Small Places, Large Issues: An Introducton to Social and Cultural Anthropology – Eriksen
Chapter 1 – Anthropology: Comparison and Context
- Social and cultural anthropology has the whole of human society as its area of interest, and tries to
understand the ways in which human lives are unique but also the sense in which we are all similar.
- Anthropology is about how diferent people can be, but it also tries to fnd out in what sense it can
be said that all humans have something in common. It oscillates between the universal and the
partcular.
- Anthropology asks the large questons, while at the same tme drawing its most important insights
from small places.
- Practcally ant social system can be studied anthropologically
An Outline of the Subject
- Anthropology: knowledge about those aspects of humanity which are not natural, but which are
related to that which is acquired.
- Culture: those abilites, notons and forms of behaviour persons have acquired as members of
society. (Most common defniton among anthropologists)
- Culture can refer both to basic similarites and to systematc diferences between humans.
- Relatonship between culture and society: culture refers to the acquired, cognitve and symbolic
aspects of existence, whereas society refers to the organisaton of human life, paterns of interacton
and power relatonships.
- Anthropology compares cultural and social life.
- The discipline emphasises the importance of ethnographic feldwork
- Anthropology in comparatve and empirical; its most important method of data collecton is
feldwork; and is has a truly global focus in that it does not single out one region, or one kind of
society, as being more important than others.
The Universal and the Partcular
- To what extent do all humans, cultures or societes have something in common, and to what extend
is each of them unique?
- The tension between the universal and the partcular has been immensely productve in
anthropology , and it remains an important one. One common way of framing it is through the
concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relatvism.
The Problem of Ethnocentrism
- Ethnocentrism means evaluatng other people from one’s own vantage-point and describing them
in one’s own terms. Such points of view express an ethnocentric attude which fails to allow other
peoples to be diferent from ourselves on their own terms, and can be a serious obstacle to
understanding.
- Anthropology warns against ethnocentrism, it calls for understanding of diferent societes as they
appear from the inside. Every societes has its own defniton(s) of the good life.
- Cultural relatvism is sometmes posited as the opposite of ethnocentrism. This is the doctrine that
societes or cultures are qualitatvely diferent and have their own unique inner logic and that it is
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Chapter 1 – Anthropology: Comparison and Context
- Social and cultural anthropology has the whole of human society as its area of interest, and tries to
understand the ways in which human lives are unique but also the sense in which we are all similar.
- Anthropology is about how diferent people can be, but it also tries to fnd out in what sense it can
be said that all humans have something in common. It oscillates between the universal and the
partcular.
- Anthropology asks the large questons, while at the same tme drawing its most important insights
from small places.
- Practcally ant social system can be studied anthropologically
An Outline of the Subject
- Anthropology: knowledge about those aspects of humanity which are not natural, but which are
related to that which is acquired.
- Culture: those abilites, notons and forms of behaviour persons have acquired as members of
society. (Most common defniton among anthropologists)
- Culture can refer both to basic similarites and to systematc diferences between humans.
- Relatonship between culture and society: culture refers to the acquired, cognitve and symbolic
aspects of existence, whereas society refers to the organisaton of human life, paterns of interacton
and power relatonships.
- Anthropology compares cultural and social life.
- The discipline emphasises the importance of ethnographic feldwork
- Anthropology in comparatve and empirical; its most important method of data collecton is
feldwork; and is has a truly global focus in that it does not single out one region, or one kind of
society, as being more important than others.
The Universal and the Partcular
- To what extent do all humans, cultures or societes have something in common, and to what extend
is each of them unique?
- The tension between the universal and the partcular has been immensely productve in
anthropology , and it remains an important one. One common way of framing it is through the
concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relatvism.
The Problem of Ethnocentrism
- Ethnocentrism means evaluatng other people from one’s own vantage-point and describing them
in one’s own terms. Such points of view express an ethnocentric attude which fails to allow other
peoples to be diferent from ourselves on their own terms, and can be a serious obstacle to
understanding.
- Anthropology warns against ethnocentrism, it calls for understanding of diferent societes as they
appear from the inside. Every societes has its own defniton(s) of the good life.
- Cultural relatvism is sometmes posited as the opposite of ethnocentrism. This is the doctrine that
societes or cultures are qualitatvely diferent and have their own unique inner logic and that it is
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