The Uniques Aspects of Anthropology
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The uniques aspects of Anthropology
Anthropology has three unique elements which differentiate it from other disciplines: Holism, cultural relativism and cross-cultural comparativism. Anthropologists apply these elements in what we call the anthropological imagination. (Gomes 2010:03/03)
The holistic approach involves taking all the aspects of a culture into consideration when conducting research such as; religion, language, symbolism, marriage, social organization, politics, economics and ecological aspects. It is not just a focus on a single aspect. This allows studies to be conducted in-depth. (Gomes 2010:17/03) One way that anthropologists gain a holistic view of a culture is by spending long periods of time living in a society and becoming as integrated as possible in the every day life of the people that they are studying. This is portrayed in the reading of Cultural Anthropology, Chapter 3: Fieldwork by Emily Schultz & Robert Lavenda (2005). Here it is explained how anthropologists use a holistic approach to their research by getting completely immersed in the culture they are studying through the use of different anthropological tools and field work. It becomes apparent that the only way to truly get the whole picture of a particular society is to become a part of that society.
Cross-cultural Comparison is about comparing different cultures in order to gain a deeper understanding of the societies, which is very unique to anthropology. An excellent example of cross cultural comparison is demonstrated through Bohannan, L 1966, Shakespeare in the Bush, pp1-4. Two seemingly different cultures were explored, compared and brought together by Shakespeares story of Hamlet. When this story was translated to the Tiv West African tribal people, she discovered their unique interpretation of the story according to their beliefs and demonstrated through comparison the values of these remote west African tribe in compared with the English culture portrayed through Hamlet. This revealed an interesting discovery that some cultural aspects such as lying, betrayal and moral issues can transcend cultural differences and reveal that some values are universal and can be shared no matter how different the cultural comparison may be.
The final main aspect that only Anthropologists are governed by is cultural relativism. This is the attitude that every culture has a right to exist, which requires us to accept a culture from their perspective, not allowing ethnocentrism to take place. The act of judging or condemning the customs of one culture as inferior in comparison to ones own culture or viewpoint is where an ethnocentric attitude begins to emerge (Metcalf, 2005.p 6). This is demonstrated in the case study of head hunting in Southeast Asia. Dr Russel has explored many points of views of head hunting to explain the different reasons for why this ritual is practiced by different tribes in Southeast Asia. But never was an ethnocentric view expressed, she explained these practices from the cultural perspectives of the different tribes being investigated. Through research it was discovered that head hunting is not purely a violent practice, but has much more complex reason involved and “is part of a sophisticated mythological, ritual and cosmological worldview” (see McKinley,op.cit.,pp.95-97) Russel, S, Head hunting in Southeast Asia.