Chapter 1: What is Anthropology

Anthropology: Study of the humans around the world and through time

  • Holism: the study of the whole of the human conidtion: past, present, and future (biology, society, language, and culture)

  • Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that from and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them.

    • enculturation: children learning these cultures and proper behavior at an early age

Adaptation: the process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses.

Food production: cultivation of plants and domestication of animals

Biocultural: using and combining both biological and cultural perspectives and approaches to analyze and understand a particular issue or problem

Cultural standards of attractiveness and properiety influence participation and achievement in sports

General Anthropology: “four-field” anthropology

  • Sociocultural anthropology

    • Societies of the present and recent past

    • LARGEST membership

  • Anthropological archaeology

    • reconstructs lifeways of ancient and more recent societies through analysis of material remains

  • Biological anthropology

    • human biological variation through time and across geographic space

  • Linguistic anthropology

    • language in its social and cultural contexts

Cultural anthropology: study of humans society and culture

  • describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains similarities and differences among societies and chnages in society and culture

Ethnography: provides an account of a particular group, community, society, or culture.

Political scientists tend to study programs that national planners develop, whereas anthropologists discover how these programs work (or fail) on the local level

Ethnology: examines, interprets, and analyzes the results of ethnography (data gathered in different societies)

  • Uses such data to compare and contrast and to generalize about society and culture

Ethnography

Ethnology

  • requires fieldwork to collect data

  • Often descriptive

  • Group/community specific

  • Uses data collected by a series of researchers

  • Usually synthetic

  • Comparative/cross-cultural

Anthropological archaeology: reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through matieral remains.

  • Archaeologists find artifacts, material items that humans have made, used, or modified, such as tools, weapons, campsites, buildings, and garbage

Ecology: study of interrelations among living things in an environemnt

  • organisms and environment together constitute an ecosystem, a patterened arrangement of energy flows and exchanges.

Paleoecology looks at the ecosystems of the past.

Archaeologists also reconstruct behavior patterns and lifestyles of the past by excavating

Biological anthropology: study of human biological diversity throuhg time and as it exists in the world today

  • Human biological evolution as revealed by the fossil record (paleoantropology)

  • Human genetics

  • Human growth and development

  • Human biological plasticity

    • living body’s ability to change as it copes with environmental conditions, such as heat, cold, and altitude

  • Primatology

    • Study of monkeys, apes, and other nonhuman primates

Biological anthropology: investigates the influence of environment on the body as it grows and matures

Linguistic anthropology: studies language in its social and cultural context, throuhgout the world and over time

  • Sociolinguistics investiagtes relationships between social and liguistic variation

Anthropology is the holistic and comparative study of humankind. It is the systematic exploration of human biological and cultural diversity. Examining the origins of, and changes in, human biology and culture, anthropology provides explanations for similarities and differences. The four subfields of general anthropology are sociocultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. All consider variation in time and space. Each also examines adaptation—the process by which organisms cope with environmental stresses.

Cultural forces mold human biology, including our body types and images. Societies have particular standards of physical attractiveness. They also have specific ideas about what activities—for example, various sports—are appropriate for males and females.

Cultural anthropology explores the cultural diversity of the present and the recent past. Anthropological archaeology reconstructs cultural patterns, often of prehistoric populations, through the collection and analysis of material remains. Biological anthropology documents variety, involving fossils, genetics, growth and development, bodily responses, and nonhuman primates. Linguistic anthropology considers diversity among languages. It also studies how speech changes in social situations and over time. Anthropology has two dimensions: academic and applied. Applied anthropology is the use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and help solve contemporary social problems.

Concerns with biology, society, culture, and language link anthropology to many other fields—sciences and humanities. Anthropologists study art, music, and literature across cultures. But their concern is more with the creative expressions of common people than with arts designed for elites. Anthropologists examine creators and products in their social context. Sociologists traditionally study Western industrial societies, whereas anthropologists have focused on small-scale societies and rural, nonindustrial peoples. Psychological anthropology views human psychology in the context of social and cultural variation.

Ethnologists attempt to identify and explain cultural differences and similarities and to build theories about how social and cultural systems work. Scientists strive to improve understanding by testing hypotheses—suggested explanations. Explanations rely on associations and theories. An association is an observed relationship between variables. A theory is an explanatory framework capable of explaining many associations. The scientific method characterizes any anthropological endeavor that formulates research questions and gathers or uses systematic data to test hypotheses.