OVERVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY ; WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT ?

OVERVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY ; WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT ?

By Professor Charles D. Brown , Esq.

Wayne County Community College Distruct's Ant 152 introduces students to the four classical branches of anthropology.

Physical anthropology discovers the truth of the biological theory and facts of human

evolutionary origins and human physical diversity.  Archaeology  and

ethnology  explore the development of culture through the Truly Civilized Stone Age

and so-called Civilization, examining artifacts, material culture,

fossil remains , etc. and examining theories about modes of production

from cooperative/egalitarian foraging and horticulture to

large scale domestication of plants and animals with private property, greed,  economic

classes , the state male supremacy . Ethnology or Socio-cultural anthropology

, also gives an understanding of diverse customs , traditions; and

religions , economic classes, nations and race in the present historical

era of capitalism and globalism. Linguistic anthropology investigates

language or symbolic communication , like culture, an exclusive human capacity enabling us to

share knowledge and experience with people remote from us in time and space;

and like culture , shaping our worldviews and perception and

interpretation of events.

Anthropology is the study of human beings  in all times and place;

study that is historical , systematic and objective, that is to say scientific,

based on logical consideration and testing of material evidence, and natural theories  ;

from 100's of thousands of years ago to the present; from Detroit to

the other ends of the Earth. This is in contrast with understanding humans

based on whims,  superstition, untested intuition , uncritical faith

or unquestioned authority or supernatural beings. It is an understanding of human societies

and individuals biologically and historically, that is as they have

changed and developed  ,evolved ,over  time and many generations of individual selves. It seeks to be truly holistic in

approach and scope , looking for the _whole_ truth, nothing but the truth. It welcomes contributions to its understanding of

people from all the other academic disciplines, natural sciences,

social sciences and humanities.  It even considers respectfully and

sympathetically systems of thought and belief from cultures very

different than our own.  In fact , learning the culture or customs,

beliefs , ideas, religions of foreign and other peoples is the

original focus of anthropology in contrast to sociology, psychology

and history , the other social sciences , and literature and the arts, which focus on Western and European

society's ways of being. In this regard , it is important to be honest

and confess that anthropology and ethnology was often a "handmaiden"

of European colonialism and imperialism, especially in its beginning.

Anthropology and ethnology  has significantly , though not completely, overthrown that legacy today

and, predominantly champions the interests of the foreign peoples who

are the main subjects of its study. Also, many anthropologists today

study American and European culture, with applied anthropology to

practical problems "at home" a major section of the discipline today.

There is a sense in which sociology is the anthropology of capitalist societies . 

 Anthropology's special contribution to scientific understanding

of humanity is the concept of _culture_, or the symbolic nature of human communication and social organization v. Culture is behavior ruled  by  a mental system of

shared customs, traditions, values, ideas  and material products of a

particular group of people.  Culture and language , or symbolic communication , are unique and

exclusive characteristics of human beings, the species Homo sapiens . No other animal species has

them, despite the exaggerated claims of some primatologists for chimps and gorillas. Culture and language provided the human species with an

enormous adaptive and Darwinian selective advantage in the tens of

thousands of years that the human species came to be and inhabit the

whole globe, again to a greater extent than any other phylum Chordata species.  This

is because it made humans extremely socially interconnected both with

living other humans so that human labor and methods of physical

survival are very _social_, not individualistic; and perhaps more

importantly, socially connected to dead generations of the species

through , again, language and culture, as in ancestor "worship" ,

myths, legends, stories, customs, historical accounts of past generations'

experiences.  Two heads are better than one in the struggles for

survival and snuggles for reproduction   By sharing the experiences , discoveries, knowledge of many

generations past and those of fellow living people, humans had and

have a big Darwinian or natural selective advantage especially in the

stone age in prehistoric times over the course of 100's of thousands of

years and starting going back 2.5 million  of years with the species Homo habilis . Again , this

enormous social networking within living generations and between

living and dead generations is encapsulated in the concepts of culture

and language and symbolic communication , the _differentia specifica_ of the human species.

