Archaeology, Language, and History: Essays on Culture and EthnicityJohn Terrell Ever since Darwin, the world has been struggling with the mystery of human diversity. As the historian Peter Bowler has written, an evolutionary interpretation of the history of life on the earth must inevitably extend itself to include the origins of the human race. But this has proved to be a difficult and controversial task. Understanding human origins means accounting not only for the obvious differences between people and cultures around the world, but also for the unity of Homo sapiens as a single biological species. As Stephen Jay Gould has said, flexibility is the hallmark of human evolution. Because so much of who we are is learned rather than genetically predetermined, a satisfactory understanding of human evolution--to use old parlance--must account both for the human body and the human soul. |
Contents
The Uncommon Sense of Race Language and Culture | 11 |
Ethnogenetic Patterns in Native North America | 31 |
Soviet Ethnogenetic Theory and the Interpretation of the Past | 57 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Archaeology, Language, and History: Essays on Culture and Ethnicity John Terrell No preview available - 2001 |