Anthropology Notes Exam 1 PDF

1-22-25 ​ What is cultural anthropology? ○​ Study of how culture is changing over time and how humans are affected/how culture is affected ​ Connected through ethnography ○​ “What makes us human” ○​ 4 fields ​ Archaeology...

1-22-25 ​ What is cultural anthropology? ○​ Study of how culture is changing over time and how humans are affected/how culture is affected ​ Connected through ethnography ○​ “What makes us human” ○​ 4 fields ​ Archaeology ​ Biological anthropology ​ Linguistic anthropology ​ What do they do? ○​ study “vanishing cultures” to emerging worlds ○​ A colonial project ​ Racist origin ​ White people studying other cultures 1-24-25 1-27-25 ​ Marina Rosyada (author of article from 1/27 reading quiz) ○​ Wrote about George Hunt and Made Kaler who were assistance of Mead and Boas ​ Hunt and Kaler did not get the credit they deserved  ​ Mead and Boas would NOT have done what they did without the help of Hunt and Kaler ​ Anthropology Before/After Boas and Hunt ○​ Ethnocentrism ​ The tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct as and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures ​ Anthropologists must fight against ethnocentrism in themselves and others ​ This fight is never over but was central to the discipline of anthropology in the US ○​ Setting the Scene: Franz Boas - Turn of the century United States ​ Technical advances and urbanization ​ New immigrants - from Italy, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Greece ​ End of reconstruction and beginning of Jim Crow ​ Moment of racial panic in US ​ During this period, Boas comes to the US and starts studying anthropology ​ Which is dominated by people like Madison Grant ​ Madison Grant - ​ Scientific racist ​ Supporter of nordicism/racial suicide ○​ He believes that whiteness in the US is under threat by the new immigrants ​ Social darwinist/white supremacist ​ Believed genetics determined outcomes ​ Advocate for segregation/sterilization ​ Helped pass the immigration act of 1924 ​ His book was massively popular (The Passing of the Great Race) ​ Fighting for control over US anthropology ​ The term “scientific” racism ​ An ideology that appropriates the methods and legitimacy of science to argue for the superiority of white europeans and the inferiority of non-white people ​ Other People - ​ Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan ○​ Both working around the turn of the century ○​ Both “armchair anthropologists” ​ Reading secondary texts, don’t do research themselves ○​ Tylor in England ​ Created stages of evolution ○​ Morgan in US ​ Created substages of evolution ○​ Both cultural evolutionists  ​ Armchair anthropology ​ An early and discredited method of anthropological research that did not involve direct contact with the people studied (perspectives) ​ Issues with this - ○​ Limits “surprises” ○​ Keeps ethnocentrism intact ​ Cultural Evolutionism ​ Total bullshit ​ There is a spectrum - these people believed that everyone in the world could be places into one of the categories - very racist, sexist, and bias towards religions ○​ Savage ○​ Barbarian ○​ Civilized ​ Tylor - definition of culture ​ Edward B. Tylor ​ “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man (sic) as a member of society” ​ More civilized = more culture ​ Barbaric or savage = less culture ○​ Franz Boas - Founder of US Anthro ​ Originally studied physics ​ Moves to study geography ​ Steeped in german idea of cultures rather than culture (singular) ​ Curious about subjective/objective experience ​ (later) leaves germany due to growing anti-semitism ​ He is jewish ​ Boas - 4 fields of anthro ​ Archaeology - human activity through human remains ​ Biological Anthro. - human evolution and adaptation to environment ​ Linguistics - human language ​ Cultural anthro - ​ He studied all these fields ​ He is a field worker in - ○​ Baffin Island - flexibility ○​ Pacific Northwest - complexity ○​ They needed consistent support and help from the native tribes to survive - Boas and the others were looked at a stupid in these other cultures ​ Field work dissuades him from cultural evolution ​ Challenging it  ​ Conducts “immigrant study” ​ Finds head and body size is related to environment not race ​ Becomes an ardent critic scientific racism ​ But he still dug graves, hung on to the existence of race, did not give credit to his collaborators 1-29-25 ​ Boas: “definition” of culture ○​ Activities and modes of daily life that we do without thinking about, are different within different cultures, some may not accept those changes within those other cultures, culture is learned ○​ Culture is learned ​ It is the everyday activities that make up culture ○​ Compared to Tylor’s ​ Boas talks more about everyday life instead of art, books, etc ​ Tylor’s is more western, believing that all those other things are what makes culture ○​ Harder to rank culture if it is Boas definition ○​ Columbia University ​ Program founded by Boas in 1902 ​ Four field departments ​ Focused on “salvage ethnography” ​ Trying to write down cultures that they thought were dying out ​ Study culture specificities ​ Documented the way people lived their lives instead of ranking the different cultures ​ Founding figures of the discipline ​ Alfred Louis Kroeber + Edward Sapir ○​ ALK ​ First doctorate ​ Wrote the textbook for US anthropology ​ Shapes anthropology ○​ ES ​ Linguist ​ Inspired Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ​ Shapes linguistics at yale ○​ Both ​ Salvage ethnography ​ Advocated for indigenous rights ​ Work with Ishi ​ Not real name, given to him, thought to be the last of his tribal group ​ Lived at a lab ​ Margaret Mead + Zora Neale Hurtson ○​ MM  ​ Coming of Age in Samoa ​ Book that was very controversial ​ Challenged ideas about puberty, gender, and sexual norms ​ Public intellectual ○​ ZNH ​ Fieldwork in Florida and Haiti ​ Taking the documentation of Black life seriously ​ Figure of the Harlem Renaissance ○​ Both ​ Mentored by Boas ​ Shunned by the discipline in their time ​ Never get formal employment ​ Pushed to the side because of how popular they are ​ Ruth Benedict ○​ Fieldwork in American West ○​ Publicly engaged in combating racism during WWII ○​ Denied the chair of the department at Columbia ​ Though Boas wanted her to take over when he died ○​ Patterns of culture best known work ○​ Intended for somewhat popular ○​ Audience (note use of “us” and “we”) ○​ Patterns of Culture ​ Ethnocentrism ​ Culture needs a copernican revolution ○​ Sun does not revolve around the earth ○​ Humanity is not separate from nature ○​ Western culture is not “human nature” ​ Instead of studying unified “human nature” anthropologists study diverse “cultures” ○​ Unlike economics and psychologists ​ Culture and Inheritance ​ Cultural determinism - the idea that behavioral differences are a result of cultural, not racial or genetic causes (perspectives) ​ Responding to scientific racism ​ Cultural determinism can become harmful to economics, anything that would help make someone's life easier or harder ​ Ants vs Humans ○​ Culture is determinate and learned ​ Humans ability to change and grow is why they are so successful now ​ Patterns and Relativity ​ Cultural relativism ○​ Expresses the idea that the belief and practices of others are best understood in the light of the particular cultures in  which they are found; the idea is predicated on the degree to which human behavior is held to be culturally determined; this often joined with the argument that because all extant culture are viable adaptations and equally deserving of respect, they should not be subject to individual judgment of worth or value by outsiders ○​ Thinks that western culture is going to have a hard time understanding cultural relativism ​ Definition of culture - patterns of culture ○​ “The significance of cultural behavior is not exhausted when we have clearly understood that it is [....] hugely variable. It tends also to be integrated. A culture like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought and action. Within each culture there come into being characteristic purposes not necessarily shared by other types of society” ○​ Looking at how cultures fit together 1-31-25 ​ Silence and cultural relativism ○​ Keith Basso ​ Linguistic anthropologist ​ Worked entire career in Arizona with Western Apache people ​ Wrote Wisdom Sits in Places and Portraits of “The Whiteman” ​ This is an analysis of communication within western Apache silence, moving against stereotypes ​ Western Apache Settlement of Cubecue ​ 16 months with the Apache ​ Reservation in central Arizona ​ Combination of agriculture, cattle-raising, sporadic wage earning, government subsidies ​ Description emphasizes change within the community ​ No mention of settler-colonialism \ ​ Cultural norms around speech ​ There is considerable evidence to suggest that extra-linguistic factors influence not only the use of speech but its occurrence as well ​ There are places where it is required to be silent ○​ Supreme court ​ There are places where you are expected to speak ○​ Workplace ​ Places in between ○​ Movie theater and art gallery ​ When Western Apache people “give up on words” ​ Meeting strangers  ​ Courting (relationships) ​ Children coming home (from boarding schools) ​ Getting cussed out ​ “Being with people who are sad” ​ “Being with someone for whom they sing” ○​ Holy parts of their culture - healing ceremony ​ Uncertainty, unpredictability, ambiguity ​ In western apache culture, the absence of verbal communication is associated with social situations in which the status of focal participants is ambiguous ​ Under these conditions, fixed role expectation lose their applicability and the illusion of predictability in social interactions is lost ​ Keeping silent among the Western Apaches is a response to uncertainty and unpredictability in social settings ○​ Silence is Relative vs. Patterns of culture ​ Silence mean different thing for different cultures and in different contexts ​ By observing everyday experiences; Basso makes an argument about what silence means for Western Apache people ​ This norm around silence is not random ​ It is connected to other beliefs, for instance around community change, gender norms, religious values ​ Benedict would imagine this as a part of the more general pattern of culture 2-3-25 ​ Ethnography ○​ The act of doing fieldwork ○​ The book that is the product of writing and analysis ○​ Talk to people (from casual conversations to formal interviews) ○​ Participant observation (do what