Santa Monica College What Values Does Anthropology Have Discussion part 1: what values does anthropology have? part 2 : cultural relativity good and

Santa Monica College What Values Does Anthropology Have Discussion part 1: what values does anthropology have?

part 2 : cultural relativity good and bad ?

example for part 2:

The framework of cultural relativity allows us to view and analyze things from someone else’s perspective. This prevents us from applying our own ideals, beliefs, and ultimately the assumption that our preconceptions are superior to all others (ethnocentrism) and holding everyone else to them. This approach is crucial to fully understand other cultures and simply people different from us (“the other”). As Bronislaw Malinowski found out with his research, grasping someone else’s point of view is crucial to their full understanding. It prevents us from discrimination of all sorts and helps resolve social problems.

However, cultural relativity can be dangerous, if taken to an extreme. Some cultures still accept practices like promoting symbols of hate (like the swastika) slavery, executions, cannibalism, and others widely regarded as unethical. Also, as found in Malinowski’s research, this “blending” in with an another culture lead him to bias based on his higher education (feeling of being superior), as well as racism. It is important to realize that no method of conducting research is perfect. PERSPECTIVES: AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
SECOND EDITION
Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, Laura Tubelle de González
2020 American Anthropological Association
2300 Clarendon Blvd, Suite 1301
Arlington, VA 22201
ISBN Print: 978-1-931303-67-5
ISBN Digital: 978-1-931303-66-8
http://perspectives.americananthro.org/
This book is a project of the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC)
http://sacc.americananthro.org/ and our parent organization, the American Anthropological Association
(AAA). Please refer to the website for a complete table of contents and more information about the
book.
Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology by Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, Laura Tubelle de
González is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where
otherwise noted.
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1
INTRODUCTION TO
ANTHROPOLOGY
Katie Nelson, Inver Hills Community College
knelson@inverhills.edu
http://kanelson.com/
Lara Braff, Grossmont College
lara.braff@gcccd.edu
3
4
PERSPECTIVES: AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Learning Objectives
• Identify the four subfields of anthropology and describe the kinds of research projects associated with each subfield.
• Define culture and the six characteristics of culture.
• Describe how anthropology developed from early explorations of the world through the professionalization of the discipline in
the 19th century.
• Discuss ethnocentrism and the role it played in early attempts to understand other cultures.
• Explain how the perspectives of holism, cultural relativism, comparison, and fieldwork, as well as both scientific and humanistic
tendencies make anthropology a unique discipline.
• Evaluate the ways in which anthropology can be used to address current social, political, and economic issues.
The first time I (Katie Nelson) heard the word anthropology, I was seventeen years old and sitting at
the kitchen table in my home in rural Minnesota. My mother was stirring a pot of chili on the stove.
My dog was barking (again) at the squirrels outside. Her low bawl filtered through the screen door left
open on the porch. It was the summer before I was to start college and I had a Macalester College course
catalog spread out in front of me as I set about carefully selecting the courses that would make up my
fall class schedule. When I applied to college, I had indicated in my application that I was interested in
studying creative writing, poetry specifically. But I also had a passion for languages and people: observing people, interacting with people and understanding people, especially those who were culturally different from myself. I noticed a course in the catalog entitled “Cultural Anthropology.” I did not know
exactly what I would learn, but the course description appealed to me and I signed up for it. Several
weeks later, I knew what my major would be– anthropology!
Like Katie, I (Lara Braff) started college with a curiosity about people but no clear major. In my
second year, without knowing what anthropology was, I enrolled in an anthropology course called
“Controlling Processes.” Throughout the semester, the professor encouraged us to question how social
institutions (like the government, schools, etc.) affect the ways we think and act. This inquiry resonated
with my upbringing: my mother, who had immigrated to the United States in her twenties, often questioned U.S. customs that were unfamiliar to her. At times, this was profoundly disappointing to me as a
child. For example, she could not understand the joyous potential of filling up on candy at Halloween, a
holiday not celebrated in her country. Yet, her outsider perspective inspired in me a healthy skepticism
about things that others take to be “normal.” As I took more anthropology courses, I became intrigued
by diverse notions of normality found around the world.
