Summary Mid-term Core Themes in Anthropology (Lectures, book and articles).
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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
This was made in the study year for the Mid Term core themes of Anthropology. It includes a summary of all class material and everything of the Book of Thomas Eriksen is intertwined in the summary as well (Small places and Large issues).
Introduction
Anthropology is about differences and commonalities.
Inversed anthropology: research in urban societies and look at integration into
society.
Culture: Different aspects of behaviors which members of societies have acquired (after they
were born).
E.g.: abilities, notions (what do you think of society), forms of behavior, objects.
Refers to the acquired, cognitive, and symbolic aspects of existence.
It is learned, shared human behavior and ideas, which can and do change with time.
Not bounded or integrated.
The relationship between culture and society:
Culture refers to the acquired aspects of existence.
Society refers to the social organization of human life, patterns, and relationships.
Holism: is used as something that distinguish anthropology from other things that focus on
disciplinary aspects such as: economics, politics, architecture kinship, religion.
Look at the different domains and interactions between them.
Theocratical paradigms
Ways of researching
Ethnocentrism: Evaluating a culture while still taking your preconceptions / own background
as a leading factor.
Describing them in your own terms.
Cultural relativism: Comparing societies without relating them to scales. Having in mind that
they are unique.
Understanding societies in an unprejudiced way.
Epistemology: The theory of knowledge, especially regarding its methods, validity and scope.
Reflecting on used methods; which are valid / best / worse / objective / reliable?
Finding out how people know what exists.
Ontology: Seeking explanation and classification about entities (with emic terms), that are
dealt with the nature of being.
Sometimes you are theorizing about something in a culture that in the culture its selves
are not relevant or even a factor, thus why should you do it?
Also, non-human actors (spiritual world).
Asking what exists and trying to understand it.
Induction dimension: watching, wondering, done through field work.
Deductive dimension: hypothesizing and creating theories.
,Theory: Ideas intended to explain something between two different factors, in a different
way than already is given/known.
Levels:
1. Concept
2. Processes; a higher level, more explanatory level.
3. Grand theories; enormous explanatory ideas (e.g., evolutionism).
History: a product of the past which is currently redesigned by present thoughts.
New theories arise due to the present.
Key variable for historical change; Social cohesion: the strength of relationships and the
sense of solidarity among members of a community.
Theoretical Paradigms: approach to anthropology. Consisting of assumptions about the
nature of society, a theoretical core, key figures, a sense of belonging.
Starts from a theoretical core idea.
Replies to specific concerns/questions from our history / era.
They emerge in a particular era and to earlier ideas.
Paradigms:
Evolutionism: reflects on globalization/imperialism
Historical particularism: all societies or cultures have their own unique history.
- Franz Boas emphasized that we need to look at every society as an individual case.
Structural-functionalism: main social and cultural principles are functional to overall
social structure. Emphasizing on social institutions (kinship, norms).
Structuralism: the mind has a common structure expressed though myth, kinship, and
other cultural phenomena.
Transactionalism: the logic of human action is the same everywhere.
Culture and personality school
Symbolic or interpretative anthropology
Genderstudies
Postmodernism
Globalisation theory: to account for the ways in which modern mas communications,
migration, capitalism interact with local conditions. And understanding cultural diffusion.
Theoretical questions
Universalism vs relativism: what is common to humanity vs what is culturally specific.
Ethnocentrism vs cultural relativism: moral judgements vs neutral descriptions of people.
Humanity vs the animal kingdom: culture vs nature
Main scholars
1. Franz Boas: promoted historical particularism and cultural relativism.
2. Bronislaw Malinowski: you need to engage in full cultural context to understand
interconnections.
Inventor of fieldwork: he wrote a paper while staying under the radar in New Guinea.
3. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown: believed in structural functionalism: empathize on social
institutions.
, Social and cultural phenomena are functional and contribute to the maintence of overall
social structure.
4. Marcel Mauss: believed in systematic comparison of patterns in social life. Looked for
structural similarities.
Fieldwork
Ethnography: the way anthropologist are doing fieldwork.
You are viewed as natural by the residents.
Importance
Observing routines that are difficult to describe.
Hearing the use of terms/concepts in context.
Seeing social organization in action.
Building trust to prepare for interviews.
Seeing discrepancies between what people say and do.
Forms to take while researching
1. The clown; you discover how they react to your behavior, you know how they think.
2. The expert; they give you too much respect: you do not get to know them properly.
Problems
1. Feeling helpless
2. Adjustment to their natural (hostility, climate, different hygiene).
E.g., being pitied when being alone
3. Limited knowledge of language:
Solution can be describing or analyzing them in comparative terms.
4. Gender bias
5. Time intensive
6. Demanding
7. Professional bias / positionality
8. Getting a random sample
Positionality: the background of yourself has an enormous impact on the kind of research
that you do.
Reflect on your gender, age, race and your class.
Criteria of good research
Objectivity: however, this is impossible due to your background.
Large numbers: however, too time consuming.
Rapport: You limit the distance between the interlocular and yourself.
have you established a good relation / adjust to the local society?
Reflexivity: reflecting on obstacles, rapport etc.
Ethnographic depth: detailed and thick description.
Ethical dilemmas
Informed consent
Should you get personally involved?
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