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VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF AND ETHNOLOGY

Rasa Račiūnaitė-Paužuolienė

Cultural

DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES

Kaunas, 2013 Reviewed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Egidija Ramanauskaitė

Approved by the Department of Cultural Studies and Ethnology of the Faculty of Humanities at Vytautas Magnus University on 27 November 2012 (Protocol No. 11)

Recommended for printing by the Council of the Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University on 28 December 2012 (Protocol No. 8–2)

Translated and edited by UAB “Lingvobalt”

Publication of the didactical guidelines is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Project title: “Renewal and Internationalization of Bachelor Degree Programmes in History, Ethnology, Philosophy and Political Science” (project No. VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-048)

© Rasa Račiūnaitė-Paužuolienė, 2013 ISBN 978-9955-21-366-6 © Vytautas Magnus University, 2013 Table of Contents

1. Conception of Anthropology, Historical Background, and the Branches of Anthropology . . 5 2. Field Research and Ethnography: Traditional and Mod- ern Ethnographic Technique. Multi-Sited Ethnography and Dimensions of Global Cultural Flow 14 3. Conception of and Research Strategy ...... 25 4. Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology 35 5. Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection 49 6. Ecology: Understanding Environment and Technology 63 7. Discourses of Economical Anthropology 71 8. Politics and : Discerning Power and Social Control 77 9. Sex and Gender in Different Societies ...... 90 10. The Family and in Different Societies . . . . . 95 11. : Terminology, Descent and Alliance ...... 100 12. Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism 110 13. Visual Anthropology and its Applied Aspect in Anthro- pology Research ...... 124 14. Perspectives of Applied Anthropology 134 Glossary 142 Literature ...... 149

1 Lecture. Conception of Anthropology, Historical Background, and the Branches of Anthropology

Schedule of lecture • What is anthropology? • Historical background of anthropology. • Anthropological societies. • The main branches of anthropology. • Specialisations of anthropologists. • Cultural differences and universals. • Anthropology and the other human sciences.

What is anthropology? Anthropology [Greek anthrōpos, man + Greek logos, science, concept] is social science about people, their origins, lifestyle, behaviour and cultural as well as biological diversity. It describes and analyses cul- tures of both previous and modern ages, i. e. socially acquired tradi- tions, behaviour and thinking of people, diversity and reasons of cul- ture’s adaptation to the environment. Anthropology is distinguished by its global, holistic and comparative nature. Anthropologists are never restricted to research of one population, race, tribe, class, na- tion, period or location. Anthropology requires the conclusions based on the research on one separate group of people or to be verified by comparing them with research material of other groups and . This way anthropologists expect to avoid being biased with regard to gender, class, race, nation, religion or culture. All nations and are equally worth researching in the eyes of anthropologists. Anthropologists believe that acquisition of correct knowledge about humanity is possible only through research of both far and near regions in respect of ancient and modern times. Perhaps we, as human beings, can get rid of stereotypes developed through our lifestyle and see ourselves in the real light by applying this broad approach towards to the entirety of human experience.

5 Historical background of anthropology

Anthropology began in the middle of the 19th century as an intellec- tual hobby for professional men, especially lawyers. In the 19th cen- tury anthropology mostly focused on the anthropology of human beings as biological species, as well as cultural findings. Initially it was associated with a of museum exhibits. Collection of museum exhibits and descriptions of groups of people collected by missionaries and travellers as well as global linguistic database accu- mulated by applied linguistics has become the foundation of anthro- pology as of a comparative science about the people of the world. By the 1920s social anthropology had become professionalised. The first trained anthropologists taught in universities or worked in museums. Instead of relying on the accounts of explorers and mis- sionaries, these anthropologists began to do their own fieldwork. Professionalisation brought with it both new skills in fieldwork and new understanding of human society. (Barnard 2000: 20)

Anthropological societies

First anthropological societies have been established in the first half of the 19th century. The first anthropological society was the short- lived Société des Observateurs de l’Homme founded in Paris in 1799. The most significant British learned society was the Ethnological Society of London (1843) which in 1871 joined with the Anthropo- logical Society of London (1862) to form the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) (www.therai.org.uk) which continues to the present. It is one of the most numerous professional organizations in Europe. In 1946 the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Common- wealth (ASA) (www.theasa.org) was founded to represent the inter- ests of professional anthropologists in Britain and abroad (Urry 2012: 55). It publishes the conference series ASA monographs. In America the American Ethnological Society was founded in 1842 and in 1879 the Anthropological Association of Washington whose members were associated with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum. The incorporation of the American An- thropological Association (AAA) in 1902 reflected the increasing

6 Conception of Anthropology, Historical Background… professionalization of the discipline in Norh America (Urry 2012: 56). This Association (www.aanet.org) has grown into a massive organi- zation (above 11 000 members). It is the most numerous the anthro- pological association in the world. In Asia an anthropological society was established in Japan in 1804 and another in Bombay in 1887. In Australia regional state soci- eties were founded from 1926 (South Australia) and in 1973 the Aus- tralian Anthropological Society was established to represent profes- sional anthropologists (Urry 2012: 56).

The main branches of anthropology The main branches of anthropology are as follows: sociocultural, bi- ological-physical anthropology, archaeological anthropology and anthropological linguistics. Combined approach of all the areas is called general anthropology. Various branches of anthropology ex- amine different aspects of human experience. Certain branches ex- amine evolution of our Homo sapiens species from previous species. Others examine how Homo sapiens have acquired the unique human ability to speak, how languages have developed and have become diverse as well as how modern languages meet the communication needs of people. Some others are interested in the acquired human traditions of thought and behaviour, known as cultures. They ex- amine the development of ancient cultures as well as the reasons for alternation of modern cultures and absence thereof. Anthropology reminds us that we all represent the same species and share com- mon origins and destiny independently of differences between our languages and cultures. Cultural or social anthropology means intercultural research on social life of people, ethnic groups and society. It describes and analy- ses societies and cultures of people, socially acquired traditions, be- haviour of people, social and cultural similarities and differences, as well as variety of and reasons for culture’s adaptation to environment. Until the midst of the 20th century, the term cultural anthropology was widely used in the USA, while in the United Kingdom the more popular term was social anthropology. British social anthropology was concentrated on social structure (social institutions and organi- 7 Cultural Anthropology

zation) while cultural form, i. e. cultural differences, was all that mat- tered to the cultural anthropology in USA. The American tradition of cultural anthropology places greater emphasis on aspects such as and is less concerned with the ethnographic analy- sis of particular elements (e. g. law or kinship) than with presenting a rounded portrait of all aspects of its subject. „The twentieth-century British anthropological tradition (as opposed to American cultural anthropology) in which the focus trended to be on the ethnographic description of a group (usually a small scale society or non-western) through its social relation and practices. The distinction between “social“ and “cultural” approaches has become less marked recently” (Moris 2012: 54; 232). Cultural anthropology has two aspects: ethnography (field work) and ethnology (cross cultural comparison). Ethnography is the da- ta-gathering part, consisting of field research in a particular culture. Today the term of ethnography is used ambiguous. The word ‘eth- nography’ has a double meaning in anthropology: ethnography as product (ethnographic writings – the articles and books written by anthropologists), and ethnography as process (participant observa- tion or fieldwork) (Sanjek 2012: 243). Ethnography, as a field research, seeks for thick description in the way of detailed and thorough por- trayal. That is achieved by living among the research subjects for a year without a break and by learning their language and lifestyle. Ethnology – the theoretical, comparative study of society and cul- ture; examines and compares the results of ethnography – the data gathered in different societies. Ethnology try to identify and explain cultural differences and similarities, to distinguish between univer- sality, generality, and particularity (Kottak 2012: 310; Kottak 1991: 9). Archaeological anthropology (prehistoric archaeology) and cultural anthropology embody similar aims, but are different in terms of methods and researched cultures. Archaeological anthro- pology reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behaviour and cultural patterns through material remains (Kottak 2012: 307). We would not be able to understand the past without archaeological findings, particularly where people have not left any written monu- ments of the past. We would not be able to understand the present without understanding the past.

8 Conception of Anthropology, Historical Background…

Linguistic anthropology: The descriptive, comparative, and his- torical study of language and of linguistic similarities and differenc- es in time and space, including interrelations between language and culture; includes historical linguistics and sociolinguistics (Kottak 2012: 312; Kottak 1991: 17). Anthropological linguists seek to examine history of all known language families. They are interested in the way language affects other aspects of human life and their influence on language itself, as well as in the relation between the language evolution and that of Homo sapiens, our species. They are also interested in the relation between the evolution of languages and that of different cultures. Biological, or Physical, antropology. The study of human bi- ological variation in time and space; includes hominid evolution, human genetics, human biological adaptation, and primatology (behavior and evolution of monkeys and rapes) (Kottak 2012: 307; Kottak 1991: 17). Physical anthropologists seek to reconstruct the process of hu- man evolution by examining the remains of fossil excavations simi- lar to ancient species of human beings. Physical anthropologists also seek to describe the distribution of inheritable changes between cur- rent inhabitants and to sort corresponding changes in human life regarding , environment and culture. Applied anthropology employs the data, methods, anthropo- logical theories and prospects of previously discussed branches of anthropology in order to determine and solve today’s practical prob- lems related to human health, family planning, education, security and economic development. Anthropology can answer many important questions about hu- man existence due to its biological, archaeological, linguistic, cultur- al, comparative and global aspects. Anthropologists describe specifi- cally human features in the nature of human beings that distinguish them from animals. Anthropology examines the importance of race in the evolution of cultures and current life behaviour. It can de- scribe arising from racism, exhaustion, poverty and backwardness of nations. Therefore anthropology can significantly contribute to understanding of the main subjects.

9 Cultural Anthropology Specialisations of anthropologists Modern anthropologists typically have two specialisations: regional and theoretical. Regional specialisation concern a specific part of the world or specific groups of people. For example: Southeast Asia, West Africa, Arctic hunters and reindeer herders, Gypsies. Theoreticalspe - cialisation concern an aspect of society, a branch of anthropology, or approach to the study of society in general. For example: ethnicity, urban anthropology, gender relations, family and kinship, economic anthropology, applied anthropology.

Cultural differences and human universals

There are some examles of how people greet each other in different societies: 1. In Japan it is customary to bow, whereas in Europe people shake hands when they meet for the fist time. 2. In Eastern Europe men hug and kiss each other, whereas in Western Europe they generally don’t. 3. In many European countries, kissing on the cheek or off the cheek is common when greeting between women, or between people of opposite sex. There are different ways of doing this: for example, twice (once just off each cheek) in France, three times in The Netherlands. 4. Within the UK there are similar differences. Men shake hands more frequently than women. Muslims shake hands more fre- quently than Christians. Hindus greet with the namaste (plac- ing the palms of one’s own hands together and bowing), rather than with a handshake (Barnard 2000: 21–22).

Classifying the world in different cultures

Classifying is part of language and culture. Many anthropologists argue that learning a culture is like learning a language. Animals and plants are classified differently in different cultures. A knowl- edge of this adds to cultural understanding. Animals may be classi- fied by appearance, activity, or how they rear their young. In many 10 Conception of Anthropology, Historical Background…

African cultures bats are classified as ‘birds’ because they are flying animals. In European cultures bats are classified as ‘mammals’ be- cause female bats feed their young through their mammary glands. People classify plants in a similar way. There may be differences even within the same society. Tomatoes are considered as vegetables in the Western culinary world. However, in biological science they are considered as fruits because they are the seed-bearings parts of the tomato plant. There are different ways of classification of relatives. Terms like “uncle” or “aunt” are not universal. In many societies, a person’s mother’s brother is called by a different term from their father’s brother, and is treated quite differently (Barnard 2000: 22). Human universals are modes of thought or behaviour which are the same everywhere. Long ago anthropologists came up with the idea of a psychic unity or psychic identity between all peoples. Cul- tural differences between people are not significant enough to pre- vent them from understanding each other. Our cultural differences mask innate similarities in the way we think and act. Social anthropology helps us to distinguish differences from uni- versal matters. For instance: language classifies objects differently (bats, uncles, etc.), but all languages are made up of the same basic elements (nouns, verbs, sentences, etc.). We can translate ideas from one language to another, because we , at a fundamental level, are all the same. Those anthropologists who emphasize cultural differences are called relativists. Anti-relativists reject the emphasis and concentrate on advantages or universal matters of people. Cultures are different from each other, and somehow all similar.

Anthropology and the other human sciences The basic difference between anthropology and the other fields that study people is holism, cross-cultural, and comparative perspec- tives. A social science is a field of study whose object is understanding some aspects of society. Sociology, psychology, political science, eco- nomics, and at least certain branches of geography, education, history 11 Cultural Anthropology

(as well as anthropology) qualify as social sciences. There are some links between social anthropology and the other social sciences. Sociology and social anthropology are both concerned with the study of society and share an interest in social relationship, orga- nization, and behavior. Among differences between them, social anthropology emphasises cultural difference and therefore implies more of a comparative or cross-cultural perspective. Psychology includes the study of child-rearing and the relation be- tween culture and personality. So does the area of cultural anthropol- ogy known as psychological anthropology. Most psychologists do re- search in their own society, anthropologists use the cross-cultural data. Political science involves the study of power relations, also an im- portant topic in political anthropology. Geography and social anthropology both include the study of settlement patterns and culture contact. is a related field, often treated as part of social anthropology. History also has links, especially economic and social history. The difference is that history is essentially diachronic (looking at things through time), whereas most anthropologist prefer a synchronic ap- proach (looking at things at one point in time) (Barnard 2000: 26).

Summary Anthropology is social science about people, their origins, lifestyle, behaviour and cultural as well as biological diversity. It describes and analyses cultures of both previous and modern ages, i. e. social- ly acquired traditions, behaviour and thinking of people, diversity and reasons of culture’s adaptation to the environment. The main branches of anthropology are as follows: sociocultural, biological- physical anthropology, archaeological anthropology and anthro- pological linguistics. Combined approach of all the areas is called general anthropology. Various branches of anthropology examine different aspects of human experience. The basic difference between anthropology and the other fields that study people is holism, cross- cultural, and comparative perspectives. Anthropology requires the conclusions based on the research on one separate group of people or civilization to be verified by compar- ing them with research material of other groups and civilizations. 12 Conception of Anthropology, Historical Background…

These way anthropologists expect to avoid being biased with regard to gender, class, race, nation, religion or culture. All nations and cul- tures are equally worth researching in the eyes of anthropologists. Modern anthropologists have two specialisations: regional and theoretical. Regional specialisation concern a specific part of the world or specific groups of people.Theoretical specialisation concern an aspect of society, a branch of anthropology, or approach to the study of society in general.

Study questions 1. What are the branches or subdisciplines of general anthropol- ogy? What features unify them into one discipline? 2. How does anthropology differ from other human sciences? 3. Give some examples of differences and similarities between cultures? 4. How cultural differences might affect people? Think about your own experiences from abroad or in dealing with people of different background? 5. Which form of greetings dominates within different social groups (men, women, teenagers, Muslims, Christians, etc.) 2 Lecture. Field Research and Ethnography: Traditional and Modern Ethnographic Technique. Multi-Sited Ethnography and Dimensions of Global Cultural Flow

Schedule of lecture • Ethnography: anthropology’s distinctive strategy. • Traditional ethnographic techniques or field methods. • Understanding the structure of an ethnography. • Anthropological comparison. • Regionalist anthropology and global cultural flow. • New approach to field research. Multi-sited ethnography in contemporary research. • Contemporary ethnography and ethics in anthropological re- search.

Ethnography: anthropology’s distinctive strategy Ethnography means writing about peoples. The object of ethnog- raphy is to get inside another culture, and ultimately compare the results to ethnographic studies of other cultures. The tradition of do- ing ethnography dates from 19th century. Anthropologists use the word ethnography in two ways. On the one hand it refers to doing fieldwork and taking notes in a particular culture. On the other hand, it refers to the practice of writing or to the finished writings themselves. (Barnard 2000: 29). The great eth- nographers often made contributions to theoretical ideas through their ethnography.

Traditional ethnographic techniques or field methods The characteristic field techniques of the ethnographer include the following:

14 Field Research and Ethnography…

1. Direct, firsthand observation of daily behavior, including par- ticipant observation. 2. Conversation with varying degrees of formality, from the daily chit-chat that helps maintain rapport and provides knowledge about what is going on to prolonged interviews, which can be unstructured or structured. 3. Inteview schedules to ensure that complete, comparable infor- mation is available for everyone of interest to the study. 4. The genealogical method. 5. Detailed work with well-informed or key informants about particular areas of community. 6. Life histories. In-depth interviewing, often leading to the col- lection of life histories of particular people (Kottak 1991: 23). Observation. Ethnographers must pay attention to hundreds of details of daily life, seasonal events, and unusual happenings. They observe individual and collective behavior in varied settings. They should record what they see. Things will never seem quite as strange as they do during the first few days and weeks in the field. The -eth nographer eventually gets used to, and accepts as normal, cultural patterns that were initially alien. Many ethnographers record their impressions in a personal diary, which is kept separate from more for- mal field notes. Later, this record of early impressions will help point out some of the most basic aspects of . Such aspects include distinctive smells, noises people make, and how they gaze at others. So, ethnographers should be accurate observers, recorders, and reporters of what they see in the field (Kottak 1991: 23–24). One of ethnography’s characteristic procedures is participant observation, which means that we take part in community life as we study it. As human beings living among others, anthropologists can- not be totally impartial and detached observer. They must also take part in many of the events and feasts of observing community life. Conversation. Participating in local life means that ethnogra- phers constantly talk to people and ask questions about what they observe. It’s important to understand not only the common ideas, but also an informal knowledge. Interview schedule. With the interview schedules, the ethnogra- pher talks face to face to informants, asks the questions, and writes

15 Cultural Anthropology down the answers. Questionnaire procedures tend to be more indi- rect and impersonal; the respondent often fills in the form. Genealogical method. Procedures by which ethnographers dis- cover and record connections of kinship, descent, and marriage, us- ing diagrams and symbols (Kottak 2012: 310). Early ethnographers developed genealogical notation to deal with principles of kinship, descent, and marriage. In the contemporary society most of our contacts outside the home are with nonrelatives. However, people in nonindustrial cultures spend their lives almost exclusively with rela- tives. Anthropologists even classify such societies as kin-based. An- thropologists must record genealogical data to reconstruct history and understand current relationships. To record genealogical data anthropologists use symbols such as triangles for males and circles for female. Well-informed or key informants. An expert on a particular as- pect of local life who helps the ethnographer understand that aspect. Every community has people who by accident, experience, or train- ing can provide the most complete or useful information about par- ticular aspects of life. These people are well informed informants or key cultural consultant. Life histories provide a personal cultural portrait of existence or change in a culture. Often, when anthropologist find someone unusually interesting, they collect his or her life history. This recol- lection of a lifetime of experiences provides as more intimate and personal cultural portrait than would be possible otherwise (Kottak 2012: 312; Kottak 1991: 23–28). Anthropological techniques used in complex society. Anthro- pologists can use field techniques such as network analysis, partici- pant observation, and firsthand data collection in any social setting. However, anthropologists use modified ethnographic techniques to study complex society.

Understanding the structure of an ethnography When you read ethnography, think about its structure. Often this will help you to understand the authors approach and follow what he or she is trying to say. Alan Barnard shows 3 examples: 1) Ethnogra- 16 Field Research and Ethnography… phy with a seamless narrative; 2) ethnography structured on the life cycle; 3) ethnography structured on social system.

Ethnography with a seamless narrative The ethnographies published between the first and second world wars are generally long. Many are poorly organised. Their authors often tried to weave the details of social life into a seamless ethnogra- phy. A example is the Polynesian ethnography We the Tikopia (1936), by Malinowski’s student Sir Raymond Firth. We will show an example of the first hypothetical ethnography:

Ethnography with a seamless narrative 1. The environment of the people. 2. Village life. 3. The household. 4. Family and kinship. 5. Sex and marriage. 6. Youth and old age. 7. Rituals of life and death.

Ethnography structured on the life cycle Another method is to emphasize the life cycle – from childhood to old age. One example is Australian ethnography Aboriginal Woman (1939), by Phyllis Kaberry. She alternates between the sacred and the profane (secular) aspects of each period of life for the women of the Kimberleys (in Western Australia). More recent example is Lila Abu- Lughod’s Writing Womens Worlds: Bedouin Stories (1993). These fo- cus on women’s lives, both in relation to men and in relation to other women. There is an example of the second hypothetical ethnography: A) It begins with an overview of the fieldwork itsef. Such a per- sonal touch is most typically associated with ethnographies which present a culture through the eyes of individuals. B) There is an emphasis on activities, notably activities related to age. Often this kind of ethnography emphasises gender distinctions. 17 Cultural Anthropology Ethnography structured on the life cycle 1. Doing fieldwork with the people. 2. Birth and the naming ceremony. 3. Growing up. 4. Initiation and marriage. 5. Adulthood and raising children. 6. Old age. 7. Death and funerals.

Ethnography structured on social system It is common for ethnographies to be structured around the idea of social systems. Evans-Prichard’s ethnographies are examples. We will show an example of the third hypothetical ethnography:

Ethnography structured on social system 1. History of the people. 2. Economic activities. 3. Political relations. 4. Law and social control. 5. The kinship system. 6. Ritual and belief. 7. Social change.

The presumption of social stability is related to the concept of the ethnographic present. This means the time of the fieldwork, and -an thropologists frequently refer to happenings in other cultures in the present tense even when the time of fieldwork was long ago (Barnard 2000: 33–34).

Reading recent ethnographies Most recent ethnographies concern specific themes - economic ac- tivities, political power, rituals of death, kinship, initiation, marriage. They do not aim to cover everything. Many anthropologists today

18 Field Research and Ethnography… believe it is better if ethnographies portray individuals more as char- acters in fiction than as units of social structure. Abu Lughod’sWrit - ing Women’s Worlds is a good example (Barnard 2000: 35). Another characteristic of recent ethnography is the emphasis on reflexivity; the ethnographer reflecting on her role as ethnographer. Increasing- ly, ethnographers are more subjective, regarding ethnography less as an objective account of an alien society and more as an attempt to bridge the divide between cultures. Reflexivity today is more than an activity undertaken during fieldwork. It is also style of writing. Reflexive ethnographers put themselves into this picture (Barnard 2000: 35).

Anthropological comparison Ethnographies exist as source material for comparative studies. Through comparison, anthropologists can answer questions like how people are related, the extent to which certain phenomena are natural or cultural (for example, the ), or how changes in environment or technology affect society. Alan Barnard anthropological comparison divides by three groups: 1) Illustrative comparison. This kind of comparison involves de- scription. The emphasis is on highlighting some aspect of cul- ture. For example, we might choose an example of a culture in which men are dominant and compare it to one in which men and women are more equal. 2) Controlled comparison. Anthropologists are trying to explain something by narrowing the range of variables. We might look at several closely-related societies to see how differences in one aspect of culture might affect other aspects. 3) Global comparison. This form of comparison takes a large sample – from all over a region, from all societies of a certain type (such as hunter-gatherers), or all over the world indis- criminately (Barnard 2000: 37–38).

19 Cultural Anthropology Regionalist anthropology Regionalist anthropology emphasizes the importance of differences across regions and the concept of ‘culture area’. Historically detailed scientific discourse allows to more-or-less objectively understand lo- cal life from geographical, linguistic and ethnic categories. Regional- ist specialization has been the main component in the European and American teaching and practice for almost a century. The emphasis has been put on ethnographic research and observation from the re- gional perspective. The concept of ‘culture area’ intrinsically points to regions which are variously restricted to ethnographic schools in different national tradi- tions of this century. ‘Culture area approach’ has been initially used in Germany and USA as a structure classifier for museum exhibits. Regionalist anthropology is a global cognition of a place and globalization was the foundation of anthropology. It encourages re- viewing anthropological areas, to define the ‘field’ (the new space of our initial research) by considering the meaning of local importance which is harmonized with the old practice of ‘culture area’ (Leder- man 2008: 310–325). Since 1990 regions have been viewed differently and ideas of a representative of social-cultural anthropology, Arjun Appadurai, have played an important role in that process. He claimed that glo- balization must be studied in an empirical way and suggested re- search guidelines for the global cultural flow.

Dimensions of the global cultural flow 1) Ethnoscape is a global demographic configuration embracing human migration, independently of borders and cultures, and both mobile flows of tourism, migration, exile, business trips and stable societies. 2) Technoscape affects flows of cultural meanings and also -em braces unequal distribution of technologies in the world. 3) Finanscape is a flow of financial capital which is increasingly dissociated from fixed areas. 4) Ideoscape. 5) Mediascape.

20 Field Research and Ethnography…

The last two flows are very closely related and involve both -na tional and international creation, as well as dissemination of infor- mation and images. Mediascape comprise media, such as television, radio, newspapers, etc. which forms an ‘imaginary world’ and where stories and images usually form opinion about places and cultures. Flow of ideologies concentrates on governmental ideologies and on the ones who oppose the government and is usually very dependent on the audience (Lederman 2008: 310–325).

New approach to field research In the end of the 20th century, internal review of discipline of anthro- pology was already of a significant importance. In particular, the fact how different researchers define their main research areas and how they are perceived by their readers had to be taken into consider- ation. Anthropology has been mostly a ‘cabinet’ activity for almost all of the 20th century and it was in the end of 20th century when anthropologists realised that they have a possibility to carry out field research in more than one area. Anthropologists use to compare re- lations, skills and identities between regions and within them in the texts published by themselves or other ethnographers prior to the initial (field) research. Many anthropologists attempted to redraw spaces (or ‘fields’) of their initial research and thus concentrated on the comparison of people, objects and thoughts present in socially and geographically different areas.

Multisited ethnography of George Marcus George Marcus has significantly contributed to the new ethnogra- phy and helped to propagate ‘multi-locale’ as well as ‘multisited’ field research. This strategy is based on approaches of global culture or of culture in the global world. It is based on the belief that cultural iso- lation does not exist and that local conditions and any local culture which seems to be isolated on the outside is never isolated from glob- al factors. Therefore field research may and must be carried out not only in a certain location or site, such as inaccessible village, island

21 Cultural Anthropology or ghetto, but in other environments, such as political and business centres, different countries, etc. Field research can be launched in the USA city’s immigrant society by later extending it to the environ- ment of migration institutions and including countries from which immigrants have arrived, as well as local communities.

Contemporary ethnography and ethics in anthropological research Contemporary ethnography is changing fast from its traditional forms, both from within the discipline and through the appropria- tion of fieldwork by other social sciences. Both developments have forced anthropologists to rethink of ethnographic methodology and find new ways to capture the present. To follow these movements ethnographers have to devise flexible form of fieldwork that gener- ate ‘openness’ and reflection on their informants’ part, and which may take them to the mobile grounds of their action wherever it take place (Gefou-Madianou 2010: 152). Ethnographic present deals with contemporary ethnography in a variety of interdisciplinary contexts – anthropology with his- tory, linguistics, medicine, psychoanalysis, ethnology – and ‘mo- bile’ fields – corporate social responsibility, transnational refugees, trans-regional ‘associations’, AIDS responses, international airports. Ethnographers reflect on the ethics of the ‘new’ ethnography, on the role of memory in ‘retrospective’ or ‘post-fieldwork fieldwork’, on the practical challenges of mobility to a discipline classically premised on stasis (Mitchell 2010: 1). Science exists in society of law and ethics. Anthropologists can’t study things simply they happen to be interesting or of to sci- ence. Ethical issue must be considered as well. Anthropologists typi- cally have worked abroad, outside their own society. In the context of international contacts and cultural diversity, different ethical codes and value systems will meet, and sometimes challenge one another. Anthropologists must be sensitive to cultural differencies and aware of procedures and standarts in the host country (the place where the research take place). The researcher must inform officials and colleagues in the host county about the purpose, funding, and

22 Field Research and Ethnography… likely results, products, and impacts of their research. Informed consent (agreement to take part in the research – after having been informed about its nature, procedures, and possible impacts) should be obtained from anyone who provides information or who might be affected by the research. American anthropologist Conrad Phillipe Kottak emphasises the main rules of ethics for anthropologists. “It is appropriate for North American anthropologists working in another country: • to include host country colleagues in teir research planning; • establish truly collaborative relationships with those colleagues and their institutions before, during and after fieldwork; • include host country colleagues in dissemination, including publication, of the research results; • ensure that something is “given back” to host country col- leagues (Kottak 2012: 53).