If you are reading this textbook for your first anthropology course, you are likely wondering, much
like we did, what anthropology is all about. Perhaps the course description appealed to you in some way,
but you had a hard time articulating what exactly drove you to enroll. With this book, you are in the
right place!
5
WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY?
Derived from Greek, the word anthropos means “human” and “logy” refers to the “study of.” Quite literally, anthropology is the study of humanity. It is the study of everything and anything that makes us
human.1 From cultures, to languages, to material remains and human evolution, anthropologists examine every dimension of humanity by asking compelling questions like: How did we come to be human
and who are our ancestors? Why do people look and act so differently throughout the world? What
do we all have in common? How have we changed culturally and biologically over time? What factors
influence diverse human beliefs and behaviors throughout the world?
You may notice that these questions are very broad. Indeed, anthropology is an expansive field of
study. It is comprised of four subfields that in the United States include cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological (or physical) anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. Together, the subfields provide
a multi-faceted picture of the human condition. Applied anthropology is another area of specialization
within or between the anthropological subfields. It aims to solve specific practical problems in collaboration with governmental, non-profit, and community organizations as well as businesses and corporations.
It is important to note that in other parts of the world, anthropology is structured differently. For
instance, in the United Kingdom and many European countries, the subfield of cultural anthropology
is referred to as social (or socio-cultural) anthropology. Archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology are frequently considered to be part of different disciplines. In some countries, like
Mexico, anthropology tends to focus on the cultural and indigenous heritage of groups within the country rather than on comparative research. In Canada, some university anthropology departments mirror
the British social anthropology model by combining sociology and anthropology. As noted above, in
the United States and most commonly in Canada, anthropology is organized as a four-field discipline.
You will read more about the development of this four-field approach in the Doing Fieldwork chapter
(chapter three).
WHAT IS CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY?
The focus of this textbook is cultural anthropology, the largest of the subfields in the United States
as measured by the number of people who graduate with PhDs each year.2 Cultural anthropologists
study the similarities and differences among living societies and cultural groups. Through immersive
fieldwork, living and working with the people one is studying, cultural anthropologists suspend their
own sense of what is “normal” in order to understand other people’s perspectives. Beyond describing
another way of life, anthropologists ask broader questions about humankind: Are human emotions universal or culturally specific? Does globalization make us all the same, or do people maintain cultural
differences? For cultural anthropologists, no aspect of human life is outside their purview. They study
art, religion, healing, natural disasters, and even pet cemeteries. While many anthropologists are at first
intrigued by human diversity, they come to realize that people around the world share much in common.
Cultural anthropologists often study social groups that differ from their own, based on the view that
fresh insights are generated by an outsider trying to understand the insider point of view. For example,
beginning in the 1960s Jean Briggs (1929-2016) immersed herself in the life of Inuit people in the cen-
6
PERSPECTIVES: AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
tral Canadian arctic territory of Nunavut. She arrived knowing only a few words of their language, but
ready to brave sub-zero temperatures to learn about this remote, rarely studied group of people. In her
most famous book, Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family (1970), she argued that anger and strong
negative emotions are not expressed among families that live together in small iglus amid harsh environmental conditions for much of the year. In contrast to scholars who see anger as an innate emotion,
Briggs’ research shows that all human emotions develop through culturally specific child-rearing practices that foster some emotions and not others.
