...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: Principles and Concepts Anthropology is all around us. It is the concept which has made it what the world is today. The study is like a window to the past, a mirror to our present life and is like a lens to our future. The principle of anthropology is an understanding of the human life and the condition. A study into the anthropological concepts will help a person understand the human adaptations, both cultural as well as biological which helps us to understand how human beings have adapted in this current generation. The main principles which drive anthropology include analyzing the cultural similarities among human beings, the cultural development among human beings and understanding the biological evolutions as proved by the fossil records in the past. All these factors play an important role in the understanding of the human biological diversity that exists in the world today. In simpler words, anthropology is a study which aims to understand Homo sapiens as a whole. Anthropology has four basic fields-cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology and linguistics. The study of human beings gives a holistic view on the life of the human beings and how they have adapted over time. All these approaches and subfields of anthropology help scientists to study the human behaviour in a much better way. Anthropologists maintain their holistic vision and come up with primary data which enhances the understanding of the human nature and how they have...
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...What does anthropology have to offer us in understanding forced displacement? The study of refugees and other forced migrants is now a major area within anthropology, population displacement has become more prevalent and more visible worldwide. Examines the lived experience of forced migration and articulates anthropology’s unique contributions to the field of refugee and forced migration studies in documenting the impact of displacement and dispossession on refugees and exiles, their culture, and society. Anthropologists have shown over the last half century that in forced migration, people lose not only resources and property but also employment and livelihoods, social networks, kin, political power, and a sense of meaning and cultural identity. International humanitarian assistance continues to gradually expand in scope to provide assistance to all populations affected by displacement. Anthropologists have both studied and tried to do something about the situation through the creation of agencies that give a voice to the displaced, such as the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford, Cultural Survival, and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Displacement is now seen as an endemic phenomenon that affects those uprooted, the communities that feel the impact of their arrival, governments, and the international agencies which increasingly play a major role in dealing with displacement. (Laguerre 1998, 8) argues that diaspora means both displacement and reattachment...
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...Deidra Miller ID No.: 6797830 Essay Questions Assignment Question 1: To what extent do members of a group share a single culture? Culture is a very crucial concept in anthropology and some might interpret that all cultural anthropologist share a single definition. However, there was only one study conducted in history during the 1950s that showed 164 various meanings of the simple word by scholars (Miller et. al., 2009:14). Other studies have shown that a part of defining culture is to say that it is learned. As Dr. Bambi Schieffelin and Dr. Elinor Ochs basically state, individuals of a certain culture “learn” through their parents and/or social interactions what their culture is or should be, (Jourdan C., Lesson 3: slide 7). However, while one learns what their culture is, they sometimes divert and create their own ways of interpreting (like the 164 cultural anthropologists) what it means or even form a culture of their own based on what they have interpreted from learning. Sir Edward Tylor is a British anthropologist who declared the very first definition of culture in 1871. He suggested that it “is that complex whole which one includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits required by man as a member of society” (Miller et. al., 2009:14). Even though the definition is quite accurate, anthropologists of today have manipulated it by replacing the “man” with “humans” or “people” while still using “complex whole” (Miller et...
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...I. Human Adaptability Anthropology is the exploration of human diversity in time and space. Anthropology studies the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture. Of particular interest is the diversity that comes through human adaptability. A. Adaptation, Variation, and Change 1. Adaptation refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses. 2. Humans use both biological and cultural means of adaptation. For example, human bodies can adapt biologically in three ways to high altitude: genetic adaptation, long-term physiological adaptation, and short-term physiological adaptation. Culturally, humans have developed technologies, such as pressurized airplane cabins equipped with oxygen masks, to deal with extreme environments. 3. As human history has unfolded, the social and cultural means of adaptation have become increasingly important. Much more recently, the spread of industrial production has profoundly affected human life. II. General Anthropology B. The academic discipline of anthropology, also known as general anthropology or "four-field" anthropology, includes four main subdisciplines or subfields. They are sociocultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology. This four-field approach is distinctly American. 4. There are historical reasons for the inclusion of four subfields in a single disciple, with origins...
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...Anthropology in Action As we learned in our very first lecture video by Dr. Stacey Camp, anthropology is considered a holistic field- meaning anthropology encompasses almost every aspect of human life, whether it is in the past, present, or future. Anthropologists Study everything that was involved in a certain time period or in a certain place, or even with a certain group of people. There are four fields of anthropology; physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeological anthropology, and linguistics. Without anthropology, we would not know about our past, which will affect how we live in the present and how people will live in the future. Anthropology is a field that continues to grow, just like any other science. Boston University encourages students to major in anthropology, stating “Anthropologists are careful observers of humans and their behavior, maintaining an intense curiosity: What does it mean to be human?” An anthropologist studies every aspect of human life. They provide explanations for why we talk the way we do, why we walk on two feet instead of on all fours, and how we raise our children. They also help to answer questions about the reasons cultures wage wars against each other, and why human beings decided to start making sophisticated tools such as the wheel. It is an anthropologist’s job to seek out the truth and provide factual evidence. People need to study anthropology for all of these reasons and more; their knowledge benefits people in...
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...found mostly articles about symbolism and symbols connected to either a certain ritual in a particular group of people or a region. Most of them are supportedby case studies, therefore they are very specific and limited only to particularculture. Most of them are from anthropology or sociology. | International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS) | Symbol“social life”“cultural patterns”structure | Most of the findings concern one particular symbol and its impact on social life of the studied group. Not all are backed up with case studies on oneculture, since some of them are not anthropological articles or books, they are simply papers basing on analysis of available data. | Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) | Symbol“social life”“cultural patterns”structure | Most of the findings are articles. Some of them are based on case studies, but someare just raw theories about symbolism. Most of them are from anthropology or sociology. | AnthroSource | Symbol“social life”structure | Most of the findings are articles, but there are couple of books too. They areconcentrated around the topic about social organisation governed by symbols and the meaning symbols give to our lives. Most of them are from anthropology or sociology. | Item One | Van Beek, Walter, 2002. ‘Why a twin is not a child: symbols in Kapsiki birth rituals’, Journal des africanistes, Vol. 71, pp. 119-147 | Commentary | The article is based on a case study of Kapsiki, it shows how symbols related to twins...
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...Cultural Anthropology/Introduction Cultural Anthropology is the study of human cultures, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, technologies, economies and other domains of social and cognitive organization. This field is based primarily on cultural understanding gained through first hand experience, or participant observation within living populations of humans. What is Anthropology? Anthropology is the scientific study of human beings as social organisms interacting with each other in their environment. Anthropology can be defined as the study of human nature, human society, and the human past. It is a scholarly discipline that aims to describe in the broadest possible sense what it means to be human. Anthropologists are interested in comparison. To make substantial and accurate comparisons between cultures, a generalization of humans requires evidence from the wide range of human societies. Anthropologists are in direct contact with the sources of their data, thus field work is a crucial component. The field of Anthropology, although fairly new as an academic field, has been used for centuries. Anthropologists are convinced that explanations of human actions will be superficial unless they acknowledge that human lives are always entangled in complex patterns of work and family, power and meaning. While it is a holistic field, anthropology is typically considered to consist of five sub-disciplines, each focusing on a particular aspect of human existence: * Archeology:...
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...An anthropological approach allows the knowledge that human beings have the capability to learn any human behavior. The word ‘race’ carries more meaning than actual physical differences. ‘Race’ has generated myths about the diversity of humans and their abilities and behavior that have carried over to present-day thinking. Many misconceptions of race and human differences stem from historical racist thinking and are the roots to many contemporary ideas. Realities of race must be acknowledged in order for society to comprehend and address racism adequately. Racial thinking is a personal and individual problem but are combined to a shared sense of beliefs and behaviors. Racism may not be a prevalent as it was in the past with slavery and segregation but it is still an underlying issue to present-day people. The meaning of culture is about belonging and difference. People take notice of how one stands, speaks, wears, and look to determine if they belong with ‘us’ or not. This thought process doesn’t just rely on race but gender, affiliations, community, and status income. “Skin remains one of our most ingrained signifiers of difference providing advantages and disadvantages.” (Hartigan 8) To this day people still judge or interpret a person or situation to the color of a person’s skin. The way people have been accepted and treated within a given society or culture has a direct impact on how they perform in that society. The “racial” worldview was invented to assign some...
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...same between females and males, however there is noticeable loss between differences height, in which the taller population loses a higher percentage of their height. They also found that bone mineral content correlates significantly with percentage of height loss, those with lower bone mineral status tend to lose more height. When reporting height, forensic anthropologists should always remember to include maximum height, as well as age adjusted height. Having both the heights can greatly help because recognition of height loss among the older population is uncommon. I was curious to know how diet affected the loss of height in older individuals, and if diet is reflected in bone mineral content. Alison Galloway is a forensic anthropology professor at UCSC. She is best known for her work in the Laci Peterson...
