Anthropology

All fields of study started as definite attempts to answer questions about ones environment, ones relation to it, and ones nature. Science may be categorized into two areas: Natural Sciences (ex. biological sciences biology, botany, zoology, and bacteriology; physical sciences astronomy, geology, chemistry, and physics). Social Sciences deals with human relationships, social systems, and societies. The Social Sciences Economics concerned with the human activities related to the production, consumption, and distribution of goods, services, and wealth within societies. Human behavior may also be economically driven (Ex. Large Family, Small Family, Migration, Clothing). Political Science concerned with political processes, power struggle and governments. Anthropologists are interested in looking at social backgrounds of political activists, the distribution of power, the source of political beliefs of the electorate, and the role of women and ethnic minorities in the electorate. Anthropology covers physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Psychology mainly interested in psychological and behavioral processes. History primarily a descriptive chronology of significant past events. Sociology - the science of society and the social interaction taking place. What is Anthropology? Anthropos

Logos Holistic science Studies the whole human condition Looks at the Past, Present and Future Examines all societies whether it is simple or complex, ancient or modern Cuts across various disciplines Methods include the researched not only the researcher (Emic and etic perspective) Looks at things in a broader perspective and analyzes a broader range of data Most social science disciplines focus on a single society while Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective. Sub-disciplines of Anthropology 1. Physical Anthropology 2. Archaeology 3. Cultural Anthropology 4.Linguistics Physical Anthropology Origins of man Hominid line Human variation Concept of race Primatology Forensics GIBBONORANGUTANCHIMPANZEEGORILLAMAN Archaeology reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains Hominid line Recreating past culture Present culture Garbology

Cultural Anthropology studies social life and customs describe, analyze and explain social and cultural similarities and differences. Ethnography and Ethnology Participant Observation Emic and Etic Perspectives Nature vs. Nurture Universal, Particular and Generalized Relativism Linguistics Sociolinguistics How language is used in culture How speech affects social differences How meanings are understood Paralanguage Nature vs. Nurture What is Culture? Agency vs. Structure

Methods in Anthropological Research

Ethnography Anthropology developed into a separate field as early scholars worked on Native American reservations and traveled into distant lands to study small groups of foragers and cultivators. This type of first hand study is called ethnography. Traditionally, ethnographers have tried to understand the whole of a particular culture. To pursue this holistic goal, ethnographers adopt a free-ranging strategy to gather information. In a given society or community, the ethnographer moves from setting to setting, place to place, and subject to subject to discover the totality and interconnectedness of social life.

Ethnographic Techniques The characteristics of field techniques of the ethnographer include the following: 1. Direct, firsthand observation of daily behavior, including participant observation. 2. Conversation with varying degrees of formality, from the daily chitchat that helps maintain rapport and provides knowledge about what is going on to prolonged interviews, which can be unstructured or structured. Formal, printed interview schedules or questionnaires may be used to ensure that complete, comparable information is available for everyone of interest to the study. 3. The genealogical method. 4. Detailed work with key consultants about particular areas of community life. 5. In-depth interviewing, often leading to the collection of life-histories of particular people (narratives). 6. Discovery of local beliefs and perceptions, which may be compared with ethnographers own observations and conclusions. 7. Problem-oriented research of many sorts. 8. Longitudinal research the continuous long-term study of an area or site. 9. Team research coordinated research by multiple ethnographers. Observation and Participant Observation Ethnographers get to know their hosts and usually take an interest in the totality of their lives. Ethnographers must pay attention to hundreds of details of daily life, seasonal events, and unusual happenings. The must observe individual and collective behavior in varied settings. The should record what they see as they see it. Things will never seem quite as strange as they do during the first few days and weeks in the field.

Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules Participating in local life means that ethnographers constantly talk to people and ask questions about what they observe. As their knowledge of language increases, they understand more. Anthropologists use interview schedules rather than a questionnaire. With the interview schedules, the ethnographer talks face to face with informants, asks the questions, and writes down the answers. Questionnaire procedures tend to more indirect and impersonal; the respondent often fills in the form. Interviewing Non-structured Interview does not follow any sequence as long as you stick to the topic. Structured or Directed Interview Interview guides are used where there are given questions for certain topics. The Genealogical Method Early ethnographers developed genealogical notation to deal with principles of kinship, descent, and marriage, which are social building blocks of non-industrial societies. Anthropologists must record genealogical data to reconstruct history and understand current relationships. In societies without a central government, these links are basic to social life and to political organization. Well-Informed Informants Every community has people who by accident, experience, talent, or training can provide the most complete or useful information about particular aspects of life. Who may be qualified as a well-informed informant?

Life History In non-industrial societies as in our own, individual personalities, interests, and abilities vary. When anthropologists find someone interesting, they collect his or her life history. Life histories reveal how specific people perceive, react to, and contribute to changes that affect their lives. Such accounts can illustrate diversity, which exists within any community, since the focus is on how different people interpret and deal with some of the same problems. Emic and Etic Strategies To study cultures, anthropologists have used tow approaches: Emic (actor-oriented, insider) investigates how natives think. How do they perceive and categorize the world? What are their rules for behavior and thought? What has meaning for them? How do they imagine and view things? The anthropologist seeks the native viewpoint and relies on the culture bearers the actors in a culture to determine whether something they do, say, or think is significant Etic (observer-oriented, outsider) shifts the focus of the research from native categories, expressions, explanations, and interpretations to those of the anthropologists. The etic ethnographer gives more weight to what she or he (the observer) notices and considers important. Participatory Method Includes the people who are targets of research in decision making or in the research itself. The target population themselves decide on the objectives of the research with the help of the researcher. It is people-centered. (Ex. Bagong Silang case).

