ANTH1220 Weeks 1-4

Anthropology

The Study of Human

What are the four fields of anthropology?

Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistic Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology

Biological Anthropology

The study of human evolution, biological variation, and adaptation, incorporating genetics, anatomy, and primate behavior

Archaeology

The study of the human past through the analysis of material remains, including artifacts, architecture, biofacts, and cultural landscapes

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of the relationship between language and culture. How language is used in society, and how the human brain acquires and uses language

Cultural Anthropology

The study of contemporary societies and cultures. The biggest of the four fields of anthropology

What kind of questions do anthropologists answer/are interested in?

How am I related to chimpanzees? Should farmers in South Sudan implement new farming techniques? Why is AIDS more widepsread in some places than others? Do I have Neanderthal DNA? Is there a First Nations bural ground in my back yard?

What sets anthropology apart?

A common narrative, key commitments, and a common set of methods. Many of the topics in anthropology overlap with other fields

What are the three commitments of anthropology?

Exploring sociocultural diversity, understanding how societies hold together, examining the interdependence of humans and nature

Organic Analogy

An analogy that shows how social institutions work together like the organs in a body. How societies hold together

Holism

The concept that all parts of a society/anything else are interrelated

What is our relationship with nature?

Reciprocal, when we affect nature, it affects us.

Paleopathology

The study of ancient diseases

Primatology

The study of primates

Physical Anthropology

An outdated term of biological anthropology

Osteology

The study of skeletons

Genetics

The study of genetics

Ethnoarchaeology

The study of living people and their activities to better understand the past. Subfield of archaeology

Participant observation

A method that anthropologists use to study cultures and societies, where you participate in a culture to best observe and understand the culture as much as possible

Ethnography

The in-depth study and description of a culture, usually done after participant observation.

Ethnology

The comparative and theoretical study of multiple cultures.

Applied Anthropology

The use of anthropological data from one or more other subfields to address practical problems. Possibly the fifth field. For example, forensic anthropologists. More than hjalf of all Anthropology PhDs work as applied anthropologists

Socialization

Learning to live as a member of a group

Enculturation

Coming to terms with appropriate ways of thinking and feeling in your culture. The gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group by a person, another culture, etc.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that you should evaluate and judge other cultures according to the standards of your own culture. Not good.

Primitivism

Example of ethnocentrism. Used to depict people as ignorant, backward savages. Used against Africans and Indigenous peoples

Orientalism

Example of ethnocentrism. Used to depict people as irrational, fanatical, and ouit of control. Used against Middle Eastern and Asian peoples

Lewis Henry Morgan

Believed in evolutionism, believed all human societies passed through stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization. Classified societies this way

Franz Boas

Father of American Anthropology, cultural relativism and four field approach. German-American, believed every society had a unique development and that each society can only be understood as a product of its own history. Called for the end of derogatory terms. Anti-racist and anti-sexist. Was a very anti cultural evolutionist

Cultural Relativism

The idea that every element of culture must be understood within the broader whole of that culture. Not the same as moral relativism and cultural determinism. Cultures don’t have borders and people are not brainwashed

Culture

The central marker of what it means to be human. The complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society

What are the characteristics of culture?

It is shared, learned, patterned, adaptive, symbolic

E. B. Tylor

The first to give a modern definition of culture. Considered an armchair anthropologist and was an evolutionist because early anthropology was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Believed in psychic unity

Psychic Unity

The idea that people everywhere are engaged in the same narrative of progress, but not all at the same pace.

Bronislaw Malinowski

Championed participant-observation fieldwork. Believed culture satisfied individual, biological, social, and psychological needs

A. R. Radcliffe-Brown

Developed the organic analogy

Clifford Geertz

Tried to move anthropology away from “tribes and islands”. He avoided major theories because he thought that culture was highly variable.

What is the critique of anthropological use of culture?

Anthropological use of culture was at first progressive and opposed racist ideas. But now the culture concept has since been used to pigeonhole and oppress. People expect people to behave exactly like their culture and question their authenticity. For example, Makah whaling culture

19th Century Anthropology

The century of anthropology defined by racist conjectural history

20th Century Anthropology

The century of anthropology defined by rejection of history

Material Culture

Culture we make, things made and used by humans

Technology

Specialized knowledge and skills used for making material culture

Routine speech

Type of cultural practice that communicates meaning and values

Routine actions

Type of cultural practice that organizes social events

Cultural frames

Patterned, shared ways of making sense of situations. For example, we all know what a wedding is or a proposal, or what time it should take to propose

Cultural roles

Conventionalized position held by a person or person in a particular context or setting. For example, we know what a waiter is supposed to do

Values

It is peoples standards, what is good, what is bad, etc. For example, that education is good

Beliefs

Cultural conventions about what is true and false. For example, that grading is the best way to evaluate student achievement

Ideology

A set of symbols and beliefs supporting the interests of a specific group. It can produce cultural hegemony

Cultural Hegemony

Ideological control over values, beliefs and norms, usually by persuasion

Norms

Societies rules for right and wrong behavior, connected to values

Folkways

Taken for granted norms that shape everyday behavior. Somewhat flexible. For example, the way how people should dress here

Mores

Stronger norms, the violation of which is punished. For example, in Saudi Arabia, a women may be detained for violating the dress code

HRAF

A vast indexed database of ethnographic and cultural information on nearly 400 world cultures. Founded by George Murdock to study cross-cultural similarities.

