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Exploring Biological Anthropology
The Essentials
The Modern World
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Exploring Biological Anthropology
The Essentials
Fourth Edition
Craig Stanford
University of Southern California
John S. Allen
University of Southern California
Susan C. Antón
New York University
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stanford, Craig B. (Craig Britton)
Exploring biological anthropology / Craig Stanford, University of Southern California, John S. Allen, University of Southern California, Susan C. Anton New York University.—Fourth edition. pages cm
ISBN 978-0-13-401401-2 (pbk.)
1. Physical anthropology—Textbooks. I. Allen, John S. (John Scott) II. Antón, Susan C. III. Title.
GN25.S74 2017
599.9—dc23
2015035818 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Student:
ISBN-10: 0-13-401401-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-401401-2
A la Carte
ISBN-10: 0-13-432383-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-432383-1
To Our Parents
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Preface xvii
About the Authors xxiii
Part I Foundations
1 What Is Biological Anthropology? 1
Anthropology and Its Subfields 3
The Scope of Biological Anthropology 3
The Subfields of Anthropology 4
Paleoanthropology 5
Skeletal Biology and Human Osteology 6
Paleopathology and Bioarchaeology 6
Forensic Anthropology 7
Primatology 8
Human Biology 9
The Roots of Modern Biological Anthropology 10
Summary • Review Questions
2 Origins of Evolutionary Thought 12
What Is Science? 14
The Early Thinkers 15
The Roots of Modern Science 15
Linnaeus and the Natural Scheme of Life 16
The Road to the Darwinian Revolution 16
The Uniformitarians: Hutton and Lyell 18
The Darwinian Revolution 19
The Galápagos 19
Refining the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection 22
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Darwin versus Wallace? 24
Science and Creationism 26
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: What Is Intelligent Design? 27
Summary • Review Questions
PART II Mechanisms of Evolution
3 Genetics: Cells and Molecules 30
The Study of Genetics 32
The Cell 33
Cell Anatomy 34
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Cloning Controversies 36
DNA Structure and Function 37
DNA Structure I: The Molecular Level 37
DNA Function I: Replication 39
DNA Function II: Protein Synthesis 39
DNA Structure II: Chromosomes and Cell Division 45
Molecular Tools for Bioanthropological Research 51
Indirect and Direct Research Methods 51
PCR, Mitochondrial DNA, and Ancient DNA 52
INNOVATIONS: DNA Barcoding 56
Summary • Review Questions
4 Genetics: From Genotype to Phenotype
59
From Genotype to Phenotype 61
The ABO Blood Type System 62
Obesity: A Complex Interaction 62
Mendelian Genetics 63
Mendel’s Postulates 65
Linkage and Crossing Over 68
Mutation 68
Point Mutation and Sickle Cell Disease 68
Mutations: Bad, Neutral, and Good 70
X-Linked Disorders 72
Mendelian Genetics in Humans 73
Genetics beyond Mendel 73
Polygenic Traits, the Phenotype, and the Environment 75
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Popular Mendelism and the Shadow of Eugenics 76
Heritability and IQ Test Score Performance 77
Phenylketonuria: Illustrating Mendelian and Post-Mendelian Concepts 78
INNOVATIONS: A New Genetic Era 79
Genes and Environments 80
Summary • Review Questions
5 The Forces of Evolution and the Formation of Species 83
How Evolution Works 84
Where Does Variation Come From? 84
How Natural Selection Works 85
Other Ways By Which Evolution Happens 87
Classification and Evolution 91
Taxonomy and Speciation 91
What Is a Species? 92
Species Concepts 94
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: What’s in a Name? Species
Concepts, Genetics, and Conservation 95
Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms 96
How Species Are Formed 96
The Tempo of Speciation 98
Adaptation 98
Is Everything Adaptive? 99
Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium 100
Levels of Selection 101
Inclusive Fitness 102
Summary • Review Questions
6 Human Variation: Evolution, Adaptation, and Adaptability 105
Human Variation at the Individual and Group Levels 107
What Is a Population? 107
Historical Perspectives on Human Variation 108
Recording Human Variation in Past Civilizations 108
The Monogenism–Polygenism Debate 110
Race and Racism in the Twentieth Century 111
Changing Attitudes toward Race in Anthropology 112
Deconstructing Racial Features 112
Population Genetics 114
Polymorphisms: ABO and Other Blood Type Systems 114
Gene Flow and Protein Polymorphisms 118
INNOVATIONS: Bermuda: Population Genetics of One of the Last Places Settled by People 120
Polymorphisms and Phylogenetic Studies 121
Polymorphisms and Natural Selection in Human Populations 123
The Evolution of Lactose Tolerance 123
Balanced Polymorphisms: Sickle Cell and Other Conditions 125
Adaptation and Adaptability 129
Levels of Adaptability 129
Heat and Cold 130
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Technology and Extreme Environments 131
Body Size and Shape 132
Living at High Altitude 133
Skin Color 135
Summary • Review Questions
PART III Primates
7 The Primates 141
The Primate Radiation 143
The Extraordinary Diversity of Nonhuman Primates 143
What Exactly Is a Primate? 144
Anatomical Traits 144
Life History Traits 148
Behavioral Traits 149
A Guide to the Nonhuman Primates 150
The Strepsirhines 154
The Haplorhines 157
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: The Rarest of the Rare 158
The New World Monkeys 159
The Old World Monkeys 161
The Hominoids 163
Primate Ecology 169
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: The Impending Extinction of the Great Apes? 170
Diet 171
You Are What You Eat: Dietary and Digestive Strategies 172
Diet and Feeding Competition 173
Territories and Ranges 173
Predation 174
Primate Communities 175
Summary • Review Questions
8 Primate Behavior 178
Studying Primates 180
The Evolution of Primate Social Behavior 181
Social Behavior and Reproductive Asymmetry 182
Male Reproductive Strategies 184
Female Reproductive Strategies 185
Why Are Nonhuman Primates Social? 186
The Paradox of Sociality 187
INNOVATIONS: Culture in Nonhuman Primates 188
Types of Nonhuman Primate Societies 191
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: The Infanticide Wars 194
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Are Chimpanzees from Mars and Bonobos from Venus? 196
Summary • Review Questions
PART IV The Fossil Record
9 Geology and Primate Origins
How to Become a Fossil 202
The Importance of Context 203
Stratigraphy 203
The Geologic Time Scale 205
How Old Is It? 208
Relative Dating Techniques 209
Calibrated Relative Dating Techniques 211
Chronometric Dating Techniques 212
200
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Dating Controversies 215
INNOVATIONS: Time in a Bottle 216
Earth in the Cenozoic 219
Continents and Land Masses 219
The Environment in the Cenozoic 220
Climate Change and Early Primate Evolution 222
Changes in the Paleocene Related to the Origin of Primates 223
Why Primates? 224
True Primates of the Eocene 224
Selective Pressures Favoring the Strepsirhine–Haplorhine Split 226
Climate Change and the Origin of Monkeys and Apes 227
The First Monkeys 227
New World Monkeys 229
Old World Monkeys 230
What Favored the Origin of Anthropoids? 230
The Earliest Apes 231
Selection Pressures and the Divergence of Monkeys and Apes 233
The Monkey’s Tale: What Happened to Primate Diversity in the Miocene? 236
Molecular Evolution in Primates 236
A Primate Molecular Phylogeny 237
Summary • Review Questions
10 Early Hominins and Australopithecus 242
Becoming a Biped 243
Anatomical Changes 244
Constructing the Bipedal Body Plan 247
Will You Know a Hominin When You See One? 248
The First Hominins? 249
Sahelanthropus tchadensis (7.0–6.0 mya) 249
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Locomotion of the Last Common Ancestor 250
Orrorin tugenensis (6.0 mya) 252
Ardipithecus ramidus (4.4 mya) and Ardipithecus kadabba (5.8–5.2 mya) 253
Selective Pressures and the Origin of Hominins 254
Australopithecus and Kin 257
Australopithecus anamensis (4.2–3.9 mya) 257
Australopithecus afarensis (3.9–2.9 mya) 260
INNOVATIONS: Dikika and Development 262
Other East and West African Hominins (3.5–2.5 mya) 264
Australopithecus africanus (3.5–<2.0 mya) 265
Australopithecus sediba (1.97–1.78 mya) 268
“Robust” Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) 268
Understanding the Australopithecus Radiation 271
Cohabitation 271
Tools and Intelligence 272
Ancestors and Descendants 274
Summary • Review Questions
11 Rise of the Genus Homo 277
Climate and the Evolution of Homo in the Pliocene and Pleistocene 278
Defining the Genus Homo 279
Earliest Genus Homo 279
Homo habilis (1.9–1.4 mya) 280
Homo rudolfensis (2.1–1.78 mya) 281
Early Tool Use, Hunting, and Scavenging 281
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Homo naledi and The Cradle of Humankind 282
Hunting and Scavenging 285
Who Was Homo erectus? 286
Anatomical Features 286
Homo erectus versus Homo ergaster 290
Homo erectus Around the World 291
African Origins 291
The First African Diaspora: Republic of Georgia 294
Dispersal Into East Asia 295
INNOVATIONS: What’s Size Got to Do with It? 298
The Status of Homo erectus in Europe 300
The Lifeways of Homo erectus 301
Homo erectus and the Early Stone Age 301
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: The Little People of Flores 302
A Higher-Quality Diet: Homo erectus Subsistence 304
Homo Erectus Life History 304
Homo erectus Leaves Africa 305
Summary • Review Questions
12 Archaic Homo sapiens and Neandertals 309
Hominin Evolution in the Middle to Late Pleistocene 310
Defining Anatomically Modern Homo Sapiens 311
Archaic Homo sapiens 312
European Archaic Homo sapiens (H. Heidelbergensis) 312
African Archaic Homo sapiens (H. rhodesiensis) 314
Asian Archaic Homo sapiens 315
Behavior of Archaic Homo sapiens 315
Stone Tools 315
Tools from Organic Materials 316
Big-Game Hunting 317
Fire, Campsites, and Home Sites 318
The Neandertals 318
Geographic and Temporal Distribution 319
History of Neandertal Discovery 320
Neandertal Anatomy and DNA: Built for the Cold 321
INNOVATIONS: Neandertal Genes 325
Growing up Neandertal 327
Health and Disease 327
Neandertal Behavior 329
Material Culture 329
Coping with Cold 330
Hunting, Subsistence, and Cannibalism 331
Burials 332
Ritual and Symbolic Behavior 333
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: The Denisovans 334
Phylogenetic and Taxonomic Issues: An Overview 338
Summary • Review Questions
13 The Emergence, Dispersal, and Bioarchaeology of Homo sapiens 342
The Emergence of Modern Humans 344
Models of Modern Human Origins 345
Replacement and Multiregional Models 345
Predictions of the Two Models 345
Anatomy and Distribution of Early Humans 348
Africa 348
Near East 349
Europe 349
Asia and Southeast Asia 350
Australia 352
Archaeology of Modern Human Origins 353
Stone and Other Tools 353
Subsistence 354
Symbolism, Burial, and Art 355
Molecular Genetics and Human Origins 356
Mitochondrial DNA 357
INNOVATIONS: Symbolism and Human Evolution 358
The Y-Chromosome 360
MRCAs for Nuclear Genes 360
Ancient DNA 361
Interpreting Models of Human Origins 362
Paleontology and Archaeology 362
Molecular Genetics 363
Bioarchaeology after the Origin of Modern Humans 364
Settlement of the New World and Pacific Islands 365
Biological Changes at the Origins of Agriculture and Shifts to Sedentism 367
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Peopling of the New World: Was Clovis First? 368
Physical and Cultural Consequences of Colonization 369
Summary • Review Questions
PART V Biology and Behavior of Modern Humans
14 Evolution of the Brain and Behavior 373
Overview of the Brain 375
Issues in Hominin Brain Evolution 377
Humans Have “Large” Brains 377
Brain Size and the Fossil Record 379
Brain Reorganization 382
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: The 10% Myth: Evolution and Energy 383
Language: Biology and Evolution 383
Language in the Brain 384
Language in the Throat 385
