ANT100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cultural Anthropology, Emic And Etic, Phonetics
03/03/2016
SCL Lecture 6
Our World and Their World
Reading:
Lecture Themes:
1. Absolute values and cultural relativism
2. Universal and Particular structures in language and culture
3. Moral issues in Anthropological Work
4. The ethics of field work
5. Case study: mother love and infant death in Alto do Cruzeiro, Brazil
Cultural and Moral Relativism:
• Cultural Relativism assumptions and behaviours mean different things in different
cultures
Ex. Manners
Ex. Sneezing in public in Cuba
Privacy
Connect cultural differences to socio-economic differences
When you get to values it reflects something more in society
Capitalist society value the individual, value privacy
• Understand the Other without judging
• Recognize that historical, social and economic conditions strongly affect our behaviour
and that of others
• Moral Relativism there are no absolute values. What is good or evil depends on the
culture
Absolute or Relative Morality Questions:
• Is female genital mutilation fine?
• How about burning windows on the funeral pyre of their husbands?
• Exposing the elderly to death?
• Abortion?
• Polygamy? Indonesia allows 4 wives
• Circumcision?
• Should we agree for babies to die in places like Alto?
• Most anthropologists are not moral relativists?
Universal (Absolute) Moral Values:
• Believing that these exist is the opposite of moral relativism
• It is not the opposite of cultural relativism
Universals (and Particulars) of Language:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Lecture themes: absolute values and cultural relativism, universal and particular structures in language and culture, moral issues in anthropological work, the ethics of field work, case study: mother love and infant death in alto do cruzeiro, brazil. Cultural and moral relativism: cultural relativism assumptions and behaviours mean different things in different cultures. When you get to values it reflects something more in society. Capitalist society value the individual, value privacy: understand the other without judging, recognize that historical, social and economic conditions strongly affect our behaviour and that of others, moral relativism there are no absolute values. What is good or evil depends on the culture. Universal (absolute) moral values: believing that these exist is the opposite of moral relativism. It is not the opposite of cultural relativism. Levi strauss and structural anthropology: 1829-1902, claude levi strauss (1908-2009) culture has much the same structure as language, a classic and dated explanation.
