anthropology overview

anthropology

ANTHROPOLOGY• study of the lives and

cultures of human beings, alive or dead.

• collect information by participating and living with humans in their cultural surroundings.

• culture (what people eat, how they dress, how they parent, their religious ceremonies, etc.)

Study of the human species and its origins and the development of its language and culture.

FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS• HOW WAS HUMAN CULTURE

DEVELOPED?• WHAT SYMBOLS DO CULTURES SHARE?• HOW DID HUMANS LEARN TO

MANIPULATE THE ENVIRONMENT?• HOW WAS LANGUAGE ESTABLISHED?

physical

cultural

archaeology

linguistic

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

• EVOLUTION• GENETIC INHERITANCE• HUMAN

ADAPTABILITY/VARIATION• APES (PRIMATOLOGY)• FOSSIL RECORD

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY• CULTURE• ETHNOCENTRISM• COMMUNICATION• FAMILY/KINSHIP• SEX/MARRIAGE• CULTURAL CHANGE

• SOCIAL CONTROL• POLITICAL ORG• CLASS• ETHNICITY• GENDER• RELIGION

WHAT IS CULTURE? YOU SAID…DISTINGUISHES ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE FROM ANOTHERCULTURES ARE SEPARATEDCULTURE BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHERTHINGS YOU ARE TOLD BY YOUR PARENTS, MYTHSWAY OF LIFETRAITS FROM ONE CULTURE WILL DIVERGE WITH ANOTHER CULTURE IS TAUGHTNATIONALITY (TRADITIONS, CELEBRATIONS) VS YOUR WAY OF LIFE WHERE YOU LIVELANGUAGES, FOODS, VALUES, RITES OF PASSAGE, RELIGIONACCEPTING CERTAIN STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOURCULTURAL WAYS CAN BE CHANGED EVERYONE IS DEFINED BY A CULTUREDEFINES US AS HUMAN BEINGSPROVIDES AN IDENTITYWHY DOESN’T EVERYONE KNOW HOW TO RESPECT OTHER CULTURES?SPECIFIC TIME AND PLACE

ARCHAEOLOGY• EARLY HISTORY OF CULTURES• CULTURAL EVOLUTION• EXCAVATIONS, DATING,

ANALYZING MATERIAL OF PAST SOCIETIES

LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

• STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGE INFLUENCES SOCIAL LIFE

• DOCUMENT ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

• document endangered languages

ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

DIFFUSION

DIFFUSION - EXAMPLES

AFTER YOUR GROUP DISCUSSION, SUBMIT A BRIEF PARAGRAPH IN WHICH YOU EXPLAIN:• YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CULTURAL DIFFUSION• YOUR EXAMPLE OF CULTURAL DIFFUSION

Diffusion - Seo Taiji & Boys

Seo Taiji and Cypress Hill

KOREAN WAVE

Girls' Generation 소녀시대 THE BOYS 

ACCULTURATION

ACCULTURATION

HOW DOES CULTURE CHANGE?

DIFFUSION

assimilation integrationACCULTURATION

Spread of a cultural trait from one society to

another through social contact

beliefs

values

traditions

PROCESS OF CONTACT, EXPOSURE, EXCHANGE OF

IDEAS – RESULTS IN ADAPTATIONS/ CHANGES

TO BOTH GROUPS

Become similar

May be reciprocal but usually

asymmetrical

DIFFUSION OR ACCULTURATION?

ASSIMILATION AND INTEGRATION

• ASSIMILATION: ADAPTING TO THE NEW CULTURE• INTEGRATION: PARTICIPATING SOCIALLY TO BE CONSIDERED AN EQUAL

ASSIMILATION AND INTEGRATION

LANGUAGE

How would you ask to go to the washroom in:• America?• Britain?• Australia?

How are you (literally) changing the English language?

FUNCTIONALISMSOMETIMES CALLED STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

It is based on the simple premise that human social life is a response to the practical problems of earthly existence.... Cultural materialism, with its emphasis upon the encounter between womb and belly and earth and water, also opposes numerous strategies that set forth from words, ideas, high moral values, and aesthetic and religious beliefs to understand the everyday events of ordinary human life.

-Marvin Harris

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POPULAR CULTURE

Anthropologists study rites of passage as a way of understanding a culture’s beliefs and values – elaborate ceremonies that signal progress from one status to another

“BABIES” (2009)

Using evidence from the movie, compose a one-page (single space) response to one of the following questions:1. To what extent does this documentary illustrate how all human beings are fundamentally the same, yet our physical and cultural environment shapes us from the moment we emerge from the womb?2. To what extent does this documentary shift perspective on our general belief that “the way we do things is the only way to do things”?