ANTH 1102 EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE
Anthropology is the study of humanity. Unlike all the other social sciences, in
anthropology we look at all facets of shared human behavior and biology. We are a
holistic field in that we want to know more about the whole of humanity. We do this by
comparing and contrasting peoples throughout the world. There is a wide diversity of
approaches and research questions in Anthropology. There are three things that unify
us a scholarly field: 1) shared concepts of culture, evolution, and environment; 2) history
of the field; 3) fieldwork.
Because anthropology is all-encompassing, we have three concepts that tie the field
together through shared topics and theoretical understandings to better explain why and
what humans are.
● Evolution is about human biological change. This scientific theory states that species
arise through a long, gradual process of genetic transformation. This frames our
questions about modern human biological variation and how species have changed over
time.
● The concept of culture is about shared human behaviors. It is society’s socially
transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions. People use culture now and in the past to
make sense of experience. Thus, it is reflected in behavior and in turn generates
behavior.
● We think about the human and environment relationship in terms of ecological
interconnectedness. This is the idea that we are shaped by our environments and in
turn shape the world in which we live. In this way we better understand modern
biological and cultural diversity as well as our biological and cultural origins.
The organization of anthropology
Culture, Evolution, and Environment tie us together as a field of scholarship, but
because humanity is too large and complicated for any one individual anthropologist, we
each focus on specific components of the field overall. There are four subfields of
anthropology that focus on particular parts of the human experience.
● Biological Anthropology is about asking questions about human biological diversity
and origins.
● Archaeological Anthropology is about research on the human cultural past and
thinking about how human behavior origins and change.
● Linguistic Anthropology looks to better understand the connection between human
language and shared cultures.
● Cultural Anthropology is about better understanding modern cultural behaviors and
beliefs.
Three reasons exist as to why these four subfields of anthropology are tied to together.
First, it is by the concepts, discussed above, that we all use to shape the research
questions we ask and share. . Second, it is because of the history of how anthropology
developed. The history of the field in the North America, was shaped by one individual,
Franz Boas (Franz Boas, Father of American Anthropology). He was German immigrant
with a Physics degree who was interested in the cultures of the Native Americans. His
first job with American Museum of Natural History allowed him to pursue his interests.
When he founded the first Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, his vision
of the field was to study all aspects of humanity and his goal was a unified four field
, approach. Third, it is about the shared experiences of fieldwork that all anthropologists
have, regardless of their subfield. Dr. Boas emphasized the importance of fieldwork to
collect data in all fields of anthropology. This is a personal in-depth approach to
collecting information directly from the object of anthropology research, people, material
culture, or related species. Doing fieldwork is how anthropologists collect their
information and the it's endeavor remains central to all anthropology.
People doing anthropology within all of the subfields see the purpose or goal of their
work in two different ways. First, sometimes the work they do is what we call academic
anthropology where they develop and ask important research questions about the
human condition. Academic research is approved by their peers and is funded by public
and private grants. This actually accounts for a only small number of anthropological
research that happens mostly in university and research institute workplaces. Most
anthropological work is instead about applying their anthropological knowledge and
methods to solve human problems and issues. They may work for governments helping
with public policy or interacting with different cultural groups. They might be an
anthropologist that works for a nongovernmental organization whose job is do research
on and in local migrant and indigenous groups throughout the world. Or, they may be an
anthropologist that works for a private corporation, whether in marketing, cultural
brokering, or cultural resource management. Anthropology is both about the scholarship
of better understanding humanity but is also about how we can help fix human concerns
of various types.
The field of anthropology is bound together by our research of humanity, shaped by the
concepts we use, the history we share, and by our techniques of data collection -
fieldwork. All anthropologists do fieldwork regardless of their subfield they are in.
Fieldwork is the on location research that they do for extended periods of time. It is the
primary source of all anthropological information and requires close personal
involvement by the anthropologist. It is always problem oriented, in that there is always a
research question. Research questions nearly always require a long periods of time to
collect the information to answer them, whether months or years. Lastly, even though
we often think of fieldwork as an individual effort it is nearly always a team effort in that
we all collaborate and work with other anthropologists, scientists, and the people we
study. Of course big differences in fieldwork techniques exist in terms of whether you
are doing archaeological research on peoples of the past or doing ethnographic
research on modern living peoples.
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection
There are two types of data collection, ethnography and archaeology, not necessarily
separated by subfield lines. When asking questions of the past and present they often
and do share these methods. Certainly cultural and linguistic anthropologists are more
likely to ask questions that require an ethnographic approach. Nevertheless, biological
anthropologists and some archaeologists use ethnographic techniques as part of their
research. Similarly, archaeologists and biological anthropologists are more likely to
archaeological methods, but cultural and linguistic anthropologists sometimes use these
methods as well if their questions require it.
