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Anthropology Unit 1)

Anthropology is the comprehensive study of humans, encompassing their biological and cultural characteristics, origins, and contemporary variations. It is divided into four main subfields: Physical/Biological Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and Socio-Cultural Anthropology, each focusing on different aspects of human existence and behavior. The discipline aims to understand the complexities of human life by examining both the similarities and differences across various societies and cultures.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
53 views17 pages

Anthropology Unit 1)

Anthropology is the comprehensive study of humans, encompassing their biological and cultural characteristics, origins, and contemporary variations. It is divided into four main subfields: Physical/Biological Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and Socio-Cultural Anthropology, each focusing on different aspects of human existence and behavior. The discipline aims to understand the complexities of human life by examining both the similarities and differences across various societies and cultures.

Uploaded by

zekarias367
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit One

1. Introducing Anthropology and its Subject Matter Study


1.1. Definition, Scope and Subject Matter of Anthropology
1.1.1. Concepts in Anthropology

To begin with the etymology of the term, the term anthropology is a compound of
two Greek words, ‘anthropos’ and ‘logos’, which can be translated as ‘human
being/mankind’ and ‘reason/study/science’, respectively. So, anthropology means
‘reason about humans’ or ‘the study or science of humankind or humanity’.
Moreover, man has two important characteristics: biological and cultural: It is very
important to understand that the biological and the cultural characteristics are
inseparable elements. Culture influences human physical structures and the vise-
versa.

Hence, if we take it literally, it is the study of humans. In one sense, this is an


accurate description to the extent that anthropology raises a wide variety of
questions about the human condition. Yet this literal definition is not particularly
illuminating; because a number of other academic disciplines—including sociology,
biology, psychology, political science, economics, and history—also study human
beings. What is it that distinguishes anthropology from all of these other
disciplines? Anthropology is the study of people—their origins, their development,
and contemporary variations, wherever and whenever they have been found. It is a
broad scientific discipline dedicated to the comparative study of humans as a group,
from its first appearance on earth to its present stage of development. Of all the
disciplines that study humans, anthropology is by far the broadest in scope.

In more specific terms, anthropology is a science which:

◊ Investigates the strategies for living that are learned and shared by people as
members of human social groups;

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◊ Examines the characteristics that human beings share as members of one

species (homo sapiens) and the diverse ways that people live in different

environments;
◊ Analyses the products of social groups -material objects (material cultures)

and non-material creations (religion/beliefs, social values, institutions,


practices, etc).
Anthropology is an intellectually challenging, theoretically ambitious subject, which
tries to achieve an understanding of culture, society and humanity through detailed
studies of community life, supplemented by comparison. At the deepest level, it
raises philosophical questions, which it tries to respond to by exploring human lives
under different conditions. It seeks to explain how and why people are both similar
and different through examination of our biological and cultural past and
comparative study of contemporary human societies. Its ultimate goal is to develop
an integrated picture of humankind—a goal that encompasses an almost infinite
number of questions about all aspects of our existence. We ask, for example, what
makes us human? Why do some groups of people tend to be tall and lanky, while
others tend to be short and stocky? Why do some groups of people practice
agriculture, while others hunt for a living?

As a matter of simplicity and brevity, anthropology primarily offers two kinds of


insight. First, the discipline produces knowledge about the actual biological and
cultural variations in the world; second, anthropology offers methods and
theoretical perspectives enabling the practitioner to explore, compare, understand
and solve these varied expressions of the human condition.

1.1.2. The Historical Development of Anthropology

Like the other social sciences, anthropology is a fairly recent discipline. It was given
its present shape during the twentieth century, but it has important forerunners in the
historiography, geography, travel writing, philosophy and jurisprudence of earlier
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times. There are, in any case, many ways of writing the history of anthropology, just
as, in any given society, there may exist competing versions of national history or
origin myths, promoted by groups or individuals with diverging interests. History is
not primarily a product of the past itself, but is rather shaped by the concerns of the
present. As these concerns change, past events and persons shift between
foreground and background, and will be understood and evaluated in new ways.

If we restrict ourselves to anthropology as a scientific discipline, some would trace


its roots back to the European Enlightenment, during the eighteenth century; others
would claim that anthropology did not arise as a science until the 1850s, yet others
would argue that anthropological research in its present-day sense only commenced
after the First World War. Nor can we avoid such ambiguities.

