ANT 100-03 Midterm

Key dynamics of globalization

1.Time-Space Compression 2.Flexible Accumulation 3.Increasing Migration 4.Uneven Development 5.Globalization is changing the environment

Key informant

A community member who advises the anthropologist on community issues, provides feedback, and warns against cultural miscues. Also called "cultural consultant."

Reflexivity

A critical self-examination of the role the anthropologist plays and an awareness that one's identity affects one's fieldwork and theoretical analyses

Consumer culture

A culture where buying and selling items is highly valued Companies have developed a seemingly endless array of things for us to purchase On a similar theme, the U.S. Congress moved the Thanksgiving holiday to earlier in November, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season One cannot skip giving gifts on Valentine's/Mother's Day without risking social sanction Advertisement: Everything, from our clothing to our electronics, is branded Money to buy goods: Credit cards began to grow in popularity about 40 years ago Now credit cards are foisted on college students with the promise of the ability to consume and delay the costs

Life history

A form of interview that traces the biography of a person over time, examining changes and illuminating the interlocking network of relationships in the community

William Rathje

A garbologist at the University of Arizona, finding that some families have lied about what they consume (beer), 1987 the Garbage Project found that recycled materials like paper was found in landfills

Cosmopolitanism

A global outlook emerging in response to increasing globalization (TV)

Participant observation

A key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied

Participant observation

A key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied Ethnographic fieldwork educates the anthropologist and creates situations that become unfamiliar and familiar to the person through complex systems of power

Informed consent

A key strategy for protecting those being studied by ensuring that they are fully informed of the goals of the project and have clearly indicated their consent to participate

Nation-state

A political entity, located within a geographic territory with enforced borders, where the population shares a sense of culture, ancestry, and destiny as a people

Ethnic boundary marker

A practice of belief, such as food, clothing, language, shared name, or religion, used to signify who is in a group and who is not Once constructed, ethnicity is maintained by a variety of boundary markers Refers to symbols of belonging to an ethnicity For example, particular clothing styles are often specific to an ethnicity The Maya of Highland Guatemala have clothing styles so specific that a person's town of origin can be identified simply by their clothes Can further extend to religious beliefs, food preferences, patterns of speech, and much more but ultimately, ethnic identity is flexible and negotiated

Ethnographic fieldwork

A primary research strategy in cultural anthropology involving living with a community of people over an extended period to better understand their lives Nancy Scheper-Hughes found it was possible to reduce diarrhea and dehydration-induced death among infants and toddlers with a solution of sugar, slat, and water however mothers thought of that child as an angel rather than a son or daughter Fieldwork is a highly variable practice depending on where in the world one is working and what kinds of cultures one is studying Common for the anthropologist to experience culture-shock (unfamiliarity) The ethnography is the final written description of that culture (stems from observation)

Ethnographic fieldwork

A primary research strategy in cultural anthropology involving living with a community of people over an extended period to better understand their lives Walking in their shoes Focus on the cultures and struggles of non-Western and nonelite people Study elites looking at financial institutions, development agencies, medical labs, and doctors

Interview

A research strategy of gathering data through formal or informal conversation with informants

Thich description

A research strategy that combines detailed description of cultural activity with an analysis of the layers of deep cultural meaning in which those activities are embedded Cockfight represents a families need for prestige, power, and resources

Ethnicity

A sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes ancestral connection to a group of people who are imagined to be distinct from those outside the group Most notably it is used as almost a stand-in for the term "race" Could be used to denote food, music, or art from other cultures around the world "a more expansive version of kinship" Anthropologists specifically view ethnicity as a cultural construction It is not biological; it is not physically inherited from one's parents Just as a person must learn culture, they must learn ethnicity

