UNIT ONE

Introducing Anthropology and Subject Matter of Anthropology

 Anthropology is the study of humans.

 Man has two important characteristics: biological and cultural although they are
inseparable.
 What is it that distinguishes anthropology from other academic disciplines which also
study human beings is – it is a broad discipline dedicated to the comparative study of
humans as a group, from its first appearance on earth to its present stage of development.
i.e. it is by far the broadest scope.
 Anthropology is a science which
 Investigates the strategies for living that are learned and shared by people as
members of human social groups
 Examine the characteristics that human beings shares as members of one species
(homo sapiens) and the divers ways that people live in different environments
 Analysis the products of social groups – material objects (material cultures) and
non-material creations (religion, social values, institutions and practices.
 Its ultimate goal is to develop an integrated picture of humankind – a goal which
encompasses an almost infinite number of questions about all aspects of our existence.
 Its historical development as the science of humanity, it originated in France, Britain,
U.S.A and Germany.
 Ethnography – anthropologist study indigenous peoples and their social and cultural
features
 Ethnology – attempted to discover universal human patterns and the common bio-
psychological traits that bind all human beings. It aims at the comparative understanding
and analysis of different ethnic groups across time and space.

Scope of Anthropology – the temporal dimension covers the past, the present and the future. In
term of spatial dimension, it studies from Arctic to Desert, from Megapolis to hunting gathering
areas.

 It touches all aspect of human conditions as far as there is a relation between human
beings and natural environment and man and man.
 Where every human being lives, there is always anthropology.

Sub-fields of Anthropology – it has four major sub-fields

A. Physical /Biological Anthropology – related to natural science, particularly biology.

 It studies how culture and environment have influenced these two areas of
biological evolution and contemporary variation.
 It explains some aspects of behavior, society and culture
 B. Archaeological Anthropology – studies the way of lives of past peoples by
excavating and analyzing the material culture /physical remains (artifacts, features
and eco-facts) they left behind.
Artifacts – are material remains made and use by the past peoples and that can be
removed from the site and taken to the laboratory for further analysis. Example,
coins, tools, ornaments.
Feature – like artifacts, are made of modified by past people, but they cannot be
readily carried away from the site. Such as, house foundations, steles.
Eco-facts – are non-artefactual, organic and environmental remains such as soil,
animal bones and plant remains that were not made or altered by humans. It provided
information about how people used natural resources in the past.

Archaeology has also its own sub filed

a. Prehistoric archaeology - investigate human prehistory and prehistory cultures. Between

6,000 to 2.5 million years.
b. Historical archaeology – examine people who use writing and about whom historical
documents have been written.
C. Linguistic Anthropology – studies human language as a cultural resource and
speaking as a cultural practice in a social and cultural context, across space and time.
It has four branches;
i. Structural/Descriptive Linguistics – studies the structure of linguistic patterns. It
examines sound systems, grammatical systems and the meanings attached to the
words in specific languages.
ii. Ethno-linguistics (cultural linguistic) – examine the relation between language and
culture.
iii. Historic Linguistic – deals with the emergence of language in general and how
specific languages have diverged over time.
iv. Socio-Linguistics – investigate linguistic variation within a given language.
D. Socio-Cultural (social) Anthropology – is the largest sub-fields and deals with
human society and culture.

Unique (Basic) Features of Anthropology

 It has the broader scope – interested in all human beings, whether contemporary
or past, “primitive” or “civilized”.
 Its approach is holistic, relativistic, and focused one.
 Its research approach. It is depend on research to understand the meaning behind
any human activity.
 Focusing more on the local than the big social process.
Misconceptions about Anthropology

 A belief that anthropology is limited to the study of “primitive” society.

 A though that it only study the rural people and rural area.
 A though that it is the study of fossil evidences of the proto-humans like Lucy.
 Assume its purpose of study merely to keep and preserve communities far from
development and obsolete cultural practices in museums.

The Contributions of Anthropology

 It help us a better understanding of other cultures and our own (our own way of life).
 It helps to understand the logic and justification behind group behavior and cultural
practices.
 It offers a unique perspective on how local cultural groups are engaging with the process
of globalization.
 It helps to be more sensitive to and appreciative of cultural diversity and variability. It
helps to fight against ethnocentrism (a belief that one’s own culture is superior to other
cultural, social and material life.
 It used as a tool for development.

