ANTH 205 Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture II Context What is Anthropology Why Anthropology III Core Humanities Social Disciplines by 1914 IV History V Archaeology VI Anthropology VII Holistic and Comparative VIII American Anthropology has 4 core subfields IX What is anthropology Current Lecture What is Anthropology Who are you I am the sum of my experiences Class deff anthropology is the understanding of other civilizations compared to other ones the study of people past present and future 1 What is anthropology Are your experiences normal 7 billion people and each one has their own experience Something to think about Are you normal What is normal Cultures are always in a status of change 2 Context What is Anthropology Why Anthropology Why Anthropology Ideology of 19th Century European World System Model o Nomothetic objective Economics Political Science Socio Cultural o Idiographic subjective History What about the Indigenous Peoples Economics encountered by Europeans Who do they fit Political Indians Soci Cultural Native Americans History Merciless Indian Savages in our declaration of independence 3 4 5 6 7 Anthropology was created to understand things that weren t normal o Primitive people o Without history Core Humanities Social Disciplines by 1914 Economics Political Science Socio Cultural History Anthropology Orientalism o All of these later became the standard of the world in 1960 also added Area Studies History Is about what people say happened based on studying written documents focuses on chronology of events to explain causes and tell story through narrative o Who s writing the documents winners of wars write history gov military rich people o Who s not being written about Minorities poor people Archaeology Is about the study of things people left behind focus on artifacts called material culture o red solo cup how was it made what made it ect Anthropology Is the study of humans past and present A central concern of anthropologists is the concept of culture Is ANTHROPOLOGY a hard science or soft science o Study of humans o From the Greek anthropos human and logos study o Is a social science but can borrow from humanities and use hard sciences to answer questions o It stands on knowledge originating in both social and biological sciences humanities and physical sciences A popular Misconception o Anthropology primitive or non industrial societies Anthropologists study ALL cultures Ancient modern simple complex EVERYTHING Holistic and Comparative Holistic anthropology studies all of human existence past present and future o Biology society language culture etc o Based on the idea that any aspect of human existence is integrated no dimension can be understood in isolation o Time and space Comparative anthropology compares people and societies across time and place o Anthropologists seek generalizations o Based on the thinking that a valid hypothesis or theory about humanity must be tested with data from a wide variety of cultures Humans are the MOST ADAPTABLE life forms on Earth Biological Plasticity 8 American Anthropology has 4 core subfields Cultural Socio cultural Biological Linguistic Archeology o Terrestrial o Underwater