ANTH 208 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Matrilineality, Ethnography, Anthropology
ANTH 208
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
ANTH 208, Week One Lecture Notes
● Marks for a positive Ethnography:
○ A holistic approach, looking at multiple aspects of a society,
○ clear detail in description,
○ defining social structure/context of culture,
○ more factual observations (objectivity) than anything else,
○ accounting for and recording physical environment as important to daily life,
○ comparison to things from other cultures should be used sparingly and only ever
for further clarification not the only means of it,
○ conveyance of people’s emotions and how they act shouldn’t be dismissed,
○ a wide range of observations including art, architecture, religion, and the leaders,
○ utilizing a knowledgeable source from within the culture, good quality
translation/exigensen/guidance,
○ showing an understanding of logic from that culture’s point of view (asking why)
○ Family organization in combination with social organization
○ Roles that people of various statuses hold
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
ANTH 208 Week Two Lecture Notes
● Recognizable ethnography starts being seen in the early 19th century.
○ Notes on the Iroquois by Henry Roe Schoolcraft comes out around then (1846),
focusing on mostly the ones living in central and western New York. Possibly can
count as an ethnography, possibly not.
○ Schoolcraft was born in Albany, book was written quickly in order to finish a
report for the New York State Senate about conditions of Native Americans,
second edition in 1847 more anthropologically correct one.
■ At one point went to the Northwest territories wrote the first book on
mining, then lived for a while in the Western Great Lakes and found the
mouth of the Mississippi river and met the governor of Michigan and John
C. Calhoun.
■ Was campaigning for the US gov. To have a post that was in charge of
the dept. Of mining. Didn’t work out.
■ Lived in Hamilton for a few years and started a literary magazine and
eventually got an appointment as the Indian Agent for the Western Great
Lakes but didn’t really do much with it.
■ Met and falls in love with Jane Johnson who was half Algonquin and was
very well-educated and came from a family that also was. Wrote a book of
poetry and art back and forth to one another which was later published
making her the first Native American poet published as well as first Native
American woman writer.
■ Johnson’s mother knew all the folklore of the Cree Indians and many of
the other Algonquins of the area which Schoolcraft published in a book
called Algic Researches. After this gets job with New York state and
writes book Notes on the Iroquois.
● League of the Iroquois (1851) actually a series of magazine articles. Dedicated to Ely S.
Parker his primary source in the Iroquois, a Seneca. Has the markers of being objective,
holistic, carrying the emic perspective and is uses an exegesis native american
perspective. A full ethnography in other words.
○ Morgan is actually fairly functionalist in this book, but functionalism separated
itself from it’s old nineteenth century version in the twentieth century.
■ Then was asking questions about the reasons behind the things people in
cultures did but not answering them in a way they were in the 20th
century.
○ Durkheim developed what we think of functionalism in the 20th century which
focused on how things worked in the moment component wise. Understanding
things in relation to the parts of the whole.
● Notes on the Iroquois not epiphetic though it was objective and with good sources, an at
least proto-holistic view and is etic but not emic.
○ Schoolcraft didn’t have that element of functionalism.
● The intellectual and social functions of ethnographies thus start to come into play with
the creation of ethnography.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
A holistic approach, looking at multiple aspects of a society, More factual observations (objectivity) than anything else, Accounting for and recording physical environment as important to daily life, Comparison to things from other cultures should be used sparingly and only ever for further clarification not the only means of it, Conveyance of people"s emotions and how they act shouldn"t be dismissed, A wide range of observations including art, architecture, religion, and the leaders, Utilizing a knowledgeable source from within the culture, good quality translation/exigensen/guidance, Showing an understanding of logic from that culture"s point of view (asking why) Family organization in combination with social organization. Roles that people of various statuses hold. Recognizable ethnography starts being seen in the early 19th century. Notes on the iroquois by henry roe schoolcraft comes out around then (1846), focusing on mostly the ones living in central and western new york. Possibly can count as an ethnography, possibly not.
