The Discipline

of Anthropology

Module 2
Anthropology Anthropology is the study
of human societies and
cultures, past and present,
From the Greek word and seeks to understand
"anthropos" meaning
Human and the complex nature of
"logos" meaning Study. human social and cultural
life.
Development of The history of
anthropology as a
Anthropology discipline can be traced
back from these two
historical events - the rise
of empires and states,
and the dawn of
colonialism and
imperialism.
 This convergence
prompted the scholars of
The rise of this era to document
variations in human
empires population and its
and states characteristics.
Herodotus
was a Greek historian. His work,
the Histories, is considered one
of the earliest examples of
historical writing and is also an
important source of information
on the ancient world. Father of History
(c. 484 – c. 425
BCE)
While Herodotus is not typically
considered a modern anthropologist, his
work did contribute to the development
of anthropology and other social
sciences.
his descriptions of different cultures and
peoples in the Histories provided early
examples of comparative analysis and
ethnography.
Herodotus describes the customs and beliefs of
the Egyptians, Persians, Scythians, and other
groups in great detail. He compares their
practices to those of the Greeks, highlighting
similarities and differences between cultures. He
also examines the causes of conflicts and wars
between different groups, providing early
examples of political analysis and conflict theory.
Ibn Khaldun
In Muqaddimah, he examined
the social, psychological, and
economic factors that led to the
rise of the ancient civilizations in
the Mediterranean. The strength (1332-1406) 14th century
Muslim Historian
of Khaldun's work lies on his use Who wrote
Muqaddimah which means
of the scientific approach. Introduction in Arabic.
He was considered ahead His emphasis on the importance
of his time for basing his of empirical observation, the
arguments on logical use of data to support theories,
reasoning and detailed and the role of social structures
documentation of the
and institutions in shaping
traits of the civilizations
instead of the commonly human behavior and society
accepted religious have influenced the work of
framework. many social scientists.
In the 21st century, both
Khaldun's and
Herodotus's work are still
considered the
forerunners of the
ethnographic method.
 This Western-centric
analysis produced a highly
Eurocentric view of the
world and launched forms of
labeling that gave primacy to
The dawn Western civilization as being
of colonialism the more advanced culture as
compared to the "exotic
and imperialism other."
 (1712-1778)
Jean-Jacques 18th-century
Rousseau philosopher,
writer, and
composer

In his work Discourse on Inequality (1755)

he said that, these "primitive" societies can
later on be expected to progress toward the
stage of civilized societies, just like those in
Europe.
Rousseau argued that the morality of "primitive" societies is
characterized by peace and harmony, in contrast to that of the
civilized European society, which was already laden with
inequality due to the imposition of socially constructed needs
for acquisition of status and wealth.
In the 18th – 19th The shift in the
centuries, the rise of socioeconomic and
imperialism further political landscapes also
pushed the Western world shaped how Europeans
to engage in cross-cultural
interacted with foreign
research as they
encountered more peoples.
societies that were utterly
different from them.
The demand for raw materials pushed
the members of the elite to finance
voyages to new territories.
They were able to extract not
just resources but also labor,
which became, the precursor to
slavery in the West.
Apart from non-Westerners As technological
flocking the Western world developments in Europe
an creating a subservient created social gaps,
minority, another form of impoverished Westerners
migration significantly sought to rebuild their
affected the distribution of lives in the newly
human population in the conquered lands.
world during that time. Particularly, with British
people who established
the first colonies in
Americas.
 The earliest individuals who
Important inquired and investigated
about "other" cultures were
Personalities in museum collectors,
Anthropology physicians, and historians.
Edward Burnett
Tylor
Regarded as the Father of
Cultural Anthropology. He
defined anthropology as the
“science of culture,” which was
the first time that culture had
been declared as an object of
study.
He argued that just like He said that “culture, or
any topic of science, civilization, taken in its broad,
culture could be ethnographic sense, is that a
objectively studied with complex whole which includes
proper methodology and a
knowledge, belief, art, morals,
theoretical framework.
law, custom, and any other
capabilities and have acquired
by man as a member of
society.”
In his work Primitive
Culture (1871), Tylor
introduced the concept of
unilineal cultural
evolution, or a culture
believed to have
progressed from one stage
to the other.
He argued that as the
intellectual capacity of
humans increases, their
capacity to explain social
realities also increases in
complexity.
This capacity enables a
group of humans to move
from a state of pure
superstition to that of pure
scientific explanation.
Using the divide between
religion and science (with the
former reflecting a state of
savagery and the latter
signifying civilized
perspective), Tylor explained
that modern forms of religious
present in civilized societies
are mere “survivals” of past
cultures.
For example, in his
exploration of the practice
of animism, Tylor argued
that this behavior has been
practiced universally in the
past and has survived today
in the form of religious
beliefs in gods.
However, other
functionalist scholars
argued against his stand,
saying that not all
religions today have an
animistic past and
discounting Tylor ‘s
proposition and cultural
elements are universal.
Lewis Henry
Morgan
He was a lawyer by training and
profession, who became
fascinated with the land disputes
between the United States
government and the American
Indian people known as Iroquois.
 What defined Morgan’s
career as an
anthropologist was his
success in documenting
the kinship systems of the
Iroquois.

