K1_lecture ............................................ppt

anthropology

1. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
1
What Is Anthropology?

2. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
2
Overview
–How we originated.
–How we have changed.
–How we are changing still.
•Anthropology confronts basic questions
of human existence and survival.

3. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
3
Anthropology is holistic
–Past, present, and future
–Biology
–Society
–Language
–Culture
•Interested in the whole of the human
condition

4. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
4
Four subfields
•Cultural anthropology–examines
cultural diversity of the present and
recent past.
•Archaeology–reconstructs behavior
by studying material remains

5. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
5
•Biological anthropology–study of
human fossils, genetics, and bodily
growth and nonhuman primates
Four subfields
•Linguistic anthropology–considers
how speech varies with social factors
and over time and space

6. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
6
Human Adaptability
•Culture–traditions, customs and
innovationsthat govern behavior and
beliefs
–Distinctly human
–Transmitted through learning
•Society–organized life in groups

7. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
7
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
•Adaptation–process by which
organisms cope with environmental
forces and stresses
•Humans adapt using biological and
cultural means

8. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
8
–Foraging sole basis of human subsistence
for millions of years
–Only took few thousand years for food
production –cultivation of plants and
domestication (stockbreeding) of animals
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
•Rate of change accelerated during the
past 10,000 years

9. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
9
–More recently, spread of industrial
production profoundly affected human life
–Today’s global economy and
communications link all contemporary
people, directly or indirectly, in modern
world system
Adaptation, Variation, and Change
•First civilizations arose between 6000
and 5000 B.P. (Before the Present)

10. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
10
Table 1.1 Forms of Cultural and Biological
Adaptation (to High Altitude)

11. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
11
General Anthropology
–Sociocultural (cultural anthropology)
–Archaeological
–Biological
–Linguistic
•Academic discipline of anthropology
includes:

12. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
12
Four-field Approach
•Developed in U.S.
–Early American anthropologists studying
native peoples of North America combined
studies of customs, social life, language,
and physical traits

13. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
13
General Anthropology
•Sound conclusions about “human
nature” cannot be derived from studying
a single nation, society, or cultural
tradition

14. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
14
Cultural Forces Shape
Human Biology
–Culture key environmental force in
determining how human bodies grow
and develop
–Cultural standards of attractiveness and
propriety influence participation and
achievement in sports
•Biocultural–inclusion and combination
(to solve a common problem) of
biological and cultural perspectives and
approaches

15. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
15
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

16. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
16
Table 1.2 Ethnography and Ethnology –Two
Dimensions of Cultural Anthropology

17. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
17
Archeological Anthropology
–Artifacts (e.g., potsherds, jewelry, and tools)
–Garbage
–Burials
–Remains of structures
•Study of human behavior and cultural
patterns and process through material
remains

18. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
18
Archeological Anthropology
–Archaeological record provides unique
opportunity to look at changes in social
complexity over time
•Archaeologists use paleoecological
studies to establish ecological and
subsistence parameters within which
given groups lived

19. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
19
Archeological Anthropology
–Historical archaeology combines
archaeological data and textual data to
reconstruct historically known groups
–Rathje’s garbology shows what people
report may contrast with real behavior
•Archaeologists also study the cultures
of historical and living people

20. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
20
Biological Anthropology
•Study of human biological variation in
time and space
•Includes evolution, genetics, growth and
development, and primatology
•Draws on biology, zoology, geology,
anatomy, physiology, medicine, public
health, osteology, and archaeology

21. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
21
Biological Anthropology
•Special interests:
–Paleoanthropology–human evolution as
revealed by the fossil record
–Human genetics
–Human growth and development
–Human biologicalplasticity–Body’s
ability to change
–Primatology–study of biology, evolution,
behavior, and social life of primates

22. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
22
–Historical linguists –reconstruct ancient
languages and study linguistic variation
through time
–Sociolinguistics –investigates
relationships between social and linguistic
variation [anthropological linguistics:]to
discover varied perceptions and patterns of
thought and practicein different cultures
Linguistic Anthropology
•Study of language in its social and
cultural context across space and time

23. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
23
Anthropology and
Other Academic Fields
–Systematic field of study or body of
knowledge that aims, through experiment,
observation, and deduction, to produce
reliable explanations of phenomena with
reference to the material and physical
world
•Anthropology is a science

24. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
24
Anthropology and
Other Academic Fields
–Encompasses study of and cross-cultural
comparison of languages, texts,
philosophies, arts, music, performances,
and other forms of creative expression
–Form of knowledge is often
intersubjective
•Anthropology is an art

25. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
25
Anthropology and Other
Academic Fields
–Share an interest in social relations,
organization, and behavior
–Originally, sociologists focused on
industrial West
•Anthropology and Psychology
–Malinowski contended that cultural context
molds individual psychology
•Cultural Anthropology and Sociology

26. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
26
Science, Explanation,
and Hypothesis Testing
–Explains how and why the thing to be
understood (the explicandum) is related to
other things in some known way
–Associations–observed relationships
between two or more measured variables
•Scientists strive to improve understanding
by testing hypotheses that suggest
explanations of things and events

27. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
27
Science, Explanation,
and Hypothesis Testing
–Explanatory framework, containing a series
of statements, that helps us understand
why (something exists or happens in a
particular way)
–Theories suggest patterns, connections,
and relationships that may be confirmed by
new research
A theoryis more general

28. © 2008The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
28
Science, Explanation,
and Hypothesis Testing
–Theories cannot be proved; we evaluate
them through the method of falsification
–Theories that are not disproved are
accepted because the available evidence
seems to support them
–Associations usually state probabilistically
with two or more variables that tend to be
related in a predictable way, but there are
exceptions