Anth 202
Anth 202 Course Overview:
Riddle of the Sphinx:
The question is sometimes more important than the answer
What walks on 4,2,3 legs – thinking about humans being as animal.
Indexicality ( of 2+2+2=6 then this is an indexical relationship)
Indexicality: by looking at what the different parts make up humans, we get a sense of the bigger picture.
4 is nature ( what ways are we like animals?) , while 2 is culture
We are not the world; we represent it
Where does the line (cane) mediate us form the world? – open to interpretation
Balinese Cock fight (Geertz):
- Participation leads to acceptance form society. He was not acting as an observer but was taking part in the experience.
- Clifford Geertz definition of culture: we have these things which are all interconnected like kinship and religion and these are all affecting how you are as an individual
Rosaldo: Head Hunting:
“Rage is grief”
Rosaldo only understood the head hunting ritual after losing his wife + brother
Only by experiencing the death of this wife could he understand , bringing personal experience to the field context
Knowledge is an emotion
Death is not complex in Rosaldo’s view
Anthropology:
How Do We Go about Knowing Things in Anthropology?
Unique, different from other social science disciplines, fieldwork (different field sites, they are strange and unfamiliar, fresh, new, different).
Anthropologists interview people, make maps, collect artifacts, tape recordings, hang out (participant observation of daily life). To learn what is going on through participation.
Anthropology is conducted by being there and making us feel uncomfortable
Anthropologists agree on two things:
Anthropology way of knowing is unique because it involves fieldwork
Settings are usually strange
Objects of their study are subjects; see how they react to anthropologists.
Anthropology is empirical; the knowledge gather is through in depth experiences.
Ethnographies are accounts of
Riddle of the Sphinx:
The question is sometimes more important than the answer
What walks on 4,2,3 legs – thinking about humans being as animal.
Indexicality ( of 2+2+2=6 then this is an indexical relationship)
Indexicality: by looking at what the different parts make up humans, we get a sense of the bigger picture.
4 is nature ( what ways are we like animals?) , while 2 is culture
We are not the world; we represent it
Where does the line (cane) mediate us form the world? – open to interpretation
Balinese Cock fight (Geertz):
- Participation leads to acceptance form society. He was not acting as an observer but was taking part in the experience.
- Clifford Geertz definition of culture: we have these things which are all interconnected like kinship and religion and these are all affecting how you are as an individual
Rosaldo: Head Hunting:
“Rage is grief”
Rosaldo only understood the head hunting ritual after losing his wife + brother
Only by experiencing the death of this wife could he understand , bringing personal experience to the field context
Knowledge is an emotion
Death is not complex in Rosaldo’s view
Anthropology:
How Do We Go about Knowing Things in Anthropology?
Unique, different from other social science disciplines, fieldwork (different field sites, they are strange and unfamiliar, fresh, new, different).
Anthropologists interview people, make maps, collect artifacts, tape recordings, hang out (participant observation of daily life). To learn what is going on through participation.
Anthropology is conducted by being there and making us feel uncomfortable
Anthropologists agree on two things:
Anthropology way of knowing is unique because it involves fieldwork
Settings are usually strange
Objects of their study are subjects; see how they react to anthropologists.
Anthropology is empirical; the knowledge gather is through in depth experiences.
Ethnographies are accounts of