Docsity
Docsity

Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity


Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan


Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips

Anthropology Notes Ch.1, Lecture notes of Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Lecture notes about anthropology

Typology: Lecture notes

2023/2024

Uploaded on 04/01/2024

maria-casadiego-2
maria-casadiego-2 🇺🇸

1 document

1 / 4

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
Horace Miner (1912-1993) was an American anthropologist, studied language and agricultural
practice, i.e Africa.
Main Ideas: The Nacimera are depicted as strange and alien especially through:
1. Its rituals
2. The word “natives”
a. They are portrayed as superstitious, backwards, and primitive.
“Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden
people” (507).
The Idea of the Foreign/Alien/The other who are strange/different
Ex; egyptians eating with hands
Ex; drinking tea (uk)
Reactions:
Fear of/anxiety towards the unknown, of the foreign, of the other, e.g. looking down upon
the other:
Ex. british were outraged by american advice to prepare tea with salt and microwave
Opposition
Ex; mask protesters
Prejudice, label, stereotype, etc.
Diversity: that people have different beliefs, norms, values, symbols, ways of seeing the world,
ways of life something that we call culture.
The question for anthropology is:
1) Everybody/every group has culture!
2) Culture is learned and taught, not inherited biologically through a process of
enculturation; Americans are taught to use spoons and forms, Chinese and Japanese
are taught to use chopsticks.
3) Culture is shared its social and collective
a) [Mainstream] culture, e.g. American culture, Korean culture
b) Subculture smaller in scale, oftenly under/against the mainstream culture, e.g.
punk, fraternity culture, sports culture
4) Culture is both symbolic and material, both abstract and concrete, e.g, burger (photo
right) and the idea of fast food American culture
5) Culture is contested and can/always change. People evolve, so do culture
a) Internal processes e.g. conflict, mixture
b) External process, e.g. globalization
Culture and its characteristics
A) Norms: ideas or rules about how people should behave
pf3
pf4

Partial preview of the text

Download Anthropology Notes Ch.1 and more Lecture notes Introduction to Cultural Anthropology in PDF only on Docsity!

Horace Miner (1912-1993) was an American anthropologist, studied language and agricultural practice, i.e Africa. Main Ideas: The Nacimera are depicted as strange and alien → especially through:

  1. Its rituals
  2. The word “natives” a. They are portrayed as superstitious, backwards, and primitive. “Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden people” (507). The Idea of the Foreign/Alien/The other who are strange/different Ex; egyptians eating with hands Ex; drinking tea (uk) Reactions: ● Fear of/anxiety towards the unknown, of the foreign, of the other, e.g. looking down upon the other: Ex. british were outraged by american advice to prepare tea with salt and microwave ● Opposition Ex; mask protesters ● Prejudice, label, stereotype, etc. Diversity: that people have different beliefs, norms, values, symbols, ways of seeing the world, ways of life → something that we call culture. The question for anthropology is:
  1. Everybody/every group has culture!
  2. Culture is learned and taught, not inherited biologically → through a process of enculturation; Americans are taught to use spoons and forms, Chinese and Japanese are taught to use chopsticks.
  3. Culture is shared → its social and collective a) [Mainstream] culture, e.g. American culture, Korean culture b) Subculture → smaller in scale, oftenly under/against the mainstream culture, e.g. punk, fraternity culture, sports culture
  4. Culture is both symbolic and material, both abstract and concrete, e.g, burger (photo right) and the idea of fast food → American culture
  5. Culture is contested and can/always change. People evolve, so do culture a) Internal processes e.g. conflict, mixture b) External process, e.g. globalization Culture and its characteristics A) Norms: ideas or rules about how people should behave

B) Values: fundamental beliefs about what is important, what is good, what is true, and so forth ● Symbols: something that stands for something else, e.g. language, flags, religion, foods. ● Mental maps of reality: maps that people construct to respond to reality Example 1: Hip Hop Music -Originated in the early 1970’s by African Americans and Caribbean immigrants in the Bronx (New York City, United States) -A subculture, characterized by MC-ing/rapping, Dj-ing/scratching records, breakdancing, and graffiti art →reaction to marginalization -Spread all over the world and becomes mainstream -Higher Brothers are a Chinese hip hop group from Chengdu, singing in English, standard Mandarin and Sichuan Dialect -Signed up with the American label 88rising -An example of cultural diffusion and cosmopolitanism Example 2: The US Constitution and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy -1787: Constitutional Convention → Four years after the United States won its independence from Great Britain -55 state delegates, including George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin, convened in Philadelphia to compose a new U.S constitution → The Articles of Confederation -There were no models from Europe that they could learn from -Borrowed from Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, one of the world's oldest participatory democracies (survives until today) -THe Haudenosaunee Confederacy was formed around 1570 and 1600 by five nations: The Mohawks, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Oneida, and the Seneca. The Tuscarora joined later (1722) -They formed a multi-state government -Benjamin Franklin diminished the improvement/achievements of native american society (Federalism) -Congress passed a 1988 resolution formally acknowledging the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy on the U.S Constitution Civilization vs. Culture -”Civilzation” comes from the french →denoting some sort of achievements, a complex social structure, progress, and so forth → narrower than the term “culture”. -It can refer to the culture of a complex society, e.g. Inca civilization -Create a distinction between uncivilized and civilized, especially in the 18-19th century

(b) A mask as a symbol of tyranny (especially by the federal government →anti-big government) (c) Anti-mask mandate as a symbol of individual liberty (d) Anti-mask as a symbol of distrust of science and the health care system (e) Anti-mask as a symbol against urban elite(ism) Culture and Property

  • Is culture exclusive? That certain culture belongs solely to a certain group
  • It depends, some aspects can be exclusive, some others are not
  • E.g
    • A cross is exclusive to Christians as a pilgrimage to Mecca is to Muslims→exclusive
    • Hihop→no longer exclusive Cultural Borrowing
  1. Cultural diffusion: the spread of cultures from one context to the other, e.g. hip hop
  2. Acculturation: the mutual influencing of two unequal groups that have come into continuous firsthand contact →the adoption of Christianity by many indigenous people (brought by missionaries)
  3. Assimilation: a powerful group’s imposition of its cultural practices upon weaker target groups →e.g migrants have to adopt the cultural practices of a host society (language) otherwise they will be marginalized
  4. Appropriation: the unwanted taking of an important cultural practices of body of knowledge from one group by another, more dominant group