*What is Anthropology? Anthropos = man + ology = study
Fields of anthropology
*cultural anthropology = studies human behavior patterns within groups
*physical anthropology= studies physical characteristics and behaviors of humans,
primates, and proto-primates
*archeology = studies the evolutionary history of humans and their ancestors
through material remains
*linguistics = studies the movement and development of languages and other means of human
communication
*applied anthropology = practical application of anthropological principles and knowledge to
contemporary situations
What is culture?
*culture = 1) ALL the behaviors and beliefs that distinguish one human group from another.
2) Every behavior within a group that causes members of that group to feel they are part of it.
EX: language, dress, arts, work, marriage customs, diet, etc.
Characteristics of Culture
so by definition then
culture is shared = must be more than one person
culture is somewhat independent of nature. EX. you must get from one place to another,
but how? You must eat, but what?
culture relies on *symbols = arbitrary actions or objects that have assigned and understood
significance EX: flag, cross
culture is learned = *enculturation = learning how to ‘fit in’ to your culture, who you are
culture is integrated = *holism. loss of any element within a culture can alter the entire culture
EX: machetes, cars, EX: Martin Luther ( obsessive compulsive) counted tiles and cracks,
recited certain prayers an exact number of times each day, = created an alternate religion!!
culture is adaptive. it can change to suit new circumstances, EX. domestication of grain, a new
*idea or *invention, new neighbors
culture is transmitted. questions about this EX: pizza, surfboards, salsa music
*Microcultures
*class = amount of access to and control of *resources
*race = an individuals biological heritage
*ethnicity = the cultural identity accepted by or assigned to an individual or group
*gender = sexual *roles and expectations assigned to an individual
*age = how old you are and what that means
*institutions = organized and collective processes that serve to promote a culture’s ‘purposes’
EX: church, school, hospital, congress, senior prom
Methods & Theory
*ethnography = culture writing. Describing a culture, everything you notice about them, as
completely as possible. earliest ‘ethnographers’ were pirates, sailors, adventurers, tourists
*ethnology = X-cultural comparison of cultural features, looking for contrasts and similarities
between groups EX: foraging or planting strategy, marriage rules
*emic = the culture’s own view of themselves ++ we are ‘the people’, everyone else is not
*etic = outsider’s view of a culture ++ generally more technical and critical, we notice things
that they take for granted
*ethnocentrism = my culture is better than yours ++ a gut reaction that something is ‘wrong’
with them, anthropologists aren’t supposed to do this
*cultural relativism = one culture is as good as another ++ accepting what they do as justified,
assuming that they have good reasons for their actions,,, remember, they have made it
so far under circumstances that WE might not survive
*critical cultural relativism = all or part of a culture does something that is counterproductive to
themselves or other members of the overall culture ++ Diphyllobothrium latum the fish
tapeworm, NY Jewish housewives soup, Kuru in New Guinea, Fore’ ate the brains of
the dead, Female Genital Mutilation, many African and Muslim states, U.S., some think
that male circumcision is GM,,, holocaust
a note about diversity : the U.S. is powerful because we have absorbed useful ideas from many
different cultures, that is good, more ideas lead to better solutions, but what about
Yugoslavia? Somalia (Hutus and Tutsis)? Northern Ireland? Palestine?
*interpretivism = something a culture does is correct for a reason they believe is valid,
the British wore red uniforms in honor of the royal family
*cultural materialism = there is a more functional explanation for their behavior, they wore red
uniforms so that they wouldn’t shoot each other by mistake
*cultural imperialism = one culture dictates values and behaviors to another culture, can all of
the world’s 3000 cultures survive indefinitely? should they?
*agency = cultures are groups of individuals making similar free choices ++ we choose to fish
for a living because fish are the proper gift of the gods
*structurism = choices are restricted or dictated by the environment or by greater outside forces
they fish for a living because they live near the ocean!! fish would not be the proper gift of
the gods in a desert
*cultural constructionism = a group can form any kind of culture, it is created and learned
women care for small children because ‘snake’ told ‘bird’ that it was the way
*biological determinism = human limits determine what cultural features are possible
women care for small children because they have the milk!!
*cultural ideal = our culture is perfect ++ subjects are loathe to talk about their cultural
blemishes with an outsider
*culture shock = sense of uneasiness and alien-ness you feel when in another culture
*Hawthorne effect = subjects act differently when they know they are being observed
PEOPLE SO FAR
who they are and basically what they did
Chagnon Galdikas Goodall Malinowski Mead
CULTURES
++ something about each one, read about them
Colville Inuit Fore Kung Masai
Mundurucu Nacirema Nuer Yanomamo
form readings and lectures and videos, take NOTES...who, what, when, where, why?...You are NOT expected to remember Diphyllobothrium latum, but you should remember that this is an example of critical cultural relativism, i.e. dietary practices, etc..
Anthropological Fieldwork
Steps in a Research Project
1. Selecting a project–how and why?–an issue or a culture or *subculture--validity--support
2. Funding - government - private - personal - *NGOs - foundations
3. Preparation - equipment - paperwork - approval or permission - licenses - travel visa -
health preparations - recording equipment - advice - language training?
4. Site selection–who exactly are you going to research? - where will you stay? - how will you
communicate with ‘home’? - get supplies? - where will you keep your stuff?
5. Rapport–gaining acceptance and cooperation from the research culture - selecting and
evaluating your informants - fitting into local customs
Fieldwork Techniques
1. *Participant observation
2. Time allocation study
3. Interviews
4. Survey or questionnaire
5. Separating the real from the *cultural ideal - common knowledge
6. Sources for data - *kinship(?) - personal life history - texts or oral traditions - historical
documents, both internal and external
7. KEEP REGULAR FIELD NOTES!!!
Dangers of Fieldwork
1. Disease–#1 cause of failed field projects–this works both ways–water–food–contagion
2. Emotional distress
3. Violence or death–human and animal--injury, attack, infection
4. Imprisonment, hostage taking
A good rule is to treat the host culture with sensitivity and respect. You are the alien.
Evolution
*evolution = a change in gene frequencies over time
*speciation = a change in the genome so significant that two or more populations can no
longer interbreed.
*race = concept of race in humans is not relevant biologically,, my genes may be closer to
anyone in this classroom than anyone else,, in the late 19th century it was SO important
that men spent their entire careers assigning races to different human populations,
steatopygia,,
*natural selection = the proven phenomenon that certain *phenotypes, representing their
genotypes, are preferentially selected for in an environment and consequently proliferate
in excess.
deleterious genes,, = 6 to 10 per person,, sickle cell anemia,, Tay-Sachs,, blood types,, AIDS
survivor without a binding site for the HIV virus, can’t catch AIDS!! = 'delta 21a' allele
Charles Darwin
The Human Biological Classification
Kingdom: animalia
Phylum: chordata
Sub-phylum: vertebrata
Class: mammalia
Order: primates
Family: hominidae
Genus and *species: homo sapiens (sapiens) (subspecies)
Beginning about 60 mya the order *Primates became established in the African tropics.
Beginning about 5.5 mya some became facultatively bipedal. about 4 mya *hominid line split
from ape line,, one or more of these was genus homo,, humans have 23 chromosomes,
chimps have 24, (SHOW human chromosome 2),, chimps and humans have >98% the
same DNA,, mice have about 60% the same DNA as humans
By 200 kya hominids had brains (cranial capacity) of 1100cc
They had the ‘Y5’ cusp pattern and 2:1:2:3 dental formula.
Stereoscopic vision and reduced reliance on smell.
There was a relatively steady increase in brain size and complexity until @40 kya.
Broca’s area.
Females ceased to have an estrus ‘season’ and became continuously receptive.
Significant *sexual dimorphism disappeared about 1 mya. Many mammals have much larger
males than females, baboons about double,,
I am about twice the mass of my wife, but some wives are bigger than their husbands
Males and females interacted more frequently, although a division of labor (and activities)
persists to today.
