Notes on the Nature of Anthropology by Justin Nicolas

General Anthropology
Tuesday 7:30-10:30 A.M.
W-613

Notes on the Nature of Anthropology

“Anthropology is the most liberating of all the sciences, not only has it exposed the fallacies of racial and cultural superiority, but its devotion to the study of all people regardless of where and when they lived, has cast more light on human nature than all the reflections of sages or the studies of laboratory scientists”. (Haviland, 1993)

What is Anthropology?

Anthropology, the study of humankind everywhere, throughout time, seeks to produce useful generalizations about people and their behavior and to arrive at the fullest possible understanding of human diversity. [The study of humankind, in all times and places.}

What do Anthropologists do?

Physical Anthropologists study humans as biological organisms, tracing the evolutionary development of the human animal and looking at biological variations within the species, past and present. Cultural anthropologists are concerned with human cultures, or the ways of life in societies. Within the field of cultural anthropology are archeologists, who seek to explain human behavior, by studying material objects, usually from past cultures; linguists, who study languages, by which cultures are maintained and passed on to succeeding generations; and ethnologists, who study cultures as they have been observed, experienced, and discussed with persons whose culture they seek to understand.

How do anthropologists do what they do?

Anthropologists, in common with other scientists, are concerned with the formulation and testing of hypotheses, or tentative explanations of observed phenomena. In so doing, they hope to arrive at a system of validated hypotheses or theory, although they recognize that no theory is ever completely beyond challenge. In order to frame hypotheses that are as objective and free of cultural bias as possible, anthropologists typically develop them through a kind of total immersion in the field, becoming so familiar with the minute details of the situation that they can begin to recognize patterns inherent in the data. It is also through fieldwork that anthropologists test existing hypotheses.

The Discipline of Anthropology

Four Fields of Anthropology:

Physical Anthropology – the systematic study of humans as biological organisms
Cultural Anthropology – deals with humans as cultural animals; the branch of anthropology that focuses on human behavior

archeology – The study of material remains, usually from the past, to describe and explain human behavior.

linguistic anthropology – The branch of cultural anthropology that studies human language.

ethnology

ethnologist – AN anthropologist who studies cultures from a comparative or historical point of view.

Ethnography – The systematic description of a culture based on firsthand observation.
Participant observation: In ethnography, the technique of learning a people’s culture through the direct participation in their everyday life over a period of time.

Holistic Perspective – A fundamental principle of anthropology, that things must be viewed in the broadest possible context, in order to understand their interconnections and independence.

Forensic Anthropology – Field of applied physical anthropology that specializes in the identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes.

Culture-bound. – Theories about the world and reality based on the assumptions and values of one’s own culture.


Anthropology and Science

Hypothesis – A tentative explanation of the relation between certain phenomena.

Theory – A system validated hypotheses that explains phenomena systematically.

Ethnohistory – The study of cultures of the recent past through oral histories, accounts left by explorers, missionaries, and traders, and through the analysis of such records as land titles, birth and death records, and other archival materials.

Question of Ethics

“Anthropologists have obligations to three different sets of people. First, to the people that we study; secondly, to the profession which expects us to report back our findings; and thirdly, to the organizations that fund the research. Some people would order them differently—one, two, three. Three, two, one, or whatever—but those are in the minds of most anthropologists. Now, sometimes the obligations conflict. If I do fieldwork among a group of people and I learn certain things that, if revealed, might come back to hurt them, then reporting my findings back to the profession is going to be secondary because first and foremost I have to protect my informants because they trusted me. “ Laura Nader