Anthropological categories of peoples

Both the concepts of theological anthropology and comparative studies focus on different perspectives of the studies of religion. For instance, in the category of comparative studies, the separate fields of comparative theology and comparative religion provide the analyst with the ability to look at a particular religion with either an “insider” or “outsider” disposition. These differing outlooks allow one to enhance his or her own religious values through the research of another religion. As…

The idea of someone in a lab coat doing experiments in a lab brings about a certain type of thinking towards research. The stereotype makes many people feel as though there is only one way to learn something new, or to conduct research. To many people who took any science classes in high school or even elementary, they’ve been taught that all research must be unbiased and that there must be a control involved. That isn’t always true, not everything has to be black in white. In fact,…

over time. Examples of these negative effects as a result of racial identification have played a great role in America's history, and anthropologist, Faye V. Harrison delves into how it has shaped our view on "race" today, and ways in which anthropological discourse on race could benefit the public. Both articles discuss how "race" has transformed into a new identity through which we determine social structure. It influences us daily in how we perceive ourselves and others, leading…

Sex in western culture is defined by Webster dictionary as; either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions: adults of both sexes. The sex of a child is determined before birth by the formation of genitalia within the womb; consequently, establishing that child’s role within western society. The formation of XX chromosomes and female-labeled genitals (i.e. vagina and ovaries) or the…

Evidence for Anthropological Global Warming Introduction Throughout the long history of the Earth, the global climate has fluctuated drastically, ranging from tropical to glacial. In the mid-18th century, the Industrial Revolution began, and humanity began a bilateral campaign: one waged with the goal of achieving a prosperous, industrialized future, and another, inadvertently waged against the environment. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the influence of anthropological…

nexus for the reconstruction and understanding of life in a variety of time periods across the global landscape. More specifically through the displays and re-presenting of cultures, peoples, and practices, and material artifacts, museums act as synchronic portraitures of typically marginalized lifestyles and people groups. As for any such presentation of “text,” critical observers must step back from…

time of Tom Boellstorff’s (2007) article ‘Queer Studies in the House of Anthropology,’ little anthropological research had been undertaken in the realm of non-normative sexualities and genders in non-western contexts. Along with this, there was a lack of scholarship on female non-normative sexualities in both western and non-western contexts. Boellstorff (2007:21) argued that this gap in anthropological research was due to a range of factors; particularly the continued barriers women face cross…

In this chapter, we will closely examine the concept of the “gift” in anthropological scholarship. The first section will focus on what constitutes a gift and the ambiguity of gift-giving in social life. Then we will look at the long-term debate between different scholars on the distinction between gifts and commodity. The third section will focus primarily on Marcel Mauss and his theory of the gift, while its successive section on the various criticisms of Mauss’ theory by different…

It is the subscript of David Valentine’s Imagining Transgender – an ethnography of a category that clues in readers to the important fascinating turn his work takes across its three hundred some odd pages. Unlike other academic works up through the time of its publication (2007) which have tended to align a particular transgender experience with queer-studies (Feinberg 1997, Wilchins 2004), autobiographical/ “insider” narratives (Boylan 2003/2013; Bornstein 1993), or social service primers (Lev…

races. Even with the knowledge that the human genome insists the lack of a biological race, the persistence of the basal human need to categorize humans into ethnic categories begs the question as to why race still exists. To answer this question, I find it important to understand the basis for racial differences on an anthropological and genetic level and how race began to be a social construct. In the field of genetics, the human…