Table Of ContentTHE TAPESTRY
OF CULTURE
To the memory of Daniel
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham-•-Boulder-•-New York-•-Toronto-•-Oxford
THE TAPESTRY
OF CULTURE
An Introduction to
Cultural Anthropology
Ninth Edition
Abraham Rosman,
Paula G. Rubel, and Maxine Weisgrau
A Division of
ALTAMIRA PRESS
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Copyright © 2009 by AltaMira Press
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Rosman, Abraham.
The tapestry of culture : an introduction to cultural anthropology / Abraham Rosman, Paula G. Rubel, and Maxine
Weisgrau. — 9th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1140-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-1140-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1139-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-1139-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
eISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1158-5
eISBN-10: 0-7591-1158-8
1. Ethnology. I. Rubel, Paula G. II. Weisgrau, Maxine K. III. Title.
GN316.R67 2009
306—dc22 2008045391
Printed in the United States of America
�™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
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v
Preface
xi
About the Authors
xvii
1 Anthropological Perspectives
1
Culture, 5
Human Evolution and Culture, 10
Cultural Universals, 13
Cultural Rules, 13
Society, 14
Social Structure, 15
Anthropological Theories, 16
Cultural Evolution, 16 * Cultural Relativism, 17 * Functionalism, 18 * Structuralism, 19 * Symbolic
Anthropology, 19 * Historical Anthropology, 20 * Postmodernism in Anthropology, 21
Contemporary Trends, 22
Globalization, 23 * Neo-Marxism, 24 * Evolutionary Psychology, 24
Summary, 25
Suggested Readings, 27
Suggested Websites, 27
2 The Anthropological Method
28
Fieldwork, 28
Anthropology Moves to the Study of Complex Societies, 32
A Kwakiutl Marriage, 33
An American Marriage, 38
The Comparative Approach, 42
Summary, 44
Suggested Readings, 44
Suggested Websites, 45
Contents
3 Language and Culture
46
The Evolution of Language, 46
The Structure of Language, 47
Phonemic Structure, 48 * Morphemic Structure, 49 * Syntax and Grammar, 49
Linguistic Relativity, 50
Linguistic Universals, 50
Language and Cognition, 50
Ethnosemantics, 51
Sociolinguistics, 53
Male and Female Speech, 53 * African American Speech, 54
Language Change and Historical Linguistics, 56
Contact Languages—Pidgins and Creoles, 58 * Language Imperialism versus Language Renewal, 59
Language, Power, and Policy, 61
World Englishes and the Spread of English, 63
Summary, 64
Suggested Readings, 65
Suggested Websites, 65
4 Learning Language and Learning Culture: Culture and the Individual
66
How Children Learn Language, 66
Learning One’s Culture, 69
Learning Gender Roles, 71
Culture and Personality, 72
Child-Rearing and Personality, 73 * The Relationship of Social Structure to Personality, 74
Culture and Mental Illness, 74
Rebels and Innovators, 76
Person, Self, and the Structure of Emotion, 77
Summary, 80
Suggested Readings, 81
Suggested Websites, 81
5 Symbolic Meanings
82
The Symbolism of Food, 84
Social Groups, Social Categories, and Their Symbols, 87
The Symbolic Meanings of Space, 89
Symbols, Politics, and Authority, 92
Body Symbolism, 93
The Symbolism of Sports, 96
Universal Symbols, 97
Summary, 98
Suggested Readings, 98
Suggested Websites, 98
6 Ties That Connect: Marriage, Family, and Kinship
99
Marriage, 101
Marriage Prohibitions, 101 * Exogamy and Endogamy, 102 * Sister Exchange, 102 * Marriage
Payments, 103 * Bride Service, 103 * Number of Spouses, 104 * Levirate and Sororate, 105 *
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CONTENTS
vii
Dissolution of Marriage, 105
Postmarital Residence, 106
Descent, 109
Patrilineal Descent and Matrilineal Descent, 109 * Cognatic Descent, 112 * Double Descent, 112
Descent Groups and Their Structure and Function, 113
Clans, 115 * Lineages, 116 * Moieties, 117 * Kin Groups Based on Cognatic Descent, 117 * Kin
