Anthropology 1-10-12 "the study of humanity" In American traditions, anthropology is divided into four fields (also called the Four-Field Approach) 1. Archaeology "study of the archaic" (societies and human cultures of the past) 2. Biological/Physical Anthropology human genome/DNA, human evolution, primatology, forensics 3. Linguistic Anthropology language, child acquisition of language, language and culture, cognition and language, comparative linguists 4. Cultural Anthropology contemporary cultures/societies, use the "comparative method" Culture system of meaning embedded in symbols Ethnocentrism belief one's own culture is superior to other cultures Cultural relativism practice of suspending own cultural biases to better understand another culture Incommensurability this refers to the fact that some features of one culture may be very difficult for people from another culture to comprehend 1-17-12 Characteristics of culture 1. Culture and culture symbols are arbitrary (no universal definition) 2. Cultures change over time/cultures are not static 3. Cultures are artificial (invented/not natural/not innate) 4. Cultures are learned/shared 5. All cultures involve some aspect of inequality Ethnocentrism own culture is superior Cultural relativism practice of suspending culture biases to understand another culture - a research tool not guideline not moral absolute Etic an outsider's perspective of culture Emic an insider's perspective of culture Participant-observation ("field work") the method used by cultural anthropologists Ethnography publication of an anthropologist's research findings Incommensurability hard for one culture to understand another culture Holistic perspective anthropologists seek to understand how the different perspective of society create a "whole" culture Napoleon Chagron (video) - Yanomano History of Anthropology During the middle age, (medieval period, 500-1500 AD) - most large scale societies believed that their social system was divine China and Vietnam "the mandate (will) of the Heaven" India and parts of southeast Asia "the mandata" - ruler seen as a man of god to recreate heaven on earth - the mandata recreate heaven on earth Middle East Will of God (Alah) Europe "the Divine Right of kings" Between the 1500s & 1800s - the old feudal ideology that king's rule by divine will is increasingly challenged In the 1800s, the social sciences emerge as a new approach to explaining the nature of society Those social scientists interested in western society became identified as "sociologists" Those who were primarily interested in how western societies were identified as "anthropologists" or "ethnologists" Sarah Boartman big butt Khoi khoi or Khoi san Brought to Europe from S. Africa and she is displayed to the public for a price in both London and Paris *Georges Cuvier leading biologists in 1815
Paid money to observe her; Sarah was less than woman In 1815, Sarah Boartman examined in Paris by leading scientists of the day including Georges Cuvier "closer to apes than human being" Geology British geologist Charles Leyell Bishop Lightfoot - 1644 he claimed to have figured the date of the earth is creation using geneaologies from the bible - "Earth created on sep 17 3928 BC @ 9 am" said Bishop Lightfoot Bishop Usher 1658 claimed earth created Oct 26 4004 BC Charles Lyell - "principles of geology pub 1830" claims earth is 500,000 years old - Study of stratigraphy used by Lyell
Lyell helps Darwin acquire a position as "naturalist on the beagle" More than 25 years after his voyage on the Beagle, Darwin publishes "on the origin of species" in 1859 Darwin's "biological theories of evolution and natural selection would be taken up by sociologists and anthropologists and used in ways that were not intended by Darwin 1-24-12 Characteristics of culture (continue from last lecture) 6. Culture is like a "meta-language" every gesture, every object, every action carries meaning - super language - ie. Hair color, skin color, car driven, clothes you wear, carry meaning 7. Culture operates at the tacit, unspoken, unconscious level - not thinking about it just do it - you been "inculturated" - ie. When learning to drive a car aware of everything eventually becomes 2nd nature Darwin 1895: on the origins of species - species could mutate to adapt to A in environment given time - ideas are misused by scholars after him - social scientists adapted ideas to sociological or anthropological concerns bad b/c ideas are for BIO - Herbert Spencer, british sociologist - use Darwin's notions in "Principles of Sociology" (1876) - social variation due to survival of the fittest - At time: Britain controlled vast territories - Claimed it was "natural" more evolved, superior, more fit, etc. of all groups - People with wealth + power were "fit" against programs for the poor less evolved than those at top of society - Social Darwinism - social inequality is a natural consequence of human evolution - Lewis Henry Morgan, American Anthro
- 1877 "Ancient Society" - Theory of unilineal evolution African, Native Americans Savage Asian, M.E. Barbarian White Europeans/Eur Am Civilized - Human progress rank all societies of the world - Perspective is racist civilized were anglo-saxons ie. claims westernized writing system is superior (weapons, politics, tech, industrialization, etc) - Edward Burnett Tyler, Scottish Anthro - 1871 "primitive culture" - ranked less evolved to more evolved by religion - unilinealist Aninism (spirits association with nature) Polytheism (many gods) Monotheism - continued claims b/w religions w/ categories - Monotheism: 1. Protestant, 2. Catholics, 3. Jews/Muslims Subjective he is protestant, theory did not make sense because if ranked Jews Muslim would be most monotheistic - Polytheism Hinduism, Buddhism - Animism Native American, African American - reflection of theorists biases, instead of FACT 1870s and 1880s: social scientists claimed Europeans more evolved than others stated as scientific fact Franz Boas, German-born Jewish decent - Studies physics - researching While in artic, interacts