Anth 1000
Introduction to Social/Cultural Anthropology
 What is Anthropology?
o Anthropos – human
o Logos – study
 Def. -- the holistic study of human beings and the human condition worldwide in
both the past and the present
 What is a “holistic study”?
o Study of human culture/society as an integrated whole
 All facets of human life interrelated
 Anthropology is the study of human diversity
o Why are humans, who are so much alike, living in such different
cultures/societies
o Why is there so much difference when we’re all humans
 Universal Phenomena and Culture
o What are human universals?
o birth, sexuality, puberty, death, etc.
o How do the manifestations of human universals differ across cultures &
within a culture
 Specific/Particular Phenomena and Culture
o What are the specific/particular social and cultural forms and practices related
to universal phenomena
 The discipline of anthropology
o Four Fields
 Archaeology
 Physical/Bio – Anthropology
 Linguistic Anthropology
 Social/cultural anthropology
 Fifth Field
 Applied Anthropology
 Social/cultural anthropology
o The holistic study of human populations in the present
o Why “social/cultural anthropology”?
 Emphasis on society or culture
o what’s the difference between society and culture?
 Culture and Society
o “CULTURE is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings
interpret their experience and guide their actions; social structure [SOCIETY]
is the form that action takes, the actually existing network of social relations.”
(Geertz 1973: 145)
 Social/Cultural Anthropology
Methodology and Results
Ethnography
o ethno = a people
o graphy = a written description









o a written account or film of a particular society and culture using ethnographic
methods
o a method = data collection
o interview, participant-observation, long term fieldwork
Ethnology
o The comparative study of many cultures
o The description and analysis of peoples from a particular region by comparing
a group of ethnographic accounts
Ethnohistory
o Historical description of a particular people, culture, society usually from the
historical understanding of that people, culture, society
The Anthropological Heritage
o interest in and speculation about human diversity have a long history
o writings, oral traditions, pictures, maps, rituals, myths, folklore, legend, fairy
tales
European Descriptions of Others 3 periods
o classical & medieval writings
o age of discovery/exploration (16th-18th cent.)
o colonialism & postcolonial period (19th cent. to present)
 age of professional anthropology
Twin Legacies of Anthropology
o empirical studies of different peoples and cultures
 seeking to understand human diversity
o the historical, cultural, and social contexts that produce anthropological
knowledge
 who gets to study whom?
Classical Heritage
Herodotus, 5th cent. BC
Greek historian
o traveled widely-Persia, Italy, the Black Sea, up the Nile in Egypt
o first to formulate and write in an organized & vivid fashion a description of a
series of human cultures in his “histories”
Herodotus and his concept of Culture
o common descent, common language, common religion, & observance of like
manners in the smaller details of living, such as dress, diet & dwellings
Proto-Anthropology of Herodotus
o systematic approach for describing others
 data organized into categories
o used informants
o gathered data using observation & interview
o “being there” -- went to the field
o learned local languages
o used comparative method
o interested in confirming cultural & social facts
Medieval Period
Fall of Roman Empire until Age of Discovery










o Europe was isolated and in disarray, not connected with the world system of
trade as it existed
o Descriptions of others rely on hearsay without confirmation
o or simply imagine others and other places using those imaginations as fact
Age of Discovery
o Europe re-enters old world system of trade & commerce through Venice &
Genoa trading port cities
o collecting ethnographic data - developing within the context of discovery (and
later empire)
Anthropology and the European Enlightenment
o Enlightenment values and ideals
 Progress and perfection
o Euro-American experience of others
 Europe, United States, Canada
o colonialism and imperialism
European Colonialism and Post-Colonial World
o Period of academic professionalism
o World War & “Development”
o New nations of “Third World”
o Post-colonial theorists from the margins
Anthropology as a Science
o Anthropology involves the careful and systematic study of humankind using:
 Facts
 Hypotheses
 Theories
Difficulties of the Scientific Approach
o Motivation to prove one’s own hypothesis
Dangers of culture bound hypotheses
o Restrictions upon replication
Anthropology as a Humanity
o Concern with other cultures’ languages, values, and achievements in the arts
and literature
o Commitment to experiencing other cultures
o Emphasis on qualitative research
Humanist Anthropology
o What is it to be human?
o A concern with the whole of human experience (holism), and therefore
ambiguities and uniqueness are no less important than regularities
What Does Anthropology Teach That Is Useful outside the College Setting?
o careful record-keeping
o attention to details
o attention & appreciation of diversity
o analytical reading and clear thinking
o critical thinking and strong skills in oral and written expression
An anthropologist is:
o a trained observer who knows the importance
 of human diversity, taking seriously human differences and similarities
 of long term fieldwork
 of applying various explanatory models
•Anthropologists are broadly scientific as well as humanists
•of adopting a broad holistic perspective for framing an understanding of human
diversity