Groups Based on Double Descent, 118
Kindreds, 118
The Na: A Society without Marriage or Fathers, 119
Relations between Groups through Marriage, 121
Kinship Terminology, 125
Fictive Kinship, 129
Kinship in the Contemporary World, 130
The Transnational Family, 132 * Kinship in America Today, 133 * The Impact of Biological Technologies
on Kinship, 133 * Different Types of American Families, 134 * Blended Families, 135 * Gay and
Lesbian Families, 135 * Kinship, Class, and Ethnicity, 138
Summary, 139
Suggested Readings, 140
Suggested Websites, 140
7 Gender and Age
141
Gender, Sex, Male, Female, 141
Reproduction and Culture, 142
Gender and Economic Participation, 144
Sexualities and Identities, 146
Political Movements and Women’s Roles, 149
Gender Studies and Feminist Anthropology, 151
Masculinity and Masculinist Studies, 151
Categories Based on Age, 153
Age Grades, 154
Retirement Lifestyles, 157
Conclusion: The Body and Contemporary Anthropology, 159
Summary, 159
Suggested Readings, 160
Suggested Websites, 160
8 The Economic Organization of Societies: Production,
Distribution, and Consumption
161
Production, 161
Hunting and Gathering, 162 * How Contemporary Hunters and Gatherers Have Adapted to the Modern
World, 164 * Agriculture, 166 * Agriculture in Today’s World, 169 * Animal Domestication, 170 * Can
Nomadic Pastoralism Be Maintained Today?, 172 * The Organization of Work, 174 * The Organization
of Work in Contemporary Societies, 175
Distribution, 176
Distribution in Egalitarian Societies, 177 * Systems of Exchange in Societies with Flexible Rank, 180
* Systems of Exchange with Fixed Rank, 187 * Barter, 188 * The Market System, 189 * The Market
Economy and Globalization, 190
Consumption, 193
The Changing Nature of Consumption, 194
Summary, 196
Suggested Readings, 197
Suggested Websites, 197
9 Power, Politics, and Conflict
198
Concepts in Political Anthropology, 200
Forms of Political Organization, 201
Informal Leadership, 201 * Band Organization, 202 * Big Man Structure, 202 * Chieftainship, 204 *
Transformation from Big Man to Chieftainship and Back Again, 204 * The State, 206
War and Peace, 208
The Anthropology of Violence, 211
Law and Social Control, 212
Law in the Postcolonial Period, 214
Nation Building in the Postcolonial Period, 217
Empowerment, 219
Politics in the Contemporary Nation-State, 220
Factionalism, 221 * Warlords, 222 * Patron–Client Relationships, 224
Politics in American Society, 225
The Mafi a, 225
Political Economy, 226
Summary, 227
Suggested Readings, 228
Suggested Websites, 228
10 Religion and the Supernatural
229
Religion Studied/Religion Defi ned?, 230
Religion, Science, and Intelligent Design, 233
Conceptions of the Supernatural, 235
Ritual—Approaching the Supernatural, 238
Rites of Passage, 239 * Rites of Passage in American Culture, 241 * Rites of Intensifi cation, 242
Religious Specialists, 243
Religious Syncretism: Old Religions in New Guises, 249
Cyberspace and Religion: “Give Me That Online Religion,” 253
Politics, Religions, and States, 254
Why Religion?, 256
Summary, 257
Suggested Readings, 258
Suggested Websites, 259
11 Myths, Legends, and Folktales: Past, Present, and Future
259
Myths, 260
Legends, 264
Legend Becomes History: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 264
Folktales, 265
Fairy Tales, 267
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CONTENTS
ix
Performance, 268
Legends and Folktales in American Culture, 269
American Films as Legends and Myths, 271 * The Sopranos: An American Myth, 275 * Urban
Legends, 277
Summary, 278
Suggested Readings, 279
Suggested Websites, 279
12 The Artistic Dimension
280
Style, 282
The Artist, 284
The Visual Arts, 286
New Ireland Malanggans, Yesterday and Today, 290 * Ethnic Identity and Toraja Art, 291 * Decorating
the Body, 292 * Collecting “Artifi cial Curiosities,” 294 * The Art World Today, 295
The Cultural Setting of Music and Dance, 297
Music, 299 * Musicians, 300 * Dance, 302
Summary, 304
Suggested Readings, 304
Suggested Websites, 305
13
