ANTH 103 Unit 1 Study Guide

Study Guide:

Anthropology

The holistic perspective

Homo sapiens

The four sub-disciplines of anthropology:

· Biological anthropology

· Archaeology

· Cultural anthropology

· Linguistic anthropology

Areas of focus within the cultural anthropology

Ethnography

Ethnology

Cultural universal

Culture (definitions)

Characteristics of human culture

Shared, learned, dynamic, adaptive, variable, etc.

The enculturation process

Ethnocentrism

Cultural relativism

Franz Boas

Mechanisms of cultural Change:

· Forms of diffusion

· Acculturation

· Independent invention

Science

The scientific method:

Induction

Deduction

Hypothesis

Theory

Fieldwork in cultural anthropology:

· Observation

· Participant observation

· Interview

· Survey

Emic perspective vs etic perspective

Language

Essential characteristics of human language

How does language differ from other forms of communication?

Characteristics of Language:

· Discreteness

· Productivity

· Arbitrariness

· Displacement

· Multimedia Potential

Areas of study within anthropological linguistics:

Descriptive linguistics:

· Phonology

· Morphology

· Syntax

· Semantics

Historical Linguistics

Sociolinguistic

Ethnolinguistics

Linguistic relativity (the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)

Edward Sapir

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Sociolinguistic

Historical Linguistics

Sociolinguistic

 Week 1 Guide

Cultural Anthropology: the sub-discipline of social science: anthropology that focuses on the way of life of contemporary and historically recent human societies and cultures

Anthropology: The holistic approach to the study of humans throughout time and space

· This includes both biological and cultural aspects of humanity: the biocultural perspective.

· Holistic approach: studying a subject by focusing on the interrelationships among its parts

In anthropology includes studying the whole of the human condition: past, present and future; biology, society, language and culture.

· Homo sapiens the human species in binomial (two name) scientific nomenclature (naming system)

· Culture: human traditions and customs that govern behavior and beliefs.

Culture is the “theme” of anthropology and can be described as everything people have, think and do, as members of society.

Empiricism and Scholasticism in anthropology

The four primary Subdisciplines of Anthropology:

· Biological Anthropology

· Archaeology

· Cultural Anthropology

· Linguistic Anthropology

Two primary areas of study within cultural anthropology:

Ethnography is the detailed description of the way of life of a particular cultural group. An example would be if we conducted an in-depth study of a group of Inuit people living in northern Canada. This is where the fieldwork comes into the picture.

Ethnology is the study of the underlying patterns of human culture shared by all of humanity. This is where anthropologists work toward an understanding of what it means to have a human culture for any and all of us. This is done through comparative studies. Ethnologists emphasize cultural universals.

Cultural Universals: elements of culture that are present in all human societies for which we have relevant data (ethnographies, written records, archaeological materials, etc.)

Week 2 Guide

Culture: human traditions and customs that govern behavior and beliefs.

Characteristics of Human Culture:

· Includes material items as we as nonmaterial things like ideas, beliefs, values and practices

· Shared by people within society

· Learned: the enculturation process

· Dynamic (always changing)

Mechanisms of culture change: diffusion, acculturation and independent invention

· Symbolic

· The primary way humans adapt to their environment,

· The primary form of human variability

A challenge that all anthropologists face is:

Ethnocentrism: viewing other cultures from the biased perspective of one’s own culture, generally the idea that one’s own culture is superior to other cultures

We can cope with ethnocentrism by using a perspective of cultural relativism to the best of our ability.

Cultural Relativism: viewing each aspect of any culture in its own cultural context

Franz Boas

Week 3 Guide

Science: A systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims to produce reliable explanations of phenomena.

(Empiricism: learning based on observation and experimentation)

The Scientific Method: a method of inquiry that makes use of two logical processes: induction and deduction.

Induction: arguing from specifics to generalities

Forming hypotheses to provisionally explain what we observe

We are working from specific data to a general hypothesis.

Deduction: arguing from generalities to specifics

Testing our hypotheses with data (further observations)

Theory: a hypothesis that is well supported by relevant data

Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology

· Observation

· Participant Observation: taking part in the events one is observing, describing and analyzing

· Emic Perspective: the research strategy that focuses on native explanations and criteria of significance (in contrast to the etic perspective)

· Interview

· Survey

· Longitudinal Research

Human language is a unique system of communication. To the best of our ability to know, no other group of organisms has a communication system quite like ours.

The Characteristics Shared by All Human Languages:

· Discreteness: Using language involves combining minimal units (like sounds and words) according to sets of language-specific rules.

· Productivity: A finite number of words may be combined to form infinite sentences.

Discreteness and Productivity are what allow for linguistic creativity. Every speaker of any language knows a finite (bounded, not limitless) set of words and a finite set of

grammatical structures at any given time. Knowing these, the speaker can both send and receive infinite (limitless) messages. For Example: I could say “Look at that purple striped unicorn running across the street!” So even if you have never heard, or read, this particular sentence before, knowing the individual words (purple, unicorn, etc.) and the basic structures I used to create the sentence will allow you to understand. You can also say something (on the fly) you’ve never heard, read or said before due to linguistic creativity.

· Arbitrariness: All human languages are made up of almost entirely arbitrary symbols. There is no inherent relationship between most words and what they represent. Hearing or reading the word “shoe” or “chaussure” or “zapato” doesn’t resemble the shoe. Onomatopoeia is the term for the limited number of words in any language that are not arbitrary symbols. Examples include words like ding, meow, and zip. It is actually rather zippy to say “zip.”

· Displacement: Human language is not tied to communicating about the here and now. We can talk about any place and any time. We can even discuss fictitious places and times. Without displacement language would certainly be less entertaining.

· Multimedia Potential: languages can be spoken, signed, read, viewed, etc...

Week 4 Guide

· Descriptive Linguistics: The ethnography of language

o Phonology: the study of the sound system of language

o Morphology: the study of the words, or units of meaning, within language

o Syntax: the study of phrases and sentences

o Semantics: the study of how meaning is embedded in all aspects of language

· Sociolinguistics: The study of how language in its social context

· Historical Linguistics: The study of language change over time

· Ethnolinguistics: the study of the relationship between language and culture

This relationship can be considered in two different ways. Language can be seen as a reflection of culture. It is pretty easy to see that culturally important things are well described in the language/s used. It can also be considered in terms of the possibility of language playing a role in shaping the culture of its speakers.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (AKA Linguistic Relativity): the idea that language significantly shapes the perceptions and worldview of its speakers.

Edward Sapir, (1884-1939) an anthropological linguist, was the mentor of Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941).

Linguistic Relativity was largely developed from Whorf’s work comparing European languages, like English, to Native American languages, like Hopi.

Linear vs cyclical view of time

In English we speak of past, present or future; in Hopi time is spoken of as Manifest: objectively present or Un-manifest: subjectively becoming.