ANTHROPO

LOGY

W H AT I S A

N T H R O P O L O G Y ?

ANTHROPOLOGY• Anthropos- Man • Logos=study of science • Questions Investigated By Anthropology• In what ways are people alike? • In what ways are people different?• How has human culture changed over time?

THE SUBFIELDS*Biological/Physical*Archaeology *Linguistics* Cultural

** Collaborative (Applied) Anthropology

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Biological anthropology seeks to understand human

behavior from a biological base especially focusing upon human evolutionary history and biological variation among human populations.

Some examples of biological anthropology are paleontology; primatology; the study of human variation…

ARCHAEOLOGY• Archaeology seeks to understand human history through

the study (primarily) of materials remains. Sometimes the work of archaeologists overlaps with the work of historians in a specialization, historical archaeology

LINGUISTICS• Linguistics seeks to understand human language, written

and non-written, spoken and non-verbal. The study of how languages change over time is termed historical linguistics. The study of how language is used in social contexts is termed socio-linguistics.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS• Cultural anthropology seeks to understand universals and

variations in human cultures both past and present.

COLLABORATIVE (APPLIED) ANTHROPOLOGY Uses anthropological concepts, methodology, and theory to

solve modern world problems. Some examples are identifying cultural practices that affect

the spread of disease and providing information on communities that helps agencies adapt projects to local conditions and needs.

The goal is to help improve their capacity in areas like health and food production in a way that is viable to their beliefs and practices

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Comparative: researches similarities and differences

between cultures Synchronic: compares and contrasts cultures or aspects of

cultures at the same point diachronic: looks at changes in a culture or several cultures

over a period of time for a certain region of the world Holistic: belief that no single aspect of human culture can

be understood unless its relations to other aspects of the culture are explored

Systems/process= see cultures as dynamic not static Case Study: Use of participant observation

IN SUMMARY We as anthropologists often say that “anthropology is the

most humane of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities”. Thus we draw data from all kinds of sources.

Anthropology “Gives voice to those who do not have one”

ETHNOLOGY V. ETHNOGRAPHYEthnology Theoretical framework and generalizations used to explain

similarities and differences between cultures for a region of the world.

Done by using several ethnographic works from different cultures within the same region to make these generalizations.

Ethnography Is a report of field research resulting from data collection An ethnography is a n explanatory and descriptive account

of an anthropologist’s fieldwork

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

• We study and report about beliefs and behaviors of living human groups

• We compare diverse cultures to find cultural universals• We try to understand a various aspect of a particular

culture, such as family, religion, economy, art communication

• We try to figure out what causes culture change within a particular group and how that group is affected

• We educate the general public on culturally diverse issues and try to teach people to have tolerance of all cultures within our larger global system.

• We strongly believe that if we describe, compare and analyze different cultures we will begin to better understand our own way of life

EMIC V. ETIC Emic= the insiders point of view of the culture being studied

Etic= the western or outside view of the culture being studied (how the anthropologist describes the social phenomena)

Subjective Bias: • Derived from experiences or point of view• Biases may be conscious or unconscious

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE BIAS• Value Judgments- (subjective or evaluative) when you judge

something based on your own cultural standard rather or not you think it is good or bad.

• Cognitive= trying to figure out the meaning of words, acts or symbols within a cultural framework different from the one in which they occur

• Conceptual= misunderstanding an aspect of a culture due to the differences in basic world view between the observe and the observed

ETHNOCENTRISM V. CULTURAL RELATIVISM Ethnocentrism = my culture and they way I do things is

better than everyone else Cultural Relativism= being able to step out and see a

culture without judgmentNo one culture is superior or inferior to another

CULTURE IS COMPLEX• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,

hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

• Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.• Culture is communication, communication is culture.• Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated

experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.• A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept,

generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

• Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions.

• Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action.

• Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation.

• Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

ANTHROPOLOGISTS GENERALLY AGREE THAT… Culture is: Learned- enculturation Shared by members of a society Responsible for the differences of thinking and behaving within a

particular society Essential to an individual, in that a cultureless person would be seen

as abnormal within a society

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE • Language • Shelter• Clothing• Economy• Religion• Education• Values• Climate• Government/Laws• Recreation/Entertainment

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

SharedLearnedBased on symbolsIntegrated

CULTURE IS SHARED

Society Group of people who have a common homeland, are interdependent, and share a common culture

Social StructureRelationships between groups within a society that hold it together

CULTURAL VARIATION

Individual variationEach individual is unique

Sex and genderSome differences exist in any human society between the roles of men and women

CULTURAL VARIATIONAge

Children and adults act differently in all cultures

SubcultureDistinctive set of standards and behavior patterns for a group within a larger society

PLURALISTIC SOCIETIESPluralistic societies contain several distinct

cultures and subcultures• Common in the world today• Canada is a cultural mosaic of ethnic subcultures• Misunderstandings and violence may result from the cultural variation

• One should not confuse physical differences with cultural variation

CULTURE IS LEARNED EnculturationTransmission of a society’s culture from one generation to the next

Not all learned behavior is cultural

CULTURE IS BASED ON SYMBOLS

Symbol - An object that stands for something else.

The most important symbolic aspect of culture is language.

CULTURE IS INTEGRATED

Integration Tendency for all aspects of

a culture to function as an interrelated whole

STUDYING CULTURE IN THE FIELD Three different types of data are required:

A people’s own understanding of the way things ought to be

The extent to which people feel they are following their cultural rules

Observed behavior

CULTURE AND ADAPTATION Humans have adapted by manipulating

environments through cultural means

Humans have come to depend more and more on cultural adaptation

What is adaptive in one context may be seriously maladaptive in another

FUNCTIONS OF CULTURETo survive, a culture must provide for the:

Adaptations in reaction to changed conditions Motivation of adults

Enculturation of young humans Biological continuity through reproduction

Production and distribution of goods and services necessary for life

CULTURE AND CHANGEAll cultures change

Meeting environmental crisesResponding to intrusions by outsidersEvolving internal behavior and values

Results may be beneficial or disastrous

ANTHROPOLOGICAL TOOLS OF RESEARCH • Participant Observation • Interviewing • Life histories• Questionnaires • Ratings/rankings• Statistical Analyses

AS ANTHROPOLOGISTS WE ARE RESPONSIBLE TO

• The people we are studying • The public to whom we provide information to based on our

research • The discipline and our colleagues• The students and trainees• The institutions to who we work for • Our own government and our host government