Anthro Notes PDF

Anthro Notes Process of humanization: 1)​ Biological production and maintenance of human beings 2)​ Cultural production and maintenance of human societies and cultures 5 Aspects of humanization process: 1.​ Symbolization 2.​ Materialization 3.​ Verbalization 4.​ Socializa...

Anthro Notes Process of humanization: 1)​ Biological production and maintenance of human beings 2)​ Cultural production and maintenance of human societies and cultures 5 Aspects of humanization process: 1.​ Symbolization 2.​ Materialization 3.​ Verbalization 4.​ Socialization 5.​ Enculturation PRIOR TO 1700S INDIGENOUS = MAJORITY *** 1. Before the 1970s, anthropologists and historians WATCHED destruction of Indigenous groups as “objects of study”. (CHARACTERISTICS) vv Large-scale societies organized via: 1)​ Political centralization 2)​ Market exchange 3)​ Industrial mass production Small-scale Indigenous groups avoid ethnocentrism implied by evolutionary ‘stages of progress’ -​ Share a way of life focused on family -​ Focus on sustainable lifeways -​ Small-scale social organization The Process of Humanization (SMVSE) 1)​ Symbolization (producing abstract concepts) 2)​ Materialization (giving physical form to concepts) 3)​ Verbalization (producing human speech) 4)​ Socialization (producing permanent human societies) 5)​ Enculturation (reproducing culture)  13000 BC -​ Sedentary lifeways -​ Emergence of village life 10000 BC -​ Animal domestication -​ Emergence of gardening, farming, and herding 4000 BC -​ Politicization -​ Emergence of politically organized large-scale societies AD 1500 -​ Commercialization -​ Emergence of commercially organized global-scale societies 4,000 BC -​ POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS Indigenous people brutally experienced genocide(eliminating people) and ethnocide(eliminating way of life) for “progress” Ecocide - threatens natural environment (RESISTANCE) Loss of Indigenous political, economic, and cultural autonomy has NOT occurred passively -​ States → chiefdoms for self-defense -​ Others, temporarily structures military resistance at frontier zones -​ Self-determination movements begin in 1970s, becoming new means of (legal) defense Social sciences can help Indigenous struggle by reducing ethnocentrism, cultural misunderstandings, and ignorance 2. Post 1800’s - Western growth referred to as progress Growth drove push for resource acquisition -​ Logging, forestry, mining, intensive agriculture, oil extraction, etc.. The process of commercialization has been both explosive and catastrophic for small-scale societies and their lifeways. ‘Culture of Consumption’ : based on the principle that consumption should be continuously expanded (even materials to help us not consume!) -​ This principle is marketed through mass marketing and advertisements Ideologies: -​ Social stratification(categorizing people) based on financial/material wealth -​ Success is visible through differential access to resources (haves & have nots), and often reflected in your perceives material ‘standard of living’ (not actual well-being) Government programs designed to help balance Indigenous needs and national “progress” have generally failed to meet their stated objectives -​ Directly or indirectly forced cultural change on Indigenous communities (acculturation) -​ Cultural modification of an individual, group, or people through adaptation to, or borrowing of, traits from another typically socio-politically dominant culture -​ Uncontrolled growth, programs lead to extraction or national control of the resource base, ultimately benefiting the national economy (resource appropriation) -​ A process by which previously ‘unowned’ natural resources, particularly land or other economic resource, become the property of (‘owned’ by) a person, group of persons, or institution -​ (STUFF) Ethnocentrism characterizes tribal cultures as failures in order to: 1)​ Externally impose cultural change or elimination of an existing culture (ethnocide) 2)​ Justify territorial conquest for resource extraction 3)​ Reject Indigenous proposals for sovereignty (self-direction will only “hold them back”, they say” Reformers drew on ‘wardship principle’ to justify harsh programs of Indigenous acculturation -​ Wardship represents the BIGGEST form of ethnocentrism -​ Considers all Indigenous people as incompetent or childlike -​ By extension views tribal cultures as abnormal or sick -​ Defined as a relationship between a parent/guardian (government) and their ward (Indigenous peoples) who must be protected from their ‘backward’ culture, even against their will -​ The duty of the government in this relationship was to reform, correct, and ‘civilize’ Indigenous peoples “Progress” – Indigenous people want nothing to do with culture of consumption, etc…. -​ Groups try to hide from conquesting groups “VOLUNTARY ISOLATION” -​ Typically not left alone… 3. Since early 1800s, initial breakdown of Indigenous independence occurred along frontiers Extermination used to dispossess Indigenous peoples from the land -​ Cattle release destroys gardens, etc.. Dispossession (remove people) Debt Peonage -​ Traders advance overpriced Western goods on credit, in exchange for future shipments of undervalued local goods -​ Destructive/disruptive Disruption -​ Abandon traditional subsistence systems (hunting/collecting) -​ Weaken tribal sociopolitical organization -​ Destruction of cultural autonomy -​ Dispossession of tribal subsistence lands -​ Still widespread in South America 4. Punitive Raids ‘scare’ Indigenous peoples into cooperating with the government -​ Acts of intimidation and/or retributive punishment -​ Displays of overwhelming force -​ Generally episodic events with targeted goal One style: Gunboat diplomacy in First Opium War -​ Punitive raids for not doing what told to do (French, German, British, Americans) Justification: 1)​ Protect settlers from “marauding savages” 2)​ Suppress native rebellions 3)​ Speed up progress and ‘civilizing’ process Modern weaponry gives Gov. advantages over small-scale societies Guerilla warfare tactics are useful against firearms; traditional often futile Seven main ways MILITARIZATION occurs: 1)​ Militarily-supported invasions (by colonists) 2)​ Gov-sponsored/condoned terrorism 3)​ Indigenous organization of military force (self-defense) 4)​ Indigenous groups caught between other forces at war 5)​ Indigenous territories used as foreign battlegrounds 6)​ Indigenous territories used as weapons testing sites 7)​ Recruit Indigenous peoples to fight in foreign wars Zapatista (MODERN) Revolution – People from society (colonizers) fight FOR Indigenous group DEFINITIONS Conquest involves takeover and colonization by commercially organized societies Colonization refers to a process where a central system of power dominates the surrounding land and its components (human and natural) Indigenous peoples are those whose ancestors preceded the state in the territory they occupy Ethnocentrism involves belief in the superiority of one’s own race or culture, including the evaluation of other cultures based on the standards/customs/norms of own culture Ethnocide refers to the deliberate attempt to eradicate (destroy) the culture or way of life of a people