While cultural anthropologists traditionally conduct fieldwork in faraway places, they are increasingly turning their gaze inward to observe their own societies or subgroups within them. For instance,
in the 1980s, American anthropologist Philippe Bourgois sought to understand why pockets of extreme
poverty persist amid the wealth and overall high quality of life in the United States. To answer this
question, he lived with Puerto Rican crack dealers in East Harlem, New York. He contextualized their
experiences both historically in terms of their Puerto Rican roots and migration to the U.S. and in
the present as they experienced social marginalization and institutional racism. Rather than blame the
crack dealers for their poor choices or blame our society for perpetuating inequality, he argued that
both individual choices and social structures can trap people in the overlapping worlds of drugs and
poverty (Bourgois 2003). For more about Bourgois, please see the interview with him in the learning
resources, Anthropology in Our Moment in History.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Cultural anthropologists study all aspects of culture, but what exactly is “culture”? When we (the
authors) first ask students in our introductory cultural anthropology courses what culture means to
them, our students typically say that culture is food, clothing, religion, language, traditions, art, music,
and so forth. Indeed, culture includes many of these observable characteristics, but culture is also something deeper. Culture is a powerful defining characteristic of human groups that shapes our perceptions, behaviors, and relationships.
One reason that culture is difficult to define is that it encompasses all the intangible qualities that
make people who they are. Culture is the “air we breathe:” it sustains and comprises us, yet we largely
take it for granted. We are not always consciously aware of our own culture.
Furthermore, cultural anthropologists themselves do not always agree on what culture is. In defining
culture, some anthropologists emphasize material life and objects (e.g. tools, clothing, and technologies);
others emphasize culture as a system of intangible beliefs; and still others focus on practices or customs
of daily life. We propose a broad definition of culture.3
Culture is a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that
binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways.
To say that a group of people shares a culture does not mean all individuals think or act in identical
ways. One’s beliefs and practices can vary within a culture depending on age, gender, social status, and
other characteristics. Yet, members of a culture share many things in common. While we are not born
with a particular culture, we are born with the capacity to learn any culture. Through the process of
enculturation, we learn to become members of our group both directly, through instruction from our
parents and peers, and indirectly by observing and imitating those around us.
7
Culture constantly changes in response to both internal and external factors. Some parts of culture
change more quickly than others. For instance, in dominant American culture, technology changes
rapidly while deep seated values such as individualism, freedom, and self-determination change very
little over time. Yet, inevitably, when one part of culture changes, so do other parts. This is because
nearly all parts of a culture are integrated and interrelated. As powerful as culture is, humans are not
necessarily bound by culture; they have the capacity to conform to it or not and even transform it.
In the definition above, belief refers not just to what we “believe” to be right or wrong, true or false.
Belief also refers to all the mental aspects of culture including values, norms, philosophies, worldview,
knowledge, and so forth. Practices refers to behaviors and actions that may be motivated by belief or
performed without reflection as part of everyday routines.
Much like art and language, culture is also symbolic. A symbol is something that stands for something
else, often without a natural connection. Individuals create, interpret, and share the meanings of symbols within their group or the larger society. For example, in U.S. society everyone recognizes a red
octagonal sign as signifying “stop.” In other cases, groups within American society interpret the same
symbol in different ways. Take the Confederate flag: Some people see it as a symbol of pride in a southern heritage. Many others see it as a symbol of the long legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial oppression. Thus, displaying the Confederate flag could have positive or, more often, negative connotations.
Cultural symbols powerfully convey either shared or conflicting meanings across space and time.
This definition of culture – shared, learned beliefs, practices, and symbols – allows us to understand
that people everywhere are thinkers and actors shaped by their social contexts. As we will see throughout this book, these contexts are incredibly diverse, comprising the human cultural diversity that drew
many of us to become anthropologists in the first place.
While culture is central to making us human, we are still biological beings with natural needs and
urges that we share with other animals: hunger, thirst, sex, elimination, etc. Human culture uniquely
channels these urges in particular ways and cultural practices can then impact our biology, growth, and
development. Humans are one of the most dynamic species on Earth. Our ability to change both culturally and biologically has enabled us to persist for millions of years and to thrive in diverse environments.
Characteristics of Culture
Culture is a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole
that binds groups of people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways. Additionally:
1.
