ANTHROPOLOGY

THE STUDY OF HUMANITY FROM

ITS EVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS TO
TODAYS CULTURAL DIVERSITY

KEY CONCEPT
CULTURE
KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO ACT AS A
MEMBER OF SOCIETY
KNOWLEDGE OF EXPECTATIONS
KNOWLEDGE OF APPROPRIATE AND
WRONGFUL ACTIONS

ANTHROPOLOGY
FOCUS ON STUDY OF HUMANS AND
ALL ASPECTS OF BEING HUMAN
DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SOCIAL
SCIENCES IN TIME AND SCOPE
KEY CONCEPTS DISTINGUISH
ANTHROPOLOGY FROM OTHER
SOCIAL SCIENCES.

KEY CONCEPTS

CULTURE
SOCIETY
HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
ETHNOCENTRISM
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
GLOBALIZATION

SOCIETY
SHARED GEOGRAPHICAL TERRITORY
PEOPLE LIVING IN ORGANIZED
GROUPS WITH SOCIAL ROLES AND
STATUSES
SOCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN
INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS OF
INDIVIDUALS
INTERDEPENDENCE

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Language
Making a Living and Economic System
Social Organization, Kinship, Descent, and
Marriage
Enculturation: How we learn our culture
Political Organization; Culture Change
Religion; Arts
Concepts of Illness and Disease

ENCULTURATION
CULTURE IS LEARNED AND
TRAMSMITTED FROM ONE
GENERATION TO ANOTHER
LEARN WHATS IMPORTANT TO KNOW
TO ACT AS A MEMBER OF YOUR
CULTURE
ENCULTURATION IS SHAPED BY KEY
CULTURAL VAUES

ANTHROPOLOGY IS A UNIQUE
SOCIAL SCIENCE

Time Depth
Global Focus
Comparative Approach
Holistic
Four Field Approach
Core Concept of Culture
Globalization

HOLISTIC
Culture as an integrated whole. All parts of
culture are interconnected
No part of culture can be studied in
isolation
Studying culture involves studying the
cultural models people have learned
Key Question: Why does this
behavior/emotion make sense in this
culture?

EXAMPLE OF HOLISM
Arrangement of Furniture in USA reflects
core cultural value of individualism
Individual bedrooms reflect value on
individualism & consistent with an
economy where families are dependent on
individual wage earners

COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Cultural data is drawn from throughout the
world and from throughout human history
Collect data about behavior and beliefs in
many societies in order to understand the
diversity of human behavior and emotions
Understand common patterns in ways
people adapt to their environment, adjust
to their neighbors, and develop cultural
institutions

CULTURE
Learned values, beliefs, rules of conduct
shared to some extent by the members of
society, that govern peoples behavior and
the way people think about themselves
and the world.
Everything that people have, think, feel,
act and do as members of a society
All cultures are comprised of material
objects; ideas, values, attitudes and
patterned ways of behaving.

Four Fields
ARCHAEOLOGY
BIOLOGICAL OR PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

ARCHAEOLOGY
STUDY OF PAST CULTURES
PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC
RELAY ON EVIDENCE (ARTIFACTS)
FROM MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE
SITES WHERE PEOPLE LIVED
EVIDENCE REVEALS HOW PEOPLE
LIVED AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
GROUPS OF PEOPLE.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL
LINGUISTICS
STUDY OF LANGUAGE AND THE
SPEAKERS USE OF LANGUAGE AND
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND OTHER ASPECTS OF
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
CULTURE IS LEARNED THROUGH
LANGUAGE
HISTORIC AND DESCRIPTIVE
LINGUISTICS

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Biological Anthropology
Study of Human origins (evolution) and
contemporary Human variation
Primate social organization
Interface between biology and culture.
Example-Andes greater lung capacity
adaptation to low oxygen

HUMAN VARIATION
Race is always a social not a biological
concept
Conventional Classification of Race is
pseudoscience.
Hair texture, skin color and facial
characteristics are arbitrary and randomly
selected
Skin tone is function of evolutionary
adaptation to climate
Race as conventionally used is wrong!

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
SOLVES PROBLEMS
PRESERVES CULTURAL INTEGRITY OF
GROUP OF PEOPLE
RELIES ON CULTURAL GROUP FOR
INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THEY
WANT THE PROBLEM SOLVES

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGIST
BRIDGES DISCIPLINE OF CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
STUDIES SUSCEPTIBILITIES AND
RESISTANCE OF CERTAIN
POPULATION TO SPECIFIC DISEASE
STUDIES HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
SYSTEM

FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY
SUB-FIELD WITHIN BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANALYZE HUMAN REMAINS IN
SERVICE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND
FAMILIES OF DISASTER VICTIMS
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
GENOCIDE

APPLIED ARCHAEOLOGY
CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
APPLICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO
PRESERVE AND PROTECT HISTORIC
STRUCTURES AND PREHISTORIC
SITES
OUTGROWTH OF FEDERAL AND
STATE LAWS TO PROTECT
PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC SITES

CONTRACT ARCHAEOLOGY
APPLICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO
ASSES THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF
CONSTRUCTION ON
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
SALVAGE ARCHAEOLOGY

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
The ways people organize their living in
societies
The study of cultural behavior in recent
and contemporary cultures
Ethnology-building theories to explain
cultural practices based on comparative
study of societies throughout the world
Ethnography, a holistic intensive study of
groups, through observation, interview and
participation

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

ETHNOGRAPHY
ETHNOGRAPHER
FIELD WORK
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

ETHNOCENTRISM
The widespread human tendency to
perceive to perceive the ways of doing
things and beliefs about things in ones
culture as normal and natural and that of
others as strange, inferior, and possibly
un-natural
Ones own culture is superior, the best and
others are inferior
Everybody everywhere is a little
ethnocentric

CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Counters Ethnocentrism
Stresses the importance of analyzing
cultures in their own terms rather than in
terms of the culture of the anthropologist
This does not mean that all cultural
practices, cultural beliefs and behaviors
can be condone
Different from ethical relativismall right
and wrong relative to time, place, and
culture so that no moral judgments of
behavior can be made

GLOBALIZATION
DISTINGUISHES ANTHROPOLOGY
FROM OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES
CULTURAL CONTACT AND CONTACT
CHANGES SPECIFIC CULTURES
RAPID TRANSFORMATION OF
CULTURES WORLD WIDE IN
RESPONSE TO ECONOMIC AND
TECHNOLOGICAL INFLUENCES

GLOBALIZATION
OCCURRED IN THE PAST WHEN
STATES AND EMPIRES EXPANDED
THEIR INFLUENCE BEYOND THEIR
BOARDERS
COLONIALISM
CONTEMPORARY GLOBALIZATION
BASED ON INTERCONNECTED
ECONOMIES CHANGE CULTURAL
INSTITUTIONS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

AMERICANIZATION
BY PRODUCT OF GLOBALIZATION
THE SPREAD OF DOMINANT
AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN
CULTURAL PRACTICES,
CONSUMERISM, CULTURAL ICONS,
AND MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT