Discussion 18 – Anthropology 152 – 11/28/22

Discussion 18 – Anthropology 152 – 11/28/22

Why are Adam and Eve ashamed of their nudity ? Why do they put the fig leaf on ? ( The origin of clothes -smiles) Why weren’t they ashamed before ?

What is an v incest taboo ?

“An incest taboo is any cultural rule or norm that prohibits sexual relations between certain members of the same family, mainly between individuals related by blood. ALL human cultures have norms that exclude certain close relatives from those considered suitable or permissible sexual or marriage partners, making such relationships taboo; THE INCEST TABOO IS A HUMAN UNIVERSAL . However, different norms exist among cultures as to which blood relations are permissible as sexual partners and which are not. Sexual relations between related persons which are subject to the taboo are called incestuous relationships.

Some cultures proscribe sexual relations between clan-members, even when no traceable biological relationship exists, while members of other clans are permissible irrespective of the existence of a biological relationship. In many cultures, certain types of cousin relations are preferred as sexual and marital partners, whereas in others these are taboo. Some cultures permit sexual and marital relations between aunts/uncles and nephews/nieces. In some instances, brother–sister marriages have been practised by the elites with some regularity. Parent–child and sibling–sibling unions are almost universally taboo.[1]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest_taboo

See Marshall Sahlins essay on the Origin of (Human) Society ( handout):

The Origin of Society by Marshall Sahlins

The decisive battle between early culture and human nature must have been waged on the field of primate sexuality…. Among subhuman primates sex had organized society; the customs of hunters and gatherers testify eloquently that now society was to organize sex…. In selective adaptation to the perils of the Stone Age, human society overcame or subordinated such primate propensities as selfishness, indiscriminate sexuality, dominance and brute competition. It substituted kinship and co-operation for conflict, placed solidarity over sex, morality over might. In its earliest days it accomplished the greatest reform in history, the overthrow of human primate nature, and thereby secured the evolutionary future of the species." — Sahlins, M. D. 1960 The origin of society. Scientific American 203(3): 76–87.

http://radicalanthropologygroup.org/sites/default/files/pdf/class_text_036.pdf v>

http://radicalanthropologygroup.org/sites/default/files/pdf/class_text_036.pdf

When God told them _not_ to eat the Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil , did he know already that they would disobey him ?

The snake _tells_ Eve it’s ok to eat the forbidden fruit ? Can snakes talk ? Can snakes lie ?

Why would Darwin agree with God when God tells people not to take revenge against Cain for killing Abel ? Why would Darwin agree with this advice to our species to raise our species fitness ?

Did the first humans earn their living by the sweat of their brow ?

_________________- What is an iconographic sign in _semiotics_ and as Professor Brown has defined it in class ?

What is a different meaning of “ iconography” than my definition above ?