Midterm 1 Flashcards
What is holism?
Assumes that mind and body, person and society, humans and their environment interpenetrate and define one another
What is Dualism?
Dualism contrasts with holism and is composed of Idealism: mind is essence of human, and Materialism: bodies and material world shape human essence
What are the 4 fields of Anthropology?
- Biological/Physical Anthro
- Cultural Anthro
- Archaeology
- Linguistic Anthro
What are the limits of holism?
- Not all research questions require equal emphasis from each four fields
- Societies are not homogeneous in globalizing world
What is comparison?
To view societies across time and space in order to understand what it means to be human.
What do anthropologists do?
- Fieldwork: Extended period of time of close involvement with people of interest to collect data
- Ethnography: Anthropologist’s written description of a culture
- Ethnology: Comparative study of two or more cultures
What does an Informant do?
They are people like friends, teachers, and respondents that help anthropologists with their work by providing them information
What does Rich Contextualization mean?
It’s how different areas of social and cultural life influence one another
What is culture?
Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities, and habits acquires…as a member of society” LSD
What are the debates of culture?
Some anthropologists like Franz Boas argue that culture combats racism
while other contemporary anthropologists say that current definitions of culture denies historical change, agency, internal diversity and treats non-Western cultures as exotic
In the Walt Disney film “Saludos Amigos”, what are some things that were depicted?
- Bright colored clothes and hats
- Merchant life
- Music called “Strange and exotic”
- Native “costumes”
- Put a lot of emphasis on Incas history, presuming that past is like present
- Gave impression that tourists were celebrated
Culture is … (2 things)
- Learned
2. Expressed in symbolic and material form
Cultures are shaped by…
Global flows and exchange
There was never a point in history where cultures were isolated from each other in societies.
Culture involves both…
Tradition and change
Culture both limits and allows for agency. What is agency?
The ability for human beings to exercise at least some control over their lives
Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism
Cultural Relativism: “the perspective that all cultures are equally valid and can only be understood in their own terms”.
- Cultural beliefs and practices must be understood
Ethnocentrism: “The opinion that one’s own way of life is the most natural, or correct way of life”
- Imposes on others’ beliefs and can lead to war and ethnic cleansings
Problems with Cultural Relativism
Human right: balancing rights and cultural differences
Can lead to cultural determinism
and Cultural Relativism is not Moral Relativism, meaning that we still have to make ethical judgement
(Ex. Illongot headhunting cultural practice unethical)
Burqas in context are used a portable seclusion. Head coverings do not equate to an absence of agency. Muslim culture of freedom and agency is different from western view
das it
Structural Functionalism
- Focuses on how particular social forms function to reproduce the traditional structure of the society
- Looks at society as an organism
- Ignored history and treated cultures as isolated
Slave and sugar trade
- Used people as commodities
- slavery existed past colonization
- many slaves worked in sugar plantations
- Slave trade fuels English industrial revolution
- Sugar provided a cheap high calorie food substitute which led to obesity
Colonization and gender (Baule gender relations)
- Pre-colonial gender equality
- Post-colonization, French enforced ideology that men should be the head of the household and provide for family. Made Baule women labor roles obsolete by introducing factories
Neo-colonialism
The persistence of profound social and economic entanglements linking former colonial territories to their former colonial rulers despite political sovereignty
Martha of the North
- Tactic used by Canada to move Inuit people farther up north to assert sovereignty in the arctic
- Inuit were lied to many times and treated poorly
- Starved
- Government enforced wildlife laws which prevented them from hunting certain game
- Severed social relations
- Deprived of housing and education for many years
- Way of life was away
- Residential schools introduced more abuse and racism
Rich Points
Unexpected problems in cross-cultural understanding that may come up
