Author: webref

Catastrophism is a concept in geology and anthropology that explains past changes in the Earth and human societies as the result of sudden, violent events rather than gradual processes.

---

🌍 Definition

• Catastrophism (Geology): The theory that Earth’s geological features were shaped primarily by sudden, short-lived, catastrophic events (e.g., floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions).
• Contrast: Opposed to uniformitarianism, which argues that slow, continuous processes (erosion, sedimentation) explain geological change.

---

🔑 Anthropological & Archaeological Contexts

• Myth & Cosmology:
  • Many cultures explain origins or disasters through catastrophic narratives (e.g., flood myths in Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, and the Bible).
  • Catastrophism resonates with anthropological studies of myth as cultural memory of real geological events.
• Human Evolution & Extinction:
  • Catastrophic events (volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, pandemics) are linked to mass extinctions and shifts in human populations.
  • Example: The Toba supereruption (~74,000 years ago) is hypothesized to have caused a genetic bottleneck in humans.
• Archaeological Evidence:
  • Sudden destruction layers (ash, flood deposits) mark catastrophic events in settlement histories.
  • Catastrophism helps interpret abrupt cultural collapses (e.g., volcanic destruction of Akrotiri in the Aegean).
• Colonial Science:
  • Early European geologists like Georges Cuvier (18th–19th century) promoted catastrophism, often aligning with Biblical flood narratives.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Cultural Adaptation: Shows how societies respond to sudden disasters—migration, ritual, rebuilding.
• Comparative Value: Contrasts gradualist models of change with punctuated, catastrophic events.
• Critical Lens: Anthropologists examine how catastrophism reflects cultural worldviews about time, history, and divine intervention.

---

In short: Catastrophism is the theory that Earth and human societies are shaped by sudden, violent events, studied in anthropology through myths, archaeology, and cultural responses to disaster.

 

In anthropology, demography, and archaeology, a catastrophic age profile is a population structure pattern observed in skeletal assemblages that reflects a sudden, mass-death event rather than normal mortality.

---

🌍 Definition

• Catastrophic Age Profile: An age distribution of skeletal remains that mirrors the living population at the time of death, showing individuals of all ages (infants, juveniles, adults, elderly) in proportions similar to a living community.
• Contrast:
  • Attritional (or “normal”) profile: Shows selective mortality, often with more infants and elderly, reflecting long-term deaths over time.
  • Catastrophic profile: Indicates a single, sudden event (famine, epidemic, battle, natural disaster).

---

🔑 Anthropological & Archaeological Contexts

• Archaeological Sites:
  • Mass graves with catastrophic profiles often point to warfare, epidemics, or disasters.
  • Example: Assemblages from plague pits in medieval Europe.
• Zooarchaeology:
  • Herd animals killed in a single event (e.g., hunting drives) show catastrophic profiles, with all age classes represented.
• Paleodemography:
  • Used to reconstruct population dynamics and distinguish between everyday mortality and catastrophic events.
• Cultural Interpretation:
  • Catastrophic profiles can reveal social responses to disaster (mass burials, ritual practices).

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Mortality Analysis: Helps anthropologists identify whether skeletal assemblages represent normal attrition or sudden catastrophe.
• Social Organization: Catastrophic events often reshape kinship, settlement, and ritual practices.
• Comparative Value: Distinguishes between gradual demographic processes and abrupt historical ruptures.
• Critical Lens: Anthropologists also examine how catastrophic events are remembered and embedded in cultural narratives.

---

In short: A catastrophic age profile is an age distribution in skeletal assemblages that reflects sudden mass mortality, contrasting with attritional profiles that show long-term, selective death patterns.

 

Catastrophe theory is a mathematical framework for analyzing sudden, discontinuous changes in complex systems, and in anthropology it is often applied metaphorically to understand how societies experience and interpret disasters.

---

🌍 Definition

• Catastrophe Theory (Mathematics): Developed by René Thom in the 1960s–70s, it uses geometry to model how small changes in conditions can lead to abrupt, qualitative shifts in outcomes.
• Core Idea: Systems can remain stable until a threshold is crossed, at which point they “flip” into a new state.
• Examples in Math/Science: Bridge collapses, chemical reactions, or ecological tipping points.

