SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH 1012
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 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
What is Anthropology?
The term Anthropology is a combination of two Greek words
‘Anthropos’ meaning mankind or human being and ‘logos’
which mean ‘study’ or ‘science’.
Anthropology is the study or science of mankind or humanity.
It study humans as a group
It is the study of humanity
It studies mankind in all aspects
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THEN ANTHROPOLOGY IS…..
Anthropology is the studies of human beings
and their products wherever and whenever
in rural Ethiopia, a Turkish cafe´, a Mesopotamian tomb, or a
North American shopping mall.
Anthropology explores human diversity across
time and space, seeking to understand as much as
possible about the human condition.

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CONT…
So what makes anthropology different from
sociology, biology, psychology, political science,
economics, and history?
Anthropology is the study of people—their origins,
their development, and contemporary variations,
wherever and whenever they have been found.
It is also dedicated to the comparative study of
humans as a group, from its first appearance on
earth to its present stage of development.
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 AS A DISCIPLINE ANTHROPOLOGY SPECIFICALLY DEALS
WITH
Investigating the strategies for living that are learned and shared by
people as members of human social groups;
Examines the characteristics that human beings share and the
diverse ways that people live in different environments;
Analyses the products of social groups
-material objects (material cultures) and
non-material creations (religion/beliefs, social values,
institutions, practices, etc).
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INSIGHTS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
First, to produces knowledge about the actual
biological and cultural variations in the
world;
second, to offer methods and theoretical
perspectives enabling the practitioner to
explore, compare, understand and solve these
varied expressions of the human condition.
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BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Since anthropology is concerned with human beings, its

root goes back to the medieval Greek (Herodotus), Roman
and Hebrew philosophers and social thinkers because these
people were interested in the nature, origin and destiny of
man.
However, the discipline did not emerge as distinct field of
study until the mid 19th century.
1. Anthropology as an academic discipline was born out of
the intellectual atmosphere of what is called Enlightenment.
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The Enlightenment (1620-1781) or the ‘Age of Reason’ is
a period when Europeans attempted to study human
behaviour systematically.
The central idea of Enlightenment thought is that,
humanity is not something simply given by God rather
there are new things in the world to be discovered like the
Darwinian’s Theory of Evolution.
2. The expansion of western colonial powers
The discoveries of new societies, new culture and language
brought attention to sociologists and anthropologists.
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In its formative years (1870s and 1880s ) anthropology became devoted on
collecting cultural antiquities for museums from the non-Europe peoples.
Early anthropologists mainly studied small communities.
 They used to call them “traditional”, “non-industrialized and/or simple societies”

And later in 1900’s Anthropology emphasized on studying and documenting

the social and cultural differences among human groups by using
Ethnography ( which is description of the culture of a certain group of
people).
But in the mind-1900’s the approach diverted from Ethnography to
Ethnology (attempt to discover universal human patterns and the common
bio-psychological traits that bind all human beings)
Since 1950’s anthropologists have been studying culture and society on a
more intensive level in Ethiopia,

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The looted Ethiopian artefacts from African artifacts in British museum
Mekedela (1868)

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SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology studies humanity with its

all aspects of existence, and in its all
means of differences (diversity) and
similarities (commonality).
Where every human being lives, there is
always anthropology.
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FOCUS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropologists strive to understand the biological and
cultural origins and evolutionary development of the
species.
Concerned with the past and present behavioral patterns,
thought systems, and material possessions.
In the broadest sense anthropologists dedicated in
explaining what it means to be human.
The origin of mankind.
 The evolutionary development of humans.
 The variation of humans physically and culturally.
 The material possessions and cultural heritages of the human specie.
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THE SUB-FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
The discipline of Anthropology is mainly divided into
four sub-fields but recently a new field has come to
life.
1.Physical/Biological Anthropology,
2. Archeology,
3. Linguistic Anthropology and
4.Socio-Cultural Anthropology
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1. PHYSICAL / BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
It is a branch of anthropology most closely related to the
natural sciences particularly biology.
 it is the study of human biological diversity through time and
as it exists in the world today.
Physical/biological anthropologists study how culture and
environment have influenced the biological evolution and
contemporary variations.
It studies the biological dimensions of human beings including
Biological evolution
The physical variations between contemporary populations and
The biology and behaviour of non-human primates
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Physical anthropology is concerned with two
areas of investigation, human evolution and
genetics.
Human evolution: is the study the gradual
processes of simple forms into more
differentiated structures in hominid
It analyze the evolutionary record of the
human species using fossils/bones.
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Human genetics is concerned with how and why the
physical traits of contemporary human populations
vary throughout the world,
It examines the genetic materials (DNA and RNA).
Genetic studies are crucial to understand how
evolution works and to identify the genetic source of
some hereditary disease.

