Part 1
Marshall Sahlins is one of the most prominent American anthropologists of our time. He holds the title of Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago where he presently teaches. Marshall Sahlins', The Use and Abuse of Biology, is an excellent text, which attacks both the logical errors of sociobiology and its ideological distortions. His work focuses on demonstrating the power that culture has to shape people's perceptions and actions and that culture has a unique power to motivate people, which is not derived from biology or for that matter any other of the natural sciences. In the text, The Use And Abuse of Biology, Sahlins reveals his true worries that culture can be
…show more content…
30). Sahlins gives mathematical formulas for kin loss contingent on the total number of descent groups and the actual rule of intermarriage between them. The author argues that biological inheritance is not an individual function, as a child does not receive his or her genetic makeup from either his or her parents. Furthermore, the matrilineal descent group is a single entity in an organic heritage: these members of that particular group according to mathematical formulation have a co-efficient relationship of 1.
Sahlins also argues that the structure of social interest is not constituted by genetic factors of an individual nature. Yet, the theory of kinship dominates a large portion of the text and he explores kin selection. This theory of kin selection has been tested in Polynesia. The advantages of testing for kin selection in Polynesia are best put forward for these following reasons. First, Polynesian societies can afford structural conditions favorable for the operation of kin selection. Second, descent is bilaterally reckoned and Polynesians are renowned for the value the race as a whole attaches to genealogies. He explains that this formula is important as it accounts for altruism and a whole collection of socially undesirable behaviors. Behaviors that individuals often cannot abide are displayed by significant others in our communities such as greed or ingratitude or selfishness. These negative
In order to understand any culture, it is essential to acknowledge the importance of taking a holistic view. This approach, which gained recognition and validation in the twentieth century, stresses the importance of accounting for all of the components of a culture. The concept requires an understanding of each subsystem, which dictates certain aspects of the culture being studied. With this theory as basis for her approach, Myerhoff is faced with the difficult task of piecing together the many parts contributing to the formation of the culture at the Center, while simultaneously recognizing the distinctions between the acting subsystems. Sometimes it seems that realizing what leads to specific cultural constructs would be extremely difficult; this is especially the case with traits that have become so naturalized that only an outsider would recognize them as distinct and significant. That said, it is obvious that there are advantages to studying a completely exotic culture, as the majority of anthropologists do; however, Myerhoff chose to do her fieldwork in a culture that is centered
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an ant? Author of "The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher" Lewis Thomas, has. In his essay, he compares ants to humans. He has a theory that they are very similar. I believe this comparison is accurate one because both humans and ants act similar in the way they live, both are a stronger force when they work together, and both have a nature to cause destruction.
Since the inception of human civilization there have been countless cultures and societies which have helped shape the current world today as we know it. The modern human race dates back more than 200,000 years and in that time frame many cultures have risen to great virtue and success only to deteriorate or cease to exist altogether. First before examining one of these cultures we must know what culture truly means. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Culture Center defines culture as a “dynamic social system,” containing the beliefs, behaviors, values and norms of a “specific organization, group, society or other collectivity” learned, shared, internalized, and changeable by all members of the society (Watson, 2010). In
While Barker focuses on clans in Papua New Guinea and Hedican on Scottish clans they both come to the same result, clans are hard to gain consistent information on and much of their histories are muddled, complicated, and contradictory specifically with the whom is related to who debacle and the ‘true’ back story/ symbols accompanying each clan. Both Authors also explore the kinship terms of Papua and how it differs from the Westerner way of labelling family members (cousin being the broadest Westerner term) compared to the flexible descent groups and hazy distinction that separates immediate and extended family in the villages of Papua New
“The Tall and the Short of It” by Barry Bogin in 1998 show the prime example for applying anthropological theories in order to understand the evolution of the human process. This article show how anthropology is used to reaffirm and or disapproves the scientific theories about human development. Bogin shows through Biology Anthropology by explaining the characteristics of genetic of the mother along with the environment can change over time. In “The Tall and the short of It” Bogin show how the different concepts of anthropology (Biological anthropology) is used to show how the external environment along with the internal environment process help shapes human development.
The kinship is a system that enables people to know precisely where they stand in relation to every person and a group. It is the heart of Aboriginal culture, and controls all facets of social behaviours. The Kinship system has been around for tens of thousands of years and is still used today. (Nations, clans, family groups, 2016). It is a system that determines how people interact with others and how people become related. Thus, controls who can get married and who supports who. Because there are over 500 Aboriginal nations across Australia the system is helpful because it simplifies the different clans and groups that share common kinship and language. (Nations, clans, family groups, 2016)
Aboriginal relationships are governed by a complex and intricate system of rules, known as “the classificatory system of kinship, and is essential to physical, psychological and emotional survival in traditional Aboriginal society” (Fryer-Smith, 2008, p. 47). It organizes social and economic relationships, all of which are of “vital importance” in Aboriginal societies (Edwards, 1998, p. 85).
This essay has shown that kinship and society was virtually the same thing because Kinship took a central role in the structure of Aboriginal communities as it was their main way of organising people and their social relationships. Kinship is an integral part of the total social organisation, therefore it is how they formed and ran their society. Kinship is the fine mesh which holds the society together,
The kinship system is a defining feature of Aboriginal social organisation and family relationships1. This ‘kinship’ system establishes how all members of a community are related and what their position is2.It is a complex system that determines how people relate to each other, and what their roles, responsibilities and obligations in relation to one another are. It also plays an important role in ceremonies and relationships to the land. As such, the kinship system dictates who can marry who, ceremonial relationships, funeral roles and how kinfolk should behave towards one another1.
10. Study Figure 1.22, which shows an evolutionary “tree.” What is indicated by twig? What do the branch points represent? Where did the “common ancestor” of the Galápagos finches originate?
As a future Anthropologist and a woman who has an interest in culture and the effect it has on society, I felt deeply connected to Unit 7: Culture and the Female body. Clifford Geertz (1973) asserts that culture through socialisation is a control mechanism for governing behaviour (p. 45). Similarly, Valerie Taylor,
In traditional Aboriginal society inter-personal relationships are governed by a Complex system of rules, known as the classificatory system of kinship. The kinship system
For the purposes of this piece, culture is defined as “the full range of human patterned experience” as described by Cole (1996) cited in Gla ̆veanu & Jovchelovitch (2017, p.113). This chapter also provides a description of the importance culture plays in psychological research.
societies use kinship as a basis for forming social groups and for classifying people. However,
Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1962) identify over 150 scientific definitions of the concept of culture. Indeed, many authors have tried to define culture and this is why there are so many definitions and that a unique one is hard to find. First of all, Kroeber and Kluckholn (1952) assume that culture is a suite of patterns, implicit and explicit, “of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts” (p.47). Later, Hofstede adds that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.51). This definition is the most widely accepted one amongst practitioners. For Winthrop (1991), culture is the distinctive models of thoughts, actions and values that composed members of a society or a social group. In other words,