Humans are born with the capacity to learn the culture of any social group. We learn culture both directly and indirectly.
2.
Culture changes in response to both internal and external factors.
3.
Humans are not bound by culture; they have the capacity to conform to it or not, and sometimes change it.
4.
Culture is symbolic; individuals create and share the meanings of symbols within their group or society.
5.
The degree to which humans rely on culture distinguishes us from other animals and shaped our evolution.
6.
Human culture and biology are interrelated: Our biology, growth, and development are impacted by culture.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THINKING
8
PERSPECTIVES: AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Imagine you are living several thousand years ago. Maybe you are a wife and mother of three children. Maybe you are a young man eager to start your own family. Maybe you are a prominent religious
leader, or maybe you are a respected healer. Your family has, for as long as people can remember, lived
the way you do. You learned to act, eat, hunt, talk, pray, and live the way you do from your parents, your
extended family, and your small community. Suddenly, you encounter a new group of people who have
a different way of living, speak strangely, and eat in an unusual manner. They have a different way of
addressing the supernatural and caring for their sick. What do you make of these differences? These are
the questions that have faced people for tens of thousands of years as human groups have moved around
and settled in different parts of the world.
One of the first examples of someone who attempted to systematically study and document cultural differences is Zhang Qian
(164 BC – 113 BC). Born in the second century BCE in Hanzhong,
China, Zhang was a military officer who was assigned by Emperor
Wu of Han to travel through Central Asia, going as far as what is
today Uzbekistan. He spent more than twenty-five years traveling
and recording his observations of the peoples and cultures of Central Asia (Wood 2004). The Emperor used this information to
establish new relationships and cultural connections with China’s
neighbors to the West. Zhang discovered many of the trade routes
used in the Silk Road and introduced several new cultural ideas,
including Buddhism, into Chinese culture.
Another early traveler of note was Abu Abdullah Muhammad
Ibn Battuta, known most widely as Ibn Battuta, (1304-1369). Ibn
Battuta was an Amazigh (Berber) Moroccan Muslim scholar. During the fourteenth century, he traveled for a period of nearly thirty
years, covering almost the whole of the Islamic world, including
Figure 1: Statue of Zhang Qian in Chenggu, China.
parts of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China. Upon his
Zhang Qian is still celebrated today in China as an
important diplomat and pioneer of the silk road. Image
return to the Kingdom of Morocco, he documented the customs
courtesy of Judy Wells and Debi Lander
and traditions of the people he encountered in a book called Tuhfat
al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar wa ajaaib al-asfar (A Gift to those who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the
Marvels of Traveling), a book commonly known as Al Rihla, which means “travels” in Arabic (Mackintosh-Smith 2003: ix). This book became part of a genre of Arabic literature that included descriptions
of the people and places visited along with commentary about the cultures encountered. Some scholars
consider Al Rihla to be among the first examples of early pre-anthropological writing.4
9
Later, from the 1400s through the1700s, during the so-called “Age of
Discovery,” Europeans began to explore the world, and then colonize it.
Europeans exploited natural resources and human labor in other parts of
the world, exerting social and political control over the people they
encountered. New trade routes along with the slave trade fueled a growing
European empire while forever disrupting previously independent cultures in the Old World. European ethnocentrism—the belief that one’s
own culture is better than others—was used to justify the subjugation of
non-European societies on the alleged basis that these groups were socially
Figure 2. An illustration of Abu Abdullah
and even biologically inferior. Indeed, the emerging anthropological pracMuhammad Ibn Battuta in Egypt from
Jules Verne’s book “Découverte de la
tices of this time were ethnocentric and often supported colonial projects.
terre” (Discovery of the Earth).
As European empires expanded, new ways of understanding the world
and its people arose. Beginning in the eighteenth century in Europe, the
Age of the Enlightenment was a social and philosophical movement that privileged science, rationality,
and experience, while critiquing religious authority. This crucial period of in…
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