importance of knowing perspective of anthropology importance of knowing perspective of anthropology

In all these efforts, my attention is primarily on understanding the complexities, nuances, and significance of race. I have also explored how race impacts peoples senses of belonging in various social spacesfor instance, African American participation in downhill skiing or the experiences of underrepresented students at historically white colleges and universities. Living in societies throughout the world, and conducting research with people in diverse cultures, were dreams that began to emerge for me when I was an undergraduate student studying anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the early 1980s. Everything! Myron J. Aronoff Recipient of the 2013 AIS-Israel Institute Lifetime Achievement Award " Anthropology and Political Science does the important work of demonstrating fruitful openings in two fields of study. Although I am not calling for a mass return to foraging, when we consider the significant worldwide issues that humans face todaysuch things as global warming, the threat of nuclear war, accelerating ethnic conflicts, and a world population that has grown from one billion to nearly eight billion over the past two hundred yearswe are left with difficult questions about whether 10,000 years of agriculture and a couple hundred years of industrialization have been in humanitys best long-term interests. The fieldwork and participant observation research methods provide cultural anthropologists the opportunity to live with a group of people for several months or years. We asked three cultural anthropologists Anthony Kwame Harrison, Bob Myers, and Lynn Kwiatkowski to describe what drew them to the discipline and to explain how they use anthropological perspectives in their varied research projects. But it must be spoken to be heard. Hence, Anthropology and its study are indeed important from the perspective of knowing more about us. For example, a cultural anthropologist studying the meaning of marriage in a small village in India might consider local gender norms, existing family networks, laws regarding marriage, religious rules, and economic factors. When asked that question, humanity responds in 7,000 different languages, voices that collectively comprise our repertoire for dealing with all the challenges that will confront us as a species. Anthropology itself is a holistic discipline, comprised in the United States (and in some other nations) of four major subfields: cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. . 1. Linguistic anthropology studies languages and how they have developed and evolved over time. No two people will see a situation or issue in exactly the same way . Anthropology can be defined as the comparative study of humans, their societies and their cultural worlds. We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. This type of research takes a great amount of time and effort but produces a uniquely deep and contextual type of knowledge. Race and gender are cultural constructs, derived not from biology but born in the realm of ideas. Anthropologists conduct their research in the field with the species, civilization, or groups of people they are studying. The superiority of the white man was accepted with such assurance that the Oxford English Dictionary in 1911 had no entries for racism or colonialism. A new introduction, written by Katie Nelson and Lara Braff, places cultural anthropology in a four-fields context and offers students information about the variety of careers and perspectives in the discipline of anthropology. Race, he notes, was accepted as a given, a biological fact, with lineages dividing white from Black reaching back through primordial time. Sociology is of great importance in the solution of social problems In 1871 Darwin published The Descent of Man, which argued that human beings shared a recent common ancestor with the great African apes. What is the importance of knowing the perspective of anthropology sociology? It is the study of humanity including our prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity. Examples of these problems include the impacts of climate change on the health and welfare of diverse peoples throughout the globe; and social structural reasons for nutritional problems, as well as cultural meanings people give to them, such as undernutrition, and illnesses related to increasing weights of people in societies globally. Anthropology Perspective emphasises the need to understand what humans do and how they interpret their own actions and world-views. Influenced by my study of gender power relations surrounding hunger and malnutrition in the Philippines, and also by the political violence I witnessed by the Philippine government and the Communist New Peoples Army, I took up a new research project that focuses on gender violence. The focus of Anthropology is on understanding both our shared humanity and diversity, and engaging with diverse . So when you are working with people and building relationships with them, it helps to have some perspective and understanding of their cultures. It covers MELC 1: Discuss the nature, g. While in graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I became fascinated with Caribbean history and migration and spent almost two years doing doctoral fieldwork and research on the island of Dominica. The emphasis of sociology is on society and social processes, while that of anthropology is on culture. To this end, in my