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1. What is anthropology:
a. It is the holistic and comparative study of humanity; it is the systematic
exploration of human biological and cultural diversity
2. Historical Development and Recent Trends
a. Herodotus
i. The first thinker to write about concepts that became central to anthro later
ii. Wrote about the cultures of the west and east and this division became
integral to the understanding of anthropologists later
b. Ibn Khaldun
i. Examined the env, social, psychological, social factors that affected the
development and rise and fall of civilizations
c. European influence (5-15th century)
i. European explorers were making brief but unsystematic observations
about exotic cultures they came in contact in Asia, Americas etc
d. European influence (17th-18th century)
i. Age of enlightenment gave impetus to the scientific and rational
philosophical thought. During this time individuals like John Locke, Jean
Jacques Rousseau wrote humanistic works on the nature of humankind
e. Imperialism and contact with other cultures
i. Interest in the study of culture and thus nations embark on a quest to
spread their influence politically and economically in Pacific/Asia/Afric
ii. industrialization led to cultural changes; therefore these countries looked
to the exotic foreign lands for sources of labour and raw materials and the
concept of colonies begins to develop
iii. Anthropology as a field starts to take shape and by the end of the 19th
century, anthropologists take positions is universities, colleges and start
developing political, commercial and humanitarian value of anthropology
f. Evolutionary theories
i. Charles Darwin:
1. argued that animal and plant species had changed, or evolved,
through time under the influence of a process that he called natural
selection
ii. Herbert Spencer
1. Spencer later coined the phrase "survival of the fittest”.Theories of
social evolution such as Spencer’s seemed to offer an explanation
for the apparent success of European nations as so-called advanced
civilizations
iii. Lewis Henry Morgan
1. Morgan argued that European civilization was the pinnacle of
human evolutionary progress, representing humanity’s highest
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biological, moral, and technological achievement. According to

Morgan, human societies had evolved to civilization through
earlier conditions, or stages, which he called Savagery and
Barbarism
iv. Edward Burnett Taylor
1. Tylor attempted to describe the development of particular kinds of
customs and beliefs found across many cultures. For example, he
proposed a sequence of stages for the evolution of religion—from
animism, to polytheism to montheism
g. New Directions
i. Influence of Boas
1. German-born American anthropologist Franz Boas
a. Did extensive field work
b. Helped define the discipline and trained anthropologists;
Many of his students—including Alfred Kroeber, Ruth
Benedict, and Margaret Mead—went on to establish
anthropology departments at universities throughout the
country.
c. He also opposed racist and ethnocentric evolutionary
theories
d. Boas’s theoretical approach became known as historical
particularism, and it forms the basis for the fundamental
anthropological concept of cultural relativism.
e. Emphasized on the importance of ethnography to gain first
hand experience with study participants
ii. Functionalism
1. Durkheim’s ideas were expanded upon by Bronislaw Malinowski
and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, two major figures in the development
of modern British anthropology beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.
Their approach to understanding culture was known as
functionalism.
2. A typical functionalist study analyzed how cultural institutions
kept a society in working order. For example, many studies
examined rites of passage, such as initiation ceremonies. Through
a series of such ceremonies, groups of children of the same age
would be initiated into new roles and take on new responsibilities
as they grew into adults. According to functionalists, any unique
characteristics of the rites of passage of a particular society had to
do with how initiation ceremonies worked in the function of that
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iii. Structuralism
1. In the 1950s French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss developed
an anthropological theory and analytic method known as
structuralism.
2. Lévi-Strauss proposed that many common cultural patterns—such
as those found in myth, ritual, and language—are rooted in basic
structures of the mind.
3. He wrote, for instance, about the universal tendency of the human
mind to sort things into sets of opposing concepts, such as day and
night, black and white, or male and female

