anthropology 2030 mizzou exam 1

WEIRD

western

educated

industrialized

rich

democratic

anthropology

the study of human kind from a broad perspective, focusing on biological and cultural differences from the past and present, both a science & humanity

4 subfields

biological, linguistic, archaeology, cultural

biological anthropology

the subfield that studies the biological dimensions of humans

biological subfields

paleoanthropology, primatology, Human Variation (Human Biology), Anthropological Genetics

paleoanthropology

biological evolution of human species

primatology

study of primates, monkeys, apes

human variation

study of human anatomical and physiological variation and adaptation

anthropological genetics

study of human genetics and how it releates to environmental adaptations

linguistic anthropology

the subfield that focuses on interrelationships among language and other aspects of a people's culture

linguistic subfields

sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, ethnopoetics

sociolinguistics

study of how language is related to culture and social uses of speech

historical linguistics

study of similarities among languages to understand the historical relationships and migrations of different groups

note: used in genetics

ethnopoetics

study of recitation of oral histories, poems, prayers, chains, songs etc to capture elements that would be lost in written transcriptions

archaeology

subfield that studies the past cultures through excavation and analysis to artifacts and other material remains

artifact

material remain of a past culture

features

artifacts that cannot be moved, ie: buildings, burials, fire pits

prehistoric archaeology

before written records

historic archaeology

has written records

cultural anthropology

study of shared, learned human behavior typical of groups of people

society

group of people who depend on another for survival along with a set of social relationships, statuses, and roles

culture

the learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups

-living in space or the artctiv

aims of cultural anthropology

study and document the world

-understand cultural causes especially globalization

-understand the human experience

-increase intercultural understanding and tolerance through education about human diversity

applied anthropology

'the 5th field' use of anthropological methods, theories, and concepts to solve practical, real world problems

-typically employed by government and trained in 1 of the other 4 fields

CRM (cultural resource management)

private sector archaeology done to preserve remains that might otherwise be destroyed

forensic anthropology

identification and analysis of human skeletal remains

corporate anthropology

private sector of anthropology that contributes to study of consumer behavior, product design, and marketing

medical anthropology

study of human interaction between cultural beliefs and practices and human health

origin of anthropology

exists because of the study of disappearing native americans

• Archaeology of Native American sites

• Cultural anthropology of remaining groups

• Physical anthropology of physiological variation

• Linguistic documentation of languages

european anthropology

• Fields not as united as in North America:

• "Anthropology" traditionally meant physical anthropology

(physiological variation)

• Cultural anthropology called "ethnology" (the study of colonized

societies)

• Archaeology considered a branch of history or classics

(archaeology of self)

• Linguistics as its own field, originally concerned with historical

relationships among languages

ethnocentrism

judging other cultures from the perspective that one's own culture is more beautiful, rational, and better than any other

cultural relativism

idea that cultures should be analyzed with reference to their own histories and values rather than according to another culture

holism

an approach that considers the study of culture history language and biology essential to a complete understanding of human society

ethnography

major research tool of cultural anthropology including both field work among people in a society and written results of the fieldwork

emic

explanation of a behavior through concepts that are meaningful to members of those societies

emic example

-pork is forbidden by religions

-pigs are dirty and disease ridden

-vegetarians and ethical treatment

etic

explanation of a behavior by an outsider

etic example

-pigs are ecologically unsuited to the middle east

-promotes social cohesion

ethnology

the attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena through cultural comparison

symbol

something that stands for something else, central to language and culture

anthropological theory

set of propositions about which aspects of culture are critical how they should be studied and what the goal of studying them should be

enculturation

the process of learning to be a member of a particular group, transmission of culture through generations by social learning (socialization)

Edward Tylor

English, 1832-1917

• Unilineal evolutionist

• Proposed that culture was a topic that could be studied scientifically and offered a definition still widely used

• "Culture...is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

• In "Primitive Culture" (1871) he proposed an evolutionary progression for religion:

• Animism

• Polytheism • Monotheism • Science

mechanisms of transmission

-facilitation of individual learning

-observation and imitation

-direct instruction

necessary for sharing and persistence across generations

symbols

objects, behaviors, sounds, marks, etc whose culturally defined meanings have no necessary relationships to their physical qualities

ex: gestures, attire, signs, language

norms

shared ideas and expectations about how people ought to act in given situations

values

shared ideas or standards about the worthiness of goals and lifestyles, general principles that shape the development of norms

cultural identity

cultural tradition a group of people recognize as their own; shared customs and beliefs that define how a groups sees itself as distinctive

subculture

system of perceptions values beliefs and customs that are significantly different from those of a large culture within the same society

culture and adaptation

populations adapt to their environment so they can survive and reproduce

plasticity

ability to change behavior in response to environment demands

maladaptation

An adaptation that does more harm than good

-fertility reduction

-indulgent diets

mismatch

hypothesis from evolutionary psychology, our mind evolved in different environment, environment has since changed