American Anthropological Association (AAA) offers a Code of Ethics, which helps anthropologists in making decisions involving ethics and values. This code points out, that anthropologists have obligations to their scholarly field, to the wider society and culture, to the human species, other species, and environment. Like med- ics who take the Hippocratic oath, the anthropologist’s first concern should be to do no harm to the people being studied. The full Code of Ethics is available at the AAA webside http://www.aaanet.org/is- sues/policy-advocacy/Code-of-Ethics.cfm.

Summary Anthropologists use the word ethnography in two ways. On the one hand it refers to doing fieldwork and taking notes in a particular cul- ture. On the other hand, it refers to the practice of writing or to the finished writings themselves. The great ethnographers often made contributions to theoretical ideas through their ethnography. Contemporary ethnography is changing fast from its traditional forms. Current anthropologists rethink of ethnographic methodol- ogy and find new ways to capture the present. Ethnographers have to devise flexible form of fieldwork that generate ‘openness’ and -re flection on their informants’ part, and which may take them to the 23 Cultural Anthropology mobile grounds of their action wherever it take place. Ethnographic present deals with contemporary ethnography in a variety of inter- disciplinary contexts and ‘mobile’ fields – corporate social responsi- bility, transnational refugees, trans-regional ‘associations’, AIDS re- sponses, international airports. Ethnographers reflect on the ethics of the ‘new’ ethnography, on the role of memory in ‘retrospective’ or ‘post-fieldwork fieldwork’, on the practical challenges of mobility to a discipline classically premised on stasis. Anthropologists typically have worked abroad, outside their own society. In the context of international contacts and cultural diver- sity, different ethical codes and value systems will meet, and some- times challenge one another. A Code of Ethics helps anthropologists in making decisions involving ethics and values.

Study questions 1. What are the characteristic field techniques of the ethnogra- pher? 2. What are the differences between questionnaires and inter- view schedules? 3. What is participant observation? 4. Read old as well as recent ethnographies. Pay attention to the structure of a monograph. Think why it might be organised the way it is. 5. What are the differences between traditional ethnography and current ethnography? 6. What is the main issue of ethics in anthropological research? 3 Lecture. Conception of Culture and Research Strategy

Schedule of lecture • What is culture? • Limitations of the concept of . • Differencies between ethnocentrism and cultural realitivism. • Diffusion. • Two research strategies of culture: emic and ethic. • Cultural materialism.

What is culture? Culture is related to the obtained and socially acquired traditions of thinking and behaviour which are observed in human societies. Animals, primates in particular, also have some elementary culture forms. When anthropologists refer to human culture they usually infer common and socially acquired lifestyle which is characteris- tic to a group of people including patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour that they copy or imitate. It should be noted that all this suggests not only achievements of a ‘cultured’ elite in literature and since anthropologists consider the research on ordinary people just as important as research on famous and influential people. British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor defines culture, as follows: ‘Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, , morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits ac- quired by man as a member of society“. Therefore culture may be researched as of human thought and activity. Many anthropologists tend to regard culture as a purely mental phenomenon which is composed of ideas how to think and act. Culture is equated to computer software which always directs how to behave under different circumstances. However, there is a risk to wrongly per- ceive the relation between ideas and behaviour. When culture changes rapidly, which is the case in many parts of the world, behaviour usu-

25 Cultural Anthropology ally alters prior to change of ideas and it can be stated that behaviour programs human ideas as easily as ideas program human behaviour. For instance, in 1970, married women with children of school age in the USA have been certain that wives must be dependent on their hus- bands who provide for their families. However, many women have acted against their ‘program’ and started to work due to rising prices and a wish to have more income. Today most married women work. Many working married women are the mothers of school-age children. Overall it is believed that such practice fits and suits women. Other obstacle for culture to be regarded as a solely mental pro- gram and as the one, including both mental and behavioural aspects, is that many of the most topical social problems of today have no program at all. For instance, traffic jam is a well-established phe- nomenon which exists independently of a program that makes driv- ers to move. Poverty is another example of the entire set of actions which people program themselves not to take.

Society, and sociocultural system Every society has a common culture. However, situation is more complicated since human societies, particularly the ones possessing the state as a form of political organization, usually have subgroups that are characterized by more or less different lifestyle. Anthropolo- gists usually use term subculture while referring to cultural patterns characteristic to such groups. This term emphasizes that culture of the society is not equal to all of its members. Therefore, even small societies have male and female , while in larger and more complex societies subcultures are related to ethnic, religious and class differences. The term sociocultural is an abbreviation of the term ‘social and cultural’ and reminds that society and culture forms an entirety or a system.

Enculturation Culture of the society that is transferred from one generation to another tends to stay similar in many respects. Such continuity of lifestyle is partly determined by the so-called enculturation. Encul-

26 Conception of Culture and Research Strategy turation is partly conscious and partly unconscious teaching experi- ence which is used by the older generation to invite, encourage and press the younger generation to take over traditional ways of think- ing and behaviour. Chinese children use chopsticks instead of forks; they speak a tonal language and do not like milk since they have been encultured into Chinese culture and not to the one of USA. Encul- turation is firstly based on a diversion that is carried out by the older generation by applying encouragement and punishment measures for children. Each generation is trained not only to repeat behaviour of the previous generation, but also to compensate the behaviour which meets the pattern of its own enculturation, and to punish for any oth- er behaviour or at least not to encourage it. Concept of enculturation is the most important in the special view of modern anthropology. Ethnocentrism is an approach which states that one’s own be- havioural pattern is always deemed normal, natural, good, great and significant while the borrowed patterns, due to them being different, are barbarous, inhuman, hideous or irrational. People do not tolerate cultural differences and ignore the following fact: if they would be encultured by the other group, most of the allegedly barbarous, inhu- man and irrational matters would be considered as acceptable ones.

Cultural relativism Anthropologists strongly emphasize an approach known as . This concept has many meanings. For some anthropolo- gists cultural relativism means not judging moral values of other na- tion cultures. It means rejecting any absolute and universal norms of and refusing to judge cultural faith and customs as good or bad. Most of the anthropologists judge cultural patterns of a certain nature in an ethical way and try to minimize the effect of such par- tialities and beliefs on the research. It is important to clearly understand the difference between relativ- ity of values and relativity of truth. The first concept states that there are no universal moral values while the second one claims an objective truth about incomprehensible human thoughts and actions. According to some anthropologists, an objective truth is unattainable, since all ob- servers, even the ones applying research methods, are affected by their 27 Cultural Anthropology own enculturation experience and values as well as aspects related to their race, nationality, , class and gender. Anthropologists do not need to refuse their values in order to objectively examine cul- ture phenomena. They can condemn environmental, genocide, sexism, racism, poverty, cruelty towards children or nuclear war and still be able to maintain scientific objectivity in respect of these phenomena. Scientific objectivity does not rise from impartiality as we are all partial, it rather rises from a concern that partiality can affect re- search results. Admittedly, science is a system of knowledge and its main feature is an objective to deflect influence of any partiality on the research. Scientists do that by clearly informing each other what they have achieved while collecting and analysing data and creat- ing logically consistent theories which can be verified and re-verified by researchers. Those who claim that scientific methods cannot be applied to sociocultural phenomena are fundamentally wrong: they claim that objective truth stands for an absolute, final and unques- tionable truth. However, scientific outcome is different. That’s a -tem porary objective truth. Science is a never-ending creation and verifi- cation of new and increasingly better theories. All truths are equally partial (Collins, 1989; Harraway, 1989; Lett, 1991; Watson, 1990).

Limitations of the concept of enculturation Under current global conditions, it is not hard to notice that lifestyle of many social groups cannot be explained by enculturation. It is clear that copying cultural patterns from one generation to another is never an all-embracing process. The old patterns are not always faithfully repeated by the later generations. New models emerge on a regular basis. These days the adults within industrial societies are worried about the extent of implementation of innovations and non- copying, since they have been educated to expect that their own chil- dren will copy their behaviour. This loss of continuity of generations was called the generation gap. Margaret Mead explains, as follows: ‘In today’s world there are no older ones who know everything what their children know, independently on how distant and ordinary are the societies, where their children live. In the past, certain older people used to know more than any child due to their experience in 28 Conception of Culture and Research Strategy a particular culture system. Today such adults are absent. That’s not only because parents are not their mentors, but because they have no mentors in general, whether in their own country or abroad. There are no elders who would know everything that is known about the world to those raised over the last twenty years”. In other words, enculturation can explain continuity of a culture, but it cannot explain evolution of a culture. Enculturation has sig- nificant limitations even in respect of continuity. Each repeated pat- tern is not necessarily a programmed outcome of transfer from one generation to another. Many repeated patterns are an outcome of re- action of exchanging generations to similar conditions of social life. Sometimes acquired programmes can disagree with actual patterns. In other words, people can be encultured to behave in one way; how- ever, conditions that are not under their control may compel them to behave in a different way. For example, traffic jam and poverty. Many poor people live in houses, eat food, work and raise families according to the patterns repeating subculture of their parents not because their parents have educated them to follow these patterns, but because poor children face educational, political and economic conditions which eternalise their poverty.

Diffusion Enculturation means transfer of features of culture from one genera- tion to another, while diffusionmeans transfer of features of culture from one culture and society to another. This process is common to the extent that many features which are characteristic to any society can be seen as having derived from any other society. For instance, it can be said that many elements present in the management, religion, law, food and language in the United States have been ‘borrowed’ from other cultures. Judaism and Christianity descended from the Middle East, while parliamentary democracy has been taken from the Western Europe; our food grains, such as rice, wheat and maize, originate from the far ancient civilizations; the English language has also emerged from a mix of several different European languages. In the beginning of the 20th century, many anthropologists con- sidered diffusion as the most efficient explanation for sociocultural 29 Cultural Anthropology differences and similarities. The everlasting effect of this approach can be seen in attempts to explain similarities between the main civ- ilizations as an aftermath of their descent from one another, such as, Polynesia from Peru or vice versa; China from Europe or vice versa; New World (America) from the Old World, etc. However, in the recent years diffusion has become obsolete as a principle of explanation. In fact, the closer societies are more similar by their cultures. However, such similarity cannot be simply attrib- uted to a certain automatic trend of diffusion of features. It should not be forgotten that geographically close societies live in a similar environment; therefore their similarity can be determined by an in- fluence of similar environmental conditions. More than that, there are many cases when societies that have maintained close relation- ships for ages choose radically diverse lifestyle. For instance, the Incas had imperial administrative system while neighbouring for- est societies had no centralized authority at all. Residents of pueb- los, the apartment-like structures, and their marauding neighbours Apache in South East of America can be named among other well- known cases. In other words, resistance to diffusion is as common as surrender. Otherwise, there would be no fight between Catholics and Protestants in the Northern Ireland, Mexicans would speak English (or Americans would speak Spanish), and Jews would rec- ognize the divinity of Jesus Christ (or Christians would deny him). Besides, if we would consider diffusions as an explanation, the question remains why the common subject has become widespread before. Finally, diffusion cannot explain many significant matters, such as why nations which have never established any relationships, have invented similar tools and technologies and have explicated incredibly similar marriage and religious faiths. The most evident examples of such independent inventions are discoveries and inven- tions which emerge both independently and almost contemporary. If human social life would be determined solely by diffusion and enculturation, we should expect all the cultures to be identical and to stay that way. Obviously, that’s not the case. However, it cannot be stated that diffusion has no effect on socio- cultural evolution. Proximity of one culture in respect of another one usually affects the pace and direction of alteration, as well as forms

30 Conception of Culture and Research Strategy specific details of sociocultural life, even though it does not form basic features of the two cultures. For instance, a custom to smoke tobacco has emerged in Aboriginal nations from the Western Hemisphere and has spread to further regions of the Earth after 1492. This would not have happened if Americans would have stayed separated from other continents. However, single contact does not explain everything, since hundreds of features of other Native Americans, e.g. living in wigwams or hunting with bows and arrows have not been adopted by the colonists who used to live near the Native American tribes. Cultural anthropologists apply a range of methods in order to examine cultural patterns. This includes survey questionnaires, population census data, life stories, genealogies, official and unoffi- cial interviews, video and audio recording and writing (Sanjek, 1990; Bernard, 1993). The aim of the field research is to learn about both mental aspects and aspects of culture of behaviour. Mental aspects include the world of thoughts and feelings that exist in various levels of consciousness: a) People might not be able to comprehend their own ‘body lan- guage’. For instance, they might not be able to define the rules which determine the distance they should maintain while speaking to each other. b) Other culturally patterned methods of mind-set are conceived more easily, but people reveal them only when questioned by a field researcher. Thus people can usually state their values, norms and adopted rules which control activities, such as baby weaning, romance with a partner, selection of a leader, medical treatment, guest treatment and classification of rela- tives, worship of God and thousands of other daily matters. c) There are also many completely conscious, clearly defined and formal rules of behaviour and statements about values, norms and aims which can be discussed in usual conversations and included into legal codes or announced in public meetings (rules of hygiene, processing of bank deposits, game of foot- ball, border passage, insurance, etc.). Lastly, this subject is more complicated since cultures have rules not only for behaviour, but also violations thereof: for instance, expecting to avoid a fine when parking your car under a sign ‘No parking’.

31 Cultural Anthropology

Recognition of the inner world is not the only achievement of the field research. Anthropologists are also observing, measuring, film- ing and writing down what people do for days, weeks or years. An- thropologists observe childbirth, participate in funerals, go hunting, observe wedding ceremonies and participate in hundreds of other events and activities. These events and activities comprise the aspect of culture of behaviour.

Two research strategies: emics and ethics Difference between mental and behavioural aspects does not answer the question of adequate description of culture as entirety. The prob- lem is that thoughts and behaviour of the participant observers can be viewed from two different positions: from the position of the par- ticipant and from the position of the observer. In both cases there is a possibility of scientific and objective explanations in the mental and behavioural areas. In the first case, concepts and distinctive features that are meaningful and relevant to participants are applied, while in the other case concepts and distinctive features that are meaning- ful and relevant to observers are applied. The first culture research method is called emics and the second one is called ethics. While carrying out emic research, anthropologists seek to find the categories and rules that are required to think and act as aboriginal people do. For instance, they seek to find out what is the rule on which the usage of the same kinship term used for mother and mother’s sister of the representative of the researched culture is based, when it is ap- propriate to house quests among Kwakiutl people, when it is ap- propriate to ask a boy or a girl on a date among teenagers in the USA. Ethic approach helps to form scientific theories about the reasons for sociocultural differences and similarities. Instead of using con- cepts that would be realistic, meaningful and relevant in respect of aboriginal people, now an anthropologist apply categories and rules that have been derived from scientific language, which usually in- cludes assessment and comparison of activities and events that are considered as inappropriate and meaningless by the informers of aboriginal people. Comparison of ethic and emic versions of culture reveals some significant and interesting anthropological problems. 32 Conception of Culture and Research Strategy

Universal pattern While intending to compare cultures, an anthropologist has to collect and manage information about a culture taking into account what re- peatedly occurs across cultures or what is a part of social and cultural entirety. Such repetitive aspects or parts are called a universal pattern. Anthropologists agree that each society is concerned about be- haviour and thoughts which are related to acquisition of means of living from the environment, having children, organising exchange of things and work, living in groups of houses and in bigger com- munities, as well as related to creative, expressive, playful, aesthet- ic, moral and intellectual aspects of human life. However, it is not agreed how many subdivisions should these categories include and how they should be prioritized when a research is initiated.

Concept of cultural materialism Cultural materialism is a research strategy that implies that the main task of cultural anthropology is to explain the reasons for differences and similarities of a thought and behaviour between groups of people. Cultural materialism emphasises that this task can be best fulfilled while examining material limitations which stipulate human life. These limitations arise from the need to prepare food, build a shelter, tools, produce machines and reproduce human populations within the limitations set by biology, technology and the environment. They are considered as material limitations or conditions in order to distin- guish them from restrictions and conditions arising from ideas and other mental or spiritual aspects of superstructure of the society, such as values, religion and art. When it comes to cultural materialism, the most credible reasons for change of mental and spiritual aspects of human life are changes occurring in the infrastructure of society. Human society is not able to exist without ideas and values, as well as without tools and dwellings. In fact, moral values, religious faiths and aesthetic norms in some sense are the most significant and ex- ceptional features of a human being. Their significance is unquestion- able. The problem is that we have to explain why individual group of people has one system of values, beliefs and aesthetic standards, while others have other systems of values, beliefs and aesthetic standards. 33 Cultural Anthropology

Summary Culture consists of socially acquired thinking and feeling of mem- bers of an individual society. Cultures maintain their continuity through enculturation measures. While carrying out a research on cultural differences it is important to beware of a habit called ethno- centrism, which arises from an inability to understand the effect of enculturation on human life. However, enculturation is not able to explain the reasons for alternation of cultures. More than that, not all the recurrences of a culture in different generations is a conse- quence of enculturation. Enculturation means a process during which culture is trans- ferred from generation to another, while diffusion means a process during which one society transfers its culture to another society. Culture consists of body activity patterns, as well as of human thoughts. Anthropologists apply a wide variety of cultural research methods, including the most popular one, i. e. participant observa- tion. Differently from social animals that have certain cultural ele- ments, people can describe their thoughts and behaviour following their own approach. While studying human cultures, it should be clearly stated which approach was chosen: the one of an aboriginal human being, i. e., of a participant (emic approach), or the one of an observer (ethic approach). Both mental and behavioural aspects may be research by employ- ing both emic and ethic approach. Emic and ethic versions of reality are usually extremely different and similar at the same time. In ad- dition to essential, mental and behavioural aspects, all cultures have a universal pattern.

Study questions 1. What is enculturation? Give an example of enculturation. 2. What is the distinction between emic and ethic? 3. Give an examples of emic and ethic research strategies. 4. What is ethnocentrism? 5. What are the differences between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism? 6. What are the differences between enculturation and diffusion? 34 4 Lecture. Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology

Schedule of lecture • What is psychological anthropology? • Review of Culture and Personality studies. • Theoretical questions on Culture and Personality. • Basic and modal personality. • Cognitive anthropology. • .

What is psychological anthropology? Psychological anthropology attempts to understand similarities and differences in behavior, thought, and feelings among societies by fo- cusing on the relationship between the individual and culture, or the process of enculturation. One question that psychological anthropol- ogists focus on is the degree to which human behavior is influenced by biological tendencies versus learning. Today, most anthropologists have adopted an interactionist approach that emphasizes both biol- ogy and culture as influences on enculturation and human behavior. Psychological anthropology examines the relation between cul- tural and mental processes. It deals with human development and enculturation within a certain cultural group which has its own his- tory, language, conceptual categories, practices and forms processes of self-recognition, emotion, motivation, comprehension and mental health. It also analyses how certain psychological processes inform about or restrict our patterns with regard to the way the social and cultural processes work. Psychological anthropology includes several schools and each of them approaches the aforementioned topics in one’s own way (Psy- choanalytic, Culture and Personality, Ethnopsychology, Cognitive An- thropology and Psychiatric Anthropology schools). Psychological anthropology (a branch of anthropology) can also be referred as ‘Culture-and-Personality’ studies, which seek to de-

35 Cultural Anthropology termine a certain method of relation between an individual and his culture. Psychological anthropology and its relevant field of interest were closely related to an . Psychological anthropol- ogy is related to the rise of the original ‘Culture and Personality’ studies. It is also related to the socialization theories, psychoanalytic approach- es, ethnosemantics, ethnopsychiatry and cognitive anthropology. Psychological anthropology examines psychological conditions which influence or even accelerate changes in social systems in order to make comprehension of relationship between culture and an in- dividual clearer. It approaches to anthropological research through psychological conceptions and methods. Richard Bock (‘Rethinking Psychological Anthropology’, 1988) de- fines the following schools of psychological anthropology: Psycho- analytic Anthropology, Culture and Personality, Social Structure and Personality, Cognitive Anthropology and Behavioural. This school of psychological anthropology is based on psychologi- cal insights of S. Freud and other psychoanalysts that are applied for social and cultural phenomena. Supporters of such approach used to think that raising a child forms personality of an adult. Meanwhile, cultural symbols (dreams, rituals and myths) can be interpreted based on psychoanalytical theories and methodology (interview methodology was based on impartiality while interviewing, TAT, Rorschach tests have been used, etc.).

Review of Culture and Personality studies Anthropological school of ‘Culture and Personality’ (Psychological Anthropology and Ethnopsychology) has been established in USA, in 1920–1930’s. ‘Culture and Personality’ school is considered as a subdiscipline of cultural anthropology. It comprises elements of psy- chology, biology, psychiatry, anthropology and sociology. The main problem analysed by this field was the relation and -in teraction between personality and culture as well as between culture and personality. School of ‘Culture and Personality’ has sought to determine features of behaviour and thinking dominating in a spe- cific culture, i. e. how individual person is affected by a culture. It 36 Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology has attempted to interpret cultures psychologically. Major attention is focused on psychological factors (personality, emotions and char- acter) and cultural conditions, particularly on socialization, gender roles and values. Its origin is related to the beginning of ethnopsychology in Eu- rope. In the second half of the 19th century, new terms have emerged, such as ‘National Character’, ‘Psychology of Nations’ and ‘Ethno- graphic Psychology’. Origin of the Culture and Personality school is related to the 19th century mythological-folkloristic school in Ger- many. This school suggested that myths have Earth-bound roots and include archaic spiritual cultural forms that reflect in a soul of a na- tion. According to brothers W. and J. Grimm, a nation has a soul, its own morals, and rights and is in itself an individual. The rise of psychological anthropology in the USA is related to the name of F. Boas (1858–1942), who has transferred the experience of many European researchers to the American school. He referred to the works of the Europeans, Tarde and Wundt. The culture and personality field was essentially a follow-up of ideas of F. Boas, the founder of the American anthropology. It has continued developing ideas of a holistic approach towards culture and cultural relativity. S. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory had a significant influence on the rise of the psychological anthropology. Freud’s theory has trans- ferred the belief that the core of one’s personality forms from the ex- perience and impressions of one’s childhood. Therefore, major atten- tion has been paid to the communication between adults and infants, as well as with minor children. Attention has been paid to cultural symbolism and symbols of sexual image. In the 1920’s, formation and further development of ethnopsy- chology has been significantly affected by the works of G. Roheim, ‘Ethnology and National Psychology’ (1922); ‘The Study of Character Development and the Ontogenetic Theory of Culture’ (1934); ‘Psy- choanalysis and Anthropology’ (1950). The ‘Culture and Personal- ity’ school has also employed concepts developed by Carl Jung, E. Fromm, K. Horney and A. Maslow that have radically modernised psychoanalysis by refusing to prefer human sexuality. Gestalt psychology (field of psychology that considers mental processes as seamless and irresolvable elements), philosophy of life

37 Cultural Anthropology of O. Spengler and F. Nietzsche, as well as Dilthey, a representative of Neo-Kantianism, have paid attention to certain aspects of the ‘Cul- ture and Personality’ studies. The ‘Culture and Personality’ school in fact started around the end of the 1920’s and the beginning of the 1930’s, following the pub- lishing of the works of Margaret Mead, intended for psychology of children of Oceania (Coming Age in Samoa. N. Y. 1928; Growing Up in New Guinea. N. Y. 1930), Benedict R. Patterns of Culture. Boston. 1932); Sapir E. Cultural Anthropology and Psychiatry. 1932). What is the difference between this school and previous anthro- pological schools? It returns to comprehension of individual psychology and per- sonality as of the most important component, original unit which determines the structure of entirety. Major attention is paid to a for- mation and development of personality from early childhood. Par- ticular attention is paid to sexual field.

Theoretical questions on Culture and Personality In the 1930’s, the ‘Culture and Personality’ school of the USA em- phasizes 3 most important theoretical questions, in the light of which the analysis of a certain ethnographic material has been carried out. 1) Research on the national character. 2) Relation be- tween pathology and standard in different cultures. 3) Child psy- chology and importance of early childhood for the formation of personality. 1) Research on the national character was based on the com- prehension of ‘basic personality’ and ‘modal personality’. ‘Basic per- sonality’ expresses fundamental features of individuals from differ- ent ethnic groups. It is believed that each ethnocultural community must have specific features that are common for all of its members. ‘Basic personality’ is an average character of separate culture and its features are fundamental features of the researched nation, yet fea- tures of personality are also considered as subjective. Term of ‘modal personality’ has been found while carrying re- search on personality based on the psychological test of Rorschach. It has been determined that each cultural group includes a big variety 38 Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology of types. (Modal means the one referring to the way the object exists and related to way the facts are confirmed in the statements). Different types of personality describe different societies. It has been noticed that there is an undeniable connection between the facts that culture affects education and the way the individuals are edu- cated, as well as personality and national character type is formed. Culture has its own psychological pattern. F. Boas has proved that culture is not inherited, but rather acquired and taken over in the way of socialization. Representatives of the Culture and Personality field have claimed that culture is an integrated psychological - pat tern of common values and practices. This pattern is created by a certain structure of character and is constantly repeated through socialization. According to A. Kardiner, this pattern is expressed by the basic personality structure, while R. Benedict and M. Mead that is expressed by a pattern of culture. 2) Normal and Abnormal. The research has been carried out by referring to the following concepts by S. Freud: Analogy (equaliza- tion) of a neurotic person with a primitive man and relative boundary between standard and pathology. In 1934, R. Benedict has reviewed the mentioned Freud’s postulates in her article ‘Anthropology and Abnormal’. According to them, each researched nation and its cul- ture are carriers of psychopathology. R. Benedict notices that the so- ciety considers that something is normal if it meets its standards. It is clear that human standards differ from each other across different regions of the Earth. It depends on a certain historical destiny of a nation, its ideology (firstly, its religion), geographical location, as well as natural conditions (climate, productivity of land and ecology). During the analysis of the relation between pathology and stand- ard, ethnopsychologists have dealt with human behaviour aspects in different ethnocultural systems. Standard and pathological behaviour of human beings is related not only to psychosomatic diseases, but also to a problem of intercultural change and comprehension of other cultures. It is important to define interrelationship between stand- ard and abnormal behaviour between an individual and ethnosocial community. The following two criteria can be singled out: Individ- ual-empirical and common system of standards and values adopted in the ethnic society. It is the individual-empiric criterion of pathol-

39 Cultural Anthropology ogy and diagnosis of psychosomatic disease that can alter in different cultures. Organic and mental damage depends on climate, natural conditions and characteristics of a body. The fact that a diagnosis of psychosomatic disease can vary in different culture proves that differ- ent social systems have different standards for normal behaviour. A person may have a psychosomatic disease and might need med- ical aid in order to eliminate his behavioural disorder. Such a person does not necessarily violate common system of standards adopted in the community and, on the contrary, a person can fall outside all standards, violate values which are observed in his ethnosocial community, yet stay mentally healthy at the same time. His or her behaviour is unacceptable; therefore she/he may experience isolation and reformation by serving his or her sentence in prison instead of receiving medical aid. However, there are cases when human behav- iour is considered as abnormal both in social community and indi- vidually when one has a psychosomatic disease. Ethnopsychologists emphasize the uniqueness of cultures by stating that each culture has its individual logic. Research on criteria of standards and pathology of an individual has encouraged the rise of ethnopsychiatry or intercultural psychi- atry. Research of traditional and modern societies has proved that psychopathology is dependent on ethnocultural needs. 3) Representatives of the Culture and Personality school have claimed that early childhood experience determines personality of an adult through socialization and enculturation (a process of acquisition of a culture during which children take over the way of thinking, feeling and behaviour, which is considered as appropriate for adults in the same culture). In the research on childhood major at- tention has been paid to an early experience of a child, i. e. regularity and duration of infant feeding, methods and duration of swaddling, bathing, toilet training, sex education and other methods of a child care. Relationship with a child in his early childhood has influenced him or her and left certain personality marks for the remaining pe- riod of life. Thus, characteristics of a personality have been deter- mined from different elements of relationship with a child and have been used to determine characteristics of national character of the entire nation. However, it cannot be agreed that separate elements of

40 Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology childhood experience are sufficient in order to determine character of the entire nation. Therefore, representatives of psychological an- thropology have deserved to be criticized in this respect.