Language Ability and the Fossil Record 386
Scenarios of Language Evolution 387
The Evolution of Human Behavior 387
INNOVATIONS: Music, the Brain, and Evolution 388
The Evolution of Human Behavior: Four Approaches 390
Traditional Lives in Evolutionary Ecological Perspective 391
Wealth, Reproductive Success, and Survival 391
Physiology and Ecology 393
Hunting, Gathering, and the Sexual Division of Labor 395
Sexual Selection and Human Behavior 396
Risk-Taking Behavior 397
Inbreeding Avoidance and Incest Taboos 398
Summary • Review Questions
15
Biomedical and Forensic Anthropology 402
Biomedical Anthropology and the Biocultural Perspective 404
Birth, Growth, and Aging 405
Human Childbirth 405
Patterns of Human Growth 406
Stages of Human Growth 407
The Secular Trend in Growth 409 Menarche and Menopause 410
INSIGHTS & ADVANCES: Early Menarche and Later Health 411
Aging 412
Infectious Disease and Biocultural Evolution 414
Human Behavior and the Spread of Infectious Disease 414
Infectious Disease and the Evolutionary Arms Race 416
Diet and Disease 418
The Paleolithic Diet 418
Agriculture and Nutritional Deficiency 420
Agriculture and Abundance: Thrifty and Nonthrifty Genotypes 420
Forensic Anthropology, Life, Death, and the Skeleton 421
Field Recovery and Laboratory Processing 422
The Biological Profile 423
Age at Death 423
Sex 426
Ancestry 427
Height and Weight 427
INNOVATIONS: Ancestry and Identity
Premortem Injury and Disease 430
Perimortem and Postmortem Trauma 431
Identification and Forensic Anthropology 431
Time Since Death 432
Antemortem Records, Facial Reconstruction, and Positive IDs 433
Applications of Forensic Anthropology 434
Mass Fatalities 434
War Dead 435
War Crimes and Genocide 435
InsIghts & AdvAnces: If You Have DNA, Why Bother with Bones? 436
Epilogue 438
Summary • Review Questions
Appendix A Primate and Human Comparative Anatomy 441
Appendix B The Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium 446
Appendix C Metric–Imperial Conversions 450
Glossary 451
Bibliogrphy 459
Credits 482
Index 487
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Preface
We are proud to introduce you to the fourth edition of Exploring Biological Anthropology . We wrote this book because we felt there was a great need for a new textbook that presents the core information, concepts, and theories of biological anthropology in a modern light. Biological anthropology was once called physical anthropology, because decades ago the field was mainly about human anatomy, human fossils, and the study of racial variation. Over the past forty years, the field has evolved into biological anthropology. Modern biological anthropology comprises the study of the fossil record and the human skeleton, the genetics of both individuals and populations, our primate relatives, human adaptation, and human behavior, among other topics. This fourth edition of Exploring Biological Anthropology combines up-to-date coverage of the core material with a modern biological approach that includes fields that have become major areas of research by biological anthropologists over the past decade. This core-concepts version of the book is written especially for students needing to obtain a strong grounding in biological anthropology without some of the detail into which our original text delved. We three coauthors conduct our research in the main areas of biological anthropology: the human fossil record (Susan Antón), primate behavior and ecology (Craig Stanford), and human biology and the brain (John Allen). This has allowed us to provide a specialist approach to each of the broad divisions of the field covered by the text. We are biological anthropologists with extensive backgrounds in both biological and social sciences and are both teachers and researchers.
In a field changing as rapidly as human evolutionary science is today, we feel it is critical for active researchers to produce textbooks that serve the needs of students. In addition to the strong biological orientation of the book, we try to frame questions about humankind in light of our understanding of culture and the ways in which culture interacts with biology to create the template for human nature.
Undergraduate enrollment in introductory biological anthropology courses has increased sharply because biological anthropology has become one way to fulfill the basic natural science requirement at many colleges and universities. We believe the changing field and the new audience have created a need for a text such as this one, integrating traditional physical anthropology with a modern Darwinian framework and presented in a concise, clear format.
We have made an effort in the fourth edition to present a concise coverage of the core material of the field, while preserving a comprehensive coverage of certain traditionally important topics. For instance, we have included a feature on biomedical anthropology, a large feature (in Chapter 14) on the brain, and behavior and biology of modern people, from the study of foragers (hunter–gatherers) to that of the human psyche (evolutionary psychology). There is a discussion of the geological background for human paleontology (Chapter 9), and chapter sections on bioarcheology (Chapter 13) and forensic anthropology (Chapter 15). We have double-page features in many chapters to present information in a more visual way, and we have added new information to this edition in the form of new text and figures, as well as special features in some chapters.
In a field famous for intellectual disagreements over the meaning of fossils or interpretations of Darwinian theory, we’ve tried to present the accepted facts and concise descriptions of debates about evidence. There are places where, because of the introductory nature of the text, we have not delved deeply into the details of some debates, but we have nevertheless tried to balance multiple views of ongoing unresolved questions.
What’s New in This Edition
• In this new edition we emphasize the molecular classification system in our taxonomic discussions. Chapter 7 has updated information on the latest taxonomic classification of the apes and hominins. We call humans and our exclusive ancestors hominins because this is the currently accepted approach.
• We provide additions on newly found fossils and tools, new age estimates in the fossil record, and new ancient DNA results.
• Chapter 9 provides new art and discussion surrounding the role and relationships of Miocene hominoids.
• Chapter 10 introduces newly named species A. deyiremeda and discusses new science surrounding the diet of robust australopithecines and new ages of the little foot A. africanus skeleton.
• Chapter 11 introduces the new fossils that push the origin of the genus Homo deeper in time, provides new sections on H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, discusses new stone tools that push stone tool manufacture back past 3 million years ago, and provides up to
the minute information on the newly discovered and named H. naledi from the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa.
• Chapter 12 provides new discussion of the role of archaic H. sapiens in the origin of Neandertals and Denisovans and discusses new ancient DNA results that show evidence of a Neandertal contribution to the fossil modern human genome.
• Chapter 13 presents new fossil and genetic evidence related to the origin of modern humans including evidence of Neandertal contributions to early modern humans in Europe. We also discuss new finds that illuminate our understanding of the peopling of the New World.
• We have developed new Insights & Advances boxes on:
• Population genetics and cultural history (Chapter 6)
• Locomotion of the last common ancestor of apes and humans (Chapter 10)
• Homo naledi and The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site in South Africa (Chapter 11),
• Early menarche and later health (Chapter 15)
In addition, we have substantially updated other boxes in Chapter 7, 9, 10, and 13 to include new perspectives and findings.
• Many chapters have new opening vignettes to give students a different perspective on the research topics presented in each chapter. New or revised vignettes are featured in Chapters 3, 4, 7, 9, and 14, chosen to highlight current trends and foundational principles.
• In this edition we have thoroughly revised the illustrative timelines provided in Chapters 9, 11, 12, and 13.
Foundation: Organization of the Fourth Edition
The book is organized in much the same way that we three authors have taught introductory courses in biological anthropology. The theory of evolution by natural selection is the unifying aspect of each chapter, and indeed for the entire discipline. Part I, Foundations (Chapters 1 and 2), reflects this. The text begins with an overview of the field of biological anthropology in the larger context of the social and life sciences, including a brief history of the field. Chapter 2 reviews the roots of evolutionary thinking and how it became central to biological anthropology. Part II, Mechanisms of Evolution (Chapters 3 through 6), reviews at length the mechanisms of evolution and describes the applications of modern genetic research techniques in unraveling some of the mysteries of human evolution. Chapters 3 and 4 review cellular, molecular, and population genetics. Chapter 5 takes the discussion of genetics into modern evolutionary theory: the formation of species and the central
topics of natural selection and adaptation. Chapter 6 surveys the field of human adaptation and the ways in which evolutionary forces mold human populations.
Part III, Primates (Chapters 7 and 8), is about the living nonhuman primates. We examine their classification, their anatomical and behavioral adaptations, and their social life. We cautiously use the behavior of living monkeys and apes to infer what extinct primates, including fossil humans, may have been like.
Part IV, The Fossil Record (Chapters 9 through 13), describes the anatomical transition from an ape to human ancestor and the fossil record for humankind. We begin with the environmental context in which fossils are found and describe both the periods of Earth’s history during which primates arose and the fossil primates themselves. We include the most extensive discussion in any biological anthropology textbook of the geological background necessary for understanding human evolution (Chapter 9), which has been updated to include new dating techniques and results. In Chapter 10, we examine the anatomical transition from an ape to human ancestor and present up-todate information on the earliest known hominins in Africa. Chapter 11 introduces the genus Homo and the causes and consequences of dispersal from Africa. Chapters 12 and 13 cover the more recent hominin fossils, including Neandertals, and the origins of our own species. We have tried to provide up-to-the-minute information on the discovery of new human fossils, including new interpretations of the oldest stone tools, Australopithecus sediba , and the newly named A. deyiremeda (Chapter 10); new (and older) fossil Homo (Chapter 11); a new box on the Homo naledi fossils recently describe from the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa (Chapter 11) expanded discussion of archaic H. sapiens and their relationship to later Neandertals (Chapter 12); and the extensive revision of age estimates of European Neandertal and modern human sites and the earliest peopling of North America (Chapter 13). We have included interpretive features and updated art to understand the significance of all these new finds.
Part V, Biology and Behavior of Modern Humans (Chapters 14 and 15), is about the biology of modern people. We include coverage of the brain and biocultural aspects of the lives of traditional foraging people (Chapter 14) and the human brain and biocultural issues of biomedical anthropology, as well as a half chapter’s worth on forensic anthropology (Chapter 15), which explains how scientists use evolutionary theory and the methods of biological anthropology to identify human remains from mass disasters and victims of crime.