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1. What is culture?
a. E. B. Taylor defined culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge,
beliefs, art, morale, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired
by man as a member of society."
b. Leslie White: “Depending upon symbolli… culture consists of tools, implements,
utensils, clothing, ornamemts, customs, beliefs, rituals etc”
2. Characteristics of Culture
a. Learned
i. Individuals internalize a previously established system of meaning through
enculturation
ii. Culture can be learned consciously and unconsciously
b. Symbolic
i. Flag: stand for countries
c. Shared:
i. Spread of views through twitter, facebook etc
d. Culture nature
i. Bathing room habits including waste elimination, bathing and dental care
are parts of cultural traditions
e. Integrating
i. Cultures are patterned systems
ii. Nowadays the concept on living in together, late marriages, etc reflect
how economic changes have social repercussions
f. Instrumental, adaptive and maladaptive
i. Fulfills certain needs such as friendship, companionship
ii. Maladaptive for example emissions are a product of cultural patterns (over
populations, over consumption etc)
3. Functions
a. Helps in communication
b. Standards to distinguish between right and wrong
c. Marker of an individual’s identity
d. Enables to grasp ideas
e. Develops solidarity and integration
f. Shapes personality
4. Types of Culture
a. National
i. Cultural traditions that separate you from another nation
b. International
i. Learned patterned behaviors that are shared by entire humanity
collectively
c. Sub-culture
i. Certain cultural facets that separate an individual within an society
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1. What is Marriage
a. Union between a man and woman such that the children of both are recognized as
legitimate offspring of both the parents
2. Types
a. Polygamy
i. Polygyny: A man having more than one sexual partner/wives
ii. Polyandry
1. Fraternal
a. When several brothers share the same wife
2. Non-fraternal
a. When wife spends some time with each husband. As long
as she lives with one others do not have a claim over her
iii. Monogamy: one man marries one woman
iv. Same-sex Marriage: when an individual marries someone of the same
gender as his/her
v. Group marriage: several men and women have access to one another
3. Durable Alliances
a. Levirate: when a husband dies, wife marries one of the brothers of the dead man
b. Sororate: when a husband marries the sister of a dead wife
4. Functions
a. Nurturance
b. Dependence of security
c. Economic security
d. Cooperation
e. Emotional support
5. Types of Family
a. Nature of relations
i. Conjugal: family consisting of one man, his wife and his offsprings
ii. Consanguineal: family consisting of members of related women, their
brothers, offspring of women
b. Nature of residence
i. Patrilocal: wife moves to household of husban
ii. Matrilocal: husband moves to wife’s parents household
iii. Ambilocal: husband wife can move to each other’s house depending on
availability of resources
iv. Nneolocal: married couple forms a household in a separate location
v. Avunculocal: married couple goes to live with groom’s mother’s
brother’s house
c. Basis of size/structure
i. Nuclear: Husband, wife and dependent children
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ii. Extended: partial conjugal and partially consanguineal

6. Incest and Exogamy
a. Incest is socially constructed
b. Marriage entails sex so you can only marry someone with whom sex is permitted
c. Incest restrictions reinforce exogamy where individuals seek their mate outside
their local group
d. This way a wider social network is formed that has adaptive value during times of
need
7. Endogamy
a. Royal: based in a fee societies where brother/sister marriage is allowed. (Inca
Peru)
b. Caste: Stratified groups in which members are ascribes at birth and sexual union
is strictly endogamous

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1. What is Kinship?
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the
lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are
often debated.
2. Functions of Kinship
a. Kinship assigns guidelines for interactions between persons
b. decides who can marry with whom and where marital relationship are taboo
c. determines rights and obligations of members
d. maintain solidarity of groups
e. Influences ownership of land, wealth, etc

3. Types of Kinship?

 Affinity:
The bond of marriage is called affinal kinship. When a person marries, he establishes
relationship not only with the girl whom he marries but also with a number of other people in
the girl’s family.

 Consanguinity
The bond of blood is called consanguineous kinship. The consanguineous kin are related
through blood whereas the affinal kin are related through marriage. The bond between
parents and their children and that between siblings is consanguineous kinship

 Fictive kinship is a term used by anthropologists and ethnographers to describe forms

of kinship or social ties that are based on neither consanguineal (blood ties) nor affinal ("by
marriage") ties, in contrast to true kinship ties. he bonds allowing for chosen kinship may
include religious rituals, close friendship ties,[1] or other essential reciprocal social or
economic relationships.

4. Kinship Calculation:

 When an ethnographer determines the words used to describe relatives in a particular

language
 Kinship is socially constructed; for example different cultures maintain varied beliefs
about biological processes involving kinship

5. Genealogical Kin Types:

- Refers to an actual genealogical relationship as opposed to kin term
- Example Mother’s sister and not Khala
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6. Kin Terms
- Kin terms reflect the social construction of kinship in a given culture
- A kin term may lump together several genealogical relations. For example a father may
be used for the real father, adoptive father, or a priest

7. Kinship Terminology
- There are four main ways of classifying kins on parental generation (refer to book for
detail)
o Lineal
 Ego’s direct descendants and ancestors
o Bifurcate merging
 Splits mother’s and father’s side
 Mother and mother’s sister are merged under the same term
 So different terms exist for mother’s brother and father’s sister
 Usually found in patrilineal and matrilineal societies
o Generational
 Uses the same term for parents and their siblings
 It usually lumps together and does not bifurcate between mother’s and
father’s side
 So it will use one term for father, father’s brother and mother’s brother
 These are usually found in ambilineal descent where descent is not
automatic; the ego may have close relations to the kin of the parental
generation
 Example Kalahari San groups and Native Americans
o Bifurcate collateral
 This has separate terms for each of the six types of parental generation
(M,F,MB, MZ,FB,FZ)
- There are different classifications on ego’s generation as well (refer to online link)
o Eskimos
o Iroquis
o Hawaiian
o Crow
o Omaha
o Sudanese
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What is a Descent group?

