ANTH 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Participant Observation, Historical Particularism, Evolutionism
5 Mar 2016
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The importance of looking at culture as a complex system. To look at the various facets of culture, such as economics, politics, ideology, history, etc. If you take a picture you will see this frame, you won"t see the outside aspects. The idea that each culture must be understood in terms of the values and beliefs of the culture. Opposite: ethnocentrism, judging cultures from one"s own personal pov. Ethnography- description of other cultures from firsthand detailed personal observation. Comparative or cross cultural study (ethnology)- compare a particular topic in more than one culture using ethnographic material, with the purpose to examine patterns of similarity and variation and causes. People see others from their own pov, may have fear of them, or look down on them. Thomas hobbes- people were in the war of all against all, considered to be brutish savages. Jean jacques rousseau- people lived in egalitarian society, progression of society lead to inequality.
