ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Franz Boas, Unilineality, Historical Particularism
Document Summary
Culture is learned (by elders/friends or who you spend time with) and taught (a continuous process) Culture is shared yet contested (everyone knows basics but not everyone will always agree; ex. Kap sitting during the national anthem) (culture changes) Culture is symbolic (nazi swastika) and material (clothes) Values (what we believe; what we think is important) Mental maps of reality (how people lay out the world around them from a social/cultural perspective) Ethnocentrism (believing one"s culture is superior to another), cultural relativism (understanding another culture without judging), and human rights. Unilineal (one line) cultural evolution: societies and cultures evolve in a predetermined order; barbarians to normal civilians. American historical particularism: franz boas father of us anthro; unilineal does not exist, some groups are doing fine and don"t need to move on; all cultures are different and you can"t compare them to each other. British structural functionalism: kinship studies and social networks. Interpretivist approach: culture and meaning (cock fighting, winking, kissing)
