This document summarizes key concepts in anthropological representations and ethnography from the 1960s to the present. It discusses early structuralist approaches that viewed cultures as static systems and the later critiques of these approaches for being androcentric, Eurocentric and for not accounting for change. It also summarizes debates around the problem of representation, reflexive ethnography, and issues of power, gender, race and the politics of representation.

1. SC2218: Anthropology and the Human Condition Lecture 9: Anthropology, Ethnography and the Problem of Representation Eric C. Thompson Semester 1, 2008/2009

15. Woman the Hunter?

16. Did Women ever Evolve?

17. Ever?

23. Ethno… (a group of people) graphy… (writing about or of) Revisited and Revised…

24. “ These peoples (foragers) , despite their cultural and geographic diversity, have a core of features in common , and this core of features represents the basic human adaptation stripped of the accretions and complications brought about by agriculture, urbanization, advanced technology, and national and class conflict – all of the “advances” of the last few thousand years .” (Lee 2003: 3) Echoes of 19 th Century Social Evolution in Lee’s Dobe Ju/’hoansi

25. “ I no longer believe that studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers are primarily a tool for understanding the evolution of human behavior . Understanding hunter-gatherer ecology, however important, is not enough. One has to both build on it and transcend it by looking at adaptation in a much broader sense, including the internal dynamics of foragers and their articulation with wider political economies .” (Lee 2003: 195) Lee Revised (in response to criticisms)