Name:

Angel David Osuna Angulo

School:

Tecmilenio Culiacan

Subject:

Anthropology, Culture and Social Conscience

Exercise:

Reading Test 1

Date:

February 12, 2021

 Topic 1. Anthropology as a Science

 What is Anthropology?

According to Marvin Harris, “Anthropology is the study of humanity, of the ancient and modern
people and their ways of life”.

Therefore, anthropology is enriched by contribution from various disciplines and goes beyond
them. This is where you can recognize the characteristics of anthropology: by gathering all
aspects of a human group (holistic perspective) and comparing them with those of other
groups (comparative perspective), it seeks an explanation by contrasting both the
characteristics they have in common and those that make them different from each other.

 Anthropology as a Science and Its Subdisciplines

According to the classification proposed by Harris (2004), we can recognize four main areas:

- Physical Anthropology: It studies the physical characteristics of humans through the

fossils found and the distinctive features of contemporary groups. 
- Archaeology: It is devoted to the study of material remains of past cultures. By
reconstructing extinct forms of life, it seeks to know the ecological environment and the
causes that led to its demise.
- Anthropological linguistics: It studies the diversity of languages spoken by the existing
human groups, attempts to reconstruct the history of their origin, as well as the role of
the relationship between language and the development of the groups that speak it.
- Cultural anthropology: Also known as social anthropology. It refers to the analysis and
description of cultures, both from the past and from human groups of today.
 Topic 2. History, Theories and Precursors in Anthropology

 Anthropological theories through time

Evolutionist school argues that the societies shall pass through states of development, in
that way they could be able to place in some of them. The work of the social scientist is to
discover and present the stages that spanned all cultures to reach the highest level of
development, generally associated with the European societies of that time.

Savagery:

Lower savagery:

Characterized by the subsistence through the collection of wild food, promiscuity, nomadic
horde as a basic unit of this type of societies, and common property of resources.

Higher Savagery:

They already had utensils for hunting (bow and arrows), banned marriage among siblings, and
family relationships were recognized exclusively through women.

Barbarism:

Recognizable by the invention of agriculture and pottery, the prohibition of incest was extended
to all female offspring, and the clan and village formed the basic units of organization.

Higher stage of barbarism:

When metallurgy was being developed, family relationships were traced by the male line, men
married several women (which is known as polygyny) and private property appears.

Civilization:

When writing developed, the civil government, and the monogamous couple as the basis of the
family.
  Historical particularism

The next school emerges as a reaction to the prevailing evolutionary ideas, arguing that they
were based on insufficient empirical evidence. It is proposed, rather than to strive to establish
general stages, to emphasize aspects of the singular history of the studied cultures.

 Diffusionism

This current also emerges as a reaction to evolutionism and proposes that cultures adopted
their elements by imitation. Independent creation is discarded, and, in this sense, the most
ancient cultures are the centers of origin from which, over time, techniques and knowledge
have been transmitted or distributed.

 Functionalism

The emphasis of this British current is on function; the duty of the anthropologist is to describe
the functions of the customs and institutions for the society studied, means by which we come
to understand its origins.

 Culture and personality, the influence of Freud in anthropology

This theoretical current resumes aspects of the work of noted German psychologist Sigmund
Freud, linking cultural practices and beliefs of the individual with his personality and vice versa.
Topics such as childhood and sex education bring a significant influence on the development
of the adult personality and allow us, through their study, access the knowledge of society.

 Neoevolutionism

This interaction would allow you to learn both the differences and similarities of ancient and
contemporary civilizations.

 French structuralism

This school —represented by Levi-Strauss, from France— uses an analogy to explain the
origin of the differences and similarities among cultures: the crux lies in the existence of a
general structure (symphony), an underlying pattern common to all cultures.
 References

https://cursos.tecmilenio.mx/courses/47985/pages/my-course?
module_item_id=177638