Essential Outcome 1: Introduction to Anthropology

Outcome 1: Introduction to Anthropology: Shaun Piazza

Anthropology is the study of humans/humanity. Anthro comes from a Greek word “Anthropos” meaning humanity, and “–ology” means “the study of.” Anthropologists can study a variety of things within their subject. From ancient humans, to modern day humans, to culture, to body structure, etc. It is very broad, and can cover almost everything in our everyday lives.

General principles are: Global, comparative, holistic, empirical, and relative.

Four subfields are: archaeology, cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.

Global: Anthropology not only has to do with us in America, but the entire human race around the world. We try to study every group of humans that we can, so that we may better understand our own culture. Global pretty much tries to see all the various qualities that we as humans have from all around the world.

Holistic: The Holistic principle basically brings upon the idea that each part or section of culture around the world contributes to the whole understanding of what we as humans are in their own little ways. It means that you can consider all of the "smaller" parts of the whole picture to see what it really is all about. Take for instance Dr. Archer's example about his kids' afternoon care sessions. He had to choose between keeping them in the program, and paying the people there, but in return he had less time with his kids. However, if he took them out of the program, he would have more money in his pocket, and more time to spend with his kids. So holistic is basically all the little factors of something that tie into the main idea/concept. You can think as broadly as you'd like to. Following Dr. Archer's teeth example, I will go with body sculpting. Why is it that we as a society tend to favor lean, muscular, and fit bodies over out of shape and overweight ones? How have our culture and our minds evolved to that type of mentality? Was it different in the past? That's what holistic is. Taking a concept, and thinking about everything you can possibly think of in relevance to that particular subject.

Comparative: We can compare our own culture to another one to see the differences and/or similarities that we share. We can even use other cultures to learn more about our own.

Relative: Again comparing cultures, however, trying not to value one culture over another. Treating them all equal. No group is superior to any other, we all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas.

Empirical: Has everything to do with experience, and the way anthropologists think about the research and data that they collect through their work. If you experience it first hand, it is going to be empirical. You were there, and you collected the data.

Cultural implies anything passed down from generation to generation that’s not genetic, such as words, ideas, concepts, ways of doing things, etc. It helps us understand other culture’s way of doing things as well. If we see a culture making sacrifices to their god, it may seem strange to us, however, they may view our activities, such as eating hamburgers or driving cars as weird. It covers everything from politics, to law, to relations, to exchanges; basically anything having to do with one’s culture can be found under this subfield. They try to understand how different cultures interact with each other and how they understand the world around them.

Physical Anthropology focuses on evolution, genetics, and primatology, amongst other things. They would look at say for example, how humans learned to walk, and they would say it would have something to do with the feet evolving or something, while the cultural anthropologist would say it was a learned behavior. In fact, forensic anthropologists, and crime scene investigators are sub fields of this subfield (if that makes any sense). They could, for example, look at the differences between primates bone structures and our own, and try to connect a link as to how we evolved.

Linguistic: These guys look at the history and basic overall structure and integrity of all human languages throughout time. They try to connect behavior to actions and movements and thoughts and words. Without language, our society wouldn’t be the same as it is today, that’s for sure. It is important to realize they look at both verbal AND non-verbal communications, and how they both relate to one another. They can look at cave paintings on the wall from the Neanderthals, or perhaps study a written script that was unearthed, or even look for vocal signs in human skull remains.

Archaeology: Study the humans of the past. These guys look at everything from writings left behind by cultures, to human remains, to artifacts associated with cultures, etc. They also look at how the artifacts relate to the culture, and how they affected/impacted it as a whole. They try to understand the humans of the past and relate them to today’s world. An example of something archaeologists would study would be human remains.

A subject that two or more subfields could study could be the remains of the people of Pompeii. The Physical Anthropologists could examine the human remains, bones and things, and see how they compared to the different cultures today (a holistic point of view). And try to see how we changed over time. Archaeologists could not only study the human remains, but the artifacts and objects that were found in the buried town of Pompeii. And hey, cultural anthropologists could even come into the picture and study the remains and artifacts and try to link them to today’s world and see how they compare and how they differ.

Anthropology can be related to many other fields. One such is criminal justice. A huge part of the criminal justice system is the crime scene investigation unit. Forensic Anthropologists know all about human remains and things like that, and so they can help out in that regard to the crime scenes. They could look at victims and determine many things.

There are many strengths of anthropology. Anthropology can seek to help out human- kind as a whole. It helps us all understand each other, and how our cultures are similar and different in many different ways. Basically, since it is such a BROAD field, it helps out our society in more ways than imaginable. Archaeology helps us better understand ourselves today compared to the past. Cultural helps us understand who we are in relation to other cultures around the globe. Physical helps us see how we as humans have evolved over time, and how our body functions. And Linguistic helps us understand how our language has helped our culture change.

There aren’t too many weaknesses of anthropology, but there is one I can think of. Since the study is so broad, it is hard to define what is in each subfield, because many subjects cross over into two or more of them. And since the subjects cross into different subfields, many anthropologists in the fields disagree on many points.

Anthropology actually has been a big part of my life over the past year or so. My girlfriend is an anthropology major up at Humboldt State University, so I learn a lot from her, because I’m taking a lot of the same classes that she has (like this one). I took physical anthropology last semester so I learned a lot about the body and how we compare to primates, and how we as a species came into existence. I’ve always been kind of interested in anthropology, and I hope that with this class I can learn more about it.