Living/Working in the Globalized World: Colonialism,
Globalization, and Development
306
Globalization and Anthropology, 307
The Historic Background to Globalization: The Many Faces of Colonial Rule, 310
New Ireland: An Example of Increasing Incorporation into the Global System, 314
Development and Anthropology, 319
Development History and Strategies, 319 * Anthropology and Change: Academic and Applied
Perspectives, 322
People on the Move, 325
Internal Migration, 326 * Transmigration, 326 * Diasporas, 327 * Transnationalism, 329
Summary, 330
Suggested Readings, 331
Suggested Websites, 331
14 States and Identities: Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism
332
Nation Building, 334
Cultural Identity Reasserted and Transformed in Modern States, 336
Revitalization Movements, 338
Cargo Cults, 338 * Rebuilding Cultural Identity, 339 * Blood, Culture, and Race, 340
Ethnogenesis, 341
Ethnonationalism, 342
Multiculturalism, 343
Ethnicity and Nationalism after Communism, 344
Ethnic Differences, Ethnic Violence, and the New Nation of Afghanistan, 347
Ethnic Processes in Sri Lanka, 350
Immigration and Multiculturalism in the United States, 352
Culture Unassimilated, Reiterated, and Renewed in America, 355 * African Americans and Their
Heritage, 356 * Diversity in America—Challenges and Debates, 359
Summary, 361
Suggested Readings, 361
Suggested Websites, 362
Epilogue
363
References
365
Glossary
393
Photo Credits
403
Index
404
x
THE TAPESTRY OF CULTURE
xi
THE STORY OF THE BOOK
The Tapestry of Culture had its genesis in teaching introductory anthropology courses at Barnard
College, Columbia University, to several generations of undergraduate students of different ages.
The first edition of The Tapestry of Culture was published almost thirty years ago. Since that time,
the theoretical frameworks of anthropology have changed greatly, as have our theoretical perspec-
tives; the successive editions of the book have reflected these changes.
In the past decade, the lives of people scattered over the world have undergone enormous
changes. At this point in time, there is a necessity for Americans to understand that there are still
parts of the world that are organized in very different ways than is our own country. Anthropology
offers a way of understanding the nature of such societies and their values. At the same time Amer-
ican anthropology has also changed drastically, responding to scholarly and political influences
as well as the changing generations. The influence of postmodernism has created a much more
contested and fragmented anthropology than that of thirty years ago. It has generated new debates
over theory and practice in anthropology. The content of The Tapestry of Culture explains these
debates, as well as what is still generally accepted and agreed upon by most anthropologists.
HALLMARK FEATURES
The Tapestry of Culture adopts a distinctive approach to anthropology, which attempts to ac-
commodate the history of anthropological thought as well as the various viewpoints in the field
today. It examines contemporary cultural differences but also seeks to point out similarities that
emerge as a result of comparative study. The approach emphasizes the interpretation of symbols
and the meaning of things in everyday life. Using anthropological tools, the task of the book is
Preface
to translate the concepts, ideas, and behavior of other cultures into a language recognizable to
contemporary students. Today the trend is to see every ethnography as a description of a unique
setting; however, beyond each society’s uniqueness, the presence of cultural similarities is ap-
parent and compelling. From its inception, anthropology has always been comparative, enabling
generalizations to be made about human behavior. Formerly, anthropologists generalized about
the nature of rules regarding residence and kinship terminology, but, at present, generalizations
may deal, for example, with the nature of ethnic group behavior and the role religion plays in
many instances of ethnic conflict.
