6-anthropology

8/7/2019 6-anthropology

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Leyte Normal University

Tacloban City

Social Science:ANTHROPOLOGY

Prepared by:

Ma. Victoria D. Naboya


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ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology (from Greek: ,anthropos, "human being"; and , logos,"knowledge") is the study ofhumanity.

Anthropology has origins in the naturalsciences, the humanities, and the socialsciences.

Ethnography is both one of its primarymethods, and the text that is written as a resultofthe practice ofanthropology.


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ANTHROPOLOGY Since the work ofFranz Boas and Bronisaw

Malinowski in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies, social anthropology has beendistinguished from other social science

disciplines by its emphasis on in-depthexamination of context, cross-culturalcomparisons (socio-cultural anthropology isby nature a comparative discipline), and theimportance it places on long-term,experiential immersion in the area ofresearch, often known as participant-observation.


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ANTHROPOLOGY Cultural anthropology in particular has

emphasized cultural relativity and the use

of findings to frame cultural critiques. This

has been particularly prominent in theUnited States, from Boas's arguments

against 19th-century racial ideology,

through Margaret Mead's advocacy for

gender equality and sexual liberation, to

current criticisms ofpost-colonial

oppression and promotion of

multiculturalism.


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Historical and institutional context The anthropologist Eric Wolfonce described

anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities,and the most humanistic of the sciences."

Contemporary anthropologists claim a number of earlier

thinkers as their forebears, and the discipline has severalsources; Claude Lvi-Strauss, for example, claimedMontaigne and Rousseau as important influences.

Anthropology can best be understood as an outgrowth of

the Age of Enlightenment, a period when Europeansattempted systematically to study human behavior, theknown varieties of which had been increasing since the15th century as a result of the First Europeancolonization wave.


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Historical and institutional context

The traditions ofjurisprudence, history, philology,and sociology then evolved into something moreclosely resembling the modern views of thesedisciplines and informed the development of thesocial sciences, ofwhich anthropology was apart.

At the same time, the Romantic reaction to theEnlightenment produced thinkers, such as

Johann Gottfried Herderand laterWilhelmDilthey, whose work formed the basis for the"culture concept," which is central to thediscipline.


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Historical and institutional

context In the twentieth century, academic disciplines have often been

institutionally divided into three broad domains. The natural andbiological sciences seek to derive general laws throughreproducible and falsifiable experiments.

The humanities generally study different local traditions, throughtheirhistory, literature, music, and arts, with an emphasis onunderstanding particular individuals, events, or eras.

The socialsciences have generally attempted to develop

scientific methods to understand social phenomena in ageneralizable way, though usually with methods distinct fromthose of the natural sciences.


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context

In particular, social sciences often developstatistical descriptions rather than the general

laws derived in physics or chemistry, or theymay explain individual cases through moregeneral principles, as in many fields ofpsychology.

Anthropology (like some fields of history) doesnot easily fit into one of these categories, anddifferent branches of anthropology draw on one

or more of these domains.


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context Anthropology as it emerged among the colonial

powers (mentioned above) has generally taken adifferent path than that in the countries of southernand central Europe (Italy, Greece, and the

successors to the Austro-Hungarian and Ottomanempires).

In the former, the encounter with multiple, distinctcultures, often very different in organization andlanguage from those of Europe, has led to acontinuing emphasis on cross-cultural comparisonand a receptiveness to certain kinds of culturalrelativism.


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The "four field" approach to

Anthropology

Biological or physical anthropology seeks to

understand the physical human being

through the study ofhuman evolution and

adaptability, population genetics, and

primatology. Subfields or related fields

include anthropometrics, forensic

anthropology, osteology, and nutritionalanthropology.


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Anthropologyy Socio-cultural anthropology is the

investigation, often through long term,

intensive field studies (including participant-

observation methods), of the culture andsocial organization of a particular people:

language, economic and political

organization, law and conflict resolution,

patterns of consumption and exchange,kinship and family structure, gender relations,

childrearing and socialization, religion,

mythology, symbolism, etc.


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Anthropologyy In some European countries, socio-cultural

anthropology is known as ethnology (a termalso used in English-speaking countries to

denote the comparative aspect of socio-cultural anthropology.) Subfields and relatedfields include psychological anthropology,folklore, anthropology of religion, ethnicstudies, cultural studies, anthropology ofmedia and cyberspace, and study of thediffusion of social practices and culturalforms.


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Anthropologyy Linguistic anthropology seeks to understand the

processes of human communications, verbal and non-verbal, variation in language across time and space, thesocial uses of language, and the relationship between

language and culture. It is the branch of anthropology thatbrings linguistic methods to bear on anthropologicalproblems, linking the analysis of linguistic forms andprocesses to the interpretation of socioculturalprocesses.

y Linguistic anthropologists often draw on related fieldsincluding anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics,cognitive linguistics, semiotics, discourse analysis, andnarrative analysis.


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Anthropologyy Archaeology studies the contemporary distribution and form

ofartifacts (materials modified by past human activities), withthe intent ofunderstanding distribution and movement ofancient populations, development ofhuman socialorganization, and relationships among contemporarypopulations; it also contributes significantly to the work ofpopulation geneticists, historical linguists, and manyhistorians.

y Archaeology involves a wide variety offield techniques

(remote sensing, survey, geophysical studies, coring,excavation) and laboratory procedures (compositionalanalyses, dating studies (radiocarbon, optically stimulatedluminescence dating), measures offormal variability,examination ofwear patterns, residue analyses, etc.).


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Anthropology

y Archaeologists predominantly study materialsproduced by prehistoric groups but also

includes modern, historical and ethnographicpopulations. Archaeology is usually regardedas a separate (but related) field outside NorthAmerica, although closely related to theanthropological field ofmaterial culture, whichdeals with physical objects created or usedwithin a living or past group as a means ofunderstanding its cultural values.

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