http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/2564077

Anthropology. Ssec Publication No. 106

The major concepts, structure, and methods of anthropology are presented for persons concerned with teaching or constructing new curriculum approaches. Man is a mammalian, social, and cultural animal, who has needs that are satisfied through social relationships. Because these relationships are repetitive, they form a structure. This social structure generates its own needs and operates in the medium of a cultural tradition which must be learned by each human being. In the process humans acquire a personality, become members of many social groups, and practitioners of one or more traditions. However, no tradition fullfills all of man's needs, because the very fact of fulfilling needs creates new needs. Therefore, at a faster or slower pace, every tradition is changing. This process of change takes the form of innovation and borrowing, the latter sometimes called "diffusion" of culture traits and ideas. Changes in a tradition have two simultaneous effects of complication and simplification. Complication proceeds only so far before the chaotic quality of the complexity demands some sort of overriding generalizations of simplifying discoveries. Some of these simplifying features affect the way in which human beings interact such that doing without them becomes unthinkable. For example, man will never do without the use of fire, money, or agriculture. These simplifying discoveries affect the basic nature of man and, by adding to the total score of man's traditions, affect the cultural aspects of the human being. (Author/DE).

Open All Close All