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Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology . A tool for understanding what makes people and cultures different and what makes them the same. What is Culture?. Culture is defined as:

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Cultural Anthropology

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  1. Cultural Anthropology A tool for understanding what makes people and cultures different and what makes them the same.

  2. What is Culture? Culture is defined as: • A specific set of learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals that are characteristic of a particular society or population.

  3. Culture as a Learned Characteristic • Culture is learned and passed down from previous generations. • This is also called Enculturation • It is not something an individual is born with.

  4. Culture as an agent of Environmental Adaptation • The material objects and customs produced by a group of people are influenced by the environment around them. • For example: • The types of tools and the materials that they are manufactured out of are determined by what is available. • No stone? Then your tools will be made out of wood, bone, or antler. • This is a problem for archaeologists.

  5. Two Components of Cultural Anthropology Ethnography and Ethnology

  6. Ethnography • This is the most visible and most widely used research tool in cultural anthropology. • Two main components of ethnography: • Fieldwork • Published results • Excellent example of an ethnography is: • Lewis H. Morgan • League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee Or Iroquois • I’ll post the PDF on the Wiki for anyone who is curious.

  7. Fieldwork • Process by which data is gathered from the study location. • This can be as far away as Australia or as close as your local delicious and refreshing Starbucks™

  8. Publishing • Without this part of the anthropological process the rest of the research is wasted. • Why do the fieldwork and record the data if no one will ever even have the chance to read it?

  9. Ethnology • This is a comparative study and analysis of the worlds cultures. • Uses the ethnographic accounts recorded in the field to formulate broader anthropological theories that help to explain why cultures are different or similar.

  10. So what’s the difference between Ethnography and Ethnology? • Ethnography • Detailed description of a culture based on field work. • Ethnology • Comparing different cultures to try and discover broader patterns that extend across many cultural groups.

  11. Methodology in the Field • Participant Observation • Associated with Ethnography • This is an anthropological technique used to understand groups of people by interacting with them in their own environment. • An anthropologist will go and live with a certain group of people for an extended period of time and this allows for a more complete view of the culture being studied. • Informants: • These are individuals who assist the Ethnographer in interpreting certain aspects of the culture being observed.

  12. Bronislaw Malinowski • Born 1884 • Died 1942 • First anthropologist to truly use the Participant Observation technique.

  13. The Importance of Symbols in Culture • Symbols are extremely important to every culture in the world. • Symbols can be defined as: • Signs, emblems, and other things that can have a meaningful representation of something else that may or may not be related to the physical structure of the symbol itself. • Symbols are given meaning by the culture that creates them.

  14. Does Culture Change? • Definitely!! • That’s what makes it so exciting to study! • For example: • In what ways has American society changed from, say, the 1940s to the year 2008? • This means that the work is never done for ethnographers. • Each culture that is studied should be revisited in order to ascertain how it has changed over a certain period of time. • Not always possible but it is the ideal situation.

  15. Cultural Change • The ways in which cultures provide for their people and respond to threats from both outside and within their society is extremely important for understanding the culture as a whole. • There is a delicate balance within every culture • “The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few, or the one.”

  16. Ethnocentric Attitudes • This is related to the topic of Cultural Relativity that was previously discussed. • This is a common problem among both the general population and anthropologists as well. • Ethnocentrism is the idea that one persons culture is superior to other cultures. • Everyone, anthropologists included, must constantly try to keep this in check and ensure that attitudes such as this do not pollute the interpretations of any culture being studied. • Eliminating these attitudes is one of the primary goals of anthropology in general

  17. Wrap It Up! • Any questions about anthropology in general? • About possible careers or opportunities? • Other questions about the course? • Anything at all? The weather? Brett Favre playing for the Jets? ???

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