Understanding Man: A Perspective from Social Anthropology

By Dr. Sougaijam Priyokumar Meitei and Dr. Maringmei Philip

This book entitled Understanding Man: A Perspective from Social Anthropology, is devoted in describing the characteristics of man as a social being. The characteristics of man are very complex due to his complex mind, complex group life and complex experiences. This book aims to give light on the horizon of anthropology with reference to alerting and conserving humanity about what make us human being The world is not only the accumulation of the things what we see but there are also invisible realities occurring around us. In describing the characteristics of man, there are several questions to be looked into seriously. Why does man do hunger strike? Why does man commit suicide? Why does man have do's and don'ts in his everyday activities? Why taboos and sacrifices and so on? This book is trying to give an elaborating answer to these elementary questions and throw some lights to the students who have curiosity in such questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authors Click Publishing
• Release date: Feb 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9788119368686

Book preview

ABOUT THE BOOK

This book entitled Understanding Man: A Perspective from Social Anthropology, is devoted in describing the characteristics of man as a social being. The characteristics of man are very complex due to his complex mind, complex group life and complex experiences. This book aims to give light on the horizon of anthropology with reference to alerting and conserving humanity about what make us human being. The world is not only the accumulation of the things what we see but there are also invisible realities occurring around us. In describing the characteristics of man, there are several questions to be looked into seriously. Why does man do hunger strike? Why does man commit suicide? Why does man have do’s and don’ts in his everyday activities? Why taboos and sacrifices and so on? This book is trying to give an elaborating answer to these elementary questions and throw some lights to the students who have curiosity in such questions.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Sougaijam Priyokumar Meitei completed M.Sc. in Anthropology (Gold Medalist) from Manipur University, 2005, Master of Population Studies (MPS) from IIPS (Mumbai), MA Sociology in 2012 from IGNOU and had done his PhD in Anthropology from Manipur University in the year 2019. During 2008-2009, he was Research Officer in International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai from where he obtained MPS degree (2008). Also, he worked as Research Officer, later as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, 2009-2010 in GFATM-7, HIV-AIDS Counselling Components. He was also working as Research Officer at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Dept. of Psychiatry, (Imphal) for the Global Fund Rd-9 Project in Harm Reduction Component. He is Guest Faculty at Department of Anthropology, Manipur University. He achieved UGC-JRF in Population Studies (2011) and qualified UGC-NET examination in Population Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Women Studies. He worked in many other large scale national surveys such as NFHS-3, DLHS-RCH-3, Longitudinal Aging Survey of India etc. He has years of experience in teaching, survey research and anthropological fieldworks.

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Dr. Maringmei Philip graduated with Anthropology honours, from Guru Charan College Silchar, Assam University in the year 2002, and completed his M.Sc. in Anthropology from Gauhati University in 2004. He qualified UGC-JRF in Anthropology, 2012 and had done his PhD in Anthropology from Manipur University in the year 2018. He had Completed Research project under Tribal Research Institute, Manipur, 2022. He has years of experience in teaching, research and Anthropological Fieldwork. He is serving as Guest Faculty since 2018, at Department of Anthropology, Manipur University.

PREFACE

This book is devoted in describing the characteristics of man as a social being. The characteristics of man are very complex due to his complex mind, complex group life and complex experiences. The world is not only the accumulation of the things that we see but there are also invisible realities occurring around us. In describing the characteristics of man, there are several questions to be looked into seriously. Why does man do hunger strike? Why does man commit suicide? Why does man have do’s and don’ts in his everyday activities? Why taboos and sacrifices and so on? This book is trying to give an elaborating answer to these elementary questions and throw some lights to the students who have curiosity in such questions.

Everything in life is an experiment. There’s just a precious amount of time to live. There are reasons for working and reasons for study. We will be able to see more, see deeper, learn deeper, about man and about society only when we are engaged, exposed to reasoning and experiments. We work not only for payment, we eat not only for survival, we get education not only for employment, we give presents not only for return, but there are forces and obligations working upon our social life that has to be understood as a student of anthropology.

