Introducing Anthropology

A Graphic Guide

Merryl Wyn-Davis, Piero Pierini, Piero

• Publisher: Icon Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781848318762
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: Social Sciences

Anthropology originated as the study of 'primitive' cultures. But the notion of 'primitive' exposes presumptions of 'civilized' superiority and the right of the West to speak for 'less evolved' others. With the fall of Empire, anthropology became suspect and was torn by dissension from within. Did anthropology serve as a 'handmaiden to colonialism'? Is it a 'science' created by racism to prove racism? Can it aid communication between cultures, or does it reinforce our differences? "Introducing Anthropology" is a fascinating account of an uncertain human science seeking to transcend its unsavoury history. It traces the evolution of anthropology from its genesis in Ancient Greece to its varied forms in contemporary times. Anthropology's key concepts and methods are explained, and we are presented with such big-name anthropologists as Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Margaret Mead and Claude Levi-Strauss. The new varieties of self-critical and postmodern anthropologies are examined, and the leading question - of the impact of anthropology on non-Western cultures - is given centre-stage. "Introducing Anthropology" is lucid in its arguments, its good humour supported by apt and witty illustrations. This book offers a highly accessible invitation into anthropology.

What is Anthropology?

The word “anthropology” derives from the Greek and literally means “the study of man” or “the science of man”. But the “man” of anthropology was a special kind of “man”.

HISTORICALLY, ANTHROPOLOGY WAS THE “STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MAN”. I AM ANAZASI. THEY CALLED ME A PRIMITIVE MAN.

What is “Primitive”?

In The Mind of Primitive Man (1938), Franz Boas (1858–1942), founder of American Cultural Anthropology, told us just who are the primitives.

PRIMITIVE ARE THOSE PEOPLE WHOSE FORMS OF LIFE ARE SIMPLE AND UNIFORM, AND THE CONTENTS AND FORM OF WHOSE CULTURE ARE MEAGRE AND INTELLECTUALLY INCONSISTENT. A BETTER DEFINITION OF THE SUBJECT IS THE STANDARD ANTHROPOLOGICAL JOKE – “THE STUDY OF MAN EMBRACING WOMAN”.

Studying People

Anthropologists study people. They study how people live, human society past and present. Anthropology is also about how we think about people thinking about people, now and in history. And sometimes it is about power relations between people, peoples, cultures and societies, colonialism and globalization.

ANTHROPOLOGY IS …

The study of man from biological, cultural and social viewpoints.

The study of human cultural difference.

The search for generalizations about human culture and human nature.

The comparative analysis of similarities and differences between cultures.

Anthropology’s Big Problem

The biggest problem in anthropology is how to talk about its object of study. Primitive, savage and simple are prejudicial, discriminating and supremacist terms. Yet they defined the people anthropologists were particularly interested to study and why they wanted to study them.

THE FUNDAMENTAL SPIRIT OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH CONSISTS IN THE APPRECIATION OF THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING ALL FORMS OF HUMAN CULTURE, BECAUSE THE VARIETY OF ITS FORMS CAN ALONE THROW LIGHT UPON THE HISTORY OF ITS DEVELOPMENT, PAST AND FUTURE. WHAT ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE LEARNT AND ANTHROPOLOGY TRIES TO TEACH IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THINKING ABOUT REAL PEOPLE AS PRIMITIVE, SAVAGE AND SIMPLE.

The Other

Today, anthropology is defined as the systematic study of the Other, while all other social sciences are in some sense the study of the Self. But, who is the Other and who the Self?

THE OTHER IS ANYONE PERCEIVED AS DIFFERENT AND USED TO “INTERDEFINE” ONE’S OWN IDENTITY. THE OTHER ARE PEOPLES OF NON-WESTERN CULTURES.

In Reinventing Anthropology (1969), Dell Hymes wrote: “the very existence of an autonomous discipline that specializes in the study of Others has always been somewhat problematic.”

The Changing Problem

How anthropology deals with its “problem” is now a topic of heated debate internal to anthropology. And two other things have changed. First: the Other has changed. Non-Western societies have undergone rapid social change.

I REFUSE TO BE THE VANISHING NOBLE SAVAGE. I DEMAND MY RIGHTS AND THE RIGHT TO BE TREATED JUST LIKE YOU.

Second: anthropology has come home. It no longer exclusively studies non-Western cultures. Now anthropologists also study marginal cultures in Western societies as well as institutional and organizational cultures, such as business corporations, scientists and the police.

How does anthropology cope with these changes? It studies the history of anthropology itself, the assumptions of anthropologists past and present, the reactions of anthropologists past and present – and it ponders whether anthropology tells us more about the Self than the Other.

OH, YOU MEAT IT GETS CONFUSED.

“First, it is hard to say what it is the study of; secondly, it is not at all clear what you have to do to study it; and thirdly, no-one seems to know how to tell the difference between studying anthropology and practising it.”

Tim Ingold, Professor of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen

The Origins of Anthropology

“What makes anthropology anthropology is not a specific object of enquiry, but the history of anthropology as a discipline and practice.” Henrietta Moore, Professor of Social Anthropology, London School of Economics

WHICH HISTORY AND WHAT PRACTICE? HOW DID IT START? ANTHROPOLOGY, AS A MODERN DISCIPLINE AND A PROFESSIONAL CAREER, BEGINS WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS TEACHING ANTHROPOLOGY

In America, Boas began lecturing at Columbia University in 1896. In Britain, a new diploma in anthropology was introduced at Oxford in 1906. At the same time, the practice of anthropology was established as ethnography, the extended study of how people live, where they live.

The Founding Fathers

Alan Barnard in History and Theory of Anthropology (2000) names the French philosopher Charles Montesquieu (1689–1755) as the common ancestor of all modern anthropology. Anthropology begins in 1748 with the publication of his The Spirit of the Laws. It is a product of the Enlightenment.

Then comes the Darwinian horizon in the 1860s when great names ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright
• What is Anthropology?
• Further Reading
• About the Author and Artist
• Acknowledgements
• Other Introducing Books …
• Index