CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Human Ecology, Physical Anthropology
Cultural anthropology or Social anthropology is the science of human social and cultural behaviour and its development.
Cultural anthropology is conceptually and theoretically similar to sociology.
Anthropology originally developed as the study of non-western cultures but many anthropologists now study western societies and the disciplines of sociology and anthropology have been tending to converge.
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Cultural
Anthropology: The Human Challenge
Explore the most fascinating, creative, dangerous, and complex species alive today: you
and your neighbors in the global village. With compelling photos, engaging examples, and
select studies by anthropologists in far-flung places, the authors of CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY: The Human Challenge provide a holistic view of anthropology to help you make
sense of today's world. With this text you will discover the different ways humans face
the challenge of existence, the connection between biology and culture in the shaping of
human beliefs and behavior, and the impact of globalization on peoples and cultures around
the world.
A Cognitivist's View of the Units Debate in Cultural
Anthropology
Roy D'Andrade, University of California, San Diego
This article explores some of the implications of the current ideational definition of
culture. If culture consists of shared ideas, then the findings of cognitive psychology
concerning the limits of short-term memory necessarily constrain the size and complexity
of cultural units. Wierzbicka's universal linguistic primes or primitives would then be
the atomic units of culture. Although this approach has much to recommend it, problems
remain concerning the relation of cultural ideas to their physical manifestations in
artifacts and actions, and a classification of the kinds of relations cultural ideas have
to their physical manifestations is presented. Finally, the notion that the collection of
cultural items held by the members of a society form any kind of entity is critiqued, and
the argument is made that there is just one common culture for all humans. -
ccr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/2/242
Pushing Anthropology Past the Posts
Critical notes on cultural anthropology and cultural studies as influenced by
postmodernism and existentialism
Bruce M. Knauft, Emory University, Atlanta
This article suggests that a critical analysis of postmodem and existentialist
underpinnings reveals common political and ethical problems. These problems have an
unsettling legacy in contemporary cultural anthro pology and cultural studies, especially
for many of those who see themselves at the cutting edge of critically reflexive
representations. Against this back ground, perspectives grounded in critical humanism are
better at exposing and grappling with these problems, as well as facilitating better
ethnographic documentation. - coa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/2/117
Cultural Preservation Reconsidered: The case of Canadian aboriginal art
B.R. Sharma, Singapore Polytechnic College, Singapore
Hybrid art forms are emerging more than ever now that advances in global communication
link the world's societies. James Clifford, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Valerie Dominguez and other
eminent scholars champion such hybrid culture. They argue that it leads to greater
acceptance of others and otherness, and destroys notions of 'others' as aesthetically
unsophisticated. While there is merit in such claims, this article sheds a different light
on the nature of hybrid culture. It argues that in some instances, such culture is the
by-product of cultural imperialism - first-world socio-economic and cultural policies
imposed on 'Second' and 'Third World' communities. The article concentrates on the
dichotomy between native Canadian and Anglo-American Canadian mass culture and adopts
Minh-Ha's claim that a First World and a Third World can exist in the same country. -
coa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/1/53
Introduction to Special Issue on The Missing Psychology in Cultural Anthropology's Key
Words
Naomi Quinn, Duke University, USA
Claudia Strauss, Pitzer College, USA
It is common practice in anthropology to use terms with implicit psychological content
(such as embodiment). This is consistent with contemporary developments in anthropological
theory and practice that lead to a focus on individuals' voices and practices.
Nevertheless, many cultural anthropologists are critical of psychology. This introduction
considers and responds to some of the usual criticisms. As this introduction describes,
the articles that follow each take one term that is widely used by anthropologists
(agency, resistance, subjectivity, the imaginary, and the self) and show how the concept
could be better illuminated, and some published case study better explained, through the
use of person-centered methods and the selective application of psychological theories. -
ant.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/6/3/267