Anthopology

anthropology

studies the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; human biology, society, cultures, and language

holistic and comparative; very interested in human diversity

what two things are anthropology?

science

the systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims, through experiment. observation and deduction to produce reliable explanations of phenomena with reference to the material and physical world

-a way to describe the world based on repeated observations
-it's testable and falsifiable
-uniformation (applied in multiple ways)
-it's a self-correcting process (trial and error)
-its open for public debate

what is science?

1.) cultural anthropology
2.) linguistics
3.) physical anthropology
4.) archeology

what are the four fields of anthropology?

cultural anthropology

study living people; ethnographic method

linguistics

study of language; writing and spoken dialetcs

physical anthropology

study of human biology and how our culture effects our biology

archeology

study of material remains of the human body/activity

cultural relativism

the investigator respects the ideas, values, traditions, and laws of the people that they study

Herbert spencer

-saw society as a "social organism"
-created the term, "survival of the fittest"
-he industrialized society the pinnacle of cultural evolution

franz boas

-a jewish german immigrant that established the first department of anthropology at Columbia university
-he was the first major proponent of cultural relativism

lewis henry morgan

-came up with stages of cultural complexity (savagery, barbarism, and civilization)
-he looks for comparisons
-could be seen as racist

historical particularism

a researcher studied a specific culture and it's entirety of that culture through a holistic perspective

culture

complex ahole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities and habits acquitted by man as a member of society
-it's NOT a biological inheritance

enculturation

process by which a child LEARNS their culture

ethnocentrism

tendency to view one's culture as superior to other cultures; judging other cultures because they don't share the same views

human rights

a realm of justice and mortality beyond and superior to the laws and customs of particular countries, cultures, and regions// inalienable rights

system vs agency

-the ability to act
-practice theory recognizes that people in a society don't all have the same power to do the same things (everyone differs in power)

core values

sets of values, symbols, ideas, and judgements

universalalities

-the physic unity of a man
-certain biological, psychological, social and cultural features are universal

generalities

they are common to many human groups

particularities

unique to certain cultural traditions

diffusion

borrowing of traits between cultures// can be direct or indirect and forced

acculturation

the exchange of cultural features when there is continuous first-hand contact

independent invention

people find solutions to immediate problems

race

it's a subdivision of species// they are interbreeding with other subspecies

genotype

our genetic makeup

phenotype

an organisms individual traits
ex.) eye color, skin color, hair form, etc.

racial classification

attempt to assign humans to discrete categories based on common ancestry// based on phenotypes

ethnicity

based on cultural similarities and differences within a society or nation

informed consent

agreement to take part in the research after having been informed

ethnography

a research process in which the anthropologist closely observes, records, and engages in the daily life of another culture & writes about it

participation observation

-the immersion of the ethnographer in the culture they are studying
-doesn't always have to be undertaken in exotic locations

etic perspective

the outsiders perspective

emic perspective

the insiders perspective

life histories

these differ from informant interviews because they document all aspects of an individuals life// they focus on how events in their life shaped their worldview

longitudinal studies

long-term study of a cultural unit
ex.) community, region, society, etc.

linguistic anthropology

language is based on arbitrary, learned associations between words and the things they stand for
-anthropologists study languages in it's social and cultural context

shares the characteristic anthropological interests in diversity, comparison, and change

what is the focus on language for anthropologists?

call systems

vocal systems based on a limited number of sounds that are only produced in response to particular environmental stimuli

sign language (ASL)

employs a limited number of basic gesture units that equal spoken sounds and that can be combined to form words and larger units of meaning

descriptive linguistics

the scientific study of a spoken language

phonology

the study of speech sounds

morphology

the forms in which sounds combine to form words and their meaningful parts

lexicon

a dictionary containing languages morphemes and their meanings

syntax

the arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences

universal grammar

Noam Chromsky argues that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language, implying that all languages have a common structural basis

pidgin vs creole

-creole languages all share certain features
-particles to form tenses
-double negatives
-questions formed by inflection

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

the idea that different languages create different ways of thinking

sociolinguistics

investigates the relationships between social and linguistic variation
-ex.) how do dif speakers use a given language?
-focus on features that vary with social position and situation

style shifts

situational alteration of language use

diglossia

the switching between dialects of the same language
ex.) high vs low variants

symbolic capital

even people who don't use prestige dialect accept it's authority and correctness supported by the educational system