ANTH 1001 Chapter : Anthropology
Document Summary
The study of people, goal is to try to understand what it means to be human. Biocultural approach --- studying humans from biological perspective and cultural (behavior) perspective. Holistic --- relating or concerned with the whole system as opposed to the parts. Comparative (cross-cultural) --- comparisons are being made either within culture or cross cultural. Ethnocentric --- belief in inherent superiority of one"s own ethnic group. Cultural relativism --- the view that all cultures have merits within their own historical and environmental context. Fieldwork --- period of time where anthropologists are collecting data. Four subfields: linguistic --- study of language and communications in a particular culture. Between 6 and seven thousand languages spoken in today"s world: cultural --- looking at behavior. Learned behavior that is pasted down from generation and is distinguished from other such groups by rituals, belief systems, or kinship systems: archeology --- material culture and past culture.
