Astronomy

Second-hand knowledge

knowledge that we gain from other people telling us about their experiences.

First-hand Knowledge

A type of knowledge based on someone directly seeing, hearing or experiencing something

Quanitative

relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its quality.

Qualitative

Data in the form of words

Fieldwork

period of research, insert themselves in the midst of the people they wish to work among, with and for

Ethnography

process of doing and analyzing field work, the product of that fieldwork in the form of a book, essay, dissertation or film

What are 4 Maintain Components of Culture?

Economy, Kinship, Relations, Politics and Religion

What does it mean if a Person has Agency?

they can make their own decisions and interact with established social institutions in ways that demonstrate power over their destinies

What will an Anthropologist do before leaving for Fieldwork?

-Read books, journal articles, etc.

-Learn languages

Components of Conducting Fieldwork

-Find informants (Random Sampling/Snowball Sampling - informant introduces to more people)

-Interview (Structured/Unstructured/Semi-structure)

-Participant observation

-Take pictures/ video recordings

-Draw kinship diagrams

-Mapping Survey with questionnaires (Quantitative analysis)

-Get Government Reports, etc.

After Fieldwork

Write ethnography

Participant Observation

-main method of understanding another group's way of life

-process in which a researcher lives with a people and observes their regular activities, often for a year or more with return visits

-ethnographer participates in daily life, while reflecting and analyzing their observations

Ideal Behavior

the way people think they should behave

Real Behavior

the way people actually behave

What is the importance of the relationship between Ideal vs. Real Behavior?

Show the contrast between the values of society and the actual behavior of members

Random Sample

allow everyone an equal chance to be interviewed by selecting people randomly

Judgment Sample

selects informants based on skills, occupation, knowledge and sensitivity to cultural issues

Snowball Sample

one informant introduces the ethnographer to other informants

Key Informants

close ties develop between one or more informants who are chosen for their special insights and spend a lot of time with them

Scientific Framework

scientific understandings of the world are primary and objectivity in pursuing one's research questions is important

Religious Framework

people's beliefs system guide their thoughts and actions, beyond what is observable in nature

Humanist Framework

emphasizes the agency of individuals to make ethical decisions that benefit themselves and others

Critical Framework

begins with experiences of marginalized peoples and seeks to change mainstream narrative from which they have been omitted or misrepresented

Ethnocentrism

the idea that our own customs are normal while other's customs are strange, wrong or even disgusting

cultural relativism

not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms

Biological adaptations

allow an organism to better survive in its present environment (conditions) or live successfully and reproduce in a variety of habitats

Cultural Adaptation

include all the ways that humans use cultural knowledge to better succeed in their surroundings

Maladaptive

cultural innovations that don't benefit society - any behavior that leads to a decrease in the well-being of the members of a culture or in the ability of the culture to survive in the long run is not adaptive

Class Consciousness

Idea that people think and what they do is directly related to how they make their living

Franz Boas

father of modern American anthropology; argued for cultural relativism and historical particularism

-focused on the importance of ethnographic fieldwork and pioneered the 4-field method of anthropological study

E.B. Tylor

Contemporary Savagery - "indirect evidence" of the Stone Age

The task of anthropologists is the reconstruction of history

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Biological Evolution

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 - 1942) and Franz Boas (1858 -1942)

-Both Conducted Fieldwork - First Hand Information

-Tried to understand the locals' vision of the world

-Rejected ethnocentrism - cultures can be compared but can not be ranked

Linguistic Determinism

-idea that a language locks a speaker into one particular view of the world

-Only a select few believe this to be the case, many believe when a person learns a language, they may have a better sense of the speakers' worldview, but their brain doesn't suddenly understand everything that those speakers know

Definition of Language

is a symbolic system of communication expressing meaning through voice, gestures, and writing

Influences on Speech

-Biological = we use our mouth and throat to produce sound

-Socio-cultural factors = gender, socio-economic status, level of education and geographic region influence the way one speaks

-Political = it is bound up in relationships in which power is constantly negotiated

-So much of what we say and how we say it is based on our cultural environment, it is clear that culture deeply influences language

-It is also true that language shapes culture by reflecting the changes in society

Syntax and Semantics

-grammar that affects meaning

-Among chimpanzees, gestures and vocalizations may be used in conjunction with other gestures and vocalizations in different ways

Pragmatics

-contextual meaning

-The choice of gestures and calls are used at what times are shaped by the relationship between the 2 individuals

-Walking upright would have allowed hominins to communicate silently while walking, even over long distances

• freed up arms and hands when standing and moving

Ideas about how humans moved from gestural to vocal language include:

Hominin's need to make and use tools with their hands may have forced them to verbalize their needs

§ Perhaps working cooperatively encouraged vocalizations to verbalize their needs

§ Ethnographic evidence shows that many societies use songs or chants to coordinate movements while rowing, building, or doing other group work that requires accurate timing with hands or bodies

Pressure to survive made it beneficial for hominins to be able to multitask - carry food while vocally alerting the group to a predator

○ Evolutionary changes in anatomy laid the biological framework for full-blown language

Why is Trust Necessary for the Shift between Gestures to Words?

