01/31/24
Terms and concepts to know
(Focusing on cultural anthropology)
- what people believe, say they believe, behavior shows of what they believe
- cultural anthropologists, they are in the present time. They are not trying to improve or
disapprove other theories
- when they’re new into the field they record kinship data
four fields of anthropology
1) cultural anthropology- how culture shapes the world around us
2) archaeology- study of material remains of historical communities. Find out what was
before by finding remains.
3) linguistic anthropology- study of language. History of major language groups, spread of
language groups over thousands of years which gives us a story of human migration,
contemporary languages, spread of English
4) physical or biological anthropology- bones and genetic material to show the evolution of
what then becomes the human specie
some schools include a fifth field
5) applied anthropology- application of anthropological methods and knowledge to solve
contemporary problems. Ex- setting up a clinic- best location, who will use it, why is that
the correct location
Ethnography= scientific description of the customs of individual people and cultures
Franz Boaz- Started the first academic department in anthropology in the US. Started the first
college level course and founded the first anthropology department in Columbia college.
Malinowski- was doing the same thing but in England
Culture- how can it be defined?
02/05/24
There are many different components of culture.
Culture= Some norms and ideas that are
1) shared
2) Communicated symbolically from generation to the next.
Communicated symbolically- lets symbols such as sound to a community of people have
meaning. Also communicating non verbally. Not only what we say but how we say it. Culture is
part of a complicated symbolic system that is learned, communicated symbolically, and
, communicated across generations symbolically. In order to have a unit of cultural symbolism it
needs to go on to generations.
3) beliefs and ideas subject to renegotiation- cultural ideas are never fixed. They are never
the same even across generations.
4) not necessarily shared by all people within a culture in the same way- not everybody
wishing a culture interprets the norms around them in the same way. Culture does not
make cookie cutter people; we all have the ability to think and act to the things going on
around us.
5) nature vs nurture
- Nature- morals you were born with , genetics we were born with
- nurture- what we are In terms of our environments that have symbolically communicated
to us of who we are and what we do. Ex- parents
6) Does not reflect actual behavior statistically but does get expressed in what people say
and do
what signifies culture
1) food- ingredients, where you eat, who eats first
2) morality and immorality- number of spouses
Relativism and universal human right-
- Ethnocentrism- perspective of using what we know about our own community and
society and culture to evaluate another culture.
- cultural relativism vs moral relativism
cultural relativism- does not mean anything that any culture does is a good idea it just means
not judging
- universal human rights
- overlapping cultures
- subcultures
cultural anthropology methods:
How do cultural anthropologist knows what they claim to know
1) uniqueness of cultural anthropology as opposed to other social sciences
2) holistic method
3) comparative approach
4) fieldwork- participant observation
Nacirema people-
- not found of the human body- thought it was ugly
- believed in a lot of rituals to fix their lives
Terms and concepts to know
(Focusing on cultural anthropology)
- what people believe, say they believe, behavior shows of what they believe
- cultural anthropologists, they are in the present time. They are not trying to improve or
disapprove other theories
- when they’re new into the field they record kinship data
four fields of anthropology
1) cultural anthropology- how culture shapes the world around us
2) archaeology- study of material remains of historical communities. Find out what was
before by finding remains.
3) linguistic anthropology- study of language. History of major language groups, spread of
language groups over thousands of years which gives us a story of human migration,
contemporary languages, spread of English
4) physical or biological anthropology- bones and genetic material to show the evolution of
what then becomes the human specie
some schools include a fifth field
5) applied anthropology- application of anthropological methods and knowledge to solve
contemporary problems. Ex- setting up a clinic- best location, who will use it, why is that
the correct location
Ethnography= scientific description of the customs of individual people and cultures
Franz Boaz- Started the first academic department in anthropology in the US. Started the first
college level course and founded the first anthropology department in Columbia college.
Malinowski- was doing the same thing but in England
Culture- how can it be defined?
02/05/24
There are many different components of culture.
Culture= Some norms and ideas that are
1) shared
2) Communicated symbolically from generation to the next.
Communicated symbolically- lets symbols such as sound to a community of people have
meaning. Also communicating non verbally. Not only what we say but how we say it. Culture is
part of a complicated symbolic system that is learned, communicated symbolically, and
, communicated across generations symbolically. In order to have a unit of cultural symbolism it
needs to go on to generations.
3) beliefs and ideas subject to renegotiation- cultural ideas are never fixed. They are never
the same even across generations.
4) not necessarily shared by all people within a culture in the same way- not everybody
wishing a culture interprets the norms around them in the same way. Culture does not
make cookie cutter people; we all have the ability to think and act to the things going on
around us.
5) nature vs nurture
- Nature- morals you were born with , genetics we were born with
- nurture- what we are In terms of our environments that have symbolically communicated
to us of who we are and what we do. Ex- parents
6) Does not reflect actual behavior statistically but does get expressed in what people say
and do
what signifies culture
1) food- ingredients, where you eat, who eats first
2) morality and immorality- number of spouses
Relativism and universal human right-
- Ethnocentrism- perspective of using what we know about our own community and
society and culture to evaluate another culture.
- cultural relativism vs moral relativism
cultural relativism- does not mean anything that any culture does is a good idea it just means
not judging
- universal human rights
- overlapping cultures
- subcultures
cultural anthropology methods:
How do cultural anthropologist knows what they claim to know
1) uniqueness of cultural anthropology as opposed to other social sciences
2) holistic method
3) comparative approach
4) fieldwork- participant observation
Nacirema people-
- not found of the human body- thought it was ugly
- believed in a lot of rituals to fix their lives
