Ch 1. Anthropology discipline of infinite curiosity about humans.

s. From greek anthropos (man, human), and logos (study) Interested in universals and difference in human populations. And discover when, where, and why humans appeared on earth and how and why they changed. Scope of Anthropology Anthropologist though as individuals who travel to little know corners and study exotic peoples or fossil remains or remnants of people or culture who lived long ago. Anthropology bordered in scope, both geographically and historically. Anthropology: concerned with explicitly and directly with all varieties of people, not just those close at hand or in a limited area. Interested in people of all periods, anywhere were human populations existed. Used to not study western civilization. Changed when belief any suggested generalizations about human beings, any explanations of characteristics of culture or biology, should be shown to apply to many times and places of humans existence. If generalizations dont prove to apply widely, anthropologists become skeptical about it. Lactose intolerance due to lack of enzyme lactase used to break down lactose (suger in milk). Lactose intolerance common in adulthood among Asians, southern Europeans, Arabs, and Jews, West Africans, Inui and North and South American natives, and African Americans. Holistic Approach In addition to historical scope of anthropology, another feature is its holistic, or multifaceted, approach to study of humans. Anthropologist study not only variety but many aspects of human experience. When describing a group of people, they discuss history of area, physical environment, organization of family life, features of language, settlement patterns, political/economic system, religion, styles of art and dress. Goal is to understand connections of physical and social life. Anthropology broken down into specialization. Anthropological Curiosity Focus on typical characteristics (traits and customs) of populations. Focus on typical characteristics of humans groups, how and why populations and their characteristics varied around the globe and throughout time. Fields of Anthropology Concerned with biological or physical characteristics of human populations; others interested in cultural characteristics of human populations. Two broad classifications of subject matter in anthropology: Biological (physical) anthropology and cultural anthropology. Biological is one major field while cultural is divided into three major subfields: archaeology, linguistics, and ethnology. Ethnology is referred by name cultural anthropology while crosscutting all the fields makes a fifth called applied or practicing anthropology. Biological Anthropology Biological (physical) anthropology seeks to answer two sets of questions: o The emergence of humans and later evolutions (called human paleontology or paleonthropology)

How and why contemporary human populations vary biologically (human variations). Reconstruct human evolution, paleontologists search for buried hardened impressions called fossils of humans, prehumans and related animals. Findings in east Africa excavated fossils of humanlike beings of more than 4 millions years ago showing when ancestors develop two legged walking, very flexible hands and larger brain. Paleontologists use geological info on succession of climates, environments, plant and animal populations. Prosimians, monkeys, apes, are members of order primates. Anthropologists, psychologists, and biologists specializing in study of primates are called Primatologists. Biological anthropologists piece together information from different sources and construct theories explaining changes observed in fossils and evaluate theories by checking evidence against another. Human paleontology overlaps disciplines such as geology, general vertebrate paleontology, comparative anatomy and comparative primate behavior. 2nd focus of biological anthropology (study of human variation), investigates how and why human populations differ in biological or physical characteristics. All people belong to species Homo sapiens, because all can interbreed. Biological anthropologists use three techniques of other disciplines to study human variations: human genetics, population biology, epidemiology. Cultural Anthropology Culture: customary ways particular populations or society thinks and behaves. Include language, way kids are brought up, roles assigned to males and females, religious beliefs and practices, music. Also interested in learned behaviors and ideas that come to be customary. Three branches of cultural anthropology: archeology (past cultures through material remains), anthropological linguistics ( study of language), and ethnology (study of existence and recent cultures). Archeology Trace cultural changes. Archeologists serve as historians. Archaeologists deal with prehistory, time before written records. Specialty in archaeology called historical archeology studies remains of recent people with written records. Anthropological Linguistics Study of languages and changes taken place over time and variations. Anthropological linguists concerned with emergence and divergence of languages over thousands of years. Study of how languages change over time and how they are related is known as historical linguistics. Study of how contemporary languages differ especially in construction is called descriptive or structural linguistics. Study of how language is used in social contexts is called sociolinguistics. Ethnology (Cultural Anthropology) o

Ch 2.

