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Language and communication
Good things needed to be a good speaker-
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Confidence
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Clarity
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Understanding
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Influence
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Crisma
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Humility
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Entertaining
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Knowledge
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Volume control
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Grammar
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Ability to adjust
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Crowed control
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Engaging
Anthropological questions
“Language is a system if verbal and nonverbal symbols used to communicate”
What makes up what we hear-
Words: 7%, Tone of voice: 38%, Body language: 55%
3 anthropological questions
1. “How different are various languages of the world?”
2. Are some languages more developed or sophisticated or just more suitable for particular
activities?”
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3. “How and why do languages change?”
- Colossians 3:11
3 types of linguistics
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Historical linguistics (William jones, 1746-1794)
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Is the study of how languages develop and change over time and how different languages are
related to one another
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Descriptive linguistics
- Is the study of specific features of individual features of individual languages, such as pattern of
grammar and sounds
- Sociolinguistics
- A study of how language is used in society
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The sounds available in any particular language are known as phonemes
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Most phonemes are combined with other phonemes to create a metaphor, or word
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With their focus on language and culture in mutual interaction, sociolinguists are most interest
in change, contex, and culture
What's the best way to study a new language?
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Emerge yourself into the culture and know someone who knows it
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Listen to music
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Learn partial language first then emerge yourself
Language theories and anthropology
Structuralism
Ferdinand de Saussure (1865-1913):
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Swiss linguist, Father of modern linguistics, Proposes idea of structuralism
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Parole and language
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Parole: forms of speech
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Langue: underlying rules of language
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“Structuralism is a positivist theory that...teaches human biology, specifically brain structure
drives culture “
Noam Chomsky (1928-)
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Surface structure: similar to Saussure's parole
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Deep structure: similar to Saussure's langue
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“Language is not as regulated as we think, its biological”
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Mystery
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“There are universal rules"
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“Every language follows certain structures”
A new hypothesis
Edward Sapir (2884-1939) and Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941)
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The sapir-whorf hypothesis posits that language shapes people's perceptions, thoughts, and
views of reality
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In other words, culture is not just a reflection of language; culture changes language
Common human experience
Eugene Nida (1914-2011)
- Three common human experiences:
- Human reasoning
- Human experiences
- Symbolic frameworks
Social structure and social stratification
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Social structure- “ways people coordinate their lives”
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Social stratification- “organization of people into ranked groups”
Social stratification
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Re-cap- social stratification is the idea that people are divided into different hierarchies, where some are
deemed more important (have more power) than others.
Types:
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Social class
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Gender
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Ethnicity
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Age
“Elites” vs “Low Classes”
“Systems of social hierarchy not only have elites at the top, but they also have low classes, like slaves.
Slaves are to class systems what pariahs and untouchables are to ethnic groups and castes. .... slavery
existed in almost one-half the world's societies in the past century” (Hiebert 1983:291)
Max Weber and social stratification
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“Sociologist Max Weber identified three related areas of social stratification: wealth, or
economic status; power, or the ability to influence others; and prestige, or the social affirmation
and approval given to some members of society”
“Race, class, gender, religion, language, dialect, and citizenship are just a few important elements of
social structure that influence an individual's life chances” (75)
Race, Ethnicity, Caste
Definition of race
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“Race is a cultural category that divides the human race into subspecies based on supposed
biological differences...racial categories are described as neutral, scientific categories that simply
reflect real biological and genetic human difference, but this is not true”
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Bible word for race is nations, ethnic groups
Four political states
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Ban, tribe, kingdom, state
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Race as a “changing category”
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“Some European immigrant populations of the early twentieth century, such as jews and Irish,
were once not considered white. Later, as these groups assimilated culturally and as white
groups felt more threatened by newer immigrants from places such as Puerto Rico or China,
Jews and Irish to become white”
Definition of ethnicity
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While they disagree about the cause of ethnic identities, both primordialist and instrumentalist
views acknowledge that ethnic identities are expressed and maintained through
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Linguistic
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Cultural
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And social marker
Caste and class system
- A caste system- social stratification based on ascription or birth
- Birth alone determines one's Destiney
- There is little opportunity for social mobility
- A class system- social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement
- Even blood relatives may have different social standings
- Meritocracy- based on personal merit
