UWO ANTHRO 1021 FINAL

anthropology

search for what it means to be human and a documentation of human life and possibility

What are the three main characteristics of the anthropological perspective?

holistic, comparative, relativistic (rather than ethnocentrism)

The Four Fields of Anthropology

cultural, linguistic, biophysical, archeology

cultural anthropology

study of cultures and societies of human beings and their very recent past

linguistic anthropology

study of language, how it is structured, evolved, and social and cultural context for language

archaeology

study of past societies and their cultures, especially the material remains of the past people like their tools, food, and places

physical anthropology

study of human evolution and variation, both past and current

What are some ways that anthropology has evolved as a discipline?

it emerged out of colonial expansion and increased forms of global connection

sociocultural anthropology

- a dwelling science, based on understanding humans by being with them

- a humanistic social science

- interested in culture, how it's learned, created, changed and its consequences

culture

- 100% socially transmitted knowledge and behaviour shared by some group of people

- integrated system of mental elements, the behaviours motivated by them, and the material items created by those behaviours

- dynamic, contingent, symbolic and material

enculturation

process where each generation passes on culture through social and cultural learning from the next generation

Five Components of Cultural Knowledge

norms, values, collective understanding, classification of reality, world views

ethnographic method

- immersion of researchers in the lives and cultures of the peoples they are trying to understand in order to comprehend the meanings these people ascribe to their existence

- often multi-sited to focus on processes and not groups of people

- allows insights that would not be possible with short visits

- yield understanding of culture and behaviours that people themselves might not even be aware of

- attempts to understand local meanings and eschew ethnocentrism

participant observation

active participation of a researcher or observer in the lives of those being studied

ethnocentrism

tendency to judge the beliefs and behaviour of other cultures from the perspective of one's own culture

relativism

attempt to understand the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures in terms of the culture in which they are found, no superiority

How do anthropologists conduct their research?

ethnographic method

Anthropological Adage

make the strange familiar and the familiar strange

families

- fulfill similar functions in most societies: comfort and belonging for members, a sense of identity, shared values and ideals, economic cooperation, and nurturance of children

- are not permanent, they come and go

- individuals may be part of many families thru out their lifetime

- constructed in culturally specific and dynamic systems of kinship

kinship

- the social system that organizes people in families based on descent and marriage

- used to describe patterns of descent

- can be matrilineal, patrilineal, or ambilineal

- can be based on consanguinity, affinal ties, both or other constructed relationships

- can dictate marriage patterns

natal family

the family into which a person is born and usually raised

How are we related to one another?

descent, marriage and affinal ties

patrilineal descent

reckoning descent thru males from the same ancestors

matrilineal descent

reckoning descent thru women, who are descended from an ancestral woman

clan

group of relatives who claim to be descended from a single ancestor, most often exogamous

lineage

group composed of relatives who are directly descended from known ancestors

clan exogamy

social pattern in which members of a clan must marry someone from another clan, which has the effect of building political, economic, and social ties with other clans

kinship chart

- visual representation of family relationships

- useful for diagramming biological relationships, if not the cultural meanings associated with these relationships

marriage

- establishes relationship between intermarrying families of other kinds of kin groups

- forms social bonds that provide for the material needs, social support, and enculturation of children

- reduces conflict over sexual access

- near universal, but takes many forms

- often involves the exchange of material wealth or service

- can dictate post-marital residence patterns

How do families control power and wealth?

- families manage their members' wealth

- wealth is broader than just currency, including resources, the work and reproductive capacity of family members, and inheritance rights when a member dies

polygamy

form of marriage in which a person is permitted to have more than one spouse

polyandry

form of marriage in which a woman is permitted to have more than one husband

polygyny

form of marriage in which a man is permitted to have more than one wife

bridewealth

a marital exchange, when generally the grooms family is given money for the bride

bride services

a marital exchange, when before marriage the person moves to the other persons house to help out

dowry

a marital exchange, opposite of bride wealth in which the wife's group provides substantial gifts to the husband's family for taking on a new family member

patrilocal

postmarital residence pattern, couples go to live with or near the parents of the husband (70%)

matrilocal

postmarital residence pattern, couples live with or near the wife's parents (13%)

bilocal

postmarital residence pattern, postmarital residence is optional between either the wife's or husband's kin (roughly half of couples choose each one) (8%)

neolocal

postmarital residence pattern, couples live apart from both sets of parents, establishing a separate dwelling and independent household (5%)

avunculocal

postmarital residence pattern, couples live with the maternal uncle of the husband (4%)

