Week 1 · Chapter

Chapter 1 — Anthropology and the Anthropological Perspective

Cultural Anthropology Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~25–35 minutes · Objective 1 (explain the anthropological perspective (holism, comparison, and fieldwork), the four subfields and applied anthropology, and the culture concept, distinguishing culture from society, enculturation from acculturation, and ethnocentrism from cultural relativism as a method and from moral relativism) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slides, the tutorial, and the quiz all build on it.

In plain language

Anthropology is the study of people: how they live, talk, organize their lives, and make sense of the world, in every place and across time. This week you will meet its four subfields (the four main branches the field is divided into) and the anthropological perspective (the field's way of looking, made of three habits used together). You will learn what anthropology is not, how it moved from reading other people's reports to living among the people it studies, and how it looks at an ordinary place. You will also meet the running fieldwork site (an illustrative farmers' market this course visits week after week). By the end of the week, a place you thought you knew will look a little stranger, and a lot more interesting.

Why you already care about this

Think back to your first day at a new job. Everyone else knew where the clean mugs lived, who to ask about the schedule, and which jokes were safe. Nobody had written those rules down, yet everyone followed them. You spent the day watching, guessing, and asking careful questions until the rules started to make sense.

That is close to what an anthropologist does, on purpose and for a long time. In the Trobriand Islands in the 1910s, Bronislaw Malinowski stayed among the people he was studying instead of reading about them from far away, and that kind of long-term fieldwork became the field's signature method. You will not travel anywhere in this course. Instead, you will return each week to one illustrative farmers' market with 24 stalls, open one morning a week, from 8:00 a.m. to noon, and learn to see it the way an anthropologist would.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

define anthropology and name its four subfields, with applied anthropology running across them;
sort a research question into the subfield it belongs to;
correct the three classic wrong turns about what anthropology studies;
apply holism, comparison, and fieldwork to an everyday setting;
explain how the field moved from the "armchair" to long-term fieldwork;
take a first look at the running fieldwork site and say what a newcomer would miss.

Carry this line with you: see the whole, compare it, and stay — not visit.

Where we are

This week: what anthropology studies, its four subfields, three wrong turns to avoid, the three habits of the anthropological perspective, the move from the armchair to the field, and your first look at the running fieldwork site.
How they connect: this chapter is the foundation, so there is no earlier week to lean on; every later week uses the perspective and the running site you meet here.
Where we're going next: Week 2, The Culture Concept, gives you the field's first definition of culture and a method for describing a practice before judging it.

This is the first week of the course, so nothing earlier is assumed. You need no background in anthropology and no math beyond one subtraction. What you do need is curiosity about why people do things the way they do, including you. Next week leans hard on this week's last section, so keep the market in mind.

1. Define anthropology: humans across place and time

Picture a family holiday dinner. Someone has cooked since morning, a grandparent sits at the head of the table, and two cousins argue about a game. Every family does this meal a little differently, and every family thinks its own way is the normal one.

Anthropology is the field that takes that table seriously. It asks how people live, how they speak, how they organize themselves, and how they make meaning, and it asks those questions about everyone, everywhere, now and in the past.

Anthropology is the study of humans across place and time: how people live, speak, organize themselves, and make meaning, and how human bodies and ways of life have varied and changed.

Two phrases in that definition do a lot of work. "Across place" means anthropology compares people in many settings, from a small island village to a big-city office. "Across time" means it also looks at how human life has changed, from the distant past to the present. That is a lot to hold at once, which is why anthropology splits the work into parts. Section 2 names those parts.

Misconception check. Students often think anthropology means "studying other people," meaning people far away who live very differently from the student. That is tempting, because older images of the field show a researcher in a distant village. But the definition says humans, with no exception for your own town. Anthropologists study every society, including their own, and you will spend this course studying a market much like one near you.

2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place

Imagine four researchers walking through the same neighborhood. One watches how neighbors greet each other. One listens to how people talk. One digs where an old building stood. One studies how the people living there grow and vary. They are all doing anthropology, but each asks a different kind of question.

In the United States, anthropology is usually divided into four subfields:

Cultural anthropology is the subfield that studies ways of life in the present, mainly through long-term fieldwork among the people themselves.
Linguistic anthropology is the subfield that studies language in social life: how people speak, what their ways of speaking mean, and how speech varies and changes.
Archaeology is the subfield that studies past human ways of life through the material remains people left behind; it is not fossil-hunting in general.
Biological anthropology is the subfield that studies human evolution and human biological variation.

