The Field Of Anthropology As A Field

What is anthropology? This is a question that can be answered in numerous ways, but we are going to define it as simple as possible. If we break the word down into its two components it means the study of human beings. “Anthropo” means human beings or human kind and “logy” or “logia” is Greek for the study or knowledge of something. When we put it all together, it is the study of human beings which can be very broad. Anthropology can be broken down into four subfields: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

In 2014, George Gmelch studied and observed the practices, taboos, and fetishes that have been placed by other players perviously in the history of baseball. Gmelch amassed tremendous pieces of information upon us with all these players having different rituals,taboos, snd fetishes . From eating Popeyes every morning to avoiding eating certain foods, whatever flats your boat is what works. By slowly but surely observing all these actions Gmelch put together a piece that really can break down the "baseball magic".

Within anthropology there are two main schools of thought. These different views shape the philosophies of anthropologist who are classified as materialist, idealist, or falling in between. The materialist approach focuses on positivistic knowledge and empirical truths. Materialists’ use science and material elements within society to explain the basis for human culture and life; they consider anthropology one of the sciences. On the other hand, idealists consider anthropology one of the humanities. Idealists view culture and behavior as a pattern of interpretation of beliefs and ideas by the participants. This paper will discuss anthropologist Marvin Harris, a materialist, Clifford Geertz’s idealist point of view, and Eleanor Leacock’s approach

Anthropology, as a discipline in the field of human sciences, is based on certain ethical principles to guide its practitioners through their research. This creates a stable framework on which to start any research project. Avoiding deviation, however, can be complicated. Anthropologists have a responsibility to their field,

Watson believes that anthropologists like many other social scientists do very little compared to what their counterparts in the natural science perform especially when describing their equipment alongside the conditions under which their research was conducted (Watson, 1999). It is high time anthropologists became explicit about themselves, the primary tool for gathering vital information and autobiographical features of their

Iwashita sets up his point in his expounding on the 2 distinct societies and how they function. Inside the motion picture "Gung Ho" you can see that the inspiration for the specialists are totally unique in such a large number of ways. For the Japanese their inspiration was even more a self-inspiration, and not to disgrace their families and friends. They worked their hardest in light of the fact that if disgrace was conveyed to organization they would lose their employments, and the organization would close down. On the off chance that disgrace was conveyed to their families the entire family would be looked downward on by everybody, and conceivable out threw. For the Americans the inspiration in my opnion was exclusively money related based. The cash made everything else less

Anthropology in the early-twentieth-century contained theories that departed from those of the unilineal evolution in the nineteenth century. The unilineal evolutionary theory argued that all societies passed through a single evolutionary process; therefore, progressing from being a primitive society to the most advanced, or civilized, in a uniform manner. The theory that species were thought to evolve into increasing complexity was applied to societies’ development to progress from a simple to complex state. It was thought that most societies arrive, ultimately, at a common end as a fully civilized nation. Lewis Henry Morgan, an advocate for and an ethnological scholar of the Iroquois, delineated human culture into three basic stages:

Anthropology is the study of humans throughout the world. It examines our ancestors, how we behave, adapt to different environments, communicate, socialize with one another, and more. The study of anthropology focuses on the features that make us human; our genetic makeup, the evolution of humans, and the physiology. It also focuses on language, religion, family, and more. The goal of anthropology is to be able to describe and analyze the different cultures. Anthropologist believes that the only way humans can be understood is by seeking information from various cultures and different societies. Anthropologist use multiple methods to collect data and to understand evolution of humans from millions of years ago. To take an anthropological approach anthropologist should not study participants using their values or a bias approach. The anthropological perspective includes cultural relativism, holism, and the etic and emic perspective which are all important when studying culture. When it comes to understanding diversity, the anthropological view can help understand the diversity amongst cultural groups.

This paper will address my personal views on anthropology and ethnography. I identify as a feminist anthropologist because I identify as a woman, and have a great interest in power differentials throughout society. I grew up in a conservative christian middle class home that taught and practiced tolerance and acceptance giving me a well-rounded, if clouded, view of the world. However, I had very little experience with other groups or peoples until I got older and began to travel. I love travelling, and, as I have visited numerous states, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, and Europe, my understanding has grown immensely. My love for history and culture has only expanded and it grew easier to see things without the moral outline I had when I was younger to compare against.

My interest in anthropology comes from living in this complex world with hundreds of different cultures and languages that clash and conjoin. This interest only became amplified when I began Introduction to Anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University. I grew up in a rural town with its own personal customs and way of life. Last year I moved to the city and it was alive and simmering with different cultures and traditions. There was the obvious one that I was sucked into, college life, where binge drinking happened every weekend and the library was a haze of stress. Even within this small segment of society, diversity thrives. There are students from all over the world with incredibly different life experiences. In this campus, there are

What is Anthropology? When this question was asked on the first day of class. I immediately thought to myself that it was the study of nonindustrial peoples but it was much more. According to the American Anthropology Association, Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. I realized that many social science focus on one single society such as the United States. While, anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective, constantly comparing the customs of one society with those of others (pg. 1). In class, we watched a movie called “A League of Their Own”, and got to be ethnography anthropologist. As a short term anthropologist well be uncovering the different aspects of the movie as well as background research.

The earliest fossil of the primate can go back before the extinction of the dinosaur over 65 million years ago. Bones and teeth were discovered in Montana and Wyoming (Park, 2008). Even though there was primate like evidence before the dinosaur extinction, (Shipman, 2012).

Since the emergence of anthropology in the late 1800’s, the customs and methods of this academic discipline have been altered in many ways. It is assumed that in the early years of anthropology, theorists relied on travelers in order to articulate their theories (Dahl 2017). This practice is known as armchair anthropology and involves creating theories without any fieldwork. Some examples of famous armchair anthropologists include Edward Burnett Tylor and James Frazer. The work of both theorists involved no travelling or conducting of fieldwork. Early anthropology focused on primitive cultures and how societies transformed from being barbaric to civilized. In modern days, anthropology is discovering new topics to study every day and the information relies a great amount on fieldwork and lab work conducted by anthropologists to support their findings. As some of the early methods of anthropology continue to be used by anthropology, more are being developed in order to produce more efficient research and theories.

Ethnocentrism, as defined by the OSU Department of Anthropology, is “an attitude that is centered on one’s own culture, values, and ways of acting and thinking …[and] may lead to unfair criticism of other cultures” (Rosenburger 8). Ethnocentrism is a natural response for people who experience or become immersed in a culture where values, customs, and shared practices are different from their own. It is the difficulty or inability to understand other ways of acting, thinking, or feeling; when one cannot process the understanding of others attitudes within a cultural context. Each culture has values – important beliefs and moral natures that underlie the influences of the interaction through history and current social, ethnic, or regional groups. Some may even participate in various cultures at one time or over time. Cultures may, and often, have underlying conflicts within them and will almost always change as time goes on and new generations form. Every culture is unique. They have symbols or material items that hold special value to the culture that often hold a deeper meaning that is only embodied by those who are a part of the culture (Rosenburger 7,8). Ethnocentrism also plays a large role in the studies of cultural Anthropology.

• Ethnos = culture • Graphy = writing • Field work: ‘go native’ – live among, adapt and become the kind of people