Cultural Anthropology (ANTH 111 Test 1)

Armchair anthropology

when anthropologists don’t immerse themselves in their environment, instead make assumptions/theorize from a distance, engage in other’s collected materials

cultural anthropology

studies humans and what it means to be human. MOST PROMINENT QUESTION: what does it mean to live life as a human being in the world?

culture

1. beliefs, practices, symbols, and rules of groups of people

   1. Can be written, passed down verbally, spread through practice, or never mentioned but followed

holism

 seeing something as part of a bigger picture

“Grasp multiple connected forces of power/identity/history/geography/belief/social relationships, and so on, even the smallest practices, expressions, or activities”

ethnography

detailed book about a certain group of people in specific time & place

Participant observation

 lives with/works/plays/eats/celebrates/mourns with their interlocutors, maybe learning their language, in order to observe

Edward Tylor

Armchair Anthropologist

defined culture the earliest. Primitive cultures are backwards/inferior. unchanging monolith

has 3 parts: complex whole, practices, acquired by society

Clifford Geertz defn of culture

“ideas based on learning and symbols, … as a set of control mechanisms, plans, recipes, rules, constructions” = culture

1. Culture gave us ideas and a set of rules/social control/mechanisms

2. Form of learning which guides behavior

Leslie White defn of culture

“tools, implements, utensils, clothing, ornaments, customs, beliefs, rituals, works of art, games, language, etc” = culture

1. Focusing on material items/tangible things rather than Geertz’s mechanisms

Ruth Benedict

Famous for Patterns of Culture book, which says culture is a coherent, logical pattern

Student of Franz Boas

1887-1948

cultural relativism

idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and practices from the perspective of their own culture and not our own

cultural evolutionism

relativism was challenging this

1. a discredited theory popular in 1800s that suggested that societies evolved through stages from simple to advanced

   1. Species that are not fit to survive will die out

   2. This has been challenged because not every culture follows uni-directional savagery, barbary, civilization

ethnocentrism

tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to apply one’s own values in judging the behavior of others

enculturation

the process by which humans living together learn the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cultures

Characteristics of culture

Dynamic, adaptive, learned, symbolic, shared, integrated, interact with nature

Bronislaw Malinowski

1884-1942

1. Father of Social Anthropology

2. Popularized participant observation & fieldwork (“pitch your tent” - was stranded in various places because of WW1)

3. Polish anthropologist, worked at the london school of economics

4. Studied australian aboriginal tribes in papua new guinea and melanesia, trobriand islands

5. Most famous- Argonauts of the Western Pacific —> Kula ring

Ethnography readings

Brazilian Enchanted Island —> talked to natives and discussed land use rights

• discussed Margaret Mead’s coming of age in samoa book,

Nacirema (satire about The Other)

Thick description

Coined by Geertz in his book, explains not only the behavior but the context in which it occurs and interpretations of it, internal logic of why it is meaningful, and understanding the motivation/perspectives/attitudes

Nacirema

• Rituals of health/human body- ex the mouth rite

  • Regular things, ex shaving, that is written in a strange way to induce curiosity

• Gender roles: medicine men and women, holy mouth men, listener

• Material culture: charm box, magical packets

• Religion: imposing temple “latipso”

  • Hospital

• Cultural hero: Notgnihsaw

  • Washington spelled backwards

• Whole society is centered around thinking the human body is ugly

Anthropologist vs Sociologist

• Anthropologist = non-Western, non-industrial, non-literate groups

• Sociologist = large societies and institutions, industrial West

Video about fieldwork

1. Anthropology = connecting social and cultural life

2. Allows glimpse into people’s inner lives

3. Dorchester MA Haitian social services for refugees

   1. Dr Erica James

      1. Diaspora Haitians start new subculture

      2. What does it mean to be an American for them

      3. Getting health information is difficult for them

      4. Questions about citizenship and law/rights → central to security

4. Londonderry Vermont, farmstead and artisan cheesemaking in the US

   1. Dr Heather Paxson, how do people learn how to make cheese

5. Marine Biology lab in Cambridge MA

   1. Exploring how they do environmental research under water

   2. “Practice of production of authoritative knowledge of the ocean world”