“class... is a cultural category describing hoe proplr atr grouprf according to their positions with the
economy...inhsocieties in which classm is articularly fixed, anthropologists usred ther term caste. A caste
system assigns individuals tyo a posityion at birth and mobility brtween castes is restrictive"
Karl Marx and class (capitalism)
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He thinks capitalism is creating all the evil and different caste systems
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“He argued that all the special cultural differences between the classes- educational attainment,
religious practices crime rates, ways of looking at the world- were consequences of eco
One God, one humanity
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Acts 10:34-35
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Romans 2:11
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SOCIAL STATUS AND CULTURE
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Status- “position a person holds in a social structure”
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Institution- “a cluster of statues organized around a common focus”
RELATIVE VAUE
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Within every society, differences in age, race, ethnicity, and many other categoroies become
social statuses arranged in hierarchical systems. Yet social stratification is not a consequence of
difference alone; it forms around the ways those differences are given relative values in society
SOCIAL FORCES
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“Because social structure is ultimately invisible, it is difficult to interpret precisely the ways in
which an individual's experience is shaped by social forces that produce inequality”
Sex and gender:
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“sex refers to biological maleness or femaleness, known as sexual dysmorphism, usually given at
birth”
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“Gener describes what it means to be a male or female in a particular culture”
Gender status:
- Position in a social order related to gender identification
Gener role:
- Proper behavior and appearance for a particular gender
Gender socialization
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“Humans everywhere are taught how to ‘properly’ live as men and women...in their own
culture. The process of learning how to act according to the gender norms of society is called
gender socialization”
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Bible and sex
“5 Surprising things that the bible says about sex”
1. It's good
2. Husbands owe it to wives
3. Married couples should have it often
4. It's not just about the kids
5. it's not what makes you truly human
1) Its good
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The bible says the first husband and wife were: "both naked and were not ashamed”
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In the book of proverbs, the wise father instructs his son to: “rejoice in the wife of uour youth, a
lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always
in her love” (proverbs 5:18-19)
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Hebrews 13:4
2) Husbands owe it to wives
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Corinthians 7: 3-4
4) It's not just about the kids
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Genesis 2:24
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“Sex in the bible is first and foremost about intimate friendship. It is about cleaving to your God-
given other. It is about becoming “one flesh”. This Hebrew term implies more than, but not less
than, physical union. It means almost becoming one person. Sex is about pursuing physical,
emotional, sexual and ontological union. It is about submission, exploration, discovery, and
delight”
5) it's not what makes it truly human
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Jesus never had it. Nor did Jeremiah. Or john the Baptist. Or Elijah. Or the apostle Paul
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But then he said something very surprising to the modern reader. He said: “I wish that all were
as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (1
Corinthians 7:7)
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Sexuality and sexual abuse:
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Sexuality refers to the erotic domain pf life: sexual thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors...anthropologists study the many ways in which human sexuality is shaped by cultural
norms and values
Sexual socialization
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“cross-cultural understanding about sexual diversity, for example, provides a mirror for us to see
our own cultures. Instead of seeing our sexual culture as just normal or natural we can see how
even our most deeply help assumptions about what it means to be men and women, and what it
means to be sexual are shaped by culture”
Gilbert Herdt
“Sexual identity is an element of some sexual cultures, the intentional sense of having a sexual desire
around which your social identity is built”
- Rosaria Butterfield
- Sexual abuse is around the world
Sexual chromosomes
1) XY
Males have XY chromosomes
2) XX
Females have XX chromosomes
3) XO
Turner syndrome just has X chromosomes
4) XXX, XXY, XYY
Extra X or Y chromosomes
Sex and gender concepts
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Cisgender: identify with birth sex
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Transgender: not identify with birth sex
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Intersex: sexual chromosomes and external genitals don’t seem to line up
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Third gender: gender other than a man or a woman
Bakla:
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“Filipinos call the Bakla, a third gender. The Bakla is a separate status with a distinct place in the
social structure”
Subsistence
Stone age
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The paleolithic era is a period from around 3 million to around 12000 BC. The Mesolithic
and neolithic eras are a period from about 12000 BC to around 2000BC
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In short, the paleolithic era is when humans first invented stone tools, Mesolithic is the
age of hunting-gathers, and neolithic era is when humans started to farm
Stone age video
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Art: stationary/portable
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Hunting
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Native
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Protection/danger
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Ritual before hunt
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Fertility/prosperity
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Mixed perspectives/3D
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Hollow out bones (sophisticated)
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Spiritual
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Religious rituals
Genesis 4:17-22
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Living in caves in the bible
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Genesis 19-30
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Job 30:6
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Judges 6:2
Definition of subsistence
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The state or fact of subsisting
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The state or fact of existing
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The providing of sustenance to humans
“a subsistence strategy...is a culturally created means of securing food”
