Download Pres01-20-09ScopeA308

Anthropology 308
Women, Sex Roles and
Culture
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Dr. Siemens
Office-Sierra Hall 240M
Office Telephone (818) 677-4931
Office Hours
– Tuesday and Thursday 8:20-9:20AM
3:30-4PM
– and by appointment
• Email [email protected]
3x5 Card
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Name
Reason for Class
Previous Anthropology
Email Address
• Anything else you want Dr.
Siemens to know about you and
your interests.
THE SCOPE OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
What anthropologists have
you heard of?
What did they study?
Harrison Ford as fictional Indiana Jones
Mary Leakey Discovered Oldest
Footprints
Louis Leakey found fossil
humans
Jane Goodall was first to study
chimpanzees in the wild.
Jane Goodall still works for Chimpanzee
conservation.
Dian Fossey was first to study
gorillas in the wild.
Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey
Margaret Mead with Samoan Girls
Deborah Tannen
David Maybury-Lewis(right) Host of PBS
series Millenium”
Also founder of the human rights group
“Cultural Survival”
Sam Dunn used anthropological
training in heavy metal documentary
• Takes holistic view: religion, gender, social, global and
historical perspectives.
• Main obstacle was convincing artists he was
sympathetic.
– Metal artists gave thoughtful responses.
– Some appeared hostile on camera but friendly off
camera.
• Anthropological approach was not first choice.
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Anthropologists You may
have Heard of
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Indiana Jones*
Mary Leakey
Louis Leakey
Jane Goodall
Dian Fossey
Margaret Mead
Deborah Tannen
David Maybury-Lewis
Sam Dunn
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Explore Ruins (fictional)
Fossil Hunter
Fossil Hunter
Chimpanzees
Gorillas
Samoan Girls
American Women and Men Talking
Xavante Rights
• Heavy Metal Music
Anthropologists in the
News
Anthropologists contribute to
American society as well as to the
international community of scholars
Maira Martinez
• Forensic Anthropologist
• Identifying victims of political
massacres
• Families accompany her sometimes
• LA Times August 4 A7
Jane MacLaren Walsh
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Studied Crystal Skull donated to Smithsonian
Skull was made with modern tools
Skull lacks prehistoric style features
LA Times June 8, 2008
• Studied Japanese consumer culture
– Worked in Tokyo convenience stores_
• Japanese buy exotic Colombian Giant beetles.
– Heads resemble samurai headgear
– $350/Giant beetle
• LA Times 5-21-08 A4
• Biodiversity valuable to Colombian, German Viasus,
left
• Colombia plans to market more biodiversity
Diana Fullwiley
Harvard
• Analyses genetic markers to connect
African-Americans to ancestral populations
and African-American kin.
– "At most, you're getting 1% of your ancestry…”
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Raymond A. Winbush
– “paternal DNA linked him to the Bubi, a people indigenous to
Equatorial Guinea on Central Africa's Atlantic coast, and his
maternal DNA linked him to the Tikar people of adjoining
Cameroon. He also carried markers common in people of Dutch,
French, British and German origin.”
– "The discovery helped me to locate myself more
psychologically," he said. "It's all kind of wrapped up in the idea
of locating oneself in history."
• LA Times 5-4-08 A6
Richard Applegate
• Wrote Samala dictionary from John P.
Harrington’s notes
– Samala is a Chumash Language
• Chumash are native people of Los Angeles
• Santa Barbara Independent 4-24-08
• Chumash financed dictionary
• Chumash are relearning language
– Last native speaker of Samala died 1965
Anthropologists in the
News
• Maira Martinez
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Jane MacLauren Walsch
Gavin Whitelaw
Diana Fullwiley
Richard Applegate
• Identifying Colombian Political
Victims
• Crystal Skulls
• Japanese Consumerism
• African Genetic Markers
• Chumash Language
Other Prominent and
Notable Anthropologists
Franz Boas (Father of American
Anthropology)
Marjorie Shostak
and star informant,
Nisa
!Kung people
Elinor Ochs Madagascar and Samoa languages
UCLA Center on Everyday Lives of Families
William Rathje Garbology
Claude
Lévi-Strauss Kinship and Myth
Jomo Kenyatta Kikuyu and
Kenya’s First President
Birute Galdikas Orangutans
Other Prominent
Anthropologists
• Franz Boas
• Marjorie Shostak
• Eleanor Ochs
• William Rathje
• Claude Levi-Strauss
• Jomo Kenyatta
• Birute Galdikas
• Kwakiutl and Race
• !Kung (Bushmen)
• Madagascar and Samoa UCLA
C.E.L.F.
• U.S. Garbology
• Kinship and Myth
• Gikuyu
• Orangutans
Anthropology Defined
• Anthropology is the study of
human beings in a holistic manner.