Emic vs Etic perspectives

Emic perspectives = descriptions of practices and beliefs in terms that are meaningful to people who belong to that culture (insider’s view, defined by people within)

Etic perspectives = explanations for practices by an outside observer in ways that are meaningful to the observer (analyzes culture using external frameworks)

Ethnographies must bridge these —> Parsing out what community is telling you vs actual details

Life histories

“Intimate portraits of a few individuals, chronicling many aspects of their daily lives and major events within their lifetime”

Could also be people who lived through specific instances/important historical events

Code of ethics reading

There are certain responsibilities that one has- to the research community, to scholarship and science, to public

Also, one needs:

• Teaching → responsibility to students and trainees

• Dissemination of results

• Informed consent

• Anonymize or give recognition

• acknowledge debt to society

• reciprocity when possible (ie provide gossip)

Field notes/field diary

1. Personal diary

   1. Malinowski’s diary was found later and had incriminatory/racist comments posthumously

2. Video camera

3. Audio recorder

4. Computer/tablet/notebook

5. Camera 

6. Record feelings, notes on original impressions, curiosities, “trivialities”

Research ethics

Standards that guide researchers to conduct their work with human groups responsibly

1. All participants must be aware of why the anthropologist is there to begin with

2. How research will be used

3. Sources of funding

4. Interlocutors must give informed consent

   1. Voluntary and informed consent form before the engage

   2. Participants understand the purpose, risks, and benefits

   3. Protecting their risks and privacy

   4. Agreement is dynamic/can change

Covert research

Didn’t tell communities and went undercover

Now considered dangerous and unethical

The Anthropologist (film)

Travel diary of sorts

Margaret Mead’s daughter Mary Catherine Bateson (habit of noticing)

Susie Crate’s daughter Katie in Siberia, studying Sakha people, discussing climate change

Kinship

Describes culturally recognized ties between family members. Includes the terms, or social statuses, used to define family members and the roles or expected behaviors family associate with these statuses

Role

set of behaviors expected of an individual who occupies a particular status

Status

culturally designated position a person occupies in a particular setting

consanguineal

Encompasses blood connections/kinship

birth = descent

affinal

through marriage

endogamy vs exogamy

endogamy = practice of marrying within one’s group

exogamy opposite

extended family

three generations

joint family

1.  multigenerational with grandparents and have uncles/aunts as well

   1. More common in South Asia

Polygny vs polyandry in polygamous families

Multiple spouses

1. Multiple wives = polygyny

2. Multiple husbands = polyandry

cross cousin vs parallel cousin

cross = children of sibling of opposite gender as parent

parallel = children of same gender as parent

Radcliffe Brown

1881-1955

1. English social anthropologist studied kinship

2. Helped develop theory of structural functionalism

   1. Sees society as a complex system (machine with moving parts) whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability

   2. Society works together for integrity cross generation

   3. Kinship is an important connector

   4. Breakdown of kinship → breaks family

      1. Ex if women don’t do fixed roles, society will break down

   5. Framework has been discredited because promotes simplistic view

      1. Now, people think that the different parts of society are in contradiction with each other

   6. Radcliffe Brown created the status of the mother’s brother

      1. Maternal uncle

      2. In matrilineal society, mother’s brother is more important than father in children’s lives

      3. Significant = sister brother pair

James Frazer

Wrote the Golden Bough

dismissed religion as stuff he didn’t believe in

attempted to compose the first comprehensive study of the world’s major magical and religious belief system

Religion

the means by which human society and culture is extended to include the nonhuman

marcel mauss a general theory of magic

religion and magic were two opposite poles —> secretive, individualist, vs communal and public

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Collective effervescence = a passion or energy that arises when groups of people share the same thought and emotion

collective consciousness that is created through religious beliefs

1. Defined religion as set of practices and social institutions that bring members of a community together, and a unified system of beliefs/practices relative to sacred things

