Macroevolution: Processes of Vertebrate and Mammalian Evolution 107
Primates
chAPter 6 Survey of the Living Primates 135
chAPter 7 Primate Behavior 175
chAPter 8 Overview of the Fossil Primates 217
hominin evolution
chAPter 9 Paleoanthropology: Reconstructing Early Hominin Behavior and Ecology 255
chAPter 10 Hominin Origins in Africa 277
chAPter 11 The First Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo erectus and Contemporaries 307
chAPter 12 Premodern Humans 331
chAPter 13 The Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans 363
contemporary human evolution

chAPter 14 Modern Human Biology: Patterns of Variation 389
chAPter 15 Modern Human Biology: Patterns of Adaptation 413
chAPter 16 Legacies of Human Evolutionary History and the Human Life Course 441
chAPter 17 The Human Disconnection 469
Appendix A: Atlas of Primate Skeletal Anatomy 484

Appendix B: Sexing and Aging the Skeleton 492
Glossary 497
Bibliography 506
Index 532
contents
Preface xvi Cultural Anthropology 11

Acknowledgments xix Archaeology 11
Supplements xx Linguistic Anthropology 11
Physical Anthropology 12
C h a p te r 1 Applied Anthropology 18
Introduction to Physical Anthropology 3 Physical Anthropology and the Scientific Method 19
Introduction 3 A Closer Look Forensic Anthropology in Practice 21
The Human Connection 5 The Anthropological Perspective 22
Biocultural Evolution 6 Summary of Main Topics 23
What Is Anthropology? 10 Critical Thinking Questions 23
heredity and evolution

C h a p te r 2
The Development of Evolutionary Theory 25
A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought 26
The Scientific Revolution 27
Precursors of the Theory of Evolution 29
The Discovery of Natural Selection 33
In Darwin’s Shadow 37
Natural Selection 38
Natural Selection in Action 39
Constraints on Nineteenth-Century Evolutionary
Theory 42
Opposition to Evolution Today 42
A Brief History of Opposition to Evolution in the United
States 43
At a glance The Mechanism of Natural Selection 45
How Do We Know? 46
Perennou Nuridsany/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Summary of Main Topics 46

Critical Thinking Questions 47
Media Resources 47
vii
viii contents
C h a p te r 3 Natural Selection Is Directional and Acts on

The Biological Basis of Life 49 Variation 100
Review of Genetics and Evolutionary Factors 102
Cells 50
How Do We Know? 104
The Structure of DNA 51
A Closer Look Rosalind Franklin: The Fourth (but
Invisible) Member of the Double Helix Team 52
DNA Replication 52
C h a p te r 5
Protein Synthesis 53
What Is a Gene? 57 Macroevolution: Processes of Vertebrate
Regulatory Genes 58 and Mammalian Evolution 107
A Closer Look Noncoding DNA—Not Junk How We Connect: Discovering the Human Place in the
After All 59 Organic World 108
At a glance Coding and Noncoding DNA 61 Principles of Classification 108
Mutation: When Genes Change 61 Making Connections: Constructing Classifications and
Chromosomes 63 Interpreting Evolutionary Relationships 110
Karyotyping Chromosomes 66 Comparing Evolutionary Systematics with Cladistics 111
Cell Division 67 A Closer Look Evo-Devo: The Evolution
Mitosis 67 Revolution 112–113
Meiosis 68 An Example of Cladistic Analysis: The Evolutionary History
of Cars and Trucks 114
New Frontiers 71
Using Cladistics to Interpret Real Organisms 114
How Do We Know? 74
At a glance Comparing Two Approaches to
Summary of Main Topics 75 Interpretation of Evolutionary Relationships 117
Critical Thinking Questions 75 Definition of Species 117
Media Resources 75 Interpreting Species and Other Groups in the Fossil
Record 119
C h a p te r 4 Recognition of Fossil Species 120
Heredity and Evolution 77 Recognition of Fossil Genera 121
The Genetic Principles Discovered by Mendel 78 What Are Fossils and How Do They Form? 122
Segregation 78 Humans Are Vertebrates: Distant Connections 124
Dominance and Recessiveness 79 A Closer Look Deep Time 126–127
Mendelian Inheritance in Humans 83 Humans Are Also Mammals: Closer Connections 128
Misconceptions about Dominance and Recessiveness 83 The Emergence of Major Mammalian Groups 130
Patterns of Mendelian Inheritance 85 Processes of Macroevolution 130
Non-Mendelian Inheritance 89 Adaptive Radiation 130
Polygenic Inheritance 89 Generalized and Specialized Characteristics 131
Working Together: Microevolution and
At a glance Mendelian vs. Polygenic Traits 92 Macroevolution 132
Mitochondrial Inheritance 92
How Do We Know? 133
Pleiotropy 93
Genetic and Environmental Factors 93
Modern Evolutionary Theory 94
The Modern Synthesis 94
A Current Definition of Evolution 94
Factors That Produce and Redistribute Variation 95
Mutation 95
Gene Flow 96
Genetic Drift and Founder Effect 97
contents ix
Primates
C h a p te r 7
Primate Behavior 175
The Evolution of Behavior 176
Some Factors That Influence Social Structure 178
A Closer Look Types of Nonhuman Primate Social
Groups 180
Why Be Social? 181
Primate Social Behavior 182
Richard Mittleman/Gon2Foto/Alamy
Dominance 182
At a glance Primate Social Strategies 183
Communication 184
Aggressive and Affiliative Behaviors within Groups 186
Aggression 186
Affiliative Behaviors 187
Reproduction and Reproductive Behaviors 188
Reproductive Strategies 189
Sexual Selection 189
Infanticide as a Reproductive Strategy? 190
C h a p te r 6
Mothers, Fathers, and Infants 192
Survey of the Living Primates 135
Nonhuman Primate Models for the Evolution of Human
Primate Characteristics 136 Behavior 194
Primate Adaptations 139 Brain and Body Size 195
Evolutionary Factors 139 Language 197
A Closer Look Primate Cranial Anatomy 140–141 The Evolution of Language 200
Geographical Distribution and Habitats 141 Primate Cultural Behavior 202
Diet and Teeth 144 At a glance Evolution of Human Language 203
Locomotion 145 Conflict between Groups 207
Primate Classification 146
Prosocial Behaviors: Affiliation, Altruism, and
A Survey of the Living Primates 148 Cooperation 210
Lemurs and Lorises 148 Altruism 210
Tarsiers 150 The Primate Continuum 212
Anthropoids: Monkeys, Apes, and Humans 151
How Do We Know? 213
Hominoids: Apes and Humans 158
Endangered Primates 166
A Closer Look Aye-Ayes: Victims of Derived
Traits and Superstition 168
The Bushmeat Trade 169
How Do We Know? 172
x contents
C h a p te r 8 A Closer Look Primate Diversity in the Fayum 232

Overview of the Fossil Primates 217 True Anthropoids 233
Early Platyrrhines: New World Anthropoids 234
Background to Primate Evolution: Late Mesozoic 218
A Closer Look Island Hopping and Primate
Primate Origins 218 Evolution 236
A Closer Look Building Family Trees from Miocene Primates 237
Genes 220
Monkeying Around 237
Made to Order: Archaic Primates 221
At a glance Key Early Anthropoid Names 239
Eocene Euprimates 222 Aping Monkeys 240
Lemur Connections? The Adapoids 223
True Apes 244
At a glance Key Early Primate At a glance Key Fossil Ape Names 244
Names 226
Evolution of Extant Hominoids 250
Closer Connections to Living Primates: The Evolution
of True Lemurs and Lorises 226 How Do We Know? 252
Tarsier Connections? The Omomyoids 228 Summary of Main Topics 253
Evolution of True Tarsiers 229 Critical Thinking Questions 253
Eocene and Oligocene Early Anthropoids 229
Oligocene Primates 231
hominin evolution
C h a p te r 9
Paleoanthropology: Reconstructing Early
Hominin Behavior and Ecology 255
Understanding Our Direct Evolutionary Connections:
What’s a Hominin? 256
What’s in a Name? 256
Biocultural Evolution: The Human Capacity for Culture
257
Discovering Human Evolution: The Science of
Paleoanthropology 259
A Closer Look What Were Early Hominins Doing, and
How Do We Know? 260–261
Connecting the Dots through Time:
Paleoanthropological Dating Methods 264
A Closer Look Chronometric Dating Estimates 267
Experimental Archaeology 268
David Lordkipanidze
Stone Tool (Lithic) Technology 268

