People
Over the course of his life, he conducted extensive fieldwork among indigenous communities in North America and developed ground-breaking theories on cultural relativism, linguistic diversity, and race as a social construct.
Franz Boas
How culture is learned used; how culture persists and change; similarity and difference across
culture; study dynamics of particular cultures to better understand humanity across time & space
Cultural Anthropology
Challenges
Can be humid
competition
Opportunity
Suitable area for a society
Once you clear out an area then it is easy to maintain the society
Provides material for homes
Woodlands
What is the idea of stratification
A layered society, with structured inequality
What is the Emic perspective
focuses on a single culture in its own cultural context (e.g participant observation)
Malinowski
* Study of the past through material remains; reconstruct human behavior using material remains;
provide explanation and analysis of historical and prehistorical societies
Archaeological Anthropology
Challenges
Altitude
Poor soil
Transportation is challenging
What can you plant?
Mountainous
Stratification is good, and it creates positive functions in society. It makes people feel like they have essential roles and gives people incentives to try and move up in society.
Views cultures from an outsider's perspective. Members of a culture are usually too involved in their own culture to interpret their own culture impartially.
Who was the founder of Cultural Anthropology? Defined culture as a complex whole encompassing knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, and customs.
Edward Tylor
Application of anthropological training and knowledge within specific occupational settings and
institutional contexts.
Applied Anthropology
Warm, wet
Lot of water
Wet vs dry tropics
Challenges
Unceasing need to fight with the vegetation
Soil is poor
Tropics
Describe the differences in social mobility between the rich and the poor in the videos we watched. (Tammy, and the rich people in the Hamptons)
Rich social mobility can go up or down based on connections and and reputation. Tammy does not have a lot of social mobility because of a lack of education and wealth.
Reworking of a Simple Idea to a Complex idea
Neoevolutionism.
was an American anthropologist known for his advocacy of theories of cultural evolution and Neoevolutionism
Leslie White
* Study of languages past & present; study of how people use language in verbal and nonverbal ways;
study of how languages vary in a society and across time; study how languages evolve, spread, or
become extinct
Linguistic Anthropology
Challenges
Lack of trees and cover from animals
Opportunities
Lot of grass
Many animals can eat these grasses
Humans will eat these grasses
Savannah, Plains
What is the conflict perspective of Stratification
A classless society is needed. The problem that needs to be solved is stratification itself
Major types of subsistence strategies
Foraging
Horticulture
Pastoralism
Agriculture
Industrialism
Developed the Theory of Structuralism
Levi Strauss
Focus on the biocultural evolution of human species, its ancestors, and relatives; study of how people
bioculturally adapt to different environments and challenges; explain variation among humans and their
ancestors; study non-human primates and their relationship to humans
Physical Anthropology
Challenges
Climate
Lack of available food
Lack of vegetation
Opportunity
Can melt ice to make water
What are the 5 Castes in India
Brahmas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, Dalits
Name one of the matriarchal societies talked about in class.
Mosuo, Bri-Bri, Umoja, Minangkabau