Man the Hunter vs Woman the Gatherer
Early hominids were *generalists, plant products, scavenging, insects, small animals.
By 700 kya hominids hunted large game and cooked it.
hominines: human-like apes or proto-hominids >4.5 mya
hominids: basically human ‘types’ >3.5 mya
homo habilis : ‘handy man’, @2 mya, probably not a modern human ancestor, males twice as
big as females,, first ‘suspected’ tool maker, now not likely, tools predate habilis
occupation sites
homo erectus : secure modern human ancestor, arose @1.25 mya, spread over entire old
world, persisted in East Asia until 30 kya (still?)
homo sapiens : >500 kya, fully modern humans, found everywhere by 30 kya
homo sapiens neanderthalensis : 250-35 (still?) kya, >1350cc, modern humans average
1180cc.
Out of Africa hypothesis: Successive waves of ‘better’ humans evolved in Africa and spread
and displaced other hominid populations.
Mitochondrial Eve.
Multiregionalism: New evolutionary adaptations spread through existing populations. No one
was ‘replaced’.
Stone tools were extensively used by 2.5 mya, but by who? afarensis? africanus? habilis?
many hominid types
How different are humans from the rest of life on earth?
We have chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas that can read and ‘speak’ sign language. Koko.
Every living thing, plants and animals, makes decisions of one kind or another, bacteria with
salt sensors or eyespots, deciduous trees at Stanislaus, sunflowers,, although our
complexity is transcendent because we have culture.
applied anthropology: obsidian knives for surgery....more
Language
*language: Any method of transmitting information symbolically.
*pragmatics: Study of language in use.
*meme: A communicable unit of cultural information.
*phoneme: Smallest sound unit that affects meaning.
*paralanguage: All forms of non-verbal (body) language.
*grammar: Rules by which words or symbols are organized to make sense.
*syntax: How words of different types are used (adj., verb)
*Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Language directs thought.
*sociolinguistics: Social position and connections direct language use.
*pidgin: An imitation of the parent language.
*creole: Pidgin that has developed its own status.
*dialect: A variety of the parent language.
*kinesics: Body posturing, also dress.
*proxemics: Physical location based on status or gender.
*code: Using different linguistic forms in different situations.
*gender code: Language use that emphasizes the gender of the speaker or listener.
language acquisition: Learning the rules for using symbols in your culture. All children are
pre-wired to learn language. All people are cultural chameleons.
Language, like every element of culture, evolves over time. Languages can die or be killed.
Linguistic anthropology now studies and attempts to preserve as many languages as possible.
Economic Anthropology
*economics: the study of resource (1) production, (2) consumption, and (3) exchange,
the three elements of every economic system.
Socialism: land (or?) is communally owned. All work. All share yield.
Capitalism: land, labor and capital are used to generate profits.
*Modes of production (subsistence) = Primary way people produce resources
*foraging (hunter-gatherers): people wander over large territories and use what nature provides.
generalized or balances reciprocity. No fixed status. boxes and info from pp54-105 (approx)
*extensive strategy, lowest population density, only production system before @ 10,000 ya,
labor and resources shared, some specialization e.g. man-hunter- woman-gatherer,
traditional *use rights are recognized and sometimes defended, *situational leadership
Tiwi of Australia, 1897 = only 100 years, western seamen began trading goods for women,
Tiwi became *peripheral to Euro *Core culture, very few still forage or speak Tiwi, only art
has survived because tourists will buy it, some Tiwi trying to recover but too dependent
on ecotourism, western goods and medicine
*horticulture: gardens of selected or domesticated plants, Aka ‘slash and burn’ or
‘shift cultivation’... extensive strategy... but can generate surpluses leading to
‘sharing ceremonies’ for status, development of *unbalanced reciprocity, gender division
of labor usually makes sense in the beginning but can lead to ‘*prestige’ for one sex.. once
someone invests time and labor in creating a productive garden they are less willing to
freely share with others, they may protect it or demand ‘payment’ for their crops
sustainable? with shifting and fallowing system can last indefinitely, until population
overwhelms the land or outsiders interfere.... Mundurucu of Brazil, 1890 rubber companies
arrived en masse, Mundurucu gradually came to depend on rubber work, moved into
towns, gave up their old ways, population tripled in 65 years, NOW, synthetics replacing
rubber, plants shutting down, area won’t support larger population, few remember how to
survive the old way
*pastoralism: domestic animals as main economic resource animals may be used for labor,
exchange, or products begins to be intensive, strong gender division of labor, unbalanced
reciprocity and (minimal) redistribution, specialists e.g. traders, breeders, cheese makers,
status groups established, inheritance laws, well-defined personal property, trade -> wealth.
sustainable? depends on human nature and influence from outsiders, Tragedy of the
Commons, carrying capacity, Miller book on reindeer pastoralists who are losing out to oil
companies and pollution
*agriculture: persistent use of crop and grazing lands intensive strategy... developed and
spread across old world 10-8 kya, new world @ 5 kya, majority of peoples’ efforts devoted to
maintaining farms, land reclamation, irrigation, permanent settlements -> cities, population
explosion, intense specialization e.g. artisans and craftsmen, priesthood, merchants,
accountants, police and army to protect your property from outsiders and fellow citizens, and to
quell feuding, legal system with courts and attorneys and judges, hierarchical government ->
‘kings’, near total gender division of labor, M/F societal rules and roles, state-supported classes,
redistribution and market economy with haves and have-nots, palaces and slums, Malaysia and
the Green Revolution -> plantations: large tracts of land owned by one family or economic entity
that use ‘cheap’ labor to produce cash crops. Sri Lanka had a good social welfare system until
population exploded from int’l investments in cash cropping and forest products, gov’t factions
now favor ‘their’ supporters
industrial agriculture: use of technology and capital to maximize yields,, machines, fertilizers,
pesticides and herbicides, high capital investment, sometimes more in than out -> subsidies,
farm loans, U.S. family farms harder to keep going 1) urban sprawl and land pressures,
2) corporate farms with support from banks, railroads, politicos, 3) children go to the big city,
4) int’l competition e.g NAFTA, GATT, 5) land fatigue, erosion, pollution, flood, drought, pests,
6) seasonal and migrant workers
collective agriculture: large land area assigned to a group, everyone works and everyone eats,
basic communist ideal. "From each according to their ability; to each according to their need."
rarely works, failed in USSR because 1) conflicts of interest, 2) lack of motivation to work
harder, 3) Lysenko didn’t understand or accept modern evolutionary genetics!!
is agriculture sustainable? land, water (c.valley), in 1999 were more than 70 ‘water wars’,
value of fossil fuels sutainable??
*industrialism: production of goods for sale - factories and businesses, corporate law, licensing,
"Anyone can grow rich in America" vs realistic expectations, permanent underclass, most
people in world make less than $400 per year,
*formal economy
: officially recognized source of your economic support. ex. what you write onForm 1040 - your ‘official’ job
*informal economy: sources of support or sustenance not officially recognized or accepted.
ex. sharing, bartering goods and services, ‘crime’ e.g. drugs, theft, extortion, prostitution, urban
Thai child prostitutes, > 50% HIV positive,,sustainable? American ‘ghost towns’
*information age: Trading of information for economic gain. ++knowledge is power. most of our
economy is now service based, information will be the largest sector of western economies in
21st century, inter-net in theory allows anyone in the world to become a successful information
provider
*consumption: consists of intake and spending
*modes of consumption: *minimalism vs.*consumerism, in a *market economy, time =money
*consumption fund: essentially the family budget
(1) *basic needs fund: resources (and time) devoted to survival
(2) *recurrent costs fund: resources devoted to maintenance
(3) *entertainment fund: for leisure activities
(4) *ceremonial fund: for special cultural events,, e.g. weddings, other ceremonies
(5) *tax or rent fund: paid to some authority for the ‘right’ to proceed with earning a living. much
is lost but some serves to support the cultural system, e.g. highways, irrigation projects,
schools, libraries, electricity
note: women buy food and clothing, men buy jet skis and big screen TVs!!
