1. Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Serena Nanda
Richard L. Warms

2. What Is Anthropology and Why Should I Care?
Chapter 1
What Is Anthropology
and Why Should I Care?

3. Chapter Outline The Nacirema Specialization in Anthropology
Anthropology and “Race”
Why Study Anthropology?
Bringing it Back Home: Anthropology and Homelessness

4. The Nacirema
The Nacirema are a North American group in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles.
Their culture is characterized by a market economy.
They have a fundamental belief that the human body is ugly and has a tendency to debility and disease.

5. The Nacirema
Each day Naciremans perform a complex set of rituals devoted to the mouth.
They believe that, were it not for these rituals, their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them.

6. The Nacirema Much of the population shows masochistic tendencies.
A portion of the daily ritual performed by men involves scraping and lacerating the face.

7. Anthropology The scientific and humanistic study of human beings
Encompasses:
the evolutionary history of humanity
physical variation among humans
the study of past societies
comparative study of current day human societies and cultures

8. Society
A group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being

9. Culture
The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups
The primary means by which humans adapt to their environment
The ways of life characteristic of a particular human society

10. Goal of Anthropology
Describe, analyze, and explain different cultures to show how groups live in different physical, economic, and social environments, and to show how members give meaning to their lives.

11. Anthropology
Through human paleontology, it describes the evolutionary development of our species.
Through archaeology, it reaches from current day societies to those of the distant past.
Through primatology, it extends beyond humans to encompass the animals most closely related to us.

12. Ethnocentrism
Belief that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures
Judges other cultures from the perspective of one’s own culture
Measures other cultures by the degree to which they live up to one’s own cultural standards

13. Cultural Relativism
Belief that cultures should be analyzed with reference to their own histories and values rather than according to the values of another culture

14. The “American Way”
What examples of ethnocentrism do you see in this picture?

15. Holistic Approach
Anthropologists bring a holistic approach to understanding and explaining.
Anthropology combines the study of human culture, history, language, and biology to understand human societies.
Holism separates anthropology from other academic disciplines which generally focus on one factor as the explanation for human behavior.

16. Sub-disciplines of Anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Anthropological linguistics
Archaeology
Biological or physical anthropology

17. Cultural Anthropology
The study of human thought, behavior, and lifeways
Cultural anthropologists attempt to understand culture through the study of its origins, development, and diversity.

18. Cultural Anthropology
Ethnography is the description of society or culture.
An emic ethnography attempts to capture what ideas and practices mean to members of a culture.
An etic ethnography describes and analyzes culture according to principles and theories drawn from the Western scientific tradition such as ecology, economy, or psychology.

19. Cultural Anthropology
Ethnology – the attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena
Ethnoscape – the global distribution of people associated with each other by history, kinship, friendship, and webs of mutual understanding

20. Archaeology
The key focus of archaeology is to look at the material remains people leave behind to try to infer their cultural patterns from it.
Archaeology is about interpreting patterns to provide insights into the lives and cultural ways of other people in other times.

21. Anthropological Linguistics
The study of language and its relation to culture
Humans have a huge number of words and complex patterns that we use to put them together.
We form communities of speech.
The use of complex language is central to being a human being.

22. Physical or Biological Anthropology
Physical and biological anthropologists study humans as physical and biological entities.
All human culture rests on a biological base.

23. Human Paleontology
Human paleontologists search for fossils to discover and reconstruct the evolutionary history of our species.
They extract biological and chemical data from ancient bones or from living humans to help discover the biological histories of humanity and the relationships among different human groups.

24. Primatology Humans are primates.
Other primates: apes, Old World and New World monkeys, and prosimians
Biologically very close to us
We share about 98% of our genes with our closest ape relations.
Studying these relatives may give us insights into the behavior of our evolutionary ancestors.

25. Applied Anthropology
The application of anthropology to the solution of human problems
Forensic anthropology – uses the tools of physical anthropology to aid in the identification of skeletal or badly decomposed human remains
Forensic anthropologists identify the victims of crimes, warfare, and genocide.

26. Anthropology and “Race”
In the United States, most people see humanity as composed of biological “races.”
Most anthropologists believe that “race” is not a scientifically valid system of classification.

27. Problems in Scientific Racial Classification
Almost all traits we use to assign people to a race are facial traits.
It is hard to imagine a biological reason why the shape of one’s eyes should be more important than the characteristics of one’s liver.
It is easy to find a social reason: traits easily visible on the face enable us to rapidly assign individuals to a racial group.

28. Problems with Racial Classifications
Although the characteristics of our species were fully present 35,000–40,000 years ago, a recent study argues that all current day humans have common ancestors who lived only 2000 to 5000 years ago.
At a time depth of more than 5000 years, all people alive today have exactly the same ancestors.

29. Anthropology and Other Social Sciences
Anthropology focuses on understanding other groups of people.
Anthropology attempts to observe, collect, record, and understand the full range of human cultural experience.
Anthropology presents many useful ways of thinking about culture.

30. Bringing it Back Home: Anthropology and Homelessness
Vincent Lyon-Callo is an anthropologist who studies social services for homeless people.
Lyon-Callo believes that most homelessness results from a cultural and political philosophy that embraces free markets and private initiative as the solution to social problems.

31. Bringing it Back Home: Anthropology and Homelessness
Lyon-Callo argues that most Americans believe the problem of homelessness can be solved through services aimed at reforming homeless people, who are seen as deviant or disabled.
He believes that the social services orientation helps to maintain homelessness.

32. Bringing it Back Home: Anthropology and Homelessness
You decide:
Lyon-Callo promotes a politically engaged anthropology in which researchers become advocates for their subjects.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach?

33. Bringing it Back Home: Anthropology and Homelessness
You decide:
Lyon-Callo’s research focuses on a critique of American society, and the critical problems he identifies are very difficult to correct.
Is it fair to be critical of your society? Why or why not?
What are some specific American cultural values that underlie the causes and treatment of homelessness?

34. Quick Quiz

35. Imagine a museum exhibit of an early one-room school in the Midwestern U.S. is being planned. Which subfield(s) of anthropology would be likely to carry out the research of surveyor's maps, diaries, textbooks, journals, and other historic artifacts, as well as excavation of the original site?
paleontology and archaeology
archaeology
cultural anthropology and archaeology
biological anthropology

36. Answer: b
Imagine a museum exhibit of an early one-room school in the Midwestern U.S. is being planned. An archaeologist would be likely to carry out the research of surveyor's maps, diaries, textbooks, journals, and other historic artifacts, as well as excavation of the original site.

37. 2. Cultural relativism may be characterized by all of the following statements EXCEPT:
one must try to understand beliefs and practices within their cultural context.
the anthropologist attempts to be open-minded about beliefs and practices that are different from his or her own.
a conscious effort to transcend one's values and judgments when studying unfamiliar customs.
it is basically the same stance as "moral relativism."

38. Answer: d
Cultural relativism cannot be characterized by the statement that it is basically the same stance as "moral relativism."

39. 3. What is a positive aspect of the tendency for members of societies or groups to be ethnocentric about other societies or groups?
Ethnocentrism supports social inequality, especially in multicultural societies.
Ethnocentrism may reinforce group solidarity and helps perpetuate cultural values.
Ethnocentrism is associated with racism.

40. Answer: b
One positive or "adaptive" aspect of the tendency for members of societies or groups to be ethnocentric about other societies or groups is that ethnocentrism may reinforce group solidarity and helps perpetuate cultural values.