Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology - Summary PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology - Summary PDF

Description

Intro to Anthropology Summary Cultural anthropology - Study of living people and their cultures, including variation and change What do anthropologists do? - anthropologists are trained scientists working in variety of field and settings - engage in interdisciplinary research - conduct ethnography o research method and product where the intent is to provide a detailed, in-depth description of everyday life and practice o often qualitative but sometimes uses mixed-methods o written/visual description of the culture they were in o work of discovering and describing a particular culture o learning from people What is anthropology? - Study of knowledge of man - Seeks to explain, conceptualize, and understand the variations among humans, socially, culturally, between social systems and relationships

What does it mean to be human? -

Big debate on whether anthropology is the study of humanity or humanistic science

Holistic perspective: - Approach that assumes any single aspect of culture is integrated within other aspects, so no single part of culture can be understood on its own Subfields in anthropology - Archaeology (study of old) o Study of human cultures through their material remains ▪ Artifacts and features o Prehistoric ▪ Human past w no written records o Historical ▪ Human past and society w written records o Underwater ▪ Submerged sites o Cultural resource management - Biological or physical anthropology o Diversity of human bodies in past or present o Relating physical traits to natural environment ▪ Paleoanthropology • Human evolution ▪ Primatology

▪

• Non-human primates Forensics • Biological anthropology in criminal cases

Linguistic o Study of communication ▪ Origins, history, contemporary variation and change • Historical o How language changes over time • Descriptive o How contemporary languages differ based on cultural differences • Sociolinguistics o Study of relationships, includes study of nonverbal communication - Cultural anthropology o Study of contemporary people and their cultures o Considers variations and similarities across cultures o First lesson: ▪ What may appear strange to you will appear normal to someone else o Other subfields ▪ Urban anthropology ▪ Medical anthropology • Social, cultural, bio, linguistic aspect of health and well-being • Studying body and how it is interpreted in different cultures ▪ Visual • Visual representation and how it varies ▪ Environmental anthropology ▪ Applied anthropology • Using anthropology to solve real life problems Employable skills - Communicating in a globalized world - Avoiding preconceptions and recognizing varied perspectives - Seeing the “big picture” - Data work - Working within and obtaining funding for structured budgets -

Culture, Ethnography, and Representations - Culture o Beliefs and behaviors of a society o Knowledge people use to generate and interpret social behavior o Culture consists of abstract ides, values, and perceptions of the world that inform and are reflected in people behaviors - Answers questions o How do we do things

o How do we make sense of the world o How do we tell right from wrong -

-

-

Characteristics of culture o Learned, shared and symbolic ▪ Mental (thinking) ▪ Behavioral (doing) ▪ Material (make) Culture is o produced o practiced o circulated o mobile o changing/shifting Kinds of Culture o Tacit culture ▪ Knowledge outside of our awareness ▪ Not coded in words ▪ Dress/age ▪ Gender/language ▪ Facial expressions o Explicit culture ▪ Makes up part of what we know ▪ Culture people are aware of ▪ Body language ▪ Sense of self ▪ Family practices ▪ Approaches to problem solving ▪ Values and fairness

-

Researching culture: ETHNOGTAPHY o Study of people with shared characteristics in their natural setting o Can be cultural, organizational, institutional o Consists of 2 methods ▪ Fieldwork • Process by which data is gathered • Can be from anywhere ▪ Written product o Learning from people, rather than studying them

-

Before ethnography o Voyages of discovery, the rise of colonialism and civilizing the other o Missionaries and saving the “savages” ▪ Exposing them to civilization and Christianity o Ideas of “primitive society” and the “noble savage”

-

Early Methods in Anthropology o Armchair anthropology ▪ Conducted research by never leaving officers ▪ Sat and read reports (from explorers) ▪ Never had experience with people they wrote about o Veranda anthropology ▪ Late 19th, early 20th ▪ Hired by colonialist government to study the people they were governing ▪ Travelled to colonized countries (Africa, India, Asia) • Lived near, but not with the people they were studying ▪ Never interacted with the people • They were just solely in the country ▪ Send for natives to have a translator ▪ Never knew what the life was like o Salvage anthropology ▪ Collect data ▪ Preserve language and culture within the tribes that were starting to disappear o Participant observation (Malinowski- father of modern anthropology) ▪ Living with a community ▪ Communicate in the local language ▪ Observe local cultural practices ▪ Participating in everyday life

