MCAT Multimedia Series: Introduction to Anthropology

What is Anthropology?

• Study of people and their cultures
• Origins in Exotic Travelers' Tales
• Began serious study in late 19th century
• Aimed to understand customs, beliefs, and institutions like religion and family

Influential Texts

• Marcel Mauss's "The Gift"
  • Argues gifts create complex bonds of reciprocal obligation
  • These bonds underpin cultures

Development in the 20th Century

• Focus on Ethnography: Intensive, long-term fieldwork
• Franz Boas (U.S.) and Bronislaw Malinowski (U.K.)
  • Rejected speculative work, advocated for living among studied people
  • Emphasized understanding languages and cultures directly
• Shift from historical development of institutions to how they function together

Structural Functionalism

• Examines how societal institutions fit together
• E.E. Evans-Pritchard's "Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic"
  • Demonstrated witchcraft belief as societal order mechanism

Specializations in Anthropology

• Political Anthropology
  • Critiques global politics
  • James Ferguson's "The Anti-Politics Machine": Aid often meets political goals
• Medical Anthropology
  • Explores medicine and disease experiences
  • Victor Turner: Power of symbols in religious ceremonies
• Feminist Anthropology
  • Examines societal understanding
  • Lila Abu-Lughod: Critiques perceptions of Muslim women's clothing

Theoretical Advances in the 1960s

• Claude Lévi-Strauss: Structuralism
  • Cultures as structures of human thought
  • Cultures built on perceptions and activities
• Clifford Geertz: Interpretive Anthropology
  • Cultures studied for meaning, not scientific laws
  • Inspired reevaluation of ethnographic work

Rethinking Anthropological Approaches

• Johannes Fabian's "Time and the Other"
  • Critiqued writing about people as existing in another time
  • Inspired historical anthropology
  • Eric Wolf's "Europe and the People Without History": Gave voice to ignored stories

Modern Anthropology

• Re-evaluating problems in rapidly changing, globalizing world
• Applying ethnographic methods to modern societies
• Continues to explore human culture through past and present anthropologists

Conclusion: Anthropology remains a vital field, continuously evolving to better understand diverse human cultures.