Ethnology largely the same as that of archaeologists, however ethnologists generally use data collected through observation and interviews of living people. One type of ethnologist, ethnographers, spend a year living with, talking to, and observing the people whose custom theyre studying. This fieldwork provides data for detailed description of customary behavior and though called an ethnography. Earlier ethnographers strived for holistic coverage, recent ones specialize in a particular realm. Ethnohistorian studies how ways of life of particular group of people have changed over time. Investigate written documents such as missionary accounts, reports by traders and explorers, and governmental records to establish cultural changes that have occurred. Ethnohistorians rely on reports of others and reconstruct the history of people and suggest why certain changes in life took place. Cross-cultural researcher interested in discovering general patterns about cultural traits what is universal, variable, why they vary, consequences of variability . Applied Anthropology Specialization Anthropologist may specialize in different time periods, geographic locations. Ethnologists identify themselves as economic, political or psychological anthropologists. Relevance of Anthropology Culture and Culture Change Defining Culture Culture: the set of learned behaviors and ideas (including beliefs, attitudes, values and ideals) that are characteristic of a particular society or other social group. Behavior can produce products or material culture. Things like houses, musical instruments, tools and products of customary behavior. Anthropologists concerned with cultural characteristics of societies. Society: a group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak common languages not generally understood by neighboring people. Culture is Commonly Shared When talking about commonly shared customs of a society, constituting the traditional and central concern of cultural anthropology, theyre referring to a culture. When talking about commonly shared customs of a group within a society, which are central concerns of sociologists and increasingly of concern to anthropologists, were referring to a subculture. Culture Is Learned Culture is something learned as well as shared Frans de Waal reviewed studied chimpanzees and identified at least 39 behaviors learned from others. Something is cultural if it is a learned behavior or idea (belief, attitude, value, ideal) that members of a society or social group generally share Controversies About the Concept of Culture Disagreements whether concept of culture should refer just to rules or ideas behind behavior, or should include behaviors or products of behavior (Cognitive anthropologists). In strongest view, one that was more acceptable in the past, culture is thought of as having a life of its own that could be studied without regard for individual at all. Cultural Constraints

Social scientist refer to standards or rules about what is acceptable behavior as norms. Two types of cultural constraints: Direct and Indirect Direct cultural constraint such as wearing casual to a wedding, or not wearing anything at all. Indirect such as doing something that is legal but people wouldnt stop and has no affect on other people. Attitudes That Hinder The Study of Culture People commonly feel their own behavior and attitudes are the correct ones and people who do not share those patterns are immoral or inferior. People who judge other cultures solely in terms of their own culture are ethnocentric meaning they hold an attitude called ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism and its opposite, the glorification of other cultures, hinder effective anthropological study. Cultural Relativism A societys custom and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of that societys problems and opportunities, an attitude known as cultural relativism. Human Rights and Relativism Elizabeth Zechenter says cultural relativists claim there are no universal principals of morality, but insist on tolerance for all cultures. Describing a Culture Although variations in individual reactions to a given stimulus are theoretically limitless, they tend to fall within easily recognizable limits. Variations in behaviors are confined within socially acceptable limits and parts of the anthropologists goals is to find what the limits are. In interviewing, anthropologists try to distinguish actual behavior from the ideas about how people in particular situations ought to feel and behave. In everyday terms we speak of the ideas as ideals, in anthropology we refer to them as ideal cultural traits. Modal response or mode: a statistical term referring to the most frequent encountered response in a given series of responses. Frequency distribution: collection of recorded data. Modal pattern: highest frequency in a frequency distribution. Culture is Patterned Culture is integrated, meaning elements or traits that make up a culture are not just random assortments of customs but are mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another. Customs that diminish the survival chance of a society are not likely to persist. Maladaptive customs: customs that diminish the chance of survival and reproduction are likely to disappear. Adaptive Customs: customs of a society that enhances survival and reproductive success. When custom is adaptive, it means it is adaptive only with respect to a specific physical and social environment Tapirape practiced infanticide if twins were born, if third child was same sex as first two, and if father broke certain taboos during pregnancy or in childs infancy. Women not allowed to have more than three kids.

