25 october-Radical Anthropology Group Talk London

From Evolution to Revolution!

Researchers into the origins of human language, mythic narrative and ritual have made exciting discoveries. Symbolic culture emerged in Africa 100,000 years ago, in a social revolution whose echoes can still be heard in myths and rituals from around the world.

An Introduction to Anthropology:

From Evolution to Revolution

Autumn Term Syllabus 2011

Tuesdays

Sep 20 Myth, magic and folklore: decoding fairy tales Chris Knight

Sep 27 The origins of culture and society Chris Knight

Oct 4 Totem and taboo Chris Knight

Oct 11 Early human kinship was matrilineal Chris Knight

Oct 18 The myth of a primitive matriarchy Chris Knight

Oct 25 Noam Chomsky’s politics and linguistics Chris Knight

Nov 1 Apes Like Us: Confessions of a primatologist Volker Sommer

Nov 8 The evolutionary emergence of language Chris Knight

Nov 15 The origin of our species Chris Stringer

Nov 22 ‘Woman’s biggest husband is the Moon’ Jerome Lewis

Nov 29 How women initiated the French and Russian revolutions Mark Kosman

Dec 1 The origins of language Chris Knight

Dec 6 Neanderthals and the symbolic revolution Camilla Power

Dec 13 A Christmas fairy tale: The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces

Chris Knight

All lectures are held at the St Martin?s Community Centre, 43 Carol St, London NW1 0HT (2 minutes from Camden Town tube)

Tuesday evenings, 6.15–9.00 pm.

radicalanthropologygroup.org

Topics in this evening class will include:

Is there such a thing as ‘human nature', or does it all depend on the culture we live in?
Are children born with a ‘language instinct'? Can chimpanzees be taught to speak? How and why did language first evolve?
Is sexual jealousy natural and inevitable? Why do traditional carnivals so often become rituals of license?
Why did the Neanderthals of Ice Age Europe become extinct?
Is the nuclear family universal? Does a Navaho child have just one mother - or many?
The lifestyle of Native American long-house dwellers has been termed "communism in living". Might such values hold lessons for humanity today?
Why do women in Amazonia believe that sleeping with multiple partners helps ensure a successful pregnancy?
Is biology woman's destiny? Is the human male a "naked ape"?
Are traditional healing techniques effective? Why do myths about the origin of death so frequently implicate the moon?
How do hunter-gatherers maintain their egalitarianism?
Who built Stonehenge - and why?

http://london.indymedia.org/events/9992#