...The gift is primarily about the relationships being transacted, about the people involved in these transactions rather than the ceremonial giving and receiving of things (Carrier 1995: 19). Write an essay evaluating the role of alienable and inalienable goods in underscoring the importance of exchange transactions. In order for us to take an in depth look at the idea of gift giving and the relationships involved in such a ceremonial transaction we must first look at the people that are involved in the transaction. Not only must we look that the people but we must also focus on the affiliation between people and the actual object itself. Carrier himself states in his essay; “Gifts and Commodities” that “Clearly there is much more in our relationship to objects than sheer utility” (Carrier, 1995. 1), and thus proving to us that there we have a much more intimate relationship with material objects than we first imagined. This bond is deep enough that we even need material objects to define who we are sometimes, for example if a punk rocker claims to be a punk rocker he must dress according to the social image of a punk rocker and from there we can assume that person’s identity and personality as a punk rocker. Carrier says himself that “The corollary is that objects signify status identity and so constitute a claim to status-group membership on the part of those who have them” (Carrier, 1995. 2). Another major concept that is involved with both the relationship between humans and...
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...KOTTAK Department of Anthropology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 The New Ecological Anthropology Older ecologies have been remiss in the narrowness of their spatial and temporal horizons, their functionalist assumptions, and their apolitical character. Suspending functionalist assumptions and an emphasis upon (homeo)stasis, "the new ecological anthropology" is located at the intersection of global, national, regional, and local systems, studying the outcome of the interaction of multiple levels and multiple factors. It blends theoretical and empirical research with applied, policy-directed, and critical work in what Rappaport called an "engaged" anthropology; and it is otherwise attuned to the political aspects and implications of ecological processes. Carefully laying out a critique of previous ecologies by way of announcing newer approaches, the article insists on the need to recognize the importance of culture mediations in ecological processes rather than treating culture as epiphenomenal and as a mere adaptive tool. It closes with a discussion of the methodologies appropriate to the new ecological anthropology. / "the new ecology, " political ecology, applied or engaged anthropology, linkages methodology] cological anthropology was named as such during the 1960s, but it has many ancestors, including Daryll Forde, Alfred Kroeber, and, especially, Julian Steward. Steward's cultural ecology influenced the ecological anthropology of Roy Rappaport and Andrew...
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...ounding A History of Anthropology: Chapter 3 – Four Founding Fathers Introduction: End 19th century: cultural globalisation, cultural imperialism, colonialism → evolutionist theories give a legitimation for ‘superior western culture’ Authoritarian, conformist, evolutionist Begin 20th century: Modernity/modernism: ambivalent view on truth, morality and progress More liberal and tolerant thought (cfr. 18th century - Enlightenment) WW I: 4 founding fathers [in what follows ‘4ff’] of anthropology: Franz BOAS (USA) Bronislaw MALINOWSKI (Britain) Alfred RADCLIFFE-BROWN (Britain) Marcel MAUSS (France) → caused modern, largely non-evolutionist revolution in respectively American, British and French anthropological thinking. German tradition remains: diffusionism → 4ff no shared programme, significant methodological & theoretical differences → evolutionism had failed, but evolutionists (Morgan, Tylor) established basic parameters of anthropological discipline Boas and historical particularism: • Influence from German diffusionism (critical to evolutionism) • Development of theory = sufficient empirical grounding → collect and systematize detailed data on particular cultures → theoretical generalisations (but with great care) • Four-field-approach: linguistics, physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology (↔ France, Britain: not specialized, but generalistic...
