Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Serena Nanda Richard L. Warms © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

What Is Anthropology and Why Should I Care?
Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology and Why Should I Care? © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

© 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Chapter Outline The Nacirema Specialization in Anthropology Anthropology and “Race” Why Study Anthropology? Bringing It Back Home: The Anthropology of Violence © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

The Nacirema The Nacirema are a North American group in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Their culture is characterized by a market economy. They have a fundamental belief that the human body is ugly and has a tendency to debility and disease. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

The Nacirema Each day Naciremans perform a complex set of rituals devoted to the mouth. They believe that, were it not for these rituals, their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

The Nacirema Much of the Nacirema population shows masochistic tendencies. A portion of the daily ritual performed by men involves scraping and lacerating the face. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Anthropology The scientific and humanistic study of human beings Encompasses: the evolutionary history of humanity physical variation among humans the study of past societies a comparative study of current day human societies and cultures © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Society & Culture Society: A group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being Culture: The ways members of a society adapt to their environment and give meaning to their lives The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups The primary means by which humans adapt to their environment The ways of life characteristic of a particular human society (traditions, habits, rituals) © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Goals of Anthropology Describe, analyze, and explain different cultures to show how groups live in different physical, economic, and social environments, and to show how members give meaning to their lives. Understand the entire human experience through the evolutionary development of our species © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Ethnocentrism Belief that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures Judges other cultures from the perspective of one’s own culture Measures other cultures by the degree to which they live up to one’s own cultural standards © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Cultural Relativism Belief that cultures should be analyzed with reference to their own histories and values rather than according to the values of another culture – Method used by anthropologists Understanding how cultural practices are experienced by the people who live them Does not mean that anthropologists believe all cultural traditions to be good Cultural Relativism is method of gaining valuable information © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Employ Holism Anthropologists bring a holistic approach to understanding and explaining by studying broad range of human activity Anthropology combines the study of human culture, history, language, and biology to understand human societies (these are tightly interrelated). Holism separates anthropology from other academic disciplines, which generally focus on one factor as the explanation for human behavior. Most anthropologists specialize in a single field and a single problem, but together they reveal a more complete picture for more understanding © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Specialization in Anthropology
Cultural anthropology Archaeology Linguistic anthropology Biological (or physical) anthropology © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Biological or Physical Anthropology
Biological (or physical) anthropologists study humans as physical and biological entities. Human adaptation is biocultural (biological and cultural dimensions) All human culture rests on a biological base (physical characteristics that allowed us to make tools; larger brain) Need to understand how biological aspects of adaptation came about and how they influence human behavior Biological anthropology primarily focuses on those aspects that are genetically inherited. Includes osteology, human nutrition, human populations, epidemiology, and primatology Best known for study of human evolution and biological processes involved in human adaptation © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Human Variation A specialty of biological anthropology concerned with physiological differences among humans. This approach focuses on human physical diversity and attempts to explain its sources. Richard Wrangham – Catching Fire Proposes ability to control fire and cook food led to dramatic biological and social changes Argues human evolution was both biological and cultural process © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Cultural Adaptation Has freed humans from slow process of biological adaptation Populations can invent new ways of dealing with problems almost immediately, or adopt solutions from other societies Biological, Cultural anthropology, and archaeology are all linked due to the complex relationship between biological and cultural evolution © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Physical Anthropology
Within physical/biological anthropology, there are various foci, all looking at this age old question: “Where did we come from?” “How did we get to/evolve to where we are today?” © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Linguistic Anthropology
The study of language and its relation to culture Concerned with understanding language and its relation to culture Use our lungs, vocal cords mouth, tongue, and lips – to produce noise of varying tone and pitch. Want to understand how language is structured, how it is learned, and how this communication takes place The use of complex language is central to being a human and forms part of all cultures. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Linguistic Anthropology
Language involves more than words. When we speak, we use our bodies and gestures to change and modify meanings (we perform, we don’t recite; we tell a story) Language is a complex symbol system that people use to communicate and transmit culture. All languages change over time; historical linguists study linguistic change and the relationships between different languages. Vocabulary gives clues to aspects of culture (people and places that are important to them); need to know language Language and technology are highly related © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Archaeology Study of past cultures through their material remains Infer cultural patterns of behavior from material remains Archaeology is about interpreting patterns to provide insights into the lives and cultural ways of other people in other times. When written record is available, it helps increase our understanding of the lifeways of those that came before us Our lives are not random; the things we do form some sort of pattern and impress themselves on our material belongings (For Example: professors go between home and office; items in one room show this as kitchen and books in another room show this a den) NOT like Indiana Jones – getting the goods! Rather, looking for patterns of behavior (For Example: post molds) ARTIFACTS – any object that humans have made, used, or altered © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Archaeology Urban Archaeology Looks at recent and distant past of current-day cities Uncover knowledge of people often left out of history books, making our understanding even riche Elizabeth Scott – Nina Plantation in Louisiana Learned about lives of slaves and free laborers from 1820s to the 1890s Discovery of African Burial Ground in NY City in 1991 Insight into lives of free and enslaved Africans in the 17th and 18th centuries © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Cultural Resource Management (CRM)
An approach within archaeology that is concerned with the protection and management of archaeological, archival, and architectural resources and sites. Works on endangered archaeological sites Often federal, state, and local agencies © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Cultural Anthropology
© Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

