ANTH 1120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Moral Treatment, Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences, Cultural Relativism

• School: York University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 1120
• Professor: Christianne Stephens

Document Summary

What is anthropology: definition of anthropos- human begins , definition of logia- the study of . 4 branches of the discipline of anthropology: biological anthropology, sociocultural anthropology, archeology, linguistic anthropology. What is culture: culture is the system of meanings about the nature of experience that is shared by a people and passed from one generation to another. Why do humans do what we do: the role of biology (genetics, the role of psychology, the role of the environment, the role of culture. We aren"t the world, is an example of culture and biology. Our beliefs and behaviours are true, while those other peoples are wrong or misguided. The tendency to judge the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures from the perspective of one"s own culture- to be ethnocentric. No behaviour or belief can be judged wrong simply because its different from our own. Extensively used as a tool of anthropology to deal with cultural difference.