© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Window on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Third Edition Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology?

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Window on HumanityConrad Phillip Kottak

Third Edition

Chapter 1

What Is Anthropology?

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

CHAPTER 1What Is Anthropology?

• Anthropology– Study of the human species and its immediate

ancestors– Holistic discipline: concerned with human

biology, society, language, and culture in the past, present, and future

– Unique cross-cultural perspective

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMFsgPy1H5M

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Fields of Anthropology

Activity:

•Review the Anthropology undergraduate course list from Columbia University. Can you find ways to categorize the courses into different fields of Anthropology?

– Physical Anthropology– Cultural Anthropology– Archeology

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Fields of Anthropology

• Subdisciplines of American anthropology– Cultural anthropology - – Archaeological anthropology –– Biological (or physical) anthropology –– Linguistic anthropology –

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Fields of Anthropology

• Anthropology and other academic fields– Anthropology is both a scientific and a

humanistic discipline– Besides its links to the natural sciences (e.g.,

geology) and social sciences (e.g., sociology), anthropology has strong ties to the humanities (e.g., comparative literature)

Activity

• Center for Learning: Subdisciplines in Anthropology

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Fields of Anthropology

• Dimensions of American anthropology:– Academic or theoretical anthropology– Applied anthropology

• Applied anthropology

– Application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems

– All four subdisciplines

ACTIVITY: CAREERS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

• Use the following websites on the handout to help answer the questions:1. Identify 6 current jobs that are available to which you would be

interested in applying. Try to find jobs that are in at least 3 different disciplines.

2. Identify whether the jobs you listed are academic or applied anthropology.

3. Which of the field of Anthropology is most interesting to you? Why?

4. Look at the skills websites. Write a paragraph explaining what you would need to do to pursue a career in that field of Anthropology.

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Human Adaptability

• Human Adaptability– Humans are among the most adaptable animals

in the world, able to inhabit widely variant ecological niches

– Humans share both society and culture

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Adaptability

• Adaptation, Variation, and Change– Adaptation: process by which organisms

cope with environmental forces and stresses

– Human adaptation: interaction between culture and biology to satisfy individual goals

Four types of human adaptation

1. Technological adaptation; Cultural

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Four types of human adaptation2. Genetic adaptation – Biological; occurs over generations.

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Four types of human adaptation

3. Long-term physiological or developmental adaptation

- Occurs during growth and development of the individual organism

- BIOLOGICAL

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Four types of human adaptation

4. Short-term or immediate physiological adaptation-occurs spontaneously when the individual organism enters a new environment.

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Adaptation, Variation, and Change

– Social and cultural adaptation have become increasingly important for human groups

– Spread of industrial production profoundly affected human life

Relation between biology and culture

• “In World history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture.”

Anthropologist Ruth Benedict (1940)

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• How do contemporary anthropologists deal with issues of human biological diversity and race?

1. Racial classification (now largely abandoned)

2. Current explanatory approach – focuses on specific differences

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Human biological diversity and the race concept

– Racial classification – the attempt to assign humans to discrete categories based on common ancestry

– Biological race – a geographically isolated subdivision of a species

– Biological races do not exist among humans

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Human Diversity

• Human biological diversity and the race concept– Race supposedly reflects genetic ancestry, but

racial classifications are usually based on phenotypical traits (e.g., skin color)

– Phenotype refers to an organism’s evident traits, its “manifest biology”

*Racial classifications based on phenotype race the problem of deciding -

which traits are the most important?

Race the Power of an Illusion

• http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm

• Complete the activity “Sorting People”. How did you do?

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Problems with phenotype-based racial classifications:

– Impossible to determine which trait(s) should be considered primary

– Racial classifications do not accurately represent the wide range of skin colors and other biological diversity among human populations

– Particular traits (e.g., skin color, stature, skull form, facial features) do not necessarily co-occur

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

• Assumption that phenotypical traits reflect shared, unchanging genetic material is problematic– Phenotype doesn’t necessarily have genetic

basis– Phenotypes in a population may change without

any genetic change • environmental variables can greatly affect the

growth and development of individuals

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So what does cause the difference? How do we explain variations?

• Natural Selection– Process by which the forms most fit to survive and

reproduce in a given environment due so at much greater numbers than others in the same environment.

Example: Explaining Skin Color

• Melanin – primary determinant of skin color; helps to screen out ultraviolent radiation from the sun, providing protection

• Natural selection provides an explanation for the geographic distribution of different skin colors

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© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.

Culture and Biology

• Cultural forces shape human biology– Biocultural: inclusion and combination of

cultural and biological perspectives to address a particular problem

– Culture is a key environmental force that shapes how human bodies grow and develop

Quiz: Chapter 1

• MONDAY, January 30

• Make sure you have done the reading and answered the questions.

• Study the questions

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