Ever since Adam Smith, those trying to prove that contemporary forms of competitive market exchange are rooted in human nature have pointed to the existence of what they call ‘primitive trade.’ Already tens of thousands of years ago, one can find evidence of objects — very often precious stones, shells or other items of adornment — being moved around over enormous distances. Often these were just the sort of objects that anthropologists would later find being used as ‘primitive currencies’ all over the world. Surely this must prove capitalism in some form or another has always existed?
The logic is perfectly circular. If precious objects were moving long distances, this is evidence of ‘trade’ and, if trade occurred, it must have taken some sort of commercial form; therefore, the fact that, say, 3,000 years ago Baltic amber found its way to the Mediterranean, or shells from Mexico were transported to Ohio, is proof that we are in the presence of some embryonic form of market economy. Markets are universal. Therefore, there must have been a market. Therefore, markets are universal. And so on.
All such authors are really saying is that they themselves cannot personally imagine any other way that precious objects might move about. But lack of imagination is not itself an argument. It’s almost as if these writers are afraid to suggest anything that seems original, or, if they do, feel obliged to use vaguely scientific-sounding language ( ‘trans-regional interaction spheres’, ‘multi-scalar networks of exchange’) to avoid having to speculate about what precisely those things might be. In fact, anthropology provides endless illustrations of how valuable objects might travel long distances in the absence of anything that remotely resembles a market economy.
The founding text of twentieth-century ethnography, Bronislaw Malinowski’s 1922 Argonauts of the Western Pacific, describes how in the ‘kula chain’ of the Massim Island off Papua New Guinea, men would undertake daring expeditions across dangerous seas in outrigger canoes, just in order to exchange precious heirloom arm-shells and necklaces for each other (each of the most important ones has its own name, and history of former owners) — only to hold it briefly, then pass it on again to a different expedition from another island. Heirloom treasures circle the island chain eternally, crossing hundreds of miles of ocean, arm-shells and necklaces in opposite directions. To an outsider it seems senseless. To the men of the Massim it was the ultimate adventure, and nothing could be more important than to spread one’s name, in this fashion, to places one had never seen.
Is this ‘trade’? Perhaps, but it would bend to breaking point our ordinary understanding of what that word means. There is, in fact, a substantial ethnographic literature on how such long-distance exchange operates in societies without markets. Barter does occur: different groups may take on specialties — one is famous for its feather-work, another provides salt, in a third all women are potters — to acquire things they cannot produce themselves; sometimes one group will specialize in the very business of moving people and things around. But we often find such regional networks developing largely for the sake of creating friendly mutual relations, or having an excuse to visit one another from time to time; and there are plenty of other possibilities that in no way resemble ‘trade.’
Let’s list just a few, all drawn from North American material, to give the reader a taste of what might really be going on when people speak of ‘long-distance interaction spheres’ in the human past:
Dreams or vision quests: among Iroquoian-speaking peoples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was considered extremely important literally to realize one’s dreams. Many European observers marveled at how Indians would be willing to travel for days to bring back some object, trophy, crystal or even an animal like a dog they had dreamed of acquiring. Anyone who dreamed about a neighbor or relative’s possession (a kettle, ornament, mask and so on) could normally demand it; as a result, such objects would often gradually travel some way from town to town. On the Great Plains, decisions to travel long distances in search of rare or exotic items could form part of vision quests.
Traveling healers and entertainers: in 1528, when a shipwrecked Spaniard named Alvar Nuriez Cabeza de Vaca made his way from Florida across what is now Texas to Mexico, he found he could pass easily between villages (even villages at war with one another) by offering his services as a magician and curer. Curers in much of North America were also entertainers, and would often develop significant entourages; those who felt their lives had been saved by the performance would, typically, offer up all their material processions to be divided among the troupe. By such means, precious objects could easily travel long distances.
Women’s gambling: women in many indigenous North American societies were inveterate gamblers; the women of adjacent villages would often meet to play dice or a game played with a bowl and plum stone, and would typically bet their shells beads or other objects of personal adornment as the stakes. One archeologist versed in the ethnographic literature, Warren DeBoer, estimates that many of the shells and other exotic discovered in sites halfway across the continent had got there by being endlessly wagered, and lost, in inter-village games of this sort, over very long periods of time.
