We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. This has included anthropologists who are working in each of anthropologys four subfields. Self-knowledge, self-realization, and self-scrutiny can happen, albeit in an often messy and unpredictable way for undergraduates. For instance, the study of language is the domain of linguistic anthropology. Anthropology matters because it allows us to look beneath the surface of things. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Throughout our daily lives, our behavior either validates . + Follow. Often known as holism, the job of an anthropologist is to study and research different human experiences. As for the blind, deaf and dumb, the cripples, morons, Mongoloids, and the mad, they were best locked away, lobotomized and even killed to remove them from the gene pool. While we study a particular culture to learn more about it and to answer specific research questions, we are also exploring fundamental questions about human society, behavior, or experiences. And though his research took him to esoteric realms of myth and shamanism, symbolism and the spirit, he remained grounded in the politics of racial and economic justice, the promise and potential of social change. I have also explored how race impacts peoples senses of belonging in various social spacesfor instance, African American participation in downhill skiing or the experiences of underrepresented students at historically white colleges and universities. Everybody does it but we all do it different; this is culture. Knowledge of society, social groups, social institutions, associations, their functions etc. Knowing who you are will always be more important than others knowing who you are. As a scholar, Boas ranks with Einstein, Darwin and Freud as one of the four intellectual pillars of modernity. I was born in Ghana, West Africa, where my American father had spent several years working with local artisans at the National Cultural Centre in Kumasi. Other subdisciplines, like cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology, use humanistic and/or inductive approaches to their collection and analysis of nonmaterial data, like observations of everyday life or language in use. Social structure is patterns of social behavior. I participated in the rich daily lives of farmers, woodcarvers, hospital personnel, government employees, shopkeepers, students, and other groups of people. WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY? The comprehensiveness of anthropology stems from its emphasis on context, reflected in the perspectives offered by the discipline's four fields: sociocultural, biological, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. It covers MELC 1: Discuss the nature, g. Discover world-changing science. I published an ethnography about my research in Ifugao, titled Struggling with Development: The Politics of Hunger and Gender in the Philippines. 14. The key anthropological perspectives are holism, relativism, comparison, and fieldwork. Ego is the main threat to self-awareness; it is the . If we are all cut from the same fabric of life, then by definition we all share the same mental acuity, the same raw genius. Both sciences attempt to understand the way of life of various cultures or various societies. Anthropologists of all the subfields use comparison to learn what humans have in common, how we differ, and how we change. Augustus Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer were all sociologists who used the structural-functional approach. 877 Words important thing a mother gives a child; it is the substance of her own body, and in most parts of the world mothers milk is still the only safe food for infants. They learn about the complexities of peoples lives intimately, including their social relationships, their bodily and emotional experiences, and the powerful institutional forces influencing their lives. I cannot say for sure, but as Ive witnessed the move from twin-blade razors, to Mach 3s, to today (there is even a company offering the worlds first and only razor with seven precision aligned blades) there appears to be a presumption that more, in this case, razor-blades is better. Just as social structures and forces shape our lives, our choices and actions influence the nature of society. Legal. The key theme in this article is that political science as a field of study has acquired importance in recent years due to the explosion in interest of the matters related to the working of the political economy. Anthropology can be used to answer questions about human origins, evolution, and behavior. The entire gathering earned but a mention inThe Washington Post, a few lines in the gossip section essentially noting that the nutcases were back in town. Anthropology has different branches and each of the branches provides for a certain aspect of the inquiry into our origins and evolution as a species. Far ahead of his time, Boas recognized that every distinct social community, every cluster of people distinguished by language or adaptive inclination, was a unique facet of the human legacy and its promise. Sociology is important because it helps us to maintain awareness of society, and human behavior, respect others, solve the issues of the community, and make decisions. To address these questions, anthropologists are obligated to follow a professional code of ethics that guides us through ethical considerations in our research.[6]. Why Anthropology Is Important SHARE BACK TO TOP Why Anthropology Is Important Recently retired Professor Gordon McEwan, an expert on the Incas and their predecessors, has helped students thrive in our multicultural world What's Inside: The Nursing Resource Center A Taste of Home This video lesson is intended as a supplement to LUSDO AIR's-LM Understanding Culture, Society and Politics Module 1. The significance of the study of Political Science is discussed below: (1) Imparting Knowledge of the State: However, the primary aim of the study of Political Science is to inculcate knowledge of the State, its origin, nature, structure and functions. Often the answer is simply because that is how it is done. People typically believe that their ways of thinking and acting are normal; but, at a more extreme level, some believe their ways are better than others. It is important to study the perspective of anthropology to be able to understand history of man and how past civilization existed compared to present ones. is shared under a CC BY-NC license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts. Ruth Benedict, acolyte of the great Franz Boas and in 1947 president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), reputedly said that the very purpose of anthropology was to make the world safe for human differences. Anthropology can also help us imagine and design futures that attend to human and environmental complexity. Instead, anthropologists seek to understand peoples beliefs within the system they have for explaining things. Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. It helps us to determine the most efficient means for reaching the goals agreed upon. Differences in customs and beliefs reflected differences in intelligence and destiny, with every culture finding its rung on an evolutionary ladder rising from the savage to the barbarian to the civilized of the Strand in London, with technological wizardry, the great achievement of the West, being the sole measure of progress and success. 1.4: Why is Anthropology Important? Everything Boas proposed ran against orthodoxy. The word ethnography also refers to the end result of our fieldwork. They study the past to help interpret the present. Anthropology is the systematic study of humanity, with the goal of understanding our evolutionary origins, our distinctiveness as a species, and the great diversity in our forms of social existence across the world and through time. Before any of these struggles could flourish, something fundamental, some flash of insight, had to challenge and, in time, shatter the intellectual foundations that supported archaic beliefs as irrelevant to our lives today as the notions of 19th-century clergymen, certain that the earth was but 6,000 years old. Those are all good ways of both learning about yourself and constructing yourself. In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges, 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0. The particular way that cultural anthropologists do their research is important to our results. Anthropology encourages us to extend our perspectives beyond familiar social contexts to view things from the perspectives of others. Inspired by his time among the Inuit on Baffin Island, and later the Kwakwakawakw in the salmon forests of the Pacific Northwest, he informed all who would listen that the other peoples of the world were not failed attempts to be them, failed attempts to be modern. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009. In 1871 Darwin published The Descent of Man, which argued that human beings shared a recent common ancestor with the great African apes. Activity 2. Ethnography is the description of cultures and the groups of people who live within them. anthropology, "the science of humanity," which studies human beings in aspects ranging from the biology and evolutionary history of Homo sapiens to the features of society and culture that decisively distinguish humans from other animal species. Some sub-disciplines, like biological anthropology and archaeology, use a deductive, scientific approach. How do different languages adapt to new technologies? Kottak, Conrad P. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Studying anthropology fosters broad knowledge of other cultures, skills in observation and analysis, critical thinking, clear communication, and applied problem-solving. Interracial marriage remained illegal across much of the United States until 1967. Hence, Anthropology and its study are indeed important from the perspective of knowing more about us. Anthropology can be defined as the comparative study of humans, their societies and their cultural worlds. Concepts like oppression, inequality, and intersectionality are realities in society that . Ethnocentrism is not a useful perspective in contexts in which people from different cultural backgrounds come into close contact with one another, as is the case in many cities and communities throughout the world. In cultural anthropology, our fieldwork is referred to as ethnography, which is both the process and result of cultural anthropological research. Accessibility StatementFor more information contact us atinfo@libretexts.orgor check out our status page at https://status.libretexts.org. It allows us to connect on a deeper level and build stronger, more meaningful relationships. A biological anthropologist studying monkeys in South America might consider the species physical adaptations, foraging patterns, ecological conditions, and interactions with humans in order to answer questions about their social behaviors. As we hope you have learned thus far, anthropology is an exciting and multifaceted field of study. About fifteen years ago, there was a study of sociology instructors asking them to identify the most important concepts, topics, and skills for the introduction to sociology class and the sociology curriculum. Politics was the domain of men, charity work and the home the realm of women. Respecting the cultural differences between one another. Fossils began to be reliably associated with particular geologic strata, and fossils of recent human ancestors were discovered, most famously the first Neanderthal specimen, unearthed in 1856. Expanding out to the latest model automobile or smartphone, people seem to have a seldom questioned belief in the notion that newer technologies ultimately improve our lives. It can be useful in personal adaptation, personal success, and gaining a better understanding of other cultures. Cultures under threat are neither fragile nor vestigial; in every instance, they are living dynamic peoples being driven out of existence by identifiable forces. Those two things can go hand-in-hand. It is through comparison that we learn more about the range of possible responses to varying contexts and problems. I learned about the deep pain and suffering experienced by abused women, as well as the numerous ways many of these women and their fellow community members have worked to put an end to the violence. We might compare the roles of men and women in different societies, or contrast how different religious groups conflict within a given society. The guiding philosophy of modern anthropology is cultural relativismthe idea that we should seek to understand another persons beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own. The Greek term ethno refers to people, and graphy refers to writing. We must set aside our innate ethnocentric views in order to allow cultural relativism to guide our inquiries and interactions such that we can learn from others. It helps anthropologists to avoid equating "human nature," for example, with the peculiarities of our own contemporary society. This led me to pursue graduate work in anthropology despite the fact that I had taken only one anthropology course in college. A prime example of using ethnography for success is in US foreign relations, particularly where the work of anthropologist Ruth Benedict was . Political movements are built upon the possibility of change, possibilities brought into being by new ways of thinking.