Law 19983 on
1. Antropology (a general reflection on humandkind) states that human beings are multifaceted, and defines three areas of research:
> Physical anthropology is concerned with the biological aspects of human beings.
> Cultural anthropology studies human societies and cultures, and their development.
> Philosophical anthropology studies the origin and essence of human beings.
• The principle of cultural diversity:
No culture is superior to another. This helps avoid ethnocentrism and encourages a tolerant attitude towards cultures which are different from the researcher’s own culture.
• The principle of the psychic unity of humankind:
This states that the cognitive make-up of human beings is essentially the same for all humankind. This ensures there is no racism in anthropology.
Explain fixism, creationism, transformism and Darwin’s theory of evolution
> Fixism states that all the biological species that we know today have remained unchanged since their origen.
> Creationism defends the idea that all biological species were created by God.
> The first person to suggest a well-argued theory of evolution was the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. His theory was known as transformism.
> In the 19th century, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he explained his theories of evolution. Darwin’s theories were innovative in that he proposed natural selection as the main explanation for the evolutionary process. Unlike Lamarck, Darwin believed that species -not individuals- adapted themselves to their environments. Furthermore, Darwin’s theory did not suggest that there was a tendency towards perfection. The changes that organisms undergo give rise to the random appearance of a new species. The publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution caused an enormous commotion. The implications it had on our understanding of the origin of human beings generated a great deal of expectation. Darwin’s theory of evolution ultimately meant that human beings had evolved from inferior biological species, related to the great apes.
3. The process of evolution, from the first hominids to Homo sapiens, presented two clearly differentiated facets: hominisation and humanisation.Explain hominisation and humanization and complete the tables using the information provided:
Hominisation is the biological process of genetically-transmitted anatomical and physiological changes, which gives rise to the appearance of new species of hominids.
Humanisation is the process by which the behaviour of individuals belonging to different species of hominids changed over time. These changes in behavioural patterns came from trial and error, and were passed on through imitation.
Hominisation and humanisation influence each other; anatomical and physiologicalchanges give rise to new behavioural and new biological changes. In addition to the biological foundation of human appearance, we develop a series of mspecific behaviours which make us truly human.
Explain the three dimensions of human beings: Nature, culture and society
During the process of humanisation, there appeared behaviours whose origin cannot be solely attributed to genetic inheritance. Human beings generated a new reality – their own world in which to live. We call this culture
The development of this new reality was not carried out by individuals, but by organised groups of individuals, forming a society.
Nature, culture and society make up the three dimensions of human beings
As a general rule, nature gives every biological species a series of instincts which provide them with the patterns of behaviour they need to adapt to the environment they inhabit.
There is one species where this rule does not apply: human beings are born unadapted to their environment. Therefore, the instincts other species are born with are missing, meaning we have to adapt to our environment by ourselves. Culture is humankind’s response to this need for adaptation. We use culture to transform the natural environment to make it more habitable and more suited to our way of life.
Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”.
From Tylor’s definition, we can infer that it is not the individual, but rather the society the individual forms part of that permits its members to adapt to the environment in a peculiar and exclusively human way.
Society is as central to the nature of human beings as are their anatomical or physiological y characteristics.
All human-specific behaviour patterns acquired during evolution must have been learnt, as / they are not part of our genetic inheritance. The communal living and organisation that human society provides created the conditions for this learning to take place.
5. Cultural diversity and contact between cultures are an unavoidable reality. This means we must adopt an appropriate attitude when there is contact between cultures. Explain this three three attitudes towards cultural diversity:
>Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own culture is superior to all others. Other cultures are evaluated according to how much or how little they differ from this culture.
>Cultural relativism maintains that there is no single pattern by which we can measure the development of a culture. All cultures should be judged and analysed using considerations and values that are specific to that culture.
>Interculturalism defends interculturality, a phenomenon of communication and interaction between cultures in which no culture is considered to be superior to any other. However, this does not mean that all cultural practices are accepted just because there is a social group that supports them. Interculturalists believe that it is both possible and desirable to establish limits for cultural practices, based on universal values that all human beings should respect.
Explain Cultural universals, name 6 cultural universal and explain three of them
• Language:
All societies have developed some form of symbol-based communication through language.
Linguistic communication is very important because it permits the flow of information, the expression of emotions and learning.
• Art:
The earliest examples of art date from the late Stone Age. From that time on, artistic expression can be found in all cultures. Art is and always has been a way to channel our need to represent our reality and express our feelings.
• Religion:
As with myths, religion is a cultural universal in which a deity plays an essential role. However, unlike myths, in religion the gods are an end in themselves, and not a means of expressing or justifying something else.
The main purpose of religion is to connect human beings directly with the deity.
•Rites, Taboos and Myths.