ANTHROPOLOGY &

THE STUDY OF
CULTURE
At the end of this module, we can:

1. Identify the subjects of inquiry and goals of anthropology.

2. Explain anthropological perspectives on culture.
3. Describe cuture as a complex whole.
4. Identify aspects of culture and society.
5. Raise questions toward a holistic appreciation of cultures and society.
6. Recognize the value of anthropology for the 21st century.
Anthropoly promotes a holistic study of humans.It is derived from two greek wors antropos(human) and
logos(study). Anthropology inquires on human behaviors, attiudes and belief system which range from
birth practices to burial rites. It can also be defined as “the study of people”- their origins, development
and contemporary variations, wherever and whenever they have been found on the face of the earth
(Ember,Ember and Peregine,2010).
Five subdiscipline of anthropology:

•Archeology – examines the remains of ancient and historical human populations.

•Cultural Anthropology- promotes the study of a society’s culture through their belief system, practices, and processions.
•Linguistic Anthropology- examines the language of a group of people and its relation to their culture.
•Physical Anthropology- looks into the biological development of humans and their contemporary variation.
•Applied Anthropology- attempts to solve contemporary of theories and approaches of the discipline.
Claude Levi-Strauss
-a 19th century anthropologist from Western societies. He made an
anthropic book entitled “Tristes Tropiques”- this work presented the
lives of a nonmodern society in Brazil.
Philippe Bourgois
-a 21st century anthropologist who studies the lives
of street-level drug dealers.
The methodology they used in
gathering information:
►Key Information- are individuals in a society
who have significant knowledge on the topic
being studied by the anthropologist.
►Participant-observation methods- ental the
participants of the researcher on the daily
practices and rituals of the group being
studies.
CULTURE
Culture – is everything that a person learns as a member of a society. It enables humans to survive in their environment.

Culture is everything. It is what a person has, does, and think as part of society. It consist of the material and the nonmaterial cultures.

Material culture- includes all the tangible and visible parts of culture, which includes clothes, foods, and even buildings.

Non- ornamental culture- includes all the intangible parts of culture, which consists of values, ideas and knowledge.
Culture is learned. Culture is a set of beliefs, attitudes, and practices that an individual learns through his or her family, school, church and other social institutions.

Enculturation- a process to learn to your own culture.

Acculturation- constant interaction between societies, culture can be modified to accommodate desirable traits from other culture.

Deculturation- the culture of the older generation come sinto conflict with the needs and realities of the younger generations.
Culture is shared. The set of behaviors, attitudes,and beliefs that a person possess is part of a greater collection of values and ideas that is communally owned and practiced the members of a society.

Culture affects biology. Humans are born into cultures that have values on beauty and body. They alter their bodies to fit into the physiological norms that are dictated by culture.

Lip plate as worn by Lotus feet in China

a Mursi woman
Culture is adaptive. Culture is a tool of survival that humans
use in response to the pressures of their environment.

Inuit man beside an igloo(left) and tupiq(right)

Culture changes. The final characteristics of culture is that it

is never static.
Culture is maladaptive. Culture can also cause problems for the people who subscribe to it. These problems arise when the environment has changed and culture has remained the same.

Traffic congestion
in EDSA
Group 3
 Econar , Dinah Lyn A.
 Abrenica , Maria Piluche
 Toyogan , Hannah Joy
 Velos , Cherry Mae
 Cuestas , Christian Marc