Origin myth

A story told about the founding and history of a particular group to reinforce a sense of common identity One of the key ways in which ethnic identity is constructed and passed on Origin myths do not have to be fictive or religious They are key stories that define the structure of an ethnicity Euro-American ethnicity is defined by several origin myths The story of the pilgrims landing on Plymouth rock, the first Thanksgiving, George Washington and the cherry tree Stories that we use to construct an identity of how people should behave Many Hispanic Americans embrace stories of Aztlan once told by the Aztecs Many African Americans keep stories of slave ships alive so that succeeding generations will remember the trials that their ancestors had to endure

Culture

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, and shared by a group of people Culture is a living and changing entity Mexican mariachi music, Chinese food, Indian clothing, African dance, or British theater Parents teach children how to talk to adults and how to interact with their peers While each new member undergoes enculturation, pressures from cultural institutions, human agents, and other historical forces bring change

Nation

A term once used to describe a group of people who shared a place of origin; now used interchangeably with nation-state

Richard Gere kisses Indian movie star

Actor Richard Gere appeared on stage in India to help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS In the United States, a man kissing a woman on the cheek is not a shocking action In India, kissing is a far more intimate act- possibly offensive, set off protests

State

An autonomous regional structure of political, economic, and military rule with a central government authorized to make laws and use force to maintain order and defend its territory

Situational negotiation of identity

An individual's self-identification with a particular group that can shift according to social location

Survey

An information-gathering tool for quantitative data analysis

Fieldwork as a Social Science and as Art

Anthropologists seek to document everything that goes on around them We cannot possibly see and record everything As a result, some anthropologists view fieldwork as tantamount to an art form The anthropologist must find ways to develop trust and friendship with people They must learn to sense patterns of behavior to sense what is significant, and what is simply rote action

Do No Harm

Anthropologists should have as their foremost concern to not put their subjects of study in any form of danger As early as World War I and as recently as the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, military leaders employed or consulted with anthropologists The military is generally interested in knowing and understanding local populations for strategic reasons Some argue that this is the "Weaponizing" of Anthropology (ethics)

Structures of power

Anthropologists study people and the structures of power around them- including families, governments, economic systems, schools, military, media, religion, gender, sexuality, and race

Applied anthropology

Anthropologists that work outside of academic settings to apply the strategies and insights of anthropology directly to current world problems Used by 60% of anthropologists

Symbol

Anything that signifies something else Ex. Nuclear symbol, ying yang, recycle, communism, peace, Christianity, etc Cultural norms and values are often expressed through symbols Language is a common human tool for symbolic abstraction Language is an abstraction where sounds stand in place for a concept or an idea If "tree" was a fixed symbol, rather than abstract, everyone around the world would use the same word There are an infinite variety of words out there that also signify "tree" Entire nations, their histories and cultures, can be expressed by a flag

Jena High School, LI "white tree"

Black students sat under tree and next day found three nooses

The Boateng brothers

Both brothers were born and raised in Germany Father was from the African nation of Ghana Each boy's mother was from Germany. Jerome Boateng chose to play in the World Cup for Germany while his brother Kevin-Prince chose to play for their father's home nation of Ghana By the rules, players can only play for a team in a nation where they, their parents, or their grandparents had been born

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1779)

Created systems of classification for the natural world Five kingdoms subdivided into phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species

Anthropologists who do ethnographic field work pay attention to

Cultural Knowledge (what people think) Cultural Behavior (what people do) Cultural Artifacts (the things people make and use) Participant-observation helps us see and begin to develop an understanding of all of these aspects of culture

Mental maps of reality

Cultural classifications of what kinds if people and things exist, and the assignment of meaning to those classifications We lump things into categories, thus making it easier to navigate this world Norms and values influence what we think is important, and symbols suggest how we encode information We tend to think of time as an absolute, something that is objectively real, rather than culturally constructed But the structure of 24 hours, 60 minutes to an hour, 60 seconds to a minute, is entirely arbitrary We don't have to think about the fact that the length of the year is actually 365.2425 days, rather than from January 1st to December 31st We also classify things as dirty or clean, edible and non-edible, people as kin and non-kin, as superiors or inferiors, etc

Homogenization

Cultures are adopting values, norms, and symbols from one another in such a way that many cultures are becoming more like one another Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman backpacks found throughout the world (movies)

E. B. Tylor 1871

Defined culture as "That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society"

Qualitative data:

Descriptive data drawn from nonstatistical sources, including participant observation, personal stories, interviews, and life histories

Ethnic cleansing

Efforts by representatives of one ethnic or religious group to remove or destroy another group in a particular geographic area

The People of Puerto Rico: A Turn to the Global

Ethnographic fieldwork took a new turn with the publication of The People of Puerto Rico (1956) by Julian Steward (1902-1972) Represented an anthropological study of an already well-known culture Work was the result of a team effort, rather than that of a solitary anthropologist living within a foreign culture The People of Puerto Rico was the result of both Steward's time spent on the island as well as that of several of his students These included Sydney Mintz and Eric Wolf

Biological Needs vs Cultural Patterns

Every person on the planet has a genetic code that is 99.9 percent identical to everyone else Food and dietary patterns vary across the globe Many Chinese people dislike cheese in all forms and others consider fish eggs a delicacy Public toilets in China are typically made up of a simple hole in the ground In India, water is used in place of the Western preferred toilet paper

Ensure Anonymity

Finally, anthropologists take great lengths to ensure anonymity, particularly given the reality of increased globalization Anthropologist's work may be available for the community of study to read Informants could be greatly impacted if their local community viewed the information they provided in a negative light In order to achieve anonymity, anthropologists often change the names of people and places, while at the same time striving to retain authentic details

Shaping the natural world

For the last 5,000 years or so, many human beings have been clearing fields for agriculture Ever since the Industrial Revolution, we have been adding an ever-increasing supply of airborne pollutants to the atmosphere The increased technological change driven by the processes of globalization has begun to have clear impacts on climate Polar regions, where polar ice and glaciers are melting at alarming rates Approximately half of the world's human population lives within 50 miles of an ocean Melting ice and the subsequent rise in sea levels are problems that humans must face

Franz Boas: Fieldwork and the Four-Field Approach

Franz Boas was an early advocate for the professionalization of Anthropology Early work among Native American groups later turned to working with European immigrants in the U.S. Working in the late 1800s, Boas saw Native American cultures rapidly disappearing under the expansion of the United States As a result he advocated a form of salvage ethnography Thought anthropologists should work rapidly to record as much as possible about Native American cultural groups while they existed Included their cultural norms and values, as well as languages, artifacts, and physical traits Modern four-field approach: Cultural Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, and Archaeology He became a vocal proponent of Cultural Relativism All cultures are considered equal to one another and can only be judged by their own merits

Values

Fundamental beliefs about what is important, true, or beautiful, and what makes a good life General ideas that people share about what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, how we "evaluate" our behavior- internalized standards Ex. Honesty, education, trust, respect, loyalty, religion, family, etc Hard work and denial of pleasures (general abstinence) are often seen as worthy values Have a way of changing over time as cultures change, as economies grow and shrink, as wars come and go

British Structural Functionalism

Goal to examine how different structures within a culture functioned (highly influential) Many studies were done on kinship structures, political structures, religious structures, etc Looked at culture in small parts of a big picture to understand the culture at large E. E. Evans-Pritchard's ethnography "The Nuer" (1940) Went to great lengths to study and describe the separate structure of Nuer culture

Anthropologists study

HIV/AIDS in Africa, immigrant workers, ethnic conflicts, and judicial courts Trace human origins (archaeology), the spread of disease, promote economic development, conduct market research, and lead diversity-training programs

All humans are connected

Humans share connections that are biological, cultural, economic, and ecological Based on movement and interaction not on isolation and disconnection Globalization increasing interactions and the flow of goods

Norms

Ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people Specific guidelines for action that say how people should behave in particular situations (rules); often unspoken customs that people implicitly know and follow Communication of dress (to a wedding, funereal, or school), of consumption, of all the behaviors that comprise our everyday lives Correct treatment of others and appropriate conversation