, Ethnographic Methods
Ethnography is the fieldwork anthropologists do in, with, and about a living culture. The
goal of studying cultures is to make what seems strange to be familiar and what is
familiar to seem strange. Ethnographers find the normality in everything that other
peoples do differently as well as the differences and unusualness in our own cultural
ways.
We do this primarily through the technique of participant observation, in which we learn a
culture through social participation and personal observation over a long period of time. The
purpose of the participation observation is so that the anthropologist can gain both the emic
and etic perspectives of the society. The emic perspective is the internal local beliefs and
ideas. The etic perspective is the external perceptions of an outsider like the ethnographer.
Having both sides of the understanding allows for a more complete understanding of a
culture.
Ethnographers balance the emic and the etic through the use of cultural relativism.
Cultural relativism is the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s
beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own. It's about
not letting the etic shape how you interpret the emic. It's knowing that your outside
perspective, the etic, should not be used to give judgement or value to the local cultural
ways, the emic. It means having a conscious awareness of when your outside emic
perspective is giving you legitimate information about what a culture can't see about
themselves, and knowing when the emic perspective gives you the knowledge of cultural
ways that wouldn't see as an outsider.
Anthropologists do a lot of things to collect all of the possible cultural data:
● Conversations and interviews - talking both formally and informally with people. They
may have formal interviews and survey as well as informal daily conversations while
experiencing social interactions.
● Talk to key informants - people with specific knowledge about a culture or cultural way
● Gather life histories - collect a personal narrative of someone's life to get the context in
which culture is experienced
● Use genealogical methods - create kinship charts to gain the knowledge about kinship
organizations, descent, and marriage.
● Take field notes - this is the primary record of observation with detailed descriptions of
everything the ethnographer observes and experiences
Archaeological Methods and Techniques
Archaeological research is about collecting information on cultures and people of the
past. This means looking for information from what people have left behind, whether the
materials buried or the remains of their bodies. To find archaeological remains we have
to know where to look. So, it always starts with systematic survey to locate sites often
for later excavation. We also use the survey information to answer some questions as
well as to protect or describe the cultural resources. Once surveying and mapping has
told us where the archaeological materials are to answer our questions, we
systematically excavate the remains through careful removal of soil and remains. The
purpose of excavation is to recover and record the artifacts and cultural features. It’s
Anthropology is the study of humanity. Unlike all the other social sciences, in
anthropology we look at all facets of shared human behavior and biology. We are a
holistic field in that we want to know more about the whole of humanity. We do this by
comparing and contrasting peoples throughout the world. There is a wide diversity of
approaches and research questions in Anthropology. There are three things that unify
us a scholarly field: 1) shared concepts of culture, evolution, and environment; 2) history
of the field; 3) fieldwork.
Because anthropology is all-encompassing, we have three concepts that tie the field
together through shared topics and theoretical understandings to better explain why and
what humans are.
● Evolution is about human biological change. This scientific theory states that species
arise through a long, gradual process of genetic transformation. This frames our
questions about modern human biological variation and how species have changed over
time.
● The concept of culture is about shared human behaviors. It is society’s socially
transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions. People use culture now and in the past to
make sense of experience. Thus, it is reflected in behavior and in turn generates
behavior.
● We think about the human and environment relationship in terms of ecological
interconnectedness. This is the idea that we are shaped by our environments and in
turn shape the world in which we live. In this way we better understand modern
biological and cultural diversity as well as our biological and cultural origins.
The organization of anthropology
Culture, Evolution, and Environment tie us together as a field of scholarship, but
because humanity is too large and complicated for any one individual anthropologist, we
each focus on specific components of the field overall. There are four subfields of
anthropology that focus on particular parts of the human experience.
● Biological Anthropology is about asking questions about human biological diversity
and origins.
● Archaeological Anthropology is about research on the human cultural past and
thinking about how human behavior origins and change.
● Linguistic Anthropology looks to better understand the connection between human
language and shared cultures.
● Cultural Anthropology is about better understanding modern cultural behaviors and
beliefs.
Three reasons exist as to why these four subfields of anthropology are tied to together.
First, it is by the concepts, discussed above, that we all use to shape the research
questions we ask and share. . Second, it is because of the history of how anthropology
developed. The history of the field in the North America, was shaped by one individual,
Franz Boas (Franz Boas, Father of American Anthropology). He was German immigrant
with a Physics degree who was interested in the cultures of the Native Americans. His
first job with American Museum of Natural History allowed him to pursue his interests.