the people they study do) “deep hanging out” ○​ Take field notes ○​ Record conversations and/or film events (if sound and visuals are important) ​ Philippe Bourgois ○​ Professor at UCLA ○​ Research in US cities around narcotics use and sales (critiques anthropologists interest in only certain drugs) ○​ Medical anthropologist working in MD/PhD programs ○​ Ran a medical program while writing this book (at the university hospital) ​ Took 12 years to write book ○​ Believer in public anthropology ​ What he writes is important and needs to be heard ○​ Background on “War on Drugs”  ​ Nixon unofficially begins the War on Drugs in 1971; continued by future admins ​ New federal police policies such as the 3 strikes rule (Clinton), or local tactics like stop and frisk are implemented, as well as more general increases in prison time for drug possession ​ Rather than lowering rates of drug users, this lead to Black incarceration at 13.4 times greater than whites (despite equal drug use) ​ The war was officially labeled as a failure in 2011 ○​ Neoliberalism ​ Liberal economics - assume that individuals are rational actors and markets are naturally occurring ​ Neoliberalism - a practice of organizing actions and policies around the facilitation and expansion of economic markets, competition, and individualism ​ Classic examples of neoliberal reforms - ​ Providing additional state funding to only the highest performing hospitals ​ Reforming public teacher pay so “high performing” teachers are paid more than “low performing” ones (connecting teaching to a market) ​ In both cases, state resources are limited and individuals are pushed to compete for limited resources ​ Medical Reforms ​ Individualism, free market control, decentralization ​ Limiting public funding for hospitals ​ Incentivise cost-cutting and profitability ​ Example - ○​ Co-payment for the uninsured, layoffs for maintenance workers, early release plans, 1997 Balanced Budget Act ○​ Very real health concerns for unhouse heroin users ​ Spread of infectious disease ​ Toll on body from living on street ​ “From biomedicine’s perspective, homeless injectors appear ignorant, self-destructive, or even pathological” ○​ A community of addicted bodies ​ Life is actually very structured (around need of addiction) ​ “This imperative regulates their social relations, gives them a sense of purpose, and allows them to construct moral authority and interpersonal hierarchies” ​ “Ironically, opiate addiction creates order out of what appears at first sight to be chaotic lives that have spiraled out of control” ​ Groups are communal, resources shared (wet cotton) ○​ Impacted by societal trends  ​ Rather than seeing this group of people as “pathological” Bourgeois see them as impacted by - ​ Deindustrialization ​ Neoliberal healthcare ​ Shifts in public programs ​ Laws and policing 2-5-25 ​ Thick description ○​ A term coined by anthropologist Clifford Geertz in 1973 book ​ studied group that not only explains the behavior or cultural event in question but also the meaning those involved ascribe to it \ ○​ Why do some cultures do certain things/what do they mean to them? ​ Why do people think they do what they do ​ Laurence Ralph ○​ Contemporary, still writing ○​ Police violence/disability/racism ○​ Background of his book Renegade Dreams ​ War-on-drugs ​ Moment of anxiety around crime ​ “Divine Knights” in “Eastwood” chicago ​ “Renegade” gang members blamed for rise in violence ​ “Renegades” are the younger gang members ​ Cultural relativism + thick description + culture and change ○​ History of the “Divine Knights” ​ Formed during the second great migration in the 1950s ​ End of financial assistance leads to turn to durg economy, centralized leadership ​ Involved in the civil rights movement, protection/help for newer black communities ​ President Johnson give financial help, but that soon ended, causing the rise of drug economy ​ Unclear what the gang is today, but younger members focused on their individual futures ○​ Renegades ​ Younger gang affiliates that seasoned members claim don’t have the wherewithal to be in the gang ​ Panic around “renegades” ​ Struggles around culture and change among the Divine Knights ○​ Nostalgia ​ Nostos (return home) and algia (longing) ​ Changes from sickness to an emotion  ​ “Interrupting the present with incessant flashes of the past, nostalgia retroactively reformulates cause and effect, and thus our linear notions of history” ​ Celebrates the past and hides structural condition in the present ​ Shoes as nostalgia for the Gang ​ Youngest members/renegades - investment in the future ○​ Vs. older members and how they view this ​ Value determined by - ○​ Exclusivity ○​ Complexity ○​ Price ​ Top 5 shoes ​ Shoes can mean a dream (for renegades) ○​ More expensive = more invested in future ​ Older members, shoes represent nostalgia ​ Connects to greystones (houses) ○​ Residents = nostalgia ○​ Developers = future ​ Importance of thick description ○​ Ralph recounts a layered history of Eastwood and gang life ○​ Rather than cast gangs as good or bad he focuses on how multigenerational gang members understand themselves ○​ Helps readers understand neighborhood shifts, social movements, economic change ​ Wrapping of nostalgia and what it means to pursue a dream ○​