Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (0780)

Angela Lockard Reed

Outline 1, August 27, 2003

What is Anthropology?

I           Anthropology: the study of humanity

A          Physical/Biological Anthropology

            B          Linguistics

            C          Archaeology

            D          Cultural Anthropology

                        1          Ethnography

                        2          Ethnology

            3          Ethnohistory

                        4          Holism

II           Culture

            A          “values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world shared by members of a society, that they use to interpret experience and generate behavior, and that are reflected in their behavior”

                        1          Society

                        2          Subculture

                        3          Pluralistic societies

            B          Culture is learned, shared, and communicated; the parts of a culture function as an integrated whole.

            C          To survive a culture,

                        1          must satisfy basic needs

                        2          provide for biological and cultural continuity

                        3          provide an orderly existence

                        4          have the capacity to change in order to adapt to new circumstances

                        5          Bronislaw Malinowski’s fundamental levels of needs:

                                    a          biological needs

                                    b          instrumental needs

                                    c          integrative needs

            D          Culture in relation to biology

            E          Cultural differences

            F          Cultural meaning

III          Ethnocentrism

IV         Cultural Relativism

V          Culture-bound

VI         Salamanders Video:  An experiment in Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

            A          What, specifically, is “strange” about the behavior of the people shown in the film?

            B          How would you describe what is going on in the film if you were to take the perspective of cultural relativism?

            C         To what extent does the film represent American culture as a whole?