Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
Summer 2012
Katherine Schaefers, Instructor
Office: 3102
OH: 12:30-1:30p.m. M-Th
CHAPTER 1
THE ESSENCE OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
Maybury-Lewis, Anthropologist
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
EARLY ANTHROPOLOGY
Herodotus
Greek
Napoleon
Self-proclaimed
1821)
Anthropology
Timeline:
http://historyofanthropology.eu/
IN WESTERN HISTORY
European Exploration/Colonialism
Columbus,
Napoleon, and
A reaction to the superstition and hysteria of Europes Dark Ages (The Witch hunt
era that we will get into later).
Rationality, objectivity, reason can discover knowledge and truth and lead to
progress.
We can understand everybody/thing everywhere if we adhere to these principles
of logic.
Empirical knowledge: Based on observations of the world rather than on
intuition or faith.
Hypothesis: A tentative explanation of the relation between certain phenomena
Theory: In science, an explanation of natural phenomena, supported by a
reliable body of data.
People are now freed from the restraints of superstitious nonsense and can now grow
as logical, rational and evolved beings.
This is where our modern thoughts of linearity come from. In Western Society, time
is like an arrow, experienced as breach, innovation and change we are seen to
always improve on what came before. The Europeans of the Enlightenment saw
themselves at the pinnacle of evolution. (The era right before this also had maps
centering on Europe, and the cosmos rotating around Earth).
QUESTIONS...
With new discoveries in science (physics, chemistry,
biology, astronomy, anatomy, anthropology!) and
cultures being found worldwide that seemed similar to
the less evolved European prehistoric culture, this
European laudatory attitude persisted for a good 200300 years, but then the ideology began to shift
Questions arose:
Both
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
To make the strange familiar, and the familiar
strange
Strangeness, the unfamiliar is scary and can
lead to misguided feelings of anger and hate,
which may eventually lead to warfare and
death.
Most
4 TRADITIONAL FIELDS OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
Physical
Archaeology
Linguistics
Cultural
A QUESTION OF PERSPECTIVE:
THE FORE OF NEW GUINEA
Solution? If you were asked to look into this case, what would your
first hypothesis be as to the cause of the affliction?
ETIC/EMIC ANALYSIS
Etic Analysis: Viewing and labeling a culture with our own words and
terms.
Advantages: Finding patterns that the studied group may be unaware of. Applying
an Etic Analysis to all cultures that you study makes it easier to identify Human
Universals. Terms and categories can be made for new information to be nicely
organized. Etic Analysis is mainly used in Anthropological studies.
Etic Analysis: Kuru is caused by a virus in the afflicteds bloodstream that is later
ingested by family members.
But what are bacteria, germs, diseases, a virus to the Fore? These are
not only foreign words, but also foreign ideas.
Emic Analysis: Viewing a culture through the eyes of the people being
studied.
Advantages: Better understanding of the studied culture, but much, much harder to
attain. Argument: is it even possible to see through the eyes of another culture? To
undo and place aside ones own worldview and wholly adopt another?
Emic Analysis: Kuru is caused by Sorcery. The Sorcerer will obtain a personal
belonging of the individuals, combine it in a bundle with leaves, bark and stones
and bury it in the cold muddy earth. The Sorcerer will then recite a spell and let
the bundle rot. The individual then develops Kuru.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
For Thursday
Prepare