*entitlement: what you and your culture agree you have a right to
disc: rights, entitlements, reasonable expectations
*Economic microcultures
1. *class: distance from necessity, distance from danger
2. *gender: men and women have different needs and consume different resources.
ex. tampons
3. *race: cultures or countries will arbitrarily assign people to racial categories, with attendant
economic consequences,, African Amers are @ 50% white, so why black?, Halle Berry,
Mariah Carey, Tiger Woods,, Apartheid, Jim Crow, ‘white flight’
4. *age: different resources are needed by young,, lots of food!, car, schoolbooks, Nikes
new families,, housing, job and equipment, appliances, social network (ex. child care)
aged,, specialized diet or medicine, living assistance Inuit aged ‘go to sleep’ on ice floats, U.S.
adults cared for IF they have the money, homeless aged, families now less likely to contribute
to support of aged relatives, :: Social Security and Medicare
Son preference increases with trend towards market economy,
Chinese orphan girls, Kim and school
*consumption taboos: 1)food, Jews and Muslims don’t eat pork, probably because pork
tapeworm Taenia saginata was particularly virulent, 2)unseemly wealth or greed, remember
greedy and generous Yanomamo? AE article where anthropologist was belittled for his
arrogance?
*Exchange: giving and getting
includes: food & drink, wives, labor (ex. barn raising), tools, symbolic goods (love potions, body
ornaments), information, privileges
*general purpose money vs *special purpose money
Modes of exchange
1. *generalized reciprocity: everyone gives everyone else whatever they need, they share,
secure in the knowledge that the favor will be returned. Who?
2. *balanced reciprocity: people give to each other creating an obligation on the part of the
donee. Who?
3. *redistribution: A third party determines who needs what and how much each should be
given. Who?
4. *market exchange: What you can get is strictly tied to what you have, or can produce. Who?
5. Other exchanges: Pure gift - no reciprocity required or expected. Theft - one takes from
another without social approval. Exploitation - dominants expect resources from subordinate,
extreme example is slavery, disc. sustained unbalanced exchange, Efe (pygmy foragers) and
Lese (farmers) of Zaire=Congo,, permanent family ties
*risk aversion: cultural strategy to ameliorate economic adversity. communities, even today,
form to ‘insure’ themselves against economic adversity
inequality: unequally distributed rights and resources. disc pp 102, all economic activity must
lead to inequality, more activity = greater inequality, *relative vs *absolute poverty, you aren’t
poor if everybody is poor,, my mom and ‘summer shoes’
*cultural exchange vs *cultural resistance: no culture I know of has ever refused steel knives,
machetes, BUT, many cultures today are resisting westernization, they understand it could
destroy them in a few generations,, 3 gorges dam in China
Introducing a cash crop economy: Costa Rica Moskito + turtle soup,
Mundurucu + rubber,
coffee, sisal, sugar cane, pineapple, tobacco, marijuana and cocaine,,
leads to -> Privatization: formerly common resources are assigned to a family or group.
‘connected’ take over crop lands, acquire cheap or slave labor (convicts), make enormous
short-term profits while very few benefit, many starve and MORE starve if project ends
ex. former USSR, white people in Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Rumania, PhD’s in physics
advertising will work for $40 a month!!!
EXAM 2 NOTES
Kinship
Kinship
* = who we believe we are related to, cultural universal, influences all social interactions(ex. exchange, loyalty), in simpler cultures may be the only organizing principle
Western cultures focus on ‘blood’ relationships [genetics] (ex. genetic testing for paternity)
Some cultures count only blood of mother OR father Matrilineal* or patrilineal* descent
usually includes inheritance and legal rights as well
(ex. Minangkabau of Malaysia were matrilineal before @1880, women owned and controlled
1)Dutch colonialists, 2) Islamic influence, 3) state government pressures to ‘westernize’ and
put men in charge) (ex, US and welfare-mother laws, lie about having a ‘husband’ or mate)
*Nuclear family = husband(s) wife(s) and children, 25% world
*Extended family = also includes generational relatives and may include uncles, aunts, nieces,
nephews and in-laws 50% of world’s cultures
Polygamy* = more than one mate
Polyandry* = more than one husband (Himalayas, why?)
Polygyny* = more than one wife (accumulated resources give males power, they can afford and
defend more than one wife and many children)
Descent* = tracing kinship through parentage (study chapter carefully, but not the Lim
family tree)
Bilineal descent* = you are the child of both parents
Unilineal descent* = you are the child of one parent
Household choice: matrilocal* = newlyweds live near wife’s family,
patrilocal* = near husband’s family,
neolocal* = new location independent of parents’ locations.
Double descent* = you get different things from each parent (ex. Bangangte of W Afr, from
father get physical resemblance, land rights, residency...from mother get movable property,
personality, witchcraft substance of the intestines)
Bilineal descent* = equally related to mother and father and equally entitled by both lines
Primogeniture* = first born son (usually) inherits bulk of family estate
Non-genetic descent* = culturally assigned kinship not based on parentage (sometimes called
fictive kin). Blood, food sharing, breast milk, adoption, kibbutzim, children as gifts, surrogacy
Ascribed kinship* = culturally recognized birth right
Acquired kinship* = any form of achieved relationship
Westermarck hypothesis*: early M/F association discourages mating with ‘relatives’.
Kibbutz example.
Yushi indians: originally all over S.E. U.S., now pockets in Louisiana and Oklahoma, any child
born to a Yushi woman is considered 100% Yushi.
Selecting a spouse: Who? Preferences.
Rules of exclusion: Incest taboos are almost universal
notable exceptions = British royalty (hemophilia), Egyptians
sociobiological explanation = fewer combinations of deleterious genes
hybrid vigor vs. miscegenation
endogamy* = marriage within a recognized group or lineage
exogamy* = marriage outside a recognized group or lineage
discuss Cambodian height isogamous marriages
note: don’t worry about other terminology
Love and Marriage... or Not Japan example=families unite
Middle East fundamentalist Moslems=wives as gifts to reduce tensions......Yanomamo ‘relatives’
less likely to fight....Marriage as an exchange system...trading wives and resources
inheritance rights...alliances...personal and societal stability
Changing economic conditions and subsistence modes >>changing marriage and family
strategies (discuss U.S. and wild west vs single working moms today)
note: summary end of Ch.5 and all chapters as well-
Dowry* = what you are paid to accept a wife
Bride price* = what you pay for a wife
Marriage ceremonies....are they simpler in simpler societies?
Family* = includes people who consider themselves kin
Household* = everyone who lives in a single dwelling (ex. India, extended households >50
people) (ex. Stockton SE Asians & houses)
head of household...or not...patrifocal* matrifocal*
remittance* = non-resident member of a family sends money home....an informal economic
strategy (ask them if they can think of an example, read about informal strategies
Divorce or Death, and Re-marriage rules...another cultural universal...but...very different rules
in different cultures
ex: Catholic church and Henry VIII ex: royalty
ex: men can generally divorce more easily than women "I divorce"
ex: what about U.S. today?
Good Housekeeping 1989= 12% chance that divorced woman over 35 will find new husband
within 2 years, 0% chance that lonely women over 35 will renew their subscription!!
As a general rule, extended families try harder to keep marriages intact and to replace lost
partners
Marriage as part of a social network
Extensive kin as a means of *‘risk aversion’
In 1996 U.S. achieved its 100 millionth household, doubled in <40 years
Demography* = the categorical description of a population
Measures: fertility, mortality, migration, age, sex, religion, economic status, etc.. draw some
charts, discuss
Total human population reached 2 million in >200,000 years
Oct 1999, reached 6 billion, i.e. 6,000 million, in about 10,000 years!!
