UCSP-Anthropology-ppt. FIRST QUARTERRRRR

Ucsp-Anthropology

1. WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY?

2. Anthropologycomes from the
Greek word anthroposfor “man,
human” and logosfor “study”.

3. What is Anthropology?
•Itseekstoansweranenormousvarietyofquestionsabouthumans.
•Theyareinterestedindiscoveringwhen,whereandwhyhumans
appearedonearth,howandwhytheyhavechangedsincethen,and
howandwhymodernhumanpopulationsvaryincertainphysical
features.
•Anthropologistsarealsointerestedinhowandwhysocietiesinthe
pastandpresenthavevariedintheircustomaryideasandpractices.

4. Anthropology's basic concerns are…
1.WhatdefinesHomosapiens?
2.WhoaretheancestorsofmodernHomo
sapiens?
3.Whatarehumans'physicaltraits?
4.Howdohumansbehave?
5.Whyaretherevariationsanddifferences
amongdifferentgroupsofhumans?
6.HowhastheevolutionarypastofHomosapiens
influenceditssocialorganizationandculture?”

5. WHAT THEN IS UNIQUE OR
CHARACTERISTIC OF
ANTHROPOLOGY?

6. (a).anthropologyistranscultural;
looksallhumangroups,largeand
small;distantandnear.

7. (b).anthropologyspansallof
humanhistory,theancientandthe
modern.Wemustknowpastto
understandpresent.

8. (c).anthropologyisholistic;seeksto
demonstratehowaspectsofculturesarelinked,
howtheyaffectoneanother;seeksto
understandallaspectsofhumanbehavior.Itisa
multi-facetedapproachtothestudyofhuman
behavior.

9. Anthropologyseekstofindthegeneralities
abouthumanlifewhilealsoexplainingthe
differences.Todothistheexamplesmust
includeatransculturalandhistorical
perspective.

10. Anthropologyseekstounderstandand
explainwhypeopledothethingstheydoand
saythethingstheysay.Agoaliscreate
betterunderstandingamongpeople.

11. Insum,weasanthropologistsoftensay
that“anthropologyisthemosthumaneof
thesciencesandthemostscientificofthe
humanities”.Thuswedrawdatafromall
kindsofsources.

12. •Creativity,adaptability,and
flexibilityarebasichuman
attributes,andhumandiversity
isthesubjectmatterof
anthropology.

13. •Peoplesharebothsocietyandculture.
•Societyisorganizedlifeingroups,afeature
thathumanssharewithotheranimals.
•Culturesaretraditionsandcustoms,
transmittedthroughlearning,thatgovernthe
beliefsandbehaviorsofthepeopleexposedto
them.

14. •Humansarethemostadaptableanimalsinthe
world,havingtheabilitytoinhabitwidelyvariant
ecologicalniches.
•Humans,likeallotheranimalsusebiological
meanstoadapttoagivenenvironment.
•Humansareuniqueinhavingculturalmeansof
adaptation.

15. What are the
SUBFIELDS of ANTHROPOLOGY
as a SOCIAL SCIENCE?

16. Biological Anthropology

17. Biological Anthropology
•Biologicalanthropologyismultidisciplinary.
•Itdrawsonbiology,zoology,geology,anatomy,
physiology,medicine,publichealth,osteology,and
archaeology.

18. •Biologicalanthropologyseeksto
understandhumanbehaviorfroma
biologicalbaseespeciallyfocusing
uponhumanevolutionaryhistoryand
biologicalvariationamonghuman
populations.

19. Biological Anthropology
•Therearefivespecialinterestswithinbiological
anthropology:
•paleoanthropology:humanevolutionasrevealedbythefossil
record
•humangenetics
•humangrowthanddevelopment
•humanbiologicalplasticity:thebody’sabilitytochangeasit
copeswithstressessuchasheat,cold,andaltitude
•primatology:thestudyofthebiology,evolution,behavior,and
sociallifeofprimates.

20. Paleoanthropologistsstudy
thefossilrecordofhuman
evolution.Thisphotoshows
ProfessorTeukuJacobwithearly
fossilskullsfromJava,Indonesia.
Photo Credit: Kenneth Garrett / National Geographic

21. Cultural Anthropology

22. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
•Culturalanthropologyisthestudyofhumansocietyand
culture,thesubfieldthatdescribes,analyzes,interprets,and
explainssocialandculturalsimilaritiesanddifferences.
•Culturalanthropologyalsocombinesethnographyand
ethnologytostudyhumansocietiesandculturesforthe
purposeofexplainingsocialandculturalsimilaritiesand
differences.

23. •Culturalanthropologyseeks
tounderstanduniversalsand
variationsinhumancultures
bothpastandpresent.

24. Two Disciplines of
Cultural Anthropology
•Ethnography
•Ethnology

25. •Ethnographyproducesanaccount(abook,anarticle,
orafilm)ofaparticularcommunity,society,orculture
basedoninformationthatiscollectedduringfieldwork.
•Generally,ethnographicfieldworkinvolveslivinginthe
communitythatisbeingstudiedforanextendedperiod
oftime(e.g.6monthsto2years).
Ethnography

26. •emphasizelocalbehavior,beliefs,customs,sociallife,
economicactivities,politics,andreligion,ratherthen
developmentsatthenationallevel.
•Sinceculturesarenotisolated,ethnographersmust
investigatethelocal,regional,national,andglobalsystemsof
politics,economics,andinformationthatexposevillagersto
externalinfluences.
Ethnography

27. •Ethnologyexamines,interprets,analyzes,and
comparestheethnographicdatagatheredindifferent
societiestomakegeneralizationsaboutsocietyand
culture.
•Ethnologyusesethnographicdatatobuildmodels,test
hypotheses,andcreatetheoriesthatenhanceour
understandingofhowsocialandculturalsystemswork.
•Ethnologyworksfromtheparticular(ethnographicdata)to
thegeneral(theory).
Ethnology

28. Comparison between Ethnography and Ethnology
ETHNOGRAPHY ETHNOLOGY
requires fieldwork to collect datadraws upon data collected by a series
of researchers
descriptive synthetic
group/community specific comparative/cross-cultural

29. Archaeology

30. Archaeological Anthropology
•Archaeologicalanthropologyreconstructs,describes,and
interpretspasthumanbehaviorandculturalpatternsthrough
materialremains.
•Thematerialremainsofacultureincludeartifacts(e.g.
potsherds,jewelry,andtools),garbage,burials,andthe
remainsofstructures.
•Archaeologistsusepaleoecologicalstudiestoestablishthe
ecologicalandsubsistenceparameterswithinwhichgiven
grouplived.

31. •Archaeologyseekstounderstandhuman
historythroughthestudy(primarily)of
materialsremains.Sometimestheworkof
archaeologistsoverlapswiththeworkof
historiansinaspecialization,historical
archaeology.

32. •Thearchaeologicalrecordprovidesarchaeologiststhe
uniqueopportunitytolookatchangesinsocial
complexityoverthousandsandtensofthousandsof
years(thiskindoftimedepthisnotaccessibleto
ethnographers).
•Archaeologyisnotrestrictedtoprehistoricsocieties.
•Historical archaeology combines archaeological data and textual data to
reconstruct historically known groups.]
•William Rathje’s“garbology” project in Tucson, Arizona.
ARCHAEOLOGY

33. •Archaeologyisthestudyof
humanmaterialculture,
includingbothartifacts
(olderpiecesofhuman
culture)carefullygathered
inmuseumpiecesand
moderngarbage.

34. Archaeology: A preserve body on Pompeifrom the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius

35. Linguistic Anthropology

36. •Linguisticsseekstounderstandhuman
language,writtenandnon-written,
spokenandnon-verbal.Thestudyofhow
languageschangeovertimeistermed
historicallinguistics.Thestudyofhow
languageisusedinsocialcontextsis
termedsocio-linguistics.

37. Linguistic Anthropology
•Linguisticanthropologyisthestudyoflanguagein
itssocialandculturalcontextacrossspaceand
time.
•Somelinguisticanthropologistsinvestigate
universalfeaturesoflanguagethatmaybelinkedto
uniformitiesinthehumanbrain.

38. Linguistic Anthropology
•Historicallinguistsreconstructancientlanguages
andstudylinguisticvariationthroughtime.
•Sociolinguisticsinvestigatesrelationshipsbetween
socialandlinguisticvariationtodiscovervaried
perceptionsandpatternsofthoughtindifferent
cultures.

39. Branches of Linguistics
•Historicallinguistics–isthestudyofhow
languageschangeovertimeandhowtheymay
berelated.
•Structural/Descriptivelinguistics–isthe
studyofhowcontemporarylanguagesdiffer,
especiallyintheirconstruction.

40. •Sociolinguisticsinvestigatesrelationships
betweensocialandlinguisticvariation.No
languageisahomogeneoussysteminwhich
everyonespeaksjustlikeeveryoneelse.
•Sociolinguistics–thestudyofhowlanguageis
usedinsocialcontext.

42. •Underscoringallofthesub-fieldsinboth
biologicalandculturalanthropologyis
PracticingorAppliedAnthropology,which
seektoapplyanthropologicalknowledgeto
thesolutionofhumanproblems.Allofthe
sub-fieldsinanthropologyhaveanapplied,
practicingcomponent.

