First year anth notes

 People  Franz Boas-cultural determinism, cultural relativism, holism  Bronislaw Malinowski-developed participant observation  Mauss- a French anthropologist, was one of the first scholars to provide an in-depth exploration of reciprocity and the role that gifts play in cultural systems around the world.19 Mauss asked why humans feel obliged to reciprocate when they receive a gift. His answer was that giving and reciprocating gifts, whether these are material objects of our time, creates links between the people involved.  Sir James Frazer is well-known for his 1890 work The Golden Bough: A Study of Comparative Religions. Its title was later changed to A Study in Magic and Religion, and it was one of the first books to describe and record magical and religious beliefs of different culture groups around the world. Yet, this book was not the outcome of extensive study in the field. Instead, Frazer relied on the accounts of others who had traveled, such as scholars, missionaries, and government officials, to formulate his study. Armchair anth  Sir EB tyler-defined culture in a way that is still used today. Significant anthropological writer who did not conduct fieldwork. Armchair anth  There is NO correlation between race, language and culture  Key Terms/Concepts (not a complete list!)  key anthropological perspectives -- holism, relativism, comparison, and fieldwork  Cultural relativism—understand a culture from within their own point of view, not your own  Cultural determinism: the idea that behavioral differences are a result of cultural, not racial or genetic causes.  Cultural relativism- the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their own culture and not our own.  Ethnocentrism  Four fields of anthropology-cultural, linguistic, biological/physical, archaeological  Culture o All people have it. o Culture is not the same as nature. o Culture is based on symbols. o Culture is learned. o Cultures are integrated. o Cultures interact and change.  Holism— perspective that every individual part of human life (whether it be related to culture, biology, or anything else) is interconnected with everything else. To understand one thing, you need to understand everything connected to it and how they all interact  Plasticity-- is the ability to learn and adapt to different cultures and languages. This also enforces the idea that contrasts in race aren’t all that significant when looking at how similar all humans are, and how all humans could theoretically be a part of any culture  Evolutionism-idea that some cultures are less developed than others due to evolution  Diffusionism-study of geographical distribution and migration of cultures. Looks at cultures like a patchwork.  Salvage Anthropology-documentation of indigenous American cultures that were considered to be dying

o Malownski, Boas  Theorertical paradigms: Functionalism, Structural-Functionalism, French Structuralism, Mauss and gifting, cultural  materialism, Marxist anthropology, symbolic anthropology, interpretism  Fieldwork and fieldwork techniques— o Fieldwork involved observation, interviewing, and documentation of data in the form of ethnographies rather than novels  Participant observation- an inductive form of research that involves surrounding yourself with another culture and spending long periods of time with them, living as they do (Nelson and Braff 2020, 9). It also involves interviews and surveys. It is part of the ethnographic process and can provide access to knowledge that would be difficult to acquire from other research methods (Nelson and Braff 2020, 16). Participant observation was developed in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, around the same time frame that cultural relativism was being developed and ethnocentrism was being questioned (Nelson and Braff 2020, 9).  Ethnography (who wrote the first modern ethnography?)—fieldwork  Ethnography-a type of research in fieldwork that involves studying cultural practices o In cultural anthropology, fieldwork is referred to as ethnography. o A main method is participant observation o Both the process of fieldwork and the end result o Ethnography, an important method of collecting data in fieldwork, involves creating a thorough study of the cultural practices, as well as the background of the practices and interpretations as to why they happen and why they are important (Nelson 2020, 48). Ethnographers collect data through artifacts, archival/historical sources, texts (this could be plays, social media posts, stories, transcripts, etcetera), conversations, and observations (Surette 2020, Fieldwork and Ethics).  Microcultures o microculture, or local culture, refers to distinct patterns of learned and shared behavior and ideas found in local regions and among particular groups. o Microcultures can be based on ethnicity/”race”, gender, age, class, institutions and more.  Deductive- reasoning from the general to the specific; the inverse of inductive reasoning. Deductive research is more common in the natural sciences than in anthropology. In a deductive approach, the researcher creates a hypothesis and then designs a study to prove or disprove the hypothesis. The results of deductive research can be generalizable to other settings. o hypotheses, concrete scientific data collected through observation, interviews. Etic data. Quantitative data  Inductive- a type of reasoning that uses specific information to draw general conclusions. In an inductive approach, the researcher seeks to collect evidence without trying to definitively prove or disprove a hypothesis. The researcher usually first spends time in the field to become familiar with the people before identifying a hypothesis or research question. Inductive research usually is not generalizable to other settings. o no hypotheses. Emic data. Unstructured informal conversation etc. qualitative data  Emic-from the perspective of the studied culture. Their reasons for doing what they do

