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Video Lesson 1:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
Anthropology is the study of human beings, but to phrase the definition in these simple terms is to diminish the grand scope of this discipline overall.
Anthropology delves deeply into every aspect of humankind from its beginnings millions of years ago to the present day, and its subject matter ranges from the exotic to the ordinary, from faraway tribes to the structure of the human foot.
The video for this lesson explains the four-fields of anthropology, defines the concept of holism, and describes how anthropologists approach their subject matter from a holistic and comparative cross-cultural perspective in order to reach the broadest and most inclusive conclusions possible on their subject of interest.
Each field, cultural, physical (biological), linguistic anthropology, and archaeology, are described and situational material is included to illustrate how each field functions and interconnects with the others.
Subfields to the four major fields, such as forensics and paleoanthropology, are introduced and discussed, and the concept that humans are biocultural beings because of the simultaneous adaptations of our biology with culture, is illustrated.
The video also introduces the student to the way anthropologists carry out their analyses through rigorous fieldwork and participant observation in order to create the ethnographies that describe humans cross-culturally.
Applied anthropology, sometimes referred to as the fifth subfield of anthropology, is introduced.
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Video Lesson 2:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
The state of Oaxaca, Mexico, is the backdrop of this film, which explores the nature of culture and how cultures are studied.
The Oaxacan society is used to illustrate the basic characteristics of culture: an integrated, dynamic system of beliefs, values, and behaviors that are shared by the members of a society; wholly learned and based on symbolic systems; and constituting humankind's most important method of adaptation.
Jayne Howell's work in Oaxaca aims to determine how this society in transition is adapting to the pressures imposed by outside forces, and illustrates some of the methods of research that ethnographers employ in a biocultural approach to discovering how the world's diverse cultures function.
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Video Lesson 3:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
Beginnings of Human Culture Humans
are first a biological species, Homo sapiens, but they are unique among
all species in their capacity for cultural adaptations.
This lesson
first compares humans to modern primates, especially the great apes, in
terms of biology, genetics, and behaviors.
Next, it surveys the
evolution of the line of pre-human ancestors from the first bipedal
species that emerged about six million years ago up to anatomically
modern humans and their increasingly sophisticated cultural
innovations.
Finally, the concept of race is discussed as a social
construct that has no biological validity.
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Video Lesson 4:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
This
program focuses on the efforts of the Serrano tribe of Native American
to revitalize their dying cultural traditions and language.
The
features and structures of human language in general are discussed,
showing some examples from the Serrano language, and the role played by
descriptive linguist assisting them is examined.
A discussion of deaf
sign languages reveals that they are in every way like all other human
languages except that they are based on gestures instead of sounds.
Nonverbal human communication systems are explored, as are various
aspects of the fields of ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics.
African-American Vernacular English is discussed as an example of a
social dialect that marks membership in a group.
The film closes with a
focus on the Serrano children, who it is hoped will carry on the tribal
language and traditions.
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Video Lesson 5:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
One
of the universal questions that people ask is "Who am I?
The answer is
complex and begins with enculturation. Enculturation influences how you
think, feel, and behave and it starts at birth.
It begins with being
given a name. Naming ceremonies vary from culture to culture, but what
you are called is an important device for self definition and it also
allows individuals to take their place within their group's culture.
As
children develop physically, they also develop emotionally and
psychologically.
One aspect of this maturation is the development of
self-awareness. This is important for the individual and also for the
entire community. Not only does everyone have a name, but individuals
have their own personalities.
It is now recognized that one's
personality is the product of both enculturation and one's own genetic
make-up.
When studying how personality develops, we cannot ignore the
role that sex and gender may play nor can we overlook the biological
factors that may influence and differentiate male and female behaviors.
Determining whether gender roles influence personality and social
identity or vice versa may be difficult, but we know that gender roles
vary greatly from culture to culture.
It is also recognized that every
culture has individuals who are "transgenders" people who do not fall
neatly within the proscribed male and female categories. Western
cultures prefer to think exclusively in male and female gender roles,
but many other cultures have created a "third gender" or even a "fourth
gender" in which to place these individuals.
As individuals, we not
only need to know who we are but also how we fit in and belong to the
culture we were born into. Sometimes it gets complicated.
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Video Lesson 6:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
Regardless
of the language, the geographic location or the culture the question
being asked is the same . . .
What are we going to eat today?
The
difference comes in the answer and the response depends upon the
subsistence system used by those asking the question. This film focuses on three types of subsistence patterns:
foraging
horticultural / agricultural
pastoralism
The Ju?/hoansi live in
the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. They are a prime example of the
hunter / gatherer / foraging subsistence system. Their understanding of the
ecosystem in which they live and their ability to adapt have led to
their survival both as foragers and now as a more sedentary group.
!Kung San Hunters
While foragers have little control over the availability of natural
resources, they can ensure the survival yield of the land by living
within the carrying capacity of the environment.
In contrast, people in
food-producing societies control the production of either plants or
animals.
Food-producing societies tend to be sedentary;
they live in
larger groups than foragers and have more complex social and political
structures.
