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Anthropology schools of thought
Compare and contrast cultural relativism and Ethnocentrism
All about anthropology 101
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Even a student that has been educated for only four weeks in anthropology can admit that their viewpoint has changed since acquiring their knowledge. Studying a foreign way of life and unfamiliar customs sheds light on the impact that one’s own culture has on their thoughts. Anthropology is valuable because has the ability to remove the shock and misunderstanding that occurs when examining an alien worldview. The value of cultural relativism, the principle that one culture should not be judged by the standard of another culture, is illustrated in the comparison of Peace Corp volunteer Floyd Sandford’s African Odyssey and anthropologist Richard Lee’s Dobe Ju/’hoansi. A trained anthropologist speaks primarily in the voices of the people and quantitative data, while a relatively untrained Peace Corp worker enters a new culture and colors his account with his own emotional reactions and voice.
The main difficulties that arose during Sandford’s field situation was the result of a lack of relevant education and exposure to integral aspects of Nigerian culture. The Peace Corp training inadequately prepared him for the realities of African life; he was trained to deal with venomous snake bites and communist propaganda that never were an issue (Sandford 2007: 15). Sandford’s difficulties could similarly arise from the fact that he excitedly embraces all novel aspects of the local culture. He insists on visiting an African barber, who was inexperienced cutting Caucasian hair, because he wants his money to fuel the local economy. Sandford reacts to his disastrous haircut with, “Surprise, horror. The mirror didn’t lie. The entire one-third front of my head had been scalped. I looked like a Hare Krishna” (Sandford 2007:49). Time...
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...culturated stereotypes through studying other cultures in their own right. Perhaps the best way to compare these two works is to similarly view them in their own right; Sandford’s emotional interpretations of Nigerian culture and Lee’s scientific ethnography are the results of differences in education and motivation.
Works Cited
Bohannen, Laura.
1996 Shakespeare in the Bush. In Anthropology 09/10, edited by Angeloni Elvio, 56-59. New York City: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Council of the American Anthropological Association
1986 “Principles of Professional Responsibility.” In “Statements on Ethics.” < http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/ethstmnt.htm> 17 Jan 2010.
Lee, Richard B.
2003 The Dobe Ju/’hoansi. Third edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing.
Sandford, Floyd.
2007 African Odyssey. First edition. New York: iUniverse, Inc.
Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge, 14th Edition William A. Havilland; Harald E. L. Prins; Bunny McBride; Dana Walrath Published by Wadsworth, Cengage Learning (2014)
Robbins, R. H. (2014). Cultural anthropology: a problem-based approach (Second Canadian ed.). Itasca: F.E. Peacock.
The Return to Laughter is a fictionalized account by Elenore Smith Bowen about her experiences with the Tiv culture in Africa. It describes her struggles to learn and understand the local culture and beliefs, and juxtaposes her own conflicts, morals and beliefs. Bowen engages in what anthropologists termed participant-observation. The anthropologist made a few mistakes that provided revelations about herself and the Tiv people. Language difficulties provide the greatest barrier: as when the researcher is trying to understand the context of the conversation, while still struggling with the intricacy of a difficult language. Secondly, like most anthropologists Bowen knew that social relationships are a research requirement: informants are needed, yet she quickly realized that identification with one family, status or group in the society could hinder other critical relationships. These lessons are among a few that the anthropologist seeks to overcome. This essay will discuss that culture and language are dependent on each other and how forming social relationships can propel research and reveal insightful knowledge into a culture, while possibly hindering other useful information.
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
For the first two weeks of my class, I had no idea where I was headed in terms of my learning experience but I soon found out. During the first week we had to define “indigenous identity” which by the way was a foreign language to me. After I determined the meaning of it (because there were so many choices) I settled on the meaning “that what connects a person or people by their culture, race, beliefs and way of life”. I never considered or included myself a part of that definition because I thought it only pertained to people of other nations or countries. Eventually my thoughts and understanding changed. As I stated before my reading “Thinking Like an Anthropologist” Chapter Five, “What was This Practice or Idea Like in the past - The Temporal Question (2008, Omohundro, J.T. ), will be an excellent and informative guide for my research (in which it was). Also having to use Syncretism as a tool allowed me the opportunity to not only research the past but present rituals, beliefs, etc. of African Americans and how much they have changed over the years. Looking through this research as a critic allowed me to broaden my horizons not only about my culture but other cultures that are included in this identity. We were first introduced to two articles: The “Gebusi” and “Body Ritual of the Nacerima”. And I thought their rituals and beliefs were somewhat extreme, but then I realized if they looked at our society and our practices, they could consider the same thing about us. Having said that I decided that as an African-American woman, I was prepared to take that journey into the unknown, to investigate my culture, our accomplishments, and therefore have the ability to share my findings and observations with others. Week after week we w...
