Chapter 1
What Is Anthropology
and Why Should I Care?
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What is
Anthropology?
What about
Cultural
Anthropology?
Anthropology
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The scientific and humanistic study of
human beings
Encompasses:
• the evolutionary history of humanity
• physical variation among humans
• the study of past societies
• comparative study of current day
human societies and cultures
Society
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A group of people who depend on one
another for survival or well-being
• A set of social
relationships among
people
• Contains statuses and
soles
• Contains institutions
• Occupy geographic
locations
Culture
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The learned behaviors and symbols that
allow people to live in groups
The primary means by which humans
adapt to their environment
The ways of life characteristic of a
particular human society
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema
Goal of Anthropology
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Describe, analyze, and explain different
cultures to show how groups live in
different physical, economic, and social
environments, and to show how members
give meaning to their lives.
Holistic Approach
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Anthropologists bring a holistic approach to
understanding and explaining.
Anthropology combines the study of human
culture, history, language, and biology to
understand human societies.
Holism separates anthropology from other
academic disciplines which generally focus on
one factor as the explanation for human
behavior.
Anthropologists generally focus on
typical characteristics of a population.
• When describing a group of people, anthropologists
may discuss:
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the history of the area in which they live,
the physical environment,
the organization of family life,
the general features of their language,
their political and economic systems,
their religion,
their diet, or
their styles of art and dress.
Sub-disciplines of
Anthropology
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Cultural anthropology
Anthropological linguistics
Archaeology
Biological or physical anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
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The study of human thought, behavior,
and lifeways
Cultural anthropologists attempt to
understand culture through the study of its
origins, development, and diversity.
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Sex, After or before emotional connection?
Breastfeed, Your own or your neighbor’s as well?
Loved dies, Bury her or eat her?
Why is this important?
Cultural Anthropology
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Ethnography is the description of society or
culture.
• An emic ethnography attempts to capture
what ideas and practices mean to members
of a culture.
• An etic ethnography describes and analyzes
culture according to principles and theories
drawn from the Western scientific tradition
such as ecology, economy, or psychology.
Archaeology
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The key focus of archaeology is to look at the
material remains people leave behind to try to
infer their cultural patterns from it.
Archaeology is about interpreting patterns to
provide insights into the lives and cultural ways
of other people in other times.
Anthropological Linguistics
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The study of language and its relation to
culture
Humans have a huge number of words
and complex patterns that we use to put
them together.
We form communities of speech.
The use of complex language is central to
being a human being.
Physical or Biological
Anthropology
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Physical and biological anthropologists
study humans as physical and biological
entities.
All human culture rests on a biological
base.
Human Paleontology
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Human paleontologists
search for fossils to
discover and
reconstruct the
evolutionary history of
our species.
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They extract biological and chemical data
from ancient bones or from living humans to
help discover the biological histories of
humanity and the relationships among
different human groups.
Primatology
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Humans are primates.
Other primates: apes, Old World and New
World monkeys, and prosimians
• Biologically very close to us
We share about 98% of our genes with our
closest ape relations.
Studying these relatives may give us insights
into the behavior of our evolutionary ancestors.
Applied Anthropology
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The application of anthropology to the
solution of human problems
Forensic anthropology – uses the tools
of physical anthropology to aid in the
identification of skeletal or badly
decomposed human remains
Forensic anthropologists identify the
victims of crimes, warfare, and genocide.
Anthropology and Other
Social Sciences
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Anthropology focuses on understanding
other groups of people.
Anthropology attempts to observe, collect,
record, and understand the full range of
human cultural experience.
Anthropology presents many useful ways
of thinking about culture.