Contemporary anthropologists pay particular attention to the nature of ethnographic texts,
and most still consider ethnography based on field research the heart of the discipline. One of
the best ways for students to be introduced to anthropology is by reading ethnographies so that
they can feel the excitement of a first-rate fieldworker engaged in his or her work. Seeing the
Trobriand Islands through Bronislaw Malinowski’s eyes as he describes them in Argonauts of the
Western Pacific conveys to students his feeling of being a castaway on a strange shore and his
sense of adventure and discovery, in addition to informing them about Trobriand culture as it was
at the turn of the twentieth century. However, students must be provided with the concepts and
theories that anthropologists use in order to understand and appreciate such ethnographies and
to comprehend the differences between a society like the Trobriands and our own.
The Tapestry of Culture provides a concise and up-to-date conceptual framework with which
to understand not only classic ethnographies but also the ethnographies about complex societies
being written today. In teaching introductory anthropology, we have used classic ethnographies of
the early and mid-twentieth century as well as those describing aspects of industrialized societies,
such as the multiethnic neighborhoods of urban settings. The Tapestry of Culture is organized so
that it can be used with the particular ethnographies that suit the instructor’s interests.
The title of our book refers to culture metaphorically as a tapestry, composed of many inter-
connected threads, in which the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Standing back from
the tapestry, one no longer sees the individual threads, but an overall design. The anthropologist
does not see “culture,” the overall design of the tapestry, while doing fieldwork. Rather, he or she
converses with individuals and observes their actions—this is the equivalent of the threads. From
this, the anthropologist, collaborating with members of the culture, creates a picture of an aspect
of that culture which he or she describes in ethnography. Therefore, culture is an analytical con-
cept, an abstraction from reality. Like a tapestry, each culture has an overall design, even though
we, as anthropologists, do take it apart, study the components (by employing categories such as
kinship, economics, and religion), and then examine the interconnections between them. How-
ever, the fit between the parts in reality is always far from perfect and there are always disjunc-
tions and contradictions. In today’s globally connected world, the disjunctions and contradictions
often dominate the picture of a particular culture, including our own.
Anthropology, as the study of humans and their ways of life, has the task of understanding the
ways in which people bring about changes in their cultures, deal with these changes, and try to un-
derstand them. During the past century, the world changed more than it had in the previous 5,000
years. Ethnicity and ethnic identity are crucial issues in the world today. Nation-states and empires
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THE TAPESTRY OF CULTURE
PREFACE
xiii
have fractured and reformulated. People of different ethnic groups who lived together in one state
and even intermarried are now fiercely at war with one another. Technological advances in many
fields have brought about great changes in industrial societies like our own. Outsourcing and remote
technologies have made many earlier types of employment obsolete, but not everyone has access
to the new century’s employment skills or technologies. These changes in production require the
rethinking of the economic organization of modern industrial societies. Technology has even over-
taken and transformed aspects of human reproduction and ideas about the human body; we now
require new ways of thinking about motherhood, fatherhood, and parenting. Ideas about gender and
sexuality are being reformulated, with significant consequences for family organization.
The authors have all traveled a great deal in distant parts of the globe, providing a firsthand
look at the momentous changes that are taking place. We have observed how Pushtuns respond
to religious fundamentalism in the Swat region of Pakistan. We have watched the way in which
many Mongolian families have returned to nomadic pastoralism as their nation detached itself
from the former Soviet empire and its industrial collapse. We have seen how globalization af-
fects market towns in Myanmar (formerly Burma) where tribal people still maintain their own
identities vis-à-vis the majority Burmese. We have observed the expansion of the Indian economy
as a consequence of outsourcing from America and expanding globalization. We have observed
rural agriculturalists as they plant new crops that will be exported and sold in the United States,
Europe, and Japan. And, we have observed community activism that challenges the social and
political status quo in multiple settings around the world.
