ANTHROP 2F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cultural Relativism, Rastafari, Participant Observation
26 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Cultural Anthropology Lecture January 12th, 2016
Holism
-a commitment to holism in understanding human behaviour, rather than selecting out a single
aspect of life (for instance, the economy) and studying it as if it existed in isolation, rather
than as part of complex lives
-consider everything about a topic, not just a small portion available
-Holism is a catchword of ideas and meaning
-in cultural anthropology: holism is concerned with all human beings across times and places,
and with all dimensions of humanity (evolutionary, biophysical, sociopolitical, economic,
cultural, psychological, etc.)
-is anthropology intrinsically holistic?
-it is not always possible for all disciplines to be completely holistic in all areas
-participant observation can possibly bring holism
Positional Thinking
-thinking outside of yourself
-similar to holism
-i.e. that by learning enough about other people, other societies, and other ways of life we are
able to imagine and understand points of view that come from being in positions other than
your own
Self Reļ¬ection and Comparison
-critical self-reļ¬ection and comparison
-i.e. that learning about ways of life, practices, and societies different from our own forces us
to ask questions about why we do things the way we do;
-this can be a signiļ¬cant source of innovation
-self-reļ¬ection can bring about wrong ideas
-this is essentially ethnocentrism
-casting judgement
-i.e. colonialism
Cultural Relativism
-peopleās perspectives are biased by their cultural background
-overarching philosophical intention is the assertion that all cultures are of equal value, and
therefore there is no one superior culture
-i.e. Rastafarianās considered lesser because of their drug use through biases of Americanās
during 60m news clip shown last lecture = cultural relativism
Methodologies
-theoretical approaches in cultural anthropology can be used as the method of investigation
-a scholar can argue a point on a theoretical assumption, and follow through with investigating
this to each the analysis
-cultural anthropologistsā also conduct research using ethnographic ļ¬eld studies using the
participant observation model of inquiry
-research methods:
-theories and using investigations and/or observations to prove something
-some anthropologists want self-reļ¬ection and use self-observation, participant observation,
etc. to achieve this
Theories and Methodologies
-academic discourse rules upon the application of theoretical methodological arguments,
assumptions and investigations
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