We could multiply examples, but assume that by now the reader gets the broader point we are making. When we simply guess as to what humans in other times and places might be up to, we almost invariably make guesses that are far less interesting, far less quirky — in a word, far less human than what was likely going on.
Notice what’s missing from most of these: A profit motive.
There are, technically, “markets” in every human culture we can identify. There are exchanges of goods & services, even in the most socialistic of societies.
There is not always any attempt to get “profit,” to wind up with more value than you had before.
(Gambling may have a profit motive. Gambling may also have competitive motive: the goal can be winning, with the prize being wanted as a trophy more than for its technical value.)
The initial post here is taken from The Dawn of Everything, an anthropological/historical survey written by David Wengrow and the recently and lamentably passed scholar, David Graeber.
Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.
RPG mechanic concept: Instead of using dice, each player chooses a divination method by which their outcomes are determined. All known divination methods are fair game. Yes, this includes pyromancy.
Using anthropological examples of ungulate “knucklebones” being used for both divination and games of chance, and how that evolved into modern dice games, I argue my way back into using regular dice as long as I say “I consult the bones” before every roll.
Be part of an important study on the genetics of sexual orientation
Have you had your DNA analyzed by 23andMe or Ancestry? Are you 18 years or older?
If you answered YES to these questions, you are eligible to participate in a study on sexual orientation.
The purpose of this research study is to understand how genetics may influence people’s personalities and sexual orientation. If you take part in this online study, we will instruct you how to find your genetic data file on your 23andMe account and upload it to our secure website. We will also ask you to complete a series of questionnaires on your personality and sexual behavior.
Time required to complete the study should be about 15-25 minutes.
Anyone 18 years or older who has been sexually active and has had a 23andMe or Ancestry analysis is eligible to participate, regardless of sexual orientation.
This study is being conducted by the Department of Anthropology at Penn State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA.
Please contact the study coordinator Heather Self ([email protected]) or the principal investigator David Puts ([email protected]) for further information.
Be part of an important study on the genetics of sexual orientation
· Have you had your DNA analyzed by 23andMe or Ancestry?
· Are you 18 years or older?
If you answered YES to these questions, you are eligible to participate in a study on sexual orientation.
The purpose of this research study is to understand how genetics may influence people’s personalities and sexual orientation. If you take part in this online study, we will instruct you how to find your genetic data file on your 23andMe account and upload it to our secure website. We will also ask you to complete a series of questionnaires on your personality and sexual behavior.
Time required to complete the study should be about 15-25 minutes.
Anyone 18 years or older who has been sexually active and has had a 23andMe or Ancestry analysis is eligible to participate, regardless of sexual orientation.
This study is being conducted by the Department of Anthropology at Penn State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA.
Please contact the study coordinator Heather Self ([email protected]) or the principal investigator David Puts ([email protected]) for further information.
Be part of an important study on the genetics of sexual orientation
· Have you had your DNA analyzed by 23andMe or Ancestry?
· Are you 18 years or older?
If you answered YES to these questions, you are eligible to participate in a study on sexual orientation.
The purpose of this research study is to understand how genetics may influence people’s personalities and sexual orientation. If you take part in this online study, we will instruct you how to find your genetic data file on your 23andMe account and upload it to our secure website. We will also ask you to complete a series of questionnaires on your personality and sexual behavior.
Time required to complete the study should be about 15-25 minutes.
Anyone 18 years or older who has been sexually active and has had a 23andMe or Ancestry analysis is eligible to participate, regardless of sexual orientation.
This study is being conducted by the Department of Anthropology at Penn State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA.
Please contact the study coordinator Heather Self ([email protected]) or the principal investigator David Puts ([email protected]) for further information.
When I first found about Turner Mohan (my previous posts about him are here), I was just over one of those periods of binge-reading the Silmarillion and imagining the extraordinary world created by J. R. R. Tolkien. And I couldn’t believe what I found.