It is beyond doubt, however, that anthropology, considered as the science of


humanity, originated in the region we commonly but inaccurately call ‘the West’,
notably in three or four ‘Western’ countries: France, Great Britain, the USA and,
until the Second World War, Germany(Erikson, 2001). Historically speaking, this is
a European discipline, and its practitioners, like those of all European sciences,
occasionally like to trace its roots back to the ancient Greeks.

The present academic anthropology has its roots in the works and ideas of the great
ancient and Medieval Greek, Roman, and Hebrew philosophers and social thinkers.
These people were interested in the nature, origin and destiny of man, and the
morality and ethics of human relationships. While the roots of anthropology can be
generally traced through the history of western culture as far back as ancient Greek
social philosophical thinking, the discipline did not emerge as distinct field of study
until the mid-nineteenth century.

Generally speaking, anthropology as an academic discipline was born during the


19th century, out of the intellectual atmosphere of Enlightenment, which is the
eighteenth century social philosophical movement that emphasized human progress
and the poser of reason, and based on Darwinian Theory of Evolution. By the late
1870s, anthropology was beginning to emerge as a profession. A major impetus for

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its growth was the expansion of western colonial powers and their consequent desire
to better understand the peoples living under colonial domination.

During its formative years, anthropology became a profession primarily in


museums. In this regard, in the 1870s and 1880s many museums devoted to the
study of humankind were found in Europe, North America and South America.

Early anthropologists mainly studied small communities in technologically simple


societies. Such societies are often called by various names, such as, “traditional”,
“non-industrialized and/or simple societies”. Anthropologists of the early 1900s
emphasized the study of social and cultural differences among human groups. Here,
many of the indigenous peoples of non-western world and their social and cultural
features were studied in detail and documented. This approach is called
ethnography. By the mid-1900, however, anthropologists attempted to discover
universal human patterns and the common bio- psychological traits that bind all
human beings. This approach is called ethnology. Ethnology aims at the
comparative understanding and analysis of different ethnic groups across time and
space.

In Ethiopia, professional anthropologists have been studying culture and society on


a more intensive level only since the late 1950s. Almost inevitably, the initial
emphasis was on ethnography, the description of specific customs, cultures and
ways of life.

1.1.3. Scope and subject matter of anthropology

The breadth and depth of anthropology is immense. There no time and space left as
far as man exists. In other words, the temporal dimension covers the past, the
present and even the future. In terms of the spatial dimension, anthropology studies
from Arctic to Desert, from Megapolis to hunting gathering areas. The discipline
covers all aspects of human ways of life experiences and existence, as humans live
in a social group.

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It touches all aspect of human conditions as far as there is a relation between human
beings and natural environment and man and man. Anthropology not only tries to
account for the social and cultural variation in the world, but a crucial part of the
anthropological project also consists in conceptualizing and understanding
similarities between social systems and human relationships. As one of the foremost
anthropologists of the twentieth century, Claude Lévi-Strauss, has expressed it:
‘Anthropology has humanity as its object of research, but unlike the other human
sciences, it tries to grasp its object through its most diverse manifestations’ (1983,
p. 49). In other words, anthropology studies humanity with its all aspects of
existence, and in its all means of differences (diversity) and similarities
(commonality). Where every human beinglives, there is always anthropology.

The discipline is also accounting for the interrelationships between different aspects
of human existence, and usually anthropologists investigate these interrelationships
taking as their point of departure a detailed study of local life in a particular society
or a delineated social environment. One may therefore say that anthropology asks
large questions, while at the same time it draws its most important insights from
small places. Although anthropologists have wide-ranging and frequently highly
specialized interests, they all share a common concern in trying to understand both
connections within societies and connections between societies.

Such focus areas of investigation and the stated aims of the discipline convey that,
the areas covered by anthropology is diverse and enormous. Anthropologists strive
for an understanding of the biological and cultural origins and evolutionary
development of the species. They are concerned with all humans, both past and
present, as well as their behavior patterns, thought systems, and material
possessions. In short, anthropology aims to describe, in the broadest sense, what it
means to be human (Peacock, 1986).

1.2. Sub-fields of anthropology


As discussed in the above headlining, there is no time, space and characteristics left
to study human beings. It is so wide as an ocean. Accordingly, it is required to

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divide and understand in-depth. Accordingly, anthropology has often categorized
into four majorsubfields: Physical/Biological Anthropology, Archeology, Linguistic
Anthropology and Socio-Cultural Anthropology. Let us explain turn by turn.

1.2.1. Physical/Biological Anthropology

Physical anthropology is the branch of anthropology most closely related to the


natural sciences, particularly biology; that is why it is often called biological
anthropology. Unlike comparative biologists, physical anthropologists study how
culture and environment have influenced these two areas of biological evolution and
contemporary variations. Human biology affects or even explains some aspects of
behavior, society, and culture like marriage patterns, sexual division of labor,
gender ideology etc. The features of culture in turn have biological effects like the
standards of attractiveness, food preferences, and human sexuality. Biological
variations such as morphology/structure, color, and size are reflections of changes in
living organism. Since change occurs in the universe, it also applies in human
beings.

Human biological variations are the result of the cumulative processes of invisible
changes occurring in every fraction of second in human life. These changes have
been accumulated and passed through genes. Genes are characteristics that carry
biological traits of an organism, including human beings. The major sources of
biological variations are derived from the interrelated effects of natural selection,
geographical isolation, genetic mutations.

Physical anthropology is essentially concerned with two broad areas of


investigation: human evolution and genetics. Human evolution is the study of the
gradual processes of simple forms into more differentiated structures in hominid. It
is interested in reconstructing the evolutionary record of the human species using
fossils/bones. Human evolution is further divided into three specialties:
Paleoanthropology and Primatology. Palaeoanthropology (paleo meaning “old”) is
the study of human biological evolution through the analysis of fossil remains from

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prehistoric times to determine the missing link that connect modern human with its
biological ancestors. Primatology studies about primates or recent human ancestors
to explain human evolution. Primatologists study the anatomy and social behavior
of such non-human primate species as gorillas and chimpanzees in an effort to gain
clues about our own evolution as a species.

Human genetics concerns to investigate how and why the physical traits of
contemporary human populations vary throughout the world. It focuses to examine
the genetic materials of an organism such as DNA and RNA. In addition, genetic
studies are crucial in understanding –how evolution works and plays important role
in identifying the genetic source of some hereditary disease like sickle cell anemia
and cystic fibrosis.

1.2.2. Archaeological Anthropology


Archaeological anthropology or simply archaeology studies the ways of lives of past
peoples by excavating and analysing the material culture/physical remains
(artefacts, features and eco-facts) they left behind. Artefacts are material remains
made and used by the past peoples and that can be removed from the site and taken
to the laboratory for further analysis. Tools, ornaments, arrowheads, coins, and
fragments of pottery are examples of artifacts. Features are like artifacts, are made
or modified by past people, but they cannot be readily carried away from the site.
Archaeological features include such things as house foundations, ancient buildings,
fireplaces, steles, and postholes. Eco-facts are non- artefactual, organic and
environmental remains such as soil, animal bones, and plant remainsthat were not
made or altered by humans; but were used by them. Eco-facts provide
archaeologists with important data concerning the environment and how people
used natural resources in the past.

Archaeology has also its own subfields or areas of specialties. The most important
ones are - Prehistoric Archaeology and Historical Archaeology. Prehistoric
archaeology investigates human prehistory and prehistoric cultures. It focuses on
entire period between 6,000 years ago and the time of the first stone tools (the first
artifacts), around 2.5 million years ago, is called prehistory. Historic archaeologists
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help to reconstruct the cultures of people who used writing and about whom
historical documents have been written. Historic archaeology takes advantage of the
fact that about 6,000 years ago, some human groups invented language and began to
write down things that can tell about the past.

We Ethiopian have very glorious past. Area logical findings in North, south, east
and western part of the country have shown our county belonged to those countries
which have old civilization.

1.2.3. Linguistic Anthropology

Indeed, linguistic anthropology or anthropological linguistics studies human


language as a cultural resource and speaking as a cultural practice in its social and
cultural context, across space and time. Language is basically a system of
information transmission and reception. Humans communicate messages by sound
(speech), by gesture (body language), and in other visual ways such as writing.
Analogous to genes that carry and transmit genetic materials to offspring, languages
hand down cultural traits from one generation to another. In fact, some would argue
that language is the most distinctive feature of being human. Although animals
could develop certain behaviors through conditioning that mimic to humans, they do
not have a capacity to pass on their own offspring. This is the boundary between
human beings and other animals including higher primates.

Linguistic anthropology, which studies contemporary human languages as well as


those of the past, is divided into four distinct branches or areas of research:
Structural or Descriptive Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Ethno-Linguistics, and
Socio-linguistics.

