ANTHROPOLOGY AND

THE STUDY OF CULTURE

LESSON 3
INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
Humans studying humans. This is the field
of anthropology. Anthropology promotes a holistic
study of humans. Derived from two Greek words
antropos (human) and logos (study).

As such, anthropology can be defined as “the

study of people-their origins and their
development, his works, behavior and values in
time and space.’’
The five subdisciplines of anthropology:
1. Archaeology
examines the remains of ancient and historical
human populations to promote an understanding of
how humans have adapted to their environment and
developed.
2. Cultural anthropology
promotes the study of a society’s culture through
their belief systems, practices and possessions. It studies
the social and political organization of a particular groups
and also the secrets of the society and all other forms of
cultural behavior.
3. Linguistic anthropology
examines the language of a
group of people and its relation to
their culture on how the language
affect the culture and vice-versa.
4. Physical anthropology
looks into the biological development
of humans and their contemporary
variation.
5.Applied
anthropology
attempts to solve
contemporary problems
through the application
of theories and
approaches of the
discipline.
Tristes Tropiques
is one of the classic studies in
anthropology. It was made by
Claude Levi-Strauss, a french
anthropologist.
Philippe Bourgois
a professor of anthropology at the
University of Pennsylvania, studied the lives
of street-level drug dealers.
• KEY INFORMANTS
are individuals in a
society who have
significant knowledge on
the topic being studied by
the anthropologist.
 CULTURE
• It refers to everything that a
person learns as a member of a
society.
• Complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, laws,
morals, customs, and any
Culture is everything
It is what a person has, does,
and thinks as part of society.
TYPES OF CULTURE:
1. Material culture includes all the
tangible and visible parts of
culture.
2. Nonmaterial culture includes all
the intangible parts of culture,
which consist of values, ideas,
and knowledge.
Culture is learned
Culture is a set of beliefs, attitudes, and
practices that an individual learns through his or her
family, school, church and other social institutions.
ENCULTURATION the process of learning your
own culture.
ACCULTURATION
culture can be modified to accommodate
desirable traits from other cultures.
DECULTURATION
happens when the culture of the older
generation comes into conflict with the needs and
realities of the younger generation. The reason for
the culture has been lost and even the cultural
trait itself is in the process of being forgotten.
Culture is shared
The set of behaviours, attitudes and
beliefs that a person possesses is part of a
greater collection of values and ideas that is
communally owned and practiced by
members of a society
Culture affects biology
Humans are born into cultures
that have values on beauty and body.
As such, they alter their bodies to fit
into the physiological norms that are
dictated by culture.
Lip plate as worn by a
Mursi woman.
Wearing lip plate is a
sign of beauty.
Lotus feet in china.
One of the most popular
traditions in China is that
of foot binding among
women that ensures their
potential for good
marriage.
Culture is Adaptive
Culture is a tool for survival that
humans use in response to the pressures
of their environment.
INUIT'S of the Arctic TUPIQS (during
region are well-known summer) are tents
for building igloos made of animal skin, as
during fishing and their temporary homes.
hunting expeditions.
In MUSLIMS, the consumption of pork is not
allowed, so cattle is one of their primary source of
meat.
• The main reason pork is forbidden for
Muslims is because it says in the Holy
Quran that some food is allowed, while
others are explicitly declared haram,
which means forbidden. And pork is one
of those forbidden foods. However,
there is an exception that is written in
the Holy Quran as well where it states
that you can eat it if you are starving
and there is nothing else to eat but pork.
This is also in accordance with the
Jewish faith, according to their laws and
traditions of eating kosher meat.
Pork is not dirty but rather regarded as
impure, unhealthy and harmful for
humans due to the fats, toxins and
bacteria it contains and the way the pig
spends its life rolling around in mud and
its own excrement. The specific aspect
that pork is unhealthy has even been
proven by scientists, such as Hans-
Heinrich Reckeweg, who argued that
western populations who eat pork carry
more diseases than other populations
who do not eat pork.
In India, on the other hand, cows are
venerated, so consuming beef is
considered taboo.
According to
Marvin Harris,
these taboos are
responses to the
environmental
pressures on food
supply in these
areas.
CULTURE IS MALADAPTIVE
Culture can also cause problems for the
people who subscribe to it.
These problems arise when the environment has
changed and culture has remained the same.
CULTURE CHANGES
The final characteristic of culture is that it is
never static. This dynamism of culture is due to
the changing needs of humans as they interpret
and survive in their environment.
 THEORIES ON CULTURE
Comparison of Theories on Culture
THEORY PERSPECTIVE ON
CULTURE
CULTURAL All cultures undergo the same development
EVOLUTION stages in the same order.
DIFFUSIONISM All societies change as a result of cultural
borrowing from one another.
HISTORICISM Each culture is unique and must be studied
in its own context.
PSYCHOLOGICAL Personality is largely seen to be the result
ANTHROPOLOGY
of learning culture.
 THEORY PERSPECTIVE ON
CULTURE

FUNCTIONALISM Society is thought to be like a

biological organism with all of the
parts interconnected.
NEO-EVOLUTIONISM Culture is said to be shaped by
environmental and technological
conditions.
MATERIALISM Culture is the product of the
“material conditions” in which a given
community of people finds itself.
ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The key strength of anthropology as a

discipline of the social science is its holistic approach
to the study of humans.
It is holistic in the sense that it studies:

1. Humans both as biological and social creatures

2. Human behaviour from the time the species
existed to the time that it will desist
3. Human behaviour from all regions of the world
4. All forms of human actions and beliefs.