Anthropology exam

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Welcome to ANTH 101
Cultural Diversity: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Jenna Musket M.A., PhD/ABD
Department of Anthropology

Drexel University

What to Expect?

What to Expect?

  • The syllabus

  • Ground rules…for a classroom environment
  • Mine?
  • Yours?

Beginning Thoughts on

Anthropology 101: Introduction to Cultural Diversity

Let’s start with

Anthropology

Any Anthro majors, here?

What is it?

How to define it?

If I say Anthropology…

  • Or anthropologist…
  • What comes to mind?

  • What do anthropologists do?
  • How do you know? Where do your ideas and images about Anthropology/ Anthropologists come from?

Where do our ideas and images come from?

“Myth” vs “real deal”

“Archaeologist” and “anthropologist” NOT interchangeable terms

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Anthropology
Four fields:

Archaeology +

Biological anthropology=

“Stones and bones”

Anthropology as a social science

  • the most humanistic of the sciences

and

  • the most scientific of the humanities.”

  • Alfred Kroeber

Anthropology is a holistic social science

  • Definition according to the AAA: “Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and physical sciences.” http://www.americananthro.org/

A central concern of anthropologists

  • is the application of knowledge to the solution of human problems.

1. Archaeology

  • This branch of anthropology focuses on the study of material culture through the recovery and analysis of material remains.
  • May include artifacts such as: tools, hearths, plant, marine, animal or human remains and pottery.

Sub-divisions of Archaeology

  • Historical archaeology
  • Bio-archaeology
  • Contemporary archaeology
  • Cultural resources management
  • Museum Anthropology

Ur dating to 3100 BC (50,000)

Ban Chiang

Bull’s Lyre

Examine material remains
of early sites

Gobeckli Tepe (Turkey)

11,000 y/a

Before the advent of agriculture in the area

Historical Archaeology

  • Historical archaeologists generally study the time frame within the past 5,000 years of humanity or the time frame wherein written accounts exist.

  • This may include societies and indigenous cultures such as: Egypt, Pompeii, Andean Cultures, Native American groups, etc.

Bio-archaeology

  • These archaeologists focus on the study of human remains through emphasizing the preservation of cultural and social processes in the skeleton.

  • They will make inferences about the relationship between ancient peoples and the environment.

What could bio-archaeologists learn about diet and lifestyle from the study of skeletal remains?

How might this information be useful in a modern context?

Contemporary Archaeology

Any guesses as to where this is?

While most archaeologists have a focus on the human antiquity some prefer to focus their research on modern societies and cultures.

One method of evaluation for modern cultures - the Garbage Dump Project.

  • Archaeologists focus on studying modern human waste….including e-waste

  • If someone were to study YOUR trash …what would they learn about you? Your diet? Your lifestyle?
  • What do the items we dispose of say about us to future generations or archaeologists?

Cultural Resource Management

  • A branch of archaeology tied to government policies for the protection of cultural resources

  • archaeological and historical remains threatened by construction or development.

  • NAGPRA- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

2. Physical Anthropology

  • Paleoanthropology
  • Primatology
  • Medical Anthropology
  • Biological Anthropology
  • Genetics
  • Forensic Anthropology
  • Human ecology

Physical Anthropology

  • Physical anthropology, also known as biological anthropology, focuses on humans as biological organisms, evolution, and human variation.

  • Analyze fossils and observe living primates to reconstruct the ancestry of the human species.

  • The biocultural perspective focuses on the interaction of biology and culture.

Physical Anthropology

  • Paleoanthropology is the study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species; specifically the study of human evolution.

  • These anthropologists focus on reconstructing the course of human evolution through fossilized remains.

Recreating past lifeways

Reshaping the story we tell about “us”

Physical Anthropology

  • Primatology
  • The study of living and fossil primates.

  • These studies offer scientific perspectives on the behavior of our ancestors and our closest living relatives.

  • The fossil record shows that, before 7 million years ago, there were more than100 different species of apes…today only 7

Medical Anthropology

  • The use of insights from cultural anthropology and physical anthropology to understand the relationship between human health and cultural behaviors.


