Politics of Nature
Politics of NatureWeek 3: Introduction to thinking like an
anthropologistIntroduce history of anthropology, discuss concept of
culture, and research methods.Discuss instructions for paper
1Define and discuss the concept of social construction (Read Sutton
chapter and watch Gergen video prior to Thursday January, 28
class)Apply concept of social construction to how we experience and
make sense of nature.
History of AnthropologyChange and Evolution
Great Chain of BeingMedieval belief that earth had been
unchanged since creation.Earth a few thousand years oldAll things
on a ladder of perfectionEmphasized stasisSubjected to scientific
debates in 18th and 19th centuries
2Catastrophism and UniformitarianismExplaining Change
Catastrophism18th c scientists collected fossil forms for which
there was no living exemplar.Explanation based on Christian
inspired theory of catastrophismChanges were the result of
catastrophes like Noah's flood set into motion by God.Changes part
of Gods plan.Alternative theory proposed by Charles
Lyell3Uniformitarianism
Charles Lyell (1830-1872)Principles of GeologyTheory of earth
undergoing slow steady gradual change over long periods of
time.Earth millions of years oldChange random and directionlessNew
Questions About Biological ChangeIf geological forms have gradually
changed from one state to another, do living things partake in this
process?Are human beings part of this process? If so how?Are there
natural laws that dictate change?The Origin of Species (1859)
Evolution and Natural Selection
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)Analogy taken from animal
breedingChanging environment wields pressure on organisms in that
environment to change.To survive organisms must be able to
reproduce or face extinction.Successful reproduction depended upon
variability of inherited traits in the population.Nature selected
those traits enabling reproductive success.
Evolution and Fantasies of ProgressAnxieties about the Status of
Man
Social EvolutionAlso known as evolutionism and unilineal
evolutionism.Recasting natural selection as a story about progress
and perfection.Theory that all human ways of life passed through
similar sequences or stages of development.
Social Evolutionism
Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881)Classifying and categorizing all
human beings into hierarchical stages of social development.Based
on technological and material development.
Social Darwinism
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)Coined the phrase survival of the
fittest.Idea of favored races. Some social groups more fit to
prevail over others.Social Darwinism held that savages were
technologically, mentally, and biologically inferior to more
evolved races.Racial Logic of Social DarwinismEmergence of Racial
ThinkingBy 1900s widespread belief that biology, behavior, mental
capacity, and individual ability could be explained by a persons
race.White Americans believed to be naturally civilized and
superior.Non-whites, naturally uncivilized and inferior.
White SupremacyUsing Natural Inferiority to JustifyInequality
& ViolenceLynching in Marion, Ohio (1933)
White race believed to be naturally superior Black and other
other racial minorities believed to be naturally inferior.Ideas of
racial difference used to justify legalized discrimination and
white vigilante violence. Eugenics Artificial Selection
Popular movement focused on selective breeding of the fittest
and weeding out of the unfit.Mentally illMentally and physically
disabledRacial and ethnic groups deemed unfit.Promoted
sterilization and denial of medical care.
Nazi Eugenics PropagandaThis person suffering from hereditary
defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime.
Fellow German, that is your money, too
We do not stand alone
Franz Boas and the Anthropological Critique of Race
Franz Boas (1858-1942)Founder of modern US anthropology.Founding
faculty of anthropology department Columbia University in New York
City.Foremost critic of evolutionism, social Darwinism, eugenics,
race, and racism.Explaining Human Differences: From Biological to
Cultural Understanding19th century anthropologyDifferences are the
result of biologyDifferences are innate and transmitted through
reproduction.Evolutionism Developmentalism and Idea of
Progress.Focus on material culture and biology.Focus on collecting
and classifying.Focus on ranking and diffusion of traits.
1820th Century AnthropologyDifferences are the result of
cultureDifferences are learned and acquired through
socialization.Franz Boas and Idea of Historical Particularism.Focus
on culture and systems of meaning.Focus on description.Focus on
meaning and function
19Culture and biologyHuman biology requires culture for our
survival.Human biologyLarge brains and stereoscopic color
visionSpeechUpright postureHands free with opposable thumbs
20Biological disadvantages (just to name a few)Big head, small
cervix.Weak knees.No hair, no claws, no wings, no fangs, no gills,
no hornsDependent young vulnerable to predators.21Biological
advantages ofadaptability through cultureImitation.Manipulation and
transmission of symbols.Communication of past, present, and
future.Planning and coordination.Culture is virtual and
creative.Culture is second nature.Culture virtualizes nature,
reinvents it
22Culture DefinedCulture is shared, patterned, and socially
transmitted in symbolic ways. It regulates behavior and is usually
outside of our conscious awareness.
23From cultural objects to cultural meanings..culture is the
meaning behind that which human produce. Morals, beliefs, customs,
or laws are things; the significance that humans give these things
is meaning (Eric Lassiter 2002: 43).24Culture is a System of
MeaningCulture is a negotiated system of meaninginformed by
knowledge that people learn andput into practice by interpreting
experienceand generating behavior.
25Culture and HolismIf what humans say and do only makes sense
within a system of meaningActions, things, beliefs only make sense
by relating them back to this system of meaning.Holism- relating
the parts to the whole.26Understanding Other CulturesThe problem of
EthnocentrismOvercoming bias:Natives point of viewCultural
relativismConcept of Emic and EticEmic: The terms, concepts, and
language that members of a culture use to make sense of their
experience, beliefs, and behavior.Etic: The terms, concepts,
language that anthropologists/social scientists use to explain the
experiences, beliefs, and behavior of a culture.
27Anthropological ResearchAnthropological research methods
includeParticipant ObservationFieldworkEthnography