Paul Ehrlich..2150 one person per square yard, 2350 people outweigh the earth, 2500 people
expanding away from earth’s surface at speed of light....ZPG = Population Connection
Today: U.S. and European populations are declining if you exclude immigration. Japan stable.
China slowed by government policy. Southern hemisphere and India have exploding population
growth. Mexico City, Calcutta
Poorest grow fastest. Why?
1) inability to control birth rates, 2) high death rates, esp. children, 3) children as labor assets,
4) children as lottery tickets, 5) children as saleable commodities, 6) in U.S. there is a strong
positive correlation between low intelligence and high number of children.
look at figure 5.1 (quiz)
infanticide*= killing an unwanted or unneeded child
Politics of fertility... individual, family, social group, government, global
Fertility controls = methods of controlling birth rates (me read from 109 ff)
Becoming a Person
Personality* = the predictable patterns of an individual’s behavior...their ‘default’ behavioral
manifestation. (ex smart, aggressive, funny, lazy)
We learn our personality from birth...but...we also have personality traits that are influenced by
our genetic inheritance. (ex Schiz =50%. g=17%)
Life Stages
Generally: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, aged
Western medicine bases these categories on empirical biological features e.g. size, cognitive
competence, sexual condition, other physical and chemical traits... other cultures may use
different schemas...(ex. Mayans have no adolescence)
Birth and Infancy
Birth...who is involved?...Nisa?..a Kung woman gives birth in the forest, buries afterbirth or
deformed child...Ibo of Nigeria? woman gives birth alone, kills twins or triplets because copies
must be evil spirits masquerading as infants to attack the family and tribe, but you can’t tell
which one is the real baby...U.S.?..hospital staff, fathers not admitted until @ 20 years ago
Pre-natal considerations: nutrition, disease,
placental feeding Brazil 1966
Infancy* = stage of total dependency...who cares for the infant? Industrialized
countries=medical or child-care professionals, specialists... Pre-ind. cultures= extended family
and elder women, mention where men take care of the babies
Problems with medicalized infant care
1. Breast-milk substitutes - no colostrum
2. Eye contact - 14" focal set at birth
3. Body contact+smell, sensation development, euphoria
4. Sleeping apart- babies learn how to breathe, SIDS
Enculturation begins in infancy- blue/pink, touch/look, vocal intensity, in other words, you are
told from day one what your gender expectations are
Childhood* = The years before puberty...children learn the roles they are expected to fulfill, the
mores of their particular culture, are introduced to the skills they will need to prosper as adult
members of their culture. children are evaluated and ascribed to categories..games and class
and gender, social introduction experiments, apprenticeships, association rules, school
Adolescence* = years from puberty to adulthood... during this time one becomes a fully invested
adult, career choice, marriage and parenthood. Adolescents are under constant scrutiny by
adult members of their culture.
Adulthood* = Time of life when one is full-time, role-fulfilling, recognized, involved, assigned....
Adults and elders have virtually permanent cultural identities.
Elder* = One who is beyond their most productive years... Elders were traditionally considered
to be valuable ‘databases’, they had experienced events of the past and could advise their
group when similar circumstances arose, held valuable and useful information, reverence,
inter-generational debt, passing along traditions. Now, in advanced societies, their
information is often obsolete. (ex DOS 2.0 vs Windows Me...arrows vs air-to-ground
missiles...armed men vs manned weapons systems)
note: teachers are information
‘magnets’...elaborate
Tortoise and Hare phenomenon* = technology >culture >nature
( rock vs arrow vs nuclear device )
note: nearly EVERY feature of YOUR life has come into existence in the last 100 years, most in
last 25 years
Death* = End of life, end of metabolic or cultural activity.... People live longer with each
generation. Some in this class may live for hundreds of years... "Everybody wants to go to
heaven, but nobody wants to die." Iwan woman? Inuit aged?
Rites of Passage
Separation* = stage where one ceases to be a member of their previous category. involves
‘isolation’
Transition* = stage where one is becoming a member of a new cultural category, usually
involves a ritual. involves ‘marginality’
Re-incorporation* = stage where one re-enters their culture with a new classification.
EXAM 3 NOTES
Social Order & Politics
A society will not survive long as a society without common adherence to certain agreed upon
norms or rules. In earlier and in less complex cultures these norms are integrated into the
cultural fabric, "everyone knows you shouldn’t do that". Those who broke the rules were
corrected, usually by extended family and friends. Repeat offenders (and the greedy) were
‘tried’ by the community and could be ostracized.
Norms* = culturally expected rules of behavior
Ostracism* = removal from the group and loss of group rights
*Internalized social controls...‘Shape up or ship out’. Justice is applied by common consent....
As opposed to:
Laws* = enforceable rules of behavior...law breakers can be punished by those who have the
authority to do so
Authority* = agent or agency generally recognized as being most qualified to make a decision or
provide a solution ex: any recognized political body, federal, county, court, administrative,
educational... ex: Islamic fundamentalist governments in Iran, Turkey–ex: in the U.S? Christian
Coalition would like to have the authority to enforce their version of ‘God’s laws’.
When you have a legal authority what problems always come with it? = unequal application of
the ‘law’. Use of ‘the law’ to discriminate against a group or class.
ex: Blacks in U.S. 3/5 vote, no vote for women, separate but equal,
selective enforcement, ex: golfing buddies (Diablo Grande),
S & L scandal, < 1 % through 1997 after > 12 years, Hurwitz of Pacific Lumber and
the Redwoods.
Powder cocaine vs. crack.
As societies become larger and more complex, and these types of inequities become common,
we see the appearance of Legal specialists = police, lawyers, judges, prison system
Earlier societies may have relied on ‘curses’ or ‘trial by ordeal’. (Explain) Eventually we have a
prison system. Table 12.1 Compare to U.S. Black youth.
PUBLIC VIOLENCE = different interest groups or ethnic or political groups engage in physical conflict.
*ETHNOCIDE = killing of a cultural identity.
*GENOCIDE = killing of a category of people.
Conflict
Interpersonal conflict ‘We always hurt the one we love’. You are very unlikely to attack a total
stranger, unless he breaks into your house. Kentucky wife abuse. Pp. 276 Phulan Devi =
‘Bandit Queen of India" poor girl, ran away from arranged marriage, abused by local
‘big shots’ Thakurs, kidnaped and raped twice, joined bandit group, imprisoned as ‘murder
suspect’, so popular she became a M.P!! (note: assassinated 2002)
note:
in the U.S. at least as many wives attack husbands as husbands attack wives , BUT ,women are often seriously injured while men usually just get a bruise.
Family feuds Can extend to entire groups or tribes, based on revenge for a prior wrong, may
never end. ex: Hutu & Tutsi, N.Ire. Cath. & Prot., Israel & Palestine, Hatfields & McCoys
When entire cultures are involved we call it an Ethnic conflict ex: Bosnian Serbs vs. Kosovar
Albanians. Most political violence today is within states, not between states.
Warfare* = State vs state for complete geographic and political control. One could include
band-tribe-chiefdom in this category, but in today’s world these conflicts pale in comparison to
WW II. We don’t even officially call Korea and Viet Nam ‘wars’. So what do you need for a ‘war’?
Essentially, a well organized military force, maybe even a permanent standing army, with
generals and a hierarchy, massive commitment to armaments, a political authority strong
enough to sustain a war. Today’s states (nations) have this. We have killing capabilities that
can nearly destroy the entire Earth. It is possible for one nation to erase another completely,
during Viet-Nam Gen. Westmoreland said, "We will bomb them back into the Stone Age." We
need to be very careful about war, everyone does.
Political classifications
Band* (foragers) = a group of 20 to 100 generally related individuals who forage and live
together and share similar cultural traits. ex: Kung, Bindibu, no authority, almost no status (age),
almost no property (elders scowl if everyone doesn’t get a fair share), no need for politics, rarely
over 100 people, association by choice or environmental necessity, almost always involves
blood kinship, fluid membership, situational leadership, people don’t have to follow the leader,
no stratification, generalized or balanced reciprocity, bias against greed, bias against
arrogance. 10,000 ya everyone lived this way. Agriculture allowed tribes and chiefdoms to
evolve.