43. •Anthropology,asdefinedbythe
AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation
(AAA),hastwodimensions:
1)theoretical/academicanthropology
2)practicingorappliedanthropology.

44. Theoretical / Academic
Anthropology
•Theoretical/academicanthropologyincludesthefour
subfieldsdiscussedabove(cultural,archaeological,
biological,andlinguisticanthropology).
•Directed at collecting data to test hypotheses and models that were
created to advance the field of anthropology.
•Generally, theoretical/academic anthropology is carried out in academic
institutions (e.g. universities and specialized research facilities).

45. Applied Anthropology
•Appliedanthropologyistheapplicationofanyof
anthropologicaldata,perspectives,theory,andtechniquesto
identify,assess,andsolvecontemporarysocialproblems.
•Somestandardsubdivisionshavedevelopedinapplied
anthropology:medicalanthropology,environmental
anthropology,forensicanthropology,anddevelopment
anthropology.

46. •Appliedanthropologistsaregenerallyemployedby
internationaldevelopmentagencies,liketheWorldBank,
UnitedStatesAgencyforInternationalDevelopment
(USAID),theWorldHealthOrganization(WHO),andthe
UnitedNations.
Applied Anthropology

47. Medical Anthropology
Medical
anthropology studies
health conditions
from a cross-cultural
perspective. In
Uganda's Mwiri
primary school
children are taught
about HIV.
Photo Credit: Jorgen Schytte / Still Pictures / Peter Arnold, Inc.

48. Applied Anthropology
•Applied anthropologists assess the social and cultural dimensions
of economic development.
•Development projects often fail when planners ignore the cultural
dimensions of development.
•Applied anthropologists work with local communities to identify
specific social conditions that will influence the failure or success
of a development project.

49. Two Dimensions of
Anthropology
GENERAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
APPLIED
ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural AnthropologyMedical Anthropology
Archaeological
Anthropology
Cultural Resource
Management (CRM)
Biological or Physical
Anthropology
Forensic Anthropology
Linguistic AnthropologyNon-government
Organizations (NGO’s)

50. Franz Boas
-Father of modern American anthropology
-the first anthropologist to have rejected the biological
basis of racism or racial discrimination
-historicalparticularism:eachsocietyisconsideredas
havingauniqueformofculturethatcannotbe
subsumedunderanoveralldefinitionofgeneralculture.
-advocated cultural relativism (“cultures should be
judged by their own values, as successful adaptations to
their own environments”)
Pioneers in anthropology

51. BronislawKasper Malinowski
-a Polish immigrant who did a study of
Trobriand Island
-he developed participant observation: a
method of social science research that
requires the anthropologists to have the
ability to participate and blend with the way
of life of a given group of people.
-one of the most influential ethnographers in
the 20
th
century

52. Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown
•he did fieldwork on the Andaman Islands east of
India
•became the Chair in Social Anthropology in
Oxford
•advocated the study of abstract principles that
govern social change
•structural-functionalist paradigm: the basic unit
of analysis for anthropology and social sciences
are the social structures and the functions they
perform to maintain the equilibrium of society.

53. Henry Louis Morgan
-1
st
to research aboriginal peoples of North America
-came up with a “Theory of Social Evolution”:
The idea that social evolution occurred in 3 stages,
a) savagery :
b) barbarism :
c) civilization:
-once widely accepted, now the assumption of social or
cultural evolution is considered ethnocentric: Morgan
was “judging other cultures according to one’s values”,
his being the white, European-based culture.

54. RuthBenedict
•PatternsofCulture,(onPlainsnativecultures)
andTheChrysanthemumandtheSword(onJapanese
culture:lifeshouldbehighlyritualizedandperfectly
executed…)
•lookedathowcultureandreligionshapepersonality
•concludedthatcultureshavepersonalities:somecultures
believedinrestraint,andothersmightbelievein
fierceness.
→Mainidea:themainpersonalitytraitsoftheculture
becomethemainpersonalitytraitsofpersonsofthat
culture.

55. Margaret Mead
•student of Franz Boas.
•worked in the south Pacific islands of Polynesia and New Guinea.
•broke the gender barriers of her time.
* Coming of Age in Samoa(1928) compared adolescence in Samoa
and America, saw it didn’t seem to exist in Samoan culture, so she
concluded adolescence isn’t a universally distinct or difficult stage,
unlike many cultures (i.e., it’s “nurture”)
* her studies of 3 cultures in the south Pacific resulted in her
conclusion that, “nurture” (socialization) was more influential in
development than nature.
This is where the Nature –Nurture debate began.

56. …and I
Ma’am Madeline
says...
Thank you so much