Anth Notes

7/28/2019 Anth Notes

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17-09,HOORCOLLEGE 2

Between Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Sociology is the mother of anthropologyHuman beings are social being. A human being is also a

cultural being.

Rules of social behavior change between different societies.

Culture: Differences in behavior, custom, cognition, belief, values, attitude, art, morals, language

Every year new definitions are added.

Culture differences between societies, but also within a country.

Maori:

A lot of tradition

People press each other noses. This originates from the very beginning of human kind. The first mancame to life by sneezing(sharing each other breath)

Meeting house:

A lot of rules of behavior

People in different societies have different rules of behavior and communication.

Goal of anthropology

To describe, to interpret and , possible, also to explain the cultural customs and een that have been

observed

Not to focus on the difference only, but also on similarities.

Object

o Custom (actions, behavior, interactions)o Events (activities, situations, processes)o Concepts (opinions, perspectives, visions)o Objects (ethnographic artifacts, documents)

Theres a difference between what people say and what people do.

Cultural Anthropology(by Toon Meijl)

o The study of the obvious in order to demonstrate that nothing is obviouso by making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. (after Clifford Geertz)

May be seen as a cultural exchange during which customs, attitudes, vision, perceptions, norms and

values are translated .

Ethnographic field research:

Ethnos = A group of people

Graphic = (writing)

A research method used for the description, interpretation and explanation of behavior>>


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Participation/observation

From the viewpoint of self: ethnocentrism ( only understand people from your one viewpoint)

From the viewpoint of others : Cultural relativism.

Ethnocentrism:

o The emotional attitude that ones own race, nation, or culture is superior to all others.o From the perspective of Selfo Stereotypingo Superiorityo Belief in evolutionary differences: from primitive to civilizedo Development: from the past to the present

CannibalismThe belief that other people are always cannibals, but they had no proof for this.

Even in our own societies it happens very rarely

Exo cannibalism: from another community (very small scale, very incidental, for example after war)

Indo cannibalism: from their own community

Characteristics of cultural relativism

o From the perspective of Othero Understandingo But approving opproving of the other cultural customs?o Self in second placeo Ethical relativismo Should we be willing to abandon our won values?o Universal declaration of human rights.

Dialogue

o Self othero Ethnocentrism cultural Relativismo Observation participationparticipant observation is situated in exchanges between self and other


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Intercultural competencies

o Insight into your own cultural baggageo Insight into other cultural customso Any sacred cows, you dont have to except it/think its okay, but you have to TRY to

understand it.

oChanging perspectives

o Hidden dimensions


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24-09,HOORCOLLEGE 3,

HOOFDSTUK 4&6

Humanity and personhood

Human character is not inborn; it must be acquired through learning. A process primarily influenced

by the social and cultural world we live in.

Nature and society

Why is race so irrelevantIf you look at genetics people are very much the same, its not

interesting to look at different races

Differences are not due to biological differences!

4 dimensions of human existence

Culture

1 cultureuniversals,

The shared cultivated,

social dimension of

humanity

2 culturalvariation,

Nature

3 genetic universals,

length, weight,

brainvolume

4 geneticdifferences,

All humans have 99,8 %

genes in common

sharing variation

Margeret Mead: People are worried about the differences between generation(puberty). Margeret

said that there was not so much to worry about. It depends on culture whether you worry about

these things.

Anthropology divides two kinds of nature:

External nature, ecosystem

Inner nature, human nature

these two concepts are the opposite of culture.

Status and role

Status: a socially defined aspect of a person which defines a social relationship and entails certain

right and duties in relation to others. People also have a certain role, this is your actual behavior. If

you break the rules connected with your role and status other actors may react by imposing

sanctions. This causes regularity and predictability in society(not total)

Power

This description of status and roles does deal with power. There are two principal ways of

conceptualising power:

1. The actor perspective, an aspect of social relationship, the ability to make someone dosomething he otherwise would not have done

2. The systematic perspective, how power differences embedded in the fabric of societyWhy is personhood cultural

o Human being: Embodied Conscious


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language and moral agencyuniversal

o Language, you can interact with people and not with animalso I as opposed to others, humans have the ability to develop different kinds of personhood,

you can discuss about this

o Its hard to decide whether someone is a person or not(depends on culture): ancestral spirits,slaves, childrenAre there alternative ways of understanding personhoodDividual of fractual personhood

Dividual(other definitions of personhood)

o made from different things, A gives something to B, B becomes a part of Ao You consist of a bundle of relationshipso To become a person you must interact with others (Papua New Guinea)o Persons rely on relations with others, people change each other (India)o Your person extends beyond your skin, with death of a body, the person might stay a life.

