Chapter 1: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology Flashcards
Cultural Anthropology
the study of similarities and differences among living societies and cultural groups
Culture
- a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared
- together they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways
- includes tangible and intangible qualities
- born with the capacity to learn any culture
- symbolic
Enculturation
the process of learning the characteristics and expectations of a culture or group
Beliefs
the mental aspects of culture including values, norms, philosophies, worldview, knowledge
Practices
- behaviours and actions that may be motivated by belief or performed without reflection as part of everyday routines
- cultural practices can then impact our biology, growth, and development
6 Characteristics of Culture
- Humans are born with the capacity to learn the culture of any social group. We learn culture both directly and indirectly
- Culture changes in response to both internal and external factors
- Humans are not bound by culture; they have the capacity to conform to it or not, and sometimes change it
- Culture is symbolic; individuals create and share the meanings of symbols within their group or society
- The degree to which humans rely on culture distinguishes us from other animals and shaped our evolution
- Human culture and biology are interrelated: our biology, growth, and development are impacted by culture
Zhang Qian
- military officer from China who spent 25 years traveling and recording his observations of the peoples and cultures of Central Asia in the second century BCE
- used this info to establish new relationships and cultural connections with China’s neighbours to the West
- brought Buddhism to China
Ibn Battuta
- Moroccan Muslim scholar during the fourteenth century who traveled for 30 years covering almost the whole of the Islamic world
- documented the customs and traditions of the people he encountered in his book Al Rihla (first examples of early pre-anthropological writing)
Ethnocentrism
- the tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures
- used to justify the subjugation of non-European societies on the alleged basis that these groups were socially and biologically inferior
- supported colonial projects
- a common human experience
The Age of the Enlightenment
a social and philosophical movement that privileged science, rationality, and experience, while critiquing religious authority
Sir Charles Lyell
- argued that the earth’s surface must have changed gradually over long periods of time
- created the Young Earth theory which claimed the earth was 6,000 from Biblical info
Charles Darwin
naturalist and biologist that argues that all life is descended from a common ancestor
Participant-observation
- anthropologist observes while participating in the same activities in which her informants are engaged
- created by Bronislaw Malinowsk while stranded on the Trobriand Islands
Bronislaw Malinowsk’s theory of human cultural diversity
each culture functions to satisfy the specific biological and psychological needs of its people
Cultural Relativism
- the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their own culture and not our own from Franz Boas
- cultures differ but they are not better or worse than one another
- Boas argued that culture and biology are distinct: human behaviors are socially learned, contextual, and flexible, not innate
5 Sub-Fields Of Anthropology
- Biological anthropology
- Archaeology
- Linguistics anthropology
- Socio-cultural anthropology
- Applied anthropology
Biological Anthropology
- examine the biological and behavioural similarities and differences between nonhuman primates and human primates
- paleoanthropology
- primatology
- contemporary human variation
Paleoanthropology
- the study of human evolution through the fossil and archaeological records
- evolutionary timelines
Primatology
- the study of the behaviour, biology, evolution, and taxonomy of nonhuman primates
- includes comparative anatomy, subsistence and locomotion, and reproductive behaviour
Human Variation
- the range of possible values for any characteristic, physical or mental, of human beings
- anthropometry: continuous (height) and discrete (blood type) traits
- distributions of traits (clines vs. races)
Hominin
humans (Homo sapiens) and their close relatives and immediate ancestors
Paleoanthropologist
biological anthropologists who study ancient human relatives
Archaeology
- the study of the material past: the tools, food, pottery, art, shelters, seeds, and other objects left behind by people
- prehistoric: pre-writing
- historical: beginning of writing
- ethnohistory: oral history of artifacts (often distorted, false documents)
- experimental: reenacting past events
Linguistics Anthropology
- the study of the nature of human languages in the context of those cultures that developed them
- language is a requirement for socialization
- descriptive linguistics
- sociolinguistics
- ethnolinguistics
Descriptive Linguistics
- phonetics
- different levels of language
Sociolinguistics
- language as a marker of social status
- relates to gender
- involves discourse
Ethnolinguistics
- different cultures have different terms for body parts, animals, and plants
- language and culture
- language and thought
Sociocultural Anthropology
- ethnography
- ethnology
Ethnography
- data from fieldwork and monographs
- no formula
Ethnology
- classification, analysis, comparison of data, kinship (descent, marriage, family organization, etc.)
- theory: explaining the data (father and mother authority
figures, ex. Trobriand Islands fieldwork)
Applied Anthropology
- involves the application of anthropological theories, methods, and findings to solve practical problems
- medical anthropology
- forensic anthropology
- cultural resource management
- development
- consulting
7 Anthropological Perspectives
- Holism
- Fieldwork
- Comparison
- Cultural relativism/ethnocentrism
- Scientific (nomothetic) anthropology
- Interpretive (idiographic) anthropology
- Basic vs. applied research
Holism
how different aspects of humanity interact with and influence one another
ex. studying marriage through gender norms, marriage laws, and religious rules
Fieldwork
- research in the field with the species, civilization, or groups of people they are studying
- ethnography
- inductive
Ethnography
the in-depth study of the everyday practices and lives of a people
Inductive
- uses specific info to draw general conclusions
- based on day-to-day observations
- involve asking specific questions about the group or about the human condition more broadly
Comparison
between people in societies, and between humans and other primates
Cultural Relativism
- the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own
- opposite of ethnocentrism
Deductive
- scientific approach that uses hypothesis testing, they collect and analyze material data (ex. bones, tools, seeds, etc.) to answer questions about human origins and evolution
- reasoning from the general to the specific; the inverse of inductive reasoning
ex. biological anthropology and archaeology
