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This chapter introduces students to the
textbook by discussing how Anthropology is
defined and how it relates to other academic
fields. It also discusses the different
subfields and dimensions that exist within
Anthropology.
What is Anthropology?
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What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of the human species and its immediate
ancestors.
Anthropology is holistic in that the discipline is concerned with studying the
whole of the human condition: past, present and future. Anthropology
studies biology, society, language, and culture.
Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective by constantly
comparing the customs of one society with those of others.
People share both society and culture.
Society is organized life in groups, a feature that humans share with other
animals.
Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that
govern the beliefs and behaviors of the people exposed to them.
While culture is not biological, the ability to use it rests in hominid biology.
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Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Adaptation is the process by which organisms cope with
environmental stresses.
Human adaptation involves interaction between culture and
biology to satisfy individual goals.
Four types of human adaptation:
cultural (technological) adaptation
genetic adaptation
long-term physiological or developmental adaptation
immediate physiological adaptation
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Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Humans are the most adaptable animals in the world, having
the ability to inhabit widely variant ecological niches.
Humans, like all other animals use biological means to adapt
to a given environment.
Humans are unique in having cultural means of adaptation.
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Adaptation, Variation, and Change
Through time, social and cultural means of adaptation have
become increasingly important for human groups.
Human groups have devised diverse ways of coping with a wide
range of environments.
The rate of this cultural adaptation has been rapidly accelerating
during the last 10,000 years.
Food production developed between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago
after millions of years during which hunting and gathering was the
sole basis for human subsistence.
The first civilizations developed between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago.
More recently, the spread of industrial production has profoundly
affected human life.
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Four Subdisciplines of Anthropology
The academic discipline of American anthropology is
unique in that it includes four subdisciplines: cultural
anthropology, archaeological anthropology, biological or
physical anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
This four field approach developed in the US as early
American anthropologists studying native peoples of North
America became interested in exploring the origins and
diversity of the groups that they were studying.
This broad approach to studying human societies did not
develop in Europe (e.g. Archaeology, in most European
universities, is not a subdiscipline of anthropology; it is its
own department).
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Origins of American Anthropology
American anthropology arose out
of concern for the history and
cultures of Native North
Americans. Ely S. Parker was a
Seneca Indian who made
important contributions to early
anthropology.
Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution
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Four Subdisciplines of Anthropology
Variation in Time (diachronic research): using information
from contemporary groups to model changes that took place in
the past, and using knowledge gained from past groups to
understand what is likely to happen in the future (e.g.
reconstructing past languages using principles based on modern
ones).
Variation in Space (synchronic research): comparing
information collected from human societies existing at the same
or roughly the same time, but from different geographic locations
(e.g. the race concept in the US, Brazil, and Japan).
Any conclusions about human nature must be pursued with a
comparative, cross-cultural approach.
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Cultural Forces and Human Biology
Cultural traditions promote certain activities and abilities,
discourage others, and set standards of physical well-being
and attractiveness.
Participation and achievement in sports is determined by
cultural factors, not racial ones.
In Brazilian culture, women should be soft, with big hips and
buttocks, not big shoulders; since competitive swimmers tend
to have big, strong, shoulders and firm bodies, competitive
swimming is not very popular among Brazilian females.
