Chapter 2: Extras
The approaches Franz Boas utilized when founding U.S anthropology?
*Historical particularism --> I am going to understand a particular society based on its particular context *Cultural relativism --> I do not judge another culture based on my own cultural standards
Cultural evolutionism:
- a theory popular in nineteenth-century anthropology suggesting that societies evolved through stages from simple to advanced. This theory was later shown to be incorrect -Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was turned into something disgusting -there was that nature vs nurture concept of whether biology affected people more than culture - stages with terms such as savagery, barbarism, and civilization.
The principles in the AAA code of ethics
- do no harm -be open and honest regarding your work -obtain informed consent and necessary permissions -ensure the vulnerable populations in every study are protected from competing for ethical obligations -make your results accessible -protect and preserve your records - and maintain respectful and ethical professional relationships.
plasticity
-Boas would go against the popular belief that one's body determined their culture. The idea that being black keeps a person from being able to go to college and have a good job -Boas would show that we are impacted by social and economic differences opposed to biologica ones. ex) immigrant parents are shorter than their kids. Their kids had a better diet
Franz Boas
-He was Jew in a Germany society, he understood what it was like to be ostracized -having less technology does not mean that a community is less advanced. Some lifestyles would not do well with having to carry around huge ceramic bowls -technology is not indicative of a period of history -a cultural relativist view is necessary when doing fieldwork
What anthropologists took away from the Nuremberg trials
-along with the military and political figures, there were hella scientists and physicians who were prosecuted for unethical testing and mass murder - Nuremberg Code:a landmark document in medical and research ethics. --> established principles for the ethical treatment of the human subjects involved in any medical or scientific research. --> many universities embraced research ethical guidelines for the treatment of human subjects. -American Anthropological Association (AAA)
Clifford Geertz (founding member of postmodernist anthropology) thoughts on culture
-culture should not be seen as something that was "locked inside people's heads." Instead, culture was publically communicated through speech and other behaviors. = "an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and their attitudes toward life."
How did functionalism create more advanced ideas of culture?
-establishing the importance of social institutions in holding societies together. -helped to develop the concept of culture by demonstrating that culture is not just a set of ideas or beliefs, but consists of specific practices and social institutions that give structure to daily life and allow human communities to function.
The Argonauts of the Western Pacific-Malowinski
-going native in the trobriand islands -by living with them, he was able to get a gage for their social life, food and shelter, sexual behaviors, community economics, patterns of kinship, and family.
What was the approach taken by 19th century anthropologists?
-idea of social evolution -Would judge everyone by a single yardstick (Eurocentric standards)
Franz Boas's criticism on Museums
-only portrayed tools -Similar artifacts did NOT mean same evolutionary stages -museum displays should show people and culture You can only understand the material culture in terms of the overall culture Boas wanted to show how people lived with the artifacts. He knew how to do that because he had lived with these people
Lewis Henry Morgan
-this dude who was sitting in an armchair in a "civilized" area which based on his own standards is also the most "advanced" -The most "developed" societies were in North America and Europe. Everyone is moving towards being like these regions Social Evolutionist -savagery→ barbarism → civilization (understood these stages by cultural advances) -studied Iroquois
Francis Galton
-used statistics for his eugenic purposes -used pseudoscience/scientific racism to justify racism -believed intelligence to be hereditary and based on the acuity of and quickness of our senses -Tested for intelligence by testing individuals with separate sensory and perceptual tests. -Sparked the debate over nature vs. nurture for intelligence
critique of functionalism
-views cultures as stable and orderly and ignores or cannot explain social change. -struggles to explain why a society develops one particular kind of social institution instead of another.
Participant observation
=a type of observation in which the anthropologist observes while participating in the same activities in which her informants are engaged -Malowinski's field work took him "off the veranda"
Functionalism
=an approach to anthropology developed in British anthropology that emphasized the way that parts of a society work together to support the functioning of the whole. -Malinowski believed that cultural traditions were developed as a response to specific human needs such as food, comfort, safety, knowledge, reproduction, and economic livelihood. ex) One function of educational institutions like schools, for instance, is to provide knowledge that prepares people to obtain jobs and make contributions to society.
cultural relativism
cultures need to be understood and studied based on their own standards
