"Surely the significant difference between early humans and primate ancestors is the incest prohibition.  Most other discussions are going to be about consequences of this feature and not causes of the significance."

"Dear Carolina Maria, I once taught a huge "Other Peoples' Worlds" course many years ago, using Islam, women, and the deaf as the three cultural examples on which we were going to focus (bouncing, of course, off the…"

"I'm not sure about "handmaiden..." but Kathleen Gough, I believe, coined the expression "child of imperialism." You might start with her "New Proposals for Anthropologists" in CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY, 9, 1968; or her…"

"Mylene, thanks for inviting me. I only occasionally visit this site, so am late acknowledging you. I am going to attend the Soc for Cul Anth meetings in Santa Fe this May, but am not reading anything concerning art or film. You probably know some of…"

"Joshua, Yes, I agree. And our mythologies mean we don't believe theirs (ours are history, theirs are myth). And the elite of the profession set the prevailing methodologies and theories. I have an essay in the Asad volume (the first devoted to…"

"Joshua, Yes, the silence is shocking. Probably a consequence of loyality and power by way of elite institutions (i.e., Harvard, with its legacy of Tozzer, Kluckhohn, etc, not to mention Coon and others in physical anthro). And yes, the…"

"Joshua, Part of this concerns the different colonial experiences of the former "great" imperial powers (England, France, etc) as opposed to the earlier creeping colonial expansion of America, Spain, etc. There really was no…"