The appendices offer a section on the primate skeleton (Appendix A), the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (Appendix B), and metric-to-imperial conversion factors (Appendix C).
Student-oriented pedagogy has been maintained in each chapter. We begin each chapter with a short vignette
depicting the main topic of the chapter. In most cases, one of the authors has written a short description of an event in the life and work of a biological anthropologist or an important historical figure. It might, for example, be about how someone studying human fossils discovers, excavates, and analyzes her discovery. Many of these vignettes are new to this edition, chosen to highlight current trends and foundational principles. The vignettes should be used as a way to get a feel for the chapter topics and as an enjoyable and informative reflection on the text material.
Other features include a detailed margin glossary that defines new terms as students encounter them and a complete glossary at the back of the book. Each chapter ends with a summary and review questions. At the end of the book, the bibliography contains all the references used and cited in the text.
Innovation: New and Continuing Features
In earlier editions of Exploring Biological Anthropology , we tried to include topics not covered in many of the existing texts while preserving a comprehensive coverage of traditional topics. In the fourth edition, we have relied on instructor and student feedback as well as new events in the field to make further changes.
Following the growing scientific consensus in biological anthropology, we have adopted the molecularly based terminology for grouping humans and our ancestors—now referring to us and our exclusive ancestors as hominins rather than hominids.
By popular demand, forensic anthropology (a topic not traditionally covered in introductory biological anthropology texts) has been expanded and included in Chapter 15, Biomedical and Forensic Anthropology. Field recovery methods, identification techniques, and applications of both bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology are described in a way that will appeal to students. Bioarcheology, which includes a discussion of the consequences of colonization and agriculture and peopling of the Pacific, is covered in Chapter 13, The Emergence, Dispersal, and Bioarchaeology of Homo sapiens. This section includes a special focus on the newest evidence for a pre-Clovis occupation of North America and the breathtaking discoveries of fossil humans and ancient DNA from Mexico and the United States that illuminate our understanding of the peopling of the New World.
Chapter 1 includes a visual feature that discusses the four fields of anthropology. The text, illustrations, and design all help to make this content come alive for students.
Chapters 3 and 4 include numerous recent updates on human molecular genetics and genomics, including new and revised opening vignettes. Chapter 6 includes updates concerning the recent impact of new molecular genetic studies on aspects of human population genetics and
adaptability, including the ABO blood type system, lactase persistence, and high-altitude genetics. A new box on the genetics and cultural history of Bermuda has also been added.
As mentioned, in Part IV we keep abreast of new fossil discoveries by including figures and discussion of the latest finds. This includes additional discussion and updated illustrations of species timelines (Chapters 9, 11, 12, 13), including the relationships among Miocene hominoids, the age of early Homo and the identity and overlap of Neandertals and modern humans. New fossil hominins, sites, and discoveries are featured in Chapters 11 through 13, including interpretations of new Australopithecus deyiremeda, older ages for A. africanus , stone tools that only australopithecines could have made, the Rising Star expedition, the oldest fossils of genus Homo, the relationship between the Denisovans and archaic Homo sapiens, new modern human fossils from Siberia, and ancient DNA evidence of Neandertal contributions to H. sapiens genomes.
There are also changes and updates in the chapters on contemporary human biology and behavior. Chapter 14 has a new opening vignette, expanded discussion of scaling factors in brain evolution, an update on hyoid bone anatomy and the evolution of spoken language, and new sections on progesterone and premenstrual syndrome and the relationship between male violence and sexual competition. Chapter 15 includes an extensive update on anorexia nervosa and a new box on the long-term health effects of early menarche.
We have added to our boxes (now called Insights & Advances) in each chapter. These insets expand on text material or call your attention to current events connected to our field, to emerging debates, or sometimes just to fascinating side stories. Some chapters feature entirely new boxes (Chapters 5, 6, 10, 11, 15), and others are substantially rewritten and updated as new research has become available (Chapters 7, 9, 10, 13).
A feature called Innovations is included in select chapters. This feature provides an intense visual presentation of new, burgeoning areas of research in our field. These research areas include the following:
Chapter 3: DNA Barcoding
Chapter 4: A New Genetic Era
Chapter 8: Culture in Nonhuman Primates
Chapter 9: Time in a Bottle
Chapter 10: Dikika and Development
Chapter 11: What’s Size Got to Do with It?
Chapter 12: Neandertal Genes
Chapter 13: Symbolism and Human Evolution
Chapter 14: Music, the Brain, and Evolution
Chapter 15: Ancestry Genetics
The Summary at the end of every chapter provides a review for students organized around the chapter headings and learning objectives so students can then refer back into the chapter for a more extensive review. The summary finishes with questions correlated to the learning objectives for students to test their comprehension.
Illustrations
Illustrations play a major role in any textbook, and they are crucial learning tools in introductory science texts. The publisher and authors have worked together to provide you with the best possible photos and drawings of every topic covered in the book. The fourth edition features more than fifty anatomical illustrations especially prepared for this text by medical illustrator Joanna Wallington. These drawings provide superior detail and anatomical accuracy and enhance student insight into the morphological features of importance in human evolution.
This fourth edition also includes illustrations in the genetics chapters that were inspired by the tenth edition of Concepts of Genetics by Klug, Cummings, Spencer, and Palladino. Illustrations throughout the book reflect this style.
Most of the photographs of living primates, fossils, and fossil sites were taken by one of the authors or were contributed by other biological anthropologists—and many of these have been updated and enhanced in this edition. Pearson has worked hard to produce some of the finest images of everything from molecular genetics to stone tools that have ever been published in a biological anthropology textbook. The maps have been specifically created for this book by Dorling Kindersley, a leading publisher of atlases for both the educational and consumer markets. These maps describe the geography of everything from the distribution of living primates in the world today to the locations of the continents in the distant past. We authors worked with Pearson to be sure everything in the fourth edition is depicted accurately and clearly, and we hope you will gain a better understanding of the science by studying the visual material as well.
Along with the new Innovations features, additional special two-page figures appear in a number of chapters, especially in Part IV, and provide a snapshot of evolutionary development through time. These special figures provide a concise way for the reader to easily grasp the evolutionary changes through a vast sweep of time that are presented in greater detail in the text, and they have been updated with new photo imagery and new finds.
A Note about Language
Authors must make decisions about language and terminology, and textbook authors make those choices with the knowledge that they may be influencing the mind-set of
a generation of young scholars. Some of these choices are modest. For instance, we use the modern American spelling Neandertal instead of the more traditional European spelling Neanderthal. Other language choices are more central to the subject matter. Perhaps the most significant choice we have made in recent years relates to primate classification. Although the primate order historically has been subdivided into anthropoids (the apes and monkeys, including us) and prosimians (the “lower” primates, including lemurs, galagos, lorises, and tarsiers), this dichotomy does not reflect the currently understood molecular relationships among groups of primates. We have therefore divided the primates into the suborders haplorhines and strepsirhines, a concept familiar to current graduate students but perhaps not to instructors who have taught the former approach for many years. Haplorhines include all anthropoids and tarsiers, and strepsirhines include all prosimians except tarsiers. We use the terms strepsirhine and haplorhine rather than prosimian and anthropoid. Similarly, following the growing scientific consensus in biological anthropology, we have adopted the molecularly based terminology for grouping humans and our ancestors—now referring to us and our exclusive ancestors as hominins rather than hominids. We discuss both in some depth in Chapter 6.
Regarding Abbreviations and Time
Because of the plethora of sometimes conflicting abbreviations used to refer to time throughout the text, we have attempted to spell out time ranges (e.g., “millions of years ago” or “thousands of years ago”). Where this is not feasible, such as in tables, we use the abbreviations most common to anthropology textbooks ( mya for “millions of years ago” and kya for “thousands of years ago”). However, students should note that the standard usage in geology and paleontology is Ma (mega-annum) and ka (kilo-annum).
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Support for Instructors and Students
The ancillary materials that accompany Exploring Biological Anthropology, Fourth Edition are part of a complete teaching and learning package and have been carefully created to enhance the topics discussed in the text.
Instructor’s Resource Manual with Tests (0134014065): For each chapter in the text, this valuable resource provides a detailed outline, list of objectives, discussion questions, and suggested readings and videos. In addition, test questions in multiple-choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, and shortanswer formats are available for each chapter; the answers are page-referenced to the text. For easy access, this manual is available within the instructor section of MyAnthroLab for Exploring Biological Anthropology, Fourth Edition , or at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
MyTest (013401412X): This computerized software allows instructors to create their own personalized exams, to edit any or all of the existing test questions, and to add new questions. Other special features of this program include random generation of test questions, creation of alternate versions of the same test, scrambling question sequence, and test preview before printing. For easy access, this software is available for download at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
PowerPoint Presentation for Biological Anthropology (0134014219): These PowerPoint slides combine text and graphics for each chapter to help instructors convey anthropological principles in a clear and engaging way. For easy access, they are available for download at www.pearsonhighered. com/irc.
Method and Practice in Biological Anthropology: A Workbook and Laboratory Manual for Introductory Courses, Second Edition (0133825868): Designed to complement a wide variety of introductory level laboratory courses in biological anthropology, this new manual written by Samantha Hens of California State University, Sacramento provides optimum flexibility to suit almost all laboratory environments. The manual is divided into four sections, reflecting the typical design of introductory courses in biological anthropology: genetics and evolution, the human skeleton, the nonhuman primates, and our fossil ancestors. Each chapter has similar pedagogical elements, beginning with a list of chapter objectives, an array of topical lab exercises to choose from, and a set of pre- and post-lab questions. For more information, please contact your local Pearson sales representative.
Acknowledgments
Textbooks require the collaboration of many people with many areas of expertise, and this book makes good use of all of those involved. The process begins with each author compiling his or her notes from years of teaching biological anthropology and thinking about how the course could be taught more effectively. Over the years, the students in our courses have helped us to assess what did and did not work in conveying the information and excitement of biological anthropology, and for this we are extremely grateful. For her vision and steady guidance over the past decade, we are most grateful to Nancy Roberts, our former publisher at Pearson. We thank our current publisher, Charlyce Jones-Owen, and our development editor, David Ploskonka, for their work on the current edition. Cheryl Keenan, production liaison at Pearson, and Nancy Kincade at Lumina Datamatics did a remarkable job coordinating the entire process, especially given the logistics of working with three different authors. For contributing photos and published or unpublished material to help in writing the text, we thank Brad Adams, Takeru Akazawa, Shara Bailey, Antoine Balzeau, Lee Berger, Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, Christopher Boehm, David Brill, Peter Brown, Joel Bruss, Jennie Clark, Christian Crowder, Hanna Damasio, Chris Dean, Anna Delaney, Eric Delson, Todd Disotell, Craig Feibel, Jens Franzen, Ken Garrett, John Hawks, Lynn Isbel, Jorn Jurstrum, Rich Kay, Bill Kimbel, John Krigbaum, Meave Leakey, David Lordkipanidze, Laura McClatchy, Melanie McCollum, The National Museum of Kenya, Maria Martinon-Torres, Lisa Matisoo-Smith, William McComas, Monte McCrossin, Salvador Moya-Sola, Jackson Njau, The National Museum of Kenya, Amy Parish, OsBjorn Pearson, Briana Pobiner, Rick Potts, Allysha Powanda, Tim Ryan, Paul Sledzik, Josh Snodgrass, Fred Spoor, Carl Swisher, Judy Suchey, Ian Tattersall, Christian Tryon Brent Turrin, Peter Ungar, Bence Viola, Alan Walker, Mike Waters, Randy White, Tatiana White, Andrea Wiley, and Milford Wolpoff.