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...What can anthropology offer to help understand global issues and problems? 2.How can anthropology contribute in our attempt to make sense of things that happen in or affect our everyday lives? 3.How do anthropologists think through things and how do they explain things? Emotional Knowledge Thinking and Feeling, Mind and Heart Anthropological Imagination What’s special about anthropology? ANTHROPOLOGY Clyde Kluckhohn ( Mirror for Man, 1944:16): “Ordinarily we are unaware of the special lens through which we look at life. It would hardly be fish who discovered the existence of water. Students who had not yet gone beyond the horizon of their own society could not be expected to perceive custom which was the stuff of their own thinking. Anthropology holds up a great mirror to man and lets him look at himself in this infinite variety” Anthropology subfields. -biological/physical – archeology –Linguistics – Social/Cultural Ethnology –comparative study of cultures or people Ethnography – a systematic study of a culture or people. History of Anthropology - Herodotus = father of anthropology? Age of Discovery (16th and 17th century) - Xuanzang (7th century chinese) - xuanzang said that the Indians were very clean, why has that changed? Ethnocentrism: evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of ones own culture. Edward Tylor –(1832 – 1917) 1st professor of Anthropology at Oxford...
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...Reading Guide, Mauss, The Gift Anthropology 125A/Econ 152A Economic Anthropology Reading Guide for Mauss, The Gift NOTE: use this guide to the extent that you find it helpful. You will hopefully have already read through the reading once. The guide is long because I often include quotations from the book. You can use this to reexamine points that I think important. I ask many questions. I do not expect you to be able to answer them. Ponder over the quotations and questions for a second. That pondering, even for a second, will help you focus better on sections in the coming week as we figure out the answers together. ------------------------ Consider this quote. Don’t worry if you don’t know everything he is referring to. Be sure to think about the sentence in bold: Note: “Utilitarianism” in Mauss refers to “liberalism,” (or economics as you are taught it and ‘market society’ as we have studied it in this course: focused on the individual as homo economicus, who puts individual self-interest first, and in where society is organize through and via the free market) “{In The Gift] Mauss summarily eliminates the two utilitarian ideologies that purport to account for the evolution of contracts: “natural economy,” Smith’s idea that individual barter was aboriginal; and the notion that primitive communities were altruistic, giving way eventually to our own regrettably selfish, but more efficient individualism. Against the contemporary move [i.e. at the time that...
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...this course, I thought Anthropology and anthropologists were concerned with only the study of culture and its effect on society. I later learned, Anthropology is not only limited to culture but also encompasses identity, culture, gender, race, sexuality, politics, and economics. Anthropologists do not exist to only examine cultures and say what is right and wrong in society. Their mission is to break the normalcy of theories and beliefs and prove its credibility. I found the topics of culture with respects to poverty, the power of naming, representation, and economic inequality of great interest to me because I enjoyed seeing examples of how the cultural norms we experience every day is false and misleading. We learned that culture, in an anthropological view, is a people’s way of life. These shared beliefs; food, language, work, labor, tradition, religion, art, and etiquette become bounded together into a common culture that is constantly changing. Culture veils society and when this takes place, class lines, race, gender, and segmentation occur creating a dominant culture because not everyone participates in a culture. Through transculturation, dominant culture can change existing cultures resulting in resistance causing a mix into a new culture. I previously thought poverty was not a culture but through our lesson and readings on Inner city poverty, I learned that “street culture” is indeed a culture that was created by resistance to economic exploitation, cultural...
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...ANTHROPOLOGY 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Queens College / CUNY, Spring 2015 TuTh 12:15-1:30PM, Kiely 150 Professor: Ramona Lee Pérez, PhD Email: ramona.perez@qc.cuny.edu Office hours: Th 2-3 PM, PH 315H COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is an introduction to the range of human diversity through an exploration of the peoples of the world. We will cover the basic concepts, theories, and methods that anthropologists use to study variations in cultural norms and social practices, economic systems and rules of law, social organization and patterns of inequality, identity and worldview, and patterns of social and cultural change. Focusing on the culture concept and the method of ethnography, we begin with the historical foundations of anthropology and then follow its attempts to understand contemporary human cultures. Comparative analysis of multiple ethnographic case studies and major theoretical approaches illuminates the range of human diversity, the forces that shape cultures, and how people adapt to a rapidly changing modern world. The central objectives of this course are to develop your intellectual skills, your cross-cultural fluency, and your sense of civic and moral engagement in global society. I hope that this course inspires many of you to become anthropology majors or minors, and grants each of you an anthropological perspective on your own life. REQUIREMENTS This is an intensive course that requires full participation from every student...
