Anthropology Exit Exam
What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is a conglomerate of subfields that focuses around the general study of humans. To a true scholar to the field of anthropology, anthropology is not just another field offered in an education program such as biology, and mathematics. Anthropology is a mindset, and a toolbox for understanding, and classifying every aspect of human interaction of the past, present and future. The mindset of an anthropologist is a unique personal feature, but each mindset shares common themes, this mindset is witnessed on page 75 of Wade Davis’ book The Serpent and the Rainbow.
“Yet images alone cannot begin to express the cohesion of present society, like a psychic education, must come in symbols, in invisible tones sense and felt as much as observed”
Being an anthropologist does not give a person super human senses such hearing capacity to hear invisible tones, yet what it does is allow every anthropologist to capture and the ability to take all the senses seen in human activity, and break them down so that meaning can be attached to them so that they can be understood.
When it comes to the educational tool box of an anthropologist, the most important characteristic is its holistic nature of unifying the subfields of anthropology; cultural, biological, linguistics, and archaeology. The holistic nature of the tool box can be represented by a revolving lens that an anthropologist uses to get a multi-perspective on the area of study, from page 402 of David Anthony book entitled The Horse The Wheel and Language.
“The RV (Rig Veda) and the AV (Avesta) agreed that the essence of their shared parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial.”
In this one sentence, all f...
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...out than culture diversity is how the behavior of humans varies. Both culture and biological diversity are equally important when it comes to understand and tolerating other humans.
Global society
Anthropology gives the knowledge that people need to think outside of their own culture. Example; two men are watching television, one with some anthropological knowledge and other with none, and a movie comes on about African children passing through a ritual to manhood. The man with anthropology training has the knowledge to reflect on similar ritual from his culture, and understand the reasoning behind that ritual. Now the man with no anthropology knowledge would most likely be grossed out and turn the channel. And that’s a problem because the globe is not so large anymore, and people need to reflect, and understand when they see things not of their own culture.
Robbins, R. H. (2014). Cultural anthropology: a problem-based approach (Second Canadian ed.). Itasca: F.E. Peacock.
Additionally, an anthropologist would use the ethnographic method. This technique is conducted through fieldwork and requires a person to become immersed in the culture as an active participant. To effectively learn about a new culture, the person must have an open mind by setting aside all of their assumptions and judgments about the people they are studying. Many instances in Black Elk Speaks show Neihardt’s divergence from the ethnographic method.
Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53
Joseph-Marie Degerando was a revolutionary, French philosopher who transcribed one of the original guidelines for the study of anthropology in the year 1800 titled, I: Societe des Observateurs de l’Homme in French, and translated into English as, The Observations of Savage Peoples. According to the author of the introduction and translator of his work into English, F. C. T. Moore, Degerando’s guidelines were a “capital work of anthropology” (Moore, U of CA Press. p. 2). Whether Degerando provided the most accurate guidelines for the study of humans is argued; however, his work was certainly influential as it served as a foundation for the science of anthropology. In fact, Moore declares there are consistent similarities between the anthropological recommendations of Degerando and those practiced by modern day anthropologists (Moore, U of CA Press. p. 4-5).
Desjarlais, R., & Throop, C. J. (2011). Phenomenological approaches in anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 87-102. doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092010-153345.
Schultz, Emily A. & Lavenda, Robert H. 2005, Cultural Anthropology, 6th edn, Oxford University Press, New York, Chapter 3: Fieldwork.
Cultural diversity is in our workplace and schools; we may encounter stereotypes while communicating with others, even though we have different opinions toward other cultural values and beliefs. We can learn from another “culture”, but we have to respect their differences. I think in today society, people are stereotyped others based on their race and social class because we automatically judge another person without knowing them and assume they are a certain way. Everyone is different we identify ourselves with our own social beliefs, religious beliefs and racial traits and should not be judged because we are all different
Peoples, James, and Garrick Bailey. Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003. Print.
Anthropology is the study of humans through the ages. It aims to understand different cultures and practices that have existed from the origins of mankind as well. It differs from sociology in that it takes into account humans and cultures that no longer exist.
One of the main debates in anthropological theory is ideographic versus nomothetic explanations, which encompasses the dispute if the discipline of anthropology is historical or scientific. Ideographic is defined according to A.R. Radcliffe-Brown as “patterns found in a particular place and time” (Salzman 2010:26). An ideographic approach is most notably associated with Historical Particularism, which was founded by Franz Boas and advocated by Alfred Kroeber. Boas believed that cultural practices were to be understood in specific cultural contexts, not evolutionary stages (Perry 2003:141). Thus, he emphasized ethnographic fieldwork of individual cultures, which remains the major concern of cultural anthropology. Boas believed that to comprehend a culture’s customs, one must study the environmental conditions during their development, psychological factors, and historical connections, but its history was the most imperative (McGee and Warms 2012:114)...
Ninth grade freshmen year 2010, subject Global history. I first came to know of this word call Anthropology. Since then I vaguely remember that it had something to do with human evolutions. This word anthropology came back to my life this year as a college course. This time anthropology became a lot more crystal to me through various readings. The two that readings that mainly synthesized anthropology down for me are ANTHROPOLOGY and Modern life by Franz Boas and Prologue: The Power of the Between by Paul Stoller.
It analyzes similarities and differences in various cultures and societies. Culture is learned and affects our perception of the world throughout our life. Overtime, a sense of cultural superiority is formed amongst individuals who are constantly exposed to their own culture. Anthropology can help eliminate culturally based biases, also known as ethnocentrism. It is a common practice we all in engage in when evaluating other cultures, however, by practicing anthropology this allows us to learn about other cultures by placing themselves into the cultural environment allows us to learn the traditions and customs by experience. Marjorie Shostak`s study of the !Kung people revealed that they organized themselves differently than Western cultures, which included solving conflicts with discussion, communal behavior, and basic living traditions. Moreover, by interviewing and living in this cultural environment, Shostak was able to empathize with the !Kung people and she also considered that all humans share an emotional life, which is important when studying the history of our human
Park, M.A. (2008). Introducing anthropology: An integrated approach, with PowerWeb, 4th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978–0-07-340525-4
Boas, F. (1930). Anthropology. In, Seligman, E. R. A. ed., Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences. Macmillan: New York.
Diversity should be respected and definitely noticed because it shows our uniqueness and self worth (McHale). Culture is a very strong part of everyone's life. Instead of trying to ignore our differences we should embrace differences and be proud of who we are. We can learn many different things if we give people who are culturally different from us a chance. Cultural diversity gives us an opening to learn about the uniqueness of the world. People can't go around wanting everything to be the same. They can't go tell themselves that cultures and differences aren't important (“Section 1”).