THE NATURE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
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What is
Anthropology?
What Do
Anthropologists Do?
How Do
Anthropologists Do What They Do?
The Development of
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humankind in
all times and places
Anthropologists are from many different
societies
(1857-1900)
A pioneer ethnologist whose work at Zuni Pueblo made him
one of the most important white observers of Native American culture in the
nineteenth century, Frank Hamilton Cushing was, in his methods and thinking, a
forerunner of anthropologists in our own century.
1849 - 1915
A pioneer in American ethnology, Matilda Coxe Evans Stevenson was the first woman to work in the
American Southwest.
Anthropology and the
Other Sciences
Anthropologists share their objectives with the other
social and natural sciences,
The Discipline of
Anthropology
Physical (biological) Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
The systematic study of humans as biological
organisms
Anthropology
Applied
The identification of human skeleton
remains for legal purposes
Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of
physical anthropology to the legal process. The identification of skeletal,
badly decomposed, or otherwise unidentified human remains is important for both
legal and humanitarian reasons.
Cultural Anthropology
Focusing on human behavior
Avoiding culture bound theories
Cultural Anthropology
Three
major divisions:
Archaeology
The study of material remains, usually
from the past, to describe and explain human behavior
The Northridge Center for Public
Archaeology has existed for 18 years at the California State University, Northridge
Linguistic
Anthropology
The study of human language
Ethnology
Comparative study of culture
Participant Observation
Technique of learning
a people’s culture through direct participation in their everyday life for an
extended period
Original Study
Environmentalism
in Costa Rica
Anthropology and Science
Anthropology involves the careful and
systematic study of humankind using:
Facts
Hypotheses
Theories
Difficulties of the
Scientific Approach
Motivation to prove one’s own hypothesis
Dangers of culture bound hypotheses
Restrictions upon replication
Comparison
in Anthropology
Causes
of cultural phenomena
Testing
hypotheses
Anthropology and the
Humanities
Concern with other cultures’ languages, values, and
achievements in the arts and literature
Commitment to experiencing other cultures
Emphasis on qualitative research
Questions of Ethics
Do no harm to:
those studied
those funding research
those in the profession
Anthropology and Contemporary
Life
Anthropology provides the basic skills for survival in the modern world
End of Chapter 1