Cultural Anthropology
Asking questions like, “What the frack is culture?” “Oooh, what’s going on in this group thataway over yonder?” and an explanation on the smorgasbord that is this sub-field
*Note: Adjustments to post has been made. Two Voice recordings coming soon eventually!*
Hello, hello, Fellow Musers! My gawd, it’s been a hot minute! (Like, literally, I’m from and am still in Texas-it’s been hot…and unusually rainy as well during these past summer months!). Myself and my inner perfectionist would just like to say Thank You, again, to subscribers for sticking around while this post got written (it’s gone through…multiple…restarts). I could delete this part, I know, but I’m keeping as a way to remind myself (and to give an idea to future subscribers) an insight to behind-the-scenes. I hope future readers and Fellow Musers who come back to re-read this post, continue to find this post simultaneously enjoyable, educational, and humorous. I didn’t intend to wait this long to have another post (to future readers this was suppose to go out waaay back in June 2023…oops!), so the fact that current readers (as of this tweak on August 18, 2023) have stuck around while this thing got wrote and recorded means alot to me💜Huzzah! I have also added a few things that I previously forgot to mention, tweaked a few sentences throughout the post, and fixed a few unintentional spelling mistakes, but nothing major has changed about this post, with the added exception of the promised recording and explanation of lateness. Now, onward!
“The emerging discipline of anthropology combined three long-existing streams of thought. The first was the study of what we have come to call cultural differences among societies.”-Anthropological Theory, Seventh Edition
Culture-one of the first things that an anthropology student is taught is that culture itself is very hard to define. This is especially true for cultural anthropology, of which you could say that everyone has their own definition of culture to go along with a semi-agreed upon definition.
Culture-there’s so many ways to define this 7 letter word. How would you, fellow muser, define this word? If you asked your friends/family/co-workers/acquaintances or even people you don’t know, what would they say it is?
While you’re pondering these questions, I’m going to attempt to answer the question of, “What the fuck is culture? How the hell does it apply to the field of anthropology?” and possibly ask some other questions. Huzzah! I will also repeat this question at the end of this Musing. I very much want to know what your answers are!
First, a refresher of what I wrote about Cultural Anthropology in my intro post:
Cultural Anthropology:
…Cultural Anthropology…is the study of people and cultures currently alive and present today. Huzzah! In this field, humans interact with other humans…intentionally! *Gasp!* Whodathunk that was even possible! Okay, let’s move on, so pretty pretty please…pick your jaw up off the floor, clean it, and reattach it to your face however you think it’s suppose to go.Got it on? Kind of-fantastic! Let’s go!
A Shortish Historical Background of How the Field Came to Be
Let’s start with how this field came to be, starting with a sports analogy. If you’re an avid sports fan, or you know someone who is (most of us are and/or do know at least one person who is), either you or the mentioned person will attempt to coach the team you’re going for…from the comfort of the aptly-named armchair while the team is making the wrong (or occasionally correct) moves via whatever technology screen of choice you’re watching the game on. Why the fuck am I talking about sports and not cultural anthropology?
Way back in the supposedly good ‘ole days (depending on whose p.o.v. you’re looking from) and long before post-1900’s technology, humans would go outside (what’s outside?), explore the planet (amazing, right?), and write about what they saw and observed. Sometimes they’d even put quill/charcoal/paint to paper and draw/write it out! Welp, sometime in the 1700’s to 1800’s, some people (who identified as men), decided to take those early writings (at least the ones that they could read), sit down in chairs, and have deeeeep discussions (because they themselves didn’t need to work too much to provide for their families because generational success…so they had the time to discuss the shit things) and made observations based on the observations written down in the journals and/or publishings of previously mentioned explorers-(observeception, anyone?). These men are considered the first anthropologists known as armchair anthropologists (See? Intellectual sport, same chair concept). There were women who were also educated and discussed these things as well buuuut, well, twas a time where most women were seen and not really heard on the intellectual sphere unless they posed as a male writer. We’ll dive more into that clusterfuck later, if not this post then fo’ sure another post!
Early on, cultural anthropology in many ways was beneficial to colonialism-specifically white, European colonialism. Nowadays, anthropologists in all four fields have been taking many many steps and moves to move away from colonialism, but within the field, it’s important to acknowledge this dark aspect of its past and history, and equally important to acknowledge that anthropology as a field has been moving away from that perspective (we see that light and we’re going towards it-out of that tunnel and to a better place that is inclusive! Huzzah!). Within each introduction post for anthropology, this history will be briefly mentioned.