Research by Margaret Mead In her first works Margaret Mead analyses behaviour of children, their thinking and actions. She attempts to reveal the formation of child’s ability to comprehend and reflect the surrounding world in the Islands of Oceania. Her aim is to reveal the all-embracing por- trait of an inhabitant of Oceania and compare it with a represen- tative of the Western civilization. She mainly focuses on processes of cognition and comprehension, as well as on ways of thinking in traditional societies. Mead notices that animistic way of thinking is determined by culture, potency of human intelligence, but it is not a stage of mental development. She persuasively demonstrates that child’s way of thinking is more realistic than the one of adults in traditional cultures. During her field research, she has never noticed that children would believe that an accident (e.g. a boat carried away to the ocean) happened due to a supernatural cause. Margaret Mead did comparative studies of culture and personal- ity in the Pacific islands, focusing on childhood and adolescence. Her early book Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), based on 9 month study of Samoan girls, compared Samoan and American adolescence. Mead’s hypothesis was that psychological changes associated with puberty are not biological based but cultural determined. She described Sa- moan adolescence as relatively easy period, lacking the sexual frus- trations and stresses characteristic of American adolescence. Later researchers in other Samoan villages reached different con- clusions. A study Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Un- making of an Anthropological Myth (1983) by Derek Freeman offers a particularly harsh judgment of Mead’s ethnography. Rather than the carefree sexual experimentation Mead described, Freeman found a strict complex. Instead of casual and friendly relations be- tween the sexes, Freeman found male-female hostility. His Samoan boys competed in macho contests that involved sneaking up on girls and raping them with their fingers. 41 Cultural Anthropology

How do other anthropologists evaluate Freeman’s findings and his criticisms of Mead? We know that in any culture, customs vary from village to village and decade to decade. Mead and Freeman worked at different times (50 years apart) and in different villages. Freeman’s Samoans may well have differed from the people Mead observed in 1930. Furthermore, anthropologists have particular interests, skills, and biases which affect their interpretations. Ethnographers (even those from the same culture) have different schemata, which influ- ence the way do field work and the conclusions they reach. Culture and personality research has been criticized more than most other aspects of ethnography. Anthropologist Haris had faulted Mead‘s work for being too impressionistic. Mead relied heavily on her own impressions about the emotions of Samoan girls. Although she did report deviant cases, Mead focused on the typical adolescent ex- perience. However, because she presented little statistical data, the ra- tio of normal to deviant could not be established. (Kottak 1991: 358)

Ruth Benedict: Cultures as Individuals Ruth Benedict’s widely read book Patterns of Culture (1934) influ- enced research on culture and personality. Using published sources rather than personal field experiences, Benedict contrasted the cul- tural orientations of the Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast of North America and the Zuni of the American Southwest. The Kwakiutl are an usual foragers. The Zuni, tribal agriculturists, are a Pueblo group in the American Southwest. Benedict proposed that particular cultures are integrated by one or two dominant psychological themes and that entire cultures – here the Zuni and the Kwakiutl – can be labeled by means of their psychological attributes. Thus, she called the Kwakiutl Dionysian and the Zuni Apollonian, from the Greek gods of wine and light, re- spectively. Benedict portrayed the Dionysian Kwakiutl as striving to escape limitations, achieve excess, and break into another order of experience. Given these goals, they valued drugs and alcohol, fast- ing, self-torture, and frenzy. In contrast, Benedict’s Appolonian Zuni were noncompetitive, gentle, and peace-loving. She found no Diony- sian traits (strife, factionalism, painful ceremonies, disruptive psy- 42 Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology chological states) among the Zuni. They valued a middle-of-the-road existence and distrusted excess. Benedict’s approach was configurationalism. In this view, cultures are uniquely different from all others. She thought that cross-cultural comparison of particular features is less feasible than demonstrat- ing each culture’s distinctive patterning. However, later scholars have faulted Benedict for having overly stereotypical views of cultures – for ignoring cooperative features of Kwakiutl life and strife, suicide, and alcoholism among the Zuni. Unfortunately, Benedict’s risky use of individual psychological labels to characterize whole cultures influ- enced later descriptions of national character (Kottak 1991: 360). Other representatives of psychological anthropology: Georges De- vereux, Abram Kardiner, Melford Spiro and Gananath Obey­ese­kere. Georges Devereux (1908–1985), a supporter of psychoanalysis. Born in Hungary, has acquired his education in France, and has practised in the USA for a long time. His field research among Mo- jave people has provoked long and fruitful discussions of Freud’s concepts (transference and counter-transference) and their applica- tion in the setting of anthropological field research. Devereux has carried out research of sexual life of Mojave people and talked about their abortions. His study (1955) has shown that abortions have been practised by more than 300 modern non-industrial societies. He treated mental disease in an intercultural manner. (The most important works of Georges Devereux: Reality and dream (1951), Realität und Traum: Psychotherapie eines Prärie-In- dianers, Mit e. Vorw. von Margaret Mead. (1985); A study of abor- tion in primitive societies; a typological, distributional, and dynamic analysis of the prevention of birth in 400 preindustrial societies. (1955); From anxiety to method in the behavioral sciences. (1967); Essais d’ethnopsychiatrie générale. (1970); Ethnopsychanalyse complémen- tariste. (1985) Ethnopsychoanalyse: die komplementaristische Meth- ode in d. Wiss. vom Menschen / Georges Devereux. Übers. von Ul- rike Bokelmann. 1984.) Abram Kardiner was born in New York (1891–1981). He was an American doctor, psychoanalyst and supporter of psychoanalysis, who has significantly contributed to psychological anthropology. He has combined psychoanalysis with anthropological field research. In

43 Cultural Anthropology

his book ‘The Individual and His Society’, he developed a separation between primary and secondary institutions and basic personality structure in a given society. He was Freud’s apprentice and analyst and spent most of his career as a clinical analyst. From 1959 to 1967, he has served as a director of the Institute of Psychology and as a psychiatry professor in the Columbia University. (Abram Kardiner’s works: The Individual and His Society (1939); The Psychological Frontiers of Society (1945); My analysis with Freud: reminiscences. (1977)’; The People of Alor: A Social-Psychological Study of an East Indian Island. Volume I & II by Cora, with analyses by Abram Kardiner and Emil Oberholzer. Du Bois and map. (1961); The Mark of Oppression; Explorations in the Personality of the American Negro by Abram Kardiner (1962)). Melford Elliot Spiro (born in 1920) claimed that dichotomy of nature and history is misguided. Even radical does not mean radical cultural relativity. Many societies can be dif- ferent. They all must be able to cope with similar biological charac- teristics of human beings. According to the author, culture signifies a cognitive system, but it is not the only source of cognition. Indi- vidual human experience may be the other source. He has argued that culture is not the most significant determinant of human beings. The culture is rather engaged and unified with an individual through psychodynamic processes of identification and internalization. (The most important works of Melford Elliot Spiro: Spiro, Melford E. (1986) Cultural Relativism and the Future of Anthropology. Cultural Anthropology: Vol. 1, No. 3, 259–286; Spiro, M. E. (1987) “Religious systems as culturally constituted defense mechanisms.” Pp. 145–160 in Culture and : Theoretical Papers of Melford E. Spiro, edited by B. Kilborne and L. L. Langness. Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press; Spiro, Melford E. (1992) “On the strange and familiar in recent anthropological thought.” Pp. 53-70 in Anthropological Other or Burmese Brother? Ed. by M. E. Spiro. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press; Spiro, Melford E. (1993) “Is the Western conception of the self “peculiar” within the context of the world cultures?” Ethos 21: 107–153). Gananath Obeyesekere is a professor emeritus of anthropology in Princeton University. He is famous due to his psychological stud- ies about and culture work in South Asia.

44 Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology

Many of his works have been carried out in his homeland Sri Lan- ka. In 1990, he has started intellectual debates with Marshall Sahlins about rationality of local/indigenous inhabitants. In 1990, G. Obeyes- ekere was engaged in field research in Sri Lanka and India. Originality of Gananath Obeyesekere’s works and his basic ideas: While carrying out a research on religious innovations of females in his work ‘Medusa’s hair’ (1981), the author was worried about a new symbol he has found, i. e. tousled hair of an ecstatic woman in a jungle temple of Katagarama. He sought to trace the way from in- dividual trauma to symbolic innovation and from this point to new cultural forms. Main fields of interest for the researcher are psycho- analysis, anthropology and the ways that relates personal symbolism with a religious experience. (The most important works of Gananath Obeyesekere: Land Ten- ure In Village Ceylon: A Sociological And Historical Study. (1967); Me- dusa’s Hair: An Essay On Personal Symbols And Religious Experience (1981); The Cult Of The Goddess Pattini. (1984). The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. (1990). The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacif- ic. (1992); Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth. (2002). Cannibal Talk: The Man-Eating Myth and Human Sacrifice in the South Seas. (2005); Karma and Re- birth (2005); The Awakened Ones: Phenomenology of Visionary Expe- rience (2012)). The school of psychological anthropology includes researchers who were previously known as psychoanalysts, but later started to practice field research, as well as those who have analysed the ma- terial collected by anthropologists by employing psychoanalytical techniques: Erich Fromm, Sigmund Freud, Eric Erikson, and Geza Roheim.

Cognitive anthropology Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition and cultural meanings through specific methodologies such as psychological ex- periments, computer modeling, and other techniques to elicit under- lying unconscious factors that structure-thinking processes. 45 Cultural Anthropology

Cognitive anthropology developed in the 1950s and 1960s through systematic investigation of kinship terminologies within different cultures. However, more recently, cognitive anthropology has drawn on the findings within the field of cognitive science, the study of the human mind based upon computer modeling (D’Andrade 1995; de Munck 2000). Cognitive anthropologists have developed experimental methods and various cognitive tasks to use among people they study in their fieldwork so as to better comprehend human psychological processes and their relationship to culture. Through cognitive anthro- pology, we have learned that human mind organizes and structured the natural and social world in distinctive way (Scupin 2012: 74). Cognitive anthropologists have discovered that human mind or- ganizes reality in terms of prototypes, distinctive classifications that help us map and comprehend the world. Not only humans think in prototypes, but also we use schemas to help us understand, organize, and interpret reality. The concept of shemas was introduced by Jean Piaget to discuss a particular cognitive structure which has reference to a class of simi- lar action sequences. Schemas are constructed out of language, im- aged, and logical operations of the human mind in order to mediate and provide meaning to social and cultural reality. Thus, shemas are more complex than prototypes. The shemas may vary from one culture to the next. For example, the shemas writing in English and kaku in Japanese have some similarities, and these terms are usually translatable between languages. The shema writing in English, how- ever, always entails the act of writing in language, whereas kaku can refer to writing or doodling or drawing a picture. Cognitive anthropologists investigate how narratives are used to coordinate thought processes. Narratives are stories or events that are represented within specific cultures. There are certain types of narratives, such as story of little Red Riding Hood, that are easily retained by an individual’s memory and told over and over again within a society. Thus, certain forms of narratives have easily rec- ognizable plots and can be distributed widely within a society. Cog- nitive anthropologists are studying religious mythologies, folktales, and other types of narrative to determine why some are effortlessly transmitted, spread quickly, and are used to produce cultural rep-

46 Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology resentations that endure for generations. Cognitive anthropological research has been fruitful in providing interactionist models of the ways that humans everywhere classify, organize, understand, inter- pret, and narrate their natural social and cultural environment (Scu- pin 2012: 75).

Evolutionary psychology A recent development that draws on cognitive anthropology and at- tempts to emphasize the interaction of nature (biology) and nurture (learning and culture) in understanding the explaining encultura- tion, human cognition, and human behavior is the field known as evolutionary psychology. Some anthropologists draw on ethno- graphic research, psychological experiments, and evolutionary psy- chology to demonstrate how the human brain developed and how it influences thinking processes and behavior. Evolutionary psychologists contend that the mind uses different rules to process different types of information. For example, they suggest there are innate modules that help humans interpret and predict other people’s behavior and modules that enable them to un- derstand basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, and love. In addition, these specialized modules influence male- female relationships, mate choice, and cooperation or competition among individuals. So evolutionary psychologists tend to emphasize the commonalities and similarities in culture and behavior found among people in different parts of the world. In The Adapted Mind (1992), anthropologist Jerome Barkow asks why people like to watch soap operas. He answers that the human mind is designed by evolution to be interested in the social lives of others – rivals, mates, relatives, offspring, and acquaintances. To be successful in life requires knowledge of many different phenomena and social situations, innate predispositions influence how we sense, interpret, think, perceive, communicate, and enable adaptation and survival in the world. Some anthropologists have criticized evolutionary psychology for not emphasizing the richness and complexity of cultural environ- ments (Scupin 2012: 76). 47 Cultural Anthropology

Summary Psychological anthropology attempts to understand similarities and differences in behavior, thought, and feelings among societies by fo- cusing on the relationship between the individual and culture, or the process of enculturation. Today, most anthropologists have adopted an interactionist approach that emphasizes both biology and culture as influences on enculturation and human behavior. Psychological anthropology examines the relation between cul- tural and mental processes. It deals with human development and enculturation within a certain cultural group which has its own his- tory, language, conceptual categories, practices and forms processes of self-recognition, emotion, motivation, comprehension and mental health. It also analyses how certain psychological processes inform about or restrict our patterns with regard to the way the social and cultural processes work. Schemas are constructed out of language, imaged, and logical op- erations of the human mind in order to mediate and provide mean- ing to social and cultural reality. Thus, shemas are more complex than prototypes. The shemas may vary from one culture to the next. Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition and cultural meanings through specific methodologies such as psychological ex- periments, computer modeling, and other techniques to elicit under- lying unconscious factors that structure-thinking processes.

Study questions 1. Give an example of how your own personality has been af- fected by enculturation. 2. Describe a pattern of human behavior that is “normal” for your society, but might be considered “abnormal” in another society. 3. What is cognitive anthropology, and what is its value? 4. What is schema theory, and how does it deal with similarities and differences within cultures? 5. What does Derek Freeman’s criticism of Margaret Mead teach us about ethnography and psychological anthropology? 6. Are emotional expressions universal? Are human emotions such as anger or jealousy similar or different around the world? 48 5 Lecture. Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection

Schedule of lecture • Race as a social construct. • Rase in biology. • Explaining human biological diversity. • Natural selection. • Non-human culture. • Creationism and its critics.

Race as a social construct Scientists have approached the study of human biological diversity from 2 main directions: racional classification and explanation of specific differences. Because of widespread confusion between the social and and biological meanings of the term race, it is important to distinguish between them. Most people believe that the “races” are biological categories. Instead, “white” and “black” designate social races – categories that are defined by American culture. American racial classification ignores both phenotype and genotype. Children of mixed unions are automatically classified with the minority-group parents. Racial classification in Brazil demonstrates that the Ameri- can system is not inevitable. Brazilians recognize more than 500 ra- cial categories. Futhermore, in contrast to the United States, race in Brazil can change during person’s lifetime, reflecting phenotypical changes. It is also varies depending on who is doing the classifying. In theory, a biological race is a discrete group whose members share certain distinctive genetic traits inherited from a common an- cestor. The belief that races exist and are important is more common among the public than it is among biologists. We will show that the races are not biological but cultural, or so- cial, categories. Social race is a group assumed to have some bio- logical basis but actually defined in a social context – by a particular culture rather than by scientific criteria.

49 Cultural Anthropology Race in biology

The scientific validity of race as biological term is questionable. Early scholars attempted to define race by outward appearance, for exam- ple, as phenotypical differences. European and American scientists tended to assign priority to skin color. Thus, many encyclopedias still proclaim the existence of three races: the white (Caucasoid), the black (Negroid), and the yellow (Mongoloid). Even scientists who be- lieve that there are three major races recognize that human popula- tions are difficult to classify. Problems similar to those involved in basing racial classification on skin color emerge when any single trait is used. An attempt to base racial classification on facial features, height, weight, or any other phenotypical trait is fraught with difficulties. For example, consider the Nilotes, natives of the Upper Nile region of Uganda and the Su- dan. Nilotes tend to be tall and to have long, narrow nose. Certain Scandinavians are also tall and have similar nose. Given the distance between their homelands, to classify them as members of the same race little sense. Would it be better to base racial classifications on a combination of physical traits? This would avoid some of problems mentioned above, but others would arise. First, skin color, stature, skull form, and facial features (nose form, eye shape, lip thickness) do not go to- gether as unit. Traits determined by genes located on different chro- mosomes are transmitted independently to offspring. For example, people with dark skin have hair ranging from straight to very curly. Furthermore, there are dark-haired populations with light skin. The number of combinations is very large, and the amount that ances- try and genes (versus environment) contribute to such phenotypical traits is often unclear. There is a final objection to racial classification based on pheno- typical traits. Genes and the environment work together to create phenotype. The relative contributions of genes and environment to human biological differencies are often unclear. Phenotype is the changing product of a long-term interaction, particularly important during growth and development, between the organism’s heredi- tary potential and its environment. Therefore, as the environment

50 Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection changes, the range of phenotypes characteristic of given population can also change independently of genetic change. The environment’s influence on the organism reflects both the nature of the stress and the individual’s age when exposed. The younger the individual, the greater the impact of the environment tends to be. There are several examples. In early 20th century, the anthropolo- gist Franz Boas described changes in skull form among the children of Europeans who had migrated to the United States. The reason for this was not a change in genes, for the European immigrants tended to marry among themselves. Some of their children had been born in Europe and merely raised in the United States. Something in the new environment, most probably in the diet, was producing this change. Changes in average height and weight produced by dietary differenc- es in a few generations are even more common (Kottak 1991: 68–71).

Explaining human biological diversity

Although the problems involved in categorizing human beings ac- cording to race are immense, it is obvious that biological differencies exist among people. Human biological diversity can be explained. There are links between generally determined traits, such as hemo- globins, and natural selective forces, such as malaria. Infectious dis- eases may have influenced the distribution of human blood groups. Selective forces, genetic adaptation, stresses during growth, and bio- logical plasticity contribute to such compex traits as lactose tolerance, skin color, facial features, size, and body build. Biological similari- ties between geographically distant populations may reflect similar but independent genetic changes or similar physiological responses to similar stresses during growth rather than common ancestry. Some people believe in genetically determined differences in the learning abilities of races, classes, and ethnic groups. However, envi- ronmental variables (particularly educational, economic, and social background) provide much better explanation for performance on intelligence tests by such groups. Intelligence tests reflect the cul- tural biases and life experiences of the people who develop and ad- minister them. When tests devised by Americans or Europeans are translated into other languages, they retain Western cultural concept. 51 Cultural Anthropology

All tests are to some extent culture-bound. Many stress competition and speed of completion, values of a society that emphasizes time, individual achievement, and self-reliance. Equalized environmental opportunities show up in test scores (Kottak 1991: 84–85).

Natural selection Human ability to create culture is a consequence of biological evo- lution processes. The most efficient process of evolution is called a natural selection. Natural selection takes place due to unlimited re- productive forces of life and certain limited space and energy which life depends on. Natural selection affects the inheritablegenes which exist in multiplying cells of each body. It performs this function by increasing and decreasing the frequency of repetition of genetic vari- ants. The main source of genetic variants is mutation, i. e. ‘errors’ that occur in the process of reproduction of genes. Some genetic variants improve the fitness of individuals who have them, while others im- pair the fitness. Fitness means a number of descendants who fea- ture a certain genetic variant. Genes that determine better fitness are called ‘selected for’, while genes that determine worse fitness are said to be ‘selected against’. Fitness is related to many different factors. It can be related with body’s ability to resist disease, to acquire and to better maintain space, or to energy that is acquired in bigger and more reliable quan- tities. It can be associated with an increased efficiency and reliability of a certain aspect of the reproduction process itself. Due to varying success of reproduction, natural selection can fun- damentally change frequency of genotypes in several decades. The example of natural selection’s power to increase a frequency of rare gene is the evolution of bacteria strains that are resistant to penicillin. Genes that provide resistance exist in standard populations of bac- teria, but only few individuals have them. However, due to distinct success of reproduction of such individuals, bacterium’s susceptibil- ity to resistance eventually becomes the most common genotype. Natural selection and ‘battle for existence’. Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace have formed fundamental principles about the way the organic revolution could become a result of natural selection. 52 Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection

They have recognised the ‘battle for existence’ concept of Thomas Malthus as the main factor for the success of reproduction. Hence, in the 19th century natural selection was incorrectly perceived as a direct battle between individuals for poor resources and sexual partnership, and what was even more misinterpreted – as hunting and destruc- tion of organisms belonging to the same species among each other. Although competition sometimes matters in biological evolution, but the factors determining the success of reproduction are mostly relat- ed to the body’s ability to destroy other members of its population. Today biologists recognise that natural selection affects collabora- tion and altruism within the species, just as it affects the competition. Reservation of genes of an individual within social species usually depends on the success of reproduction of his close relatives and on his survival, as well as reproduction. For instance, many social in- sects even have sterile ‘castes’ which ensure genetic success of species by ‘altruistically’ raising descendants of their productive relatives. Natural selection and behaviour. Natural selection forms not only anatomy and physiology. It also forms behaviour. For instance, certain genes determine that some types of fruit flies, seeking to avoid hungry birds, fly upwards, while others fly downwards, or that certain wasps lay eggs only to certain types of caterpillars. Genes also directly determine fish mating rituals, cobweb weaving, work- ers bees feeding the queen bee and many other attractions and in- stincts in behaviour of different animal species. Such behaviours, just as all genetically determined characteristics, emerge from errors and copying in the replication of genotype. For instance, wasp’s at- traction to a single type of caterpillars was an error (mutation) which was selected since it increased fitness of a wasp. Hence, new behav- ioural model based on new genotype has become a part of the wasp’s instinct programme. Although it is very useful to have a genetically coded minor pro- gramme of behavioural responses, there is also another type of be- haviour which is not programmed and has many advantages. Such behaviour is acquired and programmed in body’s nervous system and brain. For instance, terns learn to recognise fishing boats and follow them; they learn to find fast food restaurants, city dumps and other waste aggregates, and they acquire the behaviour without a

53 Cultural Anthropology change in its genotype. None of these actions is coded into the genes of their descendants. Further generations of terns may acquire such behaviour only by learning individually. Ability to acquire new behavioural patterns through learning is the basic feature of multicellular bodies. Learning allows individu- als to adopt or use new abilities without waiting for the new genetic errors to occur.

Non-human culture Selection prepares the ground for a rise of culture due to increasing learning ability. This ability has neurological foundation; it was de- termined by the formation of larger and more complex brain of more perceptive animals. Evolutionary novelty represented by culture is that abilities and habits of cultural animals are acquired through so- cial heredity, rather than through primitive biological inheritance. Social heredity means formation of social animal behaviour follow- ing the information existing in the brain rather than in the genes of other members of community (however, it should be noted that the real cultural responses always depend on a partly genetically deter- mined abilities and attractions.). Many animals have acquired traditions which are transferred from one generation to another and which can be considered as pri- mordial cultural forms. As we will soon see, chimpanzees and other primates have acquired elements of traditions. However, it was only among hominids who are representatives of humanity, as opposed to simian family, where culture has become a more important source of adaptive behaviour than biological evolution based on changes in frequency of genes. By being able to stand and walk in upright position and by having arms independent from motion and support functions, the early hominids could possibly use to make, carry and perfectly use tools as the most important means for survival. On the other hand, monkeys are doing just fine with the simplest tools. Both ancient and modern hominids have been always dependent on a cer- tain cultural form in order to survive. Tools and learning. Experiments with behaviour show that most of the birds and mammals, in particular monkeys and apes, are suffi- 54 Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection ciently ‘perceptive’ to learn to make and use simple tools under labo- ratory conditions. However, under natural conditions the ability to make and use tools occurs rarely, since most of the animals can eas- ily get along without artificial means. Natural selection has adapted them to a certain living environment by providing body parts, such as trunk, nails, teeth, hooves and tusks. Hence, although primates are sufficiently perceptive to make and use tools, but their anatomy and traditional lifestyle do not stimulate to develop complex skills for the use of tools. Monkeys and apes are not able to make full use of their paws for taking tools, since their front limbs are important for walking, running and climbing. It may explain why the most common tool usage behaviour among monkeys and apes is defence from intruders by using nuts, cones, branches, fruits, droppings and stones. In order to start throwing things they only need to lose a pos- sibility to run away or climb somewhere in case of danger. Chimpanzee is the most skilful tool user among the free mon- keys and apes. Jane van Lavick-Goodall and her colleagues have examined behaviour of a freely wandering population of chimpan- zees within Tanzania’s Gombe National Park for a number of years. One of the most significant revelations is that chimpanzees are ‘fish- ing’ ants and termites. They catch termites by breaking branches or climber plants, tearing leaves and sidings and then shoving them to the nest of termites. Chimpanzee scratches off the thin coating and puts in a branch. Inside, termites bite the end of a branch and chim- panzee pulls it out and licks off the termites. The most impressive part is that chimpanzees carry the detached branch in their mouth from one nest to another while looking for a tunnel entrance. Ant catching is an interesting variation of such behaviour. Chimpanzees can create a ‘sponge’ and absorb water from tree cavities. They use similar ‘sponge’ to dry fur, clean sticky materials and wipe baby chimpanzees’ backsides. Gombe’s chimpanzees use sticks as levers to scratch off ant nests from trees and as spades to broaden apertures of underground hives. Observers in other location of Africa inform about similar behav- iour, i. e. ‘fishing’ of ants and termites, as well as scratching and root- ing out nests of insects. They have seen how chimpanzee splits and smashes shells of fruits, seeds and nuts by using sticks and stones.

55 Cultural Anthropology

In Tai Forest in Ivory Coast, chimpanzees break hard shells of nuts with stones as with hammers. In the forest ground, they look for ap- propriate picks of stone of around 0.5–20 kg of weight. Chimpanzees carry stones under an armpit while jumping on three legs for even 200 meters of distance. They put nuts on thick branches of trees or on stones and furiously smash them. In the West Senegal, chimpanzees use hammers of stone to crack baobab fruits. Inspired by such inventiveness of chimpanzees, Nicholas Toth from the Indiana University has taught a chimpanzee called Kanzi to make tool of stone (Gibbons, 1991). Is this culture? It appears that there are no specific genes which would determine hunting of termites or ants and other behaviour of chimpanzees mentioned above. In fact, young chimpanzees must have genetically determined abilities to learn, manipulate things and eat insects in order to acquire such behaviour. However, these com- mon biological abilities and dispositions cannot explain the catch- ing of termites and ants. If there would be nothing, except of young chimpanzees, branches and nests of termites, catching of termites and ants would be extraordinary. The information about catching of termites and ants present in the brain of adult chimpanzees would be the missing constituent of the behaviour of young chimpanzees. Gombe River’s chimpanzees do not start catching termites until 18 or 22 months of age. They start clumsily and with much difficulty and become skilled only at the age of 3 years. Jane van Lavick-Goodall has noticed multiple times that juniors have observed mature ani- mals catching termites. Juniors often tried to do the same by grab- bing sticks dropped by the mature ones. The learning process to catch ants that bite painfully lasts longer. The youngest chimpanzee that has acquired such skill was of around 4 years old. The conclusion that catching of ants is a feature of culture is con- firmed by the fact that in other locations chimpanzees do not eat ants-carriers, although this species is widespread in Africa. Mean- while, other groups of chimpanzees catch other species of ants than those caught by Gombe’s chimpanzees, by using different methods. For instance, chimpanzees in Mohale Mountains, located 170 km to the south from Gombe, use branches to tear up a nest of ants living in trees, while Gombe’s chimpanzees do not touch such nests.

