Anthropology Exam PDF

Week 1 - Introduction Anthropology- the study of humankind in all times and places - Includes study of human nature, human society, and human history - Contact with other cultures developed with trade, travel and conquest - Initially, others were seen as savages and barbarians - Eventual...

Week 1 - Introduction Anthropology- the study of humankind in all times and places - Includes study of human nature, human society, and human history - Contact with other cultures developed with trade, travel and conquest - Initially, others were seen as savages and barbarians - Eventually, they recognized others humanity Two main orientations: Dualism: the philosophical belief that reality is made up of two forces: mind and matter Holism: perspective… humans are who they are because of genes, culture experience Subfields of anthro: Physical or biological anthro: study of humans as biological organisms: focuses on what makes us similar to or different from other animals: knowledge often used in anatomy labs (forensic anthro) Paleoanthropology: primatology: human growth, adaptation and variation Archaeology: study of material remains to describe and explain human behaviour - Allows for the reconstruction of human life Linguistic anthro: - Study of human languages, history behind it Medical anthro: - Study of human health and disease by bringing together approaches from cultural and biological anthropology Cultural (or socio-cultural or social) anthropology: - Study of customary patterns in human behaviour, thoughts and feelings; focuses on human culture production and reproduction (how we learn and reproduce culture) Applied anthropology: - Use of anthropological approaches to solve practical cross-cultural Problems Anthropology image problem - Lack of ethics - Stealing info - “Helicopter” research - Ethnocentrism: the belief that one's way of life is the only natural or correct way of being fully human Week 2 - ethnographic research Key terms: Culture: a set of learned beliefs, values and behaviours, the way of life shared by the members of a society Sport: institutionalized competitive activities that involve rigorous physical exertion or the use of relatively complex physical skills by participants motivated by personal enjoyment and external rewards Guttman characteristics of modern sport: Secularism, equality, bureaucratization, specialization Anthropology, sport and leisure: - Viewed as easy, unimportant (leisure studies) - Binaries: mind/body, work/pleasure, economic/non-economic - Procedural vs. propositional knowledge - Reluctance to view it as a legitimate field of research Dyck’s 3 reasons for lack of attention: 1) Viewed as being European/North American phenomenon, hesitance for anthros to study at home’ 2) Sports are separable from other aspects of social life, beyond politics, and are taken as not being a cultural phenomenon, etc. 3) There is not much to say beyond scores, thus no contribution to larger issues Reveals that definitions of modern sport are historically and culturally constrained Key terms: Ethnography - a methodology that involves the researcher's (ethnographer) participation (overtly or covertly) in people's lives for an extended amount of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions Participant observation - ethnographers' key data collection technique (method): actively observe and participate in the research subject's lives Fieldwork: the process of conducting an ethnography (using participant observation, often interviews) seen as a rite de passage Going Native - racist idea; “descent” into participants' savagery, living like locals, not leaving the field, essentially rejecting previous privilege A brief history of ethnography Postiivistc roots: behaviours treated in a scientific fashion Tenets of positivism: 1) The experiment is the model for social research 2) The goal is to undercover universal laws so findings can be generalized 3) Need to use natural approach (observation, language) Naturalism: an approach that posits that the social world should be studied in a “natural” state, not an artificial setting, like a laboratory - Aim to describe “what happens in the setting, how the people involved see their own actions and those of others, and the contexts in which the action takes place - Must have access to understanding meanings that guide behaviour in order to understand behaviour The social world - Must remember that the researcher becomes part of the natural setting - thus, is a very social setting that is infused with power relations Reflexivity - an acknowledgement that researchers are shaped by sociocultural location - Social research is thus never objective - Findings are always affected by social processes and personal characteristics  Life history - biography to depict cultural and historical facts rather than individuals' lives/personalities Memoir - The ethnographer provides vivid descriptions of the events in the field - often under pseudonyms, focusing on ethnographer's life, not the participant's culture Narrative ethnography - the