NEW TO THE NINTH EDITION
In this new edition, as is our usual practice, we have added a great deal of new material and made
discussions and examples in every chapter more current, in accord with present-day thinking in
the anthropological literature. Our new coauthor, Maxine Weisgrau, brings her field experience
in northern India, as well as her background in teaching anthropology, development, and gender,
to this edition of Tapestry. We highlight below the major changes to the text to be found in the
ninth edition. Although some issues have been with us since the beginnings of the discipline,
contemporary commentators and critics within and outside anthropology have compelled us to
confront them anew.
Chapter 1, “Anthropological Perspectives,” contains updated definitions of terms like culture,
cultural rules and universals, social structure, and agency. There is an expanded discussion of the
evolution of culture and the development of language using recent archeological and paleonto-
logical information. The current state of postmodernist theory, historical anthropology, neo-Marx-
ism, and evolutionary psychology is discussed, as well as the effects of globalization as a subject
of anthropological inquiry.
Chapter 2, “The Anthropological Method,” includes an expanded discussion of the experien-
tial and reflexive aspects of fieldwork. In addition, we consider the role of multisited fieldwork
in the study of complex societies. This chapter also illustrates the uses of multiple sources in
comparing and analyzing marriage rituals in two different times and places.
Chapter 3, “Language and Culture,” discusses the evolution and structure of language. There
is greater emphasis on the role language plays in power and policy decisions. Newer research on
male and female speech in the workplace is explored. The current research on the global spread
of English and world Englishes as a consequence of the development of a world market is ex-
plored.
Chapter 4, “Learning Language and Learning Culture,” includes new theoretical ideas about
how children learn language, such as when vowels and word order begin, and the role this plays
in cognitive development. There is an expanded discussion of learning culture, specifically, how
moral socialization of Chinese children contrasts with Quechua children, who learn within a
permissive society. The construction of person and self in multiple situations is also examined.
Chapter 5, “Symbolic Meanings,” explores the relationship between the Indian caste system
and food symbolism. The symbolism of the human is examined through discussions about the
way in which some societies prefer plumpness in women and other societies, such as our own,
prefer women who are thin. There is also an expanded section on how body symbolism plays out
in organ transplantation.
In Chapter 6, “Ties That Connect,” we deal with the present-day role of kinship in Uzbekistan,
Kazakstan, and Turkmenia, and how kinship dominates the politics of the Gulf States of Kuwait and
Oman. We discuss the return of family and its significance in China today. A new subsection, “The
Impact of Biological Technologies on Kinship,” deals with the role reproductive technologies plays in
kinship in the United States and the new issues families now confront. For example, are male medi-
cal students related to the many children born from their donated sperm? And if they are, what are
their parental obligations? Do their biological offspring have the right to know their genetic parents?
The growing importance of gay and lesbian families and the new forms of family being created are
also investigated.
Chapter 7, “Gender and Age,” includes an expanded discussion of masculine perspectives
in gender studies and feminist anthropology. Sexualities and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-
gendered perspectives in theory and practice cross-culturally are discussed. There is also an
exploration of the lives of transgendered Indian Hijras as described in ethnography. The politics
of gender and aging in the contemporary United States are brought up to date.
Chapter 8, “The Economic Organization of Societies: Production, Distribution, and Con-
sumption,” includes several new sections in light of the enormous economic changes that have
taken place on a global level. We consider how former hunter-gathers like the Australian Aborigi-
nes are beginning to receive financial benefits from companies who are exploiting their traditional
knowledge. The issue of land rights and changes in the indigenous position on “ecotourism” are
also discussed. The modern exploitation of reindeer pastoralism by Siberians is described. The
phenomenon of the globalization of work, as exemplified by Indian call centers and the labor ex-
ploitation that occurs is examined. The transnational clothing market and the way in which this
clothing is reconceptualized and recommodified is another example of globalization. Food is an
another important expression of cultural values explored in this chapter. This is illustrated by the
way in which the Yapese food repertoire pits local foods against pizza.
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