UNIT 2 anth 1012 July 2023.ppt

Social Anthropology
Anth 1012
Unit 2
Sub-fields of Anthropology

The 4 branches of Anthropology

I. Archaeology
 Archaeology is the study of human history and
prehistory through the excavation of sites and the
analysis of artefacts and other physical remains
 Archaeologists reconstruct the history and
cultures of past societies:
1. artefacts,
2. features, and
3. eco-facts

Artefacts, features, ecofacts
Artefacts: tools, ornaments, arrowheads, coins, and
fragments of pottery, household utensils…
Features: house foundations, ancient buildings (e.g.,
palaces, temples), fireplaces, steles, monuments...
Eco-facts: organic & environmental remains like soil,
animal bones, & plant remains that were not made or
altered by humans.
Data on the environment & how people used natural
resources in the past

Branches of archaeology:
Prehistoric arch.:- 6,000 years ago - the time of the first
stone tools (the first artefacts), around 2.5 million years
ago.
Historic arch.: - reconstructs the cultures of people who
had a writing culture;
Temporal scope: Recent history to 6000 years ago;
Working with historians
Ethno-archaeology: Studies material culture of current
societies (e.g., pottery products) to understand the cultures
of past societies.

II. Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology studies the evolution of
languages by studying contemporary human
languages & those of the past. It studies:
how language is used within a society &
how the human brain acquires and uses languages.
variation of languages in their structures and
grammatical formations.

Linguistic Anthropology
Branches of Linguistic Anthropology:
1. Structural /descriptive linguistics: studies the structure of
languages (e.g., grammatical patterns) to identify similarities
& differences among contemporary languages.
2. Ethno-linguistics (Cultural Linguistics):
It examines the relationship between language & culture.
3. Historical linguistic: changes in languages (e.g., grammatical
& semantic changes)
4. Socio-linguistic: studies the influence of social norms and
expectations on the way language is used.

III. Social Anthropology
Social anthropology has different names in
different countries
 Cultural anthropology
 Ethnology
 Social anthropology
 Sociocultural anthropology

Social Anthropology
Social anthropology studies contemporary societies &
cultures.
In early days of the discipline:
 Social anthropologists from the Western world conducted
ethnographic fieldworks in non-Western societies (Africa,
Asia, Latin America & remote islands).
 Many of the classical ethnographies of African societies were
produced by ethnographers from the then colonial countries:
France and Great Britain/United Kingdom.
 Large numbers of ethnographies were published during the
colonial period

Social Anthropology
Society and culture
 Society & culture are two sides of the same coin.
 Society refers to a group of people sharing similar
ways of life/culture.
 Culture refers to the a way of life of a group of
people (shared values, norms, beliefs).
 Social anthropology studies social, cultural and
material life of contemporary human societies.
 Social anthropology studies the social (human
relations), symbolic/nonmaterial (religious,
languages) and material lives of living peoples.

Social Anthropology
Ethnography & ethnology
1. Ethnography
A. Ethnography as a written account
 It provides a comprehensive account of a
particular culture.
 It describes the features of specific cultures
(beliefs, customs, social life, economic activities,
politics, & religion).
 Ethnography, a detailed description of a specific
culture, is the result of extensive field studies
(including living with the people being studied).
 Ethnographies serve as raw data for ethnology
(comparative study of cultures)

Social Anthropology
B. Ethnography as a research method involves
the following:
 A long fieldwork (living in rural or urban
communities) to collect data
 Learning the language of the people being
studied.
 Participant observation: living with local
communities (talking, working, eating, drinking
with them) & writing field notes
 Observation of cultural practices, celebrations,
rituals.
 Collecting data using different methods (e.g.,
interviews, group discussions, informal
conversations, etc.)
 Finally writing a thick description of the culture
(called ethnography)

Social Anthropology
II. Ethnology
Ethnology is a comparative study of contemporary
cultures & societies.
Ethnologists do the following:
 They examine, analyzes, and compares the results of
ethnographic data.
 They use ethnographic data to understand cultural diversity
and cross cultural similarities.
 Based on comparative analysis of ethnographic data,
ethnologists: 1) develop some generalizations and
2) build theory to enhance our understanding of
human cultures.

Social Anthropology
 The primary objective of ethnology is to uncover
general cultural principles, the “rules” that govern
human behavior.
Ethnography Ethnology
Requires field work tocollect data Uses data collectedbya seriesof researchers
Oftendescriptive Usuallysynthesizes ethnographicdata
Group/communityspecific Comparative/cross-cultural

Social Anthropology
Specialized areas of socio-cultural anthropology:
 Anthropology of Art,
 Medical Anthropology,
 Urban Anthropology,
 Economic Anthropology,
 Political Anthropology,
 Development Anthropology,
 Applied anthropology,
 Ecological Anthropology,
 Anthropology of tourism

Physical
anthropology Reflect your views on
the following.
1. In what ways do human
beings differ from other
animal species?
2. What are the sources of
biological variation?
3. What differentiate human
body from that of other
animals’?
4. How have human beings
evolved up to the present
time?
5. What is evolution?

