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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2024. № 3 (177), 699—715

UDK [572:639.1](68)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2024.03.699

SOME QUESTIONS OF ALAN BARNARD’S ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPT IN THE CONTEXT OF STUDYING AFRICAN HUNTER-GATHERERS

ZOMBEK Maciej

  • ORCID ID: htpps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2337-3064
  • Habilitated doctor, professor, director,
  • The Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology
  • University of Warsaw,
  • Krakivske Predmistia Street, 28/26, 00-927,
  • Warsaw, Poland,
  • Contacts: e-mail: m.zabek@uw.edu.pl

Abstract. The purpose of the article is a critical discussion of some current problems of modern socio-cultural anthropology in connection with the research of Bushmen — African huntergatherers of the Kalahari basin, which for more than three decades have been the subject of scientific interests of the outstanding British scientist Alan Barnard. The subject of the study is a wide range of issues related to the observance of political correctness in the coverage of complex ethnological issues, the perception of Bushmen by the peoples of the Western world, the origin and evolution of man, the role of Neanderthals in the evolutionary history of mankind, the nature of modern man, etc.

The results of the research: it is claimed that ethnographic observations were used by Alan Barnard to justify a number of provisions of his own anthropological concept, which relate to the ancestral homeland of mankind, the factors of the process of anthropogenesis of Neanderthals belonging to the biological species Homo sapiens, intraspecies divergence of man, etc. The scientist proposed his own vision of the cause of Neolithic shifts in human history and was inclined to recognize the concept of the immutability of human nature, which implies the hereditary nature of human behavior and the deep rootedness of the cultural achievements of modern ethnic communities.

Alan Barnard’s works reflect modern trends in the development of social anthropology.

The research methodology is based on the complex involvement of various methods, principles and concepts

Keywords: anthropology, Alan Barnard, Bushmen, political correctness, Neolithic revolution, evolution and human nature.

Received 26.06.2024

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