The Four Fields of Anthropology

Culture as the Central Concept

Culture and the Four Fields of Anthropology

• Anthropology is centered around culture

• Next question: what do cultures have to do with the following?

• Physical anthropology

• Linguistics

• Archaeology

• This is where the definition of anthropology itself comes in

So How Do We Define Anthropology?

• Your syllabus: “The Holistic and Comparative Study of Humankind”

• Holistic: Asks two questions:• Ethnographic Holism: Asks whether, and if so how, all

parts of a culture fit together• This has already been covered under “Culture is

Patterned or Integrated”• Disciplinary Holism: Asks how all the four subfields of

anthropology fit together; this, we cover next.• Comparative Method: Tries to answer the questions of

why cultures are both diverse and similar• We cover both the disciplinary holistic and comparative

strategies in turn

Disciplinary Holism and the Four Fields of Anthropology

• Disciplinary Holism: This method asks why we include the following under “anthropology

• Cultural Anthropology: The comparative study of cultures around the world

• Physical Anthropology: The comparative study of human attributes, past and present

• Linguistics: The study of spoken language, a distinctly human trait

• Archaeology: The comparative study of past cultures through its material cultural remains

• All fields involve a question about culture: where it came from, what it entails, what its consequences are

Defining Cultural Anthropology: Research Techniques

• It involves the study of mostly non-Western cultures

• Basic technique involves fieldwork

• You will be practicing virtual fieldwork using EthnoQuest

• Sometimes, ethics are involved, as this cartoon implies

• A fair question: just what do anthropologists use their information for?

Defining Cultural Anthropology: Topics

• Central concern is kinship, because marriage and family are our first institutions

• Reflected by this three generations of Native American females (upper left)

• Also includes technology, from hunting to housebuilding

• Economic Anthropology: how goods and services are produced and distributed

• Political Anthropology: The study of power and social control (lower left)

• Other areas: supernatural beliefs, psychology, culture change, arts and oral tradition

Defining Physical Anthropology

• The studies of past and present human forms

• Comparative Primate Anatomy: How similar or different we are from the monkeys and apes

• Fossil Hominins: How we evolved from Australopithecus (“Lucy,” depicted in cartoon) to Homo

• Cultural Capacity: Defines how we acquired ability to speak, make tools, walk on two feet

• Human Variation: Study of so-called races—a present concern

• Forensic Science: Tracing evidence of criminal activity

Tying Physical Anthropology to Culture

• Our brain: • Source of our language• Source of our tool-making

ability• Our Lungs and Mouth: Our

ability to speak• Our Arms and Hands: Our

ability to make and use tools• Our Bipedal Skeleton: Our

ability to stand, walk, and ability to do all of the above

Defining Linguistics• The study of spoken

language around the world

• Focuses on phones (speech sounds) and phonemes (sound units that carry language)

• Looks at word and sentence formation

• Examines how children learn to speak—in one-word sentences! (See cartoon)

• Relates language to culture

Tying Linguistics to Culture

• We learn everything through language:

• Even the blind and deaf (Helen Keller and her mentor Ann Sullivan, upper left photo)

• They use Braille and sign language to communicate

• We can think of things not tangible: math equations (lower left), things not present, things nonexistent

• We can produce new words when necessary, from blip to iPod

Defining Archaeology

• Reconstruction of past cultures: focus is on techniques analyzing remains of material culture

• Looks at artifacts: portable objects from tools to Venus sculptures

• Looks at structures: Huts to pyramids

• Excavations destroy everything: Objects have to be measured exactly where found before removal

Tying Archaeology to Culture

• Archaeology is primarily about cultural remains of human societies

• (Even stone tools are hard to identify, as Gary Larson tells us)

• Human and prehuman physical remains are also important

• (Did this Neanderthal mate with that human female? Stay tuned!

• Both archaeologists and physical anthropologists would like to know.)

• Comparison of present with past cultures is also essential

Anthropology and other Social Sciences

• By their nature, economics, political science, sociology are all specialized

• They create specialized perceptions of humankind• Economics focuses on economic man (and

woman)• Political science is about humans hungry for power• Psychology is about human with various drives:

sexual, hunger, prestige• Sociology is about social humans

Recall the Fable of the Six Blind Men Defining an Elephant

• Each man feels a part of the elephant• And describes his take on what it is like

The First Two Parts of an Elephant

• The first man feels the side of the elephant.

• He calls it a wall• The second man feels

one of the elephant’s tusks.

• He compares it to a spear

Two More Parts of an Elephant

• The third man feels the trunk.

• He then calls it a snake• The fourth man then

feels the elephant’s legs. • Lo and behold, he says,

here we have a tree

Last Two Parts of an Elephant

• The fifth man touches the ears.

• He then says that it is like a big fan

• Finally, the sixth man grabs the tail

• He proclaims “I see (though he’s blind) it’s very like a rope”

• Now the argument begins. . .

What do we get? A Metaphorical Elephant

• And so like six blind men• Specialists dispute “loud and

long”• Though each is partly in the

right, • All are in the wrong• And so we get a caricature

of the social sciences• Like this (reconstructed)

elephant.

Economics and Its Limits

• Economics posits an “economic man” whose aim is to maximize his wealth and to get the most out of his assets

• But peoples of many cultures are not that obsessed with wealth

• This Ache (Indonesian) man is actually sharing the meat he just hunted

• Does he look like economic man to you?

Political Science and Its Limits

• Political man lusts for power, even at the point of a sword (or barrel of a gun)

• Some peoples curb others’ power.

• For example, drum song duels kept Eskimos from taking over the band

The Bottom Line of Holism

• Anthropology concerns all aspects of society

• How do the economy, social control, myths, and all else fit in with the culture as a whole.

• This will be the central question as we examine each subfield of cultural anthropology

Second, Anthropology is Comparative• If we are to understand how cultures function• We have to compare them• All science involves comparison• Take families• In Non-western societies, people rely on

family and its extensions for all social functions

• Such as this Vietnamese immigrant family in Canada

• These include education, economic needs, social control

• In Western societies, families are nuclear and thereby play fewer important roles

• Schools educate the young, workplaces are the sources of livelihood, and governments exercise social control

Anthropology and Other Disciplines

• Most other social sciences specialize in industrial societies:

• Economics: Focus is on industrial societies• Sociology: Social relations in industrial societies• Psychology: Study of hang-ups in industrial societies• Anthropology provides data on all these aspects cross

all cultures around the world.• Any valid social explanation has to address all cultures,

not just industrial ones

Conclusion: Culture, Holism, and Comparison

• Basic Question: Why are People so Different?• This is a question about culture• Culture is learned, symbolic, shared, integrated,

and adaptive• It involves questions of how parts of a culture fit

—a holistic issue of ethnography• It involves questions of what every subfield has

to say about culture—a disciplinary holism• It demands an explanation of cultures—a

comparative and therefore scientific question.