SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Introduction:
Sociology and anthropology involve the systematic study of social life and culture in order to
understand the causes and consequences of human action. Sociologists and anthropologists
study the structure and processes of traditional cultures and modern, industrial societies in
both Western and non-Western cultures. They examine how culture, social structures
(groups, organizations and communities) and social institutions (family, education, religion,
etc.) affect human attitudes, actions and life-chances.

Sociology and anthropology combine scientific and humanistic perspectives in the study of
society. Drawing upon various theoretical perspectives, sociologists and anthropologists
study areas such as culture, socialization, deviance, inequality, health and illness, family
patterns, social change and race and ethnic relations. Combining theoretical perspectives
with empirical research allows students an opportunity to develop new insights and a
different perspective on their own lives. This combination also helps students to understand
everyday social life as a blend of both stable patterns of interaction and ubiquitous sources of
social change.

Social anthropology is the study of all peoples everywhere – what they make, what they do, what
they think and how they organise their social relationships and societies.
By living with people in different communities, observing, and learning to participate in their
ways of life (‘fieldwork’), social anthropologists produce in-depth descriptions of their customs
and ways of life (‘ethnographies’). They also compare different cultures and societies to explore
their similarities and differences, to test the generalisations of historians, social scientists and
philosophers, and to produce theories of how best to study and understand human nature.

Fields of Anthropology:

As you learned in the last post, Anthropology is the study of humans, in all times and all places.
(If you didn’t read the last post, click here to read it.)

Since Anthropology studies all of humanity, that’s a lot of stuff to study. So, the discipline of
Anthropology is broken down into 4 parts (at least in the USA; other countries may be different).
Each part, called a field, focuses on a certain aspect of humanity.

The 4 fields of Anthropology are:

 1. Cultural Anthropology (also known as Social Anthropology)
2. Physical Anthropology (also known as Biological Anthropology)
3. Archaeology
4. Anthropological Linguistics

Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology is the study of human cultures all around the world.

Culture includes behavior and ideas, and includes topics like clothing, food, housing, marriage &
families, political structure, economics, religion, art, and much more.

There are many sub-fields in Cultural Anthropology, and here’s just a few examples:

1. Legal Anthropology (the study of law in other cultures)

2. Business Anthropology (applying Anthropology to business)
3. Environmental Anthropology (the study of humans and the environment).
4. Medical Anthropology (the study of health and illness)

Physical Anthropology

Physical Anthropology is the study of the human body. It includes:

1. Paleoanthropology (studying human biological evolution)

2. Human Variation & Adaptation(studying physical differences among humans, and
how humans have adapted to their environment)
3. Forensic Anthropology (studying human remains [human bones])
4. Primatology (studying the category of primates, since we as humans are primates.
Other primates include chimpanzees and gorillas.)
Archaeology

Archaeology is the study of what humans left behind, through excavation (digging things up).

This includes prehistoric archaeology(studying the past of people who don’t have writing),
and historic archaeology(studying the past of people who dohave writing.)

There is even such as thing as underwater archaeology, where archaeologists excavate things
under water, like shipwrecks!

Anthropological Linguistics 

Anthropological Linguistics is the study of human language. This includes verbal and non-verbal
communication. Here’s some examples of things Linguistics involves:

1. semantics (the meanings of words, phrases, and sentences)

2. syntax (the structure of phrases and sentences)
3. morphology (word formation)
4. phonology (the sounds of language)
5. language acquisition (learning a language)
6. language variation (varieties of a language)

Research Methods in Anthropology:

Research Methods

Anthropologists use both objective (scientific) and subjective (interpretive) methods in their
research. As scientists, anthropologists systematically collect information to answer specific
research questions. They also document their work so that other researchers can duplicate it. But
many anthropologists also conduct informal kinds of research, including impromptu discussions
with and observations of the peoples they study. Some of the more common types of
anthropological research methods include (1) immersion in a culture, (2) analysis of how people
interact with their environment, (3) linguistic analysis, (4) archaeological analysis, and (5)
analysis of human biology.

A. Cultural Immersion

Researchers trained in cultural anthropology employ a variety of methods when they study other
cultures. Traditionally, however, much anthropological research involves long-term, direct
observation of and participation in the life of another culture. This practice, known as participant
observation, gives anthropologists a chance to get an insider’s view of how and why other people
do what they do.

Polish-born British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski was the first anthropologist to

document a detailed method of participant observation. Malinowski spent two years living with
the people of the Trobriand Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, between 1915 and 1918. He
learned the Trobriand language and explored the people’s religion, magic, gardening, trade, and
social organization. He later published a series of books describing all aspects of Trobriand life.
Malinowski's work became a model of research methods for generations of anthropologists.

