8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
1/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
C
ha
pt
er
1
This chapter introduces students to the
textbook by discussing how Anthropology is
defined and how it relates to other academic
fields. It also discusses the differentsubfields and dimensions that exist within
Anthropology.
What is Anthropology?
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
2/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of the human species and its immediateancestors.
Anthropology is holistic in that the discipline is concerned with studying the
whole of the human condition: past, present and future. Anthropology
studies biology, society, language, and culture.
Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective by constantlycomparing the customs of one society with those of others.
People share both society and culture.
Society is organized life in groups, a feature that humans share with other
animals.
Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that
govern the beliefs and behaviors of the people exposed to them.
While culture is not biological, the ability to use it rests in hominid biology.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
3/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Adaptation is the process by which organisms cope withenvironmental stresses.
Human adaptation involves interaction between culture and
biology to satisfy individual goals.
Four types of human adaptation:
cultural (technological) adaptation
genetic adaptation
long-term physiological or developmental adaptation
immediate physiological adaptation
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
4/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Humans are the most adaptable animals in the world, havingthe ability to inhabit widely variant ecological niches.
Humans, like all other animals use biological means to adapt
to a given environment.
Humans are unique in having cultural means of adaptation.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
5/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Through time, social and cultural means of adaptation havebecome increasingly important for human groups.
Human groups have devised diverse ways of coping with a wide
range of environments.
The rate of this cultural adaptation has been rapidly acceleratingduring the last 10,000 years.
Food production developed between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago
after millions of years during which hunting and gathering was the
sole basis for human subsistence. The first civilizations developed between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago.
More recently, the spread of industrial production has profoundly
affected human life.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
6/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Four Subdisciplines of Anthropology
The academic discipline of American anthropology isunique in that it includes four subdisciplines: culturalanthropology, archaeological anthropology, biological or
physical anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
This four field approach developed in the US as earlyAmerican anthropologists studying native peoples of NorthAmerica became interested in exploring the origins anddiversity of the groups that they were studying.
This broad approach to studying human societies did notdevelop in Europe (e.g. Archaeology, in most Europeanuniversities, is not a subdiscipline of anthropology; it is itsown department).
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
7/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Origins of American Anthropology
American anthropology arose out
of concern for the history and
cultures of Native North
Americans. Ely S. Parker was a
Seneca Indian who made
important contributions to early
anthropology.
Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
8/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Four Subdisciplines of Anthropology
Variation in Time (diachronic research): using informationfrom contemporary groups to model changes that took place in
the past, and using knowledge gained from past groups to
understand what is likely to happen in the future (e.g.
reconstructing past languages using principles based on modern
ones).
Variation in Space (synchronic research): comparing
information collected from human societies existing at the same
or roughly the same time, but from different geographic locations
(e.g. the race concept in the US, Brazil, and Japan).
Any conclusions about human nature must be pursued with a
comparative, cross-cultural approach.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
9/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Cultural Forces and Human Biology
Cultural traditions promote certain activities and abilities,discourage others, and set standards of physical well-beingand attractiveness.
Participation and achievement in sports is determined bycultural factors, not racial ones.
In Brazilian culture, women should be soft, with big hips andbuttocks, not big shoulders; since competitive swimmers tendto have big, strong, shoulders and firm bodies, competitiveswimming is not very popular among Brazilian females.
In the US, there arent many African-American swimmers orhockey players, not because of some biological reason, butbecause those sports arent as culturally significant as football,basketball, baseball, and track.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
10/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Intelligence Tests
There is no conclusive evidence for biologically basedcontrasts in intelligence between rich and poor, black and
white, or men and women.
The best indicators of how any individual will perform on an
intelligence test are environmental, such as educational,economic, and social background.
All standard tests are culture-bound and biased because they
reflect the training and life experiences of those who develop
and administer them.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
11/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Culture and Sports
Years of swimming sculpt
a distinctive physique.
The countries that tend to
produce successful
female swimmers are theUnited States, Canada,
Australia, Germany,
Scandinavia, and the
former Soviet Union,
where this body type isnt
as stigmatized for women
as it is in Latin countries.
Photo Credit: David Madison/ Duomo
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
12/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Intelligence Tests
Jensenism asserts that African-Americans are hereditarilyincapable of doing as well as whites.
