Anthro 101

George Cooley's notion "the looking glass self"

"I am what I think you think I am"

What is anthropology?

-the study of all people at all times in all places - the science of human beings - the art of being human -the art of asking questions, making connections, and trying new things

Number of sounds humans can make

4,000 where out of the 4,000 there are 400 sounds that are used in languages around the world

Ethnography

Anthropological research method; the means to represent a group and their culture through writing ethno - people graphy - writing

Linguistic determinism

Strongest, extreme version of Sapir-Whorf Hyp. - reduces patterns of thought and culture to the patterns of the grammar of the language that is spoken. Ex. - If grammar classifies nouns as Masc/Fem, speakers are forced to think of male/female as radically different kinds of beings. We talked about the problems with this approach.

Sedentism

Term for living permanently in one place

Bipedalism

Term for walking upright

Modes of Subsistence

The social relationships and practices necessary for procuring, producing, and distributing food Most societies combine two or more modes of subsistence

Anthropolgist in charge of the Bali Irrigation System?

Stephen Lansing

Phonemes

The sounds that a language uses (consonants, vowels, clicks, tones depending on the language)

Lexicon

all of the words, names, ideas, and events that make up a language's dictionary. Focal vocab. Is specialized.

Paralanguage

an extensive set of noises and tones of voice that convey information about the speaker (laughs, cires, sights, yells, etc)

Subak

an irrigation cooperative consisting of a local group of farmers who are concerned with one section of the irrigation canals

Class definition of Culture

a system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

What is a "theory" in the scientific sense?

a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world. It is not just a tentative guess or well-reasoned hypothesis

How do cultures differ?

How they tell time, make a living, judge beauty, what they consider good eating or taboo to eat, and their core values and beliefs

Ethnocentrism

holding one's own beliefs, values, ideas, ideals, and assumptions to be the only true and proper ones; it is like a prison in the mind that keeps us from exploring other beliefs, etc. Example - We use utensils, Asian cultures use chopsticks...we eat in chairs, other cultures eat on the ground

Salvage paradigm or salvage ethnography

is the recording of the practices and folklore of cultures threatened with extinction, including as a result of modernization. It is generally associated with the American anthropologist Franz Boas; he and his students aimed to record vanishing Native American cultures. "window into primitive past of civilized cultures"

Descriptive Linguistics

phonology, morphology, syntax Langue is studied by the subfield of descriptive linguistics

Dewi Danu

the goddess of the crater lake (temple = Pura Dewi Danu Batur)

Kinesics

the relationship between body movements and communication (facial expressions, gestures, postures that convey messages)

Jero Gde

young man who serves as high priest of the temple

Bed Sharing

When infant is sharing same sleep surface

Stages defined by subsistence method

"Primitive" - foraging "Barbarian" - domesticated plats/animals "Civilized" - state-level society Scale based on Western standards

Agama Tirt

"religion of holy water," how the Balinese refer to their local version of Hinduism

Language is

- systematic -used to communicate -symbolic

Why can culture shock feel like a "complete loss of self"?

-Because every expression of ourselves depends on culture for its meaning -becuase who we are is in part reflected back to us by the people around us -when people around you dont know who you are you can start asking the same question

Sedentary agriculture and the earliest evidence for cities a bit later

10-12,000 ya

Horticulture

-Small scale agriculture, not large machinery -Cultivation of plants through a no intensive use of land and labor -Swidden, or "slash and burn" - burn land after gather crops to help control pests and give nutrients to the soil, you rotate by growing on different plot

How do anthropologists prepare to do fieldwork (in general)?

-information/perspectives (Lit. Review) -Language Skills -Preliminary Fieldwork (Pilot Study) -Research Methods/Strategies -Permissions -Funding -Equipment -Logistics & arrangements

How might the art of seeing benefit us?

-it is the essence of learning -it can help us build and maintain relationships -it can help us to never be bored

Cultural Differences in New Guinea

-see themselves as intimately connected to other people and the world around them -gift giving -no formal or written laws -they believe everything comes from their relationships...

