INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGYLecture on March 05 & 12, 2009

Room 412, 4th Fl.Faculty of Communication

President UniversityKota Jababeka – Cikarang Baru

Bekasi 17550INDONESIA

Literature :

Miller, D. Barbara; Wood, Bernard (2006), ANTHROPOLOGY, USA, Pearson Education Inc.

By. Hendra Manurung, S.IP, M.A in Area Studies of European Countries

ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIAL SCIENCES

What is Anthropology ? The study of

human nature, human culture and society, and the human past;

how human biology, prehistory and history, economics, politics, religion, and kinship shape one another to make human life what it is;

local contexts situated in broader social, cultural, and political matrices;

what it means to be human.

ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIAL SCIENCES

Anthropology’s Four Subfields are : Biological (physical) Anthropology

The study of human beings as living organisms different from and similar to other animals. (subfields: primatology & paleoanthropology)

Archaeology (often spelled “Archeology”) The study of human remains for evidence of past cultural activity.

Linguistic anthropology The study of language in relation to the broader cultural, historical,

and biological contexts that make language possible. Cultural & Social Anthropology

The study of cultural variation in people’s learned beliefs, ideas, and behaviors as members of a society.

Basic Concepts in Socio-cultural Anthropology

Culture Comparative (cross-cultural comparison, generalization) Holistic (integrative, whole greater than parts) Domains of culture (biology, psychology, politics,

economics, history, kinship, religion, communication, performance, etc.)

Symbol (abstract relationships) Explaining human nature: dualism & determinism,

materialism & idealism, empiricism & positivism, qualitative & quantitative (cf. holism)

Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism Fieldwork (extensive, intensive involvement with a group) Participant-observation (in multiple local contexts) Reflexivity (highlighting inter-subjective meaning

creation) Ethnography (writing about cultures)

Culture

People’s learned beliefs, ideas, and behaviors as members of a society.

Human culture is learned, shared, patterned, adaptive, and symbolic.

The main way in which human groups differ from one another.

Began over 5 million years ago with hominid bipedal and opposable thumb & fingers; 2,5 million years ago with stone tools; 200,000 years ago with homo sapiens’ complex symbolic representation and social organization.

What is field work in cultural anthropology ?

Firsthand exploration of a society and culture.

Develops a holistic perspective about a culture.

Reveals the difference between what people say they do and what they do.

Fieldwork Techniques :

Participant observationPhotography and filmingRecording life historiesUsing historical archives

Common Issues in Fieldwork

Fieldwork is done by colleting data & testing a hypothesis, such as : Community acceptance Appropriate data-gathering techniques. Understand local political structure Choosing knowledgeable informants. Coping with culture shock. Learning a new language. Reevaluate findings in the light of

new evidence.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Participant-observation

Advantages Disadvantages

- Enhances rapport

- Enables fieldworkers to distinguish actual and expected behavior

- Permits observation of nonverbal behavior

- Small sample size.

- Difficult to obtain standardized comparable data

- Problems of recording

- Obtrusive effect on subject matter

Ethnography in world history

Anthropology began in the late 19th Century as a comparative science.

Ethnographers concentrated on small-scale, technologically simpler societies.

Cultures were place on evolutionary scales of cultural development.

Ethnography in early 20th century

Franz Boas insisted that fieldwork was essential for holistic study.

Refer to Malinowski, ethnography is “the main goal for an ethnographer was to obtain the native’s point of view”.

Feminist anthropology :

Questions gender bias in ethnography and cultural theory.

Men, who had limited access to women’s lives, performed much of the fieldwork.

Ignoring women’s perspectives perpetuates the oppression of women.

Evolutionism is :

All cultures pass through the same developmental stages in the same order.

Evolution is unidirectional and leads to higher levels of culture.

A deductive approach is used to apply general theories to specific cases.

Ethnocentric because evolutionists put their own societies at the top.

Functionalism

Through fieldwork, anthropologists can understand how cultures work for the individual and the society.

Society is like a biological organism with many interconnected parts.

Empirical fieldwork is essential. The structure of any society contains indispensable functions

without which the society could not continue. Radcliffe Brown is a structural functionalist, who discern and

describe the role of social institutions in the smooth working of society and preserving social solidarity.

Malinowski’s psychological functionalism in 7 universal human needs: Nutrition, reproduction, bodily comfort, safety, relaxation,

movement, and growth.

Psychological Anthropology in Culture & Personality

Anthropologists need to explore the relationships between psychological and cultural variables.

Personality is result of cultural learning.Universal temperaments associated

with males and females do not exist. Margaret Mead (1901-1978) Ruth Benedict (1887-1948)

Native Anthropology

Study of one’s own society.Maintain the social distance of the outsider

to stay objective and avoid going as a Native. “Going Native”

Becoming more common as native cultures disappear.

Ethical Fieldwork

Anthropologists must :Obtain consent of the people to be

studied.Protect them from risk.Respect their privacy and

dignity.

The Development of Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humankind in all times and places

Anthropologists are from many different societies

Canadian Anthropology

Anthropological studies began in the 18th and 19th centuries

Museums, academic departments and applied research influenced the development of anthropology

Canadian anthropologists shape government policies and many are advocates for 1st nation people

The Discipline of Anthropology

Biological Anthropology

Socio-cultural Anthropology

Biological Anthropology

The systematic study of humans as biological organisms

Anthropology Applied

Forensic Anthropology

The identification of human skeleton remains for legal purposes

Forensic anthropology still be used for health and medicine purposes nowadays.

Socio-cultural Anthropology

Focusing on human behavior

Avoiding culture bound theories

Ethnography Ethnology Ethno history

Ethnomethodology

The term etnomethodology was coined by Harold Garfinkel, supposing it to mean ‘people’s methods’, to refer to an approach to the sociology of everyday life, that became popular in the 1960s. Etnomethodology is concerned with the way in which members of society create the ordered social work in which they live (Andre Edgar & Peter Sedwick in cultural theory, The Key Concepts, 2003)

What is communication in socio-cultural anthropology ?

Communication concentrates on the human aspect of processing information, regardless of the medium or communication system that being utilized

These models are similar to each other, but each adds at least one important element to the process and definition of modern communication

The Linear Model of Modern Communication

Transmitter DestinationReceiver

Noisesource

InformationSource

Message MessageSignal ReceivedSignal

The Communication Process in Socio-cultural anthropology

Assignment to be submitted on March 12, 2009 at 12.00 a.m Can cultural anthropology be used to study modern

societies and large-scale urban societies? What’s the difference between sociology and

anthropology? Is it a matter of methods, topics, scale, academic tradition, or what?

Share your ideas about the difference between society and culture. Give some examples

Is cultural anthropology, as a soft science, less valid as a means of understanding reality, compared with hard sciences, such as mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry?