ANTH1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Linguistic Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Biological Anthropology
10 Aug 2018
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Week 1 Lecture #1
Culture: what is it？
- What is ulture? What does it ea?
- Identify 3 uses of the word culture?
o Cultural clash
- Through anthropology we discover and understand beliefs and values as embedded in
the irustaes of other people’s lives ad livelihoods
Culture is:
- Shared
- Learned
- Symbolic
- Material
- Integrated
Definitions:
- Anthropology: study of humanity
- Physical or biological anthropology: study of how humans evolved a species
- Archaeology: study of how humans have lived at different points in time
- Linguistic anthropology: study of how humans communicate with each other
- Cultural anthropology: study of how to understand the diversity of human culture
across the globe
What is culture?
- All humans are capable of using technology and symbol systems; this is what
distinguishes human from other mammals
The paradox of culture
- What unites us as human beings is thus also what divides us into different cultures
- From this fundamental observation, cultural anthropology focuses on the differences
between cultures and on the ways in which they can be compared
Cultural anthropology
- Uses empirical data about specific instances and practices of different cultures to
address broader issues confronting humanity as a whole
- Focus on 2 themes that have dominated the analysis of culture:
o The symbolic capacity of human beings to build systems of meaning within
which they live their lives
o And the technological capacity of humans to appropriate and transform the
material world I the pursuit of human ends
- These aspects unify as a single cultural process
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Document Summary
Identify 3 uses of the word culture: cultural clash. Through anthropology we discover and understand beliefs and values as embedded in the (cid:272)ir(cid:272)u(cid:373)sta(cid:374)(cid:272)es of other people"s lives a(cid:374)d livelihoods. Physical or biological anthropology: study of how humans evolved a species. Archaeology: study of how humans have lived at different points in time. Linguistic anthropology: study of how humans communicate with each other. Cultural anthropology: study of how to understand the diversity of human culture across the globe. All humans are capable of using technology and symbol systems; this is what distinguishes human from other mammals. What unites us as human beings is thus also what divides us into different cultures. From this fundamental observation, cultural anthropology focuses on the differences between cultures and on the ways in which they can be compared. Uses empirical data about specific instances and practices of different cultures to address broader issues confronting humanity as a whole. These aspects unify as a single cultural process.
