Lesson One

General Objectives:

• Introduction to the four fields of anthropology
• Key anthropological concepts

1. Understand the basic distinctions among the four fields of anthropology:
2. cultural anthropology
3. physical anthropology
4. archaeology
5. linguistics
6. Know how to access the website for the American Anthropological Association and be familiar with some of the major areas of interest in modern anthropology
7. Understand the following concepts and be able to provide examples of each:
8. ethnocentrism
9. cultural relativism
10. holism

What is anthropology? As I mentioned in my introduction, I’ve met many educated people over the years who typically associate anthropology with someone who digs up old bones, and, as I said in my introduction, there are some paleoanthropologists who do just that. The discipline, however, is much more expansive than that. Anthropology, in the broadest sense, is the study of humankind, at all times and in all places. As you can imagine, then, anthropology encompasses an incredible range of study. There are four major subfields that people typically distinguish within the discipline. We’ll get to a brief overview of each of these in a moment, but for now I would like to highlight for you what I have experienced to be some of the most valuable contributions of anthropology to our world today.

I am certain that you have all been exposed to the idea and reality of "diversity" in our modern world. We are supposed to acknowledge and value it. Typically at schools and in companies, we set aside days of celebration to show appreciation for some of the different ethnic groups that constitute our American society. This usually involves some historical presentation of the challenges and changes that those groups of people have undergone, an offering of food that is commonly eaten by that group, and sometimes we are treated to displays of traditional costume and dance associated with the ethnic group. For those of you who are members of that group, you have probably been struck by the awareness that, although the celebration evokes a sense of pride in belonging, that these displays just barely scratch the surface of what it means to be Mexican-American, or African-American or Irish-American, or whatever group with which you identify. This class will give you a much deeper understanding of what "diversity" entails. Everybody is ethnic, and anthropology will provide you with the perspective and tools to help you see how it is that we are all profoundly shaped by the culture (and cultures) into which we are socialized.

One of my primary goals in this class is to help you gain a deeper appreciation for what makes your fellow humans tick, from a cultural perspective, as well as become more aware of how your own thinking and behavior is influenced by culture. Sometimes it is difficult to question the assumptions about the nature of the world and of people that we have held all of our lives. You may experience mild discomfort with some of the things that you learn in this course because they are unfamiliar and may challenge your long-held beliefs. This is natural; we have a side to us that seeks comfort and security in the familiar. We are also compelled to explore that which is unfamiliar and new. The experience is potentially very liberating and exciting. It can also provide you with a view of things that can help you to solve problems that had seemed entrenched and unsolvable. This is the potential of anthropology that I have learned to be especially valuable. As I mentioned in my introduction, I have worked for a number of different organizations who have sought out anthropologists because they have found that individuals with training in anthropology can potentially see things in ways that are fresh and can, therefore solve old problems with new ideas and approaches. This applies to problems at local and global levels, to challenges in the workplace, to what happens inside your own household, and even to what you experience in your own skin.

Holding this promise of value to the side for now, let’s talk about the four subfields of anthropology. If you decide to major in anthropology, you would probably take at least one course in each of the subfields: cultural anthropology, biological (sometimes referred to as physical) anthropology, archaeology and linguistics. Introductory courses in the first three subfields are currently all offered at Barstow Community College, but only this class – cultural anthropology – is currently available online.

Briefly here is a description of each.

Archaeology is the study of people from the past through the analysis of what they have left behind. The material culture or artifacts are studied with the goal of reconstructing how the people who created them lived. Archaeologists are interested in what ancient people ate, how they sheltered themselves, how they organized themselves socially, how they expressed themselves through art and language, how they interacted with neighboring and distant communities, and how they changed over time. The work of archaeologists is often painstaking and requires a great deal of patience and oftentimes meticulous handling of fragile remains. Only occasionally do they make the spectacular discoveries that we read about in the news. And it is safe to say that few, if any, experience the adventures of the popularized Indiana Jones. Although adventure is a subjective experience, and even the smallest discovery is surely adventurous for those with a passion and deep interest in the people who left the remains behind.

