McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1 1 What Is Anthropology? Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity 11 th Edition Conrad Phillip Kottak

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2 What Is Anthropology? Overview Human Adaptability General Anthropology The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Applied Anthropology Anthropology and Other Academic FieldsAnthropology and Other Academic Fields Science, Explanation, and Hypothesis TestingScience, Explanation, and Hypothesis Testing

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 3 Overview –How we originated –How we have changed –How we are changing still Anthropology confronts basic questions of human existence and survival

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 4 Overview –Interested in the whole of the human conditions Past, present, and future Biology Society Language Culture Anthropology is holistic

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 5 Overview –Cultural anthropology—study of human society and culture; describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences Four subfields Archaeology—reconstructs behavior by studying material remains

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 6 Overview –Linguistic anthropology—descriptive, comparative, and historical study of language and of linguistic similarities and differences in time, space, and society; considers how speech varies with social factors and over time –Biological anthropology—study human fossils, genetics, and bodily growth and nonhuman primates

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 7 Human Adaptability Anthropology—study of human species and its immediate ancestors –Constantly compares customs of one society with others Humans among the world’s most adaptable animals

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 8 Human Adaptability –Society—organized life in groups –Culture—traditions and customs that govern behavior and beliefs Distinctly human feature Transmitted through learning Not biological, but ability to use culture rests in hominid biology Anthropology

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 9 Human Adaptability –Adaptation—process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses Adaptation, Variation, and Change Humans adapt using biological means and cultural means

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 10 Human Adaptability –Rate of change accelerated during the past 10,000 years Foraging sole basis of human subsistence for millions of years Only took few thousand years for food production—cultivation of plants and domestication (stockbreeding) of animals Adaptation, Variation, and Change Developed 10,000 to 12,000 years ago

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 11 Human Adaptability –First civilizations arose between 6000 and 5000 B.P. (Before the Present) –More recently, spread of industrial production profoundly affected human life Today’s global economy and communications link all contemporary people, directly or indirectly, in modern world system Adaptation, Variation, and Change

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 12 Human Adaptability Forms of Cultural and Biological Adaptation (to High Attitude) Insert Table 1.1

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 13 General Anthropology –Cultural anthropology –Archaeological anthropology –Biological or physical anthropology –Linguistic anthropology Academic discipline of anthropology includes:

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 14 General Anthropology –Developed in U.S. Early American anthropologists studying native peoples of North America became interested in exploring origins and diversity of the groups Subdisciplines influence each other Four-field approach: –Subdisciplines share similar goal of exploring variation in time and space to improve understanding of basics of human biology, society, and culture

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 15 General Anthropology Sound conclusions about “human nature” cannot be derived from studying a single nation, society, or cultural tradition

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 16 General Anthropology –Culture key environmental force in determining how human bodies grow and develop Biocultural—inclusion and combination (to solve a common problem) of biological and cultural perspectives and approaches Cultural Forces Shape Human Biology This is one of anthropology’s hallmarks

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 17 General Anthropology –Brazilian women avoid competitive swimming because of that sport’s effects on the body Cultural standards of attractiveness and propriety influence participation and achievement in sports

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 18 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology –Ethnography—Fieldwork in a particular culture; provides account of that community, society, or culture Cultures not isolated from local, regional, national, and global systems of politics, economics, and information that expose villagers to external influences Cultural Anthropology—describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 19 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology –Ethnology—cross cultural comparison; the comparative study of ethnographic data, of society and of culture

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 20 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Ethnography and Ethnology—Two Dimensions of Cultural Anthropology Insert Table 1.2

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 21 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology –Artifacts (e.g., potsherds, jewelry, and tools) –Garbage –Burials –Remains of structures Archaeological Anthropology—study of human behavior and cultural patterns and process through the culture’s material remains

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 22 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology –Archaeologists use paleoecological studies to establish ecological and subsistence parameters within which given groups lived Archaeological Anthropology Archaeological record provides unique opportunity to look at changes in social complexity over thousands and tens of thousands of years

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 23 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology –Historical archaeology combines archaeological data and textual data to reconstruct historically known groups William Rathje’s “garbology” project in Tucson, Arizona Archaeologists also study the cultures of historical and living people

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 24 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Biological Anthropology—study of human biological variation in time and space Includes evolution, genetics, growth and development, and primatology

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 25 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Primatology human evolution as revealed by the fossil record Body’s ability to change as it copes with stresses such as heat, cold, and altitude study of biology, evolution, behavior, and social life of primates –Special interests within biological anthropology: Paleoanthropology Human genetics Human growth and development Human biological plasticity

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 26 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Biological anthropology draws on biology, zoology, geology, anatomy, physiology, medicine, public health, osteology, and archaeology

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 27 The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Linguistic Anthropology—study of language in its social and cultural context across space and time 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

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 28 Applied Anthropology Applied Anthropology—application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 29 Applied Anthropology –Theoretical/academic anthropology— includes cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology Directed at collecting data to test hypotheses and models created to advance anthropology American Anthropological Association (AAA) recognizes two dimensions

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 30 Applied Anthropology –Standard subdivisions include: Medical anthropology Environmental anthropology Forensic anthropology Development –Practicing or applied anthropology— application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and techniques to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 31 Applied Anthropology –World Bank –United States Agency for International Development (USAID) –World Health Organization (WHO) –United Nations Applied anthropologists generally employed by international development agencies

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 32 Applied Anthropology –Work with local communities to identify specific social conditions that influence the failure or success of a development project Applied Anthropologists: Development projects often fail when planners ignore cultural dimensions of development –Assess social and cultural dimensions of economic development

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 33 Anthropology and Other Academic Fields Anthropology is a science –Systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims, through experiment, observation, and deduction, to produce reliable explanations of phenomena, with reference to the material and physical world Anthropology links to interdisciplinary collaboration

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 34 Anthropology and Other Academic Fields –Encompasses study of and cross-cultural comparison of languages, texts, philosophies, arts, music, performances, and other forms of creative expression Anthropology also a humanity

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 35 Anthropology and Other Academic Fields –Sociologist traditionally used quantitative research, while cultural anthropological used qualitative methodologies –Anthropology and sociology converging Cultural Anthropology and Sociology

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 36 Anthropology and Other Academic Fields –Statements about “human” psychology cannot be based solely on observations made in one society or in a single type of society –Cultural anthropology (psychological anthropology) studies cross-cultural variation in psychological traits Anthropology and Psychology Anthropology helps us understand ourselves through its cross-cultural perspective

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 37 Science, Explanation, and Hypothesis Testing –Explains how and why the thing to be understood (the explicandum) related to other things in some know way Associations—observed relationships between two or more measured variables Scientists strive to improve understanding by testing hypotheses that suggest explanations of things and events

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 38 Science, Explanation, and Hypothesis Testing –Explanatory framework, containing a series of statements, that helps us understand why (something exists) Theories suggest patterns, connections, and relationships that may be confirmed by new research A theory is more general

McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 39 Science, Explanation, and Hypothesis Testing –Theories cannot be proved; we evaluate them through the method of falsification Theories that are not disproved are accepted because the available evidence seems to support them –Associations usually state probabilistically with two or more variables that tend to be related in a predictable way, but there are exceptions