Major Issues in Anthropology - Essay Example

Viewing the world through an anthropological lens helps one to think beyond narrow nationalism, extreme fanaticism, and terrorism.

Culture is often conceived to be a body of accumulated wisdom of the past and it is said that one learns, “unreflectively for the most part, to replicate forms of behavior that already exist, that come from the past” (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1990, p. 154). The culture of a society consists of certain commonly shared values, traditions, and social and political relations, and factors like common history, common language, common locality, and religion play dominant roles in molding various cultures. There is no doubt that the culture of a society is shared by its inhabitants and they contribute to it either by enhancing it or modifying it. It is important to understand the culture from an anthropological perspective because there is a direct link between human character formation and cultural values. After all, man learns a lot from various cultures that he comes across. Understanding various cultures enables human beings to assimilate the good aspects of each culture whether it is alien or native.

Fieldwork offers one the unique opportunity to come to original personal conclusions regarding an issue and to supplement the theory with practical observation, documentation, and research. The field worker has to locate the issue and the area of study, and the success of effective field work depends on the level of involvement of the field worker and the reliability of the data he collects through his interaction and observation. Fieldwork is an essential component of anthropology as it offers the best opportunity for one to get into the lives of men, their culture, customs, values, and life styles. No doubt, such fieldwork can enhance one’s understanding of the lives of the selected group.

Political economy refers to “the study of how the rules, regulations, laws, institutions, and practices of a country (or a state, region, province) influence the economic system and its features” (Online Glossary). It is to be kept in mind that just as culture influences the lives of men, political and economical factors affect them. It is significant to understand the concept of political economy when analyzing culture because political and economic factors can alter the cultural heritage of a nation. The fact that globalization has brought about drastic changes to the culture and cultural values of many societies and nations is a clear-cut example of the relationship between culture and political economy.

Social constructionism refers to the process of constructing one’s values, ideas, and social and cultural outlooks. Culture, social context, and education can bring about this social constructionism in individuals. The cognitive development of a person depends very much on this process of social constructionism. Social constructivist theories are important in anthropology because they have pointed out the importance of learning about human behavior and it is of primary importance for an anthropologist to know how human behavior is constructed or altered.