Chapter 2  The Meaning of Progress

Problem: How do we explain the transformation of human societies over the past ten thousand or so years from small-scale, nomadic bands of hunters and gatherers, to large-scale, urban-industrial states?

 

Introduction: The Death of a Way of Life

Question 2.1  Why did hunter-gatherer societies switch to sedentary agriculture?

Life among Hunter-Gatherers: The Hadza and Ju/wasi*

The Transition to Agriculture

Producing Potato Calories

Question 2.2 Why are some societies more industrially advanced than others?

 

The British in India

 

Cotton, Slavery, and Indian Removal

 

Indian removal

Question 2.3  Why don’t poor countries modernize and develop in the same way as Wealthy countries?

 

The Case of Brazil: Hunger in Brazil

Question 2.4  How do modern standards of health and medical treatment compare with those of traditional societies?

 

Illness and Inequality

 

The Meaning of Illness
Ju/wasi Curing Ceremony

Question 2.5: Why are simpler societies disappearing?

 

Tourists and the Ju/wasi

 

Globalization and Cultural Diversity
Case Study 2: How can a critical understanding of the concept of economic development be useful for career opportunities?
  Anthropologists in Development
  Using Indigenous Knowledge
  Women in Development