Intro to cultural anthropology exam 1

Anthropology

Studying humans, their cultures, etc.

Four-Field anthropology

Archaeology
Linguistics
Biological
Cultural

Archaeology Anthropology

The study of human cultures and pasts through remains

Linguistics anthropology

The study of how people communicate and how it relates to culture

Biological Anthropology

The study of human evolution, genetics, and health

Cultural anthropology

Study of human societies and cultures, no culture is inevitable or natural

Thinking anthropologically

culture is a mystery and the anthropologist is a detective, defined differently in different contexts, we collect clues (data) to answer… What motivates them? What are the constraints placed on them by cultural definitions of race, gender, etc.? Why do people do things the way they do?

Anthropological method- 3 tools

Empiricism
Fieldwork
Contextualization

Empiricism

Philosophical and scientific concept that emphasizes the role of experience, evidence and observation in the formation of knowledge

Sensory experience rather than exclusively on reason and intuition

Test hypotheses through observing and recording behaviors

Fieldwork

Research strategy for understanding the world through intense interaction with a local community of people over an extended period

Contextualization

Fit practices into a broader frame

Research approach that elucidates the dynamic relationship between phenomena on all scales

Connections between phenomena make up complex and often invisible webs of relationships

Ethnography

Product of anthropological writing and storytelling- after gathering data through fieldwork, anthropologists must decide how to tell the stories of the people they study

Not just representing the facts but also what facts to present, which people and events to highlight and which stories to tell

Thick Description

A research strategy that combines a detailed description of a cultural activity with an analysis of the layers of deep cultural meaning in which those activities are embedded

Every cultural action is more than the action itself; it is also a symbol of deeper meaning

Perspective

From whose perspective do we understand why people do what they do?

Ethnocentrism

The impulse to use our own cultural norms to judge the cultural beliefs and practices of others

Power

???

Habitus

Self-perceptions, sensibilities, and tastes developed in response to external influences over a lifetime that shape one’s conception of the world and where one fits in it

Nature vs. Culture

A long-standing debate on what factors- such as biology, genes, culture, and language- determine or even predetermine human behavior and potential

Biology and genes do not determine who we are

Making the Familiar Strange

Anthropological perspective on other cultures enables us to perceive our own cultural activities in a new light. Even the most familiar practices might seem exotic, bizarre, and strange when seen through the lens of anthropology.

Social Business

How people exercise power during… interactions and to how people create identities and values through the social discourse

The ends achieved in a social interaction

Shapes the flow of social discourse

Social intention and socially interpreted

Symbolic/interpretative anthropology

Culture is primarily a set of ideas or knowledge shared by a group of people that provides a common body of information about how to behave, why to behave that way, and what that behavior means

Even simple, seemingly straightforward actions have deep meaning

Ethnographic Fieldwork

Unique set of practices that anthropologists- particularly cultural and linguistic anthropologists- have developed to put people first as we analyze how human societies work

The whole world is our field, but our unique perspective first focuses on details and patterns of human life in the social setting

Positionality

A methodology that requires researchers to identify how factors of race, class, educational attainment, income, ability, gender, and citizenship, among others, intersect to influence what they study, what kind of data they can access, what conclusions they come to, and how they represent themselves and others

Reflexivity

Is a “continual internal dialogue and critical self-evaluation of a researcher’s positionalty as well as active acknowledgement and explicit recognition that this position may affect the research process and outcome”

Armchair Anthropology

Early anthropologist developed their theories of the human condition based on written accounts and opinions of others

They had no direct contact with people they wrote about

Wrote as “objective” voice from nowhere

Salvage Anthropology

Fieldwork strategy developed by Fran Boas to collect cultural, material, linguistic, and biological information about Indigenous populations being devastated by western expansion of European settlers.

Experimental Ethnography

Blurred boundary across genres, disciplinary concerns, and theoretical impulses

Intersectionality

An analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender, and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification

Culture

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people

Social Darwinism/Cultural Evolution

The theory proposed by nineteenth century anthropologists that all cultures naturally evolve through the same sequence of stages from simple to complex

Race

A social construct, humans are almost identical genetically: we share more than 99.9% of our DNA

Small differences that do exist are not distributed in a way that correspond with popular notions of separate races

racial categories are not fixed in nature, but have changed constantly over time

For anthropologists, race is a framework of categories

Racism

People’s thoughts and actions and institutions patterns and policies that create or reproduce unequal access to power, privilege, resources, and opportunities based on imaged differences among groups

Cultural Relativism

Understanding a group’s beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making judgements

