ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology of Africa and South America

Anthropology of Africa and South America

Introduction

Anthropology is the scientific study of humankind; it strives for a comprehensive understanding of and proper appreciation for our species within the earth's history. As such, anthropology is grounded in the empirical facts of the special sciences and the logical argumentation of critical thought. Furthermore, scientific evidence is supplemented with rational speculation, especially when facts are lacking. Ongoing advances in science and technology continuously add new information to the growing discipline of anthropology, thereby strengthening some concepts and hypotheses, while modifying or dismissing others. However, socio-cultural anthropologists work closely with anthropological linguists in studying other societies with different cultures (particularly non-literate peoples with a “primitive” technology). One goal is to derive meaningful concepts and generalizations from the vast range of empirical evidence (Sykes, 2005).

Social evolution refers to social or cultural change over relatively long periods of time. By social is meant having to do with two or more organisms of the same species engaged-directly or indirectly-in pattern interaction; by cultural is meant having to do with the way of life of a social group, insofar as that way of life is a social rather than a biological acquisition. If the price of gasoline goes up, that is a social change (specifically, an economic one). If the price goes high enough and stays high, people's travel habits may actually change; that would be a cultural change. If the means of transportation themselves undergo significant change, that would be a cultural evolutionary change. These distinctions, though not exact, are clear enough to prove useful. Note that “social,” as generally used, is a more encompassing term than is “cultural.” Since its culture clearly is a characteristic of a social group, the cultural realm can be considered a subset of the social realm. There seem to have been few if any attempts to systematically distinguish between social and cultural evolution; many scholars, finding it more useful to integrate rather than differentiate the two, have used the hybrid term “socio-cultural revolution.”

Economical Change

Since the early 1990s, "globalization" means a new phase in the global integration of economic, financial, environmental and cultural. A close examination shows that this phenomenon is neither linear nor irreversible. Moreover, due to globalization there are various regions which face negative effect of the phenomenon. These regions may include factors that make them unequal compared to various western countries. Therefore, it may not be wrong if I highlight that the region of South America and Africa gets affected as well in a not so positive way compared to the western world. Their human lifestyle has evolved in a way that morality (Merry, 2006, pp. 99-116).

However, the empirical aspects of human social interaction-while facilitated by the placelessness of systems and structures like international finance networks, religious chat rooms, or television broadcasts-are produced, interpreted, and negotiated by people in particular places. It is for this reason that the ethnographic method has continued to define anthropological research, even as it pertains ...