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Research Questions for Cultural Anthropologists

A) How do new immigrants to Canada adapt to Canadian culture while maintaining a sense of their own ethnic identity?

B) Do students from different social or economic classes have different attitudes towards school and academic success?

C) Do female students at my school feel pressure to pursue traditionally female occupations like nursing or teaching? Do male students feel pressure to avoid traditionally female occupations?

3. What are some ethical questions archaeologists face in their work?

Archaeologists have to be sure that they are respecting the dead, and also respect other cultures' beliefs and customs.

3. How would a cultural materialist interpret the information in Figure 1-16 (p. 30) differently from a feminist anthropologist?

  • A cultural materialist wodl suggest that the types of resources available in a community and the environmental conditions and compatibility of activites with child care would determine gender roles in any given society. The assumption is that cultures generally have patterns of behaviour that help the culture to survive.
  • A feminist anthropologist would look a the chart and find that asife from aring for small children and hunting lrgeanimals, gender roles are extremely flexible depending on the society. Women nd men should therefore not be restricted by their own culture's specific ideas about what is acceptable work for their gender.

2. What personal qualities and skills do you think an archaeologist should have?

Archaeologists must have a lot of patience to meticulously excavate their findings and record and catalogue everything in detail. They should probably enjoy being outside, and not be afraid to get dirty.

2. What is the essential difference between the approach of cultural materialists and postmodernists?

Cultural materialists look at culture as an objective and measurable way, while postmodernists question wheter objectivity in studying culute is even possible. The difference between the two approaches is a fundamental one in anthropology- whether anthropology should be more of a science or more like the humanities.

4. Have you noticed miscommunication between speakers of different langauges or from different cultures?

  • body langauge, gestures
  • tone
  • humour
  • definition variability

Reflect and Respond, p. 31; 1-4.

1. Women in Canada make up half of the population, yet they make up less than 20% of the elected government. How would a feminist and a functationalist differ in their explanations of this statistic?

  • A feminst anthropologist would look at ways that Canadian culture discourages women from entering politics by constructing gender roles and maintaing economic or political systems that continue to exclude women from politics. They might also look at other cultures where women are more involved in polticis and compare how the attitudes about women in poltics are different from Canadian attitudes.
  • A functionalist would point to the different oles that men and women play in Canadian society. He or she might look at reasons why women do not want ot enter politics, such as the challenges of juggling family obligations, which are often greater for women that for men.

Reflect and Respond, p. 36, 1-3

1. What techniques do archeaologists use to learn about past or current cultures?

Archeaologists dig up sites to find clues about past or current cultures. They mark a site in a grid and carefully remove the dirt and carefully record the evidence found using computer models. They will sift through the dirt for very small seeds, shells, bone fragments, or pottery shards. Modern archeaologists or "garbologists" supplement their findings with questionnaires.

3. How does language reflect status or culture in Canadian society?

The use of forms of address between speakers is an example:

  • both speakers use first names- informal or personal relationship; equal status, e.g., friends
  • both speakers use titles and last names=business or formal relationship, equal status, e.g., lawyers
  • one speaker using first name, other using title and last name- hierarchical relationship where speaker using first name is of higher status, e.g., teacher and student
  • both speakers use last names only, no title= middle ground between formal and personal, e.g., athletes

Can you think of other examples of how language reflects status?

Reflect and Respsond, p. 33; 2-4.

2. What are some challenges of studying linguistic anthropology?

Linguistic anthropologists may have to learn at least one other language to be able to do comparative studies of structures, history or cultures. Linguistic anthropology involves detailed analysis and you would needt be immersed in a culture to fully understand how the language is used, which can be time consuming.

Anthropology: Chapter 1 Questions

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