ANTH 1013 Week 7 Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations and Chapter 7: Analysing Sociocultural Syst

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ANTH 1013Week 7 Chapter 6Anthropological
Explanationsand Chapter 7Analysing
Sociocultural Systems
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Steward in retrospect

• Cultural ecologist accused of environmental
  determinism
• Civilizations in Americas, Asia, Africa evolve in
  similar econiches,
• e.g., dry river valleys modified by irrigation
• Environmental determinism vs possibilism
• Too idealistic? some adaptations are mal-
• Steward and Whites environmental determinism on
  culture parallels Mead and Benedicts cultural
  determinism on personality (mid 20th century)
• Advocate of multilinear evolution

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Cultural Materialism Marvin Harris

• Based on neoevolutionism and cultural ecology
• Sociocultural systems divided into
• Infrastructure (technology, subsistence strategy)
• Structure (sociopolitical system)
• Superstructure (intangibles of culture, ideas)
• Infrastructure is prime determinant of other two
• Ignores social, political, religious beliefs?
• Technological determinism or possibilism?
• Downplays symbolism and language

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Harris Cultural Materialism Ahimsa

• Killing cows illegal in India
• Ghandi central fact of Hinduism is cow
  protection
• Vedic culture, 1800-800 BC, northern India
• Herds of cattle as wealth of chieftans
• Communal feasts of beef on special occasions
• Population grew, grazing lands plowed, forests
  shrank
• Cattle inefficient consumers of feed - compete w.
  people
• Brahman priests and rulers continued to eat beef
• Resentment and unrest by 600 BC
• Buddhism appears ca 500 BC - banned killing of
  animals
• Also Jainism against killing even bugs
• Brahmans co-opt Buddhist respect for life
  doctrine as Hindu practice of Ahimsa

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Harris Cultural Materialism Ahimsa (cont.)

• Materialist justification for Ahimsa
• Zebu cattle feed on scraps, no competition with
  people
• Zebus drought and disease resistant
• 12 year life as draft animals for plowing
• Cattle cheaper than tractors for small farms
• Produce milk
• Dung for fertilizer and fuel
• Zebus worth more alive than dead
• Case for practicality of Ahimsa based on
• cultural ecology (Steward)
• energy relationships (White)

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Marxist anthropology

• Modified Morgans unilineal scheme
• Tribal, Asiatic, feudal, capitalism, communism
• Materialist mode of production is prime
  determinant of social, political, religious life
• Believed class struggle unending
• Capitalists vs proletariat
• Social context exploitation of workers during
  Industrial Revolution

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Symbolic Anthropology

• Humanistic approach
• Argues cultural symbols can be independent of
  material factors, e.g., trucker hats
• Collect data on kinship, ritual, myth, values
• Interpret these from perspective of people
  studied
• Produce thick description to explain the
  internal logic of a culture for outsiders
• May neglect historical, political, materialist
  factors
• Symbolic determinism?

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Sociobiology

• Developed by E. O. Wilson, 1970s
• Focus on biological basis for social behaviour
• Assumes innate predispositions for behaviour a
  consequence of natural selection
• Predicts men are more promiscuous than women
• Limited of eggs vs unlimited of sperm
• 9 months 3 yrs breastfeeding per child
• Women naturally more selective of mates
• Inclusive fitness basis for family ties
• Protect kin, they protect you
• Kin selection causes nepotism
• Critics cite lack of biological basis in some kin
  categories
• Offensive to anthropologists who see
  enculturation as dominant in nature vs nurture
  debate
• Enculturation can override innate tendencies

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Feminist Anthropology

• Pre-WW II, Mead popularizes anthropology
• Redbook column
• First to focus on gender roles
• Questioned biological determinism re gender
  differences
• Male anthropologists tended to focus on male
  informants yielded biased ethnographies
• Womens Liberation movement in early 70s
• More female anthropologists
• Critiqued sociobiological theories of gender
  difference
• Downplayed biological and behavioural differences

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Postmodernism and Anthropology

• Question objectivity of ethnographers and
  validity of old field methods
• Demand ethnographers acknowledge their biases
• Formerly marginal cultures now in mainstream
• Access to education
• Internet
• Can tell their own stories, ethnographers
  redundant
• Impact on anthropology
• Self-reflection now common in ethnographies
• Team approach to ethnography predicted

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Chapter 7 Analysing Sociocultural Systems

