Cultural anthropology is a social science that studies the origins and development of human societies (History World International, 2001). Many theories to explain cultural variations among humans have emerged. As a result, numerous anthropological schools of thought have been established based on these theories since the nineteenth century. These schools of thought encompass the dominant beliefs about culture during a time period and are constantly changing as new knowledge is acquired. As schools of thought develop, ethnographic methods have changed and developed as well. Fieldwork is an ethnographic method that has been implemented in all anthropological schools of thought. It involves gathering data and information about a specific culture by observing and interacting within the society’s natural environment (History World International, 2001). Cultural evolutionists, historical anthropologists, and functionalists have all used various approaches and incorporated fieldwork differently into their school of thought.
During the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer both developed theories of biological evolution that were accepted by scholars in Britain and America (McGee & Warms, 2008). These theories were applied to cultural studies and the anthropological school of cultural evolution was developed. The dominate belief was that all cultures develop in a universal, ongoing sequence from primitive to complex, known as unilineal evolution (McGee & Warms, 2008). Therefore, it was thought that a more primitive society could be studied to learn about the evolutionary history of an advanced culture. This was known as the comparative method (McGee & Warms, 2008). Consequently, fieldwork was virtually unnecessary. Ma...
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.... Each time becoming more efficient in helping anthropologists gaining insight into the new theories and knowledge that will be attained.
Works Cited
History World International. (2001). The international history project: Anthropology. Retrieved from http://history-world.org/anthropology.htm
Hoey, B.A. (2011). What is ethnography? Retrieved from http://www.brianhoey.com/General%20Site/general_defn-ethnography.htm
McGee, R.J., & Warms, R.L. (2008). Anthropological theory: An introductory history (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (1968). In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Alfred_Reginald_Radcliffe-Brown.aspx
Tooker, E. (1992). Lewis H. Morgan and his contemporaries. American anthropologist, 94, 357- 375. http://www.aaanet.org/sections/gad/history/051tooker.pdf
Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) was an American Anthropologist who founded the science of kinship systems. He was famous for his theory of social evolution, which was the belief that people pass through three stages of development: 1. Savagery, 2. Barbarism, 3. Civilization. The different people in the book were also split up into separate stages, two to be in fact: savagery and civilization. The ‘civilized’ were in the BNW and everyone e...
Hutcheon, P.D. Leaving the Cave: Evolutionary Naturalism in Social Scientific Thought. Ithaca: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1996.
Anthropologists conduct fieldwork by studying people, their behaviours, and their culture. This is done in the field by actively striving to interpret and understand the world from the perspective of those studied (Powdermaker, 1968, Keesing 1981). Anthropological participant-observation includes a “deep immersion into the life of a people” (Keesing, 1981 p.16) with an aim to produce an ethnography that accurately details the experience in a holistic and valuable style (Powdermaker, 1968, Keesing 1981). Generally, full participation in a culture is thought to reduce the interference the researcher has on the behaviour of the informants (Seymour- Smith, 1986). Participant-observation is still widely used by anthropologists as it offers deeply insightful real world accounts which are difficult to achieve using other methods (Seymour-Smith, 1986, Li,
Furthermore, the concept of Social Darwinism only grew as the exploration of the world quickly advanced . Social Darwinism is a perversion of the scientific concept of natural selection applied to real li...
Reflexivity is a qualitative method of research that takes an ethnography one step further, displaying the personal thoughts and reflections of the anthropologist on his informants. Ethnographies generally take an outside or foreign perspective of a culture, like reading a text, and reflexivity introduces a new component of inside description. Here, the anthropologist may describe personal interactions and experiences with natives and use this inside information to make additional conclusions about the people being studied. The ethnographer may also reflect on his ethnic connections with his informants, or his acceptance into the society, explaining that it provides valuable, inside knowledge of the culture and ultimately leads to a greater understanding of the native people as a whole.
Participant observation is a method of collecting information and data about a culture and is carried out by the researcher immersing themselves in the culture they observing. The researcher becomes known in the community, getting to know and understand the culture in a more intimate and detailed way than would be possible from any other approach. This is done by observing and participating in the community’s daily activities. The method is so effective because the researcher is able to directly approach the people in the community in a natural context as opposed to taking the participant out of their environment. The aim of participant observation is to gain an understanding the subject’s life from their perspective, with the purpose of collecting more detailed information about a community’s habits, opinions, relationships and issues.
