Anthropology and Social Work
Anthropologists like myself try to figure out why present day humans are the way they are.
Meredith F. Small Female Choices
Who are we? How old is the human species? Where did we come from? What do we believe and why? Is our own culture the epitome of civilization? What is reality? How have we arrived at a position where destroying the earth doesn't bother us very much? These, and many, many more are the questions that drive anthropologists to study human beings and our interactions. In fact, the presence of a driving question is the seed that creates anthropologists, as we will soon see.
Anthropology is the study of humanity. As one might suspect, given the scope of the questions in the previous paragraph, anthropology is a broad field with many subfields (or methods) of gathering information. Let's look at some of these areas of study, the methodology for each discipline, and a few of the specialists and their research.
ETHNOLOGY/ETHNOGRAPHY
According to James Spradley (1979) in The Ethnographic Interview, ethnology is "the study of culture" (pg. iii). On the surface, this would seem the simplest of tasks. However most of us are unaware that we are wearing Kant's irremovable glasses' when it comes to viewing other cultures­our own personal biases and beliefs are fully intact. This ethnocentric viewpoint (defined by John Bodley as "the tendency to evaluate other cultures in reference to one's own presumably superior culture"2) is the biggest stumbling block to understanding other cultures and recognizing their own inherent value. The aim of the good ethnographer is to take off the glasses of ethnocentrism as often as possible and learn from other people what their world is like.
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Unlike any other Latin American country, since the nineteenth century, Chile has had a traditional electoral democracy. With its socialist revolutionary leader, Salvador Allende, creating the electoral coalition called “Popular Unity,” Allende won the 1970 presidential election of Chile. His presidency produced a radicalization among workers, but later his controlled insurrection was defeated by the uncontrollable revolution started by Chilean citizens. The military later overthrew Allende in 1973 and Augusto Pinochet assumed power. Patricio Guzman, a Chilean film director made a film of the depiction of student's reactions to his screening of The Battle of Chile, a documentary called Chile, Obstinate Memory. Even after decades of this regime, the student movement in Chile is going steady and this film compares and contrasts with it in various factors.
Thomas, David Hurst. "American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA thomasd@ amnh. Org For the past eight years, the phrase ‘Kennewick Man’has been close to the lips of most American archaeologists and." (2004). Web. http://www4.waspress.co.uk/journals/beforefarming/journal_20042/news/20042_08.pdf
First, Qin Shi Huangdi created a new type of government, imperialism, that is considered to be the strongest and longest lived government in history. By replacing the feudalism with his new form of government, Huangdi used the values from the Analacts. He gave everything set rules and created laws to ensure the safety of his land, and Confucianism was created with a set of rules giving people boundaries and rules to follow. Second, he expanded the military. Before China was a united state, Legalist ideology was conceived of goals to increase the state ruler’s wealth and territory. Once it was united, it meant extension of polity, as explained in ‘The Qin Dynasty’, this was done in the expansion of military defence around the country instead of the separate states, protection moved from inside to the outer edges of China. In the Art of War there's an entire section devoted to energy, it explains how to conserve and properly use your strength. By moving the troops away from the, no longer present, states, he separated the chance of a civil way and tiring out his country's defence. Last, erasing diversity in language, transportation, and measuring units. During the emperor’s life, Huangdi set out to erase diversity in China. Massive change happened all throughout China. Carriages and carts were crafted to be identical, this enabled people to travel across well traveled roads and not ruin the trail. Weights and measures were unified so supplies and goods were produced and sold in all places and be priced and tax equally. And as covered before, he changed the language, an impressive feat in it’s own way. By moving all diversity, the emperor gave everyone an equal chance to define and learn, which is a teaching in the
Social Workers are very important to everyday life. They are the ones that help people in need when they have nobody else to turn too. Also, they provide resources and better understanding of predicaments that you could be experiencing. I will reflect on how the class has affected me, my own experiences and how some theories have connected to my life experiences, and lastly, if the class helped toward my major. This class is important for someone that wants to become a social worker and wants to learn about the different theories used. Also, learning about me during this process of completing this class is fun and a way to see if the social work profession is right for me. There was many theories explained throughout this class but many will not be said because it wasn’t the main points that I was trying to get across. There are two tools that are used that can help a social worker organize a client’s life: Bubble map and Briefcase exercise. There are so many different ways a social worker can help a client deal with their problems and come up with a solution. It is up to that social worker to identify the client’s problem and see what theory fits.