---

🔑 Anthropological Contexts

While catastrophe theory originates in mathematics, anthropologists and disaster scholars use it conceptually to frame social and cultural responses to disasters:

• Disaster Anthropology:
  • Catastrophes (earthquakes, floods, pandemics, industrial accidents) are studied as moments when societies undergo abrupt transformation.
  • Anthropologists analyze how communities interpret these events, reorganize social structures, and embed them in cultural narratives.
• Cultural Meaning:
  • Catastrophes are not just physical events; they are culturally mediated.
  • For example, the Chernobyl disaster or the Bhopal gas tragedy reshaped collective memory, identity, and political discourse.
• Thresholds in Social Systems:
  • Just as catastrophe theory models tipping points in physics, anthropologists use it to think about social tipping points—moments when inequality, environmental stress, or political tension suddenly erupt into crisis.
• Comparative Studies:
  • Courses like Catastrophes Across Cultures (Princeton) explore how different societies conceptualize catastrophe as both rupture and opportunity.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Holistic Analysis: Catastrophe theory provides a lens for understanding disasters as both material and symbolic.
• Social Organization: Disasters often reorganize kinship, labor, and governance structures.
• Comparative Value: Highlights how societies across cultures interpret sudden change differently.
• Critical Lens: Anthropologists critique how “catastrophe” is framed—sometimes as natural inevitability, sometimes as socially produced (e.g., poor infrastructure, colonial legacies).

---

In short: Catastrophe theory models sudden change, and in anthropology it is applied metaphorically to understand how disasters reshape societies, identities, and cultural narratives.

 

Catarrhini is one of the two major infraorders of primates, studied in anthropology, primatology, and evolutionary biology. It includes all Old World monkeys, apes, and humans, distinguished by key anatomical and evolutionary traits.

---

🌍 Definition

• Catarrhini: Infraorder of primates native to Africa and Asia.
• Name Origin: From Greek kata- (“down”) + rhinos (“nose”), referring to their downward-facing nostrils.
• Contrast: Opposite of Platyrrhini (New World monkeys), which have broad, outward-facing nostrils.

---

🔑 Characteristics

• Nasal Structure: Narrow, downward-facing nostrils (catarrhine nose).
• Dental Formula: 2.1.2.3 (two incisors, one canine, two premolars, three molars per quadrant).
• Tail: Old World monkeys often have non-prehensile tails; apes and humans lack tails entirely.
• Vision: Trichromatic color vision common.
• Geography: Africa and Asia (vs. Platyrrhines in Central and South America).

---

📚 Anthropological & Evolutionary Contexts

• Old World Monkeys (Cercopithecoidea): Baboons, macaques, colobus monkeys.
• Apes (Hominoidea): Gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, humans.
• Evolutionary Divergence:
  • Catarrhines split from Platyrrhines ~35–40 million years ago.
  • Fossil evidence from the Fayum Depression (Egypt) shows early catarrhines like Aegyptopithecus.
• Human Connection: Humans are catarrhines, sharing traits with other Old World primates.

---

In short: Catarrhini is the infraorder of Old World primates—including monkeys, apes, and humans—defined by downward-facing nostrils, a 2.1.2.3 dental formula, and evolutionary divergence from New World monkeys.

 

In anthropology and primatology, the term catarrhine nose refers to the distinctive nasal structure of Catarrhini, one of the two major infraorders of primates (the other being Platyrrhini).

---

🌍 Definition

• Catarrhines: Old World monkeys, apes, and humans.
• Catarrhine Nose:
  • Characterized by downward-facing nostrils that are close together.
  • Contrasts with platyrrhine noses (New World monkeys), which have broad, outward-facing nostrils.

---

🔑 Anthropological & Evolutionary Contexts

• Taxonomic Marker:
  • Nose shape is a key diagnostic trait distinguishing Old World primates (Catarrhini) from New World primates (Platyrrhini).
• Geographic Distribution:
  • Catarrhines are native to Africa and Asia.
• Evolutionary Significance:
  • The narrow, downward-facing nostrils are linked to differences in facial morphology and possibly olfactory adaptation.
• Human Connection:
  • Humans, as catarrhines, share this nasal structure with other Old World primates.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Comparative Anatomy: Helps anthropologists classify primates and trace evolutionary relationships.
• Cultural Anthropology Link: While primarily anatomical, nose morphology has also been tied to environmental adaptation (e.g., narrower noses in colder, drier climates).
• Evolutionary Biology: Demonstrates divergence between Old World and New World primates ~35–40 million years ago.