Biological anthropology, sometimes called physical anthropology, focuses on the anatomy and physiology of the human body as adaptations to environmental pressures. This subfield has developed significantly with the development of our understanding of genetics. Biological anthropologists are interested in understanding our human origins (when and why did we first use language, believe in the afterlife, venture out into new environments?). As a comparative scientist, the field looks to other primates (such as gorillas and chimpanzees) to shed light on aspects of our primate heritage.

Linguistic anthropology, as you might expect, looks at the diversity of languages around the world and attempts to trace historical changes in languages over time. In addition to documenting the range of languages and dialects in existence (which has become somewhat an act of preservation as some languages are becoming lost with the globalization of many societies around the world), linguists are interested in the similarities observable in all languages. This interest leads linguists to explore the neurological and physiological bases of language and speech. Increasingly, linguists study how language reflects the "mental models" that people use as they act and interact in the world and how language use has political underpinnings. (For example, nation states tend to have a national language that is more formal while villages retain dialects that help people retain a sense of local identity, which sometimes is at odds with the national identity).

Cultural anthropology looks at societies in the world today and in the near past and explores differences in behaviors (including, for example, customs, rituals, habitual ways of responding to certain situations), ways of thinking (mental models about the nature of the nature world, the nature of humankind, differences and similarities among different groups and subgroups of people, beliefs about the supernatural world, etc.), ways of organizing themselves socially (formal political structures, informal groupings and gatherings, etc.) and the products of their activities (tool technologies, art, architecture, etc.).

Since this course is the introduction to cultural anthropology, I will let the course speak for itself, in the weeks ahead, with regard to its focus of study.

If four subfields were not enough, in recent years, some have suggested the addition of a fifth subfield, that of applied anthropology. This is probably because anthropologists over the past couple of decades have increasingly moved out of academia and into a wide range of jobs. Applied anthropologist now work as government employees (helping, for example, with developmental projects in third world nations), as consultants for companies that care about the impact of culture on how their employees work and how their customers think and behave. One of the key differences between applied anthropologists and the more academically inclined anthropologists is that the former look to provide insights into understanding human culture that will help in creating purposeful change, whereas the others have been largely trained to carefully document and explain patterns of behaviors and belief systems that exist out in the world. When we talk about anthropological fieldwork, you will learn that anthropologists are trained to be very cautious about minimizing the extent to which they affect the people that they study; there are no intentional efforts to change the culture of others. Applied anthropologists are hired to provide policy makers with a deep understanding of culture so that programs aimed at creating change are more likely to take hold and to respect the traditions and beliefs of the people deemed in need of some form of change.

You might be surprised to learn the varied types of work that anthropologists are engaged in, and, hopefully, you will make connections between your own educational and career interests and the field of anthropology. To begin finding these connections, I will ask you, at the end of this lesson, to click on the link to the American Anthropological Association, and find the page with "related career titles." Also, I want you to become aware of the kinds of skills that even a little training in anthropology can provide. These skills are becoming increasingly valuable (in a real marketable sense) in the world today. This leads to another goal I have as your instructor; that is to help you begin developing skills that you can use in your school and work endeavors. Anthropology is extremely relevant in our world today, and it is my job to help you realize that.

We will be looking at many aspects of culture in the weeks ahead. One of the themes that you will encounter throughout the course is that cultural anthropology considers and tries to distinguish two seemingly conflicting aspects about humankind; these are that humans express a wide range of diversity around the world and that there are certain similarities or universals that are constant in all of these diverse expressions. Keep this in the back of your mind as you read about societies in other parts of the world: what basic human needs are being solved by outwardly seeming strange practices?

Chapter one of your textbook introduces you to three important concepts that are central to anthropology: enthnocentrism, cultural relativism and holism. Make sure you understand each of these. Let me briefly give you my definition of each.