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...American Economics and Death in Japan Jacob K. Donlan ANT 101: Cultural Anthropology Instructor James Turner September 7, 2015 Introduction This paper will show an overview of the American economic system today from an etic (outsider’s) point of view as well as examine how the Japanese culture treats death from an introspective view to show readers how areas where they may already have an opinion on can be seen from other perspectives. In Part I, readers will be shown from an etic perspective how Americans have, over time, developed an addiction to indebtedness and live in abundance on credit, not caring of growing deficits and interest burdens. In his 2013 book, “Cultural Anthropology,” Crapo describes an etic analysis as “an outsider’s or observer’s allegedly “objective” account.” In Part II, the Japanese culture surrounding death will be described as how an insider would understand it. Crap described an emic analysis as “an insider’s or native’s meaningful account.” (Ch. 1.1). For various cultures around the world to truly understand and empathize with one another, it is important to be able to see things from each other’s perspective. Being able to understand an issue in America as an outsider would see it, and likewise to look at something that might seem strange to us as an insider would will help us grow beyond our preconceived notions and ignorance. Part I This...
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...Q1) As an anthropologist, you find out about the existence of a group of humans in the amazon rainforest that have never been contacted. How would you the four subfields of anthropology to investigate this human community? Ans: The Amazon rainforest also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 square kilometres (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations contain "Amazonas" in their names. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species. Q2) How do anthropologists utilize the scientific method in their studies? What are the limitations of the scientific method in anthropological studies? Ans: The scientific method is described as "a method of investigation involving the observation of phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis concerning the phenomena, experimentation to demonstrate the truth or...
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...orientation: Straight Occupation: Anthropologist Nationality: Poland Executive summary: Founder of social anthropology British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski is remembered as the father of the functionalist school of anthropology as well as for his role in developing the methods and the primacy of anthropological fieldwork. Malinowski first rose to prominent notice through his studies of Pacific Islanders, especially those conducted among the Trobriand Islanders whose marriage, trade, and religious customs he studied extensively. His best known works include his classic book Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) as well as Crime and Custom in Savage Society (1926), The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia (1929), and the posthumously published Magic, Science, and Religion and Other Essays (1948). Malinowski helped develop the field of anthropology from a primarily evolutionary focus into sociological and psychological fields of enquiry. Some of the more noteworthy byproducts of his fieldwork in this direction was various evidence that debunked the Freudian notion of a universal Oedipal Complex and also showed that so-called primitive peoples are capable of the same types and levels of cognitive reasoning as those from more "advanced" societies. Malinowski's ideas and methodologies came to be widely embraced by the Boasian influenced school of American Anthropology, making him one of the most influential anthropologists of the 20th century. Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski...
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...Anthropology: A Definition Learning Objectives 1 1. Define anthropology as a discipline. 2. Enumerate and define the subdivisions of anthropology. 3. Outline the history of anthropology. 4. Discuss the research methods of anthropological research. 5. Explain the causes of culture shock. 6. Analyze the values of cultural relativism. 7. Identify the uses of cross-cultural comparison. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: iStockphoto/Thinkstock iStockphoto 8. Explain the basic ethical questions of anthropological research. 9. Explain the different concepts used in an anthropological analysis of culture. 10. Explain the difference between humanistic and scientific approaches to culture. Chapter Outline 1.1 The Breadth of Anthropology • • • • • The Four Traditional Subfields Anthropology as Science and Humanity Etic Versus Emic Perspectives The Holistic Perspective Breadth in Time and Space 1.3 Methods of Anthropological Research • • • • Participant Observation The Fieldwork: A Case Study Cross-Cultural Comparison Ethics in Anthropological Research 1.2 The History of Cultural Anthropology • • • • • The Evolutionary Period The Empiricist Period The Functionalist Period The Contemporary Period The Period of Specialization 1.4 Cultural Differences • Culture Shock • Ethnocentrism • Cultural Relativism 1.5 Employment in Anthropology 1 cra80793_01_c01_001-032.indd 1 5/23/13 2:23 PM Section 1.1 The Breadth of Anthropology CHAPTER...
