...1- In your own words defined the four field of anthropology. Which do you find most interesting and why? The four field of anthropology and their definition are: 1- Cultural anthropology is the study of the various cultures of humans 2- Archaeology- Is the study of things of the real old and recent past of humans through material remains 3- Biological Anthropology is the study of biological and behavior areas of humans and their related non-human primates. 4- Linguistics Anthropology- Is the study of language and how it affects life, cultures and society. I think all areas interest me except perhaps biological anthropology, and to me it seems the answers are already known, but all the other areas are constantly changing so there seems to be more growth and challenge in these areas and so much to learn from our past. 2- Describe a potential situation where ethnographic fieldwork could be damaging to a person or a group. From the readings there seems to me to be many things that could be damaging in this type of fieldwork, but the one that seems to be the highest is the person doing the fieldwork being ill prepared for the endless possibilities of situations that could go wrong and how to handle them. And even the return I can see problems as humans we adapt to our surroundings especially when we spend time, an example is my husband, who was an avid northern Illinois man, and constantly made fun of my southern accent, and would never eat BBQ, or anything...
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...Anthropology: A Definition Learning Objectives 1 1. Define anthropology as a discipline. 2. Enumerate and define the subdivisions of anthropology. 3. Outline the history of anthropology. 4. Discuss the research methods of anthropological research. 5. Explain the causes of culture shock. 6. Analyze the values of cultural relativism. 7. Identify the uses of cross-cultural comparison. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: iStockphoto/Thinkstock iStockphoto 8. Explain the basic ethical questions of anthropological research. 9. Explain the different concepts used in an anthropological analysis of culture. 10. Explain the difference between humanistic and scientific approaches to culture. Chapter Outline 1.1 The Breadth of Anthropology • • • • • The Four Traditional Subfields Anthropology as Science and Humanity Etic Versus Emic Perspectives The Holistic Perspective Breadth in Time and Space 1.3 Methods of Anthropological Research • • • • Participant Observation The Fieldwork: A Case Study Cross-Cultural Comparison Ethics in Anthropological Research 1.2 The History of Cultural Anthropology • • • • • The Evolutionary Period The Empiricist Period The Functionalist Period The Contemporary Period The Period of Specialization 1.4 Cultural Differences • Culture Shock • Ethnocentrism • Cultural Relativism 1.5 Employment in Anthropology 1 cra80793_01_c01_001-032.indd 1 5/23/13 2:23 PM Section 1.1 The Breadth of Anthropology CHAPTER...
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...Franz Boas, considered my many to be the father of Anthropology, once said, “"If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present."(Franz Boas) He was a very innovative anthropologist and believed that cultures should be judged not my individual response, but culturally, linguistically and biologically. He came up with the concept of cultural relativism and believed that cultures could not be compared because of the great difference in history between them. Boas was born on July 9, 1958 in Minden, Westphalia. Due to his parent’s liberal views, Boas was given the freedom to think for himself and pursue his interests. He first attended Heidelberg University followed by Bonn University to study mathematics, geography and physics and finally transferred to the University of Kiel. In 1881 he received his doctorate in physics. However, after taking a course in aesthetics during his schooling, he took an interest in psychophysics. In 1883, Franz Boas began a yearlong expedition on an island known as Baffin Island to conduct research on the impact of the physical environment on the Inuits, living and working closely beside them. This is where he first implemented participant observation, which is direct field observation which leads to a better understanding of sociocultural realities. He was hoping to relate their culture to their extreme climate, but his experienced led him to a contrary conclusion...
