ANTHROPOLOGY
THE STUDY OF HUMANITY FROM
ITS EVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS TO
TODAY’S CULTURAL DIVERSITY
KEY CONCEPT
• CULTURE
• KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO ACT AS A
MEMBER OF SOCIETY
• KNOWLEDGE OF EXPECTATIONS
• KNOWLEDGE OF APPROPRIATE AND
WRONGFUL ACTIONS
ANTHROPOLOGY
• FOCUS ON STUDY OF HUMANS AND
ALL ASPECTS OF BEING HUMAN
• DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SOCIAL
SCIENCES IN TIME AND SCOPE
• KEY CONCEPTS DISTINGUISH
ANTHROPOLOGY FROM OTHER
SOCIAL SCIENCES.
KEY CONCEPTS
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CULTURE
SOCIETY
HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
ETHNOCENTRISM
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
GLOBALIZATION
SOCIETY
• SHARED GEOGRAPHICAL TERRITORY
• PEOPLE LIVING IN ORGANIZED
GROUPS WITH SOCIAL ROLES AND
STATUSES
• SOCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN
INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS OF
INDIVIDUALS
• INTERDEPENDENCE
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
• Language
• Making a Living and Economic System
• Social Organization, Kinship, Descent, and
Marriage
• Enculturation: How we learn our culture
• Political Organization; Culture Change
• Religion; Arts
• Concepts of Illness and Disease
ENCULTURATION
• CULTURE IS LEARNED AND
TRAMSMITTED FROM ONE
GENERATION TO ANOTHER
• LEARN WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW
TO ACT AS A MEMBER OF YOUR
CULTURE
• ENCULTURATION IS SHAPED BY KEY
CULTURAL VAUES
ANTHROPOLOGY IS A UNIQUE
SOCIAL SCIENCE
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Time Depth
Global Focus
Comparative Approach
Holistic
Four Field Approach
Core Concept of Culture
Globalization
HOLISTIC
• Culture as an integrated whole. All parts of
culture are interconnected
• No part of culture can be studied in
isolation
• Studying culture involves studying the
cultural models people have learned
• Key Question: Why does this
behavior/emotion make sense in this
culture?
EXAMPLE OF HOLISM
• Arrangement of Furniture in USA reflects
core cultural value of individualism
• Individual bedrooms reflect value on
individualism & consistent with an
economy where families are dependent on
individual wage earners
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
• Cultural data is drawn from throughout the
world and from throughout human history
• Collect data about behavior and beliefs in
many societies in order to understand the
diversity of human behavior and emotions
• Understand common patterns in ways
people adapt to their environment, adjust
to their neighbors, and develop cultural
institutions
CULTURE
• Learned values, beliefs, rules of conduct
shared to some extent by the members of
society, that govern peoples behavior and
the way people think about themselves
and the world.
• Everything that people have, think, feel,
act and do as members of a society
• All cultures are comprised of material
objects; ideas, values, attitudes and
patterned ways of behaving.
Four Fields
• ARCHAEOLOGY
• BIOLOGICAL OR PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
• ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
• CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ARCHAEOLOGY
• STUDY OF PAST CULTURES
• PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC
• RELAY ON EVIDENCE (ARTIFACTS)
FROM MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE
SITES WHERE PEOPLE LIVED
• EVIDENCE REVEALS HOW PEOPLE
LIVED AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
GROUPS OF PEOPLE.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
LINGUISTICS
• STUDY OF LANGUAGE AND THE
SPEAKERS USE OF LANGUAGE AND
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND OTHER ASPECTS OF
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
• CULTURE IS LEARNED THROUGH
LANGUAGE
• HISTORIC AND DESCRIPTIVE
LINGUISTICS
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• Biological Anthropology
• Study of Human origins (evolution) and
contemporary Human variation
• Primate social organization
• Interface between biology and culture.
Example-Andes greater lung capacity
adaptation to low oxygen
HUMAN VARIATION
• “Race” is always a social not a biological
concept
• Conventional Classification of “Race” is
pseudoscience.
• Hair texture, skin color and facial
characteristics are arbitrary and randomly
selected
• Skin tone is function of evolutionary
adaptation to climate
• Race as conventionally used is wrong!
APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
• SOLVES PROBLEMS
• PRESERVES CULTURAL INTEGRITY OF
GROUP OF PEOPLE
• RELIES ON CULTURAL GROUP FOR
INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THEY
WANT THE PROBLEM SOLVES
APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
• MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGIST
• BRIDGES DISCIPLINE OF CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
• STUDIES SUSCEPTIBILITIES AND
RESISTANCE OF CERTAIN
POPULATION TO SPECIFIC DISEASE
• STUDIES HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
SYSTEM
FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY
• SUB-FIELD WITHIN BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
• ANALYZE HUMAN REMAINS IN
SERVICE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND
FAMILIES OF DISASTER VICTIMS
• HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
• GENOCIDE
APPLIED ARCHAEOLOGY
• CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
• APPLICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO
PRESERVE AND PROTECT HISTORIC
STRUCTURES AND PREHISTORIC
SITES
• OUTGROWTH OF FEDERAL AND
STATE LAWS TO PROTECT
PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC SITES
CONTRACT ARCHAEOLOGY
• APPLICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO
ASSES THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF
CONSTRUCTION ON
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
• SALVAGE ARCHAEOLOGY
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• The ways people organize their living in
societies
• The study of cultural behavior in recent
and contemporary cultures
• Ethnology-building theories to explain
cultural practices based on comparative
study of societies throughout the world
• Ethnography, a holistic intensive study of
groups, through observation, interview and
participation
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
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ETHNOGRAPHY
ETHNOGRAPHER
FIELD WORK
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
ETHNOCENTRISM
• The widespread human tendency to
perceive to perceive the ways of doing
things and beliefs about things in one’s
culture as normal and natural and that of
others as strange, inferior, and possibly
un-natural
• One’s own culture is superior, the best and
others are inferior
• Everybody everywhere is a little
ethnocentric
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
• Counters Ethnocentrism
• Stresses the importance of analyzing
cultures in their own terms rather than in
terms of the culture of the anthropologist
• This does not mean that all cultural
practices, cultural beliefs and behaviors
can be condone
• Different from ethical relativism—all right
and wrong relative to time, place, and
culture so that no moral judgments of
behavior can be made
GLOBALIZATION
• DISTINGUISHES ANTHROPOLOGY
FROM OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES
• CULTURAL CONTACT AND CONTACT
CHANGES SPECIFIC CULTURES
• RAPID TRANSFORMATION OF
CULTURES WORLD WIDE IN
RESPONSE TO ECONOMIC AND
TECHNOLOGICAL INFLUENCES
GLOBALIZATION
• OCCURRED IN THE PAST WHEN
STATES AND EMPIRES EXPANDED
THEIR INFLUENCE BEYOND THEIR
BOARDERS
• COLONIALISM
• CONTEMPORARY GLOBALIZATION
BASED ON INTERCONNECTED
ECONOMIES CHANGE CULTURAL
INSTITUTIONS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
AMERICANIZATION
• BY PRODUCT OF GLOBALIZATION
• THE SPREAD OF DOMINANT
AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN
CULTURAL PRACTICES,
CONSUMERISM, CULTURAL ICONS,
AND MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT