Cultural Anthro Unit 1
Kohistani Niche
Driven from lower valley by Pathans. Single annual crop plus transhumance. Exploit both agricultural land and highland pastures. Gujar Niche Transhumance in symbiotic relationship with Pathans. Use Pathans' crop residues to feed animals. Herd Pathans' animals since Pathans consider herding a low status activity. Barth's Observations Distribution of ethnic groups related to ecological niches that each group exploits. Different ethnic groups can co-exist in stable relationships. If they exploit different ecological niches, then they can (and often do) establish symbiotic economic relationships.
Complex Societies
Earlier environmental anthropology focused on "isolated" communities (e.g., Rappaport). Increasing recognition of interdependence through markets, resource sharing, state interventions, etc. Local communities need to be analyzed in relation to larger systems. Stephen Lansing: Balinese Agriculture Like Rappaport, recognition that rituals can have regulatory functions. Focus on a how a resource (water) is regulated. Analysis of how multiple actors coordinate activities in mutually beneficial ways. A Complex Adaptive System Temples regulate planting, irrigation, and harvesting cycles of surrounding fields (subak). Cycles coordinated with upstream and downstream subaks. Network of interacting agents [farmers]. Each agent [individual farmer] seeks to maximize something [crop yield]. Self-Organizing System: by following behavior of more successful farmers, all eventually coordinate activities. Agricultural Development Development workers and policy makers failed to appreciate indigenous system. Green Revolution (top-down approach) increased crop yield, but only temporarily. Required massive pesticide input. Led to rise in crop-eating pests. Making the System Visible Indigenous knowledge of local conditions accumulated over centuries. Hydrological system coordinated through temple system (cultural/ecological symbiosis). Ritual regulation of a critical resource (water) results in Global Optimum. Collective: control pests. Individual: every farmer able to maximize yields.
Culture is Learned
Enculturation Margaret Mead & Gregory Bateson Studied how kids are raised in other societies. Early theoretical insights on enculturation through cross-cultural comparison.
Final Summation Enviro
Environmental Anthropology is an important part of Cultural Anthropology. Problem-oriented, social scientific approach. Collaboration across disciplines (biologists, ecologists, economists, demographers). Potential to contribute important insights about human-environmental interactions.
Spradley: Ethnography and Culture
Ethnography is key, it describes culture Set aside naive realism, enter college Concern with meaning of actions and events to the people we seek to understand Cultural: behavior, knowledge, artifacts Culture: the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behavior Diagram this: Explicit vs. Tacit ->Universal Uses-> Interpreting experience (artifacts, enviro, behavior) vs. Generative Behavior (cult. bx: acts and feelings, cultural artifacts) Symbolic interactionism: behavior bc meanings 1) humans act towards things bc meanings 2) meanings via social interactions 3) meanings through interpretation Culture is a cognitive map, take meanings seriously
Fieldwork and the Empirical Tradition (Evans-Pritchard 1)
Evans-Pritchard: Major figure in British anthropology. Research focus on kinship as a basis for political organization. Fieldwork in Africa during height of British colonialism. Contrasting Views of "Primitive Man" Animal: Poverty, violence, fear, individualistic, lawless, lacks religion/morality. Gentle Person: Plenty, peace, security, communalistic, custom, dominated by religious beliefs and rituals. Shifting Portrayals Exploration (1600s). Travelers' tales: fanciful, uninformed, accentuated the exotic. Rationale for conquest and civilizing missions. Colonialism (1800s). Missionaries and Administrators: more detailed studies, but still with an agenda. Basis for early studies of social evolution (Morgan, Tylor). Scholarly Shift Historians & Philosophers. No need to make first-hand observations (Morgan as exception). Natural Sciences. Inclination to make first-hand observations to test hypotheses and generate new theories. Previous Methods "Armchair" Scholars. Derived theories by reading accounts of missionaries and colonial officials. Such accounts biased and unreliable. Early "Fieldworkers" journeyed to societies that they studied but brought informants to own camp for interviews in non-native languages ("interviewing on the veranda") The Origins of Fieldwork Franz Boas to Baffin Island (1883-1884). Alfred Haddon to Torres Strait (1898-1899). Malinowski's New Standard Must spend sufficient time "in the field" (one year minimum, preferably two). Must live among subjects of study. Must communicate in their language. Must study entire culture and social life.
Gunspeak: Gun Culture and Everyday Communication (Myers)
Example of a close connection between language and culture. Cultural Presupposition: Common knowledge and understanding among members of a society. US speech is filled with references to firearms. Abundance of metaphors associated with firearms indicates cultural importance (similar to focal vocabulary). Myers' Observation Gunspeak reflects societal obsession with firearms. Gunspeak "couples easily and unconsciously with our violent entertainment to create a world in which we are primed to be aggressive and combative . . ."
Cultural Knowledge
Explicit (clearly expressed) Culture Cultural knowledge that people can talk about or communicate with ease. e.g., items such as clothing, actions such as playing, emotional states such as sadness. Tacit (implied, understood) Culture Cultural knowledge that people lack words for or that lies outside our explicit awareness. e.g., speaking distances, social space.
Fieldwork's Objective
Fieldwork The defining methodology of cultural anthropology. Living among the subjects of research (participant observation). Conversation with varying degrees of formality (from informal conversations to formal interviews). The Objective Fieldwork increases the likelihood that a researcher can get a sense of how others understand their own lives. Seeing the world from an emic perspective, or "the native's point of view." How did this research approach develop?
Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)
Focus on Religion: Animism Polytheism Monotheism
Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881)
Focus on Social Institutions: Savagery Barbarism Civilization
You Are How You Eat (Eugene Cooper)
Food and Culture "Food habits communicate symbolic messages." Hierarchy; Inclusion/Exclusion (Commensality) How you eat conveys messages about your gender, age, social status, etc. Symbolic Gestures: Indicate interest by accepting rice bowl with both hands, bring bowl to mouth while eating. Express deference by allowing elders to eat first, offer to others before serving self, share common foods. "...the degree to which a Chinese practices the rules of etiquette marks his class position ..."
Cooper: Chinese Table Manners
Food habits/taboos, table manners and adaption China has no guidebooks, taken for granted Few informants are bicultural, he is Basic structures/paraphernalia Chopsticks, bowls, rice not from flat plates, must be the correct amount as all share, small bites Inflections of general principles eating alone is like pooping, strangers are ok Waiter figures out the tab from plate placement dont turn over fish, dont do bad things with snacks Westerners are expected to fail, so easy to impress
Modes of Subsistence
Foraging (search for edible things). Food Production (producing edible things). Pastoralism (dependence on animal herds). Horticulture (small-scale, often subsistence). Intensive Agriculture (large-scale, often commercial).
The Stigma is Ironic
Front-line guardians of public health. Capitalist economy dependent on continuous consumption and disposal. Quotidian velocity: speed of everyday life facilitated by ability to discard goods.
Jean Lamarck (1744-1829):
Geographic or climatic changes pressure life forms to adapt
Email My Heart (Gershon)
How Does New Media Transform Social Relationships? Most scholars focus on connections (e.g., formation of social networks). Gershon centers on how people use new technologies to sever intimate relationships. Media as Mutually Constitutive Old media shapes how we use and think about new media. New media changes peoples' ideologies and uses of old media. Evaluating Break-Up Options Face-to-face = best option. Other options evaluated in relation to face-to-face communication. More impersonal options (email, Facebook) make phone more desirable than alternatives. Determining Intentions In break-ups determining intentions is foremost concern. Media evaluated in terms of how easy one can discern intentions. Conversational turn taking facilitates exploration of intentions. No media can rival face-to-face in this regard.
Welsch and Vivanco's Questions
How do people secure an environmentally sustainable food supply? How is non-Western environmental knowledge similar to and different from science? How is globalization linked to increasing environmental and health problems?
Linguistics focus
How do the ways people talk (and gesture, and dress, and use other symbolic forms of communication) reflect and create their cultural similarities, differences, and social positions? Sociolinguistics: A study of the relationships between social variations (ethnicity, status, gender, etc.) and linguistic variations (dialect, slang, tone, etc.).
Gardening Tips (Cronk)
How do you respond to the relativist position, "It's their culture, who are we to judge it?" Accept female genital mutilation because "it's part of their culture"? Do cultural explanations = moral justifications? Biological Analogy Explanations for infanticide: increases "fitness" of male perpetrator", increases "parental investment" of father. Naturalistic Fallacy: If something is "natural" then it must somehow be "good". Biological explanation moral justification. Culturalistic Fallacy? The task of ethnography is to explain behavior ("this is what it is"). The task is not to justify behavior in moral terms ("this is what it ought to be"). Cultural explanation moral justification.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1902)
Human societies analogous to biological organisms. Identify functions of "organs" in maintaining society
Strengths of Each Approach
Humanities Approach Provide readers with an empathic understanding of another society. Reduce the perception of cultural differences between "us" and "them". Social Science Approach Provide plausible and reliable explanations of social processes. Provide data and perspectives that have tangible applications.
Sahlins (C): The Original Affluent Society
Hunting and gathering is advanced economics, refractory traditional wisdom, wants can be satisfied by producing much or desiring little, and this describes the hunters, preagricultural economy, mere substance economy...ethnocentrism is a boundary to this, very paradoxical because they arent poor so to speak, always judged based on our own economy: problematic, scarcity is not intrinsic property it is a relation, there are naive options, and the eviolution perspective has implicaitons, material plenty, prosperity, want not lack not, positive cultural fact, peculiar, not uneconomic, dont generalize because they really dont work hard, they work smart, it just works, must reevaluate the economy, demographic constraints, good and bad, 3-5 hour work day, paradox because obkectively low but like prosperous
Language and Culture
Language and Enculturation Finding links between language and culture requires diligent, systematic research. We learn cultural patterns and expectations while learning language. Sherpa Example: use of commands marks status which is based on relative age of speakers. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Does the language we speak shape the way we perceive the physical world? o Current consensus: some ways of thinking are guided by the language we use, others are not. Or, how do people intentionally use language to shape the way others view the world? o Politics: naming congressional acts and government policies. o Advertising: pre-owned vs new? Naturally flavored? The Point: The knowledge that language shapes the way we view the world can be used strategically. Politics: garner support by shaping perceptions. Advertising: create positive impression of products.
Imagining Yhebe: Of Friendship and the Field (Tom Fricke)
Longitudinal Perspective (1981-2005) First fieldwork in 1981. Continuously returns for different projects. Rural-urban migration: many Timling residents in Kathmandu. Civil Strife: effects of prolonged Maoist insurgency = danger and uncertainty. Conversion: Timling's residents switch from Buddhism/Shamanism to Christianity. Social Disruption? "The Kali Yuga has come." "But everybody looks for difference—the Maoists, the [political] parties, everybody. And then they fight. When I think about it, I think I liked the old ways best, before foreign money came, when the old habits were honored, when nobody sought their own advantage." Fieldwork Relationships "Yhebe Ghale was my 'key informant,' a term used by many anthropologists to describe those upon whom the field worker especially relies for information. But to put it like that is to already contain Yhebe's meaning within my research and to deny what he had truly become." What is Yhebe's Role? Key informant—a teacher and interpreter of cultural knowledge. A facilitator who can vouch for one's intentions and open doors to others. A host, a friend, a source of emotional support during trying times. Fricke: Why didn't my questions ever focus on Yhebe? Where was he represented in my academic writings? The Dual Engagement. Personal: need to get along with people (anthropology involves social interaction). Professional: need as much info out of people as possible (your career depends on it!) The Ethnographer's Paradox One manual warned how "friendship implies loyalty, and loyalty may have to be demonstrated by taking sides, and taking sides will prejudice relations with other people." I began to see the paradox of a discipline so dependent on people—their good will, their trust, and their generosity—and yet so miserly in its advice to its practitioners.
Boas 2 (C): The Aims of Ethnology
Looks at Ethnocentrism, wanted systematic data Others' beliefs are no less sophisticated than own Human mind develops everywhere: psychic unity of mankind
The Original Affluent Society (Sahlins)
Marshall Sahlins Important contributions to economic anthropology. Renown for using ethnographic data to critique mainstream theories about "rational" economic behavior. Stone Age Economics (1972), a classic. Nasty, Short, and Brutish Lives? "Subsistence" characterized as brink of starvation existence. "Limited leisure", "incessant quest for food", "absence of surplus", "meager resources". Relegated to nature, not culture: "A man who spends his whole life following animals just to kill them to eat, or moving from one berry patch to another, is really living just like an animal himself." (Braidwood 1957) Fulfilling Wants and Desires Scarcity is a "relationship between means and ends." How does one satisfy "wants"? By producing a lot? By desiring little? Why Be Content with So Little? Is it because they spend so much time hunting and foraging that no time remains for the provision of other comforts? Is it because goods are a burden in a mobile community ("mobility and property are in contradiction")? Is it because they simply have few desires? Misinterpretations? Why do foragers eat rapidly through food supplies? Lack of foresight to cache supplies for future time? Driven by hunger to gorge themselves? Or, because they are confident of their ability to continually procure food? Diminishing Returns Why make substantial houses if you will soon abandon them? Why collect goods and materials when it is a burden to transport them to next camp? Mobility - not productivity - influences material acquisitions. A Point to Ponder Ethnographic descriptions limited to foragers in marginal landscapes (e.g., Kalahari Desert). 20th century foragers pushed to margins by agricultural and industrial societies. How would their livelihoods look if they lived in more suitable environments? Descriptions of poverty: aboriginal condition or "colonial duress"?
Common Misconception
Misconception: Anthropologists only work in the world's most remote areas among people who have little contact with outsiders. Reality: An anthropologist can study people in any society (rural, urban) in any country. Misconception: Anthropologists are only interested in studying "primitive" societies. Reality: Anthropologists are very interested in change (e.g., impacts of globalization). Anthropologists often study trans-national processes (e.g., those that involve migration and the flow of goods/information). Misconception: Anthropologists observe the societies they study in a detached and unobtrusive manner. Reality: Anthropologists become integrated in the communities they study. Fictive kinship relationships. Good data contingent on rapport; rapport contingent on acceptance. Yet must remain somewhat detached in order to retain objectivity. Misconception: Anthropologists only work alone, never in teams of researchers. Reality: Team research is not the norm, but it is possible and frequent
What Type of Cultural Relativism?
Moral Relativism: ethical standards and morality are culturally based and therefore subject to a person's individual choice. Thus, the moral and ethical rules of all cultures deserve equal respect. We should refrain from passing moral judgment on cultures other than our own. Methodological Relativism: "To understand another culture fully, you must try to see how the people in that culture see things." Cultural explanation moral justification.
How to Find Mongo (Robin Nagle)
Nagle's Agenda "I was working behind a garbage truck so that I could better understand some of the human costs and labor requirements of garbage." What can she learn through participant observation? Entering the Field Maneuver through "gatekeepers" (Sanitation Officials) to gain access. Establishing Rapport Suspicion of motives based on interactions with journalists (looking for sensationalistic story). Gaining rapport by learning how to "fit in" Speech pattern (blue collar, not academic). Attitude (non-judgmental, tolerant of male humor). Behavior (appreciation for "finding mongo," valuables among the trash).
Fredrik Barth's Plural Society
Niche concept: the place of a group in the total environment, its relations to resources and competitors. Different ethnic groups can fill specialized economic roles within the same ecosystem. Groups remain separate yet inter-dependent. Studied ecological relationships of ethnic groups in Swat, North Pakistan Pathan Niche Multi-cropping (producing two crops/year) essential to support social organization. Surplus required for specialization. Occupational groups exchange services for food. Surplus required for organizing men's houses with potlatches to attract followers. Niche limited to relatively low lying areas where multi-cropping is possible.
The Sounds of Silence (Hall and Hall)
Nonverbal Communication The only language for most of human history. The first form of communication you learn (enculturation through observation). A form of communication that you use constantly in everyday life. Kinesics: study of communication through expressions, gestures, body postures/stances Culture Uses Symbols. We communicate messages through a variety of nonverbal means. Nonverbal gestures vary cross-culturally (body language is not uniform among humans). Facial Expressions: universal, part of our shared evolutionary heritage (see primates). Hand Gestures: vary cross-culturally, part of our divergent cultural heritages.
How Do We Communicate Using Through Body Language?
Nonverbal Communications in Political Performance Context: performing to potential voters via live audience, television audience, print media. Movement: forward toward the audience. Gestures and Expressions: Clapping (positive attitude), Smiling (friendly), Pointing (personal connections). We regularly monitor nonverbal communication in others and adjust our behaviors accordingly. Categorizing Speaking Distances Depending on circumstances, you intuitively know how close to be to another person when talking (tacit knowledge). How does a person react when the cultural norm is violated?
Evans-Pritchard 2 (C): Introductory
Nuer: study is impossible, servants Can't talk freely with them the government said no sabotage, defy the bad ethnology suspicion, informants
Boas' Rejection of Racial Theories
1908 Study: Cranial dimensions in immigrants and their kids. Evidence: Immigrant kids had different skull shapes than parents—result of different diets, habits, environment, etc. Therefore, cranial morphology is not an immutable marker of "race"; it can vary through time and according to environment.
What do Anthropologists Produce? Ethnography
A descriptive account of a particular community, society, or culture. Based on long-term, first-hand fieldwork. "Old School" Approach: Highly descriptive and holistic account of a particular society at one point in time. Contemporary Approach: "Problem Oriented" research. Less holistic and more focused on single issue. Emphasis on connections with world system.
Social Science or Humanities? Should Anthropology Be . . .
A quest for empathic understanding? An interpretive endeavor to shed light on how others view the world? A quest to provide explanations for why people act the way they do? A scientific endeavor to reveal regularities and generalizations about the human condition?
Fieldwork in the Colonial Era (E. E. Evans-Pritchard)
Anthropology and Colonialism: British conquest of Sudan. Nuer unknown and antagonistic. Govt. commissions study by anthropologist. Goal: to reveal Nuer system of governance so they can be better controlled. Research Obstacles: Servants from other groups hesitant to work among their former enemies. Communication (lacked interpreter; had to learn difficult language). Treated with suspicion (British colonial rep.). Major Finding Used genealogical method to reveal kinship basis of Nuer political organization.
Anthropology Today
Anthropology used to combine rather than separate sub-disciplines. E.g., Boas challenged a cultural issue (racism) using tools of physical anthropology (anthropometry). Nowadays the sub-disciplines operate more or less independent from each other. An Exception: Biocultural approaches study relationship between culture and human biology. Adaptation: The processes by which organisms cope with environmental stresses. Can have biological and/or cultural dimensions.
Julian Steward's Cultural Ecology
Concern with grand theories (rejected since time of Boas). Economic and social organization results from using specific technology to exploit particular environment. Importance of the natural environment in shaping core features of culture. Approach of Cultural Ecology Study the organization of subsistence production, including division of labor, organization and timing of work. Study how economic behavior and social organization are shaped by and adapted to specific ecological conditions. Case Study: Shoshone of the Great Basin Socially fragmenting effect of cultural ecology. Family level of social organization due to pursuit of highly dispersed food source. "First come, first served" rights to resources. Cooperation and leadership emerge only in limited contexts (communal hunts)
Racial Theories and Anthropometrics
Cranial dimensions reflect racial differences. Assumption that such traits are biologically determined, hence, races are "fixed" categories. Assumed connections between "race" and intelligence, aptitude, etc.
The Aims of Ethnology (Franz Boas)
Critiques superficial accounts of other people that were subsequently used to generate early theories about human differences. Provides rational for why it is important to carefully and systematically study other people. Develops the concept of ethnocentrism. Argues that close study of other societies reveals: All groups of people have definite religious ideas and traditions, make inventions, have customary laws that govern behavior. "If we attempt to interpret the actions of our remote ancestors by our rational and emotional attitudes, we cannot reach truthful results, for their feeling and thinking was different from ours."
Cumulative Causation
Culture influences, but does not determine, the behaviors of individuals; most people do not blindly follow cultural norms and rules. Cultural rules are subject to interpretation, manipulation, and contestation. Cumulative effect = continuous culture change.
Welsch and Vivanco Define Culture
Culture is "the processes through which people in social groups collectively construct or accept certain ways of thinking and acting such that they feel 'natural,' that is, obvious, appropriate, or even necessary." Culture is learned, shared, dynamic, and shapes people's lives. Culture depends on symbols; symbols embody and transmit culture (from Geertz)
Culture is Dynamic
Cultures are integrated, patterned systems. If one part of the system changes, other parts change as well.
Boas' Historical Particularism
Cultures can only be understood with reference to their particular historical developments. No general theories (e.g., evolution, diffusion) can explain processes of culture change. Every culture is unique and must be studied in terms of its uniqueness (precursor to cultural relativism).
Summarizing Fieldwork
Fieldwork involves living in a community under study, forming meaningful and complex relationships with subjects of research, deploying multiple methods to gather data, and reciprocating.
Gender and Enculturation
How do boys and girls learn what constitutes proper behavior for their respective genders? How is gendered behavior instilled through play?
How Did Anthropology Begin?
Industrialization: Rapid social changes prompts new questions about nature of society. Theory of Evolution: From biological to social theories to explain human differences. Colonialism: Need to govern other people as an incentive to study them.
Intersubjectivity
Intersubjective: "existing between conscious minds; shared by more than one conscious mind." Anthropological data is the product of relationships between researcher and research participants ("informants"). Observations and understandings are neither subjective nor objective. "Knowledge about other people emerges out of relationships individuals have with each other."
Course Objectives
Introduce basic concepts of anthropology. Introduce basic methodologies used by anthropologists (how we gather data). Increase your understanding of and appreciation for cultural diversity. Provide some analytical tools for understanding behaviors. Show how anthropologists and anthropological knowledge can have positive impacts in the world.
Participant Observation
Live in the community under study. Learn the local vernacular. Learn how to behave in an appropriate manner. Gather data through observation, conversation, etc. Participant observation is not used as the sole method for gathering data to answer a research question. Participant observation is used for gaining a basic understanding of the society being studied so that the researcher knows what types of questions to ask, and how to ask them. Gathering data that, in conjunction with other data, can be used to generate insights.
Social Darwinism and Racial Theories
Racial groups classified from primitive to civilized. Some races deemed inferior to others ("biological determinism"). Justification for social stratification.
Using your Cultural Knowledge
Recognizing cultural universals (children at play, humor) Recognizing cultural differences (language, clothing)
Sociolinguistics
Relationships between social variations (ethnicity, status, gender, etc.) and linguistic variations (dialect, slang, tone, etc.). Style Shifts Using different variations of a language depending on the social context. Choice of words, intonation, and body gestures influenced by status of speaker and listener. Can be conscious or unconscious. Important social skill - those who are adept can maneuver through complex society. Discordance and Social Disruption: Failure to follow expected norms can cause problems. Diglossia Many languages have several dialects. "High" = more formal; usage signals higher education and/or social class. "Low" = less formal; usage signals lower education and/or social class. Speech & Social Stratification People associate speech patterns with social, political, and economic status. Speech patterns of some groups associated with lack of education/sophistication. Sociolinguistic discrimination: using linguistic features as evaluator of competence. Symbolic Capital (Bourdieu) Skillful use of linguistic practices can be converted into social and economic benefits. Values of dialects vary - using some enhances access to resources (e.g. jobs, bank loans, networks of people). Some dialects are stigmatized and considered markers of inferiority. BEV (Black English Vernacular) AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) A distinct dialect of English. Has own phonological rules and syntax. Has lower Symbolic Capital than SE (Standard English). Users regularly engage in Code Switching: where individuals in multilingual (or multi-dialect) settings switch language usage according to social context.
Culture is Shared
Shared beliefs, values, memories, and expectations link people who grow up in the same culture
Social Darwinism
Some societies are more fit than others. Justification for European powers to dominate other societies (a moral imperative).
Meeting the "Godfather" (John Osburg)
Study of gender and masculinity in elite male network (businessmen, underground, politicians). Fieldwork in places where elite males socialize and solidify relationships to facilitate business. "Studying Up" (Hugh Gusterson) Ethnography traditionally involves power asymmetry between researcher and subjects. What happens when the ethnographer is in the less powerful position? Key Question: How can anthropologists study processes of economic and political domination? How can anthropologists study elites? Accessing Elites: Issues Gatekeepers: livelihood on the line if the wrong person gets through. Time: elites are busy, reluctant to devote adequate time to researcher. Secrecy: more disincentives than incentives for elite to allow outsider into the inner sanctum. Participant Observation Defining methodology of anthropology "does not travel well up the social ladder." Participant observation works well in some contexts (village society, ritual activity, etc). How to use participant observation when studying corporate/political elites? What are you observing? Where? How do you gain access? Ethnographic Seduction The allure of acceptance; the thrill of becoming accepted. The Dilemma: risk of becoming too close to and sympathetic with subjects. Problematic when studying groups that engage in violent or illegal activities. Risk legitimizing such activities at the expense of more critical perspective. Marginal or Powerful? How to portray Fatty? An ex-peasant struggling against unjust system (the "righteous bandit")? An integral part of the violent side of state domination and accumulation? Does a stance of empathic understanding (or cultural relativism) risk humanizing and rationalizing violence and corruption?
Culture Uses Symbols
Symbol: Something verbal or non-verbal, within a particular language or culture, that comes to stand for something else. Cultural learning depends on symbols (signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they stand for or signify).
Cultural Relativism
The moral and intellectual principle that one should withhold judgement about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices. Dilemma: Should we accept all cultural practices on grounds that we should not judge others according to own standards? Does cultural relativism compromise one's ability to make moral judgments?
Anthropology Defined (Welsch and Vivanco)
The study of human beings, their biology, their prehistory and histories, and their changing languages, cultures, and social institutions.
Culture is . . .
Transmitted through learning (enculturation). Influences thoughts and actions. Helps us make sense of the world.
Boas' Critique of Diffusionism
Unsubstantiated Hypothesis: historical changes in cultural life are the result of contact between more and less "civilized" peoples. Must assume migration/contact over enormous geographical areas (e.g., Egypt and Mexico 2,500 years ago). Ignores possibility of independent invention.
Lee (C): Eating Christmas in the Kalihari
!Kung bushmen, christmas ox, cattle, money, love meat and fat, tension, disaster feast, fat ox, skinny ox, different meaning of christmas and mordbid talking, no generosity, all calculated
Culture Defined
". . . that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." (Tylor, 1871).
Situating the Anthropologist: Points to Ponder
Acceptance, rapport, access to information, etc. facilitated or inhibited by characteristics of the ethnographer. Many variables to consider: Age, gender, linguistic skills, education level, ethnicity, country of citizenship, etc. Some are invariable (gender). Some change during fieldwork (linguistic skills). Some change over career (age). Because all data is filtered through the lens of the individual anthropologist, it is critical to understand: How personal attributes "situate" the anthropologist within research setting. How personal attributes can both help and hinder the research process.
Foraging (Hunter-Gatherers)
Adaptive strategy for most of human history. Remained until recently in areas where food production is difficult (e.g., northern Canada, Kalahari Desert). Characteristics of Foraging: Little or no domestication of plants or animals. High mobility, travelling to food sources. Low population density. Egalitarian (minimal social stratification - see Lee "Eating Christmas"). Men hunt; women gather.
Heliocentric Diffusion
All cultural traits originate from a single source (e.g., ancient Egypt).
McGee and Warms: Nineteenth Century Evolutionism
Anthropology in 1800s Interest in the exotic degenerationism, progressivism explain the nature and course of social evolution Biology and evolution: Linnaeus, Lamarck, Darwin --> spencer brought evo to social, the social org. (survival of the fittest) Continued toward perfection Morgan and Tylor: psychic unity and unilineal evo. Comparative method: living fossils Marx and Engels influence
Textbook 1 anthropology
Anthropology, industrialization, evolution, empirical, colonialism, salvage paradigm, cultural, archaeology, biological, linguistic, culture, ethnocentrism, diversity, cultural relativism, holism, science, theory, quant and qual, ethnographic, comparative method, applied anthro, ethics
The Comparative Method
Assumption 1: psychic unity of mankind - humans everywhere think alike. Assumption 2: all societies undergo parallel but independent evolutionary stages. Step 1: Place all societies on a scale from "primitive" to civilized". Step 2: Analyze "living fossils" (the so-called primitive societies) as evidence of previous evolutionary stages. Step 3: Compare institutions (e.g. political systems, kinship, religion) to understand evolutionary trajectory from primitive to civilized.
Geertz (C): Deep Play Balinese Cockfight
Bali cockfight with wife, see it everywhere cockfights are illegal drinking and vices still go on, but secret Cops arrive, will Geertz run? yes! whoa! they were hidden, world became new for them To be teased or accepted
The Gym: Place of Bodily-Regimes Training, Dieting, and Doping (Barland)
Barland's Agenda Focus on the gym as an arena where the modern body takes shape. How are training, dieting, and doping used by individuals to create a "modern body"? What social process are associated with training, dieting, and doping to generate a meaningful way of life? The Study Participant Observation at bodybuilder gyms and public competitions. In-depth Interviews With key informants, i.e., top-ranked bodybuilders in the gyms. Gym Culture is Shared Acceptance contingent on being active partner in the training, dieting, and doping regime. Climbing social hierarchy contingent on commitment, knowledge acquisition, and participation in competitions. Self-discipline as core value: success contingent on balancing training, resting, dieting, and hormone intake. Three Interrelated Elements Training: Systematic to develop all muscle groups. Expression of character, will, and self-discipline. Dieting: Strategic, thorough planning. Dual intent to build muscle and reduce fat during "defining" period. Doping: Enhancement rather than a substitute for training. Perceived as positive application of scientific knowledge (disregarding health consequences). Insights Constructing self-identity through methodical, meticulous self-discipline of the body. Individualistic pursuit (self-identity) done as member of a tight-knit community (sharing of knowledge, techniques, and results).
Structured Interviewing: Genealogical Method
Basic data gathered thru demographic survey. Construct "family trees" to map relationships. Kinship system illuminate basis of political organization, population growth, settlement expansion, etc.
Barland: The Gym
Body and society, constructed fieldwork and observation, closeness mirrors, posing, meaning, definition, ceremony, accept the rules Training: self-discipline, commitment, knowledge, contact and pump Diet: strategic, patterned logic Doping: communicated, focused, maintained, believed in, product of science Modern arena for identity-constructing processes
Subject, Method, and Scope (Bronislaw Malinowski)
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942): Polish by birth. Trained & taught at London School of Economics. "Exiled" to Melanesia during WWI. Argonauts of the Western Pacific as landmark that established participant observation as key method, and major contribution to economic anthropology. Problems Western residents (colonial administrators, missionaries) ignorant of native culture. Ethnocentric attitudes, highly biased accounts. Pidgin English insufficient for expressing or understanding cultural perspectives. The Ethnographer's Magic: Foundations Live with the natives. Get to know them as companions and informants. Get to know daily routines (observe the "imponderables of everyday life"). Acquire "the feeling" for proper behavior. Establish trust and rapport. Become part of the landscape (less reflexivity). Develop empathic understanding of native life. Look for, and document, order and structure where others see disorder and chaos. Malinowski on the Kula Ring Ceremonial gift exchange network. Items continually passed along. Items tie people into enduring trade relationships. Possessing items enhances individual's status. Demonstrated function of what appeared to outsiders as irrational exchange of "worthless items". Malinowski's Impact Trobriand Islands 1914-1918 (longer fieldwork that any predecessor). First to conduct research using local language. First to conduct research while living in the community under study. London School of Economics: trained a generation of anthropologists (e.g. Evans-Pritchard) and instilled new methodological rigor.