 It is a permanent social unit whose members say they have ancestors in common
 They believe they share and descend from these common ancestors
 Descent group membership is determined at birth and is lifelong; hence ascribed
status
 Descents can be matrilineal or patrilineal (both unilineal; that is descent rule uses one
line only)
 Permanent units where members are gained and lost in each generation
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 Economic Anthropology:
o Studying processes of production, circulation, consumption of different sorts
of objects in social settings
 Substantivism VS Formalism
o First proposed by Karl Polanyi in his work The Great Transformation (1944)
o He argued that the term 'economics' has two meanings
1- The formal meaning refers to economics as the logic of rational action and
decision-making, as rational choice between the alternative uses of limited
(scarce) means.
2- The second, substantive meaning, however, presupposes neither rational
decision-making nor conditions of scarcity. It simply refers to the study of
how humans make a living from their social and natural environment. A
society's livelihood strategy is seen as an adaptation to its environment and
material conditions, a process which may or may not involve utility
maximization. Economics is simply the way society meets their material
needs.

 Reciprocity
Exchange between social equals who are normally related by kinship, marriage or
another close tie
- General: exchanges between closely related individuals where value of gift is not
important
- Balanced: exchanges between distantly related individuals where value of gift is
important
- Negative: exchange that involves some level of deception and guile; usually with people
outside or on the fringes of their social system

 Production
- Modes of Production
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o Capitalist: money can buy labour and power and there is social gap between
people in the production process
o Kin Based: usually in non-industrial societies where labour is not bought but it’s a
social obligation
- Adaptive Strategies based on food production
o Horticulture: use of plot is not continuous and is often left fallow and then used
again
o Agriculture: Irrigation may be done to cultivate land; terracing may be used as a
technique for crop production
o Pastoralism: use animals for food and other activites. May supplement their diets,
through hunting and gathering, fishing, etc
- Means of Production
o Land
 Industrial: Private land ownership, demarcation of land
 Non-Industrial: collective communal use, land ownership association of
features like water holes, place of ancestral spirits etc
o Technology
 Industrial: Machines that make production efficient
 Non-Industrial: basic tools like axe, digging stick
o Labour
 Division by Gender:
 Flexible: both men and women participate equally
 Rigid: work defined as either masculine or feminine
 Dual sex configuration: men women work separately but work is
complimentary
 By age
 Non-industrial societies may divide work based on age
 For instance older people take care of decisions and younger take
care of infants
 By cooperation
 Non industrial: each person has knowledge and competence to
work on different things
 Industrial: specialized units cooperate with each other; each unit
may excel in their respective domain
Redistribution
 When goods and services move from the local level to the central
 Center may be regional collection point, storehouse near a chief’s residence point
 Purpose
o To maintain a superior position
o Assure supporters and kin are well kept
o Establish alliances
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Potlatch (Refer to the book)

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1. Politic of Idenity: Ethnicity, nationalism

Definition

i. describe the deployment of the category of identity as a tool to frame

political claims, promote political ideologies, or stimulate and orientate
social and political action, usually in a larger context of inequality or
injustice and with the aim of asserting group distinctiveness and belonging
and gaining power and recognition
ii. However, the basic meaning of identity refers to where one (a person or a
group) belongs, and what is expressed as “self-image” or/and “common-
image”, what integrate them inside self or a group existence, and what
differentiate them vis-à-vis “others”

Ethnicity

iii. Given the range of possibilities, perhaps Stanley Tambiah’s (1996: 168)
definition is as good as any: ethnicity is “a self-conscious and vocalized
identity that substantializes and naturalizes one or more attributes—the
usual ones being skin color, language, religion, and territory and attaches
them to collectivities as their innate possession and myth historical
legacy.”
iv. ethnicity depends to a great deal on what might be called feeling- tone,
that is the individual’s emotional sense of belonging to the group, which
can range from virtually nil to violently intense.
v. With modernization “retribalization,” which would today be termed
ethnogenesis or the solidifying of ethnic identity, is a very common
process. its importance has grown over the last few decades as ethnicity
and nationalism have emerged as forms of resistance against the forces of
globalization
vi. ethnic politics are, by definition, the politics of marginality; dominant
groups are never themselves ethnic. Nevertheless, it is obvious that
ethnicity can become an important form of cultural capital; belonging to a
certain group bestows advantages that can be utilized in political struggles

Nationalism

vii. Nationalism is difficult to define

viii. In state nationalism the territorially bounded state assumes a loyalty that
transcends that of family, kinship, culture group,or ethnicity (Idea came
from French Revolution and the rise of Industrial capitalism)
ix. The second form, ethnonationalism, is often in conflict with the nation-
state. All nationalisms share certain characteristics with ethnicity, such as
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the very selective and perhaps creative construction of history, some

emotive sense of group communion and cohesion, and some over arching
sense of unity.
x. However, ethnicity is not nationalism, nor is nationalism ethnicity.
xi. In Imagined Communities:
Today, globalization seems to be creating a new spate of intense
nationalisms; Modern communications and cheap long-distance travel
have made it possible for deterritorialized diasporas to make and maintain
contact. The Internet may become the contemporary equivalent of
Anderson’s “print capitalism” in its ability to unite people in many
different countries. For example, the numerous Web sites on the Armenian
genocide of 1915, complete with histories, survivor accounts, and horrific
photographs, provide a new sense of outraged national consciousness