56 Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection

Broad research on non-human culture has been carried out with Japanese macaque. Primatologists of Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University found a big variety of customs based on social ac- quisition. They even noticed how new behaviour is transferred from one individual to another and it becomes a culture of majority of monkeys, independently on genetic transfer. Kyoto researchers have spread sweet potatoes on seashore by seek- ing to attract monkeys to the sea in order to make their observation easier. One day, young female began washing sand from sweet pota- toes by dipping in a littoral brook. Washing has spread to the entire group. After nine years, 80–90 percent of monkeys have been wash- ing sweet potatoes both in the brook and in the sea. After spreading wheat on the seashore, Koshima monkeys had hard time scratching sand off the grains. However, soon one of them has learned the way to easily remove sand and her behaviour has been taken over by other monkeys. They started dipping wheat into water (Harris 1998: 25–26). Start of a culture. Approximately 45.000 years ago culture en- tered into the ‘starting’ period. 40.000–45.000 years ago, material culture of Western Eurasia has changed more significantly than in a million year prior to that. Such blooming of technological and artis- tic culture means a concurrent rise of the first culture, which can be today recognized as exceptionally human, since it has characteristics related to relentless inventing and variety. Prior to that period, cultural and biological changes have been closely related. After the start of a culture, cultural evolution has grown to an impressive extent, while human biological evolution has not developed. Start of a culture confirms the opinion expressed by most of the anthropologists that major attention should be paid to cultural rather than biological processes in order to understand the cultural evolution during the last 40.000 years. Natural selection and organic evolution validate a culture, but when culture becomes completely accessible, many cultural differences and similarities may arise from or decline independently on the changes in genotypes. An exceptionally human ability to speak and possess systems of linguistic thinking is closely related to the ability of cultural behav- iour. Other primates use complex signal systems in order to facilitate their social life, while modern human languages are qualitatively

57 Cultural Anthropology different from all the rest of communication systems. Unique fea- tures of modern human languages have evidently emerged from tribal adaptations related to increasingly growing dependency on so- cial collaboration and culturally acquired lifestyle. Babies of modern human beings are born with a certain nervous scheme which makes the learning to speak as natural as learning to walk (Bickerton, 1990). On its part, this nervous scheme represents a certain ‘layout of wires’ which is characteristic to species that must constantly receive and transfer plenty of new information about their lives. However, it should be noted, that it is not clearly known when our homidic an- cestors acquired completely modern languages. One of the ways to summarize characteristics of a human lan- guage is to say that we have reached ‘semantic universality’ (Green- berg, 1968). Communication system that has semantic universality can transfer information about prospects, domain, property, loca- tions or events from the past, present or future. Apes and speech. In recent years, some experiments have shown that the gap between human beings and apes, in terms of their ability to speak, is not as big as it was previously thought. However, the very same experiments have shown that natural factors specific to the spe- cies hinder to eliminate this interval. There have been many unsuc- cessful attempts to teach chimpanzees to speak human language. As soon as it has been found that vocal tract of apes cannot form sounds necessary for human language, they have been taught to use sign lan- guage, read and write. Female chimpanzee Washoe learned standard signs of an American Sign Language, Ameslan. Washoe have used the sign in an efficient manner. At first, she learned how to associ- ate the sign ‘to open’ with different doors and later spontaneously expanded its use to all the closed doors and then to the closed objects, such as a refrigerator, a cupboard, drawers, boxes and jars. When research assistant stepped on the Washoe’s doll, the chimpanzee had many ways to express her thoughts: ‘Upwards, my, please upwards; give the baby; please, the shoe; more my; upwards, please; please up- wards; more upwards; the baby downwards; the shoe upwards; the baby upwards; please, lift it” (Gardner and Gardner, 1971, 1975). Both Washoe and Lucy, chimpanzees raised by Rogerio Fouts, have learned to develop a sign ‘dirty’ from a sign ‘droppings’. Lucy

58 Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection used to apply the sign ‘dirty’ to Fouts when he failed to fulfil her re- quests! Lucy has also invented combinations ‘to cry-raw food’ for a radish and ‘candy-fruit’ for watermelons. Female gorilla Koko, trained by Francine Patterson, holds a re- cord of learning 300 words of Ameslan. Koko used ‘finger bracelet’ for a ring, ‘white tiger’ for zebra and ‘eye hat’ for a mask. Koko has also talked about her inner feelings, such as happiness, sorrow, fear and shame (Hill, 1978, 98–99). These research studies have shown that chimpanzees can transfer the skills of sign usage to other chimpanzees without human inter- vention. Washoe adopted Loulis, a 10 month old chimpanzee. She sheltered the junior and soon started teaching him to show signs. When Loulis was 36 months old he used 28 signs that Washoe taught him. In about 5 years he has learned 55 signs from Washoe and other two chimpanzees that were using signs without human intervention. Even more impressive is the fact that Washoe, Loulis and chim- panzees who were using signs, also constantly used sign language when communicating with each other, with no humans present. The ‘conversations’ of monkeys have been taped and have taken place from 118 to 659 times per month (Fouts and Fouts, 1985, 1989, 301). But it was Kanzi, the talented male pygmy chimpanzee who learned to make extraordinary tools of stone. Kazi has completely mastered 150 spoken English words without being educated. Kanzi started understanding spoken words just by listening to conversa- tions he had been hearing since his babyhood, just like a human baby (Savage-Rumbaugh et al., 1990, 247). By using keyboard and voice synthesizer, Kanzi can talk in English about different matters. Dur- ing the research on Kanzi’s ability to comprehend symbols, all safety measures have been taken in order to avoid deliberate suggestions and scolding from his mentors. However, it is clear that linguistic gap between human beings and apes remains eminent. Despite all the efforts to teach apes to com- municate, none of them has acquired linguistic skills that are deemed characteristic to 3 year old children. All these experiments have shown absolute probability that natural selection determines human seman- tic universality, intellectual skills which have been characteristic to our ape-alike ancestors in rudimentary form (Harris 1998: 27–28).

59 Cultural Anthropology Creationism and its critics

Anthropology’s attempts to examine human physical and cultural or- igin in the aspect of evolution and based on natural condition, seems doubtful to creationists, who were literally referring to the ideas of the Old Testament. Scientific creationists claim that everybody used to speak one language prior to the Flood; after that, languages used by each group were suddenly incomprehensible for other groups. On its part, this incomprehension has forced people to move from their homeland to distant regions of the Planet. However, there are no facts approving such version, while history of linguistic also con- tradicts it. Science of historical linguistics has reproduced primitive forms of linguistic families of the great languages of the World. The languages we currently use have developed from the proto-languag- es of the primitive ones. Evolution of new languages has not caused migration or separation of the old habitants. Rather, the migration and separation of the old habitants have stimulated the occurrence of new languages. Creationists state that the Palaeolithic Age has lasted only 3000 years, since the spread caused by the Tower of Babel, till the occurrence of advanced civilizations in the Middle East, rather than two million years (or more) as claimed by archaeologists. They explain that if the Palaeolithic Age would have lasted two million years, habitants of the Earth would be by far bigger. Anthropological research shows that pre-historic nations have maintained extremely low increase of population by practising abstinence, abortions, long- lasting nursing and direct or indirect infanticide. Theory of creationism states that all civilizations may be derived from the Middle East and does not consider the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, such as that pre-Co- lombian state communities in Mexico and Peru have evolved from hunter/gatherers, independently of significant influence of the Old World. Archaeologists have gradually collected facts pointing to the process that plants and animals which were unknown in the Old World, such as lamas, alpacas, guinea-pigs, potatoes, cassavas, maize and pigweeds, were included into the pre-historic cultures of the tribes of Native Americans. These plants and animals have provided the ground for nutritional evolution in the pre-Colombian Ameri-

60 Biological Diversity, Race, and Natural Selection ca from small groups to villages, from villages to chiefdoms, from chiefdoms to states and from states to empires.

Summary The scientific validity of race as biological term is questionable. -An thropologists show that the races are not biological but cultural, or social, category. Social race is a group assumed to have some bio- logical basis but actually defined in a social context – by a particular culture rather than by scientific criteria. Human ability to create is a result of natural selection. Natural selection changes genotypes through unequal success of reproduc- tion. Natural selection is not just a battle for existence. Adaptation of human beings can be determined by collaboration and altruism as often as it can be determined by battle and competition. Anatomi- cal and behavioural features can be formed by natural selection or can be coded in genes. However, changes of behaviour arising from learning are different from the ones arising from natural selection. Learning allows bodies to adopt and take advantage of occurring possibilities and coincidences, independently from genetic changes and is the ground for cultural traditions. Even if the ability to master traditions was formed by natural selection and that happened just after development of the brain, culture is coded in the brain and not in genes. Cultural behaviour, such as making and using tools, is character- istic to many non-human species, to monkeys and apes in particu- lar. However, tool usage traditions even among monkeys and apes remain rudimentary. The reason behind this is that monkeys and apes use their front legs to climb and walk, thus are not able to easily carry tools. Human ability to expand semantic universality is a crucial cul- tural component. As shown by the experiments, chimpanzees and gorillas can be easily taught to use several hundred signs. However, comparing to a 3 year old human baby, apes have only rudimentary abilities for linguistic productivity.

61 Cultural Anthropology Study questions 1. What is social race? Give an example of social race? 2. How do social and biological definitions of race differ ? 3. What is the difference between cultural and biological racial classifications? 4. What kind of racial classification system operates in the com- munity where you grow up? 5. What are the problems with racial classification based on phe- notypical traits? 6. What explanations have been proposed for the distribution of human body sizes and shapes? 7. Describe the theory of creationism. 6 Lecture. Ecology: Understanding Environment and Technology

Schedule of lecture • What is ecological anthropology? • How environment influences society? • Key concepts in ecological anthropology. • Technology as a social force. • Making a living. • Ecology and globalisation.

What is ecological anthropology? Anthropolgy always has been concerned with how environmental forces influence humans and how human activities afect the biosphere and the Earth itself. The 1950s-1970s witnessed the emergence of an area of study known as cultural ecology or ecological anthropoly. Those anthropologists who specialise in the study of relations be- tween environment and society are called ecological anthropologists. They called their subject either ecological anthropology, cultural ecology or social ecology. Ecological anthropology as is usually dated to the publication of Theory of (1955), by American anthropologist Julian H. H. Steward. Ethnographers, especially those working in hunting- and-gathering societies, had long notices that environment was im- portant. What Steward did was to put together examples of how en- vironment and technology affect social organization, compare these in an evolutionary framework, and encourage his students to do studies focusing on these things. Ecological anthropologist today frequently more interested in how ordinary people view their environments. They attempts not only to understand but also to find solutions to environmental problems.

How environment influences society? There are different opinions about the influence of environment on society. Some anthropologists argue that environment detemines

63 Cultural Anthropology social organisation, at least for those societies which rely heavily on simple technology. Many more argue that environment merely limits how society develops. Still others argue that there is only a loose rela- tion between environment and society. Most cultural ecologists hold the middle view. They argued that social organisation is formed by combination of environmental influence and specific culture history.

Examples of environmental influence 1. Living where water supplies are scant will limit the size of groups. Desert areas such as Sahara or the Kalahari tend to have small and dispersed populations, or populations concen- trated around meagre water resources. 2. Places with varying resources tend to be ideal for peoples on the move or peoples wishing to trade. Native North Americans of the North West Coast used to move within territories in search of the best fishing and food-gathering grounds. When one group acquired more resources than others, they would give them away in ceremonies which conferred prestige on the givers. 3. Climates with extreme seasonal variation tend to be conducive to social organisations with seasonal diversity. For example, Inuit of Arctic North America have very different activities in summer and in winter (Barnard 2000: 42).

Key concepts in ecological anthropology Adaptation refers to ability of people to respond favourably to envi- ronmental stress. A means of subsistence is method of obtaining a living from the environment. These include hunting, gathering, fishing, herding livestock, and agriculture (of various kind). An ecological niche is a set of resources utilised by a particular group in an environment. Sometimes different groups (say, hunters and herders) will exploit different niches in the same environment. The carrying capacity is the maximum number of people who can live in a given environment. Sometimes this supposes a specific means of subsistence.

64 Ecology: Understanding Environment and Technology

Social organization refers to the activities of members of a soci- ety. It is related to the idea of society and social structure (the posi- tions people occupy in relation to one another). Cultural materialism is the extreme view that environment and technology together determine the social organisation. Its leading proponent is American anthropologist Marvin Harris, and the key text is his book Cultural Materialism (1979). Cultural materialism begins with the assumption that cultures are influenced by mate- rial conditions: physical resourses, plants and animals, relationships (such as trade and war) with other groups, and systems of production and reproduction. (Barnard 2000: 42-43)

Ecological anthropologists are interested in relations between environ- ment and social organisation. They infer influence through analysis of one society or through comparison of two closely-related societies.

Technology as social force Irrigation in the ancient Near East. Agriculture is widespread in all parts of the world, but it has different technologies. The early farmers in the Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt have used natural seasonal high-water and low-water cycles in the non-drying rivers for the whole year. Later they have developed irrigative systems, which have driven water to previously dry lands. That created a possibility to in- crease population and stimulate urbanisation. When cities have been established on the riverbanks, the control of floods (high-water) has become of significant importance. That determined increase in jobs and development of new organisational forms for that labor. Social hierarchy has been developed, with aristocrats and clergy being at the top of it and slaves being at the bottom. This pattern has been significantly defined by the German-Amer- ican historian Karl A. Wittfogel in his book Oriental Despotism (1957). Wittfogel believed that China, India and ancient civilizations of South and Central Americas have developed in the following sim- ilar way: they have closely related irrigation, intensive food produc- tion, urbanisation, social stratification and rise of the state as of a political institution. 65 Cultural Anthropology

However, as opposed to Wittfogel, American anthropologist Rob- ert McCormick Adams, who referred to archaeological data, claimed that irrigative technology leads to urbanisation and complex politi- cal structures. In his opinion, urbanisation prepares a complex of political structures and technology improvement, such as develop- ment of irrigative system.

The introduction of a horse on the Great Plains In the 17th century, local Northern Americans acquired horses from Spanish people and all the groups of the Great Plains have already had horses by the 18th century. The possibility of horseback riding and hunting was a technical innovation and allowed to directly change social organisation. Prior to introduction of a horse, habitants of the Plains used to be settled farmers who lived in peace with their neighbours. After the in- troduction of a horse, they started practising a nomadic lifestyle and hunting buffaloes. Incursions and wars have become widespread, there- fore social values and religious ideas were supported by killing backed up by worship of individuals and spiritual power. Finally, large tribal groups have been formed in order to protect families against wars. In this case, a horse was a reason for social changes. However, people in other parts of the world have acquired horse and riding skills without experiencing such consequences.

Making a living Hunters and gatherers. Hunting-and-gathering peoples are those who subsist predominantly by hunting and gathering. Hunting, gath- ering and fishing were the sole means of subsistence for the whole of humankind just 12,000 years ago. Today, there are virtually no ‘pure’ hunter-gatherers left. People generally considered hunter-gatherers include, by continent: Africa, Asia (India, Philippiners), Australia, South and North America. Hunting-and-gathering societies have long been of interest to ecological anthopologists because of their close relation to the envi- ronments they inhabit. Julian Steward, founder of ecological anthro-

66 Ecology: Understanding Environment and Technology pology, specialised in the study of the remnant hunter-gatherers of California and other parts of the Americas. One pioneering study of continuing relevance is a literature survey by French anthropologist Marcel Mauss (1872–1950). First published in French in 1904–1905, it appeared in English as Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo in 1979. Mauss’s special concern was the strict seasonal difference between summer and winter in northern Canada.

More generally, characteristics of hunting-and-gathering societies are the following: 1. Seasonal migrations or nomadic movements within group ter- ritories. 2. Large territories for the size of population. 3. Flexibility in group structure. 4. Political and economic equality. 5. Gender-specific activities (men hunt and women gather). 6. Widespread sharing of wihin the community.

Fishing. Many hunter-gatherers also fish, but sometimes a distinc- tion is made between these societies and those who are relatively sed- entary and traditionally well-off because of their fishing activities. Relatively sedentary fishing-hunting-gathering societies include: Asia (Japan), North America.

Herding. Herders or pastoralists represent another type of society. Peo- ples generally considered pastoralists include: Africa, Asia (Mongols, Ti- betans ad other groups), Europe (Saami or Lapps), South America (some isolated Andean groups). These herders are people whose activities focus on such domesticated animals as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and yaks. Two patterns of movement occur with pastoralism: nomadism and transhumance. Herds must move to take advantage of pasture available in particular places in different seasons. In pastoral nomad- ism, the entire group – women, men, and children – moves with the animals throughout the year. With transhumance, only part of the group follows the herds while the rest remain in home villages. Some pastoralists are almost totally dependent on their livestock. Others are less so, but nevertheless depend on their livestock for their social identity while exploiting a complex of resources in their 67 Cultural Anthropology environment. Evans-Prichard’s famous study The Nuer (1940) is the classic one of such a people. The Nuer of Sudan exploit different re- sources, including fish and agricultural goods, seasonally. They take their cattle with them from upland villages to large lowland camps as the waters recede in the annual cycle. General characteristics of herding societies are broadly similar to those of hunting-and gathering-societies: 1. Seasonal migrations or nomadic movements, sometimes with- out regard to territory. 2. Large territories for the size of population. 3. Political and economic equality. 4. Strict gender division (generally, only men and boys herd animals). Agriculture may be defined in various ways, but it useful here to distinquish two basic types: small-scale horticulture and large-scale, advanced agriculture. Small-scale horticulturists include: Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. Characteristics of these so- cieties are the following: 1. An emphasis on vegetable production (often with some live- stock or fishing). 2. Slash-and-burn methods of cultivation (brush is burned off and fields left fallow). 3. Mechanisms for redistribution of wealth (e. g., by chiefs). 4. Relative political and economical equality. 5. Some gender differentiation in economic activities. Advanced agriculture. Advanced agricultural people today are spread all over the world. This is largerly because of their importance in defining the origins of state political entities. Such societies in- clude: Egypt since ancient times, ancient civilisations of Mesopota- mia, China, etc., Europe over the last few centuries, North America (ancient Aztecs (Mexico)) and South America (ancient Incas (Peru)). Characteristics of these societies are: 1. An emphasis on grain production. 2. Irrigation. 3. Complex political structures. 4. Great social differentiation. 5. Great social inequalities.

68 Ecology: Understanding Environment and Technology

Manufacturing and trading. Peoples engaged heavily in manufac- turing and trade include: Africa (Arab traders in East Africa, Hausa and other West Africa, modern oil and mineral producers in severl parts of the continent), acient and modern societies in East and Southeast Asia, modern Australia, modern Europe, modern North and South America. Most of these societies are similar in their characteristics to ad- vanced agricultural societies.

Ecology and globalization The spread of advanced technology, the production of „greenhouse gasses“, the destruction of rainforests, and the reduction in the num- ber of species worldwide, have all led to growing interests in the global environment. Globalization as a series of processes that promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent. Its forces include international manufacture, commerce, and finance; travel and tourism; transnational migration; the media, the Internet, and other high-tech information flows. Conrad P. Kottak determines definition of globalization: Globalization – the accelerating interdependence of nations in a word system linked economically and through mass media and modern transportation system. (Kottak 2012: 311) Mark Smith and Michele Doyle (2002) distinquish between two meanings of globalization: Globalization as fact: the spread and connectedness of produc- tion, communication, and technologies accross the world. Globalization as ideology and policy: efforts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and other international fi- nancial powers to create a global free market for good and services. Globalization as systemic connectedness reflects the relentless and ongoing growth of the world system. In this current form, that system, which has existed for centuries, has some radical new as- pects. There are especially noteworthy: the speed of global commu- nication, the scale (complexity and size) of global networks, and the sheer volume of international transactions.

69 Cultural Anthropology

Social anthropology’s contribution to globalization and the fol- lowing 3 methods of assistance: 1. To provide the main information about traditional environ- mental users. 2. To provide fundamentals of environmental usage in order to make a comparison through internal ethnographic studies. 3. To examine how certain societies can expect to adapt the glo- balization process. Globalization spreads along with economic systems. Currently, all economic systems are related to the trade (occupation, profession and craft). Assimilation of cultures when they lose previous differ- ences is another trend that stimulates the occurrence of globalization. Loss of differences becomes important in respect of environmental knowledge. For instance, habitants of Amazon tropical forests have perfect knowledge on their unique environment. While ecologists are concerned with biological differences, ecological anthropologists collaborate in order to assist the outer world in understanding the knowledge and local environment of local people (Barnard 2000: 52).

Summary Ecology is the study or relations between living organisms in an envi- ronment. In anthropology, it refers to relations between people in their environment and how they use technology to utilize that environ- ment. Ecologycal anthropologists concentrate on how people make living and often specialise in the study of specific kinds of society on this basis: hunting-and-gathering societies, fishing societies, etc.

Study questions 1. What are some of the ways in which natural environments af- fect social organization? 2. How does technology affect social organization? 3. Give an example how the environment affects the society. 3. How do societies differ according to their means of subsistence? 4. Compare the means of subsistence of some of the societies you know about.

70 7 Lecture. Discourses of Economical Anthropology

Schedule of lecture • How to live without surplus? • Ways to accumulate and distribute. • Three forms of reciprocity. • What is money? • Three theories in economic anthropology.

How to live without surplus? Economics means literally ‘household management’. Metaphorically, it refers to the material affairs of the society as a whole (as a giant ‘household’). Economics is closely related to ecology, which is also based on ma- terial relations. Ecology links society to the environment, meanwhile economics defines material relations between people. Therefore, we can consider advanced economies of the Western and Eastern Asia as a rich one, since, according to their own demand, they produce surplus goods. Regardless, such a case can have absolutely different concept of surplus. Anthropologists tend to think that hunters and gatherers have been spending all of their time trying to get enough food and that they sim- ply could not produce surplus in order to subsist. Hunters/gatherers were able to settle and improve their own economy only after some- body discovered that they can grow food instead of picking it. This discovery has given rise to the Neolithic revolution. The out- come of this revolution is that many people started to grow plants, settled and developed more complex forms of social organisation. These complex forms allowed people to specialise in different activi- ties and to have more free time. Although this opinion is almost correct, but 2 aspects are wrong. Since first comparative studies, American anthropologist Marshall Sahlins stated that:

71 Cultural Anthropology

1) Hunters/gatherers were spending less time making their liv- ing than the majority of farmers. 2) In many cases hunters/gatherers could gather surplus to gain fortune, but they did not do that. They could get as much as they needed from the environment. Around 1950’s, many researchers of hunters/gatherers referred to the data of Sahlins. He published his discoveries in his book ‘Stone Age Economics’ (1972) (Chapter ‘The original affluent society’). Since then, many new researches confirmed discoveries of Sahlins and the current opinion is that hunters/gatherers stayed with their activities as they saw their environment as giving rather than demanding to use natural resources. The question is why people started to practise agriculture, given that life quality of hunters/gatherers was sufficient? Agriculture took up a lot of time, but provided people with more food. Surplus could be sold or redistributed, thus some people had the possibility to do something else, instead of only preparing food. As a result, the divi- sion of labour becomes present in more advanced societies, i. e. with the emergence of food production, factory based (corporate) produc- tion, servicing industry, and institutional work, etc. Today, many hunters and gatherers are willing to move to inten- sive food production and accumulate fortune. Due to drought (lack of humidity) and oppression of neighbouring farmers and pastoral- ists, hunters/gatherers, such as Bushmen, can no longer maintain their surplus. Therefore, hunters/gatherers willing to prolong their working day in order to gain fortune and living in favourable environment can choose whatever they want. They can spend the rest of the time for social ritual and leisure activities. In several parts of Central Africa and India, there are still hunters/gatherers remaining that live fol- lowing the cycle of a year (Bernard 2000: 54–55).

Ways to accumulate and distribute Reciprocity is exchange between social equals, who are normally relat- ed by kinship, marriage or another close personal tie. Because it occurs between social equals, it is dominant in egalitarian societies – among foragers, cultivaters, and pastoralists living in bands and tribes. 72 Discourses of Economical Anthropology

Three forms of reciprocity In the “Stone Age Economics”, Sahlins has excluded the following 3 types of reciprocity: 1) Balanced reciprocity. 2) Generalised reciproc- ity 3) Negative reciprocity.

1)A B 2) A B 3) A B

1) Balanced reciprocity. Two parties each gain equally in the transaction by buying and selling or through reciprocal gift- giving. ‘A’ gives something to ‘B’, and ‘B’ returns something to ‘A’, either immediately, or later. For instance, Bushman (Kung) has a donation system and then keeps the returned gifts. Re- tention emphasises the nature of gift relations. 2) Generalised reciprocity is giving without the expectation of a return gift. For example, parents give gifts to their children and richer ones give to the poor ones. 3) Negative reciprocity is seeking to get more than one paid for, or to get something free of charge. Sahlins includes barter, gambling and stealing (Barnard 2000: 56–57).

What is money? Money is a a commodity whose value lies not in what it is but what it can buy. It is distinquished from other commodities by the fact that it is made up of units of exchange rather than goods to be used. In price market economy, money serves as a mediator of universal trade.

Defining money in the age of electronics In complex societies (Western and Far East) money is a dominant power. But what is money? Something that is considered money in one society can be differently perceived in another one. Money is a commodity of universal value. It has all the universally defined values in a certain society or community. Today the European Union emphasizes an abstract nature of money. The real unit of mon- ey is the euro, even though what circulates is paper denoted as pounds, liras, pesetas, litas, latas, and so on. What lies in your banc account is not a pile of pounds. It is an electronic record of electronically defined

73 Cultural Anthropology units, passed from similar bank accounts held by your student grants authority or your parents to yours. If you have an overdraft, this is also an electronic record. While it may have been meaningful at one time to think of all this electronics as a cultural representation of gold or of pounds, shillings and litas, it is probably more meaningful today to think of the coins in your pocket as a representation of those elec- tronic units which are exchanged between governments.

Three theories in economic anthropology 1. At the start of economic anthropology, there was a hidden presumption that economic system works very similarly in any culture or society. Those who supported this opinion were recognized as formalists. 2. In the 1950’s and in the 1960’s that view was challenged by an- thropologists who stated that culture affected economic atti- tudes and economic systems. This position was characteristic to substantivists. 3. The 1970s saw the rise ofMarxist anthropology by borrowing ideas from the two theories mentioned above and critised the other two positions.

The most important provisions of formalists Classical approach of formalists was presented by an American an- thropologist Melville Herskovits, in his book ‘Economic Anthropol- ogy’ (1952). Later this approach has been developed by his students Edward E. LeClair and Harold K. Schneider, whose 1968 edited vol- ume under the same title, ‘Economic Anthropology’. It has revealed the differences between formalists and substantivists. Formalists emphasise the similarity of economic behaviour in dif- ferent societies. They have emphasised the fact that people are saving money everywhere. Many economic laws are applied in all the societies without taking their culture into account. The most important law is that people should behave in an economically ‘rational’ way by choosing what suits them the most and rejecting the unsuitable. For instance, people will choose shorter workings hours over longer ones, given that, shorter hours will provide the same economic remuneration (Barnard 2000: 62). 74 Discourses of Economical Anthropology The most important provisions of substantivists Economics is embedded in culture. Therefore there can be no gen- eral laws of economics. This is illustrated by the existing of different spheres of exchange which operate differently among people. It is reflected in different approaches to work and different values placed on the same good, as well as different approaches to exchange. Contrary to the viewpoint of formalists, substantivists do not accept the approach of economic rationality affecting all the rest of the cultures. In particular, it is revealed through the contrast between market economics and non-market economics. Rules of economics cannot be applied in the economy without the market. Market economy can function as it has been defined by formalists.