Boas 1 (C): The Methods of Ethnology
Changes in study of people's histories one fundamental hypothesis: wrong tendency to deny unilineal evolution Origin through diffusion, etc. American anthro is different Cultural problems are not just historical Primitive society is not savage Data is harder to get: therefore important Problem of relation of individual to society We try to develop a study of the dynamic changes in society no psychic unity long continued stability is wrong, it's dynamic parallelisms do occur development of rationality Freud sucks, its a crock of poop (one-sided)
Kluckhorn (C): Queer Customs
Chinese milk, japan and death Culture defined: total life way of a people/social legacy/part of environment that man made People try to understand themselves better Plural wives!?! Chinese man, rattlesnakes? Navajo and incest No such thing as raw human nature there is no either or between nature and culture Innate endowments of babies are mod. by culture Culture channels biological processes Its a way of thinking/feeling: culture is a theory/abstraction and therefore not society Pooled learning humans are human, and lots of variation, sex, selection, learned, regulation, set of techniques, elaboration, functional key, set in history, like a map Culture is created everywhere
Notes on a Balinese Cockfight (Clifford Geertz)n
Clifford Geertz: Major proponent of Interpretive Anthropology. Goals: to demonstrate how seemingly irrational institutions and practices actually have a cultural logic; to provide reader with an "empathic understanding" of another society. Entering the Field: Upon entering the village, "we were nonpersons, specters, invisible men." How do you cross the "moral or metaphysical shadow line" between being ignored (a non-person) and accepted (a member of society)? Acceptance: Dramatic event allowed Geertz to establish the "mysterious necessity of anthropological field work" - rapport. Rapport = relation, especially one that is harmonious or sympathetic. Impact of Geertz's Narrative: Self-reflexive style of ethnographic writing was uncommon at the time. Henceforth, the "ethnographic vignette" becomes standard formula for starting an ethnographic account.
Language, Race, and White Public Space (Hill)
Code-Switching (Hill's usage) The use of more than one language concurrently in a conversation. Pattern of linguistic usage typical among multilingual people. Language, Race, and White Public Space Inner Sphere: blurred boundaries (Spanish/English). Speakers engage in extensive "code-switching" (mixing English and Spanish). Outer Sphere: pressure to keep languages "in order." "Failure" of linguistic order (e.g., engaging in code-switching) becomes marker of "race". Using Spanish (Hispanic Americans): "outer sphere" as site of racialization. Spanish with non-peers marks one as different and dangerous. Using Mock Spanish (White Americans): "inner sphere" as site of racialization. Spanish with peers marks one as congenial and worldly. Mock Spanish Semantic Pejoration (a change of meaning for the worse: adiós, hasta la vista). Obscene words for euphemisms (Casa de Pee-Pee, Caca de Toro). Suffixes and modifiers to create pejorative forms (el cheap o, el presidente). Hyperanglicized representations of words (grassy-ass, Fleas Navidad) "Racial" Dimensions of Mock Spanish Direct Indexicality: indexes that are understood (e.g. "I'll do it mañana" signals you as congenial, down-to-earth, folksy person.). Indirect Indexicality: reliance on stereotypes (typically negative) to make sense. Hill's Argument: Mock Spanish is racial discourse by directly indexing congeniality of speaker while indirectly indexing negative stereotypes.
Harris (C): The Potlatch
Competitive feasting where you give or destroy more material wealth than your rival, boas found...its a rational response to exonomic and social forces ith many facts in life
Charles Darwin (1809-82):
Concept of natural selection. Some variations more beneficial for survival and reproduction than others (long-term adaptation).
Culture and Body Image
Cultural notions of the body shape daily behaviors and domestic organization (Miner). Culturally defined notions of beauty change over time and vary cross-culturally. Culture influences how we perceive our bodies and natural abilities (Barland).
Diffusion:
Cultural traits originate in one area and then spread to other areas.
Culture Circles:
Cultural traits originated at multiple sources.
How Does Culture Change?
Culture and the Individual: Concept to explain cultural change within a society. Culture regulates our lives - constant pressure to follow certain behaviors. Cultural rules are subject to interpretation, manipulation, and contestation.
Culture and Nature Summary
Culture influences how we perceive our bodies and natural abilities. Examples: rituals associated with grooming, notions of skin color and attractiveness, sculpting muscular bodies. Culture takes natural processes we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways. Examples: moving about, death, eating.
Culture and Food
Culture influences what you should and shouldn't eat, when you should eat, where you should eat, with whom you should eat, how you should eat.
Culture and Nature Kottak
Culture takes natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways. (Kottak)
Diffusion and Acculturation: Concepts to explain cultural exchanges between societies.
Diffusion Borrowing between cultures either directly or through intermediaries. Acculturation The exchange of cultural features (e.g., language, clothing) that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct. Reconfigurations Cultures contain complex arrays of beliefs, symbols, practices, traditions, etc. Any cultural trait that is borrowed will be adapted and modified to fit the new context. What looks similar from the outside can have very different meanings and associations.
Ethical Responsibilities in Anthropology
Do No Harm. Clearly explain objectives of study. Obtain informed consent, protect identities of participants. To Whom Are Anthropologists Responsible? First and foremost, to the people they study. What are the potential consequences (positive and negative) of the research? Reciprocity. Ethical obligation to give back.
Malinowski (C): Subject, Method, Scope of Inquiry
PNG, trade routes vs. industry Methods of studying the PNG Kula: lived there to get actual experience (no mystery) Imagine yourself in the village, trying to enter, people confused, whites not helpful, south coast Proper conditions, plunging Spread his nuts in the right place - not missionary, fetishism, savages more method: treated as subordinates, sketch results
Fieldwork on Prostitution (Claire Sterk)
Participant Observation Does not mean one participates and observes all aspects of subjects' lives. Sterk did not become a prostitute to understand the lives of prostitutes. The anthropologist doesn't have to "go native" to study another society. Relationships and Trust (Rapport) Sterk adopts a stance of cultural relativism. Does not "judge" the actions of the women. Tries to understand the lives of prostitutes through their own eyes. Expresses genuine interest in their lives. Passes tests to see if she keeps information confidential (what is said in confidential interviews remains confidential). Empathic Understanding By hanging out with and interviewing prostitutes (participant observation), Sterk gains empathic understanding of their lives. Giving Back (Reciprocity) Provided Services: childcare, car rides, groceries. Provided Information: how to protect oneself from HIV. Provided Goods: condoms, gels, feminine products.
Summarizing Participant Observation
Participant Observation is the defining methodology of Cultural Anthropology. Participant Observation can be used in any setting. The strategic choice of a social role influences one's access to information.
Food Production
Pastoralism Dependence on herds of domesticated animals. Heavy reliance on animal products for food (dairy, meat, blood). Diet supplemented by hunting, fishing, foraging, and trading (inter-dependence w/agriculturalists). Nomadism: Movement of entire group throughout the year (no permanent settlements). Transhumance: part of group moves with herd, part stays in village (agro-pastoral subsistence strategy). Horticulture ("Shifting Cultivation") No intensive usage of any means (factors) of production (land, labor, capital, or machinery). Simple technology. "Slash & Burn" with long fallows. Intensive Agriculture Soil Preparation: Regular weeding, mulching, and fertilizing. Technology: More complex tools (harnesses, pumps, threshers, etc.) Domesticated Animals: Fertilizer and power for plowing. Larger Labor Force: More people needed to farm each unit of land. Water Management: Terracing, irrigating, water diversion systems. Continuous Land Use: Multi-cropping, limited fallowing. Plant Modification: Selective breeding to increase yields, reduce time to mature, etc. From Horticulture to Intensive Agriculture New Labor Requirements: Fertilizing, Terracing, Plowing, Irrigating, Weeding Overall Effects: Work more hours, decreasing marginal returns (doubling work time does not double crop yield!) Industrial Agriculture Land, labor, seeds, and water as commodities obtained on the open market. Heavy reliance on machines and fuels. Monocropping for sale rather than personal consumption.
