- Social Contract (unspoken rules of
ANTHRO 10 NOTES
ANTHROPOLOGY
- established mid-19th century
- has 3 themes which can be summarized by the
question: What makes us human? / What does
it mean to be a human?
1) Origin of Man?
- Creationist perspective:
Everything created
No changes
The Great Chain of Being
o humans < angels < GOD
2) How society came about?
Hugo Groitus
- natural laws of nature operated in
individuals of societies
- interaction of individuals = interaction
of societies
- is society part of human nature?
- government established by man for
benefit of people
Samuel Pofendorf
- humans are inherently social =
Sociality of Man
- what if no society?
*There: live by passion/raw sense
- war, poverty, ignorance,
scattered household
*Here: live by reason/logic
- nonwhites: othered/ othering
(negative connotation)
Thomas Hobbes
- Humans act to satisfy self-interest
- government established to contain
these interests
human interaction) therefore used to
pacify
John Locke
- government acts as a separate entity
(not to pacify)
- Social Contract just to keep people
from fighting
Jean Jacques Rousseau
- government established by rich to
protect their properties
- Social Contract established for the
People
- Humans develop sociality = societies
3) Humanity vs Animality?
- Feral Children: did not grow up in
formal societies
*became proj of early scholars =
a lot failed
*Marie Le Blanc (success)
- Orang Outan
*Dutch:
1) Other humans can be
considered as diff species
2) similar language = all humans
*Borneo, Ethiopia: orangutans,
chimpanzees (looks human from
afar)
- Noble Savage
- romanticized
- savages = human nature
DEFINITION OF ANTHROPOLOGY
- anthro = man and logia= study
- study of man
- concerned w/ mans past, present and future
- before: sociology of non-Western world
- recent: study of own people
- variation & universality of human beings
- culture: set of learned behaviors and ideas
including the needs, attitude, values
and ideals that are characteristic of a
society or a particular social group
- Approaches of Anthropology
1) Physical Anthropology
- emergence of man & physical
variations of man
- Paleo Anthropology
human paleontology
- diet, locomotive, habitat
- Human Anthroplogy
Human Ecology (adaptation to
environment)
Human Population Biology
2) Archeology
- reconstruct past societies
- artifacts, ecofacts ++
3) Linguistics
- Historical Linguistics
variations & emergence of
language
- Social Linguistics (spread)
Ex. Austronesian: China Taiwan
Luzon other parts of SEA
and Pacific
- Structural Linguistics
language as system of sounds
4) Social/Cultural Anthropology
- interactions of different parts of
culture
5) Applied Anthropology
- applied in different fields like medicine
and forensic studies
*Structure - recurring patterns
- tells people how to act
- gender, economy, religion, etc.
Karl Marx: structure should be destroyed
Olivia (?): structure for order
Anthony Gibbins (?): reflective;
individual can use it as an advantage for
ones self and eventually change the
structure
*Culture - tells us how to act; patterns (like
structure
- something learned/acquired (thru
socialization)
- considered culture if characteristic
of a group of people with system
and sophistication
- Cognitive (unseen, knowledge,
intangible; how knowledge was
understand; gender, social class,
power, worldview)
- Expressive (thru architecture, music,
rituals)
*Theory (in social science, humanities)
- perspective, a way of understanding the
world
- certain theories emerge as reaction to
existing theories
1) Evolutionist
- different societies undergo the same
processes/stages
- Edward Ty (?): Savagery (Africans)
Barbarianism (Native
Americans)
Civilisation
~others slower to develop
~Gems of Thought (change culture)
cyclic unity = culture change
- Henry Lee Morgan: primitive
brothers & sisters group marriage
(family) loosely-paired male &
 female polygamous marriage
monogamous marriage
2) Diffusionist
- culture travels geographically thru
migration/contact
- Kultur Kries (culture circles) by
Friedrich Ratzel, Fritz Gaebner,
Wilhelm Schmidt
- stimuli (culture inspired by others)
3) Historical Particularism
- Franz Boas (America)
- culture as relative entities (no superior
and inferior)
- studies culture by looking at the
history of the people
4) Functionalism
- European concept
- culture as a system (similar to how
organ systems work)
- Bronislaw Malinowsla: social
institutions established to satisfy
human physiological needs (religion:
anxiety)
- Radcliffe Brown: social institutions
needed to control behavior = solidarity
(people will adjust into the needs of
the society)
5) Neo-Evolutionist
- archeological background
- Gordon Childe (Stone Age ++)
- Leslie White (Technology & Energy)
~more efficient use of energy =
more advanced society
6) Structuralism
- Claude Levistrauss
- see culture thru arts, language = see
how people think
- Binary Oppositions (good-evil, night-
day, male-female)
7) Feminist (mid-late 20th century)
- Henrietta Moore (1st): looked at
Economic system & gender roles
8) Interpretative
-Evans Pitchard
~viewed anthropology as an art
~wanted to translate non-Western
culture thru anthropology
- Clifford Geertz
~saw culture as text/literature
~job of anthropologist to write as
much as he/she can: Thick
Description (painting picture thru
words, more sensory aspect)
Anthropology as Science
- positivist
- types of study:
1) synchronic (time not much of a
factor; focus on a specific period)
2) diachronic (time is a big factor,
look at the changes thru time)
3) interactive (combo of 1 & 2;
cyclic, cause & effects)
- field work (for gathering data)
*in social/cultural anthro:
immersion of scholar
(outsider community)
*Participation-Observation
~hallmark of anthropology
data-gathering
~dynamics of society should be
noted
~field notes (objective)
~field diary (subjective)
~Emic perspective (local
perspective vs Etic perspective
(outsider perspective; more
analytical)
- goal is make sense of
insider thru outsider