Individual personhood

o Dualistic, Body and mind. 19thage they said these were separate thingso People are a hole, you cant separate it

Depending on how you manage your relations ships you become a person

Giftexchange

Important in the anthropology, not just economic en political.

Obligation to give

Obligation to receiveObligation to repay

Individuality: humans have a certain body, which are different, universal

Individualism: what people like, not universal

Wrong:

Two global tendencies

Biometric identification of persons

Corporate invention of persons

Structural functionalism

Social structure may be perceived as a pattern of social arrangement, emptied of humans. Within

society different social institutions exist, they all have a function and work together in the same way

as body parts do. This suggests that people act predictably according to a pre-established system of

norms and sanctions. Individualism was not seen as interesting but as a side-effect of societys

reproduction.

Critics:

o You cant really explain human behavior with the pre-established system of norms and sanctions.People break the rules, make exceptions ets.

o Social organization could be seen as the dynamic aspect of social structure. What people actually do.o Promises to explain cultural variation but only describes interrelationships between institutions.


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Social systems: A set of social relations which are maintained through a system of interaction. There

are many different levels of interaction. The boundaries of the system lie in the points where

interaction decreases dramatically

Group and grid: a classification system of persons and society

Grid,

degree of shared classifications or knowledge

Ego Group, degree of social cohesion

Private system of classification and knowledge


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01-10,HOORCOLLEGE 4

H7,8 EN 9

Relationships and comparisons

Kinship systems: how people relate to each other

Anthropological comparison:

Understanding the differences and similarities

About comparing individuals

Generalization and generalizations

WEIRD people:

Western

Educated

Industrial

RichDemocratic

Most studies were done with WEIRD people. At some point they realized they should include others

as well.

How to compare WEIRD people with all the other folks around the world?

Successful strategy:

Develop a metalanguage

For instance for describing kinship.

Kinship may not matter so much to WEIRD people but it does for the rest of humanity. Kinship has alot of influence in non WEIRD societies.

Kinship:

o May be biological and/or constructedo Its broader than just family: kinsmen lead common lives, they partake each others sufferings, joys

etc.

o Constituted nattily and/or post-nattily, not just birth, but also thing that come aftero Not pure biology or pure performance, its a combinationo Within kinship systems many rules exist about whom to marry, incest, exogamy, how to interact with

others and whether the society is matri- or patrilineal.These rules are not always followed

correctly!

Kinship vs. descentDescent = afstamming, reference to common ancestors

Kinship = network; the people, the rules, everything involved with kinthe system

Kindred = collection of actual people. The actual people who are important to me.My kindred

Kinship:

Reference to an individual(ego)

Universally important

Involves both sides of kindred

Status is relative to another person


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Descent:

Reference to an ancestor

only in some societies recognized

connects only one side/a limited set

Status is absolute as member of group

Lineages and clans

Lineages: people who are related by shared ancesters and can proof this.

Clan: people who assume they are related to each other but cant proof it.

Principles for the transmission of kin group membership and other resources:Patrilineal: Everyone becomes a member of their fathers kin group and transmission of resources

take place through the fathers lineage

Matrilineal: Everyone becomes a member of their mothers kin group and transmission of resources

take place through the mothers lineage. Society is often still dominated by man.

Double: Some resources are transmitted through the fathers lineage, others through the mothers

lineage. The two lineages are kept separate.Bilaterally/Cognatic: No difference between the two sides. Resources van be transmitted though kin

of both mothers and fathers side

Parallel: Man transmit to their sons and woman to their daughters(rare)

Crossing or alternating: Man transit to their daughters and woman to their sons

this doesnt mean that in patrilineal society, people are not related to their mothers relatives.