UNIT TWO

Human Culture and Ties that Connect

What is culture?

 It is a common way of life shared by a group of people.

 It is a system of learned behavior shared by and transmitted among members of the
group.
 It is a collective heritage learned by individuals and passed from one generation to
another.

Characteristic Features of Culture

It is learned – it does not transmitted genetically rather, it is acquired through the

process of learning or interacting with one’s environment.
Culture is shared –
Culture is symbolic
Culture is all-encompassing – it comprises countless material and non-material
aspect of human lives.
Culture is integrated –
Culture can be adaptive and maladaptive –
 Culture is dynamic – it changing constantly as new ideas and new techniques are
added as time passes modifying or changing the old ways.

Aspects /Elements of Culture

Two of the most basic aspects were:

A. Material Culture – consists of man-made objects such as tools, implements, furniture,

buildings, dams, ad in fact, the physical substance which has been changed and used by
man.
B. Non-Material – Culture – it is internal and intrinsically valuable, reflects the inward
nature of man. It includes;
Value - is a standards by which member of the society define what is good or bad,
Belief – concerns true or false assumptions, specific descriptions of the nature of the
universe and humanity’s place in it.
Norms – rules or guidelines that define how people “ought” to behave under certain
circumstances. It includes:
a. Folkway – they are not strictly enforced
b. Mores – much stronger norms than folkways and they are believed to be essential to
core values and we insist on conformity.

Cultural Unity and Variations:

Universality - universals are cultural traits that across all cultures. A great example
is the concept of a family.
Generality – cultural traits that occurs in many societies but not all of them.
Particularity – traits of a culture that is not widespread cultural borrowing

Evaluating cultural differences:

A. Ethnocentrism - refers to the tendency to see the behaviors, beliefs, values, and norms
of one’s own group as the only right way of living and to judge others by those standards.
It can prevent us from understanding and appreciating another culture. The positive
aspect of it has to do with the protection that it can provide for a culture. It can help
maintain the separation and uniqueness of cultures.
B. Cultural Relativism – it states that cultures differ, so that a cultural trait, act, or idea has
o meaning but its meaning only within its cultural setting. It suspends judgment and
views about the behavior of people from the perspective of their own culture.
Respect for cultural differences includes;
 Appreciating cultural differences
 Accepting and respecting others culture
 Trying to understand every culture
  Accepting that each body of custom has inherent dignity and meaning as the way
of life of one group.
 Knowing that person’s own culture is only one among many
 Recognizing that what is immoral, ethical, acceptable, etc, in one culture may not
be so in another culture.
C. Human Rights – based on justice and morality beyond and superior to particular
countries, cultures and religions. The idea of human right challenges cultural relativism
by invoking a realm of justice and morality beyond and superior to the laws of particular
countries, cultures, and religion.
Human rights include the right to speak freely, to hold religious beliefs without
persecution, and to not be murdered, enslaved or imprisoned without charge. Such rights
are seen as inalienable (nations cannot abridge or terminate them) and international.

Culture Change

Culture change can occur due to;

 Diffusion – cultural elements are borrowed from another society and incorporated into
the culture of the recipient.
 Acculturation – the exchange of cultural features that results when groups have
continues contacts. This usually happens in situations of trade and colonialism.
 Invention – the process by which human innovate, creatively finding solutions to
problems.
 Globalization – in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually
dependent.

Ties that Connect – marriage, family and kinship

Marriage – mate selection

 Exogamy – a man is not allowed to marry someone from his own social group.
 Endogamy – requires individuals to marry within their own group and forbids them to
marry outside it.
 Preferential Cousin Marriage – a common form in the world
 The Levirate and Sororate – a widow is expected to marry the brother (or close male
relative) of her dead husband. The Sororate, is the practice of a widower’s marring the
sister (or close female relative) of his deceased wife.

Number of Spouses

Monogamy – the marriage of one man to one woman at a time.

Polygamy – marriage of a man or a woman with two or more mates. It divided in to;
a. Polygyny – marriage of a man to two or more woman at a time.
 b. Polyandy - marriage of a woman to two or more man at a time.
c. Sororal polygyny - marriage of a man to two or more sisters at a time.