-

Ethnography and Representation o Writing ethnography ▪ Representing one system of cultural knowledge to an audience belonging to another cultural tradition ▪ Translating other cultures in a way we can understand it o Naming those we study ▪ Subjects • People who are observed when experimental social or behavioral research is conducted ▪ Respondents • People who respond to survey questionnaires ▪ Informants/Participants • People who teach researchers about their culture, about their daily life • Inform about their cultural knowledge

Key Concepts in Cultural Anthropology - Ethnocentrism o Belief and feelings that one’s own culture is best o Reflects our tendency to judge other people’s beliefs and behavior using values of our own native culture - Cultural relativism o Idea that a particular culture should not be judged by the standards of another ▪ Cannibalism ▪ Polygamy ▪ Genital mutilation ▪ o Not all human customs or institutions contribute to a society’s well being o They should not be regarded as “okay” because it is “cultural” - Naïve realism o Unconscious belief that reality is the same for everybody regardless of their culture ▪ Example: beauty is the same for everyone - Culture shock o Form of anxiety that results from an inability to predict the behavior of others or to act appropriately in cross-cultural situation o Cross cultural misunderstand ▪ Occurs when people with different cultural knowledge attempt to communicate with each other o Chrismas in the Kalahari o Nice Girls Don’t Talk to Rastas Ecology, Environment, and Subsistence - Cultural ecology o Julian Steward ▪ Multilinear evolution • You’re environment is the direct influence for your culture ▪ Cultural ecology o Environments present possibilities and limitations that organisms must adapt to, this relationship is referred to as an: o Ecosystem ▪ A system or a functioning whole, composed of both the natural environment and all the organisms living within it - Cultural evolution o Culture change over time ▪ Populations evolve when individual organisms within the population are born with certain genetic mutations that are better adapted to their environment, and which enable them to thrive and reproduce - Cultures evolve when faced with environmental or other stressors o San bushmen culture must adapt to a changing world -

Subsistence o The foods a culture subsists on are tied to its ecosystem

o How do we support/feed ourselves? -

-

Modes of Subsistence o Food foraging societies ▪ Hunting, fishing, gathering of wild plant foods o Food producing societies ▪ Domestication of plants (cultivation) and animals (raising) Industrial Societies o Machines and tools instead of human labor ▪ Using steam, water, air oil, electricity and nuclear energy

-

Foraging o Based on resources that are available in nature through gathering, fishing, hunting or scavenging o Tend to have limited storage facilities ▪ Seek food as need arises o Live in temporary, semi-mobile camps o Have strong sharing ethic o Exhibit limited or no ownership of resources o Very few people still practice this form of livelihood ▪ Sustainable when there is no outside influences

-

Horticulture o Emerged in last several thousand years o Cultivation of domesticated crops in gardens using hand tools o Cherokee o Crop yields can be great and support denser populations than foraging ▪ Live in permanent or semi-permanent villages o Food that is produced is sufficient only for that community o Own domesticated animals but not only means of food o People ▪ Family forms the core work group ▪ Children work more in horticultural groups • Care for siblings • Fetch water • Hauling fuel o Gender roles clearly defined

-

Pastoralism o Existed in Europe, Africa, and Asia o Subsistence strategy based on the domestication of animal herds o Provide over 50% of groups diet ▪ (milk and cheese) o Trade w other groups for different kinds of food o Group must find good pasture o 2 kinds