Analysis of Bone 270
Reconstruction of Early Hominin Environments and
Behavior 270
Why Did Hominins Become Bipedal? 271
How Do We Know? 275
Media Resources 275
contents xi
C h a p te r 10 At a glance Key Homo Erectus Discoveries

Hominin Origins in Africa 277 from Asia 324
Later Homo erectus from Europe 325
Walking the Walk: The Bipedal Adaptation 278
At a glance Key Homo erectus and Contemporaneous
The Mechanics of Walking on Two Legs 278
Discoveries from Europe 326
A Closer Look Major Features of Bipedal
Technological Trends During Homo erectus Times 327
Locomotion 280–281
Seeing the Connections: Interpretations of Homo
Digging for Connections: Early Hominins from
erectus 328
Africa 282
How Do We Know? 329
Pre-Australopiths (6.0+ to 4.4 mya) 283
At a glance Key Pre-Australopith Discoveries 288
Australopiths (4.2 to 1.2 mya) 288
Australopithecus afarensis 289
C h a p te r 12
A Closer Look Cranial Capacity 293
A Contemporaneous and Very Different Kind of Premodern Humans 331
Hominin 293 When, Where, and What 332
Later More Derived Australopiths (3.0 to 1.2 mya) 294 The Pleistocene 332
New Connections: A Transitional Australopith? 297 Dispersal of Middle Pleistocene Hominins 333
Closer Connections: Early Homo (2.0 to 1.4 mya) 299 Middle Pleistocene Hominins: Terminology 333
Interpretations: What Does It All Mean? 301 Premodern Humans of the Middle Pleistocene 334
Seeing the Big Picture: Adaptive Patterns of Early Africa 334
African Hominins 304 Europe 335
How Do We Know? 305 At a glance Key Premodern Human
Summary of Main Topics 305 (H. heidelbergensis) Fossils from Africa 335
Critical Thinking Questions 305 At a glance Key Premodern Human
Media Resources 305 (H. heidelbergensis) Fossils from Europe 336
Asia 337
C h a p te r 11 At a glance Key Premodern Human
(H. heidelbergensis) Fossils from Asia 337
The First Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo
A Review of Middle Pleistocene Evolution 340
erectus and Contemporaries 307
Middle Pleistocene Culture 340
A New Kind of Hominin 310 Neandertals: Premodern Humans of the Late
The Morphology of Homo erectus 310 Pleistocene 341
Body Size 311 Western Europe 345
Brain Size 311 Central Europe 346
Cranial Shape 311 Western Asia 347
The First Homo erectus: Homo erectus from Africa 311 Central Asia 349
At a glance Key Homo erectus Discoveries from At a glance Key Neandertal Fossil Discoveries 350
Africa 315 Culture of Neandertals 350
Who Were the Earliest African Emigrants? 315 Technology 350
Homo erectus from Indonesia 317 Subsistence 351
A Closer Look In Search of Ancient Human Speech and Symbolic Behavior 351
Ancestors—and a Little Shade 318–319 A Closer Look The Evolution of Language 352–353
Homo erectus from China 319 Burials 354
Zhoukoudian Homo erectus 319 Molecular Connections: The Genetic Evidence 354
Cultural Remains from Zhoukoudian 320 A Closer Look Are They Human? 356–357
Other Chinese Sites 321 Seeing Close Human Connections: Understanding
A Closer Look Dragon Bone Hill: Cave Home or Premodern Humans 357
Hyena Den? 322–323 How Do We Know? 360
Asian and African Homo erectus: A Comparison 323 Summary of Main Topics 361
xii contents
C h a p te r 13
The Origin and Dispersal of Modern
Humans 363
Approaches to Understanding Modern Human
Origins 364
The Regional Continuity Model: Multiregional
Evolution 364
Replacement Models 365
The Earliest Discoveries of Modern Humans 368
Africa 368
The Near East 371
At a glance Key Early Modern Homo sapiens
Discoveries from Africa and the Near East 373
Asia 373
Australia 375
Central Europe 375
ff
Western Europe 377 Wo
lpo
rd
ilfo
Something New and Different: The “Little People” 378 M
At a glance Key Early Modern Homo sapiens

Discoveries from Europe and Asia 378
Technology and Art in the Upper Paleolithic 380 Summary of Upper Paleolithic Culture 385
Europe 380 How Do We Know? 387
A Closer Look Maybe You Can Take It with You 384 Summary of Main Topics 387
Africa 384 Critical Thinking Questions 387
contemporary human evolution

C h a p te r 14 Population Genetics 402
Modern Human Biology: Patterns of Calculating Allele Frequencies 404
Variation 389 At a glance Population Genetics Research 405
A Closer Look Calculating Allele Frequencies: PTC
Historical Views of Human Variation 390
Tasting in a Hypothetical Population 406
The Concept of Race 391
Evolution in Action: Modern Human Populations 407
A Closer Look Racial Purity: A False and Dangerous Nonrandom Mating 407
Ideology 392–393
Human Biocultural Evolution 408
Contemporary Interpretations of Human Variation 396
How Do We Know? 411
Human Polymorphisms 397
Polymorphisms at the DNA Level 398
At a glance Genetic Polymorphisms Used to Study
Human Variation 399 Media Resources 411
A Closer Look What DNA Tells Us about Ancient
Human Migrations 400–401
contents xiii
C h a p te r 15 C h a p te r 17
Modern Human Biology: Patterns The Human Disconnection 469
of Adaptation 413 Human Impacts on the Planet and Other Life-
The Adaptive Significance of Human Variation 413 Forms 470
Solar Radiation and Skin Color 415 Humans and the Impact of Culture 470
The Thermal Environment 419 Global Climate Change 472
A Closer Look Skin Cancer and UV Radiation Impact on Biodiversity 476
422–423 Acceleration of Evolutionary Processes 479
High Altitude 425 Looking for Solutions 480
Infectious Disease 427 Is There Any Good News? 481
The Continuing Impact of Infectious Disease 430 How Do We Know? 482
At a glance Zoonoses and Human Infectious Summary of Main Topics 483
Disease 431 Critical Thinking Questions 483
Human Skeletal Biology: What Bones Can Tell Us about
Ancient Diseases, Trauma, and Lifestyles 433 a ppe n d i x a
Evidence of Prehistoric Diseases 433 Atlas of Primate Skeletal Anatomy 484
Reconstruction of Prehistoric Behavioral Patterns 436
How Do We Know? 438
a ppe n d i x B
Sexing and Aging the Skeleton 492
Media Resources 439
Glossary 497
C h a p te r 16 Bibliography 506
Index 532
Legacies of Human Evolutionary History and
the Human Life Course 441
Evolved Biology and Contemporary Lifestyles—Is There
a Mismatch? 442
Biocultural Evolution and the Life Course 442
From Embryo to Adult: Human Growth and
Development Today and in the Past 443
Nutritional Effects on Growth, Development, and Later-Life
Health 444
A Closer Look Diabetes 448
At a glance Diet, Lifestyle, and Consequences 449
Other Factors Affecting Growth and Development: Genes,
Environment, and Hormones 450
Life History Theory and the Human Life Course 453
iStockphoto.com/Joseph Luoman
Pregnancy, Birth, Infancy, and Childhood 454