Marriage

In some cultures marrying within the group (endogamy) is common In others marrying outside of the group (exogamy) is instead the norm Romeo and Juliet wished to have an exogamous marriage; they wished to marry members of two different groups ("families") who were feuding Social rebellion against cultural norms forms the plot point for Shakespeare's play

Annette Weiner (1933-1997): Feminism and Reflexivity

In the 1970s and 1980s Anthropology began to learn an important lesson about reflexivity The lesson came when Annette Weiner returned to the Trobriand Islands to study the same culture as Malinowski had Kathleen Gough also revisited the Nuer studied by E.E. Evans-Pritchard in Sudan under British These women found that their previous male counterparts had witnessed only part of the culture Not surprising that a male anthropologist would not develop a complete understanding of the role of women in a foreign culture Start considering what other aspects of a culture they may not be seeing Look at holistic parts and carefully considered discipline

American Historical Particularism

In the United States, the reaction against evolutionary frameworks was led by the anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942). Worked with the Kwakiutl people of Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and Canada Boas worked with both Native American cultures and immigrant European cultures Best remembered for his work fighting against the racial stereotype that Eastern European immigrants faced in the United States Boas argued that evolutionary frameworks for culture were narrow and restrictive, thus not capturing the true picture of how a culture developed Diffusion- borrowing cultural traits and patterns from other cultures Founded a school of Historical Particularism (curated National History museum) In order to understand a culture you needed to learn about its particular history As a professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Boas helped to train the subsequent generation of anthropologists The most famous of Boas's students is perhaps Margaret Mead (1901-1978) and also Ruth Benedict (1901-1979) Mead carried on the torch of Historical Particularism in her study "Coming of Age in Samoa" She began to realize that the emotions and difficulties surrounding female adolescence in the United States, while perhaps biological at base, were also deeply cultural Mead had a strong impact on the burgeoning Women's Rights movement

Emic

Involving an approach to gathering data that investigates how local people think and how they understand the world

Etic

Involving description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropologist's perspective in ways the can be compared across cultures

Obtain Informed Consent

It is imperative that our subjects of research agree to participate An anthropologist cannot carry out participant observation if the participants do not understand why the anthropologist is there The results would simply not be the same if anthropologists had to lie about why they were present When one studies a foreign culture it is not always easy to explain why you have left home to live in this community

Human agents

Ken Guest: "Individuals and groups have the power to contest cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power" Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Henry Ford were great influencers Humans are deeply influenced by their culture, and its institutions of power, but that does not mean that they cannot step outside of it

Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)

Led the charge in the 1960s for a new "interpretivist approach" Argued that one must learn the many layers of meaning found within a culture to understand it Kisses differ between lovers, between relatives, between friends, or the kissing of a ring, whether it be the Pope or a mob boss To understand the kiss in Western culture, you must understand the layers Geertz's study of Balinese cockfights, showing how even the smallest moment can offer insights into a culture

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942): The Father of Fieldwork

Malinowski spent a year living on the Trobriand Islands in the Pacific Convinced that the only way to truly learn about a culture was to live among it In his ethnography, "Argonauts of the Western Pacific" (1922) he wrote passionately about the importance of fieldwork Stressed the importance of participant observation and taking part in their daily lives Credited for our modern concept of ethnographic fieldwork

The emergence of anthropology

Mid-1800's - transportation and communication technologies made global travel a reality for an increasing number of people Traveling opened people up to new people with different values and norms Books written about traveling experiences Europeans were coming in contact with diverse populations This increased interest in how people lived around the world, and for explanations of difference (cultural and biological variability in the present and over time)

Migration and the Two-Way Transference of Culture

Not all globalization entails lost diversity Increased levels of migration have led to the sharing of different cultural traditions Values and norms often change to a certain extent to accommodate their new environment- also influencing their new environment with their old culture

Franz Boas (1858-1942)