A fifth label runs across all four. Applied anthropology is the use of anthropology's methods to address practical problems, in fields such as health, business, and heritage; it runs across all four subfields. An applied anthropologist might be a cultural, linguistic, archaeological, or biological specialist who puts that training to work outside a classroom.

Franz Boas is credited with shaping this four-field approach in American anthropology in the early twentieth century. You will meet Boas again in Section 5.

One honesty note before you go on: this is the cultural anthropology course, not a survey of all four subfields. Archaeology and biological anthropology return only where the cultural course needs them.

Worked example — four subfields, four questions about one place. Take the running fieldwork site (Dataset A, illustrative, constructed for this course, not a real place): an unnamed weekly neighborhood farmers' market with 24 stalls, open one morning a week, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Ask one question from each subfield.

Cultural: how do vendors and shoppers act at the stalls, and what does it mean to them? This asks about a way of life in the present.
Linguistic: which words and styles of speech do people use there? This asks about language in social life.
Archaeology: what would the market's material remains, such as crates, stall posts, and receipts, show someone studying it long after it closed? This asks about a way of life through what people leave behind.
Biological: how do the diets people build from stalls like these connect to human biological variation? This asks about human bodies.
Applied, across all four: an applied anthropologist might help the vendors' association make the market easier for a first-time shopper to use (an illustrative task).

In words: one market, four kinds of questions, and a fifth way of putting the answers to work.

Misconception check. Students often think the four subfields are four separate departments that never talk. That is tempting, because each one has its own methods and its own experts. But the subfields share one subject, humans, and the questions overlap: a question about how vendors talk is linguistic and cultural. The four labels sort questions; they do not wall them off.

3. Clear away three wrong turns about the field

Ask a friend what an anthropologist does, and you may hear about a dig site full of dinosaur bones somewhere remote. That picture is so common that it is worth taking apart piece by piece. It holds three separate mistakes.

Wrong turn one: dinosaurs. Dinosaurs belong to paleontology, a different field. Anthropology studies humans, so dinosaurs are not its subject.

Wrong turn two: fossil-hunting. Archaeology studies past human ways of life through what people left behind, such as tools, buildings, and food remains. It is not fossil-hunting in general. An archaeologist digging at an old village is asking how the people there lived, not looking for any old bone in the ground.

Wrong turn three: only "remote" or "exotic" peoples. Anthropologists study every society, including their own. A city office, a hospital ward, a youth sports league, and a farmers' market are all fair places for anthropology. The word "exotic" also hides a ranking, as if some people were strange and others normal, and the field rejects that.

Worked example — fixing one sentence. A chatbot writes: "Anthropologists hunt for dinosaur fossils among exotic tribes." Fix it in three steps.

Dinosaur fossils belong to paleontology, so that part is the wrong field.
Hunting fossils is not archaeology either; archaeology studies past human ways of life through material remains.
Exotic tribes treats some people as strange and others as normal; anthropologists study every society, including their own.

In words: a fixed version reads, "Anthropologists study humans across place and time, in every society, including their own."

Misconception check. Students often think archaeology is "the dinosaur part" of anthropology. That is tempting, because both involve digging and careful brushing of things found in the ground. But archaeology is about people: what their tools, homes, and trash say about how they lived. If no humans were there, it is not archaeology.

4. Use the anthropological perspective: holism, comparison, fieldwork

Go back to the family holiday dinner. If you wanted to understand it, you could study only the food. But the food connects to who cooked it, who paid for it, who sits where, what the family believes the day means, and which arguments come up every year. Pull on one thread and the others move.

The anthropological perspective is the discipline's way of looking at human life, made of three habits used together: holism, comparison, and fieldwork.

Holism is the habit of looking at how the parts of a way of life fit together, such as making a living, family ties, rules, and beliefs, instead of studying one part alone.
Comparison is the habit of setting a practice beside the same kind of practice in other societies, so that what seems natural in one place shows up as one arrangement among several.
Fieldwork is long-term research carried out among the people being studied, taking part in and recording their daily life; it is the discipline's signature method.

Each habit protects you from a different mistake. Holism stops you from treating one custom as if it floated free of everything else. Comparison stops you from treating your own way as the only way. Fieldwork stops you from deciding what a practice means before you have spent real time with the people who do it.

Worked example — holism and comparison at the market. Use the running fieldwork site (Dataset A, illustrative).

