This is the reading and comment page for chapter 1 of Introducing Anthropology: What makes us human? in Cultural Anthropology 2021. Chapter 1 is appropriately titled “What makes us human?” The chapter is a very brief overview of an enormous issue in anthropology and in Western thought: What is the relationship between human biology and culture? As Pountney and Marić write, “anthropologists have different views on the extent of the relationship between human biology and culture” (2021, 23).
We tackle the issue of human biology and culture again in the next class on how to Rethink Evolution.