Anth1 Wk1 Pt1
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Transcript of Anth1 Wk1 Pt1
Intro to Cultural Anthropology: What is Anthropology?
Students relaxing after fieldwork in Moquegua, PeruPhoto courtesy Paul S. Goldstein
Objectives
Understand that anthropology is holistic and comparative study of humanity
Identify, distinguish, & describe the 4 subfields of anthropology
Distinguish ethnology from ethnographyUnderstand that anthropology is both a
science & an art
Lecture Outline
Overview Human Diversity General Anthropology The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Anthropology and Other Academic Fields Scientific Methods
Overview
How we originated.How we have changed.How we are changing still.
• Anthropology addresses basic questions of human existence and survival.
Cave art from Bhimbekta, India circa 2,500b.p.
Anthropology is holistic
Past, present, future Biology Society Language Culture
Interested in the whole of the human conditions
Indus Valley (Pakistan) - clay seal with writing still undeciphered
General Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology (or, “Sociocultural Anth”) Archaeological Biological Linguistic
• Academic discipline of anthropology includes:
Four subfields
Cultural anthropology – examines human diversity of the present and recent past.
Archaeology – reconstructs behavior by studying material remains
Linguistic anthropology – considers how speech varies with social factors and over time
Four subfields
Biological anthropology – study of human fossils, genetics, and bodily growth and nonhuman primates
Adaptation
Adaptation – process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses
Foraging sole basis of human subsistence for millions of years
Rate of change accelerated during past 10k years
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Willow storage basket Photo by Eva Salazar, Kumeyaay(Mission Indian) of San Diego
Adaptation, Variation, and Change• First civilizations
arose ~6000 B.P. (Before the Present)
• Recently industrial conditions spreading to all cultures
• Today’s global economy links all people into a world system Eva Salazar helped revive Kumeyaay
Arts and Crafts
Recap 1.1 Forms of Cultural and Biological Adaptation (to High Altitude)
Cultural Adaptation
Highland Peruvians Chewed coca
Made raised fields to avoid killing frosts on crops
Freeze-dried potatoes
Created inter-altitude trade relations w/ lowlandersPeruvian miner, early 1900s
History of Anthropology: The Four-field Approach• Developed in U.S. • Early anthropologists
combined studies of customs, social life, language, and physical traits
Drawing from Tierra del Fuego, during C. Darwin’sVoyage of the Beagle, 19th c.
Cultural Anthropology
Ethnography – Fieldwork in a particular culture; provides account of that community, society, or culture
Ethnology – cross cultural comparison; the comparative study of ethnographic data, of society and of culture
• Describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences
Table 1.2 Ethnography and Ethnology – Two Dimensions of Cultural Anthropology