---

In short: A catarrhine nose is the downward-facing, closely spaced nostril structure of Old World primates, including humans, serving as a key anatomical marker in primate classification and evolution.

 

In anthropology, archaeology, and museum studies, a catalogue number is a unique identifier assigned to an artifact, specimen, or record within a collection. It’s the backbone of cataloguing systems, ensuring that every item can be tracked, referenced, and studied without confusion.

---

🌍 Definition

• Catalogue Number: A sequential or coded number given to an object in a collection, linking it to its catalogue entry.
• Purpose: Provides a permanent reference for documentation, research, and curation.

---

🔑 Anthropological & Archaeological Contexts

• Archaeological Finds:
  • Every artifact recovered from excavation is assigned a catalogue number.
  • This number ties the object to provenience data (site, layer, coordinates).
• Museum Collections:
  • Catalogue numbers are inscribed or tagged on artifacts, linking them to detailed records (material, dimensions, cultural attribution).
• Ethnographic Collections:
  • Objects collected during fieldwork are catalogued for future comparative study.
• Comparative Research:
  • Catalogue numbers allow scholars to cross-reference artifacts across publications, databases, and institutions.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Data Integrity: Prevents loss of contextual information.
• Accessibility: Enables researchers to locate and request specific items.
• Comparative Value: Facilitates cross-cultural and cross-temporal analysis.
• Preservation: Ensures that even if artifacts are moved, loaned, or digitized, their identity remains intact.

---

In short: A catalogue number is the unique identifier that anchors artifacts and specimens to their records, ensuring continuity of knowledge in anthropology, archaeology, and museum practice.

 

In anthropology and archaeology, a catalogue is both a methodological tool and a cultural artifact. It refers to the systematic listing, classification, and description of objects, practices, or data—whether material culture, ethnographic records, or comparative entries.

---

🌍 Definition

• Catalogue: An organized inventory or structured list of items, often with descriptive metadata.
• Purpose: To make complex collections accessible, comparable, and analyzable.

---

🔑 Anthropological Contexts

• Material Culture:
  • Archaeologists catalogue artifacts (pottery, lithics, bones) with details on provenance, typology, and condition.
  • Museums maintain catalogues to preserve and interpret collections.
• Ethnography:
  • Anthropologists catalogue kinship terms, rituals, or oral traditions to analyze cultural systems.
• Comparative Studies:
  • Catalogues allow cross-cultural comparison (e.g., catalogues of marriage transactions, calendrical systems, or ethnobotanical plants).
• Historical Anthropology:
  • Colonial catalogues of “exotic” peoples and objects reveal power dynamics and classification biases.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Knowledge Organization: Catalogues transform scattered data into structured knowledge.
• Accessibility: They make collections usable for research, teaching, and public interpretation.
• Comparative Value: Catalogues highlight similarities and differences across cultures and time periods.
• Critical Lens: Anthropologists also critique catalogues as tools of colonial control and categorization.

---

In short: In anthropology, a catalogue is a structured inventory of cultural or material data, central to organizing, comparing, and interpreting human societies.

 

In anthropology, “caste” refers to a rigid system of social stratification where individuals are born into fixed groups that determine their occupation, social status, and marriage options. It is most famously associated with South Asia, but anthropologists also use the concept comparatively to study hierarchy and inequality in other societies.

---

🌍 Definition

• Caste: A hereditary, endogamous social group, often ranked in a hierarchy, with rules governing marriage, occupation, and ritual status.
• Key Features:
  • Endogamy (marriage within the group).
  • Hereditary status (born into caste, not chosen).
  • Occupational specialization.
  • Ritual hierarchy (purity/pollution concepts).