Onset of Reproductive Functioning in Humans 458
Mothers and Grandmothers 459
Aging and Longevity 461
Effects of Technology on the Brain 464
Are We Still Evolving? 465
How Do We Know? 466
Media Resources 467
xxxxof Features
List
A Closer Look
Forensic Anthropology in Practice 21 Dragon Bone Hill: Cave Home or Hyena Den? 322–323
Rosalind Franklin: The Fourth (but Invisible) Member of The Evolution of Language 352
the Double Helix Team 52
Are They Human? 356–357
Noncoding DNA—Not Junk After All 59
Maybe You Can Take It with You 384
Evo-Devo: The Evolution Revolution 112–113
Racial Purity: A False and Dangerous Ideology
Deep Time 126–127 392–393
Primate Cranial Anatomy 140 What DNA Tells Us about Ancient Human
Migrations 400–401
Aye-Ayes: Victims of Derived Traits and
Superstition 168 Calculating Allele Frequencies: PTC Tasting in a
Hypothetical Population 406
Types of Nonhuman Primate Social Groups 180
Skin Cancer and UV Radiation 422–423
Building Family Trees from Genes 220
Diabetes 448
Primate Diversity in the Fayum 232
Island Hopping and Primate

Evolution 236
What Were Early Hominins

Doing, and How Do We
Know? 260–261
Chronometric Dating
Estimates 267
Major Features of Bipedal

