ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Scientific Method, Fundamental Interaction, Bipedalism
8 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Anthropology Week 1
Anthropology
- Anthros = humans
Anthropology is historical
Anthro is Comparative
Anthro is contextual
Anthro is Holistic
Four subfields
- Biological anthropology
- Archaeology
- Sociocultural anthropology
- Linguistics
o Unifying feature is culture
What is culture?
- Accumulation of human accomplishments
- “rules of conduct, which were not invented and whose function is generally not understood by the
people who obey them”
- “an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions
expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their
knowledge about and attitudes toward life.”
Cultural Norms and Social Truths
- Cultural Norms
o The expectations and the rules by which culture guides the behaviour of its members is any given
situation
- Social Truths
o Constructed by social processes historically and culturally specific shaped through the power
structures within a community
Sociocultural Anthropology
- Study of cultures and societies in the recent past (speak to the subject)
- Culture is defined as transmitted, learned behaviour
- Methodology: ethnology & participant observation
- Ethnography: a description of an aspect of culture within a society
Archaeology
- The study of past societies and their cultures using material culture (tools, ceramics, sites)
- Prehistoric Archaeology
o Usually no written documents or oral histories
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Evidence comes from artifacts recovered from archaeological sites
- Historical Archaeology
o Work on more recent societies
o Integrate historical evidence (= written)
Archaeology (vs. Treasure Hunting)
• ‘Digging is destruction’
• Rigorously standard procedures
• Sampling
• Recorded, labelled, photographed, &
mapped systematically
Linguistics Anthropology
- Studies the construction and use of language by human societies
- Structural linguistics
o How language “works”
o Relationship between language & thought
- Sociolinguistics
o Relationship between language and social behaviour in different cultures
- Historical linguistics
o How languages relate and how they changed over time
Physical anthropology
- Studies all aspects of the biology and behaviour of the human species ( and our closest relatives), past
and present
Remember
- No anthropologist is an expert in all 4 fields
- Many do research that crosses over
- Anthropology investigates the diversity of human
- View that humans are cultural and biological beings
Biological Anthropology
- ALL aspects of the biology & behaviour of the human species, past and present •
- EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE to look at things in the deep past
- BIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE to look at the interaction between biology and culture Interested in
the DIVERSITY of populations
- Holistic
- Takes multiple research approach
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Rules of conduct, which were not invented and whose function is generally not understood by the people who obey them . An historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life. Cultural norms: the expectations and the rules by which culture guides the behaviour of its members is any given situation. Social truths: constructed by social processes historically and culturally specific shaped through the power structures within a community. Study of cultures and societies in the recent past (speak to the subject) Culture is defined as transmitted, learned behaviour. Ethnography: a description of an aspect of culture within a society. The study of past societies and their cultures using material culture (tools, ceramics, sites) Prehistoric archaeology: usually no written documents or oral histories, evidence comes from artifacts recovered from archaeological sites.