Tribe* (foraging, horticulture, pastoralism ) ex: Mende from the book, "a political group that
comprises several bands or lineage groups, each with a similar language and life-style, and
occupying a distinct territory." Kinship is an important factor, but ethnicity can qualify one for
membership (putative ancient ancestor) (traditional relationship), also adoption into, Balanced
or unbalanced reciprocity
headman Generally recognized authority, decision maker, also a regular working member of the
group. Mende have little interest in outside world. clans and kinship are sole basis for political
organization. men and women live ‘separately?’. balanced and unbalanced reciprocity, some
redistribution as ‘big-men’ can push exchanges one way or the other. still has limited authority.
Mende are beset by spirits which cults can control. New spirit cult is like an election for political
influence. Everyone is involved. How about you?
big man Increased reliance on ‘community leaders’ to handle decision making for the group, has
more permanent and broadly recognized authority, oversees redistribution, mediates disputes
on a regular basis. A family can retain big man status for several generations, but a foolish or
greedy big man WILL be replaced, magic and divine providence can be factors.
Tribes may sometimes unite to form confederacies*. ex: Kayapo of eastern Brazil,, proposed
dam would flood them all, ex: Sioux ‘nation’ formed to defend against the U.S. army.
Chiefdom* def=permanent alliance of tribes and villages under a recognized leadership
lineage... horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture. ex: Ghana and Nigeria
With complex, large, stable societies came a need for an empowered political system. We now
have an understood class distinction, potential chiefs vs non-potential chiefs. Chiefdoms are
usually inherited within a family line. Loyalty is rewarded. The Chiefdom is a permanent and
necessary office, there must always BE a chief, enormous effort and political collusion/upheaval
must occur before a chiefdom can be replaced. Chiefdoms arise as substantial permanent
resources become important, people feel the need for a dependable and consistent authority to
handle redistribution, conflicts, and recurring challenges to security. can be Matriarchy or
Patriarchy (arch) Ruling or governing hierarchy.
+++Cities+++ Lots of specialists appear, craftsmen, priests,
security personnel, accountants, advisers, tradesmen.
State* = (agriculture, industry, information) ex:USA = a permanent, self-sustaining, political
entity, with near complete authority to exercise coercive control over its members. Permanent
government, centralized power, coercive power, increasing hierarchy, classes, specialization,
redistribution leading to a market economy, infrastructure, permanent food surplus, individual
and group wealth, legitimized state power. Was the Ayatollah of Iran legitimate? Castro? States
emerged in different parts of the world when intensive agriculture created very large populations
and the potential for continuous resource surpluses.
Middle-eastern civilizations = Who gets to be king? Kinship, Most of the Arab world is ruled by
related families.
People now rely on ‘state power’ to protect their property and interests, states define conditions
for citizenship and rights and responsibilities UNDER THE LAW. This law becomes the final
arbiter. (Eminent domain). King can overrule dukes and marquis, U.S. federal law supersedes
state or city laws. What was the first federal law that required capital punishment? Treason.
States have permanent internal and external security forces, states can redistribute wealth
using force, states can control access to information and can manipulate information and
symbols, states inevitably act in favor of one interest over another.
Nation States
are taking over everywhere. much more power. bureaucracies, economies,legislatures, courts, institutions, armies.
Will there be a one-world government? Klingons. not in this century.
African colonial borders now not respected by native cultures. N/S Korea. N/S Viet-Nam.
discuss strength of cultural diversity. US ‘southern strategy’.
World Systems Theory* = core nations* control peripheral nations* economically... Over last
400 years national hierarchies have developed. Based on a country’s ability to control trading of
world resources. U.S. on top right now. "The sun never sets on the British empire." Spanish
Armada.
1st= 2nd= 3rd= 4th=
Official language of U.N.? European Space Agency? ENGLISH!! Japan, Taiwan, Phillippines=
mandatory English in high school. Most other countries English is #1 recommended second
language
+++talk about relative vs absolute poverty...summer shoes
Federalism vs state’s rights... campaign finance reform... people are naturally ‘charitable’,
sometimes want to buy immortality or enhance family name...
Symbols are very important in maintaining cultural unity at all political levels. Who can give me
some examples for: Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, State? Symbols with stigma attached? Symbols of
power and authority? show them Quiz
VIDEO: ‘Social Order’ and ‘Politics’
People have always had to get along with other people. People are our environment. Society
must have order to function. Every cultural system requires organization.
"Economies of scale" = size and circumstances of group are inevitably linked with type of
organization that will arise.
Individuals want to belong to a society that protects their interests.
Leveled reproductive opportunity.
Social controls are always present to preserve order. internal social controls*
Religion can preserve order. Amish kids, 8th grade school, have to move out as there is not
enough land to divide and they don’t practice polyandry.
More complex societies require more formalized and permanent social controls = external social
controls*.
Simpler societies have no ‘laws’, everyone simply wants disputes avoided or ended, harmony
restored. Eskimo ‘drum-song’ duel...who wins? Other bands ostracize offenders, and members
are free to leave if they are unhappy.
Tribes need a ‘public court’ to resolve disputes. Why?–property and territory are involved.
Maybe will have a mediating board of elders. Compromise that satisfies the tribe is necessary or
group will fall apart. Berabaig women can hold court against male offenders. If he doesn’t pay
quickly they will tear down his house and return his wives to their families!!
Trial by ordeal...why does it work?
Maasai..interband conflict, fight but don’t try to kill others..elder asks for peace and they stop
Warfare intensity is correlated with possession of ‘valuable’ property. Nation states seek to
acquire and control the maximum amount of resources. Leadership must convince people that
their side is right, need societal commitment or effort will fail. Rosie da Riveter vs.
Viet-Nam protests.
Politics from the tribal level up involves negotiation between factions. pro-life vs pro-choice...
tobacco industry donated to Democrats when they held congressional majorities, 1996 donated
70% to Republicans... environmentalists support Democrats... high income earners support
Republicans... 2000 election 90% of black Americans voted for Al Gore.
Gender and Sex Roles
*Gender is the suite of sexual and sexually associated expectations ascribed to people by
themselves and by others.
This is a subject that has been, and still is, studied to the point of exhaustion by researchers in
nearly every academic field. From the amount of effort spent on this subject it would seem that
there must be fundamental differences between men and women. What do we know for sure?
1) Men are generally larger and stronger than women. What can we conclude?
2) Men’s brains are physically larger than women’s brains, yet women’s brains tend to have
greater neuronal density and more extensively developed commissures. What can weconclude?
3) Women engage in more conversation and are more aware of the details of their
surroundings, including the relationships of others within their sphere of activity. Is this a cause
or effect; innate or learned?
4) Women’s speech is closer to the grammatical ideal. More practice? More important to
communicate with precision? Better equipment?
Ruth Benedict: "No anthropologist has ever believed that individuals are automatons,
mechanically carrying out the decrees of their (culture)."
Margaret Mead: "An adolescent’s primary job is to define their gender."
Why this consuming concern about, "Who am I?"
Roy Rappaport: When discussing cultural inertia, including gender norms, used the term
cultural self-regulation, concepts of positive and negative reinforcement of cultural behaviors,
possibility that ‘Fisher’s runaway hypothesis’ was at work.
Conrad Kottak: The way people divide up the world reflects their experiences of it.
Nature – We fulfill gender roles naturally. Apes–oops. Alpha males? Women love their babies
more?
Nurture – We are taught our appropriate gender roles. Dolls and doll houses. Legs together.
Burping and farting. Conflict or cooperation.
