Cultural Anthropology: Seeing, Myths, Ethnography & Medical Anthropology

What is the primary goal of anthropology according to the notes?

To explore deeper questions about being human rather than just trivia about other cultures.

What are Michael Wesch's four moves of seeing?

Seeing your own seeing, seeing big, seeing small, and seeing at all.

How does anthropology transform our understanding of the familiar?

It makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar, revealing webs of meaning.

What does the term 'naturenurtural' signify in anthropology?

It refers to the inseparable entanglement of biology and culture.

What is the significance of ethnography in cultural anthropology?

Ethnography is a way of seeing and being in the world, essential for understanding how humans make meaning.

What are myths in the context of anthropology?

Powerful cultural stories that shape our expectations and perceptions, not merely falsehoods.

What does the myth that 'race is biological' imply?

It suggests a social invention rather than a biological certainty, justifying harmful practices like slavery and segregation.

What harm does the myth of 'natural male aggression' cause?

It narrows masculinity to dominance and violence, fueling patriarchy and erasing men's capacities for care.

How does the myth of 'natural monogamy' affect societal views?

It stigmatizes diverse relationship forms, including LGBTQ kinship and nontraditional families.

What is the role of enculturation in the Moken community?

Children learn to swim and dive for food, adapting their biology through cultural practices.

What is the difference between armchair anthropology and fieldwork?

Armchair anthropology relies on reading and theory, while fieldwork involves direct engagement with cultures.

What was the impact of European colonial expansion on ethnography?

It produced vast cultural archives and embedded ethnographic knowledge within the machinery of empire.

What does 'seeing big' entail in anthropology?

Using complex models of culture to place daily acts within wider structures.

What does 'seeing small' refer to in the context of anthropology?

Noticing the importance of little details and paying attention to them.

What does the term 'superstructure' refer to in cultural models?

The overarching ideas and beliefs that shape a society.

What is the significance of the relationship between friends in New Guinea?

Gift-giving strengthens relationships, while viewing money as disrespectful reflects cultural values.

What does Howell state about ethnography?

Anthropology is nothing without ethnography, linking it to core debates about meaning and power.

What is the historical significance of Herodotus' Histories?

It provided detailed accounts of different cultures but lacked fieldwork, marking early attempts at cultural description.

What is the focus of anthropological inquiry regarding concepts like wealth and health?

To question and redefine these concepts beyond their conventional meanings.

What does the term 'holistic perspective' mean in anthropology?

Seeing all aspects of culture as interconnected rather than isolated.

What marked the shift from armchair to field-based anthropology?

The Ethnographic Revolution, pioneered by Malinowski.

Who was Bronislaw Malinowski?

A Polish scholar known for pioneering participant observation and functionalism in anthropology.

What is participant observation?

A research method where the anthropologist immerses themselves in the daily life of the community being studied.

What is the goal of ethnography according to Malinowski?

To grasp the native's point of view and understand the imponderabilia of actual life.

What is functionalism in anthropology?

A theory that explains cultural practices as serving functions that meet human needs and maintain social systems.

What is interpretivism in anthropology?

An approach that emphasizes understanding the meanings people assign to their actions and beliefs.

What is the difference between thin and thick description?

Thin description records what happened, while thick description includes interpretation of its meaning in context.

What are the principles of the AAA code of ethics?

Do no harm, prioritize people over project goals, obtain informed consent, ensure anonymity and confidentiality, and maintain honesty and transparency.

What is medical anthropology?

A subfield of cultural anthropology that studies how culture, inequality, and power shape health and illness.

What is structural violence?

Systematic harm caused by social structures, such as poverty and racism, that leads to health disparities.

How does biomedicine differ from medical anthropology?

Biomedicine views disease as a biological issue, while medical anthropology sees it as influenced by history, politics, and inequality.

Who is Nancy Scheper-Hughes?

An anthropologist who studied global organ trafficking and its implications for marginalized populations.

What is the concept of biosociality?

The idea that social identities and relationships are shaped by biological factors, often leading to new forms of inequality.