Just as Malinowski did, most anthropologists today learn local languages to help them gain an
insider’s view of a culture. Anthropologists commonly collect information by informally asking
questions of the people with whom they live.

Often anthropologists will find individuals within the society being studied who are especially
knowledgeable and who are willing to become so-called informants. Informants typically enjoy
talking with a sympathetic outsider who wishes to interpret and record their culture. Informants
and anthropologists may also form teams in which the informants work as anthropologists. While
informants often provide much useful information, anthropologists also have to take into account
the biases that people typically have in explaining their own cultures.

In some cases, anthropologists may use interviews to record extensive life histories of
individuals with whom they have good relationships. Older people usually volunteer to tell their
life stories, often because they have seen many changes since their youth and enjoy telling of
past experiences and lessons learned. Such stories can provide valuable insights on how cultures
change.

Anthropologists also commonly construct genealogies (diagrams of kinship relations) and maps
to show how the people in communities are related to one another, how people organize
themselves in groups, and how people and groups interact with each other. These research tools
can provide a way for anthropologists to see cultural patterns and complexities of daily life that
would otherwise be difficult to discern or comprehend.

B. Human Ecology

Many anthropologists combine cultural research with studies of the environments in which
people live. Human ecology examines how people interact with their natural environments, such
as to make a living. Anthropologists may collect large amounts of data about features of a
culture’s environment, such as types of plants and animals, the chemical and nutritional
properties of medicines and foods, and climate patterns. This information can provide
explanations for some characteristics of a people’s culture.

For instance, in the 1960s American anthropologist Roy Rappaport analyzed the ecological
significance of a ritual cycle of peace and warfare among the Tsembaga people of Papua New
Guinea. Rappaport found that the Tsembaga and neighboring groups would maintain peace for
periods of between 12 and 20 years. During these periods, the people would grow sweet potato
gardens and raise pigs. The people would also guard areas of land they had previously gardened
but which were now unused and believed to be occupied by ancestor spirits. When the presence
of too many pigs rooting up gardens and eating sweet potato crops became a nuisance, the
Tsembaga would feast on the pigs, perform a ritual to remove spirit ancestors from old gardens,
and then lift the ban on warfare. The lifting of the ban allowed the Tsembaga to capture
abandoned lands from other groups. This regulation of warfare coincided with the amount of
time it took for abandoned gardens to regain their fertility, and so made good ecological sense.

C. Linguistic Analysis

Linguistic anthropologists, as well as many cultural anthropologists, use a variety of methods to

analyze the details of a people’s language. The practice of phonology, for example, involves
precisely documenting the sound properties of spoken words. Many linguistic anthropologists
also practice orthography, the technique of creating written versions of spoken languages. In
addition, most study the properties of grammar in languages, looking for the rules that guide how
people communicate their thoughts through strings of words.

Language reveals much about a people’s culture. Anthropologists have studied such topics as
how different languages assign gender to words, shape the ways in which people perceive the
natural and supernatural worlds, and create or reinforce divisions of rank and status within
societies.

For instance, many of the peoples native to North America conceive of time as a continual cycle
of renewal, a concept quite different from the European belief that time only moves forward in a
progression from the past to the future. Linguists have found that many Native American
languages, such as that of the Hopi of the North American Southwest, include grammatical
constructions for saying that something exists in a state of “becoming,” even though it does not
yet actually exist. English and other European languages cannot as easily express such an idea,
nor can most Europeans or Americans of European descent truly understand it.

D. Archaeological Analysis

Archaeologists use specialized research methods and tools for the careful excavation and
recording of the buried remains of past cultures. Remote sensing involves the use of airplane
photography and radar systems to find buried sites of past human cultures. Rigorous methods of
excavation allow archaeologists to map the precise locations of remains for later analysis.
Seriation, the practice of determining relative age relationships among different types of artifacts
based on their shapes and styles, helps archaeologists learn how past cultures changed and
evolved. Archaeologists also use a variety of dating methods involving chemical and other types
of scientific analysis to reveal the age of buried objects up to millions of years old.

In addition, some archaeologists have training in cultural anthropology, and they may use
cultural research to help them interpret what they find buried in the ground. For example, people
in many small-scale societies continued to make tools of stone into the 20th century, and some
still know how. By watching these people make their tools, archaeologists have learned how to
interpret patterns of chipped pieces of stone buried in the ground.