For the welfare of mankind, be it health, welfare policies, human resources, friendship or fraternity, progress in every field – peace, culture, technology, environment, economy, and conducive relationships are very much required which are comprehensive subject matters of anthropology. In order to roll out any project, knowing the people, interacting them, knowing their culture are indispensable prerequisites. Know our parents, teachers, neighbours, friends, relatives, well-wishers and it is our responsibilities to retain and strengthen the relationship if we expect a healthy society. Therefore, anthropologists are social doctors who are devoted in diagnosing several pathological conditions of the society. We, all members are inter-dependent and have obligations. Falling in love with anthropology means alerting and conserving humanity what makes us human being. Many of the important terminologies and theoretical concepts of anthropology are being presented in this book for the students of anthropology.

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

PREFACE

I. INTRODUCTION:  SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

1.1. Concept of Anthropology

1.2. Man as a Social Being

1.3. Scope of Social and Cultural Anthropology

1.4. Significance of Social and Cultural Anthropology

1.5. Development of Social and Cultural Anthropology

1.6. Why Anthropology?

1.7. Early Armchair Anthropology

1.8. Social Anthropology versus Cultural Anthropology

1.9. Social and Cultural Anthropology with Other Disciplines

1.10. Holistic and Uniqueness of Anthropology

1.11. Preliterate and Industrial Societies

1.12. State and Stateless Societies

II. LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

2.1. Definition of Linguistic Anthropology

2.2. Scope of Linguistic Anthropology

2.3. Language and Culture

2.4. Linguistic Relativity: The Whorf Hypothesis

2.5. Why Language in Anthropology?

2.6. Language: The Vehicle of Culture

2.7. Metaphors in Communication

2.8. Language and Identity

2.9. Language and Social Class

2.10. Language and Ethnicity

2.11. Dialect, Pidgin and Creole

2.12. Multilingualism

2.13. The Bilingualism Versus Multilingualism Dimension

2.14. Multilingual Language Processing

2.15. Multilingual Identities

2.16. Language and Gender

2.17. The Deaf Culture and Signed Languages

2.18. Oralist Approach

2.19. Historical Linguistics

2.20. Change in English Language

III. MAN AND HIS CULTURE

3.1. Concept of Man

3.2. Concept of Culture

3.3. Ways of Learning Culture

3.4. Misconception of Culture

3.5. Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism

3.6. Knowing a Culture

3.7. Material and Non-Material Culture

3.8.  Region and Cultural Zones

3.9. Sub-Cultures

3.10. National Culture

3.11. International Culture

3.12. Cultural Universals

3.13. Components of Culture

3.14. Cognitive Elements - Beliefs, Customs, Norms and Values

3.15. Generalized Cultures

3.16. Localized Cultures

3.17. Culture Shock

3.18. Rites and Rituals

3.19. Culture and Identity

3.20. Contested Identity

3.21. Hermeneutics

3.22. Culture to be Examined Independently

3.23. Ethnography and Ethnology

3.24. Brief History of Ethnographic Studies in India

3.25. Emic and Etic Perspectives

3.26. Salvage Ethnography

3.27. Holism

3.28. Unity and Identity of Culture

3.29. Globalized Culture

3.30. Thick and Thin Description

IV. CULTURE – ORIGIN, PROCESS, CHANGE

4.1. Theories on Origin of Culture

4.2. Psychological Theory on Origin of Culture

4.3. Sociological Theory on Origin of Culture

4.4. Critical Hour (Point) Theory on Origin of Culture

4.5. Historical Theory on Origin of Culture

4.6. Process of Cultural Growth

4.7. Concept of Enculturation

4.8. Concept of Acculturation

4.9. Demographic Phenomena in Acculturation

4.10. Cultural Systems and Acculturation

4.11. Cultural Boundaries

4.12. Ethnic Group and Boundaries

4.13. Boundary Maintaining Mechanisms

4.14. Flexibility and Rigidity System

4.15. Processes of Acculturation

4.16. Intercultural Transmission

4.17. Cultural Relativity

4.18. Cultural Disintegration

4.19. Reactive Adaptation

4.20. Cultural Fusion

4.21. Cultural Fission

4.22. Contra-Acculturation

4.23. Accumulation

4.24. Diffusion

4.25. Accommodation

4.26. Cross-Fertilization

4.27. Assimilation

4.28. Cultural Paradox

4.29. Cultural Lag

4.30. Culture Crisis

4.31. The Crisis of Cultures: Identities and Differences

4.32. Globalisation: A Tidal Wave to Culture

4.33. Security to Cultural Identity

4.34. Personality and Acculturation

4.35. Culture and Civilization

4.36. Culture and Personality

4.37. Culture and Personality School of Thought

4.38. Culture on Personality Formation

4.39. Personality on the Other Way Around

4.40. Criticisms of Culture and Personality Theory

V. SOCIETY AND SOCIAL GROUPS

5.1. Society: Concept and Characteristics

5.2. Elements of Society

5.3. Social Groups and Types

5.4. Social Network

5.5. Social Process: Positive and Negative Interactions

5.6. Co-operation

5.7. Competition

5.8. Conflict

5.9. Social Institution

5.10. Family

5.11. Marriage

5.12. Trends in Contemporary Marriage and Family

5.13. Kinship System

5.14. The Gift and Potlatch

5.15. Redistribution

5.16. The Obligation to Give and to Receive