What are the three bodies described in anthropology?

The individual body (physical health), social body (cultural symbolism), and body politic (political regulation).

What is multi-sited ethnography?

A research method that involves studying a phenomenon across multiple geographic locations to capture its complexities.

What does the commodification of the body refer to?

The transformation of human organs into tradable goods, detached from their personhood.

What ethical dilemmas arise in organ donation?

Issues of altruism versus coercion, and the blurred lines between gift and commodity.

How has the definition of brain death changed?

It has been redefined to expand the pool of potential organ donors, affecting when a person is considered 'dead'.

What is the significance of Malinowski's work in anthropology?

He emphasized the importance of fieldwork and understanding culture from the inside out.

What does the term 'imponderabilia' refer to in ethnography?

The small, everyday routines that shape and reflect a culture.

What is the relationship between health and culture in medical anthropology?

Health is viewed as a product of cultural, political, and historical contexts, not just biological factors.

What role does anthropology play in understanding health disparities?

Anthropologists reveal the deeper structures of inequality that produce health issues, beyond individual behaviors.

What is the impact of poverty on health according to structural violence?

Poverty leads to systemic health issues, resulting in malnutrition, unsafe housing, and lack of access to care.

What did Paul Farmer contribute to medical anthropology?

He focused on the slow, often invisible harm caused by social systems and advocated for addressing systemic inequalities.

What is cultural anthropology?

The study of cultural threads such as clothes, money, and practices that shape human experience.

Who defined anthropology as the analysis of webs of significance?

Clifford Geertz

What are social facts?

Rules and norms that shape our actions.

Define cultural relativism.

The practice of suspending judgment to understand cultural practices on their own terms.

What are social sanctions?

Rewards or punishments that enforce social rules.

What is culture?

Learned and shared patterns of meaning and practice that make the world intelligible.

What is the difference between emic and etic perspectives?

Emic refers to an insider's view, while etic refers to an outsider's view.

What is the Kula Ring?

A system of exchange among the Trobriand Islanders involving shell necklaces and armbands that creates social bonds.

What did Malinowski study?

The Kula Ring among the Trobriand Islanders.

What are the four fields of anthropology?

Biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

How does anthropology differ from economics?

Anthropology explores how people define value and need within cultural contexts, while economics uses abstract models.

What is ethnography?

A qualitative research method involving long-term immersion in a community to understand their culture.

What is the goal of anthropology?

To ask deeper questions about being human and to understand cultural meanings.

What does it mean to make the familiar strange?

To challenge and question everyday norms and assumptions about culture.

What are myths in the context of anthropology?

Powerful cultural stories that shape perceptions and expectations, not just falsehoods.

What does Fuentes argue about race?

Race is a social invention, not a biological certainty.

What is the significance of the phrase 'Culture is like water to a fish'?

It suggests that culture is pervasive and often invisible to those who live within it.

What are Michael Wesch's 4 moves of seeing?

Seeing your own seeing, seeing big, seeing small, and seeing it all interconnected.

What is the importance of depth of trust in ethnography?

It is built over years and is essential for understanding the nuances of a culture.

What does 'resisting single stories' mean in anthropology?

It emphasizes the need to understand that what seems irrational may be logical within a specific cultural context.

What is the concept of 'naturenurtural'?

It refers to the inseparable entanglement of biology and culture, rejecting the nature vs nurture divide.

How do the Moken children adapt their biology?

Through cultural practices like swimming and diving, they develop physical adaptations such as constricting pupils and changing eye lens shape.

What is ethnography in cultural anthropology?

Ethnography is a long-term, immersive study of a culture through direct engagement, not just a method but a cornerstone of anthropology.

Why is ethnography important in anthropology?

It allows anthropologists to understand how humans make meaning and negotiate power and history in daily life.

What did ancient ethnographers like Herodotus and Tacitus do?

They described cultural differences from afar without fieldwork, imagining distant peoples and their customs.

What role did European colonial expansion play in ethnography?

It produced vast cultural archives as missionaries and colonial officers documented local cultures for governance and conversion.