• Introduction to ethnographic field methods
• Examine cultural universals and variables
• Subsistence and physical environment
• Demography
• Technology
• Economy
• Social structure
• Political organization
• Religion

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Ethnographic field methods

• Devise research design
• Identify research objectives
• Describe schedule, methods to be used
• Background studies
• Archival data (images, documents, maps, notes)
• Read published work on
• Anthropology
• Ecology
• History
• Economics
• Political science
• Obtain research permit from country of study

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Ethnographic research strategies

• Participant observation
• Learn language
• Stay at least a year
• Naturalistic observation
• Mapping anthropogenic features
• Dwellings
• Gardens
• Trails, roads
• Mappping environmental features
• Rivers, streams
• Topography, soil types
• Natural vegetation
• Climate
• Recording daily activities of people in community

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Ethnographic research strategies (cont.)

• Time-allocation analysis
• How many hours spent on different activities each
  day
• E.g. eating 2 hrs attending class 5 hrs
  reading 2 hrs writing 2 hrs physical
  recreation 2 hrs sleep 8 hrs
• Record for different age groups and genders
• Develop relationship with key informant
• Makes introductions, provides information and
  advice
• Unstructured interviews
• Spontaneous, open-ended conversations
• Avoid leading questions

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Ethnographic research strategies (cont.)

• Structured interviews
• Ask same questions to many people
• Cross-checking makes data more reliable
• Craft questions carefully for best results
• May submit questionnaire to random sample of pop.
• Etic perspective
• Gather quantitative data
• Outsiders perspective
• Emic perspective
• Qualitative data
• Insiders perspective

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Ethnographic research strategies (cont.)

• Take field notes
• Use waterproof paper and pencil
• Laptop with database program to help organize
  notes
• Tape recorders
• Still photographs
• Video cameras
• Risk getting performance not reality
• Useful for re-interpretation later
• Surviving culture shock
• Loneliness
• Anti-malarial medication can cause panic attacks
• Adopting diet of subjects can be challenging
• Consumption of drugs/alcohol, e.g., in Amazon

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Ethnographic research strategies (cont.)

• Ethics
• Must not let incriminating details get into wrong
  hands
• Can use pseudonyms to protect informants
• But this invites falsification of data
• Anthropologists have acted as spies (WW II)
• Must reveal motives to culture under study
• Not supposed to try to change culture under study
• Supposed to resist sexual involvement with
  subjects

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Ethnographic research strategies (cont.)

• Correlation is interaction of two variables
• Causal or spurious relationship?
• Independent variable affects dependent variable
• E.g., population increase causes increased
  warfare
• Interconnectedness of cultural variables makes
  assigning dependent or independent tricky
• Multidimensional approach needed
• Flows from holistic approach

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Cultural Universals and Variables 1.
Subsistence and Physical Environment

• Modern cultural ecology
• Humans adapt to environmental niches in biomes
• E.g., head of tide on river in temperate
  deciduous forest
• Subsistence patterns
• Develop as adaptations to biome parameters
• Foraging
• Horticulture
• Pastoralism
• Agriculture

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Cultural Universals and Variables 2. Demography

• Mainly quantitative data from censuses and
  surveys indicating population trends in society
• Three variables fertility, mortality, migration
• Fertility (number of births)
• Crude birth rate number of live births annually
  per 1000 people
• Mortality
• Crude death rate number of deaths annually per
  1000 people

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2. Demography (cont.)

• Migration rate
• In-migrants - out-migrants net migration
• Natural growth rate CBR-CDR
• Factor in net migration to determine total
  population change
• Other demographic variables
• Fecundity (potential of births based on women
  stats)
• Life expectancy
• Infant mortality rate ( of babies /1000 that die
  before 1)
• Child mortality rate ( of children /1000 that
  die before age 5)

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2. Demography (cont.)

• Push factors induce people to leave
• Drought, warfare, poverty
• Pull factors induce people to in-migrate
• Economic opportunity, religious tolerance
• Carrying capacity
• Maximum population that an environment can
  support
• Influenced by technology, e.g. food production
• Cultural values and practices affect demography
• Attitudes towards birth control vary

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Cultural Universals and Variables 3. Technology

• Broader meaning than in popular usage
• Tools and knowledge humans apply to solve
  practical problems like subsistence and shelter
• Material culture goods (e.g., scissors)
• Nonmaterial culture services (e.g., haircut)
• Role of technology in social change still debated
• For next week read Ch 6 7 TEST III