5.17. The Importance of the Gift

5.18. Anthropology of Religion

5.19. Definition of Religion

5.20. Functions of Religion

5.21. Religion and Philosophy

5.22. Sacred and Profane

5.23. Animism to Monotheism

5.24. Functional View of Religion

5.25. Concluding Remark on Religion

5.26. Social Stratification

5.27. Gender, Ethnicity and Race

5.28. Political Anthropology

5.29. Economic Anthropology

5.30. Social Homeostasis

5.31. Social Problems

VI. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN ANTHROPOLOGY

6.1. The Scientific Method

6.2. Inductive vs. Deductive Approaches

6.3. Ethnographic Fieldwork in Anthropology

6.4. Founders of the Ethnographic Tradition: Malinowski’s Work

6.5. Identification of Research Problem

6.6. Literature Review

6.7. Research Design

6.8. Problem-Oriented Research

6.9. Data Collection Strategies and Methods in Anthropology

6.10. Emic and Etic Research Techniques

6.11. Field Notes

6.12. Research Kinds

6.13. Data Analysis

6.14. Quantitative Methods

6.15. Mixed Methods

6.16. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data

6.17. Report Writing and Dissemination

6.18. Ethical Considerations

6.19. Writing Ethnography

6.20. Establishing Anthropological Theories

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

I

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INTRODUCTION:

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

1.1. Concept of Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of man in his totality. Anthropology deals with physical (biological) as well as social and cultural aspects of human species in a holistic approach. Physical anthropology studies the biological make up of man, somatometry, somatoscopy or osteometry and other measurements to see human adaptation, evolution through space and time. Social and cultural anthropology studies man’s society and culture across space and time, past and present specifically that of small scale or pre-literate societies. By the term ‘Space’ refers to variation at a point of time, and ‘Time’ refers to the study of evolution in a chronological order. The evolution science may be applicable in gradual change with modification of the body for adaptation to the prevailing environment or in the gradual change in social institution, behaviour of the society for better accommodation and functions.

Anthropology seeks to explain how and why people are both similar and different through examination of our biological and cultural past and comparative study of contemporary human societies. Anthropology is a social science, which studies mankind in its entirety. The term in its literal sense means, Study of mankind, as it is a combination of two Greek words, namely, Anthropos and logos. Anthropology has gained popularity rapidly within the social or behavioural sciences circle. Through its various fields of specialization, it offers us great insights into the ways of lives of human societies across time and space. Although the science of anthropology studies all human societies across time and space, it has conventionally been accepted to associate anthropology with the study of the societies and problems of the traditional, non-western peoples. Anthropology is very much related with understanding biological and social health of human being, and the knowledge of anthropology has contributing role in health science as well. Health science students learning this discipline have a great advantage of gaining fresh insights and practical benefits in their personal lives and professional practices. Anthropology along with other sisterly disciplines such as sociology, economics, social psychology, human or cultural geography, history and political sciences has now become an essential component of the health and medical sciences curricula in universities and other training institutions globally.

1.2. Man as a Social Being

Social and cultural anthropology primarily concerns with the society and culture of mankind. Man is a social being and his activities are the result of social law and social system. Therefore, it involves the comparative study of social systems and how they work. An anthropologist studies societies and emphasizes the comparison of cultures and the ways of life of different peoples. Cultural differences need not be seen as a problem but assumed to be an opportunity to create new approaches to ensuring a healthier world. Further, it has conventionally been accepted to associate anthropology with the study of the societies and problems of the traditional and pre-industrialized peoples. Understanding social system means understanding social institutions and values by which people live and entail. Therefore, social and cultural anthropology includes the study of all activities, norms and beliefs of mankind such as marriage, kinship, polity, economy, religion and so on. There are materials and non-material culture which are the indispensable subject matter of study in social and cultural anthropology. Material culture are tangible objects such as food, dress, tools and any items invented and used by man. Non-material culture is intangible such as ways of speaking or eating, habits, ideas, knowledge, skills or learned behaviours.