The most common form of horticulture is slash-and-burn
cultivation, which relies on human power and has limited productivity
yield.
Another subsistence system is pastoralism, the managing of herds
of animals. Many pastoralist societies live at such high altitudes that
little agricultural activity can occur.
The Yolmo of Nepal, who are
featured in the video, have crossbred cows with male yaks to produce
zomo, a hybrid cattle species that is biologically adapted to live at
high altitudes. Since life is so precarious, the Yolmo must exploit the
seasonal environments and supplement their diet and economy by
practicing horticulture at the lower altitudes.
Girl with baby yak
Nepal
Many pastoral groups
practice transhumance, the seasonal migration of herds and people in
order to maximize grazing opportunities.
What all subsistence systems
have in common is the need for water. Who controls the water is at the
heart of human survival.
In the postindustrial era, traditional
subsistence activities have been relegated to hobbies, such as hunting,
fishing, and berry picking. |
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Video Lesson 7:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
Economic
systems are the means by which a society produces, distributes and
consumes resources, and are intimately integrated with the other
elements of the culture.
In this lesson the economic systems of several
societies are examined as examples of how reciprocity, redistribution,
and market exchange play a central role in the distribution of goods.
The Ju?/hoansi of southern Africa exemplify foraging cultures in which
food is not produced but rather collected as it is needed and
distributed immediately according to the process known as generalized
reciprocity.
The Yolmo of Nepal traditionally practiced pastoralism and
subsistence farming, using an exchange system of balanced reciprocity
combined with redistribution.
A Ghanian market run by women illustrates
a traditional form of market exchange, and a Japanese fish market
exemplifies the wholesale commercial market with international
participants but face-to-face transactions according to Japanese
cultural practices.
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Video Lesson 8:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
The
video opens with a wedding in Long Bow Village, in China, and
effectively shows the diverse nature of weddings from one culture to
another emphasizing that weddings are rites of passage, full of ritual
and symbols that convey and emphasize the values of that society.
It
defines marriage and suggests that this is one way that societies
regulate sexual relations between men and women.
It points out that all
cultures include rules on who can marry whom because of the general
concern regarding marriage between close family members, or incest.
The
incest taboo is discussed, and the narrator and expert anthropologists
explain it provides a structuring mechanism for marriage rules,
endogamy and exogamy.
Arranged marriages are discussed, how they
benefit specific societies, and the attitudes toward them as opposed to
the western ideals of romantic love.
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Video Lesson 9:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
The
video for Lesson 9 begins with Helen Mendoza and Pam Privett explaining
that families can take many forms today. They are partners in a
same-sex marriage, raising children of their own.
Lesson 8 explained
why some cultures find polygamy a preferred marriage arrangement, and
the video for Lesson 9 highlights the familial and household benefits
of the polygynous system.
However, the video points out that not all
such marriages are cooperative. Under some circumstances, competition
among wives can cause serious tensions.
The terms consanguinal family,
conjugal family, and fictive kin are defined and varying family forms
such as nuclear family, extended family, and blended family are
illustrated.
The Yolmo, pastoralists of east-central Nepal, are
featured to illustrate how monogamy within a nuclear family
organization functions within this group.
Residence patterns and
marriage customs, such as bride-price and bride service, are discussed
and the reasons for their practice are illustrated.
The final segment
of the video comments on newer adaptations of the family made possible
because of advances in reproductive technology and changes in adoption
laws within the United States.
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Video Lesson 10:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
The
video opens with pictures of Chinese immigrants of the 1850s to the
1900s and explains that the immigrants of that time faced enormous
challenges when they moved from their country to the United States.
They faced discrimination and a sense of isolation because they lacked
assistance that had been provided through strong kinship ties in China.
The video explains that kinships, or the strong familial networks
within which individuals function on a daily basis, are made up of
groups of family members and that they provide the essentials for
survival.
The video explains descent groups and lineages and points out
that not all lineages trace descent the same way. Several different
kinds of descent groups are illustrated and Chinese patrilineal descent
is featured.
Particular attention is given to explaining this complex
system; that a lineage in this system goes back only four to six
generations because households become very large over time and
conflicts arise, that brothers splinter off and begin lineages of their
own.
The concept of clan (tsu) is defined and discussed at length.
Different systems of kinship are illustrated, and that each group
establishes varying methods of defining relatives. The video explains
the Eskimo system, the Iroquois System, and the Hawaiian system.
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Video Lesson 11:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
This
program explores concepts related to non-kin based social groupings by
focusing on the culture of the Black Indians of New Orleans.
They are a
common interest group that celebrates their own art and culture,
culminating in their annual celebration of Mardi Gras separately from
the better known White Carnival.
Divisions within the group based on
age and gender are discussed, as is its origins and history as an
oppressed minority social class excluded from the white Mardi Gras.
Finally the show examines the effects of hurricane Katrina on the
culture of the Mardi Gras Black Indians and on the recovery of the city
in general.