Practically all kinships organise kin relations on both mothers and fathers side. Being part of a group

is not the end of the system. Its very dynamic and there are many different levels.

Difference between patrilineal and matrilineal descent

In both systems man usually dominate politics and inheritance often follows man.

In patrilineal societies these right are transmitted from father to child(most of the times son)In matrilineal societies these right are transmitted from mother brother to daughters son(van

oom naar neefje)

Marriage and relatednessNot necessarily based on love

A relationship between groups

Maasai see it as a business relationship

Dowry: bruidschat, you get money for giving your daughter away

Bridewealth: Bride-price, you have to pay money for getting a husband for your daughter

Different clans sometimes exchange woman. The formation of society occurs when a man gives his

sister away to another man, thereby creating ties of affinity.

Kinship in anthropology todayThree assumptions

1. Kinship constitutes one of the institutional domains which are conceived to be universalcomponents or building block of every society. The others, are an economic system, a

political system and a system of belief

2. Kinship has to do with the reproduction of human beings and the relations between humanbeings that are the concomitants of reproduction

3.

Every society utilises for various social purposes, the genealogical relations which it assumesto exist among people


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Kin do not come not come naturally; they must be crated socially, and this at least partly fashioned

so as to facilitate tasks to be solved and to create order in an otherwise chaotic social world

Gender and Age

Why do man have political and economic supremacy, when it is not true that men necessarilycontribute more than woman to the physical survival of the group.

of course this is not the case in every society

This is a ethnocentric approach

Its not certain that man and woman understand the samething about power

Culture-nature dichotomy: Woman are closer to nature than man and there for have les power

Age: Young people are seen as sexless. They both grow up in different ways and this turns them in to

man and woman. Its different in every society but often the older you get the more respect you get.


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08-10,HOORCOLLEGE 5

HOOFDSTUK 2 EN 3

Ethnography

According to Eriksen and Delaney Anthropologists are:

o oscillating(going back and forward)o Making the familiar exotic en making the exotic familiar

Je moet kunnen zeggen wat de verschillen tussen armchair anthropologie en ethnographny zijn en

wat de voor en nadelen van beide zijn.

Ethnography

Ethnicity: A persons cultural identity formed on the basis of race, religion, language or national

origin

Ethnography:o Literally, writing about peoples, not necessary about ethnicity of ethnical groupso The funnel(trechter) approach. You start very wide and you go into more and more specificsThe old questionnaires where asking a lot about things that are important in their own society. But in

the current anthropology capturing the natives point of view is more important. You try to get the

perspective of people involved.

Ethnographic present an the past:

o The practice of using the present tense in an ethnographic description. It implies a timeless state,with changes since the of fieldwork not taken into account.

o Since the 1980s history of societies has become more important when we describe them But, is there good and written information available?

o Often anthropological studies are snapshotsEthnographical research

o NOT the opposite of comparison.o A difficulty with ethnographic research is that people dont always do what is expected from themo Its very important to be present and see what people do.Emic and etic dichotomy(tweedeling)

Etic: The scientists point of view(certain aspects are not important)

Emic: Life as experienced and described by the members of society themselves. The natives point ofview.(Is an aspect important from the locals view, even though it doesnt seem to be important from

the perspective of the speaker(scientist)

The pragmatics of sharing,

Taking in specific presence

Taking in specific references

Highlight situational and communicative clues

Why you share and with who

Sharing studied througs experiments:

Cutting out physical presence of


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Armchair anthropology in Victorian BritainCharacteristic:

o The belief in social evolution: The European societies are the end product of a developmental chain which begins with

savagery

o Dichotomies(tweedelingen): Status societies: community based on myth and kinship Contract societies: society based on individual merit and achievement

Morgan, ancient society:

Seven stages from savagery to civilization

Taylor(1832-1917):

Culture or civilization, taken in its widest ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes

knowledge, belief, art morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a

member of society.

