SC2218: Anthropology and SC2218: Anthropology and the Human Conditionthe Human Condition

Lecture 13: Summary and Review Lecture 13: Summary and Review

Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson

Semester 1, 2008/2009Semester 1, 2008/2009

REVIEW ANDREVIEW ANDCONSULTATIONCONSULTATION

SESSION:SESSION:

AS3 03-06AS3 03-06

Thursday, November 13Thursday, November 13

2.00 pm – 3.00 pm2.00 pm – 3.00 pm

““A Man without Pigs”A Man without Pigs”

• How does John Waiko’s approach to anthropology compare to that of other anthropologists we have studied in this course? What are some of the similarities and differences? How does John Waiko’s experience compare to that of other “strangers abroad”?

• What is John Waiko’s status in his home village? How does that compare with and relate to his status outside his village?

• What sort of politics and economics do you see in action in the film? How would a structural or structural-functional analysis help us to understand Bendari political-economy? How would a poststructural (discursive, historical) analysis help? What would be key features to focus on in each type of analysis?

• How is the system of debts and relationships changing? Why?

What isANTHROPOLOGY?

AnthropologyAnthropology

anthropos = humankind

logia = study of

the study of people

The Objective of AnthropologyThe Objective of Anthropology

• Why do people do the things they do?

• Before Modern Anthropology:– Because of their race (biology).– Because they are less intelligent.– Because they are superstitious.– Because they are primitive or less evolved.

Key Concepts in 20Key Concepts in 20thth century Anthropology century Anthropology

• Culture• Ways to understand Culture

– Functionalism– Structural-Functionalism– Structuralism– Other Ways

• Culture and Personality• Neoevolutionism• Cognitive Anthropology• Symbolic Anthropology• And others….

Themes: Major Topics that Anthropologists Themes: Major Topics that Anthropologists study from a Cultural Perspectivestudy from a Cultural Perspective

• Families and Kinship• Gender and Sexuality• Economics and Exchange• Ethnicity, Race, Nationalism and other forms of

“Imagined Communities”• Anthropologists Study many other aspects of

“the human condition”– Medical Anthropology– Religion– Emotions– And many other topics!

The Concept of CultureThe Concept of Culture

• Holistic views of human affairs (e.g. E.B. Tylor’s definition).

• Respect for cultures as unique ways that different people have developed.– Boas’s attack on 19th theories of

unilinear social evolution– Cultures have to be understood on

their own terms (not as “stages” in human development)

E.B. Tylor

Franz Boas

Dr. Eric’s definitions ofDr. Eric’s definitions ofCultural and SocialCultural and Social

• Culture refers to our signaling systems (which, among other things, coordinate our actions)– Culture is learned, shared knowledge– Cultural systems are systems of meaning

• Social refers to our behavioral systems, specifically those behaviors through which we relate to other people (e.g. exchanges)– Social Systems are systems of relationship

and exchange.

Socio-Cultural Systems (Summary)Socio-Cultural Systems (Summary)

• Kinship: Cultural concepts for organizing social relationships based on family ties.

• Gender: Cultural concepts for organizing social relationships based on sex.

• Economy: Cultural concepts for organizing social relationships of exchange.

• Community: Cultural processes for imagining group identities.

KinshipKinship• Kinship = Social-Cultural Elaborations of

Biological Reproduction

• Marriage = Cultural recognition of a sexual relationship; legitimization of paternity.

• Ideas of kinship order (arrange) social relationships through cultural interpretations of biological reproduction.

• Kinship is “based in” biology.

• But kinship is not determined by biology.

Sex / Gender / SexualitySex / Gender / Sexuality• Sex refers to the bodies we have as a result of biological

processes (e.g. genetics); Genitalia, Hormones, Baldness, Facial Hair, Breasts, etc.

• Gender refers to social-cultural elaborations of sex; social practices and cultural roles associated with sex characteristics.

• Sexuality refers to social-cultural elaborations (especially identities) related to sexual behavior; activities (ways of ‘having sex’), desires, relational identities (gay, straight, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, etc.)

Economics and ExchangeEconomics and Exchange• Economics: the study of the production,

distribution and consumption of goods and services.

• Economy: a system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.

• Exchange:– Distributing Goods and Services AND– Creating/Enacting Relationships among People

The Cultural Nature of The Cultural Nature of Commodities (and Money)Commodities (and Money)

• Markets are SYMBOLIC systems of VALUE

• Money – mediator of value• Social relationships are

abstracted into money and commodities.

• Social differentiation based on relationships mediated by money & commodities = Class

CommunityCommunity• Communities are based in senses of belonging and

identity.

• Markers of commonality are arbitrary. They are socially and culturally agreed upon.

• Communities exist because people imagine them to exist. (They are fundamentally cultural – shared belief, ideas, feelings).

• Communities are not “fictional”… They are social and cultural realities.

Culture is…Culture is…

• A system of shared meanings.

• A system for signaling and reproducing those shared meanings.

• Social-Cultural Systems:– Kinship and Marriage– Gender and Sexuality– Economics and Exchange– Communities and Identities

Anthropology c.1960-1980Anthropology c.1960-1980• Scientific, Structural-Functional Approach• Cultural Relativism; Non-hierarchical (no culture is

better than another; they are just different)• Non-evolutionary (rejection of unilinear evolution of

cultural ‘stages’ from 19th c.)• Societies and Cultures seen as “Whole”, functional,

equilibrium systems (structures) of thought and behavior

• Most anthropologists are white (European / American) men doing research in the “Third World”.

Problems c.1960-1980Problems c.1960-1980• If cultures are whole, equilibrium systems, how

does one account for change?

• Entry of larger numbers women and non-Europeans into anthropology, began to question male and Euro-centric biases.

• Critique of Ethnography: Representations of “Others” by Europeans for Europeans

• Critique of Colonialism, Anthropology’s Role

• Globalization, Urbanization, Rapid Change

CULTURE & SOCIETYCULTURE & SOCIETY(The Super-Simple Versions)(The Super-Simple Versions)

• Culture = systems of meaning

• Society = systems of (exchange) relationships

• From Structuralism, to Post-Structuralism, to (Complex Adaptive) Dynamic Systems

Culture and DiscourseCulture and Discourse

• CULTURE is a Complex Adaptive System

• DISCOURSE is the Process through which Culture Changes

• Shift in anthropology from culture to discourse is a shift from structural to process analysis. (1980s – Present)

1st GenerationCultural Structures

(Grammars, Words, Styles, Signifiers)

1st GenerationAgents (Subjects/Individuals)

(Drawing on the Structures to relate to others, influence action, interpret meanings – their own and others)

Culture as an Iterative Process

Agents are “Subjects” of (“subject to”) cultural structures – they cannot operate meaningfully outside of the structure.Cultural Structures are emergent structures, dependent on the agents for their existence.

1st GenerationCultural Structures

1st GenerationAgents (Subjects)

2nd GenerationAgents (Subjects)

2nd GenerationCultural Structures

Culture always changes,because agents never reproduce it “perfectly”

REVIEW ANDREVIEW ANDCONSULTATIONCONSULTATION

SESSION:SESSION:

AS3 03-06AS3 03-06

Thursday, November 13Thursday, November 13

2.00 pm – 4.00 pm2.00 pm – 4.00 pm