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BOOK NOTES
ANTHROPOLOGY 3
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
CHAPTER 1 (Haviland, Prins, Mcbride &Walrath)
FALL 2011
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What is anthropology- the study of humankind, everywhere throughout time!
Anthropology produces knowledge about what makes people different and similar
about one another.
2.
Anthropology consists of 4 sub fields: biological (physical), archaeology,
linguistic, and cultural (socio-cultural). As we will see in the course, within these
sub fields there are different areas as well. Physical anthropology focuses on
humans as biological organisms, often looking at evolutionary development and
biological variation. Archaeology recovers human cultures from the past by studying
material objects, skeletal remains. Linguistic study language-communication
systems, that cultures maintain from generation to generation.
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Anthropologists study humankind looking at the complexities of human
thought, feelings, behavior, and biology, often comparatively. This comparative
complexity across humankind creates a holistic approach that anthropologists are
known for.
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Anthropology as it emerged as a discipline in the 19th century grounded itself
in scientific inquiry. The modern discipline of anthropology was created in 1886 at
university of Pennsylvania and first doctorate was given 1892 at Clark University.
Why the book alludes to the complexity of studying humankind, in the west, nations
and national cultures began to systematically developing disciplines that used
rigorous scientific process and up to that time, many anthropologists were
considered “armchair” researchers, taking accounts from others and writing up
their assumptions as fact. In the late 19th century, men and women with this
education from the universities began going on journeys into studying other
peoples.
5)
Anthropology is different and distinctive because of its focus on the
interconnections and interdependence of all aspects of the human experience in all
places and times. Anthropologists, using this holistic perspective makes them
aware of their own cultural ideas and values impacts their research.
Anthropologists are considered very introspective. They strive to gain objective
knowledge about people. While avoiding the pitfalls of ethnocentrism, belief that the
ways of one’s own culture is unique to our understanding of diversity in human
thought, biology, and behavior, as well as to our understanding of many shared
characteristics of humans.
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Anthropologists apply a rigorous methodology for researching cultural
practices from the perspective of the cultural beings studied-a methodology that
requires them to check for the influences of their own bias.
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A cross-cultural comparative, and long-term evolutionary perspective
distinguishes anthropology from other social sciences. This all-encompassing
approach also guards against “culture-bound theories of human behavior: that
theories based on assumptions about the world and reality that come from the
researchers’ own particular culture.
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Applied anthropology entails using anthropological knowledge and methods
to solve practical problems. They actively collaborate with the communities in
which they work.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND ITS SUB FIELDS
Physical anthropology, or biological focuses on humans as biological organisms.
Traditionally the focus was on human evolution, Primatology, growth and
development, human adaption, and forensics. Medical anthropology is a
specialization that combines theoretical and applied approaches from culture and
biological with the study of human health and disease. Today, molecular
anthropology, which studies genes and genetics relationships, contributes to
human biological diversity. Physical anthropologists contribute to anatomy labs,
public health, and criminal investigation. Molecular anthropologists have also been
involving in looking at DNA of human remains to determine what group of people
they might belong to. Paleoanthropologist is the study of the origins of human
species, human evolution.
Primatology studies the anatomy and behavior of primates to help understand
what we share with our closest living relatives, and what makes humans unique to
other primates. Another aspect is human growth, adaption, and variation.
Anthropologists examine biological mechanisms of growth as well as the impact of
the environment on the growth process. Example of boas comparing heights of
immigrants who spent childhood in Eastern Europe and those we grew in the United
States. Physical anthropologists, starting with Franz boas have debunked false ideas
of biologically defined races.
Forensic anthropology is the human skeletal identification of remains for legal
purposes. For example they were used in African and Guatemala after mass
killings.
Cultural anthropology (social and sociocultural) is the study of patterns of
human behavior, thought, and feelings. It focuses on humans as culture-producing
and culture-reproducing beings.
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Culture, a society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions.
Which is used to make sense of experiences and generates behavior and is reflected
in that behavior. These standards are socially learned, rather than acquired
through biological inheritance.
Ethnography- is a detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on
fieldwork, which is the term, all anthropologists’ use for on-location research. The
hallmark of ethnographic fieldwork is a combination of social participation and
personal observation within the community being studied as well as interviews and
discussions with individual’s members of a group, the ethnographic method is
commonly referred to as participant observation.
Ethnographies provide information used to make systematic comparisons among
cultures all across the world. Known as ethnology, such cross-cultural research
allows anthropologists to develop anthropological theories that help explain why
certain important differences or similarities occur among groups.
Making systematic comparisons, ethnologists seek to arrive at scientific
explanations concerning the function and operation of social practices and cultural
features and patterns in all times and places.
Linguistic anthropology
The most distinctive feature of humankind is language. The branch that studies
human languages is linguistic anthropology, while linguistic anthropology shares
data and methods from linguistics it differs in that it uses the data and methods to
answer anthropological questions relating to society and culture. Linguistic
relativity refers to the idea of linguistic diversity reflects not just differences in
sounds and grammar, but also differences in ways of looking at the world.
Archaeology
Is the branch of anthropology that studies human cultures through the recovery and
analysis of material remains and environmental data? Materials such as tools,
pottery, hearth, and enclosures that remain as traces of cultural practices in the
past, as was as human, plant, and marine remains. The arrangement of these traces
when recovered reflects specific human ideas and behaviors.
Anthropology is often called the most humane of the sciences and the most scientific
of the humanities. Anthropology is an empirical social science based on
observations or information about humans taken through the senses and verified by
others rather than on intuition or faith.
Like other scientists, anthropologists begin their research with a hypothesis
(tentative explanation or hunch) about the possible relationships between certain
observed facts or events. Gathering data to ground such suggested explanation on
evidence, anthropologists come up with a theory—an explanation supported by a
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reliable body of data. Theory guides us in our explorations and may result in new
knowledge. The explorations may result in providing evidence that certain
explanations however popular or firmly believed are unfounded. Empirical
evidence is relied upon. Every theory can be challenged. Doctrine or dogma is an
asserted opinion or belief formally handed down by an authority as true and
indisputable.
Fieldwork
Anthropologists immerse themselves into data become so familiar with the details;
they begin to recognize underlying patterns in the data, many of which might have
been overlooked. These help frame meaningful hypotheses. Which are subjected to
further testing or validation in the field. Anthropological researchers monitor
themselves by constantly checking their own biases and assumptions as they work.
They present these self-reflections along with their observations, a practice known
ask reflexivity. Another researcher establishes the validity or the reliability of a
researcher’s conclusions through the replication of observations and/or
experiments. Fieldwork requires the researcher to step out of his or her cultural
comfort zone into a world that is unfamiliar.
Anthropologists in the field are likely to face a host of challenges-physical, social,
mental, political, and ethical. They deal with unaccustomed food, climate, and
hygiene conditions. They often struggle with mental challenges as being lonely,
feeling like a perpetual outsider, being socially clumsy and clueless in their new
cultural setting.
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