Economic Consideration of Marriage

i. Bride Price – it the compensation given upon marriage by the family of the groom
to the family of the bride.
ii. Bride Service – when the groom works for his wife’s family.
iii. Dowry – involves a transfer of goods or money in the opposite direction, from the
bride’s family to the groom’s family.

Family – divided into

A. The Nuclear Family – consisting of husband and wife and their children.
B. The Extended Family – blood ties are more important than ties of marriage. It
consist of two or more families that are linked by blood ties.

Functions Marriage and Family

A. Biological Function – the institution of marriage and family serves biological

(sexual and reproductive) function.
B. Economic Function – marriage brings economic co-operation between men and
women
C. Social Function – in marriage one adds, not only a spouse but most of the
spouse’s relatives to one’s own group of kin.
D. Education and Socialization Function – the burden of socialization (via processes
of enculturation and education) of new born infants fall primarily upon the
family.

Kinship

Kinship is the method of reckoning relationship. Every adult belongs to two different nuclear
families.

a. Family of orientation – in which he was born and reared.

b. Family of procreation – in which he establish relation through marriage.

The relation based on blood ties is called “consanguineous kinship”, and the relative of this kind
are called ‘consanguineous kin’. The desire for reproduction gives rise to another kind of binding
relationships. “this kind of bond, which arises out of a socially or legally defined marital
relationship, is called a final relationship”, and the relatives so related are called ‘a final kin’.

Descent

It refers to the social recognition of biological relationship that exists between the individuals.
Three important rules of descent;

Patrilineal descent – when descent is traced solely through the male line.

Matrilineal descent – when descent is traced solely through the female line.

Cognatic descent – free to show their genealogical links either through men or women.

Unit Three

Human Diversity, culture Areas and Contact in Ethiopia

The Bio-cultural Animal

Humanity evolves both as a result of biological and cultural factors. Anthropologist calls it
biocultural evolution.

Humanity – doesn’t specify whether you are talking about males, females, adults, or children; it
simply means our species – homo sapiens sapiens- at large.

Origin of Modern Human Species: Homo Sapiens Sapiens

A. Cosmologies and Human origins – supernatural beings or forces formed human beings
and the planet.
Western Tradition of Origins – Greeks had various mythological explanations. Includes;
Prometheus fashioned humans out of water earth.
Zeus ordering Pyrrha, the inventor of fire, to throw stones behind his back, which in turn
became men and women.
Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus – argued that life originated in the sea and that
humans initially were fishlike, eventually moving onto dry land and evolving in to
mammals.
The most important cosmological tradition affecting Western views of creation is
recounted in the biblical Book of Genesis which begins with “in the beginning god
created the heavens and the earth”.
B. Evolutionary and Paleo-anthropological perspective on human origin – rely on
scientific views of evolution. Evolution refers to a process and gradual change in specie
over time. It describe the cumulative effects of three independent facts;
Replication – life forms have offspring
Variation – each offspring is slightly different from its parents and its siblings
Selection – not all offspring survive

The Kind of Humanity; human physical variation

a. Racial types – anthropological perspectives

Not all human being looks the same.
 Biological speaking, a race is a group of organism of the same species that share similar
physical (and genetic) attributes and specific geographic regions. In short, they are
subdivision of the same species.

What Anthropologists can say about Human race?

Consider two important points;

a. Genetic differences don’t mean a lot. Because all healthy humans can mate and have
healthy offspring, we are all in Homo sapiens sapiens, biologically.
Don’t let anyone tell you different.
b. Cultural behavior isn’t genetically linked to those geographical differences. It is culture
that really drives behavior, not the genes.

Why is Everyone Different/ Human cultural diversity

Race doesn’t control person’s characteristics. But culture is the reason for human behavior al
variation. Cultures differ because people live in different conditions.

Culture area and cultural contact in Ethiopia

Culture area refers to a cluster of related cultures occurring a certain geographical region.

A. Plough Culture area

Areas where agriculture is predominantly the means by which subsistence is eked out.
Most of the highland and central part of the country.
B. Enset culture area
Covers the southern part of the country in which areas enset serves as a staple diet to the
people.
C. Pastoral culture area
Found in the low land areas covering a large section of the Afar, Somali and Borena.
They are rely on their herds and cattle for living.