SST-311 Big Picture A

Week 1-3: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO): At the end of the unit, you are expected
to:
a. Discuss the nature, meaning, and relevance of anthropology; identify its four sub-
disciplines and related social sciences and differentiate between ethnology and
ethnography.
Big Picture in Focus: ULOa. Discuss the nature, meaning and relevance of
anthropology, identify its four sub-disciplines and related social sciences and
differentiate between ethnology and ethnography.

Metalanguage
In this section, the most essential terms relevant to the study of SST 311/EDSST3
and to demonstrate ULOa will be operationally defined to establish a common frame
of reference as to how the texts work in your chosen field or career. You will
encounter these terms as we go through the study of Socio-Cultural Anthropology.
Please refer to these definitions in case you will encounter difficulty in understanding
the basic theories, principles and concepts discussed n Socio-Cultural Anthropology.

• Anthropology is the study of the human species and its immediate ancestors.
• Archaeologists dig into ancient cultural diversity by recovering and analyzing the
material remains of prehistoric and modern societies.
• Cultural Anthropology combines ethnography and ethnology to study human
societies and cultures for the purpose of explaining social and cultural similarities
and differences.
• Ethnography produces an account (a book, an article, or a film) of a particular
community, society, or culture based on information that is collected during fieldwork.
• Society is organized life in groups, a feature that humans share with other animals.

Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the first three (3)
weeks of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential knowledge
that will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not limited
to exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other books,
research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library e.g.,
ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.

1. What is Anthropology?
1.1 Anthropology is the study of the human species and its immediate ancestors.
1.2 Anthropology is holistic in that the discipline is concerned with studying the whole
of the human condition: past, present and future. Anthropology studies biology,
society, language, and culture.
1.3 Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective by constantly comparing
the customs of one society with those of others.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-archaeologists-suggest-biblical-era-philistines-came-
from-europe/a-49467592
1.4 Archaeologists dig into ancient cultural diversity by recovering and analyzing the
material remains of prehistoric and modern societies. By reconstructing past ways of
life and constructing culture histories, archaeologists are able to explain the
dynamics and evolution of cultural systems.
1.5 Biological (Physical) anthropologists investigate the biological diversity, behavior,
and evolution of humans and other primates (such as lemurs, howler monkeys,
baboons, and chimpanzees).
1.6 Cultural anthropologists discover the unique and universal aspects of
contemporary cultures by living with the people under study. They travel to all
corners of the globe in order to understand the full range of modern cultural diversity.
https://twitter.com/cpkottak
1.7 Linguists examine languages from around the world, as well as other forms of
communication of humans and other primates. Major topics researched by linguists
include the history and origins of languages, the structure of language, how
language relates to social aspects (such as race, class, age, and gender), and
language and cognition.
1.8 All fields of anthropology are characterized by first-hand observation, or
fieldwork.

2. People share both society and culture.

2.1Society is organized life in groups, a feature that humans share with other
animals. 2.2Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that
govern the beliefs and behaviors of the people exposed to them.
2.3 While culture is not biological, the ability to use it rests in hominid biology.
https://slideplayer.com/slide/9145439/