Non-human primate communication is largely based on signals that are hard to fake, such as facial expressions of anxiety or a cry of fear

Words are symbolic - represent something in a non-physical and arbitrary way

Trust must be present for communication based on words rather then signals since words may relate to something that is not immediately present

Non-human Primate Communication

-Non-human primates share similar - though not as developed - structures in the brain as humans

-Lacks the strong neural connections of the human brain

-Non-human primates' mouths and throats lack the intricate musculature that humans have

-During human development, our tongues descended, our mouth got smaller, our larynx dropped, and our neck elongated.

-These changes allowed humans to develop an incredible amount of control over their breath and ability to produce sound

-Changes leading to human vocal physiology had an evolutionary advantage

-Controlling sounds means that an individual can be understood better in social situations, leading to a higher level of cooperation and, therefore, survival

-Because our larynx sits so low in the throat, we are at risk of choking on food as it reaches the esophagus, whereas other non-human primates are not

-In evolutionary terms, the advantages of speech were more important for human survival then the risk of choking

Communication

is a system of messaging, in which messages sent by something or someone is received by something or someone else

All language contains communication but not all communication is language

2 Types of Signs

Index

animals in the wild mainly communicate using index signs, emotional expressions that carry meaning directly related to the response

Symbol

stands for something else, but has no apparent or natural connection to the meaning

What does a Linguistic Anthropologist Do?

• Interested in the cultural in the cultural context in which it is used.

• Linguistic anthropology studies the way that language, social life, and culture are intertwined

• Interested in the different ways that people talk in different situations, how language helps define a group's worldview, and whether people of different genders speak or are spoken to differently

Phonetics

sounds of speech or the study of sounds in human speech

-Learning sounds of the language allows you too understand which sounds are possible.

-Ex. The sound "-tl" used in the ancient Aztec language, Nahuatl, as in tlatoani (political leader) or tomatl (tomato)

-This sound combination is not found in English

-Distinguishing which basic sounds are used and which are not is a good starting point

Phonemics

Phoneme

Morpheme

Morphemes

Syntax

Semantics

Phoneme

smallest unit of sound that affects meaning

Ex. The word "ox" refers to one specific thing but if a "b" is added, like in the word "box" it changes the meaning of the word

Morpheme

smallest part of a word that conveys meaning

differ from phonemes in that a single morpheme may contain several sounds

-Ex. The word the word "textbooks" contains 3 morphemes: text (a book used for instructional purposes), book (that which is read), and "s" (a marker to show its plural)

Syntax

how units of speech are put together to create sentences

Grammatical rules govern speech in all languages, both spoken and signed

Semantics

important in order to understand how words and phrases are put together in meaningful ways

Includes meaning derived from body language, facial expressions, and other non-verbal means of communication

Paralanguage

• Refers to all of the ways we express meaning through sound beyond words

• Subset of semantics because it gives us information about meaning

• The way someone speaks can give us clues about the socio-cultural identity of the speaker within the first few utterances

• 2 Types of Paralanguage - Voice qualities and vocalizations are culturally variable. Each language has its own set of meanings attached to its paralanguage. Even dialects of the same language can be extremely variable.

Voice Qualities

Background characteristics of a person's voice including its pitch (how high or low a person speaks), rhythm of speech, articulation of words, and lip movements

Vocalization

Intentional sounds humans make to express themselves, but are not actually words

Non-verbal Communication

• Non-verbal communication refers to the very specific set of unspoken cues such as gestures, body movements, and facial expressions that are acquired by speakers of a language

• Paralanguage tends to develop based on a person's experiences (such as gender, education or occupation), members of a culture share non-verbal communication.

• Hand gestures, facial expressions, or eyebrow movements convey meaning

• Ex. North Americans nod their heads to mean "yes" and shake their heads from left and right to mean "no"

Idea of "Blank Slate"

-John Locke

-the notion of which a person is born fresh, as if they are a tablet on which there is not writing yet

-This idea affirms that personality, thoughts, and behavior are gained through a person's life experience, and are not innate or somehow biologically programmed

Dependence Training

-set of child rearing practices that supports the family unit over the individual

-Children learn the importance of compliance to the family group

-Typically taught in societies that value extended (or joint) families - multiple generations that live together in a family business or pool resources

Ex. Agricultural communities, may be expected that all members of the family are expected to work on the farm

Independence Training

-refers to the set of child-rearing practices that foster a child's self-reliance

