Anthropology Notes 9/11/2011
Chapter 1
Anthropology is the study of humanity, including our prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity.
Scientific and humanistic approaches
1. Biological anthropology (physical anthropology): humans as biological organisms, including their evolution and contemporary variation
a. Primatology, study of nonhuman members of the order of mammals called primates, which includes a wide range of animals from very small, nocturnal creatures to gorillas, the largest members.
b. Paleoanthropology, the study of human evolution on the basis of the fossil record. One important activity is the search for fossils to increase the amount and quality of the evidence to the way human evolution occurred.
c. Contemporary human biological variation: Define, measure, and seek to explain differences in the biological makeup and behavior of contemporary humans. 2. Archaeology (prehistory): study of past human cultures through their material remains
a. Study of first Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago, or of first human made tools, around 100,000 years ago
b. Prehistoric archaeology: concerns human past before written records
i. Often identify themselves with broad geographic regions, old world being Europe, Asia, and Africa, and New World being the Americas
c. Historical archaeology: concerns with human past in societies that have written documents
d. Underwater archaeology: study and preservation of submerged societies
3. Linguistic anthropology: study of human communication, including its origins, history, and contemporary variation and change
a. Historical linguistics: study of language change over time and how languages are related b. Descriptive linguistics: or structural linguistics, study of how contemporary languages
differ in terms of their formal structure
c. Sociolinguistics: study of relationships among social variation, social context, and linguistic variation, including nonverbal communication
4. Cultural anthropology (social anthropology): study of living peoples and their cultures, including variation and change
a. Culture refers to a people’s learned and shared behaviors and beliefs; devoted to studying human cultures worldwide, both similarities and differences Bronislaw Malinowski
o Functionalism: culture is similar to biological organism: parts work to support the operation and maintenance of the whole
Applied anthropology – is the use of anthropological knowledge to prevent or solve problems or to shape and achieve policy goals.
Functionalism: the view that a culture is similar to a biological organism, in which parts work to support the operation and maintenance of the whole
Holism: the view that cultures are complex systems and one must study all their aspects in order to understand the whole culture
Franz Boas: considered founder of North American cultural anthropology
o Cultural relativism: the view that each culture must be understood in terms of the values and ideas of that culture and should not be judged by the standards of another o Historical particularism: individual cultures must be studied and described in their own
terms and understood within their own historical context
o Margaret Mead: a student of Boas who was an early public anthropologist, who brought anthropological knowledge to general public to create positive social change
Claude Levi-Strauss
o French structuralism: best way to understand a culture is to collect its myths and stories and analyze the underlying themes in them
French structuralism lead to symbolic anthropology, study of culture as a system of meanings
Cultural materialism: the view that takes material features of life, such as the environment, natural resources, and mode of production, as the bases for explaining social organization ideology.
Interpretive anthropology or interpretivism: the view that cultures should be understood by studying what people think about, their ideas, and the meanings that are important to them Postmodernism: intellectual pursuit that asks whether modernity is truly progress and that
questions such aspects of modernism as the scientific method, urbanization, technological change, and mass communication
Structurism: the view that emphasizes how powerful structures such as the economy, politics, and media shape cultures and create inequality and oppression
Agency: the ability of humans to make choices and exercise free will Steps to Antiracist anthropology:
o Examine and recognize anthropology’s history and implications with racism o Work to increase diversity in the discipline
o Teach about racism in anthropology classes and textbooks o Treat concept of culture within a political economy framework
Microculture: a distinct pattern of learned and shared behavior and thinking found within larger cultures
Definitions of Culture
o Sir Edward Tylor: “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”
o Marvin Harris: “A culture is the total socially acquired life way or life style of a group of people. It consists of patterned repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are characteristic of the members of a particular society of segment of society.”
o Clifford Geertz: culture consists of symbols, motivations, moods, and thoughts Culture is not Nature
o Eating o Drinking o Sleeping o Elimination
Culture is based on Symbols Culture is Learned
Cultures are Integrated Culture is patterned Culture is shared
Symbol: an object, word, or action with culturally defined meaning that stands for something else; most symbols are arbitrary
Globalization: increased and intensified international ties related to the spread of Western, especially United States, capitalism that affects all world cultures
Localization: the transformation of global culture by local cultures into something new
Clash of civilizations argument says that the spread of Euro American capitalism and lifeways throughout the world has created disenchantment, alienation, and resentment among other cultural systems.