3. Adaptation, Variation, and Change

3.1Adaptation is the process by which organisms cope with environmental stresses.
3.2 Human adaptation involves interaction between culture and biology to satisfy
individual goals.
3.3 Four Types of Human Adaptation:
3.3.1 Cultural (Technological) Adaptation
3.3.2 Genetic Adaptation
3.3.3 Long-term Physiological or Developmental Adaptation
3.3.4 Immediate Physiological Adaptation
3.4 Humans are the most adaptable animals in the world, having the ability to inhabit
widely variant ecological niches.
3.5 Humans, like all other animals use biological means to adapt to a given
environment. 3.6 Humans are unique in having cultural means of adaptation.
3.7 Through time, social and cultural means of adaptation have become increasingly
important for human groups.
3.8 Human groups have devised diverse ways of coping with a wide range of
environments.
3.9 The rate of this cultural adaptation has been rapidly accelerating during the last
10,000 years.
3.10 Food production developed between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago after
millions of years during which hunting and gathering was the sole basis for human
subsistence.
3.11 The first civilizations developed between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago.
3.12 More recently, the spread of industrial production has profoundly affected
human life.
http://web.mnstate.edu/robertsb/306/Evolution%20and%20Human%20Adaptation
%20[Compatibility%20Mode].pdf
4. Four Sub-Disciplines of Anthropology
4.1 The academic discipline of American anthropology is unique in that it includes
four sub-disciplines: cultural anthropology, archaeological anthropology, biological or
physical anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
4.2 This four-field approach developed in the US as early American anthropologists
studying native peoples of North America became interested in exploring the origins
and diversity of the groups that they were studying.
4.3 This broad approach to studying human societies did not develop in Europe
(e.g., Archaeology, in most European universities, is not a sub-discipline of
anthropology; it is its own department).
4.4 Variation in “Time” (diachronic research): using information from contemporary
groups to model changes that took place in the past, and using knowledge gained
from past groups to understand what is likely to happen in the future (e.g.,
reconstructing past languages using principles* based on modern ones).
4.5 Variation in “Space” (synchronic research): comparing information collected from
human societies existing at the same or roughly the same time, but from different
geographic locations (e.g., the race concept in the US, Brazil, and Japan).
4.6 Any conclusions about “human nature” must be pursued with a comparative,
cross-cultural approach.
5.Cultural Forces and Human Biology
5.1 Cultural traditions promote certain activities and abilities, discourage others, and
set standards of physical well-being and attractiveness.
5.2 Participation and achievement in sports is determined by cultural factors, not
racial ones.
5.3 In Brazilian culture, women should be soft, with big hips and buttocks, not big
shoulders; since competitive swimmers tend to have big, strong, shoulders and firm
bodies, competitive swimming is not very popular among Brazilian females.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFaTPYhRrsw
5.4 In the US, there aren’t many African-American swimmers or hockey players, not
because of some biological reason, but because those sports aren’t as culturally
significant as football, basketball, baseball, and track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5q492xpkjA
https://www.iq-test.net/8-types-of-intelligence-how-to-improve-iq-score-112.html
6. Intelligence Tests
6.1 There is no conclusive evidence for biologically based contrasts in intelligence
between rich and poor, black and white, or men and women.
6.2 The best indicators of how any individual will perform on an intelligence test are
environmental, such as educational, economic, and social background.
6.3 All standard tests are culture-bound and biased because they reflect the training
and life experiences of those who develop and administer them.
6.4 Jensenism asserts that African-Americans are hereditarily incapable of doing as
well as whites.
6.5 Named for Arthur Jensen, the educational psychologist who observed that on
average African-Americans perform less well on intelligence tests that Euro-
Americans and Asian-Americans.
6.6 This racist notion of the inborn inferiority of African-Americans recently
resurfaced in the 1994 book The Bell Curve by Richard Hernnstein and Charles
Murray.
6.7 Intelligence tests reflect the experiences of the people who write them.
6.8 Middle- and upper-class children do well because they share the test makers’
educational expectations and standards.
6.9 The SATs claim to measure intellectual aptitude but they also measure the type
and quality of high school education, linguistic and cultural background, and parental
wealth.
6.10 Studies have shown that performance on the SATs can be improved by
coaching and preparation, placing those students who can pay for an SAT
preparation course at an advantage.
6.11 Cultural biases in testing affect performance by people in other cultures as well
as different groups in the same nation.
6.12 Native Americans scored the lowest of any group in the US, but when the
environment during growth and development for Native Americans is similar to that
of middle-class whites, the test scores tend to equalize (e.g., the Osage Indians).
6.13 At the start of World War I, African-Americans living in the north scored on
average better than whites living in the south due to the better public-school systems
in the north.
7. Culture and Sports
7.1 Years of swimming sculpt a distinctive physique. The countries that tend to
produce successful female swimmers are the United States, Canada, Australia,
Germany, Scandinavia, and the former Soviet Union, where this body type isn’t as
stigmatized for women as it is in Latin countries.
https://idrottsforum.org/call-for-papers-sport-in-a-mobile-world-identity-culture-and-
politics-interdisciplinary-seminar-university-of-aveiro-portugal-june-21-22-2018-call-
ends-march-16-2018/
8. The Bell Curve (1994)
8.1 Like Jensen, Hernnstein and Murray disregard more convincing environmental
explanations in favor of a genetic one to explain patterns observed in intelligence
test scores.
8.2 An environmental explanation acknowledges that for many reasons, both genetic
and environmental, some people are smarter than others, however these differences
in intelligence cannot be generalized to characterize whole populations or social
groups.
8.3 Psychologists have come up with many ways to measure intelligence, but there
are problems with all of them.
9. Cultural Anthropology
9.1 Cultural Anthropology combines ethnography and ethnology to study human
societies and cultures for the purpose of explaining social and cultural similarities
and differences.
9.2 Ethnography produces an account (a book, an article, or a film) of a particular
community, society, or culture based on information that is collected during fieldwork.
9.3 Generally, ethnographic fieldwork involves living in the community that is being
studied for an extended period of time (e.g., 6 months to 2 years).
9.4 Ethnographic fieldwork tends to emphasize local behavior, beliefs, customs,
social life, economic activities, politics, and religion, rather then developments at the
national level.
9.5 Since cultures are not isolated, ethnographers must investigate the local,
regional, national, and global systems of politics, economics, and information that
expose villagers to external influences.
9.6 Ethnology examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the ethnographic data
gathered in different societies to make generalizations about society and culture.
9.7 Ethnology uses ethnographic data to build models, test hypotheses, and create
theories that enhance our understanding of how social and cultural systems work.
9.8 Ethnology works from the particular (ethnographic data) to the general (theory).