The study of human society and culture. The study of human thought, behavior, and lifeways that are learned rather than genetically transmitted and typical of a group of people. Society – a group of people persisting through time and social relationships among these people Understands society as a set of social relationships among people (statuses and roles) Culture – the way members of a society adapt to their environment and give meaning to their lives; cultures are constantly changing Cultural groups that were once thought of as occupying specific geographic are becoming increasingly more globalized (electronic communication and rapid transportation) © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Understands culture as both universal human phenomenon and as characteristic of group of people Often interested in effects of differences of power Use many different research strategies like observation, participant observation, and interviewing © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Ethnography & Ethnology
Two important aspects of cultural anthropology are: Ethnography is the description of society or culture. An emic ethnography attempts to capture what ideas and practices mean to members of a culture; insider perspective An etic ethnography describes and analyzes culture according to principles and theories drawn from the Western scientific tradition such as ecology, economy, or psychology; outsider perspective Ethnology The attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena through the comparison of cultures Compares and contrasts practices in different cultures to find regularities/patterns © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Interested in documenting and understanding the ways cultures change Examine roles that power and coercion play in in change Examine human’s ability to invent new technologies and social forms and modify old ones Studies of cultural change is important because rapid shifts in society, economy, and technology are basic characteristics of the contemporary world Cultural anthropology is particularly focused on understanding and documenting: Currently existing societies and cultures. The way that culture and society react to change. How history plays a role in contemporary societies and cultures. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Applied Anthropology Mainly concerned with big questions about origin of our species, development of culture and civilization, and the functions of human social institutions The application of anthropology to the solution of human problems Applied anthropology is employed in all four fields of anthropology: cultural, linguistic, archaeology, and physical/biological anthropology Forensic Anthropology and Cultural Resource Management © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

History of Anthropology
Originally focused on small groups in specific areas Wanted to document endangered cultures Many worked in museums Debates on race and foreign policy Studies to help war efforts Frank Boaz contributed to debates on race and foreign policy (1858 – 1942) Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict and others did studies to help America during WWII First half of 20th century – worked in universities © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Past 50 years Full time profession for many outside of academia in all four subfields of anthropology The use of all subcultures of anthropology to solve practical problems in business, politics, delivery of services, land management… Many different types of employment Hospitals and health care – need to know cultural beliefs of sick person Politics, deliver aid to poor nations Museums, public land, uncovering and preserving heritage © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Forensic Anthropology
A type of applied anthropology Uses the tools of physical anthropology to aid in the identification of skeletal or badly decomposed human remains Identify the victims of crimes, warfare, and genocide Provide data to charge individuals with homicide Television show “Bones” © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Everyday Anthropology
Demands we look at things in new ways Became more aware of the variety in understandings that exist cross-culturally Greater understanding of the social dynamics that underlie different cultures as well as our own © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Anthropology and “Race”
In the United States, most people see humanity as composed of biological “races.” Most anthropologists believe that “race” is not a scientifically-valid system of classification. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Problems in Scientific Racial Classification
Almost all traits we use to assign people to a race are facial traits (as well as skin color, hair color, eye color, shapes). It is hard to imagine a biological reason why the shape of one’s eyes should be more important than the characteristics of one’s liver. It is easy to find a social reason: Traits easily visible on the face enable us to rapidly assign individuals to a racial group. If race is biological, members of one race should be genetically closer to one another than to members of different races. However, people are as different from others of their race as they are from those of other races. Skin color is NOT a reliable indication of relationship between groups © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Problems with Racial Classifications
Although the characteristics of our species were fully present 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, a recent study argues that all current-day humans have common ancestors who lived only 2,000 to 5,000 years ago. At a time depth of more than 5,000 years, all people alive today have exactly the same ancestors. Cultural differences between humans are bigger than biological ones © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Why Study Anthropology?
Practical Application Anthropology focuses on understanding other groups of people. In our world today we face extraordinary problems: Anthropology gives us new and useful ways to think about culture. It allows us to analyze and solve problems in our world It allows us to get along better with other cultural groups in a world that is rapidly changing due to globalization, immigration, and rapid transportation. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