Soooo, who are some early armchair anthropologists you may find yourself asking and don’t want to look up on the world wide interwebs? *Goes through bookshelf to find anthropology theory book from second semester at current university, takes outside to dust off, and opens*
We have:
Herbert Spencer
Sir Edward Burnett Tyler
Lewis Henry Morgan
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
In the book that was used for the Anthropology Theory class (Anthro for short) that I took, these four are known as the 19th century foundation for anthropological thought. I would like to make a note about Marx and Friedrich:
Something interesting that I learned in that Anthro Theory class: Friedrich Engels was Karl Marx’s lifelong friend who basically took care of Marx and his family (Hell, we’d probably call them besties and bros these days!). Engels also was the writer behind the ideas of what we call Marxism, while Karl came up with the ideas. Another thing I learned is that while coming up with the ideas that became known as Marxism, neither man really gave an explanation for why they wrote what they wrote, hence leaving Marxism open to being applied, and I daresay manipulated, by people to shape it as they saw fit. This is why we have multiple versions of Marxism in socialism and communism. Also, just because Marxism influenced anthropology/archaeology, does not mean that all anthropologists/archaeologists are Marxists. Personally, if I have to give myself a label, I tend to find myself leaning towards progressive centrist who just wants to live her life without any kind of social -isms, despite being raised in a very Republican/Conservative Christian-based capitalistic family (somewhat on both parents’ sides, except for the religious part-that was mainly all maternal side). That’s all I’m going to say on that…for now…?
Anthropology in America took off once Franz Boas immigrated from Germany to America in the early 1900’s. The early American anthropologists are known as the Boasians. The five talked about in the book that will continue to be mentioned are Franz Boas, A.L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Zora Neale Hurston, and Benjamin L. Whorf (whom you may know through the Sapir-Whorf theory).
Two famous British anthropologists (who brought psychology and functionalism theory lens to the field, huzzah!?!) are Bronislaw Malinowski and A. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. I feel that I should also add that Sociology was also developing as a field around this time as well. I bring it up because it’s going to be briefly mentioned later on in this post. I also feel that I have to say that it’s probably not a proper anthropology post without mentioning the contributions these humans made to the field. So I will indeed do that…throughout most of the posts I make on this Substack when I talk about specific methods and theories for the specific, general sub-fields. No cliff hanger, here, I promise!
I also want to mention that in America, the field of Anthropology consists of Cultural Anthropology, Archaeology, Physical/Biological Anthropology, and Linguistics. Internationally, however, Archaeology is a separate field from Anthropology. When I talk about archaeology in a future post, I will be sure to touch on the why’s and the differences between American and International archaeology (Shout Out to
of Practice Space for making me look that up, and also helping me be a better human by realizing that distinction!).A bit of a background
Now that we’ve discussed the general beginnings of the field, I think it’s fair to say that Anthropology is a smorgasbord of different areas of study and is a theory-based profession. Not conspiracy theories, mind you. Not theories based in theoretical physics. Theories that make sense and that are based in reality and scientific fact. Side note: In all honesty, conspiracy theories should be called conspiracy hypothesis*-End Side Note. Like most professions that use science, anthropology theories come about in questions, which are made via observations. Most anthropologists today approach the field with a humanistic lens, but there was a time when the field was approached through a few different lenses such as the previously mentioned functionalism lens and also relativism lens. The field of anthropology uses empiracal evidence (based on field work observations) to refine the field’s theories. I will go on a deeper dive about this in a future post.
Sometimes, when describing anthropology, I personally tend to use the term “jack of all trades”. This doesn’t mean that anthropologists know everything. I interpret it as simply that within the field you will find people with backgrounds from various professions (both humanities and outside of the humanities fields) who also contribute to the anthropology field. Also, I love saying smorgasbord and am super excited to be using it in a Musing! Squeee and Huzzah!!!
Remember in my intro post when I said that there are anthropology majors and minors in all sorts of fields? This is what I was speaking to. Anthropology is sometimes called a social science and anthropologists are occasionally called social historians and/or social scientists (sometimes by people outside the field, but mostly by anthropologists themselves). Anthropologists do use the very famous scientific method, but not usually within a lab-based setting (unless they’re specializing in Forensics, physical/biological anthropology, and/or archaeology). I feel that it’s safe to say that, where Cultural Anthropology is concerned social-science-wise, the world is both the laboratory and playground from a figurative and theoretical standpoint.