What is 'armchair anthropology'?

A style of anthropology in the 1700s-1800s where scholars studied cultures through reading and theoretical analysis rather than direct fieldwork.

Who was Malinowski and what did he contribute to anthropology?

A Polish scholar who pioneered participant observation and emphasized understanding the native's point of view during his fieldwork.

What is functionalism in anthropology?

A theory that explains cultural practices as serving functions to meet human needs and maintain social systems.

What is interpretivism in anthropology?

An approach that focuses on understanding the meanings people assign to their actions and beliefs rather than universal laws.

What is 'thick description' according to Geertz?

A method that combines detailed behavioral description with interpretation of its meaning in context.

What are the ethical principles outlined by the AAA code of ethics?

Do no harm, prioritize people over project goals, obtain informed consent, ensure anonymity and confidentiality, and maintain honesty and transparency.

What harm can arise from the myth that men are naturally aggressive?

It fuels patriarchy and erases men's capacities for care and cooperation.

How does the myth of monogamy harm societal views?

It stigmatizes LGBTQ kinship, women's sexuality, and nontraditional family structures.

What does the term 'emic' refer to in anthropology?

An insider's perspective that seeks to understand a culture from within.

What is the significance of participant observation in ethnography?

It allows researchers to immerse themselves in daily life to understand cultural practices and perspectives.

What was the impact of colonial biases on early anthropology?

It led to the treatment of cultures as static objects, ignoring local context and historical change.

What does the question 'What does race mean if it's not biological?' imply?

It challenges the biological basis of race, suggesting that cultural factors play a significant role.

What is the goal of ethnography according to Malinowski?

To grasp the native's point of view and understand the imponderabilia of actual life.

What is the difference between thin and thick description?

Thin description records what happened, while thick description explains how and why it matters within a cultural context.

What does the subfield of cultural anthropology study in relation to health?

It studies how culture, inequality, and power shape health and illness.

How is health defined in cultural anthropology?

Health is seen as not just biological, but also cultural, political, and historical.

What is structural violence according to Paul Farmer?

Structural violence is the systematic exertion of violence by social orders that produces slow, often invisible harm through poverty, racism, sexism, and political marginalization.

How does medical anthropology differ from biomedicine in understanding disease?

Medical anthropology sees disease as patterned by history, politics, and inequality, while biomedicine defines disease as a biological problem.

What is an example of how biomedicine attributes epidemics?

Biomedicine attributes epidemics to biology or individual behavior, such as explaining Haiti's AIDS epidemic as caused by 'risky sexual practices.'

What does medical anthropology attribute to the spread of diseases like AIDS in Haiti?

It attributes the spread to durable systems of plantation labor, poverty, and political upheaval.

What is the significance of Nancy Scheper-Hughes' research?

She mapped the global trafficking of organs from poor or marginalized people to wealthy buyers.

What does the term 'biosociality' refer to in the context of inequality?

Biosociality refers to a privileged class of patients who live longer by incorporating body parts from those whose social destiny is premature death.

What are the three bodies described in anthropology?

The individual body (lived physical experience), the social body (symbolic representation of society), and the body politic (regulated by political and economic systems).

What is multi-sited ethnography?

It is long-term, immersive research that follows the circulations of money, organs, materials, and people across multiple geographic locations.

What does the commodification of the body entail?

It involves transforming organs into tradable goods, detaching them from personhood.

How does anthropology explain the rise of diabetes in marginalized communities?

Anthropology shows that culture, history, daily life, and inequality shape disease, beyond just biomedical explanations.

What structural barriers did Mary face in managing her gestational diabetes?

She missed appointments due to lack of transportation and rarely discussed her diagnosis with family.

What is kinship in anthropology?

Kinship is the architecture of social life that defines belonging, inheritance, care, and marriage.

What are the different types of marriage in kinship studies?

Types include endogamy (marrying within a group), exogamy (marrying outside a group), arranged marriage, and real marriage.

What does the term 'patrilocal' mean in kinship?

Patrilocal refers to a residence pattern where the wife moves in with the husband's family.