Cultural Anthropology

What is it?

Anthropology

Comparative study

of human societies

and cultures

Anthropology – comparative study of human societies and cultures

What do we eat What do we wear What shelter do we use How do we determine rights and

responsibilities? How do we live together? What is meaningful to us?

Anthropology – comparative study of human societies and cultures

In an effort to understand who we are, anthropologists strive to understand the variety in humanity by comparing similarities and differences.

Anthropology – comparative study of human societies and cultures

Anthropology is holistic –

seeks to understand human beings as whole organisms

who adapt to their environment through a complex interaction of biology and culture

How?

What do anthropologists study?

Subfields of Anthropology

CulturalLinguisticArchaeologyPhysical

Cultural Anthropology

Study of human thought, meaning and behavior that is learned and typical of groups

Cultural Anthropology

What are the origins of shared behavior in a group?

How does behavior differ from group to group?

Does behavior or belief system change over time?

Are there general principles of similarity? Have power and coercion in interactions

with others played a role in change?

Cultural Anthropology

How do we look for answers to these questions? Ethnohistory- description of cultural past

based on written records, interviews, and excavation

Subfields of Anthropology

Cultural

LinguisticArchaeologyPhysical

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of language and how it is related to culture

Linguistic Anthropology

Language is the tool we use to communicate To pass on learned behavior

Linguistic Anthropology

Human speech is more complex and more extensively used than in other animals

Linguistic Anthropology

Vocabulary indicates what is important to a culture

Linguistic Anthropology

Historical linguists study how languages are related to each other Indication of the history of the people

Subfields of Anthropology

CulturalLinguistic

ArchaeologyPhysical

Archaeology

Study of past cultures through material remains

Archaeology

Often studies prehistoric societies— Societies that have no written records

Archaeology

Reconstructs behavior from artifacts Artifact – any object made, used, or altered

by humans

Subfields of Anthropology

CulturalLinguisticArchaeology

Physical

Physical Anthropology

Study of humankind from a biological perspective

Physical Anthropology

Cultural and physical adaptations allow us to survive in many habitats

Physical Anthropology

Studies processes involved in adaptation and evolution Origins of humanity in the fossil record Human variation – physiological

differences in modern human groups Primatology – the biology and behavior of

other primates may give us ideas about how early humans lived

Subfields of Anthropology

CulturalLinguisticArchaeologyPhysical

Applied

Anthro

How do our perceptions affect the study of other cultures?

Ethnocentrism

The notion that one’s own culture is superior to any other

Judging other cultures by our culture’s standards

Ethnocentrism

This is the glue that holds a society together Sticking with people who agree with your

beliefs reinforces your world view This is why it is hard to blend into a new

place: which aspects of old culture to keep and which aspect of new to adopt

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism gets dangerous when political, economic, technological differences between groups give one group power to exclude another group from basic rights and freedoms.

Ethnocentrism

This is when we look for physical differences that make a person’s group affiliation seem easy to identify

Ethnocentrism

This is when we look for physical differences that make a person’s group affiliation seem easy to identify

But each trait varies in ways that make it impossible to draw a clear line

Ethnocentrism

Therefore race is a cultural construct No group of humans has been isolated

from others long enough to make it different

Ethnocentrism

Since each anthropologist comes from the perspective of his/her own culture We must be careful not to engage in

ethnocentrism We must recognize our own culture as one

way of living among many We must strive to understand other

cultures on their own terms

Cultural Relativism

People’s values and customs must be understood in terms of their own culture.

Emic vs. Etic

Emic approach – seeks to understand culture from the inside Learn to think and

act as a native Use concepts and

structures meaningful to the culture under study

Emic vs. Etic

Etic approach – seeks to explain behavior using rules and structures that can be used to compare to other cultures but may not be meaningful to the culture under study

Cultural Anthropology

How is this meaningful to you?