Structural /Descriptive Linguistics: studies the structure of linguistic patterns. It


examines sound systems, grammatical systems, and the meanings attached to words
in specific languages to understand the structure and set of rules of given language.
Every culture has a distinctive language with its own logical structure and set of
rules for putting words and sounds together for the purpose of communicating. In its

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simplest form, the task of the descriptive linguist is to compile dictionaries and
grammar books for previously unwritten languages. For structuralist linguist or
structural linguistic anthropologist, even if there are thousands of human languages,
at least structurally all of them are similar making it possible for everyone of us to
grasp and learn languages other than our so called ‘mother tongue’.

Ethno-linguistics (cultural linguistics): examines the relationship between


language and culture. In any language, certain cultural aspects that are emphasized
(such as types of snow among the Inuit, cows among the pastoral Maasai, or
automobiles in U.S. culture) are reflected in the vocabulary. Moreover, cultural
linguists explore how different linguistic categories can affect how people
categorize their experiences, how they think, and how they perceive the world
around them.

Historical linguistics: - deals with the emergence of language in general and how
specific languages have diverged over time. It focuses on the comparison and
classifications of different languages to differentiate the historical links between
them.

Socio-linguistics: -investigates linguistic variation within a given language. No


language is a homogeneous system in which everyone speaks just like everyone
else. One reason for variation is geography, as in regional dialects and accents.
Linguistic variation also is expressed in the bilingualism of ethnic groups.

Linguistic anthropology generally focuses on the evolution of languages. It tries to


understand languages variation in their structures, units, and grammatical
formations. It gives special attention to the study of unwritten languages. Language
is a key to explore a culture.

1.2.4. Socio-Cultural Anthropology

It is also often called social anthropology or cultural anthropology. Socio-cultural


anthropology is the largest sub-fields of anthropology. It deals with human society

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and culture. Society is the group of people who have similar ways of life, but culture
is a way of life of a group of people. Society and culture are two sides of the same
coin. Socio-cultural anthropology describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains
social, cultural and material life of contemporary human societies. It studies the
social (human relations), symbolic or nonmaterial (religious, language, and any
other symbols) and material (all man-made objects) lives of living peoples.

Socio-cultural anthropologists engage in two aspects of study: Ethnography (based


on field work) and Ethnology (based on cross-cultural comparison). Ethnography
provides a comprehensive account of a particular community, society, or culture. It
describes the features of specific cultures in as much detail as possible including
local behavior, beliefs, customs, social life, economic activities, politics, and
religion. These detailed descriptions (ethnographies) are the result of extensive field
studies (usually a year or two, in duration) in which the anthropologist observes,
talks to, and lives with the people he or she is studying. During ethnographic
fieldwork, the anthropologist (ethnographer) gathers data that he or she organizes,
describes, analyzes, and interprets to build and present that account, which may be
in the form of a book, article, or film.

Ethnology is the comparative study of contemporary cultures and societies,


wherever they may be found. It examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the
results of ethnography the data gathered in different societies. It uses such data to
compare and contrast and to make generalizations about society and culture. In
other words, Ethnologists seek to understand both why people today and in the
recent past differ in terms of ideas and behavior patterns and what all cultures in the
world have in common with one another. Looking beyond the particular to the more
general, ethnologists attempt to identify and explain cultural differences and
similarities, to test hypotheses, and to build theory to enhance our understanding of
how social and cultural systems work. Indeed, the primary objective of ethnology is
to uncover general cultural principles, the “rules” that govern human behavior.

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Ethnography Ethnology

Requires field work to collect data Uses data collected by a series of researchers

Often descriptive Usually synthetic

Group/community specific Comparative/cross-cultural

Socio-cultural anthropology uses ethnographical and ethnological approaches to


answer all sort of questions related to culture and human societies. To properly
address emerging questions related to culture and societies, it has been sub-divided
into many other specialized fields as: Anthropology of Art, Medical Anthropology,
Urban Anthropology, Economic Anthropology, Political Anthropology,
Development Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, Demographic
Anthropology, Ecological Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology,
Ethnomusicology, etc. All of them are considered to be the applied areas of
anthropology.

1.3. Unique (Basic) Features of Anthropology

Several distinguishing characteristics that identify anthropology from other


discipline. Anthropology is unique in its scope, approach, focus and method of
study. Anthropology has a broad scope. It is interested in all human beings,
whether contemporary or past, ''primitive'' or '' civilized'' and that they are interested
in many different aspects of humans, including their phenotypic characteristics,
family lives, marriages, political systems, economic lives, technology, belief, health
care systems, personality types, and languages. No place or time is too remote to
escape the anthropologist's notice. No dimension of human kind, from genes to art
styles, is outside the anthropologist's attention. Indeed, Anthropology is the broad
study of human kind, around the world and throughout time.