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Human evolution is further divided into three fields of
specialization: Palaeoanthropology , Primatology and Anthropometry
Palaeoanthropology: studies the human biological evolution through the
analysis of fossil remains from prehistoric times to determine the missing link that
connect modern human with its biological ancestors.

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Primatology: study of the biological and behavioral similarities and
differences between primates and humans.
 Analyzing the physiological and anatomical structure gorillas,
chimpanzees, gibbons, and orangutans in their natural habitats

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Anthropometry: study the human variations within and among
different populations in time and space, human ecology, population genetics.
 E.g. physical differences in terms of blood types, skin colors, skull shape, facial shape, hair
texture, and the like.

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2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Archaeology studies the ways of lives of people
by excavating and analysing the physical remains
they left behind (fossils, artifacts ecofacts etc.)
Fossils are human, animal or plant remains.
Artifacts are material remains made or
manufactured by humans (stone tools, pottery,
metal weapons etc.)
 Ecofacts are remains from the natural environment that
have been used by humans. (bones, seeds, leaves etc.)
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 SUBFIELDS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Prehistoric Archaeology: investigates human
prehistory and prehistoric cultures (which incudes
the entire period before 6,000 years.
Historic Archaeology: uses the evidence
provided by excavated remains to enhance our
understanding of historic peoples or peoples who
had writing and about whom written records are
available.
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3. LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Linguistic Anthropology is the study of speech and language
Linguistic Anthropology usually focuses on unwritten
languages that are used by indigenous peoples of the non-
western societies.
It is concerned with the relations between language and other
aspects of human behaviour and thought.
It tries to understand languages variation in their structures,
units, and grammatical formations.
It gives special attention to the study of unwritten languages.
 Language is a key to explore a culture.
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BRANCHES OF LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
A. Structural/Descriptive Linguistics – studies the structure of
language patterns by comparing grammar and other elements of
language to understand the similarities and difference from one
language to another.
B. Ethno-linguistics (cultural linguistics): examines the
relationship between language and culture.
 how different linguistic categories can affect how people
categorize their experiences, how they think, and how they
perceive the world around them.
C. Historical Linguistics - focus on the comparison and
classifications of different languages to understand the
historical links between them.
 It is also concerned with the origin and development of languages 24
D. Socio-linguistics: study the linguistic
variation within a given language
 The variation of languages in geography, or regional
dialects and accents.
 it is interested in how language is used in
various social contexts
 speech style and how words are used when we talk to
different people having different social statuses.

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LANGUAGES OF ETHIOPIA

Semitic

Cushitic

Omotic

Nilo-Saharan
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4. SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
It is the largest largest sub-field
it deals with the social and cultural dimensions of people’s lives and
tradition.
It studies the social, symbolic, material and non material culture of
contemporary and historically recent human societies.
Its research is often conduct under a long field work and describe
the results. The description is called Ethnography.
Ethnography is an empirical study or description of the ways of
lives of a particular culture.
Ethnology is a theoretical study of the similarities and differences
among the human groups of the world.
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+ APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
It is the application of anthropological
knowledge, methods and approaches to
help solve human problems.
It is simply to put anthropology in use 
Problems including social (poverty, crime,
prostitution), political, religious, economic, medical
(traditional medicine) etc.

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POP UP QUESTIONS?
How do we become at the present stage of biological, intellectual,
and cultural development?
Think of a local problem and how do you plan to sort out that
problem using conceptual tools from anthropology?
How are different people in different places similar and different,
both biologically and culturally?
why cultures vary?
What are the personal and professional uses of anthropology to you?
why understanding culture is crucial to solve social problems (from
computer scientists vantage point)?
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Think of one local problem and write a mini project on solving that
particular problem using the conceptual tools from anthropology and
Computer Sc or BA.
Group size: 6 Max
Page: 6-8

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UNIQUE (BASIC) FEATURES OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology has a broad scope because it is
interested with human beings past and present.
It deals with human phenotypic (the observable
characteristics that are produced by the interaction
of the genotype and the environment) characteristics
Issues like family lives, marriages, political systems,
economic lives, technology, belief, health care systems,
personality types, and languages.

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The second important feature is its approach. It is
holistic, relativistic, and focused one.
 Holistic: it looks any phenomena from different
vantage points.
It is refers to the study of the whole of the human condition: from
past, present, and future; from biological, societal, language, and
cultural points to understand human beings;
it deals with how people adapt to their environments through the
interaction of biology and culture.

