Thinking Like an Anthropologist: A Practical Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

by Omohundro, John

• ISBN13: 9780073195803
• ISBN10: 0073195804
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-08
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Summary

This exciting new text teases out the common core of the cultural anthropological way of thinking, makes it explicit in a set of eleven questions, and uses those questions to enhance learning. Each question receives treatment in a brief chapter, accompanied by several exercises and classroom demonstrations. The textbook is intended to be accompanied byand applied toa reader, a few ethnographies, or a monograph with topical focus such as language, globalization, technology, art, or gender. The eleven questions that organize the text can be applied singly and cumulatively to address the cultures presented in the ethnographies or case studies chosen by each instructor. A comprehensive guide written by John Omohundro assists instructors who adopt this novel approach and suggests numerous examples of ethnographies and readers that would be effective companions for the text.

Table of Contents

Thinking Like An Anthropologist:A Practical Introduction to Cultural Anthropology John T. Omohundro Suny Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Anthropology Suny Potsdam

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Using This Book: The Anthropological Questions Notes and Queries

Notes and Queries

The Anthropological Questions How This Book is Organized Anthropology and the Other Disciplines of Human Behavior What is Cultural Anthropology? The Topics of Cultural Anthropology Why Think Like an Anthropologist? Cultural Anthropology in Careers There's No Substitute for Experience Notes and Queries

Exercise 1: Who Are You? Exercise 2: Where are They? Exercise 3: What You Already Know Recommended Reading

What is Culture? The Conceptual Question 1-1 Fishy Culture

Overview A Definition of Culture Fishy Culture

Culture, Subculture, and Ethnic Group Culture and Race Race as a Cultural Construct The Characteristics of Culture As Cultures Change, "Culture" Changes What Isn't Culture? Summary Fishy Culture

Exercise 1: The Embarrassing Incident Exercise 2: The American Family Exercise 3: Being Multicultural Exercise 4: Race Classification Recommended Reading

How Do I Learn About Culture? The Naturalistic Question 2-1 Heavy Meddle

Overview Heavy Meddle

Can I Observe Without Disturbing? Fieldwork Informants Fieldwork's Rewards Fieldwork Methods Anthropology: The Science of Culture? Ethical Principles That Guide Anthropologists How Do We Enforce Ethical Research? What Ethical Guidelines Should Students Follow? Summary Heavy Meddle

Exercise 1: Analyzing an Ethnography Exercise 2: Participant Observation Exercise 3: The Impact of the Observer Exercise 4: Inferring Culture From Behavior Recommended Reading

What is the Context for This Practice or Idea? The Holistic Question 3-1 Everything Relates to Potatoes

Overview Everything Relates to Potatoes

A Holistic Image of Culture Types of Holistic Connections Cultures in Regional Context Culture in Scalar Context Holism in the Field Kinship, Holistically Speaking Economics, Holistically Speaking Challenges of Holism Summary Everything Relates to Potatoes

Exercise 1: Economics in Ethnography Exercise 2: Reciprocity Exercise 3: Holistic Approaches to Jokes Exercise 4: Sociobiography: A Life in Cultural Context Exercise 5: What Are Kin Terms Connected To? Recommended Reading

Do Other Societies Also Do Something Like This? The Comparative Question 4-1 Big Parties

Overview Big Parties

How Shall We Compare? What We Can Learn by Comparing This Culture to Others Challenges of Comparison: Will "We Murder to Dissect"? Shall I Take the Participant's or the Comparativist's Perspective? Summary Big Parties

Exercise 1: Comparing Two Cultures Exercise 2: Q-mode and R-mode Comparisons Exericse 3: Emic and Etic Perspectives Exercise 4: A Comparison of 400 Cultures Exercise 5: Time Budgets - Yours and the Machiguengans' Recommended Reading

Overview A Chicken-and-Egg Story

Cultures Have Histories The Temporal Question Has a History Asking the Temporal Question Was the Change Intentional? Sources and Methods What Causes Culture Change? Thinking About the Future Summary A Chicken-and-Egg Story

Exercise 1: Enduring Histo

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