Sociobiology – egg (400-600) vs sperm (trillions) opportunities to reproduce
Biology – Pregnancy Lactation Sensitivity to infant
Sex roles and gender status vary radically X-cult.
Androgen insensitivity syndrome. www . isna. org
Gender associated status correlates X-cult with relative economic contribution to the family or
group.
Women tend to be home-bound X-cult, activities and responsibilities home-oriented. Why?
A) Babies not mobile B) Mama has the milk C) Hunting and warfare are strength activities
D) Women have never, in any culture, been the trading gender E) Mahopa !Kung are becoming
‘residentials’, women are becoming the house keepers. Is this natural? Is it because male
herding and jobs increase the relative economic contribution of the men? Are they imitating
their sedentary neighbors?
Foragers
men and women tend to have nearly equal status. Why?Horticulture Martin and Voorhies (1975) analyzed 513 horticultural groups. In 50% of them
women did more subsistence work than men, 33% worked equally, 17% men worked more than
women. 64% of those groups where women did more work than men were matrilineal. Also,
where men leave the group for extended time periods (ex. tracking migrant game, warfare with
remote enemy), women may ‘take over’ the political and economic duties, and sometimes keep
them. Lysistrata Rosie da Riveter.
In matrifocal groups may have ‘mama’s boys’ as political leaders.
Women sometimes gain status through magic.
Pastoralism The % of reliance on herd products correlates directly with % loss of female status.
ex. Balkan pastoralist fathers do not consider their female children to be their children, only
property to be traded to other males.
Agriculture On average males do 81% of the subsistence work. Women become totally
domestic, expected to have lots of sons and maintain the home.
Industrial Factory work (physically hard) led to extreme male ascendancy, similar to agriculture.
Changes in technology (ex. computers and robotics, service industries) are leading to a re-
emergence of female status in the West. Women have traditionally been cheaper and more
reliable workers, but there are now many self-made female millionaires in U.S. Have they
caught up? Are they catching up? Will they catch up?
When resources (e.g jobs) become scarce female status falls faster than male status (also in
Ag).
70% of U.S. poor are female. U.S. women’s wages today about 78% of men’s for same (?) job.
Sexism compares to racism, it is difficult to hide your skin color or gender.
Ashley Montagu
(1974) "In connection with the modern form of race prejudice it is of interest torecall that almost every one of the arguments used by the racists to ‘prove’ the inferiority of one
or another so-called ‘race’ was not so long ago used by the anti-feminists to ‘prove’ the
inferiority of the female as compared with the male. In the nineteenth century it was fairly
generally believed that women were inferior creatures. Was it not apparent to everyone that
their intelligence was lower, that they were essentially creatures of emotion rather than of
reason - volatile swooning natures whose powers of concentration were severely limited and
whose creative abilities were restricted almost entirely to knitting and child birth? For hundreds
of years women had played musical instruments and painted, but to how many great female
musicians and painters could one point? Where were the great women poets and novelists?
Women had practically no executive ability, were quite unable to manage the domestic finances,
and, as for competing with men in the business or professional world, such an idea was utterly
preposterous, for women were held to possess neither the necessary intelligence nor the
equally unattainable stamina. Man’s place was out in the world; woman’s place was definitely in
the home."
2002 Males Females
U.S. Population 48.8% 51.2%
U.S. Senate 84 16
U.S. House 378 57
Supreme Court 7 2
Governors 44 6
State Legislators 84.2% 15.8%
1999 College and University students 36% 64%
It is becoming more likely that we all will be working for a woman boss in the 21st century.
Women have good memories!
Psychological Anthropology
Psychology: The science of the nature, functions, and phenomena of the human soul or mind
(Oxford Eng. Dict) The study of mental processes and their associated behaviors (Physiological
Psych) Deals with those things we consider ‘mental’.i.e. ideas, beliefs, thoughts, motives,
attitudes, valuations, symbols, reason, perception, memory, cognition, feelings, and emotions
(Langness, 1987)
Psychological anthro attempts to understand the mental processes causing cultural behaviors
rather than simply recording and categorizing the behaviors as events. Early anthropologists felt
that increased behavioral complexity was the result of increased cognitive competence,
evolving along with man’s physical features. They were wrong. Recall that human brains
haven’t changed much in more than 40,000 years. Culture has evolved as a result of the
complex brain we have had for 40 millenia.
E.B. Tylor Introduced the term ‘cultural anthropology’ Concluded that available information
increases, but that our minds process it in much the same manner that humans always have.
Wilhelm Wundt
Father of ‘scientific psychology’ Wrote ten volumes !! On psych anth andconcluded that the same mental processes were found dealing with the same circumstances in
all cultures.
A. L. Kroeber Linguist of the early 1900's Concluded that anthropology cannot be reduced to
psychology, that culture of necessity involves ‘groups’ of people who must have varying points
of view and degrees of congruence with the cultural norm. There can’t be a single cultural
psychological mind-set. I.e. you can’t grade cultures on a psychological scale (ex. band tribe,
etc.)
Consensus today: a competent cultural anthropologist should have an understanding of
psychological principles in order to avoid erroneous conclusions about his subjects’ behaviors,
but cannot rely on psychology to answer cultural questions completely.
Is there a national character? No. Cultures consist of individuals. Milgram experiment.
*Personality:
an individual’s default behavior patterns*Self: that which divides one person from others and from the environment
Psychological enculturation: the process of adjusting your personality so that you are
acceptable within your group. Every society has norms, ideal rules for behavior, but these rules
are rarely precise. All societies tolerate moderate digressions from normal behavior. Individuals
whose behavior deviates radically from the accepted are either expelled, punished, killed, or
sanctified!!
James Watson: (Behavioral psychologist) personalities are shaped by the societies in which
they are formed.
Ira Black: (Neuro-scientist) "Brains recovered from people of all societies, when examined at
autopsy, exhibit a consistency of structure that negates any physiological basis for racial or
ethnic classification."
Daniel Dennett: (Philosopher of science) " Our environment shapes our personality; but it is
much like carving beads out of different woods. All of the beads on a necklace appear uniform,
until one notices the grain."
Max Weber: (Sociologist) Inadvertently cited ‘biological determinism’ when he made the
observation that a society’s purpose in its environment demands a certain psychological profile.
ex. Wait for ground squirrels (or seals!), boisterous or impatient won’t make it
Cultural Universals
In every culture, people tend to blame their own failures on external forces, and the failures of
others on personality flaws. (assignment)
Every culture has ‘ghost stories’.
Every culture has ways of dealing with *deviants: those who fail to meet the behavioral
requirements of their cultural roles.
Anthropologists are more interested in how a person’s behavior changes in fulfilling different
roles. Psychologists look for consistencies of behavior regardless of role or environment.
Personal cultural inadequacy always leads to anxiety or depression.
Lack of control over larger forces always leads to fear and usually to supernatural explanation.
All cultures have words for guilt, grief, love, shame, anger, hatred, disgust, joy, sadness.
Maybe all cultures have ways to achieve ‘altered consciousness’, i.e. to separate part of your
mental self from the rigors and responsibilities of life....drugs, trance, hypnosis, meditation...
people everywhere seem to have the capacity to do this naturally by adjusting their psyche,
physical condition, or body chemistry.
Many cultures engage in group trance states...seems to solidify their cultural connectedness
All cultures have a belief in good and evil. Usually those things that promote life are good and
those that promote death are evil. (Talk about entropy)
All cultures have at least a token of ritual consolation.
All cultures find something to be beautiful.
All cultures have members who are mentally ill or mentally deficient.
In short, all people think about similar things in similar ways, but those things they think about
are those things they have experienced, and the degree to which they devote effort or accord
importance to different universal psychological situations varies with their cultural association.
read the stories about psychological deviance
Cosmology
*Cosmology: an explanation of universal forces or rules, incl. science, religion, and magic.
