Socio-Cultural Anthropology
understanding of how to create more inclusive
Anthropology
 The word "anthropology" comes from the
Greek anthropos ("human") and logia
("study").
 Anthropology is the study of people
everywhere — today, yesterday, and long ago.
 Anthropologists study people from every
angle. Some look at different people's
customs, like how they eat, celebrate, or
worship
Social Science Disciplines
 The five major branches of social science
are anthropology, economics, political science,
psychology, and sociology.
 Some people also consider history, law, and
geography to be core social sciences
Why Is Social Science Important?
 The social sciences are important because
they help people understand how to analyze
not only their own behavior but also the
behavior and motivations of their peers.
 The social sciences also give us a better
and effective institutions
Anthropological Methods
 There are two basic means by which the
field researcher engages with a topic of study:
subjectobject and subject-subject
relationships.
 A subject-object relationship is pure
observation, involving a subject (the observing
anthropologist) and an object (the observed
thing, setting, or person).
There are two basic means by which the field
researcher engages with a topic of study:
subjectobject and subject-subject
relationships.
 Subject-subject relations, involve a mutual,
dialogical relationship between two thinking
beings.
 This relationship is ideal for research
situations in which the people studied are
capable of and willing to communicate
information about their inner states or beliefs.
▫ Multiple cultures are residing on the earth
side by side.
▫ These cultures are very distinct from each
other so are their cultural values. And these
differences are making our world full of
diversity.
Defining Culture
▫ Humans are social creatures. Since the dawn
of Homo sapiens nearly 250,000 years ago,
people have grouped into communities in
order to survive.
▫ Living together, people form everyday habits
and behaviors – from specific methods of
childrearing to preferred techniques for
obtaining food.
▫ In everyday conversation, people rarely
distinguish between the terms culture and
society, but the terms have slightly different
meanings, and the distinction is important to
a geographer.
▫ To clarify, a culture represents the beliefs
and practices of a group, while society
represents the people who share those beliefs
and practices. Neither society nor culture
could exist without the other.
▫ Culture consists of thoughts and tangible
things.
▫ Material culture refers to the objects or
belongings of a group of people.
▫ Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of
the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society.
▫ Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture
are linked, and physical objects often
symbolize cultural ideas
Cultural Universals
▫ Often, a comparison of one culture to
another will reveal obvious differences.
However, all cultures also share common
elements.
▫ Cultural universals are patterns or traits that
are globally common to all societies.
▫ One example of a cultural universal is the
family unit: every human society recognizes a
family structure that regulates sexual
reproduction and the care of children. Even so,
how that family unit is defined and how it
functions vary.
In many Asian cultures, for example, family
members from all generations commonly live
together in one household. In these cultures,
young adults continue to live in the extended
household family structure until they marry
and join their spouse’s household, or they
may remain and raise their nuclear family
within the extended family’s homestead.
In the United States, by contrast, individuals
are expected to leave home and live
independently for a period before forming a
family unit that consists of parents and their
offspring. ▫ Other cultural universals include
customs like funeral rites, weddings, and
celebrations of births. However, each culture
may view the ceremonies quite differently.
▫ Anthropologist George Murdock first
recognized the existence of cultural universals
while studying systems of kinship around the
world.
▫ Murdock found that cultural universals often
revolve around basic human survival, such as
finding food, clothing, and shelter, or around
shared human experiences, such as birth and
death or illness and healing.
Through his research, Murdock identified
other universals, including language, the
concept of personal names, and, interestingly,
jokes.
▫ Humor seems to be a universal way to
release tensions and create a sense of unity
among people (Murdock 1949). Social
scientists consider humor necessary to human
interaction because it helps individuals
navigate otherwise tense situations.
▫ Ethnocentrism, as social scientists William
Graham Sumner (1906) described the term,
involves a belief or attitude that one’s own
culture is better than all others.
▫ Almost everyone is a little bit ethnocentric
▫ For example, Americans tend to say that
people from England drive on the “wrong”
side of the road, rather than on the “other”
side.
▫ Someone from a country where dog meat is
standard fare might find it off-putting to see a
dog in a French restaurant—not on the menu,
but as a pet and patron’s companion
▫ A high level of appreciation for one’s own
culture can be healthy; a shared sense of
community pride, for example, connects
people in a society.
▫ However, ethnocentrism can lead to disdain
or dislike for other cultures and could cause
misunderstanding and conflict.
▫ People with the best intentions sometimes
travel to a society to “help” its people,
because they see them as uneducated or
backward – inherently inferior.
▫ In reality, these travelers are guilty of cultural
imperialism, the deliberate imposition of one’s
own cultural values on another culture.
▫ Europe’s colonial expansion, begun in the
sixteenth century, was often accompanied by
a severe cultural imperialism.
▫ European colonizers often viewed the
people in the lands they colonized as
uncultured savages who needed European
governance, dress, religion, and other cultural
practices.
▫ A more modern example of cultural
imperialism may include the work of
international aid agencies who introduce
agricultural methods and plant species from
developed countries.. ▫ while overlooking
indigenous varieties and agricultural
approaches that are better suited to the
particular region.
▫ Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when
confronted with all of the differences of a new
culture, one may experience disorientation
and frustration, called culture shock.
▫ A traveler from Chicago might find the
nightly silence of rural Montana unsettling,
not peaceful.
▫ An exchange student from China might be
annoyed by the constant interruptions in class
as other students ask questions – a practice
that is considered rude in China.
▫ Perhaps the Chicago traveler was initially
captivated with Montana’s quiet beauty, and
the Chinese student was initially excited to see
a U.S.-style classroom firsthand.
▫ However, as they experience unanticipated
differences from their own culture, their
excitement gives way to discomfort and
doubts about how to behave appropriately in
the new situation.
▫ Eventually, as people learn more about a
culture, they recover from culture shock
▫ Cultural relativism is the practice of
assessing a culture by its own standards rather
than viewing it through the lens of one’s own
culture