Ethnocentrism is something that all groups of people and individuals engage in to some degree. It involves viewing the world from one's own perspective, from the assumptions that one learns as a member of a given "ethnic" group, let us say. This is natural as we see the world through the lens with which we were born and that is crafted through the process of our socialization in a given setting. The problem arises, however, when we take this perspective to be better than all others and judge our own "center" of understanding to be superior to that of all others. Some forms of ethnocentrism are relatively easy to overcome (and as an anthropologist you are trained to avoid being ethnocentric at all costs), such as expressing disgust at people eating unusual foods such as snails or insects. Others forms are more difficult. To give you an example, when I did my field research in Crete I struggled with accepting the looseness with which the villagers told tall tales and, on occasion, purposefully deceived one another. I had been raised that telling anything but the truth was, for the most part, a bad thing to do, especially if it was the expense of another. It took me some time to appreciate that in Cretan society, the art of telling a good narrative usually outweighs the value of getting all the facts right. And if someone is duped by an elaboration of truth, they probably deserve any negative consequences that result. Cunning is highly valued among the Cretans, and it has served them well to survive many foreign invasions over the past several hundred years. Anyway, it took time for me to fully appreciate this value system. At first, it made me mad and I judged them for not valuing truthfulness as I did. I was being ethnocentric.

What anthropologists strive toward is adopting a position of cultural relativism. This is what I did over time, once I was able to consider the practice of "telling lies" in terms relative to the historical and social context of a small Cretan village in the late 1980’s. Cultural relativism means evaluating another culture by its own standards. It involves decoding the systems of meaning that underlies another culture. You begin to understand why people think and behave as they do because you start to see it from their perspective. (Caution: taken to an extreme this position implies "anything goes," which is not what most anthropologists posit.) Your text raises the historical case of the Holocaust as an event that anthropologists and historians can describe and attempt to understand, but does this mean that as students of human behavior we are exempt from judging the genocide? As an undergraduate, I learned about extreme forms of torture and distress that young Melanesian boys were put through as part of their initiation into becoming proper men. Do we accept this as part of their culture (being relativistic as we are supposed to be) or do we ask about the impact that such practices might have on individuals or the group as a whole? The Melanesians themselves argue that if little boys are to become the unflinching warriors that they are expected and need to become in their society them the ritual pain that they experience as little boys is necessary. This may be the case. Another question, however, would be to ask ourselves what practices seem to lead to distress or stressed survival of a population of people. We might look at certain observable patterns as indicators of such stress. High rates of suicide, for example, in a given society might mean that certain cultural practices are pushing up against certain human universal requirements for survival of the individual and the group. The Melanesian group discussed here did in fact show very high rates of suicide among young males. This, perhaps, is an indicator that male initiation rites, in addition to other cultural practices and expectations, are colliding in some respects with certain human psychological requirements for sustaining mental health and the ability to engage and endure in one’s social group. This type of questioning, however, is very different from one that looks superficially at another culture’s practice and judges it as inferior or immoral simply because it is different from one’s own (which is ethnocentrism).

Finally, holism refers to the approach where each cultural system is understood to be comprised of numerous subsystems, and that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Changes in one subsystem contribute to changes in any or all of the others. Take for example changes in the American economic subsystem since the 1950’s. Woman have increasingly entered and stayed in the workforce simply in order to meet the economic demands of sustaining a household in America. Consider how this change has contributed to changes in our understandings of appropriate gender roles, in how childrearing takes place, and a host of other cultural changes. Your textbook and the first video clip on the CD also provide an excellent illustration of holism: irrigation practices in Bali must be understood as part of a whole cultural system, including religious beliefs, in order for us to understand what is going on.

We’ve covered plenty of ground for our first lesson. More important anthropological concepts will be discuss in the next lesson, along with a description of what is so unique about anthropological fieldwork as a method of study, compared to, say, sociological research.

Before then, however, please reinforce your learning by doing the following:

Click on this button. Now click on the link entitled "What Can I Do With a Major in Anthropology."

From here check out the "Related Career Titles" and the "Related Major Skills" to gain an appreciation for the marketable skills that you can acquire through anthropological training.

and

Next, go to the class discussion site and answer the following questions.

• Why did you enroll in this course and how does it fit into your educational goals? (This will entail telling the class what your intended major or education program is. You can also state what your post-graduate goals are with regard to a career or other aspiration.)
• What subsection in the American Anthropological Association website did you choose to click on and read about and why?
• What are some of the "related major skills" that you read about in the "Resources for Students" section did you think were most relevant to your current or planned future education or work?