overlap of life history and memoir: attempts to portray culture accurately through the inclusion of participants' biographies and info on ethnographers' own experience Ethnographic novels: novels about ethic groups, accurate description of culture as basis for the novel; how cultural group relates to itself and the rest of the world Travelogues, chronicles, diaries: The first two tend to be easygoing, with a chatty tone. Diaries reveal inner thoughts,often controversial What is autoethnography - Form of ethnography on the interpretive side of the continuum - Continuum (positivist to interpretivism): studying others as separate… to examining interactions between researcher and others… to including the story of the researcher who interacts with others - Goal: produce (artful, poetic, and empathic social science” - Written in first person - The author is the research object - A blend of art and science - Stories of the self - Conducted for the benefit of extending understanding What helped to make AE possible? Feminism: personal is political, the value of listening to marginalized voices Postcolonialism: voices of the colonized Anthropologists being reflexive Different approaches to autoethnography - Indigenous or native ethnography: written by researchers who share a history of colonialism or economic subordination - Reflexive or narrative ethnography: focus on a culture of sub-culture to look more deeply at self-other interactions - Health-related narratives: narratives as the foundation for understanding personal issues in health - Confessionals or ethnographic memoirs: writing about fieldwork - Contingent ethnography: The researcher discovers connection between her/himself and re-writes own life story as a result Critiques: - Not rigorous, not science, illegitimate - Way of getting around ethics - Self-absorbed and narcissistic - Distortion Rebuttals - Self-absorbed to pretend that you are somehow outside of what you study and not impacted by the same forces as others - No more distortion than other forms of research - Truth is not the point Why is it used so rarely? - Academics used to telling others stories, not their own - Special irony for leisure studies scholars, who often encourage “balance” in life, especially tough “soft: - Autoethnography = real, human beings with both strengths and weaknesses - not bastions of ivory tower perfection How do you write a good AE? - Evocative: allow readers stories to merge with the authors - Sufficient social context, moving forward and backward in time, and inward and outward regarding the deeply personal and social - Use literary devices and techniques such as puns, metaphors, and unusual phrasings, while withholding interpretations in key places to draw the reader into the story - Reflexivity - Provide a substantive contribution to our understanding of social life from a social science perspective - Does the text seem to be a credible account of the cultural, social, and personal sense of a subjective reality? Week 3 - examples of ethnography, autoethnography, and intro to fieldnotes Clifford Geertz interpretive/symbolic anthropology - Not looking for laws but at meanings - Culture is an organized collection of symbolic systems (varies between cultures) - I.e. people use signs and symbols to shape and give meaning to behaviour The setting - Bali, Indonesia The cockfight - Focused gathering: a set of persons engrossed in a common flow of activity and relating to one another in terms of that flow - Razor-sharp spurs on roosters - Essentially a fight to the death - Serious training involved - Betting: centre and outside bets - Rich with symbolism - Seems as though cocks are fighting: really the men - Intimacy with cocks is more than metaphorical, though Deep play: Deep play Bentham: play in which the stakes are so high that it is irrational for men to engage in it at all Status gambling: less a matter of money, more of a matter of symbolic moral import Betting over your head will inevitably bring more net pain than pleasure - Bentham believed that deep play was immoral and should be illegal Shallow play: opposite of deep play, little to no symbolism - Money gambling - Cockfighting: smaller amounts of money involved - Money is “nearly synonyms for utility and disutility” - Addicts are in it for the money, the social position can change, but still treated with respect Symbolism - Symbolically at stake: esteem, honour, dignity, respect = status - Fighter and backer put their money where their status is - More money = more pride, poise, masculinity Men and symbolic honour - Men generally dominate and define the sport as they dominant and define the society - Metaphorically put ones cock on the line in deep play - Simulation of social matrix, status bloodbath Cockfighting rules as dramatization of status - Man almost never bets against member of his kingroup - Support allied kingroup if no member is involved - Support “home bird” - Away games help mend ruptures - Virtually never fight within the same sub-faction Cockfighting rules as dramatization of status - Bet heavily