Cultural Anthropology 2

December 28, 2013
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1 Cultural Anthropology/Print version 3
2 Introduction 5 2.1 What is Anthropology? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 Cultural Anthropology Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2.4 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3 History of Anthropological Theory 33 3.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.2 A brief history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.3 Historic Cultural Anthropologists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 3.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4 Anthropological Methods 55 4.1 Origins of Ethnography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 4.2 Fieldwork Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.3 Types of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5 Symbolism and Communication 67
6 Play 69
7 Sport 75 7.1 Sport in Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8 Cultural Arts 87 8.1 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 8.2 Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 8.3 Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 8.4 Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 8.5 Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9 References 119
10 Ritual and Religion 121 10.1 Ritual, Religion and Myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 10.2 Origin of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 10.3 Functions of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 10.4 Concepts of Supernatural Beings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
III
Contents
10.5 How Beliefs Are Expressed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 10.6 Religious Specialists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 10.7 Ritual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 10.8 World Religions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
11 Cults 251
13 References 255
14 Production, Inequality and Development 259 14.1 Adaptive Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 14.2 Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 14.3 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 14.4 Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 14.5 Modes of Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 14.6 Foraging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 14.7 Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 14.8 Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 14.9 Modes of Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 14.10 Economizing and Maximization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 14.11 Grameen Bank (Microcredit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
15 Glossary of Key Terms 293
16 References 295
18 Theoretical Approaches in Medical Anthropology 301 18.1 Epidemiological Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 18.2 Interpretivist Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 18.3 Critical Medical Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
19 Ethnomedicine 305 19.1 Healers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 19.2 Healing Substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
20 Medical Systems 321 20.1 Medical Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
21 Globalization and Health 331 21.1 Epidemiologic Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
22 Mental Health and Culture Bound Syndromes 335
23 References 349
IV
Contents
24 Human Rights 353 24.1 Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 24.2 Human Rights and Cultural Relevance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 24.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
25 Marriage, Reproduction and Kinship 367 25.1 Reproduction and Kinship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 25.2 Sexuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 25.3 Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 25.4 Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 25.5 Divorce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 25.6 Kinship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 25.7 Genealogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 25.8 Friendship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 25.9 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
26 Social Stratification, Power and Conflict 431 26.1 Social Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 26.2 Types of Social Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 26.3 Social Stratification, Power and Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 26.4 Ascribed Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 26.5 Achieved Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 26.6 Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446 26.7 Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
27 References 459
29 Contributors 465
List of Figures 467
30 Licenses 479 30.1 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 30.2 GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 30.3 GNU Lesser General Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
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2 Introduction
Cultural Anthropology is the study of human cultures, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, technologies, economies and other domains of social and cognitive organization. This field is based primarily on cultural understanding gained through first hand experience, or participant observation within living populations of humans. This chapter will introduce you to the field of anthropology, define basic terms and concepts and explain why it is important, and how it can change your perspective of the world around you.
2.1 What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the scientific study of human beings as social organisms interacting with each other in their environment. Anthropology can be defined as the study of human nature, human society, and the human past. It is a scholarly discipline that aims to describe in the broadest possible sense what it means to be human. Anthropologists are interested in com- parison. To make substantial and accurate comparisons between cultures, a generalization of humans requires evidence from the wide range of human societies. Anthropologists are in direct contact with the sources of their data, thus field work is a crucial component. The field of Anthropology, although fairly new as an academic field, has been used for centuries. Anthropologists are convinced that explanations of human actions will be superficial unless they acknowledge that human lives are always entangled in complex patterns of work and family, power and meaning. Anthropology is holistic[ [3]1], comparative, field based, and evolutionary. These regions of Anthropology shape one another and become integrated with one another over time. Historically it was seen as "the study of others," meaning foreign cultures, but using the term "others" imposed false thoughts of "civilized versus savagery." These dualistic views have often caused wars or even genocide. Now, anthropologists strive to uncover the mysteries of these foreign cultures and eliminate the prejudice that it first created. While it is a holistic field, anthropology is typically considered to consist of five sub-disciplines, each focusing on a particular aspect of human existence:
• Archeology: The study and interpretation of ancient humans, their history and culture, through examination of the artifacts and remains they left behind. Such as: The study of the Egyptian culture through examination of their grave sites, the pyramids and the tombs in the Valley of Kings2. Through this branch, anthropologists discover much about human history, particularly prehistoric, the long stretch of time before the development of writing.
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism#In_anthropology 2 http://en.wikibooks.org//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Kings
Figure 1 Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan.
• Cultural Anthropology:(also: sociocultural anthropology, social anthropology, or eth- nology) studies the different cultures of humans and how those cultures are shaped or shape the world around them. They also focus a lot on the differences between every per- son. The goal of a cultural anthropologist is to learn about another culture by collecting data about how the world economy and political practices effect the new culture that is being studied.
• Biological Anthropology (also: Physical…