ANTH 1010 notes (1st week)

“What is anthropology?”

-Study of human nature + culture in the past, present, and future (think “-ure”)

-has 4 major subfields

-is theoretical, methodical, and comparative (it guesses, plans, and looks at differences)

-ethnography: first-hand collection of data about cultural beliefs and practices. Emic (insider/subjective) and etic (outside/objective)

-ethnology: cross-cultural comparison of human behavior with detailed study of similarities and differences.

-four-field discipline (aka sub-fields) (Archaeology, Linguistics, Physical Anthropology, and Cultural Anthropology)

-the holistic perspective: considers humanity in its broadest, most specific contexts (considers the research participants' connection to their environment, language, religion, economics, politics, etc.)

-anthropology as a field have to stay neutral, it has a conceptual framework, and tries to eliminate ethnocentrism within observational research. It stays as objective as it can

SUBFIELDS OF ANTH:

  1. Physical / Biological

  • Evolution, adaptation, forensics

  1. Archaeology

  • Pre-historic and historical

  1. Linguistic

  • Grammar and communication

  1. Sociocultural

  • Cultural anthropology (us), social anthropology (europe, canada)

The “bond” connecting there subfields is: culture (obviously)

Culture: refers to behaviors and symbols that humans use in day-to-day life. Customs, practices, beliefs, arts, etc.