---

🔑 Anthropological Contexts

• India as Paradigm:
  • The Indian caste system is structured by varna (four broad categories: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra) and jati (thousands of localized, occupationally defined groups).
  • Those excluded from varna were historically labeled “untouchables” or Dalits.
• Comparative Studies:
  • Anthropologists have identified caste-like systems in other regions (e.g., occupational guilds in Africa, hereditary artisan groups in Japan).
  • These systems share features of endogamy and hierarchy but differ in ideology.
• Colonial & Modern Impact:
  • Colonial administrators codified caste categories, often rigidifying fluid social identities.
  • Today, caste continues to shape politics, economics, and identity in South Asia, despite legal reforms.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Social Stratification: Caste is a key example of how inequality is institutionalized.
• Cultural Identity: It structures ritual life, kinship, and community belonging.
• Comparative Value: Studying caste helps anthropologists analyze hierarchy alongside class, race, and ethnicity.
• Resistance & Reform: Movements led by figures like B.R. Ambedkar challenged caste oppression, linking anthropology to social justice.

---

In short: In anthropology, caste is a hereditary, endogamous system of social stratification, exemplified by India but studied comparatively worldwide as a model of institutionalized hierarchy.

Sources: Anthroholic – Indian Caste System; Oxford Bibliographies – Caste in Anthropology.

 

Carrying capacity is a foundational concept in anthropology, ecology, and archaeology, referring to the maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain over time without degrading its resources. In anthropology, it’s often applied to human societies to understand subsistence strategies, settlement patterns, and cultural adaptations.

---

🌍 Definition

• Carrying Capacity: The largest population an environment can support indefinitely, given available food, water, shelter, and other resources.
• Key Idea: Beyond this threshold, resource depletion, environmental stress, or social conflict occurs.

---

🔑 Anthropological Contexts

• Hunter-Gatherer Societies:
  • Carrying capacity determined by seasonal availability of wild plants and animals.
  • Mobility was a strategy to avoid exceeding local limits.
• Agricultural Societies:
  • Farming increased carrying capacity by intensifying food production.
  • Surplus allowed population growth, urbanization, and social stratification.
• Industrial Societies:
  • Technology and trade expanded carrying capacity far beyond local ecosystems.
  • Reliance on fossil fuels and global supply chains complicates the concept.
• Archaeological Applications:
  • Used to model settlement sizes, resource use, and collapse (e.g., Easter Island, Classic Maya).

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Subsistence & Sustainability: Helps explain why societies adopt new technologies or shift subsistence strategies.
• Social Organization: Surplus beyond carrying capacity often drives hierarchy, redistribution, or conflict.
• Comparative Value: Highlights differences between ecological limits in foraging, farming, and industrial systems.
• Environmental Anthropology: Frames debates on sustainability, climate change, and human impact on ecosystems.

---

In short: Carrying capacity is the ecological and anthropological concept of the maximum sustainable population an environment can support, central to understanding human adaptation, subsistence, and sustainability.

 

A carnivore is an organism that primarily consumes animal tissue, and in anthropology and evolutionary biology, the concept is explored both in terms of dietary adaptation and cultural symbolism.

---

🌍 Biological Definition

• Carnivore (dietary): An animal whose diet consists mainly of meat.
• Carnivora (taxonomic order): Includes mammals like cats, dogs, bears, and weasels. Not all members are strict meat-eaters (e.g., bears are omnivorous).
• Types of Carnivores:
  • Obligate carnivores: Must eat meat to survive (e.g., cats).
  • Facultative carnivores: Prefer meat but can eat other foods (e.g., dogs).
  • Hyper-carnivores: Diet is >70% meat.
  • Mesocarnivores: Diet is ~50–70% meat.
  • Hypocarnivores: Diet is <30% meat.

---

🔑 Anthropological & Archaeological Contexts

• Human Evolution:
  • Early hominins incorporated meat into diets, influencing brain expansion and tool use.
  • Hunting and scavenging shaped social cooperation and technological innovation.
• Material Culture:
  • Stone tools (e.g., Acheulean handaxes) often associated with butchering carnivore diets.
  • Carnivore remains in archaeological sites provide evidence of hunting, domestication, or ritual.
• Symbolism:
  • Carnivores often appear in mythologies as powerful, dangerous, or protective beings (e.g., lions, wolves).
  • Their teeth and claws were used as ornaments or ritual objects.
• Domestication:
  • Dogs (facultative carnivores) were domesticated from wolves, becoming integral to hunting and herding economies.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Subsistence Strategies: Carnivory shaped human ecological niches.
• Social Organization: Hunting carnivores or competing with them influenced cooperation and territoriality.
• Comparative Value: Studying carnivores highlights contrasts with herbivores and omnivores in ecological and cultural systems.
• Evolutionary Insight: Carnivory is linked to tool use, fire, and cooking practices.