4 Cornerstones of Modern Anthropology

1. Cultural Relativity 2. Participant Observation 3. Reconciliation of emic and etic perspectives 4. Critical importance of interdisciplinary research through the 4 subfields of anthropology

5 Primary Subsistence Methods

1. Foraging (Hunting-Gathering) 2. Pastoralism (receive food from herds of domesticated animals) 3. Horticulture 4. Agriculture (Started agriculture/experimenting with farming around 10,000 years ago) 5. Industrial Agriculture (refers to a society in which most of the population is not directly involved in the food production process)

The barrel model captures what three key features of culture?

1. It is structured. 2. It is pervasive and present in all aspects of our lives, from economy to our worldview. 3. Each element of culture is integrated with the other elements.

How can you practice "the art of seeing"?

1. See your own seeing (seeing you assumptions and biases) 2. See Big (see the larger social and cultural forces that shape our lives) 3. See Small (pay attention to small details and their significance 4. See it all (see how everything interacts with a holistic point of view

E.B. Tylor

1st anthropologist to define culture (1871) Culture - "That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [humans] as members of society"

How long ago was Full Bipedalism

2.5 MYA

First anatomically modern humans (homo sapiens)

200,000 ya

How many sounds do most languages combine?

40

How many words for types of cattle?

400

How far was the longest run ever reported for a Raramuri runner?

435 miles

What percentage of information may be conveyed through kinesics and paralanguage (nonverbal communication)?

90%

Economy Definition

A cultural adaptation to the environment that enables a group of humans to use the available land, resources, and labor to satisfy their needs and to thrive

Prestige Language

A particular language variation or way of speaking that is associated with wealth, success, education, and power Language = "cultural capital" (bourdieu)

Language

A system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar Language makes use of signs, symbols, and metaphors to continually reinforce cultural values in the community.

Cultural materialism

A theory that argues that material conditions, including technology, determine patterns of social organization, including religious principles Ex. - Marvin Harris's explanation for India's sacred cattle

Polyvocality

Allowing the voices of those who are being studied to come through in writing...done in field notes

Cultural Evolutionism

Anthropology's first dominant framework or paradigm for understanding human cultural diversity which ranked societies on a scale from "Primitive" to "Civilized"

Interview

Any systematic conversation with an informant to collect field research data, ranging from a highly structured set of questions to the most open-ended ones.

What are the 4 fields and what do they study?

Archeological Biological Cultural Linguistic (+ applied anthroplogy which includes medical anthropology)

Environment

Base of the barrel model, barrel sits atop

Who laid the 4 Cornerstones of Anthropology?

Boas and Malinowski

Call Systems Vs Language

Call Systems: -calls communicate emotions or occur in response to immediate stimuli -calls are stimuli-dependent, referring to nearby objects or present circumstances -calls are distinct and not combined or modified to produce calls with a different meaning. -call systems are instinctual and generally shared across an entire species Language: -langauge is effectively limitless -language allows people to talk about the past, future, and entire worlds of the imagination -sounds can be combined in limitless ways to produce meaningful new utterances -humans speak between 5,000 to 6,000 different languages

What are some of the "hidden costs" of our system of globalized industrial food production?

Capitalism which happens because we value individualism and freedom in our lives

Thick description

Carefully documenting details of daily life while also examining symbolic meanings and systems of power...done in field notes

What do the double arrows in the barrel model of culture represent?

Change one thing and you change them all

institutional outline

Chart how the community operates, how things work. Who is in charge of what? Who does what? What is the social hierarchy?