All three of us cut our teeth teaching introductory biological anthropology as graduate students apprenticing as teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of California at Berkeley. Our fellow TAs shared their ideas and our tasks, for which we are thankful. We are most grateful to the triumvirate of faculty with whom we apprenticed in the classroom and from whom we learned much about the subject matter, how to teach it, and how an introductory course can be made a rewarding, enriching experience for undergraduates. Our heartfelt thanks go to Katharine Milton, Vincent Sarich, and Tim White.
Graduate teaching assistants in our own courses at the University of Southern California, the University of Auckland, the University of Florida, Rutgers University, and New York University brought new enthusiasm and ideas, and we are grateful to them all.
This fourth edition grew out of the comments of reviewers who helped to create Exploring Biological Anthropology, as well as those who read earlier editions of Biological Anthropology . Janet Altamirano, WCJC and UHD; Douglas Anderson, Front Range Community College; Jennifer Basquiat, College of Southern Nevada; Cynthia Bellacero, Craven Community College; Jacob Boyd, University of Kansas; Victor Braitberg, University of Arizona; Autumn Cahoon, Sierra College; Walter Calgaro, Prairie State College; Bambi Chapin, UMBC; Wanda Clark, South Plains College; Craig Cook, Crown College; Cathy Cooke, Columbus State Community College; Pearce Creasman, Central Texas College.
Douglas Crews, Ohio State University; Stephen Criswell, University of South Carolina Lancaster; Marie Danforth, University of Southern Mississippi; Alexa Dietrich, Wagner College; Anna Dixon, University of South Florida—St. Petersburg; Amy Donovan, UCSF and Santa Clara University; Meredith Dorner, Saddleback College; Arthur Durband, Texas Tech University; David H. Dye, University of Memphis; Alison Elgart, Florida Gulf Coast University; Burhan Erdem, University of Arkansas; Monica Faraldo, University of Miami; Robert Goodby, Franklin Pierce University; Jane Goodman, Indiana University; Mark Gordon, Pasadena City College; Carol Hayman, Austin Community College; Deanna Heikkinen, College of the Canyons; Keith Hench, PhD, Kirkwood Community College.
Kathryn Hicks, The University of Memphis; John Hines, Point Park University; Sarah Holt, Ohio State University; Jayne Howell, CSULB; Kendi Howells Douglas, Great Lakes Christian College; Douglas Hume, Northern Kentucky University; Francisca James Hernandez, Pima Community College; Nick Johnson, Ivy Tech Community College; Sarah Koepke, Elgin Community College; Ailissa Leroy, Florida Atlantic University; Michael Love, California State University, Northridge; Corey Maggiano, Ohio State University; Michael Masters, Montana Tech; Patricia Mathews, Borough of Manhattan Community College; Meghan McCune, Jamestown Community College; Britney McIlvaine, The Ohio State University; Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, Western Illinois University; Susan Meswick, Queens College; Sharon Methvin, Mt. Hood Community College; Krista Milich, University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign; Jennifer Molina-Stidger, Sierra College; John Navarra, University of North Carolina Wilmington; ChorSwang Ngin, California State University, Los Angeles; Joshua Noah, University of Arkansas; Jana Owen, Ozarks Technical Community College; Amanda Paskey, Cosumnes River College; Elizabeth Perrin, The Ohio State University; Mark Peterson, Miami University; Michael Polich, McHenry County College; Suzanne Simon, University of North Florida; Lakhbir Singh, Chabot College; Burt Siskin, LA Valley College; Micah Soltz,
Columbus State Community College; Elisabeth Stone, University of New Mexico & UNM Branch at Gallup; Charles Townsend, LaGuardia Community College/ CUNY; Mark Tromans, Broward College; Melissa Vogel, Clemson University; Erin Waxenbaum, Northwestern University; Katherine Weisensee, Clemson University; Leanna Wolfe, Los Angeles Valley College; Cassady Yoder, Radford University.
For their constructive reviewing of earlier editions, we thank Robert L. Anemone, Western Michigan University; John R. Baker, Moorpark College; Art Barbeau, West Liberty State College; Anna Bellisari, Wright State University; Wendy Birky, California State University, Northridge; Ann L. Bradgon, Northwest College, Houston Community College System; Pearce Paul Creasman, Blinn College; William Doonan, Sacramento City College; David W. Frayer, University of Kansas; Renée Garcia, Saddleback College; Peter Gray, University of Nevada—Las Vegas; Jonathan P. Karpf, San Jose State University; Sarah A. C. Keller, Eastern Washington University; Roger Kelly, Foothill College; Andrew Kinkella, Moorpark College; Andrew Kramer, University of Tennessee; John R. Lukacs, University of Oregon; Jane A. Margold, Santa Rosa Junior College; Debra L. Martin, University of Nevada—Las Vegas; Paul McDowell, Santa Barbara City College; Peer H. Moore-Jansen, Wichita State University; Leanne T. Nash, Arizona State University; Kaoru Oguri, California State University, Long Beach; Robert R. Paine, Texas Tech University; Jill D. Pruetz, Iowa State University; Ulrich Reichard, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; Trudy R. Turner, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; J. Richard Shenkel, University of New Orleans; Lynnette Leidy Sievert, University of Massachusetts— Amherst; Larissa Swedell, Queens College—CUNY; Salena Wakim, Orange Coast College; Richard E. Ward, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis; Daniel J. Wescott, University of Missouri— Columbia; Bruce P. Wheatley, University of Alabama— Birmingham; Amanda Wolcott Paskey, Cosumnes River College; Leanna Wolfe, Los Angeles Valley College; and Linda D. Wolfe, East Carolina University.
We’ve made a great effort to produce a comprehensive and fully accurate text, but as is always the case, errors may remain. We would be grateful for comments or corrections from students and instructors using Exploring Biological Anthropology, Fourth Edition. And we hope you find this account of human evolution as fascinating and compelling as we do.
Craig Stanford stanford@usc.edu www.craigstanford.org
John S. Allen
Susan C. Antón http://csho.as.nyu.edu/
About the Authors
Craig Stanford is a Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California, where he also co-directs the Jane Goodall Research Center and chairs the Department of Anthropology. He has conducted field research on primates and other animals in south Asia, Latin America, and East Africa. He is well known for his long-term studies of meat-eating among wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, and of the ecology of mountain gorillas and chimpanzees in the Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. He has authored or coauthored more than 130 scientific publications. Craig has received USC’s highest teaching awards for his introductory Biological Anthropology course. In addition, he has published sixteen books on primate behavior and human origins, including Beautiful Minds (2008) and Planet Without Apes (2012). He and his wife, Erin Moore, a cultural anthropologist at USC have three children.
John Allen is a research scientist in the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. He is also Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University. Previously, he was a neuroscience researcher at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, for several years. His primary research interests are the evolution of the human brain and behavior, and behavioral disease. He also has research experience in molecular genetics, nutritional anthropology, and the history of anthropology. He has conducted fieldwork in Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Palau. He has received
university awards for teaching introductory courses in biological anthropology both as a graduate student instructor at the University of California and as a faculty member at the University of Auckland. In addition to Biological Anthropology , he is also the author of Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach (with Andrea S. Wiley; second edition, 2013), The Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind (2009), The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food (2012), and Home: How Habitat Made Us Human (2015). John and his wife, Stephanie Sheffield, have two sons, Reid and Perry.
Susan Antón is a professor in the Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology at New York University, where she also directs the M.A. program in Human Skeletal Biology. Her field research concerns the evolution of genus Homo in Indonesia and human impact on island ecosystems in the South Pacific. She is best known for her work on H. erectus in Kenya and Indonesia, for which she was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is the President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and past editor of the Journal of Human Evolution. She received awards for teaching as a graduate student instructor of introductory physical anthropology and anatomy at the University of California, was Teacher of the Year while at the University of Florida, and received a Golden Dozen teaching award and the Distinguished Teaching Medal from NYU. She has been twice elected to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Susan and her husband, Carl Swisher, a geochronologist, raise Anatolian shepherd dogs.
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Chapter 1 What Is Biological Anthropology?
Learning Objectives
1.1 Identify the subfields of anthropology and explain their applications to the study of the human species.
1.2 Explain the subfields of biological anthropology and discuss how they try to answer key questions about the human species.
1.3 Review the development of biological anthropology in the United States, including its change in focus over time.
primate
Member of the mammalian order Primates, including prosimians, monkeys, apes, and humans, defined by a suite of anatomical and behavioral traits.
evolution
A change in the frequency of a gene or a trait in a population over multiple generations.
biological anthropology
The study of humans as biological organisms, considered in an evolutionary framework; sometimes called physical anthropology.
Abrilliant orange sun rises above a dusty plain in Ethiopia. The parched landscape will be unbearably hot by mid-morning, so there is no time to lose. The team of scientists, students, and assistants set off on a predetermined route that takes them over craggy hills and into steep ravines. As they walk, they stare at the ground, hoping to spot any bit of fossilized bone that the slanted morning sun may illuminate. It is tedious, sweaty work, usually without any reward to show for it. But this morning, one of the Ethiopian assistants, an older man famed for his ability to distinguish fossils from the thousands of rocks and pebbles strewn around them, spots something. He calls the team leader over, and as soon as she crouches to examine the small fragment emerging from the soil, she knows it is a primate. Gently brushing away a bit of soil, she gasps; what emerges appears to be the upper arm bone of a tiny ancient human. The team immediately maps the spot for the work of unearthing the fossilized skeleton of a fossil hominin.
Five hundred kilometers away, a different kind of scientist is also eagerly searching for primates. He is crawling nimbly through dense thickets in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, trying to find the party of chimpanzees that he was following all morning. They travel faster than he can in the thick undergrowth, and by the time he catches up to them, they’ve climbed a massive fig tree and are gobbling mouthfuls of the fruits. The scientist maps the location with his GPS device, then pulls out a notebook and begins recording the behavior of each of the chimpanzees. Most are eating figs, but a few infants play together. When one male tries to grab a fig from another’s hand, a chaotic fight breaks out. Only when the alpha male arrives and charges through the apes in the tree canopy does order get restored, and the chimpanzees finish their morning meal.