Studying culture summary
Patterns of behavior are a product of enculturation and shared cultural values. Patterns of behavior vary cross-culturally. To best understand another culture: o Reject naïve realism (belief that meanings of concepts are the same everywhere). o Reject ethnocentrism (belief that the values of your own culture are superior to those of others). o Adopt a stance of methodological cultural relativism (study how people in that culture explain and ascribe significance to their own beliefs and behaviors).
The Methods of Ethnology (Franz Boas)
Physicist turned geographer (Berlin). Developed interest in studying culture. Professor of Anthro, Columbia Univ, 1899. Helped develop anthropology as a methodologically rigorous field of inquiry. Proponent of fieldwork. Rejection of arm-chair approaches. Critiqued grand theories on race, social evolution, and cultural determinism.
What Makes Cultural Anthropology Unique?
Psychologists, Economists, Sociologists, and Political Scientists also study human societies.
Body Rituals of the Nacerima (Minor)
Purpose of Article: Document unusual magical beliefs and practices of poorly understood group with a highly developed market economy. Focus of ritual activity is the body. Belief System: The body is ugly. Tendency to debilitate and decay. Ritual behavior to combat ugliness and decay.
Rapport Talk and Report Talk (Tannen)
Rapport Talk Lean in, touch, eye contact, intimate postures. Women use language and body movements to build rapport (social connections) with each other. Report Talk Distance, no touching, look elsewhere, defensive postures. Men make reports (recite information) to establish a hierarchy and relative ranks among themselves. Insights from Tannen Men use talking to get and hold attention and to establish a hierarchy. Women use talking to establish rapport and build social relations. Outcome: men more quiet in domestic domain (with wife), more talkative in public domain (at party).
Political Ecology
Relationships between humans and their environment cannot be understood without considering inequalities of power and wealth produced by the global economy. Most widely used approach in environmental anthropology since the 1990s. Ok Tedi Mine (Papua New Guinea) One of world's largest open pit copper mines. Joint effort: international corporations and PNG government. Lifespan: 1980s - 2025. Immediate Local Impacts Economic Benefits: land lease, employment, skills, infrastructure development. Social Detriments: dietary changes, drinking and fighting, prostitution, sexually transmitted infections. Downstream Impacts Chemical pollutants destroy fish and wildlife (Ok Tedi creates biologically "dead" river). Chemical pollutants cause health problems. Mine tailings and excess sedimentation overflows banks, destroys forests. Political Ecology How do inequalities of power and wealth threaten the sovereignty and livelihoods of indigenous peoples? Why are international companies allowed to engage in harmful practices in PNG that are strictly prohibited in their own countries?
Surveys
Same question asked of everybody. Answers can be categorized or quantified. How old are you? Do you consider yourself a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Other? On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate your health? Statistical Data from Surveys • Contextual background information. Snapshot of present (cross-sectional data). Change over time (longitudinal data). Reveals more about what is happening than about why it is happening.
In-Depth Interviewing
Semi-Structured Interviewing Use of an "interview schedule". Everybody asked same questions. Asking same questions facilitates comparison (e.g., differences by gender? By age? By wealth?) Guided yet flexible. People express answers in own terms yet tangents are sometimes important. Key Cultural Consultants ("Key Informants") Somebody with especially good knowledge about a particular aspect of life. Interviewed in-depth and repeatedly.
Advantages of Long-Term Fieldwork
Social Relationships Get to know broader range of individuals (more representative view of society). Increasing rapport (thru familiarity and friendship) results in more reliable data. Long-Term (Longitudinal) Perspective Witnessing constraints and opportunities that shape people's lives. Repeat visits allow you to carefully document changes over time. First visit: collect benchmark data against which future changes can be assessed. How can you tell what is changing, at what rate it is changing, why it is changing, and what impacts those changes are having if you have no starting benchmark?
The Active Participant Observer (Jeffrey Johnson et al.)
Social Roles and Fieldwork Acceptance, rapport, access to information, etc. can be facilitated or inhibited by the social role an ethnographer adopts in the field. What social role will you assume in fieldwork? How will that role affect rapport? Access to information? Nature of interactions with subjects? Some Criteria to Consider Freedom of social movement. Type of informant relations. Type of information that can be accessed. Information reliability. Degree of power and autonomy associated with a particular role. Jeffrey Johnson: Study of migratory commercial fishermen. What social position in the camp maximizes chances to collect data from all sectors of the community? Jack Weatherford: Study of urban red-light district. Pornography store: site of legal activities (adult novelty sales) and illegal activities (prostitution, gambling, drug sales). What position maximizes access to diverse people and knowledge of diverse activities? Christine Avenarius: How do you study a "community" of immigrants that lives dispersed across a major metropolitan area? What social position maximizes ability to study such a community? The Point Participant observation involves strategic choices to occupy specific social roles. Good choices facilitate rapport, neutrality, access to information, data reliability, etc. Bad choices compromise validity of a study
Cronk: Gardening Tips
Social engineering is taboo, gardening is better Cultural determinism -> wisdom --> race relations...can be taken too far Female circumcision story in Africa...if strictly cultural relativist you will tolerate/support this Explaining behavior =/= justifying behavior maybe replace it with something moral Biology is great to start but theres so much more Fact of many different moral models suggests cultural relativism has promise 1) stop thinking culture as homogenous 2) culture traits are not right-bearing entities Don't violate rights 3) we need to foster social sciences in the other sciences
Focal Vocabulary
Specialized sets of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups. E.g., Inuit terms for snow; Mongol terms for horse; professional chefs' terms for knives.
Ethnoecology:
Study of knowledge and beliefs about nature that are held in a particular culture. Ethnobotany (indigenous knowledge of plants). Ethnozoology (indigenous knowledge of animals). Methodology focuses on taxonomies (ways people name and classify plants, animals, medicinal substances, soils, etc.). Importance of Ethnoecology "Traditional environmental knowledge is a body of knowledge that is extensive, observationally grounded, and complementary to scientific knowledge." (Townsend p.20) How to use such knowledge when addressing contemporary issues? Harold Conklin's Ethnoecological Approach to Shifting Cultivation ("Slash and Burn") Context: development in the Philippines, denigration of swidden agriculture. Reversing the equation: The problem is not swidden cultivators' lack of knowledge about the environment. The problem is our lack of knowledge of swidden cultivators. Conklin's Swidden Studies Empirical research revealed detailed, nuanced environmental knowledge. Documented botanical knowledge (local knowledge of plants exceeds scientists' taxonomic knowledge). Documented soil knowledge (10 basic and 30 derivative soil categories; plus familiarity with which crops grow best in different soil types). Myth Reality Swidden farming is a haphazard procedure involving little planning or knowledge. Swidden farming follows a locally determined, well-defined pattern and requires constant attention throughout most of the year. Usually, and preferably, swiddens are cleared in virgin forest (rather than in areas of secondary growth). Result = tremendous loss of valuable timber. When possible, people prefer to make swidden fields in second-growth forest (rather than in primary forests).
Ethnography and Culture (Spradley)
Studying Culture Reject "Naïve Realism" (ethnocentrism without value judgment, see Bohannan). The idea that all people define the world of objects, events, and concepts the same way. o Does "love" have the same meaning in all societies? o Does "death" have the same meaning in all societies? Understand three aspects of human experience: o What people do (cultural behavior). o What people know (cultural knowledge). o Things people make and use (cultural artifacts). For Spradley culture = cultural knowledge. "the acquired knowledge [thru enculturation] people use to interpret experience and generate behavior."
