ANTH 1120 Lecture Notes - Clifford Geertz, Michel Foucault, Cultural Relativism

• School: York University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 1120
• Professor: David Murray

Document Summary

Sept 12: the culture concept and the limits of understanding difference. Italy they try to prevent the soul from returning: some societies accept death while others always pose suspicion around them, [ec. // dani of new guinea: female close to dead relative must sacrifice part of their finger. We must try to understand a culture in its own terms and to understand behaviours/beliefs for the meaning they have to the ppl in that culture. [ belief or behaviour can only be understand in relation to its culture: relativistic fallacy: the idea that it is impossible to make moral judgments about the beliefs and behaviours of others. [10: virginity testing in turkey: day after wedding reveal bed spread and look for hy- meneal blood stain, anthropologists have trouble remaining objective, or they may becoming act- ively involved in criticizing behaviour or beliefs they encounter.