Taylor and frazer: from mythical tot religious to scientific

Researchers didnt get their own data or did their own research. But they let other people do this for

them. At home in their armchair they collected data from other people, on this data the research is

based. The quality of the ethnographic data they could use was variable and the need for met

reliable data began to make itself felt.

Modern anthropology is associated with 4 important scholars:

Franz Boas USA 1858 1942 - German immigrant

- important research among Inuit and Kwakuitl Indians

- 4 field approach: Cultural & social, physical,archaeological(oudheidkunde), linguistic

- cultural relativism

Radcliffe

Brown

UK 1881 1955 - strong short-term influence

- admirer of Durkheim

- structural functionalism (Social and cultural

phenomena are functional and can be contributed to the

maintenance of the overall social structure _

- wanted to develop "general laws of society"

British anthropology:

orientated toward

kinship, politics and

economics

Bronislaw

Malinowski

UK 1884 1942 hailed as founder of modern British social anthropology

Marcel

Mauss

Fr 1872 1950 - armchair anthropology

- wrote on many different topics such as gift exchange,

the nation, the body, sacrifice and the concept of

personhood

- admired writer

Participant observation

Getting some basic information can also be important but it isnt ethnography.

Malinowski was not the first one doing field work, but he was one of the first one making it into a

policy.It wasnt normal to interact with the locals, Malinowski was one of the first ones doing this.


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You have to be right there where action happens.

Locals most of the times are okay with doing interviews and come over for short times. But if you re

staying for a longer time, people are aware you get more insight and you might report stuff.

Everyone is just doing what is economically good for them. Malinowski showed that its not money or

productive items society drives on. For example shells from the aborigines in new guinea. Nobody is

only driven by every day needs.

Lvi Strauss(1908 2009) Structuralism:

o Emerged after second world waro Social and cultural phenomena are functional and can be contributed to the maintenance of the

overall social structure.

o Formal way of thinking about kinship, with particular reference to systems of marriageo Big influenceo Criticism that it is improvableHolistic view

Instead of looking at different subjects separately, you should get a view of how things hangtogether.

Fieldwork and ethnography

Case study Kula and malinowskis study is important for the test!

Kulaexchange system from the aborigines.

Fieldwork

o Most important source of knowledgeo You have to stay for a long time

Your presence will become natural

You will always stay a strangero Role of the clown or role of the expert

Most of the times somewhere in the middle Risk when you are to much the expert:

Never seeing aspects of society which locals are ashamed of showing to high-ranking strangers

o Principal requirement is taking part in the local life as much as possibleo Most anthropologists depend on a combination of formal techniques and unstructured

participant observation.

o People explored must have the right to refuse to be subjected to anthropological analyseso The self is the most important scientific instrument and influences the experience in thefieldworko Not one simple recipe for fieldworko The relationship between theory and empirical material, or data is fundamental(in all empirical

sciences)

The challenge lies in saying something significant about culture and social life with yourempirical data.

o The choice of an accurate topic is important. Otherwise you end up with knowing too little about to much rather than knowing

enough about something.

Problems:o Limited knowledge of the field language


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o Gender biaso Ones main informant fails to be representativeo Time intensive(not capital- of labour-intensive)In the present societies are often studied from within, do anthropologists will have to join the

debate. They are not the only researchers anymore.


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15-10,HOORCOLLEGE 6

Anthropology, History, change and Traditions

Proto-anthropology, from when originates anthropology?

Certain very important proto-anthropologists

Herodotos, a greek

traveler

5th century

Before Christ.

He wrote about the people as barbarian

Iban Khaldun, Tunisian 14th century Anticipated social sciences, wrote about law, history, anthropology etc. He wrote

about different societies and customs. He developed a theoretical framework,

about cultural variation and how this developed. He was the first one who wrote

about doing fieldwork.

Michel de Montaigne

Thomas HobbesGiambattista Vico

16th, 17th,

and 18thcentury

These people are all important thinkers in the 16th

17th

and 18th

century. (They are

not really anthropologists, but they did have some important theories.)