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...Anthropology Unit 1 – online Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. There are 4 areas of Anthropology- 1. sociocultural - examine social patterns and practices across cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular places and how they organize, govern, and create meaning 2. , biological/physical - seek to understand how humans adapt to diverse environments, how biological and cultural processes work together to shape growth, development and behavior, and what causes disease and early death 3. archaeology - study past peoples and cultures, from the deepest prehistory to the recent past, through the analysis of material remains, ranging from artifacts and evidence of past environments to architecture and landscapes 4. linguistics- is the comparative study of ways in which language reflects and influences social life Unit 1 – Book Anthropology – the study of humankind in all times and places Colonialism – when one nation dominates another through occupation, admin (military) and control of resource’s. Cultural imperialism – refers to the promotion of one nation’s values, beliefs, and behavior above those of all others. Most famous empiricist – Franz Boas (1858-1942) he rejected racism and saw everyone as equal Radcliffe Brown – focused on how culture worked as a whole to maintain itself Malinowski – paid attention to his key informants’ point of view (groundbreaking methodology) Influences on Canadian Anthro – museums, academic...
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...Julie Campion TESC ANT-101-OL009 Student ID 0196565 Written Assignment 1 Annette Weiner set off to do field work in the Trobriand Islands some 60 years after the highly regarded anthropologist Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski. Weiner had set expectations of what her field work might cover; she encountered contradictions to her expectations and was able to neutralize them. Additionally, her field work is a classic representation of the five characteristics of culture, as well as a representation of how anthropology has grown since its early inception. (Haviland) While preparing for her trip she expected that she would find the Trobriand society to be how Malinowski described it and struggled with her tasks of learning a new language, careful observation and harboring her own cultural assumptions so that it would not cloud her clear assessment of the Trobriand peoples. (Haviland) Her initial expectations were shaped by the extensive studying she did of Malinowski’s works on the society. She expected to find the same or similar findings as Malinowski and therefore had not intended to set out to disprove any of his earlier writings. She intended on focusing on the male aspect of the clan and had little comprehension of how much women played a role in the Trobriand society. Her expectations guided her towards learning about how men were the focus of the tribe leaving women as having matrilineal lineage importance only. Shortly after arriving however, Weiner became aware...
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...Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski Bronislaw Malinowski and Anthropology In 1910 Bronislaw Malinowski came to London, England. Almost instantly he fell in love with the city and its social structure. He was fascinated by the aristocracy and wanted to be a part of this elite class but he lacked financial capability so he provided the only thing he can offer, his great intellect. He attended the London School of Economics and immersed himself into the field of Anthropology. It was during this time that Anthropology was considered to be an inexact science best studied at a distance due what the nature of their subjects, who they consider as “savages”. As Malinowski began his study of Anthropology, specifically the Australian Aborigines, he found out that the accounts of previous anthropologists were inconclusive, prejudiced and needed a strong dose of scientific discipline. In 1914, he was given the chance to travel and go on a grand tour of Australia and its territories. After three months of travelling, he reached Papua New Guinea and at its east coast, he was able to reach the Trobriand Islands. It is here that he would build his legacy as the father of modern anthropology. The Natives of the Trobriand Islands In his book The Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Bronislaw Malinowski describes the striking features of the Trobriand natives “There are men and women of tall stature, fine bearing and delicate features, with clear cut aquiline profile...
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...sustained human societies up t o now” and the dangers inherent in a mental health model that depends upon the assumption of social stability. In his essay (“Cognitive Control of Perceptual Processes”), Herbert A. Simon deals with recent research on “the magical number seven” which takes him into memory, mental imagery, information-processing, cognition, and emotion. W. Cody Wilson (“The American Experience with Pornography”) describes the problems encountered by the U.S. Commission on Obscenity and Pornography as an example in changing public policy. Similarly, Lorrin M. Koran (“American Responses to Heroin Addiction and Marihuana Use”) discusses the effects of marihuana and heroin on the American value system, legal system, political and economic systems. The final three papers, by John R. Platt (“The World Transformation and What Must be Done”), Herbert C. Kelman (“Roles of the Behavioral Scientist in PolicyOriented...
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