Anthropology Midterm PDF

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Anthropology midterm study guide...

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Anthropology Midterm ✮✮✮ FIVE FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY - Linguistic Anthropology: Looks at how language affects social life. - Physical/Biological Anthropology: The study of the past and present evolution of the human species and human diversity. - Archaeology: Studying cultural paths through excavation. - Cultural Anthropology: Looks at how culture shapes the way people live. - Applied Anthropology: Use of knowledge to analyze social, political, and economic problems to develop solutions. ‘ANTHROPOLOGY AS HOLISTIC’ CONCEPT - One cannot understand human beings without understanding the full range of the human phenomenon. This is why there are different subsets of anthropology. - Holistic refers to thinking of ‘the whole picture’. PARTICIPANT-OBSERVATION - A technique of field research, used in anthropology and sociology, by which an investigator (referred to as a participant observer) studies the life of a group by sharing in its activities. - Fernea and Ghosh (Fernea more than Ghosh) - Focus on everyday life/participation and immersion/reflection and reflexivity/representation APPROACHES TO CULTURE ● Unilinear evolution theory: a 19th-century social theory about the evolution of societies and cultures. It was composed of many competing theories by various anthropologists and sociologists, who believed that Western culture is the contemporary pinnacle of social evolution. - Lewis H. Morgan: pyramid (savagery, barbarism, civilization) - This theory was important as it supported their conviction that materialistic factors—economical and technological—are decisive in shaping the fate of humanity. ● Ethnography/Ethnology - Ethnography: Designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study. - Ethnology: The study of the characteristics of various peoples and the differences and relationships between them.

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Ethnology is the systematic collection, comparison, and contrast of ethnographies. So ethnography is specific, ethnology is generic. Historical Particularism (Franz Boas) - Suggests all cultures have their own historical trajectory and that each culture developed according to this history. - The problem with the social-evolutionary perspective, according to Boas, was that this led us to believe that Western European countries should be the model for what culture should look like. This led to ignoring the particularities of different cultures. Malinowski - Structural Functionalism: A sociological theory that attempts to explain why society functions the way it does by focusing on the relationships between the various social institutions that make up society. - Scientific Method - Immersion; isolating self from ‘irrelevant others’ - Rigid approach - lacks fluidity that understanding a wide range of cultures would need - Contribution: Malinowski made his greatest contribution as an ethnographer. He emphasized the importance of studying social behavior and social relations in their concrete cultural contexts through participant-observation. He considered it crucial to consider the observable differences between norms and action; between what people say they do and what they actually do. Geertz - Thick description, culture as text - A ‘thick description’ results from a scientific observation of any particular human behavior that describes not just the behavior, but its context as well, so that the behavior can be better understood by an outsider. - NOT scientific method - Focus should be on meaning - “Culture is public” - CONTRIBUTION: Culture, according to Geertz, is “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.” The function of culture is to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable. Fernea - Becomes incredibly immersed into the culture, takes on the abaya, tries to fit in with women. Ghosh - Limits involvement in culture — how isolated he is becomes tangible. - Ties past with present

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‘DIRT IS MATTER OUT OF PLACE’ ● Mary Douglas saw dirt as ‘matter out of place’ not because dirt simply is matter out of place, in some essential or definitional sense, but because she tended to align herself with an hierarchical view of the world. - ‘You don’t belong here’ — illegal immigrants/refugees - This helps us understand culture as if one views ‘dirt’ as being out of place, they are objectifying where ● Examples from readings - Fernea in El Nahra - Ghosh investigating the papers/slave’s journey SYMBOLS ● The meaning of a symbol is not inherent in the symbol itself. Rather, it is culturally learned. Whatever definition or meaning of symbols one arrives at, it is important to point out that they are much more than elements of an ancient, esoteric language but rather the basis for all human culture and knowledge. - From Ghosh and Fernea: - Ghosh: Pig (viewed as sacred in culture; dead pig prompted revolt) - Fernea: Abaya (woman’s desire and mission to protect themselves) ABU-LUGHOD ● Reification of cultural difference - It is often claimed, for example, that the concept of culture is a reification, since we have a tendency to think of "a culture" as a completed object, a "thing" we can "touch and feel", which all members of the culture share - rather than a complex aggregate of processes, which different people participate in, to a greater or lesser extent. When we reify, we do not see the details, because they are overshadowed by the whole. We think, e.g. of "Norway" as if it were one thing, while in reality it is a near-infinite agglomeration of people, projects, actions, expressions and objects, in constant movement and conflict, within a landscape which is neither homogeneous, stable or geographically bounded. ● Modern/Traditional (problem with) - To regard one culture as modern and another as traditional is problematic as there truly is no ‘neutral’ society to act as a medium for comparison. All cultures are different in their own ways. Ethnocentrism is often present, i.e. saying US is modern compared to the traditional India. But then it could be argued India is more modern than Sudan? ● Relativism: Being accepting of all cultures/peoples without judgement. - Abu-Lughod notes that it is impossible, but USeans should be more open-minded to women who cover themselves. ● Ethnocentrism: The act of believing that all other countries/peoples are inferior in a sense — utilizing one’s homeland as a basis for comparison.

