Chap 3 ANTH 212

Raymond Hames Author

08/18/2017 Added

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Chap. 3 212 from Ember and Ember 14th Edition

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[00:00:01.141]Long and detailed,
[00:00:02.830]largely because Carol Ember and Mel Ember,
[00:00:05.926]the authors of your text, are psychological anthropologists.
[00:00:09.392]So here are the major topics that are gonna be covered.
[00:00:12.437]The universality of psychological development.
[00:00:15.879]The anthropology of childhood.
[00:00:17.936]Cross-cultural variation in child-rearing.
[00:00:20.864]Psychological explanations of culture and variation.
[00:00:24.555]Psychological variation in adulthood.
[00:00:26.621]And individuals as agents of cultural change.
[00:00:30.954]Now we're gonna turn to the university
[00:00:32.443]of psychological development.
[00:00:34.607]So in what respect is psychological development
[00:00:36.647]the same the world over?
[00:00:38.397]And in what respects is it different?
[00:00:40.734]If we turn to the issue of emotional development,
[00:00:43.241]and we don't have a lot of data,
[00:00:44.836]initially there were Freudian interpretations
[00:00:47.754]using such concepts as the Oedipus complex,
[00:00:52.320]but research by Malinowski, as pointed out in the text,
[00:00:55.655]in the Trobriand Islands showed that Freud's ideas
[00:00:58.918]didn't fit there or they fit in an opposite way.
[00:01:02.241]And in truth, we know very little about
[00:01:04.737]the cross-cultural variation and emotional development.
[00:01:07.884]However, if we turn to cognitive development,
[00:01:09.768]we find that there is a great deal of similarity
[00:01:12.530]from culture to culture in terms of
[00:01:15.156]the sorts of cognitive skills
[00:01:16.849]that has to do with language acquisition
[00:01:19.889]and other dimensions of cognition
[00:01:23.556]that are the same world over,
[00:01:26.322]and that children tend to develop
[00:01:29.712]certain kinds of abilities
[00:01:32.212]in a rather similar time scale.
[00:01:37.660]Some of the research done
[00:01:39.577]by the Swiss psychologist, Piaget,
[00:01:43.211]on sensory motor development and the like
[00:01:46.339]has shown to have some relevance,
[00:01:48.997]at least in the early dimensions of childhood,
[00:01:53.335]in terms of its universal patterns.
[00:01:56.665]Look at the anthropology of childhood.
[00:01:59.221]And we want to kind of deal with explaining
[00:02:02.356]variation in childhood and beyond.
[00:02:04.461]So we have topics such as the parent's belief systems,
[00:02:08.113]and there's a nice description of Dutch parents
[00:02:12.100]and how they differ from American parents
[00:02:14.336]and the kinds of ideas that parents have,
[00:02:18.586]which the authors called ethnotheories
[00:02:21.612]about how children should develop.
[00:02:23.943]It's also maybe possible that there are adaptational
[00:02:28.076]explanations for childhood development,
[00:02:30.517]in that we should expect
[00:02:33.881]that in certain kinds of environments,
[00:02:35.789]certain sorts of skills
[00:02:38.152]and cognitive orientations and emotional responses
[00:02:41.891]would be adapted, and therefore selected for.
[00:02:45.471]And there's also a possibility
[00:02:46.833]that there are some genetic
[00:02:49.609]and physiological influences on development.
[00:02:53.062]The work of Friedman, for example, is highlighted,
[00:02:55.570]when in finding that, for example,
[00:02:57.697]Asian children and Native American children
[00:03:00.252]are much more relaxed and passive
[00:03:02.798]than children in Western societies.
[00:03:07.956]And so research in this area is ongoing.
[00:03:12.774]If we look at the cross-cultural variation
[00:03:15.125]in childrearing in greater detail,
[00:03:19.013]we want to ask the question
[00:03:19.964]does variation in childrearing customs account for
[00:03:22.530]the observed psychological differences of people?
[00:03:25.680]So the whole set of topics here
[00:03:27.001]that deal with parental responsiveness
[00:03:29.135]to infant and baby-holding.
[00:03:31.076]For example, we find that in many societies
[00:03:34.052]children are held a lot more,
[00:03:36.091]especially in tribal societies than in modern societies.
[00:03:39.910]Looking at parent-child play.
[00:03:42.110]In our society, for example, we emphasize that.
[00:03:44.915]In many, many other societies
[00:03:46.269]parent-child play is not emphasized.
[00:03:48.563]In fact, children spend more time playing
[00:03:51.083]with other children and not their parents.
[00:03:54.027]And then there's parental acceptance
[00:03:56.272]and rejection of children.
[00:03:59.121]Depending on whether they're engaged
[00:04:01.187]or whether they are kind of cold and aloof,
[00:04:04.757]the research of the Rohners is exemplified
[00:04:09.686]in a section in the text.
[00:04:11.497]And then parents attitudes towards
[00:04:13.681]compliance or assertiveness in that
[00:04:17.002]are children expected to behave
[00:04:20.197]or to kind of be independent and assertive?
[00:04:23.374]And there are different attitudes
[00:04:24.276]towards aggression in some societies.
[00:04:28.245]Aggression is not put down by parents.
[00:04:32.970]In other societies parents use aggression
[00:04:35.074]to stop aggression, which actually leads
[00:04:37.078]to more aggression later in life.
[00:04:39.300]And then task assignment in terms of
[00:04:41.636]in many, many societies children
[00:04:43.781]are put to work very early.
[00:04:45.988]That is they are responsible
[00:04:47.474]for a care of a younger sibling,
[00:04:50.464]gathering water, and helping out around the house.
[00:04:54.572]And then also there's a great variation
[00:04:56.849]in the kinds of settings that children have.
[00:04:59.465]In Western societies, they're in houses or other structures.
[00:05:03.870]In many, many societies throughout most of human history,
[00:05:08.072]time outdoors is the predominant kind of location
[00:05:11.136]where children learn and grow.
[00:05:15.439]If we look at psychological variation in adulthood,
[00:05:19.216]one of the more studied areas have been concepts of self.
[00:05:23.118]So many anthropologists have concluded
[00:05:24.793]that the concept of self in many non-Western
[00:05:27.030]societies is quite different from Western
[00:05:30.507]conception of the self.
[00:05:32.043]In general, those from the west
[00:05:33.537]tend to be individualistic,
[00:05:35.403]while those from the east tend to be collectivistic
[00:05:38.250]and the text spends some time dealing
[00:05:40.183]with the research on this topic.
[00:05:43.698]Another topic in psychological variation
[00:05:45.614]in adulthood is perceptual style.
[00:05:48.514]That is differences in field independence or dependence.
[00:05:52.246]And here we're talking about cognitive differences.
[00:05:56.825]They ask might the environment influence
[00:05:58.663]the way people in different societies think and perceive?
[00:06:01.729]And they bring up the issue of field independence,
[00:06:03.803]being able to isolate a part of a situation from the whole,
[00:06:07.890]or field dependence, parts are not perceived separately,
[00:06:12.511]rather the whole situation is focused on.
[00:06:14.594]So people have different cognitive abilities
[00:06:17.407]depending on the kind of environment in which they live.
[00:06:19.594]And what was found by a number of researchers, for example,
[00:06:22.335]is that in hunting and gathering societies,
[00:06:25.987]a field independence is very important
[00:06:28.739]because one has to be able to pick out game
[00:06:33.835]and other resources in a complex kind of environment.
[00:06:38.481]Although they don't give you much information
[00:06:41.216]on some of the tests used,
[00:06:43.024]the frame and rod test in the next slide
[00:06:47.592]will show you what that actually looks like.
[00:06:51.243]I pasted this in the slide set to show you
[00:06:55.507]what the rod and frame test actually looked like.
[00:06:58.655]And it's the ability to,
[00:07:00.601]you see those rods standing up,
[00:07:02.195]the ability to note whether they're vertical
[00:07:05.803]or slightly altered in a frame
[00:07:11.129]and your ability to perceive straightness
[00:07:16.107]will be a test of your field independence.
[00:07:18.978]People who are field dependent
[00:07:20.989]will tend to look at the frame
[00:07:23.418]and see and orient the rod in it
[00:07:26.548]and not be able to tell whether
[00:07:27.784]it's actually absolutely straight up
[00:07:30.183]or tilted one way or the other.
[00:07:32.757]Now if we turn to the topic of expression of aggression.
[00:07:35.712]Societies vary markedly in the degree
[00:07:37.433]to which adults express anger
[00:07:39.174]and act aggressively towards others.
[00:07:43.061]In farming communities, for example,
[00:07:45.047]it was suggested by Edgerton
