ANTH150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cultural Relativism, Relativism, Biomedicine
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ANTH150 Lecture
I: Identity and Difference
Anthropology
• The study of humanity, human diversity, and what it means to be human
• But what is humanity? What doe sit consist of? Where do we look to see it?
Culture
• Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide beliefs
and behaviours of the people exposed to them
• Many of the things we think are natural are in fact cultural
• There are very few human universals
• Culture shapes human bodies
Asiana Airlines Crash
• Korean ‘culture’ contributed
• Idea of ‘social hierarchy’
• In reality: it had little to do with culture
Aboriginal Culture
• Blame can be placed with no consideration of historical, social, political, economic
circumstances
Ebola and Cultural Beliefs
• Belief that health professionals were spreading Ebola
• Health workers were not allowing funerals or contact with sick/dead
Culture
• We want to use ‘culture’ as a starting point
• We want to complicate and facilitate deeper understanding, rather than to end conversation
• Culture may be a ‘verb’
• Culture is what we do and what/how we think
• It is often easy to forget about culture (is it invisible?)
• But it often becomes visible when compared or when problems arise
• What does it mean to be human what is good or bad?
• We ALL have culture
Toilets
• Something as basic as going to the bathroom is completely different between cultures
• Objects (and our interactions with them) contain the culture of their users
• Macquarie University teaching students to use the bathroom (western)
Marcel Mass and The Body
• Could tell whether French or British because of walk and posture
• Different utensils
Introduction: what is anthropology?
• The scientific and humanistic study of human diversity. It concerns itself with all aspects of
the human condition, past, present, and future, and with biology, society, language, and
culture. In this respect, it is holistic, comparative, and cross-cultural
Anthropology Subfields
• Cultural anthropology
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
In reality: it had little to do with culture. Aboriginal culture: blame can be placed with no consideration of historical, social, political, economic circumstances. Ebola and cultural beliefs: belief that health professionals were spreading ebola, health workers were not allowing funerals or contact with sick/dead. Culture: we want to use culture" as a starting point, we want to complicate and facilitate deeper understanding, rather than to end conversation, culture may be a verb", culture is what we do and what/how we think. It is often easy to forget about culture (is it invisible?: but it often becomes visible when compared or when problems arise, what does it mean to be human what is good or bad, we all have culture. Toilets: something as basic as going to the bathroom is completely different between cultures, objects (and our interactions with them) contain the culture of their users, macquarie university teaching students to use the bathroom (western)