Anthropological Toolkit

Communication, Empathy, and Thoughtfulness

Metaphors

Comparisons that emphasize the similarities between things. Ex. in our culture, we use a metaphor to say ideas are like food ("food for thought", "something to chew on", "digest information") Ex. Love as a disease metaphor ("getting over someone", having it bad for something, broken heart, etc.) Ex. "Firing something" vs. "downsizing" Ex. Argument is like war vs. argument like dance --- how does changing the metaphor potentially change the dynamics of argument? Metaphors matter! "If I knocked on your door and offered you $10,000 for a 3 foot by 7 foot slab of wood, what would you do?...[Check out this section on Top Hat!] Leading into Challenge #4 and playing with language and meaning :)

Historical Particularism

Complex, sophisticated people who have adapted to unique environments - "historical particularism" - paying attention to historical and environmental contexts in which each culture has developed studies of culture emphasized the integrated and distinctive way of life of a given people.

What Replaced Cultural Evolutionism?

Cultural Relativity & Historical Particularism

ETIC

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

Why is understanding subsistence strategies important for understanding other aspects of a culture?

Different cultures use different subsistence strategies...shows what they believe is important/their way of living

langue vs. parole

Distinction between langue and parole matters because it points to the difference between formal language and language in actual use. Langue = the technically correct manner in which people should speak. Parole = language in its living, breathing sociocultural context, the way we actually speak, language as it is actually used by people.

According to Harris, why are cows sacred to Hindus in India? Why was this argument important at the time? How are emic and etic approaches different in considering the question of why cows are sacred? What level of the barrel model matters most to Harris in his analysis and explanation?

EMIC - showed that nonviolence extended to the treatment of cows, beneficial and sacred for the land/other benefits ETIC - Harris looked into the infrastructure and compared cows to tractors, transportation, fertilizers... They were sacred because of the agricultural benefits and their gentleness...it was important because no modern agriculture Marvin Harris 1960/70s Tried to analyze the sacred cows and interested in the reason for why cows were sacred

unilineal cultural evolutionism

Early paradigm for understanding human difference

Why did we come down from the safety of the trees where fruit was plentiful and predators were not?

Environmental changes left our ancestors no choice

What does it mean to "make things more fragile"?

Expose what appears obvious and inevitable as contingent upon the historical and cultural conditions that led to them

(The Goddess and the Computer) How does this case study demonstrate a holistic research approach? Why was the anthropologist's perspective important in this case, or how was the knowledge applied?)

Holistic because they paid attention to everyone, not only the department in charge of the irrigation but the high priest and the farmers...Lansing looked at all of the systems -Lansing told the department that the priests new many tingssss and he gathered info from them to help with the irrigation system through a computer...

3 key influences of cultural anthropology in its early history

Industrialization + Theories of Evolution + Colonialism ( + salvage paradigm)

3 forces influencing the founding of anthropology

Industrialization, Evolutionary theory, Colonialism

Co-Sleeping

Infant sleeping in close proximity to parents, not the same as bed-sharing.

Three methods of observation in the field (what anthropologist should do in all fieldwork)

Institutional outline Ethnographic utterances "imponderabilia of actual life"

EMIC

Investigates how local people think and how they understand the world; "insider's perspective

Franz Boas

Known for establishing four-field american cultural anthropology and for cultural relativity. Replaced cultural evolutionism with Historical Particularism and Cultural Relativity

Symbolic

Language is arbitrary with each word representing a concept, meaning it is ___ - there isn't any sort of necessary connection between a sound (or word)

Holism/Holistic Perspective

Looking at all parts of a culture as integrated or all domains of human experience

(Jason Leon Video) What methods does he use and how do they help him answer his broad research question (documenting the undocumented and understanding their experience of border crossing)?

METHODS -Photography -Archeology -Cultural Anthropology - Ethnography -Participant Observation/Interviews - accompanying migrants crossing the border -Forensic Analysis - collecting remains and trying to figure out information from it Findings -do not normalize behavior -we are not desensitized yet -there is a dehumanization for those crossing the border but the methods help in humanizing them and showing their story ----forces people to look and acknowledge

Do only humans have language (is language uniquely human)?

Most anthros say yes...animals have call systems

What does the comparison between sweet potato production in New Guinea and potato production in the U.S. teach us about the efficiency and inputs of our system of industrialized agriculture?