 Etic-from the perspective of the observer, often scientific. Arises from conversations with professionals  Quantitative-seeks patterns in numerical data that can explain aspects of human behaviour o Eg. Anthropological nutritional analysis o Maps, charts, graphs  Qualitative- aims to comprehensively describe human behavior and the contexts in which it occurs. Interviews, field notes, etc  Globalization- the spread of people, their cultures and languages, products, money, ideas, and information around the world  Glocalization-when humans become internationally connected but still have individual cultures  Syncretism-combination of many beliefs. Example is candomblé and catholic because they both have personified saints. Could be a result of globalization  Candomble-afro-brazillian spirit possession religion that triggered a debate about the black matriarchy. Example of syncretism, the combination of religions. Many personified gods. Many candomblé also identify as christion  Fair trade-developed for farmers in developing countries. They agree upon a fair price. If the market rises the price will rise, but if the market drops they will still make a decent living. They set a minimum price, and wages cant drop below that o High quality standard, which makes it hard to invest in new people o Disrupts traditional gender roles  Multi-sited ethnographies-- examines specific topics and issues across different geographic field sites  Translocal field sites—studying an area that cannot be geographically defined  Language--what makes human language unique (see those language universals)  Language structure/formal properties: phonemes, morphemes, syntax o Phoneme-unit of sound-‘t’, ‘g’ o Morpheme-smallest part of a word that can still have meaning-‘ing’, ‘ice’ o Syntax-syntactic rules tell us how to put morphemes together and in the right order for proper grammar  Language Meaning: semantics, pragmatics, ethnosemantics o Pragmatics-social and cultural meaning behind what we are saying and the context. Eg. Move vs please move o Semantics-looks at the meaning of words and how they came to be. Eg. ‘Like’ o Ethnosemantics- the study of how language reflects and shapes cultural values, beliefs, and practices  Sapir-Whorf -- languages influence their speakers and the cultures of those speakers. Eg. Hopi time  Sociolinguistics-how society and culture effect language  What is the relationship between language and culture?  Linguistic determinism—language determines the way its speakers think  What is a symbol?-something that represents something else, often without natural connection  “Standard” language vs a dialect  Language variation-develops agross social class, region, language contact (eg English mixed with hindi), geography, migration routes

 Subsistence system-- the set of practices used by members of a society to acquire food.  Foodway-cultural norms and attitudes surrounding food  Carrying capacity- number of calories that can be extracted from a particular unit of land to support a human population. EG the amount of fish in a coral reef  Immediate return system -catching fish and eating it right after,  delayed return system-planting food and waiting six months for it to grow  Four modes of subsistence—see worksheet(Diet, Population Size, Type of Social Structure, Gender roles, Property, consumption, warfare, conflict resolution) o Foraging  Hunt fish gather  Broad spectrum diet  Small  Gender inequality  Move often  Egalitarian o Pastorialists-red neck cow people  Raise domesticated animals for food labour, trading  Nomadic, move several times a year  Animal, animal products, traded grain  Typical gender roles  Share larger resources like land but can accumulate wealth which makes power gaps o Hordiculturalists-hippie gardeners  Grow most of their food in their garden  Raise farm animals, hunt, or fish for protein  Move around for good food growing but never stray too far  Woman have ownership, men take on most of the obligations  Plants are basis of wealth o Agriculture-more modern technology  Use technology to cultivate land and domestic animals  Rapid growing population  Grow abundance of staple crop  Lawyers, doctors, less of a sense of need  Elitism, slavery  Exceptions to the forager standard- o Kwakwakawakw-surplus of fish-able to stay in one place-division of labout-chiefs  Pastoralism—how are animals integrated into society?-eg. Masaai rely on animals, live with them, etc  Pastorialists generally do not kill the animals!!  What is the difference between horticulture and agriculture? Traded and shared, not sold for profit!! Move more often!! Lack of technology  What was the impact of the domestication of animals and plants?-having to move and clear new areas because resources are depleted. Dogs may have been the cause of extinction of wolly mammaths

 How do foragers impact the environment?-selective clearing leads to wild orchards with good growing conditions for food. Eg. Nunak  Reciprocity-generalized, balanced, negative  Modes of consumption  Subsistence vs poverty  Subsistence and globalization—what kind of modes are found in Kelowna?  Fair Trade and El Cacao  How do people push back against globalization?  Describe some of the advantages and disadvantages of globalization? o Diseases, colonization, exploitation of poor countries, neoliberalism, negative use of social media by hate groups o sharing of technology, knowledge and resources, humanitarian efforts, international organization like the UN, crowdsourcing, and a general rise in awareness of issues  How can engaging in a fair trade system push back against globalization? Who benefits? Who doesn’t?  How has globalization changed anthropological fieldwork?  Read the case study on quinoa and think about how you could study this phenomena. Where would you  travel to, who would you talk to and what kind of questions could you ask?  Kinship  Types of descent  Endogamy vs exogamy  Who may you marry?—marriage as culturally defined  Types of kinship relations  Kinship chart Kinds of marriage  Kinds of families  What is a status?  What is a role?  What is a dowry vs a bridewealth?  Status versus role  Kinship term used to describe culturally recognized ties between members of a family, the social statuses used to define family members, and the expected behaviors associated with these statuses.  Kinship systems- Kinship system: the pattern of culturally recognized relationships between family members.  Matrilineal and patrilineal descent (unilineal descent)  Double descent-both parents separately  Cognatic-both at the same time  Bilateral-both sides but not at the same time  unilineal descent recognizes only one sex-based “side” of the family. Unilineal descent can be patrilineal, recognizing only relatives through a line of male ancestors, or matrilineal, recognizing only relatives through a line of female ancestors.  Descent groups- relationships that provide members with a sense of identity and social support based on ties of shared ancestry.