introductory cultural anthropology course, we view and critically discuss at length several famous films (Nanook of the North, parts of A Kalahari Family, The Nuer, and sometimes Ishi, the Last Yahi, among others), but also Michael Weschs Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. A person makes good with social values. How do seemingly random beliefs and convictions converge into this thing called culture, a term that he was the first to promote as an organizing principle, a useful point of intellectual departure. A tireless campaigner for human rights, Boas maintained always that anthropology as a science only made sense if it was practiced in the service of a higher tolerance. Im convinced that an anthropology major is not necessary for our discipline to play a significant role in students understanding of the messy, amazingly diverse, interconnected world after graduation. Basically, this study involves the understanding of humans and the necessary factors that help us survive. Ethnocentrism is not a useful perspective in contexts in which people from different cultural backgrounds come into close contact with one another, as is the case in many cities and communities throughout the world. Students examples range from describing conversations with international students, exploring the cultural and economic history of tea and coffee, to seeing an evangelical church service in a new light. Of course, learning to see the world through someone else's . I am currently the Gloria D. Smith Professor of Africana Studies at Virginia Techa school that, oddly enough, does not have an anthropology program. But, 80 years on, studies of the human genome have indeed revealed the genetic endowment of humanity to be a single continuum. Understanding personality type can help you to understand your preferences and the preferences of other people and how or why these might be different.Personality . This approach, known as cultural relativism, is an essential methodological tool for studying local life-worlds on their own terms. anthropology, "the science of humanity," which studies human beings in aspects ranging from the biology and evolutionary history of Homo sapiens to the features of society and culture that decisively distinguish humans from other animal species. The LibreTexts libraries arePowered by NICE CXone Expertand are supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot. The thing about perspective is that it doesn't make the problem that caused it go away. I never imagined I would earn a Ph.D. researching the mostly middle-class, largely multi-racial, independent hip-hop scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anthropologists then describe interactions and customs, a process known as ethnography. Boas never called for the elimination of judgment, only its suspension so that the very judgments we are ethically and morally obliged to make as human beings may be informed ones. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998. And though his research took him to esoteric realms of myth and shamanism, symbolism and the spirit, he remained grounded in the politics of racial and economic justice, the promise and potential of social change. They attempt to achieve this by observing subjects in their local environment. After much debate, the word science remains in the mission statement and, throughout the United States, anthropology is predominantly categorized as a social science. This led me to pursue graduate work in anthropology despite the fact that I had taken only one anthropology course in college. Rather, a professional, or scientific, perspective represented in anthropology emphasises the need to understand what humans do and how they interpret their own actions and world-views. Ruth Benedict, acolyte of the great Franz Boas and in 1947 president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), reputedly said that the very purpose of anthropology was to make the world safe for human differences. Culture is a strong part of people's lives. Studying anthropology, then, gave me a reason to learn more about the unusual artwork that filled my childhood home and to connect with a faraway side of my family that I hardly knew anything about. All this contributes to the theme I stress that everything is culturally constructed. While anthropologists often specialize in one subfield, their specific research contributes to a broader understanding of the human condition, which is made up of culture, language, biological and social adaptations, as well as human origins and evolution. Harrison, Anthony Kwame. Participant observation research allows anthropologists to obtain a special kind of knowledge that is rarely acquired through other, more limited research methods. Every culture was a unique expression of the human imagination and heart. Some sub-disciplines, like biological anthropology and archaeology, use a deductive, scientific approach. Using an anthropological perspective, theres no issue which cannot be better understood. Searching the origins of society and religion, writing the "history of their evolution," seemed to be the most popular topic of nineteenth-century anthropology. Global cultural crises: Global Cultural Crises needs an anthropological perspective because if there is a natural disaster there maybe a social reason behind it. Looking through that course catalogue, I didnt really know what anthropology was but resolved to test-the-waters by taking several classes the following year. Wade Davis is a professor