ANTH 1002 Lecture Notes - Cultural Relativism, Ethnocentrism, Applied Anthropology

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 1002
• Professor: Eric Henry

Document Summary

Lecture 2: chapter 1 the study of culture. In plato"s phaedo, the philosopher tells us that reality is organized on a principle of dualism: that the world is divided into two forces centered on the physical body and intangible soul. Determinism is the idea that our natures are determined by some fundamental element; some possibilities that have been proposed are: environment, genes/biology, culture. Anthropologists do not look for singular causes to social phenomenon, but recognize the complexity of our lives. Applied anthropology uses information from any of the anthropological specialties to solve practical cross-cultural problems: this can include areas as diverse as health care and economic development, to marketing and product design. Culture is the sets of learned behaviour and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society. Humans use culture to adapt and to transform the world in which they live. Culture is shared among members of social groups (creative potential agency)