Anthropology and the study of culture Ch.1

Anthropology:

the study of humanity, including its prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity

Biological Anthropology

the study of humans as biological organisms, including evolution and contemporary variation

Archaeology

the study of the past human cultures through their material remains

Linguistic Anthropology

the study of human communication including its origins, history, and contemporary variation and change

Cultural Anthropology:

the study of living peoples and their cultures, including variation and change

Culture

people's learned and shared behaviors and beliefs.

Applied Anthropology

the use of anthropological knowledge to prevent or solve problems or to shape and achieve policy goals

Functionalism

the theory that a culture is similar to a biological organism, in which parts work to support the operation and maintenance of the whole

Holism

the perspective anthropology that cultures are complex systems that cannot be fully understood without paying attention to their different components, including economics, social organization, and ideology.

Cultural Relativism

the perspective that each culture must be understood in terms of the values and ideas of that culture and not judged by the standards of another culture.

Cultural Materialism

a theory that takes material features of life, such as the environment, natural resources, and mode of livelihood, as the bases for explaining social organization and ideology.

Interpretive Anthropology:

the view that cultures are best understood by studying what people think about, their ideas, and the meanings that are important to them.

Structurism

a theoretical position concerning human behavior and ideas that says large forces such as the economy, social and political organization, and the media shape what people do and think.

Agency

the ability of humans to make choices and exercise free will even within dominating structures

Microculture

a distinct pattern of learned and shared behavior and thinking found within a larger culture

Symbol

an object, word, or action with culturally defined meaning that stands for something else; most symbols are arbitrary.

Globalization

increased and intensified internal ties related to the spread of Western, especially US, capitalism that affect all world cultures.

Localization

the transformation of global culture by local cultures into something new.

Class

a way of categorized people on the basis of their economic position in society, usually measured in terms of income or wealth

Race

a classification of people into groups on the basis of supposedly homogeneous and biological traits such as skin color or hair characteristics.

Ethnicity

a shared sense of identity among members of a group based on heritage, language, or culture.

Indigenous people

groups of people who have a long-standing connection with their home territories that predates colonial or outside societies

Gender:

culturally constructed and learned behaviors and ideas attributed to males, females, or blended genders

Ethnocentrism

judging another culture 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 as shaped mainly by biological features such as genes and hormones.

Cultural Constructionalism

a theory that explains human behavior and ideas as shaped mainly by learning

Notes:

- anthropologists spend years in difficult, physical conditions, searching for the earliest fossils of our ancestors.
- some anthropologists conduct lab analyses of the contents of tooth enamel to reveal where an individual once lived.
- others study desi

- the four fields of anthropology:

1. Biological
2. Cultural
3. Archaeology
4. Linguistic
- some people believe a fifth field should be added: Applied Anthropology.
Also known as practicing anthropology or practical anthropology.

3 subfields

1. Primatology
2. Paleoanthropology
3. Contemporary Human Biological Variation

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
~ Primatologists study nonhuman primates in the wild and in captivity.
> record

Paleoanthropology

study of human evolution on the basis of the fossil record
~ one important activity is the sears for fossils to increase the amount and quality of the evidence related the way human evolution occurred

Contemporary Human Biological Variation:

~ anthropologists working in this area define, measure, and seek to explain differences in the biological makeup and behavior of contemporary humans
~ study such biological factors as DNA within and across populations, body size and shape, human nutrition

Archaeology

literally means the "study of the old", but "the old" is limited to human culture

2 Major Areas of Archaeology

1. Prehistoric Archaeology: concerns the human past before written records
> Prehistoric archaeologists often identify themselves with broad geographic regions
Ex: Old World archaeology (Africa, Europe, Asia)
Ex: New World archaeology ( North, Central, So

Linguistic

devoted to the study of communication, mainly (but not exclusively) among humans

3 Subculture Fields of Linguistics

1. Historical linguistics: the study of language change over time and how languages are related
2. Descriptive linguistics/Structural linguistics: the study of how contemporary languages differ in terms of their formal structure
3. Sociolinguistics: the s

Cultural

- is the study of contemporary people and their cultures
- culture refers to people's learned and shared behaviors and beliefs
- considers variations and similarities across cultures, and how cultures change over time
- can learn about culture by spending

Prominent Areas of specialization

1. Economic anthropology
2. Psychological anthropology
3. Medical anthropology
4. Political anthropology
5. International development anthropology

Applied Anthropology

- emerged during and after WWII
- first concern was with improving the lives of contemporary peoples and their needs, so it was more closely associated with cultural anthropology that with the other three fields
- many anthropologists feel that applied an

INTRODUCING CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:

- devoted to studying human cultures worldwide, about their similarities and differences
- makes "the strange familiar and the familiar strange

A Brief History of Cultural Anthropology

most important founding figures of cultural anthropology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were Sir Edward Tylor and Sir James Frazer in England and Lewis

? Late Nineteenth Century:

1. Sir Edward Tylor ------------------> Armchair anthropology; first definition of culture
2. Sir James Frazer -------------------> Armchair anthropology, comparative study of religion
3. Lewis Henry Morgan -------------> Insider's view, cultural evolutio

? Early Twentieth Century

1. Bronislaw Malinowski ------------------> Functionalism, holism, participant observation
2. Franz Boas -----------------------------------> Cultural relativism, historical particularism, advocacy
3. Margaret Mead ----------------------------> Personalit

? Mid- and Late Twentieth Century and Early Twenty-First Century? Mid- and Late Twentieth Century and Early Twenty-First Century? Mid- and Late Twentieth Century and Early Twenty-First CenturyMid- and Late Twentieth Century and Early Twenty-First Century

1. Claude L�vi-Strauss ----------------------> Symbolic analysis, French structuralism
2. Beatrice Medicine ----------------------> Native American anthropology
3. Eleanor Leacokc ----------------------> Anthropology of colonialism and indigenous peoples

Henry Morgan in the US.

