ANT 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Osteology, Vocal Tract, Cultural Relativism
Document Summary
Anthropology: the scientific study of the human condition by exploring biological and cultural aspects of the species past, present, and future. The study of human behavior in cross-cultural perspective. Culture: the rules and standards by which a group of people operates; shared behavior incl. religion, tech, gender, language. Cultural relativism: each culture should be examined in terms of itself. Ethnographies: detailed descriptive studies of human societies. Facilitate cross-cultural comparisons by studying how societies are. The study of human speech and language. Humans are unique: able to use syntax; anatomy of vocal tract. Trace historical ties and even population movements. The study of past societies using their material remains. Advantage: can observe long-term patterns of cultural change. I. e. , changes in settlement patterns or resource exploitation over. The study of human biology within an evolutionary framework. Goal: combine narrative of the fossil record with hypothesis of how and why it happened. Toolkit needed for understanding human evolutionary trends:
