What is Anthropology? (Lecture 1)

Question 1

What is the etymology of the word “Anthropology”?

Answer 1

anthropos + logos

=

“human beings” + “study of”

Question 2

Give 5 subfields of Anthropology

Answer 2

1. Biological (Archaelogical)
2. Social/Cultural
3. Linguistics
4. Applied
5. Ethnomusicology

Question 3

Give 3 Anthropological perspectives, and explain their meanings

Answer 3

1. Comparison

try to understand behaviours by comparing different ways of doing things

2. Contextualisation/Holism

one part of a culture can only be understood in relation to other parts of the cuture i.e you can’t just remove & explain one particular piece of a culture without referring to other parts of it

==> most beliefs and practices make sense, if you understand it in the context they occur
e.g. why we have lectures (undertanding of knowledge)

3. Anti-Ethnocentrism

Enthnocentrism is thinking your ‘culture’s’ moral standards, attitudes etc. is inherently superior or inferior to that of another culture
we’re all ethnocentric to some degree, we need to temporarily suspend judgements

1st need to suspend judgements to understand

then, we can make judgements based on our moral standards

Question 4

What don’t Anthropologists believe about primitivity and culture?

Answer 4

We don’t believe that cultures can be classified as ‘primitive’ or ‘advanced’