Locomotion 280–281
Cranial Capacity 293
In Search of Ancient
Human Ancestors—
and a Little Shade 318–319
Drawing by Robert Greisen
xiv
contents xv
At a Glance
The Mechanism of Natural Selection 45 Key Premodern Human (H. heidelbergensis) Fossils from
Africa 335
Coding and Noncoding DNA 61
Key Premodern Human (H. heidelbergensis) Fossils from
Mendelian vs. Polygenic Traits 92 Europe 336
Comparing Two Approaches to Interpretation Key Premodern Human (H. heidelbergensis) Fossils from
of Evolutionary Relationships 117 Asia 337
Primate Social Strategies 183 Key Neandertal Fossil Discoveries 350
Evolution of Human Language 203 Key Early Modern Homo Sapiens Discoveries from
Africa and the Near East 373
Key Early Primate Names 226
Key Early Modern Homo Sapiens Discoveries from
Key Early Anthropoid Names 239
Europe and Asia 378
Key Fossil Ape Names 244
Genetic Polymorphisms Used to Study Human
Key Pre-Australopith Discoveries 288 Variation 399
Key Homo erectus Discoveries from Africa 315 Population Genetics Research 405
Key Homo Erectus Discoveries from Asia 324 Zoonoses and Human Infectious Disease 431
Key Homo erectus and Contemporaneous Discoveries Diet, Lifestyle, and Consequences 449
from Europe 326
Barbara Walton/epa/Corbis
Preface
This textbook is about where we come from and the sci- our specific human evolutionary history over the past 6
entific ways we can explore our beginnings. Our species, million years. This evolutionary journey begins with our
like all species on earth, evolved from earlier life-forms. small-brained, apelike ancestors in Africa and follows the
As a result of this long shared ancestry, we and all other development of their descendants through time and over
life are connected in a variety of ways: genetically, ana- an expanding geographical range into Asia and Europe,
tomically, physiologically, and even behaviorally. These and much later into Australia and the Americas.
connections are the main focus of the book and are high- In the last section of this book (Chapters 14–17), we
lighted in every chapter. cover the most recent part of our evolutionary jour-
Physical anthropology, also called “biological anthro- ney with a discussion of modern human biology, and we
pology,” is the study of human adaptation, variability and trace the ongoing evolution of our species. Major top-
evolution as well as of our living and fossil relatives from ics include the nature of human variation (including an
a biological perspective. Consequently, throughout this anthropological discussion of the concept of “race”), pat-
text, you will encounter topics that emphasize basic bio- terns of adaptation in recent human populations, and
logical concepts. This broad biological framework allows the developmental changes experienced by humans
us to connect our evolutionary history with that of other through the course of their lives. In our new concluding
life-forms in order to better understand the evolutionary chapter, “The Human Disconnection,” we discuss how
pressures that shaped our species. contemporary humans are severely altering the planet.
In the last few years scientific knowledge in many fields We compare these recent and sudden developments
has accumulated amazingly fast. What’s more, the bio- with our species’ long evolutionary past, when humans
logical sciences are certainly among the most rapidly were not so numerous or so dependent on nonrenewable
expanding areas of knowledge as information increases resources.
dramatically every year—indeed, every month. This edi-
tion has been updated to reflect these changes and to pro-
vide the most current information available.
But, in reality, our presentation is just a beginning for
What’s new in the 2013–2014
students new to this field of study. It is our goal to give edition
students a strong foundation relating to the key aspects
of evolutionary biology, which includes physical anthro- First, as previously mentioned, we have incorporated the
pology. Our aim is to provide fundamental informa- unifying concept of our “connection” to all life as the
tion which will allow you to better understand some of framework for presenting material throughout the text.
the dramatic scientific advances that almost surely will To further reinforce this central focus, each chapter now
directly affect you in coming years. opens with a pedagogical aid that clearly shows students
Because genetic mechanisms lie at the heart of under- the biological connections as they are organized within
standing evolution, in the early chapters (2 though 5) we and between chapters. Students are also now presented
address the basic aspects of life, cells, DNA, and the ways with the learning objectives they are expected to mas-
species change. In Chapters 6 and 7, we turn to an explo- ter after reading the chapter. In addition, at the end of
ration of our evolutionary cousins, the nonhuman pri- each chapter we have included a new section (How Do
mates, and show how they are closely connected to us We Know?) which briefly summarizes the basic scien-
genetically, physically and behaviorally. In Chapters 8 tific information that allows physical anthropologists and
through 13, we first discuss the evolutionary history of other biologists to draw accurate conclusions regarding
early primates and how they relate to living nonhuman our evolutionary history.
primates and our own earliest ancestors (Chapter 8). In As genetic technology continues to grow at an unprec-
Chapters 9–13, we turn to a more detailed exploration of edented pace, it is our task to present the most rele-
xvi
Preface xvii
vant new discoveries in as simple a manner as possible. mation about Ardipithecus as well as a new find of foot
Chapter 3 includes a new discussion of the ENCODE remains that suggest many of these early hominins were
(Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project that involves likely bipedal, but in a very different way from us or even
more than 400 geneticists from around the world. The some other contemporary hominin species.
goal of the project is to identify the functions of the “non- Our coverage of Homo erectus in Chapter 11 covers a
coding” DNA that comprises about 98 percent of the new find from Java as well as new and more precise dating
human genome. This discussion is important because of several key sites. Chapter 12 contains a new framework
some of this DNA is involved in regulatory functions and for understanding premodern humans, especially as they
changes in regulatory genes are critical to the evolution- occupied wider areas of the Old World with some popu-
ary process. We also increased our discussion of regu- lations becoming more isolated. In addition, we cover the
latory DNA and types of regulatory genes to emphasize amazing new DNA results obtained from a finger bone
their role in evolution. found in Siberia that have allowed researchers to deter-
A major change to this edition is the reduction of the mine not only that the individual was female but also her
number of nonhuman primate chapters from 3 to 2. This hair, skin, and eye color. Chapter 13 concludes the sec-
change was in response to reviewer comments that there tion on fossil hominins with a discussion of the origins
be somewhat less coverage. However, all major topics have of modern humans. Updates include further evidence
been retained, and there is added material on cooperation showing more precisely the evolutionary relationships
and empathy in nonhuman primates. We have also added of Homo floresiensis as well as new archaeological dis-
more information emphasizing the endangered status of coveries pushing back the dates of cave painting in west-
many nonhuman primates, both in the text, and in a new ern Europe and the development of sophisticated tools in
table (Table 6.1) that lists some of the 25 species consid- southern Africa.
ered most endangered by the IUCN (International Union In Chapters 14 through 16, our focus turns to modern
for the Conservation of Nature). The table includes esti- human biology. Our understanding of human variation
mated numbers and the major threats to these species. (discussed in Chapter 14) has been completely trans-
Chapter 8 (formerly Chapter 9) has been trimmed and formed by more complete DNA data, published in just the
extensively updated to include new discoveries as well last five years. We have updated and modified our main
as ongoing reinterpretations of fossil primates. These perspective in this chapter to reflect the remarkable new
changes include a reassessment of molecular dating for findings contributed by molecular biology. New data from
primate origins and the evolution of all groups, as well contemporary hunter-gatherer populations in Africa tell
as an updated and streamlined treatment of lower pri- us about human origins; other very recent research fur-
mates. This new approach relies less on nomenclature and ther clarifies how migrations outside of Africa led to the
instead emphasizes key trends in primate adaptation and peopling of Eurasia, Australia, and the New World.
relation to living groups. Three new “At a Glance” boxes In Chapter 15, there’s a new discussion of recent
call attention to significant transitional primate groups research demonstrating a population-wide genetic muta-
and act as handy study tools. A complete revision of ape tion in Tibetan highlanders that increases their ability
origins is supplemented by a detailed map showing the to adapt to living at high altitude. We have also included
dispersal patterns of early apes from Africa to Europe a major new section on “Human Skeletal Biology: What
and Eurasia and then back into Africa. The chapter, as a Bones Can Tell Us about Ancient Diseases and Lifestyles.”
whole, includes attractive new art emphasizing important The discussion of diseases found in bone is linked to the
primate traits and differences between groups in an easy- overall human adaptation theme of the chapter and is
to-understand visual format. heavily illustrated with new photos.
Remarkable new discoveries of fossil hominins and In Chapter 16, now titled “Legacies of Human
evidence of their behavior are discussed in Chapters 9 Evolutionary History: Effects on the Individual,” we focus
through 13. In Chapter 9 we provide further informa- on ways in which our biology, resulting from millions of
tion that sheds light on the controversial interpretation years of evolution, seems to be mismatched with the lives
of what some researchers have claimed are the earliest we lead today, leading in some cases to compromised
stone tools (ostensibly used for butchering) as well the health. For example, the biology of women may not be
latest chemical evidence used to reconstruct early hom- well suited to the highly frequent menstrual cycling that
inin diets. Chapter 10 covers the earliest hominins and results from the use of modern forms of birth control.
presents varied interpretations, including further infor- Some health disorders that we are dealing with today may
xviii Preface
stem from the dramatic differences between the diets of A Closer Look boxes are high-interest features found
our ancestors and the foods we eat today. throughout the book. They supplement chapter material
Finally, in the new concluding Chapter 17 (“The and include more in-depth discussion of selected stimu-
Human Disconnection”), we focus on another theme that lating topics.
runs through the book—why it is so crucial that we know
How Do We Know? chapter concluding sections sum-
and understand human evolutionary history, its impact
marize the basic scientific information used in drawing
on the world today, and how we have distanced ourselves
accurate conclusions about our evolutionary history.
from other living species with which we share so many
connections. We humans and the consequences of our Video Media Resources are now listed at the end of half
activities are probably the most important influences on of the chapters. Students are referred to the anthropology
evolution today, causing the extinction or near-extinction CourseMate at www.cengagebrain.com for access.
of thousands of other life-forms and threatening the very
A running glossary in the margins provides definitions
planet on which we live. Our disconnection from other
of terms immediately adjacent to the text where the term
species and from our own evolutionary past pose the
is first introduced. A full glossary is provided at the back
biggest challenges our species has ever faced. Only by
of the book.
understanding how we got to this point can we begin to
respond to the challenges that are in our future and the At a Glance boxes found throughout the book briefly
futures of our children and grandchildren. summarize complex or controversial material in a visually
We also expanded our treatment of climate change in simple fashion.
Chapter 17, including two new figures. The discussion Figures, including numerous photographs, line drawings,
provides current information from the National Snow and maps, most in full color, are carefully selected to clar-
and Ice Data Center showing that in September 2012, ify text materials and directly support the discussion in
the Arctic sea ice minimum was 49 percent less than the the text.
average figure for the years 1979 to 2000. We point out
that there has been a steady decline in Arctic sea ice since Critical Thinking Questions at the end of each chapter
the year 2000 and we briefly deal with the likely conse- reinforce key concepts and encourage students to think
quences of continued melting. critically about what they have read.
Full bibliographical citations throughout the book pro-
vide sources from which the materials are drawn. This
In-chapter Learning Aids type of documentation guides students to published, peer-
reviewed source materials and illustrates for students the
Connections graphic at the beginning of each chap- proper use of references. All cited sources are listed in the
ter shows the biological relationships emphasized in the comprehensive bibliography at the back of the book.
chapter in the context of topics in other chapters.
Student Learning Objectives are listed on the opening
page of each chapter.
xxxx
Acknowledgments
Over the years, many friends and colleagues have James Westgate, Randy White, Milford Wolpoff, Xinzhi
assisted us with our books. For this edition we are espe- Wu, and João Zilhão.
cially grateful to the reviewers who so carefully com- Over the years, many students have pledged their
mented on the manuscript and made such helpful time and expertise to help improve Chapter 8. We would
suggestions: Jerusha Achterberg, Harvard University; especially like to thank K. Lindsay Eaves for her invalu-
Autumn Cahoon, Sierra College; Meredith Dorner, able help editing and researching this and earlier edi-
Saddleback College; Samantha Hens, California State tions of the manuscript and for facilitating coordination
University Sacramento; Melissa Remis, Purdue University of the text and art within the context of the Ciochon
West Lafayette; Kathleen Rizzo, University of Illinois at Lab. We also thank Kiran Patel for her unfailing atten-
Chicago; Patricia Vinyard, University of Akron; and Brita tion to detail, Toby Avalos for his research on fossil apes
Wynn, Sacramento City College. and Mike Hussey for help with photographs. For the cur-
We wish to thank the team at Cengage Learning: rent and past three editions, John Fleagle has made ana-
Aileen Berg, Lin Marshall Gaylord, Liz Rhoden, Michelle tomical diagrams available that were originally used in
Williams, Mallory Ortberg, John Chell, Caryl Gorska, his book, Primate Adaptation and Evolution (Academic
and Cheri Palmer. Moreover, for their unflagging exper- Press, 1999). Others who have assisted in forming the
tise and patience, we are grateful to our copy editor, Heidi concepts that we have put into written form include
Thaens, our production coordinator, Gary Hespenheide, David Begun, Eric Delson, John Fleagle, Terry Harrison,
and his skilled staff at Hespenheide Design: Patti Zeman, Pat Holroyd, Gregg Gunnell, Andrew Kitchen, Philip
Randy Miyake, and Bridget Neumayr. Rightmire, Nelson Ting, Kirstin Sterner, Iyad Zalmout,
To the many friends and colleagues who have gen- and Tim White.
erously provided photographs, we are greatly apprecia-
tive: Zeresenay Alemsegel, Nanette Barkey, Chris Beard, Robert Jurmain
Günter Bechly, David Begun, Brenda Benefit, Lee Berger, Lynn Kilgore
Jonathan Bloch, C. K. Brain, Günter Bräuer, Peter Brown, Wenda Trevathan
Ray Carson, Desmond Clark, Ron Clarke, Bill Clemens, Russell Ciochon
Raymond Dart, Henri de Lumley, Louis de Bonis, Didier December 2012
Descouens, Michael Donnenberg, John Fleagle, Diane
France, Robert Franciscus, David Frayer, Kathleen In memory of Phillip Tobias
Galvin, Philip Gingerich, Gregg Gunnell, David Haring,
Terry Harrison, John Hodgkiss, Almut Hoffman, Pat
Holroyd, Ellen Ingmanson, Fred Jacobs, Don Johanson,
Peter Jones, Mushtaq Kahn, John Kappelman, Richard
Kay, William Kimbel, Charles Knowles, Arlene Kruse,
Yutaku Kunimatsu, Julie Lesnik, Linda Levitch, Thomas J.
Loebel, David Lordkipanidze, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Giorgio
Manzi, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Monte McCrossin, National
Museums of Kenya, Gerald Newlands, Xijum Ni, John
Oates, Bonnie Pedersen, David Pilbeam, Gul Reyman,
Charlotte Roberts, Duane Rumbaugh, Sastrohamijoyo
Sartono, Peter Schmid, Rose Sevick, Elwyn Simons,
Meredith Small, Fred Smith, Thierry Smith, Kirstin
Jeffrey McKee
Sterner, Masanaru Takai, Heather Thew, Nelson Ting,

