Random Anthropology Stuff
I’m studying for my Anthropology final tomorrow and one way I study is copying my notes down on paper and/or on a virtual document. So I thought I’d use Tumblr to write down some of my notes while also sharing with you guys some random Anthropology stuff.
It’s the study of health, illness, and healing across the range of human societies and over the course of human experience, with an emphasis on how members of the community direct their behaviors, articulate their ideas, and organize their resources in these realms.
Medicine: Any and all practices that are intended to address or alleviate what a given group of people consider to be an affliction in need of attention.
Biomedicine: The medicine of hospitals and mainstream doctors of the industrialized world.
Health: A dynamic condition combining individuals, society, and an adaption to the environment.
Sickness: diseases and illnesses
disease: a condition that is objectively identified with a medical label or diagnostic name, based on externally established signs.
illness: the more subjective perception of the individual experience of suffering.
All medical systems, including our own, are shaped by culture.
Two Broad Divisions in Medical Anthro: biocultural and cultural
biocultural approaches: an anthropological view of the ways in which people adapt to their environment and change that environment that makes healthy conditions better or worse.
cultural approaches: emphasizes the role of ideas, beliefs, and values in creating systems of illness classification and medical programs for curing.
Human communication by means of shared symbols which can be linguistic or non-linguistic
No one is intrinsically superior (no language is better than another)
Sociolinguistics: the study of linguistic diversity; looks at language in its social context, examining relationships between social and linguistic variation.
style shifts: how you may talk to your boss vs. how you may talk to your best friend.
Gender differences: there is a linguistic variation between men and women.
Women are more likely to speak Standard English
Language reflects position of power
Women end sentences with an intonation of uncertainty.
Linguistic variation reflects social, political, and economic forces
“Proper Langauge” is a strategic resource
Black English Vernacular (BEV): Ebonics is a systematic and rule-governed linguistic system.
there was a national debate about it in the mid-1990s
Standard English is not superior to BEV as a linguistic system, but they do have different prestige
Sign language: a complex, culture-laden system of communication.
a manual communication to convey words and thoughts.
Social Inequality and Control
Social Stratified Societies: contain social groups that have unequal access to important advantages.
Egalitarian: contain no social stratification
no differential access to power, prestige, or economic resources
same opportunity to gain prestige through sharing
same access to hunting areas
men hunt and women gather
younger men/women provide food and older men/women carry the myths and wisdom
the ecological base of hunters and gathers and tribes leads to an egalitarian society
must share - cannot hoard
everyone dependent on the other for survival
cooperation essential between members
environment dictates cooperation and sharing
Rank Societies: usually are agricultural or herding societies.
primarily found in chiefdoms
chiefs are different from “Big Men” in many ways
this position is ascribed even though it’s still kin-based
chiefs are full-time political specialists in charge of economic production, distribution, and consumption
slight inequality regarding prestige (aka @ the ascribed role)
larger and more sedentary
have a surplus - can save up
have redistribution from different ecological areas
Class Societies: unequal access to power, prestige, and economic resources.
extremely sedentary and have large populations
nucleation, centralization of power, and diversification of labor
Social Control in Kin-Based Societies: social control is the responsibility of the kin groups.
Social Control in Class-Based Societies: punishment meant to be impartial and impersonal
Four Types of Social Control: law, gossip and ridicule, witchcraft, and the threat of the supernatural.
law: a social norm whose violation is punishable by threat of or application of physical force by a legitimate official or body
gossip and ridicule: found in all societies and is especially important in kin-based groups
witchcraft: used to harm other people
supernatural: fear of punishment (hell, karma, etc.)
Power of the States: coercive powers, hegemony, appeasement, the anthropological other.
hegemony: the power of solidarity of the state as created by the consent of the governed.
it is in a stratified social order in which subordinates comply with the domination by internalizing its values and accepting its “naturalness”
the positive outcomes of development and “progress” are highlighted
the costs and inequalities are masked
often promises are made - “if you are patient, the costs of progress will eventually pay off”
often is it wrongly assumed that those suffering from inequalities are really to blame or that they just need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”
appeasement: an industrial class base society gives the basic necessities to the poor/needy; meant to help control.
the anthropological “other”: lack power, legitimacy, and validity
their knowledge is dismissed
suffer from cultural poverty
dichotomy of otherness leads to mistreatment of the “other
Religion: the belief in the supernatural and behavior for dealing with it; whether that power is forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons.
religion is a cultural universal
Supernatural: power believed to be not human or not subject to the laws of nature.
Probably dates back to the time of Neanderthal (religion)
Not all religions have a belief in a god or gods
Why is Religion a Cross-Cultural Universal? - Some Theories…
the need to understand: religion originates in people’s speculation about dreams, trances, and death
animism: belief that there is a physical body separate from a soul
Tylor’s student argues instead for animatism
animatism: the belief in impersonal, supernatural forces
reversion to childhood feelings: we look to religion to fulfill the role that our parents filled when we were children
all knowing and all powerful
anxiety and uncertainty: we turn to religion during times of anxiety and uncertainty.
the need for community: focus is on social needs
religious beliefs and practices affirm a person's’ place in society, enhance feelings of community, and give people confidence
Types of Supernatural Forces and Beings:
mana: a supernatural force that is impersonal and is thought to inhabit some objects, people, or animals, but not others
taboo: persons, objects, animals, or places that are not to be touched because their power can cause harm
gods: supernatural beings with non-human origins and are named personalities
ghosts and ancestor spirits: supernatural beings that may act in a guardian way doing good deeds
were born of a human woman
Structure of Supernatural:
monotheistic religions: have one supreme or high god with other lesser supernatural beings
the gods/spirits are ranked in power and prestige
ex: Christianity and Islam
polytheistic religions: recognize many important gods with no one supreme god
ex: Ancient Rome, Greek, Egyptian, Mayan religions
can’t separate natural and supernatural
equality between humans and their environment
personalized relationship between spirits, nature, and humans
power is manipulated through ritual
nothing happens by chance
based on origin narratives
All humans engage in rituals
Ways of Interacting With the Supernatural:
prayer: asking for supernatural help; can take many forms
altering the body or mind: i.e. Yanomamo use of ebene, Native Americans and peyote, Native Americans and vision quests, and Kung San drumming and dancing
trance: common altered state, can be possession trances
stimulation: where one thing stands for something else; black magic voodoo
divination: getting the supernatural force to provide guidance
sacrifice: some of value is given up to the gods, whether is be food, animals, or people
sorcery and witchcraft: both invoke the spirits to work harm against people
sorcery: may include the use of material, objects, and medicines to invoke the supernatural malevolence
witchcraft: accomplishes the same ills as sorcery but by means of thought and emotion alone
Most seen in societies as a social control when the population is far too large for gossip and ridicule and when the population is much too small for judges, juries, and police
Ritual: a repetitive social practice composed of a sequence of symbolic activities in the form of dance, song, speech, gestures, or the manipulation of objects, adhering to a cultrually defined ritual schema and closely connected to a specific set of ideas that are often encoded in myth.
four elements to rituals: repetition, set off from everyday life, adheres to culturally defined ritual schema, and connected to ideas encoded in a myth
Rites of Passage: going from one status to another
a ritual that serves to mark the movement and transformation of an individual from one social position to another
three stages: separation, transition, reaggregation
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