Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
by Thomas G. Harding
David Kaplan
Marshall D. Sahlins
Ehiian R. Service
The University
of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor
Foreword
by Leslie A. White
Foreword
vi
Foreword
vii
Foreword
viii
Foreword
ix
Foreivord
Forenjcord
xi
ForenjDord
Xll
Contents
Introduction / page i
• •!
Introduction
2
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
changing forms, in this case the genetic structure of
populations, is the much-favored one, here voiced by
Boyd, that "Evolution, essentially, is nothing but a change
in gene frequencies" (1950: 131).
Introduction
lO
bitrodiiction
II
13
15
i6
DIAGRAM I
Diversity and progress ainojig major lineages
of animal life {schematized).
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
HI).
16
27
29
30
31
39-)
32
Evolution: Specific and General
33
34
35
36
37
SOME IMPLICATIONS
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39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
CULTURAL STABILITY
53
Evolution and Culture
54
The upsets that came with the melting of the last glaciers
caused all sorts of changes in tools and in food-getting
habits, but the people of Europe in 5,000 B.C. or even later
were still just as much simple hunters, fishers, and food col-
lectors as they had been in 25,000 B.C. ... In other words,
they changed just enough so that they would not have to
change. . . . (1948: 79-80.)
An example of more restricted scope is provided by the
Yakut of northeastern Siberia. Formerly inhabitants of
Central Asia, the Yakut were separated from other Turkic
tribes by the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century.
Later they were forced northward into the Lena River
Valley by the Mongol Buryats, and with Russian penetra-
tion of the Lena region in the seventeenth century Yakut
groups moved farther northeastward and occupied the
Yana, Indighirka, and Kolyma valleys. In spite of the
severity of their new tundra habitat, many Yakut re-
mained "typical representatives of the culture of the
nomadic or seminomadic horse and cattle-breeding
Turkic tribes of Central Asia" (Jochelson 1933: 197).
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
Adaptation ajid Stability
65'
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
74
75
^6
77
78
79
The only area where the Indian cultures were not com-
pletely uprooted and swept aside was the Southwest, a
semiarid region which, as Fried (1952: 396) has pointed
out, is to such a large extent marginal to the economy of
the nation that during World War II it was used by the
government for Japanese relocation centers, prisoners-
of-war camps, and for a desert training area. In addition it
has been the site for a great deal of testing of nuclear
weapons. And yet even in the Southwest the material base
which made the old ways of life possible has been so
greatly undermined by the encroaching dominant cul-
ture that it seems but a matter of time before these too
go the way of all the other American Indian cultures.
83
1934)-
84
85
86
MECHANISMS OF DOMINANCE
87
89
90
91
Evolution and Ctdture
92
93
94
The Law of Evolutionary Potential
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96
97
98
99
100
lOI
102
103
104
io6
107
108
109
Evolution and Culture
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1 1 1
I 12
"3
114
115
116
117
ii8
119
120
the rest of the world. And we mean the rest of the world,
not merely small portions of it selected for their political
compliance or strategic location. But we have also argued
from the law of evolutionary potential that some of the
backward areas will probably move beyond us. Is this not
a paradox? Would not aiding them in this be something
like digging our own grave?
121
Note
123
Elman R. Service
124
Bibliography
Barnett, H. G. 1938 The nature of the potlatch. Ameri-
can Anthropologist 40: 349-58.
9-
Bettelheim, Charles 1959 China's economic growth.
York, Norton.
Boyd, William C. 1950 Genetics and the races of man.
Boston, Heath.
Braidwood, Robert J. 1948 Prehistoric men. Chicago,
125
Bibliography
273-
128
Bibliography
Bibliography
MI
OCT 119
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