1. Foraging “Is a subsistence strategy based on gathering plants that grow wild in the
environment and hunting available animals”
Flexibility and much more
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“On the whole compared to other forms of production, foraging allows flexibility in the
secular; division of labor, allowing women and men to work cooperatively together”
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In 1966, Marshall Sahin's argued that the “original affluent society” were the hunter-
gathers
2. Horticulture “is a subsistence strategy in which people cultivate varieties of wild or
domesticated crops using relatively little technology”
Less flexibility and more inequality
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“Compared to many foraging societies, horticulturalists generally have less flexibility
between men's and women's roles, and larger community size owing to a more settled
lifestyle”
3. Pastoralism “is a subsistence strategy based on the use of domestic heard animals,
animals for a wide variety of purposes, such as transportation, trading, plowing meat
consumption, and dairy provision, and for making cultural artifacts from wool, hair, skin,
bone, and horns”
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4. Agriculture “is the subsistence system that requires constant and intensive use of
permanent fields for plant cultivation... techniques of intensification include the use of
the plow, irrigation, fertilization, mechanization, and the application of greater human
labor in increasingly specialized tasks”
Greater inequality
“In agricultural societies individua's no longer gave roughly equal access to productive
resources; because land is privately owned and may not be equally distributed there is potential
for extreme economic inequality”
Politics and power
Politics and society- each society, for better or worse, has its own political system
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“Politics refers to the distribution, understanding, and use of power and influence in social
groups”
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Psalm 33-12 “blessed is the nation whose god is the lord, the people whom he has chosen as his
heritage”
Political anthropology...
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Political anthropology is the “study power and authority and systems of organizing social life”
Power and authority
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“People exercise power when they influence or control the behavior of others...authority is the
right granted to exercise power”
Three types of power
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Coercive power- use of force whether it is legitimate or illegitimate
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Persuasive power- use of persuasion in words, relationships, and actions
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hegemonic power- use of dominant control and it is often the most powerful force for social
control
There are politics is culture, language, social structure, sex and gender, and subsistence
Political organization
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Elman service (1915-1996)
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Sociopolitical type economic type
Band foraging
Tribe horticulture, pastoralism
Chiefdom productive horticulture, pastoral nomadism,
agriculture
State
Band:
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The most ancient
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Smaller in number
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Related to one another
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Do similar labor
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Leadership is informal
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Egalitarian
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Conflict resolution is informal and relational
Tibe:
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Decentralized
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Hundreds and larger
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United by culture, language, or heritage
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Leadership based on unique qualities and informal
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Work together for common cause, ex-war
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Horticulture and pastoralism
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Conflict resolved through skilled negotiation
Chiefdom (kingdom):
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Inheritable office
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United by culture, language, and heritage
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Higher population concentration
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More division of labor and specialization
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Consolidate control through coercive measures ‘
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Formalized conflict resolution
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Relative permanent homestead
State:
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Highly centralized
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Authority rests with offices and institutions
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Highly specialized
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Formal rules and sanctions
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Social status based on economic status
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Grew out of new ideologies of human rights
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Relative permanent homestead
Inuit people video:
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Northern most people
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“eskimo"
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Eat fish, seal, and other fats
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One of the bravest and most extreme stories
Leadership
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“In many countries where a state system was imposed by a colonial power, the official
governmental system is a modern state even as many people at the local level continue to
operate according to persuasive leadership in a tribal system, an inheritable system of chiefs, or
even the consensus and context-dependent leadership of band systems”
Politics and the bible
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Matthew 12:15-22 (paying taxes to Caesar)
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Romans 13:1-7 (submit to the government)
How can you coordinate and partner with local governments to help those living in extreme poverty?
Marriage and family
Kinship:
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Marriage and family
Band and Trible societies
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Kinship is the basis of band and tribal societies. ... Kinship identity carries through all aspects of
life, of just family life
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Kinship connects with many other areas of life. Three of the most important are inheritance,
territory, and conflict resolution
It's not essential
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Some people even reject their given kinship identity, living without significant ties to their
families of origin
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“...north Americans (today) are more likely to emphasize individual identity over family identity”
Definition
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“Kin terms are the specific words used for different relatives in a particular culture and language.
