Anthropology 3301E Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Cultural Geography, Methodological Individualism, John Comaroff
27 Mar 2017
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Anthropologists question all things people tend to think are natural. Explore how they come to see that way. Leach looked at the relationship between societies and cultures. Different culture groups who de ne themselves differently. Argued members of a culture don"t necessarily share all the same cultural traits. Not a village, a broader social system. Analysis of ethnicity shifted to whether subjected claims of ethnicity derived from two dif things. Psychological/emotional need -> cultural/ethnic identity -> formation of social groups. Idea that rapid change was happening, lives disrupted. Ethnic collectivities defend their members against material dislocations through collective action. Shared material interests -> formation of social groups -> ethnic identity. Disrupting contexts disrupting traditional life = new dilemmas. Come together to protect against vulnerability or marginalization. Appealing models cause straight forward but criticized. Primordial models point to symbols that people get attached to but don"t explain, go. The starting point of analysis taken as individual.