against those you dislike (puik): a direct attack on masculinity and status - Betting against the grain is okay if the centre bet is small and you won't do it often - Avoid cross-loyalty situations - Need to bet to show loyalty, that you aren’t too proud, and that you do not look down on others as unfit rivals The paradigm - The more the match is: 1) Between near status equals or enemies 2) Between high status individuals = the deeper the match - The deeper the match is… - The closer the identification of cock and man - The finer the cocks involved - The greater the emotion - The higher the individual bets centre and outside - The less ‘ economic” and more status In the end… - Cockfight is means of expression - Surge of animal hatred - Mock war of symbolical selves - A formal simulation of status tensions - Shows what is normally obscured from view - Not a depiction of how things literally are but rather how they are imagined to be Conclusion - Cockfight provides a commentary on the whole matter of assorting human beings into fixed hierarchical ranks and then organized the major part of collective existence around that assortment - One of the stories the Balinese tell about themselves Discipline (Foucault) - Docile bodies: skilled, disciplined bodies produced by particular configurations of time, space and movement, and thus able to exercise power within particular discourses - Hydribity: discipline (sport) tries to homogenize people (normalise them,) but we remain hybrids (never just one thing) Non-participation observation - Also known as naturalistic observation “conducted in such a way that the subjects behaviour is disturbed as little as possible by observation process” - Maintain physical and emotional distance from group - Need careful recording: checklists schedules - Sensation and perception - Interpretation: influenced by one’s positionality - Cover or overt Structured observation: observe and record behaviour in a holistic and systematic way, usually making use of an observation guide or coding schedule - Need to develop categories for observable events Participant observation - Live in context for long periods of time; learn language (usually), participate in wide range of activities, informally observe, record observations, use tacit and explicit knowledge in analysis and writing “Participation” - Participant observer may become a complete member: a covert or double agent - Participation is often a farce - Psychologically very difficult - Oxymoron: emotional investment, yet objective detachment - A movement away from “objectivity” - “Acceptable incompetent” Overt and Covert Observation - Overt: those being observed know they’re being observed  - Covert: those being observed are unaware of being observed (meant to decrease the impact of observation, but is it unethical?) Components of Fieldnotes: - Primary observation: chronological log, raw dates of observations of people, their surroundings, behaviour and conversations - Reflection and recall: stimulated from jotted notes and recalled during the process of writing fieldnotes - Pre-analysis data: ideas and inferences. Themes start to emerge, avoid censoring, write down anything that comes to you - Experiential data: impressions and personal feelings, include feelings about events, etc - Forward planning: may involve planning to revisit field to collect missing data or plan next stage of the research project Week 4 - whiteness and privilege Perry Why perry? Culture is not “out there” its also “right here” but many dont agree Main arguments: 1) Majority white school: naturalization - the embedding of historically constituted practices in what feels “normal” and natural - produced feelings of cultural lack among white students 2) Multi-racial school: rationalization - the embedding of whiteness within a western rational paradigm that subordinates all thins cultural” produced a feeling of cultureless identity Cultureless? - The argument is not about “whether there is or is not a white culture but about the power whites exercise when claiming they have no culture” - Arguments about normal, post-cultural, or simply human can draw on (sometimes unintentional) notions of white racial superiority What are the processes? Who’s the norm allowed to be? - Binaries: rational/irrational liked to cultureless/cultural, civilized requires an “uncivilized” or “savage” - Free from the traditions of the past = rational (context-dependent) Phase 1: critique Identify the ways that the program reflected idealized assumptions around culture: - All participants should perceive and demonstrate leadership in the same way - These “normal” ways are superior Phase 2: The Training - Cultural safety - Departure from “sensitivity” involving a reflection on power relations inherent in service position  - There are two cultures interacting: service providers and service recipients Week 5 - Black Cultural Resistance and Catalan Independence: Link to Sport Cultural capital: - Hip hop as a form of cultural capital - Pierre bourdieau concept - Cultural capital: “wealth in the form of