Comparison between Ethnography and Ethnology

10. Archaeological Anthropology
10.1 Archaeological anthropology reconstructs, describes, and interprets past human
behavior and cultural patterns through material remains.
10.2 The material remains of a culture include artifacts (e.g., potsherds, jewelry, and
tools), garbage, burials, and the remains of structures.
10.3 Archaeologists use paleoecological studies to establish the ecological and
subsistence parameters within which given group lived.
10.4 The archaeological record provides archaeologists the unique opportunity to
look at changes in social complexity over thousands and tens of thousands of years
(this kind of time depth is not accessible to ethnographers).
10.5 Archaeology is not restricted to prehistoric societies.
10.6 Historical archaeology combines archaeological data and textual data to
reconstruct historically known groups.

11. Biological Anthropology

11.1 Biological, or physical, anthropology investigates human biological diversity
across time and space.
11.2There are five special interests within biological anthropology:
o paleoanthropology: human evolution as revealed by the fossil record
o human genetics
o human growth and development
o human biological plasticity: the body’s ability to change as it copes with
stresses such as heat, cold, and altitude
 o primatology: the study of the biology, evolution, behavior, and social life of
primates.
11.3 Biological anthropology is multidisciplinary as it draws on biology, zoology,
geology, anatomy, physiology, medicine, public health, osteology, and archaeology.
11.4 Paleoanthropologists study the fossil record of human evolution.
12. Linguistic Anthropology
12.1 Linguistic anthropology is the study of language in its social and cultural context
across space and time.
12.2 Some linguistic anthropologists investigate universal features of language that
may be linked to uniformities in the human brain.
12.3 Historical linguists reconstruct ancient languages and study linguistic variation
through time.
12.4 Sociolinguistics investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation
to discover varied perceptions and patterns of thought in different cultures.
13. Theoretical/Academic Anthropology
13.1 Theoretical/academic anthropology includes the four subfields discussed above
(cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology).
13.2 Directed at collecting data to test hypotheses and models that were created to
advance the field of anthropology.
13.3 Generally, theoretical/academic anthropology is carried out in academic
institutions (e.g., universities and specialized research facilities).
14. Applied Anthropology
14.1 Applied anthropology is the application of any of anthropological data,
perspectives, theory, and techniques to identify, assess, and solve contemporary
social problems.