In his huge Deviantart gallery, Turner Mohan gives extensive descriptions about each of his sketches. He puts a lot of effort in analyzing in a very logical and historical way why the peoples and races of Arda look like that, produce those clothings, live in those architectures. Not only he is a talented artist, not only he has an impressively deep knowledge of Tolkenian lore, but even more he is a kind of fantasy anthropologist. Some examples (taken from the link) are below:
(Maybe I love his art so much because we imagined things in a similar way, so it’s like he draws almost exactly as I thought, for example with the first elves being similar to native americans, and eaarly orcs similar to primitive men.)
his description:
In the Lord of the Rings, the elves are presented almost across the board as these saintly, somewhat removed beings. They are ‘the Wise,“ stewards of the World and advisors to the younger races, their words giving hope to our mortal heroes in their darkest hours. They are getting ready to depart forever for the West, and hand over the world they have loved and fought for for countless millennia to mankind, and one senses that this last battle against the evil of Sauron is for them a tying up of theological loose ends, before they leave men to inherit the Earth. To those previously familiar only with LOTR and 'the Hobbit,’ it is perhaps the greatest surprise of 'the Silmarillion’ and the rest of Tolkien’s posthumously released work to see the elves presented as "young;” proud, impetuous, dynamic beings who act on impulse, who can be jealous, manipulative, abusive, evil. With none is this more apparent than with Feanor and his sons, and I don’t think it’s any mistake that they are particular favorites of fans and fan-artitsts. In them we get to see the (what would have to be) tremendous, really super-human, pride and contempt of these immortal beings, aware of their role as “princes” in a world ordained for them by their Creator and possessive of their status as the “firstborn” in the face of emerging humanity. With Celegorm and Curufin, antagonists to the first-ever human/elven coupling of Beren and Luthien, we really get to see this up close; Celegorm’s self absorbed, un-feeling “love” for Luthien, and Curufin’s stewing, murderous indignation after his humiliation at Beren’s hands. Their driving emotions follow patterns of romantic jealousy and prejudice that are all too familiar and, really, all too “human.” Coming from the bottomless wisdom and kindness of figures like Elrond or Galadriel, well, its a surprise, and something of a shot in the arm for the creatures in whom Tolkien invested the greatest part of his love and creative energy, but who often come off in his best known works as just little anemic.
A note on design: the garments for these two have a little bit of everything in them, Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Germanic, Japanese, Elizabethan, Native American, even a bit of 1700’s “georgian” styles. I’m increasingly attracted to the idea of the elves, in their material culture, as pan-cultural, or more like proto-(human)-cultural; they were, in themselves and in the things they made, these beings of beauty and natural artistry “beyond the measure of men” that mankind remembers from our mythic prehistory, and who all human cultures through our long history have sought, unconsciously, to recall through our arts and mythos.
And a note on Celegorm’s hair: as a son of Feanor and Nerdanel, yes it was almost certainly Tolkien’s intent for Celegorm to be dark-haired. I expect his descriptor 'the fair’ (“fair” being used in antiquated English and often by Tolkien to mean both beautiful and/or light-colored) has been the major cause of the popular imagining of the character as a blond but, well, the image works, it sets him so perfectly as the classic, gleaming prince opposite gritty, human Beren. I’ve entertained the idea (and may get to one day show it in a colored image) of celegorm as nearly sheet white (and white, rather than golden, haired) perhaps the product of a kind of elven Albinism, regarded by them (as it likely was by much of ancient humanity) as not a defect but this rare and kind of awe-striking anomaly.
his description:
“But of those unhappy ones who were ensnared by Melkor little is known of a certainty. For who of the living has descended into the pits of Utumno, or has explored the darkness of the counsels of Melkor? Yet this is held true by the wise of Eressëa, that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes. For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë before the Beginning: so say the wise. And deep in their dark hearts the Orcs loathed the Master whom they served in fear, the maker only of their misery. This it may be was the vilest deed of Melkor, and the most hateful to Ilúvatar.”