Holism. The 24 stalls tie together farming, the family that runs one of the stalls, the market manager's stall assignments and weekly fee, the vendors' association's rules, and the opening bell. You look at how those parts fit together instead of studying one alone.
Comparison. Set the weekly market beside a supermarket checkout. Both are ways to buy food. The supermarket has posted hours but no opening bell and no vendors' association. So the market's routine is one arrangement among several, not the natural way to buy food.
Fieldwork. One first look is not fieldwork. The course returns to the same market every week, the way long-term fieldwork returns to the same people over time.

In words: the market is more than a place to buy food; seen holistically, compared with a supermarket, and studied over time, it is a small way of life with its own routines, roles, and meanings.

Misconception check. Students often think comparison means ranking: finding out which way is better. That is tempting, because everyday comparisons usually pick a winner. But anthropological comparison describes before it judges. Setting the market beside the supermarket shows two arrangements; it does not crown one of them.

5. From the armchair to the field: the history in two sentences

Imagine trying to understand your best friend's family by reading postcards other people sent about them. You would learn a little, but you would miss almost everything that matters. For much of its early history, anthropology worked a bit like that.

Here is the history in two sentences. Many nineteenth-century scholars (working in the 1800s) compared customs from reports written by travelers, missionaries, and colonial officials without living among the people described, the approach later called the "armchair" approach. In the early twentieth century (the early 1900s), the discipline turned to long-term fieldwork, associated with Boas in the United States and with Malinowski's fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands in the 1910s.

The "armchair" approach is the later label for the nineteenth-century practice of comparing customs from reports written by travelers, missionaries, and colonial officials without living among the people described.

Why did the change matter? A report written by an outsider passing through carries that outsider's guesses, interests, and blind spots. Living among people for a long time lets a researcher see what people do on ordinary days, not only on the days a visitor happens to notice. Malinowski later wrote up his Trobriand fieldwork in Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), and you will look closely at his method in Week 3.

A caveat about the word "armchair": it is a later, slightly teasing label. The nineteenth-century scholars did real comparative work. The limitation was that they relied on other people's reports instead of their own long-term observation.

Misconception check. Students often think fieldwork means a short visit: a trip, a few interviews, and home again. That is tempting, because most of us only see researchers on short news clips. But the field's turn in the early twentieth century was toward long-term study among the people themselves. A single afternoon gives you a first look, and a first look is where fieldwork starts, not where it ends.

6. Take a first look at the running fieldwork site

Picture walking into a market you have never visited. Crates are stacked behind tables, shoppers drift between stalls, and someone near the office holds a bell. You can see all of it, yet you do not know what most of it means.

The running fieldwork site is the illustrative, unnamed weekly neighborhood farmers' market of 24 stalls that this course studies week after week, so each new concept is tried on the same place. It is constructed for this course, so no real market, vendor, or shopper is described.

Here is what you know about it so far. The market has 24 stalls. It is open one morning a week, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. The market manager assigns stall locations, collects a weekly stall fee, and rings the opening bell; the vendors' association votes on the market's rules.

Worked example — the first look. Ask the two first-look questions and work out one plain number.

What do you notice first? You notice crates, stalls, shoppers, and a bell.
What would a first-time visitor not know? A first-time visitor would not know what the bell signals or who decided which vendor stands where. You record both questions and leave them open; the course returns to the bell in later weeks.
How long is the market open each week? It opens at 8 and closes at noon, which is 12 on the clock. Subtract: 12 − 8 = 4. The market is open 4 hours each market day.

In words: on a first look you can count the stalls and the hours, but the meaning of the bell and the stall assignments is still a question for the field.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Think of a place you know well, such as a job, a team, or a place of worship. What would a first-time visitor not know there?
(b) Think of a place you visited once as a newcomer, such as a new school, a stranger's wedding, or a new city. What did you not know that everyone else seemed to know?

Misconception check. Students often think a familiar kind of place has nothing to teach. That is tempting, because a farmers' market looks ordinary. But "ordinary" is the view from the inside. A first-time visitor sees a bell with no explanation and stall places with no stated rule, and those puzzles are where anthropology begins.