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...Archaeological Anthropology TOPIC: Human evolution and the bow & arrow Summary Archaeologists study the material remains left by our ancestors in order to interpret cultural variation and changes in the past, more over it focuses on how human evolution. Human beings construct niches by inventing ways of using their relationships with on another and with the physical environment to make a living. As an example, referring to the subsistence strategies, we may tell that it can be divided into 2 different subtopic, food collectors and food producers. And in this case bow and arrow belongs the category of the tools of foragers. The tools allowed hunters to shoot prey more accurate than with spear. Archeologist argues that the innovation is more than a technological revolutions; it had a social consequences. Conferring to the scientific paper, there are two main major theories of criteria for falsification. One is Social-coercion theory; it’s an explanation for the rise of social complexity from Stony Brook University biologists Paul Bingham and Joanne Souza states from the new article. The primary prediction is when local subsistence capacity permits; local introduction of the bow will rapidly be followed by increases in social scale and economic intensifications. Another theory is Warfare theory, and the primary prediction is the local introduction of elite bow will result in increased interpolity warfare, with increases in social complexity and economic intensification resulting...
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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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...focuses on humans as biological organisms they particularly emphasize tracing the evolutionary development of the human animal and studying biological variation within the species today. * Cultural anthropologist- study humans in terms of culture, the often unconscious standards by which social groups operate. * Linguistic anthropologist- study human languages and may deal with the description of a language with the history of languages or how languages are used in particular social settings. * Archaeologist- study human culture through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data. (pgs 5-13, 26) 2. Applied anthropology entails the use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems. An example of applied physical anthropology is forensics. An example of applied linguistic anthropology is language preservation. (pg 5,26) 3. Sickle cell anemia is an adaptation to life in the regions in which malaria is common. The sickle cell trait plays a beneficial role but in other parts of the world the sickling trait is no longer advantageous, while the associated sickle cell anemia remains injurious. Sickle cell anemia favored heterozygous individuals with normal and sickling hemoglobin. The mutation that causes hemoglobin to sickle consists of a change in a single base of DNA so it can arises readily by change. The loss of alleles for abnormal hemoglobin caused by the death of those homozygous for sickle cell anemia was balanced out...
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...1. Provide a description of gender equality as it exists in different cultures with (2) two examples. Also describe your own culture and relate this to the role of gender equally in one of the example you have described. Gender equality is described as a status in which men and women enjoy equal opportunities and rights in all sectors in a society, this includes decision making, economic participation, politics, and in different behaviors where men and women’s needs and aspirations are all valued and favored equally. Nevertheless, different culture treats men and women in certain ways in line with their tradition or religion. In The United Arab Emirates countries most of the countries here strictly follow the Muslim faith, with these, women’s freedom are restricted. They are not treated as equal being with men being given absolute power and authority. This gives them the right to discipline their spouses which is a tradition and a way of life here, and that’s how men and women are brought up. Women have little access to higher education and they seem to be content with it since most do not know about their rights. Leaders are male and thus always enforce laws that favor them. In this culture gender equality is when women’s observe the set rules and adhere to the traditions. In African tradition gender equality is none issue since women are disregarded here since tradition plays a key role in how they conduct their business. Here there are roles and work for certain gender...
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...All societies across the universe have kinship. Some privileged cultural practices have been followed by these societies through ages regardless of the biological rules of sexual relations which ensure that the life span of these kinships is continuous through birth by human beings. (Robert Parkin 1997). Anthropology defines kinship as the connection that exists between human beings by either blood, through adoption or even by marriage. Anthropology does not view kinship in a biological manner but biology on the other hand studies it in the physical manner. The terms pater and mater are used to refer mother and father in anthropology studies whilst in biology the terms genitor and gentrix are used. Every newborn by is said to be recognized to have relations to at least one of his parent by the fact of his birth. Kinship is used to organize members of the society into different categories, roles and various social groups, based on either parentage, marriage or other types of relationship, (Schneider 2005). Inheritance rights are customarily based on how close kinship relationships are and thus, used to transmit property and status from one generation to another. In some cases kinship might be extended through relations not from the same bloodline in the kinship universe. This is what is termed as fictive kinship. The most common used example is where by you’ll get one has godparents who are not his real parents. Some will have aunts and uncles whom they call guardians and they...
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