Urban LIfe (Gmelch, Kemper, Zenner) ch 1
Urban Life chapter 1
N: 1.What was new to you?
I: 2. What were some of the most interesting parts of the article?
A: 3. How could you apply this information to your field research?
Q: 4. Write a discussion question for group discussion.
What’s the difference between Anthropology and other Social Sciences (Sociology, Economics, PoliSci)? It seems that sociology started as contemporary and anthropology as historical. And Urban Anthropology focused more on Latin America, Africa, Asia (in far-far-away lands) where as sociology stated in the technologically advanced Europe and N America (close to “home”). Urban anthropology deals with urbanization (adjustment of outsiders to city life) and sociology with urbanism (what city life is like for those already there). And Anthropology relies on first hand personal data, not on comparative stats.
Anthropology started with study of “primitive” and then moved on to peasant and was always historical. Polish born, naturalized UK, Malinowski introduced new ideas of direct field work: long-term living among a tribe, and thus converted anthropology from historical to social science. As a man with experience in two cultures it was perhaps easier for him to understand what it might take to understand and be integrated into a tribal culture. Malinowski’s and his student’s monographs are still used today in most PhD programs. 10 years later the first American to use a similar approach was Margret Mead. I wonder what the metanarative that was motivating the earlier anthropologist? Was it this: “If we find a ‘primitive culture’ and study it, then we will understand how we got to where we are now?” In other words, was it similar to Freud’s exploring childhood memories, so he could understand why the adult’s psyche? “Chicago School” of Sociology and Franz Boas (standardizing data collection methods) have influenced current anthology. The approach in Boas era often involved paying an informant. Is the
N: 1.What was new to you?
I: 2. What were some of the most interesting parts of the article?
A: 3. How could you apply this information to your field research?
Q: 4. Write a discussion question for group discussion.
What’s the difference between Anthropology and other Social Sciences (Sociology, Economics, PoliSci)? It seems that sociology started as contemporary and anthropology as historical. And Urban Anthropology focused more on Latin America, Africa, Asia (in far-far-away lands) where as sociology stated in the technologically advanced Europe and N America (close to “home”). Urban anthropology deals with urbanization (adjustment of outsiders to city life) and sociology with urbanism (what city life is like for those already there). And Anthropology relies on first hand personal data, not on comparative stats.
Anthropology started with study of “primitive” and then moved on to peasant and was always historical. Polish born, naturalized UK, Malinowski introduced new ideas of direct field work: long-term living among a tribe, and thus converted anthropology from historical to social science. As a man with experience in two cultures it was perhaps easier for him to understand what it might take to understand and be integrated into a tribal culture. Malinowski’s and his student’s monographs are still used today in most PhD programs. 10 years later the first American to use a similar approach was Margret Mead. I wonder what the metanarative that was motivating the earlier anthropologist? Was it this: “If we find a ‘primitive culture’ and study it, then we will understand how we got to where we are now?” In other words, was it similar to Freud’s exploring childhood memories, so he could understand why the adult’s psyche? “Chicago School” of Sociology and Franz Boas (standardizing data collection methods) have influenced current anthology. The approach in Boas era often involved paying an informant. Is the