Antropology

1. The Four Fields of
Anthropology
Culture as the Central Concept

2. Culture and the Four Fields of
Anthropology
• Anthropology is centered around culture
• Next question: what do cultures have to do
with the following?
• Physical anthropology
• Linguistics
• Archaeology
• This is where the definition of
anthropology itself comes in

3. So How Do We Define
Anthropology?
• In your orientation: “The Holistic and Comparative Study
of Humankind”
• Holistic: Asks two questions:
• Ethnographic Holism: Asks whether, and if so how, all
parts of a culture fit together
• This has already been covered under “Culture is
Patterned or Integrated”
• Disciplinary Holism: Asks how all the four subfields of
anthropology fit together; this, we cover next.
• Comparative Method: Tries to answer the questions of
why cultures are both diverse and similar
• We cover both the disciplinary holistic and comparative
strategies in turn

4. Disciplinary Holism and the
Four Fields of Anthropology
• Disciplinary Holism: This method asks why we
include the following under “anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology: The comparative study of
cultures around the world
• Physical Anthropology: The comparative study of
human attributes, past and present
• Linguistics: The study of spoken language, a
distinctly human trait
• Archaeology: The comparative study of past
cultures through its material cultural remains
• All fields involve a question about culture: where it
came from, what it entails, what its consequences
are

5. Defining Cultural Anthropology:
Research Techniques
• It involves the study of
mostly non-Western cultures
• Basic technique involves
fieldwork
• Sometimes, ethics are
involved, as this cartoon
implies
• A fair question: just what do
anthropologists use their
information for?

6. Defining Cultural
Anthropology: Topics
• Central concern is kinship, because
marriage and family are our first institutions
• Reflected by this three generations of
Native American females (upper left)
• Also includes technology, from hunting to
housebuilding
• Economic Anthropology: how goods and
services are produced and distributed
• Political Anthropology: The study of
power and social control (lower left)
• Other areas: supernatural beliefs,
psychology, culture change, arts and oral
tradition

7. Defining Physical Anthropology
• The studies of past and present human
forms
• Comparative Primate Anatomy: How
similar or different we are from the
monkeys and apes
• Fossil Hominins: How we evolved from
Australopithecus (“Lucy,” depicted in
cartoon) to Homo
• Cultural Capacity: Defines how we
acquired ability to speak, make tools,
walk on two feet
• Human Variation: Study of so-called
races—a present concern
• Forensic Science: Tracing evidence of
criminal activity

8. Tying Physical Anthropology to
Culture
• Our brain:
• Source of our language
• Source of our tool-making
ability
• Our Lungs and Mouth: Our
ability to speak
• Our Arms and Hands: Our
ability to make and use tools
• Our Bipedal Skeleton: Our
ability to stand, walk, and
ability to do all of the above

9. Defining Linguistics
• The study of spoken
language around the world
• Focuses on phones (speech
sounds) and phonemes
(sound units that carry
language)
• Looks at word and sentence
formation
• Examines how children
learn to speak—in one-word
sentences! (See cartoon)
• Relates language to culture

10. Tying Linguistics to Culture
• We learn everything through
language:
• Even the blind and deaf (Helen Keller
and her mentor Ann Sullivan, upper
left photo)
• They use Braille and sign language
to communicate
• We can think of things not tangible:
math equations (lower left), things
not present, things nonexistent
• We can produce new words when
necessary, from blip to iPod

11. Defining Archaeology
• Reconstruction of past
cultures: focus is on
techniques analyzing remains
of material culture
• Looks at artifacts: portable
objects from tools to Venus
sculptures
• Looks at structures: Huts to
pyramids
• Excavations destroy
everything: Objects have to
be measured exactly where
found before removal

12. Tying Archaeology to Culture
• Archaeology is primarily about
cultural remains of human societies
• (Even stone tools are hard to
identify, as Gary Larson tells us)
• Human and prehuman physical
remains are also important
• (Did this Neanderthal mate with
that human female? Stay tuned!
• Both archaeologists and physical
anthropologists would like to know.)
• Comparison of present with past
cultures is also essential

13. What does this photo tell you?

17. Anthropology and other Social
Sciences
• By their nature, economics, political science,
sociology are all specialized
• They create specialized perceptions of humankind
• Economics focuses on economic man (and
woman)
• Political science is about humans hungry for power
• Psychology is about humans with various drives:
sexual, hunger, prestige
• Sociology is about social humans

18. Recall the Fable of the Six Blind
Men Defining an Elephant
• Each man feels a part of the elephant
• And describes his take on what it is like

19. The First Two Parts of an Elephant
• The first man feels
the side of the
elephant.
• He calls it a wall
• The second man feels
one of the elephant’s
tusks.
• He compares it to a
spear

20. Two More Parts of an Elephant
• The third man feels the
trunk.
• He then calls it a snake
• The fourth man then
feels the elephant’s legs.
• Lo and behold, he says,
here we have a tree

21. Last Two Parts of an Elephant
• The fifth man touches the
ears.
• He then says that it is like a
big fan
• Finally, the sixth man grabs
the tail
• He proclaims “I see (though
he’s blind) it’s very like a rope”
• Now the argument begins. . .

22. What do we get? A Metaphorical
Elephant
• And so like six blind men
• Specialists dispute “loud and
long”
• Though each is partly in the
right,
• All are in the wrong
• And so we get a caricature
of the social sciences
• Like this (reconstructed)
elephant.

23. Economics and Its Limits
• Economics posits an “economic
man” whose aim is to maximize
his wealth and to get the most out
of his assets
• But peoples of many cultures are
not that obsessed with wealth
• This Ache (Indonesian) man is
actually sharing the meat he just
hunted
• Does he look like economic man to
you?

24. Political Science and Its Limits
• Political ‘man’ lusts
for power, even at the
point of a sword (or
barrel of a gun)
• Some peoples curb
others’ power.
• For example, drum
song duels kept
Eskimos from taking
over the band

25. The Bottom Line of Holism
• Anthropology concerns all aspects of
society
• How do the economy, social control,
myths, and all else fit in with the culture as
a whole.
• This will be the central question as we
examine each subfield of cultural
anthropology

26. Second, Anthropology is
Comparative
• If we are to understand how cultures function
• We have to compare them
• All science involves comparison
• Take families
• In Non-western societies, people rely on
family and its extensions for all social
functions
• Such as this Vietnamese immigrant family in
Canada
• These include education, economic needs,
social control
• In Western societies, families are nuclear and
thereby play fewer important roles
• Schools educate the young, workplaces are
the sources of livelihood, and governments
exercise social control

27. Anthropology and Other Disciplines
• Most other social sciences specialize in industrial
societies:
• Economics: Focus is on industrial societies
• Sociology: Social relations in industrial societies
• Psychology: Study of hang-ups in industrial societies
• Anthropology provides data on all these aspects cross
all cultures around the world.
• Any valid social explanation has to address all cultures,
not just industrial ones

28. Conclusion: Culture, Holism, and
Comparison
• Basic Question: Why are People so Different?
• This is a question about culture
• Culture is learned, symbolic, shared, integrated,
and adaptive
• It involves questions of how parts of a culture fit
—a holistic issue of ethnography
• It involves questions of what every subfield has
to say about culture—a disciplinary holism
• It demands an explanation of cultures—a
comparative and therefore scientific question.