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Present in Abu-Lughod’s argument as she argues that USeans tend to hold too much, especially with covered women. ● Cultural Imperialism: The act of ‘overthrowing’ one’s culture and establishing foreign values (i.e. religion) - The U.S. trying to get Muslim women to uncover themselves, but they won’t. ● Veiling (contrast with Fernea’s depiction): - Abu-Lughod targets the common misconceptions USeans hold about veiled women and Islam much better than Fernea, who realizes that these women are women too by the end of her journey, but in her defense knew nothing about the Middle East. Both authors call for a deeper understanding of Muslim culture, but Abu-Lughod’s text is much more straightforward in argument. Given that Iraq is a new environment to Fernea and she has abandoned her homeland to be there, she is expected to feel more displeased than Abu-Lughod. FERNEA ● Approach - Deep immersion/ethnocentrism present to feel understandable to USean reader ● Paths to personhood - Rejection of culture → Semi-acceptance (rolling with it for Bob) → Anger/frustration (‘illiterate tribal ladies’) → Acceptance with reservations and ethnocentrism present ● Time(s) - Ritual/Polychronic in a sense ● Ritual(s) - Kraya - Wedding - Pilgrimage ● Marriage (patrilateral parallel cousin) - Marriage was often kept ‘in’ families to maintain purity/not tarnish name - Through father’s side (preferential to male heritage) GHOSH ● Approach - Immersion but restraint in order to keep anthropologist perspective present - Investigative through past and present ● Social production of knowledge ● Globalization(s) ● Slavery (Medieval/Contemporary) - Medieval slavery was often looked as a way for one to enter the real world and get more legitimate jobs whereas now, we only think of it as extremely

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detrimental and belittling, given its context in USean history. ● Power (types, historical contexts of) ● Time(s) ● Marriage (matrilineal/Nair) - Historically, Nairs lived in large family units called tharavads that housed descendants of one common female ancestor. These family units along with their unusual marriage customs, which are no longer practiced, have been much studied. Tharavads consisting of 50 to 80 members were not uncommon and some with membership as high as 200 have been reported. GENERAL ● Kinship: - Why study it? - In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies. Kinship relationships can determine everything from the physical structures familial or clusters live in to the type and size of food utensils. - Aspects of social life it can shed light on include…social role, social status, rights and duties, who to marry/not marry, inheritance/property. ● Descent: - Patrilineal: Based on relationship to the father/descent through the male line. - Matrilineal: Based on relationship to the mother/descent through the female line. - Differences: Which side/how much importance is granted to this side - Matrilineal was prevalent in cases where men came from all over (travelers) - Similarities: Familial/‘own blood’ - Furthermore, she argues, men’s roles are actually more

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constricted than women’s roles, and that women have significant decision-making within such organization. The modern American imprisonment of a large percentage of the black male population means that many children do not have as much contact with fathers and other male relatives.

● Marriage: - Endogamy: in the family/community/clan - Exogamy: out of the family/community/clan TIME (be sure to give examples from Fernea, Ghosh, films/clips) ● Chrono-community: Use of time to organize human bodies to highest productivity. - Cast Away ● Monochronic time:

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Some cultures are traditionally monochronic. In such a culture, time is thought of as being linear. People are expected to do one thing at a time, and they will not tolerate lateness or interruptions. Polychronic time: - Polychronic cultures have a much less formal perception of time. They are not ruled by precise calendars and schedules. Rather, "cultures that use the polychronic time system often schedule multiple appointments simultaneously so keeping on schedule is an impossibility. Messianic time: Transporting past into present — merging of temporal worlds. Ritual time: Time out of time. - Drunk at a wedding, religious feasts. Clock and calendar time: Unilinear, progressive, “EMPTY” Time and Personhood - Lifestyle can influence how a person operates/what they prioritize/personality Time as a social property - How are understanding and experiences of time constituted and shaped? - What are the social and political implications of different concepts and practices of time?

COLONIALISM ● Definition: The practice of acquiring full/partial political control over another country. ● Political economy: - "International political economy" is a branch of economics that is concerned with international trade and finance, and state policies that affect international trade such as monetary and fiscal policy. Others, especially anthropologists, sociologists, and geographers, use "political economy" to refer to neo-Marxian approaches to development and underdevelopment set forth ● Census, map, museum — how do they consolidate/bolster colonial authority? - Census: Labels/Groupings - Map: Territorial Regions (do borders exist?) - Museum: Artifacts/Representation GLOBALISM ● Definition: The operation or planning of economic and foreign policy on a global basis. - Globalization refers to the increase or decline in the degree of globalism. ● Characteristics: - Social (pertains to human interaction within cultural communities, encompassing topics like family, religion, work and education) - Political (refers to the growth of the worldwide political system, both in size and complexity) - Economic (refers to the free movement of goods, capital, services, technology and

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information. It is the increasing economic integration and interdependence of national, regional, and local economies across the world through an intensification of cross-border movement of goods, services, technologies and capital) - Geographic (main component, theoretically - refers to intensified geographical movements across national borders of commodities, people seeking employment, money and capital investment, knowledge, cultural values, and environmental pollutants.) - Cultural (Expansion of set of ideals — ex. Westernization/Americanization) Contemporary Globalism: The final wave of globalization, and is characterized by the acceleration and intensification of the technological, cultural, religious, economic and political integration. Globalism in medieval Indian Ocean trade Global Imaginary: The consciousness of belonging to a global community – a consciousness that has emerged in recent decades with the rapid rise of communication technologies and the decline of nation-based political ideologies. Hybridity: The dissolution of rigid cultural boundaries between groups hitherto perceived as separate, the intermixture of various identities, in effect the dissolution of identities themselves....