On the other side of the world, a third scientist sits in front of a computer screen watching brain activity in bright reds and greens. In the next room, a musician—a famed cellist—sits in a functional MRI machine, listening to cello music piped in. As he listens, particular areas of the cortex of his brain light up, while other areas remain dim. His brain is hearing and processing the sound, and it’s doing it in a way that reveals aspects of the inner working of the human mind. By moving the screen cursor, the scientist can study the brain’s surface from every possible angle, making virtual slices through it to study its internal organization. He hopes to make a visual portrait of the musician’s brain activity while listening to music, and in doing so to better understand the intense creativity that separates us from our primate relatives.
What do these three scientists—one studying ancient fossils, another observing primate behavior, and the third studying the evolution of the human brain—all have in common? They are biological anthropologists, engaged in the scientific study of humankind (from anthropos, meaning “human,” and ology, “the study of”). Despite our exalted intellect, our mind-boggling technology, and our intricately complex social behavior, we are nonetheless biological creatures. Humans are primates and share a recent ancestry with the living great apes. Like the apes, we are the products of millions of years of evolution by natural selection.
The famed geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky once said, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” Biological anthropologists spend their careers trying to understand the details of the evolutionary process and the ways in which it has shaped who we are today. They use a central, unifying set of biological principles in their work, first set down by Charles Darwin nearly 150 years ago. The frequency of a particular trait and the genes that control it can change from one generation to the next; this is evolution. This elegantly simple idea forms the heart and soul of biological anthropology
The evolutionary process usually is slow and inefficient, but over many generations it can mold animals and plants into a bewildering variety of forms. Our ancestry
includes many animals that little resemble us today. Biological anthropology is particularly concerned with the evolutionary transformations that occurred over the past 6 million years, as an ape-like primate began to walk on two legs and became something different: a hominin. From the perspective of evolutionary theory, humans are like all other biological species, the product of the same long process of adaptation
Anthropology and Its Subfields
1.1 Identify the subfields of anthropology and explain their applications to the study of the human species.
Anthropology is the study of humankind in all its forms. But of course, this would not distinguish it from other disciplines that study the human condition, such as psychology, history, and sociology. The critical aspect of anthropology that sets it apart is its cross-cultural, holistic nature. That is, we try to understand the inner workings of a group of people who hold worldviews, values, and traditions that are different from ours. The unusual thing about the human animal is that we have culture . Although it often seems that anthropologists spend their careers arguing about how to define culture, we can say simply that culture is the sum of the learned traditions of a group of people. Language is culture (although the ability to use language is biological), as is religion, as are the way people dress and the food they eat. These human behaviors may vary greatly from one culture to the next. However, what about the universal taboo on incestuous relations with one’s siblings, or the observation that across many human societies, women tend to marry older men? Are these common threads of human cultures the result of learned traditions, passed down across the generations, or is there a biological influence at work? As we will see, the interplay between biology and culture provides many of the most intriguing and perplexing clues about the roots of our humanity. It also creates many of the most intense debates; for decades, scholars have debated whether genes or the environment have played the more important role in molding intelligence and other human qualities.
The dichotomy between biological and cultural influences on humankind is a false one, as we examine in detail later in the book. In earliest humans, biological evolution produced the capacity for culture: Intelligence had to evolve before learned traditions such as tool use could flourish, as we see in wild apes today. Our biology produced culture, but culture can also influence biology. We study these patterns under the rubric of biocultural anthropology.
Anthropology is divided into four subfields: biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. Some anthropologists consider linguistics and archaeology to be subfields within cultural anthropology. In addition, applied anthropology—a method more than a discipline—is sometimes considered a fifth subfield. The majority of practicing anthropologists in the United States are cultural anthropologists, who typically make up more than half of the faculty of anthropology departments in universities and who also are employed in a variety of nonacademic settings, as you will see in this section.
The Scope of Biological Anthropology
1.2 Explain the subfields of biological anthropology and discuss how they try to answer key questions about the human species.
The scope of biological anthropology is broader than the study of primates, fossils, and brain evolution. Any scientist studying evolution as it relates to the human species, directly or indirectly, could be called a biological anthropologist Biological anthropology includes a number of related disciplines (Figure 1.1 on page 5).
hominin
A member of the primate family Hominidae, distinguished by bipedal posture and, in more recently evolved species, a large brain.
adaptation
A trait that increases the reproductive success of an organism, produced by natural selection in the context of a particular environment.
anthropology
The study of humankind in a cross-cultural context. Anthropology includes the subfields cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology.
culture
The sum total of learned traditions, values, and beliefs that groups of people (and a few species of highly intelligent animals) possess.
biocultural anthropology
The study of the interaction between biology and culture, which plays a role in most human traits.
The Subfields of Anthropology
Cultural anthropology is the study of human societies in a cross-cultural perspective. The amazing variety of ways in which people lead their daily lives is at the heart of the field. Ethnology, one of the subfields of cultural anthropology, is the study of human societies and of the behavior of people within those societies. The practice of ethnology is called ethnography (literally, “the describing of culture”). A written account of the initiation rituals of street gangs in Los Angeles is an example of ethnography; another is the study of how parents in Boston care for their children relative to parenting among the Sherpas of highland Nepal.
Linguistic anthropology is the study of the form, function, and social context of language. Linguistic anthropologists usually are more interested in language use and the role that language plays in shaping culture than they are in the technical aspects of language structure. An anthropological linguist might study the aspects of Black English that set it apart from mainstream and be interested in the roots of Black English on slave plantations and in West Africa. Archaeology is the study of how people used to live, based on the materials, or artifacts, they left behind. These artifacts, art, implements, and other objects of material
culture form the basis for the analysis and interpretation of ancient cultures.
Archaeologists work at sites all over the world, studying time periods from the advent of stone tools 2.5 million years ago until the much more recent past. Prehistoric archaeologists study cultures that did not leave any recorded written history—from the early hominins to the preliterate antecedents of modern cultures from Hawaii to Africa. Historical archaeologists study past civilizations that left a written record of their existence, whether in the hieroglyphics of Egyptian tombs, the Viking runes scratched onto rock across northern Europe, or the diaries kept by the colonial settlers of New England. Other archaeologists study Revolutionary War battlefields or sites of former slave plantations in an effort to understand how people lived and structured their societies.
Biological anthropology is vastly broader than the study of primates, fossils, and brain evolution. Any scientist studying evolution as it relates to the human species, directly or indirectly, could be called a biological anthropologist. Biological anthropology includes paleoanthropology, skeletal biology and osteology, paleopathology, forensic anthropology, primatology, and human biology.
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of enthusiasm, the Gods; for the material cause, the enthusiastically energizing soul itself, or the external symbols; for the formal cause, the inspiration of the Gods about the one of the soul; and for the final cause, good.
“If, however, the Gods always wish the soul what is good, why does not the soul always energize enthusiastically? May we not say, that the Gods indeed always wish the soul what is good, but they are also willing that the order of the universe should prevail, and that the soul, through many causes, is not always adapted to enthusiasm, on which account it does not always enthusiastically energize? But some say that the telestic art extends as far as to the sublunary region. If, therefore, they mean that no one of the superlunary and celestial natures energizes in the sublunary region, they evidently assert what is absurd. But if they mean that the Telestæ, or mystic operators, are not able to energize above the lunar sphere, we say, that if all the allotments of souls are sublunary, their assertion will be true; but if there are also allotments of souls above the moon, as there are (for some are the attendants of the sun, others of the moon, and others of Saturn, since the Demiurgus disseminated some of them into the earth, others into the moon, and others elsewhere), this being the case, it will be possible for the soul to energize above the moon. For what the whole order of things impacts to the soul for a very extended period of time, this the soul is also able to impart to itself for a short space of time, when assisted by the Gods through the telestic art. For the soul can never energize above its own allotment, but can energize to the extent of it. Thus, for instance, if the allotment of the soul was as far as to philosophy, the soul would be able, though it should not choose a philosophic but some other life, to energize in that life somewhat philosophically. There are also said to be certain supermundane souls. And thus we have shown how the soul energizes enthusiastically.
But how are statues said to have an enthusiastic energy? May we not say, that a statue being inanimate, does not itself energize about divinity, but the telestic art, purifying the matter of which the statue consists, and placing round it certain characters and symbols, in the first place renders it, through these means, animated, and causes it to receive a certain life from the world; and, in the next place, after this, it prepares the statue to be illuminated by a divine nature,
through which it always delivers oracles, as long as it is properly adapted. For the statue, when it has been rendered perfect by the telestic art, remains afterwards [endued with a prophetic power] till it becomes entirely unadapted to divine illumination; but he who receives the inspiring influence of the Gods receives it only at certain times, and not always. But the cause of this is, that the soul, when filled with deity, energizes about it. Hence, in consequence of energizing above its own power, it becomes weary. For it would be a God, and similar to the souls of the stars, if it did not become weary. But the statue, conformably to its participations, remains illuminated. Hence the inaptitude of it entirely proceeds into privation, unless it is again, de novo, perfected and animated by the mystic operator. We have sufficiently shown, therefore, that enthusiasm, properly so called, is effected about the one of the soul, and that it is an illumination of divinity.
“In the next place, let us discuss the order and the use of the four manias, and show why the philosopher makes mention of these alone. Is it because there are no other than these, or because these were sufficient for his purpose? That there are, therefore, many other divine inspirations and manias Plato himself indicates as he proceeds, and prior to this, he makes mention of the inspiration from the Nymphs. But there are also inspirations from Pan, from the mother of the Gods, and from the Corybantes, which are elsewhere mentioned by Plato. Here, however, he alone delivers these four manias; in the first place, because these alone are sufficient to the soul, in the attainment of its proper apocatastasis, as we shall afterwards show; and in the next place, because he delivers the proximate steps of ascent to the soul. For the gifts of the Gods to all beings are many and incomprehensible. But now he delivers to us the energies of the Gods which are extended to souls. He delivers, however, these four manias, not as if one of them was not sufficient, and especially the amatory, to lead back the soul to its pristine felicity; but at present the series and regular gradation of them, and the orderly perfection of the soul, are unfolded. As, therefore, it is possible for the tyrannic life, when suddenly changed, to become aristocratic, through employing strenuous promptitude and a divine allotment, but the gradual ascent is from a tyrannic to a democratic, and from this to an oligarchic life, afterwards to a timocratic, and at last to an aristocratic life, but the descent and lapse are vice versa;
thus also here, the soul being about to ascend, and be restored to its former felicity, is in the first place possessed with the musical mania, afterwards with the telestic, then with the prophetic, and, in the last place, with the amatory mania. These inspirations, however; conspire with, and are in want of, each other; so abundant is their communion. For the telestic requires the prophetic[159] mania; since the latter[160] interprets many things pertaining to the former. And again, the prophetic requires the telestic mania. For the telestic mania perfects and establishes oracular predictions. Farther still, the prophetic uses the poetic and musical mania. For prophets, as I may say, always speak in verse. And again, the musical uses the prophetic mania spontaneously, as Plato says. But what occasion is there to speak about the amatory and musical manias? For nearly the same persons exercise both these, as, for instance, Sappho, Anacreon, and the like, in consequence of these not being able to subsist without each other. But it is very evident that the amatory mania contributes to all these, since it is subservient to enthusiasm of every kind: for no enthusiasm can be effected without amatory inspiration. And you may see how Orpheus appears to have applied himself to all these, as being in want of, and adhering to, each other. For we learn that he was most telestic, and most prophetic, and was excited by Apollo; and besides this, that he was most poetic, on which account he is said to have been the son of Calliope. He was likewise most amatory, as he himself acknowledges to Musæus, extending to him divine goods, and rendering him perfect. Hence he appears to have been possessed with all the manias, and this by a necessary consequence. For there is an abundant union, conspiration, and alliance with each other, of the Gods who preside over these manias, viz. of the Muses, Bacchus, Apollo, and Love.
