Anthropology: the humanistic scienceThe four fields of anthropologyCultural anthropologyArcheologySlide 5Linguistic anthropologyBiological anthropologyApplied anthropologySlide 9Slide 10Medical anthropologySome anthropological questions ISome anthropological questions IISome anthropological questions IIISome anthropological questions IVWhy anthropology?MethodsHumanism and scienceStrategic methods vs. techniqueSlide 20Methodological convergence in the social sciencesParticipant observationSlide 23Slide 24Qualitative and quantitative dataAnthropology’s strategic methodThe qual-quant questionKey concepts in method and theoryCulture ICulture IICulture IIIThree paradigmsEthnographyEthnologyCultural materialismSlide 36InfrastructureHarris’ challengeStructure and superstructurePrimacy of the infrastructureSome generalizations:Idealism IIdealism IIExplainingAnd understandingThe biological substrateParadigms and theoriesSociobiological explanationThe SB explanationBut why some?Cultural materialist explanationPenn Handwerker’s studySlide 53Slide 54Conclusion:IdealismAnother example:Nomothetic and idiographic theoryBy 2001 …Daniel Gross’s theory of hypergamySlide 61Paredes’ study of the Poarch Creek BandPoarch Creek identityThe value of unique casesGross’s idiographic theoryParedes’ idiographic theoryNomothetic theoriesBoserup’s theory of dowrySteven Gaulin and James Boster add to itThe SCCS, HRAF, and comparative researchSlide 71Harris adds more…Kenneth Adams tests this …Nomothetic theory growsSchlegel and BarryTo operationalize:John Whiting: post-partum taboo and protein availabilitySlide 78p-values for contingency tablesTheories and probabilitiesAnthropology: the humanistic scienceAre you as interested as I am in knowing how, when, and where human life arose, what the first human societies and languages were like, why cultures have evolved along diverse but often remarkably convergent pathways, why distinctions of rank came into being, and how small bands and villages gave way to chiefdoms and chiefdoms to mighty states and empires? --Marvin Harris, Our KindThe four fields of anthropologyAnthropology is the science of humanity – all of humanity, in all its complexity.There are four field of anthropology: Cultural AnthropologyArcheologyLinguistic AnthropologyBiological AnthropologyCultural anthropologyCultural anthropologists study the variation in thought and behavior among people of contemporary societies.ArcheologyArcheologists also study the variation in human thought and behavior, but focus on past societies. Archeology, however, adds more than the dimension of time to the study of human cultural variation. It adds an enormous number of societies to the database of experiments that humans have conducted in social living.ArcheologyClassical archeologists focus on the reconstruction of ancient literate civilizations. They get their training in departments of classics. The majority of archeologists in the U.S., however – those who study ancient preliterate civilizations – get their training in departments of anthropology.Linguistic anthropologyLinguistic anthropologists study the variation in human languages, the roots of human languages, and the role of language in shaping human thought and behavior.Biological anthropologyBiological – or physical – anthropologists are biologists who study humans as organisms. Biological anthropologists show us how the capacity for culture itself has evolved and how that capacity, in turn, has influenced our biological evolution.Applied anthropologyApplied anthropology is the application of anthropological knowledge to the solution of human problems.Many anthropologists work in applications – that is, trying to solve human problems.Applied anthropologyDelivering better health care, producing better crops, teaching literacy more effectively – these and other development programs across the world are enhanced by anthropological knowledge of local cultural patterns.Applied anthropologyAll four fields of anthropology have a basic-science and an applied-science dimension. Forensics anthropology is applied biological anthropology. CRM, or cultural resource management, is applied archeology.Bilingual education makes use of applied linguistic anthropology.Medical anthropologyMedical anthropology, for example, is based on both cultural and biological anthropology. Studies of health systems and studies of the cultural correlates of disease.Some anthropological questions IBiological anthropology:What is the relation between modern apes and humans? Who are the oldest humans and where did they develop?What happened to the Neanderthals?Are we still evolving?What accounts for the different color of people’s skin around the world?Are gendered behaviors genetic?Some anthropological questions IIArcheology:When were plants and animals domesticated? When did the earliest states arise, and how did complex societies evolve at all?When did the first people come to America?Why did complex states develop so much later in the Americas, in Europe, and in Africa than in China or the Middle East?Some anthropological questions IIILinguistics:Are all human languages of equal complexity? Are some languages harder to learn than others?How did language originate?Are all the languages of the world related to one another?Why is it so hard to speak a foreign language without an accent?Does language shape thought or vice versa?Some anthropological questions IVCultural and biocultural anthropology:Is violence and war inevitable in human society?Why do people have different cultures? Why is there economic and social inequality? Is it part of being human?What accounts for differences in IQ scores around the world?Are there innate behavioral and cognitive differences in men and women?Why anthropology?Partly, to satisfy our curiosity about the range of variation in human thought and behavior. This is a motivating force in all sciences. Partly to shake the foundations of ethno-centrism and to create a respect for cultural diversity.And partly to help ameliorate human problems.MethodsThere are three levels of method: epistemology, strategy, and technique. At the epistemological level, there are two fundamentally different approaches in the social sciences. One approach is rooted in the scientific, or