Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Anthropology Experience What is Anthropology?
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Anthropology Holistic Comparative Mindful of Change Focus on Culture The study of humankind in all its aspects
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Culture Culture is learned. Cultures is shared. Culture is symbolic. Cultures is tacit. A shared set of ideas, beliefs, assumptions and behaviors acquired as a member of society
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Culture “Culture or civilization... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” E. B. Tylor, 1871 “... that complex whole which includes all the habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Ruth Benedict, 1929 “... the patterns of behavior and thought learned and shared as characteristic of a societal group.” Marvin Harris, 1971
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Culture “Culture embraces all the manifestations of social habits of a community, the reactions of the individual as affected by the habits of the group in which he lives, and the products of human activity as determined by these habits.” Franz Boas, 1930 “[Culture] obviously is the integral whole consisting of implements and consumer goods, of constitutional charters for the various social groupings, of human ideas and crafts, beliefs and customs.” Bronislaw Malinowski, 1944
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Culture “Culture means the whole complex of traditional behavior which has been developed by the human race and is successively learned by each generation. ” Margaret Mead, 1937 “... a system of symbols and meanings.” David Schneider, 1976 “A society's culture consists of whatever it is that one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members.” Ward Goodenough
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Ethnocentrism: Reacting to the world with the ideas, beliefs, and assumptions of your own culture. A natural response May result in negative or positive evaluation of another culture Cultural Relativity: Understanding another culture in accord with the ideas, beliefs, and assumptions of that culture Not easy Results in the ability to describe and explain another culture
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Anthropology Subfields Cultural Anthropology Study of contemporary cultures through fieldwork Archaeology Study of past cultures by observing their artifacts
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Anthropology Subfields Biological Anthropology Study of human evolution, human biological variation, human genetics, and primatology Linguistics Describe speech’s physical, psychological, and social dimensions
Copyright 2005 Allyn & Bacon Anthropology Subfields Applied Anthropology Conservation Education World Health Criminal Investigation Government Business