Big Anthropological Questions

• What is culture?

  A culture is somethings that is often shared by a particular group of people, it's composed of their traditions, customs and just in general what they do.

  It is created and shared amongst groups and generations of people. Culture often maintains social structure. Cultures often change with time and due to external influences e.g. many small tribes are modernizing due to increased tourism.
• What does it mean to be a person?

  To be a person literally means to be human, to have the hominin type that classifies you as part of the human species. To have personhood is different, personhood is a socially constructed category, it varies largely across societies and cultures as to when it is viewed personhood begins and ends and even whether it is fluid (can be gained and lost during someone's lifetime.) In some cultures, personhood is regarded as most closely linked to the mind whereas in others it can be viewed as closer to the body or the environment.
• What does it mean to live in a society?

  Humans are organised into various groups and networks forming a society. It is created by social relations and institutions. The term society can also be used to describe a group of people that share things e.g. their beliefs and can be distinguished from other groups.

  Living in a society means to respect others, to have tolerance and solidarity and also to follow the norms that have been both implicitly and explicitly stated. The society itself is a group of people who work together to meet their needs. Being part of a society provides a sense of belonging. There are sub-sections of a society; customs, co-operation, and the supporting of human needs.
• How are we the same yet different from each other?

  Genetically we are all the same, we all have the hominin type that classifies us as human and are DNA is all 99.9% the same, we vary very little except for our minor adaptations to our environment. We are all the same species; as a whole, we are all able to interbreed to produce fertile offspring and we also all have the same ancestors who came from Africa and migrated to other regions of the world. There are also some traits we all share such as mortality, pain and pleasure and furthermore we have the same needs that Malinowski shows in his pyramid of names like the need of belonging However we all have very different ways of fulfilling these needs e.g. by belonging to a religious group or sporting society, we all have different cultures, belong to different societies and have different identities.
• Why does anthropology matter?

  Anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures. It helps us to understand other communities of people and their societies and cultures which in turn allows us to understand why others do the things they do, and this therefore reduces discrimination of one society by another. Furthermore, anthropology helps us to be more intercultural.
• To what extent is knowing others possible?

  In many ways it is to a very minor extent that we can know others. As humans we don't even know ourselves, we all have distorted views on ourselves so if we can't even 'know' yourselves how can ypu know others. We are all very different from each other, we have different cultures and live in different societies. Everyone will do things differently and go about meeting their needs in very different ways. However, by using anthropological emic perspectives we can know others a bit better, we can use a symbolic lens and ask people what things mean to them and why they do what they do. However even by doing this we can still miss-interpret the things we are told and will never fully understand other cultures unless you are fully immersed in it but even by doing this our individual contexts and cultures will prevent us from fully understanding and knowing others.