One of the founders of American anthropology, involved in debates on immigration and worked to undermine racialized views of immigrants Conducted studies that showed the wide variation of physical forms within groups of the same national origin and marked physical changes in the children and grandchildren of immigrants as they adapted to new environmental conditions

Multi-sited ethnography: China and New York

People leaving China for low-paying jobs- experiencing racism One person trying to raise money to rebuild a temple in China Uneven benefits- seen in familial circumstances

The four fields of anthropology

Physical, archaeology, linguistic, and cultural anthropology

Anonymity

Protection of the identities of the people involved in a study by changing or omitting their names or other identifying characteristics

Margaret Mead: Fieldwork and Public Anthropology

Showed the relevance of anthropology outside of the academic community When Mead went to the east Asian island of Samoa to do her fieldwork, it was widely accepted in the United States that the emotional difficulties surrounding female adolescence were the result of biological factors Yet when Mead observed Samoan girls going through adolescence she realized that they did not experience the same "growing pains" Outspoken member of the Women's movement. Shook up beliefs about alleged "biological" restrictions upon what women could do

Quantitative data

Statistical information about a community that can be measured and compared

Preparation

Strategies: developing rapport, identifying key informants, conducting interviews, surveys, network analyses, mapping, making recordings, writing fieldnotes Skills and Perspectives: patience, flexibility, openness to the unexpected Analysis: emic (insider) and etic(outsider) perspectives After a year spent living in the Trobriand Islands, Malinowski could have filled thousands of pages with details of the daily events he witnessed In order to present your ethnographic data to an audience, it has to be analyzed Focus on: Power structures in the community, kinship, religion, or trade

Audrey Richards (1899-1984)

Studied the Bemba people (Zambia) in the 1930s, focused on issues in health and nutrition among women and children, bringing concerns for nutrition Ethnography, Chisungu (1956) featured a rigorous study of the coming-of-age rituals of the Bemba women, opening the pathway on the study of nutritional issues and the helth of women and children

The Coca-Cola Company vs. the women of Plachimada

The Women of Plachimada, a rural area in southern India search for fresh water The Coca-Cola Company opened a bottle plant in the village in March of 2000 Capable of producing 1.2 million bottles of Coke, Sprite, and Fanta daily 9 liters of freshwater are needed to make one liter of soda Plachimada has a large underground aquifer- allowing the company to access that water by drilling wells and high-powered pumps Local water table fell from 45 meters to 150 meters Local wells ran dry, harvests became less productive, and chemical runoff from the plant polluted the groundwater Local women organized protests ultimately creating a high state court case against Coca-Cola stating that the company was illegal extracting groundwater in Plachimada

Hegemony

The ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force Influence a culture through ideas rather than direct force Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937): Cultures have tremendous power- material or hegemony

Power

The ability or potential to bring about change through action or influence (threat of force)

Ethnology

The analysis and comparison of ethnographic data across cultures

Ethnology

The analysis and comparison of ethnographic data across cultures Looks beyond local reality to see more general behaviors that intersect with local dynamics as a way to help people understand one another Use by cultural anthropologists

Holism

The anthropological commitment to consider the full scope of human life, including culture, biology, history, and language, across space and time Looks at life experiences from people across the world and compares them to others

Field notes

The anthropologist's written observations and reflections on places, practices, events, and interviews

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal and natural; using one's own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others

The Death of Children in a Brazilian shantytown

The challenges of life are many and varied Struggle, strife, and learning to cope are part of the human experience

Nature vs. Nurture

The degree to which Nature (our biology) versus Nurture (our culture, and the way we were raised) affects our capabilities has been a long-standing debate When a woman first tried to run the Boston Marathon, the race organizer attempted to tackle her and stop her from competing

Early Evolutionary Frameworks

The earliest Anthropologists, such as E. B. Tylor (1832-1917) , and his colleagues James Frazer (1854-1941) and Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), primarily subscribed to an evolutionary model of culture Evolutionary theory was very popular and was broadly adopted in a variety of different disciplines, less complex cultures as "less evolved." They classified cultures as belonging to one of three different stages of evolution: Savagery, Barbarianism, or Civilization