“It remains, therefore, that we should unfold the nature of each of the manias, previously observing that those which are internal, and originate from the soul itself, and give perfection to it, are of one kind; but the external energies of them, and which preserve the outward man, and our nature, are of another. The four external, however, are analogous to the four internal manias. Let us consider, therefore, in the first place, the internal, and which alone originate from the soul itself, and let us see what they effect in the soul. In order, likewise, that this may become manifest, and also their arrangement, let us survey from on high, the descent, as Plato says,
and defluxion of the wings of the soul. From the beginning, therefore, and at first, the soul was united to the Gods, and its unity to their one. But afterwards the soul departing from this divine union descended into intellect, and no longer possessed real beings unitedly, and in one, but apprehended and surveyed them by simple projections, and, as it were, contacts of its intellect. In the next place, departing from intellect, and descending into reasoning and dianoia, it no longer apprehended real beings by simple intuitions, but syllogistically and transitively, proceeding from one thing to another, from propositions to conclusions. Afterwards, abandoning true reasoning, and the dissolving peculiarity, it descended into generation, and became filled with much irrationality and perturbation. It is necessary, therefore, that it should recur to its proper principles and again return to the place from whence it came. To this ascent and apocatastasis, however, these four manias contribute. And the musical mania, indeed, leads to symphony and harmony, the agitated and disturbed nature of the parts of the soul, which were hurried away to indefiniteness and inaptitude, and were filled with abundant tumult. But the telestic mania causes the soul to be perfect and entire, and prepares it to energize intellectually. For the musical mania alone harmonizes and represses the parts of the soul; but the telestic causes the whole of it to energize, and prepares it to become entire, so that the intellectual part of it may energize. For the soul, by descending into the realms of generation, resembles a thing broken and relaxed. And the circle of the same, or the intellectual part of it, is fettered; but the circle of the different, or the doxastic part, sustains many fractures and turnings. Hence, the soul energizes partially, and not according to the whole of itself. The Dionysiacal inspiration, therefore, after the parts of the soul are coharmonized, renders it perfect, and causes it to energize according to the whole of itself, and to live intellectually. But the Apolloniacal mania converts and coexcites all the multiplied powers, and the whole of the soul, to the one of it. Hence Apollo is denominated as elevating the soul from multitude to the one. And the remaining mania, the amatory, receiving the soul united, conjoins this one of the soul to the Gods, and to intelligible beauty. As the givers, therefore, of these manias are transcendently united, and are in each other, the gifts also on this account participate of, and communicate with, each other, and the recipient, which is the soul, possesses an
adaptation to all the gifts. This, therefore, is the order, and these are the energies and powers within the soul itself, of these four manias.
“But let us also consider their external energies on man, and what they outwardly effect about us. The musical mania, therefore, causes us to speak in verse, and to act and be moved rythmically, and to sing in metre, the splendid deeds of divine men, and their virtues and pursuits; and, through these, to discipline our life, in the same manner as the inward manias coharmonize our soul. But the telestic mania, expelling every thing foreign, contaminating, and noxious, preserves our life perfect and innoxious, and banishing an insane and diabolical phantasy, causes us to be sane, entire, and perfect, just as the internal telestic mania makes the soul to be perfect and entire. Again, the prophetic mania contracts into one the extension and infinity of time, and sees, as in one present now, all things, the past, the future, and the existing time. Hence it predicts what will be, which it sees as present to itself. It causes us, therefore, to pass through life in an irreprehensible manner; just as the internal prophetic mania contracts and elevates all the multiplied and many powers and lives of the soul to the one, in order that it may in a greater degree be preserved and connected. But the amatory mania converts young persons to us, and causes them to become our friends, being instructive of youth, and leading them from sensible beauty to our psychical beauty, and from this sending them to intelligible beauty; in the same manner as the internal amatory mania conjoins the one of the soul to the Gods.
“All the above mentioned manias, therefore, are superior to the prudent and temperate energies of the soul. Nevertheless, there is a mania which is coordinate with temperance, and which we say has in a certain respect a prerogative above[161] it. For certain inspirations are produced, according to the middle and also according to the doxastic reasons of the soul, conformably to which artists effect certain things, and discover theorems beyond expectation, as Asclepius, for instance, in medicine, and Hercules in the practic[162] life.”
Afterwards, in commenting on what Plato says of the mania from the Muses, viz. “that it adorns the infinite deeds of the ancients,” Hermeas observes, “that the inward energy in the soul of the poetic mania, by applying itself to superior and intelligible natures, imparts
to subordinate natures harmony and order; but that the external divinely-inspired poetry celebrates the deeds of the ancients, and instructs both its contemporaries and posterity, extending its energies every where.” But Plato says, “that he who without the divinely-inspired mania of the Muses expects to become a divine poet, will, by thus fancying, become himself imperfect, and his poetry will be vanquished and concealed by the poetry which is the progeny of mania.” Hermeas adds, “For what similitude is there between the poetry of Chærilus and Callimachus, and that of Homer and Pindar?
For the divinely-inspired poets, as being filled from the Muses, always invoke them, and extend to them all that they say.” For a fuller and most admirable account of the poetic mania, and of the different species of poetry by Proclus, see the notes on the tenth book of the Republic, in my translation of Plato, and also the Introduction to my translation of the Rhetoric, Poetic, and Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle.
From what is here said by Hermeas about enthusiasm, the intelligent reader will easily see that none of the Roman poets, whose works have been transmitted to us, possessed that which is primarily, properly, and truly enthusiasm, or that highest species of it in which the one of the soul is illuminated by a divine nature, and through transcendent similitude is united to it. As to Virgil, indeed, the prince of these poets, though he invokes the Muse in the beginning of the Æneid, yet his invocation of her is but a partial and secondary thing. For he only calls on her to unfold to him the causes that involved a man of such remarkable piety as Æneas in so many misfortunes:
Musa, mihi causa memora, &c.
And, confiding in his own genius, he begins his poem without soliciting supernal inspiration,
Arma, virumque cano, &c.
To which may be added, that this placing himself before the Muse, resembles the ego et meus rex of Wolsey. On the contrary, divinelyinspired poets, as Hermeas well observes, knock, as it were, at the gates of the Muses, and thus being filled from thence exclaim,
And,
And,
For being always extended to them, they dispose the whole of what they afterwards say as derived from their inspiring influence. With an arrogance too, peculiar to the Romans, who, as a certain Greek poet[163] says, were a people
Beyond measure proud.
He associates himself, in his fourth Eclogue, with the Muses, as their equal:
Sicelides Musæ, paulo majora canamus.
Which reminds me of what Suetonius relates of Caligula, that he would place himself between the statues of Castor and Pollux, and confer privately with Jupiter Capitolinus, fancying that he was intimate with, and of equal dignity with, these divinities. And as to the poets that have lived since the fall of the Roman empire, it would be ridiculous to suppose that they possessed this highest enthusiasm, as they did not believe in the existence of the sources from whence it is alone genuinely derived.
P. 67. The attentive power of the soul. This is that part or power of the rational soul which primarily apprehends the operations of the senses. For the rational soul not only has intellect in capacity, the dianoetic power, will, and choice, but another power, which is called by the best of the Greek interpreters of Aristotle, as well as by Iamblichus, το προσεκτικον, the attentive. This power investigates and perceives whatever is transacted in man; and says, I understand, I think, I opine, I am angry, I desire. And, in short, this attentive part of the rational soul passes through all the rational, irrational, vegetable, or physical powers. If, therefore, it is requisite it should
pass through all these powers, it will also proceed through the senses, and say, I see, I hear; for it is the peculiarity of that which apprehends energies thus to speak. Hence if it is the attentive power which says these things, it is this power which apprehends the energy of sensibles; for it is necessary that the nature which apprehends all things should be one, since man also is one. For if one part of it should apprehend these, and another those things, it is just, as Aristotle says, as if you should perceive this thing, and I that. It is necessary, therefore, that the attentive power should be one indivisible thing.
P. 74. For the human soul is on all sides darkened by body, which he who denominates the river of Negligence, or the water of Oblivion, &c.——will not by such appellations sufficiently express its turpitude. “The whole of generation, as well as the human body,” says Proclus in Tim. lib. v. p. 339, “may be called a river, through its rapid, impetuous, and unstable flux. Thus also in the Republic, Plato calls the whole genesiurgic nature the river of Lethe; in which are contained, as Empedocles says, Oblivion, and the meadow of Ate; the voracity of matter, and the light-hating world, as the Gods say; and the winding streams under which many are drawn down, as the Chaldean oracles assert.”
P. 105. But there are a certain few who by employing a certain supernatural power of intellect, are removed from nature, &c. The class to which these few belong is beautifully unfolded, as follows, by Plotinus, in the beginning of his Treatise on Intellect, Ideas, and real Being. “Since all men from their birth employ sense prior to intellect, and are necessarily first conversant with sensibles, some proceeding no farther, pass through life, considering these as the first and last of things, and apprehending that whatever is painful among these is evil, and whatever is pleasant is good; thus thinking it sufficient to pursue the one and avoid the other. Those, too, among them who pretend to a greater share of reason than others, esteem this to be wisdom, being affected in a manner similar to more heavy birds, who collecting many things from the earth, and being oppressed with the weight, are unable to fly on high, though they have received wings for this purpose from nature. But others are in a small degree elevated from things subordinate, the more excellent part of the soul recalling
them from pleasure to a more worthy pursuit. As they are, however, unable to look on high, and as not possessing any thing else which can afford them rest, they betake themselves, together with the name of virtue, to actions and the election of things inferior, from which they at first endeavoured to raise themselves, though in vain. In the third class is the race of divine men, who, through a more excellent power, and with piercing eyes, acutely perceive supernal light, to the vision of which they raise themselves above the clouds and darkness, as it were, of this lower world, and there abiding despise every thing in these regions of sense; being no otherwise delighted with the place which is truly and properly their own, than he who after many wanderings is at length restored to his lawful country.” See my translation of the whole of this treatise.