How do anthropologists understand structured situations and structured social relationships?

social scripts

social scripts

the interaction between people in structured situations that is passed on accumulated knowledge

rules of inheritance

- way for families to control wealth, property, and power

- creates an orderly process and keeps wealth and property in the family

- inheritance goes to legitimate heirs in every society, usually children of a socially recognized married couple

institution

a long-lasting pattern of organization in a community

total institution

a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff

joking relationship

when two people in a relationship poke fun at each other

avoiding relationship

when two people in a relationship strictly respect each others' relationship

identity

- not as much about individual choice, more social, relational, and historical

- result of interaction

- we identify other and others identify us

social identity

- conception of who we are to each other

- views that people have of their own and others' positions in society

- individuals seek confirmation from others that they occupy the positions on the social landscape that they claim to occupy

- relational, social, gets caught up in hierarchies, and is intersectional

race

- social constuction

- representation based on human phenotypes, physical traits

- believed to reflect fundamental and innate differences

- has no biological basis, is ambiguous, but has real consequences

- gradual variations between each other

- greater variation within groups then between them

- socio-historical concept

- intersects with other parts of identity

ethnicity

- identification based on cultural markers and shared ancestry

- ethnic groups are not fixed phenomena, but are constantly being created and recreated anew

- objectives realities such as difference of languages, territories, religion, and customs are transformed into the basis of a subjective consciousness or self-awareness

- can be source of opportunity or site of conflict

nationality

- communities of people who see themselves as "one people" on the basis of common ancestry, history, society, institutions, ideology, language, territory, and often religion

- plays a role in our sense of identity and organizes global inequalities

- relatively new idea

"imagined community"

way to describe nationality, meaning a sense of shared vision or goals amongst a nation of people that you won't all meet

social class

- position in the class society in relation to production and consumption

hierarchical distinctions between social groups are usually based on wealth, occupation, and social standing

- smaller societies have less class difference

cultural construction

-refers to the fact people collectively "build" meanings thru common experience and negotiation

- construction derives from past collective experiences in a community as well as lots of people talking about, thinking about, and acting in response to a common set of goals and problems

- race, ethnicity, nationality, and class are all part

- have historical and material basis, emerge from specific conditions

intersectionality

- builds on the idea of multiple dimensions of identity, but takes it in a new direction by highlighting how the overlapping or intersecting of different identities positions people in particular ways that may profoundly affect their experiences and opportunities

- highlights how a particular policy has unequal effects do to the intersectors within different social groups

What are the two different types of solidarity defined by Durkheim?

mechanical and organic solidarity

mechanical solidarity

- a type of social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture

- held together because all their member were alike and self-sufficient

- in earlier or traditional societies where the division of labour is rather limited

organic solidarity

- social cohesion based on difference and interdependence of the parts

- composed as their parts like an organism with separate but interdependent organs

- in societies with a highly developed division labour

one drop rule

- the belief that "one drop" of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscegenation

- to get more slaves

blood quantum

- fraction of a person's ancestry (or "blood") that is Native American

- used to move natives off land as they were less "pure"

Why are more people self-identifying as Native American in the U.S. census, and how does that affect Indigenous communities?

- white fragility

- threat to tribal sovereignty

economies

- cultural systems of adaptation to an environment

- embedded in the political and social

- ways of organizing production

adaptation

process which an organism develops physiological and behavioural characteristics that allow it to survive and reproduce

economic adaptation

changes in behaviour on the part of individuals, businesses and even entire societies in response to changes in the economic environment

band

- a pattern of human society

- original people of society

- won't be as much surplus

- small, flexible, nomadic groups

- hunt and gather wild food

- have large territory

- economic type: foraging

- ex. Inuit

4 Basic Patterns of Human Society

foraging, tribal, chiefdom, state

How are societies classified?

