UNDERSTANDING CULTURE,

SOCIETY AND POLITICS

Copyright © 2010 by Nelson Education Limited 1

 4.543
billion
years
 Political anthropology
science

economics
sociology
psychology S S
O C
history C I
I E
A N
L C
E
S
 The social sciences are
disciplines that study human
social behavior or institutions
and the functions of human
society in a scientific
manner.
–Subdisciplines share similar goal
of exploring variation in time and
space to improve understanding
of basics of human biology,
society, and culture

Subdisciplines influence
each other
ANTHROPOLOGY
THE STUDY OF HUMANITY FROM ITS EVOLUTIONARY
ORIGINS TO TODAY’S CULTURAL DIVERSITY
ANTHROPOLOGY
two Greek words

anthropos logos
meaning meaning
“man” “study”
 confronts basic
questions of human
existence and survival

How?
How we originated
How we have changed
How we are changing
still
 ANTHROPOLOGY
AND OTHER SOCIAL
SCIENCES
 A Quest to
understand the
exploration of
human diversity-
found in other
disciplines
 HOLISTIC

Interested in the whole of

the human conditions
• Past, present, and future
• Biology
• Society
• Language
• Culture
 TRANSCULTURAL
looks all human groups, large
and small; distant and near.
• Learned values, beliefs, rules of
conduct shared to some extent
by the members of society, that
govern their behavior with one
another and their thinking about
themselves and the world.
• All cultures are comprised of
material objects; ideas, values,
attitudes and patterned ways of
behaving.
 COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
• basically comparative bases its findings
throughout the world and from
throughout human history
• Collect data about behavior and beliefs
in many societies and the diversity of
human cultures
• Also, to understand common patterns in
ways people adapt to their environment,
adjust to their neighbors, and develop
cultural institutions
SUBDISCIPLINES
OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
AS A SOCIAL
SCIENCE
 BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

the study of human

biological variation in time
and space
– Special interests within
human evolution as
biological revealed by the
anthropology: fossil record

• Paleoanthropology
Body’s ability to
• Human genetics
change as it copes
• Human growth and with stresses such as
development heat, cold, and
•Human biological altitude
plasticity
study of biology,
evolution, behavior,
• Primatology and social life of
primates
 The Subdisciplines of
Biological Anthropology
• Biological anthropology
draws on biology, zoology,
geology, anatomy,
physiology, medicine, public
health, osteology, and
archaeology
 CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
(Social or Sociocultural)

describes, analyzes, interprets,

and explains social and cultural
similarities and differences in
human cultures both past and
present.
 – Special interests within
cultural anthropology:

cross cultural
comparison; the
comparative
study of
•Ethnology ethnographic
data, of society
and of culture
The Subdiscipline of Cultural
Anthropology
Ethnography- fieldwork in
a particular culture;
provides account of that
community, society, or
culture
 Ethnography and Ethnology
Summary
 ETHNOGRAPHY  ETHNOLOGY
– means “culture – the study of one
writing” topic in more than
one culture
– provides a first- • marriage forms,
hand, detailed economic
description of a practices, religion,
etc.
living culture
– comparative and
– based on first- cross-cultural
hand fieldwork – uses ethnographic
and research of material collected
one culture by a number of
researchers
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
study of human behavior and
cultural patterns and process
through the culture’s material
remains
• A r t i f a c t s ( e .g ., p o t s h e r d s , j e w e l r y , a n d
tools)
• Garbage
• Burials
• Remains of structures
 – Special interests within
archaeological
anthropology:
provides unique
opportunity to
look at changes
•Archaeological in social
Record complexity over
thousands and
tens of
thousands of
years
 The Subdiscipline of
Archaeological Anthropology

Historical archaeology-
combines archaeological data
and textual data to
reconstruct historically known
groups
 LINGUISTIC
ANTHROPOLOGY
study of language in its
social and cultural
context across space and
time
 – Special interests within
linguistic
anthropology:
reconstruct
ancient
•Historical Linguistic languages
and study
linguistic
variation
through time
The Subdiscipline of Linguistic
Anthropology

Sociolinguistics—investigates
relationships between social
and linguistic variation to
discover varied perceptions
and patterns of thought in
different cultures
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008
 Goals:
focuses on study of humans and
all aspects of being human
 Discover what makes people different
from one another
 Study diversity and preserve diversity
 Discover what all people have in
common
 Study commonalities in all humanity
 Understand more about “human nature”
has many concepts and subjects
in common with other social
sciences and humanities
Look at our own culture more
objectively, like an outsider
 Make “the strange familiar and the
familiar strange”
Produce new knowledge and new
theories about humankind and human
behavior
 Apply this knowledge in an attempt to
help human challenges
seeks to demonstrate
how aspects of cultures
are linked, how they
affect one another;
seeks to understand all
aspects of human
behavior.
 PIX
PURFECT
CONCEPT
DRAWING
 SYMBOL
SYMBOL

SYMBOL
AN
SYMBOL
THRO
PO
LO
GY
IMAGINATION
&
CREATIVITY
Anthropology’s goal is
to create better
understanding and
explain scientifically
among people and
provides data from all
sources.
 Anthropology helps
us understand
ourselves through its
cross-cultural
perspective
ANTHROPOLOGY
THE STUDY OF HUMANITY FROM ITS EVOLUTIONARY
ORIGINS TO TODAY’S CULTURAL DIVERSITY
SOCIOLOGY
THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONS
SOCIOLOGY
two Greek words

socious logos
meaning meaning
“society” “study”
 attempts to understand how
membership in one's social
group affects individual
behavior.
Why?
How?
 We all display
Social Sensitivity
We are Curious about our own
behavior and the behavior of
others.
1. Why do we act as we do?
2. How are we the same as
others?
3. How are we different?
Hess, Markson and Stein (1990)
sociology is:

the systematic study of

human behavior

• concerned
• scientific
• informed
Hess, Markson and Stein (1990)
sociology is:

the groups to which one

belongs

• focuses on the group, rather

than the individual.
Hess, Markson and Stein (1990)
sociology is:
the societies that human
beings create; and within
which their lives develop.
• mainly interested in social interactions – how
people relate to one another and how they
influence each others decisions.
• examines social phenomena or observable
facts or events involving human interaction to
make predictions about future trends and
behaviors.
Hess, Markson and Stein (1990)
sociology is:
the systematic study of
human behavior,
the groups to which one
belongs,
 the societies that human
beings create; and
within which their lives
develop.
SOCIOLOGY AND
OTHER SOCIAL
SCIENCES
 A Quest to
understand
patterns of
behavior-found in
other disciplines
POLITICAL SCIENCE
ANTHROPOLOGY,SOCIOLOGY, AND
POLITICAL SCIENCE
IN DEPTH
UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE SOCIETY POLITICS