01 - How can anthropology help us cope with the future?

Anthrpology

the study of humanity

Cultural Anthropology

• the study of people’s everyday lives and their communities, their behaviors, beliefs, and institutions

• explores all aspects of human culture, such as war and violence, love and sexuality, child rearing and death

Linguistic Anthropology

• involves the study of human language in the past and the present

• languages are complex, vibrant, and constantly changing systems fo symbols through which people communicate with one another

• three main areas of study:

  • descriptive linguistics

  • historic linguistics

  • sociolinguistics (most studied by anthropologists)

Archaeological Anthropology

• the investigation of the human past by means of excavating and analyzing material remains (artifacts)

• the goal is not to recover buried treasure but to understand past human life

Biological Anthropology

• the study of human biological evolution and biocultural variation

• two key concepts:

  • all humans are a product of their evolutionary history

  • all humans are a product of their individual life history

Holism

anthropology looks at how biology, society, language, and culture are integrated to create the human experience - both descriptive and explanatory

Historical Particularism

cultures arise from different causes, not uniform processes-all were shaped by particular historical trajectories that resulted in different cultural accumulations; cultural similarities due to borrowing of information

Cultural Ecology

culture is humanity’s adaptation to physical and social environments

• environmental diversity contributes to cultural diversity

• culture changes constantly, as do environments

• commonalities of human experience

Ethnography

• provides an account of a particular community, society, or culture

• ethnographers pay attention to and record the details of daily life

  • make efforts to stay objective; describe without bias

  • even if a researcher has a specific question, ethnographies aim to understand the whole culture for context

  • many methods are utilized to create an ethnography: participant observation, interviews, etc.

Bias

• general definition: a preference or inclination, for or against a person, idea, or thing, often leading to inaccurate, unfair, or prejudicial judgments

• academic definition: a type of systematic error that can distort measurements and/or affect investigations and their results

Preservation Bias

not all things are equally likely to preserve (material, size, environment, time)

Stressors

any stimulus that elicits a response

Biocultural Approach

a feedback system where biological, cultural, and environmental factors interact with each other

Homeostasis

• the tendency of an organism to maintain stability of the internal environment in the normal physiological range

• each individual has certain basic needs like food, shelter, health, etc, that help us maintain our internal environment

Stressor

Adaptation

the processes of adjusting to new conditions or the resulting traits that help an organism survive and reproduce

Cultural (Behavioral) Adaptation

a non-genetic strategy-such as a tool, practice, or social habit-that humans use to survive and thrive in their natural and social environments (i.e. taking a noontime nap during the hottest part of the day OR sharing food resources in response to environmental stress)

Acclimatization

a short-term or long-term physiological change that an individual human makes in response to environmental stresses-such as high altitude, extreme temperatures, or humidity-within their lifetime

Developmental Adaptation

an irreversible biological and structural change acquired during an individual’s childhood or growth period in response to environmental stress (i.e. people who grow up in high altitude vs. low altitude)

Genetic Adaptation

an inherited, irreversible change in a population’s gene frequencies over many generations that increases survival and reproductive success in a specific environment

Key Takeaways

• there are 4 different subfields within anthropology each of which can help us prepare for an uncertain future in different ways

• cultural anthropology can show us other ways of adapting to problems we may face in the future

• archaeology can show us how past populations have adapted or not to different circumstances

• biological anthropology is a framework for understanding how different factors will impact our health