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Introducing Cultural Anthropology

Roberta Edwards Lenkeit

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Anthropology: What Are Its Subfields and Perspectives?

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What Do Anthropologists Study?

The Subfields of Anthropology– Cultural Anthropology– Archaeology– Linguistics– Biological Anthropology

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The four fields of Anthropology

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Cultural Anthropology

Ethnography: The descriptive study of one culture, subculture, or microculture based on fieldwork.

Ethnology: The comparative study of cultures; it presents analytical generalizations about human culture.

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Archaeology

Archaeology is the systematic study of the remains of previous cultures as a means of reconstructing the lifeways of people who lived in the past.

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Archaeology

The areas of focus in archaeology include: Prehistoric Archaeology

– Artifacts– Ecofacts

Historical Archaeology Cultural Resource Management Experimental Archaeology Applied Archaeology

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Linguistics

Linguistics is the study of language; research areas include:

Descriptive Linguistics Historical Linguistics Ethnolinguistics Sociolinguistics

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Biological Anthropology

Biological anthropology, also called Physical anthropology, studies Homo sapiens as biological beings both in the present and in the past.

Paleoanthropology Primatology Contemporary Human Variation Forensic Anthropology

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How Anthropology Is 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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©2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Anthropology is Holistic

Holistic– Biological Perspective– Cultural Perspective– Broad Time Frame

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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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The Perspective of Cultural Relativism

Cultural Relativism Ethnocentrism

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Should There Be Any Universal Values?

Arguments FOR Arguments AGAINST

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The Scientific Approach in Anthropology

Scientific Method Postmodernism in Anthropology—A

Humanistic View

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Summary

Anthropology is the study of humans throughout the world spanning the last 4 million years.

It is a holistic discipline. Anthropologists seek to explain human cultural

behavior using the scientific method. Anthropologists include a humanistic perspective.