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The Importance of Social Scientists: Understanding Culture Through Anthropology

Social scientists play a crucial role in validating our intuitions and beliefs through rigorous research. Rather than relying solely on feelings or common sense, they investigate human behavior and cultural practices, providing a factual foundation for our understanding of society. By exploring kinship, cultural systems, and the structures that govern human interaction, social scientists help us see the complexities of family and societal relationships. Schools of thought in anthropology—like functionalism, structuralism, and cultural materialism—offer frameworks to study these dynamics, ultimately driving social progress.

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The Importance of Social Scientists: Understanding Culture Through Anthropology

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Presentation Transcript

  1. From Yesterday

  2. Why do we need social scientists? • Don’t they tell us what we already know to be true?

  3. Why we need social scientists: Intuition • is believing something to be true because a person’s emotions and logic support it  Intuition is not proof of fact – this is why we need social scientists – they prove or disprove what we BELIEVE to be true

  4. Why we need social scientists • Question: According to your intuition, would introducing the death penalty into a society decrease the murder rate?

  5. Anthro: Comparing Cultures: Kinship • Kinship • family relationship based on what a culture considers to be a family. • The family unit can vary depending on the culture in which the family lives • Brothers/sisters….. Step brothers/step sisters

  6. Anthro: Comparing Cultures: Kinship • Anthropologists have concluded that human cultures define the concept of kinship in three ways • Mating(marriage) • Birth (descent) • Nurturance (adoption)

  7. Anthro: Comparing Cultures: Patrilineal • Most human species are patrilineal. • Members organize their families through their father’s line • Ex…wife taking husbands name, kids taking dad’s name

  8. Anthro: Comparing Cultures: Matrilineal • Some cultures are matrilineal. • Navajo people of American Southwest

  9. Skills and Methods used by Anthropologists • Participation-observation • Collection of statistics • Field interviews • Rigorous compilation of detailed notes • Fieldwork on anthropologists is know as “ethnography”:  the scientific study of human races and cultures

  10. Anthropological Schools of Thought • School of thought:  when a certain way of interpreting a discipline’s subject matter gains widespread credibility, it is considered to be a ‘school of thought’ • Anthropology Schools of Thought1.  Functionalism2.  Structuralism3.  Culturalism

  11. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtFunctionalism • According to functionalists all cultures are set up to deal with the universal problems that human societies face • Connected with trying to meet either physical or psychological needs.

  12. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtFunctionalism • Established laws, practices, and customs within a society can be called institutions • At core of functionalism is a belief that society is itself a logical institution that functions in the best interests of the majority • Role of anthropologist is to explain not to judge

  13. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtFunctionalism • Some problems with functionalism: • Functionalists present cultures and societies as being more stable than they really are • Downplay the negative results of some practices

  14. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtStructuralism • The human mind functions on the principle of binary opposites. • Humans tend to see things in terms of two forces that are opposite each other • Items are not inherently good or bad but could be either depending on the element

  15. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtStructuralism • Anthropologists must seek out and explain rules. • Problems • Overemphasize logic and stability in human socities

  16. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtStructuralism • Societies wouldn’t die out if they always met the needs of their members

  17. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtCultural Materialism • Technological and economic factors are the most important ones in moulding a society • This theory is known as materialism • Determinism- the types of technology and economic methods that are adopted always determine the type of society that develops

  18. Anthropological Schools of ThoughtCultural Materialism • Observe cultures in bias eyes Pg 8 # 1-4 Pg 14 # 1-4

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