Forensic anthropology

  • An applied sub-field of physical anthropology that specializes in the identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes.

Forensic anthropologist featured in the TV show "Bones"

Human adaptation

  • Often studies about human adaptation will focus on the ability of humans to adapt or adjust to their material environment, both biologically and culturally.

  • Although biological adaptations allow for humans to occupy marginal environments, cultural adaptations enhance their survival.

Critical thought: What are some cultural adaptations we have made in our own culture to better allow us to survive in this environment?

Are there negative effects of these adaptations? If so, do the benefits outweigh those negative effects?

3. Linguistic Anthropology

This is the study of human languages. There are three components of this discipline.

Descriptive – this includes syntax and grammar of the language.

Historical – the way languages change over time.

Social or cultural – Anthropologists here understand the relationship between a people’s culture and their language.

4. Cultural Anthropology

  • Visual Anthropology
  • Urban Anthropology
  • Socio-cultural Anthropology
  • Salvage Anthropology
  • Business Anthropology
  • Economic Anthropology
  • Development Anthropology
  • Advocacy Anthropology

Applied Anthropology

  • Often seen as the fifth sub-field of anthropology.

  • This is the use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems, often for a specific client.

What IS Anthropology?

  • Anthropology is the study of humankind through all times and places. Quite literally it is the study of humans.

  • The study of the biological and cultural evolution and diversity of human beings past and present.

  • Anthropology is a comparative discipline which seeks to understand what makes people different and what they all have in common.

What do Anthropologists Do?

Participant observation

Fieldwork

Ethnography

([1922] Bronislaw Malinowski. Argonauts of the Western Pacific

Culture shock

Journal entry…

Anthropology is frequently described

  • as the art of ‘making the exotic familiar and the familiar exotic’.


“Culture” as a Core Concept

  • “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” (Ralph Linton, 1936)

  • What does this mean? How is this relevant to a discussion on “culture”?

For now, we’ll define culture as “the learned and shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience.”

Anthropologist as detective…

  • Investigating culture
  • Making sense of clues
  • Piecing together glimpses of culture

  • Why are things one way and not another? Building awareness that people elsewhere do things differently?

  • Calling into question conventional knowledge…and taken for granted truths.

Franz Boas and
Cultural Relativity

“The seeing eye… “is not a mere physical organ, but a means of perception culturally conditioned by the tradition in which the possessor has been reared” (Boas cited in Stocking 1968; Delaney 2004, 10)

In the Land of the War Canoes (1914)

Intercultural encounter…cultural diversity

  • If you were Edward Sheriff Curtis or Franz Boas coming in contact with the Kwakiutl in the early 1900s…
  • How might you have perceived the Kwakiutl, described them? Felt about them? Based on what…

Cultural diversity

  • Orientation to the world
  • Spatial locations
  • Time
  • Relationship to the body
  • Food
  • Dress
  • Language
  • Kinship
  • Who and what is significant
  • (Ideals, beliefs, values)
  • For Boas….”cultural relativity”

Culture…. in some ways like…

  • Stage, stage setting & cast of characters…
  • Stage directions, “roles”, and rules of behavior or engagement [Schneider in Delaney 15]
  • “Codes”
  • Socialization
  • Resocialization

EG: “Kwakiutl” culture, “Trobriand culture”, “Chinese ” or “American” culture

Basic anthropological insight

  • there is as much diversity WITHIN cultures as BETWEEN them

If I were to ask you to provide a socio-cultural analysis of this classroom or think about the “cultural diversity” here…

  • where would you start?

  • List 10 ways that you might consider “diversity” within any community or social group of people (including in this classroom)

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 Introduction to Chapter 1; pp: 2-5 and

#1. “Ethnography and Culture” (Spradley)

#39. “Using Anthropology” (McCurdy)

Next session:

Works Cited:

  • Delaney, Carole with Deborah Kaspin. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Approach.

  • Haviland, William, Harold Prins, David McBride and Walrath Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge 14th Edition. Cengage, 2015

  • McCurdy, David W., Dianna Shandey and James Spradley. Conflict and Conformity: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Fifteenth edition. Pearson , 2016.

Images Cited:

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