▪

▪

-

-

-

-

seasonal transhumance • regular movement between different ecotones on a seasonal basis • the same routes and pastures are typically used every year nomadic pastoralism • constant and non-repetitive movements to areas of good grazing • very large areas where seasonal variations are less significant or unpredictable

o People ▪ Families are the basic unit of production ▪ Little overlap between male and female tasks ▪ Generally men herd ▪ Women process the herd’s products ▪ Children help in herding ▪ Strong value on mobility ▪ Social equality o Gender is important fact in what job each person does o Male and female tasks are distinct o Developed sustainable economies Agriculture o Intensive strategy of production o More labor, use of fertilizers, control of water supply, use of animals o Permanent settlements o Enormous amounts of food surpluses and feed more people o 3 types ▪ Family farming • Large families • More rigid class distinctions • Land rights can be bought or sold ▪ Plantation ▪ Industrial agriculture o Settled in permanent dwellings ▪ Accumulation of personal property ▪ Associated with private ownership of land o Social organizations ▪ Classes arise ▪ Growth of cities Extensive agriculture o Class and gender stratification o Human environmental relations ▪ Long-term environmental degradation Ecological Anthropology o Study of cultural adaptations to environments o Focus on how cultural beliefs and practices helped humans adapt to their environments o Focus on how people used elements of culture to maintain their ecosystems Environmental Anthropology

o An applied dimension built on the primary approaches within contemporary ecological anthropology o Early work focused on ways culture was related to specific environments o More contemporary work explores the relationship between nature and culture Case study: Oil in Ecuador - Chevron extracted oil from amazon rain forest - Indigenous communities argue that oil has devastated their forest, livelihoods and health - Indigenous organizations involved in 20+ litigation with oil companies over damages India Sues Monsanto for Biopiracy - Monsanto is agricultural biotech corp and leading producer of herbicides and GMO seeds - India farmers argue Monsanto stole their eggplant seeds to create GM versions - Farmers prohibited from saving seeds from GM version Mayan Empire destruction - Depleted Mayan resources - People thought it was because of warfare - Steady growth of population - Increase in agriculture - Destroyed landscape - Nutritional stress and disease

Economies and Exchange Relations Economic Systems - Production and allocation of material goods and services - Do not separate from other aspects of society o Highly integrated - Closely associated with political systems which are concerned with the allocation of power and authority - “a means of producing, distributing, and consuming goods” - Production o Raw materials turned into human (social/cultural) goods - Distribution o Moving goods/services from producers to users - Consumption o Using or consuming goods Economic Theory - Classic economic theory o Assumes that our wants are infinite and that our means are limited ▪ People must make choices about how to use their resources (time, labor, money and capital) o Maximize profit is the basic assumption o Combines 2 relationships ▪ Productive forces ▪ Social/technical relations of production - People respond to other motivations than profit: wealth, prestige, pleasure, comfort, or social harmony o More complex than basic theory - Anthropologists study how goods are produced, distributed and consumed in the context of the total culture of particular societies Means of Production (RESOURCES) - Land o Importance varies to method of production o Land is less important to a foraging economy than it is to a cultivating economy o All societies regulate allocation of valuable natural resouces ▪ Especially land and water o Food foragers ▪ Determine who hunts and gathers and where o Farmers ▪ Must have way of seeing who owns property, who can access water, and who can cultivate land o Pastoralists ▪ Require system that determines rights to watering places and grazing land o Western capitalist societies ▪ Private ownership of land and rights to natural resources o Technology resources

▪ Tools and other material equipment o Small nonindustrial societies ▪ Resources controlled by families ▪ Division of labor by age and gender ▪ Production takes place as it is required o Large postindustrial societies ▪ Much more complex division of labor ▪ Business/property owners ▪ Producers/consumers don’t know each other ▪ Use money - Labor tools and specialization o Technology can change the way land is used - Intensive agriculture/industrialism o Goods and services are produced through mass employment ▪ Formal economy • Currency • Wage based • Reported in some way o Taxes o Social security ▪ Informal economy • Getting paid under the table • Babysitting • Not officially registered • Sometimes illegal ▪ Underground economy • Illegal informal sector • Drug and human trafficking • Arms dealing • Prostitution Survival Economy - After disasters market economies return in order to give money to people to survive - Survival strategies - Haiti after earthquake Non-economic variable (Culture) - Economics cannot be interpreted without an understand of culture - Economics is not separate from social religious and political spheres o It is a social science - Yams in Trobriand Culture o Not produced for provisions o Men are expected to present yams to the relative of his daughters husband when she marries & again when death befalls a member of his family o A yam house is like a bank account, when full, a man is wealthy and powerful Currency doesn’t equal money

