Why are humans so different from each other and what makes the human species so different from all other living organisms? This introductory book provides a concise and accessible account of human diversity, of its causes and the ways in which anthropologists go about trying to make sense of it. Carles Salazar offers students a thoroughly integrated view by bringing together biological and sociocultural anthropology and including perspectives from evolutionary biology and psychology.
Introduction
1. Being human
Human evolution in the history of life
Genetic knowledge and individual knowledge
The growth of the human brain
Theory of mind and the modular structure of the human mind-brain
Bibliographical note on Chapter 1
References
2. A new form of knowledge
Culture in human evolution
The transmission of cultural knowledge
The problem of meaning
Bibliographical note on Chapter 2
References
3. Theories of difference
Understanding human diversity
Opening approaches: Anthropology as history
Anthropology against history: Functionalism
Structuralism and the problem of meaning again
Bibliographical note on Chapter 3
References
4. Cultural evolution
The puzzle of cultural change
Cultural group selection
Memes and cultural groups
Culture-gene coevolution
Random processes and purposeful action
Bibliographical note on Chapter 4
References
5. Summary and conclusions
Biography
Carles Salazar is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Lleida, Spain. He has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, UK.
