The Four Forces of Evolution

Chapter 1: The Essence of Anthropology

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, having fully read it and reviewed the central themes, students should be able to:

1. Explain what anthropology is.

2. Discuss what makes anthropology unique as a discipline.

3. State why the four field approach in anthropology is necessary and important.

4. Understand that boundaries between anthropological fields are often porous and/or blurred.

5. Provide an example of how applied anthropology is integrated into each of the four fields.

6. Identify the areas of research that are important to physical anthropologists.

7. Explain why the understandings of historic and prehistoric cultures and human populations are important in archaeology.

8. Discuss what makes up the field of linguistic anthropology.

9. Describe the field of cultural anthropology and some of the key ways these anthropologists collect data.

10. List the differences between ethnography and ethnology.

11. Understand how anthropology is both a humanistic and scientific discipline.

12. Identify the common fieldwork methods associated with archaeology and paleontology.

13. Identify the ways of doing ethnographic fieldwork.

14. Understand common ethical dilemmas that anthropologists confront in their research.

15. Explain some of the key ways that globalization has affected how anthropologists conduct their research, who anthropologists study and learn from, and why anthropology is relevant in the contemporary world.

Detailed Chapter Outline

I. CHALLENGE ISSUE AND STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

II. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

A. “The study of humankind in all times and places”

B. A discipline that focuses on interconnections, relationships, and interdependencies in all aspects of the human experience

C. Anthropology has several unique aspects, including:

a. A broad holistic perspective

b. Reflexivity, or the anthropologist maintaining an awareness of their own cultural background and how this might shape their research

c. Avoidance of culture-bound theories

III. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ITS FIELDS

A. There are four main fields of anthropology:

a. Cultural Anthropology

b. Linguistic Anthropology

c. Archaeology

d. Physical Anthropology

B. Cross-cutting subfields

a. While there are four main subfields in anthropology, many contemporary problems anthropologists address incorporate components of one or more anthropological subfields

b. A classic example of cross-cutting anthropological subfields is work conducted in medical anthropology

C. Each subfield may be characterized by Applied Anthropology, which is:

a. The application of anthropological knowledge, skills, and data to address real-world problems

b. One of the earliest applications of anthropology was Medical anthropology

D. Cultural Anthropology focuses on:

a. How we use and define ‘culture’

b. Ethnography based on fieldwork as participant observation

c. Ethnology

d. Applied Cultural Anthropology

E. Linguistic Anthropology focuses on:

a. Language and Beliefs through linguistic relativity

b. Sociolinguistics through discourse and the socialization process

c. Historical Linguistics which studies linguistic changes over time

d. Applied Linguistic Anthropology

F. Archaeology focuses on:

a. Historical Archaeology

b. Bioarchaeology

c. Contemporary Archaeology

d. Applied Archaeology

e. Cultural resource management

G. Physical Anthropology focuses on:

a. Paleoanthropology

b. Primatology

c. Human growth, adaptation, and variation

d. Forensic anthropology

IV. ANTHROPOLOGY, SCIENCE, AND THE HUMANITIES

A. Anthropology as a discipline collects qualitative and quantitative data

a. Anthropology is both a scientific and humanistic discipline

B. Anthropology is characterized as an empirical social science and is based on:

a. Imagination and skepticism

b. Formulating hypotheses

c. Constructing theories to explain how things “work”

V. FIELDWORK:

A. Includes immersion of the anthropologist to the data at its fullest

B. Is characteristic of all the anthropological subdiciplines

C. Establishes validity of research conclusions through replication by others

D. Requires researcher to step out of his or her cultural comfort zone

E. Is rewarding

VI. FIELD METHODS

A. Archaeological and paleoanthropological methods focus on:

a. Artifacts and Fossils

b. Sites location through survey techniques, aerial photographs, soil

marks, middens, etc.

c. Excavation and analysis using a grid system and datum point

d. Dating Methods known as relative dating and absolute dating

B. Ethnographic Methods focus on:

a. Location of material and physical remains for archaeologists and

paleoanthropologists

b. Preparation for fieldwork by studying theoretical, historical,

ethnographic and other research relevant to the research problem

d. Different field techniques that include the use key consultants, informal and formal interviews, and eliciting devices

e. Preparation of the ethnography

VII. ANTHROPOLOGY’S COMPARATIVE METHOD

A. A key benefit of anthropology is being able to take various ethnographies and conduct cross-cultural comparisons

a. This is a hallmark of anthropology

B. This process allows us to:

a. Discover certain cultural universals

b. Find out whether a given practice or event occurs anywhere else

c. Refute a previously held theory

C. A key resource for cross-cultural comparison is the Human Relations Area Files

VIII. QUESTIONS OF ETHICS

A. There are a number of significant moral issues that must be considered when doing anthropology

B. Anthropological ethics grapples with questions related to:

a. Who will utilize the findings and for what purpose?

b. Who decides the research questions to be asked?

c. Who might profit from the work?

d. What changes should, or should not, be introduced to the study community?

C. Anthropological ethics involve the consideration of:

a. Informed consent

b. The American Anthropological Association Code of Ethics

c. Effects that the research may have on the long-term interests of the study community

IX. ANTHROPOLOGY AND GLOBALIZATION

A. The processes of globalization have significantly altered the way anthropologists conduct research and the way we think about the communities we work with

B. Anthropology in a world of globalization now has to ask questions similar to:

d. How has globalization changed the way anthropologists conduct their work?

e. How are the non-Western cultures that anthropologists have historically worked with being impacted by globalization?

f. Does globalization make all cultures around the world more similar to Western culture?

g. Are processes like free-trade helping the world’s poor?

h. How might globalization affect both the nation and the state?

X. CHAPTER CHECKLIST AND QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

Key Terms

Absolute Dating or Chronometric Dating

Anthropology

Applied Anthropology

Archaeology

Artifact

Bioarchaeology

Biocultural

Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Resource Management

Culture

Culture-bound

Datum Point

Discourse

Doctrine

Eliciting Devices

Empirical

Ethnocentrism

Ethnography

Ethnology

Fieldwork

Forensic Anthropology

Formal Interview

Fossil

Globalization

Grid System

Historical Archaeology

Holistic Perspective

Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)

Hypothesis

Informal Interview

Informed Consent

Key Consultants

Linguistic Anthropology

Material Culture

Medical Anthropology

Midden

Molecular Anthropology

Paleoanthropology

Participant Observation

Physical Anthropology

Primatology

Relative Dating

Soil Marks

Theory