-appetite for fat, salt, sugar

arbitrary symbols

no necessary link between symbol and attached meaning

conventional symbols

members of the same culture agree on their meaning

costly information hypothesis

An organism capable of imitation can afford to be choosy, learning when learning is cheap and accurate, and imitating when learning is costly and inaccurate

cultural change

changes may come from within or outside , can results from trade, invasions, revolution, pandemics

innovation

new variation on existing culture pattern that is subsequently accepted by a society

diffusion

spread of cultural elements from one culture to another through cultural contact

transculturation

transformation of adopted cultural traits, resulting in new cultural forms

traditionalism

retention of cultural traits over time by avoiding/resisting cultural change

patterns of behavior

the behaviors that most people perform when they are in certain culturally defined situations

material culture

behavioral manifestation of a culture -- largely what archaeologists study

behavior as culture

many definitions of culture include behavior

These definitions confound behavior as both a part of and a result of culture

-confuses the phenomenon with its explanation

-because of this, many anthropologists now distinguish culture as information from the expressed behaviors influenced by that information

indigenous people

native people

society vs culture

society is made up of people a culture is made up of ideas behaviour and material possession

edward tylor culture

"culture taken in its broad ethnographic sense is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits"

nanda & warms culture

"learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups, primary means by which humans adapt to their environment, way of life of a society"

-made up of learned behaviors

-use of language and symbols

-are patterned and integrated

-shared by members of a group

-are in part, adaptive

-subject to change

ethnography

a detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years

ethnography

intensive study of a particular culture as the basis for generating understanding or testing anthropological theory.

fieldwork

long term, first hand study of culture generates most data, what people say they do vs what they actually do

culture shock

feelings of alienation and helplessness that result from rapid immersion in a new culture

participant observation

main technique used in ethnographic fieldwork, living among people and participating in their daily activities

key informant (consultant)

person who is a major source of info for an anthropologist, particularly knowledgable and tend to be older

qualitative methods

used to gather descriptive data {structured/unstructured interviews, focus groups} want depth

quantitative methods

used to systematically gather data, typically for formal statistical analysis and hypothesis testing (surveys, direct/indirect observation)

cross cultural comparison

describe and explain cultural variations

ethnology

attempt to find general principles that govern cultural phenomena

focus groups

A strategy to obtain data from a small group of people using interview questions

holism perspective

• Considers culture, history, language and biology essential to a complete understanding of a society.

• Seeks to understand human beings

as whole organisms who adapt to their environments through the interaction of biology and culture.

• Separates anthropology from other disciplines, which may focus on one factor or another to explain human behavior.

• Example: China-Bangladesh project

racism

Belief that one race is superior to another

moral relativism

Morality is not objective but rather reflective of the culture environment or circumstances.

laïcité

secularism or the principle of separation of church and state in France

armchair anthropology

no formal methods or fieldwork, relied on 3rd party

19th c. unilineal evolutionism

The theory that all cultures pass through a similar sequence of stages in their development

• Antecedents:

• "Great Chain of Being"

• Linnaean classification

• Uniformitarianism (Hutton and Lyell)

• Evolution by natural selection (Darwin, 1859)

• Key assumptions:

• Natural progression from simple to complex • Societies could be categorized objectively

• By studying others:

• Hoped to learn about own past

• Established the comparative perspective

louis henry morgan

American 1818-1881

• Unilineal evolutionist

• In Ancient Society (1877) proposed the following classification:

• Lower savagery: subsistence based on fruits and nuts • Middle savagery: fishing, control of fire

• Upper savagery: invention of the bow and arrow

• Lower barbarism: pottery

• Middle barbarism: domestication of plants and animals • Upper barbarism: iron tools

• Civilization: writing

franz boas

German-American 1858-1942

• "Father of American Anthropology" • Fieldwork with Eskimo, Kwakiutl

• Contributions:

• Established the "four fields" model of American Anthropology • Promoted empiricism and fieldwork

• Opposed racial discrimination on scientific grounds

• Opposed ideas of cultural superiority or inferiority

• Trained the first generation of American anthropologists

historical particularism

Each culture is a unique result of its distinctive past

Key contributions:

• Insistence on primary fieldwork

• Challenged unililineal concepts of "progress" • Introduced concept of cultural relativism

• Showed that "race" and culture are not linked

margaret mead

student of Boas

• Popularizer of the anthropological perspective

• Regular advice column in Redbook magazine

• Key figure in Psychological Anthropology • Especially "Culture and Personality" studies

Most famous for:

• "Coming of Age in Samoa" about adolescence, sexuality, and

society

• Adolescent angst not universal, but a product of social restrictions

• "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" about gender roles

• Arapesh: both men and women calm in temperament

• Mundugumor: both men and women aggressive in temperament • Tchambuli: men obsessed with appearance; women pragmatic

functionalism

Early 20th C. British theoretical perspective

• Analyzes cultural elements in terms of their useful effects for individuals and/or for survival and persistence of the whole society or other group.