In the US, there arent many African-American swimmers or
hockey players, not because of some biological reason, but
because those sports arent as culturally significant as football,
basketball, baseball, and track.
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Intelligence Tests
There is no conclusive evidence for biologically based
contrasts in intelligence between rich and poor, black and
white, or men and women.
The best indicators of how any individual will perform on an
intelligence test are environmental, such as educational,
economic, and social background.
All standard tests are culture-bound and biased because they
reflect the training and life experiences of those who develop
and administer them.
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Culture and Sports
Years of swimming sculpt
a distinctive physique.
The countries that tend to
produce successful
female swimmers are the
United States, Canada,
Australia, Germany,
Scandinavia, and the
former Soviet Union,
where this body type isnt
as stigmatized for women
as it is in Latin countries.
Photo Credit: David Madison/ Duomo
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Intelligence Tests
Jensenism asserts that African-Americans are hereditarily
incapable of doing as well as whites.
Named for Arthur Jensen, the educational psychologist who
observed that on average African-Americans perform less well
on intelligence tests that Euro-Americans and Asian-
Americans.
This racist notion of the inborn inferiority of African-
Americans recently resurfaced in the 1994 book The Bell
Curve by Richard Hernnstein and Charles Murray.
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The Bell Curve (1994)
Like Jensen, Hernnstein and Murray disregard more
convincing environmental explanations in favor of a genetic
one to explain patterns observed in intelligence test scores.
An environmental explanation acknowledges that for many
reasons, both genetic and environmental, some people are
smarter than others, however these differences in
intelligence cannot be generalized to characterize whole
populations or social groups.
Psychologists have come up with many ways to measure
intelligence, but there are problems with all of them.
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Intelligence Tests
Intelligence tests reflect the experiences of the people who
write them.
Middle- and upper-class children do well because they share
the test makers educational expectations and standards.
The SATs claim to measure intellectual aptitude but they also
measure the type and quality of high school education,
linguistic and cultural background, and parental wealth.
Studies have shown that performance on the SATs can be
improved by coaching and preparation, placing those students
who can pay for an SAT preparation course at an advantage.
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Intelligence Tests
Cultural biases in testing affect performance by people in
other cultures as well as different groups in the same nation.
Native Americans scored the lowest of any group in the US,
but when the environment during growth and development for
Native Americans is similar to that of middle-class whites, the
test scores tend to equalize (e.g. the Osage Indians).
At the start of World War I, African-Americans living in the
north scored on average better than whites living in the south
due to the better public school systems in the north.
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Cultural Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology combines ethnography and ethnology to study
human societies and cultures for the purpose of explaining social and
cultural similarities and differences.
Ethnography produces an account (a book, an article, or a film) of a
particular community, society, or culture based on information that is
collected during fieldwork.
Generally, ethnographic fieldwork involves living in the community
that is being studied for an extended period of time (e.g. 6 months to
2 years).
Ethnographic fieldwork tends to emphasize local behavior, beliefs,
customs, social life, economic activities, politics, and religion, rather
then developments at the national level.
Since cultures are not isolated, ethnographers must investigate the
local, regional, national, and global systems of politics, economics,
and information that expose villagers to external influences.
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Cultural Anthropology
Ethnology examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the
ethnographic data gathered in different societies to make
generalizations about society and culture.
Ethnology uses ethnographic data to build models, test
hypotheses, and create theories that enhance our understanding
of how social and cultural systems work.
Ethnology works from the particular (ethnographic data) to the
general (theory).
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Cultural Anthropology
ETHNOGRAPHY