+ Every culture has spiritual beliefs. People are curious. People want to know why...and what
they can do about it. If they can’t figure out a physical explanation and can’t control it physically,
they will create a supernatural explanation
*Science: the attempt to explain phenomena in a rational, reliable, and testable manner.
++Science goes back a long ways. Early hominids developed technological methods for dealing
with their environment. They made spears that were sharp on the front end, they made
containers for carrying water outside the body, they had scientific rules about these objects,
stone tool technology. But there were some things that they could do little about...illness and
death, drought and flood, depression, mis-carriage, etc. So they created
*Religion: belief in supernatural beings or supernatural forces that are purposeful.
++Something or someone was affecting those elements of their lives that THEY could not
effectively control. External forces, beyond control and perhaps beyond understanding. Such
forces MIGHT be negotiated with if one could find them and communicate with them.
so>>>
*Magic: efforts to control natural or supernatural forces or to influence the actions of
supernatural beings or ancestors ++people tried to do something about these physically
un-manageable problems.
*Imitative magic: surrogate influences actual (aka sympathetic)
++images or icons (ex :voodoo, totems, spirit charms,etc.). Costumed dancers representing the
various deities or spirits.
*Contagious magic: you can influence a person (living or dead) if you have part of their body,
maybe one of their possessions
Having a lock of a person’s hair, having their picture, their blood, their lucky arrow, touching or
seeing their wife or children
early anthropologists suggested all peoples traveled the path Magic—>religion—>science
NOT... USSR for a while, now worldwide resurgence of Christianity and Islam
*Animism: living (and maybe non-living, ex: rivers) things have souls, a component that exists
in a different state than the physical, and is usually immune to physical death.
++concept of duality of nature (Descartes) (ME),, talk about this
Animatism: amorphous supernatural forces, some people can ‘tap into them’ ++witches,,
shamans,, spirit traps,, altered consciousness,, ethnobotany,, possession
Myth: stories about supernatural forces or beings, creation myths, heroic myths, urban myths,
proverbs. Levi-Strauss considers these a philosophy of life.
++talk about each of these,,,
Doctrines: formal regulatory statements of religious belief
++what you must do to be ‘in’ the religion, code of behaviors, rules of participation, ritual rules,
how to be ‘saved’
Zoomorphic deities: supernatural beings with a fleshy substance or appearance ++Coyote,
Serpent, Tree of Life,
Anthropomorphic deities: have a human substance or appearance
++Judeo-Christian god, Greek and Roman gods, Norse gods
Religious rituals-
++link people to each other,, strengthen cultural unity,, bond people to religious authority and
doctrine,, sanctify rights of passage, give people a day off, temporary freedom from hierarchical
controls, (ex. reversal ritual, ‘small’ people have temporary power, women can be men,
underlings can order their bosses around, lay citizens can address gods directly, etc.) Sacrifices
are a kind of reciprocal exchange with the gods.
Priests and Shamans: religious specialists, considered to be closer to gods, have influence in
the spirit world
Major world religions- (World Almanac, 1998)
Religion adherents arose major centers
Christianity 2 billion Middle East almost everywhere
Islam 1 billion Middle East M.E., Africa, Isl. Asia
Hinduism 900 mill. India S. Asia, Indonesia
Buddhism 400 mill. India China, SE Asia
New Age 150 mill. ???? None (Tom Cruise?)
African indigenous 70 mill. Africa Africa, Caribbean
Judaism 20 mill. Middle East Israel
Confucianism 7 mill. China China (Viet Nam)
Christian Syncretism: absorption of Christian doctrine into native religion
Cosmology explains things, unifies groups via their shared beliefs, gives people hope that they
can control their lives and environment. Often based on principles that work for the benefit of a
culture and its members (ex. cloven hoof, evil glade, forbidden waters, forbidden fruit)
The down side- Religion can become too strong, can destroy people’s lives (ex. can’t marry
outside your faith) (sinner becomes outcast) (Blacks are not humans, not one of the ten tribes) ,
can put people in conflict who shouldn’t be (ex. N. Ireland) can validate a social inequity or a
harmful practice (genital mutilation, women as ’soulless’ and therefore valueless, jihad,
crusades, pro-life (ex. abortion clinic bombings), anti-science movements (ex. earth center of
universe [Galileo], earth flat, earth only 4,000 years old, evolution a devil’s doctrine), divine right
of kings or actual divinity of kings or priests, sacred cows, hashassins, Taliban, Inquisition vs
heretics and witches... sometimes becomes a cover for political oppression (ex. American
Indians everywhere.)
Material Culture
*Technology = everything a culture makes and uses
++includes tools, weapons, conveyances, clothing, typewriters, etc.
*Expressive Culture = symbolic objects or actions a culture makes or does
++Art, design, graphics, sculpture, group activities, theatre, dance.
All fields of anthropology are interested in this cultural feature. What is expressed? Symbols.
The symbols that are chosen to fix in a culture communicate what has meaning and value for
that culture. Ex: high domes in cathedrals and mosques = closer to heaven, make you feel
small, Elaborate architectural forms and size and decoration communicates power or wealth.
Even physical anthropologists have an interest in this, body art as a selective indicator, dance
or ritual contest as a fitness indicator.
Everyone has art ++How do we know? Nanda says, " **art is manipulation beyond practical
necessity." Even cave people would scratch symbols on their stone tools, might have been for
magical purposes, maybe because they thought it made their tools ‘prettier’, BUT didn’t improve
the tool’s function. Look at page 360 for the variety of things we consider ‘artistic’, quite a large
range.
Fine Art vs Folk Art
Let me get on a soapbox for a few minutes. Some argue that this is an ethnocentric distinction,
but those who support the idea that there is ‘fine’ art stress (1) discipline and training
(2) consistency of form (3) aesthetic purpose (4) Any art or music students? Why do you take
15-25 ‘major’ classes to get a degree IF it doesn’t make any difference what colors and
techniques you use or what notes you play? Does anyone play the guitar? Do you think the
music you create is as good as that of Jimi Hendrix, or Lindsay Buckingham, or Andres
Segovia? Not to say you shouldn’t continue to enjoy your efforts. I spent from 3 to 8 hours a day
almost every day for 16 years learning how to play the piano. I think I played BETTER after
those 16 years than when I started. "Modern art" "Monkey fools art experts" Does the monkey’s
art convey as much symbolic meaning?
Leopold Stokowsky, " Great music organizes the mind." So what does not-so-great music do?
Arturo Toscanini (at 93) when asked if his life had been fulfilling replied,"So much music I have
yet to master." and " Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music." Fine
art isn’t simply something you like, it inspires AWE, it can change your life. But for this class we
stick to Nanda’s definition.
*Ethno-esthetics = cultural standards for artistic production
++ in other words, in that culture, what is art and what isn’t?
*Artistic Relativism = one culture’s artistic criteria are as good as another’s.
Art performs a cultural function
it helps to tell us who we are, what is important to us, it reinforces our psychological sense of
belonging, it gives us information about possibilities.
Who makes art? ++ in simpler societies many people contribute, in complex societies you have
specialists. Artistic uniqueness and pride are associated with certain ethnic groups, ex. Spanish
flamenco dancers, Irish riverdance, English gardens. Cro Magnon cave art may well have been
put there by women. Women have consistently been under-represented as artists, and as
central figures in the paintings of ‘traditional’ societies. Berkeley paleo-anthropologist Margaret
Conkey looked at thousands of renderings of paleolithic artists at work in museums, journals,
and textbooks, and found only two cases where the artist depicted was a female, and one of
those had been editorially altered to obscure her femaleness.
Rendering and Music ++rendering includes painting, sculpture, cartoons, carvings, surface
decoration, etc. ++music is the manipulation of sound in a meaningful way. i.e. not to attract
game animals! Or drive off insects!
*Theater = the active representation of persons, historical or mythic figures, events, spiritual
beings, proverbial messages, or socializing messages (ex. dangers of divorce, folly of greed) in
a staged area. i.e stage, temple, altar, etc.
