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Activity 1: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology

Introduction

You’ve learned that Anthropology has four subdisciplines, as well as theoretical and applied approaches. Anthropologists’ work can often cross boundaries, though.

For example, Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) was trained as an engineer and worked as a “fire prevention engineer” (what today we call an inspector) for the Hartford Fire Insurance Company. He was also a cultural and linguistic anthropologist who studied Meso-American and Native American cultures and languages, as well as religion. Whenever you see a warming about “flammable” materials, you can credit Whorf, who noticed that many businesses used the word “inflammable” instead. Although inflammable means “can burn” (it comes from the word inflame), in- also carries the meaning not, creating confusion in people’s minds about whether something would or would not burn. Whorf’s work is part of an approach to language and culture known as linguistic relativity, which states that the language an individual speaks influences their view of the world.

As you can see, in this one example, we have evidence for two subdisciplines of anthropology – cultural and linguistic – as well as both theoretical and applied approaches.

In this lab assignment, you’ll read words from real anthropologists to decide which subdisciplines and approaches inform their work.

Instructions

Read quotations from four different anthropologists.
After each quotation, type your answer to the questions in the space provided.
Use your last name and the activity number and save your document as a Microsoft Word doc.
IMPORTANT NOTE: No Pages or other unreadable formats will be graded.
Return to eCampus, click the assignment link, and upload your document.

Assignment

Anthropologist #1

“Mostly [chimpanzees are] okay mothers. There are a few who are very bad, and that’s usually the last born with no young sibling for her to practice on.”

Question 1: Which subdiscipline(s) of Anthropology does this anthropologist study? Based on the quotation, is this anthropologist’s focus more theoretical or applied? Explain your response.

TYPE YOUR ANSWER TO QUESTION 1 HERE.

Anthropologist #2

“When each of you in this room were born, there were 6,000 languages spoken on the planet. Now, a language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. A language is a flash of the human spirit. It’s a vehicle through which the soul of each particular culture comes into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed, a thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities.

“And of those 6,000 languages, as we sit here today in Monterey, fully half are no longer being whispered into the ears of children. They’re no longer being taught to babies, which means, effectively, unless something changes, they’re already dead. What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence, to be the last of your people to speak your language, to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the ancestors or anticipate the promise of the children? And yet, that dreadful fate is indeed the plight of somebody somewhere on Earth roughly every two weeks, because every two weeks, some elder dies and carries with him into the grave the last syllables of an ancient tongue.”

Question 2: Which subdiscipline(s) of Anthropology does this anthropologist study? Based on the quotation, is this anthropologist’s focus more theoretical or applied? Explain your response.

TYPE YOUR ANSWER TO QUESTION 2 HERE.

Anthropologist #3

“’We have our lines staked, you know, going back and forth, we have our shaker screen, we have our shovels and our trowels and our bags that are marked with each square,’ Sullivan says [describing the dig near next to the Eastlake Cat Hospital in the Lake Highlands neighborhood in northeast Dallas].

“They’ve found tiles and glass objects. Small orange spikes pounded in by students now dot the field.”

Question 3: Which subdiscipline(s) of Anthropology does this anthropologist study? Based on the quotation, is this anthropologist’s focus more theoretical or applied? Explain your response.

TYPE YOUR ANSWER TO QUESTION 3 HERE.

Anthropologist #4

“My first experience with fieldwork . . . took place in a small indigenous community in northeastern Brazil studying the Jenipapo-Kanindé of Lagoa Encantada (Enchanted Lake). I had planned to conduct an independent research project on land tenure among members of the indigenous tribe. . . . As a group of children ran to fetch the cacique (the chief/political leader), I began to explain my research agenda to several of the men who had gathered. I mentioned that I was interested in learning about how the tribe negotiated land use rights without any private land ownership. After hearing me use the colloquial term “índio” (Indian), a man who turned out to be the cacique’s cousin came forward and said to me, ‘Well, your work is going to be difficult because there are no Indians here; we are only Brazilians.’ Then, abruptly, another man angrily replied to him, stating firmly that, in fact, they were Indians because the community was on an Indian reservation and the Brazilian government had recognized them as an indigenous tribe. A few women then entered the rapid-fire discussion. I took a step back, surprised by the intensity of my first interaction in the community.”