Understanding Anthropology: Key Concepts and Perspectives

Final Project Part A ATH 101 Carissa Barnes SNHU

1. Defining Anthropology Simply put, anthropology is the study of human beings, their biology, their prehistory and histories, and their changing languages, cultures, and social institutions (Welsch, Vivanco, & Fuentes, 2019, p.5). Humans are unique and complex so, naturally, over time anthropology has expanded into four subfields. Cultural anthropology focuses on studying the social lives and habits of people and their communities. This includes economics, politics, religious activities, and families. Archaeology studies humans of the past. This subfield seeks to understand how past communities worked, lived, and interacted with the world around them. Biological or physical anthropology focuses on the biocultural and biological aspects of humans and their closest relatives, primates. It studies how disease originates and spreads as well as human evolution. This subfield spans from past into present and even helps us plan for the future. The fourth subfield of anthropology is linguistic anthropology and studies how humans communicate with each other with language (Welsch, Vivanco, & Fuentes, 2019). 2. Anthropological Perspective Having an anthropological perspective is imperative because it is important to understand not only how past cultures and societies operated, but also how we evolved over time. This gives us insight as to how we live presently will affect future generations. A. Global cultural crises - Having an anthropological perspective in a global cultural crisis gives us insight as to why a certain cultural group may be acting or reacting to a cause or situation. By understanding a community’s past and evolution, we are also better equipped to offer a more efficient action plan or solution. For example: Kyoto University in Japan developed cultural

anthropology sessions and implemented them in an effort to raise cultural awareness among their medical students. This program ran from 2015-2018 and “as a long-term impact of the sessions, the learners reported becoming more aware of the cultural contexts in their daily educational and clinical activities.” (Oikawa, Iida, Ito, 2022, p.1). B. Biological Crises- Biological anthropology studies how disease spreads. An anthropological perspective would be extremely helpful in this regard because, not only does it allow us to understand how a disease might spread, but also to create preventative measures in order to contain an epidemic. Fore example: Biological anthropologists studied the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 2009 to help combat the outbreak of COVID-19 ( Dimka , van Doren , & Battles 2022 ). C. Environmental Crises- An anthropological perspective would be useful in an environmental crisis because anthropology is a practice that studies and documents patterns throughout time. Take the issue of climate change as an example. Anthropology can give us insight into environmental patterns pertaining to weather, wildlife, and vegetation. As a discipline clearly devoted to the human condition over time and space, anthropology offers important insights that can help create workable solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change (American Anthropological Association, 2022). Historical Perspective

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A. One of the most notable ways in which anthropology has proven itself to be a legitimate scientific field would be the work of Franz Boaz. Boas, also known as the “Father of Anthropology” and later that of Ashley Montagu. Montagu explored the vast biological and anthropological data, theories, and perspectives available to him and concluded that race not only has no biological basis (Welsch, Vivanco, & Fuentes, 2019, p.198). B. “The data of ethnology prove that not only our knowledge, but also our emotions are the result of the form of our social life and the history of the people to whom we belong. If we desire to understand the development of human culture we must try to free ourselves of these shackles.” [Boas 1940:636; translated from the original German published in 1889 as Die Ziele der Ethnologie] (Welsch, Vivanco, & Fuentes, 2019, p.37). Cultural groups and individuals use their past to inform their everyday life by passing down the stories and traditions of their ancestors. These traditions influence the way societies interact with the world around them, the partners they choose, and how they live their lives. C. I believe that people both are and are not the products of their cultural past. It is impossible not to let our upbringing shape who we are to an extent. Not only can culture influence how we want to live our lives, it can also serve as an example of what we don’t want. People can choose to carry on familial traditions while simultaneously embracing newer ways of doing things. D. Depending on where a person lives, community can have a huge impact on people. If a person lives in a rural area or third world country, they are limited to their immediate cultural surroundings. You don’t know what you don’t know, as they say. Communities

that live closer to metropolitan areas have greater chance of exposure to different cultures and ways of life.

References Dimka, J., van Doren, T. P., & Battles, H. T. (2022). Pandemics, past and present: The role of biological anthropology in interdisciplinary pandemic studies. Yearbook Biological Anthropology, 178(Suppl. 74), 256– 291. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24517 Hodges, A., & Skoggard, I. (n.d.). Anthropology & climate change. Anthropology & Climate Change - Participate & Advocate. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.americananthro.org/anthropology-and-climate-change Oikawa, S., Iida, J., Ito, Y., & Nishigori, H. (2022). Cultivating cultural awareness among medical educators by integrating cultural anthropology in faculty development: an action research study. BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION, 22(1), 196. https://doi- org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1186/s12909-022-03260-7 Welsch, R. L., Vivanco, L. A., & Fuentes, A. (2019). Anthropology (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press Academic US. https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9780190057381

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Final Project Part A

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