*Dance = rhythmic ritualized body movement or posturing that indicates or symbolizes
‘something’. At the very least, it shows that you can do it or are willing to try. Ex. marching could
be considered a form of dancing.
Architecture and Design = the creation and modification of
( generally) permanent structures. A portable or temporary hut would still qualify, but we
normally think about longer lasting structures (ex. pyramids). Simpler cultures tend to create
simpler but useful dwellings. Why? Complex cultures create elaborate and often non-functional
structures. With intensive agriculture we begin to see (1) city planning with attached
architectural symbolism (2) specialized buildings (3) ornate public structures (4) personalized
dwellings where style and size reflect the status of the occupants.
Group activities ++would include games or sports, contests or trials associated with rites of
passage, funerals, clothing drives for the homeless, car washes to raise funds for school
athletics, etc. Again, participants are members of that culture or microculture, reinforces
membership, opportunity to improve your public image, mention Trobriand cricket
Humor ++ relies on the unexpected (slipping on ice), the incongruous (man in women’s
bathroom), the superiority of one’s fate over another’s (handicapped jokes), or sex (sex is just
funny)
EXAM 4 NOTES
Culture Change and Development
Do you all remember that ‘culture is adaptive?’ Why would a culture change?
Invention Irrigation, writing, metals, water wheel and windmills, the wheel ( Incan carts), gunpowder, ships, machines, rapid long-distance communication, [note: TV invented in ?? 1886!]
Idea Religion [ex: Amish], every other major religion, Christianity changed the Roman Empire, permanent military, piracy, capitalism, democracy.
New Resource grain, salt, water source, animals, minerals
Size Economies of Scale cultures have to change when population reaches critical sizes
Contact see things in another culture that look better than what you have, will adopt technologies and practices they like.
War driven from homeland by hostilities, WWII millions were killed or displaced, more later
Invasion stronger culture takes everything from them, including their land and homes (Romania 1300's = Dracula)
Subsistence Crisis your way of making a living breaks down, Irish potato famine, natural disasters, e.g. drought, flood, earthquake, volcano
Ecological Crisis your environment becomes un-livable, Chernobyl, Oklahoma dust bowl, DDT, mercury, resources depleted [ soil, trees, cod fish ], housing developments built on toxic waste sites [ N.O. low income housing project ]
Disease small pox destroyed Native American populations 1500 - 1900, bubonic plague killed 1/3 of ‘modern’ world 540 AD, 1340 AD, more millions in 17th and 18th centuries, Spanish flu killed at least 20 million between 1914 - 1917, many tropical populations are beset with malaria, C. Africa and ebola virus, the world today and AIDS
Radiation a growing culture will want to explore new territories, will move into new areas if favorable, natural universal human process
Migration to Cities people around the world are moving to the cities, there is money there for some, Calcutta, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro
push-pull theory too many people for traditional land to support, numbers? or problems? might ‘get lucky’ in the city
Migration to Industrialized Nations similar to above, home country offers nothing, maybe can make it to ‘America’, even poorest Americans are better off than poor in most countries, food, medicine, aid, jobs, etc.
Diseases of Civilization neuroses, blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer
[mention] white flight to countryside states.
Refugees running from danger or poverty, happy to go anywhere,
[ I read from pp 393 ]
Korea 1950's 1960's
Hong Kong 1990's
Viet Nam 1970's to date
Laos and Cambodia 1970's to date
Mexico and C. America
Caribbean
USSR [ Ph.D. Physics 1996 paid $40 per month, if job ]
Yugoslavia Bosnia Kosovo [ I read from pp 402 ]
Turkish Christians
Assyrians all of 20th century
Politics of Exclusion most countries don’t want poor immigrants,
Mexico vs Nicaragua, France vs Africans, Lebanon vs Palestinians, railroad Chinese became the ‘yellow peril’, U.S. vs Irish, Mex-Amer War, Haitians, Texans vs Vietnamese fishermen, based on labor needs, politics, manifest destiny, race, corporate MONEY
Chain Migration one person makes it to U.S., attempts to bring in friends and family
Lifeboat Mentality those who have it don’t want to share it, maybe they really can’t, U.S. ag lands disappearing, U.S. social services strained [ medicare, education, social security, food stamps, etc ], Talk about Italy, socialist democracy, lots of benefits promised, demographic shift and loose immigration is going to lead to economic collapse in the near future
Applied Anthropologists 1000's of jobs now, mostly to mediate contact, Governments, Corporations, NGO’s, U.N.
Developmental Anthropology = studies the positive and negative features of culture change and attempts to promote those processes that work to the benefit of all parties concerned. All development is in the interest of someone, or they believe it will be. 95% of development going on today is in the interest of national or multi-national economic coalitions. (discuss U.S. - USSR cold war). Most of the remaining ‘grass roots’ projects serve to enhance the standing of local political leadership, or are usurped by stronger agents.
Culture has traditionally, for the most part, diffused. Now it is delivered in toto and force fed to target peoples. An example is the
Green Revolution It was claimed that the introduction of American agricultural technologies into ‘primitive’ areas would catapult them to success in the modern world. Didn’t work. Why?
1) area was not suitable 2) people refused new technology (rocks in toilets in Sudan) 3) small farmers quickly overwhelmed by large ( discuss Boeschkutters) 4) limited goals of providers (tractors, pumps changed every few years = no old parts, lower quality fertilizers, etc, 5) no permanent support team or adequate training program for locals or rich farmers hired all those who were trained 6) buddy-buddy purchase and supply deals. BUT Green Revolution projects are still under way in several countries.
Mono-cropping = growing a single cash crop on land that once supported diverse local food crops. Something WE want cheaply (coffee, pineapple, tobacco, timber, cocaine) is introduced on a large scale in host country’s arable land. Money for some of the locals, quite a few for a while, then big-shots siphon off the profits, poor work for next to nothing, and poor no longer have their original means of support. Also, if commodity prices fall, they simply shut down!! (Aymara tin mines) (coffee from S.Amer to Africa).
Despite clear evidence that development and modernization usually do more harm than good, the elite countries are still recommending them as solutions for the world’s poor. WHY? Because western manufacturers need customers, also we can use it as an excuse to acquire ‘resource rights’ in the host country, either as direct ‘exchange’ or as ‘debt’ [discuss]. Often foreign ‘aid’ or loans require
Structural Readjustment by the host country = more money for ‘projects’ and purchases and less money for social relief.
Students read: all of 412-415 carefully.
Sustainable Development = increasing equitable positive growth that can go on indefinitely. Is there such a thing? Eventually we will have no arable land, U.S. farmland disappearing at rate of 4500 acres per day (Amer. Farmland Trust). Similar losses for a variety of reasons in other countries. Remember I told you there were more than 70 ‘water wars’ in 1998?
Central California aquifers are falling every year, 30- 200 feet since 1900 (USGS), San Francisco ocean levees, three to five billion dollars per year to fix subsidence problems, e.g. highways, bridges, buildings, salt water in Stockton (explain), increased reliance on ‘soil treatments’, pesticide buildup
In the U.S. we have a tradition of entrepreneurs and developers creating the ‘slums of tomorrow’. Then move ‘away’, fewer away places to go to. We are beginning to realize you can’t pee in the other end of the pool without eventually getting it on you as well.
World Systems Theory at work again. Big guys exploit little guys, whether individuals or collectives or nations
Multi-laterals several nations or groups join in development project ex: UN, World Bank, IMF
Bi-laterals One donor organization (or country) and host country join in a development project. Ex: USAID
Multi-national Corporations Lobby for aid or development projects with them getting the contracts = jobs, high salaries for executives, stock profits, AND first right of exploitation.
All of this amounts to= Cultural Hegemony = rich countries take what they want from poor countries with the support of corrupt local officials
so, is a Grass Roots approach the answer? It is usually better to respond to local requests for external assistance, they know what they need? Where there has been stro