of anthropology and holds the B.C. If you recognize that marriage need not exclusively imply a man and a woman, that single mothers can be good mothers, and that two men or two women can raise good families as long as there is love in the home, its because youve embraced values and intuitions inconceivable to your great-grandparents. And if you believe that wisdom may be found in all spiritual traditions, that people in all places are always dancing with new possibilities for life, that one preserves jam but not culture, then you share a vision of compassion and inclusion that represents perhaps the most sublime revelation of our species, the scientific realization that all of humanity is one interconnected and undivided whole. I like to tell a story about how, on the last day of my first year at the University of Massachusetts, while sitting alone in my dorm room waiting to be picked up, I decided to figure out what my major would be. Everything Boas proposed ran against orthodoxy. ; Sociology has as its nature the study of . The comparative approach can be historical: How do humans today differ from ancient Homo sapiens? It is through comparison that we learn more about the range of possible responses to varying contexts and problems. I also periodically lived with a family in the center of a mountain town. I use these other topicsmusic, recreation, and higher educationas avenues through which to explore races multiple meanings and unequal consequences. Ego is the main threat to self-awareness; it is the . Like other disciplines that use comparative approaches, such as sociology or psychology, anthropologists make comparisons between people in a given society. Concepts like oppression, inequality, and intersectionality are realities in society that . Thinking through a sociological perspective helps us to understand the situations of others and allows us to better understand the reason people are in the situations they are in. Ill admit that the razor-blade example is somewhat crude. Why do we behave the way we do? To offset the absence of other anthropologists, colleagues in religious studies and I created a major called Comparative Cultures and later, with colleagues in modern languages, environmental studies, and political science, a Global Studies major, a perfect multi-disciplinary setting for anthropology. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Anthropology is the systematic study of humanity, with the goal of understanding the origins and distinctiveness of our species and the great diversity in our forms of social existence through space and time. Where I can use it Direction: Give a certain situation happening in your barangay where you can apply any of the given perspectives. Kwiatkowski, Lynn. About fifteen years ago, there was a study of sociology instructors asking them to identify the most important concepts, topics, and skills for the introduction to sociology class and the sociology curriculum. They study other societies to gain a clearer perspective on our own. Studying anthropology fosters broad knowledge of other cultures, skills in observation and analysis, critical thinking, clear communication, and applied problem-solving. The purpose of social study is to understand all of that sentimentality. The top five responses for the sociology curriculum were: sociological critical thinking; sociological imagination; how to use and . The ethnographic process involves the research method of participant-observation fieldwork: you participate in peoples lives, while observing them and taking field notes that, along with interviews and surveys, constitute the research data. A certain amount of knowledge about society is necessary before any social policies can be carried out. Knowledge of society, social groups, social institutions, associations, their functions etc. Anthropologists also study our ancient past and human origins, particularly through the subfield of archaeology, which recovers and analyzes material and physical remains.Students who major in anthropology are curious about other cultures and other times. Aimed at raising awareness regarding the importance of teaching anthropology through all grade levels, including higher education, the theme of this year was employability with a degree in anthropology. I was born in Ghana, West Africa, where my American father had spent several years working with local artisans at the National Cultural Centre in Kumasi. The key theme in this article is that political science as a field of study has acquired importance in recent years due to the explosion in interest of the matters related to the working of the political economy. The particular way that cultural anthropologists do their research is important to our results. After all, anthropologists are social scientists. In cultural anthropology, we compare ideas, morals, practices, and systems within or between cultures. is shared under a CC BY-NC license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts. We create our social realms, Boas would say, determine what we then define as being common sense, universal truths, the appropriate rules and codes of behavior. Most people find these kinds of questions difficult to answer. Lots of what we do in class stays with students beyond graduation. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. Thanks for reading Scientific American. The study of the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture (Kottak, 2012, p. 2). Knowledge about the State is of great significance to modern man. bones, tools, seeds, etc.) For example, in 2010 some cultural anthropologists critiqued the American Anthropological Associations mission statement, which stated that the disciplines goal was to advance anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects.[7] These scholars wanted to replace the word science with public understanding. They argued that some anthropologists do not use the scientific method of inquiry; instead, they rely more on narratives and interpretations of meaning. As such, they cannot be seen or touched, and yet the way we see a. There are five important aspects of perspective-taking. It helps us to determine the most efficient means for reaching the goals agreed upon. 2. Widely acknowledged as the father of American cultural anthropology, Franz Boas was the first scholar to explore in a truly open and neutral manner how human social perceptions are formed, and how members of distinct societies become conditioned to see and interpret the world. One important component of the structural-functional approach is the idea of social structure. It is possible, wrote Thomas Gossett in his 1963 book. It is just one way among a multitude of others. Legal. Introduction. On days when I am feeling particularly playful, I say that after getting through the As, I knew Anthropology was for me. Concepts in one discipline are used in the other. Often known as holism, the job of an anthropologist is to study and research different human experiences. important thing a mother gives a child; it is the substance of her own body, and in most parts of the world mothers milk is still the only safe food for infants. Another goal I have in my teaching is to illustrate that an anthropological view is useful for better coping with the world around us especially in our multi-culture, multi-racial society where ethnic diversity and immigration are politically charged and change is happening at a pace never before experienced. Then I went back to the U.S. and taught for two years at Long Island University before moving to rural Alfred University in western New York, where I now work. Augustus Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer were all sociologists who used the structural-functional approach. 877 Words Everybody does it but we all do it different; this is culture. For instance, the study of language is the domain of linguistic anthropology. The catalyst, as Charles King reminds us, was the wisdom and scientific genius of Franz Boas and a small band of courageous scholarsMargaret Mead, Alfred Kroeber, Elsie Clews Parsons, Melville Herskovits, Edward Sapir, Robert Lowie, Ruth Benedict, Zora Neale Hurston and many others contrarians all, who came into his orbit, destined to change the world. It is possible, wrote Thomas Gossett in his 1963 bookRace: The History of an Idea in America, that Boas did more to combat race prejudice than any other person in history. Through my anthropological training, I have made a career exploring how race influences our perceptions of popular music. To offer just one example, many of my students are surprised to learn that among my (matrilineal) family in Ghana, I have a distinctly different relationship with cousins who are children of my mothers brother as compared with cousins who are children of her sister. Each was a product of its own history. Ansichten: 2. Cultural anthropologists research is unique because it often involves analysis of the intersection of global social, political and economic forces and the everyday experiences of members of a cultural group. Through my research experiences, I have participated in the rich daily lives of farmers, woodcarvers, hospital personnel, government employees, shopkeepers, students, and other groups of people. Anthropology can be used to answer questions about human origins, evolution, and behavior. I probably learned more anthropology in Nigeria than in all of graduate school, including examples of the power of a traditional kingdom and the ways large families enable members to manage in distressing economic conditions. Just as social structures and forces shape our lives, our choices and actions influence the nature of society. Even as he graced the cover of Time magazine in 1936, a German Jew in exile from a homeland already dripping in blood, Boas railed against the cruel conceits and stupidity of scientific racism. Where a fascination with the exotic initially brought me to anthropology, it is the disciplines ability to shed light on what many of us see as normal, common, and taken-for-granted that has kept me with it through three degrees (bachelors, masters, and Ph.D.) and a fifteen-year career as a college professor. This video lesson is intended as a supplement to LUSDO AIR's-LM Understanding Culture, Society and Politics Module 1. This research is inductive: based on day-to-day observations, the anthropologist asks increasingly specific questions about the group or about the human condition more broadly. As we hope you have learned thus far, anthropology is an exciting and multifaceted field of study. So cooking becomes Anthropology matters because it allows us to look beneath the surface of things. Sociology: Sociology, unlike anthropology is the study of social life and how society affects human behaviour. It allows us to move on, to not sweat the small stuff, because the bigger, life-altering problems are still looming. Why is culture important? In Vietnam, I have had the opportunity to live with a family in a commune in Hanoi, and in nearby provinces.