Unit One Flashcards
Why is anthropology different from social sciences?
- holism (have to study all properties of a a given system)
- looks for relationships
- long field work
- Competitive approach
What is applied anthropology?
Application of anthropological theories in modern day
What is unilinieal evolutionary school? (19th century)
- “Armchair” anthropology
- influenced by Charles Darwin
- natural selection
- social Darwinism (societies represent evolution)
Lewis Henry Morgan classified civilizations into these categories (1877)
Savagery
Barbarism
Civilization
What is functionalism?
- society operates as an organism
- each part works to make up a whole
- holism
- bromislaw Malinowski (field work/participant observation)
What is historical particularism
- challenged cultural evolution
- societies did not pass through the same fazes
- each society is different
What is the boasain approach?
- Importance of field work
- culture relativism: each culture studied on separate terms
- culture is borrowed and shared
- Culture is always changing
Who is Margaret mead
- studied personality and culture
- student of boas
- studied gender roles
- public anthropology
- challenged biological determinants and universalism of child development
What is french structuralism?
Key figure: claude lévi Strausses
- the best way to understand culture is to analyze myths and stories.
- reveal underlying themes that structure society
What is symbolic and interpretive anthropology
- culture is symbolic, can be explained with symbols
- In order to understand culture we should focus on ideas, thoughts, symbols and meanings
- key figure Clifford geirty
Marx and anthropology
- Class, modes of production, political economy
- culture materialism: emphasizing material conditions
- our material lives shape our cultural worlds
What is holism?
From holos (Greek) meaning entire or whole
What is a comparative approach?
Comparing cultures and there similarities and differences to be unbiased
What makes anthropology unique
- interact with culture and biology
- addresses evolution (culture and biological)
- compares and views all groups of people equally
What are three popular understanding of culture
- expressive (art)
- visible signs of difference (dress, food, etc…)
- artifacts