Raising the Curtain (Childs)
Tashi Döndrup as Key Cultural Consultant: Fictive kinship relationship (ajo/nuwo), social link to others, insights on local life, research facilitator, friend. Gaining Rapport The narrative: "We'll pretend you are a monk and hide you." The reality: Long-term residence on their terms leads to respect and acceptance. Empathic Understanding Being aware of, sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another. A goal of anthropology that is achieved through fieldwork.
Sacred/Spiritual Ecology
Terms used to describe research on the connection between religious beliefs/practices and the environment. Natural Environmentalists? Indigenous peoples often have beliefs, practices, and cultural mechanisms that help protect the environment. What are some of those beliefs? How are they used in modern environmental movements? What happens when indigenous agendas clash with state or corporate agendas? Shielding the Mountains (a film by Emily Yeh and Kunga Lama) Tibetan and Buddhist Concepts Physical and cultural realms inter-connected. Connection between environmental health and individual well-being. Different Approach. Western: designate certain areas for protection. Tibetan: all places worthy of protection. Shielding the Mountains Indigenous concept promoted by Buddhist clerics for centuries: restrictions on cutting trees (protecting forests), restrictions on digging up the land (mining), hunting prohibitions (protecting wildlife), showing reverence to spirits associated with mountains, streams, and springs (water as essential resource). The Container (Environment) and Its Contents (Living Beings) Ensuring harmony between the environment and life forms it supports. Spiritual Ecology / Political Ecology The state controls access to resources (forests, mining, wildlife). Big $$$ and power connected to resources. Locals have little power to limit environmental destruction ("injuring the land") except through environmental activism. But indigenous knowledge devalued as "religious activity." The state can view environmental activism as ethnic activism.
Ethnocentrism
The assumption that one's own way of doing things is correct, while dismissing other people's practices or views as wrong or ignorant. The tendency to view one's own culture as superior. Ethnocentrism is an obstacle to cross-cultural understanding.
Guiding Concept: Cultural Landscape
The culturally specific images, knowledge, and concepts of the physical landscape that help shape human relations with that landscape. An important concept for addressing the big questions of Environmental Anthropology.
Fieldwork and Data Quality
The more familiar the researcher becomes with local culture, language, and behavioral norms, the better access she gains. Result = better data.
Enculturation
The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted (within generations, across generations, or across societies).
Linguistic Anthropology
The study of how people communicate verbally and non-verbally, and how language usage shapes group membership and identity.
Biological (Physical) Anthropology
The study of human and primate evolution and physiological adaptation over space and time
Ecosystems Approach
The study of interactions within a community of species (including humans) and the biophysical environment. Goal is to map flows of information, energy, and matter. What factors contribute to maintaining homeostatis? What factors contribute to transforming the system? Roy Rappaport's Ecosystems Approach Tracking flows of energy through the system. Isolated, closed feedback system in equilibrium. Self-regulating, sustainable. Systemic Integration Human-environment equilibrium disrupted when pigs become too numerous. Human-environment equilibrium reestablished by slaughtering pigs (ecological dimension). Temporary cessation of warfare for feasting and exchange (social dimension). Coordinated through ritual activities (religious dimension). Critiques of Rappaport Not most efficient means to distribute animal protein (nutritionists' perspective). Closed system is unrealistic assumption (geographic perspective). Homeostasis assumption problematic due to short time frame (historical perspective). Response: Movement away from studying systems in equilibrium to systems in flux. Rappaport's Lasting Contribution "Ritual actions do not produce a practical result on the external world - that is one of the reasons we call them rituals." (Homans) Rituals have measurable material effects in ecosystems. They can regulate domestic animal populations, frequency of warfare, ratio of land to people, distribution of food, etc.
Archaeology
The study of past societies by uncovering and investigating the remains they left behind
Cultural Anthropology
The study of the social lives of living communities
Environmental Anthropology
The use of anthropology's methods and theories to contribute to the understanding of local or global environmental problems.
Evans-Pritchard 1 (C): Fieldwork and the Empirical Tradition
Theory vs. Experience: systematic or popular Speculations of the primitive man are widespread Theory is key, got more knowledge of the far east = this was wrong mostly ok but anthropologists must actually go out (thx boas) at start it was rocky, but it got better when people became the focus of study Malinowski went a step further in fieldwork, small scale but thorough: EEEP gonna lay it down Two years in the field, multiple societies is preferrable, certain conditions are key, hurried, not just physical but psychological, all alone, native language, study the Whole life and society Depends on the anthropologist himself, just finds it, writes in a certain way (not everyone agrees)
Boas' Critique of Unilineal Social Evolution
Unsubstantiated Hypothesis: Historical changes in cultural life follow definite laws which apply to every society. Cultural similarities can arise through diffusion, adaptation to similar environments, and/or historical accident.
W and V enviro
Welsch and Vivanco's Questions How do people secure an environmentally sustainable food supply? o By organizing their society into small bands to minimize impact on resources (Steward's Shoshone example). o By cooperating via ritual coordination (Lansing's Bali example; Rappaport's New Guinea example). o By exploiting niches and trading goods and services between groups (Barth's Swat example). How is non-Western environmental knowledge similar to and different from science? o Similar: swidden farmers empirical knowledge of soils and biodiversity (Cronk example). o Different: Tibetan concept of interconnection between natural world, human activities, and spirit world (Yeh and Lama example). How is globalization linked to increasing environmental and health problems? o Ok Tedi mine improves the lives of some while creating immense problems for others (Kirsch example).
Combining Research Methods (Childs)
What kind of research lies behind the writing of this brief (4 page) episode? Structured Interview. Demographic survey to provide empirical perspective on infant mortality. Participant Observation. First-hand witness to demographic events (births, deaths) as they unfold. In-Depth Interviews. Explore cultural perspectives on what demographic events (death) mean in the eyes of the actors themselves. Genealogical Method. Reveals the importance of Shiri Ngadag lineage; helps explain social importance of ill son. Archival Research. Studying the ritual text provides insights into local conceptions of illness and healing
Forest Development the Indian Way (Richard Reed)
Who Are the Guaraní? Roughly 80,000 people living in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina. Lowland South American Tropical Ecosystem Biodiversity (75% of known plant species). Interdependence of plant species: woven together in tightly integrated ecosystem. Very fragile due to soil conditions. Guaraní Mode of Subsistence Three main activities: horticulture (slash and burn), hunting and fishing, agroforestry (yerba mate). Limited exploitation allows forests to recover. Yerba Maté Ilex paraguariensis. Shrub native to South America. Leaves used to make beverage that is a mild stimulant. For centuries, yerba mate has linked Guaraní to global economy. Indigenous Knowledge Guaraní understand interdependence of species and fragility of system. Food production mimics forest ecosystem: plants intercropped to help each other grow. Practices ensure livelihood and ecosystem sustainability. The Impact of Unsustainable Development National policy to expand agriculture for export. Roads cut through forest (transportation, military). Loggers come first: cut paths to trees. Forest divided into plots, given to settlers who use logging trails to establish farms on more fertile lands, ranches on less fertile lands. Pace of clearing forests accelerates. Impacts: Livelihood Loss of forest = loss of foraging, dependence on farming. Loss of yerba mate, must plant cash crops. Loss of fallowing time denudes soils. Impacts: Health Settlers brought new diseases to which Guaraní had little resistance. Despair, alcoholism, depression, suicide. Impacts: Social Institutions Disrupting family life and community cohesion: men move for wage labor. Dispersion made it impossible to gather people for rituals and communal events. Development and Ecology High initial yields are deceiving. Forest clearing creates long-term problems. Soil loses fertility and erodes. Agroforestry as Sustainable Development? Environmental Perpetuity: long-term maintenance of biodiversity. Economic Rationality: can generate better long-term profits than monocrop agriculture and ranching. Social Justice: allow indigenous people opportunity to make a living and maintain their society and culture. Ecological Footprint A quantitative tool that measures what people consume and the waste they produce. Includes "hidden costs" like pollution, energy usage. A measure of the biologically productive land and water needed to support those people
Queer Customs (Kluckhohn)
Why Do People Differ? Destined by God or fate to different habits? Because of climate differences? Because of biological differences? "because they were brought up that way." Key Distinction *Society*: group of people who interact more with each other than with others. *Culture*: Distinctive ways of life of such a group of people. Kluckhohn on Culture Every human being is imbued with culture ("to be human is to be cultured"). "The total life way of a people, the social legacy the individual acquires from his group." A way of thinking, feeling, and believing acquired by the individual as a member of a group. Culture "constitutes a kind of blueprint for all of life's activities."
