Unit 1: Intro to anthropology and archaeology

Anthropology

Is the scientific study of differences and similarities in human populations.

Simply stated, anthropology is the study of humankind from a holistic perspective.

Broad scope that is distinctive to anthropology

Holistic perspective

Holistic is a term commonly used to refer to

(A) a system understood as a whole, and

(B) a system defined by an understanding of its parts closely interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.

North American anthropologists typically specialize in one of the four major fields of anthropological research:

• Biological or physical anthropology

• Cultural or social anthropology

• Linguistic anthropology

• Archaeology

Physical anthropology catergories:

• Paleonathropology

• Human osteology

• Primatology

• Population genetics

• Skeletal biology

• Forensic anthropology

• Human ecology

Cultural anthropology categories:

• Ethnography

• Ethnology

• Ethnohistory

• Historical anthropology

• Political economy

• Urban anthropology

Linguistics categories:

• Historical linguistics

• Structural linguistics

Archaeology categories:

• Prehistoric archaeology

• Ethnoarchaeology

• Classical archaeology

• Historical archaeology

• Zooarchaeology

Physical anthropology (biological anthropology)

is mainly concerned with the study of the diversity of humans as biological organisms

In other words, biological anthropologists are concerned with the study of humans’ biological or physical characteristics and how they have evolved throughout time.

The popular field within physical anthropology

Paleoanthropology (or human palaeontology)

What do paleoanthropologists study?

study the emergence of humans and their evolutionary and genetic relationships with other hominins

Human osteology

focuses on the study of the human skeleton

Genetics

the study of the genetic evidence that determines the inheritance of physical characteristics.

Primatologists

scientists who study primates

Cultural anthropology (social or sociocultural anthropology)

studies the human species as a cultural organism, i.e. it focuses on human culture(s) and society.

Culture

refers to the different ways of thinking and behaving of a particular group of people.

Ethnography

a detailed study of the culture of a particular group of people

Fieldwork

The period of time where the ethnographer usually spends several months or several years living with the people who he/she is studying.

Participant observation

refers to a technique of anthropological research in which the anthropologist learns about people’s culture by means of social situations and observation. In other words, the anthropologist immerses himself/herself in the social setting under study.

Ethnology

• typically refers to the anthropological research that focuses on the cross-cultural dimensions of the several ethnographic studies done by ethnographers.

• In other words, ethnologists examine the cultural differences and similarities among different groups and, in so doing they aspire to elaborate scientific theories concerning a number of social and cultural practices.

Linguistic anthropology

an interdisciplinary discipline devoted to the study of language from an anthropological perspective.

• In particular, this discipline examines the relationships between language and culture, the many different ways in which language is used in cultural contexts, and the linguistic diversity that is exclusive to anatomically modern people.

Two main areas of research in linguistic anthropology

Structural linguistics and sociolinguistics

Structural linguistics

Contrasts different languages in order to better understand how language works.

For instance, this science seeks to determine whether people speaking different languages have different ways of perceiving and understanding reality

Sociolinguistics

is the branch of linguistic anthropology that examines the many different facets of the relationships between language and society.

In particular, they are interested in examining how language is used differently by different social groups within a particular cultural framework

Archaeology

is the branch of anthropology that examines the material culture of past societies to reconstruct the ways of life of those societies.

The scientific method

a set of uniform procedures used to evaluate data from systematic observation.

Inductive argument

is that which proceeds from a concrete number of specific facts or cases to a general conclusion.

ex. all the metals that i have ever tested expand when heated; therefore, all metals expand when heated

Deductive argument

is an inference in which it is asserted that the validity of the conclusion is guaranteed if the premises are true.

ex.

1. All human beings are hominins.

2. I am a human being.

3. I am a hominin.

   In this argument, if 1 and 2 are true, 3 must be true.

Data

refer to the information collected by scientists using specific methods to be examined or used in an effort to gain scientific knowledge.

Facts

are claims about the world that can be established by means of observation.

Scientific hypotheses

are testable propositions elaborated from the analysis of particular sets of data. In other words, a scientific hypothesis proposes a provisional explanation about a phenomenon or a number of closely-related phenomena that are observed in the natural world.

Scientific theories

are explanatory schemes of broad scope that explain natural or social phenomena.

Scientific objectivity

refers to the idea according to which prejudices, personal biases, and non-scientific interests should not influence scientific hypotheses, methods and theories.

While objectivity has been traditionally considered as an ideal for scientific research, today it is generally accepted that complete objectivity can never be attained.

For this reason, the idea of objectivity has been criticized recurrently, especially in humanities and social sciences.

Subjectivism

is a position suggesting that scientific theories and hypotheses are made by people and, therefore, they are subjective- that is, they are based on prior experience and they are biased by a number of prejudices and preconceptions.

Relativism

is the philosophical doctrine suggesting that, since objectivity does not exist, it is impossible to judge any scientific theory as being more accurate than any other.