Phillip Tobias, Erik Trinkaus, William Turnbaugh, Alan
Walker, Carol Ward, Wally Wecker, Dietrich Wegner, 1925–2012
xix
Supplements
Introduction to Physical Anthropology 2013–2014 comes and concepts. The site also provides an eBook version
with an outstanding supplements program to help of the text with highlighting and note-taking capabili-
instructors create an effective learning environment so ties. For instructors this text’s CourseMate also includes
students can more easily master the latest discoveries and Engagement Tracker, a first-of-its-kind tool that monitors
interpretations in the field of physical anthropology. student engagement in the course. Go to login.cengage.
com to access these resources.
WebTutor™ for Blackboard® and WebCT™

Supplements for the Instructor Jump-start your course with customizable, rich, text-
Online Instructor’s Manual with Test Bank for specific content within your Course Management System.
Introduction to Physical Anthropology 2013–2014 ▶ Jump-start—Simply load a WebTutor cartridge into
Edition your Course Management System.
This online resource includes a sample syllabus showing
how to integrate the Anthropology Resource Center with ▶ Customizable—Easily blend, add, edit, reorganize, or
the text, as well as chapter outlines, learning objectives, delete content.
key terms and concepts, lecture suggestions, and enrich- ▶ Content—Rich, text-specific content, media assets,
ment topics, as well as 40–60 test questions per chapter. quizzing, weblinks, discussion topics, interactive
games and exercises, and more.
PowerLecture™ with Exam View® (Windows/
Macintosh) for Introduction to Physical Anthropology The Wadsworth Anthropology Video Library
2013–2014 Edition Vol. 1, 2, and 3
This easy-to-use, one-stop digital library and presenta- The Wadsworth Anthropology Video Library drives
tion tool includes the following book-specific resources as home the relevance of course topics through short, pro-
well as direct links to many of Wadsworth’s highly valued vocative clips of current and historical events. Perfect for
electronic resources for anthropology: enriching lectures and engaging students in discussion,
▶ Ready-to-use Microsoft® PowerPoint® lecture slides many of the segments on this volume have been gathered
with photos and graphics from the text, make it easy from BBC Motion Gallery. Ask your Cengage Learning
for you to assemble, edit, publish, and present custom representative for a list of contents.
lectures for your course.
▶ ExamView® testing software, which provides all the
test items from the text’s test bank in electronic format, Supplements for the Student
enabling you to create customized tests of up to 250
items that can be delivered in print or online. Anthropology CourseMate
▶ The text’s Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank This website for Introduction to Physical Anthropology
in electronic format. 2013–2014 Edition brings chapter topics to life with inter-
active learning, study, and exam preparation tools, includ-
Anthropology CourseMate ing quizzes, flash cards, videos, animations, and more!
This website for Introduction to Physical Anthropology The site also provides an eBook version of the text with
2013–2014 Edition brings chapter topics to life with inter- highlighting and note-taking capabilities. You can access
active learning, study, and exam preparation tools includ- this new learning tool and all other online resources
ing quizzes and flashcards for each chapter’s key terms through www.cengagebrain.com.
xx
Supplements xxi
Telecourse Course Student Guide for Introduction to Basic Genetics in Anthropology CD-ROM: Principles
Physical Anthropology, 2013–2014 Edition and Applications, Version 2.0 by Jurmain/Kilgore/
Entitled “Physical Anthropology: The Evolving Human,” Trevathan
this distance-learning course provides online and print This student CD-ROM expands on basic biological con-
companion study guide options that include quizzing, cepts covered in the book, focusing on biological inher-
study aids, interactive exercises, video, and more. itance (such as genes and DNA sequencing) and its
applications to modern human populations. Interactive
Classic and Contemporary Readings in Physical animations and simulations bring these important con-
Anthropology cepts to life so that students can fully understand the
Edited by Mary K. Sandford and Eileen Jackson, this essential biological principles underlying human evolu-
accessible reader presents primary articles with intro- tion. Also available are quizzes and interactive flash cards
ductions and questions for discussion, helping students for further study.
to better understand the nature of scientific inquiry.
Students will read highly accessible classic and contem- Hominid Fossils CD-ROM: An Interactive Atlas by
porary articles on key topics, including the science of James Ahern
physical anthropology, evolution and heredity, primates, This CD-based interactive atlas includes over 75 key fos-
human evolution, and modern human variation. sils that are important for a clear understanding of human
evolution. The QuickTime® Virtual Reality (QTVR)
Lab Manual and Workbook for Physical “object” movie format for each fossil will enable students
Anthropology, Seventh Edition to have a near-authentic experience working with these
Written by Diane L. France, this edition of the workbook important finds by allowing them to rotate the fossil 360°.
and lab manual includes a new “Introduction to Science Unlike some VR media, QTVR objects are made using
and Critical Thinking” that precedes the first. Using actual photographs of the real objects and thus better
hands-on exercises, this richly illustrated full-color lab preserve details of color and texture. The fossils used are
manual balances the study of genetics, human osteology, high-quality research casts and real fossils.
anthropometry, and forensic anthropology with the study The organization of the atlas is nonlinear, with three
of primates and human evolution. In addition to provid- levels and multiple paths, enabling students to start with
ing hands-on lab assignments that apply the field’s per- a particular fossil and work their way “up” to see how the
spectives and techniques to real situations, this edition fossil fits into the map of human evolution in terms of
provides more explanatory information and sample exer- geography, time, and evolution. The CD-ROM offers stu-
cises throughout the text to help make the concepts of dents an inviting, authentic learning environment, one
physical anthropology easier to understand. Contact your that also contains a dynamic quizzing feature that will
Cengage sales representative to package with the text. allow students to test their knowledge of fossil and species
identification as well as provide more detailed informa-
Physical Anthropology Lab Manual by John tion about the fossil record.
Kappelman offers a focused sampling of laboratory exer-
cises that range across the breadth of the discipline, from
examples of heredity and evolution to primate behavior,
the fossil record of apes and early humans, and questions
about human biology that are linked to environmental
change. Exercises are designed with a succinct focus on
particular problems, and the labs follow a fixed format
with the introduction of a problem followed by the collec-
tion of data that are in turn used to test and evaluate the
hypothesis. Students who complete the labs will greatly
expand their knowledge of physical anthropology.
Connections
Evolutionary theory, par-

ticularly natural selection,
explains how life forms
have changed over time
Physical anthropology is a and how new species are
biological science that investigates produced.
how humans have evolved and
continue to do so.
hormones Substances (usually pro-

teins) that are produced by specialized cells
and that travel to other parts of the body,
Cristina G. Mittermeier
where they influence chemical reactions