Social anthropology was popularized by Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown drawing the ideas of French sociologists Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, a British sociologist and others,. R. Brown in his presidential address to the Royal Anthropological Institute, liked to call it comparative sociology. Since anthropology deals in alien societies and pre-industrial societies, the two got separated. Every society has its culture and they are distinct, unique and has to be explained relatively. Culture is acquired by man as a member of society and it is communicated largely through symbolism of language. Culture is also considered as super individual and super organic, since it is something more than an organism and an individual even though it is a human creation. Social and cultural anthropology encompasses a holistic study on various facets of the society, social facts, social law and order under the purview of culture. It has a broader scope ranging from evolution of human society from a very simple form to very complex forms of modern society. L. H. Morgan put forwarded the stage of savagery to civilization via barbarism explaining the social evolution. Various theories on social laws and social changes of distinct peoples over space and time are all subject matter of social anthropology.

1.3. Scope of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Social Anthropology is synonymously used with cultural anthropology because both the terminologies have the same subject matter, the former being preferably used in British anthropology while the latter being preferred by American anthropologists. The scope of social and cultural anthropology comprises on the areas addressing to social institutions and cultural evolution, material and non-material cultures man has invented in the social system, livelihood and human activities in search of his primary needs – food, shelter and clothes, and as well as the derived needs such as tools, implements and services. In simple language, it is talking all about man as a social and cultural being. Understanding the social structure and social division such as caste, clan, lineage and other social groups, the nature and pattern of relationship, mechanism of building solidarity and relationship either by kinship system or indirect relationship are the concerns of social anthropology.

This branch of discipline also covers applications and significance of first-hand contact with people while executing policies and welfare programmes in the light of inclusive development of people. Therefore, it has various demanding areas of study such as anthropology of development, anthropology of religion, medical anthropology, applied and action anthropology, political anthropology, economic anthropology, kinship, marriage and family. Social change, civilization and postmodernism is also one of the thrust areas. Social and cultural anthropology throws ample light on various historical phenomena and cultural processes like acculturation, diffusion, assimilation, contra-acculturation etc., involving different neighbouring societies, be it tribal or peasant or industrial societies.

1.4. Significance of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Social Anthropologists are social engineers who is looking forward for a society with solidarity, integration, peace and harmony by respecting each culture and respective social obligation. Social-anthropology often claims cultural relativity which address the uniqueness and specialty of every tradition whether it is little or great tradition. Therefore, the subject has coordinating role in integrating people and making good relationship with people through interaction and contact. All human beings are cultured as a social being; there is no cultural superiority or inferiority among societies. However, all people to some extent tend to regard their own cultural values and norms as better and somewhat normal or natural; this tendency is called ethnocentrism and this barrier is broken by social-cultural anthropology by studying society through an anthropocentric lens. Using of one’s cultural lens in interpreting other’s culture has no validity and is not reliable.

1.5. Development of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Knowing a new society was of great interest and several literal books were written out of curiosity. Human society is one subject matter with full of interest to many travelers. The explorers, colonizers and traders were thinking why other peoples around the globe were so distinct to themselves. Reports and writings about other cultures by Europeans were bits of interesting information as well as data for constructing historical schemes of the development of society. Comparative ethnography was started across the different societies in terms of religion, habits, food, rites and rituals and so on. These literary writings had led to the idea that the differences in legal system or belief systems could be explained by relating them to differences in other characteristics of the nation, the ecology, population, economic organization and customs. These social elements form a functional unity and are interconnected with each other. This idea could be described as the functionalist perspective and it was first depicted in the historical writings of Montesquie (Maire, 1972).

Later on many sought to trace the evolution of society, along with the similar analogy of Darwin’s theory of evolution in biological species based on the principle of natural selection discovered a new direction and a new thinking. Evolutionary scheme was unfortunate to give a clear distinction on why there were vast dissimilarities among different societies and the concept of diffusion appeared in the debate. Adolf Bastian (1826-1905) talked about common psychological qualities of man – psychic unity of mankind. It led people independently to think of similar myths and rituals.  This concept was not acceptable to those theorists who think that most people are not inventive. Ratzel (1844-1904) opposed the psychic unity of mankind, rather he pointed out that cultural traits spread over the world by migration across time.