Ruth Benedict

Was interested in how culture influenced personality. Founded the “Culture and Personality” school of though. She famously wrote “Culture is personality writ large”

What are some emotions that appear to be cross-cultural universals?

Sadness, anger, happiness, surprise, etc.

Piano Analogy

Used to describe how emotions may be experienced differently across cultures. Everyone has the same keyboard, but different people and different cultures strike some keys more than others

What are the limits of enculturation?

It plays an important role in making personalities but doesn’t do everything. People have individual tendencies which are innate. It is not a uniform process, people are not brainwashed and experience it differently. People have agency

Fieldwork

An extended period of close involvement with the people in whose way of life anthropologists are interested in. Anthropologists ordinarily collect most of their data from this work

What are some steps to prepare for fieldwork?

Select and research a site, develop a proposal, look at logistics, obtain institutional approval and required visa, obtain funding, ethics clearance, etc.

What are some ethics to make sure about when doing fieldwork?

Do no harm/embarass people, always ask for consent and inform, ask for anonymity if you can, accessibility is important

Culture Shock

The feeling of being in an unfamiliar place where you can’t adjust fast enough. Causes a lot of effects like anxiety, disorientation, anger, etc. Anthropologists experience this in the field

Reverse Culture Shock

Culture shock but when you come back home. Anthropologists experience this when they come home

Where was participant observation invented in?

The U.S and england, seperately

Which group of individuals did Franz Boas do participant observation on?

Kwakiutl

Which group of individuals did Bronislaw Malinowski do participant observation on?

Trobriand Islanders

Which group of individuals did Margaret Mead do participant observation on?

American Samoans

Positivism

The view that there is a reality “out there” that can be detected through the senses, and that there is a scientific method for investigating that reality

Objective knowledge

Knowledge about reality that is absolute and true for all people, in all times and places

Positivism in Anthropology

Positivist anthropologists engaged in controlled comparison, results of a positivistic approach are not value-fee when humans are both the subjects and instruments of data collection. It introduced methods such as Anthropology as dialoge and recognition of dissent. Field data is intersubjective

Emic

A perspective of anthropological research, the perspective of the culture being studied. Often collected using participant observation. It guards against ethnocentrism. The insider’s view

Etic

A perspective of anthropological research, the perspective of an outside observer. It is scientific and contextualized. Anthropologists share these perspectives with one another. The outsider’s view

Reflexivity/Reflexive Approach

Critically thinking about the way one thinks, reflecting on one’s own experience. It is situated, which means making it explicit exactly who you are as an anthropologist. Bronislaw Malinowski did this approach

Polyvocality

A narrative technique using multiple voices, perspectives, and viewpoints within a single work

What is the significance of fieldwork being a dialectic?

Fieldwork is a process of building a bridge of understanding between an anthropologist and their informants. So that they begin to understand each other. Anthropological knowledge is intersubjectively constructed in a process of translation.

What is the significance of ruptures in communication between the anthropologist and informant?

It could lead to new insights. For example, Jean Briggs had inappropriate displays of anger among the Utku of Nunavut and Paul Rabinow stood up for himself at the risk of losing an informant and gained respect

What are some techniques in fieldwork?

Conversations and interviews, life histories, genealogical method, key informants, field notes, etc.

Multi-sited Fieldwork

Type of fieldwork that allows for ethnographic research on cultural processes that are not contained by social, ethnic, religious, or nation boundaries. Often allowing for ethnographic analysis to people that were traditionally never subject to it.

What are the limitations of multi-sited fieldwork?

It dilutes intensity of anthropological relationships and undercuts responsibility of primary informants

What are the benefits of multi-sited fieldwork?

It allows anthropologists to capture the increasing complexities produced by globalization

What are the effects of fieldwork on those being studied?

Positive/neutral as long as you follow the code of ethics

What are the effects of fieldwork on the researcher?

Culture shock, friendship, career, and learning

What are the effects of fieldwork on humanity?

Understanding human nature, human society, and human history better

Why is there anthropological interest in language?

Language is a means to communicate in the field, language is an object of study in itself. Language illuminates culture, and there is a distinction between language

When did language evolve?

Between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago

Washoe

Chimpanzee that was able to do 150 signs

Lana

Chimpanzee that used lexigrams

Koko

Chimpanzee that was able to do 1000 signs

Nim Chimpsky

Chimpanzee that cast doubt on earlier projects to see if chimpanzees could learn a language such as sign language

Gesture-Call System

A type of nonhuman communication, monkeys and apes have call systems.

Jane Goodall

Primatologist and Anthropologist who has been studying chimpanzees in the wild since 1960

In English, what percentage of emotional information is conveyed in body language?

90%

Kinesics

The study of postures, facial expressions, motions. Some aspects are universal while others are not

Proxemics

The study of how people use space to communicate. This area is rife for cross-cultural miscommunication

What are the design features of the human language?

Openness, Displacement, Prevarication, Arbitrariness, Duality of Patterning, Semanticity

Openness

A human language design feature, allows speakers to produce and understand an infinite number of novel utterances

Displacement

A human language design feature, the capacity to communicate about things, actions or ideas that are not present in the immediate time or space

Prevarication

A human language design feature, the ability to intentionally produce meaningless, deceptive, or false messages like lying using language

Arbitrariness

A human language design feature, the principle that there is no natural, interent, or logical connection between the sound of a word and its meaning

Duality of Patterning

A human language design feature, the ability of the human language to form a vast number of meaningful words by combining a small set of meaningless sounds or signs