Internet Activities for Introduction to Anthropology

A Virtual Tour of Anthropology The following activities will introduce you to various facets of anthropology and also provide you with a good sense of the types of things you can do with and learn from the Internet. The information required to complete each exercise is available at the site mentioned. For each of the following sections, go to each site, review it thoroughly, and then answer the questions. Doing Fieldwork Ethics in Anthropology Studying Kinship and Social Organization Global Problems Medical Anthropology and Cultural Relativism Nacirema Explore Linguistics Exploring Biological Anthropology Doing Archaeology

Doing Fieldwork Fieldwork, that is doing research with peoples of other cultures, is one of the distinguishing features of anthropology. To give you some idea of what it is like, let's take a fieldwork expedition to New Guinea. We first have to find funding? List some of the places you might go to find support? Once we have secured support, what sorts of things do we have to do to prepare for our fieldwork expedition? The next step is picking a site, a village or homestead in which to do our research? What factors contribute to our choice? After we have found a site, what are some of the fieldwork methods we will employ? Doing anthropological fieldwork is stressful. One of the sources of stress in what anthropologists call "culture shock." What are some of the sources of culture shock that you might experience in your fieldwork? Writing takes up a lot of time during fieldwork. What might you be writing and what forms will your writing take? TOP OF PAGE Ethics in Anthropology Doing anthropology, as doing any science, often creates ethical dilemmas. In anthropology those dilemmas are amplified by the fact that anthropologists often must involve themselves in the lives of the people they are trying to learn about. To get an idea of what kinds of ethical problems anthropologists might face let's visit the Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology. Check it out and then see what kinds of answers you come up with to the following problems described. Case 1: Terry Kelly received a National Institute of Mental Health grant for research in the Western Tropics. As part of her personal gear, she took along a considerable amount of medication, which her physician had prescribed for use, should Kelly find herself in an active malaria region. Later, after settling into a village, Kelly became aware that many of the local people were quite ill with malaria. Kelly's Dilemma: Since she had such a large supply of medication, much more than she needed for her personal use, should she distribute the surplus to her hosts? Your Solution? What was Kelly's Solution? How did others respond to that solution? Case 2: Witness to Murder Mary Thompson had been conducting fieldwork in a Southeast Asian community for 18 months. Her house was ideally located on the edge of the village plaza, allowing her to readily observe daily activities that took place in the plaza. In addition to gatherings of women who shared food preparation tasks and talk, and groups of men working individually on carvings, the plaza was regularly a gathering place for men at night. One night while Thompson was working up some statistical problems in her house, she was distracted by argumentative discussions in the plaza. When the noise of the argument reached a high pitch, she decided to investigate the situation. Just as she stepped from her doorway, she saw one of the men in the group of five, angrily raise his machete and deliver a deadly blow to another--Tom--in the group. Stunned silence fell over the other three men, as they watched their companion quickly bleed to death before their eyes. Moments later people from the other homes began moving into the plaza in response to the wailing that came from the man who had wielded the machete. Mournful crying and wailing was carried throughout the village. The family members of the dead man carried him to their home and began funeral preparations. The next evening, Tom was buried. The man who had dealt the deadly blow was allowed to participate in the funeral and to make a death payment to the family of the deceased. Two days after the funeral, three regional policemen came to the village. As part of a new governmental program designed to reduce blood feuds, the regional authorities now regularly sought to arrest and jail people who were involved in killings. They had heard about the recent death. They began questioning the villagers in an attempt to determine if Tom had been "murdered." Thompson had written a detailed description of the events of the night of Tom's death in her notebook which contained a running record of village activities. Thompson's Dilemma: (1) Since she knew the police would question her, should she quickly tear out and destroy the pages in her notebook where the events were recorded? (2) When questioned by the police should she, like the other villagers, plead ignorance concerning the killing? Your solution? What was Thompson's decision? Another Web Site: Violating the Prime Directive: Anthropology and Star Trek. A fascinating article on culture contact that takes off from the Prime Directive of the Starship Enterprise. An excellent place to confront some of the ethical issues in anthropology. TOP OF PAGE Studying Kinship and Social Organization The study of kinship is one of the main areas of anthropological research. Kinship in many societies (especially small, relatively closed societies) is the major principle of social organization, the major determinant of how people relate to each other. Most anthropologists who have done fieldwork in other societies have often been "adopted" into groups, in part so that others in the society had some idea of how to relate to them. Brian Schwimmer has developed a tutorial for learning about kinship and social organization. What are some of the universal features of kinship systems Anthropologists have developed their own set of symbols for representing kinship ties among people. What are the symbols for each of the following items: female male marriage descent sibling tie Draw a representation of your family structure to at least three generations using yourself as ego. In the following diagram, identify the matrilineal kin and the patrilineal kin of ego. What are some of the rules of marriage? What are the degrees of social distance characteristic of Yanomamo intergroup relations? Another Kinship Site: Linkages Project at UC Irvine: Kinship Databases. This site contains databases that relate to kinship systems in various other societies. TOP OF PAGE Global Problems As anthropologists examine global problems such as the increasing gap between rich and poor, hunger, environmental destruction, ethnic