• Contributions:

• Holism: emphasized the inter-relationship between different

aspects of culture

• Criticisms:

• Synchronic (static, single time) rather than diachronic (changing through time)

• No accommodation for cultural change, human agency

bronislaw malinowski

Polish-British, 1884-1942

• Student of A.C. Haddon

• Accidental fieldwork among Trobriand islanders

• Established method of participant observation

• Differed from structural functionalists: Believed culture served basic biological and psychological needs (psychological functionalism):

• Nutrition, reproduction, shelter, defense, maintenance of health • Affection, emotional security

• Some needs imposed by natural environment

• Others by social environment

neoevolutionism

Revision of unilineal evolutionism

• Reaction to the lack of cross-cultural comparison

espoused by the historical particularists • Contributions:

• Rejected the idea that all societies were on a single path of development

• Rejected the idea that societies could be ranked as superior/inferior • Recognized that societies did undergo a historical process of

cumulative change and increasing complexity

• Similar responses to similar problems could produce similar cultural adaptations across societies

julian steward

American, 1902-1972

• Founder of cultural ecology

• Fieldwork among Shoshone

• Advocated ethnology (cross-cultural comparison) to address hypotheses

• Formulated theory of multilineal evolution

• Cultures adapt to their local ecology

• Cultures at similar levels of technology, in similar environments, may develop similar social institutions

• But there may be multiple ways of solving a problem • Thus cultural evolution is multilineal

cultural ecology

The study of culture as a system of adaptation to the physical and social environment

• Contributions

• Introduced the concept of culture as a means of adaptation

• Emphasized behavior over belief, meaning

• Combined historicism of Boasians with the functionalism of the British

• Critiques:

• Like structural functionalism, saw cultural institutions as serving to

perpetuate society rather than individual interests

• Too much emphasis on role of physical environment

(environmental determinism)

• Insufficient attention to internal social processes, human agency

human behavioral ecology

The study of how ecological and social factors shape human behavioral variation and similarity across populations from an evolutionary perspective

• Borrows heavily from evolutionary biology, microeconomics

• Contributions:

• Methodological individualism: group-level phenomenon should be sought in individual motivations, not group-level benefits

• Rejection of nature-nurture thinking

• Attributes behavioral variation to ecological variation, not genetic

variation

• Critique:

• "Biological determinist"

• Materialist: Ignores role of ideas, beliefs in human behavior

interpretivism

A theoretical approach that believes the role of anthropology is to interpret the lived experience of members of other societies to members of their own

• Contributions:

• Focus on emic rather than etic

• Disinterest in comparative approaches, causation, behavior

• Interest in belief, meaning

• Strong emphasis on the writing of ethnography • Issues of representation, essentialism

• Critique:

• Theories often untestable, based solely on plausibility arguments • Ignores material influences on behavior

clifford geertz

• American, 1926-2006

• Fieldwork in Java, Bali

• argued that the function of culture is to impose meaning on the world.

• Culture is like a story/text that people tell themselves about themselves.

• People use symbols to make sense of and give meaning to their lives.

• argued that an ethnographer's job is interpreting other cultures

• Reaction to the scientific method of neoevolutionists, materialists

• Promoted a more emic perspective rather than etic perspective

• The focus is on understanding the subjective experience of individuals. • The anthropologist must study culture from the actor's point of view.

postmodernism

an orientation that questions the truth value of beliefs and knowledge, including those of science; focuses especially on how power relationships affect the creation and spread of ideas and beliefsKey assumptions:

• Social life is culturally constructed, not determined by objective

conditions

• Therefore the world is subjectively perceived and experienced

through the lens of culture • Sees science as:

• Just one more "way of knowing"; a culture-bound worldview with no greater access to the "truth"

• Dehumanizing, reducing people to passive objects of study to be explained rather than understood

• A tool of power that perpetuates the status quo and serves the interests of elites by supporting certain cultural norms and values ("science in the service of culture")

epistemology

a "theory of knowledge" that defines the nature of the world, what can be known, and how we can come to know it

positivism

external reality exists and can be directly observed in some reasonably objective manner

• Characteristic of scientific anthropology