Another special contribution of anthropology to our wisdom is the idea

of ethnocentrism or anti-ethnocentrism; and the concept of

culture-bound.  Ethnocentrism is the belief that the ways of one's own

culture are the only proper and moral ones.  It is a form of racism and

xenophobia.  Culture-bound ideas are theories about the world and

reality based on the assumptions and values of one's own culture.  A

big part of the study of anthropology is to broaden one's scope , make

one less parochial , open one's mind to a wider world of people.  In a

way, anthropology is theoretical world travel, that is going other

places without having to actually go there physically; and trying on

different ways of thinking about the world; with the effect that when

one looks back at oneself, one gains a more objective and full

understanding one's own culture, philosophy, beliefs, society, etc.

It can give us a gift of seeing ourselves as others  see us, as the

poet once wished for. The growth of "applied anthropology" ( "applied"

to domestic or Western society) is an institutional development within

the discipline expressing this metaphor of looking at ourselves

through the eyes of others.

Thus,  if some of the ways of anthropology are a bit foreign to you , I hope

you will use this course as an opportunity to  step out of your

intellectual comfort zone and think a little differently than you

usually do; a chance to "travel" and broaden your scope without having

to go through all the physical discomforts and annoyances of an actual

trip abroad. Travel in a "theoretical time machine "through evolution. Hopefully it will give you some new knowledge about your

humanity and fundamental commonality with all humans from all times

and places; and encourage you to respect some of the differences you

might have with others;  you might even decide to adopt some of other

people's culture a bit.  On the other hand, you might understand

yourself and your history and culture better and be happier with whom

you are.

Finally , I add a fifth and sixth sub fields to the conventional 4 : philosophical anthropology raising questions like "What is life ? " , "What is human life and human nature ?", etc. 

5: Anthropological psychology  Anthropological psychology because psychology is study of the Individual   , the Self, that idol of American culture and symbolic inheritance . So, learning about individuals is automatically more relevant to individual student's interests , which is of course , especially in themSELVES. 

 Anthropological Psychology ,is  especially in opposition to evolutionary psychology, socio/biology , all social phony "darwinisms".  Anthropological psychology places emphasis on culture , language and inter and intra -

generational memories in the psyches and personalities of individual humans :

the "We" in the "I".

The human "I " is more "We" than other animal species' "I"'s BUT NOT ABSOLUTELY DETERMINED BY THE "WE. "; not absolutely _socially_ constructed. 

What is unique about the individual human psyche as compared to other primate or mammal individual's psyches , minds, brains , memories, perceptions ?

The human difference is so many of our memories are symbols , words, drawings , music, dance. Symbolic communication 

The whole collection of memories held in our INDIVIDUAL minds: Each human individual has her WHOLE language and culture and symbols in her MEMORY ;

and memories directly imitative ( not symbolic)  of sensations or perceptions of the world outside her individual mind, of objective reality .

We have memories. We also have direct sensation of our immediate , here and now , surroundings .  BUT most of the time that we see or hear or smell

or touch something or somethings there must right way come to our mind a MEMORY of it or something like it or a SYMBOL OF IT. at the same time. Why ?Because it's familiar . We recognize it. Otherwise we would constantly feel lost . Every new sensation would be strange .

A main current new thought for me here is to focus on memories. Most thought is memories not  perceptions and sensations of your individual  external surroundings

However this is true of all animals ! All individual animals have most of their thoughts as MEMORIES !

Chimps have lots of picture similar images proportionately . We have proportionately  more symbolic memories: words , sentences, conversations .

Anthropological Psychology : Self 

On the Self, I'd say every individual  animal has an instinct of SELF-preservation , and therefore a self. Every brain is a Self. 

Humans have a personality , which is a cultural , symbolic self, with a name; an individual . It is socially constructed in association with other people; in communication between brains.

The Self is in the brain, consisting of memories in brain cells.

Language is in brain cells, memory cells. When you say "you" exist in language , that means "you" exist in brain cells, memory cells specifically.

WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT ?

Our textbook_The Essence of Anthropology_, at page defines Anthropology as the study of

humankind in all times and places, systematically and objectively,

a  very good definition.  More candidly anthropologists believe that we have a profound

understanding of the truth about human societies and Individuals biologically,

historically and scientifically. There is but one science, the science

of history. Anthropology is the life science of human beings; the

natural and cultural history of the species  Homo sapiens.

 Studying "all" of something , the whole or

holistically, systematically and objectively is scientific study and

knowledge , because the truth must be the whole truth.  So,  to say anthropology is open to evidence of human

endeavor from wherever it might be is to declare anthropology has a

scientific approach to knowledge of the truth. 

 Following the motto of the poet

Terrance: Nothing human is alien to anthropology , so to speak.

Originally , anthropology specialized among the academic disciplines

in studying human beings in times and places remote from the present

and the West, traveling far in time and space , expanding the

representative quality and quantity of the sample of  the social

sciences, such as they were , of evidence on human activity and behavior , bodily motion..

Anthropology aimed in part to expand the sample of data Western

academe had on humans  in a scientific  endeavor to represent  more

fully the whole of humanity , "all" of the object of study, that is

humans in _all_ times and _all_ places, not just the history of Europe - a correct scientific mission.

One main and unique contribution of anthropology in expanding the

sample of human life studied by modern science, including natural

history, is the study of early humans and humans' immediate ancestor

species in the evolutionary origin of the species _homo  sapiens_.

This evidence and sample represent at a minimum 200,000 years of human

society and as much as 2.5 million years when the whole of the genus

_homo_ is considered human society,  that the human species originates

with _Homo habilis_ and _Homo erectus_.  

"_Sapiens_" means "wise" In Latin. Homo sapiens 

Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise being"  )

What is culture, language or _symbolic_ communication ?

For anthropology, culture, language or symbolic communication are the unique species characteristic of

_Homo sapiens_.  In a sense, "culture" is another word for "wisdom",

from the notion that humans are the species _homo  wise_.  It is

humans socially learned practices, customs, language, traditions,

beliefs, religion, spirituality _passed down through many generations that make us "wise" in so many ways,

certainly clever and winners _as a species_ ( not just as a few "fit"

Individuals) in the struggles and snuggles to survive as a species. That is successful in the Darwinian struggles to increase the species population.

Since the advent about 6,000 years ago of so-called civilization, as you have no doubt heard it referred to a,  sometimes it's not so clear how wise

our culture makes us. Therein lies the central drama of the history of

the human species. 

 Nonetheless, clearly in the Stone Age, our having

culture was a highly adaptive advantage over species that did not have

culture , stone tools or controlling fire made through culture or symbolic or imaginary thinking and communication, etc, raising our species

fitness.  This is  evidenced by _Homo sapiens_ expanding in population

and therefore migrating to an expanded area of living space across the

earth , out of what is now named Africa to the other continents. Stone Age

foraging and  kinship organized societies were  the mode of life for

the vast majority of time of human                    species '

existence,  95% or more.

The first human societies had an extraordinarily high survival need to

be able to rely on each other at levels of solidarity that we cannot

even imagine.  The intensity of the network of social connections of a

band of 25 to 100 people living in the ecological food chain  location

close to the one described in our textbook _Man the Hunted_ , Chapter 4,  would almost constitute a new level of organic organization and

integrity above individual bodies or selves. Ancient kinship/family/culture /symbolic communication systems from around 2.5 million years ago ( the beginning of the Truly Civilized Stone Age were almost

super-organic bodies; the human social group was as a harmonious

multi-individual Body, organism.  The Individual human bodies, Selves, were very frail and weak in  contrast with the the bodies of the  field of

predators they were prey for . The dominance of the food chain

that humans,  ultimately reached even in the Stone Age            with relatively _frail_ individual bodies.    could only be

reached by  super-social , super internally-cooperative,

super-intra-species harmonious. This was only possible with symbolic communication both within a living generation and across generations,  It is

clear to me that natural selection , in the classical Darwinian sense, elected hominin groups with policies and practices of

of "love thy neighbor as thyself " and "charity" over those that might

have derived principles of "selfishness and greed", if there were any

in the Stone Age before Civilization.

