This document provides an introduction to cultural anthropology by outlining its four main subfields and objectives. It discusses how anthropology takes a holistic and comparative approach to studying humanity. The four subfields are cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. Cultural anthropology examines human diversity and societies of the present and recent past through ethnographic fieldwork and ethnological comparison.

1. Intro to Cultural Anthropology: What is Anthropology? Students relaxing after fieldwork in Moquegua, Peru Photo courtesy Paul S. Goldstein

2. Objectives Understand that anthropology is holistic and comparative study of humanity Identify, distinguish, & describe the 4 subfields of anthropology Distinguish ethnology from ethnography Understand that anthropology is both a science & an art

3. Lecture Outline Overview Human Diversity General Anthropology The Subdisciplines of Anthropology Anthropology a nd Other Academic Fields Scientific Methods

4. Overview How we originated. How we have changed. How we are changing still. Anthropology addresses basic questions of human existence and survival. Cave art from Bhimbekta, India circa 2,500b.p.

5. Anthropology is holistic Past, present, future Biology Society Language Culture Interested in the whole of the human conditions Indus Valley (Pakistan) - clay seal with writing still undeciphered

6. General Anthropology Cultural Anthropology ( or, “Sociocultural Anth”) Archaeological Biological Linguistic Academic discipline of anthropology includes:

7. Four subfields Cultural anthropology – examines human diversity of the present and recent past. Archaeology – reconstructs behavior by studying material remains

8. Four subfields Biological anthropology – study of human fossils, genetics, and bodily growth and nonhuman primates Linguistic anthropology – considers how speech varies with social factors and over time

9. Adaptation Adaptation – process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses

10. Adaptation, Variation, and Change Foraging sole basis of human subsistence for millions of years Rate of change accelerated during past 10k years Willow storage basket Photo by Eva Salazar, Kumeyaay (Mission Indian) of San Diego

11. Adaptation, Variation, and Change First civilizations arose ~6000 B.P. (Before the Present) Recently industrial conditions spreading to all cultures Today’s global economy links all people into a world system Eva Salazar helped revive Kumeyaay Arts and Crafts

12. Recap 1.1 Forms of Cultural and Biological Adaptation (to High Altitude)

13. Cultural Adaptation Highland Peruvians Chewed coca Made raised fields to avoid killing frosts on crops Freeze-dried potatoes Created inter-altitude trade relations w/ lowlanders Peruvian miner, early 1900s

14. History of Anthropology: The Four-field Approach Developed in U.S. Early anthropologists combined studies of customs, social life, language, and physical traits Drawing from Tierra del Fuego, during C. Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, 19th c.

15. Cultural Anthropology Ethnography – Fieldwork in a particular culture; provides account of that community, society, or culture Ethnology – cross cultural comparison; the comparative study of ethnographic data, of society and of culture Describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences

16. Table 1.2 Ethnography and Ethnology – Two Dimensions of Cultural Anthropology