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...• Ethical Relativism • Moral Differences • Not everyone shares our idea of what constitutes decent/moral behavior. • What we believe to be immoral behavior in fact can be grounded in an ethical code. – 9/11 for example. Al-Qaeda’s code of ethics identify their action as morally justified and mandated • Terms • Moral nihilism – View that there are no morally right or wrong viewpoints, that the whole moral issue is a cultural game. – Neither your nor my opinion matter because there is no moral right or wrong. – Difficult to uphold because it’s extreme. • Terms • Moral skepticism – We can’t know if there are moral truths or not. – Problem, how do you make moral judgments • Moral subjectivism – Moral views are to each individual and we can’t know the inner states from one person to another. – Problem, this approach has no problem solving capability. • • Soft Universalism • Belief that deep down, despite cultural differences, there exist basic moral principles that can be agreed on. • Allows for problem solving capability between cultures and ideas. • Hard Universalism • AKA…Moral absolutism • Holds that there is one absolute and universal moral code • Most often supported by ethical theories. • Descriptive and Normative Ethics • Important terms for any ethical theory • Descriptive ethics – An ethical theory that merely describes what is seen as fact. – Describes what is actually done or thought • In the US it generally isn’t considered...
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...Contrast and Continuities in Society OUSCC1504 [pic][pic] [pic] Combined Studies, Sociology, Level 4 This programme is currently validated by The Open University [pic] [pic] 2014-15 [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] |Assessment type |Hand in date |Percentage of Marks |Assessment description | |Formative assessment |27 March 2015 |0% |Assignment Plan | |Summative assessment |11 May 2015 |10% |Group Presentation | |Summative assessment |25 May 2015 |30% |Individual Supporting Summary | | | | |750 words | |Summative assessment |12 June 2015 |60% |Essay 1,500 | [pic] | | |What’s the module all about? | |Module and Programme Learning Outcomes | |Assessments | |Handing in your work ...
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...(Ethnocentrism vs. Cultural Relativism) As a Sociologist, should we practice Cultural Ethnocentrism or Cultural Relativism? We must first understand the two distinct theories regarding perception of outside cultures: Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism. Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture.[1] The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion - these ethnic distinctions and subdivisions serve to define each ethnicity’s unique cultural identity.[2] The logical alternative to ethnocentrism is Cultural relativism, the practice of judging a culture by its own standards. Cultural relativism can be difficult for certain individuals to adopt: it requires not only openness to unfamiliar values and norms but also the ability to put aside cultural standards we have known all our lives.[3] No one ethnic group has the right to say that their particular system of beliefs and values are in any way superior to anyone else’s system of beliefs and values. What is right for one culture might be wrong for another. There is no absolute standard of right and wrong by which to compare and contrast morally contradictory cultural values. Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are mutually exclusive. The social sciences are limited to what can be observed, measured and verified. The question of what...
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...He is the father of anthropology and was challenging the idea that race is a biological concept and that human behavior is best understood through typology of biological characteristics. Boas believed that human behavior was not a result of biological dispositions but it was a result of the environmental factors such as health and nutrition, through which a person grows which shapes their behavior. He explained that the difference in people's culture is not as a result of their difference in biological characteristics such as race but rather their cultural difference acquired through social learning processes. The methodology that Boas used for his studies was by combining various disciplines that he was able to succeed in achieving at a conclusive argument on the subject of anthropology. Some of the disciplines he used were: 1)cultural relativism that argues that no culture is superior or inferior to each other and that no norms and practices of a given culture are more right than those of other cultures. it was crucial to understand the linguistics of various cultures and hoe they contributed to their...
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...What can anthropology offer to help understand global issues and problems? 2.How can anthropology contribute in our attempt to make sense of things that happen in or affect our everyday lives? 3.How do anthropologists think through things and how do they explain things? Emotional Knowledge Thinking and Feeling, Mind and Heart Anthropological Imagination What’s special about anthropology? ANTHROPOLOGY Clyde Kluckhohn ( Mirror for Man, 1944:16): “Ordinarily we are unaware of the special lens through which we look at life. It would hardly be fish who discovered the existence of water. Students who had not yet gone beyond the horizon of their own society could not be expected to perceive custom which was the stuff of their own thinking. Anthropology holds up a great mirror to man and lets him look at himself in this infinite variety” Anthropology subfields. -biological/physical – archeology –Linguistics – Social/Cultural Ethnology –comparative study of cultures or people Ethnography – a systematic study of a culture or people. History of Anthropology - Herodotus = father of anthropology? Age of Discovery (16th and 17th century) - Xuanzang (7th century chinese) - xuanzang said that the Indians were very clean, why has that changed? Ethnocentrism: evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of ones own culture. Edward Tylor –(1832 – 1917) 1st professor of Anthropology at Oxford...
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...The Aztecs people of Central Mexico have been a controversial culture studied by many archeologist and anthropologist a like. The Aztec had an empire in central Mexico when the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. The Aztecs had a very controversial practice not seen in many cultures around the world and that is human sacrifice. To understand the practice of human sacrifice one must look at the reasons why the culture did such practices. There are three main ways of examining a cultural practice from a anthropological perspective. These ways are cultural relativism, ethnocentrism and critical cultural relativism. The purpose of the examining the human sacrifice the way of critical cultural relativism is the best and superior way to look at foreign...
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...1. Difference between ethnography and ethnology. ethnography Field work in a particular culture. ethnology Cross-cultural comparison; the comparative study of ethnographic data, of society, and of culture. Ethnography is a field of anthropological research based on direct observation of and reporting on a people’s way of life. Cultural groups, such as communities, tribes, or dialect groups. However, classes or institutions within complex urban societies are also subjects of study. Ethnography consists of two phases: the process of observing and recording data, usually called fieldwork, followed by the preparation of a written description and analysis of the subject under study. Originally, ethnographic studies often included random anecdotes and facts about so-called primitive peoples whose way of life was thought to be disappearing. As the field of anthropology became more professional, however, ethnography became more systematic, and ethnographers attempted to interrelate the various aspects of a way of life. In recent years ethnography has become more specialized. Sometimes it involves studying small segments of large societies or focuses on specific, practical, or theoretical problems in anthropology. In conducting an ethnographic study, an anthropologist usually visits or lives for an extended period of time in a society that is not his or her own. The ethnographer’s research can then be used to test social scientific propositions, to add to the body of literature...
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...Anthropology – The comparative study of human sciences and cultures. Holistic/Holism – In Anthropology an approach that considers culture, history, language, and biology essential to a complete understanding of human society. Society – A group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being as well as the relationships among such people, including their status and roles. Culture - The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups. The primary means by which humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristic of a particular human society. Ethnography – A description of a society or culture. Emic(perspective) – Examining society using concepts, categories, and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that culture. Etic(perspective) – Examining society using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science; an outsider’s perspective, which produces analyses that members of the society being studied may not find meaningful. Ethnology – The attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena. Cultural Anthropology – The study of human thought, meaning, and behavior that is learned rather than genetically transmitted, and that is typical of groups of people. Ethnohistory – Description of the cultural past based on written records, interviews, and archaeology. Linguistic anthropology – A branch of linguistics concerned with understanding language and its relation to culture. Historical linguistics...
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...The Development of Anthropology * Anthropology (Anthropos = “Man”, Logy = “Study of”) * The study of humankind in all times and places * The discipline of Anthropology is a European invention, but the study of people has a long history… Early Anthropology * Herodotus * Greek Historian (5th century B.C.E.) * The Histories – collections of Herodotus’ encounters with peoples of the Mediterranean world. He often emphasized how he faithfully recorded stories told to him, but would often add embellishments/emphasis to endear his Greek readers to the peoples he met abroad. * Napoleon Bonaparte and Egypt * Self-proclaimed Emperor of France (1769-1821) In Western History… European Exploration/Colonialism Columbus, Napoleon, and… Western Society’s past attempts at getting to know other cultures * Modernism: Began with the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. * A reaction to the superstition and hysteria of Europe’s “Dark Ages” (The Witch hunt era that we will get into later). Rationality, objectivity, reason can discover knowledge and truth and lead to progress We can understand everybody/thing everywhere if we adhere to these principles of logic. * Empirical knowledge: Based on observations of the world rather than on intuition or faith. * Hypothesis: A tentative explanation of the relation between certain phenomena Theory: In science, an explanation of natural phenomena, supported by a reliable...
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...09/09/2013 WHO ARE THEY? WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THEIR ETHICAL POSITION? IN VITRO FERTILISATION ABORTION Four month after a single women got pregnant, having three IVF-treatments with donor sperm, she asks for an abortion. According to the women, she doesn’t need the foetus any longer. She made her point: she is fertile and is able to become pregnant. WHAT IS ETHICS? • Ethics may be defined as a set of moral principles that govern one’s course of action. • Ethics and law are a system of conflict resolution. • The law is the minimum behavior standard. Ethics Trends, Issues & WHAT IS ETHICS? • Ethics is philosophy of morality. • This is why it is sometimes referred to as ‘moral philosophy.’ • The term ‘ethics’ comes from the Greek term ethos meaning character, and we mean by the moral character of a person whether he or she is a good or bad person. MORALITY Everyone has some morality of his or her own ‐ what he or she thinks is right and wrong ‐ and it sometimes happens that people who others see as bad do not see themselves as bad. Each nation has a conception of morality too, a conception which reflects the collective thinking of the majority of the people of the nation. Much of a nation’s morality is stated in laws which prohibit immoral actions such as rape, robbery, or murder. It is questionable whether everything which is illegal is also immoral. GOOD EVIL We’re doing this for years It’s in my interest Hey! This is what...
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...Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Anthropology 102 (13770) Fall Semester 2013 Fullerton College Instructor: Michelle Stockdale Wednesdays, 6:50-10:00 p.m., Room 1417 Email: MStockdale@fullcoll.edu Voice Mail: 714-992-7000 x28814 Course Materials: ▪ Kottak, Conrad Phillip, Mirror for Humanity, A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, 8th edition ▪ Ferraro, Gary, Classic Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 3rd edition ▪ 2 Scantrons (No. 882-E) Course Description & Objectives: Anthropology, the broadest of the social sciences, is the study of humankind. One of the strengths of anthropology as a discipline is its "holistic" or integrative approach; it links the life sciences and the humanities and has strong ties with disciplines ranging from biology, psychology, linguistics, political science, and many others. This course surveys the discipline of cultural anthropology. It provides an introduction to the study of culture and society in a comparative perspective. At the end of this course you will be able to identify the knowledge and contribution that cultural diversity makes toward understanding the problems and issues of the modern world. Student Learning Objective: At the end of this semester, you should be able to understand and identify anthropological key concepts: 1. Identify and apply the key terminology, theoretical orientations, principles and methods used in cultural anthropology. 2. Describe the general characteristics...
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...the systematic study of the former (Joseph Omoregbe 1993 p.3)2. How then do we decide what is morally right? Is it based on universal laws or divine instructions? Are laws truly universal? If they are not, how then can the rightness or wrongness of culturally divergent societies be determined? Philosophers agree and disagree in varied proportions on answers to these questions. It is normal if you disagree too. For the purpose of this paper, an attempt will be made to look into the concept of ethical relativism, its importance and areas of deviation from ethical absolutism. History of Ethical Relativism Though moral relativism did not become a prominent topic in philosophy or elsewhere until the twentieth century, it has ancient origins. In the classical Greek world, both the historian Herodotus and the sophist Protagoras appeared to endorse some form of relativism. The early Sophist Greek philosopher Protagoras provides an early philosophical precursor to modern Moral Relativism in his assertion that "man is the measure of all things". The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484 - 420 B.C.) observed that each society typically regards its own belief system and way of doing things as better than all others. Plato also pointed out that much of what is believed to be...
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