[00:07:47.170]that farmers tend to hold their emotions close.
[00:07:51.630]They tend not to blow up or express their anger
[00:07:55.189]or indeed even happiness towards others.
[00:07:57.495]They want to have dependent relationships.
[00:08:00.884]But on the other hand, he found that pastoralists
[00:08:03.268]were more willing than farmers
[00:08:05.121]to express aggression openly.
[00:08:08.461]It's hard to tell what this is a consequence of,
[00:08:11.110]but it may the fact that in general
[00:08:13.635]pastoralists are much more war-like than farmers.
[00:08:19.045]This is just a kind of illustrated example
[00:08:20.918]of a very aggressive society, the Yanomamo,
[00:08:23.896]a group that I studied.
[00:08:24.791]And here we have two men facing off in a crowd,
[00:08:28.960]doing a chest pounding duel.
[00:08:32.125]The receiver of the blow stands with his chest out
[00:08:35.717]and the person who's gonna deliver the blow
[00:08:39.260]is all wound up and he's gonna strike
[00:08:41.534]in a ram blow across the heart.
[00:08:44.102]And this is in contrast to the kinda peaceful life
[00:08:46.736]we see among the Pygmy, a very relaxed kinda family life,
[00:08:51.410]children being cared for by men and women
[00:08:54.579]and a very kind of relaxed attitude.
[00:08:56.561]This is in direct, and what's also significant
[00:09:00.352]is that the Pygmy have very low levels of violence,
[00:09:03.036]where the Yanomamo have very high levels of violence.
[00:09:08.008]In the box on page 167,
[00:09:10.438]the question of gender differences in morality is asked.
[00:09:13.838]Are women more concerned with compassion,
[00:09:15.896]sensitivity to others, and affection?
[00:09:19.150]While men are more concerned with following rules
[00:09:21.604]and impartiality, as Gilligan suggests?
[00:09:25.644]There's some evidence for these differences,
[00:09:27.359]but even though men and women feel differently
[00:09:30.909]in these dimensions, there's no evidence
[00:09:33.418]that they seem to affect their moral behavior.
[00:09:39.176]Sometimes we want to focus on psychological
[00:09:41.328]explanations of cultural variation,
[00:09:43.832]that is do the psychology people
[00:09:46.564]somehow color and affect the nature of the culture?
[00:09:49.256]So psychological anthropologists are interested
[00:09:51.786]in the possible causes of psychological differences
[00:09:54.392]between societies, as well as the possible
[00:09:57.144]consequences of psychological variation.
[00:10:00.852]Again, some research has been done in this area,
[00:10:04.339]but it's really a very interesting question
[00:10:07.377]and we just have at this point
[00:10:08.843]some more tantalizing questions than good solid conclusion.
[00:10:14.064]One approach to, explanations of cultural variation
[00:10:18.651]stem from the work of Adam Kardiner,
[00:10:21.078]who suggested that cultural patterns
[00:10:23.110]influence personality development,
[00:10:25.131]and that the resulting personality
[00:10:26.584]characteristics influence culture.
[00:10:29.595]So we have primary institutions
[00:10:31.420]that have to do with how we adapt to the environment,
[00:10:34.535]how we procure our food.
[00:10:36.353]And then this leads to secondary institutions,
[00:10:40.098]which are social institutions,
[00:10:41.465]like family, marriage, and kinship,
[00:10:43.774]and trying to figure out how personality
[00:10:47.059]and psychology affect the structure
[00:10:50.691]of these institutions and vice versa.
[00:10:54.409]Other researchers have kind of taken Kardiner's
[00:10:57.101]approach to heart and look at the personality
[00:10:59.440]integration of culture, which refers to the possibility
[00:11:02.337]that an understanding of personality
[00:11:04.159]might help us explain connections
[00:11:06.710]between primary and secondary institutions.
[00:11:10.291]If you look at individuals as agents of cultural change,
[00:11:13.883]and here the focus is on how
[00:11:15.802]individuals can change cultures,
[00:11:18.314]ethnographers are focusing more explicitly now
[00:11:21.249]on how individual agency,
[00:11:24.004]that is the ability of individuals
[00:11:26.155]to act on their own and follow their own desires,
[00:11:29.465]may bring about cultural change,
[00:11:31.879]especially when groups of individuals
[00:11:35.224]work together to create change.

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Chap 3 ANTH 212

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