Key terms

Anthropology — The study of humans across place and time: how people live, speak, organize themselves, and make meaning, and how human bodies and ways of life have varied and changed. (first used: 1. Define anthropology: humans across place and time)
The four subfields — The usual division of anthropology in the United States into cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology, with applied anthropology running across all four. (first used: 2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place)
Cultural anthropology — The subfield that studies ways of life in the present, mainly through long-term fieldwork among the people themselves. (first used: 2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place)
Linguistic anthropology — The subfield that studies language in social life: how people speak, what their ways of speaking mean, and how speech varies and changes. (first used: 2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place)
Archaeology — The subfield that studies past human ways of life through the material remains people left behind; it is not fossil-hunting in general. (first used: 2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place)
Biological anthropology — The subfield that studies human evolution and human biological variation. (first used: 2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place)
Applied anthropology — The use of anthropology's methods to address practical problems, in fields such as health, business, and heritage; it runs across all four subfields. (first used: 2. Name the four subfields: four questions about one place)
Anthropological perspective — The discipline's way of looking at human life, made of three habits used together: holism, comparison, and fieldwork. (first used: 4. Use the anthropological perspective: holism, comparison, fieldwork)
Holism — The habit of looking at how the parts of a way of life fit together, such as making a living, family ties, rules, and beliefs, instead of studying one part alone. (first used: 4. Use the anthropological perspective: holism, comparison, fieldwork)
Comparison — The habit of setting a practice beside the same kind of practice in other societies, so that what seems natural in one place shows up as one arrangement among several. (first used: 4. Use the anthropological perspective: holism, comparison, fieldwork)
Fieldwork — Long-term research carried out among the people being studied, taking part in and recording their daily life; the discipline's signature method. (first used: 4. Use the anthropological perspective: holism, comparison, fieldwork)
"Armchair" approach — The later label for the nineteenth-century practice of comparing customs from reports written by travelers, missionaries, and colonial officials without living among the people described. (first used: 5. From the armchair to the field: the history in two sentences)
Running fieldwork site — The illustrative, unnamed weekly neighborhood farmers' market of 24 stalls that this course studies week after week, so each new concept is tried on the same place. (first used: 6. Take a first look at the running fieldwork site)

Summary

Anthropology studies humans across place and time, in every society, including your own.
The four subfields are cultural, linguistic, archaeological, and biological; applied anthropology runs across all four.
Dinosaurs belong to paleontology, and archaeology studies past human ways of life, not fossils in general.
The anthropological perspective is three habits: holism, comparison, and fieldwork.
Comparison describes before it judges; it never ranks one way of life above another.
The field moved from the nineteenth-century "armchair" to long-term fieldwork in the early twentieth century.
The running fieldwork site is an illustrative market of 24 stalls, open 4 hours each market day.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

A youth soccer league (an illustrative example) draws four researchers. One studies how parents on the sideline talk to referees compared with how they talk to each other. One excavates an old field nearby where a farming hamlet stood two centuries ago. One studies how children's growth varies across the league. One helps the league redesign its sign-up process after interviewing families. Name each one's subfield, or say if it is applied work.
A post online says, "Anthropology is the study of dinosaurs and of exotic tribes in the jungle." Name the two errors and correct each.
A campus club holds a welcome night for new members (an illustrative example). Using holism, name three parts of the evening and say how they fit together.
A visitor spends one afternoon at a stranger's wedding reception and writes, "Now I know how this community celebrates marriage." Explain why this is not fieldwork, and what long-term fieldwork would add.

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

The researcher comparing how parents talk to referees and to each other is doing linguistic anthropology, because the question is about language in social life. The researcher digging at the old hamlet is doing archaeology, because the question is about a past human way of life read through material remains. The researcher studying children's growth is doing biological anthropology, because the question is about human biological variation. The researcher helping the league redesign sign-up is doing applied anthropology, because anthropology's methods are being used on a practical problem. Notice that the applied researcher could have training in any subfield.
First error: dinosaurs belong to paleontology, not anthropology, which studies humans. Second error: "exotic tribes in the jungle" treats some people as strange and others as normal, and it limits the field to faraway places; anthropologists study every society, including their own. A fixed version: "Anthropology is the study of humans across place and time."
One good answer: the snacks, the speeches by older members, and the seating. The older members may give the speeches because they run the club; the snacks may be paid for from member dues; and new members may sit together because they do not know anyone yet. Holism asks how those parts connect, so a change in one, such as dropping the speeches, would change how new members learn who is in charge. Any three connected parts work if you show how they fit.
One afternoon is a first look, not fieldwork. Fieldwork is long-term research among the people being studied, so it would mean returning many times, taking part where welcome, and seeing many weddings and ordinary days, not one. It would also show disagreement: one reception cannot tell you whether other families in the community celebrate differently. The visitor's sentence is a confident generalization from one visit, a mistake this course will ask you to catch, including when a chatbot makes it.

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, and the quiz — and next week, The Culture Concept adds a method for describing a practice before judging it.

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