P. 117. By mire, therefore, understand every thing corporealformed and material. “Matter,” says Simplicius in his Commentary on the first book of Aristotle’s Physics, “is nothing else than the mutation of sensibles, with respect to intelligibles, deviating from thence, and carried downwards to nonbeing. Those things, indeed, which are the properties of sensibles are irrational, corporeal, distributed into parts, and passing into bulk and divulsion, through an ultimate progression into generation, viz. into matter; for matter is always truly the last sediment. Hence, also, the Egyptians call the dregs of the first life, which they symbolically denominate water, matter, being as it were a certain mire. And matter is, as it were, the receptacle of generated and sensible natures, not subsisting as any definite form, but as the state or condition of subsistence; just as the impartible, the immaterial, true being, and things of this kind, are the constitution of an intelligible nature; all forms, indeed, subsisting both in sensibles and intelligibles, but in the former materially, and in the latter immaterially; viz. in the one impartibly and truly, but in the other partibly and shadowy. Hence every form is in sensibles distributed according to material interval.”
P. 120. Through the innovation and illegality of the Greeks. Iamblichus says, that through this innovation and illegality, both names and prayers have at present lost their efficacy. For during his
time, and forborne centuries prior to it, the genuine religion of the Greeks was rapidly declining, through their novelty and volatility, of which he here complains. Hence the Emperor Julian, in the fragments of his treatise against the Christians, preserved by Ciryl, says, speaking of the Christians, “If any one wishes to consider the truth respecting you, he will find that your impiety consists of the Judaic audacity, and the indolence and confusion of the heathens. For deriving from both, not that which is most beautiful, but the worst, you have fabricated a web of evils.——Hence, from the innovation of the Hebrews, you have seized blasphemy towards the venerable Gods; but from our religion you have cast aside reverence to every nature more excellent than man, and the love of paternal institutes.”
P. 122. Prior to truly existing beings, and total principles, &c. Of the two most ancient principles of all things mentioned in this chapter, as celebrated by Hermes, the first corresponds to the one itself of Plato, and the second to being itself, or superessential being, the summit of the intelligible triad; which two principles are beautifully unfolded by Proclus in the second and third books of his treatise on the Theology of Plato.
P. 122. He arranges the God Eneph prior to, and as the leader of, the celestial Gods.—But prior to this he arranges the impartible one, which he says is the first paradigm, and which he denominates Eicton. It appears to me that the former of these two divinities is the same with Saturn, who is the summit of the intellectual order of Gods; and that the latter is the animal itself of Plato, or the Phanes of Orpheus, who subsists at the extremity of the intelligible triad. For the God Eneph is said by Iamblichus to be an intellect intellectually perceiving itself, and converting intellections to itself; and these are
the characteristics of Saturn. And the God Eicton is said to be the first paradigm, and this is also asserted of Phanes.
P. 123. For the books which are circulated under the name of Hermes, contain Hermaic opinions, though they frequently employ the language of the philosophers: for they were translated from the Egyptian tongue by men who were not unskilled in philosophy. A few only of these books are now extant, but what is here said by Iamblichus sufficiently proves their authenticity, and that they contain the genuine doctrines of Hermes. They have doubtless, however, been occasionally interpolated by some of the early Christians, though not to that extent which modern critics, and that mitred sophist Warburton, suppose.
P. 123. And such as have written concerning the decans. The twelve parts, mentioned in the preceding chapter, into which the Egyptians divide the heavens, are the twelve signs of the zodiac. But the thirty-six parts are the twelve houses of the planets, divided into three other portions, which they call decans. Ptolemy, however, in his Quadripartite, subverts this doctrine of the Egyptians. Concerning these decans, see Scaliger ad Manilium, Kircher II. parte Oedipi, and Salmasius de Annis climactericis. Gale also gives the following extract from Hermes relative to the decans, which had not been before published, and which he derived from a MS. copy of Stobæus in the possession of Vossius.
is comprehensive of all things. Conceive, therefore, this to be as it were of a circular form.——But under the circle of this body the thirty-six decans are arranged, as the media of the whole circle of the zodiac.——These, likewise, must be understood to preside as guardians over every thing in the world, connecting and containing all things——and preserving the established order of all things.—— Farther still, understand, O Tat, that these decans are impassive to the things which the other stars suffer. For neither being detained, do they stop their course, nor being impeded do they recede, nor are they, like the other stars, concealed as with a veil by the light of the sun. But being liberated above all things, they comprehend the universe as the guardians and accurate inspectors of it, in the Nycthemeron [or the space of night and day].——They also possess, with respect to us, the greatest power.”
P. 125. So that what you add from Homer, “that the Gods are flexible,” it is not holy to assert. The words of Homer are στρεπτοι
και θεοι αυτοι, and are to be found in Iliad ix. v. 493. But when Iamblichus says, it is not holy to assert the Gods are flexible, he means that it is not holy according to the literal signification of the words; divine flexibility indicating nothing more than this, that those who through depravity were before unadapted to receive the illuminations of the Gods, and in consequence of this were subject to the power of avenging dæmons; when afterwards they obtain pardon of their guilt through prayers and sacrifices, and through methods of this kind apply a remedy to their vices, again become partakers of the goodness of the Gods. So that divine flexibility is a resumption of the participation of divine light and goodness by those who through inaptitude were before deprived of it.
P. 130. Dæmons preside over the parts of our body. Proclus in the fragments of his Ten Doubts concerning Providence, preserved by Fabricius in the eighth vol. of his Bibliotheca Græca, observes, “That the Gods, with an exempt transcendency, extend their providence to all things, but that dæmons, dividing their superessential subsistence, receive the guardianship of different herds of animals, distributing the providence of the Gods, as Plato says, as far as to the
most ultimate division. Hence some of them preside over men, others over lions or other animals, and others over plants; and still more partially, some are the inspective guardians of the eye, others of the heart, and others of the liver.” He adds, “all things, however, are full of Gods, some of whom exert their providential energies immediately, but others through dæmons as media: not that the Gods are incapable of being present to all things, but that ultimate are themselves unable to participate primary natures.” Hence it must be said that there is one principal dæmon, who is the guardian and governor of every thing that is in us, and many dæmons subordinate to him, who preside over our parts.
P. 134. Hence it is requisite to consider how he may be liberated from these bonds. “The one salvation of the soul herself,” says Proclus in Tim. lib. v. p. 330, “which is extended by the Demiurgus, and which liberates her from the circle of generation, from abundant wanderings, and an inefficacious life, is her return to the intellectual form, and a flight from every thing which naturally adheres to us from generation. For it is necessary that the soul, which is hurled like seed into the realms of generation, should lay aside the stubble and bark, as it were, which she obtained from being disseminated into these fluctuating realms; and that purifying herself from every thing circumjacent, she should become an intellectual flower and fruit, delighting in an intellectual life, instead of doxastic nutriment, and pursuing the uniform and simple energy of the period of sameness, instead of the abundantly wandering motion of the period which is characterized by difference. For she contains each of these circles, and twofold powers. And of her horses one is good, but the other the contrary [as is said in the Phædrus]. And one of these leads her to generation, but the other from generation to true being. The one also leads her round the genesiurgic, but the other round the intellectual circle. For the period of the same and the similar elevates to intellect, and an intelligible nature, and to the first and most excellent habit. But this habit is that according to which the soul being winged governs the whole world, becoming assimilated to the Gods themselves. And this is the universal form of life in the soul, just as that is the partial form, when she falls into the last body, and becomes something belonging to an individual, instead of belonging
to the universe. The middle of these, also, is the partial universal, when she lives in conjunction with her middle vehicle, as a citizen of generation. Dismissing, therefore, her first habit, which subsists according to an alliance to the whole of generation, and laying aside the irrational nature which connects her with generation, likewise governing her irrational part by reason, and extending opinion to intellect, she will be circularly led to a happy life from the wanderings about the regions of sense; which life those that are initiated by Orpheus in the mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine, pray that they may obtain, together with the allotments of the [celestial] sphere, and a cessation of evil. But if our soul necessarily lives well, when living according to the circle of sameness, much more must this be the case with divine souls. It is, however, possible for our soul to live according to the circle of sameness, when purified, as Plato says. Cathartic virtue, therefore, alone must be called the salvation of souls; since this cuts off, and vehemently obliterates, material natures, and the passions which adhere to us from generation; separates the soul and leads it to intellect; and causes it to leave on earth the vehicles with which it is invested. For souls in descending receive from the elements different vehicles, aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial; and thus at last enter into this gross bulk. For how, without a medium, could they proceed into this body from immaterial spirits?”
THE END.
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1. According to this theology, as I have elsewhere shown, in every order of things, a triad is the immediate progeny of a monad. Hence the intelligible triad proceeds immediately from the ineffable principle of things. Phanes, or intelligible intellect, who is the last of the intelligible order, is the monad, leader, and producing cause of a triad, which is denominated νοητος και νοερος, i. e. intelligible, and at the same time intellectual. In like manner the extremity of this order produces immediately from itself the intellectual triad, Saturn, Rhea, and
Jupiter. Again, Jupiter, who is also the Demiurgus, is the monad of the supermundane triad. Apollo, who subsists at the extremity of the supermundane order, produces a triad of liberated Gods. (Θεοι απολυτοι.) And the extremity of the liberated order becomes the monad of a triad of mundane Gods. This theory, too, which is the progeny of the most consummate science, is in perfect conformity with the Chaldean theology. And hence it is said in one of the Chaldean oracles, “In every world a triad shines forth, of which a monad is the ruling principle. ” (Παντι γαρ εν κοσμῳ λαμπει
αρχει). I refer the reader, who is desirous of being fully convinced of all this, to my translation of Proclus on the Theology of Plato.
2. Viz. The Philosophical Works of Proclus, together with those of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Syrianus, Ammonius, Damascius, Olympiodorus, and Simplicius.
3.
Dissert. i. Edit. Princ.
4. “Diogenes Laertius says of Pythagoras, that he charged his disciples not to give equal degrees of honour to the Gods and heroes. Herodotus (in Euterpe) says of the Greeks, That they worshiped Hercules two ways, one as an immortal deity, and so they sacrificed to him; and another as a Hero, and so they celebrated his memory. Isocrates (Encom. Helen.) distinguishes between the honours of heroes and Gods, when he speaks of Menelaus and Helena. But the distinction is no where more fully expressed than in the Greek inscription upon the statue of Regilla, wife to Herodes Atticus, as Salmasius thinks, which was set up in his temple at Triopium, and taken from the statue itself by Sirmondus; where it is said, That she had neither the honour of a mortal nor yet that which was proper to the Gods. Ουδε
It seems by the inscription of Herodes, and by the testament of Epicteta, extant in Greek in the Collection of Inscriptions, that it was in the power of particular families to keep festival days in honour of some of their own family, and to give heroical honours to them. In that noble inscription at Venice, we find three days appointed every year to be kept, and a confraternity established for that purpose with the laws of it. The first day to be observed in honour of the Muses, and sacrifices to be offered to them as deities. The second and third days in honour of the heroes of the family; between which honour and that of deities, they showed the difference by the distance of time between them, and the preference given to the other. But whereinsoever the difference lay, that there was a distinction acknowledged among them appears by this passage of Valerius, in his excellent oration, extant in Dionysius Halicarnass. Antiq. Rom. lib. ii. p. 696. I call, says he, the Gods to witness, whose temples and altars our family has worshiped with common sacrifices; and next after them, I call the Genii of our ancestors, to whom we give δευτερας τιμας, the second
honours next to the Gods, (as Celsus calls those, τας προσηκουσας τιμας, the due honours that belong to the lower dæmons.) From which we take notice, that the Heathens did not confound all degrees of divine worship, giving to the lowest object the same which they supposed to be due to the celestial deities, or the supreme God. So that if the distinction of divine worship will excuse from idolatry, the Heathens were not to blame for it.” See Stillingfleet’s Answer to a book entitled Catholics no Idolaters, p. 510, 513, &c.
