Introduction to Anthropology

Introduction to Anthropology

• Anthropology studies the functioning and evolution of "other" societies.
• It gathers information through participant observation and comparative methods.
• Anthropology studies the human being, civilization, beliefs, morals, customs, art, law, and habits of human beings in society.
• Anthropology records and documents to analyze the evolution of human behavior.
• It compares different groups to understand their particularities and similarities.
• It relies on social sciences like history and sociology and natural sciences like biology.

Cultural Anthropology

• It is also known as social anthropology or ethnology.
• It studies all characteristics of different cultural configurations of social groups.
• It focuses on understanding human beings through their culture, including customs, myths, beliefs, norms, and values that guide their behavior as members of a social group.
• Anthropology has focused on two key issues since its inception: culture and society.
• These two concepts have given anthropology conceptual unity.

Historical Phases of Anthropology

• First phase: Focused on studying the origins of humans from an evolutionary perspective.
• Second phase: Concerned with studying relationships between cultures from a more scientific perspective.
• Third phase: Studies culture in society from a practical, utilitarian, and relatable perspective.

Currents of Anthropologists

• Evolutionists: They view culture as a continuous process that cannot return to its starting point.
• Functionalists: They see culture as repeatable in a given society.
• Determinists: They believe individuals cannot modify culture; rather, culture modifies the individual and has its own life in its relationships with the individual.

Contemporary Anthropology

• It focuses on studying problems across different societies and eras, rather than specific issues of individual societies.

Jesús Mosterín's Definition of Culture

• Defines culture as information transmitted through social learning among animals of the same species.
• It is opposite to nature and information transmitted genetically.
• Culture at a specific moment is the collection of memes in an individual's brain.

The Concept of Culture

• The term "culture" originally meant cultivating the soul or mind.
• Its later meanings acquired from 18th-century German thinkers, who criticized Rousseau's modern liberalism and the Enlightenment.
• A contrast is usually implied between "culture" and "civilization" by these authors.
• Two primary meanings of culture emerged: culture as a folklore spirit with a unique identity and culture as the cultivation of spirituality or free individuality.
• The first definition is dominant today.
• The second plays a role in what culture should achieve, as the full expression of the unique and authentic self.

The Origin of Modern Humnas

• Refers to the emergence and expansion of Homo sapiens across the Earth.
• Homo sapiens replaced all other existing Homo species.
• The origin of Homo sapiens posits two hypotheses: evolving as a species interconnected with Homo erectus, and evolving only in Africa before migrating.
• Anthropologists debate both possibilities, but most support the single origin in Africa.

Contributions of Anthropology to Psychology

• It promotes necessary processes and proper attitudes to identify and respect the plurality of society.
• Professional anthropology provides answers and locates human beings within their own understanding, experience, and reflection.
• Anthropology helps psychologists situate individuals in different stages, with different expectations, challenges, and values.
• It helps to form professionals capable of responding to needs with an interdisciplinary approach in an increasingly diverse world.