Chapter 1: Antrhopology; Comparison and Context
Social and cultural anthropology has the whole of human society as its area of interest, and tries to
understand the ways in which human lives are unique, but also the sense in which we are all similar.
Anthropology tries to account for the social and cultural variation in the world, but a crucial part of
the anthropological project also consists in conceptualising and understanding similarities between
social systems and human relationships.
Claude Lévi-strauss (1908-2009): ‘Anthropology has humanity as its object of research, but
unlike the other human sciences, it tries to grasp its object through its most diverse
manifestations’
Connecting within societies and connecting between societies.
Accounting for the interrelationships between different aspects of human existence, and usually
investigate these interrelationships taking as their point of departure a detailed study of local life in a
particular society or a more or less clearly delineated social environment.
An outline of the subject
Anthropology = ‘anthropos’ and ‘logos’ = ‘human’ and ‘reason’ = reason about humans = knowledge
about humans.
Social anthropology: knowledge about humans in societies, knowledge about cultivated humans;
knowledge about those aspects of humanity which are not natural, but which are related to that
which is acquired.
Every human is equally cultural, however people have acquired different abilities, notions, etc., and
are thereby different because of culture.
Culture can refer both to basic similarities and to systematic differences between humans.
Culture refers to the acquired, cognitive and symbolic aspects of existence, whereas society refers to
the social organisation of human life, patterns of interaction and power relationships.
The universal and the particular
Michael Carithers: ‘If each discipline can be said to have a central problem, then the central problem
of anthropology is the diversity of human social life’.
Structural-functionalism: all societies operate according to the same general principles
Structuralism: the human mind has a common architecture expressed through myrth, kinship
and other cultural phenomena
Transactionalism: the logic of human action is the same everywhere
Materialist approaches: culture and society are determined by ecological and/or
technological factors
The problem of Ethnocentrism
In order to pass judgement on the quality of life in a foreign society we must first try to understand
that society from the inside; otherwise our judgement has a limited intellectual interest. What is
conceived of as ‘the good life’ in the society in which we live may not appear attractive at all form a
different vantage-point.
The principle of cultural relativism in anthropology is a methodological one; it is indispensable for the
investigation and comparison of societies without relating them to a usually irrelevant
developmental scale/ but this does not imply that there is no difference between right and wrong.
Social and cultural anthropology has the whole of human society as its area of interest, and tries to
understand the ways in which human lives are unique, but also the sense in which we are all similar.
Anthropology tries to account for the social and cultural variation in the world, but a crucial part of
the anthropological project also consists in conceptualising and understanding similarities between
social systems and human relationships.
Claude Lévi-strauss (1908-2009): ‘Anthropology has humanity as its object of research, but
unlike the other human sciences, it tries to grasp its object through its most diverse
manifestations’
Connecting within societies and connecting between societies.
Accounting for the interrelationships between different aspects of human existence, and usually
investigate these interrelationships taking as their point of departure a detailed study of local life in a
particular society or a more or less clearly delineated social environment.
An outline of the subject
Anthropology = ‘anthropos’ and ‘logos’ = ‘human’ and ‘reason’ = reason about humans = knowledge
about humans.
Social anthropology: knowledge about humans in societies, knowledge about cultivated humans;
knowledge about those aspects of humanity which are not natural, but which are related to that
which is acquired.
Every human is equally cultural, however people have acquired different abilities, notions, etc., and
are thereby different because of culture.
Culture can refer both to basic similarities and to systematic differences between humans.
Culture refers to the acquired, cognitive and symbolic aspects of existence, whereas society refers to
the social organisation of human life, patterns of interaction and power relationships.
The universal and the particular
Michael Carithers: ‘If each discipline can be said to have a central problem, then the central problem
of anthropology is the diversity of human social life’.
Structural-functionalism: all societies operate according to the same general principles
Structuralism: the human mind has a common architecture expressed through myrth, kinship
and other cultural phenomena
Transactionalism: the logic of human action is the same everywhere
Materialist approaches: culture and society are determined by ecological and/or
technological factors
The problem of Ethnocentrism
In order to pass judgement on the quality of life in a foreign society we must first try to understand
that society from the inside; otherwise our judgement has a limited intellectual interest. What is
conceived of as ‘the good life’ in the society in which we live may not appear attractive at all form a
different vantage-point.
The principle of cultural relativism in anthropology is a methodological one; it is indispensable for the
investigation and comparison of societies without relating them to a usually irrelevant
developmental scale/ but this does not imply that there is no difference between right and wrong.