and regulate various cellular functions.
amino acids Small molecules that are
the components of proteins.
Introduction to
Physical Anthropology
Introduction
Student Learning Objectives
After mastering the material in this chapter, you should be able to:
1
O
ne day, perhaps during the ▶ Describe the discipline of anthropology as it is practiced in the
rainy season some 3.7 million United States, its subfields, and the general anthropological
years ago, two or three animals perspective on how humans are biologically and behaviorally
walked across a grassland savanna in connected to other species.
what is now northern Tanzania, in East ▶ Provide a brief description of the major subfields of physical or
Africa. These individuals were early biological anthropology.
hominins, members of the same evo-
lutionary lineage that includes our own ▶ Understand the fundamentals of the scientific method and the
species, Homo sapiens. Fortunately importance of hypothesis testing.
for us, a record of their passage on that
▶ Explain why scientific theories are not simply guesses or hunches,
long-forgotten day remains in the form
as the term (theory) is often incorrectly used and interpreted.
of fossilized footprints, preserved in
hardened volcanic deposits. As chance ▶ Appreciate how understanding the nature of scientific research
would have it, shortly after heels and can lead to the development of critical thinking skills, which, in
toes were pressed into the damp soil, turn, are an extremely important outcome of a college education.
a nearby volcano erupted. The ensu-
ing ash fall blanketed everything on the
ground. In time, the ash layer hardened
into a deposit that remarkably pre- ensis. Because the remains have been
served the tracks of numerous animals, extensively studied, we know that these
including those early hominins, for hominins were anatomically similar to
nearly 4 million years (Fig. 1-1). ourselves, although their brains were
These now famous prints indicate only about one-third the size of ours.
that two individuals, one smaller than They may have used stones and sticks
savanna (also spelled savannah) A
the other, perhaps walking side by side, as simple tools, but there is no evidence
large flat grassland with scattered trees
left parallel sets of tracks. But because that they actually made stone tools. In
and shrubs. Savannas are found in many
the larger individual’s prints are fact, they were very much at the mercy regions of the world with dry and warm-to-
obscured, possibly by those of a third, of nature’s whims. They certainly hot climates.
it’s unclear how many actually made could not outrun most predators, and
hominins Colloquial term for members
that journey so long ago. What is clear their canine teeth were fairly small, so
of the evolutionary group that includes
is that the prints were made by an ani- compared to many other animals, they modern humans and now-extinct bipedal
mal that habitually walked bipedally were pretty much defenseless. relatives.
(on two feet), and that fact tells us that We’ve asked hundreds of questions
species A group of organisms that
those ancient travelers were hominins. about the Laetoli hominins, but we will
can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.
In addition to the footprints, scien- never be able to answer them all. They
Members of one species are reproductively
tists working at this site (called Laetoli) walked down a path into what became isolated from members of all other species
and at other locations have discovered their future, and their journey ended (i.e., they cannot mate with them to pro-
many fossilized parts of skeletons of an so long ago that we cannot really grasp duce fertile offspring).
animal we call Australopithecus afar how much time has passed since that
bipedally On two feet; walking habitu-
3 ally on two legs.
4 ChApter 1 Introduction to Physical Anthropology
day. But it remains for us to learn as You may wonder why anyone would
much as we can about them, and as we care about early hominin footprints
continue to do this, their greater jour- and how they can possibly be relevant
ney continues. to your life. You may also wonder why a
On July 20, 1969, a television audi- physical anthropology textbook would
ence numbering in the hundreds of begin by discussing two such seemingly
millions watched as two human beings unrelated events as ancient hominins
stepped out of a spacecraft onto the walking across an African savanna and
surface of the moon. People born after a moonwalk. But the fact is, these two
that date have always lived in an age of events are very closely connected.
space exploration, and many may now Physical, or biological, anthropology
take that first moon landing more or (both terms are used) is a scientific
less for granted. But the significance of discipline concerned with the biologi-
that first moonwalk can’t be overstated, cal and behavioral characteristics of
because it represents humankind’s pre- human beings; our closest relatives,
sumed mastery over the natural forces the nonhuman primates (apes, mon-
that govern our presence on earth. keys, tarsiers, lemurs, and lorises); and
For the first time ever, people actually our ancestors. This kind of research
walked upon the surface of a celestial helps us explain what it means to
body that, as far as we know, has never be human and how we came to be
given birth to biological life. the way we are. This is an ambitious
As the astronauts gathered geologi- goal and it probably isn’t fully attain-
cal specimens and frolicked in near able, but it’s certainly worth pursuing.
weightlessness, they left traces of their We’re the only species to ponder our
fleeting presence in the form of foot- own existence and question how we
prints in the lunar dust (Fig. 1-2). On fit into the spectrum of life on earth.
the surface of the moon, where no rain Most people view
falls and no wind blows, the footprints
remain undisturbed to this day. They
survive as silent testimony to a brief
visit by a medium-sized, big-
brained creature that pre-
sumed to challenge the
very forces that cre-
ated it.
▶Figure 1-1 Early hominin footprints

at Laetoli, Tanzania. The tracks to the
left were made by one individual, while
those to the right appear to have been
made by two individuals, the second
stepping in the tracks of the first.
anthropology the field of inquiry that

studies human culture and evolutionary
aspects of human biology; includes cultural
anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and
physical, or biological, anthropology.
primates Members of the mammalian
order primates (pronounced “pry-may´-
Peter Jones
tees”), which includes lemurs, lorises,

tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans.
The Human Connection 5
humanity as quite separate from the ance of a new species (or spe
rest of the animal kingdom. But at the ciation), especially when
same time, many are curious about those populations are
the similarities we share with other isolated from one
species. Maybe, as a child, you looked another. Change at
at your dog and tried to figure out how this level is called
her front legs might correspond to macroevolution.
your arms. Or perhaps during a visit At the other
to the zoo, you recognized the simi- level, there are
larities between a chimpanzee’s hands genetic altera-
or facial expressions and your own. tions within
Maybe you wondered if he also shared populations;
your thoughts and feelings. If you’ve and though
ever had thoughts and questions like this type of
these, then you’ve indeed been curious change may not
about humankind’s place in nature. lead to speciation,
How did Homo sapiens, a result of it does cause popu-
the same evolutionary forces that pro- lations of a species to
SA
duced all other forms of life on this differ from one another NA
planet, gain the power to control the in the frequency of certain
flow of rivers and even alter the cli- traits. Evolution at this level is
mate on a global scale? As tropical ani- referred to as microevolution. Evolution ▲Figure 1-2 Human footprints left
mals, how were we able to leave the at both these levels will be discussed in on the lunar surface during the Apollo
tropics and eventually occupy most of this book. mission.
the earth’s land surfaces? How did we
adjust to different environmental con-
ditions as we dispersed? How could our
species, which numbered fewer than
The Human
1 billion until the mid-nineteenth cen- Connection
tury, come to number more than 7 bil-
lion worldwide today and, as we now
do, add another billion people approxi-
mately every 11 years?
T he unifying theme of this textbook
is how human beings are linked to
all other life on earth. We can see how evolution A change in the genetic
These are some of the many ques- we are connected to other organisms structure of a population. the term is also
tions that physical anthropologists try in countless ways, as you will learn frequently used to refer to the appearance
to answer through the study of human throughout this book. For example, our of a new species.
evolution, variation, and adaptation. DNA is structurally identical to that adaptation An anatomical, physi-
These issues, and many others, are cov- of every living thing. Indeed, we share ological, or behavioral response of organ-
ered in this textbook, because physical genes that are involved in the most fun- isms or populations to the environment.
anthropology is, in large part, human damental life processes with even the Adaptations result from evolutionary
biology seen from an evolutionary per- simplest of animals, such as sponges. change (specifically as a result of natural
spective. On hearing the term evolu These genes have changed very little selection).
tion, most people think of the appear- over the course of several hundred mil- genetic having to do with the study
ance of new species. Certainly new lion years of evolution. With few excep- of gene structure and action and the pat-
species are one important consequence tions, our cells have the same struc- terns of inheritance of traits from parent
of evolution, but not the only one. ture and work the same way as in all to offspring. Genetic mechanisms are the
Evolution is an ongoing biological life forms. Anatomically, we have the foundation of evolutionary change.
process with more than one outcome. same muscles and bones as other ani- behavior Anything organisms do that
Simply stated, evolution is a change in mals. What’s more, many aspects of involves action in response to internal or
the genetic makeup of a population our behavior have direct connections external stimuli; the response of an indi-
from one generation to the next, and it to nonhuman species, especially other vidual, group, or species to its environment.
can be defined and studied at two lev- primates. Such responses may or may not be deliber-
ate, and they aren’t necessarily the result
els. Over time, some genetic changes The countless connections we
of conscious decision making (which is
in populations do result in the appear- share with other organisms show that
absent in single-celled organisms, insects,
and many other species).
humans are a product of the same evo- ers; and clothing, from animal skins
lutionary forces that produced all liv- to high-tech synthetic fibers (Fig. 1-4).
ing things. But, clearly we aren’t iden- Technology, religion, values, social
tical to any other species. In fact, all organization, language, kinship, mar-
species are unique in some ways. We riage rules, gender roles, dietary prac-
humans are one contemporary compo- tices, inheritance of property, and so
nent of a vast biological continuum at on are all aspects of culture. Each cul-
a particular point in time; and in this ture shapes people’s perceptions of the
regard, we aren’t really all that special. external environment, or worldview,
Stating that humans are part of a con- in particular ways that distinguish a
tinuum doesn’t imply that we’re at the particular society from all others.
peak of development on that contin- One important point to remember
uum. Depending on the criteria used, is that culture isn’t genetically passed
humans can be seen to exist at one end from one generation to the next. We
of the spectrum or the other, or some- aren’t born with innate knowledge that
where in between, but we don’t occupy leads us to behave in ways appropriate
a position of inherent superiority over to our own culture. Culture is learned,
other species (Fig. 1-3). and the process of learning one’s cul-
However, human beings are unques- ture begins, quite literally, at birth.
tionably unique regarding one highly All people are products of the culture
significant characteristic, and that is they’re raised in, and since most human
intellect. After all, humans are the behavior is learned, it follows that most
only species, born of earth, to stir the human behaviors, perceptions, values,
lunar dust. We’re the only species to and reactions are shaped by culture.
develop language and complex culture It’s important to emphasize that
as a means of buffering nature’s chal- even though culture isn’t genetically
lenges, and by doing so we have gained determined, the human predisposi-
the power to shape the planet’s very tion to assimilate culture and func-
destiny. tion within it is very much influenced
by biological factors. Most nonhuman
animals rely to varying degrees on
Biocultural Evolution learned behavior. This is especially true
of the great apes (gorillas, chimpan-
continuum A set of relationships in

