Introduction to Cultural

Anthropology
1. Why Anthropology Matters
Why Does Anthropology Matter?
 1. What does anthropology mean to you?

 2. What do you think it is concerned with?

We Live Our Lives
Socially
Anthropology is concerned
with the way we live as
social beings. It recognises
that society and culture
changes through time, and
examines how these
changes impact on
individuals, groups,
communities and nations on
both a local and local and
global scale.

Q. What does it mean

to be human?
What Does it Mean
to be Human?
Humans are unlike other
social animals because their
humanity is bound up in the
many different ways that
they communicate with
each other, the different
kinds of institutions that
they develop to organise
themselves. Anthropology is
concerned with looking at
different solutions to the
same problems and drawing
on the ‘wisdom of the
world’ to try and make
sense of our humanity.
Anthropology
Matters More than
Ever

We live in age where

populations are growing and
this is impacting on us
globally: in order for those
with power to thrive as they
want to, many others – the
powerless – are condemned
to chronic insecurity, poverty
and disease. The destruction
of planetary resources also
has huge impacts on how
others are able to survive.

Q. How do we begin to
tackle these issues?

By destroying and ignoring
other ways of being human,
how much knowledge and
wisdom gathered over
millennia, is being lost to us?
The Wisdom of
Others
Increasingly anthropologists
are recognising that
understanding other
cultures and other systems
of organisation and
subsistence can teach us a
great deal about ourselves.
Hence anthropology is
increasingly about drawing
on the wisdom of others to
learn potential ways of
understand the wider issues
that confront us today.
Child of the
Enlightenment and
the Invention of the
Primitive

The 18th century Age of

Reason, the European
Enlightenment was opposed
to superstition and dogma.
In order to justify the
master-narrative of
civilization, these same
‘rational minds’ had to
invent the idea of the savage
and primitive human being
who had yet to attain
enlightment.
The Descent of
Man
Darwin applied his theory
of natural selection to the
development of the human
mind. This posited the
notion that the more
intelligent would always
survive and supplant the
weaker witted, thus passing
in their genes to the next
generation. Over many
generations these
advantages would be
preserved and bring about
general advance.
Psychic Unity of
Mankind
Numerous publications
emerged in the 19th century
that drew on ideas about
the psychic unity of
mankind. Recognising that
all people possessed faculty
of mind, it argued that
people differed only in the
extent to which their
societies had progressed
from savage to civilized.
Human Evolution
Anthropology split into
three sub-disciplines:
Physical Anthropology
concerned with how we
evolved anatomically,
Archaeology which was
concerned with the way
our technologies (tools,
buildings etc.) evolved, and
Social and Cultural
Anthropology, which was
concerned with how human
institutions (family, politics
etc.), customs and beliefs
evolved.
 Genocide and racial
cleansing still emerges at The Seeds of
times such as Rwanda, Racism
the Rohingya and Croatia
These 19th and early 20th
century ‘scholarly’ attempts
to study humanity in terms
of difference and
Defining and categorising development, have left a
humans in terms of lasting legacy that has
superficial traits such a played out, and is still being
skin and eye colour is played out in racism and
demeaning and ethnic cleansing. Attacking,
problematic given the displacing and killing
diversity of human minority groups because
appearance. they look and/or have
different lifeways is still
widespread.
 Social Evolution v.
Functionalism
The concept of Social
Evolution encouraged
anthropologists to study
remote people living
Social Evolution: How ethical is it to assume that people ‘simple’ or ‘primitive’ lives
following a subsistence way of life represent our own former as a means of understanding
way of life? our own past.

The British Functionalists

argued that this approach
was redundant and that it
was more relevant to study
institutions and customs in
their own right as a means
of understanding the
Functionalism: To what extent can cultural institutions
culture.
reveal information about the overall society as it is now,
rather than how it was in the past?
 Cultural
Anthropology
In the United States
scholars approach the study
of human society by
focusing on culture rather
than society. Under the
founding principles of Franz
Boas, the stress is on
cultural variation which is
perceived as
environmentally rather than
biologically (racially)
determined.

Cultural practices – dances, ways of greeting, ways of

demonstrating respect, ways of challenging – are all
learned and passed on as heritage not as heredity.
Where Does
Anthropology
Stand Now?

Medical Anthropology

Legal Anthropology

Digital Anthropology

Design Anthropology

Urban Anthropology

Environmental Anthroplogy

Political Anthropology

Q. What do
anthropologists do?
This anthropologist is studying
life in a village in Iran What do
Anthropologists do?
A whole range of
opportunities are opening
up to trained
anthropologists. Apart from
pursuing more traditional
careers as field researchers,
they now apply their skills
and knowledge to many
areas of professional life
ranging from the corporate
Anthropologists may work world to the world of
in ethnographic museums development and
management of issues
associated with
The business world is
globalisation.
increasingly recognising the
value of having an
anthropologist on their
team.