It is part of a liberal arts curriculum (like English, history, language, psychology, political science, philosophy, sociology…). It provides a broad and general basis of knowledge. Some have specific skills training (teacher, geography (use specific equipment) Liberal arts programs usually produce generalists It prepares students for a variety of careers. Getting a bachelor degree automatically opens up many opportunities as many companies are requiring (almost any) degrees for positions. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Many private and public organizations look to hire anthropologists QUESTION – What ways of though from anthropology are applicable to a broad range of occupations? How is anthropology different from other social disciplines? – 3 primary answers Reason 1 It focuses on understanding different groups of people Focus on culture is valuable contribution to our ability to understand world Use cultural relativism (versus ethnocentrism) to develop critical thinking skills that aid in analyzing and solving problems Leonard Pitts – “if affirmative action is defined as giving preferential treatment on bases of gender or race, then no one in this country has received more than white men” © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Most men never realized they were getting preferential treatment (especially lower class) By late 20th century, women of great diversity moved into stronger economic and political positions It is now less of a world where everyone wants to do business with U.S. and is willing to do so on American terms World is more globalized Immigrants – now easy communication Multiculturalism © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Reason 2 Philosophical Anthropologists grapple with what it means to be human Two ways to look at this question: Look at culture as the sum total of what humans have done, thought, created, and believed; individuals are heirs to the totality of human cultural practices and experiences; it is a discipline to observe, collect, record and understand the full range of human cultural experience; we learn the great variety of forms culture can take Alternately, look at culture by ignoring variability and focusing on characteristics that all cultures have George Murdock and 77 characteristics © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Third Reason Anthropologists have an interest in creating new and useful ways to think about culture (think about it as a set of answers to a particular problem; how does a group of humans survive together in this world) Culture is a set of behaviors, beliefs, understandings, objects, and ways of interacting that enable a group to survive In the world today and in our own societies, we have problems. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Many problems are faced by almost all cultures We can learn from other people from other places or times who faced these problems and how they solved them; we can learn lessons, positive and negative. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

In Greek drama, concept of hubris is critical Hubris is excessive pride or confidence that leads to arrogance and often leads to downfall To imagine ourselves as totally unique and our, to imagine the experiences of others have nothing to teach us, is a form of hubris and could lead to downfall Contrasted with arete – implies a humble striving for perfection, along with realization that such perfection cannot be reached With the notion of arete in mind, we approach the study of anthropology cheerfully and with a degree of optimism and we hope to learn new ways of analyzing, understanding, celebrating, and coming to terms with the enormous variation in human cultural behavior Hopefully, we will leave the world a better place than we found it. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Bringing It Back Home To what extent is violence a part of human nature versus a product of culture? We have often lived in societies with high levels of violence Some societies have low levels of violence – Chewong (Malasia); Yandi (India); Semai (Malay Peninsula) © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Bringing It Back Home Steven Pinker - argues humanity as a whole is becoming less violent because 1) political dominance of large state societies whose governments monopolize the use of force; 2) the emergence of humanitarian thinking in the 17th and 18th century Europe; 3) spread of commerce Many anthropologists are skeptical of Pinker’s claims Likely true that routine cruelty of relatively recent Western past has lessened Still use torture Total number killed – 20th century was most violent in history; much was state sponsored violence, from warfare to famines cause by political actions © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Bringing It Back Home Anthropology shows that both violence and reconciliation are basic aspects of human and non-human primate behavior; sources of both peace and violence may lie in human nature. Also, the ways in which our cultures are structured and worldviews we hold affect the degree to which violence is present © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Imagine a museum exhibit of an early one-room school in the Midwestern U.S. is being planned. Which subfield(s) of anthropology would be likely to carry out the research of surveyor's maps, diaries, textbooks, journals, and other historic artifacts, as well as excavation of the original site? Paleoanthropology Archaeology Cultural anthropology Biological anthropology © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Answer: b Imagine a museum exhibit of an early one-room school in the Midwestern U.S. is being planned. An archaeologist would be likely to carry out the research of surveyor's maps, diaries, textbooks, journals, and other historic artifacts, as well as excavation of the original site. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Which of the following statements would be considered ethnocentric? People in France have a long historical tradition of political autonomy. In many cultures marriage is the most important social institution. When a child dies, he should be buried in a religious ceremony. Gauchos in Argentina have a very complex herding strategy. © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

All people alive today would have begun to have the exact same ancestors at approximately what time depth? 500 years ago 1,000 years ago 2,000 years ago 5,000 years ago © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

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