-Found in industrial societies and in societies in which earning an income requires moving to where jobs are available

-The individual is seen as an actor who can shape their own destiny

-Emphasis is placed on developing the skills of each child, so they can be competitive and successful in life

-The sense of self is strongly linked to the individual

Sex

refers to our biological and physiological differences, including sex chromosomes, hormones, reproductive structures, and external genitalia

Gender

-a person's internal experience of their identity as male, female, both or neither as well as the expression of that identity in social behavior

-Social Meanings

Sexuality

refers to attraction, either romantic or physical

Intersex

combination of physiological and morphological traits that place them on the sex spectrum, in a way that does not allow a simple definition of male or female

Sexual Orientation

may be formed biologically or in conjunction with social factors

Margaret Mead

-Addressed some of the most fundamental human issues such as family, gender roles, and childhood development through the holistic lens of anthropology

-Questioned the idea that men and women were born into roles that North America society placed them in, considering that culture had such an important role in creating different values and expectations

-Among the Arapesh, both men and women were expected to behave in ways we would call "feminine", that is gentle, cooperative, non-aggressive, and nurturing

-Among the Mundugumor, she found that both sexes were aggressive, even violent with little interest in childcare and therefore more "masculine" according to society's standards at the time

-Among the Tchambuli, she discovered that Western gender roles were reversed: women were dominant and played a primary economic role, while men were primarily interested in aesthetics, were less responsible, and easily emotional

Guilt Culture

one focuses on one's own sense of right and wrong. Yet, when breaking the rule, one would be punished by others or supernatural entities

Shame Culture

wanting to live up to other's expectation. One tries desperately to avoid losing one's honour and reputation

Benedict

Argued that: human cultures are seen as "personality writ large";

-Each culture has a unique pattern ["cultural configuration"], which determines the fundamental personality characteristics of its members; and people are "molded" into their culture's dominant personality type through enculturation

-Cookie cutter

-Kuwakiutl - Dionysian type, "Vigorous", "overbearing"

-Zuni - Apollonian type, "calm", "passive"

Two Spirit

-gender variant has been recorded across more then 120 Native American and First Nations cultures

-Pan native community uses the term two-spirit for those who many self-identify as gender non-conforming or gender fluid, or have a sexual orientation other than heterosexual

-Socially accepted in the tribe as a third gender with elements of both genders

Hijras

occupy a role that is between sexes in Indian society -Use female pronouns but consider themselves as "Not - man, not - woman"

-Assigned as male or intersex at birth who adopt female behaviors such as dress, hairstyle, ornamentation, names and mannerisms

-Live in communal homes - expected to survive on charity and payment for services performed, such as blessing babies or performing at wedding

-Hindu Mother Goddess - devotion requires a vow of sexual abstinence

-Males must have their penis and testicles removed - ritual transformation

-Live on the margins of society due to severe prejudice, social discrimination, and often data

Body Modification

-one of the most common ways people express their gender identity and make themselves attractive to others

-Many young people across cultures and throughout time have participated in rites of passage that require some type of body modification often to make themselves more attractive in preparation for finding a partner

Female Genital Mutilation

is widely practiced as a rite of passage: part of young girl's entry into the community and preparation for marriage - the practice involves surgical removal of the clitoris, labia majora, and or labia minora for non-medical reasons

Gendered Speech

-men and women to use different speech patterns based on social norms

-This can lead to misunderstandings between men and woman that more about gendered speech patterns than about individuals in conversation

-Generalizations

-This is not true across all ethnic, religious, or other background

Kayan Lahwi: The "Giraffe" Women

-Suffer a type of gender inequality that stems from their perceived worth as tourist attractions

-Wear coiled brass neck rings that give the illusion of an elongated neck

-Due to heavy promotion by the government tourists come from all over to see the "exotic giraffe women" in Thai refugee villages

-Thai authorities have denied the right to leave to a group of Kayan Lahwi at the refugee village who bring in tourist income to the government

Japanese Host Boys

-The host boy's goal is to sell her the fantasy that he wants to be with her, causing her to return again and again to the club

-Desire is a transaction bought and sold like a commodity

-High alcohol consumption and sleepless nights cause liver damage and other health conditions

Gerai of Borneo

-One gender

-People who are good at:

Selecting Seeds - Women

Clearing Forests - Men

-emphasis on oneness/sameness

Sambia

-2 Genders

-Northern part of New Guinea

-A rite of passage for a boy to become a "man"

-emphasis on the radical difference between men and women

Brazil

-Travesti

-Men

-Not men (women biologically or travesti)

Bugis, Indonesia

-5 Genders

-Female

-Male

-Calalai = biologically female, dressing as men acting as men

-Calabai = the reverse of Calalai

-Bissu = biologically male, acting as female: a priest