Introduction to Anthropology

• The course introduces anthropology and its study of culture, society, and humanity.
• It explores questions about humanity, including its origin and diversity.
• Key themes include human origin, cultural and biological diversity, race, ethnicity, identity, multiculturalism, power relations, inequality, local governance, indigenous knowledge, and systems and practices.

Module Learning Competencies

• Students will understand anthropology's nature and broad scope in a global context.
• Students will understand the cultural and biological diversity of humanity and unity in diversity across the world & in Ethiopia.
• They can analyze ethnocentrism against cultural relativism.
• They can realize the nature of identities and social categories.
• Students will explore peoples and cultures in Ethiopia.
• Students will develop views and skills to deal with people from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

Introducing Anthropology and its Subject Matter

• Anthropology is a mirror for humanity, and explores questions like "What do you know about anthropology?" and "How do you define anthropology?"

What is Anthropology?

• The term "Anthropology" comes from Greek words 'Anthropos' and 'Logos', meaning 'Mankind' and 'Study/Knowledge'.
• Anthropology studies mankind, considering biological and cultural aspects which are inseparable.
• Anthropology is a science that examines why and how people are both similar and different.
• Anthropology examines the characteristics that human beings share and the ways people live in different environments.
• Anthropology investigates living strategies people have adapted, and analyzes material and non-material creations of human societies.
• Anthropology can be the comparative study of cultural and social life.
• Anthropology seeks to understand culture, society, and humanity through detailed studies and comparison.
• Anthropology studies people, their origins, development, contemporary variations, and wherever they are found.
• Anthropology is a scientific discipline dedicated to the comparative study of humans as a group.

A Short Historical Background of Anthropology

• Anthropology has roots in the ideas of ancient Greek, Roman, and Hebrew philosophers who studied the nature, origin, and destiny of man.
• Anthropology as an academic discipline started in the 19th century, inspired by the Enlightenment.
• The Enlightenment movement emphasized human progress, reason, and the Darwinian theory of Evolution.
• Anthropology began emerging as a profession in the late 1870s.
• During the 1870s and 1880s, anthropology became a profession primarily in museums.
• Anthropologists in the early 1900s emphasized social and cultural differences among groups.
• Social and cultural features of many non-western societies were studied in detail, resulting in ethnography.
• By the mid-1900s, anthropologists tried to discover universal human patterns, resulting in Ethnology.
• Ethnology is the comparative understanding and analysis of different ethnic groups across time and space.

Ethnography and Ethnology Summary

• Ethnography means "culture writing" and provides a first-hand, detailed description of a living culture based on fieldwork and research.
• Ethnology studies one topic in more than one culture (e.g., marriage forms, economic practices, religion) through comparative and cross-cultural analyses using ethnographic material collected by researchers.

Scope & Subject Matter of Anthropology

• Anthropology's breadth and depth is vast and broad.
• The object of research is humanity.
• It touches every aspect of the human condition, including 'Man & Man' and 'Man & Environment'.
• It studies both the biological and cultural aspects of humanity.
• Anthropology seeks to understand human beings as organisms that adapt to environments through biology and culture.
• Anthropology is the study of human kind around the world & throughout time.
• Anthropology is a philosophy with the people in.
• It explores philosophical questions about humanity.

Questions & Issues about humanity

• Where did we (human species) come from?
• How did humankind arrive at the present stage of biological, intellectual, and cultural development?
• What are the social and cultural lives of a given group, and why does variation exist?
• Anthropology studies humanity with all aspects and differences and similarities.
• As an academic discipline, anthropology provides two kinds of insights.
• Knowledge about actual way's of life, culture, society & diversity.
• Methods & theoretical perspectives to compare the human condition.

Unique Features of Anthropology

• A main distinguishing feature for Anthropology is broad scope.
• Anthropology has a broad scope in time, space and human characteristics (biological & cultural dimensions).
• It is interested in all human beings & In all things human.
• Anthropology tries to comprehend the entire human experience.
• Anthropology uses holistic, relativistic, and comparative approaches.
• The holistic approach seeks to understand humankind through dynamic interrelationships.
• Different aspects of culture and society exhibit patterned interrelationships.
• Anthropology considers culture, history, language, and biology essential to understanding society.
• Anthropology is relativistic and tries to explain beliefs, practices, or institutions within their own context without making value judgements.
• Anthropology is comparative, studying aspects of a culture by comparing it across societies and times.
• This helps to understand differences and similarities among human beings across time and place.
• Anthropological studies focus on how people themselves perceive their world, explaining their actions, giving meaning to behavior or cultural practices from an emic perspective.
• This helps to understand the logic and justification behind group behavior and cultural practices.

Its Method of Research

• Anthropology is dependent on qualitative research to understand the meaning behind any human activity.
• It relies on first-hand data, collected by conducting extended fieldwork & using d/t data collection techniques.
• The discipline emphasizes the importance of ethnographic fieldwork, a close-up study of a social and cultural environment.
• Anthropology has a focus more on the local than the macro social processes.
• Attention to micro-social processes helps understand big changes in societies.

Misconceptions About Anthropology

• Misconceptions arise due to a lack of proper knowledge about the nature, scope, and subject matter.
• These misconceptions relate to the scope & areas of anthropological studies.
• A misconception is that anthropology is limited to studying "primitive" societies.
• In the early 19th century society research was primitive, but due to its holistic interest on humanity, it also focuses on modern and complex societies as well.
• Another misconception is that anthropology is only about studying rural people and areas.
• Although in its formative years, some anthropology studies focused on rural contexts, its interest now expands to urban contexts.
• As a result, urban anthropology is devoted to study in complex, heterogeneous cities.
• Another misconception says Anthropology is Limited to the Study of Human Evolution.
• Due to it's interest in the origin of modern humans, the discipline studies human biological evolution.
• The field of Paleoanthropology focuses on the study biological evolution of modern human.
• Anthropology is a uniquely holistic & comparative science, studies the whole of the human condition.

The Relationship Between Anthropology and Other Disciplines

• How does anthropology relate to other disciplines and how it's different?
• Anthropology shares similarities due to its holistic interest on humanity.
• Anthropology shares certain similarity with other social sciences
• Anthropology studies society and the ways people live
• Anthropology overlaps studies of human society in terms of thematic areas.
• Anthropology cuts across many disciplines.
• Political life, economic life, religion, art, social life, and more subjects are all studied within this discipline.

What Makes Anthropology Different?

• Broad scope, unique approach, perspective, unit of analysis, and methods.
• Studies humankind in its entirety.
• Studies culture & society holistically, comparatively, and in a relativistic manner.
• It locates people's, individual and communal lived experiences.
• There is focus on extended fieldwork, where intimate knowledge on the life and social world of communities are developed.
• Anthropology uses culture as an organizing concept.