What Do Cultural Anthropologists Study?
first one: Please answer the following question with an approximately 1,500 word essay. Be sure you answer the question fully (a, b, c, etc). * Describe the discipline of anthropology with special attention to the hallmark of anthropology, culture. a) What do anthropologists study? b) What is culture? c) What are the five features (or the five “rules”) that define all cultures (please do not describe aspects of culture like marriage, economics, religion, etc. to answer this question)? d) How has culture shaped you personally (you can describe aspects of culture to answer this question)?
WRITING
1. Remember your thesis. Now stick to it, referring back to it periodically throughout your essay. This gives your essay unity and coherence, and helps insure that you are not digressing.
2. Write in an orderly fashion. If you suddenly think of a new point, jot it down in a margin or on scratch paper until you find an appropriate place for it. Don't just put it into the middle of what you were writing.
3. Avoid:
Repeating, in other words, what you have already said.
Digressing into material that does not answer the question.
Language that is too broad or general. Be specific.
Bluffing. This far too common practice of using elegant but empty language to conceal ignorance or lack of effort rarely works, and often irritates the reader(s).
Write as legibly as you can. If you want, write on every other line so you have room to add later. When you want to cross something off, simply draw a straight line through it. This is much better than scribbling out an entire passage.
If you run out of time, simply write "Ran out of time" at the close of the essay. This is much better than adding a hurriedly tacked on, and possibly incoherent, conclusion.
Tutor:
Topic: Anthropology
19Th May, 2014
Introduction
Anthropology’s main aim is to understand the makeup human beings by studying the ancestors through archeological excavations and cultural observation globally using scientific approaches. Therefore, anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, behavior, and physical, social, and cultural development of human beings (Ember, Ember and Peregrine 13). It is the study of humanity that ranges from its evolutionary origins to the present diversities in culture. Anthropology is an integrated study of human kind studying cultures, races, languages, and the evolution of the human species. It is interested the common characteristics of humanity and the distinguishing diversities between individuals from different societies. Among the central concepts of anthropology is culture (Ember, Ember and Peregrine 15).
(a) What Do Cultural Anthropologists Study?
Anthropology in literal terms means the study of human beings. In cultural anthropology, the main focus of study is how cultural patterns in society shape our behaviors and experiences. Cultural anthropologists study how culture is expressed within different societies and, therefore, explore areas such as ritual, symbolism, language, personality, religion, family, gender, art, and politics CITATION Bar10 \p 746 \l 1033 (Barnard and Spencer 746). They study the past and present cultures and on a deeper level, they study certain specific contemporary cultures (ethnography) and the underlying patterns of human culture that are derived comparing different cultures. These anthropologists also study human cultures’ beliefs, practices, values, ideas, technologies, and other domains of the social and cognitive. The field of cultural anthropology bases its understanding of culture via firsthand experience or participant observation in living populations CITATION Bar10 \p 756 \l 1033 (Barnard and Spencer 756).
(b) What is Culture?
Culture does not comprise of only the artistic activities that a society considers valuable such as playing instruments. Culture comprises of what people do, what people make and what people believe. It includes the behavior of individuals in their everyday lives that range from their daily rituals to their beliefs regarding abstract concepts, learned, and transmitted throughout generations. In non-scientific contexts, culture refers to personal refinements such as classical music, fine arts, cuisine, or philosophy. In anthropology, however, the term is broader in its scope of definition and takes into consideration both the cultured and uncultured individuals in society as they all possess a specific culture per anthropological definitions (Barnard and Spencer 760).
Culture contains three main attributes: it comprises of everything that people have, think, and in a particular society, every person has a culture, culture is made of material objects, ideas, values, attitudes, patterns of behavior. Moreover, culture is a phenomenon that is shared, is learned, patterned, and adaptive. Therefore, culture can be defined as a pattern of behavior and beliefs of a particular society that are learned and shared or a complex of all beliefs of human beings in a particular stage of civilization that specific to a particular nation or period of time (Barnard and Spencer 760-761).
(c) What are the Five Features That Define All Cultures
As indicated above, culture is a pattern of human activity including its symbols giving significance to these human activities. Culture manifests itself in society through art, literature, costumes, language, religion, and other religious rituals. The individuals living within these societies and their patterns of living comprise the culture of different region and vary between different regions (Haviland, Prins and McBride 28). Cultures vary and this variation produces the diversity among human beings globally. Therefore, the means of acculturation of individuals in a particular region determines the culture of the region (Haviland, Prins and McBride 28).
There are five features inherent in culture and these are first, culture is learned. Our daily activities are mostly learned. While human beings have certain instincts, culture is not transmitted genetically. The culture learning process is referred to as encul...