New Guinea - Does Slash and Burn where they cannot return to the original land until around 20 years later after burning...helps soil...they know who made it US - Relationships are hidden or minimized. We usually have no idea who grew our food, who packaged it, who delivered it, or even who sold it to us. We certainly do not feel obligated to them in any way once we have paid for the goods...shows individualism/control and independence.

Call Systems

Non-human animals use this communication system

Split of Human Line from Chimps/Bonobos & Partial Bipedalism

Occured 6 MYA in human history

Creative Explosion/Culture

Occured around 50,000 Years ago in human history

Reflexivity

Process you do when doing and writing research Reflecting critically on your experience, deep self reflection about your research process and how anything will effect the findings

Ethnographic Utterances (EMIC)

Record how people actually talk in their own words, otherwise you might miss the meaning! Need to document what people actually say so that others can interpret your data, too.

Ethnographic Fieldwork

Research strategy that involves living and interacting with a community of people over an extended period to better understand their lives Key Ethnographic methods: participant observation and interviewing

Mismatch Disease

Result of how we have evolved and the environments we no inabit from too much of something, too little of something, or new things or behaviors we have not yet adapted to. examples: diabetes, stress, obesity

Heel Strikers

Runners that wear thick-soled running shoes so they stride out and thrike their heel

4 tenets of functionalist methodology

Science-based fieldwork (scientific method, empiricism) Cultural immersion through fieldwork Holism ("study the whole" - all parts of a culture) to understand the logic and function of cultural practices Data collection - information to collect and how

Culture Shock

Sense of disorientation anthropologists may experience caused by new and unfamiliar people and experiences

Instructions to keep TWO accounts during fieldwork

Separate etic (subjective) reflections in field diary from emic (objective) observations in field notes

Why did the first bipedal human ancestors stand up and start walking on 2 legs?

So they could move over more territory more efficiently

Linguistic relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) -

Stance that language has the power to shape the way people see the world. The idea that people speaking different languages perceive or interpret the world differently because of differences in their languages.

Pastoralism

Subsistence strategy that relies on herding and domesticating animals

What does it mean that culture is both symbolic and material?

Symbolic - through gestures, languages...nonmaterial culture Material - food, clothes, belongings...

What is the main point of John McWhorter's Ted Talk about texting and language?

Texting is another form of communication, our society is not dumbing down/our generation isn't hopeless Texting gets across our nonverbal communications (emojis) and allows us to write like we speak (since no one actually speaks to others formally)

Holism

The anthropological commitment to consider the full scope of human life, including culture, biology, history, and language, across space and time. Anthropology is holistic and Anthropology's way of thinking about Culture is holistic

Language Ideology and Linguistic Inequality

The beliefs people have about the superiority of one language or dialect and the inferiority of others closely tied to creation and maintenance of socioal status/power and can index race/ethnicity, class, and gender

infrastructure or Economy

The bottom layer of the barrel model that includes technology, techniques, echange and distribution systems, and natural resources Marvin Harris Looked to this level of the barrel model to explain India's sacred cattle

Participant Observation

The classic method of cultural anthropology involving living in and participating in another culture

Social Structure or Social Organization

The middle layer of the barrel model which includes social, political, and family structures

Transhumance

The practice of moving herds of cattle based on seasons...follows subsistence strategy of pastoralism

Foraging/Hunting and Gathering

The subsistence strategy for human history

Superstructure or Worldview/ideology

The top layer of the barrel model which includes ideas, values, and relgious beliefs

Why are forager/hunter-gatherer societies sometimes referred to as "the original affluent societies"

They did not have to worry about material possessions as they were limitied so they were easily permitted to enjoy life -these socieities did have gender imbalance

"Imponderabilia of actual life"

Things you can only get by being in the field/things people don't think to talk about. Write down everything you see! Every single thing! Use descriptive language.

