INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY Anthropology The study of the human species and it s immediate ancestors The study of people o Human nature society and the past Holistic Study of the human whole Comparative Anthropology Concepts Culture shared human behavior o What we do and why we do what we do o History and why it affects the way that we as people are Evolution human biological change over time o How we ve adapted over time Reaction to environmental change and stress Culture A societies shared and socially transmitted ideas values perceptions o Used to make sense of the human experience o How we share similar behavior Generate behavior Reflected in behavior EX people from different cultures dress differently o Choosing what to wear is a behavior that reflects your culture Evolution Belief that species arise from other species through a LONG process of transformation o Genetic change over multiple generations o Human biological change EX People are starting to be born w o wisdom teeth because we no longer need them to eat Anthropology Not the only field that studies humankind holistic perspective Look at facets of shared human behavior o Anthropologists look at the human whole EX They look at how history effects our culture but they don t study history They try to understand without being culture bound for comparative purposes o Culture bias What is Anthropology Anthropology is a science humanism field of study o Science biological o Humanism religion Anthropologists Responsibility Relevance Ethics They can and do impact the people who they study FOUR FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY READINGS Chapters 1 and 3 Ch 4 p 71 84 Ch 13 p 281 294 Next Week Chapter 2 Ch 13 p 294 307 Group Assignment First group discussion will be August 28th Download and read article by Horace Miner Sign up for a group this weekend getting an email from prof on UGA email Lecture Topics Four fields of ANTH Academic vs Applied Anthropology Fieldwork Four Fields of Anthropology Four fields that study humans in different ways Biological Anthropologists o Study humans in a biological way o Work with the theory of evolution o People who study bones o Primates and modern human Archaeology o Study the human cultural past Linguistic Anthropology o Study of language and culture o The interaction of human language in our culture Language is complicated Cultural Anthropology o Study of modern human cultures Modern human behavior WHY o Historical reasons in the US Only in the US and Canada ANTH is split into the four fields Franz Boas born in Germany PHD in physics Started the Department of ANTH at the University of Columbia North American native peoples Culture and biology History of racial categories The US is very diverse o Topical reasons Human variation in time and space Culture and evolution o Fieldwork An important component to the field Applying Anthropology American Anthropological Association AAA recognizes two dimensions o 50 60 ANTH are members 1 Academic Anthropology o Grant and university RESEARCH o Most research is supported by universities o Have questions they want answers to o Their goal is to produce and publish their findings 2 Applied Anthropology o Practical application of anthropological research o Use theories to apply ANTH o Work for the gov or private corps Difference o Goals Academic produce knowledge Applied to solve a problem Academic Grew after World War II o Few departments of ANTH in colleges before WWII o Mostly at private institutions More recent GI bill put lots on money into universities o More money more research By the early 70s most ANTH were academic ANTH Data Info Why and how people do things Applied Most ANTH today Practicing anthropologists practice their profession outside of academia o Outside of the university context Aimed at influencing human behavior and social conditions o They want to use their knowledge to change how people behave Crosscuts all four subfields o Cultural anthropologist Microsoft Problem solver over cultural differences Between the cultural of Microsoft and it s workers o Archaeologist Cultural Resource Management Work for the gov or themselves Laws in the 1900s to protect cultural resources Impact report what is the impact of a project o Linguistic Anthropologist State Board of Education How people communicate o Physical Anthropologist Georgia Bureau of Investigations Work as consultants Theory and Practice Ethnographers study societies firsthand o Theory aids practice and application fuels theory o ANTH perspective recognizes that changes do not occur in a vacuum Happen between different cultures o The application of ANTH has created new fields of study Over the last 10 20 years The two work together in a cycle ANTH and Practice Applied ANTH work in o Education Looking for better way to fix things in education And how to help students learn better o Urban and Rural areas Migration of people into urban areas which brings a lot of different cultural change o Medical fields Cultural and Biological Cultural translators looking at places that have medical problems and why they have medical problems o Business and Politics Look at the culture of business o Developmental fields Work more in other countries How corps are forming in other countries Fieldwork and Anthropology On location research o An extended period o Close involvement o They want to talk to people person to person o They want to excavate things on site Primary source of information for all anthropologists Personal involvement o It is personal o There is extreme close personal involvement when you are collecting your data Problem Oriented o There is a point to doing the research o To answer a specific question or to solve a specific problem Longitudinal Team Research o They are long term studies based on repeated visits From 2 weeks to 2 years o Coordinated research by multiple researchers o Fieldwork is almost never done by a single individual There are differences in how ANTH do their fieldwork Archaeological Fieldwork Systematic survey o Provides a regional perspective by gathering info on settlement patterns over a large area o Site Identification Survey collects info over large areas Finding sites looking for places where there has been human contact in the past Survey can answer certain research questions Excavation o Systematic removal of soil and other material o Excavation compliments the regional surveys 1 Site mapped and surface collected All of the sites you can see Surface Collections