~ inspired by the concept of biological evolution, they developed a model of cultural evolution whereby all cultures evolve from lower to higher forms over time
> view placed non-Western peoples at "primitive" stage and Euro-Ameican culture as "civilizati

Definition of Culture

- culture is the core concept in cultural anthropology, so it might seem likely that cultural anthropologists would agree about what it is
- Tylor's definition of culture: "culture, or civilization... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief

Characteristics of Culture

-Culture is not the same as Nature:
~ a good way to see how culture diverges from, and shapes, nature is to consider basic natural demands of life within different cultural contexts.
~ Universal human functions:
a. eating
b. drinking
c. sleeping
d. elimin

primary importance of these four functions in supporting a human being's life, it seems logical that people would fulfill them in similar ways everywhere. But that is not the case

a. Eating:
-> culture shapes what people eat, how they eat, when they eat, and the meanings of food and eating
-> culture also defines foods that are acceptable an unacceptable
-> perceptions of taste vary dramatically/four universal taste categories
+ sw

Culture is Based on the Symbols

- our entire lives are based on and organized through symbols
- symbols are arbitrary (bearing no necessary relationship to that which is symbolized), unpredictable, and diverse
~impossible to predict how a particular culture will symbolize something sinc

Culture is Learned

- culture must be learned anew in each context because culture is based on symbols that are arbitrary.
- culture learning begins from the moment of birth, if not before
- a large but unknown amount of people's culture learning is unconscious, occurring as

-Cultures are Integrated

- to state that cultures are internally integrated is to assert the principle of holism
~ thus studying only one or two aspects of culture provides an understanding so limited that it is more likely to be misleading or wrong than are more comprehensive ap

Cultures Interact and Change

- cultures interact with each other and change each other through contact such as trade networks, international development projects, telecommunications, education, migration, and tourism
- globalization has gaminess momentum through recent technological

Four Models of Cultural Interaction Capture Some of the Variation

a. Clash of Civilization:
-> argument says that the spread of Euro-American capitalism and life ways throughout the world has created disenchantment, alienation, and resentment among other cultural systems.
-> divides the world into the "West and the rest

MULTIPLE CULTURAL WORLDS

- within large cultures, a variety of microcultures exist
- a particular individual in such a complex situation is likely to be a member of several micro cultures
- micro cultures may overlap or may be related to each other hierarchically in terms of powe

# Class

- based on people's economic position in society, usually measured in terms of income or wealth and exhibited in therms of lifestyle
- class societies may be divided into upper, middle, and lower classes
- Separate Classes
~Working class: people who trade

Race," Ethnicity, and Indigenous Peoples

race" prefers to groups of people with supposedly homogenous biological traits.
~ term is extremely complicated as it is used in diverse ways in different parts of the word and among different groups of people.
~ ^ important to put word in quotation mark

Gender

- refers to culturally constructed and learned behaviors and ideas attributed to males, females, or sometimes a blended, or "third," gender.
- differs from sex, which is based on biological markers, such as genitals and hormones, to define categories of m

Age

the human life cycle, from birth to old age takes people through cultural stages for which appropriate behavior and thinking must be learned anew

Institutions

Institutions, or enduring group setting formed for a particular purpose, have their own characteristic microcultures
- include hospitals, schools, and universities, and prisons
~ anyone who has entered such an institution has experienced a feeling of stra

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

cultural anthropology has two distant research goals and two distinct guiding concepts

Cultural Relativism

most people grow up thinking that their culture is the way of life and that other ways of life are strange and inferior --------> labeled as Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism

judging other cultures by the standards of one's own culture rather than by the standards of other cultures
~ has fueled cent rues of efforts to change "other" people in the world, sometimes through religious missionary work, sometimes in the form of colo

Cultural Relativism

the idea that each culture must be understood in terms of its own values and beliefs and not by the standards of another cultures
~ assumes that no culture is better than any other
- some anthropologists have interpreted cultural relativism is absolute cu

Cultural imperialism

one dominant group claimed supremacy over minority cultures and took actions in its own interests and at the expense of the subjugated cultures
- critical cultural relativism avoids the trap of adopting a homogenized view
~ recognizes internal cultural di

Valuing and Sustaining Diversity

- anthropologists value and are committed to maintaing cultural diversity throughout the world, as part of humanity's rich heritage
- many cultural anthropologists share their expertise and knowledge to support the survival of indigenous peoples and other

Biological Determinism Versus Cultural Constructionism

- biological determinists search for the gene or hormone that contributes to behavior such as homicide, alcoholism, or adolescent stress.
~ also examine cultural practices in terms of how they contribute to the "reproductive success of the species," or ho

Interpretive Anthropology Versus Cultural Materialism

- interpretive anthropology, or interpretivism, focuses on understanding culture by studying what people think about, their explanations of their lives, and symbols that are important to them
- cultural materialism attempts to learn about culture by first

Individual Agency Versus Structurism

- debate concerns the question of how much individual will, or agency, affects the way people behave and think, compared with the power of forces, or structures, that are beyond individual control
- western philosophical thought gives much emphasis to the

Majoring in Anthropology

- Anthro BA = Liberal Arts Degree
~ not professional degree
- provides solid education relevant to many career directions that are likely to require further study, such as law, criminal justice, medicine and health services, social services, education, hu