I feel that I also forgot to mention this next thing in my introduction post, and if I’m repeating myself, I apologize. However, I was reminded while briefly looking through the book, why Anthropology is a smorgasbord of studies. I wrote part of the explanation at the beginning of this post, but I’m going to include the rest, starting at the beginning:
“The emerging discipline of anthropology combined three long-existing streams of thought. The first was the study of what we have come to call cultural differences among societies. The second dealt with the struggle to explain the antiquity of humans and the artifacts left from these ancient lives. The final line of thought, closely related to the second, was the investigation of the biological origins of humans and other species. All of these areas have been the subject of investigation and speculation for much of the past millennium.”-Anthropological Theory, Seventh Edition
I will be including this explanation in my next three posts about physical/biological and linguistic anthropology, and archaeology so that it will hopefully be easier to tie them together.
I feel that it should also be said that just because anthropology is the study of humans and culture, and tends to borrow from many diverse professions, does not mean that anthropologists know everything and also does not mean that every one is an anthropologist (in theory).
I’ve been asked many times why I would choose anthropology as my field of study, and I have asked other anthropologists why they chose anthropology as their field of study. The somewhat simple-yet, also, not so simple-answer is that those of us who become part of this field do so because we felt pulled towards it. It’s not always about a love of history, but of an interest in the other (I’ve begun to fiercely dislike using the word “other” when it comes to talking about humans). I promise, there is no sense of superiority within the majority of the field (although I’m sure, like all professions, there are a few with that attitude). Like all professions, anthropologists are mostly proud to be part of this field, but that doesn’t mean that we think we’re superior to another field. That’s just the Human in us-we still have our own biases as individuals and do not claim perfection. We’ve majored (or are majoring) in anthropology because we felt the pull and either cannot resist or can no longer resist the tug (Spoiler Alert: I’m part of the ‘can no longer’ resist crowd). There is no simple answer as to why someone wants to become an anthropologist. How I wish there was, though, how fucking I wish there was!
What does a Cultural Anthropologist study?
Soooo you may be asking yourself, besides studying culture, what else do cultural anthropologists do? What other fields do they find themselves in? Cultural anthropologists observe and have conversations with the people of the culture that they’re studying. Sometimes they’re an active participant within that culture. I have a professor who studies the martial art of Capoeira, and another professor who studies and also works with the Kiowa tribe in Oklahoma. Other fields that they find themselves in include marketing, law, acting, and journalism, just to name a few.
A reminder of what I wrote about cultural anthropologists observing:
One aspect of Cultural Anthropology that is *highly* encouraged is called participant observation. Participant observation is when an anthropologist (and sometimes their protege<s>) observe what’s going on around them. This usually includes a shitton of people-watching, but absolutely not in a creepy way…at least, not intentionally creepy. Observation is just one of the many methods anthropologists use in their research!
Reminder of some methods that cultural anthropologists use:
~Ethnography
~Cultural immersion
~Participant observation
~Surveys
~Group Studies
Before going any further, Fellow Musers, I’m going to introduce to you two very important words that are probably The Most Important Words within the whole field of anthropology: Etic and Emic.
Emic-Insider’s view
This is when someone from inside the culture being studied explains/interprets what’s going on.
Etic-Outsider’s view
This is when someone from outside the culture being studied tells what they see is happening.
I’ll explain these two in more detail in a bit, and they will be words that you will see in future posts. Now, moving onward!
Written/Audio/video recordings/observations of what Cultural anthropologists write are called ethnographies. The book that I keep mentioning, have quoted, and is pictured below has multiple examples of ethnographies, including instances of cultural immersion. Cultural immersion is when the anthropologist participates in activities specific to the culture and/or the people they are studying, and write about. In the beginning, anthropologists studied cultures outside of their own. They studied cultures from an emic (outsiders) pov. Later on, once anthropologists turned to their own cultures and started writing ethnographies and observations about them, they sometimes wrote (and continue to write) from an etic (insiders) pov. Sometimes auto-ethnographies would come about from these etic viewpoints. One such anthropologist who did this was the previously mentioned Zora Neale Hurston (an early Boasian).
In a separate post (or multiple), I will put an example of an auto-ethnography using one that I wrote for a methods class, as well as an excerpt of Ms. Hurston, along with another female anthropologist describing pregnancy while pregnant. Both will have excerpts from the book that I’ve used the above quotes from. Yupperz, that book, along with some other literature that have been used in my classes from the past 3ish years and more, will appear in future posts…mainly so that you know I’m being legitimate, but also because I’ve been saving the material to use for future purposes and the future is, apparently, now. Huzzah!
