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 Theme 1_what is
Anthropology?
ANTH101: Introduction to Anthropology
[email protected]
NAB Room 345/343
Let’s Define Anthropology
Ety: Anthropos + logy
“Anthropos” – “meaning man/human(kind)
or being
“Logy or logia” - meaning study or discourse
Etymology - The origin of a word and the historical development of its
meaning
The term in its literal sense means, “study
of mankind”, as it is a combination of two Greek words,
namely, anthropos and logos.

Branch of knowledge = scientific study

of man = experience = time and space.
 Let’s Define Anthropology

1) Anthropology – is a holistic study of human

experience from biological evolution, cultural
belief systems, language use and material
remains.
2) Anthropology – is the study of Humankind in
all times and places.
3) Anthropology – is the holistic, synthetic,
multidisciplinary study of human beings.
 Characteristics & principles
Characteristics
 Holism
 Culture
 Man/humankind
 Interdisciplinary
 Four fields
 Fieldwork
 Ethnography(ic) research
Principles and Key Concepts in Anthropology Discipline
o Holism
o Ethnocentrism
o Cultural Relativism
Simplifying anthropology
To simplify ANTHROPOLOGY
you have to?
 Simplifying anthropology

•
To simplify ANTH you have to BALC
UP!

.
 Simplifying anthropology

Remember that one (particular) definition:

…from biological evolution, cultural belief systems,
language use and material remains? = BALC
B – Biological anthropology
A – Archaeological Anthropology
L – Linguistic Anthropology
C – Cultural Anthropology
- The Four Major Fields of Anthropology
 The 4 Major fields of anth

• Anthropology is an expansive discipline.

• As a field of study, anthropology teaches important
concepts that are essential in understanding
human condition and accepting all kinds of
diversities.
• So, to simplify this expansive discipline we tend to
introduce and focus on the four fields -
• This is all to show the kind of research interest/s
and method/s that anthropology or anthropologists
do in each field.
 holism in anthropology
o - To say ANTH is holistic means that it combines the study of
human biology, history, language and the learned and shared
patterns of human behaviour and thought we call ___ in order to
analyze human groups.
o - ANTH brings a holistic approach to understanding and explaining.
o - Holism separates anthropology from other academic disciplines,
which generally focus on one factor
o e.g biology, psychology, physiology, or society to explain human
behaviour.
o - ANTH seeks to understand human beings as organisms who
adapt to their environments through a complex interaction of
biology and culture.
 holism in anthropology

• Because ANTH/sts take a holistic approach,

they are interested in the total range of
human activity.
• Most ANTH/sts specialize in a single field and a
single problem, but together they study the
small dramas of daily living as well as
spectacular social events.
 The 4 Major fields of anth

Biological/Physical Anthropology:
- Studies humankind from a biological
perspective.
- Focuses primarily on those aspects of humanity that are
genetically inherited.
- People are biological beings who live in a broad range of
ecological and social conditions.
- Culture is grounded in our biological history and physical makeup.
• Sub-fields in the field: Epidemiology
• Primatology
• Paleoanthropology/human evolution etc.
 The 4 Major fields of anth

Archaeological Anthropology:
- study of past cultures (Humankind)
through their material remains.
Archaeologists add a historical dimension to our
understanding of cultures and how they change.
All lives/times of humankind matter.
Archaeologists study prehistoric societies - those
for which no written records have been found or
no writing systems have been deciphered.
 Archaeological
Anthropology:
 Their principal task is to infer the
nature of past cultures based on the
patterns of the artifacts left behind.
 Archaeologists work like detectives,
slowly sifting and interpreting
evidence.
 Archaeologists do not observe human
behavior and culture directly but
rather reconstruct them from material
remains or artifacts.
 An artifact is any object that human
beings have made/used/or altered.
 Artifacts include pottery, tools,
garbage, and whatever else a society
has left behind
 Your Language
is Part of MANY
other Languages

• Linguistic
anthropologists
want to
understand the
variation among
languages, how
language is
structured, how
it is learned, and
how it is used.
 The 4 Major fields of anth

Linguistic Anthropology:
- Is concerned with understanding
language and its relation to culture.
• Language is an essential part of what it means
to be human and a basic part of all cultures.
• Although most creatures communicate, human
speech is more complex, creative, and used
more extensively than the communication
systems of other animals.
 The 4 Major fields of anth

Cultural Anthropology:
- Studies human society and culture.
 Culture is the major way in which human beings adapt to their environments and
give meaning to their lives.
 As long as human beings have existed, they have lived in groups and have had
to answer certain critical questions.
 Belief that your life and contributions matter to others and yourself ? the feeling
that your life makes sense? and the feeling that you are actively pursuing
fulfilling goals?
 Cultures are human responses to these basic questions.
 The goal of cultural anthropology (comparative study of human societies and
cultures) is to describe, analyze, and explain different cultures.
 Cultural Anthropology:

• Anthropologists show how groups have adapted to their

natural and social environments and how they have given
significance to their lives.
• Anthropologists often focus on current and historical
interactions among different cultural groups and patterns of
power and inequality both within and among cultures.
• Cultural anthropologists attempt to understand culture both as
a universal human phenomenon and as a characteristic of a
group of people
Applied Anthropology?
 Applied Anthropology?
• Any kind of Anthropological research that is
done to solve practical problems.
• OR
• Is the use of anthropology in both public and
private sectors to solve real-world problems
• Sometimes referred to as practicing
anthropology.
• Applied anthropologists are trained in one of
the four subdisciplines.
 Applied
Anthropology?
• All of us do applied
anthropology when we
bring anthropological
understandings and
insight to bear on
problems of inequality,
education, war, violence,
and peace.
Recap…
 what is Anthropology?
All subsequent definitions must maintain the characteristics of the etymological definition
How is Anthropology a Holistic discipline?
Should be simple from the ety of the two words…Anth and Holism

How do we simplify this expansive discipline?

The goal is to explore all facets of humanity from its origins through the
present.
B–A–L–K to kind of research interest/s and method/s that anthropology or anthropologists do in each field .
Distinctive Features
of Cultural Anthropology?
Cultural anthropology has contributed two powerful concepts in the study of humankind -
cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. These continue to
shape thinking in cultural anthropology.
End Goal? - Solve human problem/Integrated picture of man
 Misconceptions about
Anthropology
o Study of Culture? T/F
o The study of "primitive" societies/rural people and
rural areas? T/F
o ANTH conduct studies in order to keep and
preserve primitive, defunct cultural practices, and
are advocates of defunct, obsolete culture; also
promote primitiveness? T/F
o Associated with the study of the societies and
problems of the traditional, non-Western peoples?
T/F
o It is fair to say it is just a Social science? T/F
o Concerned with study of primates? T/F
Broad Discipline
of Anthropology
• World cultures are constantly in
contact with each other
• Most people in the world live in
multicultural and multiethnic
nations
• Human beings everywhere
consider their own behavior not
only right but also natural
• Anthropologists are interested in
the effects of differences of
power both among cultures and
within individual cultures
The Broad Discipline of Anthropology
• The broader field of the four_______?
• Sometimes called the comparative study of human societies and cultures
• In other academic disciplines, human behavior is usually studied primarily
from the point of view of Western society.
• Scholars in those disciplines have focused on behavior of people in the
modern industrial nations of Europe and North America and deemed that as
representative of all humanity.
Anthropology believes that we can only understand who we are as human
beings through the study of humanity in its total variety--- HOLISM
- this anthropological perspective is vital
Practice of
HOLISM In
Anthropology
Research

• Research in cultural
anthropology is mostly based
on participant observation -
long-term fieldwork that
involves gathering data by
observing and participating in
people’s lives.
 Practice of HOLISM In Anthropology
Research

• Ethnography and ethnology

• The two important aspects of cultural anthropology:
 Ethnography is the description of society or culture.
- Ethnography refers to both the process of qualitative,
fieldwork-based research and the written results of that
research Thick description

An ethnographer attempts to describe an entire society or a

specific set of cultural institutions or practices
• An ethnography may be either emic or etic (or it may be a
combination of the two).
 Emic OR Etic
Emic – standpoint provides
Two basic standpoints deeper insight into a particular
from which culture because it helps ANTH
anthropologists can understand the attitudes,
describe human motives, and interests of social
actors within the context of
behaviour. their cultural wholes.

Etic – loosely employed to

identify a researcher’s own
analytic framework
 Practice of HOLISM In Anthropology
Research
• Cultural Relativity(sm) and Ethnocentrism:
• Understanding of the two will lead an anthropologist to design and ask better
questions…
o Cultural Relativity(sm) is the idea that a people’s values and customs
must be understood in terms of the culture to which they belong.
o Cultural relativists maintain that to understand the logic and dynamics of other
cultures, anthropologists must suspend judgment of them.
o Ethnocentrism inherent biases and perspectives of individuals or groups,
when evaluating and interpreting “other” cultures.
o A person who does not hear the music of another culture cannot make sense of its
dance.
o If we don’t understand the patterns and rules of other cultures, then the actions of
other people may seem incomprehensible.
o Ethnology is the attempt to find general principles or laws that govern culture,
to compare and contrast practices in different cultures to find regularities.