Summary APY1501 STUDY NOTES.

APY1501 STUDY NOTES. Anthropology In A Diverse World. WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY? Anthropology Produces information on people and what they have in common.  Studies humankind everywhere, both past and present  Studies where people live, the organisation and the general features of people’s languages. Initially what distinguished anthropology from sociology was that Anthropology studied 'preliterate' people. Anthropology as an independent discipline is distinguished from other disciplines that study humankind by the fact that anthropology is concerned with all facets of human existence. The anthropological fieldwork methodology is distinguished from the methodologies of other disciplines that study human beings by its involvement in experiencing something of other people’s live and becoming familiar with their activities in their contexts. An holistic approach to the study of cultures means that anthropologists study all facets of human life including the environmental factors to which people must adapt for survival. Sociocultural anthropologists:  Focus on the lifestyles of the rich diversity of societies as they are found worldwide.  Relations between people in terms of culture Linguistic anthropologists: The relation between language and the other aspects of the life of a society  They initially studied the historical development of unwritten languages of non-western societies.  Study societies to gain an understanding of how cultural phenomena are expressed verbally.  Study the way in which language is used in different social contexts Biological anthropologists: - The influence of biological and hereditary characteristics on behaviour of members of a society. - The physical adaptation of human populations to their environment Biological anthropologists also make use of:  human genetics (the study of inherited human traits)  population biology (the study of the effects of the environment)  Epidemiology (the study of the differing effects of diseases on populations).  They focus on the fossil remains of prehistoric human-like beings Archaeologist:  The material remains of societies which are collected during excavation of sites where people once lived.  past living conditions and changes that occurred in human populations during prehistoric times Fields of application and practical work:  agriculture  resettlement  alcohol and drug abuse  missionary work  cultural resource management  rural and urban development  design and architecture  women and development  community development  conflict resolution  education and schools  war  employment and labour relations  wildlife management  health and medicine  social impact assessment  land use and land claims  succession disputes THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL WAY: Ethnography/ethnographic research: 1. Involves first-hand, direct contact with the people being studied. 2. It is both the process and the product of fieldwork 3. It may include personal network analyses of informants Ethnographic fieldwork as research methodology in anthropology Is used to gather information on the culture of societies by means of the interviewing of informants and participant observation. Anthropological information that has been collected by means of the ethnographic method will be regarded as a more meaningful and accurate representation of peoples’ sociocultural systems when an anthropologist has used the emic and etic research approaches during his/her fieldwork. Emic: Insder - How the people themselves view things. Etic: Outsider: How the scientist interprets (unbiased). The most important sources of information on a particular sociocultural system are the people at grass-roots level. Anthropologists MAINLY gather information about the people they study by means of In-depth interviewing of informants. The latest survey by Unisa’s Bureau of Market Research (BMR) indicates: More than half of all South Africans still fall in the lowest income bracket (In 2008, there were more than 6 million black households living below the “subsistence” level) The South African economy is not creating sufficient job opportunities for the thousands of additional work seekers that enter the market every year. Although there has been significant growth in the number of “black diamonds” (successful/ wealthy black business people), this has further widened the gap between rich and poor. Socioeconomic inequalities are greater than ever. There is a skills shortage, which means that millions of South Africans do not have access to the modern knowledge economy. Millions of foreigners are pouring into the country, legally and illegally. They compete with the locals for work and are often quite innovative. The result is frustration and resentment, particularly among the unemployed, which has led to widespread xenophobic attacks. The anthropologists role in a Development Project:  Cooperating with agriculturists, geographers, engineers and other scientists in multidisciplinary teams on development projects in a local community  Doing sociocultural impact studies so that communities are not disrupted when buildings are erected, highways and dams constructed and oil pipelines laid  Playing the role of cultural broker or mediator between the government or planners and the local community when the latter has to be moved Holism: The term has carried the implication that sociocultural systems and people’s lives, are interconnected in an almost ideal, balanced and perfectly functional way. Contextual perspective (Holistic View): Is based on the expectation that each patterned element or system, for example, religion, kinship, politics and economy, is dependent upon or linked to some other elements within a specific time, situation and locality. Cultural relativism :  One needs to interpret the behavior of people in terms of the sociocultural context in which the behavior is found.  If an excessively cultural relativism approach is followed in anthropology Cultural practices that have a harmful impact on a society may not be questioned Comparative Method: to compare a wide range of sociocultural systems of groups and of people throughout the world. To uncover differences and similarities and even universals, in various systems, to help them understand why humans behave the way they do Research Methords: 1. Qualitative research:  aims to get a better understanding through first-hand experience, observation, participation and truthful reporting of actual conversations. 2. The Genealogical Method:  The study of the principles of kinship, descent and marriage.  Questioning informants about their relatives (kin), naming all those they can remember, living or dead, and indicating the nature of the relationship between them. 3. Network Analysis: This strategy incorporates relationships beyond those established by kinship and marriage and includes relationships derived from friendship, the workplace, sport or a common interest. 4. Life History method  It is not unusual for an anthropologist to ask an informant for an autobiography or life history.  Interprets life’s events by reference to the sociocultural system.  It reveals insights into the ways they and other members of the community, perceive their world.  Life histories also provide data about how individuals adjust to the restraints placed on them by their sociocultural system and to the things that have happened to them.  The matter of personal response is particularly important to those interested in psychological anthropology Reflexivity:  The awareness of the relationship between power and the construction of knowledge.  Reflecting upon the data collection and interpretation process, produced different fieldwork relationships and new styles of ethnographic writing.  Reflexivity requires that researchers assess the effect of their presence, and their research techniques, on the nature and extent of the data collected. Reciprocity:  The term reciprocity describes a situation or relationship in which two people or groups agree to do something similar for each other (Have the same rights)  In ethnographic research, it entails giving something back to the research participants in return for their collaboration, as an ethical requirement of fieldwork. Multivocality:  Means more than one “voice”.  Both the views of the anthropologist and those being studied should be heard, through including extensive direct quotations, co-authorship and collaboration with research participants.  Ensure the voice of the “other” is heard more clearly, through the active involvement of research participants in the ethnographic accounts. Narrative Ethnography:  Interested in the co-production of ethnographic knowledge, created and represented in the only way it can be within an interactive self/other encounter.  It is a creative intermingling of lived experiences, field data, methodological reflections and cultural analysis by a situated and self-conscious narrator.  Can be exaggerated so that eventually the anthropologist is nothing more than a medium or spokesperson for people who criticise existing social and political order.  There is no editorial input in the interpretation and writing of his/her fieldwork data. Compassionate turn:  A moral awareness and a willingness to take up the cause of the people being studied  Using “our ability to listen, and to observe carefully and with empathy and compassion”  This led anthropologists to increasingly study violence, genocide, suffering, trauma, poverty and oppression Participant observation: participate in the sense that he/she should commit his/her thoughts and emotions to the real-world fieldwork setting, and record his/her observations in an objective, scientific and systematic manner. Enculturation: The way culture is transmitted or carried over from one generation to the next. - Culture is not biologically inherited. - The way we fulfil these needs varies between cultures. - Much of learning culture is unconscious THE HUMAN SPECIES: Paleoanthropologists are mostly interested in learning about the fossil record of human evolution. Humans  Kingdom: Animal  Phylum: Chordata, Subphylum: Vertebrata  Class: Mammalia  Order: Anthropoidea  Family: Hominidae  Genus Homo  Species: Sapiens Sapiens The hominid Line includes: 1. Australopithecines 2. Homo habilis 3. Homo Sapiens Hominids:  Upright posture  Leaving hands free to carry things and alter the environment Australopithecus: (Lucy – Hadar, Etiopia)  The transition between apes and humans. They originated with Australopithecus afarensis  3-4 million years ago  Ape-like brain  Stood fully erect and was able to walk on its two legs (bipedal),  shoulder and hands were more adapted for tree climbing and swinging.  The adult males were twice as big as the females, which is a distinctive hominid characteristic.  They probably used sticks and stones as tools,  “Lucy”, was discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia. Australopithecus africanus:  1 million years later  Similar human – but less ape-like – features  Rounder skull, housing a larger brain and smaller teeth.  Began using simple tools such as sticks and stones to hunt and pebbles to process meat Homo habilis:  handy man  First maker of stone tools (Oldowan Tools) Homo erectus Dwellings made of piled stones or bushes, a highly developed toolkit and, possibly, the use of fire Homo neanderthalensis  made remarkable fine flint projectile points  hunters of large animals, gathered plant foods and made clothing, which enabled them to survive the Ice Age. Homo Sapien Sapiens  Both species exploited a new ecological niche, that of hunting big-game animals by hurling spears and the capacity to live in cold or warm climates.  Tool making culminates in Homo sapiens’s truly magnificent Solutrean tools, finely shaped projectile points.  also developed speech and language. Inheritable changes in a group of the same species that share a specific location and habitat, is a description of Mutation, Migration, Natural Selection, Genetic Drift Human Nature:  There are limits on human nature and only specific variations are possible  The capacity of speech is what distinguishes us from animals (Ability to communicate symbolically)  Despite the diversity found among humans there are many similarities. Homosapiens developed speech and language, marriage and family life Anthropologists agree that the concept of a race cannot be defined biologically and regard perceptions of race as sociocultural constructions. OUR BODIES, OURSELVES: The Concept of a Race:  The classification of humans according to racial characteristics is unscientific and often based on stereotypes that stem from prejudice.  