The Anthropological Study of Culture through a Multicultural Context
Introduction to Anthropology
• The basic question which Anthropology has always tried to answer is: How can we explain the
uniformity and diversity of humans and human behaviour
• Anthropologists have set out to develop a better understanding of diverse societies in different contexts
by spending time with people in their particular settings.
• Anthropology is a science dealing with man (humans) and his (their) origins.
What is Anthropology?
Introduction
• Anthropology is the study of people and their behaviour and it is required to spend extended periods of
time with people in their own environment.
• Anthropology is characterised by curiosity about people and strives to explain and make sense of both
human beings and human behaviour – is the study of humankind everywhere, both past and present.
• The term anthropology comes from the Greek Anthropos for “man/human” and logos for “study”
• Anthropology produces information (data), knowledge and understanding of what makes people
different from one another and what makes them similar, and looks at what all human beings have in
common.
Anthropology and other disciplines
• There are several other disciplines that also study people.
• There is a particular approach, characteristic perspectives and distinctive methods of doing research
and this is what distinguishes anthropology from these other disciplines.
• A discipline is a branch of instruction or learning, a branch of science. Different disciplines have
different fields of study and each has its particular approach and methods of obtaining data.
• Psychology studies the mental life of humans by means of scientific and interpretive methods. The
nature and characteristics of the human psyche or mind are therefore the focus of psychology.
Fields of study have developed as a result: psychological anthropology, culture and personality,
ethnopsychology.
• Sociology studies the social life of people, more particularly the social relations, organisation and
human behaviour of human societies.
Sociologists came to rely on questionnaires and other techniques to produce quantifiable data –
sampling and statistical methods were therefore important.
• History is inclined to focus on past events and individuals, and historians seek to explain why such
events occurred in the sequence that they did, as well as the role of particular individuals and
circumstances in such a process.
• Geographers relate the study of humans to the study of land. They stress ecological factors such as
terrain and climate and their influence on human behaviour.
The Anthropological Perspective and Approach
• Anthropology is concerned with the human condition in its entirety
• A distinguishing feature of anthropology is its holistic or multifaceted approach to studying human
beings.
• Anthropologists take the whole context of a particular group of people into account
• Anthropologists study not only all varieties of people, but also many aspects of human experience.
, • It thus integrates many different areas of concern and is therefore an attempt to get the whole picture,
to put it all together and to apply knowledge from various spheres of activity to the understanding of
any particular aspect of human behaviour – by placing this within its sociocultural and environmental
context.
• Contextualisation might be a more useful term/concept (than holistic), implying not stability and
integration, but emphasises dynamic relationships between phenomena
• The notion of holism/contextualisation is therefore based on the expectation that each patterned
element or system is dependent upon or linked to some other elements within a specific time, situation
and locality.
• Anthropologists find that change within one system can influence other systems.
• The anthropological approach is also typified by comparison/comparative method. It is not intended as
a way of determining which groups are better than others.
• Comparison is employed by anthropologists to indicate differences between the sociocultural systems
of people, but also to bring to the fore similarities or even universals.
• Anthropology is associated with the concept of culture (or sociocultural system) and with a particular
method of doing research, field work.
The Subfields of Anthropology
Biological or Physical Anthropology
• Deals with the biological or the physical aspects of humans and human populations.
• To answer particular questions about the emergence of humans and their eventual development, and
as to why and how contemporary human populations vary biologically.
• Focus on fossil remains of prehistoric human like beings in order to obtain information about the
development of human beings from very early times.
• Exchange information with human palaeontologists who study the emergence of human beings and
their later evolution.
• This enables biological anthropologists to obtain information about early human beings and their
relation to modern humans.
• Although we all belong to the same species (Homo sapiens sapiens) there is a great deal of variation
between human populations.
• Anthropologists seek to answer why are some human populations taller than others, how have human
populations adapted physically to their environment, are some people better equipped to endure cold
and others the tropical sun, etc..
• To answer these questions, anthropologists make use of human genetics (the study of inherited human
traits), population biology (the study of the effects of the environment) and epidemiology (the study of
the differing effects of diseases on populations).
• Inherited and demographic factors are of interest, however attention to the influence of biological
factors on behaviour on human population should be paid
• Note: “demographic” refers to statistical data concerning populations, that is the size, composition
and development of populations. Such statistical data are acquired by census surveys concerning the
registration of births, deaths, marriages and the migration of people.
Archaeology
• Derived from the Greek arkhaios (ancient) and logos (discipline or science).
• Studies the past living conditions and changes that occurred in human populations during prehistoric
times.