Kin terms are cultural rather than biological categories” (Kottak)
Two approaches: near and far biology
Decent:
Two systems-
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Unilineal decent system (one line)
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Matrilineal------Dual ------ Patrilineal
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Cognatic decent system (bilateral, both parents side family)
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Bilateral Ambilineal
Definition:
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“Decent is a social rule that assigns identity to a person based on her ancestry”
Patrilineal:
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“Unilineal descent traces relatedness exclusively or predominantly through one parent.
Matrilineal:
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“The second major unilineal system is matrilineal descent, in which descent is traced through
the female line. In these families, names and inheritance are passed through the mother”
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Bilateral:
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“Most north Americans believe e in cognatic descent and rely on the rules of bilateral descent.
In the logic of this system, kinship is understood to exist equally through both the mothers and
father line”
Ambilineal:
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Ambilineal descet is a cognatic descent system in which individuals chose a lineage upon
adulthood
Marriage
Priorities
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“While western marriage priorities such as...other cultures woukd add financial security,
continuation of lineage by producing heirs, and political alliances to the highest priorities and
purposes of marriage”
Affinal vs. Consanguineal
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Affinal kin relatives are created through marriage and consanguineal kin are created through
blood
Cousin marriages
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Cross-cousin marriage
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Parallel-cousin marriage
Polygamy
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Polygyny (men having multiple wives)
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Polyandry (woman having multiple husbands)
Marriage gifts
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Bride service
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Bride wealth
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Dowry
“The nuclear family was a mistake” (David Brooks)
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“The people who suffer the most from the decline in family support are the vulnerable-
especially children. In 1960, roughly 5% of children were born to unmarried women. Now about
40% are. The pew research center reported that 11% of children lived apart from their father in
1960. In 2010, 27% did. now about half of American children will spend their childhood with
both biological parents”
Larry Elder
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“It was President Barack Obama who said, ‘we all know the statistics. That children who grow up
without a father are five times more likely to love in poverty and commit crime; nine times more
likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison”
Family forms
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“Family forms are adaptive; people innovate marriage practices child-rearing strategies, and
household arrangements that suit their geography, political conditions, and social organization.
The family forms of gods people shifted as Israel lived as a tribe, then a kingdom, then a
diaspora, and then a minority group within an empire”
Functions of the family in society
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The functional understanding of the family stresses the ways in which the family as a social
institution helps make society possible, as such, the family performs several important functions
Functions of the family
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The family structure provides practical and emotional support
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Aids in the social skills of children
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Provides family members with a sense of identity and belonging
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Religion and ritual
Clifford Geertz:
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religion- “a system if symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods
and motivations in men (and women) by formulation conceptions of a general order of existence
and clothing this conception with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations
seems uniquely realistic”
Religion can't be simply dismissed
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Gertz’s definition...does not make claims about whether or not something is true...the question
of whether one religion is true is an extremely important one, but is not one that can be
answered through ethnographic work
The fool says in his heart, “there is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one
who does good (Psalms 14:1)
Edward B. Taylor
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“Using the unilinear evolutionary approach popular of his time...Edward B. Tylor saw changes in
religious systems as providing a prototype for cultural change generally he believed that the
earliest and most primitive form of religion was animism”
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Animism, polytheism, monotheism, and atheism
Lewis Henry Morgan
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All societies move through stages of social evolution: savagery, barbarianism, and civilization
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Europeans are the most advanced civilization
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Justified European colonialization
Modernity and ethnocentrism
“The theory of unilinear cultural evolution however is not only incorrect but also ethnocentric because it
assumes all cultures of the word will follow a single path of ‘progress’ that leads toward the philosophy
and lifestyle of the European scientist who authored the theory”
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Functionalism and religion
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“Functionalist saw culture as a system if interlocking parts and asked how each part functioned
to contribute to the stability and growth of the whole, or meet individual social, psychological
and material needs. In terms of religion… they were studying how religious beliefs and practices
worked to stabilized or improve the culture as a whole”
Cultural materialism and religion
Marvin Harris-
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“Cultural materialism is a theoretical approach that emphasizes ways in which humans adapt to
the material conditions in which they live; it interprets religious behavior and beliefs in these
terms”
Cultural system and religion
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“When religion is viewed as a cultural system, anthropologists focus on how people use religion
to make sense of life, the universe, and everything”
Benefits of studying religion
Thinking through religious symbols
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#1 benefit of anthropological study of religion is that “we can learn to see that our symbols work
in similar ways to other people's symbols and that “the use of symbols is common to all people”
Connecting religious symbols and culture
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#2 benefit of anthropological study of religion is that it “can help us perceive and culture the
integration of religious symbols with other part and cultural life
Changing religious symbols and relevance
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#3 benefit of anthropology study of religion is that it can “help us understand how symbols and
practice change over time and across cultures”
Understanding common humanity
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#4 benefit of anthropological study of religion is that it can “help us to understand how all
religion reflect common humanity”
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Ephesians 6:10-12
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Rituals and religion
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“a ritual is any patterned, repeated, and predictable action. Secular rituals include a high school
graduation ceremony, a family dinner, pr singing the national anthem before a sporting event.