Embarking on a journey of anthropological fieldwork will undoubtedly include a plethora of setbacks. At its foundation, fieldwork requires developing rapport with the native people in order to gain access of genuine knowledge pertaining to the specific culture being studied. Subsequently, social communication between the researcher and the native people is a key component to the entire process; yet simultaneously it is a root of the many problems a researcher can encounter while in the field. It is no secret that the cultural background of the researcher can often highly contrast the culture he or she enters during fieldwork. This initial cultural adaptation one must undergo while doing anthropological fieldwork is what many in the realm describe as culture shock.
What is applied anthropology and how can it be applied to almost every facet of society? The answer is obvious when we look at what the field of anthropology encompasses. Anthropology, as defined by the American Anthropological Association is, “the study of humans, past and present.” In the United States, anthropologists are educated in one of the four areas, sociocultural anthropology, biological/physical anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Active within these four subfields is Applied Anthropology, which is the application of the method and theory of an anthropological subfield to the analysis and solution of real world situations and practical problems. Anthropology’s field is the wide is the wide array of human social experience.
Klin, Candyce. “Darwinism as A Cultural Issue” Cedar Crest College, 2 June 2001. Web. 17
Susan Lindee and Ricardo Santos’ goal was to understand the contexts of genesis and development of biological anthropology around the world from an international standpoint, focusing on engagement with living human populations. Their contributors, scholars in history of science, science studies, and anthropology, were guided by key questions about national histories, collections, and scientific field practice.
When trying to figure out what the field of applied anthropology is Sillitoe says that there is still some debate as to what the meaning of applied anthropology is and since anthropology is such a huge field and is considered to be the ‘study of humankind’, there is a threat that it could possibly too big and possibly collapsing on itself or how Sillitoe says, “such a broad church that there is a danger the walls are now too far apart and the roof falling in” (Sillitoe 2007). With such a big topic, there’s discussions as to how to define applied anthropology without able to agree on a single definition because it is “a very odd subject”, “hard to say what it is the study of”, and “it is not at all clear what you have to do to study it” as well
Ethnographic fieldwork defines cultural anthropology to be holism. It stresses that cultural anthropology embraces a holistic perspective for the study of human behaviour. The study of cultural anthropology deals with the entire characteristics of humans. It then focuses on the relationship between the different facets of human
Cultural anthropology has taught me a lot in such a short time. This class has been very eye opening to me and has made me think more about the different cultures around me and just how important it is to learn about them. One of the things I have learned is how religion is related to culture. Culture is behaviors of a community such as the food they make, the music they listen to, and the rituals they take part in. This can be very similar to religion because a culture is based off of their religious beliefs. Some cultures do not eat pig because it is against their religious beliefs. Some cultures listen to particular songs because it is based off of their religious beliefs. Another thing cultures relate closely to is languages. Without language
Anthropology is known as the study of human beings, over time and space. We often look at anthropology as just the evolution of mankind and their basic development. After taking a class in Cultural Anthropology, I’ve come to realize how much more in depth it is. There are many different aspects that we do not look at. We do not need to be anthropologists to see how these concepts can apply to our daily lives. Anthropology makes you to look at the world differently than you were taught too. Cultural anthropology, has a holistic approach that helps us to see how one society relates to itself and how that society can be taken on its own terms without bias. It helps to identify our own way of viewing various different cultures around the world and realize that the way we do things and see things may not be the only right way there is. There are other people around the world that are different from us and do things differently that we are used to or that we find to be “the right way”.
Culture is an important concept in anthropology. Culture is defined as, "sets of learned behavior and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society. Human beings use culture to adapt to and transform the world in which they live." (LS:512). Culture has been used in anthropology to understand human difference, but within this understanding there have been benefits and drawbacks to the ideas of culture. Finally, the study of language and humans as symbol using creatures helps us have perspectives on different parts of the world. All anthropologists share a certain reliance on culture to have a starting point in understanding human experience as a whole.