Anthropology 1101: Being Human

Anthropology Table of Contents Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology? Chapter 2: Are Humans Unique? Chapter 3: Pursuit of Food Chapter 4: Ritual and Religion Chapter 5: Marriage Chapter 6: Language Chapter 7: Primates Chapter 8: Human Variation Chapter 9: How Did We Get Here? Chapter 10: Portals to the Past Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology? Happy people in PNG by eGuide Travel is licensed under CC BY 2.0 nthropology studies what it means to be human. In fact, the term A “anthropology” literally means the study of humans (anthropos is Greek for humanity). We are often fascinated with other people and even fascinated with ourselves, and why shouldn’t we be? After all, within each human skull lies the human brain, which neuroscientist Christof Koch calls the most complex object in the known universe (Flatow 2013). With our brain we can strive to know the world around us, or as astronomer Carl Sagan put it, “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” The field of anthropology trains the lens not on the outward universe but on ourselves. In doing do, anthropologists endeavor to suspend judgment, cultural assumptions, and beliefs about what is normal, and to view ourselves with fresh eyes. Anthropology is not just about one aspect of humanity, such as our economic systems, political organization, religion, or biology. Rather, anthropology is about all of these topics and how they intersect with each other. In fact, anthropology is a broad discipline that covers all of human history, all the peoples of the world today, all the languages, all the technology, and the biology of humans. Anthropology even extends its reach to other primates like apes and monkeys in an effort to understand how we are similar and different to those species. By keeping the perspective broad, anthropology addresses some of the Anthropology strives to see ourselves from a biggest questions of our day: Who are fresh perspective. Photo: Sue Ruth we? How did we get here? Where might we be headed? How does one discipline even begin to address all these varied topics? To make things more manageable, anthropology is divided into four subfields namely, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. Cultural anthropology is interested in human culture and the diversity of human social life. Linguistic anthropology explores human languages and how language connects with human culture. Biological anthropology studies human biology, especially physical variation in humans, fossil ancestors, genetics, and how biology intersects with human culture. Archaeology investigates the human past through material remains. There is also a fifth subfield that crosscuts the other four subfields, called applied anthropology. This subfield uses anthropological techniques and concepts to help solve modern-day problems. Dog Sledding in Uummannaq, Greenland” is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Anthropology is considered a holistic discipline because it is interested in all aspects of humanity and takes a multitude of approaches toward understanding the human condition. Humans adapt both biologically and culturally to physical and social environments. Adaptation refers to how organisms cope with their environment. Himalayan sherpas of Nepal climb Mount Everest far more easily than a New Yorker in part because they are biologically adapted to high altitudes by making more energy for the same amount of oxygen (Senthilingam 2016). The Bajau “sea nomads” of Southeast Asia, may have a genetic adpatation to breath- hold diving. We also learn to adapt to our environments culturally. To live in extreme arctic conditions, we do not need a biological adaptation like thick pelt of fur; we simply learn to sew a coat, build a shelter, and make fire. Because of the flexibility of culture, more than any other organism, we are able to occupy all environments of the planet from deserts to polar regions to the oceans and we beyond the Earth itself. What’s more, culture and biology are not separate and distinct systems, rather they are “utterly intertwined” (Sapolsky 2017). The cultural practice of drinking animal milk, for example, led some populations to be biologically able to continue to digest milk into adulthood. Likewise, the cultural practices of climbing mountains and deep sea diving has led to biological changes in sherpa and sea nomad peoples. The holistic approach makes anthropology somewhat different than other social sciences. What is Water? The late writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist David Foster Wallace recounted in his “What is water?” commencement address (Sullivan 2013): “There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning boys, how’s the water?’ The two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’” What’s true for fish in water is also true for human culture. Culture is so pervasive, we don’t even recognize that we are “swimming” in it all the time. Take a look around you. How many things do you see that weren’t made, modified, or influenced by humans? We can become so accustomed to our own culture, that when we see a different way of doing something, even something simple like counting or snapping, we can be taken by surprise because it never occurred to us that there was a different way to go about these everyday actions. Finger Snapping https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ygu57NhhQ0?rel=0 Finger Snapping Lupita Nyong’o Teaches How to Do an African Finger Snap Two important concepts in anthropology are cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism means trying to suspend moral judgment in order to understand why people have certain practices and beliefs. Anthropologists don’t condone practices simply because they exist, but rather seek to understand the underlying causes. After all, few people would give the thumbs up to human sacrifice or torture simply because they are part of someone’s culture or associated with someone’s heritage. Cultural relativism not only provides a starting point for understanding other cultures, but also allows a window into our own cultural biases. As anthropologist Michael F. Brown (2014:6) writes in his book Upriver on Amazonian cultures, “We become aware of the arbitrariness of deep-seated practices and beliefs only when forced to confront other societies whose customs differ from our own.” Sometimes we need to look outside our own culture, the water in which we swim, in order to see it more clearly. Huri Duna Dancers [PNG] WOMAD 11” by Peter Tea is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 The flip side of cultural relativism is ethnocentrism, which means using your own culture to pass judgment on another. Ethnocentrism is the idea that your own beliefs, values, and behaviors are the correct ones. You have probably heard the word “egocentric” used to refer to someone who considers a situation only from their own personal viewpoint. Ethnocentrism is similar, but from the perspective of an entire culture. Anthropology reveals that there are many ways of being human. Insights into the many varieties of being human can reset how central and important we think we are. Sometimes this way of thinking can be threatening, but it can also be intriguing, thought-provoking, and even inspiring. The WEIRD Problem Anthropology is comparative, studying a broad range of human groups, from hunter-gatherers to corporate culture. This comparative approach is important because if we only consider Western cultures, we would have a very skewed view of who humans are. The term “Western” refers to beliefs and values that have an origin in the European Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment. A well-known problem in psychology is that much research in that discipline has been based on people living in Westernized nations. This is largely because they are the most convenient subjects to study. In fact, American undergraduate students are common psychology research subjects—not a very representative cross-section of the world’s mental life. Psychologists recognize this problem and have labeled these subjects WEIRD—Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (Henrich et al. 2010). The acronym WEIRD is apt because most cultures have decidedly different beliefs and values than American college students as well as different life experiences. Anthropology casts its net beyond Western societies to try to circumvent the WEIRD problem and understand the human condition as a whole. “WEIRD” CNM students. College students are typical subjects of psychology research. Photo: Sue Ruth Quantitative vs. Qualitative Anthropology is usually classified as a social science because it seeks explanations about human societies through careful observation and systematic analysis. Social scientists often look for general explanations and use quantitative methods, which means that some kind of measuring is involved. Anthropology also has elements of the humanities, in that it is interested in the diversity of human societies. This approach tends to be more qualitative, which involves explaining or describing a particular society or practice. Imagine an anthropologist is interested in recycling on campus. They might document how people feel about recycling, which would be a more qualitative approach. Another anthropologist studying recycling might take a quantitative approach by recording the items in the bin. The two approaches would provide different, but equally useful insights into recycling behavior, and both are valuable in anthropology. CNM Recycles! We have single-stream recycling, meaning all recyclables can go in the same bin. Click here to see what can go in the blue bins and rectangular bins Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology, or sociocultural anthropology, is the study of human culture. In everyday conversations we might say someone who has excellent taste in art, music, literature is “cultured.” This, however, is not the definition of culture that anthropologists use.

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