Quantitative or Qualitative? Quantitative Surveys - (SWS, Pulse Asia, TNS Trends) Census (NSO) Qualitative Case Studies Experimental Method Field Work Interviews Differences Between Survey Research and Ethnography 1. In survey research, the object of study is usually a sample chosen (randomly or otherwise) by the researcher. Ethnographers normally study, whole, functioning societies. 2. Ethnographers do firsthand fieldwork, establishing direct relationship with the people they study. Ethnographers strive to establish rapport, a good, friendly working relationship based on personal contact, with informants. 3. Has been traditionally conducted in non-industrial, small-scale societies, where people often do not read or write. 4. Makes little use of statistics, because the communities being studied tend to be small, with little diversity besides that based on age, gender, and individual personality variation.

Features of Culture 1. Culture is Learned 3 kinds of learning: a) Individual situational learning learns from his own experience. b) Situational learning learning from members of his social group, not necessarily through language c) Cultural learning depends on the unique human capacity to use symbols Through culture people create, remember and deal with ideas. This happens through an unconscious or conscious process, interacting with others, to internalize or incorporate cultural traditions It is also taught, for example teaching kids to say Thank You. Culture is also transmitted through observation children pay attention to things around them. Also unconsciously social distance in queues. 2. Culture is Symbolic symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans. Symbol is something verbal and nonverbal Ex. Holy water, Traffic Lights 3. Culture seizes Nature culture imposes itself on nature Ex. Lake swimming closes at 5pm. People have to eat (biological; natural) but culture tells us what? Where? How? 4. Culture is General and Specific Culture (Capital C) the capacity shared by hominids, small c culture used to describe different and varied cultural traditions of specific societies. All people grow up in the presence of a particular set of cultural rules transmitted over generations 5. Culture is All-Encompassing culture includes much more than refinement, taste, sophistication, education and appreciation for the fine arts. cultured

Society and Culture

What is Culture? E. B. Tylor in Primitive Culture: Cultureis that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society he focuses on beliefs and behaviors that people acquire not biologically but through growing up in a society. This is called enculturation.

6. Culture is Shared an attribute not of individuals per se but of groups 7. Culture is Patterned Customs are interrelated, if one changes others change as well. Ex. Women entering the workforce = changes in household patterns =housewifization of males. Also, late marriages, living together and divorce becomes common. 8. People Use Culture Creatively People learn, interpret and manipulate the same rule in different ways. Ideal culture (what people should do) vs. Real Culture (their actual behavior) Culture is both public and the individual. The social life is a process which individuals internalize the meanings of public. 9. Culture is Adaptive and Maladaptive Sometimes adaptive behavior offers short-terms benefits to particular individuals while harm the environment and threaten groups long-term survival Policies that encourage overpopulation, inadequate food distribution systems, over consumption and pollution are maladaptive. Components of Culture 1. Knowledge The total range of what has been learned as true. Natural Knowledge accumulated facts about the natural world. Technological Knowledge knowledge of nature which are useful in dealing with practical problems. (Ex. Food gathering, means of transportation, tools and implements, etc.) Supernatural Knowledge perceptions about the actions of the supernatural. Magical Knowledge refers to perceptions about methods of influencing supernatural by manipulating certain laws of nature. 2. Social Norms, Mores, and Values 3. Folkways

4. Laws and Sanctions 5. Beliefs 6. Technology and Material Culture 7. Collective Form of Behavior The Organization of Culture Culture universals shared by all human populations incest taboo and exogamy Specialties/Particularities not shared by all some cultural traditions like burials Generalized common to several but not to all Some live in nuclear families, some in extended families Alternatives Subcultures individuals, families, villages, regions, classes, and other subgroups within a culture have different learning experiences as well as shared ones. Counter culture and contra culture. Punks and bohemians Activists Culture: Diversity and Conflict Ethnocentrism - a cultural universal. People think that familiar explanations, opinions, customs are true right and moral Xenocentrism Culture Shock Cultural Relativism - behaviors should not be seen in the standards of another Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation Ethnic diversity may be associated with positive group interaction and coexistence or with conflict. Assimilation is the process of change that a minority or ethnic group may experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates. Adaptation to the particular norms of the host culture. The Plural Society

 Barth calls a plural society as being able to combine ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization, and economic interdependence of groups. They do not compete for resources. They occupy different ecological niches. The depend on each others activities and depend on each other. Multiculturalism opposite of Assimilation It encourages the practice of cultural-ethnic relations. Seeks ways for people to understand and interact that dont depend on sameness but on differences Roots of Ethnic Conflict Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice looking down on one group because of its assumed behavior, capabilities, or attributes. Expecting that people act the way they are supposed to act (ex. Maitim kaya mabaho; mukhang magnanakaw, etc.) Stereotypes are fixed ideas, often unfavorable. What are some stereotypes or labels given to people from Ethnolinguistic groups? Discrimination refers to policies and practices that harm a group and its members. Ex. Filipinos in HK (no dogs and Filipinos allowed), Tommy Hilfiger WHITESBLANKES NON WHITES NIE-BLANKES Genocide deliberate elimination of a group due to mass murder. Ex. Hitler, WWII Back to the idea on Cultural Relativism, where should we draw the line between relativism and morality?

thanks again men and women, girls and boys. don't forget to also greet my cousin

before i sleep i would like to thank everyone for the greetings :D thank you to my friends and family who have been there since i was a little iggy. wuddupwuddup hahahahahaha. 21 na ako pero mukha pa rin akong 12 =)))