Principles of Space Anthropology:

Biological and Cultural Evolution Beyond Earth

by
Cameron M. Smith, PhD
Department of Anthropology
Portland State University

A graduate- and upper-undergraduate text coming in Fall 2017 from International Publishing

BOOK OVERVIEW
The New Space Race, focusing on developing inexpensive human access to space, is well
underway, with over 20 private companies engaged. When this is achieved, the doors to a long human
fascination with the concept of settling environments beyond Earth--including Mars and, ultimately,
exoplanets--will be opened. This will result in space being populated not just by small crews for short
periods, but by entire cultures, and for generations. While biology has studied human adaptation to space
conditions in the short term, only anthropology accounts for the distinctiveness of human biocultural
evolution on human-generation timescales. Both biologically and culturally, off-Earth populations will
change in ways known to anthropology. From an anthropological perspective, human space colonization will
be the extension of human adaptation from terrestrial to extraterrestrial (off-Earth) environments. For these
reasons, space colonization should be planned and carried out, from the beginning, with a thorough
understanding of human adaptation—both biological and cultural—requiring a new field of anthropology,
space anthropology, specific to human biological and cultural evolution in non-Earth environments.
Unfortunately, few in the fields of space access or space planning have a good understanding of
evolution or how its processes may be learned from to assist their goals. Similarly, few students of
anthropology have any exposure to the world of humans-in-space activities. This book will bridge the gap
between these fields, to make each more productive in the larger project of establishing human space
settlement in a long-term, evolutionary framework. This book outlines the principles of an evolutionary,
adaptation-based exoanthropology—bearing the same relationship to traditional anthropology as
exobiology bears to traditional biology—useful to making a success of the long-term goal of human space
colonization.
Principles of Space Anthropology is a technical (rather than popular science) work that will serve as
a foundation text and sourcebook for later undergraduates and graduate students studying the prospects of
human space settlement.
CONDENSED PROVISIONAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO SPACE ANTHROPOLOGY

This chapter introduces two central concepts: first, human space colonization as adaptive
evolution, and second, why and how evolutionary sciences will assist success in human space colonization. I
then continue by defining some basic concepts and terms, and the essential time- and space-thoughtscapes
addressed in this book.

PART I BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Biological anthropology studies humanity as one member of the primate order using the tools
of biology. This discipline will directly inform decisions about human biology, from individual organisms to
populations, as they are established beyond Earth.

CHAPTER 2 BEYOND-EARTH HOMININ GENETICS I: THE INDIVIDUAL ORGANISM

This chapter examines human genetic processes on the level of the individual organism,
including important developmental issues only now becoming well-understood with modern molecular
genomics. As known from nearly 25 years of continuous human presence in off-Earth orbital stations, human
exposure to new gravity, gas pressure, gas composition and ambient chemical environments of off-Earth
settlements will have to be considered in both the short-term and long-term.

CHAPTER 3 BEYOND-EARTH HOMININ GENETICS II: POPULATIONS OF HOMININS

This chapter examines human genetic processes on the level of the populations of humans,
including the well-known processes of mutation, migration, selection and drift. Early human populations
living off of Earth will likely have reproductive links with Earth populations, but later will be reproductively
isolated, a condition that can lead to speciation. In both cases, the founder effect—in which the genetic
composition of a founding population significantly structures future evolution of the population—will be
critically important. Similarly important will be new mutagens and new kinds of mutagenesis than occur on
Earth, also explored in depth in this chapter.

PART II CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Cultural anthropology studies cultural variation and change in the genus Homo, often using the
tools of participant observation and both emic and etic interpretive frameworks. This discipline will have
much to contribute to consider human life beyond Earth, particularly in considering long-term cultural and
linguistic change as human cultures are established off of Earth. Rather than proscribing specific courses of
action for human space colonization--as in the case of biological anthropology—cultural anthropology’s
contribution will be to give human space colonization various contexts for better planning. I include specific
case studies of human cultural experiences, adaptations and maladaptations to date, and use these to
inform space settlement planning.