The Silmarillion, chapter 3 “of the coming of the elves and the captivity of melkor”
Orcs fascinate me; the perpetual foot soldiers of Evil, inherently cruel, nasty creatures that are ultimately the end result of horrendous, deforming torture, both in origin as a species, and, I would imagine, on an individual level by the cruel, brutal nature of their societies. Do orcs love their children? Their parents? Are they capable of having friends even amongst their own kind? All questions that Tolkien leaves largely, frustratingly, unanswered; nowhere in either his books or in the jackson films do we ever get to see orcs as anything other than these horrible all-purpose antagonists, fighting, growling, and just being generally unpleasant, but I would think, just like humans or any other type of creature, that the vast majority of their actual day-to-day existence is spent just kind of getting through life; breathing, eating, sleeping, shitting, having sex where they can get it, sitting still, walking around, letting their minds wander. who knows where those minds go? if they sometimes, in a quiet moment, rise out of the squalid meanness that seems to be their psychological fallback position?
Physically i wanted these to have the feel of debased, devolved creatures; their bones and muscles bent and warped away from the greek perfection of their elvish progenitors. tolkien’s world doesn’t seem to operate by evolution - both humanity and all other living things in middle-earth simply springing to life, garden-of-eden style, more or less fully formed - but the orcs (and other evil humanoid creatures like trolls/giants) seem a good opportunity to draw from a lot of the physical traits of pre-humans, or of our cousins in the ape and monkey families, to give them the feel of having basically evolved backwards. There is strong and, to me, very convincing theory that a lot of the mythology of trolls and goblins and such are a leftover from early-modern man’s interactions with the then-dwindling race of neaderthals, and certainly this seems to have influenced the physical portrayal of fairy tale monsters throughout history, right up to the classic illustrations of John Bauer and Arthur Rackham, and i wanted to keep these in that fairy tale goblin tradition, while taking them through perhaps a more serious, conscious biological lense; weather-beaten faces and bodies, long arms and torsos, short bow legs, bunched, narrow shoulders, crooked necks, big hands and feet, prehensile toes, rough, feral body hair distribution.
Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but truly one of the reasons abortion is so common is because of our individualistic culture and the expectation that parents raise their kids (especially new babies) with little to no help.
I am setting up an internship to learn hands-on the technique of forensic facial reconstruction. The person teaching me works with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) here, in NYC.
The technique (anatomical method) is said to be more accurate than the tissue depth markers (alone), and computer. The anatomical or morphoscopic method for facial reconstruction involves rebuilding the face, muscle by muscle, tissue by tissue. This method is attributed to a Russian anthropologist, Mikhail M. Gerasimov (1907 - 1970), and it was the first technique developed in forensic sculpture. Gerasimov studied the face of more than 200 people and other human ancestors (Neanderthal and Java Man, 1927).
The anatomical method is basically “fleshing out” the skull, meaning that piece by piece, glands, cartilage, and muscles are sculpted. The skull provides information “written” on the surface of the bone, whether it be muscle origin(s)/insertion points, as well as areas of smoothness where cartilage sits, or depressions where muscles lay. All of this combined with anatomy allows a face to be reconstructed from a skull, this then provides an identity for human remains.
Gerasimov, in the 1930s, realized that he was able to reconstruct faces of racial types (ancestries). Between 1937 - 1939, Gerasimov reconstructed the faces of a Papuan, Kazakh, and Khevsur Caucasian. Gerasimov also performed many forensic reconstructions for the NKVD. When Gerasimov reconstructed the faces of Yaroslav I the Wise (1938) and Andrei Bogolyubsky (1939) he received public attention. During WW2, Gerasimov worked at a hospital in Tashkent, and the various deceased victims worked as test subjects for statistical data on human skulls.
Gerasimov honed his skills, and in 1950 received the USSR State Prize. Studying, and being interested in prehistoric animal bones as a child proved vital for Gerasimov’s craft. When the Soviet Ministry of Culture opened the tomb of Ivan the Terrible, Gerasimov reconstructed his face and received payment for his work. Gerasimov even traveled to Europe to find the skull of the poet, Schiller, within a mass grave. Gerasimov was not a man of politics and was always willing to help his friends.