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Video Lesson 12:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
This
video explores the anthropological concepts of political organization
and social control as practiced cross-culturally. It opens with
anthropologists Victoria Bernal and Laura Nader discussing the concepts
of political organization, in terms of power, authority, functions, and
its four main forms:
bands
tribes
chiefdoms
states
Nader and
William Ury then explore the various methods of maintaining social
order across cultures, including interior and externalized controls,
sanctions and laws.
Methods of dispute resolution are described by
Nader and Ury, and the two then debate the merits of the use of
alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR) in the United States.
China's control over citizen use of the internet is used as an example
of the interrelationships between social control, ideology, legitimacy,
and the potential for the use of force by ruling powers.
Nader and
human rights activist Xiao Qiang then describe, in parallel fashion for
comparison and contrast, their personal experiences with peaceful
student protests at the University of California in Berkeley in the
mid-1960s and in Tiananmen Square in China in 1989, both of which
brought violent reactions from their respective governments.
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Video Lesson 13:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
The
program opens with a general discussion of the anthropological
definition of religion contrasted with spirituality.
This is followed
by a close up view of some of the history, beliefs, and practices of
Islam and Tibetan Buddhism, through the eyes of several experts and
practitioners.
Discussions of anthropological concepts of religion
cross-culturally are offered with examples of the basic forms of
religion, its specialists, and its rituals, as well as magic and
witchcraft.
The exploration of some of the social and psychological
functions of religious practices and belief systems, especially
focusing on Islam, conclude the show.
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Video Lesson 14:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
This
video lesson focuses on visual, verbal and musical art forms.
Since art
is created in response to social, religious, political, economic, and
aesthetic stimuli, anthropologists use it as a guide to understanding
the values and ideals of culture.
Being able to put art within a
cultural context enables anthropologists to observe cultural dynamics.
That is why tattoos, hip hop and hula provide insight into past and
present cultures.
You will also be reintroduced to the Pacific
Northwest Potlatch ceremony.
This once again will highlight the
integrated nature of all aspects of culture.
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Video Lesson 15:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
At
the beginning of the video for Lesson 15, anthropologist Leo Chavez
comments that culture "is always transforming itself, always changing.
It is always in the process of becoming something else."
Throughout
history, cultures have changed because of environmental conditions,
internal pressures, or external forces.
Change comes quickly, or it may
occur slowly. In any event, anthropologists chronicle cultural change
and offer explanations as to why it happens.
Anthropologist Eugene
Cooper has tracked cultural change as it is reflected in the craft of
Chinese furniture-making during the 1970s and 1980s, and he emphasizes
that societies change with the use of new technologies.
The key term,
diffusion, is introduced and discussed within the context of the spread
of the English language from the anthropologist to the group she/he
studies.
The video illuminates some of the benefits and problems that
immigration poses for a culture. It focuses on the current migration of
Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States.
It illustrates why
the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps was founded, and how their goals were
formed in response to the perception that too many Mexican citizens
were coming across the border into the United States illegally.
In
contrast, the human rights organization El Rescate was formed in 1981
in Los Angeles to assist individuals who had escaped the chaos in
Central America and who sought refuge here. Both groups offer their own
perspective on the impact of immigrants on American culture.
The video
also offers contextual information on and post-colonialism, and
explains the differences between rebellion and revolution.
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Video Lesson 16:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
This
program explores the phenomenon of globalization, its complex forms,
and its impact on the cultures of the world, as well as the
contributions that anthropology can make toward a better understanding
of it.
Wal-Mart's operations in China are shown as an example of how
giant global corporations use structural power to expand business and
profit in developing countries.
The collaboration of the Bolivian
government with another U.S.-based global corporation, Bechtel, and the
World Bank illustrates how such partnerships can act against the best
interests of the people.
Finally, a Bangladeshi immigrant to the United
States is interviewed, giving a personal perspective on the record high
levels of external and internal migration occurring worldwide.
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Video Lesson 17:
Source: Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World HomePage
Coast Community Learning Systems
Coastline Community College
The
video begins with the anthropological definition of applied
anthropology; that this field of study refers to the application of
method and theory to the analysis and solution of practical problems
and that it can be used, or "applied," within the four subdisciplines
of anthropology:
physical (or biological)
cultural
linguistic
archaeological
The video shows how a cultural anthropologist,
Professor Mikel Hogan, practices applied anthropology within a hospital
setting to help resolve some of the on-the-job problems that nurses
face at this time of crises within the health-care system in the United
States.
As the video progresses, viewers also see how linguistic
anthropologist Breesha Maddrell works on the Isle of Man to help the
culture there preserve and maintain the Celtic language of Manx Gaelic.
Finally, the third segment of the video shows how physical
anthropologists Amy Mundorff and Diane Cockle work in the area of
forensics.
Mundorff explains the educational qualifications required
for a career in forensics, explaining that a strong background in
biology or chemistry, plus a strong background in anthropology,
particularly archaeology, is ideal.
In general, this video gives very
clear and varied examples of where applied anthropology is used in the
workforce, how flexible the field is, and how it fits within the
subfields of anthropology.
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