- based on productive relations

- primitive, feudal, oriental, capitalist, socialist

- based on how people organize themselves to produce, the technology available, and their environment

tribal societies

- a pattern of human society

- people live in larger groups

- possess technology that allows them to practice horticulture forms

- store and preserve food to insulate themselves against seasonal fluctuations in food supply

- economic type: horticulture, pastoralism

chiefdom

- a pattern of human society

- people divided into ranked social groups based on proximity of descent from a noble

- commoners pay tribute to nobles

- maintain larger populations

- have technology like irrigation to produce food crops more intensively

- economic type: agriculture

state

- a pattern of human society

- complexly stratified

- divided into urban and rural components

- rural component, peasant sector produces lots with developed agricultural technology to support cities

- maintain complex division of labour

- economic type: agriculture, industrialism

- ex. USA and Canada

foraging

- type of food production

- original people of society

- won't be as much surplus, but they have a lot of leisure time

horticulture

- type of food production

- grow food from plants for the smallest unit

- uses plants that are already there

- ex. raising plants

agriculture

- type of food production

- an intensified version of horticulture

- need certain kinds of infrastructure like irrigation

industrialized agriculture

- type of food production

- ranked society comes from surplus of food

- increased population

- less reliance on kinship relations as the basis of political structures

- increased power from leaders

- increased internal and external conflict

- ex. the mass production of food

pastoralism

- type of food production

- requires families/social units to invest in animals

- difficult to regain stability

- collective investment

- ex. raising animals

uncentralized political systems

- ex. bands and tribes

- small homogeneous populations

- relatively mobile without strict territorial boundaries

centralized political systems

- ex. chiefdom and states

- technology becomes more complicated

- large, diverse population

- less mobility

- male leaders more frequent

reciprocity

- type of distribution and exchange

- 3 forms: generalized, balanced, negative

generalized reciprocity

form of reciprocity in which gifts are given freely without the expectation of return

balanced reciprocity

form of reciprocity in which the giver expects a fair return at some other time

negative reciprocity

form of reciprocity in which the giver attempts to get something for nothing, to haggle one's way into a favourable exchange

redistribution

- collections of goods by a central authority, usually a chief or other kind of ruler

- supports central authority figure

- ex. taxes

market exchange

- the everyday exchange modern day societies are involved in

- ex. buying stuff

commodity

- something that is produced for the purpose of exchanging for something else

- material form given to a fundamental social relation

What role does "stuff" play in who we are as people?

- expresses our personal and collective pasts

- help us express and even formulate our goals and aspirations

- used to represent our values and social identities

globalization

- a set of economic policies that enable the flow of commodities around the world

- a set of cultural expressions

- relies on inequality

potlatch

- when a rival is given a large gift that won't be easily repaid

- warring with property

- potlatch items would get destroyed to show rivals wealth and superiority against the givers

- large gifts given to people above in hierarchy

- only made possible by huge amounts of surplus that came as a result of the fur trade

clientage

relation between wealthy and those who depend on them for materials and protection

medical anthropology

- subfield of anthropology

- draws upon social, cultural, biological and linguistic anthropology to better understand factors that influence health and well being, illness, healing processes, therapy, medical systems

somaticization

body expressing itself, how the body experiences itself

medicalization

when conditions become organized

Are health and illness objective or subjective?

they are subjective states, more than having or not having

disease

- the purely physiological condition of being sick, usually determined by a physician

- doctors focus on disease the patient has

global health

- unevenly distributed

- affected by social inequality and structural violence

- demands us to consider cultural and structural dimensions of health/illness

illness

- the psychological and social experience the patient has of a disease

- patients concerned with illness

structural violence

- describe social arrangements that put individuals and populations in harms way

- structural because it is embedded in the political and economic organization of our social world

- violent because they injure people

What process is healing?

a complex biocultural process

clinical therapeutic process

healing process in which medicines have some active ingredient that is assumed to address either the cause or the symptom of a disorder