Development of social anthropology is very much credited to B. Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown who had extensive work in studying society with scientific manner through fieldwork. They drew the ideas of understanding societies from the traditions of studying society in Sociology following the eminent thinkers like Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer. R. Brown in his presidential address to Royal Anthropological Institute, liked to call the study of society in pre-literate societies as comparative sociology. Social anthropology studies others culture, particularly primitive culture and its approaches and methods became distinct and scientific to get its name as social anthropology. Pre-literate societies have little in the way of records to work on and the ethnographers have to produce a picture of the whole society before the reader can begin to understand the particular problem that the anthropologist has been examining. In British usage, social anthropology is distinguished from ethnology, which is interested primarily in the past history of peoples without written records, and is therefore closely allied with archaeology. On the other hand, ethnography refers to the process of collecting data by direct enquiry and observation emphasizing to present the description of the society and culture rather than on general theoretical problems.

1.6. Why Anthropology?

Before we act, we think. There is a common proverb – speak or act in accordance with the standard of the audience. It is required to know the audience is, who are the listeners, who are the beneficiaries, who are the people to whom the action is targeting. It means know your audience before you speak. Know your client before you diagnose. Know your key population before your action. Know human being to do any progressive and development work for the effective result. Therefore, there is nothing more than that of knowing the people and building good relation as far as the wellbeing and welfare of the people is concerned. Knowing human being in holistic perspective is the solid subject matter of anthropology. It is through anthropology we get a comprehensive understanding of man that gives students of anthropology fully equipped with the knowledge of biological, psychological and socio-cultural characteristics of man which will be of use in any job sector in any place, at any time while dealing with any ethnic or racial people. This subject matter gives a theoretical understanding as well as practical importance in strengthening the man to man relationship. Students of anthropology are often hired in administration, small and large scale surveys, action research projects where there is involvement of first hand contact with new people. Katie Nelson (Brown et.al, 2017) reminds us that anthropology exposes the familiarity in the ideas and practices of others that seem bizarre. Robert Borofsky (Brown et.al, 2017) advocates for anthropology’s ability to empower people and facilitate good. Borofsky calls on anthropologists to engage with a wider public to bring our incredible stories and important insights to help resolve the most critical issues we face in the world today. Anthropologists demonstrate that our anthropological understandings can help all of us to improve the lives of people the world over.

There are many more contributions of anthropology in the field of improving social life of human being. Anthropology gives us an insight into different ways and modes of life of a given society, to understand the logic behind and justification for human activities and behaviour. It helps us understand our own ways of lives. Many aspects of our lives seem to us normal, so we don't know the logic behind. Eating pork, for example, is assumed to be normal to those whose staple (main) food item is pork. By studying anthropology, we look into ourselves through others' ways of lives. As we study anthropology, we encounter a different way of lives from ourselves, and hence we get opportunity to appreciate and understand ourselves. Anthropology helps us fight against prejudices and discriminations. It helps us fight against ethnocentrism; the attitude that one's own culture and one's own way of life is the centre of the world and the best of all. This arises from ignorance about other ethnic groups and their ways of lives. Anthropology is also used as a tool for development. Applied anthropology, here, is the application of anthropological knowledge and research results in the solution of some social problems or in the implementation of project plans.

Owing to its broad scope, anthropology allows us to understand the biological, technological and cultural development of humanity over a long period of time in human evolution. Because of its comparative approach to humanity, anthropology allows us to separate what is unique to our way of life from what is general to all people. Because of its relativistic approach, anthropology helps us to be more sensitive and appreciative of cultural diversity and variability. It helps us to avoid some of the misunderstanding that commonly arises when individuals of different cultural traditions come into contact. Anthropology reduces ethnocentrism by instilling an appreciation of cultural diversity. Anthropology can help us be aware that when we interact with people from other cultural traditions, their actions are not always intended to mean what we take them to mean, and therefore much miscommunication can be avoided. Health workers involved in health care provision in various cultural settings will find it very helpful if they develop this mentality.

Anthropologists bring a holistic approach to national and international development agencies. Anthropologists use their expertise in particular subjects to formulate practical ways of coping with immediate social problems. Medical anthropologists, for example, investigate the interrelationship between human health, nutrition,