Anthropology 1025F/G Lecture Notes - Ruth First, Philippe Bourgois, Nancy Green
Document Summary
Claimed that one must look at a particular society and get all the information one can. Thought that the people would disappear, so recorded everything. He wanted to know how society worked (institutions). He wanted to know what held societies together. We can"t become natives of another society, we already are natives. Wasn"t interested in society, he was interested in the individual, psychological needs (food, shelter, safety). He theorized if enough individual needs changed, the societal practices would change to meet those needs, certain practices would fall by the wayside and others would be created. Reality can be known through sight smell touch and sound. Mead"s question is adolescence different in different societies. Hypothesis - if adolescence is biological, it should be emotionally the same in all societies. But if there are cultural stresses on adolescents there should be widespread differences. Family structure everyone acts as each other"s relatives.