Chapter 1

The study of similarities and differences among

living society's and cultural groups.

Anthropology: The study of the full scope of

human diversity, past and present, and the

application of that knowledge to help people of

different backgrounds better understand one

another.

-Ask questions about broader human behaviors

and social systems.

-Use immersive methods, including participant

observation and interviewing.

The Exotic "Other"

-Cultural anthro's often foreign cultures based on

the idea that outsiders can understand a society

more "objectively"

-E.G Jean Brigg 1960 study of inuit people in

Canadian arctic.

What is culture?

-A set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared.

-Together, they form an all-encompassing,

integrated whole that binds people together and

shapes their worldview and life ways .

Beliefs: Beliefs include all the mental aspects of

culture including values, norms, and world views.

Practices: Practices are behaviors that may be

motivated by belief or part of everyday routines.

Facets of Culture

-Humans are born with the capacity to learn the

culture of any social group.

-Culture changes in response to both internal and

external factors.

-Humans are not bound by culture.

-Culture is symbolic.

-The degree to which humans rely on culture

distinguishes us from other animals.

-Human culture and biology are interrelated .

Holism: Take a holistic approach that examines

how different aspects of human life influence one

another.

Cultural Relativism: Need to understand another

person's belief and behavior from the perspective

of their culture.

Ethnocentrism: Tendency to view one's culture as

the most important and correct.

Comparison: Cultural anthro's compare ideas,

morals, practices, and systems within or between

cultures.

Field Work

Ethnography: The scientific description of the

customs of individual peoples and cultures.

Participant observation: You participate in people's

lives, while observing them and taking field notes

that along with interviews and surveys, constitute

the research data.

Cross-Culture and comparative approach: The

approach by which anthropologist compared

practices across culture to explore human

similarities, differences, and the potential for

human culture express expression.

Anthropologists study people and structures of power

-Anthropology maintains a commitment to

studying both the people and the large structures

of power around them. This can include families,

governments, economic systems, education, educational institutions, military, the media, and

religions, as well as the ideas of race, ethnicity,

gender, class, and sexuality.

Anthropologists believe that all humans are

connected

-Anthropologists believe that all humans share

connections that are biological, cultural, economic,

and ecological.

Four-Field Approach: The use of four interrelated

disciplines to study humanity, biological

anthropology, archaeology, linguistic

anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Biological Anthropology: The study of humans

from a biological perspective, particularly how they

evolved overtime and adapted to their

environments.

Paleoanthropology: The study of the history of

human evolution through the fossil record.

Primatology: The study of living non-human

primates as well as primate fossils to better

understand human evolution and early human

behavior.

Archeology: The investigation of the human

passed by means of excavating and analyzing

artifacts.

Prehistoric Archaeology: The reconstruction of human behavior and the distant past through the

examination of artifacts.

Historic Archaeology: The exploration of the more

recent pass through an examination of physical

remains and artifacts, as well as written or oral

records.

Linguistic Anthropology: The study of human

language in the past and the present.

Descriptive Linguists: Those who describe an

analyze languages in their component parts.

Cultural Anthropology: The study of people’s

communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions,

including how people make meaning as they live,

work, and play together.

Participant Observation: A key anthropological

research strategy involving both participation in

and observation of the daily life of the people being

studied.

Ethnology: The analysis and comparison of

ethnographic data across cultures.

Globalization: The worldwide intensification of

interactions and increased movement of money,

people, goods, and ideas within and across

national boarders.

-Globalization is characterized by time-space

compression, flexible accumulation, increasing,migration, and uneven development.

Time-space compression: The rapid innovation

of communication and transportation, technologies

associated with globalization that transforms the

way people think about space and time.

Flexible accumulation: The flexible strategies that

corporations used to acclimate profits in an era of

globalization, enabled by innovation,

communication, and transportation technologies.

Increasing Migration: The accelerated movement

of people within and between countries.

Uneven Development: The unequal distribution of

the benefits of globalization.

Anthropocene: The current historical era in which

human activity is reshaping the planet in

permanent ways.

Climate Change: Change’s to the earth’s climate,

including global warming produced primarily by

increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases

created by the burning of fossil fuels.