Desjarlais, R., & Throop, C. J. (2011). Phenomenological approaches in anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 87-102. doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092010-153345.
Nigel Barley’s The Innocent Anthropologist explores the lives and culture of the Cameroonian Dowayo tribe. The book follows Barley’s fieldwork gathered during his stay amongst the tribe, affording insight into their ceremonies, language, social norms, and beliefs. Barley’s book stands out in the highly personal tone with which he recounts his time spent with the Dowayo, acknowledging bureaucratic troubles and, oftentimes humorous, misunderstandings. With a translator, Barley embarks on his attempt to immerse himself into the culture of the Dowayo, not hesitating to participate in their festivals (to a certain degree) and incorporate himself in their daily lives. Barley regals the audience with the entire experience of his fieldwork in West Africa, making sure to include how more modern technological and political inventions, such as voting and refrigerators, are regarded by the Dowayo. Barley writes with emphasis on the difficulties of the language, which is tonal and consists of multiple dialects, the Dowayo’s fondness for
...ans of communicating the history of culture. They each raised questions in fairly broad theoretical framework-chapters beginning with a through and expansive introduction where the author poses various ways of tackling the given concepts. Karin Barber’s The Anthropology Of Texts, Persons And Publics and Stephen Belcher’s African Myths Of Origin each explains in great detail the significance of myths and oral texts as a way of weaving society and its people together, which helps provide the reader with a new perspective on the subject of African anthropology. Furthermore, by elaborating on the significance of myths and folktales of various African cultures, readers alike are able to gain a better understanding of the deep-rooted history.
Stuck in her own interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the idea that “human nature is (nearly) the same” worldwide, an American Anthropologist, Laura Bohannan, set off for the Tiv in West Africa (Bohannan 1). Bohannan’s original intent was to learn about the African tribe’s culture and ceremonies, but one morning, when she was sitting with the elders of the tribe, they asked Bohannan to tell them the story of Hamlet, for they have told her many of their stories and found it only fair. In an attempt to translate the play into the Tiv’s language and finding the lack of appropriate words, as well as cultural differences between ideas many Europeans and Americans both agree upon, Bohannan quickly realized her original theory was incorrect.
middle of paper ... ... ’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements.
Anthropology, akin to other academic disciplines, has stirred among its colleagues debates of theories. As anthropologists have attempted to explain human behavior and culture a few of these premises have been discredited, others dismantled and portions renovated, and still others have become staples of anthropological analysis. Regardless of modern opinion regarding the theories of past anthropologists, elements of each concept remain essential to study. By utilizing the resources of McGee and Warms, Moore, Perry, Salzman, Sokolvosky, and Spencer, I will evaluate pairs of ideas in anthropology that include ideographic and nomeothetic, unilinear evolution and neoevolution, and organic and superorganic, while also indicating their influences on other aspects of anthropological thought.
Describing the hair salon experience as “of something organic dying which should not have died,” Ifemelu expresses regret for this attempt at conforming to American standards. Therefore, Ifemelu grieves the loss of her identity as she leaves the hair salon. After “she breezed through the job interview,” Ifemelu wonders “if the [interviewer] would have felt the same way had she walked into that office wearing her thick, kinky, God-given halo of hair, the Afro” (252). By describing her hair as a “God-given halo,” Ifemelu captures the sanctity of her natural hair (252). Despite her success in the interview process, Ifemelu remains disgruntled about her new relaxed hair, which “is like being in a prison” (257). Desperate to resist caving into the pressure of assimilating into American culture and to reconnect with her Nigerian roots, Ifemelu allows Wambui to cut her hair, “leaving only two inches, the new growth since her last relaxer” (258). While Ifemelu initially cedes to American beauty standards to achieve success, she ultimately rejects them to stay aligned with her Nigerian
Boas, F. (1930). Anthropology. In, Seligman, E. R. A. ed., Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences. Macmillan: New York.
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”.
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