Unit 1

Ethnography

-Participant-observation- Living among the people being studied—observing, questioning, and (when possible) taking part in the important events of the group. Writing or otherwise recording notes on observations, questions asked and answered, and things to check out later are parts of participant-observation. -fieldwork- Firsthand experience with the people being studied and the usual means by which anthropological information is obtained. Regardless of other methods that anthropologists may use (e.g., censuses, surveys), fieldwork usually involves participant-observation for an extended period of time, often a year or more. See Participant-observation.

Archaeology

-the branch of anthropology that seeks to reconstruct the daily life and customs of people who lived in the past and to trace and explain cultural changes. Often lacking written records for study, archaeologists must try to reconstruct history from the material remains of human cultures. -Archaeologists try to reconstruct history from the remains of human cultures. -Most studies deal with prehistory -Some specialize in historical archaeology ---Historical archaeology- A specialty within archaeology that studies the material remains of recent peoples who left written records.

Ethnology

-the study of how and why recent cultures differ and are similar -Often called cultural anthropology, ethnology is concerned with patterns of thought and behavior. -Types of ethnologists: ---ethnographer- a person who spends some time living with, interviewing, and observing a group of people to describe their customs ---ethnography- a description of a society's customary behaviors and ideas ---ethnohistorian- an ethnologist who uses historical documents to study how a particular culture has changed over time. ---Cross-cultural researcher- An ethnologist who uses ethnographic data about many societies to test possible explanations of cultural variation to discover general patterns about cultural traits—what is universal, what is variable, why traits vary, and what the consequences of the variability might be.

Regional Controlled Comparisons

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC COMPARISON BETWEEN SOCIETIES IN THE SAME OR SIMILAR REGIONS

ETHNOGRAPHY

After doing fieldwork, an anthropologist may prepare an ethnography, or a description and analysis of a single society.

Anthropological curiosity

Anthropologists generally focus on typical characteristics of a population, such as traits or customs.

holistic approach

Anthropology is unique discipline bc it employs a holistic or multifaceted, approach to the study of human beings.

Fields of Anthropology

Biological Anthropology Cultural Anthropology Applied (Practicing) Anthropology

Boasian Anthropology

Boas stressed the idea that single cultural traits had to be studied in the context of the society in which they appeared. Against Race theory. FOCUS ON DESCRIBING CULTURAL VARIATION

Interpretive Approaches

CLIFFORD GEERTZ - CULTURE TO BE INTERPRETED LIKE A LITERARY TEXT The goal of anthropology is to understand what it means to be a person living in a particular culture, rather than to explain why cultures vary

Specialization in Cultural

Economic Anthropologists Political Anthropologists Psychological Anthropologists Cultural Ecologists Medical Anthropologists

Historical Research

Ethnohistory consists of studies based on descriptive materials about a single society at more than one point in time.

The Relevance of Anthropology

In order to understand humans, it is essential that we study humans in all times and places. Anthropological studies can illustrate why other people are the way they are, both culturally and physically.

Ecological Approaches

JULIAN STEWARD AND CULTURAL ECOLOGY- the analysis of the relationship between a culture and its environment. FOCUS ON ADAPTATION- the ability to get their genes into future generations

Within-Culture Comparisons

TESTING A THEORY WITHIN ONE SOCIETY COMPARING INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, HOUSEHOLDS, COMMUNITIES, OR DISTRICTS, FOR EXAMPLE.

Cross-Cultural Research

Worldwide comparisons between societies having and those lacking a particular characteristic. This method is beneficial in that the conclusion drawn is probably applicable to most societies.

Applied (Practicing) Anthropology

concerns itself with applying anthropological knowledge to achieve practice goals About half of all professional anthropologists are applied, or practicing, anthropologists. Applied anthropologists may be trained in one or more of the subfields of anthropology.

Early Evolutionism

culture develops in a uniform and progressive manner. Darwinian natural selection Edward B. Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan that culture evolved from simple to complex and that all societies passed through 3 basic stages of development: from savagery through barbarism to civilization

Anthropology

is a discipline of infinite curiosity about human beings broader on scope than other disciplines every part of the world containing human population is of interest to anthropological study

Biological Anthropology

study of humans as biological organisms, dealing with the emergence and evolution of humans and with contemporary biological variations among human populations -Human Paleontology -Primatology -Human Variation

Primatology

study of primates (monkeys, apes)

Linguistics

the anthropological study of languages ---historical linguistics- the study of how languages change over time ---descriptive (structural) linguistics- the study of how languages are constructed ---sociolinguistics- the study of cultural and subcultural patterns of speaking in different social contexts

"Race" Theory

the reason human cultures differed in their behaviors was because they represented separate subspecies of humans, or "races." Those in uncivilized races were incapable of being civilized. "RACE" THEORY LARGELY UNSUPPORTED.

cultural anthropology

the study of cultural variation and universals in the past and present. Culture refers to the customary ways that a particular population or society thinks and behaves. Cultural anthropology includes: -Archaeology -Linguistics -Ethnology

Human Variation

the study of how and why contemporary human populations vary biologically

Human Paleontology

the study of the emergence of humans and their later physical evolution. Also called paleoanthropology