McDonaldization under the powerful influence of US dominated corporate culture, the world is becoming culturally homogeneous
Hybridization when aspects of two or more cultures are mixed to form something new Localization: the transformation of global culture by local microcultures into something new. Class: a way of categorizing people based on their economic position in society, usually
measured in terms of income or wealth
Race: a way of categorizing people on the basis of supposedly homogeneous biological traits Ethnicity: shared sense of identity among a group based on heritage, language, or culture Indigenous people: a group with a longstanding connection with their home territory predating
colonial or other societies that prevail in that territory
Gender: patterns of culturally constructed and learned behaviors and ideas attributed to males, females, or blended categories.
Goals of anthropologists
o Ethnography: a firsthand, detailed description of a living culture, based on personal observation
o Ethnology: the study of a particular topic in more than one culture using ethnographic material
Ethnocentrism: judging cultures by the standards of one’s own culture rather than by the standards of that particular culture
Biological determinism: a theory that explains human behavior and ideas mainly as the result of biological features such as genes and hormones
Cultural constructionism: a theory that explains human behavior and ideas mainly the result of learning
Cultural materialism: examines environment and how people make a living within particular environments
o Infrastructure: basic material factors such as natural resources, the economy, and population
o Structure: social organization, kinship, and political organization o Superstructure: ideas, values, beliefs
Chapter 2 9/13/2011
Fieldwork: research in the field, which is any place where people and culture are found Armchair anthro: sitting and reading about other cultures
Verandah anthro: typically, natives come to the verandah for interviewing by anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan: wrote book League of the Iroquois showing different perspective of
natives
Participant observation: basic fieldwork method in cultural anthro that involves living in a culture for a long period of time while gathering data. Father of this is Bronislaw Malinowski
o Living with people o Learning language
o Participating in their everyday life
Multisited research: fieldwork conducted in more than one location in order to understand the behaviors and ideas of dispersed members of a culture or the relationships among different levels such as state policy and local culture
BEGINNING FIELD WORK PROCESS
o Project selection: topic should be important and feasible, often chosen by carrying out a literature review, reading what others have already written
o Funding: Governmental, non-governmental,
o Informed consent: requires that the researcher inform the research participants of the scope, and possible effects of the study and seek their agreement to be in the study; required by institutional review boards (IRBs)
Working in the field o Site Selection o Gaining Rapport
Rapport: trusting relationship between researcher and he study population Gatekeepers: people who formally or informally control access to the
group or community Gift Giving and Exchange
Microcultures and Fieldwork: Class, race, gender, and age all affect how the local people perceive and welcome an anthro
o Class: most anthropologists are wealthy, affects the study
“Study up”: doing research among powerful people such as members of the business elite, political leaders, and government officials
o Race/Ethnicity: Many anthropologists were white, affecting their rapport Gender: Gender segregation can affect study
Age: Typically anthropologists are adults
Culture Shock: persistent feelings of uneasiness, loneliness, and anxiety that often occur when a person has shifted from one culture to a different one
Reverse culture shock: occurs when coming home from a study
Deductive Approach: method that involves posing a research question or hypothesis, gathering the empirical data related to the question, and then assessing the findings in relation to the original hypothesis; Collects quantitative (numeric) data
Inductive Approach: proceeds without a hypothesis and involves gathering data through unstructured, informal observation, conversation, and other methods; collects qualitative (descriptive) data
Etic: analytical framework used by outside analysts in studying culture
Emic: what insiders do and perceive about their culture, their perceptions of reality, and their explanations for why they do what they do
Participant Observation
o The more time the researcher spends living among the people, the more likely it is that the people will live their “normal” lives.
Talking with the people
o Interview: gathering verbal data through questions or guided conversation o Can have group interviews
o Questionnaire: formal research instrument containing a preset series of questions that the anthropologist asks in a face to face setting, or by mail or email
Collaborative research: approach to learning about culture that involves anthropologists working with members of the study population as partners and teammates rather than as researchers and “subjects.”
Life history: qualitative, in depth description of an individual’s life as narrated to the researcher o Franz Boas didn’t like this method because people might lie or exaggerate
Time allocation study: quantitative method that collects data on how people spend their time each day on particular activities
Triangulation: involves seeking info on a topic from more than one angle or perspective The Dobe Ju/’hoansi
Chapter 1
12000 years ago, forage for wild game and plant foods had been the universal mode of human sustenance
They were all short, men about five foot two, women under five feet, skin apparently exposed to sun, dressed in leather, men in tight fitting breechclouts, women in beaded aprons and soft skins, both naked from waist up
Chapter 2
