I would think one way to simplify it would be to strip down some of the background intellectual framework. By that I mean prune down the anthro explanations of societies. It might be possible to direct some of that information into footnotes, referring interested folks to the primary sources if they want to get more. I know there's always that temptation to get sucked into the nuts and bolts of the framework, but is it really necessary to get your point across?

I also think the amount of framework might end up obscuring the main point of the article. You've got lots of background, but some of that space might be better used showing people just how to go about answering those questions. Historical examples, and a notional situation or two, might be just the thing for that. We were talking some time back about an idea where you'd take a situation and show it from a variety of cultural aspects so that a trainee could see how others might view a common "reality." That might work well for this idea.