Physical anthropology
Physical anthropology: a branch of anthropology that
focuses on the biological aspects of human beings.
Sub-fields:
 forensic anthropology,
 primatology,
 paleoanthropology,
 population genetics, and
 human ecology.
The subfields of physical anthropology are closely
related to natural sciences, particularly biology.

Physical anthropologists studies how culture &
environment have influenced biological evolution &
contemporary human variations.
 Human biology affects some aspects of behavior,
society & culture (e.g., marriage patterns, sexual
division of labor, gender ideology).
 Cultural features also affect biological features
like the standards of attractiveness, food
preferences, & human sexuality.
 Biological variations (e.g., physical structure,
color, and size) are reflections of changes in living
organism including human beings.

Human evolution
 It is a gradual processes of simple forms into more
differentiated structures in hominid.
 It studies fossils remains and reconstructing the
evolutionary record of the human species.
 Human evolution is further divided into 3
specialties:
1. Paleoanthropology
2. Primatology.
3. Human genetics.

i. Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology is the study of human
biological evolution through the analysis of fossil
remains from prehistoric times
It investigates the missing link that connect
modern humans with their biological
ancestors.

IV. Physical anthropology
Paleoanthropology
It is the study of human evolution through the fossil
and archaeological records.
Various experts collaborate in this study:
 Biological anthropologists,
 Palaeolithic archaeologists,
 Earth scientists and
 Geneticists.

Research in human evolution:
 Origin of human beings is traced back to over 6
million ago
 Africa is the cradle of human beings.
 East Africa, especially the Great Rift Valley, is the
origin of mankind.
 The oldest fossils of human ancestors were
discovered in this part of the continent.

 Fossils such as Lucy/Dinknesh (Australopithecus
Afarensis) in the Afar Region
 Ethiopia is among African countries regarded as
the origin of human ancestors.

“Ethiopia is the origin
of human beings.”
 What does it
mean?

Evolutionary & Paleo-anthropological perspectives on
human origin
 What does different world religions
say about the origin of human
beings?
 What about scientific (paleo-
anthropological) explanations about
the origin & evolution of human
beings?
 Which are major Paleo-
anthropological findings in Ethiopia?

II. Primatology: the study of primates/human-
like creatures [exhibiting human-like
behaviors]

Primates: Grooming & emotional attachment among
the primates show the level of social relations

Primates Standing and walking upright: primates
such as chimpanzees occasionally stand and walk
as humans do.

II. Primatology (the study of primates):
Primatology studies about primates or recent
human ancestors to explain human evolution.
Primatology studies the anatomy & social
behavior of such non-human primate species
(gorillas & chimpanzees) to gain clues about
our own evolution as a species..

III. Human Genetics
It investigates how & why the physical traits of
contemporary human populations vary (e.g.,
color differences).
It examines the genetic materials of an
organism such as DNA.

Anthropological perspectives on racial types
People have different colors & shapes:
 Africa: darker-skinned people;
 Europe: light/white skin color;
 Natives of the Arctic: shorter & stockier physical
structure
 Pastoral societies of East Africa: tall and slim
physical stature; e.g., the Massai of Kenya.
 Why do we have this physical variations?
- a gradual process of adaptation to a given
environments.
- biological adaptation [color, physical stature]
- cultural adaptation [tools making, shelter, food

Anthropological perspectives on racial types …
Like other living things, human beings adapt to their
environments through evolutionary processes.
Unlike other animals, humans adapt to their environment
through biological and cultural adaptation.
What makes humans unique is their capabilities of
creating culture and using it as means of adaptation.
Adaptation is a process (behavioral and/or biological)
that increases the likelihood of survival for an organism.

Anthropological perspectives on racial types …
Humans adaptation involves cultural processes and
activities including:
• Tool making, food production),
• Social institutions (such as kinship, marriage, family,
community),
• Economic institutions (such as trade & market
exchanges), Political institutions (such as state and
government).
These behaviors are not inherited genetically but rather
cultural.
Some bodily adaptations are pretty easily visible. A
good example is skin color.
The darkest skin appears in populations originating in
tropical zones, such as Africa.
The lightest skin is traditionally found in northern
Europe characterized by cold climatic conditions.
Darker skin, then, is an adaptation to the geographical

UNIT 2 anth 1012 July 2023.ppt

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