The sociological imagination points to the crux of the sociological perspectivethat society is a social product, and, as such, its structures and institutions are changeable. Every culture was a unique expression of the human imagination and heart. Beauty really does lie in the eye of the beholder. Why is culture important? Anthropologists of all the subfields use comparison to learn what humans have in common, how we differ, and how we change. For example, a cultural anthropologist studying the meaning of marriage in a small village in India might consider local gender norms, existing family networks, laws regarding marriage, religious rules, and economic factors. The purpose of social study is to understand all of that sentimentality. While many definitions of "culture" have been offered and discussed in the academic literature for 100 years, a simple, yet complete definition of culture is "the knowledge people use to live their lives and the way in which they do so" (Handwerker 2002). 2. The very existence of other ways of being, other ways of thinking, other visions of life itself, puts the lie to those in our own culture who say that we cannot change, as we know we must, the fundamental way in which we inhabit this planet. I like to tell a story about how, on the last day of my first year at the University of Massachusetts, while sitting alone in my dorm room waiting to be picked up, I decided to figure out what my major would be. This is important in helping to understand how one language relates to another and how humans have communicated with one another over time. The key anthropological perspectives are holism, relativism, comparison, and fieldwork. Anthropology is frequently described as the art of 'making the familiar exotic and the exotic familiar'. 1. The LibreTexts libraries arePowered by NICE CXone Expertand are supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot. I conducted interviews and surveys and also shared daily and ritual experiences with people to learn about inadequate access to nutritious food, and social structural sources of this kind of health problem. Searching the origins of society and religion, writing the "history of their evolution," seemed to be the most popular topic of nineteenth-century anthropology. We are all cut from the same genetic cloth, all descendants of common ancestors, including those who walked out of Africa some 65,000 years ago, embarking on a journey that over 40,000 years, a mere 2500 generations, carried the human spirit to every corner of the habitable world. We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. The comparative approach can be historical: How do humans today differ from ancient Homo sapiens? Boas and his students were right. It is the study of humankind in all times and all places. A certain amount of knowledge about society is necessary before any social policies can be carried out. Thanks for reading Scientific American. I also explore the ways in which abused women, and other Vietnamese professionals and government workers, contest this gender violence in Vietnamese communities. Some students decide to major in anthropology and even pursue advanced academic degrees in order to become professional anthropologists. Using these patterns, functionalist can see how they bring people together. Struggling with Development: The Politics of Hunger and Gender in the Philippines. Each was a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? A prime example of using ethnography for success is in US foreign relations, particularly where the work of anthropologist Ruth Benedict was . Boulder: Westview Press, 1998. Augustus Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer were all sociologists who used the structural-functional approach. 877 Words It helps us to determine the most efficient means for reaching the goals agreed upon. People need the anthropological perspective because it shows patterns of behavior and those patterns can be helpful to avoid possible repeating of history. Anthropology encourages us to extend our perspectives beyond familiar social contexts to view things from the perspectives of others. This is an introductory article for the module on political science. The catalyst, as Charles King reminds us, was the wisdom and scientific genius of Franz Boas and a small band of courageous scholarsMargaret Mead, Alfred Kroeber, Elsie Clews Parsons, Melville Herskovits, Edward Sapir, Robert Lowie, Ruth Benedict, Zora Neale Hurston and many others contrarians all, who came into his orbit, destined to change the world. I learned about the deep pain and suffering experienced by abused women, as well as the numerous ways many of these women and their fellow community members have worked to put an end to the violence. Global cultural crises: Global Cultural Crises needs an anthropological perspective because if there is a natural disaster there maybe a social reason behind it. We listen to and discuss the late writer David Foster Wallaces This is Water commencement address emphasizing empathy and awareness because anthropology fosters these qualities as well. Different from other introductory textbooks, this book is an edited volume with each chapter written by a different author. There, a coup and other circumstances turned my one-year fellowship into a two-year experience/adventure. Anthropology has taught me to view the contemporary American lifestyle that I grew up thinking was normal through the wider frame of humanitys long history. There is no hierarchy of progress in the history of culture, no evolutionary ladder to success. A. Thinking from a sociological perspective allows one to better understand other people's circumstances and the reasons why they are in the situations they are in. Ruth Benedict, acolyte of the great Franz Boas and in 1947 president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), reputedly said that the very purpose of anthropology was to make the world safe for human differences. Aimed at raising awareness regarding the importance of teaching anthropology through all grade levels, including higher education, the theme of this year was employability with a degree in anthropology. The response from professional anthropologists, confronted by both an existential challenge and public humiliation, was earnest but largely ineffective, for the voice of the discipline had been muted by a generation of self-absorption, tempered by a disregard for popular engagement that borders on contempt. It covers MELC 1: Discuss the nature, g. Differences in customs and beliefs reflected differences in intelligence and destiny, with every culture finding its rung on an evolutionary ladder rising from the savage to the barbarian to the civilized of the Strand in London, with technological wizardry, the great achievement of the West, being the sole measure of progress and success. It is the study of humanity including our prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity. What is the importance of knowing the perspective of anthropology, sociology and political science. A tireless campaigner for human rights, Boas maintained always that anthropology as a science only made sense if it was practiced in the service of a higher tolerance. I use Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook in different ways including Daniel Millers Why We Post studies to show that anthropology isnt just about the past or the exotic. Environmental anthropology deals broadly with culture and environment. In Vietnam, I have had the opportunity to live with a family in a commune in Hanoi, and in nearby provinces. To address these issues, I am researching the abuse of women by their husbands, and in some cases their in-laws as well, in northern Vietnam. Beyond preparing students for a particular career, anthropology helps people develop essential skills that are transferable to many career choices and life paths. They study the past to help interpret the present. "Introduction to Anthropology" by Lara Braff, Grossmont College and Katie Nelson, Inver Hills Community College. Charles King, professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, begins his remarkable book The Reinvention of Humanity by asking us to envision the world as it existed in the minds of our grandparents, perhaps your great-grandparents. Far ahead of his time, Boas recognized that every distinct social community, every cluster of people distinguished by language or adaptive inclination, was a unique facet of the human legacy and its promise. Each was a product of its own history. Kottak, Conrad P. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Why Anthropology Is Important SHARE BACK TO TOP Why Anthropology Is Important Recently retired Professor Gordon McEwan, an expert on the Incas and their predecessors, has helped students thrive in our multicultural world What's Inside: The Nursing Resource Center A Taste of Home Yes, anthropology helps to see the familiar in a new light. This encourages students to appreciate that anthropology happens all around them and isnt something that can only be studied in a faraway society. It enables him to adjust himself to the environment. degree at the Harvard School of Public Health before receiving a Fulbright Fellowship to go to Benin University in southern Nigeria. Sadly, considering its rapidly rising importance, it seems very rare that individuals outside of a university setting even know what anthropology is. After all, anthropologists are social scientists. Legal. While we study a particular culture to learn more about it and to answer specific research questions, we are also exploring fundamental questions about human society, behavior, or experiences. A tireless campaigner for human rights, Boas maintained always that anthropology as a science only made sense if it was practiced in the service of a higher tolerance. In 1871 Darwin published The Descent of Man, which argued that human beings shared a recent common ancestor with the great African apes. In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges, 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0. It is just one way among a multitude of others. We create our social realms, Boas would say, determine what we then define as being common sense, universal truths, the appropriate rules and codes of behavior. anthropology, "the science of humanity," which studies human beings in aspects ranging from the biology and evolutionary history of Homo sapiens to the features of society and culture that decisively distinguish humans from other animal species. I am currently the Gloria D. Smith Professor of Africana Studies at Virginia Techa school that, oddly enough, does not have an anthropology program. Anthropology, sociology and political science are areas of social science, whose main objective is to study society in historical, social and cultural contexts.. Anthropology is the science that studies the human being in depth considering biological, social and cultural aspects. Thus, anthropology teaches respect for other ways of life, while using a variety of cross-cultural human behavior as a mirror from which we can reflect on the things we do in our own culture. Anthropology matters because it allows us to look beneath the surface of things. The top five responses for the sociology curriculum were: sociological critical thinking; sociological imagination; how to use and . By understanding how nonhuman primates behave, we discover more about ourselves (after all, humans are primates)! Similarly, the anthropological concept of ethnocentrism is incredibly useful when paired with different examples of how people define family, recognize leadership, decide what is and is not edible, and the like. Both men shared stories with students about their experience in Congress. Ethnocentrism is not a useful perspective in contexts in which people from different cultural backgrounds come into close contact with one another, as is the case in many cities and communities throughout the world. Cultural Anthropology is the study of human beings, their behavior and how patterns in their language, personalities, gender, family, art, politics or rituals learned from being a part of a certain society gives meaning to their existence and affects how they organize their lives. Manners dont make the man; men and women invent the manners. I have also explored how race impacts peoples senses of belonging in various social spacesfor instance, African American participation in downhill skiing or the experiences of underrepresented students at historically white colleges and universities. When asked that question, humanity responds in 7,000 different languages, voices that collectively comprise our repertoire for dealing with all the challenges that will confront us as a species. Anthropologists do not judge other cultures based on their values nor do they view other ways of doing things as inferior. Studying anthropology fosters broad knowledge of other cultures, skills in observation and analysis, critical thinking, clear communication, and applied problem-solving. The assignment Tell me the story of your relationship with your cell phone has resulted in some of the best papers I have ever received. It allows us to connect on a deeper level and build stronger, more meaningful relationships. Anthropology can be used to answer questions about human origins, evolution, and behavior. Using my own anthropological biography as an illustration, I want to stress that the discipline does not showcase diverse human lifeways to further exoticize those who live differently from us. As for the blind, deaf and dumb, the cripples, morons, Mongoloids, and the mad, they were best locked away, lobotomized and even killed to remove them from the gene pool. Those are all good ways of both learning about yourself and constructing yourself. Early anthropologists were interested in human relations with the environment as factors in cultural development. The Greek term ethno refers to people, and graphy refers to writing. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. Womens suffrage only came in 1919. Anthropology Perspective emphasises the need to understand what humans do and how they interpret their own actions and world-views. Anthropology encourages us to extend our perspectives beyond familiar social contexts to view things from the perspectives of others. This article sets the context and defines the term as well as analyzing the scope and importance of political science. Through their research, anthropologists contribute unique and important forms of knowledge and information to diverse groups, including local communities, nations, and global social movements, such as feminist, racial, indigenous, environmental, LGBTQ, and other social movements. The discipline, while it is richly involved in the study of arts also incorporates fields like social history, aesthetics, economics, politics, and anthropology. Accessibility StatementFor more information contact us atinfo@libretexts.orgor check out our status page at https://status.libretexts.org. Anthropological perspective is very important because it looks at shared aspects of humanity like language, cultural connections, economics, and curiosity to find the common thread. On days when I am feeling particularly playful, I say that after getting through the As, I knew Anthropology was for me. He even asserted that racial intermixture can upset the genetic as well as the social equilibrium of a group. Coon at the time of his retirement in 1963 was a respected professor and curator at the University of Pennsylvania. Does the Gillette Fusion Five Razor, with its five blades, really offer a better shave than the four-bladed Schick Quattro? It is important to study the perspective of anthropology to be able to understand history of man and how past civilization existed compared to present ones.