Sapir-whorf Hypothesis/Linguistic Relativity

This position asserts that langauge has the power to shape the way people see the world

Biocultural Approach

To understand how human behavior evolves, it is necessary to bring culture and biology into the same frame - a bicultural frame - to consider their intertwined role in shaping evolution. Another ex. of how anthropology is holistic. Case studies about sleep in different cultures and co-sleeping practices

Cultural Relativism

Understanding cultural phenomena in their cultural context before judging them the idea that we must understand other people's ideas, ideals, assumptions and beliefs relative to their own culture. We have to suspend judgment and try to understand the world in their terms Example - understanding why our breakfast consists of x,y,x but Europe eats a, b, c...understanding why we eat with utensils and others with chopsticks

When did the human story of language come about?

Unsure when in the human story language came about, range of opinions about the evolutionary origins of language - definitely by 50,000 years ago, possibly as early as before 2mya (big range!). Proxies are used since spoken words can't be seen in the archaeological record - proxies like toolmaking and art (symbolic expression).

Anthropological middle-ground

What most anthros believe is a weak (nondeterministic) version of the linguistic relativity argument, believing that the language habits of a community create tendencies to think about the world in certain ways and not others. Language is important in the way that it directs attention to some aspects of experience rather than others, not restrictive but emphasizes certain realms of meaning and experience.

When and why did humans begin the transition to agriculture and sedentary living (sedentism)?

When - 10-12,000 ya in different parts of the world Why - our hunter-gatherer ancestors began trying their hand at farming. Eventually, they migrated outward, spreading farming

Why do anthropologists pair participant observation with interviews?

You aren't getting a commentary on the person's experience based solely on participant observation

Malinowski

anthropoligist known for his contributions to fieldwork methods he suggested separating emic (objective description) and etic (subjective analysis) information in different data collection notebooks - emic goes in a field note diary (recording observations without any interpretation) and etic goes in a journal (exploring researcher's own reactions and interpretations) He saw anthropological fieldwork as scientific, requiring us to separate emic and etic observation

Functionalism

assuming that cultural practices and beliefs serve a social purpose in any society like explaining how the world works, organizing people into roles so they can get things done, etc. (associated with Malinowski). The example of kula exchange system (video clip of shell necklaces/bracelets in Trobriand Islands) is relevant here

Signs

basic ways of conveying simple meaning (think: a stop sign)

What does a "frequency code" of low, deep tones indicate?

dominance and aggression and high, thin tones to indicate harmlessness, submission, or a plea for connection -done by humans, dogs, most birds, monkeys, and most mammals

Symbols

elaborations on signs with a wider range of meanings (think: college sports mascots or team colors)

Sleep

from a holistic anthropological perspective, sleep is a complex phenomena that intertwines human biology with the processes of culture (Biocultural). Sleep has complex cultural and behavioral dimensions that we talked about in class, cross-cultural variations in sleep practices - who we sleep with, in what conditions, using what paraphernalia, etc.

Culture is

learned and taught shared yet contested symbolic and material and it is always changing

Benefits of Co-Sleeping

lower risk of SIDS because arousal level Breastfeeding - more nutrition More sleep for the mother More contact and bonding

Fingered Speech

name from ted talk for texting

Sociolinguistics

signs, symbols, metaphors Field (specific) that studies how context and cultural norms shape language use Parole is studied by the subfield of sociolinguistics

skip

skip

systematic (for langauge)

sounds organized into words according to some sort of grammar

Focal Vocabulary

the words and terminology that develop with particular sophistication to describe the unique cultural realities experienced by a group of people. Ex. (Nuer slide - Nuer relied on cattle in their economy, political system, and kinship structures - they have more than 400 words to distinguish different types of cattle, which is a focal vocabulary. Importance of cattle is reflected in language. Example of focal vocabulary from our cultural context and in many parts of the world with global digital communication.

Language = Biocultural

through evolution (changes in brain, anatomy of the mouth and throat) language became biologically possible...but at the same time, every language system is a cultural product. Language is one of the most rule-bound but least conscious aspects of culture

How do we learn culture?

we learn what behaviors, values, language, and morals are acceptable in our society. We learn by observing other members of our society, including our parents, friends, teachers, and mentors.