Cultures of the World

Why is anthropology such an inherently fascinating subject? Because it's all about us: human beings.
As the "science of humanity," anthropology can help us understand virtually anything about ourselves—from our political and economic systems, to why we get married, to how we decide to buy a particular bottle of wine.

Here are just a few of the intriguing questions anthropologists study:
* What does it mean if someone raises his eyebrows when he meets you?
* Is there such a thing as progress? Are modern technological nations really happier and better off than "primitive" hunter-gatherer societies?
* What is the cultural significance of gift giving? What are the subtle social and psychological rules we follow when we give a gift, and what obligates us when we receive one?
* How common is cannibalism today? What are the types of cannibalism and the beliefs associated with them?
* In American garbage dumps, what item of trash serves as a clear stratographic layer, distinguishing one-year's trash from the next?
* What's the difference between a matriarchal and a matrilineal society? Which is more common among world cultures?
* Why are Starbucks coffee shops, reality TV shows, and tourist destinations such as Las Vegas and Disneyland so popular with American consumers?
In Peoples and Cultures of the World, Professor Edward F. Fischer reveals the extraordinary power of anthropology—and his subspecialty, cultural anthropology—as a tool to understand the world's varied human societies, including our own. As a science that incorporates many disciplines, including psychology, biology and genetics, politics, economics, and religion, anthropology probes human behavior from nearly every possible perspective.
This course gives you an opportunity to survey the full scope of the field of cultural anthropology. Professor Fischer examines the contributions of the profession's most noted scholars, from founders and early popularizers Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Margaret Mead to more contemporary researchers, including Napoleon Chagnon, Marvin Harris, Marshall Sahlins, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes.
These lectures will immerse you in the world of the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia, the Yanomamo of the Brazilian Amazon; the Dobe Ju/'hoansi, or !Kung Bushmen, of Botswana and Namibia; and other indigenous peoples. In addition, they offer a glimpse into the lives of cultural anthropologists themselves—the theories and methodologies they use and the experiences of fieldwork—living for extended periods of time within the cultures they study.
By the end of this course, you will appreciate how valuable an understanding of cultural anthropology is in a world of ever-increasing globalization, in which members of even the most remote cultures come into more frequent and more influential contact through international travel, migration, business, and the Internet.
And you may be surprised at the many ways cultural anthropology affects your daily life. Here's one: Major corporations hire cultural anthropologists to create products—the PT Cruiser automobile, for example, was designed in consultation with French cultural anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille—that will have even greater appeal to customers and to find ways to advertise and sell them more effectively.
Please note: This course contains some frank and graphic xxxual discussions where relevant.
What Is Normal? Marriage, Magic, and Cannibalism
Professor Fischer's goal is to expose you to the astonishing extent of human and cultural diversity in the world. You will question your assumptions about what is natural or what is human nature, and explore cultural phenomena that, to us, seem odd, quirky, exotic, and even repulsive. These include:
Marriage rituals. In the Sandbadham marriages of the Nayar of West India, a woman can have up to 20 visiting husbands. Separately, each husband can visit and stay with her at night, but he returns to live with his sister's family by day.
Kinship ties. Matrilineal societies, such as the Trobriand Islanders, trace family lineage through the mother's family, not the father's. A woman's brother functions more as a father to her children than does her husband.
Gender issues. In Samoa, fa'fa'fines are men who wear women's clothes, do women's work, and are highly valued for their ability to function as men or women. In Western terms, fa'fa'fines consider themselves neither straight, gay, transvestite, male, or female, but as "something different," a third gender.
Violence. The Yanomamo of Brazil value ferocity. To be an unokais, a man who has killed another man, is to be revered. Unokais are held in such esteem, in their view and in the view of all Yanomamo, that they have 2.5 times more wives, and three times more children, than other Yanomamo males.
Magic, spirits, and witchcraft. The Fulbe of northern Cameroon practice a combination of magic and Islam. They believe that cannibal witches and river spirits can steal their souls. They protect their children from demons by placing amulets containing passages from the Koran around their necks.
Cannibalism. Although rare today, the most common form of cannibalism is endocannibalism: eating one's deceased relatives. It's considered a sign of respect, and a way to help their spirits live on. The Yanomamo practice it by crushing the bones into a powder, mixing it into gruel, and drinking the mixture.
Incest. All cultures prohibit incest to some degree, but the definition—whether one can marry a first or second cousin, say—varies. And is this taboo based in biology, religion, or psychology? What can studies of Israeli Kibbutzim and Taiwanese exiles tell us about our reluctance to marry those we consider "family"?
Rites of Passage. The Sambia of Papua, New Guinea, initiate boys into adulthood in a process that involves physical and mental hardships similar to those that cults use to brainwash converts, and includes one of the most unusual customs ever witnessed by anthropologists: ritual homoxxxuality between older and younger boys.

professor : Edward Fischer
production land: USA
Run time: ~24 x 30 min

1. The Study of Humanity
2. The Four Fields of Anthropology
3. Culture and Relativity
4. Fieldwork and the Anthropological Method
5. Nature, Nurture, and Human Behavior
6. Languages, Dialects, and Social Categories
7. Language and Thought
8. Constructing Emotions and Identities
9. Magic, Religion, and Codes of Conduct
10. Rites of Passage
11. Family, Marriage, and Incest
12. Multiple Spouses and Matrilineality
13. Gatherers and Hunters
14. Headmen and Horticulturists
15. Cannibalism and Violence
16. The Role of Reciprocity
17. Chiefdoms and Redistribution
18. Cultural Contact and Colonialism
19. Cultures of Capitalism
20. Is Economics Rational?
21. Late Capitalism—From Ford to Disney
22. The Maya, Ancient and Modern
23. Maya Resurgence in Guatemala and Mexico
24. The Janus Face of Globalization

• Pobierz folder
• Zachomikuj folder