knowledge or ideas, which legitimate the maintenance of status and power” - Seen as ‘natural’ - Gives people higher status in society - i.e. plays a role in class formation, always linked to economic factors - Leads to social inclusion and exclusion - Three kinds: 1) Embodied state: present within the individual. Built through self- improvement 2) Objectified state: buying cultural goods/material objects 3) Institutionalized state: academic credentials, qualifications Critique of cultural capital - All are linked to economic capital: shortcoming - Need to also look at other things to understand the construction of boundaries - People perform socially prescribed roles: clothing, posture, speech, facial expressions, gestures - Hip hop symbolize end of segregation and civil rights era - Rap music for telling personal experiences of dead-end jobs and useless education - Authentic representation of street culture Youth centre reading: - Pressure to wear the right clothes in order to fit in - Dewaynes use allowed him to “keep it real” - Tiffany had to learn to perform hip-hop culture: flirting with boys, dressing differently - The performance allowed her to gain acceptance and attention - Darrin could not “perform”= outsider Gender - Tiffany performance heavily gendered: sexualized and feminine - Hip-hop reinforces stereotypes of black women and men: gangsters, hypersexuality - Black women/men constructed against white binary - Black women devalued to prop up both white women and black men - Who benefits of this expression of culture Applications to sports: - Distance running vs, sprinting - What is different in culture between the two Sportswear:  - Major sportswear companies now use rap hip-hop artists as their dominant mode of marketing - Run DMC had song My Adidas - First ever group to sponsored by a major athletic company - Link between sport and hip hop produced Bringing it all Together - Culture reveals power relations: gender, sexuality, class, race - Resistance - Cultural capital & NBA’s clothing policy - Culture of gentlemen versus gang bangers - If you can behave “properly: in a cultural context, you have cultural capital = ability to exercise power in that setting Intangible Cultural Heritage: Heritage: re-presentation of history “clarifies pasts so as to infuse them with present purposes” - Intangible cultural heritage: oral traditions, folklore, cultural practices, and the meanings and symbols bestowed upon tangible cultural heritage - Difference between tangible and intangible cultural heritage Castells: - Symbol of Catalonian independence, solidarity 1. Feminization: the social and political ramifications of women's presence redeemed the sport from its subaltern past of all male bravado and social marginalities - Girls and women: generally lighter, shorter, more supple- on top levels - Story of initially added because no boys around - Women have civilized the sport - Mothers feel safer sending children 2. Gentrification - Castells used to be comprised of “people of farts and burps” - Catalonian independence movement attracts middle-class people - Helps to show solidarity with lower class - popular, low cost activity 3. Heritagization - Now has something like sport federation and coordinator to coordinate items: insurance plans, assistance plans, assistance/compensation for injuries, protocols, regulations - Coordinator helped castells get recognition as ICH - Took power out of locals' hands - New levels of bureaucratization 4. Sportification - Used to be non-competitive - Now includes some competitions - Quantification: point system, ranking table, statistics  - Major media coverage - Some teams refuse to participate Conclusion: - Instrumental use of women - Gentrification many make it less affordable for lower classes - Potential for exclusion of non-catalan speakers and those who aren't pro-independence (e.g. members of growing muslim population) - Top-down bureaucratic forces: one-size all - Paradox with ICH: forced to universalize (e.g. bullfighting) Week 6 - Gender, Culture, Sport and Leisure Sex- biological Gender - viewed as constructed roles, behaviours, expressions, and identities of girls - Men ask if they can be feminists, answer is complex - Some say yes and some say no, depends on theory Politics of categorization 1. Liberal 2. Marxist 3. Radical 4. Socialist 5. poststructural/post modern 6. Postcolonial 7. Cultural 8. Eco 9. Psychoanalytic 10. Intersectional Liberal feminism - Classic focus on autonomy and individual rights - Egalitarian liberalism: concerned with womens basic needs, right should be equally available to women - Eliminations of oppressive gender roles, legislation, conventions that limit opportunities Critique of Lib Fem: 1. Emphasis on rights: devaluation of nurturing and caring (dichotomy with autonomy) 2. Adoption of male and values and standards 3. Changing attitudes and socialization not enough to create change Marxist Feminism: - Target change at class and gender structure - Women’s oppression linked to private poverty and capitalism - Capitalism shapes/d family - Women’s work: production and reproduction, supports patriarchy Critiques of Marxist: 1. Ignore all other types of oppression (sexuality, race) 2. Family is not necessarily under state control, can be a negative entity 3. Family is not necessarily heterosexual, also can have female “bread winners” 4. Tried to Western Capitalism, limited applicability Radical Feminsim: - Oppression of women causes more suffering than any other form of suffering - Gender socially constructed to subordinate women - Political, social, economic, gender systems need to be radically restructured/dismantled - Redefinition of women’s sexuality as not being just for men - Some want segregation from men - Heterosexuality Critiques of Rad Fem: 1. Not interested in influencing law and policy 2. Personal life is centre for change: ignores race, class, age, etc. Socialist feminism: - Capitalism alone is not responsible for women’s oppression - Instead, power is linked to oppression and must be addressed through patriarchy, racism, capitalism, structured power relations (religion, education, etc) - Sees people as social beings - what's good for the community, not just the individual? - Need organization of re/productive labour Critique of soc, fem 1. Questionable in terms of respect of autonomy of stay at home moms 2. Differences among women will be erased if unitary standpoint is developed Postructural/ Postmodern fem - Pomo: oriented towards cultural critique - Postruct: emphasis on methods/epistemology - Believe no one truth exists - Heavy focus on language discourse - Discourse: text/language where power and knowledge are joined together; transmit and produce power (dumb LSR student) - Difference between women - Examine criteria that legitimate knowledge - Disrupt metanarratives Critiques of postruct/pomo - If we focus on difference, lose the political power of collective voice - Language is too difficult (jargon) - Production of policy difficult Post-Colonial Feminism - Involves analysis of post colonial condition  - Need to destabilize discourses of the european empire - Recover lost/marginalized voices - Radical reconstruction of knowledge production and history Critiques of Post-Colonial Fem - Difficult to use in examinations of european, euro-canadian women Cultural Feminism - Revalidation/reappropriation of “female” attributes - Creation of environment free of masculine values - Uided by female concerns and values Critique of Cultureal Fem - Refies gender roles - What about women who display “masculine” traits? Ecofeminism - Need to recognize importance of healing the divisions between nature/culture - Relationship between human and non-human has to be addressed to look at male dominance - Men seen as domination women and nature Critique of Ecofem - Inadequate in addressing the role of race, class, ability, etc - May be problematic to link women with nature (what is “natural”? What is the result of socializations?) Psychoanalytic Feminism - Women oppression grounded in female psyche - Sexaulity at centre - Break with traditional Fruedian theory (penis envy, etc) - Look at a non-patriarchial understanding of Oedipus complex (boys’ desire for exclusive love of mother, death of father) relationship between mother and infant Critque of psychoanal fem - Overly focused of sexuality - Psychoanalysis seen as very oppressive to women Intersectional feminism - Usually a single axis understanding of discrimination and inequality - Need to look at intersections: age, gender, race, ethnicity, class, ability, religion, etc. - Not additive but multiplicative: combines in ways to create novel interactions Critique of Intersectional Feminism: - Intersectionality as fixed: always changing Hemogenic Masculinity: Dominant men and subordination of women Liberal Feminist approach to snowboarding - Want equal opportunities - Overlook structural issues - Takes for granted male modes of thought and practice in snowboarding - Doesn’t translate into actual change - Women told to act like men to be successful Radical Feminist Approach - Separate event that promote different culture-participation, recreation, fun and friendship - Can make it seem as though gender issues have disappeared - Doesn't challenge male institutions and their powers - Need to more actively challenge maleness of the sport - Need to destruct masculine system Hegemonic masculinity: - Configuration of male gender practices that serve to legitimize patriarchy and heterosexuality, guaranteeing the dominant position of men and heterosexuals and the subordinate position of women and non-heterosexuals - Gay men both resist and reinforce hegemonic masculinity - Often portrayed as feminine - Some gay men react by performing hypermasculine behaviours - Gay bar: prominent site of gay male leisure - Lesbian bars rare Week 7 - Representations of Indigenous Cultures Hamilton - Argued for the need to move beyond stereotypical images and stolen ceremonies - Address historical and contemporary colonial realities At issue - Takes cultural practices out of their cultural context - Cultural practices