Anthropology (Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology?) Flashcards

1. Anthropology is the holistic and comparative study of humanity. It is the systematic exploration of human biological and cultural diversity. Examining the origins of, and changes in human biology and culture, anthropology provides explanations for similarities and differences. The four subfields of general anthropology are (socio)cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic. All consider variation in time and space. Each also examines adaptation - the process by which organisms cope with environmental stresses.
2. Cultural forces mold human biology, including our body times and images. Societies have particular standards of physical attractiveness. They also have specific ideas about what activities - for example, various sports - are appropriate for males and females.
3. Cultural anthropology explores the cultural diversity of the present and the recent past. Archaeology reconstructs cultural patterns, often of prehistoric populations. Biological anthropology documents diversity involving fossils, genetics, growth and development, bodily responses, and nonhuman primates. Linguistic anthropology considers diversity among languages. It also studies how speech changes in social situations and over time.
4. Concerns with biology, society, culture and language link anthropology to many other fields - sciences and humanities. Anthropologists study art, music and literature across various cultures. But their concern is more with the creative expressions of common people than with arts designed for elites. Anthropologists examine creators and products in their social context. Sociologists traditionally study urban and industrial populations, whereas anthropologists have focused on rural, nonindustrial peoples. Psychological anthropology views human psychology in the context of social and cultural variation.
5. Anthropology has two dimensions: academic and applied. Applied anthropology is the use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.
6. Ethnologists attempt to identify and explain cultural differences and similarities and to build theories about how social and cultural systems work. Scientists strive to improve understanding by testing hypotheses - suggested explanations. Explanations rely on associations and theories. An association in an observed relationship between variables. A theory is more general, suggesting or implying associations and attempting to explain them. The scientific method characterized any anthropological endeavour that formulates research questions and gathers or uses systematic data to test hypotheses. Often anthropologists gather data that enable them to pose and test a number of separate hypotheses.