Anthropology

Franz Boas

Father of American anthropology

veranda anthropology

In field observation of a people, but from an elevated position of power

reflexivity

a continuous questioning of our roles and relationships in the field

fieldwork

anthropologist's personal long-term experiences with a specific group of people and their way of life

What makes anthropology unique among the social sciences?

anthropology's holistic approach to the study of humanity; the importance of fieldwork and participant observation; and its emphasis on cross-cultural comparison.

applied anthropology

application of anthropological knowledge to solve social problems

premodern

belief in objective knowledge

postmoderism

critiquing modernist understand of knowledge and truth

challenged the idea of distinct racial biologies to argue for the processes of socialization and enculturation

culture concept

evolutionary approach

curious with how we got to where we are today

multi-sited research

fieldwork on a topic conducted in more than one location, good for studying immigration

armchair anthropology

gathered stories from explorers and wrote them from their homes; anthropological conclusions without doing field work or lab work. example" taylor (read a lot, but did not observe in the field)

etic

goal-oriented research, testing a hypothesis, deductive reasoning, data collected according to outside researcher's question, emphasis on quantitative data

participant observation

learning about a culture by living in it for an extended period of time

4 subfields of anthropology

linguistic, archaeology, biological, cultural

modernism

modern = good

comparative approach

must consider similarities and difference between as wide a range of human societies as possible before generalizing about what it means to be human

Darwin's contribution

principles of evolution helped explain human origins, which helped shaped anthropology

in early 20th century, anthropologists first were guided by, then resisted, the notion that social distinctions were attributable to ______

race

culture concept

set of learned behaviors and ideas that humans acquire as members of a society

linguistic anthropology

study of communication, mainly among humans

cultural anthropology

study of contemporary people and their cultures

biological anthropology

study of humans as biological organisms (i.e. evolution)

archaeology

study of past human cultures through material remains

emic

studying what insiders say about a culture, inductive reasoning, no hypothesis, emphasis of qualitative data

holism/holistic approach

trying to fit together all that is known about human beings