In 1851, he released his classic

work League of the Ho-dé-no-
sau-nee or Iroquois.
As a product of his time, His version of
Morgan embraced the social/cultural evolution
social Darwinist approach presents three stages of
pervading in the academe societal development
through discourse on
based on the progression
social and physical
of their technological
evolution.
capacity.

These three stages are savagery, barbarism, and civilization.

He characterized savage societies as
those chiefly utilizing crude
technology like fire, bow, and pottery.
Barbaric societies are those defined
by the practice of metallurgy,
domestication of animals, and
agriculture. On top of this
evolutionary hierarchy are civilized
societies, which are characterized by
development and a system of
writing.
One primary critic against
Morgan and his brand of
evolutionary anthropology was
its Eurocentric approach in the
development of societies, in
such a way that those belonging
to the savage category were the
non-Western colonized people,
while imperialists fall under the
civilized category.
Franz Boas
He started out with degrees
in physics and geography.

Boas was one of the key

figures who did not use
science to justify racism.
(1858 – 1942) Father of
American Anthropology
In his evolutionary stance of
societal development, he
argued that culture is not a by-
product of human group’s
physical characteristics, but of
social learning affected by
various factors like
environment and history.
This argument became the
foundation of human
variation analysis that is
based on cultural
differences, a far cry from
biological deterministic
framework of the
evolutionists.
Boas also pioneered the
importance of actual field
work as opposed to the
armchair anthropology
meant research by sitting
and reading accounts that
were already written by
travelers, missionaries and
explorers about other
cultures.
Boas argued that totality
of culture could only be
understood by researchers
if they would conduct
field observations before
creating generalizations.
For instance, his longest
engagement in the field
was with the Kwakiutl
Indians of British
Columbia in Canada.
His scientific method of Cultural relativism
doing anthropological promotes the study of
research led to the people's lives and their
recognition of cultural lifeways based on the
relativism as one of
context of their culture
anthropology's key
and not of the researcher.
concepts.

This process allows more accurate depiction of a society's

culture.
Boas was later regarded as the Father of American
Anthropology for four reasons.
• he considered archeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic data to
understand culture, which later became the four fields of American
anthropology;
• he first developed his theory of historical particularism in the United States;
• he founded the first department of anthropology in the United States at
Columbia University; and
• he trained future influential scholars of the discipline.
The Fields of
Anthropology
Fields or subdisciplines of
anthropology can be
divided into either two or
four, depending on the
school.

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 The British School The American School, on the
divides anthropology into other hand, divides the discipline
the broader cultural and into biological anthropology,
biological fields archeology, linguistic
anthropology, and cultural
anthropology.
Today, applied anthropology is considered as a new
subdiscipline. It uses the interdisciplinary approach in resolving
contemporary issues or applying the discipline to practical use.
Biological or is the field that is engaged
in understanding humans
Physical and their nature as an
Anthropology animal species. It
examines human
variation, evolution,
physical characteristics.
In its attempt to study
instinctual pre-
disposition of humans, this
field also studies the human's
closest relatives like the
bonobo or pygmy chimpanzees
in one of its
subfields called primatology.
Archeology Though more popular that
its parent discipline, it
remains to be a branch of
anthropology.
It attempts to reconstruct the
cultures of past civilizations
and human groups by
dealing with fossils and
artifacts.
Fossils are the biological
remains of plants,
animals, and human
species, while artifacts are
the man-made material
remains that human
groups left such as
clothing and tools.
 It examines the relationship of
Linguistic the language and culture of a
Anthropology group of people. It works
within the premise that
language reflects the core
components of a society's
culture.
There are three subfields in linguistic anthropology:
historical linguistics traces the development and evolution of
languages;​
• descriptive linguistics focuses on understanding the
syntax of a particular language;
• social linguistics identifies how words and their usage
represent the cultural norms of a society.
 It studies the lifeways and
Cultural traditions of human
groups which may include
Anthropology their belief system,
economic activities,
material culture, and even
political system. The key
element that this field
interrogates is that of
culture.
There are two ways by
which anthropologists study
culture
in depth: ethnography and ethn
ology. Ethnography is the
holistic study of one
culture, while
ethnology allows for a cross-
cultural comparison.
Key Concepts in
Anthropology