The superficial or external features of humans in particular were used to classify them into races. GENDER: Anthropology and Gender: - Anthropology focuses on how ideas about gender are constructed in different sociocultural contexts. - Gender identity is acquired through socialization and enculturation, but is also shaped by a person’s lived experiences. Body Language: - Is not about what is said, but how it is said - Does NOT correspond to spoken messages - Makes full understanding of verbal messages possible - Differs across different sociocultural systems Kinesics: refers to the interpretation of body language, such as facial expressions, gestures and posture. Proxemics: The study of human beings’ perception and use of space (Personal Space). Haptics: A subdivision of proxemics, focuses on touching as an element of communication Embodiment: The idea that human bodies include its physical, social and emotional aspects is known as The following are functions of bodily decorations and adornments: 1. Accentuating erogenous areas of the body 2. Indicating changes in the status of individuals 3. Designating occupations of individuals Body Modifications: (permanent modifications 1. Tatooing:  Tattooing is one of the most persistent and universal forms of body art.  It possibly dates back to the Upper Palaeolithic era (also known as the Stone Age).  Tattoos have been used to punish, for instance, by marking slaves or prisoners or to indicate clan or cult membership, religious or ethnic affiliation, marital or social position.  tattoos are a way in which people transform and express themselves and a way that human beings establish themselves as part of a specific sociocultural group 2. Scarification and piercing:  Alters the appearance of people’s bodies to comply with their sociocultural conceptions  May be done to display social identity in a physical way  Is practiced among a number of African Societies, such as Nuer and Dinka 3. Male and female circumcision  Communal and Individual Initiation: Communal and individual initiation rituals form an essential part of the transformation process by which young people in many African communities are formally guided to adulthood.  In most indigenous South African communities, the initiation process coincides with physical puberty  Clitoridectomy has not been part of female initiation, except probably in the Tsonga community in Mozambique  Circumcision is an integral part of male initiation except amongst the Zulu and Swazi Female genital mutilation: - Often enforced by older women in the community. - Still practised in 28 African countries. - A measure to inhibit female sexuality. - Most common among African Muslims. - Castration: - Is an extreme measure to control male sexuality - Is performed to make men more docile and less aggressive The individual body: As humans perceive and experience their own physical bodies The individual body is, however, more than just these biological factors, it includes aspects such as mind, matter, psyche and self. The social body: The body and its products, as natural symbols, are used to think about nature, culture and society. The relationships between nature, society and culture. The body politic: As an object of social and political order through cultural norms, regulations, laws. CULTURE & SOCIOCULTURAL SYSTEMS: Humans are set apart from animals on the basis they that they have the ability to communicate symbolically. The British anthropologist, Sir Edward Tylor, who formulated one of the first definitions of the concept of culture from an anthropological perspective, defined it as that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Erikson states that the concept of culture should no longer be used in anthropology because 1. The use of the plural, cultures, divides human beings in that it emphasizes differences between groups of people. 2. It has been used to discriminate against others and to justify exclusion by means of aggressive nationalism 3. The whole concept of culture is rather general and vague, and is used to refer to a conglomerate of various things. 4. It does not take into account differences within a group The Characteristics of Culture: 1. Culture is learned  We learn our culture by growing up in and with it  Culture is not biologically inherited  Much of learning culture is unconscious 2. Culture is shared  For a thought, action, belief, or particular kind of behaviour to be regarded as cultural, it must be shared by most people in a group 3. Culture is symbolic  What sets us apart from animals is our ability to use symbols  Language is the most important symbol in culture as we can transmit meaning  Money, flags, emblems 4. Culture is integrated  Various aspects of culture do not function in isolation.  The act of bringing together smaller components into a single system that functions as one. 5. Culture is Dynamic  Culture is changing all the time Sociocultural Systems: Are manifestations of humans’creative responses to the challenge of adapting the environment and to other humans. Comprise sets of relationships in a particular sociocultural or natural context that are typical of a significant number of interacting humans within the context May be used as a means to distinguish people from others and recognise people as belonging to the same self-identified group. All of the following includes the contact of people from different sociocultural systems: - travel and tourism. - electronic and media. - the internet Human Agency:  The concept that each individual has the ability and free will to determine and choose according to their personal convictions or beliefs:  Individual action or initiative always play a role in environmental changes, whether physical or sociocultural  Individuals perceive, interpret and manipulate the rules of their society to meet their own interests  An example of human agency is an influential leader who mobilises a community to change their circumstances by action  Revitalisation movements do not constitute an example of human agency in action Cultural Integration: cultural components which are interdependent and form a coherent whole SELF AND SOCIAL IDENTITY: Aspect of Identities:  Describes who a person is  A complex social construct  Creates us and them boundaries  Is continuously changing Identities are a consciousness derived from a variety of traits of a group that make it socioculturally distinct from other groups and includes the following trait: - language. - traditions. - a sense of common origin. Ascribed/Inherited traits:  Genetically inherited from parents or ancestors.  