Named for Arthur Jensen, the educational psychologist who
observed that on average African-Americans perform less well
on intelligence tests that Euro-Americans and Asian-Americans.
This racist notion of the inborn inferiority of African-
Americans recently resurfaced in the 1994 book The Bell
Curveby Richard Hernnstein and Charles Murray.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
13/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
The Bell Curve(1994)
Like Jensen, Hernnstein and Murray disregard moreconvincing environmental explanations in favor of a genetic
one to explain patterns observed in intelligence test scores.
An environmental explanation acknowledges that for many
reasons, both genetic and environmental, some people aresmarter than others, however these differences in
intelligence cannot be generalized to characterize whole
populations or social groups.
Psychologists have come up with many ways to measure
intelligence, but there are problems with all of them.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
14/34 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Intelligence Tests
Intelligence tests reflect the experiences of the people whowrite them.
Middle- and upper-class children do well because they share
the test makers educational expectations and standards.
The SATs claim to measure intellectual aptitude but they alsomeasure the type and quality of high school education,
linguistic and cultural background, and parental wealth.
Studies have shown that performance on the SATs can be
improved by coaching and preparation, placing those studentswho can pay for an SAT preparation course at an advantage.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
15/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Intelligence Tests
Cultural biases in testing affect performance by people inother cultures as well as different groups in the same nation.
Native Americans scored the lowest of any group in the US,
but when the environment during growth and development for
Native Americans is similar to that of middle-class whites, thetest scores tend to equalize (e.g. the Osage Indians).
At the start of World War I, African-Americans living in the
north scored on average better than whites living in the south
due to the better public school systems in the north.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
16/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Cultural Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology combines ethnography and ethnology to studyhuman societies and cultures for the purpose of explaining social andcultural similarities and differences.
Ethnography produces an account (a book, an article, or a film) of aparticular community, society, or culture based on information that iscollected during fieldwork.
Generally, ethnographic fieldwork involves living in the communitythat is being studied for an extended period of time (e.g. 6 months to2 years).
Ethnographic fieldwork tends to emphasize local behavior, beliefs,
customs, social life, economic activities, politics, and religion, ratherthen developments at the national level.
Since cultures are not isolated, ethnographers must investigate thelocal, regional, national, and global systems of politics, economics,and information that expose villagers to external influences.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
17/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Cultural Anthropology
Ethnology examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares theethnographic data gathered in different societies to make
generalizations about society and culture.
Ethnology uses ethnographic data to build models, test
hypotheses, and create theories that enhance our understandingof how social and cultural systems work.
Ethnology works from the particular (ethnographic data) to the
general (theory).
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
18/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Cultural Anthropology
ETHNOGRAPHY ETHNOLOGY
requires fieldwork to collectdata draws upon data collectedby a series of researchers
descriptive synthetic
group/community specific comparative/cross-cultural
Comparison between Ethnography and Ethnology
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
19/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Archaeological Anthropology
Archaeological anthropology reconstructs, describes, andinterprets past human behavior and cultural patterns through
material remains.
The material remains of a culture include artifacts (e.g.
potsherds, jewelry, and tools), garbage, burials, and theremains of structures.
Archaeologists use paleoecological studies to establish the
ecological and subsistence parameters within which given
group lived.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
20/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Archaeological Anthropology
The archaeological record provides archaeologists theunique opportunity to look at changes in social complexity
over thousands and tens of thousands of years (this kind of
time depth is not accessible to ethnographers).
Archaeology is not restricted to prehistoric societies. Historical archaeology combines archaeological data and
textual data to reconstruct historically known groups.]
William Rathjes garbology project in Tucson, Arizona.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
21/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Biological Anthropology
Biological, or physical, anthropology investigates humanbiological diversity across time and space.
There are five special interests within biological anthropology: paleoanthropology: human evolution as revealed by the fossil record
human genetics
human growth and development human biological plasticity: the bodys ability to change as it copes with
stresses such as heat, cold, and altitude
primatology: the study of the biology, evolution, behavior, and social life ofprimates.
Biological anthropology is multidisciplinary as it draws onbiology, zoology, geology, anatomy, physiology, medicine,public health, osteology, and archaeology.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
22/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Biological Anthropology
Paleoanthropologists study the fossilrecord of human evolution. This
photo shows Professor Teuku Jacob
with early fossil skulls from Java,
Indonesia.
Photo Credit: Kenneth Garrett / National Geographic
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
23/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic anthropology is the study of language in its socialand cultural context across space and time.
Some linguistic anthropologists investigate universal
features of language that may be linked to uniformities in
the human brain. Historical linguists reconstruct ancient languages and study
linguistic variation through time.
Sociolinguistics investigates relationships between social
and linguistic variation to discover varied perceptions and
patterns of thought in different cultures.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
24/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Theoretical/Academic Anthropology
Theoretical/academic anthropology includes the foursubfields discussed above (cultural, archaeological,
biological, and linguistic anthropology).
Directed at collecting data to test hypotheses and models that
were created to advance the field of anthropology. Generally, theoretical/academic anthropology is carried out in
academic institutions (e.g. universities and specialized
research facilities).
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
25/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Applied Anthropology
Applied anthropology is the application of any ofanthropological data, perspectives, theory, and techniques to
identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.
Some standard subdivisions have developed in applied
anthropology: medical anthropology, environmentalanthropology, forensic anthropology, and development
anthropology.
Applied anthropologists are generally employed by
international development agencies, like the World Bank,United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the
United Nations.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
26/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology
studies health
conditions from a
cross-culturalperspective. In
Uganda's Mwiri
primary school
children are taught
about HIV.
Photo Credit: Jorgen Schytte / Still Pictures / Peter Arnold Inc
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
27/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill
Applied Anthropology
Applied anthropologists assess the social and culturaldimensions of economic development.
Development projects often fail when planners ignore the
cultural dimensions of development.
Applied anthropologists work with local communities toidentify specific social conditions that will influence the
failure or success of a development project.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
28/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc All rights reservedMcGraw-Hill
Two Dimensions of Anthropology
GENERAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
APPLIED
ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural Anthropology Medical Anthropology
Archaeological
Anthropology
Cultural Resource
Management (CRM)
Biological or Physical
Anthropology
Forensic Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology Non-government
Organizations (NGOs)
The Four Subfields and Two Dimensions of Anthropology
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
29/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc All rights reservedMcGraw-Hill
Anthropology and Other Fields
Anthropologys own broad scope has always lent it tointerdisciplinary collaboration.
Anthropology is a science, in that it is a systematic field of
study that uses experiments, observations, and deduction to
produce reliable explanations of human cultural andbiological phenomena.
Anthropology is also one of the humanities, in that is
encompasses the study and cross-cultural comparison of
languages, texts, philosophies, arts, music, performancesand other forms of creative expression.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
30/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc All rights reservedMcGraw-Hill
Cultural Anthropology and Sociology
Formerly, sociology focused on western societies whileanthropology looked at exotic societies.
Cultural anthropological methodologies have primarily been
in-depth and qualitative (e.g. participant observation).
Sociological methodologies tended to be mainly quantitative(statistically based).
The trend toward increasing interdisciplinary cooperation
(deconstruction) is causing these differences to disappear.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
31/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc All rights reservedMcGraw Hill
Political Science and Economics
While other disciplines have looked at such institutions aseconomics and politics as distinct and amenable to separate
analysis, anthropology has emphasized their relatedness to
other aspects of the general social order.
Anthropology has tended to emphasize cross-culturalvariation in such institutions, in contrast to the almost
exclusively Western orientation of the other disciplines.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
32/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw Hill
Anthropology and the Humanities
The anthropological concept of culture has gainedincreasing influence in the humanities treatment of human
artifacts.
In turn, cultural studies have brought a fuller recognition of
the influence such artifacts may exert on human behavior.
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
33/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw Hill
Anthropology and Psychology
Anthropology has contributed a cross-cultural perspective toconcepts developed in psychology.
The school of cultural anthropology known as culture and
personality has emphasized child rearing practices as the
fundamental means for transmitting culture.
h l d i
8/11/2019 Chapt001 What is Anthropology - Copy
34/34
2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw Hill
Anthropology and History
The convergence between the disciplines of anthropologyand history has been marked, particularly during the last
decade.
Recent treatments of colonial history have emphasized the
importance of understanding the cultural contexts ofhistorical records.
Kottak argues for some continued distinction between
history and anthropology, on the basis of historys focus on
the movement of individuals through roles, as opposed toanthropologys focus on change in structure or form.
Top Related