Vanuatu - Need money for three thing - Salt, soap, and Kerosene - Pays for school with bartering - Mode of subsistence o Mix of foraging and farming How are goods exchanged and refistributed? - Exchange o Transfer of good and services between individuals or groups o What is exchanged? ▪ Market economies • Money ▪ Non-market economies • Material goods • Symbolic goods • Labor • People (reduces humans to objects) - Modes of exchange o Reciprocity ▪ Exchange between social equals and occurs in three degrees • Generalized o Good are given without calculation of value o Don’t expect something in return o Common among foragers • Balanced o Exchange goods with expectation of something in return ▪ Friends helping you move Negative o Good are given with a calculation of their value o Expectation is when you get something back it’s going to be higher in value Most economies are not exclusively characterized by one mode of reciprocity US has all 3 •

-

Redistribution o Form of exchange in which goods flow into a central place where they are sorted, counted, and reallocated o Found in chiefdoms and industrial and non-industrialized states o In societies with a sufficient surplus to support some sort of government goods are gathered in storehouses controlled by a chief or some other type of leader

Motives in redistributing income - Leadership typically have 3 motives in redistribution

o Gain or maintain a position of superiority through a display of wealth and generosity o Assure those who support the leadership an adequate standard of living by providing them with desired goof o Establish alliances Potlach - Gift giving festival - Primary economic system practiced by indigenous populations o Pacific Northwest - Held in connection w events o Marriages - Results o Once interpreted as wasteful displays created by a mania for prestige o Works as a leveling mechanism ▪ Societal obligation compelling a family to distribute goods so that no one accumulates more wealth than anyone else Market Exchange - Define modern world - People bring goods and symbols of wealth for the purpose of exchange - Buying and selling of goods or services - Wide range of things that have been used as money Patterns of Labor - Every society has a division of labor by gender and age - Division by gender makes more efficient Consumption - Use of goods and services Consumerism - People demands are many and infinite - Means to satisfy that will never be sufficient - Drives colonialism and globalization

Reproduction & Kinship - Kinship o Set of relationships between different entities that share a genealogical origin (bio, cultural, historical) o Most basic principle for social organization o Someone kinship status determines their rights and obligations o Becomes important when living in a community that doesn’t provide care - Kinship constructed from set of categories o Can construct things like ▪ Wealth ▪ Property ▪ Inheritance ▪ Residence ▪ Identity ▪ Reproduction ▪ Alliances - Commonalities in all societies 1. Lengthy maturation period for children (raising kids) 2. Presence of some sort of marital bond that creates a relationship between two or more people 3. Division of labor by gender or age 4. Some form of prohibition about who you can marry and reproduce with - Functions of Kinship Groups o Vertical function ▪ Provides social continuity by binding together a number of successive generations ▪ Example • Collection of dancing • BATA o Horizontal function ▪ Solidify a society across a single generation typically through marriage • Maintain integrity of resources that cannot be divided without being destroyed • Providing work forces for tasks that require a labor pool larger than households can provide • Rallying support for purposes of self-defense or offensive attack • Example o King Sobhuza II ▪ King of Swaziland for 82 years ▪ Married to solidify power and unify different people ▪ Had over 200 children - Studying kinship systems o Kinship system is about who are kin and the expected behavior or kin - Based on 3 principles o Descent o Marriage

-

o Residence Formal Kinship Analysis o Finding out who was related to whom and in what way o Kinship diagram (pedigree) o Genealogy -

Females to the right *Indicate same generation on same line

-

Consanguineal kin o Relatives by blood Affinal kin o Relatives by marriage Lineal kin o Direct ancestors or descendants of a particular Ego Collateral kin o Composed of Ego’s siblings and their descendants o The siblings of lineal kin of ascending generations and their descendants as well

Principles of Kinship Descent and descent groups - Descent group o Kin-ordered social group with a membership in the direct line of descent from a teal or fictional common ancestor - Functions o Mechanism for inheriting property and political office o Provide aid and security to their members o Repositories of religious tradition, with gr...