E. Physical Anthropological Research

Physical anthropologists often rely on rigorous medical scientific methods for at least part of
their research, in addition to more general observational methods. All physical anthropologists
have detailed knowledge of human skeletal anatomy. Paleoanthropologists and forensic
anthropologists can construct extremely detailed descriptions of people’s lives from only
measurements of bones and teeth. These researchers typically analyze the chemical or cellular
composition of bones and teeth, patterns of wear or injury, and placement in or on the ground.
Such analyses can reveal information about the sex, age, work habits, and diet of a person who
died long ago.

Some physical anthropologists specialize in epidemiology, the study of disease and health among
large groups of people. In addition to studying diseases themselves, physical anthropologists
focus on cultural causes and preventions of disease. They may study such specific medical topics
as nutrition and gastrointestinal function, human reproduction, or the effects of drugs on brain
and body function. For instance, physical anthropologists working in San Francisco, California,
studied how the beliefs and practices of homosexual and bisexual men factored into the spread of
the AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) virus in the 1980s. This information helped in
the design of effective health education programs to reduce the spread of the disease.

Anthropology and other Social Sciences

Anthropology shares certain interests and subjects of study with other fields of social science,
especially sociology, psychology, and history, but also economics and political science.
Anthropology also differs from these fields in many ways.
Like sociology, anthropology involves the study of human society and culture. But anthropology
began as the study of small-scale tribal societies, large-scale chiefdoms, and ancient civilizations,
and later moved to include global-scale societies. Sociology, on the other hand, has always
emphasized the study of modern and urbanized societies. Anthropology involves the comparison
of different societies in order to understand the scope of human cultural diversity. Sociology, on
the other hand, frequently examines universal patterns of human behavior.

Anthropology also examines certain aspects of human psychology. Anthropology studies how
people become enculturated—shaped by their culture as they grow up in a particular society.
Through enculturation, people develop culturally accepted ideas of what behavior is normal or
abnormal and of how the world works. Anthropology examines how people’s patterns of thought
and behavior are shaped by culture and how those patterns vary from society to society. By
contrast, psychology generally focuses on the universal characteristics of human thought and
behavior, and studies these characteristics in individual people.

The study of history is also a part of anthropology. In its formal sense, the term history refers
only to periods of time after the invention of writing. Anthropologists often study historical
documents to learn more about the past of living peoples. Historical archaeologists, who
specialize in the study of historical cultures, also study written documents. But all
anthropologists primarily study people, their societies, and their cultures. Historians, on the other
hand, primarily study written records of the past—from which they cannot learn about human
societies that had or have no writing. See also History and Historiography.

In addition, anthropology examines some topics also studied in economics and political science.
But anthropologists focus on how aspects of economics and politics relate to other aspects of
culture, such as important rituals. Anthropologists who specialize in the study of systems of
exchange in small-scale societies may refer to themselves as economic anthropologists.

Significance of Anthropology:

Social anthropology is close to sociology and is a branch of anthropology that studies the social
structures of different cultures.

Anthropology, at it’s core, is the study of human activity. It was originally founded as a offshoot
of other “social sciences” being created around the same time and proliferation of people
beginning to collect artifacts.

Social Anthropology is important because every society has it’s own rules, (whether expressed or
not), and own particular code of conduct that is acceptable in the parameters of that own society.
Take for example marriage. In Western society marriage among cousins is generally frowned
upon. Whereas in other cultures. marriage among cousins is not only acceptable it is encouraged.
That is just a very SMALL example of a way social anthropology is important and how it can
afford one an insight into the ways another culture’s society might operate differently from one’s
own.

Marriage is a study that can be viewed by many forms of anthropology and has been. Take
another one that may actually be specific to social anthropology; government functions and roles.
How individual societies view their governments and their duties within them (or even their
elders and their influences in their communities), will influence the cultural responses within the
community. Whether it be a small community, (ie the ritualistic “honor killings” in some Middle
Eastern cultures), or the government acquittal of cops here in the US and the reaction of the
public or the government’s conviction of a “cult leader” in India that led to uprising of half of
India. Those are all instances that could be considered “Social Anthropological issues”
Anthropology primarily investigates other ways of knowing. It gives you the oppurtunity to look
at your own culture and it’s practices critically as well as look at other’s in a way that allows you
to understand some of the ways in which people percieve the world.

Here’s the thing.

There are somewhere around 5000–6000 unique languages and cultures on the planet. Each of
them conceive of the world in a different ways. For example, some cultures don’t have a term for
the English concept of Nature, the view what we consider the natural world in an very different
way. They don’t necessarily view the ‘natural world’ as something other from themselves as we
do, and thus their interactions with it are different.