To bring this around to modern times and entice you even more, there are podcasts that also center around different areas of anthropology. Besides Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney, I also listen to Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.**
So what are some general yet specific areas that cultural anthropologists study? They study things like traditions-food traditions, religious traditions, how ideology can affect people, etc. They study food-ways, politics, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, groupie culture, agency, space, movies, music, media in all its forms and its effects on society, etc. I will briefly discuss some of these in this post, but others will have their own posts. Due to us being from different parts of this globe that we call Earth, I also would love to know what aspects of your cultures do you find fascinating? What do you like, love, dislike, hate about it? What would you change/keep the same? What would you not change/not keep the same? I will pose these questions at the end of this musing and I would love to hear/read what your thoughts are.
I remember in my Intro to Anthropology class (way back in 2013), my professor told us that some anthropologists study/have studied groupie culture. A specific band that she named that had such a study done was the groupie culture around the band Grateful Dead. For those not familiar, the fans of this band are called Deadheads. During this class, we were put into groups of three and had to do several presentations for the class. My group did our three presentations on prostitution in NYC, cocaine in Columbia, and womens jail culture in a city in California. Almost sex drugs and rock n roll, but I think someone else snatched up the music one. I also remember for the final that semester, we had to write a short essay about biker culture (about 1/2 a page I think-it’s been a while and multiple sleeps since then so I don’t remember the exact details). I remember that we had to research the specific language used (ex: Old Lady=Female in charge), and use that language in our essay when we described our hypothetical observations. I also remember that, while not being excited about the final itself, it was the first time I truly enjoyed writing something for a final. Huzzah!
Note: I had this same professor for all of my anthropology classes at the junior college I attended before transferring. We had to do presentations on various subjects in all of her classes. You’ll hear more about some of these presentations when I talk about archaeology and physical/biological anthropology.
Fast forward to this past Spring semester (Spring ‘23), I took an anthropology class called Food and Culture. It was taught in conjunction by a cultural anthropology professor and a sociology professor. The former I’d had a class with already in a previous semester and the latter I had not been familiar with until I took the Food and Culture class. It was very well taught-what I liked most was having two similar yet also very different perspectives being given on the same subject at the same time. In this class, we looked at how various food-ways influenced social beliefs and also learned where specific foods such as the potato originated from. Did you know that the potato was originally from South America? It was brought to Europe via the Spanish, who introduced it to Africa and then brought it to Spain where it made its way up to Ireland. Did you know that okra is originally from Africa? I grew up on okra, have had it both fried and stew form-both are yummylicous! Okra is Life. So is mac n cheese, mash potatoes, chicken legs, Dr Pepper, and chocolate. Fight me!
We also learned that around 90% of corn grown today is used for ethanol, and 10% is used for human and animal consumption. I knew that corn was used as ethanol (I've seen and read the stickers at the gas stations), I just didn’t know how much was used for gasoline/fuel!
The professors were friends so there was also some friendly vocal sparring that was quite entertaining to listen to. Prior to this class, my only other exposure to the field of Sociology was an online class I took in Spring ‘22 for my minor, International Studies. I won’t go into it for this Musing, but in another Musing I will talk about the similarities and differences between the fields of Anthropology and Sociology. Also, I’ve included a video below from YouTube that features one of the authors we read. His name is Michael W. Twitty. This exact video was an option to watch for my class. In the video, Twitty explains who he is, why he is dressed how he is, and gives a history of okra while making some yummy okra soup! I would seriously love to meet this man someday!
Another subject that anthropologists look at is politics. I personally hate politics (hence the ‘bleh” in my About page where I put said word), but I’ve reluctantly accepted that this particular word is part of human life. Anthropology can get very political. One could argue, however, that it has to be political. When politicians decide to politicize gender and sex identities, people’s ethnic identity, decide what people (read: females and transgender) can and cannot do to/with their bodies, and a whole other shitton of civil rights things (read: human rights), then yeah, instead of simply observing, anthropologists will get involved in politics and will become activists. And I’m not just talking about the good ‘ole U.S. of A. No, no, I’m talking anthropologists all around this planet that we all have to share, and should share, equally.
<Mutters: I will not go into how borders are a social construct on this post. I will save that for another post. I will not go into how borders are a Social and Political construct on this post. I WILL save it for another post. I will not go into how borders are a social and political construct. On. This. Post. Must…Save…For…Another…Post! *goes facedown with hand reaching and pointing forward*>
So if you see someone who has an anthropology degree (or some kind of historics degree or interest in history) getting involved in politics, they most likely have other reasons besides, perhaps, being interested in politics themselves. I didn’t want to end this post on a political note…but here I am, ending this post on a political note. In the end, though, it is still a part of culture.
