ANTH 3240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Medical Anthropology, Emic And Etic, Participant Observation

• School: York University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 3240
• Professor: Lynda Mannik

Document Summary

Cultural anthropology= fi(cid:374)d out a(cid:271)out (cid:862)othe(cid:396)(cid:863) k(cid:374)o(cid:449) a(cid:271)out (cid:455)ou(cid:396)self. Types of anthropology: archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology. Whe(cid:374) (cid:449)e talk (cid:272)ultu(cid:396)e (cid:449)e a(cid:396)e talki(cid:374)g a(cid:271)out diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)t aspe(cid:272)ts of so(cid:373)eo(cid:374)e"s e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455)da(cid:455) life. Cultural relativism: the opposite of ethnocentrism- understanding another culture in terms of its own logic. Arm chair anthropologist- white men that would not travel but just read diaries and observe travellers to expand their knowledge about races and often would create racial categories. Barbarism- domestication of plants and animals but no phonetic language. Civilization- westerners; industrial based; written language; complex social institutions; cultures at the highest stages of cultural evolution because they have superior set of values and social meaning this had filtered down into ideas about gender and sexuality. How cultural mechanisms function to sustain societies. Central tenet: there are no primitive people or primitive cultures. Cultural anthropology"s ma(cid:374)tra: (cid:862) to fi(cid:374)d out a(cid:271)out (cid:373)a(cid:374), (cid:455)ou (cid:373)ust go a(cid:373)o(cid:374)g (cid:373)e(cid:374).