Introduction to Anthropology Concepts

Concepts of Anthropology

• Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present, in their cultural, social, and biological contexts
• It seeks to understand diversity in human cultures, beliefs, practices, and behaviors across time and space
• Anthropology is a uniquely comparative and holistic science
• It offers a cross-cultural perspective by comparing customs of one society to others
• It confronts major questions of human existence

Subdisciplines of Anthropology

• Cultural Anthropology: Studies human society and culture, analyzing, interpreting, and explaining social and cultural similarities and differences
• Archaeological Anthropology: Reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains
• Biological Anthropology: Studies human biological variation in time and space
  • Paleoanthropology: Human evolution as revealed by the fossil record
  • Human genetics
  • Human growth and development
  • Human biological plasticity

Archaeology

• Reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains

Linguistic Anthropology

• The study of language and linguistic diversity in time, space, and society

Anthropology, Academic Fields, and Other

• Anthropology is a systematic field of study that uses experimentation, observation, and deduction to provide explanations of phenomena within the material and physical world
• This field's goals are to discover, describe, understand, and explain similarities and differences among humans and ancestors

Culture

• Culture is all the ways of life, including arts, beliefs, and institutions, of a population, passed down through generations
• Culture derives from the Latin "colere," meaning to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture
• Culture is a way of coping with the world by defining it in detail

Culture is Learned

• Enculturation: Learning one's own culture
• Acculturation: Adopting the cultural traits of a dominant group
• Deculturation: Loss of cultural traits

Culture is Everything

• Culture shapes who we are, how we live, and how we see the world
• Material Culture: Physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture
• Non-Material Culture: Cultural traits and practices that cannot be touched, felt etc

Culture Changes

• Culture is dynamic and constantly evolving, adapting and transforming in response to new ideas, experiences, and interactions.
• Adaptive Cultures: Flexible, accepting new ideas and encouraging teamwork
• Maladaptive Cultures: Rigid, resisting change, fostering competition, ultimately hindering success

Culture's Evolutionary Basis

• Universality: Cultural traits, practices, or beliefs found in every society
• Generality: Cultural traits, practices, or beliefs common to many, but not all, cultures
• Particularity: Cultural traits, practices, or beliefs unique to specific cultures

Anthropology and Psychology

• Psychological anthropology studies cross-cultural variation in psychological traits
• Societies instill different values by training children differently, reflecting practices in upbringing.

The Scientific Method

• Anthropology is a humanistic science that seeks to understand similarities and differences in time and space

Ethnography

• Ethnography is the descriptive study of a specific human society
• It emphasizes the lived experiences of individuals and the meanings behind their actions in social contexts
• Important research technique is participant observation

Methods and Techniques in Cultural Anthropology

• Ethnographic techniques: Ways researchers conduct fieldwork, each designed for specific tasks, and information from participants

Interview

• Structured Interview: A set of pre-arranged questions
• Unstructured Interview: No specific questions, open conversation
• Personal/Individual Interview: A one-on-one conversation with an informant
• Focused Interview: A conversation with someone involved in a specific situation
• Clinical Interview: Assessing an individual's physical or psychological status

Survey Research

• Survey research selects respondents from a population, using questionnaires
• Questionnaires to collect data from fieldwork, can be in person, online, or on the phone

Theories of Anthropology

• Social Evolution Theory: Societies develop based on one universal order of cultural evolution (19th century concept)
• Historical Particularism: Each society has its own unique historical development, based on its own environment

Cultural Ecology

• Cultural ecology explains cultural similarities and differences based on their environment
• Material culture impacts cultural practices

Structuralism

• Cultures have deep structures that are consistent
• Universal structures in all cultures (Claude Levi-Strauss)

Cultural Materialism

• Incorporates Marxism, cultural evolution, and cultural ecology
• Materialism contends that the physical world impacts and sets constraints on human behavior

Postmodernism

• Challenges the dominating nature of science and reason
• Focuses on deconstructing prior thought

Feminist Anthropolgy

• A four-field approach seeks to reduce male bias in research findings

Language and Communication

• Language is our primary means of communication
• Language is transmitted through learning (enculturation)
• Language is based on arbitrary associations between words and their meaning
• Anthropology studies how speech reflects social differences
• Whorf: Language actually affects culture by shaping how speakers think

Black English Vernacular (BEV)

• Also known as African American Vernacular English(AAVE)
• A variety of English spoken primarily by African Americans. Its unique grammatical, phonological, and lexical features.
• Language loss is the loss of centuries of thinking about time, places, etcetera.

Development of Production

• Adaptive Strategies: Different economic production systems, including foraging, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, and industrialism.
• Foraging: Hunter-gatherers; most prevalent for 99% of human history; characterized by small groups
• Horticulture: Intensive use of none of the factors of production (no machinery, capital, etc.); most suitable for limited land
• Agriculture: Intensive use of land, continuous cultivation; often needs domesticated animals and irrigation

Relevant Facts

• People increased control over nature by increasing land use and labor intensity