Introduction to Anthropology

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Introduction to Anthropology
The Nature of Anthropology What is
Anthropology? Subfields of Anthropology Cultural
Anthropology Archaeology Linguistics Biological
Anthropology How is anthropology unique? It is
holistic It is comparative The perspective of
Cultural Relativism Should there be any
universal values?
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Etymology of Anthropology
Greek term anthropos meaning Man and logia
or logis, meaning science Literally the
study of Man (human species)
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Anthropology is the study of humans, both
ancient and modern
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Forms of Cultural and Biological Adaptation to
High Altitudes
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Subfields of Anthropology
Anthropology
Biological Anthropology
Archaeology
Cultural Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
Ethnographic Studies Ethnological Studies
including focus areas in Economics
Politics Gender Religion Play
Art Music Kinship Social
organization Healing arts Urban
studies Applied
Paleoanthropology Primatology Contemporary
Human Variation Applied
Prehistoric Archaeology Historical
Archaeology Cultural resource
management Ethnoarchaeology Experimental Applied
Historical Descriptive Sociolinguistics Ethnolingu
istics Applied
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Biological Anthropology
Paleoanthropology
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Louis Leakey displaying cast of fossil hominid
Skull from East Africa
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Biological Anthropology
Primatology
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Biological Anthropology Contemporary Human
Variation Genetics
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Archaeology Prehistoric Archaeology
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Archaeology Historical Archaeology
Plymouth Plantation Summer 1970
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Archaeology Cultural Resource Management
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Archaeology Ethnoarchaeology
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Archaeology Experimental
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnographic Studies
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnological
Studies Politics
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnological Studies Gender
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnological
Studies Religion
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnological Studies Art
and Music
Ankor wat
Angola Ivory figurine
Angola Art
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnological Studies Kinship
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Cultural Anthropology Ethnological Studies Social
Organization
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Cultural Anthropology Applied
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Students Select another of your introductory
level college courses and list three specific
ways that the subject matter of anthropology is
different from these disciplines and one way it
is the same. Compare and discuss your list with
that of a classmate
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How is Anthropology Unique?

• Anthropology is Holistic
• Anthropologists Do Fieldwork
• Anthropologists Focus on the Comparative Method
• The Perspective of Cultural Relativism
• Cultural Ethnocentrism
• Should There Be Any Universal Values?

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Anthropology is Holistic

• Holistic sees human behaviors as a complex set
  of interacting behaviors and ideas.
• Biological
• Perspective
• Cultural Perspective
• Broad Time Frame

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Example in Holism The Fore of New Guinea

• A group of about 14,000 horticulturalists living
  in New Guinea
• First contacted in the 1950s by the Australian
  government with a significant number of
  individuals found suffering from a particular
  illness.
• Symptoms include jerking and shaking movements
  which make planned motor activity difficult.
• Fore call it the kuru to tremble with fear
• A medical team was sent to deal with the problem
  and find a solution.
• it was an infectious agent passed from one person
  to the next.
• Was it contaminated water? Airborne? Sexual
  activity?
• The answer was solved by an anthropologists
  cannibalism!

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Fore Custom of Cannibalism

• It is customary of the Fore to eat the body as
  part of the funeral rituals.
• The body of the deceased was carried down to an
  abandoned field, where kin dismembered and cooked
  it.
• Close relatives then consumed the pieces.
• Cooking, therefore, does not destroy the
  parasite.
• They would enter the bloodstream via cuts on the
  individuals.
• Because women and children had lower social
  status, they were more likely to get the last
  portionsthe brainwhere the parasite usually is.

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How the Fore illustrates holism

• First, we begin with a medical problem, a disease
• Then we see how this fatal disease affects
  various aspects of the society because of the
  death of women of childbearing age.
• This includes marriage, the family, the raising
  of children, farming, and so forth.
• Also, we see that Fore society attempt to explain
  and deal with the disease through religion.
• A description of the kuru among the Fore as ONLY
  a medical problem fails to provide us with a
  complete understanding of that disease.

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Anthropologists Do Fieldwork

• Cultural Anthropology in the Field
• Archaeology in the Field
• Linguistics in the Field
• Biological Anthropology in the Field

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Anthropologists Focus on the Comparative Method

• The Comparative Method is Used in all Fields of
  Anthropology

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Cultural Ethnocentrism Makes value judgments when
describing aspects of another culture The
tendency to view ones own culture as best and to
judge the behavior and beliefs of culturally
different people by ones own standard The
Concept of Cultural Relativism The position that
the values and standards of cultures differ and
deserve respect. Aspects of a culture must be
viewed and evaluated from within the context of
that culture.
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These four approaches, when used in concert with
one another, give anthropology its unique
perspective