2. Split into sacred and profane

   1. Inspire feelings of awe, ultimately unknowable, set apart with respect, beyond limited human abilities

   2. Versus ordinary, can be experienced with human senses

Marx on religion

called it “opium of the people”

1. Attempts to justify inequalities in power and status

2. Created an illusion of happiness that helped people cope with “economic difficulties of life under capitalism”

Freud on religion

the institution that prevents us from acting upon our deepest and most awful desires

totemic religions

belief systems based on the worship of a particular animal or object, and suggested that the purpose of these religions was to regulate interactions with socially significant and potentially disruptive objects and relationships

shaman vs prophet

• Shaman = part time (help people enter altered states of consciousness through dreams, drugs, music, dance, etc), priest = full time

• Prophet = claims direct communication

millenarians

believe redemption is imminent

david koresh —> schism 7th day adventist

baseball magic

• Baseball routines/rituals to win

• Similar to Malinowski rituals kula ring

• Good luck charms aka fetishes

  • Good luck attributed to items

  • Also can associate good playing to prior behavior

• Taboo is the opposite of rituals, comes from polynesian word meaning prohibition

• Uniform numbers

• Controls uncertainty

• Confidence at no cost

• Placebo effect can work

malinowski is famous for

1. Functionalism = every behavior we have serves a function

   1. Limit: there may be emotional/traditional practice that can’t be explained, it also limits a practice to just its function rather than thinking about the full meaning

2. kula ring —> religious rituals reduced anxiety and creates social solidarity before dangerous sailing → psychological need

3. his book Magic, Science, & Religion = his book which explains why rituals are so important

   1. Magic = practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one’s control

   2. helps us live in an uncertain world

rituals

practices or ceremonies that serve a religious purpose and are usually supervised by religious specialists

1. Must be formalized/patterned

2. Stylized and repetitive

3. Take place at certain times and places

4. Members recognize significance → social acts

rites of passage (3 parts)

separation

liminality

incorporation

Rites of intensification vs Revitalization rituals

1.  collective practice on a large scale, tries to recuperate and intensify group solidarity

2. VS: Revitalization rituals = take place after catastrophe or significant historical event, bring people back together

marcel mauss on gifts

gift exchange = more than simple economic transaction, it’s a "total social fact" deeply tied to law, religion, morality, and social structure

there is obligation to give, receive, and reciprocate

he was nephew of durkheim

EE Evans Pritchard (1902-1973)

1. British social anthropologist, Malinowski’s students

2. Professor of social anthropology at Oxford

3. Contribution is study of witchcraft

4. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande (1957)

   1. Azande are agricultural people in southern Sudan on the upper Nile

   2. Witchcraft (mangu) = cultural belief system used to explain unfortunate events

      1. Blame for unexpected misfortunes

   3. Didn’t have concept of bad luck or bad things randomly happening, they used witchcraft as explanation

      1. Ex: hut collapse, illness, infidelity

5. Function of witchcraft

   1. Safety valve, releases potential harmful conflict into less damaging activities

   2. An attempt to explain a complex world in society’s terms of reference

   3. Eased intensity of emotion

   4. Alternative system for arbitration

Political anthropology

1. the study of power in human society

   1. Power = the ability to exercise one’s will over others, or to control/influence the practices of others

ascribed vs achieved status

1. Ascribed status = automatic, born into social categories, ex nobility

2. Achieved status = qualifications based, come through personal action/effort, can be positive or negative

Economic anthropology

1. A study of livelihoods: how humans work to obtain food, clothing, and shelter that sustain our lives

2. Exchange involves how goods are distributed among people

3. assumption of profit motive is a western idea (maximize gains in limited resources)

potlatching

villages give away material goods in exchange for prestige, the more extravagant the potlach, the more prestige

1. Building relations and fallbacks with other members, so next year you can expect that in response

2. Building alliances, social solidarity

3. System rooted in reciprocity and gift giving

4. Refutes Western individualism

2. Redistributing excess from one community to gain trust and dependence from other groups

3. Graeber → these gifts were not based on calculation, but on refusal to calculate, rooted in ethical system that rejects the basic principles of economics