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Evolutionism
The concept of evolutionism
was first recognized in the
natural sciences through the
works of (from left to right)
Charles Darwin, Gregor
Mendel, Alfred Wallace, and
Charles Lyell.
It was Darwin (1809 - 1882) who
became the forerunner of the
evolution concept in his work On
the Origin of Species by Natural
Selection, which highlighted
specific concepts like natural
selection and gradualisms. In his
work, Darwin argued that species
develop through time due to
responses made toward the
changes in environment.
This perspective was later
adapted by social scientists
in understanding the
development of human
societies through the theory
of unilineal evolution, which
states that human groups go
through stages of
development.
Cultural This concept is a valuable mental
tool used by most anthropologists as
Relativism
the study other cultures.
It promotes a value-free analysis of
other cultures as the anthropologist
understands the culture of society
based on the local context adhered to
by the people.
It is in stark contrast to Unlike cultural relativity,
ethnocentrism, which ethnocentrism produces
relies on the biases against local
anthropologist's own culture as its elements are
background in
not understood within
understanding the culture
local context.
of the society he or she is
studying.
Culture This is a key element of study in
the field of anthropology. Culture is
define as "the totality of the
lifeways of a group which may
include their tradition beliefs,
norms and more that guides the
behavior of people within their
society." Culture can be tangible or
intangible.
Research
Methods in The discipline of social
Anthropology sciences share designs,
methods, and concepts
with one another,
allowing an inter-
disciplinary approach to
study society.
In the field of anthropology, the
In a sense, ethnography
most definitive method employed
by most researchers is encompasses a broad
ethnography in which the aspect of a culture,
anthropologist describes a which may include
culture, or one of its segment, religious beliefs,
based on interviews and through livelihood activities,
participation and observation of political organizations,
locals' lifeways and beliefs. and health practices.
In using ethnography some The two most used
anthropologists review the methods in ethnography
existing material culture of a are key informant
society, while others engage interviews and participant
with the informants through observation.
interviews and by living in
the field.
Through the key informant This is different from in-
interview, the researcher depth interview,
collects data from individuals which includes
(belonging to a particular participants
who are knowledgeable
culture or society) who are
in the topic.​
experts on the topic.
In identifying the subject Interviews in
informant, the researcher will anthropology are highly in-
use the judgement sampling depth as the study of cultural
method through which he or norms and patterns often
require an intensive accounti
she will visit the community
ng of details of a society's
and have conversations and lifeways and beliefs.​
referrals from the locals.
Meanwhile, the participant The demand to observe and
observation method entails to participate in community
the process of having affairs or household activities
actual daily encounter with allows the anthropologist to gain
the locals of an
the local's perspective and obtain
anthropologist's area of
study. a richer understanding of the
cultural pattern that he or she
is investigating.
This method requires lengthy amount of time in the field,
which ranges from a minimum of six months to a full year.
Other anthropologists conduct fieldworks longer than a
year.
Aiming to document the shifts in cultural patterns in
relation to various factors like environmental or political
changes.
This prolonged interactions with community members
foster lasting bonds between the anthropologist and the
informants.
 Current
Applications of
Anthropology
Using its method of inquiry and
theoretical orientations, the
discipline of anthropology can be
put to practical use in the
resolution of contemporary issues
that the world faces.
Specifically the subset of Using biophysical training in
anthropology called discipline, forensic anthropology
applied anthropology is concerned with the
includes forensic identification of unrecognizable
anthropology and medical
remains of humans that may
anthropology.
have been burned, mutilated, or
decomposed.
Through skeletal markers, a forensic anthropologist may be
able to identify the person's age, weight, ethnic grouping,
height, and even cause of death. This branch of anthropology
is essential in resolving crimes or even reconstructing our past
as a species. On the other hand, medical anthropology is
concerned with the process by which culture (e.g., belief,
assumptions, material traits, and customs) influences people's
ways of seeking health care and well-being.
The need to understand social realities in an ever-
changing world is being felt not only by scholars, but
also the general population. However,
with scientific research being highly inaccessible
to the public, knowledge consumptions remains
almost exclusively within the walls of academe
or intellectual circles.
 It is here that public anthropology finds its significance as
it allows the general population
to access anthropological explanations to issues that pervade
in society. Public anthropologists reconstitute highly
abstract theoretical explanations rooted in the discipline to
a frame that is more easily understood by the population.
Thank you..