Lecture 2 Week 1 What is Anthropology

What is Anthropology

Argues for the

• Fundamental equality and clear diversity that makes human life.

Two parts

• Holistic: All aspect of human existence is considered

• Comparative: Comparing one human to another to see where they are alike, change and differ. (Universal and particular)

Ans: Documentation of what it means to be human and different as well as the possibilities.

what are the 4 fields of Anthropology

• Cultural: Study of culture and societies and their very recent past (Ethnography)

• Archaeology: Past society and remains (tools, food and people)

• Linguistic: Language and its structure, its evolution and context.

• Physical: Human evolution and variation both past and present. (Biological anthropology)

What is culture

Shared and learned sets of beliefs often taken for granted that binds a people together shaping their world views.

Why do human beliefs differ in belief and practice

We were all brought up in different cultures: our environments, learned behaviors, symbols makes the difference.

How can people begin to understand beliefs and behaviors that are different from their own?

Understanding that

• Culture is about what we consider normal. Not necessarily language and dressing alone.

• Little thing that make us feel in place or out of place (especially when we travel)

Ans: Cultural relativisim

Key aspects of the definition of Culture

• Shared

• Learned

• Integrated

• Symbolic: learn the meaning of the sign.

• Not static, it changes

Culture is the things we take for granted that make things make sense

(The strange familiar and the familiar strange)

Is it possible to see the world through the eyes of others (The body ritual among the Nacirema).

HOW DO PEOPLE JUDGE THE BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOURS OF OTHERS?

• The way a culture is described is important

• Evaluating others’ culture using your culture as the standard. (Ethnocentrism)

• Cultural relativism: An Attempt to understand the Beliefs and behaviors of other cultures

ANS: Yes, through cultural relativism, it is also the willingness to find the reason why they do this and not necessarily join them.

What are the differences and similarities from Moral Relativism and Cultural relativism

• Cultural relativism says to understand the culture based on the beliefs of the culture (moral is relative to the cultural belief)

• Moral relativism is more of the value of the individual and may or may not believe in a universal belief system.

• Anthropologists are Cultural relativisim meaning intellectual empathy is important.

How does the THE AGE OF EPLORATION explain the beginning of Anthropology (the other)

• Imperialism and Colonialism

• The age of Enlightenment

  • Desires to explain things using natural laws not religion.

  • Science to explain human diversity (unilinear evolution of CULTURE: Ethocentrisim)

  • Moving away for the Armchair Anthropology (they didn’t travel themselves but stories)

How has anthropology grown?

Power and Inequality

“The Other” (who writes the story is important)

Explain all you know about ARMCHAIR ANTHROPOLOGY?

European societies at the center

• Culture rather than cultureS

• Culture has stages (Unilinear Evolution)

• Never done in person but ideas are formed through the stories of others.

• Used Comparative approach to make Hierarchy

Herbert Spencer (perspective)

Societies go from simple to complex

Survival of the fittest

living example of Ancestors of the European past

Who are and why are we talking about Anthropology?

Bronislaw Malinowski

Franz Boas

• Malinowski

• Long-term field work and Participant Observation

  • Native Point of View

• Ethnography (result of field work)

• Franz Boas

• Developed the idea

• Practices are suited to the environments we live. (not Innate or biological)

What are the Problems of the Founders?

Boas

• He had the unilinear Evolution (Survival of the Fittest POV).

• Salvage Anthropology (They will die out, therefore let me document it) (He didn’t advocate or try to help them).

Why do beliefs and behavior differ?

Evironment shapes behaviour and culture.
Culture is learned not innate
This is why anthropology emphasizes cultural relativism—to understand beliefs and behaviors within their own cultural contexts rather than judging them by outside standards.

Who was Bronislaw Malinowski?

A key figure in modern anthropology who emphasized long-term fieldwork and understanding cultures from the native’s perspective.

Who was Franz Boas?

The father of American anthropology who advocated for cultural relativism and rejected racial and evolutionary hierarchies.

What is Ethnography

It is the study/documentation of a particular people in a specific time and place. To know what makes them unique.