Tendency for a culture to be integrated or patterned may be cognitive and emotionally as well as adaptively induced. How and Why Culture Changes Discovery and Invention Ignored discovery and invention bring no change in culture. Unconscious invention Accidental juxtaposition or unconscious invention: ideas that derive as a consequence of an observed phenomena. Diffusion Process by which cultural elements are barrowed from another society and incorporated into the culture of the recipient group Patterns of Diffusion Direct contact. Paper invented by Chinese Tsai Lun in A.D. 105. Spread to Arab via. Prisioners, then Baghdad in A.D. 793, Egypt in A.D. 900, Morocco 1100, Spain 1150, Italy 1276, France 1348, Germany 1390, England 1494. Intermediate contact. Diffusion through agency of third parties via traders. Stimulus diffusion. Knowledge of a trait belonging to another culture stimulates the invention or development of a local equivalent. Selective Nature of Diffusion Acculturation Process of change, or change that occurs when different cultural groups come into intensive contact. Anthropologists term of acculturation describes situation in which one of the societies in contact is much more powerful than the other. Seen as a process of extensive cultural borrowing in context of superordinate subordinate relations between societies. Subordinate borrows the most. Assimilation: used by sociologists describes process by which individuals acquire the social roles and culture of the dominant group. Revolution Most drastic and rapid way a culture can change is a result of revolution: replacement, usually violent, of a countrys rulers. Reasons for why rebellions and revolts are not always successful in bringing about culture change. Loss of prestige of established authority: financial difficulties, dismissals of popular ministers, alternation of policies. Threat to recent economic improvement: Indecisiveness of government: lack of consistent policy, (being controlled rather than in control). Loss of support of the intellectual class: Globalization: Problems and opportunities Globalization the massive flow of goods, people, information, capital across huge areas of the earths surface. Cultural Diversity In the future.

 Ch 4.

Ethnogenesis is the process by which new cultures are created. Explanation: an answer to a why question Scientists try to achieve two kinds of explanation: associations and theories. Associations and Relationships One way to explain something is to say how it conforms to a general principle or relationship. The truth of relationship is suggested by repeated observations, such relationships are called laws when most scientists accept them. In social science, associations are usually stated probabilistically; that is, we say two or more variables tend to be related in a predictable way, which means that there are usually one exceptions. John Whiting found correlation of societies with low protein diets tend to have long sex taboo, a statistical association. Theories: explanations of laws and statistical associations John Whiting theorized long postpartum sex taboo is adaptation to tropical environments where major food staples are low in protein. Such environments have babies who are vulnerable to protein-deficiency disease or kwashiorkor. A theory is complicated, containing series of statements. Associations usually state quite simply that there is a relationship between two or more measured variables. Statistical associations or laws are based entirely on observations. Why Theories Cannot be proved No theories can be proved or true because many of the concepts and ideas in theories are not directly observable and therefore not verifiable. Photon is theoretical construct or cant be observed or verified directly. Falsification: shows that a theory seems to be wrong, is the main way theories are judged. Generating theories Two types of procedure help anthropologists produce explanations of cultural phenomena: single case analysis, and comparative study. Evidence: Testing Explanations Operationalization and Measurement Operational definition: a description of the procedure that is followed to measure the variable. Whiting predicted society with root and tree crops (cassava, bananas) have low protein diet, cereal crops (wheat, oats, barley, corn) have medium protein diet, and society dependent on hunting and fishing have high protein. Measure something is to say how it compares with other things on some scale of variation. Sampling Before researchers can sample randomly, they must specify the sampling universe, that is list of cases to be sampled from. Statistical Evaluation Researchers construct contingency table Probability value (p-value): likelihood that the observed result or a stronger one could have occurred by chance.

Ch 6.

P-value of .05 or less are said to have statistically significant results. Cultural lag: occurs when change in once aspect of culture takes time to produce change in another aspect. Types of research in cultural anthropology Type of research in cultural anthropology classified according to two criteria: spatial scope of study (analysis of single society, societies in region, or worldwide sample of societies), and temporal scope of study (historical versus nonhistorical). Ethnography Participant-observation: living among the people one is studying and observing and taking part in important events of the society and questioning people about their native customs. Ethnography: description and analysis of a single society. to find a good informant, anthropologists use the cultural consensus model or asking samples of people about a particular culture domain. Ethics in Fieldwork Should conflict arise in ethical obligations, most important obligation is to protect the interests of the people they study. Historical Research Ethnohistory: consist so studies based on descriptive materials about a single society at more than one point in time. Getting Food Foraging: food collection Foragers/hunger-gatherers live in marginal areas of the earth, deserts, arctic, tropical forests. Studying foragers requires cautious inferences because 1. They lived in all environments, 2. They evolve, 3. They interact with societies that did not exist until after 10,000 years ago. Australian Aborigines Ngatatjara avg less than 8 in of rain per year. Ngatatjara were nomadic and women gathered fruits and water, males hunted, emus and kangaroos. Inuit General Features of Foragers Most live in small communities and follow nomadic lifestyle. Do not recognize individuals land rights, Division of labor based largely on age and gender. Survey of 180 societies, gathering important to 30% of surveyed societies, hunting to 25%, and fishing to 38%. Men usually contribute more to food-getting than women do. Prefer foragers because allows to recognize important of fishing. Kung spend 17 avg collecting food per week. 6 hrs making tools, 19 hrs doing housework. Complex Foragers Horticulture Horticulture: growing of crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools and methods in absence of permanently cultivated field.