14.2 Some standard subdivisions have developed in applied anthropology: medical

anthropology, environmental anthropology, forensic anthropology, and development
anthropology.
14.3 Applied anthropologists are generally employed by international development
agencies, like the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations.
14.4 Applied anthropologists assess the social and cultural dimensions of economic
development.
14.5 Development projects often fail when planners ignore the cultural dimensions of
development.
14.6 Applied anthropologists work with local communities to identify specific social
conditions that will influence the failure or success of a development project.
15. Medical Anthropology
• Medical anthropology studies health conditions from a cross-cultural perspective.

16. Two Dimensions of Anthropology

GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY & APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
The Four Subfields and Two Dimensions of Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
Medical Anthropology
Archaeological Anthropology
Cultural Resource Management (CRM)
Biological or Physical Anthropology
Forensic Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
Non-government Organizations (NGO’s)

17. Anthropology and Other Fields

17.1 Anthropology’s own broad scope has always lent it to interdisciplinary
collaboration.
17.2 Anthropology is a science, in that it is a systematic field of study that uses
experiments, observations, and deduction to produce reliable explanations of human
cultural and biological phenomena.
17.3 Anthropology is also one of the humanities, in that is encompasses the study
and cross-cultural comparison of languages, texts, philosophies, arts, music,
performances and other forms of creative expression.
18. Cultural Anthropology and Sociology
18.1 Formerly, sociology focused on “western” societies while anthropology looked
at “exotic” societies.
18.2 Cultural anthropological methodologies have primarily been in-depth and
qualitative (e.g., participant observation).
18.3 Sociological methodologies tended to be mainly quantitative (statistically
based).
18.4 The trend toward increasing interdisciplinary cooperation (deconstruction) is
causing these differences to disappear.
Different Social Science Disciplines
https://www.quora.com/How-are-findings-in-social-sciences-verified-to-be-
scientifically-valid
19. Political Science and Economics
19.1 While other disciplines have looked at such institutions as economics and
politics as distinct and amenable to separate analysis, anthropology has emphasized
their relatedness to other aspects of the general social order.
19.2 Anthropology has tended to emphasize cross-cultural variation in such
institutions, in contrast to the almost exclusively Western orientation of the other
disciplines.
20. Anthropology and the Humanities
20.1 The anthropological concept of “culture” has gained increasing influence in the
humanities’ treatment of human artifacts.
20.2 In turn, cultural studies have brought a fuller recognition of the influence such
artifacts may exert on human behavior.
21. Anthropology and Psychology
21.1 Anthropology has contributed a cross-cultural perspective to concepts
developed in psychology.
21.2 The school of cultural anthropology known as culture and personality has
emphasized child rearing practices as the fundamental means for transmitting
culture.
22. Anthropology and History
22.1 The convergence between the disciplines of anthropology and history has been
marked, particularly during the last decade.

22.2 Recent treatments of colonial history have emphasized the importance of

understanding the cultural contexts of historical records.
22.3 Kottak argues for some continued distinction between history and anthropology,
on the basis of history’s focus on the movement of individuals through roles, as
opposed to anthropology’s focus on change in structure or form.

Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you further understand the lesson:

 Kottak, C. P. 18th Edition (2019). Cultural anthropology: appreciating cultural diversity. McGraw-
Hill Education.

 Bagolong,S.P.,Pajimola, A.H.B., Celeste,B.L.D. (2015). Introduction to Socio-Cultural

Anthropology.Malabon City: Mutya

Publishing House, Inc.

 Kottak, C. P. 16th Edition (2015). Cultural anthropology: appreciating cultural diversity. Mc Graw-
Hill Education.

 Coleman,G. (2014) . Language in Society: An Introduction to Socio-Linguistics. Limited Birmingham,

UnitedKingdom.Koros Press
 Namelka,C.M. (2016). Language socialization across cultures. Oakville,Canada. Society Publishing.

 Stein,R.L.&Stein,P. (2017). The Anthropology of religion, magic, and witchcraft. 4th edition. Third
Avenue, New York, Routledge.