– Holism means appreciating totalities
as more than mere combinations of
parts.
– There are two ways anthropology is
holistic.
• 1) Comprehensiveness. Because
anthropology is holistic its study
includes all humans of all places and all
times.
• 2) Interrelatedness. Because
anthropology is holistic any human
group should be studied in its entirety,
finding connections among economics,
politics, religion, language, etc.
Nature and Nurture
• A hundred years ago anthropology
was the same as “racial” studies.
– Biological determinism was the
prevailing view.
– Eugenics was popular.
• Eugenics seeks to “improve” a
population by identifying those with
“good” genes and promoting their
reproduction. Those with “bad” genes
are prevented from reproducing.
– Nazi extermination of Jews was eugenics.
• Eugenics is inhumane and mistaken
about genetics.
Cultural Determinism
• Franz Boas argued that the important
sources of behavioral differences
between societies were learned rather
than inherited.
– Boas changed the prevailing view to
cultural determinism.
• Boas decreased the importance of
biology to anthropology and increased
the importance of learned culture.
• Margaret Mead extended Boas
argument to women and men.
– The significant differences between
women and men are learned rather than
inherited
Gender vs. Sex
• Sex refers to biological
reproduction.
– Sex is a result of nature
• Gender refers to language
categories.
– Gender is learned, a result of nurture
• Indian women build road and
Indian men wash clothes.
– Gender roles are learned
Anthropological Subfields
Subfields are results of
differences in methods.
• Physical (or Biological)
Anthropology
• Archeology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology uses
biological methods.
Archeology
• Archeology uses excavation
methods and sampling.
– Archeology studies artifacts.
Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Anthropology uses linguistic methods.
• Linguistic anthropology studies language in
use.
Cultural Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology uses
participant observation.
– Cultural anthropology studies
cultures of living people.
• This class is about cultural
anthropology.
Tylor’s Definition of Culture
“Culture ...taken in its widest...
sense, is that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief,
arts, morals, law, and custom, and
any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of
society.”
Features of Culture
Definition stresses that culture is:
1) a whole: complex with many
interdependent parts.
2) acquired: not inborn (distinct
from race) capacity for culture is
inborn (large brain, speech
mechanism).
3) culture depends on an ongoing
society for existence.
Additional points not in
definition
• Culture includes behavior as well as ideas.
Practices are significant even if not conscious
and not explained. People can not explain all
of their own culture (Like language)
• Culture is symbolic. Culture is a system of
meanings. Meaning results from relations
between different areas of experience, e.g.,
religion and subsistence.
Consequences of the
Features of Culture
• The social aspect of culture is
linked to its function as an
adaptive strategy
• Culture as a systemic whole is
shown in the relation of
subsistence and politics.
• Since culture is acquired, cultures
vary.
Culture is Social
• Living in social groups that
transmit culture is the adaptive
strategy of humans.
• All humans have learned
transmitted skills for acquiring
food called subsistence
techniques.
Cultures are complex
wholes
• Parts of a culture are interrelated.
• E.g., subsistence limits or enables politics.
– Without a surplus there are no full time leaders.
Culture is Acquired and
Varies by Group
• Since culture is acquired it varies.
• Even biological needs are met in
different ways.
– Shelter is a biological necessity but
it shows cultural identity.
– Eating
Anthropological Axioms
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Culture determines much of our
attitudes, rules and action.
(Cultural determinism)
Cultures are diverse, evidenced by the
wide variety of ways doing things and
reactions to situations.
Cultures provide evaluative frames
that are not appropriately applied to
each other. (Cultural Relativism)
Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
• Ethnocentrism is usually defined
as a belief in the superiority of
one’s own culture.
– Evident superiority is based on
culture bound values, applied
unconsciously
• Cultural Relativism is usually
defined as a belief in the inherent
worth of all cultures.
– A culturally relative person does not
believe in superiority of his or her
own own culture.
Ethnocentrism vs.
Cultural Relativism in
Methodology
• All humans are inherently ethnocentric.
– Culture supplies us with values which we
need.
• The basis of ethnocentrism is application of values to
people who do not share them.
– Applying outsider’s values usually leads to
conclusion of outsider superiority.
• Cultural relativism avoids applying
outsider values.
– Suspending judgment is necessary for
understanding.
– Evaluation of cultural practices should be
in terms of values of the actors.
• Values are relative but truth need not
be.
– Science seeks explanations through
observation
– Observations are made intersubjective by
careful procedures.
Ethnocentrist vs.
Relativist
• Masai culture is inferior to American culture
since a Masai man may have several wives.
• Bena Bena culture is inferior to American
culture because people touch genitals in
greeting.
• Masai value multiple wives.
• Bena Bena value touching genitals.