Week 1: Introduction to Anthropology Flashcards
What is Anthropology?
The study of a human being
- Physical or biological
- Archaeological Anthropology
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Social Anthropology
Archaeology
- Study culture by analyzing the objects people have made
- Analyze human bones and teeth to gain information on peoples diet and the diseases they suffered
- Collect the remains of plants, animals and soils (ecofacts) from the places where people have lived to understand how people used and changed their natural environments
Biological or Physical Anthropology
- Seeks to understand how humans adapt to different environments, what causes disease and early death and how humans evolved from other animals
- Study humans (living and dead), other primates such as monkeys and apes and human ancestors (fossils)
Linguistic Anthropology
- Study ways people communicate
- How language is linked to how we see the world and how we relate to each other
- How language works and how it changes over time
Social Anthropology
- Social (or cultural) anthropology is the study of all peoples everywhere- what they make, what they do, what they think, and how they organize their social relationships in society
Ethnography
Description of particular group of people derived from an extensive period of living
Ethnology
Ethnologue involves comparator study of the difference of particular 2 or more groups of people based on extensive reading of anthropological literature
Culture
An abstract set of beliefs values, and attitudes that, when acted upon, results in behaviours and perceptions considered appropriate by members of a social group or society
Characteristics
- Learned, shared, symbolic, contested, dynamic and universal
- Unity in diversity
Ethnocentrism
Our own customs are normal while others are strange, wrong, not logical as one’s own
Cultural Relativism
All cultures are equally valid
Cultural Adaptation and Maladaptation
- Biological
- Cultural
- Maladaptive behaviours
Fieldwork
living and working among study participants, and observation
(Ideal vs. real behaviour)
Choosing informants
Methods: interview, life histories, case studies, map making, kinship, etc
Ethics of fieldwork
- Trust, rapport, learning “ how to ask”
- “Principles of Professional Responsibility”