conflict, and the emergence of new diseases, they must inevitably ask, what can we do about them? Here's your chance to find some solutions. Let's go the World Game. To get an idea of the scope of some of the problems facing humankind at the beginning of the third millennium, check the worldometers, and find the following: The current population of the earth. The amount of oil consumed since January 1, 1998 Deaths from infectious disease since January 1, 1998 Hectares of forests lost since January 1, 1998 Amount of human biological waste produced since January 1, 1998 Amount of fish caught since January 1, 1998 The object of the World Game is to adopt a role as either a regional leader or a corporate leader, and make decisions that you think are in your best interests. To get an idea of some of the things your might do, choose to be a corporate leader, and choose Chase Manhattan bank as your corporation. You'll need to find out the role of Chase Manhattan in global financial affairs. For example: What is the total of loans made globally by Chase Manhattan? What is the total interest received on those loans? To discover how the system works, register to play the game. You may be able to register immediately if there is a corporation or a region available for you to head. If not, leave your name and email address, and the World Game Institute will notify you when a new game is to be played. Another Global Issue Site: The Study of the Global Expansion of Capitalism. This site has links that relate to various global problems such as hunger and poverty, environmental destruction, disease, ethnic conflict, and social protest. TOP OF PAGE Medical Anthropology and Cultural Relativism One of the most controversial issues in anthropology has to do with cultural relativism and the extent to which, to avoid ethnocentrism (the idea that one's own beliefs and practices are true or correct, while those that differ are false or incorrect), one must avoid making value judgments about the beliefs and practices of others. At what point is it permissible for anthropologists to condemn the beliefs or practices of other cultures? For example, male and female circumcision is practiced by cultures all over the world, and raises the question of when, if ever, should one condemn the cultural practices of others. To find out more about this issue, let's go to Tommi's Medical Anthropology Page What are the different forms that male and female circumcision take? How many women each year are subject to some form of circumcision? What are some of the adverse health consequences of circumcision for women? Another Cultural Relativism Site: Cultural Relativism and Universal Rights by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban. The article challenges the concept of cultural relativism, and argues for the existence of universal human rights, urging anthropologists to more actively promote those rights. TOP OF PAGE Nacirema One of the classics of anthropological literature is Horace Miner's article, The Nacirema. To read the article, if you haven't yet done so, go to the Nacirema site and read the article. Some have raised questions about who would realize the point of the article and who would not. These implications are examined in an article on the site entitled, "Anthropology Through the Looking Glass: The Anthropological Self in a Multicultural Classroom." What was the hypothesis tested by the authors regarding Miner's article, and what were the results of their test? TOP OF PAGE Explore Linguistics Language is one of the main components of culture; the facility for symbolic communication is often cited as one of the characteristics that defines humanness. Our culture, and often our patterns of interpersonal relations are expressed through our language. To find out a little more about the relationship between language and culture, go the Explore Language site . See if you can get the following information. What is sociolinguistics? Who talks more, men or women? Do men and women speak differently? You might also want to learn more about the different languages of the world. Go to Ethnologue and see if you can find out the top ten languages by population. Another Linguistic Site: Linguistics Resources on the Internet--SILS This site is provided by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, located at the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas. The focus of the whole site is the study of minority languages and cultures around the world. TOP OF PAGE Exploring Biological Anthropology Biological or physical anthropology is concerned with human evolution and variation. To get a good introduction to some of the issues addressed in biological anthropology, let's visit John Relethford's site that he uses for his introductory textbook and his classes. Physical anthropology has entered the political arena in the form of the debate over creationism, the belief that the Bible represents a divine version of human evolution. Unfortunately creationism is based on some serious misconceptions about human macroevolution. What are five major misconceptions about macroevolution? Another politically loaded issue in the study of biological anthropology is that of race. What is race and how useful a concept is it? What are some of the characteristics of the social life of chimpanzees? Another controversy in biological anthropology has to do with the geographic origins of human ancestors, specifically the African origins of the species. What is the controversy about? What are the two opposing sides in the controversy? How does Neanderthal figure in the debate? Another Biological Anthropology Site is Fossil Hominids. Learn more about what fossils can tell us about the course of human evolution. TOP OF PAGE Doing Archaeology Archaeology is another branch of anthropology and is concerned primarily with reconstructing human prehistory. Archaeology tries to reconstruct the lives of our cultural ancestors using whatever cultural remnants were left behind. To get an idea of what archaeologists do, lets visit the prehistoric Mexican city of Teotihuacan. What was Teotihuacan and how, at its height, did it compare to contemporary cities of the world? What are the six phases into which the city's history is divided? If your computer and browser are equipped to show QuickTime movies, take a tour of the Avenue of the Dead or the Sun Pyramid. Let's visit another prehistoric site, The city of Harappa. What was Harappa and when did it thrive What was Mohenjodaro and what was its relationship to Harappa? Take a tour of the site. Another Archaeology site: Ancient MesoAmerican Civilizations: Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec. Learn more about MesoAmerican civilizations and their accomplishments. 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