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1.2: The Anthropological Approach

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    78575
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    THE HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE

    What sets anthropology apart from related disciplines, such as history, sociology, and psychology, is that it combines the scientific method, fieldwork, and a holistic perspective. These methods and perspectives are what define the anthropological approach. Anthropological analysis is built on a holistic perspective, which is the understanding that all of the various aspects of human biology and culture are necessarily interrelated. For example, humans’ biological makeup and large brains make our complex cultures possible. For anthropologists, the holistic perspective maintains connections between the four sub-disciplines and recognizes that developments in one area affect the questions asked in other areas of anthropology just as a change in one area of culture can have an impact on other areas of culture and even the environment.

    anthropological approach

    A method of research using the scientific method, fieldwork, and a holistic perspective.

    holistic perspective

    The understanding that all of the various aspects of human biology and culture are necessarily interrelated.

    Cultural Relativism

    A second perspective and a guiding philosophy of modern anthropology is cultural relativism—the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own. Anthropologists do not judge other cultures based on their values and do not view other cultural ways of doing things as inferior. Instead, anthropologists seek to understand people’s beliefs and behaviors within the context of the system they have for explaining things. In the field, anthropologists must temporarily suspend their own value, moral, and esthetic judgments and seek to understand and respect the values, morals, and esthetics of the other culture on their cultural terms.

    cultural relativism

    The idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own.

    The Scientific Method

    Archaeology and biological anthropology rely on a scientific deductive approach to the analysis of the data. The scientific method is a process by which scientists ask questions, collect data, test hypotheses, and gain knowledge about the natural world. Its steps have been described in various ways but consistently address four basic elements: observation, hypotheses, experimentation/data collection, analysis, and conclusions. When applied, these steps are more like a cycle than a straight linear process as hypotheses can be revised after some initial data collection or experimentation, and new ideas and technologies can change the assumptions on which hypotheses were initially based. As we learn more and draw new conclusions, we develop new and different questions.

    scientific method

    A process by which scientists ask questions, collect data, test hypotheses, and gain knowledge about the natural world.

    Scientific vs Humanistic Approaches

    As you may have noticed from the discussion of the different sub-fields of anthropology, anthropologists are not unified in what they study or how they conduct research. Some sub-disciplines, like biological anthropology and archaeology, use a deductive, scientific approach. Through hypothesis testing, they collect and analyze material data (e.g. bones, tools, seeds, etc.) to answer questions about human origins and evolution. Other subdisciplines, like cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology, use humanistic and/or inductive approaches to their collection and analysis of nonmaterial data, like observations of everyday life or language in use.

    At times, tension has arisen between the scientific and humanistic subfields. For example, in 2010 some cultural anthropologists critiqued the American Anthropological Association’s mission statement, which stated that the discipline’s goal was “to advance anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects.”[1] These scholars wanted to replace the word “science” with “public understanding.” They argued that some anthropologists do not use the scientific method of inquiry; instead, they rely more on narratives and interpretations of meaning. After much debate, the word “science” remains in the mission statement and, throughout the United States, anthropology is predominantly categorized as a social science.

    Note
    1. See the American Anthropological Association Statement of Purpose

    Fieldwork

    Excanation of the giant Sarmatian necropolis near the village of Dedurovka, Orenburg.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Excavations near Dedurovka, Orenburg.

    Fieldwork is the hallmark of anthropological study and the process by which anthropologists collect data. Fieldwork collects data in “the real world”—with groups of humans and at living and archaeological sites. Some of the data is analyzed in the field as well, while other types are analyzed in laboratories, sometimes years later. For cultural anthropologists, fieldwork consists of participant observation. Typically, fieldwork in anthropology involves spending many hours with the subjects, which can be a group of people in cultural and linguistic anthropology or a troop of baboons in biological anthropology. In archaeology, fieldwork consists of observing landscapes to identify locations of past human activity and excavation.

    fieldwork

    Collection of data in “the real world” from both current and past sites of human activity.

    Comparative

    Anthropologists of all the subfields use comparison to learn what humans have in common, how we differ, and how we change. Anthropologists ask questions like: How do chimpanzees differ from humans? How do different languages adapt to new technologies? How do countries respond differently to immigration? In cultural anthropology, we compare ideas, morals, practices, and systems within or between cultures. We might compare the roles of men and women in different societies, or contrast how different religious groups conflict within a given society. Like other disciplines that use comparative approaches, such as sociology or psychology, anthropologists make comparisons between people in a given society. Unlike these other disciplines, anthropologists also compare across societies, and between humans and other primates. In essence, anthropological comparisons span societies, cultures, time, place, and species. It is through comparison that we learn more about the range of possible responses to varying contexts and problems.


    IMAGES

    Figure 1.2.1 Excavations of the giant Sarmatian necropolis near the village Dedurovka, Orenburg region. 2016. By Galina Fomina under CC BY 4.0 vie Wikimedia Commons.

    A derivative work from

    "Introduction to Anthropology" by Lara Braff, Grossmont College and Katie Nelson, Inver Hills Community College. In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges, 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0.

    "Digging into Archaeology:A Brief OER Introduction to Archaeology with Activities" by Amanda Wolcott Paskey and AnnMarie Beasley Cisneros, Faculty (Anthropology) at Cosumnes River College & American River College, ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI), 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0.

    "Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology" by Katie Nelson, Inver Hills Community College. In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges, 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0.


    1.2: The Anthropological Approach is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.