ETHNOLOGY

requires fieldwork to collect
data

draws upon data collected
by a series of researchers

descriptive

synthetic

group/community specific

comparative/cross-cultural

Comparison between Ethnography and Ethnology
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Archaeological Anthropology
Archaeological anthropology reconstructs, describes, and
interprets past human behavior and cultural patterns through
material remains.
The material remains of a culture include artifacts (e.g.
potsherds, jewelry, and tools), garbage, burials, and the
remains of structures.
Archaeologists use paleoecological studies to establish the
ecological and subsistence parameters within which given
group lived.
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Archaeological Anthropology
The archaeological record provides archaeologists the
unique opportunity to look at changes in social complexity
over thousands and tens of thousands of years (this kind of
time depth is not accessible to ethnographers).
Archaeology is not restricted to prehistoric societies.
Historical archaeology combines archaeological data and
textual data to reconstruct historically known groups.]
William Rathjes garbology project in Tucson, Arizona.
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Biological Anthropology
Biological, or physical, anthropology investigates human
biological diversity across time and space.
There are five special interests within biological anthropology:
paleoanthropology: human evolution as revealed by the fossil record
human genetics
human growth and development
human biological plasticity: the bodys ability to change as it copes with
stresses such as heat, cold, and altitude
primatology: the study of the biology, evolution, behavior, and social life of
primates.
Biological anthropology is multidisciplinary as it draws on
biology, zoology, geology, anatomy, physiology, medicine,
public health, osteology, and archaeology.
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Biological Anthropology
Paleoanthropologists study the fossil
record of human evolution. This
photo shows Professor Teuku Jacob
with early fossil skulls from Java,
Indonesia.
Photo Credit: Kenneth Garrett / National Geographic
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Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic anthropology is the study of language in its social
and cultural context across space and time.
Some linguistic anthropologists investigate universal
features of language that may be linked to uniformities in
the human brain.
Historical linguists reconstruct ancient languages and study
linguistic variation through time.
Sociolinguistics investigates relationships between social
and linguistic variation to discover varied perceptions and
patterns of thought in different cultures.
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Theoretical/Academic Anthropology
Theoretical/academic anthropology includes the four
subfields discussed above (cultural, archaeological,
biological, and linguistic anthropology).
Directed at collecting data to test hypotheses and models that
were created to advance the field of anthropology.
Generally, theoretical/academic anthropology is carried out in
academic institutions (e.g. universities and specialized
research facilities).
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Applied Anthropology
Applied anthropology is the application of any of
anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and techniques to
identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.
Some standard subdivisions have developed in applied
anthropology: medical anthropology, environmental
anthropology, forensic anthropology, and development
anthropology.
Applied anthropologists are generally employed by
international development agencies, like the World Bank,
United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the
United Nations.
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Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology
studies health
conditions from a
cross-cultural
perspective. In
Uganda's Mwiri
primary school
children are taught
about HIV.
Photo Credit: Jorgen Schytte / Still Pictures / Peter Arnold, Inc.
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Applied Anthropology
Applied anthropologists assess the social and cultural
dimensions of economic development.
Development projects often fail when planners ignore the
cultural dimensions of development.
Applied anthropologists work with local communities to
identify specific social conditions that will influence the
failure or success of a development project.
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Two Dimensions of Anthropology
GENERAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

APPLIED
ANTHROPOLOGY

Cultural Anthropology

Medical Anthropology

Archaeological
Anthropology

Cultural Resource
Management (CRM)

Biological or Physical
Anthropology

Forensic Anthropology

Linguistic Anthropology

Non-government
Organizations (NGOs)

The Four Subfields and Two Dimensions of Anthropology
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Anthropology and Other Fields
Anthropologys own broad scope has always lent it to
interdisciplinary collaboration.
Anthropology is a science, in that it is a systematic field of
study that uses experiments, observations, and deduction to
produce reliable explanations of human cultural and
biological phenomena.
Anthropology is also one of the humanities, in that is
encompasses the study and cross-cultural comparison of
languages, texts, philosophies, arts, music, performances
and other forms of creative expression.
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Cultural Anthropology and Sociology
Formerly, sociology focused on western societies while
anthropology looked at exotic societies.
Cultural anthropological methodologies have primarily been
in-depth and qualitative (e.g. participant observation).
Sociological methodologies tended to be mainly quantitative
(statistically based).
The trend toward increasing interdisciplinary cooperation
(deconstruction) is causing these differences to disappear.
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Political Science and Economics
While other disciplines have looked at such institutions as
economics and politics as distinct and amenable to separate
analysis, anthropology has emphasized their relatedness to
other aspects of the general social order.
Anthropology has tended to emphasize cross-cultural
variation in such institutions, in contrast to the almost
exclusively Western orientation of the other disciplines.
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Anthropology and the Humanities
The anthropological concept of culture has gained
increasing influence in the humanities treatment of human
artifacts.
In turn, cultural studies have brought a fuller recognition of
the influence such artifacts may exert on human behavior.
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Anthropology and Psychology
Anthropology has contributed a cross-cultural perspective to
concepts developed in psychology.
The school of cultural anthropology known as culture and
personality has emphasized child rearing practices as the
fundamental means for transmitting culture.
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Anthropology and History
The convergence between the disciplines of anthropology
and history has been marked, particularly during the last
decade.
Recent treatments of colonial history have emphasized the
importance of understanding the cultural contexts of
historical records.
Kottak argues for some continued distinction between
history and anthropology, on the basis of historys focus on
the movement of individuals through roles, as opposed to
anthropologys focus on change in structure or form.