Marxism: economics in ideology and evolution Marxism is the product of the thinking of Karl Marx (1818–1883). Marx’s influence in economic anthropology, however, only emerged long after his death. In the 1960s and 1970s, French anthropologists Maurice Godelier and Claude Meillassoux developed ways to use Marx’s insights into capitalist economic systems in the study of what they called pre-capitalist societies. By the early 1980s, Marxism became a dominant position among economic anthropologists in the UK, as well as Scandinavia, Canada and South Africa. Useful texts include Marxist analyses and Social An- thropology (ed. by Maurice Bloch, 1975) and The Anthropology of Pre– Capitalist Societies (ed. by Joel S. Kahn and Josep R. Liobera, 1981). The idea of the mode of production (e. g. foraging, feudal, capital- ist) is fundamental to Marxist anthropology. The mode consists of the means of production (e. g. hunting, fishing, horticulture) plus the relations of production (how people organise these activities). Marxist anthropologists also emphasise the interaction between different modes of production. They call this interaction the articu- lation of modes of production. Pre-capitalist economies throughout the world have long been in contact with capitalist economies which impinge upon them. This was true throughout colonial times, and is also true in the relation between traditional communities and the modern nation states of Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America. 75 Cultural Anthropology

Basic viewpoints within the Marxist position 1. Economics is fundamental to human social life (formalistic position). 2. Economic systems can best be understood in terms of modes of production. 3. Modes of production imply social relations, and these are of- ten relations of power (through social class, gender, etc.). 4. Modes of production each entail their respective social forms and cultural constraints (substantivist position). 5. Each mode of production contains a contradiction which can lead to it breaking down. 6. That may yield a transformation of society and the adoption of a new, more evolutionarily ‘advanced’ one. 7. Modes of production are often in articulation and should be studied as such. (Barnard 2000: 64–65).

Summary Economics refers to the material affairs of society. In includes produc- tion, internal distribution, and exchange with other societies. Ethno- graphic cases highlight cultural aspects of economic systems and shed light on the understanding of economics in the abstract. Anthropo- logical studies have led to diverse theories of economic institutions.

Study questions 1. Give examples of three types of reciprocity? 2. What is affluence? Give an example of affluence and poverty in your society. 3. What is a mode of production? 4. What is a sphere of exchange? 5. Describe the differences between the three theoretical posi- tions mentioned in this lecture. 6. Which is a main idea of Marxism theory?

76 8 Lecture. Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control

Scedule of lecture • Approaches to politics. • Levels of political organisation. • Seeking the origin of the state. • Explaining social stratification. • Appreciating ethnicity and nationalism. • Is law universal?

Approaches to politics In anthropology there are a number of possible ways to approach the study of political systems. The basic approach are: 1. typological; 2. terminological; 3. functionalist; 4. structuralist; 5. dynamic; 6. marxist. 1. The typological approach. This involves the classification of societies into different types. In some respects, it is the simplest ap- proach that is illustrated in the headline ‘Stages of research on po- litical organisation’. The types illustrated herein, are based on evolu- tionary development of political structures from simple to complex ones. American anthropologist Elman Service supported this idea in his book ‘Profiles in Ethnology’ (1978). 2. The terminological approach. It emphasises the definition of concept over the definition of types. Jamaican anthropologist M. G. Smith tried to describe political activity and political power, authori- ty and administration in a book about Nigeria’s state policy ‘Govern- ment in Zazau’, published in 1960. Smith was interested in concepts which could be applied in all political systems. It has been empha- sized lately that concepts are based on human perceptions and are additionally applied in specific cases.

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3. The functionalist approach. It was mostly referred by British and South African anthropologists, such as A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Meyer Fortes and Isaac Schapera, writing mainly from the 1920s to the 1970s. They emphasised methods by which politics and govern- ment are related to other aspects of social structure, such as economy, kinship and religion. 4. The structuralist approach. It includes British, French and other anthropologists. However, this approach has never been as notable in the studies of politics as it has been in the areas of kinship and religion. The book of Edmund Leach ‘Political Systems of Highland Burma’, published in 1954, was one of the first examples thereof. Leach exam- ines social processes which create oscillations between the following 2 types of social organisation existing in Kachin of Burma: gumsa (hierarchic) and gumlao (egalitarian). His study is structuralistic. He depicts social relations in the context of the Kachin faith by including faiths related to functioning of ancestral spirits in political system. 5. The dynamic approach. South African anthropologist Max Gluckman states in his book ‘Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa’ (1963) that the dynamic approach is more relevant. In his opinion, rebellion is a permanent process and makes sense in political sys- tems in which instability is regarded as normal. His approach was an attack against simplification of functionalists, who saw politics in traditional societies as simple and static. Even today, this example is followed by many people. 6. The Marxist approach. Marxists, especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s went farther. They looked into what they called the “articulation of modes of production”. In Marxist jargon, this refers to the interac- tion between economies which come into contact, similarly as hunt- ers/gatherers come into contact with herders, or farmers do the same with colonial or state capitalistic bureaucracy (Barnard 2000: 68–69). The question arises, which of these approaches is the best? It should be decided which of the discussed approaches suits a specific task the best. For instance, if anthropologists are concerned with different economic relations, the Marxist approach may be the best to discuss the results of others. It is not necessary to a politician or anthropological theoretician in order to determine which theory is meaningful.

78 Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control Levels of political organization Traditional classification of societies is determined by the fact wheth- er the primary political unit is the band, tribe, chiefdom or the state.

Band societies Characteristics of band societies typically include: 1. Economy based on hunting and gathering (or occasionally fishing or horticulture). 2. Social structure based on ties of kinship. 3. Relative equality between the sexes. 4. Egalitarian way of of life: no-one has superiority over anyone else. 5. De-emphasis on leadership, which in any case tends to be un- specialised and temporary (such as for hunting expedition). 6. Decisions taken by consensus.

A typical example is the G/wi Bushmen, described by George Silber- bauer in Hunter and Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert (1981). G/ wi have traditionally lived in bands averaging some 50 or 60 people. Bands migrate within their respective territories and disperse sea- sonally. When there are dispute, band members discuss the issues and co-operate in finding a solution. Even those who disagree tend to abide by such decisions, without formal judgements or coercion.

Tribal societies Characteristics may include: 1. Economy based on livestock or horticulture. 2. Social structure based on clans or lineages. 3. Age and gender often important factors. 4. Sometimes “headless”, without leaders. 5. Sometimes with leaders, usually ones who gain influence through favours for others and the accumulation of wealth (such as the ‘big men’in Papua New Guinea).

Nuer community in Sudan serves as a well-known example. Nuer is a tribe of shepherds and farmers living among swampy pastures near the Nile River in Sudan. Traditional Nuer community does not have 79 Cultural Anthropology a true leader or centralized political authority. E. Evans-Prichard provides a pattern of the Nuer community in his book ‘The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People’ (Oxford, 1940). He writes, as follows: ‘Nuer people do not have governmental bodies, ideal legal institutions and or- ganised political life in general. The orderly anarchy they live in per- fectly matches their character since it’s not possible to imagine the Nuer people as ruling leaders while living with them. They are very democratic and violent minded and do not recognize senior per- sons. Fortune has no meaning, nor does origin. Their community does not have lords or servants and consists only of equal people who consider themselves perfect creatures of God. They are annoyed even by a suggestion of order. They do not obey any authority which contradicts their interests and do not relate themselves to anything’ (Evans-Prichard 1940). Communities, such as the one of Nuer people, having no true lead- ers, are always subject to danger, since their tribal bands unanimously react to aggression against one of their members. Disputes between individuals may be expanded. The most serious danger, arising from disputes, is homicide. Members of such communities tend to believe that the only adequate reaction to homicide is to kill the murderer or any other relevant member of the murderer’s kindred band. However, despite the fact that centralized political authority is ab- sent, blood feud may be controlled and massacre may be prevented from becoming a long-term discord. Part of the murderer’s kin fortune may be transferred to the victim’s kin. This practice is common and efficient among stockbreeders, who keep livestock as tangible assets. Nuer people manage or at least suppress mutual disputes by handing over 40 or more cows to marriage or blood relatives. Family members of the deceased person tend to oppose the cow related pro- posal by requiring life-for-life. However, distant relatives would do anything to persuade them to accept compensation. Their attempts are supported by the clergymen who are called ‘Leopard-skin chiefs’. Those are usually men from tribal bands situated in other location, thus can easier act as neutral mediators. A leopard-skin chief is the only person who can do a purification ritual for a murderer. In case of a homicide, a murderer runs straight

80 Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control to the house of a chief which is considered a sanctuary respected by all the Nuer people. Nonetheless, chief does not have any political power. What he can do to the resistant relatives of the deceased is to threaten them with different supernatural curses.

Chiefly societies Typically these include: 1. Economy based on livestock, horticulture and intensive agri- culture. 2. Government by hereditary chiefs. 3. Chiefs having power and authority, and often inherited- wealth. 4. Chiefs serve as judges in disputes, land distribution or redis- tribution of production. 5. Sometimes chiefs having supernatural power by virtue of their position (for example, as in Polynesia, where chiefs are believed to possess supernatural power called ‘mana’).

The Trobrianders are an example. Men hold the position of chiefs, but it is inherited following the line of mother (a man inherits the position from his maternal uncle). In other communities of Melane- sia, chiefs are distinguished for their abilities to demonstrate power. One of the ways to demonstrate it is control over the distribution of tubers of yams. The best way to do this is to be married to sev- eral women at the same time: wives collect yams from their relatives. Chiefs also perform magical spells in order to control both the yams and their respective villagers.

State societies Among the characteristics of state societies are: 1. Economy based on intensive agriculture and often a developed market system. 2. Relatively high density of population. 3. Sometimes extensive trade network (both internal and external). 4. Often powerful military organisation to keep control over the population and/or to subjugate dependent populations social stratification on class or caste principles. 81 Cultural Anthropology

5. Leaders elected through the right of inheritance or in the way of election. 6. Sometimes leaders having sacred duties or supernatural power (such as in some African kingdoms).

One example is Kingdom of Swazi kingdom in Southern Africa. It represents one of the many pre-colonial African kingdoms which exist until the present day. It is one of the many that has status of na- tion-state (Swaziland). Others, such as neighbouring Zulu Kingdom in South Africa, are incorporated into modern republics. Swaziland is today a constitutional monarchy, but the king and his mother, as well as district and local chiefs, maintain traditional authority over many aspects of Swazi life (Barnard 2000: 70–72).

Seeking the origin of the state There are many theories on the emergence of states. We shall discuss several of them: 1. Hydraulic theory. It was suggested in the book by Karl Wittfo- gel, ‘Oriental Despotism: a Comparative Study of Total Power’ (1957). The author claimed that early states developed because of the inven- tion and the spread of irrigation system. These involved the necessity to control the labour of many people. 2. Coercive theory. It was suggested in the article of Robert Car- neiro, published in the ‘Science Magazine’ (1970). He proves that states initially emerged due to warfare in places with limited agri- cultural land. Carneiro used an example of Inca from Peru and adds that similar mechanisms have been found in many countries, e. g. in the Nile and Indus valleys, as well as in the Ancient Mesopota- mia. The winners subjugate the ones who form the structures of their powers. 3. Class theory was created following the data of Karl Marx and F. Engels, in particular following the book of Engels, ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’ (1884). In the new times, F. Engels and his supporters claimed that states emerged as a result of antagonism between social classes. The leading classes tried to retain the myth that state is necessary for the preservation of order. 82 Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control

4. Social contract theory. It started from the works of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 17–18th century. The idea is that primitive people decided to give up freedom in order to have a social order and this order became the state. Anthropology clearly separated state from the society. This theory was supported by anthropologists who specialised in small-scale, stateless societies. Today it is agreed that emergence of state is determined by many factors. Ethnographic data about stateless communities, just as the data about the states in communities, are valuable for the experts of other disciplines related to this topic, from the archaeology to the law. (Barnard 2000: 73)

Explaining social stratification Class societies are one of the socially stratified groups that have char- acteristic specific provisions and behaviour, as well as individual ac- cess to the government and main resources. Class is not as endo- gamic as castes and minorities and is more open. Origins of the class hierarchy lead to chiefdoms and communi- ties of a ‘great person’. Chiefdoms have often kept prisoners of wars as slaves and discerned the plebs from the governing elite following the rank. Even the societies of a ‘great person’ sometimes had some slaves and discerned family members of a ‘great person’ and their closest subordinates according to their rank. However, the most ide- al class systems emerged in state communities. All state communities have at least two hierarchically orderly classes, i. e. rulers and the ruled ones. But where there are more than two classes, they are not necessarily arranged in a hierarchic order in respect of each other. For instance, fishers and their neighbours farmers are usually classified as two different classes, since they re- late to the ruling class in a different way, have different patterns of property, rent and taxes, as well as use different environmental ar- eas. None of them have a clearly defined advantage or disadvantage with respect to authority. Likewise, anthropologists usually talk about lower urban class as of an opposite to the lower rural class, although quantitative differences of authority between them may be minimal. 83 Cultural Anthropology

There is another noticeable feature of classes: they belong to rela- tively closed or open systems. People in the systems of open classes can move upwards and downwards, just like in modern Western democracies. Meanwhile, such movement in closed class systems is subject to limitation. For instance, serfs in Medieval Europe have remained serfs for the rest of their lives. At the very outside, systems of closed classes are very similar to castes and ethnical groups. Class societies are those which are divided by political power and economic goods. Cultural aspects of classes may be related to politics and economy only in an indirect manner. For example in England, there are observable differences of lifestyle between workers, middle class and upper class people. They differ in what they eat and drink, what sports they enjoy, how they decorate their houses and how they speak. In many societal classes membership is not as stable as it is in England. America, where class is defined more by economics than by culture, serves as an obvious example. Caste societies. Their stratification is stricter than the one in class societies. Anthropologists have paid attention to the Indian caste so- cieties. In 1967, French author Lois Dumont published a book ‘Homo Hierarchicus’, where he discussed caste societies. Indian castes are closed groups of an endogamic and stratified origin. They have many similarities with the closed classes, ethnic groups and social races. Indian castes have not only economic, but also ritual and religious importance. The unique features of the In- dian castes are related to the fact that caste hierarchy is an integral part of Hinduism religion followed by the majority of Indians. This does not mean that being a Hindu is a prerequisite for belonging to a caste. India also has both Christian and Muslim castes. In India, there is the belief that people are not equal spiritually and that group hierarchy has been defined by Gods. The hierarchy consists of var- nas, or levels of being. It is believed that people from upper castes are the purest and cleanest ones. And people from lower castes are impure. Purity and impurity arise from the membership in castes. The status of these rituals is approved by the professions that are tra- ditionally practised in each caste. Profession of a leather miller has a lower occupational status among men, thus leather workers are im- pure. Profession of a cook has an upper status and it is believed that

84 Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control some dishes, such as rice, are ritually pure. Indians seek to marry members of their own caste or similar caste. Following previous traditions (such as the Rigvedic hymns), four varnas correspond to the physical parts of Manu (the first spiritual el- ement), from which different people have been derived. Manu’s head was turned into Brahmins (priests), hands – into Kshatriyas (war- riors), thighs – into Vaishyas (merchants and craftsmen) and legs – into Sudras (servile workers). According to the chronicles of Hindu, an individual’ Varna is defined according to the rule of origin, i. e. corresponds to his or her parents’ Varna and does not change for the rest of his or her life. The idea that each Varna has intrinsic rules for individual behav- iour, or a ‘path of commitment’ (dharma) is the foundation of Hindu morality. Once the body dies, soul trespasses to upper or lower being (karma) determined by karma. Those who take the ‘path of com- mitment’ will be awarded with an upper point in Manu’s body in their next life. Deviation from the ‘path of commitment’ will lead to revival without any caste at all or even in the form of an animal. One of the most important aspects of the ‘path of commitment’ is a certain taboo related to marriage, eating and physical proximity. Mar- riage with a representative of lower varnas is universally considered as impurity; food prepared and served by the ones from lower Varna is also deemed impure; any contact between Brahmins and Sudras is pro- hibited. In parts of India there were not only the untouchable ones, but also – the invisible ones, those who could leave home only at night. The basic features of this system are accepted in the entire Hindu- istic India. However, there are many regional and local-ideological, as well as practical differences in relation between castes. In essence, the complexity of human relations is determined by the fact that real functioning endogamic units consist of thousands of stratified subdivisions of varnas, known as jatis, rather than of varnas them- selves. Besides, even those called jatis (e. g. ‘launderers’, ‘shoemakers’, ‘shepherds’, etc.) further split into local endogamic subgroups and exogamic linear groups.

Other forms of stratification. Not all societies are stratified. Most band societies and some tribal societies are essentially egalitarian.

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The only way to explain the stratification is the evolution of these structures. Such developments may occur in the places where all the groups control and manage caste structures (as in Leach’s study of Burma, perhaps leading to caste structure) or where individuals achieve power through control over resources (an example of a ‘big man’ in Papua New Guinea, who leads to class structures).

Appretiating ethnicity and nationalism Ethnicity and nationalism are closely related. Norwegian anthropol- ogist Frederik Barth is the most important figure in the research on ethnicity. He did fieldwork in many parts of Asia and the Pacific. In his book ‘Political Leadership among Swat Pathans’ (1959), he reveals that the position of leaders depends on the loyalty of the people in agreements and on fluctuations between conflict and coalition. He developed these ideas further in the introduction to his edited book ‘Ethnic Groups and Boundaries’ (1969), which inspired many to look at ethnicity not as a given, but as something people define for them- selves and negotiate like political power. How do ethnic groups form? They form due to both – conquests and phenomena of migration. What is an ethnic group? David Gellner gives some examples the definition of ethnicity: 1) ‘ethnic group’ as im- migrant minority (for example, Lithuanians in UK); 2) as indigenous minority (for example, First Nations in Canada or aboriginal people in Australia); 3) as proto-nationality (Kurds, Basques); 4) as one group in a ‘plural society’ (Kenya, Indonesia, Jamaica) (Gellner 2012). An ethnic group is included into a state in the way of conquest or migration and which follows its own cultural and language tradi- tions and has a sense of isolated uniqueness. Uniqueness of ethnic groups is their ethnicity, which emerges from their typical customs, faiths and . However, the largest source of the ethnic unique- ness is a common language or a dialect. That is illustrated by the eth- nic category of Spanish speaking people in the USA. Spanish speak- ing people are immigrants from Spain, Mexico and Central as well as South Americas. Their cultures are incredibly different, although they speak the same language. The linguistic difference is usually fol- lowed by cultural differences which actually or supposedly represent 86 Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control ancient traditions characteristic to the members of that ethnic group. Endogamy of a group is another criterion. Anthony Smith reveals 6 dimensions of an ‘ethnic category’ in his book ‘The Ethnic Origins of Nations’ (1986): 1) a collective name; 2) a common myth of descent; 3) a shared history; 4) a distinctive shared culture; 5) an association with a specific territory; 6) a sense of soli- darity (Smith 1986: 22–31). Ethnic groups can maintain their uniqueness and continuity by having multiple combinations of these features. Representatives of an ethnic group do not necessarily use their ancestral language. An- cestral customs are not necessarily a legacy of distant ancestors. Eth- nic uniqueness may be followed due to endogamic marriage or fam- ily name that points to ethnic origin. Even frequent mixed do not necessarily hinder the continuity of an ethnic group.

Three approaches of ethnicity and nationalism • Primordialist perspectives – view ethnicity and nationalism as rooted in real characteristics of peoples and nations, created by biological, geographical and linguistic factors. Nationalists often take this view. • Instrumentalist perspectives – see ethnicity and nationalism as creations of political elite to serve their own purposes. Marx- ists often take this view. • Constructivist perspectives – see ethnic and national identi- ties as products of particular situations. Individuals construct identities which are meaningful to them and which they can manipulate. This approach is supported by Barth (Barnard 2000: 76).

Is ‘law’ universal? Many 19th century anthropologists were lawyers. Some, such as Sir Henry Maine, the author of ‘Ancient Law’ (1861), had a specific inter- est in the origin and development of law. He believed that the evolu- tion from kinship-based to contract-based forms of organisation was characteristic to the progress of human society.

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In the 20th century, several anthropologists examined the legal systems of ‘tribal’ societies and found that they are complex and sometimes (particularly in Africa) having many similarities with the systems of modern national states. Thus, the question about the universality of the law remains still open.

Three possible universals Malinowski in‘Crime and Custom in Savage Society’ (1926) saw little or no difference between law and custom. In this perspective, the law would undoubtedly be a . American anthro- pologist E. Adamson Hoebel, who was a qualified lawyer, did not approve of this broad definition, yet agreed that law was universal. In his book ‘The Law of Primitive Man’ (1954), he emphasized coercion as the defining principle. More specifically, law entails 3 universal principles: 1) The legitimate use of force to ensure correct behaviour and punish a criminal. 2) The allocation of power to individuals (such as the police in modern societies) to use coersion. 3) The respect for tradition as against capriciousness: require- ments and pressure must be directed to existence of known rules, as customs and statutes. These principles may be applied most everywhere, though the sec- ond one may be complicated among some hunter-gatherers. But do they really define what we mean by ‘law’ in all societies? Later authors, such as Sally Falk Moore in his book ‘Law as Pro- cess’ (1978), have emphasised the dynamic nature of legal systems: the pressures which provide the need for law also provide the need for changes in the law. Max Gluckman (1911–1975) was one of the most important legal anthropologists. Gluckman was a South African who emigrated to Britain and taugt for many years at the University of Manchester. Im- portant in Gluckman’s work was the idea that anthropology should focus on change, social processes, rebellion and conflict, rather than stability. He wrote books ‘Custom and Conflict in Africa’ (1955) and ‘Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa’ (1963). If reading such works, 88 Politics and Law: Discerning Power and Social Control note the distinction between rebellion (which is about displacing people who are in power) and revolution (which is about changing the system in which power operates). Gluckman’s main concern was with the former. In recent studies, some have focused on relations between differ- ent legal systems within the same country (Barnard 2000: 78).

Summary Politics includes relations of power and authority, strategies of judge- ments and structures for social control (such as bands, tribes, chief- doms and states). Political anthropology focuses on the aforemen- tioned matters and also on issues like ethnicity and nationalism. The anthropological study of law is related to political anthropology. It is revealed through the comparative study of law, particularly in small- scale societies.

Study questions 1. What are some of main approaches to the study of political anthropology? 2. What are the classical types of political organisation as de- fined by anthropologists? 3. What are their characteristics? 4. Could you name three perspectives on ethnicity and nationa­ lism? 5. Can you change the ethnicity or nationality? 6. Could you name three possible universal principles in law? 9 Lecture. Sex and Gender in Different Societies

Schedule of lecture • Comparing gender roles and attitudes to sex. • Explaining gender: two views. • Liberating women and men: the feminist critique.

Comparing gender roles and attitudes to sex In anthropology, sex refers both to sexual activity and to the biologi- cal distinction between female and male. Gender refers to social or cultural distinctions, and these differ from place to place.

Explanation of gender roles Following the division of labour, men and women are usually en- gaged in different activities:

1. Men are more engaged in hunting, horticulture and fishing, while women are engaged in preparation of food. 2. Different societies have different ways of land farming. Both men and women are sometimes engaged in this activity. 3. In the area of family life within many societies, women are mostly engaged in taking care of children and keeping order.

Both women and men can be equally engaged in manufacture of wearing apparel, as well as in house-building.

Example Among the Nharo Bushmen of Botswana, men hunt and do a little food-gathering, while women do most food-gathering and the fetch- ing of water and firewood. Both men and women manufacture clothes for themselves. Mothers carry babies on their backs; however both parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters also participate in child-

90 Sex and Gender in Different Societies rearing. Men and women play different roles in rituals, but there is equality in rights and relatively little differentiation in other activity.

Sex in Samoa. Margaret Mead The pioner of gender studies was Margaret Mead (1901–1978), an American anthropologist and student of Franz Boas. She did field- work in Samoa and Manus (in the Pacific), with Iatmul and Mun- dugamor (Papua New Guinea), on Bali (Indonesia). Mead was interested in childhood and adolescence, sexuality and relation between personality and culture. Her many ethnographies include: Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). Growing Up in New Guinea (1930). Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935).

Mead propagated the employment of ethnography in the education of the American society. She indicated the significance of culture in creating adolescent traumas. Her most famous contribution was her study of adolescent sexuality in Samoa. It was believed, that her Samoan informants did not have adolescent traumas experienced by the Americans. She noticed that an adolescent trauma, which has been previously considered as a universal matter, is just an aspect of the American culture. According to Mead’s account, Somoan girls had sexual relationships with their boyfriends, and had no guilt feel- ings. They never had conflicts with their parents who often did not pay attention to the matter (Barnard 2000: 93–94). In recent years her work has been criticized, because her Samoan adolescent female informants described their sexual fantasies, which she accepted as truth. Derek Freeman’s book ‘Margaret Mead in Samoa’ (1983) presents this view most strongly. For this reason, her work remains in the forefront of anthropological debate.

Recent interests While Mead and anthropologists of her time tended to generalise about men and women or adolescents and adults, modern anthro- pologists tend to focus on specific members of the communities they 91 Cultural Anthropology work with. Often these people are quoted in details. Thus given the chance to express their own cultural perception for the anthropo- logical readership. Some of Lila Abu – Lughod writings on Bedouin women (such as Veiled Sentiments (1986)) are good example. This book seeks the following: 1. To allow women to talk about themselves. 2. To view women as individuals. 3. To emphasise complexity of their diverse social roles (for ex- ample as sisters, wives, mothers, women-workers and commu- nity members).

Explaining gender: two views Anthropologists examine gender from two points of view. Some an- thropologists consider gender as a symbolic construction, while the others value it as a set of social relationships.

Gender as a symbolic construction Sherry Ortner’s essay ‘Is female to male as nature to culture?’ is an example of gender as a symbolic construction. This essay was pub- lished in a book ‘Woman, Culture and Society’ (1974), edited by Mi- chelle Rosaldo and Loise Lampere. Ortner argues that women everywhere are associated with nature. She claims that the biological fact that women, not men, give birth, gives them that universal association. Women’s reproductive role lim- its them to the domestic environment. The home, along with women (with several children) represent ‘nature’ and ‘the private’ sphere, while men represent ‘culture’ and ‘the public’ sphere. Ortner does not believe that women are associated with nature in any substantial way. Rather, she argues that this cultural universal rests on a symbolic dif- ferences (between nature and culture) found in every society.

Gender as a set of social relationships Feminists criticized Ortner’s model for not fitting the ethnographic facts. The best- known example is an article by Jane Collier and Mi-

92 Sex and Gender in Different Societies chelle Rosaldo ‘Politics and Gender in Simple Societies’. It was pub- lished in the book by Sherry Ortner and Harriet Whitehead ‘Sexual Meanings: ‘The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality’ (1981). Collier and Rosaldo point out that hunters/gatherers’ societies in Australia, Africa and the Philippines do not associate childbirth or motherhood with ‘nature’. They do not simply associate women with reproduction, but rather with certain activities.

Liberating women and men: the feminist critique We can distinguish the basic differences between the gender studies and feministic anthropology: 1. Gender studies view gender as an aspect of society, along with economics, politics, etc. Between other aspects of society, they view relations between genders as natural ones. Thus, gender studies might be related to the way men and women make a living or how they interact with each other. 2. Feministic anthropology states that men and women experi- ence all aspects of society in different ways. Gender becomes central and feministic approach, while normally ignored, is emphasised.

Feminist anthropology has existed for almost 100 years. Field re- search has been done since the 20th century, but it was only from the 1970’s when feministic anthropologists have started to break the biased male attitude created by female anthropologists themselves. Henrietta Moore’s book ‘Feminism and Anthropology’ (1988), gives an interesting discussion of this. Moore emphasises that anthropologists should look at what people (especially women) say as well as what they do. They should also understand that women are not the same everywhere. What it means to be a man or a woman is dependent on culture. Finally, she states that it is not easy to talk about being a man or being a woman. An individual is not just a ‘woman’, it involves several roles, such as middle class woman, Asian or Muslim woman. The complexities of these roles, taken together, are what makes up her social personal- ity (Barnard 2000: 94–95). 93 Cultural Anthropology

It should be added that a woman is a set of family relations, since she is a wife to one person, a sister to another, etc. Relations between women and men (or between women and other women, or men and other men) take place in a family.