• They obtain data from the material remains of human settlements that are carefully collected during
the excavation of sites where people once lived.
, • Remains such as tools, ornaments, postherds, weapons and human bones are examples of “remains”.
• Without the material objects exposed by the archaeologists during their excavations we would know
very little about prehistoric humans.
Linguistic Anthropology
• Focuses on the large variety of languages spoken by people and especially the relationship between
language and other aspects of people’s lives.
Specialist areas within Linguistics Anthropology:
• Historical linguistics: the study of how languages change over time and how languages are related to
each other
• Descriptive or structural linguistics: the study of the difference between contemporary languages
especially in terms of their construction
• Sociolinguistics: the study of the way in which language is used in different social contexts
• Note that research about other people and their sociocultural systems requires a basic knowledge of
their language. From experience anthropologists know that knowledge of the language of the people
being studied soon establishes a relationship of trust between the people being researched and the
researcher.
Sociocultural Anthropology
• The “Anthropology” in the name of the department Anthropology and Archaeology actually refers
to sociocultural anthropology.
• Cultural anthropology:
Mainly used in America
Drew some of its principles from the German anthropological tradition
More broadly based
Emphasised pattern behaviour transmitted over generations within a group context, which
is guided by particular common values
• Social anthropology:
Essentially practised in Great Britain
Developed from sociological theory
Focused on the dynamics of social relations, social structure, etc.
• Sociocultural systems is a combination of the two disciplines, which is an attempt to adopt a more
balanced approach towards understanding the human experience.
Why become an Anthropologist
Is Anthropology useful?
• The relevance of anthropology comes to the fore in our contemporary lives, almost on a daily basis
• Contact between socioculturally different people has increased dramatically in recent times.
• International travel is now common place. It is no longer only Americans and Europeans who visit
exotic places and people, today these very same exotic people have begun travelling to Europe and
America.
• Information, communication and electronic technology are also bringing everything and everybody
in the world closer together.
• Communication and exposure to other sociocultural systems have become immediate thanks to
television, cell phones, the internet and social media
• Issues are now often global or transnational (news items)
, • Sociocultural change is continually accelerating and known or conventional ways of life and
institutions are being transformed or questioned – family, marriage, religion, diet, language and
local or group identity.
• In order to understand this (present) seemingly chaotic, confusing and complex historical period,
there is a need for a perspective on humanity which does not take preconceived assumptions about
human societies for granted, which is sensitive to both similarities and differences, and which is
simultaneously approaches the human world from a global and a local angle.
• The only academic subject which fulfils these conditions is anthropology, which studies humans in
society under the most varying circumstances imaginable, yet searches for pattern and similarities,
but is fundamentally critical of quick solutions and simple answers to complex questions.
• If we study only our own context and sociocultural system we merely produce what anthropologists
call “culture bound” explanations that cannot be applied to humans in general.
• What we are trying to become sensitive to is the fact that people adapt to different environments
and that they do this physically and socioculturally.
• This in turn leads us to understanding in behaviour others that at first might seem strange – and this
again can prevent misunderstanding between people.
• Differences and misunderstandings between people are often quite subtle (body language,
gestures, perception of personal space) or they might be more explicit.
• It is for the anthropologist to “translate” such expressions of differing sociocultural systems in order
to prevent misunderstandings that are often based on stereotypes or presumptions.
• Anthropology mainly offers two kinds of insight:
It produces data and knowledge of the actual sociocultural variation of human systems
around the world
It has methods of research, or fieldwork, and theoretical perspectives that make it possible
to not only compare and understand such variations in the expression of the human
condition, and also to discern similarities.
Importantly what anthropology offers is both matters to think about and ways or skills to
think with
The Anthropological Way: Doing Fieldwork – Research
Introduction
The most significant way in which anthropologists have tried to develop an understanding of different societies
in diverse settings, and of their own people and their own context, is by spending extended periods of time with
other people in their own surroundings and becoming familiar with their activities in their context. This is what
fieldwork in anthropology involves.
Fieldwork and Ethnography
• Fieldwork is one of the distinctive features of anthropology
• To do fieldwork anthropologists have to leave their comfort zone (sometimes even their own countries)
to study another community or people in a different setting by spending a prolonged period of time
with them.
• What the anthropologist is often called ethnographic fieldwork, because ethnography is both the
process and the product of fieldwork.
• Ethnography is derived from the Greek ethnos (peoples) and graphein (to write) – to write about
peoples.
• Anthropologists used to regard this as the descriptive study of cultures or human societies.
• When anthropologists now produce knowledge (when they do ethnography) this involves more than
just describing the people and their activities or just collecting information or data.