Anthropology demonstrates its holistic/ whole truth, and thereby scientific method

of study by specialization into sub-disciplines of cultural

anthropology, physical or biological anthropology, archaeology and

linguistics.  Paleoontological  anthropology, study of early and

proto-humans,  is something of a combination of biological

anthropology and archaeology.  Clearly , the  pre-eminent and world

changing natural historian Charles Darwin is an initiator of

paleontological anthropology with his book   The Descent of Man, and

Selection in Relation to Sex ( although for some reason anthopology classes to not name Darwin's book as the beginning of physical anthropology; I think it is) By the title to his book, Darwin may

have been signaling a correction to the popular distortions of his

theory which imply that "survival of the toughest warriors" rather

than the "gentlest lovers" are the fittest and selected for naturally.

Or as Antoinette Blackwell, excellent Darwinist theoretician termed it, cooperation and balance was selected for over competition and savage rivalry, beyond a reasonable doubt. ( The Sexes Throughout Nature is a book written by Antoinette Brown Blackwell, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1875. )

Culture is founded in kinship; symbolic communication across generations; progeny care/ancestor "worship"

Please critique and challenge the following statement:

In Darwin's theory of natural selection concerning living beings, the

"struggle" in the struggle for existence, to live, is not between

Individual Selves of the same species to the point of Individual Bodies, somebodies,of the same species killing each other except very rarely. Most of the deaths before passing on genes to the next generation, are due to

failures in struggles with some Individual Body of _another_ species.,

plant and animal, as predator and prey; or struggle against bad

weather, heat exhaustion, sunburn

It is easy to see how some people get a misconception of Darwinian

natural selection because it _is_ posed in most of it prime

formulations with a sort of emphasis on the fact of indirect

"competition" in the sense that for the typical bodily form of a

species to change under Darwin's theory, some members with genes that

change species typical traits must more successfully pass them on than

members with species typical traits over successive generations until

the new trait is universal and the old typical trait is extinct. But

this does not necessarily or even conventionally imply direct physical

conflict between Individuals of the two types but the same species in the day-to-day struggle for existence to survive as Individual Bodies.

This is demonstrated by the famous anthropological micro-evolutionary

study of sickle cell genes on pages 44 to 46 of _The Essence of

Anthropology_.  There is no direct physical competition between the people of

the various genotypes with different fitnesses in the different

environments in the study.

It is not an Individual , but a species, a group of the same type who

"evolve", "adapt" or "survive". Individuals must live their individual

life long enough to reproduce for the species to survive.  However,

every individual eventually dies. "Survival" of the individual means

living long enough to pass on genes or a geno-type to the future

generations. If mutated genes, changed geno-type, are passed on, there

is a potential unit of evolution between the parent and the offspring.

That is evolution occurs between Individuals of different generations, not in one Individual Self.  If the

mutated genotype results in a phenol-typical  trait that is adaptive

in some significant way, it may become an evolutionary change by the

species through several individuals.

An Individual organism, Some Body, has an instinct for

self-preservation. This is said to be the first law of nature.  This

is an instinct to live as long as possible before the inevitable end,

as all animals are mortal. Every Individual Some Body has a lifetime

or ontogeny in which it is born, develops, exists and dies. The

development of an Individual overtime is not evolution , but ontogeny.

Significantly, the institution of war which arises in human history

with so-called civilization around 6,000 years ago involves human Individuals violating

their natural instinct of self-preservation.  Going into battle is to

risk one's individual life for a social value of some type,

nationalism or religion, not the exercise of a non-existent "instinct

of aggression".   Humans do not even eat those they kill in war (

joke) , another unnatural aspect.  No animal species kills without

the motive of getting food.