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
Archeology
Linguistics
Physical or Biological anthropology
Cultural/Sociocultural 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 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)
We make classifications, we try to give order to the world we live in.
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Human groups tend to identify themselves with their environment
(animals or physical features that provide them with their livelihood)
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
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
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holistic
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.
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Anthropological knowledge
ethnography
ethnography: writing about other peoples
making sense of other peoples' modes of thought
participant observation
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! :-)
The issues you have to be aware of in particular
Features of cultural anthropology
a) Ethnography
b) Cultural relativism versus ethnocentrism –cultural diversity
c) holism
Issues in Cultural anthropology
a) biological determinism versus cultural constructionism
b) emics and etics: interpretetive anthropology and cultural materialsim
c) structirism versus individual agency
d) social structure versus function and change
Culture (specialized forms of field and issues of cultural anthropology
Culture versus nature
integration/adaptation
symbols
Multiple world of culture
Class/race/ethnicity/gender/age/religion/cast
Economic systems
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Modes of production
property relations and division of labour
Sustainability of modes of production
foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, industrialism
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