We might also put forms of greeting in the cate\gory of ritual”
Rites of intensification (type 1)
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“Rites of intensification are rituals in which elements of society, belief, values, or behaviors are
made more dramatic, intense, or real than in normal life”
Rights of affliction (type 2)
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“Rites of affliction are rituals directed at alleviating suffering or resolving a problem. A common
Hollywood version of a right of affliction may involve a mystical-looking person...who casts a
curse or performs a scripted ritual to make someone fall in love, bring fortune, or restore peace
between living and the dead”
Religion, ritual, and myth
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“a myth is any story with sacred significance. Using the word ‘myth’ to describe Christian
scripture m ay strike believers as dismissive or offensive, because ‘myth’ unpopular English usage
refers to fables or falsehoods.
Romans 1
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“Even while we have radically divergent beliefs about the details of the ‘really real’ common
patters of ritual, myth, and practice across cultures suggest that humans really are created to
seek after truth and ultimate meaning (as described in Rom. 1). Humans everywhere live in
communities bound together by moral orders, tell stories about how life began and what it
means, and gather together in observance of what we believe”
Beliefs and practices
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“even those who feel called to cross-cultural boundaries in sharing their faith need to
understand how symbols, myths, rituals, and other practices of religion work together to help
people believe. Communication meaningfully with others requires an understanding of ones
own beliefs and practices,. Being able to speak to the deep concerns in someone's life involves
an understanding of how the symbols and practices ovaries faiths seek to answer those
questions”
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Form and meaning
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In Christianity, the “gospel of God” Romans 1:1) is the central meaning of all we think and do,
and all other believes and practices are secondary and fall under form
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Making this distinction of form and meaning clear, Paul writes: “Christ did not send me to
baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the power of the
cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17).
Globalization
Introduction: OECD
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The organization for economic corporation and development (OECD) is an intergovernmental
economic organization with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic
progress and world trade
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The overall consolidated OECD budget for 2019 comes to EUR 386 million
Definition
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Globalization is the integration of local, regional and/or national production, exchange, and
culture into a global system
Social change
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“In the early 1990s, anthropologist James Watson was not surprised to see western-based
restaurants such as McDonalds the hard rock café and chilis appearing in Hong Kong, what
surprised him were young children telling their parents what they wanted to order or even
explaining to their grandparents how to choose among the unfamiliar offerings”
Mcdonalization
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George Ritzer
The role of culture
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Cultural influences flow from one place to another through the movement of people, products,
services, and images
Theories in globalization
1. Modernization theory
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- Modernization theory is that everything will get better
2. Dependence theory
- Andre Gunder Frank
- Many states become dependent on the states giving them resources
- Countries are free but still underdeveloped
3. World-system theory
- Globalization of nations placed in the core, semi-periphery, and periphery of an interconnected
global economy
- Core: most rich
- Periphery: poor
- Semi-periphery: the in between
- “Immanuel Wallerstein suggested, core nations benefit tremendously while other nations are
virtually destined to remain excluded from economic growth”
Extractive vs. Inclusive
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“Extractive- aimed at excluding the majority of society from the process of political decision
making and income distribution and inclusive- aimed at including the widest possible strata of
society in economic and political life”
Theories in cultural anthropology
Definition- “a theory is a formal description of some phenomenon in the world that explains how that
thing works”
Positivism- “seeking universal, nomothetic explanations based on empirical evidence”
K. Popper- “some scientist, such as Karl Popper, posit falsification as the principle of science: that is,
scientific theories cannot be proven, only falsified”
t. Kuhn- “Thomas Kuhn, who wrote structure of scientific revolution (1962), argues that ‘theories are not
falsified but replaced” (Peridium shift- old idea to a new idea)
Three “white” men
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Karl Marx (1818-1883)
“Complex" theory- “German philosopher and historian Karl Marx constructed a complex theory to
explain and predict the development of all human societies”
His quotes:
- “Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed”
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- “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart if a heartless world, and the souk of
soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”
- “The philosophers have only interpreted the word in various ways; the point, however, is to
change it”
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Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Modern secularism- “for both Marx and Durkheim, phenomena sch as religion and the arts are products
