ABSTRACT:
Systematic anthropological fieldwork can still be a vital source for actually understanding
history over the longue durée. Recently scholars have reconciled an ongoing debate about
which pattern predominates in human history, branching patterns or blending patterns,
in this way: it is now understood that either pattern can predominate, depending upon
different historically contingent factors, which must be investigated on a case-by-case
basis. A number of case studies will be discussed here, investigating the evolution of
various culture traditions amongst populations of hunter-gatherer-fishers along the
Pacific northwest coast of North America, during the Bantu expansion in Africa, and
sub-arctic Siberia. Quantitative analyses based on a range of models and methods
borrowed from the biological sciences for testing hypotheses relating to basic patterns of
macro-scale cultural diversity are brought to bear on four levels of cultural tradition:
material culture, technology, social structure and belief systems/cosmology. Additionally,
the degree to which the transmission of culture traits has been constrained by other
social traditions will be touched upon. The main thrust of Dr. O’Neill’s talk will be a
renewed interest in systematic anthropological investigation as a very long-term scholarly
investment in future knowledge.