Fricke: Imagining Yhebe
Yhebe was a key informant, always an unseen presence in his journals, never really alone, rumors, travelling, now he's old, he used to be a curer, second time he went back he wrote about him a lot, his life history, changes in Timling, talk in memories, irony that it depends on people but doesnt mention them, with gangs growing he couldn't find Yhebe, went to jail and bailed out, reunion
Hill: Language, Race, and White Public Space
anthro starts in racism and antiracism, its a central topic, education to combat the ignorance, demonstrate the equality of different forms of language, built an analysis, Spanish has outer and inner, specific with accents...puerto ricans have the outside as key for racializaiton, where americans are in the inner sphere, worried about how white they sound, so they code switch all the time, mock spanish is bad, indirect indexicality, covert racism, hate speech or not, makes whites seem worldly whereas hispanics lazy, making whites the norm, homogenous heterogeniety of white space crossover can be good or bad, so can mock forms make the order weird? crossing
Textbook 3 linguistic anthro
call systems, philophy, proto-language, cognate words, descriptive lingustics, stops, sociolingusitics, linguistic relativity, ethnoscience, creole, pidgin, language ideology
Godden-Bryson: Misplaced Matter
cambodian dump, trash heap, matter out of place?, migrant waste pickers, get money, waste as ore, transformation, recucling, getting value, matter misplaced
Bourgois: Crack in Inner City Harlem
crack, policemen, crack addicts, search for meaning, culutre of poverty, enthographic vignette, understand culture ,personal failure, cultural reproduction theory, white man, culture of terror, violence, reputation, pursuing the american dream, discuss not justify
Miner (C): Ritual among the Nacirema
diversity of ways, Nacirema, ugly bodies, shrines, chest, charms, font, magic, mouth-men, personality structure, latipso, listener, excretion clearly magic-ridden people
Textbook 2 culture
enculturation, symbols, interpretive theory of culture, cross-cultural perspective, cultural constructions, cultural determinism, values, norms, social sanction, customs, tradition, social institutions, functionalism, holistic perspective, cultural appropriation
Johnson: Active PO
ethnography is widespread, has problems scary as you're a stranger participant-observation wins must be part of a culturally definable social role theoretical heuristics: factors -> power/status leads to uncertainty -> definite impact retroactive analysis of effectiveness Alaskan Fish Camp: must decide where to get the best information: made a chart Pornography: Weatherford store operator covert Southern California: adopt all the roles Discussion and Conclusion: fewer problems in the best role...problems with being reflective when you join...ethics of fitting in...establish a methodology
Textbook 4 ethnography
fieldwork, participant observation, informants, intersubjectivity, interviews, open-ended interview, armchair anthro, fieldnotes, headnotes, comparative method, HRAF, geneology, life histories, ethnohistory, rapid appraisal, action anthro, participant action, secondary materials
Nagle: How to find Mongo
garbage truck, human labor, mongo=treasure, felt removed from the world, got clearance and partied on, trust issues, made off-color jokes, melodrama,
Progressivism:
human history is characterized by advances from primitive to civilized. Differences emerge from different experiences.
General Evolution
increase in scale and complexity
Townsend 1-6
intro, Julian steward cultural ecology, ethnoecology, pigs for ancestors, amazon hunders, complex societies
Reed: Forest Development The Indian Way
isolation is illusory, guarani hunting threatened forests, human invasion, finite resources, tech solutions to development, adaptation used to be well adapted, forests, small stream, sharing culture, no learder, part of forest, sustainable swidden, forest reclaims old field, recofvers fast, fish, ecozones, deforestation, labor, villages, power gone, destroy resources then ask them to be good? lets take lessons from them
Childs 2: Life Begets Death
life to death, questionnaires, good friend, reproductive history details, son died, live has potentially harmful agents, infant mortality, reciting, Mamo deity, eating, death is hard
Sterk: Fieldwork on Prostitution
lower parts of prostitute world, treated as fallen, from there point of view NYC sample, didn't go native locations, find them, get noticed, get tested often refer to gatekeepers or key informants (local) get trust, many ethical questions, nicknames, slow nights to in depth interviews, more a part of the talks but a bit awkward had to physically leave a lot when it was rough, asked women outside the process Six themes: own explanations, typology of differences, role of pimps, HIV, violence and abuse, and finally the escape
Townsend 7-13
minerals, climate change, holy ground, population, green, consumer cultures
Specific Evolution
multilinear (each society takes unique course) rather than unilinear. Came to be called "cultural adaptation", term still in use today. Focus on process rather than outcome. From Nuclear Family to Band. Shoshone predatory bands rise in response to white encroachment. From Band to Nuclear Family. Trappers and Tappers
Gershon: Email my Heart
new media transforms dating, how people end relationships, focus on media ideologies, diagnostic engagement, always a comparison, i.e. compare to other media forms, remediation is key, now people dont care as much for phones (its accepted), reimagine what counts, compare the merits of methods, data from intervieing, and not every media reflects reality, intentions play a cricual role in breakups, how accessible the intentions are
Childs 1: Raising the Curtain
psych burden, he was a stranger elder brother!living arrangements Tashi Dondrup my friend, important social link, acceptance target of jokes is good Gossip is bad Goverment guy? Childs not about it talk from good perspectives vermin moves in matters relating to physical chores hiking chores
Myers: Gunspeak
so many gun metaphors, linguistic jumping, cultural presupposition, logos, pervasive metaphors, US gun culture is the worst, defines qualitiys like honesty, is everwhere, casual, lawyers, TV, history, medicine, sports, even fishing, wild west legacy, clint eastwood, gestures, it reflects our social obsession with it, always been there, generalized, fashion of speaking
Hall and Hall (C): The Sounds of Silence
subtle power of non-verbal communication, very dependent on body movement, nodding, talking + listening, eyes are special (pupillary reflex), eye sparkle, ethnic differences like eye contact, territoriality, space and emotion, four distances: intimate, social, personal, and public, touch, all the senses, rush/smothering/dating, body language is not universal, leg behavior, moving and walking, must be correct on this
Textbook 6 sustainability
sustainable development, environmental anthrologists, cultural landscape, foodways, modes of subsistence, foraging, horticulutre, swidden, pastoralism, intensification, industiral agriculture, taste, ethnobiology, traditional eco knowledge, carrying capacity, ecological footprint, Green revolution, political ecology, obesity, overweight, nutrition, artifactual landscapes, enviro justice
Textbook 7 economics
value, division of labor, exchange, market, neoclassical, capitalism, formal, redistribute, surplus, means of production, reciprocity, delayed, generalized, balanced, negative, consumption, appropriationm consumers,
Degenerationism:
we were all once civilized, but after dispersing (Tower of Babel incident) some degenerated while others remained civilized.
Osburg: Meeting the Godfather
wealthy chinese businessman, back showroom, ethics in dealing with mobsters, Fatty, they jsut wanted a white guy to hang with them, fatty looks, underworld people, access to a secretive group, money and power, respectability vs. legality
Tannen: Rapport-talk and Report-talk
women talk more at home, men talk more in public but women punished for talking more Men talk at lectures even if women's topics distinction between public and private speaking seen and not heard? at home men are quiet so women feel men don't communicate comes from life experieces, both have ideas of whats importnat or not -- men want facts, women want emotions