Two kinds of horticulture: dependence on extensive (shifting) cultivation where land is worked for short time and then let wildlife grow (slash-and-burn technique), and dependence on long growing tree crops. Yanomamo is horticulture society. Yanomamo live in lean-tos with inner side open to central plaza. Get most of calories from garden produce, spend most time foraging . Use slash and burn planting plantains, manioc, sweet potato, taro, and plants for medicine. Move village every 5 yrs. Extensive cultivation requires lots of territory because new gardens are not cleared until forest grows back. Samoans Horticulture supports larger more densely populated communities, way of life is more sedentary, some have permanent villages because they depend on tree crops. Intensive agriculture Use techniques that enable permanent field cultivation. Rural Greece Agriculture year begins March with pruning of grape vines and hoeing of fields. Winemaking begins September after grain harvest Villagers use horses to plow wheat fields in October and November, they sow the seed by hand. Wheat crop harvested following summer. Cotton and tobacco are main cash crops. Rural Vietnam Khan Hau, wet rice cultivation is principal agricultural activity General Features of Intensive Agricultural Societies More likely to have towns and cities, high degree of craft specialization, complex political organization, large difference in wealth and power. Longer hours than horticulturalists Men avg. 9 hrs work a day, 7 days a week; women avg. 11 hrs/day. Work of women in intensive agricultural societies involves food processing and house work Women also spend lot of time working in fields Intensive agricultural societies more likely to face famine and food shortages Producing for market calls for higher yield crops rather than those that are drought resistant or require less nutrients Farmers tend to concentrate on one crop. Commercialization and Mechanization of Agriculture Worldwide trend for intensive agriculturalists to produce more and more for a market (commercialization) Involves increasing dependence on buying and selling with money. Increase in commercialization of agriculture is associated with several trends: 1. Farm work becoming more mechanized because migration to industrial service jobs in town and cities or hired hand labor become too expensive. 2. Emergence and spread of agribusiness, large corporation-owned farms operated by multinational compaies and worked entirely by hired labor. 3. Reduction in proportion of population engaged in food production In US less than 2% of population work on farms. 4. Much of produce is shipped to or received from markets in other countries

Pastoralism Some societies depend mostly on domesticated herds of animals that feed on natural pasture (Pastoralism) Pastoralists get protein from animals in form of milk and blood. Trade animals for plant foods and other necessities. Basseri Pastoralists Herds of sheep and goats. Migratory exploitation of grazing lands within territory, about 15,000 sq mi. Il-rah (tribal road): migration concept or route Wool and hide are traded but are important to tribe. Women are skilled spinners and weavers woven goat hair provides for winter cloths because it insulates and repels water, Lapps/Saami Practice reindeer herding in NW Scandinavia intensively or extensively Intensive system: constantly under observation within fenced area, accustomed to human contact Extensive system: allowing animals to migrate over large area, milking, breaking in and corralling are harder. Lapps eat meat of bull, which are slaughtered in fall after mating season Meat and hides frequently sold or bartered for other food and necessities General Features of Pastoralism Practiced in grassland and semiarid habitats Most are nomadic Individuals or families decide what animals, but community decides when and where to move. More vulnerable than foragers and horticulturalists to famine and food shortages Environmental Restraints on Food-Getting Farther away from equator, foragers depend much less on plants for food and much more on animals. 80% of all societies practice horticulture or simple agriculture are in tropics, where as 75% of all societies that practice intensive agriculture are not in tropical forest environments. Pastoralism practiced in regions of steppes (dry, low grass cover), prairies (taller, better watered grass), or savannas (tropical grasslands). Technological, social, and political factors rather than environmental factors determine what kind of food-getting can be practiced in a given environment. Origins of Food Production 8000 BC first evidence of changeover to food production, cultivation and domestication of plants and animals in Near East. Lewis Binford and Kent Flannery model: change in external circumstance, not necessarily environmental, must have induced or favored changeover to food production. Binford-Flannery model focuses on population pressure in small area as incentive to turn to food production. Archaeologists returned to idea that climatic change played role in emergence of agriculture.

