Studying humankind in all its diversity

Social and cultural anthropology is the comparative study of culture and human societies. It is distinct from other social sciences in its tradition of participant observation and in-depth, empirical study of social groups.

The anthropological attitude means being curious and open-minded, suspending your own judgements, and making cultural assumptions explicit. Bronisław Malinowski described the goal as grasping the native's point of view (Argonauts of the Western Pacific, 1922).

Two moves: anthropology tries to make the strange familiar (understanding unfamiliar ways of life from within) and the familiar strange (questioning what we take for granted in our own society).

Two foundational ideas

Culture is learned (not innate), shared and symbolic: the knowledge, beliefs, values and practices passed between generations. Edward Tylor gave a classic definition in 1871 of culture as that complex whole of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law and custom. Clifford Geertz later described culture as webs of significance that people themselves have spun.

Society is the organised group and its patterned social relations. A society is the people and their relationships; a culture is the shared meanings they live by.

Judging, or understanding?

• Ethnocentrism is judging another culture by the standards of your own, treating your way as normal and others as strange or inferior.
• Cultural relativism is understanding a belief or practice within its own cultural context. It was central to the work of Franz Boas, the founder of American anthropology, who used it to challenge the racist evolutionism of his day.

Note: methodological relativism (suspending judgement in order to understand) is a research stance; it does not require you to abandon all moral judgement.

Judging by your own standards

Insider and outsider views

Anthropologists distinguish two vantage points. The terms come from the linguist Kenneth Pike and were developed in anthropology by Marvin Harris.

• Emic = the insider's perspective, using the categories and meanings that members of the culture themselves use.
• Etic = the outsider's or analyst's perspective, using the comparative concepts of the researcher.

Good ethnography usually starts emically (understanding on local terms) before moving to etic comparison and analysis.

Insider or outsider?

Seeing the whole, comparing across cultures

Holism means studying a society as an interconnected whole in which kinship, economy, religion, politics and belief are linked, so that one practice can only be understood in relation to the rest of social life.

Comparison across societies lets anthropologists reach general principles about social and cultural life while still respecting each culture's particularity.

Sort the statements

Tap a statement, then tap the concept it shows. (Two belong to each.)

Two classic teaching examples

Horace Miner's Body Ritual among the Nacirema (1956) describes ordinary Americans (Nacirema is American spelled backwards) as if they were exotic strangers, exposing how easily we exoticise others. It teaches us to make the familiar strange.

Laura Bohannan's Shakespeare in the Bush recounts telling the story of Hamlet to the Tiv of Nigeria, whose very different assumptions about ghosts and kinship reshaped the tale, showing that meaning is culturally situated.

Why the Nacirema?

Nine ideas that run through the course

The IB course is organised around nine key concepts used to analyse ethnographic material:

• belief and knowledge — how people know and believe things about the world
• change — how societies transform over time
• culture — the shared, learned meanings and practices of a group
• society — an organised group and its patterned social relations
• identity — how people define who they are and belong
• materiality — how objects and material things shape social life
• power — the capacity to influence or control others
• social relations — the ties between people, such as kinship
• symbolism — the meanings carried by symbols and rituals

Spot the key concept

Match each term to its meaning

Tap a term on the left, then its meaning on the right.

What does Hamlet show?

How anthropologists know

Anthropological knowledge comes from fieldwork, above all participant observation, and from comparison across societies. Living among people over time lets an anthropologist see how ideas and practices actually work, while comparison guards against mistaking one culture for all of humankind.

Two key concepts in action

Belief and knowledge covers how people understand and explain their world, for example Azande beliefs about witchcraft. Symbolism covers the meanings carried by symbols and rituals, from a national flag to a rite of passage. The same event can be read through several key concepts at once.

Cultures are never frozen

The key concept of change reminds us that all societies transform through history, migration, trade and, today, globalisation. This is why the ethnographic present, describing a culture as if it were timeless, can mislead. Anthropologists study cultures as living and dynamic, not as museum pieces.

The big ideas to take away

You now have the perspective and vocabulary that frame the whole course. Press Finish to see your score.