Legacy: Gerasimov’s method of facial reconstruction spread all over the world. The anatomical method has been used to reconstruct the faces of pharaohs, and in the 1990s Russia used it to clarify the identities of the remains of the family of the last Tsar. You can see Gerasimov’s work at the State Historical Museum in Moscow, Anthropological Museum of Moscow State University, Museum of Georgia, and Museum of Uzbekistan.
Body size, scaling body size, and how shape changes.
Helps in a forensic context for the biological profile.
Population, and environmental stressors like mobility, and disease affect body size/shape. Can also be used to understand the sexual dimorphism of extinct hominins.
Ecogeographical rules related to thermoregulation:
Bergmann’s Rule (1847) If you have a species that is variable, and spread out over a geographical area you will see a larger variance of those species. Relating to body mass; bigger in colder climates, smaller in warmer climates.
Allen’s Rule (1877) concerned with appendage’s. Shorter in colder climates, and longer in warmer climates.
Together they are Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules.
A great modern example is observed in the following populations:
Image Source: Mike Peel. www.mikepeel.net. Yorkshire Museum - skeleton of a wealthy woman 1. Wikimedia Commons.
In 1901, during the construction of the York to Scarborough Railway Bridge, close to the River Ouse, workmen discovered a large stone coffin with a skeleton inside. The skeleton was found with many unusual, and expensive artifacts. This is a significant discovery from Roman York. Studying the skeleton revealed that it belonged to a woman.
Image Source: Mike Peel. www.mikepeel.net. Yorkshire Museum - skeleton of a wealthy woman 2. Wikimedia Commons.
Sexual Dimorphism in Humans:
On average, men are 8% larger than women.
Anatomical differences between men, and women can be easily seen in some soft tissue, however, this is limited in the skeleton. The human skeleton shows subtle morphological differences between the skull, dentition, pelvis, and long bones of men and women. On average, female skeletal elements are smaller, and less robust than males.
Some areas of skeletal differences amongst human males and females are:
Note: variation, and these traits are basically nonexistent on pre-pubescent skeletal remains.
Skull: Mastoid processes, median nuchal line, supraorbital margin, supraorbital ridge, chin, and gonial angle of the mandible.
Dentition: Canines.
Pelvis: Greater sciatic notch, sub-pubic angle, sacrum, and pelvic cavity. Women have wider pelvises to allow for child birth.
LongBones: On average are longer, and have more pronounced muscle attachments in males.
Image Source: Henry Vandyke Carter. Gray241. Wikimedia Commons.
Image Source: Henry Vandyke Carter. Gray242. Wikimedia Commons.
What pathology do you notice at the shaft/diaphysis?
(Answers below)
Image Source: Wellcome Images. Wellcome Trust. Human left femur, Tell Fara, Palestine, 100 BCE-200 CE Wellcome L0057387. Wikimedia Commons.
More information below:
“The femur bone is the bone joining the hip and knee joints. This femur shows an unreduced bone fracture. This means that the bones were not correctly realigned, using a splint or by surgical means, and therefore did not heal correctly. These femurs are from the left leg and the right leg of a human, although it is not clear if they are a pair. The bones were excavated at Tell Fara, Palestine, by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1928-1929. The bones were purchased by Henry Wellcome from University College London the following year.”
Image Source: Phineas Gage GageMillerPhoto2010-02-17 Unretouched Color Cropped. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.
Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for surviving an accident in which a large iron rod went completely through his skull. The iron rod destroyed a lot of Gage’s left side frontal lobe. After the injury, Gage lived for 12 years with effects on his personality, his friends described him as, “no longer Gage”.
The image below shows multiple views of the exhumed skull, and tamping iron, of Phineas Gage.
Image Source: J.B.S. Jackson, MD. JacksonJBS A descriptive catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum 1870 frontispiece 623x1024. A Descriptive Catalog of the Warren Anatomical Museum (1870). Wikimedia Commons.