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Relativity: Anthropology tries to study or explain a
certain belief, practice or institution of a group of
people in their own context (make no value judgment
like it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’).
Anthropology's comparative perspective help us to understand
differences and similarities across time and place.
Insiders' views (emic perspective): it gives attention on how people
perceive themselves and their world.
It can help us to look in to the logic and justification behind group
behavior and cultural practices.
how a particular group of people explain their action, or give meaning to
their behavior or cultural practices.
For example: some Ethiopian tribes drink the blood and milk of their
cattles… why? 33
Along the Lower Omo valley river in
Southern Ethiopia resides the Bodi
Tribe. The Bodi people are
agriculturalists +pastoral who still
engage in trade by barter system.
These pastoral people revere their
cows. Their cows are so special to
them that its blood together with fresh
milk is a source of food for this people.
Rather than kill the cows, they make a
hole in one of its veins to get the blood
out and close it back with clay……
Source: https://guardian.ng/life/the-bodi-tribe-where-men-drink-
blood-and-milk/. 34
Anthropology is highly dependent on qualitative research to
understand the meaning behind any human activity.
The data is often collected by employing extended fieldwork (a
year or more ), participant observation, in-depth and key
informant interviews and focus-group discussion.
Ethnographic study is required in Anthropological research.
Focus on the local than the big social processes.
It gives attention to local or micro-social
processes to understand big changes in societies.

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 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ANTHROPOLOGY
misconception about anthropology in relation to area of study
Anthropology is the study of "primitive” and/ or remote exotic
societies. But anthropology studies most advanced and most complex
societies as well.
It only studies the rural people and rural areas, (this claim is seems to
right for the formative years of anthropology), but anthropology is
interested in studying of urban people and urban areas (Urban
Anthropology).
 it is the study/analysis of fossil evidences like Lucy/Dinkeneshe, It is true
that anthropology studies the origin of modern human beings (human
evolution)
but also studies biological and the cultural aspects of humans and it
examines the existing human physical and biological variations and cultural
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With regarded to the purpose of anthropology
Anthropological study is about keeping or preserving
communities far from ‘development’ and obsolete cultural
practices in museums.
But it is anthropologists’ duty to support those communities' to
empower themselves in development processes. They assist
peoples' initiatives instead of imposing development.

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 THE RELATIONSHIP OF ANTHROPOLOGY WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Anthropology sound similar with other social sciences (sociology, psychology,
political sciences, economics, history, etc), it is because all disciplines study
human society.
But anthropology differs in its broad scope, unique approach, perspective, unit
of analysis and methods used.
In its scope, anthropology studies humankind in its entirety.
In its approach, anthropology studies and analyzes human ways of life
holistically, comparatively and in a relativistic manner.
In its perspective, locates dimensions of people’s individual and communal
lived experiences, their thoughts and their feelings. ( shows their interconnected
and interrelatedness to one another).
It is perspective is empirical, naturalistic and ideographic [particularising] than
nomothetic [universalising] one. (By using ethnographic data collection techniques).
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 THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
 Inthe processes of examining all aspects of humanity for
all periods of time and for all parts of the globe
anthropologists draw theories and data from other
disciplines in the humanities, the social sciences, and the
physical sciences.
But the discipline also contributes benefits for other
sister disciplines
anthropological perspective: which emphasis on the comparative study of
cultures. Through the process of contrasting and comparing, we gain a fuller
understanding of other cultures and our own.
It also helps us better understand ourselves or our own ways of life and to be
critical about the ways of lives of our own community. 39
 CONT.… CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
anthropology gives us an insight to understand ways and modes of life
of human society. Or a means to understand the logic or justification
behind group behaviour and cultural practices.
Anthropology’s distinctive methodology gives us a unique perspective on
how local cultural groups are engaging with the process of globalization.
•Its relativistic approach enables us to be more sensitive or appreciative
of cultural diversity and variability.
Anthropology helps us fight prejudice and discriminations which
emanates from ethnocentrism
Anthropology is also used as a tool for development because it can help
us to pay attention to local conditions which is crucial to solve
community problems.
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 CONT.… CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropological knowledge and research results can help us to
ensure people’s rights in development
So that we can design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive
change, and
We can also use anthropology to protect local people from harmful
policies and projects.
We can apply anthropology in the areas of Environmental Change,
Health and Nutrition, Globalization, Social Justice and Human
Rights, cultural resource management (CRM) and Cultural
Dimensions of Civil and Religious Conflicts.

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 TIPS ON ACTIONS OR BEHAVIOUR THAT SEEMED “RUDE” CROSS-CULTURALLY.

 Askingquestions that are too personal Asking why I haven’t responded to an

(Chinese) email (Emirati)
Not starting an email with a friendly Asking how much I paid for my car
greeting (Argentina) (American)
Looking a superior in the eye (Nigerian) Spitting on the street (Hong Kong)
Not looking me in the eye (Canadian) People cutting in line (Australian)
Using first name in an introductory email Standing far apart while talking
(Slovakian) (Brazilian)
Wasting time on a business call with Source: https://culturalq.com/blog/rude/
small talk (German)
Not responding to an email (British)
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