Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology

444 Pages·2011·249.12 MB·English

by  Carol Delaney

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To all of the students
who have participated in one
version or another of our
Inv estigating Culture classes.
Carol
Delaney
with Deborah Kaspin
Second Edition
An Experiential lntroduction
to Anthropology
WILEttBLACKWELL
①
A |ohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
This edition first published 2011
@ 2011 Carol Delaney
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Delaney, Carol Lowery, 1940-
Investigating culture / Carol Delaney. - 2nd ed.
p.cm.
ISBN 978- 1-40s1 -sa2a-6 (pbk.)
l. Anthropology. I. Title.
GN25.D45 2011
301-dc22
20 100s 1049
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs 978-l-4443-9690-4;
ePub 978- I -4443 -969 1 - I
Set in t0 on 13 pt Minion by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
Printed in the USA
3 20t2
Contents
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Exercises 25
Reading Laura Bohannan, "Shakespeare in the Bush" 28
Spatial Locations 35
How do we situate ot locate ourselyes in space? Are notions of space "u.niversal"
or are they shaped by culture? This chapter explores these questions from macro
to micro contexts, including discussion of mapt nations, segregation, public
spaces, invisible spaces, and that space that is no place: cyberspace.
Exercises 66
Reading Sue Bridwell Beckham, "The American Front Porch:
Women's Liminal Space" 68
All We Have ls Time 79
Time is another major way we orient ourselves. What does it mean to be
on time, out of time, or in time? This chapter discusses dffirent cubural
notions of time, the development of measuring time and clocl<s, the construction
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of the Western calendar and its rootedness in a sacred worldview, and birthdays
and other markers of time.
Exercises 109
Reading Ellen Goodman, "Time Is for Savoring" 111
Language: We Are What We Speak 113
Is language quintessentially human or do some other animals possess it?
Communication versus language. Writing. The symbolic function and
metaphor: dffirent languages, dffirent woilds? The social function:
what information do you obtain from a person's speech? How are race,
class, and gender inJlected in language?
Exercises 145
Reading Ursula LeGuin, "She Unnames Them" 147
Reading: Alan Dundes, "Seeing Is Believing" 149
Relatives and Relations 153
Notions of kinship and kinship theory: to whom are we related and how?
Is there any truth to the idea that "blood is thicker than water"? What
constitutes a family? This chapter also discusses different meanings of
friendship, romantic relationship s, and parent-child relationships.
t82
Exercises
Reading: Penelope Eckert, "symbols of Category Membership" 185
Reading A. M. Hocart, "Kinship Systems" 198
6 Our Bodies, Our Selves 205
Are we our bodies or do we have bodies? Dffirent concepts of the body, the
gendered body, the physical body, the social body. Techniques and modifications
of the body. Tattoos. Body parts and organ transplants. Trffic in body parts.
Body image, advertisements, and eating disorders. Bodies before and after death.
Exercises 239
Reading: Horace Miner, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" 241
Food for Thought 245
What constitutes food? What makes a meal? What does it mean to say
that "food is love"? Relation of food to the environment. Fast food, slow
food, genetically modified food ("Frankenfood"). Food and sex. Food
and civility. Food and religion. Cooking.
Exercises 281
Reading: fill Dubisch, "You Are What You Eat: Religious Aspects of
the Health Food Movement" 284
Contents vii
B Matters
Clothing 293
Clothing does more than cover the body; it is also a cultaral index of age,
gender, occupation, and class. Is it then true that "clothes make the mln"?
Haute couture, sweat shops, clothing, and the econorny.
Exercises
331
Reading: Iulio Ram6n Ribeyro, "Alienation (An Instructive
Story with a Footnote)" 333
9 Performances
VlPs: Very Important People, Places, and 341
Certain people, places, events, and cultural practices become iconic; they
embody cultural rnyths or epitomize cultural values. Jesse Owens. Princess
Diana. Wlry are certain people described as "larger than life"? The Statue
of Liberty. The Beatles. The global circulation of such icons.
Exercises 382
Reading Clifford Geertz, "The Impact of the Concept of Culture
on the Concept of Man" 384
Index 397