What is anthropology about ?

Subject: OVERVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY ; WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT ? OVERVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY ; WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT ?

By Professor Charles D. Brown , Esq.

a" Wayne County Community College’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. 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; almist any other animal 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 veneration and respect for elders , 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 science 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.