ABSTRACT
The title of our symposium seems somewhat vague to a physical anthropologist, used to terms that can be defined precisely. Since this is my first venture into social anthropology, I had to begin by consulting dictionaries for the exact meaning of “social,” but found merely that it “appertains to society” and is synonymous with “companionate.” These definitions evidently do permit a wide variety of interpretations, since most people still make a distinction between, for example, a society wedding and a companionate marriage. The words “early man” present similar puzzles. At once I was reminded of the proverbial “early bird that catches the worm,” especially with my belief that all “early men” did catch more parasitic worms than were good for them. I am also far from certain in knowing at which stage of his evolution “early man” began to correspond to whatever exact definition may be decided upon for that no longer clear word “man.” With these critical remarks I merely wish to explain why at times my discussion may seem to go astray and not bear directly on whatever other specialists expect from the general title of this symposium.