which all components fall along a single
B iological anthropologists don’t just
study physiological and biological
systems. When these topics are con-
zees, bonobos, and orangutans), which
exhibit several aspects of culture.
The predisposition for culture is
integrated spectrum (for example, color). All sidered within the broader context of perhaps the most critical component
life reflects a single biological continuum. human evolution, another factor must of human evolutionary history, and it
culture Behavioral aspects of human be considered, and that is culture. Cul- was inherited from our early hominin
adaptation, including technology, tradi- ture is an extremely important con- or even prehominin ancestors. In fact,
tions, language, religion, marriage patterns, cept, not only as it relates to modern the common ancestor we share with
and social roles. Culture is a set of learned humans but also because of its critical chimpanzees may have had this pre-
behaviors transmitted from one generation
role in human evolution. Quite sim- disposition. But during the course of
to the next by nonbiological (i.e., nongenetic)
ply, and in a very broad sense, culture human evolution, the role of culture
means.
can be defined as the strategy by which became increasingly important. Over
worldview General cultural orientation humans adapt to the natural environ- time, as you will see, culture influ-
or perspective shared by the members of a ment. In fact, culture has so altered and enced many aspects of our biologi-
society.
dominated our world that it’s become cal makeup; in turn, aspects of biol-
biocultural evolution the mutual the environment in which we live. ogy influenced cultural practices. For
hormones Substances
interactive evolution of human (usually
biologypro-
and
Culture includes technologies ranging this reason, humans are the result of
culture; the concept that biology (anatomy, from stone tools to computers; subsis- long-term interactions between biology
neurological attributes, etc.) makes culture
where they tence patterns, from hunting and gath- and culture. We call these interactions
possible andinfluence chemicalculture
that developing reactions
further
and regulate various cellular functions. ering to global agribusiness; housing biocultural evolution; and in this
influences the direction of biological evolu-
tion; this isacids
a basic Small
concept in understanding
types, from thatched huts to skyscrap- respect, humans are unique.
amino molecules that are
the unique components
components of human evolution.
of proteins.
Biocultural Evolution 7
▶Figure 1-3 Traditional and recent
technologies. (a) An early stone tool
from East Africa. This artifact repre-
Lynn Kilgore
sents one of the oldest types of stone
tools found anywhere. (b) The Hubble
Space telescope, a late twentieth-
century tool, orbits the earth every 96
minutes at an altitude of 360 miles. b
Because it is above the earth’s atmo-
sphere, it provides distortion-free
images of objects in deep space. a
(c) A cuneiform tablet. Cuneiform,
the earliest form of writing, involved
pressing symbols into clay tablets. It
originated in southern Iraq some 5,000
years ago. (d) Text messaging, a fairly
titute
recent innovation in satellite communi-
c
ce Ins
cation, has generated a new language
Museum of Primitive Art and Culture, Peace Dale, RI.
of sorts. Today, more than 500 million
cien
pe S
text messages are sent every day
sco
worldwide. (e) A Samburu woman in
e
Tel
East Africa building a traditional but
ce
pa
/S
complicated dwelling of stems, small S
A
NA
branches, and mud. (f) These Hong
Kong skyscrapers are typical of cities d
in industrialized countries today.
iStockphoto.com/Ravi Tahilramani
Lynn Kilgore
f
iStockphoto.com/Justin Horocks

where they influence chemical reactions
and regulate various cellular functions.
amino acids Small molecules that are
the components of proteins.
Connections
Figure 1-4
Humans are biologically
connected to all forms of
life. This central theme
will be addressed in every
chapter of this textbook
as shown in this figure.
CHAPTER 1
Physical anthropology is a biological CHAPTER 2

science that investigates how humans
have evolved and continue to do so.
Evolutionary theory, particularly natural
selection, explains how life forms have
changed over time and how new species
are produced.
CHAPTER 17
Humans have recently

become disconnected from
The immedi-
other life and are rapidly
ate predeces- CHAPTER 12
altering the planet.
sors of modern
humans, including
the Neandertals, were
CHAPTER 16 much like us, but had some
anatomical and behavioral
differences.
Human development
and adaptation is best
understood from an
evolutionary perspective.
CHAPTER 15
Through natural selection,

humans have and continue to CHAPTER 13
adapt to environmental factors
including solar radiation, cold,
altitude, and, most importantly, CHAPTER 14 Modern humans first evolved in
infectious disease.
and that travel to other parts of the body, Africa and later spread to other
where they influence chemical reactions areas of the world, where they occa-
and regulate various cellular functions. sionally interbred with Neandertals
Modern human variation is best under-
and other pre-modern humans.
amino acids Small molecules that are stood by examining similarities and dif-
the components of proteins. ferences in DNA among populations.
ix
hel
ou ble
Ad
DN
G
C
C
G
A
T ir
the
w ay d to
der t r a cte eby
n t e r
T nu re a nd th
A
atio sa a
C
G
e plic o t ide ides
R le ot
A
T nuc ucle
a c hed tary n
A at t e n n d
T C
G Un plem w stra
G
com a ne
m
A C for
TA
ds T
ran
G
l st G G
C
new
C
gina C H A CP T E R 3 C H lA PTER 4
Ori T A ete
p
om
T A ionc
G T at
C
old old A plic
A Re
T
The DNA molecule is C
G
Evolution occurs when DNA
le-
oub ule
s the basis
new
of allAlife.
T C
G changes and genetic variation
al d molec
t i
en NA
c G is further influenced by natural
o id D C
Tw nded selection and other factors.
s t r a
C G
CHAPTER 5
nds
w stra
Ne Hominins began
Humans are both ver-
to disperse out of
tebrates and mammals,
Africa around 2
and their evolutionary
million years ago,
history over many mil-
and during the
lions of years explains
next 1 million years
our early roots.
inhabited much of
CHAPTER 11 Eurasia.
Humans are primates

and share many bio-
logical characteristics
CHAPTER 6 with other primates.
The first more

human-like ani-
mals (hominins)
appeared in Africa
around 6 mya ago
CHAPTER 10 and evolved into a
variety of different
species.
CHAPTER 7
Partly because of
common evolutionary
history, many human
behaviors are also seen
in other primates.