When he founded the first Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, his vision
of the field was to study all aspects of humanity and his goal was a unified four field
, approach. Third, it is about the shared experiences of fieldwork that all anthropologists
have, regardless of their subfield. Dr. Boas emphasized the importance of fieldwork to
collect data in all fields of anthropology. This is a personal in-depth approach to
collecting information directly from the object of anthropology research, people, material
culture, or related species. Doing fieldwork is how anthropologists collect their
information and the it's endeavor remains central to all anthropology.
People doing anthropology within all of the subfields see the purpose or goal of their
work in two different ways. First, sometimes the work they do is what we call academic
anthropology where they develop and ask important research questions about the
human condition. Academic research is approved by their peers and is funded by public
and private grants. This actually accounts for a only small number of anthropological
research that happens mostly in university and research institute workplaces. Most
anthropological work is instead about applying their anthropological knowledge and
methods to solve human problems and issues. They may work for governments helping
with public policy or interacting with different cultural groups. They might be an
anthropologist that works for a nongovernmental organization whose job is do research
on and in local migrant and indigenous groups throughout the world. Or, they may be an
anthropologist that works for a private corporation, whether in marketing, cultural
brokering, or cultural resource management. Anthropology is both about the scholarship
of better understanding humanity but is also about how we can help fix human concerns
of various types.
The field of anthropology is bound together by our research of humanity, shaped by the
concepts we use, the history we share, and by our techniques of data collection -
fieldwork. All anthropologists do fieldwork regardless of their subfield they are in.
Fieldwork is the on location research that they do for extended periods of time. It is the
primary source of all anthropological information and requires close personal
involvement by the anthropologist. It is always problem oriented, in that there is always a
research question. Research questions nearly always require a long periods of time to
collect the information to answer them, whether months or years. Lastly, even though
we often think of fieldwork as an individual effort it is nearly always a team effort in that
we all collaborate and work with other anthropologists, scientists, and the people we
study. Of course big differences in fieldwork techniques exist in terms of whether you
are doing archaeological research on peoples of the past or doing ethnographic
research on modern living peoples.
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection
There are two types of data collection, ethnography and archaeology, not necessarily
separated by subfield lines. When asking questions of the past and present they often
and do share these methods. Certainly cultural and linguistic anthropologists are more
likely to ask questions that require an ethnographic approach. Nevertheless, biological
anthropologists and some archaeologists use ethnographic techniques as part of their
research. Similarly, archaeologists and biological anthropologists are more likely to
archaeological methods, but cultural and linguistic anthropologists sometimes use these
methods as well if their questions require it.
, Ethnographic Methods
Ethnography is the fieldwork anthropologists do in, with, and about a living culture. The
goal of studying cultures is to make what seems strange to be familiar and what is
familiar to seem strange. Ethnographers find the normality in everything that other
peoples do differently as well as the differences and unusualness in our own cultural
ways.
We do this primarily through the technique of participant observation, in which we learn a
culture through social participation and personal observation over a long period of time. The
purpose of the participation observation is so that the anthropologist can gain both the emic
and etic perspectives of the society. The emic perspective is the internal local beliefs and
ideas. The etic perspective is the external perceptions of an outsider like the ethnographer.
Having both sides of the understanding allows for a more complete understanding of a
culture.
Ethnographers balance the emic and the etic through the use of cultural relativism.
Cultural relativism is the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s
beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own. It's about
not letting the etic shape how you interpret the emic. It's knowing that your outside
perspective, the etic, should not be used to give judgement or value to the local cultural
ways, the emic. It means having a conscious awareness of when your outside emic
perspective is giving you legitimate information about what a culture can't see about
themselves, and knowing when the emic perspective gives you the knowledge of cultural
ways that wouldn't see as an outsider.
Anthropologists do a lot of things to collect all of the possible cultural data:
● Conversations and interviews - talking both formally and informally with people. They
may have formal interviews and survey as well as informal daily conversations while
experiencing social interactions.
● Talk to key informants - people with specific knowledge about a culture or cultural way
● Gather life histories - collect a personal narrative of someone's life to get the context in
which culture is experienced
● Use genealogical methods - create kinship charts to gain the knowledge about kinship
organizations, descent, and marriage.
● Take field notes - this is the primary record of observation with detailed descriptions of
everything the ethnographer observes and experiences
Archaeological Methods and Techniques
Archaeological research is about collecting information on cultures and people of the
past. This means looking for information from what people have left behind, whether the
materials buried or the remains of their bodies. To find archaeological remains we have
to know where to look. So, it always starts with systematic survey to locate sites often
for later excavation. We also use the survey information to answer some questions as
well as to protect or describe the cultural resources. Once surveying and mapping has
told us where the archaeological materials are to answer our questions, we
systematically excavate the remains through careful removal of soil and remains. The
purpose of excavation is to recover and record the artifacts and cultural features. It’s