▫ Practicing cultural relativism requires an

open mind and a willingness to consider, and
even adapt to, new values and norms

▫ Sometimes when people attempt to rectify

feelings of ethnocentrism and develop cultural
relativism, they swing too far to the other end
of the spectrum.

▫ Xenocentrism is the opposite of

ethnocentrism, and refers to the belief that
another culture is superior to one’s own. (The
Greek root word xeno, pronounced “ZEE-no,”
means “stranger” or “foreign guest”)

▫ Values often suggest how people should

behave, but they do not accurately reflect
how people do behave.

▫ Values portray an ideal culture; the

standards society would like to embrace and
live up to. However, ideal culture differs from
real culture, the way society actually is, based
on what occurs and exists.

▫ In an ideal culture, there would be no traffic

accidents, murders, poverty, or racial tension.
However, in real culture, police officers,
lawmakers, educators, and social workers
continuously strive to prevent or repair those
accidents, crimes, and injustices.

Emic & Etic Culture
 The emic definition in anthropology is an
approach to studying a culture from inside the
culture, focusing on the internal elements.
 Similarly, the emic perspective definition is
the perspective of a person inside the culture,
also known as an insider's perspective.
 The etic definition in anthropology is an
approach to studying a culture from outside of
the culture, instead, focusing on observing the
culture.
 The etic perspective definition is the
perspective of an outsider looking in on a
culture without taking part in it, relying on
observation instead of participation. 5.
Culture is continuous ▫ It is continuous process.
It is like a stream which is flowing from one
generation to another through centuries. ▫
“Culture is the memory of human race.”
Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned
▫ Culture is not inherited biologically but it is
learnt socially by man in a society.
▫ It is not an inborn tendency but acquired by
man from the association of others, e.g.
drinking, eating, dressing, walking, behaving,
reading are all learnt by man
2. Culture is social
▫ It is not individual phenomena but it is the
product of society. It develops in the society
through social interaction. It is shared by the
man of society.
▫ No man can acquire it without the
association of others. It helps to develop
qualities of human beings in a social
environment. Deprivation of a man from his
company is the deprivation of human qualities
3. Culture is shared
▫ Culture is something shared. It is nothing
that an individual can passes but shared by
common people of a territory.
▫ For example, customs, traditions, values,
beliefs are all shared by man in a social
situation. These beliefs and practices are
adopted by all equally
4. Culture is transmitted
▫ Culture is capable of transmitted from one ▫ But with different speeds from society to
generation to the next. Parents pass cultural society and generation to generation
traits to their children and in return they pass
to their children and son on.

▫ It is not transmitted through genes but

through language. Language is means to
communication which passes cultural traits
from one generation to another.

5. Culture is continuous

▫ It is continuous process. It is like a stream

which is flowing from one generation to
another through centuries. 9. Culture varies from society to society

▫ “Culture is the memory of human race.”
6. Culture is accumulative
▫ Culture is not a matter of month or a year. It
is the continuous process and adding new
cultural traits.
▫ Many cultural traits are borrowed from
outside and these absorbed in that culture
which adopt it, as culture is accumulative and
combines the suitable cultural traits
7. Culture is integrated
▫ Every society has its own culture and ways of
behaving. It is not uniform every where but
occurs differently in various societies.
▫ Every culture is unique in itself is a specific
society. For example, values, customs,
traditions, ideologies, religion, belief, practices
are not similar but different in every society.
▫ However the ways of eating, drinking,
speaking, greeting, dressing etc are differs
from one social situation to another in the
same time

▫ All the cultural aspects are inter -connected
with each other. The development of culture
is the integration of its various parts.
▫ For example, values system is interlinked
with morality, customs, beliefs and religion
10. Culture is responsive
▫ Culture is responsive to the changing
conditions of a physical world.
▫ It intervenes in the natural environment and
helps man from all dangers and natural
calamities e.g. our houses are responsible to
give us shelter and safety from storm and
heavy rains

11. Culture is gratifying

▫ It is gratifying and provide all the

opportunities for needs and desires
satisfaction. These needs may be biological or
social but it is responsible to satisfy it.

