1. THE CULTURE CONCEPT IN ANTHROPOLOGY (1870s to the Present) 1
THE CULTURE CONCEPT IN ANTHROPOLOGY (1870s to the Present) 1. Cultural Evolution 2. Cultural Relativism 3. Patterns of Culture 4. System of Symbols & Meanings 5. Cultural Borderlands 6. Humanism: Engaged Anthropology

2. 1. CULTURAL EVOLUTION (1870s) Lewis Henry Morgan Ancient Society (1877)
Idea: Culture evolves in progressive and linear stages, each stage corresponding to certain types of “technology” Stages: SAVAGERY fishing, bow & arrow (Aboriginals) BARBARISM pots, domestication of plants/animals, iron (Native Americans) CIVILIZATION writing, phonetic alphabet (Greeks) Assumptions: Implied racialized worldview: certain races/cultures will always be more “civilized” (i.e. better) than others

3. Ethnocentrism should be acknowledged & avoided
2. CULTURAL RELATIVISM (early 1900s-1930s) Franz Boas The Mind of Primitive Man (1911) WEB DuBois The Souls of Black Folk (1903) Margaret Mead Coming of Age in Samoa (1928)
CULTURAL RELATIVISM: Behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture
ETHNOCENTRICISM: (opposite of relativism) Tendency to view one’s culture as superior and to apply one’s own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures
Ethnocentrism should be acknowledged & avoided

4. CULTURAL RELATIVISM (cont.)
CULTURES: Particular to geographic areas, local histories, and traditions
RACE: Problematic category because still popularly taken as biological, weighted with the assumptions of inferiority and superiority
Native Americans, African Americans, and other People of Color: NOT RACIALLY INFERIOR, POSSESSED UNIQUE & HISTORICALLY SPECIFIC CULTURES

5. Franz Boas “Father” of US Anthropology
Conducted research with Kwakuitl of the Pacific Northwest between 1880 and 1920
Poses for a model being made of a Kwakuitl Winter Ceremonial dancer

6. FIELDWORK METHODS Defining feature of Anthropology since 1920s
Malinowski ( ), Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922)
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
Take part in community life as we study it; Use the senses: sound, sight, smell, touch, taste; talk to people, ask questions, learn new language
FIELD NOTES
Keep separate notebook in which you record observations & experiences
GENEALOGY
Take note of kinship, descent, marriage relationships
INFORMANTS/COLLABORATORS/FRIENDS
People with interest, talent, or training to provide useful information about particular aspects of life

7. FIELDWORK METHODS (cont.)
LIFE HISTORY
Recollection of a lifetime of experiences; intimate and personal cultural portrait; how specific people perceive, react to, contribute to changes that affect their lives
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Questions that guide your research
SUBJECT POSITION
Position of the researcher in relation to her informants &
subject/s being studied
Position will affect the kind of knowledge gathered & analysis

8. Salvage Ethnography
Collecting & documenting information about dying cultures b/c soon they will be extinct
Critiques: taking for granted that people/culture will dye instead of doing something about it!
Imperialist Nostalgia: yearning for what one has destroyed (Rosaldo, p.71)

9. 3. PATTERNS OF CULTURE (1930s) Ruth Benedict Patterns of Culture (1934)
Cultures: homogenous, harmonious, static forms of patterned behaviors
Frozen scientific objects to be discovered & recorded
Cultural Relativism: all cultures are different but equal
Cross-cultural Comparison: Can help anthropologists understand their own cultures. Mead ex.: Samoan girls experience puberty as exciting and their changing bodies as beautiful

10. 4. SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS & MEANINGS (1960s-70s) Clifford Geertz The Interpretation of Cultures (1973)
Blurring boundaries between social sciences & humanities
Cultures: texts to be read and interpreted
Interpretation: way people make sense of differences
Creative Process: take something that makes sense in one context and figure out its meaning in another
“Native’s Point of View”: Perspective of people you are working with

11. SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS & MEANINGS (cont.)
Meanings are not private or in people’s heads but talked about everyday
People are sophisticated interpreters of their own culture
Anthropologists want access to stories people tell themselves about themselves
“thick description”: layers of meaning stacked on top of each other

12. 5. CULTURAL BORDERLANDS (1980s) Gloria Anzaldua Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) Renato Rosaldo Culture and Truth (1992)
Borderlands: merging of two or more cultures, resulting in struggles for control over resources as well as new cultural forms
Inspired by political & intellectual movements of 1960s in the US and world:
Civil rights, Women’s, Environmental, National Independence movements
Spoke to rise of US imperialism: Korean and Vietnam wars, Central & South America, Middle East, Harsher Immigration Policies

13. CULTURAL BORDERLANDS (cont.)
Cultural mixing happens at national & community borders
Borders are everywhere: Groups once defined or separated by race, class, gender, sexuality (etc.) are in contact
Relationship between Power and Culture: how can we analyze social inequality, to move towards Equality
Shift from looking at cultures as consistent wholes to looking at differences within cultures—difference is more typical than sameness
Culture is emergent (always being created) and contested (always being debated)

14. 6. Humanism: Engaged Anthropology (1990s-today) Lila Abu Lughod “Writing Against Culture” (1991) Paul Farmer Infections and Inequalities (1999)
Do anthropologists bear the responsibility of putting their ideas into practice to “help” human beings?
If so, does this humanism influence their course of study too much?
Should anthropologists judge which “story” (practice, policy, etc.) is better?
Perhaps the “sameness” of the shared human condition is as important as understanding & respecting “differences”