Includes physical attributes, for instance skin, hair and eye colour  Physical abilities, for example, musicality or athletic aptitude.  Includes predispositions, such as susceptibility to certain diseases and emotional characteristics.  Ascribed or given identities can be based on the social position a person is born into, for example the firstborn in a royal family  Physical aspects such as age and sex. Nationality:  An imagined political community  An intrinsic aspect of social identity Ethnicity: 1. Primodialists: Regard Ethnicity as a primitive collective identity, determined at birth and deeply rooted in .ancestry, history and biological traits. Values, Expectations attitudes and behaviours are learned through enculturation. 2. Instrumentalists: Believe it is symbolic and can change. Used and exploited by leaders for their own goals. 3. Constructivists: Believe it is a fluid and subjective identity that people construct Ethnogenesis: The process which leads to the emergence of a new ethnic identity. Ethnocentrism: - The inclination to regard your own culture or way of life as superior. - Using the values and practices of their own culture to judge the behaviour and beliefs of others. - Ethnocentrism enhances sociocultural solidarity and a sense of community among people who share similar traditions - Encourages the belief that people, who behave differently, are strange, immoral, primitive or even barbaric. Discrimination: Treating a person or a group of people differently, because of their religion, sex, gender, etc. Racism: A belief that a particular group is superior or inferior to another, based on physical appearances. Xenophobia: a deep-rooted fear, dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries. RELATIVES, RELATIONSHIPS, KINSHIPS &FAMILIES: DESCENT SYSTEMS: Cognatic: Through Both Parents. Bilateral through both parents, all four granparents, all and all 8 great-grandparents Unilineal: Only 1 parent’s family. Patrilineal: Through the father’s line. Man’s Place is take by his son and sons son. Authority is in the hands of the father. (Nguni and Sotho). Matrilineal: Through the mother’s line. Man’s Place is taken by sister’s son and not his own son. Authority in the hand of the Mother’s Brother. Cross Cousins: The relationship between the children of a man and the children of his sisters, as well as the relationship between the children of a woman and the children of her brother (FaSisDa + MoBrSo) Parallel cousins: The relationship between the children of a man and the children of his brother(s), as well as the relationship between the children of a woman and the children of her sister.(FaBrSo+MoSisDa) Affinal kin (Affinity): People Related by Marriage. (E.g. a person’s husband or wife and all his or her relatives) Consanguineal kin (Descent): People who are related by birth – blood relations (a person’s parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, children, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, cousins, and the like Extended family: Includes all living kin Compounded household: Residing together A skip-generation Household: Households in which children younger than 18 years are in the care of a person, usually a grandparent over the age of 60, with no younger adults in the household. The growing global phenomena of female-headed households can be associated with the following:  Women seeking control over their lives and resources  Scarcity of work and related outmigration of men  The feminisation of poverty and marginalisation of women  Modernisation, globalisation and technological advances The functions of Bride Wealth in Southern Africa: 1. Providing the groom and his descent group the right to all children born of the marriage 2. Creating a bond between the two lineages of the groom and bride 3. Compensation for the family of the bride for the loss of their daughter’s labour Forms and choice of marriage: Monogamy The marriage of one man and one woman. Bigamy When a married person marries another person Polygamy is a form of marriage in which a person is married to more than one partner Polygyny 1 man 2+ wives Polyandry 1 woman 2+husbands.(Tibet, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka) Ghost marriage a man marries a woman in the name of an unmarried brother, who died childless. usually occurs where the deceased occupied an important position in the lineage and must therefore have descendants to continue his line. The “spirit” of the deceased man is married to the woman and marriage goods paid in his name. Children born of this union are regarded as the offspring of the deceased. Levirate “husband’s brother” The continuation of a deceased man’s marriage by his brother or another relative based on the assumption that a marriage is not terminated by the death of one of the spouses, because it is an alliance between two descent groups. Sororate The marriage of a man to the sister of his wife, referred to as sororal polygyny. There are also two other forms of sororate that are not considered polygamous, namely when a man claims his deceased wife’s sister as a substitute, or his barren wife’s sister as an ancillary wife. Exogamous: Members of a clan may not marry each other (They are related) Endogamy: A marriage partner must be chosen from a certain clan or group These are traditionally found among some Northern Sotho-speaking groups.