Ch 7. Natural Resources: Land

Foragers Do not have private ownership of land. Among foragers heavily dependent on fishing in rivers, individual or family ownership is more common because fishing is more predictable. Some individuals and families have private rights to trees. Common in food-collecting societies for groups of individuals or kin, to own land. Local groups try to maintain exclusive rights to particular territories. Why some are more territorial than others? When plants and animals collected are predictably located and abundant, groups are more likely to be sedentary and try to maintain control over territory. Horticulturalists No ownership because rapid depletion of soil necessitates letting some of land lie fallow or abandoning an area after a few years to move to new location. Likely to allocate particular plots of land to individuals or families for use Pastorialists Pastoralists combine adaptive potential of both foragers and horticulturalists Like foragers, need to know potential of large area of land. Like horticulturalists, pastoralists must move when resource is exhausted Also like horticulturalists, they depend for subsistence on human manipulation of natural resource, animals, as opposed to horticulturalists land. Community members have free access to pasture land Grazing land communally held, customary for pastoralist individuals to own animals When family herd falls below minimum for survival, they drop out of nomadic life and work in sedentary agricultural communities. But in doing so, such family does not jeopardize other pastoral families. If fortunate were to share herds with unfortunate, all might approach bankruptcy. Barth argued, individual ownership is adaptive for a pastoral way of life. Intensive Agriculturalists Individual ownership of land resources including right to resources and right to sell or dispose of them is common among intensive agriculturalists. In US, under Homestead Act of 1862, if a person cleared 160 acres of land and farmed it for five years, the federal government would consider that person the owner of the land. Colonialism, the State and Land Rights Technology Conservation of Resources: Types of Economic Production Production: transformation or conversion of resources into food, tools, and other goods. Incentive for Labor Subsistence economy: A nonprofit motive to work primarily for their own consumption When resources are converted for household consumption, people will work harder if they have more consumers in the household Chayanovs Rule: people will work harder when theres more consumers and work less when theres more workers. Forced and required labor Corvee: system of required labor Division of labor: Gender and Age

Children in nomadic had no work but were given lots of chore from helping with animals to helping with harvest and food processing. Beyond Age and Gender Organization of Labor Making decision about Work Optimal foraging theory: frequent source of ideas about choices. Distribution Three systems often coexist in a society, the predominant system seems to be associated with the societys food-getting technology and level of economic development Three types of distribution: reciprocity, redistribution, market or commercial exchange. Reciprocity Giving and taking without the use of money. Exchange of goods and service without expectation of return gift. Givers may derive economic and psychological benefits in addition to reproductive benefits. Sharing more likely when resources are unpredictable Balanced Reciprocity Explicit and short term in expectations of return Cooperative work party or kuu Gift exchange are personal and involve creation or perpetuation of some kind of enduring relationship Commodity exchange focus on objects or services received. Kulu Ring Horticultural Trobriand Islanders worked out scheme for trading ornaments, food and other necessities with neighboring islands. Trade is hidden in complex ceremonial exchange, called kulu ring, an exchange of valued shell ornaments across a set of far-flung islands. Two ornaments: white shell armbands (mwali) given only in counterclockwise direction and red shell necklaces (soulava) given in clockwise direction. Possession of one or more of the ornaments allows a man to organize an expedition to home of one of his trading partners on another island. High point of expedition is ceremonial giving of valued kulu ornaments. Redistribution Accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person , or in a particular place, for the purpose of subsequent distribution Market or Commercial Exchange Market or commercial exchange: exchange or transactions in which prices are subject to supply and demand Kinds of money General-purpose money: money performs the basic functions of serving as accepted medium of exchange, a standard of value, and store of wealth. As a medium of exchange, allows all goods and services to be valued in the same objective way. Money has no intrinsic value; rather society determines its value Where food production per capita is not sufficient to support a large population of nonproducers of food have special-purpose money, objects of values for which only some goods and services can be exchanged on the spot through balanced reciprocity