Comprehensive Anthropology: Culture, Race, Politics, and Field Methods

Anthropology

Studies the whole of the human condition (post, present, and future) including biology, technology, language, culture, history, prehistory, etc...

Biological Anthropology

The study of human biology within the framework of evolution and with an emphasis on the interaction between biology and culture.

Linguistic Anthropology

Form, function, and social context of language.

Cultural Anthropology

The study of human societies in a cross-cultural perspective.

Archaeology

The study of how people used to live, based on the material culture they left behind.

Instincts

An inborn pattern of activity or tendency.

Culture

Traditions and customs transmitted through learning that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them.

Cultural Relativism

The viewpoint that behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture.

Ethnocentrism

The idea that your culture is better than others.

Society

A group of people who interact more with each other than with others.

Enculturation

The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted (within generations, across generations, or across societies).

Universals

(Something) found in every culture.

Particularities

Unique to certain cultures.

Scientific Method

Empirical, repeatable, self-correcting; testable through data collection and analysis.

Franz Boas

One of the founders of U.S anthropology who studied the Inuit of Baffin Islands.

Sir Francis Bacon

A philosopher known for his contributions to the scientific method (AD 1561-1626).

Kluckhohn

Proposed that people differ because they were brought up that way.

Toolkit: ethnography

A method used in cultural anthropology to study human societies.

Toolkit: language

A method used in linguistic anthropology to study language.

Toolkit: biology

A method used in biological anthropology focusing on DNA, bones, behavior, and adaptive significance.

Toolkit: Excavations

A method used in archaeology for analyzing material culture.

Independent invention

People switching from writing notes to typing notes

Diffusion

Ideas and customs have to spread

Agency and practice

People coming together for change

Culture is Maladaptive

Think of phones controlling people's lives

Methods: Going to the Field

Reality: Anthropologists involve different things around the world (it's different for everybody), wherever there's culture there's fieldwork

Preparing for the field

Formulate a research question

Background research

Research Design

Participant observation

Bronisław Malinowski Austrian anthropologist who studied in New Guinea and immersed himself into the culture during WW1

Life history

Specific type of interview asking for someone's life story

Genealogical method

American Anthropological Association Code of Ethics

Informed consent

After having been informed of the goals of the research, informants formally agree to take part in the research (often involves a signed document)

In the field

Take notes (mics, cameras, pens)

Informants

Any person who provides the anthropologist with information

Longitudinal research

Long-term study of a community, society, culture, or other unit, usually based on repeated visits

Kinship

Who's in your "family"

Marriage

A relationship between one or more men (male or female sex) and one or more women (female or male sex) who are recognized by society as having a continuing claim to the right of sexual access to one another

Monogamy

The most common form of marriage worldwide, but so many other options

Polygyny

Marriage of a man to two or more women at the same time

Polyandry

Marriage of a woman to two or more men at one time

Family

Two or more people related by blood marriage, or adoption

Household

Basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and/or shelter are organized and carried out

Residence patterns

Who are people going to live with

Patrilocal

Husband's father's relatives

Matrilocal

Wife's mother's relatives

Ambilocal

Can choose either relatives

Neolocal

Move away from both relatives

Descent

Who's in your "family"

Patrilineal

Automatic membership in father's group

Matrilineal

Automatic membership in mother's group

Bilateral

Traced through both paternal and maternal lines

Ongka's Big Moka

In this money-less society, how do people make a living? By collecting pigs

Status without money

Possessions: pigs seem to be a big part of status in this case study

Kinship in community organization

What is the role of kinship in community organization in this case study?

Sex

Refers to biological differences

Sexual dimorphism

Refers to the physiological differences between males and females

Sexual orientation

One's identity in relation to who they are sexually attracted to or who they have sex with

Gender

Refers to the cultural construction of masculine and feminine characteristics that may or may not correlate with the biological underpinnings of sex

Gender roles and gendered division of labor

There's no denying biology, due to sexual differences, females are better equipped to feed babies, males mostly don't make milk. But there's nothing biological about men hunting. When they are so rigid, they can lead to repression, bias, discrimination.

Hijras

India's 3rd gender

Biological Concept of Race

Biological species concept of race is a geographically (hence, reproductively) isolated subdivision of a species, or subspecies

Race

Any of the groups into which humans can be divided according to their physical characteristics, e.g. color of their skin, color and type of hair, shape of eyes and nose

Human classification into races

Have been dependent solely on the evaluation of phenotype

Human populations

Have not been reproductively isolated long enough to have developed into distinct biological races.

Reproductive Isolation

The state of being separated from others in terms of reproduction, which has not occurred for more than a few thousand years in the context discussed.

Races

There are no races in the biological sense of distinct divisions of the human species, not even genetically.

Physical Traits and Race

The physical traits chosen to define race are basically arbitrary and could include characteristics such as red hair, or ear, nose, or eye shape.

Ethnic Group

A group of people distinguished by cultural similarities.

Race in Discourse

Race, as it is used in everyday discourse, refers to a social category rather than a biological category.

Social Construct

A category created and developed by society, and a perception of a group that is constructed through cultural or social practice.

Stereotype

A widely held, fixed, and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing that pigeonholes someone.

Racism

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

Ethnographic Methods

Qualitative techniques used to study cultures and communities by immersing in their natural environment to understand their behaviors, beliefs, and practices from their perspective.

Clifford Geertz

An anthropologist known for his work 'The Interpretation of Cultures'.

Medical Anthropologist

A researcher who studies how health and wellness affect different cultures, focusing on healing and repair.

Psychodrama

A form of psychotherapy that uses theater and role play for healing.

Lod

An important city for all three Abrahamic faiths, known for its reputation as a city of corruption, organized crime, murder, and drugs.

Haudenosaunee

People of the longhouse, known to have one of the biggest democracies.

Democracy

Political power, the collective good, is invested in the people.

Haudenosaunee Democracy

One of the oldest standing democracies, started between 1100 and 1400, and continues today.

Clan Mothers

Chosen by the clan, they are in the role for life, often are elders, and trained by their successor.

Chiefs

Hold the power for life, maintain peace, and must act on matters in consensus.

Longhouse

A large building meant for meetings for Native Americans.

Native NYC

Many tribes sharing a common area, leading to an exchange of resources, ideas, and values.

Wampum

A highly traded item among tribes, made from clam shells.

Algonquian

A group that is different from the Haudenosaunee.

Tribe vs Nation

Cultural aspects can define tribes, while political aspects define nations.

Federally Recognized Tribes

There are 574 federally recognized tribes across the nation.

Reproductively isolated

We haven't been reproductively isolated, ever, for more than a few thousand years.

Races in biology

There are no races in the biological sense of distinct divisions of the human species, not even genetically.

Cranial shape study

Measured cranial shape of 13,000 immigrants and their kids.

Cranial differences

Cranial differences are not determined by race, but nutrition.

Anthropological sub-disciplines

Anthropological sub-disciplines work together.

Cultural issue challenge

Boas challenged a cultural issue (racism) using biological anthropological research (cranial morphology).

Dr. Katz's research

Medical anthropologist looking at how health and wellness affects different cultures.

Tribe

cultural similarities

Nations

Political entities are considered nations

Pre-contact period

until 1497/1608 (John makes contact)

Woodlands

Woodlands

Peacemaker

Peacemaker