Kinship - for early anthropologists

Descent groups, lineage, clan

Descent groups

A kinship group in which primary relationships are traced through certain consanguineal (blood) relatives

Lineage

A type of descent group that traces genealogical connection through generations by linking person to a founding ancestor

Clan

A type of descent group based on a claim to a founding ancestor but lacking genealogical documentation

Multispecies ethnography

Ethnographic research that considers the interactions of all species living on the planet in order to provide a more-than-human perspective on the world

Creatures previously appearing on the margins of anthropology- as part of the landscape, as food for humans, as symbols- have been pressed into the foreground in recent ethnographies

Relatedness (Jane Carsten)

Captures a more nebulous form of connection that does not fit into standard idea of kinship

Kinship is not a natural term, but one that comes from a particular history tided to ideas of blood and biology

Allows one to explore different kinds of connection: how lives get tied up with one another

Studies often think of it as “positive” or warm and fuzzy, mutality of affinity

Feminist anthropology critiques of “bloodline”

“The blood that ostensibly holds people together is a a highly condensed and invested metaphor for social regulations governing inheritance and property relations

Stratification

The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among members of a group or culture

Egalitarian society

A group based on the sharing of resources to ensure success with a relative absence of hierarchy and violence

Ranked societies

A group in which wealth is not stratified but prestige and status are. Redistribution and gift-giving

Class-based societies

A system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of society’s resources, often maintained through violence

Symbolic and/or direct violence- ex: use of police force to protect private property

Social reproduction

The phenomenon whereby social and class relations of prestige are passed from one generation to the next.

Cultural capital

The knowledge, habits, and tastes learned from parents and family that individuals can use to gain access to scarce and valuable resources in society

Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”

Writing about America as if they were an outsider/anthropologist writing about it

Saying the Nacirema: focus on the human bod and believe it is naturally ugly and prone to disease, has a shrine (bathroom) where they perform cleansing rituals, has medicine men and holy mouth men (doctors and dentists), latipso ceremonies are hospitals

Main takeaway: commentary on cultural relativism and ethncentrism

Bohannan’s “Shakespeare in the Bush”

Explores the idea of universal human nature through an anthropological lens, author recounts her experience trying to explain hamlet to the Tiv people of West Africa where she found that their cultural perspectives led to very different interpretations of the story- literature is filtered through cultural perspectives

Geertz’s “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”

Geertz was initially not accepted by the Balinese people but gained acceptance after participating in an illegal cockfight

Cockfighting is deeply embedded in Balinese social culture- identity and status

Hurton’s “Mules and Men”

Gains the trust of community by immersing herself in storytelling, she preserves the oral traditions and dialects of the tellers, showcasing the unique style of storytelling

Undergoes initiation rituals- emphasizes the power of spirituality, resistance, and cultural preservation

Preserves African folklore and Hoodoo traditions while challenging stereotypes

Baker’s “the Location of Franz Boas within the African-American Struggle”

Used anthropology to disprove biological determinism, showing that race is a social construct rather than a biological fact

Developed the idea that all cultures should be studied on their own terms, rather than being judged by Western standards

Challenging racist ideologies and supporting African American scholars

Smedley’s “Race’ and the Construction of Human Identity”

Critically examines the concept of race as a social construct, arguing that it has not biological basis

Emphasizes that race is rooted in genetic differences but is a historically constructed system of classificaton

She traces the origins of race to colonial America, where it was developed to justify slavery

Abu-Lughod’s “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”

Critiques Western narratives that portray Muslim women as oppressed victims needing rescue

Govindrajan’s “The Goat Who Died For Family”

Sacrificed goat being treated as a family member and religious offering

The sacrifice is not an act of violence, it is an emotional and spiritual obligation

Critiques Western perspective that views animal sacrifice solely as cruelty

The relationship between humans and animals is more fluid and emotionally complex than often assumed

It is an expression of care and devotion

Butler’s “Kinship beyond the Bloodline”

Examines how kinship is often understood in terms of biological relationships

Argues that kinship must be based on biological ties which renforces nuclear family structures

Kinship is a social and cultural construct that can be reimagined beyond traditional norms

Holme’s “Chapter 4": How the Poor Suffer.” In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States

Examines the physical, emotional, and social suffering migrant farmworkers in the US experienced

Emphasizes the exploitative conditions they endure in the agricultural industry: low wags, grueling labor, ongoing physical suffering

Lack of access to healthcare, while experiencing injuries, illnesses, and chronic conditions due to hazardous working conditions

Intersection of race and class

The inequalities migrant farmworkers face are a result of systematic and structural violence