In the second half of the twentieth century, started a process of decolonization, first in Asia and then in Africa. In 1949, India was one of the first country to gain its independence, followed by Burma, Malaysia, and Ceylon. In Africa the decolonization started a few years later, first in Libya and Egypt, and in the rest of the continent afterwards. The main colonists were the Great Britain and France. The history has shown that Great Britain succeeded to decolonize generally in peace while France had much more problems to give up its colonies, which led to numerous conflicts opposing the colonists and the colonized. It has been the case especially in Algeria where a murderous war lasted almost eight years. The philosopher Frantz Fanon has studied the outbreak of this conflict as he was working in Algeria and he spent some time working on the question of colonialism, drawing the conclusion that violence was the only way to get rid of colonists. This essay will analyse who was Fanon and why he came to such a conclusion along with the reasons why it could be said that he is right ,and finally, the arguments against his statement. Finally, it will aim to prove that even though Fanon had valid points, diplomacy could have been for efficient and less tragic rather than his support to violence.
Anthropology is the study of humans. This area of study is subdivided into three sections; cultural anthropology, archeology, and biological anthropology. Biological anthropologists study the anatomy, and evolution of the human body. Biological anthropologists are the ones who assess skeletal remains and determine where, when, and who, the person was. Human skeletal remains are the main component in Forensic Anthropology. Bones can reveal ancestral lineage, gender, height and age of a person.
The Han Dynasty, the amazing Chinese era to have said to unified China for over 400 years old. This era in China’s history began in 206 B.C when a rebel armies rose up against the Qin army. One rebellion, led by Chen Sheng and Wu Kuang was later joined by Xiang Liang, Xiang Yu, Ying Bu, and Peng Yue joined forces with Liu Bang. The people of the Qin Dynasty were unhappy under the rule of Qin Shihuang who was ran his empire with an iron fist. His rule was absolute and disagreeing was punishable by death, though Emperor Qin was the one who to end the Warring States as well as complete the conquering of China in 221 B.C, thus expanding the Chinese state. After the takeover, Liu Bang took the name as Emperor of China and changed his given name to Emperor Gaozu and the Qin laws were abolished.
Cultural Anthropology is a term that is in everyday lives and topics. When one thinks of anthropology they think of the study of old remnants commonly referred to as archaeology. This, however, is not the only form of anthropology. There are four types of anthropology and they are archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. However, Cultural anthropologists are every where and study people of all walks of life. One can find a topic and find some type of study that an anthropologist has conducted on the matter. The following are five articles that explain how anthropologists are every where.
The methods that available in the production of knowledge are limited by the ethical judgments, but the definition of whether the method is ethical or not depends on a couple different things. The first one is the personal judgments. Each person would have different judgments for the same method. However, one personal based judgment cannot be universal. The second one is the social judgment. It is related to the personal judgment. When a personal opinion for a method is agreed by most of people in the society, this opinion would become a social judgment.
Culture is beautifully complex. Cultural practices naturally, therefore, are made up of intricate implicit and explicit thoughts and behaviours. Participant-observation is at the centre of anthropological research because it allows the anthropologist to experience rather than read. Bronislaw Malinowski, regarded as the father of participant-observation, created a scientific framework for how research could be conducted in the field. This framework has evolved as anthropology has changed over the ages. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the central premises of Malinowski’s 1922 book Argonauts of the Western Pacific and a contemporary anthropologist Nancy Kalow’s article Living Dolls which reflects on the participant-observation she carried
Race and education are two very important topics that seem to have a very great effect on each other. We live in the land of opportunity, and this land provides “The American Dream”. However, the American Dream must come with equal quality education for all people regardless of their race. Education is one of the major obstacles today that stands in the way of giving everyone the same opportunity that they deserve.
Anthropology is the study of humans through the ages. It aims to understand different cultures and practices that have existed from the origins of mankind as well. It differs from sociology in that it takes into account humans and cultures that no longer exist.
James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary.
Wilson, K. et al. al., 2011 - p. 78. Social Work: 'Introduction to Contemporary Practice'. 2nd ed.
The American Anthropological Association 's (AAA) aim is to offer guidelines and promote education and discussion. American anthropologists do this often by speaking and interacting with individuals living and experiencing the culture. Truly understanding, learning, and becoming accustomed to a new cultural environment takes a significantly long period of time, perhaps even years of exposure to the culture in order to truly understand traditions, morals, and customs. For instance in the Shostak`s study on the !Kung people, it was important for the researchers to say words correctly, at appropriate times, and in a culturally accepted manner, in addition, in order to interview individuals, specifically women, the anthropologist would ask one to “enter work” with her and they would talk for an hour or a day, or over a long period of time, perhaps two weeks. When studying another culture, American anthropologists include host country colleagues in their research planning and when requesting funding, establish true collaborative relationships, include host country colleagues in dissemination, including publication, and they also ensure that something is given back to the host. When studying other countries, the process is done carefully and thoughtfully, in order to end the study with new information on a culture and to establish new connections