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The second important feature is its approach. In its approach anthropology is
holistic, relativistic, and focused one. Holistic in a sense that it looks any
phenomena from different vantage points. Accordingly, anthropology considers
culture, history, language and biology essential to a complete understanding of
society. Anthropology seeks to understand human beings as whole organisms who
adapt to their environments through a complex interaction of biology and culture.
The concept of relativity is highly appreciated in anthological studies. Anthropology
tries to study and explain a certain belief, practice or institution of a group of people
in its own context. It does not make value judgment, i.e., declaring that this belief or
practice is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Anthropology's comparative perspective helps to
understand differences and similarities across time and place. Another important
perspective is a way of looking at people's ideas. It considersinsiders' views as a
primary focus of any anthropological inquiry. Anthropological studies give attention
to how people perceive themselves and understand their world; how a particular
group of people explain about their action, or give meaning to their behaviour or
cultural practices. This is what anthropologists call emic perspective. It helps to
understand the logic and justification behind group behavior and cultural practices.

Another important unique feature is its research approach. Anthropology is highly


dependent on qualitative research to understand the meaning behind any human
activity. Extended fieldwork, participant observation, in-depth and key informant
interviews and focus-group discussion are qualitative research instruments to
explore information change and continuities in human societies. Ethnographic
fieldwork is an important strategy is normally required to spend a year or more with
research subjects and document realities occurring across time. For most
anthropologists, fieldwork is a process requiring them to ‘tune-in; hangout; and
hang-on’ to the societies and cultures whom they are interested to study.

Focusing more on the local than the big social processes has been another
exclusive approach in the discipline. Paying great attention to local or micro-social
processes certainly help us to better understand big changes in societies. A detailed
account of an event or phenomenon discovers multiple realities in a community.
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1.4. Misconceptions about anthropology

Due to lack of appropriate awareness about the nature, scope and subject matter of
the discipline, different misconceptions are held about anthropology.

One misconception about anthropology is related to the area of its study. It is said
that anthropology is limited to the study of "primitive" societies. Indeed, most of the
works done by anthropologists during early periods focused on isolated, so called
"primitive", small scale societies. However, anthropologists nowadays study most
advanced and most complex societies as well.

Another misconception is that anthropologists only study the rural people and rural
areas. As a matter of fact, most of the studies conducted during the formative years
(when it undergone a process of development to be developed as a separate fields of
study) of the discipline focused on rural areas. But now, anthropologists are also
interested in the study of urban people and urban areas. There is a distinct sub-
discipline devoted to the study of urban societies called -Urban Anthropology-
which focuses on urban areas and in complex cities.

It is also wrongly misconceived that anthropology is the study/analysis of fossil


evidences of the proto-humans like that of Lucy/Dinkeneshe. It is true that
anthropology is interested in the question of the origin of modern human beings.
However, this doesn’t mean that anthropology is all about the study of human
evolution. It studies both the biological and the cultural aspects of humans and
examines the existing human physical and biological variations and cultural
diversity.

It is also misconceived that the purpose of anthropology is to study in order to keep


and preserve communities far from development and obsolete cultural practices in
museums. Rather, anthropologists’ duties are to support those communities'
capacity to empower themselves in development processes. They assist peoples'
initiatives instead of imposed policies and ideas coming from outside and play
active roles in bringing about positive change and development in their own lives.

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1.5. The Relationship between Anthropology and Other Disciplines

Anthropology is similar with other social sciences such as sociology, psychology,


political sciences, economics, history, etc. Anthropology greatly overlaps with these
disciplines that study human society. However, anthropology differs from other
social sciences and the humanities by its broad scope, unique approach,
perspective, unit of analysis and methods used. In its scope, anthropology studies
humankind in its entirety. In its approach, anthropology studies and analyzes
human ways of life holistically, comparatively and in a relativistic manner. In its
perspective, according to Richard Wilk, anthropology approaches and locates
dimensions of people’s individual and communal lived experiences, their thoughts
and their feelings in terms of how these dimensions are interconnected and
interrelated to one another, yet not necessarily constrained or very orderly, whole.
The perspective is also fundamentally empirical, naturalistic and ideographic
[particularising] than nomothetic [universalising] one. In its method of research, it
is unique in that it undertakes extended fieldwork among the studied community and
develops intimate knowledge of the life and social worlds of its study group/society
through employing those ethnographic data collection techniques such as participant
observation, Key informant interview and focus group discussions.