CHAPTER 9 teins) that are produced by specialized cells
and that travel
Fossil to other
evidence parts of the body,
indicates
CHAPTER 8 where they influence chemical reactions
our primate origins date to at
Paleoanthropology, which includes physical anthro- and65
least regulate
millionvarious
yearscellular
ago.functions.
pology, archaeology, and geology, provides the scien- amino acids Small molecules that are
tific basis to understand hominin evolution. the components of proteins.
Biocultural interactions have result- change. But while it’s clear that we
ed in many anatomical, biological, and humans have influenced the develop-
behavioral changes during the course ment and spread of infectious disease,
of human evolution. Alterations in the we still don’t know the many ways
shape of the pelvis, increased brain size, that changes in infectious disease pat-
reorganization of neurological struc- terns are affecting human biology and
tures, smaller teeth, and the devel- behavior. Anthropological research
opment of language are some of the in this one area alone is extremely rel-
results of the evolutionary process in evant to all of us, and there are many
our lineage. Today biocultural inter- other critical topics that biological
actions are as important as ever, espe- anthropologists explore.
cially with regard to health and disease.
Air pollution and exposure to dan-
gerous chemicals have increased the What Is Anthropology?
prevalence of respiratory disease and
cancer. While air travel makes it pos-
sible for people to travel thousands of
miles in just a few hours, we aren’t the
M any anthropology students con-
template this question when their
parents or friends ask, “What are you
only species that can do this. Millions studying?” The answer is often fol-
of disease-causing organisms travel on lowed by a blank stare or a comment
airplanes with their human hosts, mak- about dinosaurs. So, what is anthropol-
ing it possible for infectious diseases to ogy, and how is it different from several
spread within hours across the globe. related disciplines?
Many human activities have Like physical anthropologists,
changed the patterns of such infec- biologists investigate human adap-
tious diseases as tuberculosis, influ- tation and evolution. Similarly, his-
enza, and malaria. After the domes- torians and sociologists also study
tication of nonhuman animals, close aspects of human societies past and
contact with chickens, pigs, and cat- present. But when biological or social
tle greatly increased human expo- research also considers the interactions
sure to some of the diseases these ani- between evolutionary and cultural fac-
mals carry. Through this contact we’ve tors, it’s included in the discipline of
also changed the genetic makeup of anthropology.
disease-causing microorganisms. For In the United States, anthropology
example, the H1N1 “swine flu” virus is divided into four main subfields: cul-
that caused the 2009 pandemic actu- tural, or social, anthropology; archaeol-
ally contains genetic material derived ogy; linguistic anthropology; and physi-
from bacteria that infect three differ- cal, or biological, anthropology. Each
ent species: humans, birds, and pigs. As of these, in turn, is divided into several
it turned out, that pandemic wasn’t as specialized areas of interest. This four-
serious as had originally been feared, field approach concerns all aspects of
but the next one could be. Because we humanity across space and time. Each
have overused antibiotics, we’ve made subdiscipline emphasizes different
many bacteria resistant to treatment aspects of the human experience, but
and many are even deadly. Likewise, together they offer a means of explain-
although we’re making progress in ing variation in human biological and
treating malaria, the microorganism behavioral adaptations. In addition,
that causes it has developed resistance each of these subfields has practical
to some treatments and preventive applications, and many anthropologists
medications. We’ve also increased the pursue careers outside the university
geographical distribution of malaria- environment. This kind of anthropolo-
applied anthropology the practi- gy is called applied anthropology, and
carrying mosquitoes through agri-
cal application of anthropological and
cultural practices and global climate it’s extremely important today.
archaeological theories and techniques.
For example, many biological anthropolo-
gists work in the public health sector.
Linguistic Anthropology 11
Cultural Anthropology Archaeology

C ultural, or social, anthropology is
the study of patterns of belief and
behavior found in modern and histori-
A rchaeology is the study of ear-
lier cultures by anthropologists
who specialize in the scientific recov-
cal cultures. The origins of cultural ery, analysis, and interpretation of
anthropology can be traced to the nine- the material remains of past societ-
teenth century, when travel and explo- ies. Archaeologists obtain informa-
ration brought Europeans into contact tion from artifacts and structures left
(and sometimes conflict) with vari- behind by earlier cultures. The remains
ous cultures in Africa, Asia, and the of earlier societies, in the form of tools,
New World. structures, art, eating implements, frag-
This contact sparked an interest in ments of writing, and so on, provide a
“traditional” societies and led many great deal of information about many
early anthropologists to study and important aspects of a society, such as
record lifestyles that are now mostly religion and social structure.
extinct. These studies produced many Unlike in the past, sites aren’t exca-
descriptive ethnographies that cov- vated simply for the artifacts or “trea-
ered a range of topics such as reli- sures” they may contain. Rather, they’re
gion, ritual, myth, the use of symbols, excavated to gain information about
diet, technology, gender roles, and human behavior. For example, patterns
child-rearing practices. Ethnographic of behavior are reflected in the disper-
accounts, in turn, formed the basis for sal of human settlements across a land-
comparative studies of numerous cul- scape and in the distribution of cultural
tures. By examining the similarities remains within them. Archaeological
and differences among cultures, cul- research may focus on specific localities
tural anthropologists have been able or peoples and attempt to identify, for
to formulate many hypotheses regard- example, various aspects of social orga-
ing fundamental aspects of human nization, subsistence techniques, or fac-
behavior. tors that led to the collapse of a civiliza-
The focus of cultural anthropol- tion. Alternatively, inquiry may reflect
ogy shifted over the course of the an interest in broader issues relating to
twentieth century. Cultural anthro- human culture in general, such as the
pologists still work in remote areas, development of agriculture or the rise
but increasingly they’ve turned of cities.
their gaze toward their own cul-
tures and the people around them.
Increasingly, ethnographic tech-
niques have been applied to the study
Linguistic
of diverse subcultures and their Anthropology
interactions with one another in con-
temporary metropolitan areas (urban
anthropology). The population of any
city is composed of many subgroups
L inguistic anthropology is the study
of human speech and language,
including the origins of language in
defined by economic status, religion, general as well as specific languages.
ethnic background, profession, age, By examining similarities between
level of education, and so on. Even contemporary languages, linguists
the student body of your own col- have been able to trace historical ties
ethnographies Detailed descrip-
lege or university is made up of many between particular languages and
tive studies of human societies. In cultural
subcultures, and as you walk across groups of languages, thus facilitating anthropology, an ethnography is tradition-
campus, you see students of many the identification of language families ally the study of a non-Western society.
nationalities and diverse religious and perhaps past relationships between
artifacts Objects or materials made or
and ethnic backgrounds. human populations.
modified for use by hominins. The earliest
artifacts are usually tools made of stone or
occasionally bone.
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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chAPter 1 Introduction to Physical Anthropology 3

heredity and evolution

contemporary human evolution

Appendix A: Atlas of Primate Skeletal Anatomy 484

Preface xvi Cultural Anthropology 11

heredity and evolution

Summary of Main Topics 46

C h a p te r 3 Natural Selection Is Directional and Acts on

C h a p te r 8 A Closer Look Primate Diversity in the Fayum 232

Stone Tool (Lithic) Technology 268

C h a p te r 10 At a glance Key Homo Erectus Discoveries

At a glance Key Early Modern Homo sapiens

contemporary human evolution

Pregnancy, Birth, Infancy, and Childhood 454

Island Hopping and Primate

What Were Early Hominins

Major Features of Bipedal

Cranial Capacity 293

Sterner, Masanaru Takai, Heather Thew, Nelson Ting,

WebTutor™ for Blackboard® and WebCT™

Evolutionary theory, par-

hormones Substances (usually pro-

where they influence chemical reactions

▶Figure 1-1 Early hominin footprints

anthropology the field of inquiry that

tees”), which includes lemurs, lorises,

continuum A set of relationships in

of sorts. Today, more than 500 million

hormones Substances (usually pro-

Physical anthropology is a biological CHAPTER 2

Humans have recently

Through natural selection,

Humans are primates

The first more

hormones Substances (usually pro-

Cultural Anthropology Archaeology

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

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▶Figure 1-1 Early hominin footprints