CHAPTER 4 BEYOND-EARTH CULTURAL PROPAGATION AND CHANGE

This chapter introduces modern culture- and culture-change theory. Culture is introduced in the
traditional way—as socially-learned guides to behavior, shared by a group—but a Continental evolutionary
approach allows it to be understood as an element of the dual-inheritance model of genes and culture
developed in the last generation by many American and Continental scholars. This evolutionary approach
formalizes the long-cited, but poorly-defined 'biocultural' evolution model for human biological and cultural
change, establishing a discrete culture theory for understanding human space colonization as an adaptive
endeavour. A number of implications of this model of culture and culture change, specific to human space
colonization, are discussed.

CHAPTER 5 BEYOND-EARTH HUMANITY AND THE MIGRATION EXPERIENCE

This chapter focuses on the human experience of migration, known to archaeologists and
cultural anthropologists in modern and prehistoric time and how that experience can be learned from--and
what that experience suggests and perhaps even recommends—for human space colonization.

PART III ARCHAEOLOGY AND MATERIAL CULTURE

CHAPTER 6 PRINCIPLES OF BEYOND-EARTH ARCHAEOLOGY and HISTORIC PRESERVATION

This brief chapter introduces the new field of off-Earth archaeology, a discipline that, early on,
will document space exploration activities to date, and will later ensure an archaeological record for the
distant future by establishing historic preservation guidelines for the artifacts and features representing
human colonization beyond Earth.

CHAPTER 7 BEYOND-EARTH MATERIAL CULTURE

This chapter introduces a study of material culture—a specific area of interest to

archaeologists, technologists and designers of all kinds—from the perspective of what may be learned from
human material culture (through prehistory and history to date) to help in improving technologies for the
project of human space colonization. Concrete recommendations for engineering are based on successful
human material culture adaptations known to date (with numerous examples from Arctic, Polynesian and
other adaptations), and cautions are advanced based on less-successful material adaptations.

PART IV SPACE COLONIZATION AS ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION

CHAPTER 8 ADAPTIVE EVOLUTIONARY STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL HUMAN SPACE

COLONIZATION

To conclude the book I place human space colonization in an adaptive and evolutionary context
and make both theoretical and concrete--and both strategic and tactical--recommendations for human
space colonization planning, based on what we know from several billion years of evolution on Earth.
Lessons are taken from many forms of life and many aspects of evolution. I conclude that generally speaking,
the best way to make a success of space colonization will be to mimic (or directly replicate) many known,
natural adaptive processes that have so far played out in the history of Earth life evolution, where life forms
have a long record of successful adaptation to radically new selective environments.
AUTHOR
In addition to his work as a prehistorian, Dr. Cameron M. Smith has published widely on the
anthropology of human space settlement in peer-reviewed journals including Acta Astronautica, popular
science magazines including Scientific American and Spaceflight, and books including Emigrating Beyond
Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization (Springer Popular Science 2012). He has presented his
ideas, by invitation, to the NASA-University of Texas Future in Space Working Group, the Mars Society, Elon
Musk’s SpaceX corporation, TEDx Brussels (2014), TEDx Portland (2015) and Canada’s Perimeter Institute for
Theoretical Physics, and in 2015 he will visit ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, in Mumbai,
India.

FIGURES, TABLES AND OTHER SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Principles of Space Anthropology will be heavily illustrated with useful figures, and will tabulate a
large amount of reference data such that the volume will be useful as a sourcebook for humans-in-space
activities; a sample is shown below.

FIGURE XX. Travel Time and Possible Biological and Cultural Consequences for Voyage to Proxima Centauri,
4.2 Light Years Distant. Expected change is based on assuming a population averaging 2,000 people. Orange
region indicates rough scope of the Icarus Interstellar Project Hyperion reference study, indicating what we
can most expect biologically and culturally (right) on its travel time to Proxima Centauri based on modern
understanding of language, culture, and genetic evolution rates. Image (c) 2013 by Cameron M. Smith.