what is anthropolo gy? lesson 1: an overview of the discipline

WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY?

Lesson 1:An overview of the discipline

Anthropology:

The study of all humans regardless of where or when they live/lived.

in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

Who are Humans?

• Taxonomy – Homo sapiens– Roughly 175,000 – 200,000 years old– The genus Homo means “human” andextends back to 2.5 million years ago

• Bipedal – meaning we walk on two feet– The only living primate to do so– Bipedal primates called – hominids– Hominids are 5 – 7 million years old

People are generally like me:

• Same desires?

• Same beliefs?

• Same attitudes?

• Same values?

Naïve realism

The assumption that people are generally the same all throughout the world

Reading 5 in Conformity and Conflicy

The Anthropological Perspective

• Holistic

• Comparative

• Field-Based

• EvolutionaryPages 2-3 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

American Anthropology

• Differs from British social anthropology

• Franz Boas - the “father” of American anthropology

Pages 207 - 209 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

The Four Field Approach

•Physical Anthropology

•Linguistic Anthropology

•Socio-cultural Anthropology

•Archaeology

Page 3 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

Physical/Biological Anthropology

• Humans as biological organisms• Present variation• Evolution• Paleoanthropology• Forensic anthropology• Primates

Pages 3-4 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

The Primate Family Tree

The PrimatesThe Primates

ProsimiansProsimians AnthropoidsAnthropoids

MonkeysMonkeys HominoidsHominoids

ApesApes HumansHumans

Linguistic Anthropology

• Human language transmits culture• Language history• Language acquisition among children• Language in society and the power

embedded in language


Archaeology

• Diggers• Study material remains - artifacts • Reconstruct the past• Prehistoric• Historic


Socio-cultural Anthropology

• The study of present culture and society• Cross-cultural in scope• Comparative• Often study contemporary social issues


ANTHROPOLOGY’SHISTORY &

DEVELOPMENT

Anthropology as an Academic Discipline

The History of Anthropology

• Age of Exploration– Beginning in the 15th Century

• Grew out of contact between Western Europeans and others throughout the world

• Encountered a wide range of peoples who were physically and behaviorally different

Early Understandings of Diversity

• Europeans used their Judeo-Christian background to interpret physical and cultural differences

• By the middle 19th century, sciences like geology and biology began to be used to understand the world

The Birth of Anthropology

• Anthropology grows out of this shift to rationale thought

• Initially, anthropologists were used by colonial governments to study indigenous peoples so that they could be better governed

• Translation: Anthropology got its start as a tool of colonial oppression

Early Anthropological Theory

• Positivism

• The first major approach was the Social Evolutionist


Social Evolutionism Lewis Henry Morgan

(1818-1881)

Unilineal Social/Cultural Evolution


Social Evolutionism

•Who first said the phrase - “Survival of the fittest”?


Problems with Social Evolutionism

• Extremely biased

• Used biological arguments

• Used to justify Colonialism


Time for a Change

• Rejection of social evolutionism

• Boas led the new school of American anthropology

• He emphasized: – Holistic perspective – The comparative method


Early British Social Anthropology

• Bronislaw Malinowski (1888 – 1942)

• Anthropological fieldwork

• Functionalism

Page 206-207 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

207 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

Early British Social Anthropology

• A.R. Radcliffe-Brown(1881 – 1955)

• Structural-Functionalism

The Great Debate

• What should be the defining concept in anthropology?

While this debate seems trivial, it divided both sides

Page 207 - 208 in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

Another Shift in Thought

• Postmodernism

• Can anthropology be scientific?

Exam Review Questions• What are the 4 fields of American anthropology (Chapter 1 in Core

Concepts)?

– What are the sub-disciplines (if any) within the four fields?

• Where, when, and how did anthropology develop as an academic discipline (Chapter 12 in Core Concepts)?

– Is anthropology an old discipline?

– How did colonial Europeans view of humanity and how did this ideology factor into anthropology’s development?

– Who were the key early anthropologists with regards to the following theoretical ideas?

• Comparative method

• Structural-functionalism

• Functionalism

• Social Darwinism

• Unilineal cultural evolution

what is anthropolo gy? lesson 1: an overview of the discipline

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