Barbara Myerhoff: A Turn to Home

The final step in our story of the development of Anthropology is the completion of the reflexivity, or anthropologists turning completely around to study their own cultures After working with a remote Native American group in Mexico, Barbara Myerhoff returned to her home in the United States Saw her own culture through the eyes of an ethnographer Shortly thereafter she began a new ethnography project where she, as a young Jewish woman, lived with a community of elder Jewish women and men Wrote the ethnography "Number Our Days" Demonstrated the power of anthropology to not only illuminate the lives of others, but our own lives as well

The 2010 World Cup

The finals of the World Cup in South Africa was one of the largest global events in history More than 200 teams had played over 800 matches in an attempt to make it to the finals American interest in the game of soccer (football) has been growing but is still low in comparison to sports like baseball, basketball, and American football In almost every other nation around the world, soccer is THE sport The World Cup was the crowning moment for not only the teams and players but also their legions of fans (ethnicity and nationality)

Historical particularism

The idea, attributed to Franz Boas, that cultures develop in specific ways because of their unique histories

Archaeology

The investigation of the human past by means of excavating and analyzing artifacts Egypt, India, China, and Mexico

Mutual transformation

The potential for both the anthropologist and the members of the community being studied to be transformed by the interactions if fieldwork

Agency

The potential power of individuals and groups to contest cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power (debates and negotiations)

Enculturation

The process of learning culture Taught through formal instruction in schools or CCD OR unconsciously absorbed through family, friends, and peers

Assimilation

The process through which minorities accept the patterns and norms of the dominant culture and cease to exist as separate groups

Rapport

The relationships of trust and familiarity developed with members of the community being studied

Linguistic anthropology

The study of human language in the past and the present Language may constrain people's view of the world without sophisticated language Focus on communication and language evolution

Physical anthropology

The study of humans from a biological perspective, partially focused on human evolution Humans share 98.7% of DNA with chimpanzees and 97.7% with gorillas Line leading to modern humans split from African apes 5-6 million years ago

Cultural anthropology

The study of people's communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions, including how people make meaning as they live, work, and play together Find patterns within each culture by examining war, violence, love, and death, looking at human interactions

Anthropology

The study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present, and the application of that knowledge to help people of different backgrounds better understand one another The study of humanity Human diversity comes in many forms, from family structures (kinship) to religion, from language to politics Attempts to show us how all humans are linked Derives from the Greek words anthropes (human) and logos (reason)

Unilineal cultural evolution

The theory proposed by nineteenth-century anthropologists that all cultures naturally evolve through the same sequence of stages from simple to complex

Stratification

The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among participants in a group or culture

Four-field approach

The use of four interrelated disciplines to study humanity: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology Biology and culture shape who human are based on their past and present

Globalization

The worldwide intensification of interactions and increased movement of money, people, goods, ad ideas within and across national borders Refers to the ongoing phenomenon where interactions between people all across the world are becoming more frequent and easier People living across the globe today are in better contact with one another

Challenge of anthropology

To understand the rich diversity of human life and to see how our particular life experiences connect to those of others

Ethnographic research

Traditional scientific method from hypothesis to data/observations to analysis to findings Ethnographic research begins with observations and develops hypotheses and returns to observation; it moves in a circular fashion rather than linear Ethnographic data is qualitative (vs. quantitative) Methods: passive observation, participant observation, interviewing, and collection/analysis of artifacts and existing communications (things people write or produce)

Cultural relativism

Understanding a group's beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making judgements

Imagined community

he invented sense of connection and shared traditions that underlies identification with a particular ethnic group or nation whose members likely will never all meet

The Nacirema (America spelled backwards)

"Body Ritual; among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner Examines cultural beliefs and practice among a group in North America who have unique care for the human body Human body is ugly, prone to disease and decay so it must be cared for