Jean-jacques Rousseau His influence on the emergence of anthropology is very significant. He used the

stories from travellers to create some sort of utopia as an reaction on the

modernization. In other word, he looked at other societies to create an idea of

what he thinks would be an utopia(perfect world)

Johann Gottlieb von

Herder

Each society has his own soul, and there for has its own rights to develop rules and

customs. He was one of the first people he was against ethnocentrism.

There are two ways of looking at societies:

Universalism: accounting the similarities between societiesRelativisme: accounting on the differences between societies

19th

century

o 1859 Evolution theory by Charles Darwin. No matter how different people are, they must have one ancestor in common. He argued that biological development was more important than cultural

development. Biological development was universal en cultural development

wasnt.

Sociocultural evolution

From savagery to barbarism to civilization

Leading anthropologists

Edward Taylor(1832 tot 1917)

o cultural evolutionism.o He defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary

theories.

oHe believed that there was a functional basis for the development of society and religion, whichhe determined was universal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_evolutionismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_evolutionism


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o He believed that "research into the history and prehistory of man could be used as a basis for thereform ofBritish society."

Henry Maine(1822-1888)

Ancient Law(1861)

o Status societies, operate mainly on bases of kinship and myth. Your status is ascribed by birth.o Contract societies, they operate more on the basis of achievement. The individual achievement

gives you your status.

in this you see the difference between traditional and modern.

Lewis Henry Morgan(1818-1882)

Ancient society:

o Evolutionary schemeo Seven stages, from lower savagery to civilization.

Based on technological development.Arm Chair anthropology

The first anthropologists never travelled. They used the writings from other travellers to compare

and contrast and tried to explain the evolutionary

o Evolutionairy anthropology, From the lower stage of life to civilisation.o Comparartive, search for universal regularitieso Objectivistst, they were not interested in the differentiation between groups they

researched.(generaliserend)

o Quantitiveo Top Down...

Cross-cultural comparitive research

o ...?o Holocultural analysis?

You are looking for common features in different societies. Advanteges:

Overview of cultural variation

Disadventages: Limited to small-scale societies Disregarding cultural diversity within societies Deductive rather than inductive

- Inductive: theories made behind the desk(arm chair anthropology)- Deductive: theories created by field work

o ...?From the evolutionary approach

How is it possible that there is (very big) difference in cultural, even if the other aspects influencing

societys, like climat, are the same.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_societyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_societyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History


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20th

century

Malinowski is the founder of ethnographic research.

Difference between old-fashioned culture and the contemporary concept of culture

o Old fashioned culture Bounded, small scale You can describe culture by a checklist of features

Kinship, politics, world view, society ... Unchanging, the belief that culture doesnt change.

Society reproduces itself with every generation. Underlying system of shared meanings

People from the same culture have the same opinions Identical, homogeneous individuals People still look at culture this way(not within anthropology)

o New concept of culture Culture is an active process of meaning making

We realize that culture involves multi vocality, so different people have differentopinions about their culture

(There is a debate about what Dutch culture is.) People might say they do certain thing which are important for their culture, but

saying you do something is not the same as doing something.

Culture and power and interconnected Cultural sites are not bounded: global linkages Cultural discourses are historically specific and never coherent Distinction between cultural ideology and practice

Most anthropologists would agree with the new concept of culture, but some are still hanging

between the new and the old! Besides that there are many different description of culture. Not only

these two. And there is not 1 definition on culture that everybody agrees on.

(Holistic: you have to see a culture in its context and not just look at features from a checklist)

Paradox of globalisation

Globalisation: The process of increasing integration from societies around the world.

Homogenization: cultures are becoming more and more the same. 30 years ago people believed that

within a few years all cultures would be the same.

As a result of globalisation people didnt want to become the same so they started to point out the

differences in culture an revive traditions. So globalisation did not cause homogenization.

Paradox : there is more and more contact but as response culture and identity has become more

important. Globalisation didnt cause homogenization but cultural renaissance(de heropleving van

verschillende culturen).

TraditionmodernityIn the past tradition was seen as a bad thing. In order to become modern you had to get rid of

tradition. This was caused by the belief that you could only change in one direction. Changing in this

direction would make you lose your traditions, because traditions cant change.