with Eskimos (Inuit) - Learns they are just as civilized as Europeans against everything he grew up with - finds in US, most American scientists claim Anglo-American superior to non-Angloimmigrants - 1896: publishes "On The Growth of Children" - Children who immigrates to US - Heads of non Anglo children were smaller than Anglo - claimed skull size diff were due to nutrition, not race - idea not received well by scientific comm.. - researched with Kwakiotyl, Bella Colla, Salish Pacific NW - promoted "multi-lineal" progress - each society had own "genius" - no one superior - each society developed on across own path - 4 fields approach developed to fight unlinealism 1. Archaeology study past societies to show all cultures evolved in their own way over time 2. Physical/Bio to show there are no significant diff. b/w races - Craniometry 3. Linguistics to show all societies use complex lang. 4. Cultural to show all societies have complex, fully evolved cultures and no society in living in "stone age" - A.R. Radcliff Brown - studied in Andaman Islands - 1922: "Andaman Islanders" - Perspective known as "structural functionalism" - States structures of society function together to maintain itself - Bronislaw Malinowski
- 1922: "The Argonauts of the Pacific" - Trobrian Islanders - "stuck" for almost 2 years during WWI (chose to be there instead of going to internment camp) - Malinowski promotes perspective: "functionalism" - function of society is to meet the needs of the individual (microperspective of society) - Credited w/ inventing "participant-observation" method - but he wasn't the first, there were some before him he didn't choose to study long term got stuck Subsistence - refers to how people meet their economic needs - some general subsistence patterns: (but not all) 1. Hunter and gatherer 2. Horticulture 3. Pastoralism 4. Intensive Agriculture 5. Industrialism 1-31-12 Hunter and gatherer (foraging) the oldest human subsistence pattern Thomas Hobbes 1651 "Leviathan" (people need strong ruler) He claimed that people are naturally selfish & greedy & brutish (violent), (brutis-murder, like in Julius Caesar) therefore needs strong leader; centralized authority/gov - Hobbes claimed people need strong ruler/authority to control violent, selfish behavior - H&G do not usually have political leaders, Westerners assume that these societies must have high levels or violence Adam Smith (1777) writes book called "Wealth of Nations" people are greedy and selfinterested - humans have unlimited wants but "good" is limited, therefore people become competitive for available good For Adam Smith, the solution to human competition and self interest was to give them a market system where they would compete for goods in a "fair" way. Smith suggests that w/o free market system, people will tend to use violence to meet their wants - H&G do not have any type of market system - H&G have no ruler, yet the homicide level seems to be as higher than that in the US !Kung (the san, the dobe, the Ju/Hoansi) Band organization no political head - elders have respect and influence, but no authority to force you to follow advice/will Kalahari Desert, home to several H&G groups in S> Africa - work 3-4 hours a day, 20 hours a week - Food is shared by bands both within and between, no "real" owner of food In !Kung society men bring in about 30% of food by hunting. Women, children, elderly produced 70% of the food primarily gathering plant food "Insulting the meat" men forbid to brag about his kill; if hunter brags, no one eats it. Hunters have to be modest about the kill (self-deprocating) "Sharing the arrows" arrow are owned by non-hunters but may be used by hunters (non-hunter whose arrows used get some credit) maintaining egalitarian, equality. Social equality, male hunter not seen as superior
In 1970s many H&G groups in S. Africa were forced onto reservation by govt. lands given to farmer, which destroys way of life Video !kung Why does Sahlins claim H&G are affluent 1. few needs/wants and easily Sahins work at 20 hours/week 2. resources are shared-owned by band 3. no relative poverty much more egalitarian than the west 4. violence homicide is no higher among H&G than in US Horticulture small-scale farming; ex. yanomamo, trobriander islanders Both use Swidden agriculture or slash and burn farming Trobrianders grow yams to be given as prestige gifts! Not eaten yams grown by own family. Big yams given to chief, "the bigger the yam, the bigger the man" Yam only grown by men = symbol of masculinity, male sexuality Yam only grown in male's garden, other foods are grown in female's garden Most of the yams a man grows will be given to his sisters husband as a sign of respect Every adult, married trobriand man has a yam house; pelpe can see how respected you are via yam house Pasotralist societies keep herd animals idle east, central asia and N. Africa Russia and Scandinavia Hebrews in bible were pastoralists The MASAI & NUER are active pastoralists Intensive Agriculture production of surplus of crops - Began @ 10000-12000 years ago - Associated with formation of cities/urban culture Earliest known sites of intensive agriculture - Mesopotamia - Indus River Valley - Yellow River Valley - Nile River Intensive agriculture is associated with empire building Middle east and European empires wheat East and S. East Asia rice Aztec maize/corn Inca potatoes Industrialism most recent-emerged in early 1800s; first in England Mass production of goods and services sold in a market economy Charlie Chaplin vid. Against industrialism - gone nuts "Time-disciple" TP Thompson Farm life- life was oriented around seasons and natural cycles Factory life- time disciplined - organized by the clock Factory hours were often longer than farm hours, much abuse occurred in factories - due to enclosures; many peasants moved to cities to find work
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as industrialism progress, wages went down, crime levels up Religious reformers urge factories to give more hours (so no crime in street) rebellion, civil unrests