5. See the extracts from Plutarch, in which this is shown, in the Introduction to my translation of Proclus on the Theology of Plato.
6. Answer to Catholics no Idolaters. Lond. 1676. p. 211.
7. Arrian. de Exped. Alex. l. iv. et Curt. lib. viii.
8. Vit. Artaxerx. Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. i. c. 21.
9. Justin. lib. vi.
10. Panegyr.
11. Lib. vii.
12. Lib. vi. cap. iii.
13. Και
Cap. xviii.
Simplic. in Epict. Enchir. p. 207. Lond. 1670. 8vo.
15. Of the first principles, says Damascius in MS. περι αρχων, the Egyptians said nothing, but celebrated it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice unknown darkness.
16. For farther particulars respecting this most extraordinary man, see the introduction to my translation of his Life of Pythagoras, and my History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology.
17. Iliad, lib. x. v. 493.
18. Gale has omitted to give the original of the sentence contained in the brackets; the translation of which I have added from the answer of Iamblichus to this epistle.
19. Here also the original is omitted by Gale, and the translation of it is given by me from the text of Iamblichus.
20. The paragraph within the brackets is omitted in the original; but I have supplied it from the following answer of Iamblichus to this Epistle. This omission is not noticed by Gale.
21. Here likewise the words within the brackets, which are omitted in the original, are added from Iamblichus; but the omission is not noticed by Gale.
22. The following testimony of an anonymous Greek writer, prefixed to the manuscript of this treatise, which Gale published, proves that this work was written by Iamblichus:
i. e. “It is requisite to know that the philosopher Proclus, in his Commentary on the Enneads of the great Plotinus, says that it is the divine Iamblichus who answers the prefixed Epistle of Porphyry, and who assumes the person of a certain Egyptian of the name of Abammon, through the affinity and congruity of the hypothesis. And, indeed, the conciseness and definiteness of the diction, and the efficacious, elegant, and divine nature of the conceptions, testify that the decision of Proclus is just.” That this, indeed, was the opinion of Proclus, is evident from a passage in his Commentaries on the Timæus of Plato, which has escaped the notice of Gale, and which the reader will find in a note on the fourth chapter of the eighth section of the following translation.
23. In the original κατα τας
εννοιας, which Gale erroneously translates contra communes opiniones
24. Damascius περι αρχων says, “that difference not existing, there will not be knowledge.” And, “that the contact as of one with one is above knowledge.” Likewise, “that the intellectual perception of the first intelligible is without any difference or distinction.
25. Between souls that always abide on high with purity, such as the souls of essential heroes, and those that descend into the regions of mortality, and are defiled with vice, such as the souls of the greater part of mankind, the class of undefiled souls subsists. These descend into the realms of generation, partly from that necessity by which all human souls are, at times, drawn down to the earth, and partly for the benevolent purpose of benefiting those of an inferior class. But they descend without being defiled with vice. They are also called heroes, κατα
i. e. according to habitude, in order to distinguish them from essential heroes. And, in the Pythagoric Golden Verses, they are denominated the terrestrial heroes.
26. For αυτην εαυτοις ουσαν in this place, it is necessary to read αυτην εαυτης ουσαν.
27. For εποχη here, I read μετοχη.
28. Viz. In the plenitudes, or total perfections, of the Gods.
29. i. e. Without habitude, proximity, or alliance to the things which it illuminates.
30. What is here asserted by Iamblichus is perfectly true, and confirmed by experience, viz. that the passions, when moderately gratified, are vanquished without violence. But Gale, not understanding this, says, “Hoc adeo verum est, ac si dixisset, ignem extingues, oleum addendo camino.” For a moderate gratification of the passions does not resemble the pouring of oil on fire; since this similitude is only applicable to them when they are immoderately indulged.
31. See my Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries.
32. In the original, Και δη, και “
which Gale most erroneously translates as follows: “Sed et ratio possit reddi supplicationum, quibus divinam iram procuramus, si recte intelligamus, qualis sit deorum ira.”
33. Viz. Punishments produced by the realms of generation, or the sublunary region.
34. It is well observed by Proclus, “that divine necessity concurs with the divine will.” Θεια αναγκη
βουλησει. Procl. in Tim. lib. i.
35. For νοητον here, it is obviously necessary to read νοερον.
36. For τουτο here, it is necessary to read ταυτο.
37. For as a celestial body consists of light so pure and simple, that, compared with a terrestrial body, it may be said to be immaterial; hence, like the light of the sun, it cannot be divided, or in other words, one part of it cannot be separated from another.
38. For προς αυτην in this place, I read προς αυτα.
39. The nature of the one, as it is all-receptive, and all-productive (πανδεχης και παντοφυης) exhibits in itself a certain representation and indication of multitude; for it is all things prior to all.
40. For the Gods are essentialized in the one; or, as Damascius observes, speaking Chaldaically, in the paternal peculiarity. For in every God there is father, power, and intellect; father being the same as hyparxis and the one.
41. Viz. According to the difference which there is between the invisibility of Gods and the invisibility of dæmons.
42. The cosmocrators, or governors of the world, are the planets. See the fourth book of my translation of Proclus on the Timæus of Plato.
43. For πυριως in this place, I read εμπυριως. For the empyrean world, according to the Chaldeans, is above the material worlds, and emits a supermundane fire or light.
44. For περιουσια here, it is necessary to read παρουσια.
45. These are terrestrial dæmons, to whom the Chaldean oracle alludes, which says, “The wild beasts of the earth shall inhabit thy vessel,” i. e. as Psellus explains it, the composite temperature of the soul.
46. For πεπλανημενην here, it seems requisite to read πεπλασμενην. Gale also, in his version, in this place has fictum.
47. i. e. The inexplicable theurgic signs or symbols.
48. For υπνος here, it is necessary to read αυπνος. For Iamblichus has before shown that divine dreams are not produced in sleep, but either when sleep leaves us, or between sleeping and waking, or when we are perfectly awake. The necessity of this emendation is also evident from what Iamblichus shortly after adds, viz. that we must take away from divine dreams the being asleep; i. e. the being in a profound sleep.
49. In the original there is nothing more than λεγουσι δε ταδε in this place; but the sense requires that we should read λεγουσι δε οι σοφοι ταδε. And this emendation is confirmed by the versions of Scutellius and Gale.
50. For κατα τα μεταξυ διαλαμβανομενα κ. λ, I read μετα κ. λ.
51. “Among the deeds of Pythagoras,” says Iamblichus, in his Life of that father of philosophy, (chap. xxv.) “it is said, that once through the spondaic [i. e. Doric] song of a piper he extinguished the rage of a Tauromenian lad, who had been feasting by night, and intended to burn the vestibule of his mistress, in consequence of seeing her coming from the house of his rival. For the lad was inflamed and excited [to this rash attempt] by a Phrygian song; which, however, Pythagoras most rapidly suppressed. But Pythagoras, as he was astronomizing, happened to meet with the Phrygian piper at an unseasonable time of night, and persuaded him to change his Phrygian for a spondaic song; through which the fury of the lad being immediately repressed, he returned home in an orderly manner, though a little before this he could not be in the least restrained, nor would, in short, bear any admonition; and even stupidly insulted Pythagoras when he met him. When a certain youth, also, rushed with a drawn sword on Anchilus, the host of Empedocles, because, being a judge, he had publicly condemned his father to death, and would have slain him as a homicide, Empedocles changed the intention of the youth, by singing to his lyre that verse of Homer, Nepenthe, without gall, o ’ er every ill Oblivion spreads.
O . lib. 4.
And thus snatched his host Anchilus from death, and the youth from the crime of homicide. It is also related, that the youth from that time became the most celebrated of the disciples of Pythagoras. Farther still, the whole Pythagoric school produced, by certain appropriate songs, what they called exartysis, or adaptation; synarmoga, or elegance of manners; and epaphe, or contact, usefully conducting the dispositions of the soul to passions contrary to those which it before possessed. For when they went to bed, they purified the reasoning power from the perturbations and noises to which it had been exposed during the day, by certain odes and peculiar songs, and by this means procured for themselves tranquil sleep, and few and good dreams. But when they rose from bed, they again liberated themselves from the torpor and heaviness of sleep, by songs of another kind. Sometimes, also, by musical sounds alone, unaccompanied with words, they healed the passions of the soul and certain diseases, enchanting, as they say, in reality. And it is probable that from hence this name epode, i. e. enchantment, came to be generally used. After this manner, therefore, Pythagoras, through music, produced the most beneficial correction of human manners and lives.”
Proclus also, in his MS. Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato, observes, “that of musical instruments some are repressive, and others motive; some are adapted to rest, and others to motion. The repressive, therefore, are most useful for education, leading our manners into order, repressing the turbulency of youth, and bringing its agitated nature to quietness and temperance. But the motive instruments are adapted to enthusiastic energy; and hence, in the mysteries and mystic sacrifices, the pipe is useful; for the motive power of it is employed for the purpose of exciting the reasoning power to a divine nature. For here it is requisite that the irrational part should be laid asleep, and the rational excited. Hence those that instruct youth use repressive instruments, but initiators such as are motive. For that which is disciplined is the irrational part; but it is reason which is initiated, and which energizes enthusiastically.”
See, likewise, on this subject, Ptolem. Harmonic, lib. iii. cap. 7 and 8, who observes among other things, “that our souls directly sympathize with the energies of melody, recognizing, as it were, their alliance to them and that at one time the soul is changed to a quiet and repressed condition, but at another to fury and enthusiasm.
And, in the last place, see Plato in his Io, and Aristotle in his Politics.
52. Proclus in Polit. p. 865, says, “that the melodies of Olympus were the causes of ecstasy.”
53. The nature of the Corybantes, and the order to which they belong, is unfolded as follows by Proclus, in Plat. Theol. lib. vi. cap. 13. “To what has been said we shall add the theory pertaining to the unpolluted[54] Gods among the ruling