Questions and Answers about Anthropology

Noted anthropologist Brian Fagan of the University of California at Santa Barbara, one of the world’s leading authors on anthropology and archaeology, answers a wide range of questions about early humans. Fagan explores such issues as when did people first migrate to the Americas, did the Anasazi practice cannibalism, what archaeological sites in the United States are open to tourists, and how should students prepare for a career in archaeology. Fagan also discusses human evolution, the Maya, Easter Island, Neandertals, and the theft of antiquities. In addition, he considers how real-life archaeologists compare with Hollywood’s Indiana Jones.

Q: When did people first settle in the Americas and where did they come from?

A: The first human settlement of the Americas is a highly controversial subject, with little agreement among experts. Everyone agrees that the first Americans were fully modern humans and that they arrived in the Americas from northeast Asia. Many people believe they crossed from Siberia into Alaska across the Bering Land Bridge, a dry elevated region that joined Siberia and North America during the late Ice Age when sea levels were much lower than today. Other scientists argue that the first settlers coasted along the land bridge in canoes, then paddled southward into what is now the United States. A minority of scholars argue that the first Americans arrived a very long time ago, perhaps as early as 40,000 years ago. However, most experts believe that first settlement took place toward the end of the Ice Age, perhaps as early as 15,000 years ago. Within 3,000 to 4,000 years, small numbers of hunter-gatherers had settled throughout the Americas.

Q: Before a money system was developed, how was trade conducted between people and different nations?

A: From at least 30,000 years ago, perhaps earlier, different individuals and communities exchanged exotic raw material, such as tool-making stone, ornaments, such as seashells, and other prestigious objects. The trade was carried out as barter, the exchange of one item for another. Some of the exchange was conducted within a framework of ritual and formal relationships between individuals exchanging important objects. The volume of exchange picked up markedly after the beginnings of farming 12,000 years ago.

In time, standardized clay tokens were used to inventory the contents of baskets, as well as the contents of loads carried over long distances. These inventories developed into the first written script some time after 4000 bc. Formal writing was well established in Mesopotamia by 3100 bc, and in Egypt by about the same time.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 760