'We the people' and 'people looking at people'
(Womack ch. 1-2)
What is anthropology?
Anthropos: human being
-ology: study or science
Focus of anthropology:
human beings establish and live their social lives in groups
Diversity of the ways
given meaning to their experiences
Subfields of anthropology
Cultural/Sociocultural anthropology
Archeology
Linguistics
Physical or Biological anthropology
What makes us human?
How do we differentiate ourselves from animals?
1. Humans use tools (together with some animals)
2. Humans communicate through complex and abstract concepts:
We have languages
Humans use symbols
What are symbols?
Symbols are behaviours, images, words that express ideas which are too
complex to be stated directly (Womack p.4). example: flag
3. Humans organize themselves, their surroundings and the world into conceptual
categories.
such as we and they/us and them
most human groups make a distinction between themselves and other
groups with whom they come into contact (either those with whom they
compete or those with whom they co-operate)
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We make classifications, we try to give order to the world we live in.
Human groups tend to identify themselves with their environment (animals
or physical features that provide them with their livelihood) Womack 4-5).
How do we learn to identify ourselves with these things?
through socialization.
Socialization is the process of learning and passing the available skills,
customs and knowledge to the next generations.
What is culture?
idea of culture in the singular
assumed a universal scale of progress
is based on social evolutionary thought
idea of cultures in the plural
refers to the diversity of ways in which humans establish and live social lives
in groups
Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom and
any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. (Tylor 1871)
until 1960s
culture was seen as the realm of observable phenomena or customary pattern
of behaviour (things, events etc.)
1970s onwards
culture as systems of ideas, or structures of symbolic meaning
organized system of knowledge and belief whereby a people structure their
experience and perceptions
1980s onwards
culture is not a thing, should not be treated as a noun
more realistic to say 'people live culturally rather than they live in cultures'
(Tim Ingold 1994).
culture is acquired and learned
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biology and culture interact
society
a group of people occupying a territory and sharing a language and culture
(Womack 6).
social structure
the formal organization of group living, including politics, economics, kinship, and
religion.
relationship between world view and culture
learned yet not homogeneous
experience
(meaning-creating persons - acting agents)
ethnocentrism
viewing the world through our own cultural glasses, assessing others according to our
own yardsticks and criteria/belief in the supremacy of our own ways of doing things
organizing the world conceptually
binary oppositions = contrasting conceptual pairs (Lévi-Strauss - French anthropologist)
(one way of imposing order on human experience)
up/down, sun/moon, men/women
What is the distinguishing feature of modern anthropology?
approach rather than the subject matter (not limited to the study of the 'exotic other')
cultural relativity
not making judgements about other peoples' beliefs, behaviour patterns or
customs
cross-cultural and comparative
variations of human conditions all over the world
holistic
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focus on the whole social context
insider or local perspective
tries to understand the native point of view
insider perspective = emic
outsider perspective = etic
etic-emic-etic
How do anthropologists conduct research?
understanding?
what is important or
relevant
understanding of a phenomenon in the abstract and definition of its characteristics
we have to have theory
we operate with questions, assumptions, methods and evidence
a theory
is a general statement about the relationship between phenomena, the
systematic relationship between the observed entities.
a paradigm
is a fundamental model or scheme that organizes our view of something.
Paradigms are, so to speak, larger theories which include smaller ones
example: Newtonian physics and Eisteinian physics.
Anthropological knowledge
ethnography
ethnography: writing about other peoples
making sense of other peoples' modes of thought
participant observation
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living with them to learn, performing with them to experience
key informant
traditionally, a knowledgeable person /a person who shares her/his views and
knowledge of the society and "gossips" with the anthropologist! :-)
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