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Feel free to write me at sumananthro1 gmail. Best, Suman. Tuesday, 14 August Holism in Anthropology. Definition: 2. Anthropological Sense: 2. Holism as an approach and research strategy: 3. Functionalism and holism: 4.
Applications of Holism: 5. Contemporary relevance in Anthropology: 5. Holism from holos, a Greek word meaning all, entire, total is the idea that all the properties of a given system physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.
Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave. Whether anthropology should be considered as holistic in spirit or not is a debatable issue. The supporters of holistic camp give the concept two senses, first, it is concerned with all human beings across times and places, and with all dimensions of humanity evolutionary, biophysical, sociopolitical, economic, cultural, psychological, etc.
Further, many academic programs following this approach take a "four-field" approach to anthropology that encompasses physical anthropology, archeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology or social anthropology. Each of these unique subdisciplines in anthropology contributes different aspects to the understanding of humans in the past and present. Rather than focusing on a single aspect of being human, such as history or biology, anthropology is distinct in its holism.
These subdisciplines provide the basis for this holistic approach. Second, the functional school which strives for an approach of studying human society and culture in terms of integrated components together comprising a social hole. This holistic approach would distinguish American anthropology, going forward, from its European progenitors. He believed that environment and nurturing were significant factors in human development. In contemporary cultural anthropology, the theoretical positions of the cultural materialists and the interpretive anthropologists correspond to two different definitions of culture.
Cultural materialist Marvin Harris defines culture as the total socially acquired life-way or life-style of a group of people, a definition that maintains the emphasis on the holism established by Tylor. In contrast, Clifford Geertz, speaking for the interpretivists, defines culture as consisting of symbols, motivations, moods, and thoughts. The interpretivist definition excludes behavior as part of culture. Again, avoiding a somewhat extreme dichotomy, it is reasonable and comprehensive to adopt a broad definition of culture as all learned and shared behavior and ideas.
While, the holistic approach permits anthropologists to develop a complex understanding of entire societies, anthropology also adds another dimension of analysis through cross-cultural comparison. Holism holds great appeal for those who seek a theory of human nature that is rich enough to do justice to its complex subject matter.
An easier understanding of holism is to say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Individual human organisms are not just x percent genes and y percent culture added together. Rather, human beings are what they are because of mutual shaping of genes and culture and experiences living in the world produces something new, something that cannot be reduced to the materials used to construct it.
It is important to note that humans who grow and live together are inevitably shaped by shared cultural experiences and develop into a much different person than they would have if developing in isolation. Sally Engle Merry, an anthropologist, got a call from a radio show asking her to talk about a recent incident that happened in Pakistan that resulted in a gang rape of a young woman authorized by a local tribal council.
Regardless of personal passion or version of the telling of American anthropology's history in terms of current stakes, teachers can easily work with this text with its clear prose and coverage of physical anthropology, archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, culture areas, and holism. Deeply imbued with a certain historical faith and pleasure in the discipline, the book blessedly refrains from being too preachy or annoyed with recent 'turns.
But what of the many anthropologists today who define themselves outside the traditional 'culture areas'? They can still learn much from this book. Summing Up: Recommended. As a plea for the holistic ideal the book also constitutes relevant early 21st-century source material for epistemological analysis itself.
In response to those who call for a split between the traditional four-fields of anthropology, Custred demonstrates that, from its very beginnings, the most important anthropology has been done by scholars who practiced in a four-field framework.
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