American anthropology

Horace Miner, a American Anthropologist wrote an academic essay titled “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” In this article Miner described some of the bizarre rituals and practices of the “Nacirema” which the reader comes to find out that he is talking about North Americans. The way Miner goes into detail about how these people live makes them seem foreign. Thus making the norm for an American lifestyle seem odd because the certain type of lingo Miner uses to make this “tribe” more exotic then the

In the vast field of anthropology, there are many ways to investigate a particular society. The three readings; Being-in-the-Market versus Being-in-the-Plaza: Material Culture and the Construction of Social Reality in Spanish America, Excluded Spaces: The Figure in the Australian Aboriginal Landscape, and Indexical Speech across Samoan Communities all approach this topic differently. The first uses physical anthropology to examine the landscape, the second uses anthropological taboo to examine how

Modern humans are the only remaining species of the hominids, a branch of great apes which characterized by posture, dexterity, sociality and uses tools which trend towards larger and more complex brains. Early hominids, for example the australopithecines had more apelike brains and skulls, are less often thought to as human than hominids of the genus of Homo. Homo heidelbergensis are considered to be the most likely to form the line of ancestry of modern humans. Homo sapiens began to reach their

Anthropology and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jonah's Gourd Vine Zora Neale Hurston described the study of anthropology as a spy-glass, an illuminating lens (1). Anthropology is defined as the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans (2). Through this study and with the aid of an essay defining human nature written by Cardinal Jean Daniello, we can take a closer look at the behavior of the characters in

positioned ‘right among the natives’ (Malinowski, 1922, p. 6) does not automatically provide the ethnographer with an insider’s view. It is this realization that has shaped and is still shaping the way fieldwork in modern anthropology is approached. The focus of anthropology can also been seen to have evolved in terms of the premises upon which Malinowski based his anticipated outcomes of research when compared to those of modern ethnographers. The primary purpose of anthropological research identified

The Cultural Definition of Race The examination of the biological and cultural variability that exists within humanity has been studied by anthropology scholars overtime in order to determine the distinctions between human races. Questions of racial identification, behaviour, culture and other characteristics has been analyzed to challenge the meaning of “race” and how it exists in a society. Is race biological? Is it cultural? Or is it determined based on geographical origins? By examining the

relationship between anthropology and the so-called ‘War on Terror’ by emphasizing the consequences it has and it might have for the discipline. The recognition that anthropology’s methods and skills are especially in demand in wartime has once more posed the discipline in a central place within the social sciences. However, having anthropologists working for the military might be considered a conflict of interest. Should Anthropologist Study Terrorism? In 2007, the American Anthropological Association

Emerging from this crisis is Boasian anthropology, with its reliance on empirical data as the basis for study. This data collection is subdivided into the four subfields Boas saw as a requirement for this new field. The four-field approach emerges as the dominant force in anthropology. With this approach the community changes its view of the field, and produces new methods and goals. These methods and goals have been used as a professional consensus in anthropology since the Boasian transformation

In anthropology, there are studies of racism and how different ethnicities act towards each other. People’s thoughts and assumptions about someone are based on their skin color, or where you are from, and how this type group acts, and people judged based on that assumption. This is something called rationalization where you categorize a person into a specific group of people. In anthropology, there is something called “white privilege” where based on your skin color, you have more or less rights

face due to instability in their jobs and economic life. Connecting socioeconomics and sociocentrism orientation, class and family are shown from different angles in order to understand inequalities and class divisions. The article “De-Homogenizing American Individualism: Socializing Hard and Soft Individualism in Manhattan and Queens” is written by Adrie Suzanne Kusserow. She is an Associate Professor of