ANT101

• What is anthropology?

  The study of all aspects of humans

  A holistic approach that looks at universal diversity and commonalities

  Incorporates culture and biology
• What are the four key approaches to research?

  Holism

  Comparison

  Dynamism

  Fieldwork
• How do anthropologists study culture?

  Scientific inquiry

  Scientific method
• Deductive reasoning


  General to specific conclusions

  Drawing conclusions from facts
• Inductive reasoning


  Specific to general

  Reasoning from observations to make generalizations
• Inductive vs. Deductive Reasoning

  Label the following diagrams:

  A) Inductive reasoning

  B) Deductive reasoning

  
• What are the four subfields of anthropology?

  Sociocultural

  Linguistics

  Archaeology

  Biological
• What are the five subfields of biological anthropology?

  Evolutionary (paleoanthropology)

  • looks at fossils

  Molecular

  • looks at genetics and population biology

  Primatology

  • looks at non-human primate behavior and biology

  Osteology

  • looks at bones

  Applied

  • application of anthropological principles and research in other fields
• List the steps of the scientific method


  Define a relevant problem

  Establish a hypothesis

  Determine empirical implications of the hypothesis

  Collect data through observation and/or experimentation

  Test the hypothesis by comparing data with predictions

  Reject, revise, and retest hypothesis as necessary
• Indigenous research methodologies

  • incorporate Indigenous cosmology, worldview, epistemology, ontology
  • relational responsibility - reciprocal and respected relationships with communities
  • emphasis on learning by watching and doing
  • accepting and recognizing bias
  • stories as metaphor
  • stories reflect the story teller and where they are in life
  • positionality; intersectionality of identities
  • ethics and morals of research methods is relational responsibility
• Studying Human Variation - Linnaeus


  • classifying humans into categories:
  • Americanus
  • Europaeus; rational and ruled by customs
  • Asiaticus
  • Afer; impulsive
  • Monstrosus
  • organisms are unchangeable
  • categories based on similarities in form and function of traits
  • ranked races: Europeans > Asians > Indigenous > Africans
• Studying Human Variation - Blumenbach


  • rejected skin color as the basis for races
  • focused on measurements of the skull and created 5 races
  • father of physical anthropology
  • adhered to essentialist racial categories
• Studying Human Variation - Count de Buffon

  • rejected classification and emphasized unity of species
  • behavioral and cultural biases
• Studying Human Variation - Galton


  • used biology to reinforce social prejudice
  • positive eugenics - marrying the upper-class with the upper-class
  • negative eugenics - reducing fertility in lower classes
• Studying Human Variation - Davenport


  • established eugenics in the US
• Studying Human Variation - Eugenics


  • selective breeding for favorable traits
  • enforced by
  • restricting immigration
  • restricting propagation of undesirable traits
  • encouraging breeding between those with superior genetics
• Studying Human Variation - Hooton


  • moved away from polytypism, which is studying differences between different groups
  • polymorphism: biological variations exist within a population
• Studying Human Variation - Boas


  • fathered American anthropology; first challenger to eugenics
  • social and physical environment and culture shape behavior
  • reducing biological variability would reduce adaptability
• Studying Human Variation - Racial vs Racist Studies

  • racial: examinations of biological differences among human groups
  • racist: biological differences among human groups to reinforce social divisions
• Studying Human Variation - Coon


  • divided humans into 5 subspecies
  • suggested races existed since mid-Pleistocene
  • criticisms:
  • inferring race from fossils
  • using culture to rank races
  • inferring different times for becoming human
• Studying Human Variation - Polygenic vs Continuous traits


  Polygenic: multiple genetic influences

  • ex. skin color

  Continuous: phenotypes exist on a continuum

  • expression influenced by environment
  • no discreet categories
  • ex. height