Summary Sex is related to biology, and gender – to social and cultural behav- iour. Anthropologists have examined gender in different societies, yet, more importantly, they have performed intercultural compari- sons and looked for universal features of sex and gender. The femi- nist critique has been especially powerful in providing a possibility for anthropologists to think about such issues.

Study questions 1. What is the difference between sex and gender? 2. Describe the challenge posed by feminist anthropology. 3. Explain gender from two points of view. 4. Give an example of gender as a symbolic construction and as a set of social relationships. 10 Lectures. The Family and Marriage in Different Societies

Schedule of lecture • How families and marriage differ in different societies? • Types of family structure. • Varieties of marriage. • Are families and marriage universal? • Definition of marriage.

Structure of a family partly depends on their activities. Small family units are widespread in many industrial societies. Large family units are widespread in locations, where such are required for agricultural purposes, such as in India. They are also widespread where relations between relatives form the child care system. Examples include both rural and urban societies. Different forms of marriage lead to differ- ent forms of family structures.

Types of family structure Nuclear family is a married couple and their children. In essence, it is a basic family structure unit in every society. One parent family is a type of nuclear family. In some cases, chil- dren are parented only by one parent (usually mother). This family type may form in case of divorce or death of one of the parents. Compound family comprises the main figure (usually a powerful father), his or her spouses, sometimes concubines and their children. It is common in Western Africa. Joint family comprises brothers, their wives and children and all of them live together. It’s an efficient family structure when broth- ers share property, as it is in India, China, Africa and some other countries. Extended family is an ambiguous term. On the one hand, it is a next of kin nuclear family group that live together. On the other hand, it is a group that does not live together, but maintains relations

95 Cultural Anthropology

(such as newly established urban and industrial societies). This group could include extended Lithuanian families, where all the children and their families used to live with their parents.

Varieties of marriage There are 2 possible reasons why marriage exists in every society. First it defines the tie between partners. Secondly it legitimates the child- birth to married couple. This does not mean that each group of part- ners marries; it rather means that marriage is defined as the norm and other relationships are more or less equivalent to this norm. One of the ways to classify marriage is by relations between people: Monogamy is a marriage model between 2 persons. Polygamy is marriage model between more than 2 persons. It consists of two following forms: Polygyny is a marriage between 1 man and more than one woman. It is common in several parts of the world, particularly in African societies. Polyandry is a marriage between 1 woman and a group of more than one man, usually brothers. There are well-known cases in South Asia, such as among Toda people in India, although the custom be- comes extinct. Group marriage is a hypothetical type. In the 19th century, some anthropologists, such as Lewis Henry Morgan believed that it was a primary type of marriage. Gay marriage is marriage between people of the same gender.

Marrying kinsfolk Marriages may also be classified according to the fact if the partner is kinfolk. Anthropologists find 2 possibilities when marriage with kinfolks is a standard: 1) People who are self-determined regarding the motives of mar- riage and want to preserve family property are allowed to marry next of kin. Such cases are found in Arab societies, particularly when a man marries a daughter of his father’s brother. He knows her from childhood and they belong to the same kinship group.

96 Sex and Gender in Different Societies

2) People are allowed to marry people from the permissible cat- egories, while marriage with people from other categories is strictly prohibited. In various societies of South Asia, South America and Australian aborigines, a man can marry his cross-cousin (a daughter of mother’s brother or a daughter of father’s sister), but he cannot marry his parallel cousin (a daughter of father’s brother or a daugh- ter of mother’s sister). The reason of this is that the first one (cross- sister) is considered as more distant to marry than the second one.

Are families and marriage universal? American anthropologist George Peter Murdock claims in his book ‘Social Structure’ (1949) that family is universal. All societies are formed either according to the nuclear family structure, or more complex family structures, which are all formed according to the nu- clear family (extended family, combined family, etc.). Notwithstand- ing, many suggested cases may be complicated under the conception of Murdock. Israel’s kibbutzim (farmer societies, where children are parented collectively) or West India’s families, where a woman is the most important figure, may serve as examples. These examples dem- onstrate that family is not universal as it was perceived by Murdock.

Definition of marriage Definition of marriage is complicated. Marriage can be defined as behaviour, feelings and rules related to mating and reproduction of people of different genders who live together in a home environment. However, there are different types of marriage found worldwide and do not fit into this definition. Marriage of the Nayar people (group with a high status in South India) and the Lovedu people (South Africa) are the 2 well-known examples.

Example of the Nayar people Marriage of Nayar people provides men with 2 different roles that are combined in India. In ordinary, non-Nayar Hindu marriage, the bridegroom ties a tali (the gold emblem which symbolizes the union)

97 Cultural Anthropology around the neck of the bride. In Nayar marriage (in ancient times), a high-caste person, often a Brahman, ties the tali. In an Indian context, the ceremony clearly indicated the first stage of a Hindu marriage. Yet in the world-wide context, the ceremony would seem to re- semble more a puberty rite than a marriage, in that it grants the girl fool womanhood and enables her to take lovers. The Nayar girl does not sleep with her tali-tier. Instead, she takes a series of lovers, called ‘sambandham partners’ and they become the genitors of her children. However, children owe allegiance neither to the man who tied their mother’s tali nor to their mother’s sambandham partners. Rather, since descent is reckoned matrilineally, they owe allegiance to their mother’s brothers (Barnard 2000: 99).

Example of the Lovedu people The Lovedu represent an example of ‘woman marriage’. Since around 1800 the Lovedu have been ruled by a line of biologically female, but socially male women, the remote and mysterious ‘rain-queens’. Each queen since that time has been married to several other females. Some remain there to be impregnated by male members of the royal house, while others are redistributed to the queen’s relatives or other subjects. This pattern maintains alliances between the royal house and the people of scattered localities (Barnard 2000: 99–100).

Example of the Dahomey people A case of the Dahomey tribe exists among African nations when a woman can marry another woman. A woman, who may already be married to a man, buys a ‘bride’ for a bride-price. Thus the bride- price payer becomes a ‘female husband’. She creates a family by al- lowing her ‘wife’ to conceive from sexual unions with certain men. A child in such marriage becomes subordinate to his ‘female father’, rather than to biological genitors.

98 Sex and Gender in Different Societies

Summary Intercultural research on family and marriage has revealed that our consideration of something as a universal matter-of-fact often ap- pear to be misguided. Different forms of marriage lead to different forms of family structures. Structure of a family partly depends on their activities. Small family units are widespread in many industrial societies. Large fam- ily units are widespread in locations, where such are required for agricultural purposes. They are also widespread where relations be- tween relatives form the child care system.

Study questions 1. Name some types of family structure. 2. Give the examples of different types of family structure. 3. Are families and marriage universal? 4. Explain definition of marriage. Give some examples of mar- riage from different societies. 5. What is the difference between polygyny and polyandry? 6. What are some of the reasons for polygyny and polyandry? 11 Lecture. Kinship: Terminology, Descent and Alliance

Schedule of lecture • Kinship calculation. • ‘Real’ versus ‘fictive’ kinship. • How to draw kinship diagrams? • How to understand descent theory? • Alliance theory. • Elementary structures of kinship.

Kinship calculation Anthropologists study the kinship groups that are significant in a so- ciety as well as kinship calculation – the system by which people in a society reckon kin relationships. To study kinship calculation an eth- nographer must first determine the word or words for different types of ‘relatives’ used in a particular language and then ask questions such as, ‘Who are your relatives?’ Kinship, like gender, is culturally constructed. This means that some biological kin are considered to be relatives whereas others are not. Through questioning, the eth- nographers discover the specific genealogical relationships between ‘relatives’ and understand the relationship between kinship calcula- tion and kinship groups – how people use kinship to create and man- tain personal ties and to join social groups (Kottak 1991: 296).

‘Real’ versus ‘fictive’ kinship There are three main branches in the study of kinship: 1. Kinship terminology. 2. Descent theory 3. Alliance theory. Basis of kinship is biology, or otherwise, the biological metaphor which defines the subject. The difference between the real and fictive kinship is very important here.

100 Kinship: Terminology, Descent and Alliance Real kinship Traditionally, ‘real kinship’ entails notions of biology in all the cul- tures. But what is biology? In a book called ‘The Sexual Life of Sav- ages’ (1929), Malinowski writes that Trobriand Islanders did not be- lieve that the father had anything to do with the concept, which they viewed as determined matrilineally. Other anthropologists had doubts as to his interpretation of the thinking of Trobriand’s people, but his most important approach re- mained, stating that it should not be thought that everybody has the same biological ideas. Some argue that the anthropological study of kinship is based on Western and not universal ideas of ‘biology’. Da- vid Schneider (1918–1955) was the leading proponent of this view. Anthropologists often exclude 2 types of fatherhood and 2 types of motherhood. • genitor – culturally recognised biological father; • pater – social father (including an adoptive father); • genetrix – culturally recognised biological mother; • mater – social mother (including an adoptive mother).

All these relationship imply ‘real kinship’.

Fictive kinship ‘Fictive’ or non-real kinship is easier to define that ‘real kinship’. It includes relationships that are similar to the ones of real kinship; nevertheless, they are not respected by people who are related as real . For instance, metaphoric kinship terms, such as ‘sisters’ in a feminist movement, or priest as a ‘father’. Sisters in feminist move- ment have something in common with sisters in family, but nobody could state that both of them are exactly the same thing.

Godparenthood and compadrazgo 1. Godparenthood is a form of a non-real kinship and is found in many Christian cultures. The ritual sponsors of a child at baptism – its ‘godparents’ – promise to look after the spiritual interests of the child as it grows up. Although these mutual relation are fictive (god-

101 Cultural Anthropology father is not considered as pater (social father)), but certain elements of relations with godfathers come close to kinship. For instance, in some churches marriage to a godchild or a godparent’s child is for- bidden. These rules imitate the . 2. Co-parenthood (compadrazgo) is a fictive kin relationship be- tween godparents of a child and the child’s parents. It is common in certain Roman Catholic societies, most often in Western Mediter- ranean and Latin American countries. Parents and godparents are called campadres (in Spanish). They lend money to each other and generally help out in time of trouble or during religious festivals. Of- ten the compadrazgo relationship is unequal, with the godparents be- ing of higher status than the parents (Barnard 2000: 103).

How to draw kinship diagrams? The most important principles of kinship diagram drawing are pro- vided below: 1. A triangle represents a man. 2. A circle represents a woman. 3. A box or diamond represents a person whose gender and un- known or not important (such as, of a small chid). 4. A line above two symbols indicates a sibling relationship (that between brothers and sisters). 5. A line below or an equal sign between two symbols indicates marriage. 6. A dotted or dashed line indicates a sexual relationship other than marriage. 7. A vertical line indicates a parent/child relationship. 8. A line through a symbol indicates a dead person. 9. A line through a horizontal line or equal sign indicates a sev- ered relationship (such as divorce).

Kinship symbols In order to represent exact genealogical relationships, anthropolo- gists have established symbols. The most common system is as fol- lows:

102 Kinship: Terminology, Descent and Alliance

F– father M – mother P – parent B – brother Z – sister G – sibling S – son D – daughter C – child H – husband W – wife E –spouse e – older (elder) y – younger ss – same sex os – opossite sex

The symbols are combined as possessives. For instance, FB would mean ‘father’s bother’. English word uncle reflects genealogical po- sition FB (‘father’s brother’), MB (‘mother’s brother’), FZN (‘a hus- band of father’s sister’), and MZN (‘a husband of mother’s sister’). Differences of older/younger and of the same/opposite sex become related either directly or indirectly. Nharo Bushmens distinguish older brother or sister from a younger one. Tobriand’s islanders dis- tinguish brothers and sisters according to their gender. Tobrianders’ language does not have a word for brother or sister; instead use words for ‘same’ of ‘opposite sex siblings’ (and younger or older).

Language and terminology Language classifies the world, while a word in one language may not have an exact equivalent in another language. Compare, for example, Latin and English words for ‘uncle’. In Latin, a father’s bother (FB) is called by using a single term patruus, while a mother’s brother (MB) is called avanculus and he was not an authority. Anthropologists have devised standard diagrams to illustrate and classify terminologies. There is some debate about the extent to which it is meaningful to classify societies just because they have the same kinship terminology structure. Nevertheless, there are basic state- ments about patterns which comprise the world’s terminologies.

Study tips of kinship terminology There are some study tips specifically relevant to the study of kinship terminologies: 1. Take note of what a kinship diagram illustrates. For example, does it illustrate a real genealogy, a hypothetical genealogy, or a kinship terminology structure? If there is exactly one triangle or 103 Cultural Anthropology

circle for each genealogical position (M, MZ, MB, etc.), or there are possibilities to depict diagram in terminological structure. 2. Kinship terminology diagrams should always be drawn in the same way, since this way it is easier to compare differences between terminological structures. 3. Kinship terminology diagram usually consists of Ego father situated on the left side, mother on the right side, parallel rela- tives in the centre and cross-relatives are situated outside the diagram. That facilitates the reading of diagrams.

How to understand descent theory? Descent theory involves the study of group structure and rules of residence, for example whether upon marriage one live with the wife’s family or with the husband’s. This theory also involves the rules governing the inheritance of property, as well as succession to title or office, such as a chiefship. Descent theorists are more concerned with groups than with ter- minology. Descent theory has always been more perspective in the British anthropology, for example, in the work of A. R. Radcliffe– Brown, Meyer Fortes and Jack Goody. Descent is a belief in an important role of certain persons who procreate and raise certain children. Descent theories across cul- tures vary significantly. In the Western tradition, married couples and their children are bound by a belief that both a man and a wom- an equally significantly contribute to a birth of a child. It is believed that human blood is the most vital liquid that keeps them alive and that it is different from the blood of their genitors. There is a belief that mother’s and father’s blood is distributed in the body of a child in equal parts. This image distinguishes blood relatives from the brothers-in-law who are related to the marriage. In the 19th century, this belief has encouraged anthropologists to use ethnocentric term of consanguinity in order to define blood descent relations. Kin- ship proximity is actually measured by the general DNA proportion, rather than by common blood. Descent may be independent of allegedly inherited blood and does not necessarily mean dependency on either father or mother.

104 Kinship: Terminology, Descent and Alliance Rules of the determination of descent In the evaluation of relations, individuals are provided with differ- ent duties, rights and privileges in respect of other people and vari- ous areas of social life. Descent may be used to define person’s name, family, place of residence, rank, richness, ethnicity, nationality, etc. There are four main types of descent groups:

1. patrilineal; 2. matrilineal; 3. double; 4. cognatic or bilateral.

Patrilineal descent Determination of descent patrilineally is the most common in the world. Patrilineal clan is comprised of a father, a grandfather, a great- grandfather, etc. Independently of a child’s gender, he or she will also belong to the group members. Therefore, ego relates only through men, upwards and downwards.

Matrilineal descent Matrilineal descent is traced through maternal ancestors and is less common, but is still found in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as in the societies of Native Americans. Famous examples include the Bemba of Zambia (Africa), the Nayars in India, the Trobriand Islanders in Melanesia and the Iroquois of North America. Matrilineal descent is defined as descent through maternal line. This does not mean that authority belongs to a mother, or to women in general, but that authority within family is in the hands of a fa- ther, or more likely, in the hands of a mother’s brother (a father of an individual is a member of different matrilineal group, i. e. not of his own group). Matrilineal descent group members are a per- son’s mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, etc. Therefore, kinfolks of this group relate only through women, upwards and downwards. Men and women relate only through a mother’s line; from generation to generation, children of men are not considered as kinfolks. 105 Cultural Anthropology

Both patrilineal and matrilineal descents are subject to the rules of unilinear descent that limit kinship relation only exclusively to men and exclusively to women. One of the most significant logical consequences of the unilinear descent is that children of the blood relatives of opposite sex are at- tributed to different categories. This effect is very important in respect of cousins. Patrilineally, ego father’s sister’s son (FZS) and daughter (FZD) have no common descent with ego, while ego father’s broth- er’s son (FBS) and daughter (FBD) have common descent with ego. Matrilineally, such difference occurs in respect of maternal cousins. Children, whose parents are related as brothers and sisters, are called cross cousins; while children, whose parents are related as brothers with brothers, or sisters with sisters, are called parallel cousins.

Double descent Double descent is a rare form, where everyone belongs to two kin groups: 1) patrilineal and 2) matrilineal. The best examples are to be found in Africa. The Herero of Namibia are a well-known example. They recognize 2 different relations of unilinear groups. Each Herero belongs both to an oruzo (patrilineal clan) and an eanda (matrilineal clan). Priest leads all the oruzo people and distributes property after a death of community member. Members of oruzo fellowship share food , origin legends, rituals, sacred hearth and other activities. Ean- da members are less important, but members share similar activities. Double descent is similar to but distinquished from complemen- tary filiation. ‘Complementary filiation’ is a term used to express ful- filment of duties between different halves of family relatives, from which he or she has acquired a descent. Therefore, double descent is when ego relates both matrilineally and patrilineally. It is different than unilinear descent kinships only through men or only through women.

Cognatic or bilateral descent This is the opposite of double descent. Cognatic societies do not have patrilineal or matrilineal groups. A person is considered as com- pletely related to family kinfolks. Cognatic descent is determined based on both genitors. Cognatic kinship is particularly common 106 Kinship: Terminology, Descent and Alliance among hunters-gatherers and in technologically-advanced societies. Western societies are mostly cognatic, although surnames and titles of nobility tend to be inherited patrilineally. In anthropology, ramage and sept are the synonyms of cognatic descent.

Residence and descent Almost all the societies have a practice of a husband and a wife living together in the same house after the wedding; sometimes to acquire a house, as it is common in the Western Europe. Usually, a house is ac- quired that is close to the living place of kinfolks either of a husband or a wife. There are 3 descent groups according to the living place: Virilocal residence – residence in the locality of the husband. Virilocal residence automatically creates group relations of patrilin- eal kin, living in the same place. Uxorilocal residence is a wife’s living place. It keeps matrilineal- ly-related women together and disperses the men. Among the Bemba a daughter is allowed to work in field which she will inherit from her mother. Avunculocal residence is a shared living place with a mother’s brother (avunculus in Latin). Among the Trobrianders, each boy leaves his parents’marital home well before the age of marriage in or- der to settle in a village of a mother’s brother. He is tought to take care of this village as his own because it is the village of his matrilineal kin. Girls stay in their village from their birth till the wedding. After the wedding, she moves away to the village of her husband (which is also a village of his mother’s brothers). Such practice creates residen- tial units that consist of matrilineally related men, but disperses the women through whom they are all related. In matrilineal societies, authority stays in the hands of a man through his sister’s children (since his own children belong to a different matrilineal group).

Alliance (marriage) theory Alliance theory is concerned with relations between groups, fami- lies and individuals related in kinship through marriage. This theory

107 Cultural Anthropology originated in France. Claude Levi–Strauss presents it in his book ‘The Elementary Structures of Kinship’ (1949). In the British anthro- pology, prominent theoretical perspectives have been revealed in the works of Sir Edmund Leach and Rodney Needham.

Incest Incest is a sexual act or marriage between related individuals and is prohibited. All the societies have incest prohibitions. In many societ- ies all individuals are divided by kinship relations and also have kin- ship categories, which are particularly preferred for engagement and marriage. Alliance theory mainly focuses on these societies. These societies reject an idea that group membership forms a society. They view society in terms of marital group relations.

Elementary structures of kinship Elementary structures involve patterns established by positive rules of marriage which are sort of the opposite of an incest taboo. For instance, ‘You cannot marry your sister’, but ‘You must marry one of the cross-cousins’. That’s what Lévi-Strauss referred to as complex structures are known as negative rules: ‘You cannot marry your sis- ter’. Lévi-Strauss has claimed that elementary structures represent the earliest forms of human kinship and helps to understand the meaning of the incest taboo. There are 3 elementary structural forms: Generalised exchange. Group A gives its women as wives to group B, who give theirs to group C, and so on. Consistent marriage pattern for men in this society is their marriage with a daughter of a mother’s brother (MBD). This helps to introduce hierarchic relations between groups. For instance, when men take wives from the same group as his father’s, then men are always thankful (owing) to those from whom they receive their wives. Such examples are found in southeast Asia. The best know example is Kachin (studied by Leach) and Purum (described by Needham). Delayed restricted (or delayed direct) exchange. Group A gives women to group B, and B to C in one generation, then each group receives women back in the next generation. Consistent marriage

108 Kinship: Terminology, Descent and Alliance pattern for men in this society is their marriage with a daughter of his father’s sister (FZD). In exceptional cases, there might be devia- tions present when relations between groups are inconsistent. Some anthropologists claim it exists only as a theoretical type. Restricted (or direct) exchange. Group A gives women to group B, and group B gives women to a group A. Marriage is allowed either with a mother’s brother’s daughters (MDBs) or with a father’s sister’s daughters (FZDs). In many societies, there are 2 kinship groups which in this case are known as moieties: one of them is called own moiety (including one’s brothers, sisters and parallel cousins) and the other one – more distant moiety (including one’s cross-cousins). Common in Amazonia, South Asia and among Australian aborigine. Lévi Strauss and his followers recognise a type of system which lies in between elementary and complex. This is a Crow-Omaha sys- tem. Crow or Omaha terminologies define whom one cannot marry: anyone called by the same kinship term as a close relative. This en- tails a negative marriage rule, and therefore a complex system (Bar- nard 2000: 114–115).

Summary Kinship is a rather technical branch of anthropology, yet it can be charming. Acquisition of the most important concepts and the art of kinship diagram reading and drawing is the key to success. Kinship includes the classification of relatives, the formation of kin groups, and aspects of marriage. Anthropologists who emphasise kin groups are called as ‘descent theorists’. Those who emphasise relations be- tween groups (through marriage) are known as ‘alliance theorists’.

Study questions 1. How can real kinship be distinguished from fictive kinship? 2. Diagram and describe some of the different kinds of kinship terminology. How they differ from one another? 3. What is the debate between descent theory and alliance theory? 4. What are elementary structures of kinship? Give some exam- ples from different societies.

109 12 Lecture. Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism

Schedule of lecture • Different views of the world. • Terminology of the sacred and the profane. • Understanding belief systems. • Encountering rituals. • Interpreting mythology and symbolism.

Different views of the world Ecological, economic and political anthropology differs significantly from the studies of belief, ritual and symbolism. The anthropologi- cal study of religion, or more precisely the study of belief, ritual and symbolism is more interpretative. Anthropologists interested in re- ligion in order to try to think like their informants and understand their vision of the world. How do anthropologists reconcile their own beliefs about the world with writing about the beliefs of others? Following the anthropological practice, researchers threat beliefs as truth for the believers, and do not comment on whether they are true in the sense of representing an external reality. Does this mean they accept all religions as true? Not exactly. They separate theological truth from the anthropological one (i. e. what people say and do in society) and comment only on the latter. Does this mean that all the anthropologists are atheists? Not at all. Many anthropologists practise Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions and many specialize in the study of religions other than their own.

Terminology of the sacred and the profane The most fundamental distinction between studies of belieth, ritual and symbolism is the notion of the ‘sacred’. In ‘The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life’ (1912), French sociologist Emile Durkheim made 110 Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism an important distinction between the ‘sacred’ and the ‘profane’. Later this distinction has been reiteraited by other anthropologists and reli- gious studies sholars. In 1957, famous Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade discussed these terms in his book ‘Sacred and Profane’. Sacred Profane 1. Separated from the normal world. Belonging to the normal world. 2. May entail ‘forbidden’ knowledge or Entails everyday knowledge. practices (taboos). 3. Includes ritual practices. Includes utilitarian practices. 4. Often related to magical forces, spirits Associated with ordinary, especially or deities. material things. 5. Related to religion and magical practice. Related to non-religious activities or aspect of cultural aspects.

In his book, M. Eliade tries to answer a question as to how people comprehend sacredness. He talks about hierophanies, i. e. the ways in which sanctity reveals itself, including sacred places, as well as saints. For instance, they claim that Christ is the highest hierophany, since his sanctity belonging to the world, which is completely differ- ent than ours, reveals itself through human nature, i. e. the feature of our world. According to Eliade, the Western world gradually loses its ability to feel sanctity, thus the task of the history of religion is to help modern world to redeem the materialized life to a feeling of sa- credness. According to Eliade, secularized westerner no longer feels sacredness and tries to compensate it with science fiction, literature and movies about supernatural phenomena.

Understanding belief systems Anthropologists have significantly contributed to the classification of belief systems. The first anthropologists focused on religious evolution. Human being has gone a long road from ape-like mumbling to the fear of darkness and ‘animatism’, a belief in impersonal, mighty, mys- terious and dreadful power. Concentrated form of animatistic force found within certain objects, animals and people that confer super- natural powers. This spiritual power which percolates through all the phenomena and matters is known as mana (Polynesian word). Mana

111 Cultural Anthropology means a belief in a mighty power, e. g., it is believed that either a hook which helps to catch much fish, or a bat which kills many enemies, or a horseshoe that brings luck, contain plenty of mana. A blacksmith who carves a nice piece of art and whose work is especially complex has mana, while a warrior captured by enemies has lost his mana. According to the religious evolution theory, animatism has turned to animism, i. e., a religion based on fear of evil spirits, which is com- mon among isolated tribes. Later, polytheism emerged and was im- mortalized in the Greek mythology. It was followed by monotheism which emerged from Hebraic religion. Evolutional approach to religion was supported by many research- es since the times of Darwin. Human evolution was considered as a proven matter, therefore, the scientists sought to derive evolution of religion from it. However, all further research showed that evolution of religion from animatism is no longer regarded as an axiom. Some anthropolo- gists claim that monotheism as an ideology may be more primitive than animatism. Lead by Wilhelm Schmidt from Vienna, anthro- pologists have demonstrated that religions of hundreds of today’s iso- lated tribes are not primitive. Tribes keep and image of the ‘Supreme God’ as of a creator and father in their minds, but do not worship him since they are not afraid of him anymore. Instead making sacrifices, they are trying to propitiate the evil jungle spirits. Therefore, threats of enchanters are more efficient than the voice of the God the Father. Rather, research data bespeaks about apostasy from recognition of the true God. Thus historical material urges us to think about the answer about the first religion found in the Bible. The Bible states that it was not a man who invented religion, a man was created after God’s im- age and he has recognized and worshiped only one God the Creator. Monotheism and stockbreeding are the 2 inseparable characteristics of the origin of religion that are clearly demonstrated in the Bible.