---

In short: A carnivore is an organism adapted to eating meat, central to anthropology for understanding human evolution, subsistence, symbolism, and ecological relationships.

 

In anthropology and archaeology, a carbon sample usually refers to organic material (charcoal, bone, shell, plant remains) collected for radiocarbon dating. It’s a cornerstone of archaeological science because it allows researchers to establish chronological frameworks for human activity.

---

🌍 Definition

• Carbon Sample: Any organic artifact or ecofact containing carbon isotopes (especially (^{14}C)) used for dating or chemical analysis.
• Radiocarbon Dating: Measures the decay of radioactive carbon-14 to estimate the age of organic remains up to ~50,000 years old.

---

🔑 Anthropological & Archaeological Contexts

• Dating Sites:
  • Charcoal from hearths → dates human occupation.
  • Bone collagen → dates burials or faunal remains.
  • Shells and seeds → dates subsistence practices.
• Cultural Reconstruction:
  • Carbon samples help build timelines of settlement, agriculture, and ritual.
• Calibration:
  • Raw radiocarbon dates must be calibrated against tree-ring chronologies and other records to account for fluctuations in atmospheric (^{14}C).
• Limitations:
  • Contamination (modern carbon intrusion) can skew results.
  • Reservoir effects (e.g., marine samples) require correction.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Chronology: Provides absolute dates for prehistoric and historic events.
• Subsistence Studies: Carbon samples reveal what people ate (charred seeds, bones).
• Environmental Reconstruction: Charcoal layers can indicate fire use, climate, or vegetation change.
• Comparative Value: Radiocarbon dating revolutionized archaeology by replacing relative dating methods.

---

In short: A carbon sample is organic material collected for radiocarbon dating, crucial for establishing archaeological timelines and reconstructing human activity.

 

In anthropology, carbohydrates are studied as a critical driver of human evolution, subsistence, and cultural practices—especially in how starchy plants shaped diet, brain development, and social organization.

---

🌍 Carbohydrates in Human Evolution

• Early Hominins: Recent studies show hominins consumed high-carb plants (grasses, tubers, underground storage organs) 700,000 years before their teeth evolved to handle them, demonstrating “behavioral drive”—behavioral innovation preceding anatomical adaptation.
• Brain Expansion: Carbohydrates, particularly starch, were essential for fueling the energy demands of the growing human brain. Research argues that starch consumption coevolved with genetic changes like increased amylase gene copy numbers, enhancing starch digestion.
• Cooking & Processing: The advent of cooking made starchy foods more digestible, further boosting their role in human diets and evolution.

---

🔑 Anthropological Contexts

• Hunter-Gatherer Diets:
  • Ethnographic studies of groups like the Hadza in Tanzania show significant reliance on tubers, fruits, and honey, challenging the “meat-heavy Paleo diet” narrative.
• Agricultural Societies:
  • Domestication of carbohydrate-rich crops (wheat, maize, rice, potatoes) transformed subsistence strategies, settlement patterns, and social hierarchies.
• Cultural Practices:
  • Carbohydrate staples often carry symbolic meaning (e.g., maize in Mesoamerica, rice in East Asia).
  • Seasonal harvests and feasts structured ritual calendars around carbohydrate crops.

---

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Subsistence & Survival: Carbohydrates provided reliable, storable energy sources, enabling population growth and sedentism.
• Social Organization: Surplus carbohydrate production (grain storage) underpinned the rise of complex societies and states.
• Comparative Value: Studying carbohydrate use highlights diversity in human diets and adaptations across environments.
• Evolutionary Insight: Demonstrates how diet shaped anatomy, genetics, and cognition.

---

In short: Anthropology views carbohydrates not just as food, but as evolutionary fuel, cultural symbols, and economic foundations that shaped human societies from hunter-gatherers to agricultural civilizations.