1.6. The Contributions of anthropology

The philosophical underpinning is that since we are human beings, we have to know
our civilization. Anthropology has established for itself the task of examining all
aspects of humanity for all periods of time and for all parts of the globe. Because of
the enormity of this task, anthropologists must draw on theories and data from a
number of other disciplines in the humanities, the social sciences, and the physical
sciences. Accordingly, its contributions are immense. By studying anthropology, we
get the following benefits, among others.

First, the anthropological perspective, with its emphasis on the comparative study of
cultures, should lead us to the conclusion that our culture is just one way of life

14
among many found in the world and that it represents one way (among many
possible ways) to adapt to a particular set of environmental conditions. Through the
process of contrasting and comparing, we gain a fuller understanding of other
cultures and our own.

Anthropology also helps us better understand ourselves or our own ways of life. As
a mirror of human life, by studying others, we can better understand ourselves.
Hence, it gives opportunity to understand and to be critical about the ways of lives
of our own community.

Second, anthropology gives us an insight into different ways and modes of life of
human society (social and cultural diversity), which helps to understand the logic
and justification behind group behavior and cultural practices. Knowledge about the
rest of the world is particularly important today because the world has become
increasingly interconnected. So, today it is important that we not only know
something about other peoples of the world, but also grasp how our everyday
decisions are influencing them in a multitude of ways and how others’ decisions are
also influencing ours.

Through its distinctive methodology of long-term, intensive, participant-observation


research, cultural anthropology offers a unique perspective on how local cultural
groups are engaging with the process of globalization. Although many pundits
discuss the consequences of globalization by talking to only government and
business leaders, cultural anthropologists are more likely to see what is actually
occurring on the ground and how the local people themselves talk about their life
experiences in a time of rapid globalization.

Because of its relativistic approach, anthropology helps us to be more sensitive to


and appreciative of cultural diversity and variability. It helps us to avoid some of the
misunderstandings that commonly arise when individuals of different cultural
traditions come into contact. Anthropology helps us fight against prejudice and
discriminations. It helps us fight against ethnocentrism; the belief that one's own

15
culture and one's own way of life is superior to others cultural, social and material
life. This arises from ignorance about other ethnic groups and their ways of lives.

Anthropology is also used as a tool for development. Paying attention to local


conditions, is crucial to solve community problems. The application of
anthropological knowledge and research results have become important element to
ensure people’s rights in development and able to sustain projects' life.
Anthropologists are better equipped with the knowledge, skills and methods of
identifying the needs and interests of local people for the betterment and change of
their lived experiences. It recognizes the advantages of consulting local people to
design a culturally appropriate and socially sensitive change, and protect local
people from harmful policies and projects that threaten them. In general,
anthropology is able to suggest sound solutions to all things human.For example, it
is often applied in areas of Environmental Change, Health and Nutrition,
Globalization, Social Justice and Human Rights, cultural resource management
(CRM) and Cultural Dimensions of Civil and Religious Conflicts.

1.7. Unit Summary

In this unit we have explored in a more general way the nature of anthropology as a
field of inquiry. We have also seen the four common sub divisions of anthropology:
physical/biological anthropology; archaeology; linguistic anthropology; and socio-
cultural anthropology with their main essences and divisions. It’s also underscored
that the discipline, at least in its modern form, emerged in late 19 th c. Europe as the
science of human beings across broader spaces and times of existence. Ideally
anthropologists want to know how all the aspects and elements of people’s lives are
related and interconnected via carrying out extended fieldwork to collect empirical
data from communities while they are in their natural setting and trying to
understand the meanings people attached to events, phenomena and their ways of
life. It is important to understand that there are few misconceptions about the nature,
purpose and historical emergence of the discipline most ultimately based on
ignorance and misundersding of historical facts. However, anthropology has

16
successfully contributed the significance of local lives and local voices in an age of
simmering waves of global forces.

Suggested reading materials

Eriksen, Thomas H. 2001. Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction


to Social and Cultural Anthropology. 2th ed. London: Pluto
Press.

Kottak, Conrad P. 2007. Mirror for humanity: A Concise Introduction


to Cultural Anthropology. 5th ed. New York: McGraw- Hill.

Kottak, Conrad Phillip. 2010. Window on humanity: a concise introduction to


anthropology.
4thEd. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Smith, Cameron M. and Davies, Evan T. 2008. Anthropology for


Dummies®. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing Inc.

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