AN101 Lecture Notes - Noble Savage, Cultural Relativism, Enculturation
Document Summary
Enculturation: the process by which you learn your own culture. Ethnocentrism: believing that your culture is more superior than all others. Cultural relativism: the opposite of ethnocentrism, we try to understand a different culture, when you don"t understand something you dig a little bit further to understand a culture and their own standards. Fieldwork: a way of doing research in anthropology, you go somewhere else and learn a particular culture, more observing than participating. Participant observation: you partake in everyday life and activities of the culture you are trying to understand. Reflexivity: being aware that you can influence the research. Contextualize the ethnography chronicle of the guayaki indians: Written in 1972 by a french anthropologist. First chapter: birth process: the ethnographer compared the birth process of the guayaki to the one of his own culture, holist approach: birth process is linked to economical, political and religious phenomenon. Columbus depictions of the indians correspond to his own preconceptions and fantasies.