8. Culture is changing ▫ Our needs are food, shelter, clothing and

desires like status, fame, money, sex etc are all
▫ It remains changing but not static. Cultural
the examples which are fulfilled according to
process undergoes changes.
the cultural ways. In fact it is defined as the
process through which human beings satisfy
their need
12. Linked with society
▫ Last but not the least one of the
characteristics of culture that culture and
society are one and the same. But if we say
that these turn two are twin sister, it would
not be wrong.
▫ Society is a composite of people and they
interact each other through it. It is to bind the
people within the society
Development of Production
 Evolution of Energy Production
 The evolution of energy sources is closely
linked to the evolution of society.
 Mastering fire, wind and water, and using
wood, coal, oil and gas have profoundly
changed the course of humanity.
 It was the marriage of coal and steam which,
at the end of the 18th century, gave birth to
the first industrial revolution.
 That was just the start of a long process,
intensified in the 20th century by electricity
Food Hunting and Gathering Stage
 Hunter-gatherer culture is a type of
subsistence lifestyle that relies on hunting and
fishing animals and foraging for wild
vegetation and other nutrients like honey, for
food. Until approximately 12,000 years ago, all
humans practiced huntinggathering.
 Because hunter-gatherers did not rely on
agriculture, they used mobility as a survival
strategy.
SIGNIFICANT AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD
1. Nomadic Herding
▫ It is based upon the rearing of animals on
natural pastures.
▫ It is carried on mainly to produce food for
the family and to fulfill the needs of clothing,
shelter and recreation.
▫ It is the simplest form of pastoralism. The
nomadic herders are dependent on sheep,
cattle, goats, camels, horses and reindeers for
their livelihood.
2. Shifting Cultivation
▫ Under this system, the land is obtained by
clearing forest areas using a slash and burn
technique.
▫ The land is then cultivated for a few years, or
until the fertility declines or the land is
overtaken by the weeds and other native flora.
▫ At this point, farmers move on to clear
another area of the forest. This is a
subsistence type of farming that is almost
always done manually
3. Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
▫ Subsistence agriculture is the type of farming
in which crops grown are consumed by the
grower and his family. As long as its major
purpose is fulfilling needs of its producers it
remains subsistence farming
▫ Subsistence farming is farming or a system
of farming that provides all or almost all the
goods required by the farm family usually
without any significant surplus for sale.
4. Commercial Dairy Farming
▫ It is defined as all commercial cattle
production systems where the purpose of the
operation includes some or all of the breeding,
rearing and management of cattle intended
for production of milk.
5. Commercial Grain Cultivation
▫ This type of farming is a response to farm
mechanization and is the major type of
farming in the areas with low rainfall and
population.
▫ Commercial grain farming, as the name
suggests, is entirely dependent on export. The
cultivators consume very little; thus bulk of
the product is sent to market for export. In
this method, farmers grow grains and trade
them in the market.

6. Livestock Ranching

▫ Unlike nomadic herding, the farmers live a

settled life. Ranching is the practice of raising
herds of animals on large tracts of land.
Ranchers commonly raise grazing animals
such as cattle and sheep.

▫ Livestock ranching is the breeding, and

raising of animals, these animals are usually
used for meat purposes and raised in large
herds

7. Mediterranean Agriculture

▫ The typically rugged terrain of the

Mediterranean region has resulted in typical
livestock and crop combinations.

▫ Wheat, vineyards and citrus fruits are the

major crops, and small animals are the major
livestock reared in the region.

▫ Horticulture is a major activity of this region,

and most of the crops are grown during the
winter with the help of winter rains

8. Mixed farming
▫ It is a type of farming which involves both
the growing of crops and the raising of
livestock. The cultivation of crops alongside
the rearing of animals for meat or eggs or milk
defines mixed farming.
9. Market Gardening
▫ A market garden, also called a micro-farm, is
a small plot of land – a very small farm –
where fruits, vegetables and flowers are
grown and sold to the public. The crops are
cash crops, i.e. grown for profit
 Human Sexuality
 Sexuality is about your sexual feelings,
thoughts, attractions and behaviors towards
other people.
 You can find other people physically,
sexually or emotionally attractive, and all
those things are a part of your sexuality. 
Sexuality is diverse and personal, and it is an
important part of who you are.