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Dichotomy between tradition and modernity??? Powerpoint

Filtering out the modern

Anthropologists are known for filtering out the modern aspects of culture. They were looking for the

traditional culture, which they expect to be the same as hundreds of years ago.

Invention or reinvention of tradition

Traditions are not just passed on from generation to generation but people also invent and reinvent

tradition. But it is said that you cant invent tradition, because you van only change it, so you should

say reinvention of tradition.

Conclusion

Traditions have acquired more meanings/people look at it in different ways. Negative and positive

ways.

Traditions cannot only be lost, but they can also change.


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22-10,HOORCOLLEGE 8

(OFFICIEEL HOOFDSTUK 5)

Space and culture

Space: humans largest cultural artifact

By looking at space you can have an indirect look at peoples culture.

What Is culture in the first place/how to deal with the many different terms of culture:

o Read the different descriptions of culture in the different books.o The different concepts of culture Is getting on with studying the cultural dimension of human life.o Ladder:

Higher and lower culture. Evolutionary theory. Everything leads on to the finalindustrialisation.

Problems: What is the standard Where do you put them in regard to their religion or mythology

o Humans come up with different solutions for different problems. So every culture is different andlooks the same

o Thin king of culture as social institutions.o Interaction between people: Culture is something that happens to you, that you yourself would

never do.

When we talk about culture its not preliminary.

But why do they still keep changing it all the time

Through the notion of culture you can understand differences between group.

Terms of culture should been seen as tools. There is not a good or a bad definition, they are just used

for different things.

There is a core of culture which people do agree on:

Culture is useful as a term for process, for example cultivating and cultural variation

We need a new culture of..

We need a new culture of Positive aspects problems

WE need a new culture of Culture is a public thing you can have many identities

and have many cultures

We NEED a new culture of So culture is usefull/adaptive People use the notion of

culture itself, for example to

discriminate of to keep power

away from certain groupsWe need A new culture of Culture is shared by a number Culture was only used in


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Conclusie op pp

How, (why) to use the term culture as a tool

People use culture as a short hand for summarising ways of life.

Vraag die waarschijnlijk op het tentamen komt

For which purpose is the word culture in this sense used?

Answer this question like this:

Its culture in the sense of and than why you think it is culture

SAMENVATTING(KJE) VAN HOOFDSTUK 5

Local organisation

Norms and social control

In this chapter social life is being seen from the viewpoint of society. Every social system requires the

existence of what is permitted and what is not. These rules are called norms and they are connected

with positive and negative sanctions. The system of sanction applied when norms are violated can

de called social control. But norms and sanctions cannot explain why people act the way they do.

Socialisation

Socialisation is the process whereby one becomes a fully competent member of society. Child raising

is, by many anthropologists, seen as an important factor of socialisation, namely the shaping ofmember of society. The personalities of humans are created through the dynamic interplay between

individual and society. The ultimate goal of socialisation is to ensure that the actor internalises the

values, norms and forms of behaviour to upon which society is founded.

Life stages and rites of passage

In different life stages you have to obey different rules, norms and obligations. Young girls dont have

to do the same as elderly man. Often people pass to other stages through rites of passage.

The household

of people singular. Only later it became a

culture. So not just what is

shared but also what is not

shared

We need a NEW culture of Culture changes all the time,

its dynamic.

Temporal delimitation. Ideas

about thing always change.People try to make one version

that might work for a longer

time

We need a new CULTUREOF Culture of this, culture of that.

So everything is shaped by

humans with their culture,

We dont know what human

culture is. We can only say

what it is true at this moment.

This makes it more complicated


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The household is the smallest and most easily accessibly social system where intensive and important

interaction takes place. The consistence of a household can change and whom are part of the

household is different in many societies.

Village

The household is not self sufficient. A number of problems have to be solved outside of the

household. The household is always related to other households and to social institutions. There are

many different ways in which villages exist.

Social integration in villages

Kinship has a privileged place in the social institutions. The role of the village council often consists of

mediating between kin groups with opposing interests.

Documents

Anth Notes