of underlying social or material causes, not reflections of spiritual to mystical causes”
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Max Weber (2864-1920)
“Max Weber unlike Durkheim and Marx, who sought to reduce social analysis to single variables , weber
believed a multivariate approach was the best”
Boaz's theory
Idiographic -- >nomothetic
Current anthropology
From modernity to post-modernity-
Modern age
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Production
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Community
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Social class
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Family
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Continuity
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A role of educating
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A one-way media
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One nation
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Science aided progress and finding the truth
Postmodern age
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Consumotion
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The individual
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Identity from other sources
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Families (many options)
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Breakage with the past/tradition
Symbolism
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“Symbolic anthropology...views culture as a system if symbols that people create, alter, and
share with each other”
Feminism
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“In this way, feminist was among the first to argue that anthropological research itself is always
positioned, meaning that the identity, background, and experiences of the researcher are
relevant to conclusions and analysis being made”
Perspectivism
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“Perspectivism states that knowledge is generated by a knower who is positioned in a particular
place and time, and therefore reflects a specific and limited perspective
Sherry Ortner
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“in the new theoretical approaches...No longer rested in the modernist belief that human reason
and scientific method alone could lead to adequate understandings of the world”
Form and meaning
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“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom,
lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power”-1 Corinthians 1:17
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Mark 8:34-38
Applied cultural anthropology
Everyday life-
it's about people
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“Anthropology is fundamentally about people how they see the world and why they do
what they do”
Understanding cultural relativism
•
“Cultural relativism the anthropological term that people's ideas and behaviors make
sense when viewed from their culture's perspective- benefits virtually evert occupation,
calling, or context”
lOMoARcPSD| 26658602
Ministry-
Subcultures
•
“Moreover, many ministries involve connecting with subcultures groups within a larger
culture that define themselves for are defined by others in opposition to or in distinction
from the majority”
Developing skills and abilities
•
“It is not enough for Christians to be well intentioned when working to build bridges
between culturally diverse believers. In the absence of skills and abilities, good
intentions often wither because of frustration and failure “
Christian leaders
•
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) writes the cost of discipleship in 1937
•
The cost of discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and
ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of
a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian
humanism and a creative sense of civic duty”
Great commission-
•
A global mission
•
“Today most Christians live outside Europe or North America and speak a language
other than English”
•
Robert Wuthnow- “churches of northern or western countries northern or wealthier
with greater educational, publishing, and media resources, and have a far stronger role
in the theological, discussions than do the churches of the Global South”
Edification, partnership, and unity
•
“Students of anthropology can use their knowledge and perspective to bless the church
as a whole. Understanding the nature of language, the cultural construction of concepts
such as gender and race, the material and ecological reasons for cultural practices, and
the processes of cultural change will enhance the ability of people across the global
church to have mutually edifying interactions”
#1 contextualization
•
Anthropology in mission work focuses largely on cross-cultural communication and the
translation of the gospel. Contextualization along with companion terms such as
indigenization, inculturation, and accommodation, refers to fitting the gospel with the
language, idioms, and customs and traditions of a culture so that Christianity becomes
organically woven in with the context”
lOMoARcPSD| 26658602
#2 indigenization
•
The question for missionary anthropologist was not whether the gospel would be part of
culture, but wholes culture it would be part of. Melanesian Christians, for instance, could
not become ‘just Christians.” If they reject rejected their ow cultural context as un-
Christian, the simply ended up with a foreign, often American culture in its place”
#3 Incarnational ministry
•
“Only when we enter anthropologically, he (Pual Hiebert) argued, can we love humans in
other cultures as people- to see them as human being like ourselves”
Short-term missions
•
“At the same time, these trips can be confusing and frustrating. Having had just a glipse
of another Christian community, many come back wondering how to make sense of
what they saw. Worse yet, after two weeks in another culture, short-term missionaries
may think they have a very clear understanding of that place”