Conclusion
To conclude this post, Cultural Anthropology (as well as the over-all field of anthropology) tries to explore as many aspects of human culture as it can. Sometimes those explorations take place within the field, and at other times there is collaboration with different professions and fields of study! This truly is a fantastic field to be a part of (see, there’s my bias comin’ right out, y’all!). I hope that I did this post justice!
If you’ve gotten to this part, THANK YOU so much! I’m so sorry that it took so fucking long for me to write, but as I mentioned a while back, I hated how it was originally coming about so I decided to take a bit longer and make it better!
Also, remember earlier, I posed these questions? I would like to repeat them and hear your answers, Fellow Musers!:
Due to us being from different parts of this globe that we call Earth, I would love to know what aspects of your cultures do you find fascinating? How would you define culture? What do you like, love, dislike, hate about it? What would you change/keep the same? What would you not change/not keep the same? Feel free to ask these questions to our Fellow Humans who are not on Substack, and if you’d like, let me know their answers! They don’t have to be deep and well-thought out. Like my cats, I’m just curious about these things, and would like to know the (surely) various repsonse! ^_^
I would like to get to a point to where conversation are started/had, especially when I start doing deep-dives. I’m also trying to get out of my comfort zone (a small bit at a time), and start talking with my fellow humans about anthropology via the comment section. Eventually I want to start Chat groups for different posts (both free and paid), so I see this as practice in having deeper conversations.
As always, thank you for your subscription and joining me along this journey! Don’t forget to Carpe Diem and give yourselves a Huzzah! my sweet friends and Fellow Musers!~Kimber
References:
1.) That book that I kept mentioning and also showed a picture of:
McGee, R. Jon and Warms, Richard L. Anthropology Theory: An Introductory History, Seventh Edition. 2020. The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. United Kingdom.
2.) Twitty, Michael W. Youtube Video: Okra Soup with Michael Twitty. I also want to recommend his book that is mentioned in the video: The Cooking Gene, which you can order off of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any major book retailer.
Housekeeping:
Reminder of why I record the way that I record: You may have noticed that I say “Quote/End Quote” “Meme or Picture/<Insert Description>/End Meme or Picture”-I will be doing this in case someone comes across my posts who cannot see or read very well, but would want to hear my post spoken, even if they have someone available at the time to find the post to read it out loud to them. Having gone to a school aimed for students with learning disabilities and very much understanding what it’s like to not have people understand your own perceived disability, I want to try to be understanding and accommodating to people who may not speak well, who may not see nor hear well, and who may not speak English well but can understand it.
*I got the idea of conspiracy hypothesis from a podcast called This Podcast Will Kill You. I tried to search for the episode that this is mentioned, but I couldn’t find it. I will search again and update this notice once I find it. Or, Fellow Musers, if you’ve listened to the podcast and remember the episode that this is mentioned, please let me know so that I can update with the episode name. Many thanks!
**If you’d like to hear a modern-day armchair anthropologist, you should check out the podcast The Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. It’s hosted by Dax Shepard (The Good Place’s Kristen Bell’s husband). Before he became (somewhat) famous from the shows Punk’d and Parenthood, he went to college and graduated with an anthropology degree. On Armchair, Shepard interviews fellow humans from celebrities to experts in other fields and gets their take on what it means to be human. I’ve only begun to listen to the podcast (and have admittedly skipped a few episodes-currently on Episode 20 all the way back from 2018). The podcast is currently ongoing. Go check it out, along with the somewhat frequently mentioned Afterlives. These two are the ones that I know about and listen to, but there are other anthropology podcasts out in the ether as well if you want to go check them out! Huzzah!
Wheew. I finally got around to reading your post. I’m sorry it took so long, I had it saved for a day when I was free, but eventually I just sat myself down and read the whole thing. I really liked it, it was full of information without being boring, and quite interesting. You are really letting your excitement for anthropology shine through! Can’t wait to learn more. I especially loved the etic vs emic bit, and I look forward to those perspectives being explored more in depth at some point. Kudos to you for finishing this massive beast, and I do hope you’ll continue!
This was super interesting!
I had never heard of: Etic-Insider’s view
Emic-Outsider’s view. And I think it’s good that there is a distinction there, because it makes sense that outsiders interpretations would be vastly different to insider understandings.
I also didn’t realise so much corn was used for gasoline - that’s so interesting.