Animism and fetishism The first anthropologists, including Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917), assumed that animism was the oldest form of religion. Animism is a primitive belief that soul exists not only in human beings, but also 112 Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism in animals, plants, natural phenomena and things. This concept has been introduced by the anthropologists E. Tylor in his book ‘Primi- tive culture’. According to Tylor, people all around the world believe that souls can be seen in dreams, , thoughts and that spirits are related to the loss of consciousness, birth and death. Although some animistic faiths are universal, each culture has its own characteristic animistic creatures and specific concept of a soul. In different cultures we can even find a different number of souls. Ancient Egyptians and many West African cultures believe that a human being possesses 2 souls: the one obtained from maternal an- cestors and the other obtained from paternal ancestors. Ecuador’s Jivaros believe they have 3 souls. The first soul provides body with a life; the second one is acquired by the holy waterfall, during a vision caused by narcotics. It infuses with courage in a bat- tle. The third soul arrives into the head of a dying warrior in order avenge for his death. In order to temper this soul, Jivaros decapi- tate the dead warrior, dry his head and bring it to their village. Here, powers are pulled out from the head and are awarded to the winner by using rituals. Gabon’s Fang people probably have the highest number of souls. They believe they have 7 souls: a brain soul, a heart soul, and name soul, a soul of vital power, a body soul, a shadow soul and a soul. In their opinion, animism originates from the striving to explain complex phenomena that are characteristic to human beings and nature. In the 20th century, his statement was criticized by anthro- pologists who have proven that religion is much more than just the attempt to explain complex phenomena; religion performs a big va- riety of economic, political and psychological functions. The first anthropologists have also considered fetishism as the oldest form of religion, i. e. the belief in fetishes or objects that have supernatural power. Primitive people have most likely made fetish- es – objects that, as they believed, had magic powers. Although we now know that fetishes do exist, they do not create a foundation for something what could be depicted as a system of beliefs. Totemism is a primitive religion based on a tribe’s relations with a totem from which it derives itself. Animals, plants and inanimate natural objects, all could be totems which a tribe considers to be an-

113 Cultural Anthropology cestor guardians. A word totem derived from Ojibwe language which was used in the area of the Upper Great Lakes in North America. This word was introduced in English language around 1791. In Ojibwe language it was believed that totem is an opposite of manitoo. Ojib- wa’s totems are spiritual creatures represent animal species (such as catfish, cranes and bears). There are several totems and each of them symbolises different clan. They are found in mythology. Manitoos are spirits which guard individuals, rather than groups. They reveal themselves through dreams. It was believed that the animal species belonging to one’s totem could not be killed or eaten. It was also believed that persons who have the same totem cannot marry each other. Similar viewpoints are also found in other cultures. For instance, in Australia ethnographers have found different types of totems. They include: • Individual totems. • Clan totems. • Totems of sacred places that belong to the spirits of sacred places. In Australia, totems represent animals whose bodies are not used for food and whose members cannot be lovers or spouses. There is descent relation between the members of a group and their totemic father. Totemic beliefs have also been observed in South America, Asia, Africa and Pacific Islands. A number of anthropologists focused their research on with Totemism. The most famous authors working on this topic were Alexander Goldenweiser who published his article in 1910 and Claude Levi-Strauss who published his book ‘Totemism’ in 1962. They state that totemism differs in various places with regard to its phenomena. There is a significant difference between the totems which symbol- ize clans and other social groups and the totems which are the reason for many sacred unions, including the one of food prohibition.

Shamanism Many religions have experts of religion or performers of rituals, such as priests, rabbis, pastors, etc. In the anthropological literature, ac- tivity of shamans is the most broadly discussed one. 114 Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism

Shaman is a ritual specialist, especially in the arctic or the Ameri- cas, who mediates between the human world and the spirit world, between human and animals, as well as between the living and the dead. Both women and men, who are socially acknowledged as hav- ing a special ability to relate with spiritual creatures and manage su- pernatural powers, may become shamans. The term shaman is syn- onymous with ‘medicin man’, ‘wizard’ or ‘magician’. It comes from the language of the Tungus people of eastern Siberia. Shamanism has become widespread, particularly in the Arctic and South Ameri- ca. In his book ‘Shamanism’ (1951), Eliade described shamanism phe- nomena present in several continents. The entire shamanistic complex includes a certain trance state which increases the powers of a shaman. Obsession, an entry of the God or spirit to the human body, is the most common trance form of shamanism. A shaman falls into a trance while smoking tobacco, using narcotics, beating a drum, dancing monotonously or simply closing his eyes and concentrating. A trance starts when a body stag- nates, sweats or heavy breathing is present. While being in a trance, shaman acts as a medium who transfers knowledge from ancestors. With the help of friendly spirits, shamans predict upcoming events, find lost things, determines the reason of illness, indicate medicine and advise how to protect oneself from intents of enemies. There is a close relation between shamanistic cults and the search for individualistic visions. Frequently shamans have psychological inclinations to hallucinatory experiences. In cultures where the use of hallucinatory materials while trying to infiltrate into the secrets of the other world is present, many can claim the position of a shaman. One of four Jivari men is a shaman, since hallucinatory plants allow anybody to fall into a trance and become a shaman (Harner, 1972). Elsewhere, people can become shamans only if they tend to have au- dible and visible hallucinations. Although trance is a part of shaman’s repertoire in hundreds of cultures, it is not universal. Many cultures have semi experts who do not use trance, but diagnose and cure, find lost things, predict future and infuse with resistance in a war and with success in love. Such people can have different titles, such as wizards, clairvoyants, en- chanters, witches and psychics. Shamanistic complex comprises all of

115 Cultural Anthropology these roles. Shamans within Tapirape village people in Central Brazil obtain their power from dreams where they meet with spirits (Wa- gley, 1977). They become the helpers of a shaman. Dreams are evoked by souls that leave body and wander. Frequent dreams signify a talent of a shaman. Mature shamans, with the help of familiar spirits, can turn into birds or fly on air with pumpkin canoes, to visit and demons or travel to the future and the past of distant villages. Tapirape’s shamans are usually invited to cure. They cure using quick hand gestures with the help of familiar spirits, while almost falling into a trance and smoking tobacco heavily, which results in them vomiting.

Monotheism and polytheism Monotheism is a monocracy, a belief that there is the only Supreme God that has all the features of divinity. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and many local African religions may serve as examples of mono- theistic religions. Polytheism is a worship of multiple gods that predominate over dif- ferent areas of the world and life. The examples of these religions are found in the Ancient Egypt, as well as in Greek and Roman religions. Notwithstanding, differences between monotheism and polythe- ism are not always clear. Nuer and Dink people in Sudan are mono- theists, but they also speak about different types of divinities and spirits. In his book ‘Nuer Religion’ (1956), in the section about God, Evans-Pritchard describes upper and lower spirits.

Cargo cults Cargo cults are postcolonial, acculturative religious movements, common in Melanesia, that attempt to explain European domina- tion and wealth and to achieve similar success magically by mimick- ing European behaviour. In some other countries, such as Melanesia and countries of the Pacific coast, people believed that on a dooms- day or at the dawn of a new age their ancestors will return with a cargo of valuable goods. This movement was especially widespread as a result of the World War II. Oracles used to predict their return

116 Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism and encourage people to build wharfs and aerodromes, so that an- cestors could deliver valuable goods of the Western Europe (fashion- able clothing, radio and electrical goods, refrigerators and cars). Pe- ter Lawrence’s ‘Road Belong Cargo’ (1964) is one of the most famous studies about Cargo cults. Similar beliefs are found among Native North Americans. They are commonly known as nativitic or revivi- fication beliefs. Revivification is a political and religious relation be- tween a lower caste class and the dominating group. Some revivifi- cation movements emphasize the attitude of passivity, observation of ancient cultural customs or afterlife for merits; others propagate open resistance or active political or military activity. After the Europeans have invaded the New World, conquered the nations of Native Americans and destroyed natural resources, revivi- fication movement have become extremely widespread. On the most significantrevivification movement of the 19th century was the Ghost Dance, also known as the Messianic Madness. It started in 1889 and Wovoka, the Paiute religious leader, was its moving spirit. He pre- dicted the day when all their ancestors would come back to life. For this to happen, people danced and sang. For the natives of flatlands this return meant that they could exceed the white people in quan- tity and therefore become more powerful. Among Sioux Indians, there was a version of a dance that envis- aged the return of buffaloes and death of the white people under an enormous landslip. Sioux warriors used to wear a shirt of the Ghost Dance that, according to them, protected them from bullets. Clash- es between the USA army and Sioux people became more frequent and the Sioux chief Sitting bull was arrested and killed. The second movement of the Ghost Dance ended with the massacre of 200 Sioux Indians in South Dakota in 1890. When all the capacities of military resistance were exhausted, the movement of revivification of the Na- tive Americans became more closed and passive. Visions of all the white people vanishing have gone and the relation of religion with the political reality has been proven.

117 Cultural Anthropology Explaining witchcraft and sorcery Witchcraft is a malevolent magical activity which is partly innate in an individual. People are born in order to become enchanters, witch- es or become enchanter as a result of an evil that exists in them and cannot be controlled. Sorcery is a similar phenomenon in terms of power, but it is ac- quired, rather than innate. In his book ‘Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande’ (1937), Evans-Pritchard revealed differences between Zande people from Sudan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Zande are involved in whichcraft. Under their perception, there are 2 reasons behind many events: the first one is physical cause, while the second one includes sorcery or more often witch- craft. Zande people try to interpret daily phenomena based on these reasons. For instance, if termites eat the pillars of the grain store- house granary and someone is killed when the storehouse falls down, it may interpret in two ways. The first method of interpretation is the simplest one, i. e. termites have eaten the pillars. Such explanation is not sufficient for the Zande people as they also want to find out why it fell at a certain time and on a particular person. This even may interpret as an occurrence of someone’s ill-will: a person appeared at the said location and was killed by the fall of the granary due to a witchcraft. African societies take sorcery as part of their daily life. The interpretation method of Evans-Pritchard reflected the under- standing of local people and their attempt to relate it to other cul- tural and social aspects.

Encountering rituals Sacrifice is a central element of nearly all religions. Anthropology has endued this term with a very broad meaning. It does not have to be something valuable, yet it is important to make a symbolic gesture. It can be a gesture of recognition of a presence of a spirit or an ancestor. For instance, Chinese funeral participants place rice on the graves of their deceased relatives, while in many African societies people pour a very small amount of drink on the ground for spir-

118 Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism its or ancestors before drinking themselves. Human sacrifice is an extreme rarity (e. g., in the Aztec societies). Until the emergence of states, many societies used to practise human sacrifice and solemnly eat the bodies of war prisoners or parts of their bodies. However, once the state emerged, such customs started to decline. Aztecs were an exception from the common trend. Instead of prohibiting human sacrifice and cannibalism, Aztec state turned human sacrifice into the foundation of ecclesiastical beliefs and rites. Aztecs believed that everything, including gods themselves, was created by two primordial divinities, i. e. Ometecuhtli, the God of Duality, and Omecihuatl, the Goddess of Duality. They lived on the top of the world’s mountain. They created all the gods and human- ity. However, after the start of invasion of the Spanish, both pri- mordial divinities were replaced by a flock of younger and more vigorous gods. Aztecs believed that gods created the Earth. The most important deed of the divinity was birth of the Sun. Sun occurred in Teotihua- can, after the sacrifice of some small leprous god. Other gods have followed his lead and stated to sacrifice blood needed by the Sun, so that it could move along the sky. The Sun had to be given human blood daily, otherwise it would stop and so would life on the Earth. Therefore, there was the constant need of people in order to sacrifice. That was mostly prisoners of war. It is believed, that 20.000 people used to be slain on a yearly basis. Animal sacrifice is more common: a goat or a cow is slain for an- cestors or divinities, but they are usually eaten by people who ex- ecute the sacrifice. Evans-Pritchard’s description of sacrifice in the Nuer religion is considered as classical.

Rites of passage Rites of passage are rituals, when an individual experiences changes by passing from one life status to another. Rites of passage consist of the following: Naming rites are the ones designating a passage from a status of non-person to a status of a person, or from a person existing outside the society to a person belonging to the society. 119 Cultural Anthropology

Initiation rites are the ones designating passage from childhood to adolescence. Marriage rites are the ones designating passage from a status of non-married to a status of married. Funeral rites are the ones designating person’s passage to an an- cestor, or a passage of a person belonging to the society of the living to the society of the dead. Domestic christening with water in Lithuanian, Belarusian and Christian cultures or baptism in Christianity can serve as the ex- amples of naming rites. Confirmation in Christianity or bar mitz- vah or bat mitzvah in Judaism can serve as the examples of initia- tion rites. Marriage rites are found in every society. They often have reli- gious basis, although it is not of an essential importance for rites of passage to take place. Even the process of divorce in a court may be considered as a rite of passage replacing a status of married to single. Funerals are also universal. The specific meaning depends on the system of religion belief. In some societies, it is necessary to hold more than one funeral, and occasionally more than one funeral cere- mony. On Madagascar and in much of Australian Aboriginal people, an individual is buried once, then his or her body is exhumed and reburied again, in order to designate passage phases in the transition from living to ancestral status. Initiator of the rites of passage theory is the French folklorist Ar- nold van Gennep, whose book ‘Rites de passage’ (1909) indicated the ways for further research on this topic. Van Gennep claimed that there are 3 following phases of the rites of passage: 1) Separation (such as leaving the group prior to rituals; 2) Transition (the period of most ritual activity); 3) Incorporation (where individuals are incorporated into group in their new status). The transition phase is known as liminal (‘limen’ means ‘thresh- old’ from the Latin). This phase often has reversal rites, where for -ex ample man acts as if women or old people act as if they are children.

120 Anthropology of Religion: Belief, Ritual and Symbolism Interpreting mythology and symbolism One of the most common approaches in an interpretative mythol- ogy is a ‘charter for social action’. This phrase has been developed by B. Malinowski. What does it mean? Myths form the rules for cor- rect social behaviour. To those who believe in them, myths explain relations between social groups and between categories of relatives, explain with whom marriage is allowed, what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten and why. Structural interpretation is another widespread approach in re- search on mythology. The most famous supporter of the structural interpretation is French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. Be- tween 1964 and 1970, he has written 4 volumes of mythology and called them ‘Mythologiques’. In this work he introduced an analysis of 813 myths from North and South America. His famous essay ‘The Story of Asdiwal’ is another important work that was published in France in 1958 and re-published for a number of times (Lévi-Strauss ‘Structural Anthropology’ (2, 1973)).

Mythology Franz Boas wrote down a myth of Asdiwal from Tsimshian people of British Columbia. In the myth, Asdiwal travels back and forth be- tween two rivers that run in parallel and also travels back and forth between the coast and upstream. The myth starts with the migra- tion of Asdiwal’s mother and grandmother from the area of shortage (affected by famine) and ends with Asdiwal’s conversion to a stone in wilderness. According to the myth, Asdiwal hunts down several animals and marries three women, one of whom bears him a son. Other characteristics comprise his father who represents a bird, and is opponent brother-in-law by his various wedding.

Analysis of a myth The details are not important there. What is important is the anal- ysis of the myth. Levi-Strauss reveals structural meaning of the myth written down by Boas. According to Strauss, the myth may be interpreted following several patterns. He provides 6 patterns: 121 Cultural Anthropology geographical, cosmological, integral, sociological, techno-economic and global. For instance, in the geographical level we can talk about Asdiwal’s journeys from east to west and from north to south. The latter ex- actly correspond to the actual migration of Tsimshian people, when they used to look for fish during certain seasons (techno-economic level). Global level comprises integration of opposing elements, such as a man and a woman, thirst and famine. When all of these elements are understood in relation to each oth- er, Lévi-Strauss argues, we can uncover not just the meaning of the myth, but the deeper thought process of the Tsimshian people, and perhaps those of humankind in general.

Symbolism Structural anthropologists claim that it is much the same with any aspect of symbolism. Spatial symbolism is perhaps the easiest to un- derstand, because it is visual. There have been many anthropological studies written about layouts of villages and buildings, particularly, residential houses. Usually there is a distinction between the inside and outside of a village, which may implay a symbolic distinction be- tween culture (inside) and nature (outside). Houses are often divided between public and private areas, as well as into male and female areas. Even though it does not necessarily have a religious meaning, it nevertheless symbolises social relations. There are also examples of spatial symbolism in ritual. A tradi- tional British wedding is one of them. It is commonly thought that a bride takes the left side while a bridegroom takes the right side. The seating of people in the wedding is organised following this order. A bride comes in while holding her father’s left hand and is led to her husband from the right side. Symbolic order is based on the simplest oppositions, such as the right and the left. For people performing the ritual it does have a cer- tain meaning. The basic aim of anthropologists is discovering these meanings.

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Summary Belief, rites and symbolism are complex aspects of culture. Anthro- pologists try to interpret them without preconceived attitude in re- spect of faith. They introduce new concepts, such as sanctity or pro- fanity, witchcraft or sorcery, which they take from the study of many societies. They use methods based on both observation and intuition. While looking for the structures of mythology and symbolism, an- thropologists may find new meanings, which initially seem to be in- significant and cause certain havoc.

Study questions 1. Explain the difference between sacred and profane. 2. What is totemism? 3. What is the difference between witchcraft and socery? 4. What are rites of passage? Gives some examples. 5. How have anthropologists tried to explain symbolism? 13 Lecture. Visual Anthropology and its Applied Aspect in Anthropology Research

Schedule of lecture • What is visual anthropology? • Visual practice in the 19th century. • 3 types of ethnographic photography. • Visual practice in the first half of the 20th century. • Development of visual anthropology since the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of 21st century. • Disciplines related to the visual anthropology. • Methods and ethics of the visual research.

What is visual anthropology? Visual anthropology emerged as distinct subfield of anthropology in the latter part of the 20th century. Visual anthropology is concerned with visual systems and forms and their engagement in processes of anthropological knowledge production. To scope of visual an- thropology is wide, ranging from the creation and analysis of pho- tographic, film and artistic productions to material culture, bodily expressions and spatial design. (Wacowich 2012: 708) British and American visual anthropologists Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby emphasize that the history of visual anthropology “is rather a history of ideas and interests within the discipline that at some times have cried out for visual exploration (whether that call was needed or not) and at others have apparently spurned the visual in favor of the written word as a mode of representation and language as an access route to the mind” (Banks, Ruby 2011: 2).

Visual practice in the 19th century The origin of visual anthropology as a subdiscipline dates back to the 19th century. Visual technologies had significant importance in field re- search of the Victorian anthropologists. Previously, anthropology used to classify nations and cultures according the evolutionary scheme, 124 Visual Anthropology and its Applied Aspect in Anthropology Research therefore, the scientists used cameras to gather primary ethnographi- cal data, which later was used to create theory about the development of human society. It was believed that pictures ensured a more credible and objective way to gather factual evidence that facilitate the compar- ison of field research data collected from different parts of the world. The issue regarding the collection of factual evidence was ex- tremely severe for anthropologists of the 19th century, since the roles of a theorist and field researcher were strictly limited. Rumours and indirect talks were supplemented by pictures taken with a camera. Visual data gathered this way was considered direct and more cred- ible. Therefore, a camera soon became the most important working tool for anthropologists. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries physical anthropologists utilized a range of visual-photographic indices in support of theo- ries of social evolution: anatomical and group portraits, film footage, biometric data of ‘racial types’ and their ‘tools’. Such visual evidence also served to bolster discourses of race and evolution crucial to im- perialist projects.

3 types of ethnographic photography: In the book ‘Wondrous Difference’ (2002), Alison Griffiths singles out 3 types of ethnographic photography: 1) Anthropometric photography which was the most common in the 19th century. Its focus was on the type. Following the principles of taxonometry, individuals used to be photographed as the representa- tives of physical species in strictly controlled environments. Physical appearance was the foundation of the cultural, intellectual and evo- lutionary theories. Instructions for the collection of this type of data were very specific and required to photograph undressed individuals against a neutral background. 2) The second type of photography conveyed a live relation be- tween the cultures of researched nations. Anthropometric photog- raphy was criticized as a documentation of ‘spiritless bodies’. This new approach was focused on the relationship between a photogra- pher and a subject. It was important for a field researcher to gain his subject’s trust and to collaborate with him or her. 125 Cultural Anthropology

3) The third type of photography was artistic postcards with a picture. In the 19th century, the demand for pictures of ‘primitive’ people was increasing. Their spread was determined by the intellec- tual culture of the second half of the 19th century which has erased the split between scientific and popular genres.

A. C. Haddon’s expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898 was a crucial moment in the history of visual anthropology. During the expedition a 4 minute motion film was captured and marked the commence- ment of ethnographic films. Haddon merged previously separated roles of a researcher and a theorist. This turn in the ethnographic research had a significant impact on the role of photography in the anthropological research of the 20th century.

Visual practice in the first half of the 20th century The decline of picture as the object and method of anthropological research is related to research works by B. Malinowski. Conceptual attention digressed from the surface to the depth and from visible cultural manifestations to the interest in social structure. A change in the role of a field researcher has also taken place. The Victorian anthropologists with an impressive set of instruments were replaced by discrete ethnographers who carried only a memo book and a pen with themselves. Shortly, cameras disappeared from the ethnograph- ic practice pattern by becoming another aid for a field researcher. However, new research studies by anthropologists were con- structed under a certain visual concept. An inner view method was developed when a picture is imagined. It comprises intuition, insight and revelation moments which can only be achieved through senses and not through technological measures. The new relationship be- tween knowledge based on a picture and experience has been deter- mined in the anthropological research described in the classical text of Malinowski ‘Argonauts of the Western Pacific’ (1922). Although modern anthropology was established as an initially literary initiative, the work based on a picture has been further de- veloped and thrived in the margins of textual discipline. The use of a camera was particularly related to Margaret Mead who started 126 Visual Anthropology and its Applied Aspect in Anthropology Research to actively use visual technologies in the 1930’s along with Gregory Bateson in the context of field research. She also aimed to developed innovative methodology that was relevant for their research of cer- tain cultural practices in Bali and New Guinea. A camera was mainly used for ethnographic purposes, rather than illustration. Mead and Bateson recognized the limitation of language in expressing the as- pects of social life. The comparison of different materials of field re- search (written, visual and audible) was an integral part of that what Bateson used to call ‘ethos’, i. e., ‘intangible cultural aspects’.

Development of visual anthropology since the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century Many anthropologists were affected by the passionate devotion of M. Mead to the use of a filming camera. Some of them used visual means in their field researches. They include John Marshall, Timo- thy Asch, Asen Balikci, Robert Gardner and Karl Heider. Timothy Asch declared that ‘a camera has the same meaning to anthropolo- gists as a telescope has to astronomers or a microscope to biologists’. In the 1980’s, Ash and Napoleon Chagnon started filming the life of Yanomami Indians. Prior to that, they have edited a number of films. The Ax Fight is one the mostly discussed films in the area of visual anthropology. During the period of 1960–1980, there have been discussions if visual and audio records could be of any use to the observational research of social sciences. During this period, many researchers of social sciences opposed to the use of ethnographic visuals in eth- nography by claiming that such method of data collection is too sub- jective, non-typical and non-methodical. Such anthropologists as M. Mead, J. Collier and H. Becker, using their theoretical arguments and practical works, have attempted to disprove the opinions of pre- vious researchers. Experts of visual ethnography were accused of their visuals hav- ing neither objectivity nor scientific accuracy. M. Mead responded to the critics by stating that filming camera allows to film continuously for a long time without human interference and thus allows to show an ‘objective material’.

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Some researchers emphasized that the specificity of a photogra- phy moment is not scientifically reasonable. H. Becker stated that pictures taken by anthropologists during field research are ‘in fact, just holiday pictures’. Collier warned that records of photography may remain as completely impressionistic if the researchers fail to switch to systematic application of information technologies. Other anthropologists stated that a visual method may have a positive ef- fect on social sciences as an objective recording method. One of the most significant publications of the 20th century that had a significant impact on the development of visual anthropol- ogy is J. Collier’s (1967) [1986] ‘Visual Anthropology: Photography as Research Method’. This textbook introduces the use of photogra- phy and video material in ethnographic research and presentations. J. and M. Collier (1986) promote a systematic observation method which is carried out by a researcher with the help of visual technolo- gies. They claim that ‘good video recordings that are recorded during a research are organized and consistent observational products’. Ac- cording to J. and M. Collier, the most important task of an ethnogra- pher is to record a certain version of reality that can be observed by a researcher. J. and M. Collier distinguish a fiction of the ‘working sce- nario’ which is often used in the world of photography and cinema from the concept of the research that aims to capture reality. In their words, ethnography is an observation of reality and not a construc- tion of movie scenario based on narratives and life stories. In 1986, J. Clifford and G. Marcus published their book ‘Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of Ethnography’. On the contrary, J. Clifford claims that ethnographers themselves construct narra- tives and create fiction. He uses a term of fiction or belles-lettres not to demonstrate that ethnographers are opposing to the truth or are false-minded, but in order to emphasize that ethnographers cannot completely reveal the reality and tell just part of the story. For J. Clif- ford, ethnographic truths are incomplete, partial and unfinished. That may be also applied to the research and its presentation. J. and M. Collier recognized that the full picture of the researched situation could not be video recorded. They encourage the research photographer to compare similarities between all the collected de- tails and events observed in the context of time and space.

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Around 1980, Clifford’s ideas helped to create appropriate envi- ronment so that visual approach in ethnography could emerge. In film and text recording, an emphasis was put on accuracy, experi- ence, recognition of similarities between constructivity and fiction. All of the above comprised the context in which ethnographic film became a more acceptable form of ethnographic presentation. H. Larson (1988) (Photography that listens, Visual Anthropol- ogy 1: 415–32) used photography and artistic images in order to find out through the cooperative photography about the informers’ ap- proach to reality. Major attention to mediation between anthropolo- gists and informers was the development in the ethnographic films of reflexive style created by David and Judith MacDougall and their contemporaries. 1990 was marked by the start of the discussions on the develop- ment of relations between the approaches of photography, films and observation in anthropology and sociology (Chaplin 1994, Edwards 1992, Harper 1998, Henley 1998, Loizos 1993, Morphy and Banks 1997, Pink 1996, 1998 b). Edwards, Morphy and Banks emphasize in their books the intentional failure to comply with scientific paradigms, yet they recognize that, in the modern context, many scientists feel trapped between the conceptual advancement of visual anthropol- ogy and far more conservative paradigms of scientific positivism tra- ditions (MacDougall 1997). MacDougall suggests a new approach to the principles that arise when field researchers try to review anthropology with the use of visual means. That means a radical transformation of anthropology itself and review of certain anthropological categories. The transformation of this discipline is revealed through the tran- sition from anthropology based on words and sentences to the an- thropological idea based on artistic image and episodes. Therefore, MacDougall tries to incorporate images into the social science based on words. The book of Marcus Banks ‘Visual Methods in Social Research’, published in 2001 in London, is like a guide that instructs how to use visual material in social research. The author provides empirical approaches to creation and analysis of visuals in field research. His research objects are Egyptian television soap-operas, sale of ethno-

129 Cultural Anthropology graphic photos in an Auction House in London and pornographic images on the internet. He discusses the most up-to-date technolo- gies, such as multimedia and analysed conversion of images to digital forms. Banks provides practical advices on how to use film and pho- tography archives and how to submit the results of visual research. New approach to historical development of visual anthropology is provided in the book by Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby, ‘Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology’ (2011). The essays critically examine different topics: material visions, photogra- phy and ethnographic film, dress and textile, art and body adornment, interpretations of the visible and the invisible, ethical and epistemic reflections on/of anthropological vision, the body as cultural phe- nomenon, indigenous media, and digital visual anthropology. Visual anthropology emerged as distinct subfield of anthropology in the latter part of the 20th century. In the 1980’s, supporters of the ‘new ethnography’ introduced ideas of ethnography as a fiction and emphasized the importance of subjectivity of cognition. In the 1990’s, it was recognized that ethnographic films or photography were in es- sence neither more subjective nor objective than recorded texts. What has encouraged the use of new technologies of photography in ethnography? • Innovations of visual anthropology around 1990; • Critical postmodern theoretical approaches to subjectivity, experience, knowledge and representation; • Reflexive approach to methodology of ethnographical field re- search; • Interdisciplinary emphasis.

In recent decades, new communications technologies have entered the representational arena, changing the shape of visual anthrpology. The digitization of photographic and filmic technologies and their distribution through the World Wide Web has put issues of global mobility at the forefront of a twenty-first century visual anthropol- ogy. Allegations of Western ‘crisis of ocularcentrism’ have effective- ly broadened the disciplinary scope to incorporate hearing, smell, touch and taste into an all-embracing anthropology of the senses. Finally, renewed interest in the graphic and artistic mode of descrip-

130 Visual Anthropology and its Applied Aspect in Anthropology Research tion by the anthropological fieldwork (Ingold 2007) highlights the inherently creative nature of anthropological inquiry and raises new questions for an anthropology of the visual (Wacowich 2012: 710).

Disciplines related to the visual anthropology Studies of anthropology, sociology, culture, photography and mul- timedia are the disciplines that are mostly related to visual anthro- pology. Each of them is concerned with different aspects, such as material culture, video technology, interpretation of cultural texts, understanding of social relations and individual experience. Each of the aforementioned disciplines offers individual perception of an image in culture and society. Different disciplines use visuals and technologies in ethnography in order to implement individual empirical programme. Therefore, interdisciplinary relations have been very important lately and are intended to be developed in the future (Pink 2001). In the modern world, anthropology and visual studies are closely interconnected. Theory of photography and films may affect our -per ception of possibilities of visual information means in ethnographic research and its presentation. Ethnographic approach can also en- hance the presentation and interpretation of visuals. Ethnographic approach helps photographers and film makers understand that their artistic practice may be affected by ethnographic research.

