Anthropology

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Anthropology

• Study of humans
• Across the globe
• Throughout time
• In all their physical and cultural aspects

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Traditional Cultural Anthropology
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Anthropologists study

• Similarities among humans
• Differences among humans

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Sub-disciplines of Anthropology

• Biological or Physical Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology
• Applied Anthropology

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Biological Anthropology

• Paleoanthropology
• Human variation
• Primatology

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Instinct vs. Culture

• Biological, inborn
• True for all members of a species

• Learned behavior
• Varies by society

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Relation of Human Biology and Culture

• Cultural and biological evolution occurred
  together in an interactive process
• Culture is the human way of adapting to the
  environment and meeting our biological needs
• Cultural ideas affect our biological being

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RACE

• No way to divide worlds people into clearly
  defined races
• Social category, not a biological reality

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Problems with racial classifications

• Only a few traits used
• Genes assort independently
• Independent evolution

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Racism

• Create social categories of race
• Claim that these reflect biological differences
• Attribute other biological differences
• Conclude that different races deserve different
  social treatment

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Our cousin
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Archaeology

• Studies material remains
• Tries to reconstruct ideas and social relations
• Only source of information for prehistoric
  societies
• Useful supplement for historic societies

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Cultural anthropology

• Studies specific contemporary cultures
• Compares human cultures and seeks to understand
  processes of culture change

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