appropriated by those who banned them - Cultural appropriation: the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group (e.g. music, religion, art) - Promotes three stereotypes: generic indian, the dying race, and the noble savage The generic Indian - Presented as one generic group - Distinct practices are not recognized - Idea that all aboriginal practices are compatible - E.g totem poles The Noble/Ignoble Savage - Binary, dichotomy - Noble savage: living in tune with nature, non-polluting, new-age - sets unattainable standard  - Ignoble savage: uncivilized, primitive - used to justify killing - Constrained views of indigenous peoples, neither linked to a contemporary reality The Dying Race - Doomed to become extinct - Non-indigenous peoples need to keep practices alive, Indigenous peoples have to live exactly as they did in the past - Sets criteria for cultural purity that doesn't allow for change and adaptation - Little understanding that these cultures are modern and vibrant Going Beneath the Surface - Not just harmless fun - Linked to colonialism, power - Why isnt this done with other ethnocultural groups? - Very offensive De Wilde Westen - Relations of power - Authenticity and power - Culture as performance - whose? Recreation, Religion, and Reconciliation Theory: Postcolonial Theory - Linked to postcolonialism - colonialism is not over! We live in the continuing legacy of colonialism - Lens of past and present impacts of colonialism - Focuses on knowledge and power, and the relationship between them - Links well with critical discourse analysis - Christianity and colonialism - Entanglements between Christianity and colonialism: missionaries, residential schools, law, etc. - Many Indigenous people identify as Christian (call for decolonization and voice of Indigenous peoples within Christianity) Residential schools - Run by religious groups, such as church denominations and missionaries - Banning of ceremonies, games/sports, other Indigenous practices - Institutionalized of physical activity and sport, “civilizing”/assimilative goals Findings of interviews with camps? - Camps have difficulty bringing in indigenous staff involvement - Looking for indigenous people with the same beliefs (christians) and those who do have same beliefs not available - Staff (non indigenous) exercise power with those involved - Christianity is intertwined with western culture - used as a tool to colonialism - Part of reconciliation at camp is showing campers that christians are not all bas and building trust - Desire to differentiate from past events - Critical reflection and action are key; colonialism is not over - Dictating what reconciliation is, and that christianity is essential to it Conclusion: Sites of reinscription of colonial discourses and power dynamics - Exclusion of indigenous peoples and voices - Rejection of Indigenous cultural and spiritual practices - Assertion of Western cultural and spiritual practices Sites where reconciliation is possible - Building relationships with elders and community members - Educating staff on colonial and Indigenous histories - Co-creating programming, community desires Guest Lecture Residential schools - Epitomized foucaults disciplines of time, exercise, rank, and examination - Children as healthy, well-adjusted, nurtured - Hockey, false equivalences, and Canadian National Identity Black Hawks: - Civilizing and assimilating aims: Canadian identity - Photo opportunities with dignitaries, government officials, church officials - Visits to institutions of civic importance Traditional physical culture practices - Skills for living off land and spiritual practices Sports at residential schools - Decrease illness and student mortality (drill and callisthenics) - Proper use of leisure time - Encourage “civilized life” - Student resistance Week 12 - Multiculturalism - Canada is a multicultural state, has a multiculturalism policy, but what does that mean? - Multicultural states are characterized by a social space where different cultural communities live together and attempt to build a common life while retaining something of their “original” identity - Multiculturalism is a reference to the strategies and policies adopted to govern or manage the problems of diversity and multiplicity in multicultural states Canadian Multiculturalism - May be conceived as a response or set of responses to govern and manage the problems of diversity and multiplicity, and to articulate the social conditions under which ethnocultural difference can be incorporated Conceptualizing race and ethnicity Race: claims to ground social and cultural differences in genetic and biological differences Ethnicity: grounded in cultural and religious features of a group. Ethnic groups can be categorized in accordance to racial, minority, immigration, or national status Thus, we can understand race/ethnicity as historically and socially produced concepts If racial/ethnic representations are socially and historically constructed, what purpose do they serve? How have they been employed in sport and leisure research?