ANT207H1 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Sherpa People, Ethnic Group, Symbolic Culture

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11 Aug 2012
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Holistic: interested in humanity in all its diversity, past and present; combines different approaches. Comparative: devises concepts (such as kinship and culture) in order to study diversity; deals in concepts that can be understood and applied in the context of different societies. Evolutionary: does away with the mis-applied concept of unilinear progress; studies change over time and doesn"t treat any belief or practice as ingrained. Schultz/lavenda: at most basic, learned sets of ideas and behaviours acquired as members of society. Thornton: a resource; the information humans aren"t born with but need to survive. Old notions: bounded, defined characteristics, unchanging, self-reproducing, underlying system of shared meanings and authentic culture , homogeneous. New notions: active process of meaning-making and contestation; not bounded, interconnected, fluid, constructed situationally; accounts for power dynamics. Decision-makers deploying the concept of culture within fields of power. Functions: adapts and transforms the lived world; creates boundaries along ethnic, class, territorial, race lines.