Cross-cultural comparison has been a powerful tool for anthropologists
interested in hunter-gatherer behavior and cultural systems. This assignment asks you to examine
some cultural practice and compare its causes and manifestations across a range of different
hunter-gatherer cases. Please follow the instructions below:
1. Choose some cultural practice or technology to examine cross-culturally. Try to pick
something specific, discrete, and easy to describe. Successful topics in the past have included
things like cooking technology/practices, water container technology, and fire-starting
technology. Vague topics don’t work well. Unsuccessful topics in the past have included things
like “hunting,” “marriage,” and “religion.”
2. Select 10 hunter-gatherer societies with which to make comparisons concerning the subject of
your paper. You must choose at least one hunter-gatherer society from North America, South
America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Try to avoid choosing neighboring societies and try to
maximize variability across different environmental zones.
3. Record information about the cultural practice or technology that you are researching. Do so
in as much detail as you can manage but don’t go overboard.