Methods and ethics of the visual research Professor of visual anthropology Marcus Banks from Oxford uni- versity divides visual research methods into three broad activities: 1) ‘making visual representation (studying society by producing im- ages)’; 2) ‘examining pre-existing visual representations’ (studying images for information about society); 3) ‘collaborating with social actors in the production of visual representations’ (Banks 1995). The introduction of photographs to interviews and conversations sets of a kind of chain reaction: the photographs effectively exercise agency, causing people to do and think things they had forgotten or to see things they had always known in a new way. They serve to

131 Cultural Anthropology bring about a research collaboration between the investigator and subject (Banks 2001: 95). M. Banks emphasizes that film-elicitation, like photo elicitation, can be highly productive research tool for the social researcher, yielding insights and understandings that might otherwise be missed or not be discernible by other methods (Banks 2001: 99). Film may play a role of a mediator between a researcher and an informer. Sometimes using cameras and making images of informants is inappropriate for ethical reason. In some situations photographs or videos of informants may put them in political danger, or subject them to moral criticism. By thinking through the implications of im- age production and visual representation in this way ethnographers should be able to evaluate how their “ethnographic‘ images would be invested with different meanings by different political, local and academic discourses (Pink 2001: 33).

Summary Visual anthropology is concerned with visual systems and forms and their engagement in processes of anthropological knowledge pro- duction. To scope of visual anthropology is wide, ranging from the creation and analysis of photographic, film and artistic productions to material culture, bodily expressions and spatial design. In recent decades, new communications technologies have entered the rep- resentational arena, changing the shape of visual anthrpology. The digitization of photographic and filmic technologies and their distri- bution through the World Wide Web has put issues of global mobil- ity at the forefront of a 21st century visual anthropology. Neverthe- less, sometimes using cameras and making images of informants is inappropriate for ethical reason.

Study questions 1. Name three types of ethnographic photography that were common in the 19th century. 2. Which anthropologists have mentioned them in their works? 3. Name the most important methods of visual anthropology. Provide examples found in the works of anthropologists. 132 Visual Anthropology and its Applied Aspect in Anthropology Research

4. What was the difference of visual practice of the 19th century from that of the 20th century? 5. What is common for the research ethics in the use of visual images? 6. Provide examples of visual anthropology in the works of an- thropologists, ethnologist and sociologists. 7. Think how you could apply visual anthropological methods in your own research. 14 Lecture. Perspectives of Applied Anthropology

Schedule of lecture • The role of applied anthropology today. • Applied anthropology and the subdisciplines. • Urban anthropology. • Medical anthropology. • Development anthropology.

The role of applied anthropology today Applied anthropology is the use of anthropological data, perspec- tives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contempo- rary social problems. Applied anthropology has its roots in work on behalf of colonial administrations, but is now firmly established in contexts as diverse as development agencies, health education and social work as well as work for private-sector corporations (Barnard, Spencer 2012: 756). The applied anthropologist’s most valuable research tool is the ethnographic method. Ethnographers study societies firsthand, liv- ing with and learning from ordinary people. Ethnographers are participant-observers, taking part in the events they study in order to understand native thought and behavior. Other “expert” partici- pants in social-change programs may be content to converse with officials, read reports, and copy statistics. Modern applied anthropology keeps ethical problems and guide- lines in mind. Its practioners attempt to help the people anthropolo- gists have traditionally studied as formely isolated communities are increasingly confronted with worldwide currents of economic and social change. Applied anthropology draws its practioners from bio- logical, archeological, linguistic, and cultural anthropology.

134 Perspectives of Applied Anthropology Applied anthropology and the subdisciplines Applied anthropologists come from all four subdisciplins. Biological anthropologists work in public health, nutrition, genetic counseling, substance abuse, epidemiology, aging, and mental illness. They apply their knowledge of human anatomy and physiology to the improve- ment of automobile safety standarts and to the design of airplanes and spacecraft. In forensic work, biological anthropologists help po- lice identify skeletal remains. Similarly, forensic archeologists recon- struct crimes by analyzing physical evidence. Applied cultural anthropologists sometimes work alongside the applied archeologists, assessing the human problems generated by the change and determing how they can be reduced. Cultural anthropologists work with social workers, business people, media researchers, advertising professionals, factory work- ers, gerontologists, nurses, physicians, mental-health professionals, school personnel, and economic development experts. Linguistic anthropology, particularly sociolinguistics, aids edu- cation. Knowledge of linguistic differencies is important in an in- creasingly multicultural society whose populace grows up speaking many languages and dialects (Kottak 1991: 392). Anthropology and education. Ethnography brings a novel per- spective to education, with practical applications. Anthropology and education refers to anthropological research in classrooms, homes, and neighborhoos. Some of the most interesting research has been done in classrooms, where anthropologists observe interactions be- tween teaches, students, parents, and visitors.

Urban anthropology Urban anthropology – the anthropological study of life in and around world cities, including urban social problems, differences between urban and other environments, and adaptation to city life (Kottak 2012: 316). It has theoretical and applied dimensions. Urban anthropology examines the social organization of the city, looking at the kinds of social relationship and pattern of social life unique to cities and comparing their different cultural and historical context.

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Urban societies and cities came to the attention of socio-cultural anthropology only in the second half of this century, especially in the 1960’s. Urban anthropology emerged as a separate subdiscipline of sociocultural anthropology during 1950s and 1960s. In contrast to earlier studies of urbanism, urban anthropology applied anthro- pological concepts and field research methods to urban populations where the city was the context of the research than the phenomenon under study (Merry 1997). “Urban anthropology” counters anthropology’s traditional em- phasis on “primitive” and peasant people to the exclusion of urban, complex and industrial societies (Basham 1978). This shift accompa- nied the deconstruction of “primitivist” anthropology and the ac- knowledgement that – because all cultures are part of the modern world – they do not form isolated, self-contained entities. A further motivation was the observation that cities in the 20th century were growing more rapidly than ever before. This new em- phasis can also be understood as a way of “studying up,” representing a shift from the periphery to an analysis of the center. Theoretically, urban anthropology involves the study of the cul- tural systems of cities as well as the linkages of cities to larger and smaller places and populations as part of the world-wide urban sys- tem (Kemper 1996). Methodology of urban anthropology. The shift of focus to large-scale societies encourages the reconsideration of traditional anthropological methodology, known as the so-called “partici- pant observation.” For a long time, ethnographic work focused on creating a close rapport with a small number of informants, but it was impossible in an urban context. Urban anthropologists are therefore required to extend their scope, develop new skills, and to take written materials, surveys, historical studies, novels and other sources into account. The challenge for urban anthropologists is to process this array of different sources and to grasp the realities of larger groups without losing sight of the vivid description that characterizes ethnography. This includes incidents and encounters, which at first sight may seem to lack scientific value and relevance, but which give life to statistics and censuses and reflect the realities of daily social life.

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A problem of an overly strong emphasis of the participant observ- er approach in the urban context is the loss of the holistic perspective. Focusing on the family (such as on the tribe or other social units in traditional anthropology), leads to a fragmentary picture of urban reality, and thus to an “urban mosaic” (Fox 1977: 2–9). Contemporary Urban Anthropology. Today, urban anthropol- ogy distinguishes itself from urban sociology mainly in terms of a different perspective: while sociological studies are more focused on fragmented issues, urban anthropology is theoretically rather direct- ed toward a holistic approach (Ansari and Nas 1983: 2). Whereas urban anthropology in the 1960s and 70s focused on particular issues such as migration, kinship, and poverty, derived from (or in contrast to) traditional-based fieldwork, urban anthro- pologists had, by the 1980s, expanded their interests to any aspect of urban life. As a result, urban anthropology became more integrated into the discourse of the other social sciences. Urban anthropology has large- ly merged with geography, ecology, and other disciplines. Along with a theoretical interest in and conceptualization of ur- ban space and urbanism, contemporary issues of urban anthropol- ogy include rural-urban migration, demography, adaptation and ad- justment of humans in densely populated environments, the effects of urban settings upon and social stratification, social networks, the function of kinship, employment, the growth of cities, architecture (and other urban dilemmas), and practical urban problems such as housing, home transport, use of space, waste man- agement, and infrastructure. Urban anthropology also examines social problems characteristic of large cities such as crime, social disorder poverty, homelessness, and transience. These studies examine the social organization and cultural practices of diferent groups within the city such as gangs, ethnic villagers, homeless alcoholics (Spradley 1970), criminals, and prostitutes (Merry 1981). Urban studies usually include the systems of bureaucratic regulation, urban politics, welfare administration, ur- ban renewall and economic conditions that shape local communities. Other research focuses on systems of formal social control such as police, courts and prisons (Merry 1997). Although urban anthro-

137 Cultural Anthropology pology inspired in its earlier years by theories of urbanism, now ex- amines social life in the city as it exists for the people who live in it, rather than the city itself.

Medical anthropology Both biological and cultural anthropologists work in medical an- thropology, wich focuses on “disease, health problems, health care systems, and theories about illness in different cultures and ethnics groups” (Kottak 2012: 312). Disease problems vary among cultures. Such epidemic diseases as cholera, typhoid (šiltinė), and bubonic plague (maras) are associated with dense populations and thus with agriculture and urbanization. The incidence of particular diseases varies between cultures, and different cultures interpret and treat illness differently. All societ- ies have “disease theory system” to identify, classify, and explain illness. According to George Foster and Barbara Anderson (1978), there are three basic theories of causation: 1) personalistic, 2) natu- ralistic, 3) and emotionalistic. Personalistic disease theories blame illness on sorcerers, witches, ghosts, or ancestral spirits. Naturalis- tic disease theories (including science medicine) explain illness in impersonal illness in impersonal systemic terms. This includes mi- croorganisms and unbalanced body fluids. Emotionalistic disease theories assume that intense emotional experiences cause illness. For example, Latin American women are believed to be susteptible to susto, an ilness caused by fright. Its symptoms (lethargy, vague- ness, distraction) are similar to those of “soul loss”. Modern psy- choanalysis also focuses on the role of the emotions in physical and psychological wellbeing. All societies have health-care systems – beliefs, customs, and specialists concerned with ensuring health and preventing and cur- ing illness. When illness has personalistic cause, shamans and other magicoreligious specialists may be curers. They draw on varied tech- niques, which constitute their specialized knowledge and expertise. All cultures have health-care professionals -curers or shamans. The curer’s role has some universal features. The curers become special- ists through a culturally appropriate process of selection (parental 138 Perspectives of Applied Anthropology prodding, inheritance, visions, dream instructions) and training (ap- prentice shamanship, medical school). Eventually, the curer is certi- fied by established practioners and acquires a professional image. Medical anthropology, which is based on biological, social, and cross-cultural research, has theoretical and applied dimensions. Health programs must pay attention to native theories about the cause and treatment of illness. Non-Western systems (traditional medicine) have certain lessons for Western medicine. Traditional practioners may be more success- ful in treating mentall illness than psychotherapists are. On of the reason why non-Western therapy succeeds is that the mentally ill are diagnosed and treated in small, cohesive groups with the full support of their kin. Curing may be an intense community ritual in which the shaman heals by temporarily taking on and then rejecting the patient’s illness (Levi-Strauss 1967). Rather than seeking causes, non-Western practioners often treat symptoms, and their aim is an immediate cure. Traditional curers have a right rate of success with health problems that our medical es- tablishment classifies as psychosomatic and dismisses as not needing treatment – despite the feelings of the patient. Non-Western systems tell us that patients should be treated as whole beings, to be treated with whatever combination of procedures may prove beneficial (Kot- tak 1991: 395–397).

Development anthropology Development anthropology is the branch of applied anthropol- ogy that focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dimension of, economic development (Kottak 2012: 263). Applied anthropologists uses anthropological findings, concepts, and methods to accom- plish desired aims. The advocacy position states that anthropolo- gists – as experts on human problems, social change, and cultural values – should make policy affecting people. In this view, proper roles for development anthropologists include (1) identifying needs for change that local people perceive, (2) designing socially appro- priate intervention strategies, and (3) protecting local people from harmful development shemes (Kottak 1991: 413). 139 Cultural Anthropology

Since the 1920s anthropologists have been investigating changes arising from contact between industrial and nonindustrial societ- ies. Studies of ‘social change’ and ‘’ are abundant. Ac- culturation has been defined as including those phenomena which result when groups of individuals come into continous firsthand contact, which changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups. This definition is broad enough to refer to any case in which people from different cultures meet and change their customs as a result (Kottak 1991: 407). Acculturation differs from diffusion, or cultural borrowing, which can occur without firsthand contact. For example, most Americans who eat hot dogs (‘frankfurters’) have never been to Frankfurt, nor have most American Honda owners or sushi eaters ever visited Japan. Although acculturation can apply to many cases of cultural contact and change, the term most often describes the influence of Western expansion on native cultures. Thus natives who wear store- bought clothes, learn Indo-European languages, and otherwise adopt Western customs are called acculturated. Syncretisms are cultural blends or mixtures that emerge from acculturation, particularly under colonialism. One example is the blend of African, Native American, and Roman Catholic saints and deities in Caribbean vodun, or ‘voodoo’, cults. Acculturation, including syncretism, is a broad area of study. Be- cause its focus is interethnic relations, it is relevant to many of the changes taking place in modern world. Local people are increasingly being drawn into larger systems – and changing as a result. Sources of exposure to external institutions and currents of social change include the mass media, migration, and improved transportation (Kottak 1991: 407–408).

Summary Applied anthropology is the use of anthropological data, perspec- tives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contem- porary social problems. Urban anthropology study the life in and around world cities, including urban social problems, differences be- tween urban and other environments, and adaptation to city life. It has theoretical and applied dimensions. Urban anthropology exam- 140 Perspectives of Applied Anthropology ines the social organization of the city, looking at the kinds of social relationship and pattern of social life unique to cities and comparing their different cultural and historical context. Medical anthropology focuses on disease, health problems, health care systems, and theories about illness in different cultures and eth- nics groups. Development anthropology focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dimension of, economic development.

Study questions 1. What is applied anthropology? 2. What is the role of applied anthropology today? 3. What is urban anthropology, and what are its applications? 4. What are the main issues of contemporary urban anthropology? 5. What is medical anthropology, and how can anthropology be useful in medicine? 6. Explain three basic theories of illness causation according to George Foster and Barbara Anderson? 7. Make a comment on the proposition that: “All anthropology is applied, because there is an anthropological way of looking at the world which renders the world’s problems easier to under- stand”. Glossary

Adaptation is the process by which organisms cope with environmental stresses. Acculturation. Cultural changes that develop as a result of continuous firsthand contact between cultures. Acculturation differs from diffusion, or cultural borrowing, which can occur without firsthand contact. Alliance theory is concerned with relations between groups, families and indi- viduals related in kinship through marriage. Animism is a primitive belief that soul exists not only in human beings, but also in animals, plants, natural phenomena and things. This concept has been in- troduced by the anthropologists E. Tylor in his book ‘’. Animatism. Concept of the supernatural as an impersonal power. Anthropology [Greek anthrōpos, human being + Greek logos, science, concept] is so- cial science about human beings, their origins, lifestyle, behaviour and cultural as well as biological diversity. It describes and analyses cultures of both previous and modern ages, i. e. socially acquired traditions, behaviour and thinking of human beings, diversity and reasons of culture’s adaptation to environment. Anthropology at home. The ethnographic study of one’s own society. Of particu- lar interest to European anthropologists in the 1980s, as funding for travel became tighter and as a way of circumventing access difficulties. Applied anthropology is the use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems. Archaeological anthropology (prehistoric archeology). The branch of anthro- pology that reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cul- tural patterns through material remains. Assimilation. The process of change that a minority group may experience when it move to a country where another culture dominates; the minority is incor- porated into the to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit. Autoethnography. A form of ethnography in which the author is a member of a particular group who is writing about that group or about themselves as part of it, or is an external anthropologist writing about their personal experi- ence of doing research. Allied to post-modernism, autoethnography develops such concerns as reflexivity and anthropology of home. Autoethnography has been criticized for its lack of objectivity. Berdaches. Among the Crow Indians, members of a third gender, for whom cer- tain ritual duties were reserved. Biological-physical anthropology. The branch of anthropology that studies hu- man biological diversity in time and space; includes hominid evolution, hu- man genetics, human biological adaptation, and primatology (behaviour and evolution of monkeys and apes).

142 Glossary

Biological race is a discrete group whose members share certain distinctive ge- netic traits inherited from a common ancestor. Problematic concept. Cargo cults are postcolonial, acculturative religious movements, common in Melanesia, that attempt to explain European domination and wealth and to achieve similar success magically by mimicking European behaviour. Carrying capacity is the maximum number of people who can live in a given environment. Sometimes this supposes a specific means of subsistence. Cognatic descent. Descent from both sides of the family equally. In cognatic de- scent, there ar no clans or lineages. This is the opposite of double descent, where people belong to both matrilineal and patrilineal groups at the same time. Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition and cultural meanings through specific methodologies such as psychological experiments, computer model- ing, and other techniques to elicit underlying unconscious factors that struc- ture-thinking processes. Compound family comprises the main figure (usually a powerful father), his or her spouses, sometimes concubines and their children. It is common in Western Africa. Creationism. Explanation for the origin of species given in Genesis: God created the species during the original six days of Creation. Cross-cousins. The children of a brother and a sister. In many societies, cross- cousins are marriageable whereas parallel cousins are not. Cultural anthropology – the study of human society and culture; describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differ- ences. Cultural relativism. The belief that the values and standarts of cultures dif- fer and deserve respect. Extreme relativism argues that cultures should be judged solely by their own standarts. Cultural materialism is the extreme view that environment and technology to- gether determine the social organisation. Its leading proponent is American anthropologist Marvin Harris. Cultural materialism begins with the assump- tion that cultures are influenced by material conditions: physical resourses, plants and animals, relationships (such as trade and war) with other groups and systems of production and reproduction. Culture. Dinstinctly human; transmitted through learning; traditions and cus- toms that govern behaviour and beliefs. Culture and personality. A subfield of cultural anthropology; examines varia- tion in psychological traits and personality characteristics between cultures. This subfield emphasises the ‘personality’of whole cultures rather than indi- viduals. Culture of poverty. Coined by Oscar Lewis; has economic, social and psycho- logical characteristics - gregariousness, spontaneity, fatalism, marginality; associated with real poverty, capitalism, and bilateral kinship.

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Descent theory. In kinship, the perspective which involves the study of group structure and rules of residents. It examines structure and rules of a living place, such as if after wedding one decides to live either with wife’s family, or with husband’s family. Descent theory also includes the rules of management and inheritance, as well as succession of a property. Development anthropology focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dime- nion of economic development. Proper roles for development anthropolo- gists include (1) identifying needs for change that local people perceive, (2) designing socially appropriate intervention strategies, and (3) protecting lo- cal people from harmful development shemes. Diffusion. The perspective which emphasises the passing of culture from one society or community to another. Borrowing between cultures either directly or through intermediaries. Double descent. Descent in both male line and female line. Everyone belongs to two lineages, one patrilineal and one matrilineal. This is the opposite of cognatic descent. Ecological anthropology interested how environmental forces influence hu- mans and how human activities afect the biosphere and the Earth itself; how environment and technology affect social organization. Ecological anthro- pologist today frequently more interested in how ordinary people view their environments. They attempt not only to understand but also to find solutions to environmental problems. Ecological niche is a set of resources utilised by a particular group in an environ- ment. Sometimes different groups (hunters and herders) will exploit different niches in the same environment. Emic. The research strategy that focuses on native explanations and criteria of significance. Enculturation is the social process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the generations. Ethic. The research strategy that emphasizes the observer’s rather than the na- tive’s explanations, categories, and criteria of significance. Ethnicity. A person’s formed on the basis of race, religion, lan- guage or national origin. Ethnocentrism. The tendency to view own culture as best and to judge the be- haviour and beliefs of culturally different people by one’s own standarts. Ethnography. Anthropologists use the word ethnography in two ways. On the one hand it refers to doing fieldwork and taking notes in a particular culture. On the other hand, it refers to the practice of writing or to the finished writ- ings themselves. Ethnology – the theoretical, comparative study of society and culture; exam- ines and compares the results of ethnography – the data gathered in differ- ent societies. Ethnology tries to identify and explain cultural differences

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and similarities, to distinguish between universality, generality, and par- ticularity. Exogamy is a marriage outside one’s kin group. It is a cultural universal. Extended family. Expanded household including three or more generations. It is an ambiguous term. On the one hand, it is a next of kin nuclear family group that live together. On the other hand, it is a group that does not live together, but maintains relations (such as newly established urban and industrial so- cieties). Fetishism is the belief in fetishes, or objects that have supernatural power. Primi- tive people have most likely made fetishes – objects that, as they believed, had magic powers. Gay marriage is a marriage between people of the same gender. Gender. In anthropology, the social and cultural distinctions related to being male and female. In a sense it stands in oppositions to ‘sex’, which describes the biological distinctions. Genealogical method. Procedures by which ethnographers discover and record connections of kinship, descent, and marriage, using diagrams and symbols. Genetrix – culturally recognised biological father. Genitor – culturally recognised biological mother. Globalization – the accelerating interdependence of nations in a word system linked economically and through mass media and modern transportation system. Globalization as systemic connectedness reflects the relentless and ongoing growth of the world system. In this current form, that system, which has existed for centuries, has some radical new aspects. Three are especially noteworthy: the speed of global communication, the scale (complexity and size) of global networks, and the sheer volume of international transactions. Mark Smith and Michele Doyle (2002) distinquish between two meanings of globalization: 1) globalization as fact: the spread and connectedness of pro- duction, communication, and technologies accross the world; 2) Globaliza- tion as ideology and policy: efforts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and other international financial powers to create a global free market for good and services. Interview schedule. Ethnographic tool for structuring a formal interview. A pre- pared form usually printed that guides interviews with households or indi- viduals being compared systematically. Contrasts with questionnaire because the researcher has personal contact and records people’s answers. With the interview schedules, the ethnographer talks face to face to informants, asks the questions, and writes down the answers. Questionnaire procedures tend to be more indirect and impersonal; the respondent often fills in the form. Joint family comprises brothers, their wives and children and all of them live together. It is an efficient family structure when brothers share property, as it is in India, China, Africa and some other countries.

145 Cultural Anthropology

Kinship calculation – the system by which people in a society determine kin relationships. Kinship, like gender, is culturally constructed. This means that some biological kin are considered to be relatives whereas others are not. Through questioning, the ethnographers discover the specific genealogical relationships between ‘relatives’ and determine the relationship between kin- ship calculation and kinship groups – how people use kinship to create and mantain personal ties and to join social groups. Life histories. The recollection of a lifetime of experiences provides a more in- timate and personal cultural portrait than would be possible otherwise. Life histories present community members as individuals facing common prob- lems. Linguistic anthropology: The descriptive, comparative, and historical study of language and of linguistic similarities and differences in time and space, in- cluding interrelations between language and culture; includes historical lin- guistics and sociolinguistics. Mana. Sacred impersonal force in Melanesian and Polynesian religions. Mater – social mother (including an adoptive mother). Means of subsistence is a method of obtaining a living from the environment. It involves hunting, gathering, fishing, herding livestock, and agriculture (of various kind). Medical anthropology. Unities biological and cultural anthropologists in the study of disease, health problems, health care systems, and theories about ilness in different cultures and ethnics groups. Monogamy is a marriage model between 2 persons. Monotheism is a monocracy, a belief that there is the only Supreme God that has all the features of divinity. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and many local Afri- can religions may serve as examples of monotheistic religions. Multi-sited ethnography is commonly used to designate two things: the first is the practice in more than one geographical location. The second is the com- plex methodological discussion which has coalesced around George Marcus’s coinage of the phrase in 1995. Marcus proposed ‘multi-sited ethnography’ as a name for modes of research which collapse the distinction between the local site and the global system, thereby challenging the division of labour sepa- rating the ‘fieldsite’ as province of the ethnographer from the more abstact ‘context’requiring the difference tools of economist or the political scientist. The multi-sited ethnographer should identify ‘systemic’ realities in ‘lo- cal places’, studying the world system directly on the ground; this requires a willingness to leave behind the bounded field-site and follow people, sto- ries, metaphors, or objects, as they themselves travel from place to place, and move between different media. Mutation. Change in the DNA molecules of which genes and chromosomes are built.

146 Glossary

Natural selection. Major mechanism of biological evolution; process by which natural forces select the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a particu- lar environment; depends on variety within the population. One parent family is a type of nuclear family. In some cases, children are parent- ed only by one parent (usually mother). This family type may form in case of divorce or death of one of the parents. Parallel-cousins. The children of two brothers or two sisters. In many societies, parallel cousins are treated as brothers and sisters and sharply distinquised from cross-cousins. Participant observation. A characteristic ethnographic technique; taking part in the events one is observing, describing, and analyzing. Pater – social father (including an adoptive father). Patrilineal descend. Descend through men, from father to child. Polyandry is a marriage between one woman and a group of more than one man, usually brothers. There are well-known cases in South Asia, such as among Toda people in India, although the custom becomes extinct. Polygamy is a marriage model between more than two persons. It consists of two following forms: polyandry and polygyny. Polygyny is a marriage between one man and more than one woman. It is com- mon in several parts of the world, particularly in African societies. Polytheism is a worship of multiple gods that predominate over different areas of the world and life. The examples of these religions are found in the Ancient Egypt, as well as in Greek and Roman religions. Profane. Emile Durkheim’s term for the ordinary or what is not sacred. Psychological anthropology attempts to understand similarities and differences in behavior, thought, and feelings among societies by focusing on the rela- tionship between the individual and culture, or the process of enculturation. Regionalist anthropology emphasizes the importance of the concept of ‘culture area’. Historically detailed scientific discourse allows for a more-or-less ob- jective understanding of local life from geographical, linguistic and ethnic categories. Regionalist specialization has been the main component in the European and American teaching and practice for almost a century. The emphasis has been put on ethnographic research and observation from the regional perspective. Rites of passage. Rituals associated with the transition from one place or stage of life to another (such as adolescence to adulthood). Ritual. Behaviour that is formal, stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped, performed earnestly as a social act; rituals are held at set times and places and have li- turgical orders. Sacred. Emile Durkheim’s term for what is set apart from the normal world, of- ten including forbidden knowledge or practices and ritual activities. The op- posite is ‘profane’.

147 Cultural Anthropology

Shaman is a ritual specialist, especially in the arctic or the Americas, who medi- ates between the human world and the spirit world, between human beings and animals, as well as between the living and the dead. Shamanism. The practice of or belief in mediation between the ordinary world and the spirit world by a shaman. Sorcery. A learned magical practice whereby an individual performs activities which may be harmful to others. Social race is a group assumed to have some biological basis but actually defined in a social context – by a particular culture rather than by scientific criteria. Society is organized life in groups; typical of humans and other animals. Subcultures. Different cultural symbol-based traditions associated with sub- groups in the same compex society. Totemism is a belief system based on a tribe’s relations with a totem from which it derives itself. Animals, plants and inanimate natural objects, all could be totems which a tribe considers to be ancestor guardians. Urban anthropology is the cross-cultural and ethnographic study of global ur- banization and life in cities, which has theoretical and applied dimensions. It is a study of life in and around world cities, including urban social prob- lems, differences between urban and other environments, and adaptation to city life. Uxirilocal residence. Residence in the locality of the wife. Virilocal residence. Residence in the locality of the husband. Visual anthropology is concerned with visual systems and forms and their en- gagement in processes of anthropological knowledge production. To scope of visual anthropology is wide, ranging from the creation and analysis of photo- graphic, film and artistic productions to material culture, bodily expressions and spatial design. Well-informed or key informant. An expert on a particular aspect of local life who helps the ethnographer understand that aspect. Witchcraft. A magical practice whereby an individual performs activities which may be harmful to others. It is believed that such practices are inherited (as opposed to sorcery, in which they are learned). Literature

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