Producers: Coast Learning Systems

The video begins with the anthropological definition of applied anthropology; that this field of study refers to the application of method and theory to the analysis and solution of practical problems and that it can be used, or ?applied,? within the four subdisciplines of anthropology?physical (or biological), cultural, linguistic and archaeological. The video shows how a cultural anthropologist, Professor Mikel Hogan, practices applied anthropology within a hospital setting to help resolve some of the on-the-job problems that nurses face at this time of crises within the health-care system in the United States. As the video progresses, viewers also see how linguistic anthropologist Breesha Maddrell works on the Isle of Man to help the culture there preserve and maintain the Celtic language of Manx Gaelic. Finally, the third segment of the video shows how physical anthropologists Amy Mundorff and Diane Cockle work in the area of forensics

Anthropology: The Four Fields introduces the central concepts, concerns, and research methods of cultural anthropology. It takes a cross-cultural approach to diverse subject areas, including subsistence patterns, political organization, the family, social organization, economics, kinship, language, the arts, and religion.

Exlains the four-fields of anthropology, defines the concept of hilsm, and describes how anthroplogists approach their subject matter form a holistic and comparative cross-cultural perspective in order to reach the braodest and most inclusive conclusions possible on their subject of interest. Each field, cultural, physical (biological), linguistic anthropology, and archaeology, are described and situational material is included to illustrate how each field functions and interconnects with the others. This video also introduces the student to the way anthropologists carry out their analyses through rigorous fieldwork and participant observation in order to create the ethnographies that describe human cross-culturally.

The state of Oaxaca, Mexico, is the backdrop of this film, which explores the nature of culture and how cultures are studied. The Oaxacan society is used to illustrate the basic characteristics of culture: an integrated, dynamic system of beliefs, values, and behaviors that are shared by the members of a society; wholly learned and based on symbolic systems; and constituting humankind?s most important method of adaptation. Jayne Howell?s work in Oaxaca aims to determine how this society in transition is adapting to the pressures imposed by outside forces, and illustrates some of the methods of research that ethnographers employ in a biocultural approach to discovering how the world?s diverse cultures function.

Humans are first a biological species, Homo sapiens, but they are unique among all species in their capacity for cultural adaptations. This lesson first compares humans to modern primates, especially the great apes, in terms of biology, genetics, and behaviors. Next, it surveys the evolution of the line of pre-human ancestors from the first bipedal species that emerged about six million years ago up to anatomically modern humans and their increasingly sophisticated cultural innovations. Finally, the concept of race is discussed as a social construct that has no biological validity.

This program focuses on the efforts of the Serrano tribe of Native American to revitalize their dying cultural traditions and language. The features and structures of human language in general are discussed, showing some examples from the Serrano language, and the role played by descriptive linguist assisting them is examined. A discussion of deaf sign languages reveals that they are in every way like all other human languages except that they are based on gestures instead of sounds. Nonverbal human communication systems are explored, as are various aspects of the fields of ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics. African-American Vernacular English is discussed as an example of a social dialect that marks membership in a group. The film closes with a focus on the Serrano children, who it is hoped will carry on the tribal language and traditions.

When studying how personality develops, we cannot ignore the role that sex and gender may play nor can we overlook the biological factors that may influence and differentiate male and female behaviors. Determining whether gender roles influence personality and social identity or vice versa may be difficult, but we know that gender roles vary greatly from culture to culture. It is also recognized that every culture has individuals who are transgenders?people who do not fall neatly within the proscribed male and female categories. Western cultures prefer to think exclusively in male and female gender roles, but many other cultures have created a ?third gender? or even a ?fourth gender? in which to place these individuals. As individuals, we not only need to know who we are but also how we fit in and belong to the culture we were born into. Sometimes it gets complicated.

This film focuses on three types of subsistence patterns: foraging, horticultural/ agricultural, and pastoralism. What all subsistence systems have in common is the need for water. Who controls the water is at the heart of human survival. In the postindustrial era, traditional subsistence activities have been relegated to hobbies, such as hunting, fishing, and berry picking.

Economic systems are the means by which a society produces, distributes and consumes resources, and are intimately integrated with the other elements of the culture. In this lesson the economic systems of several societies are examined as examples of how reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange play a central role in the distribution of goods. The Ju/?hoansi of southern Africa exemplify foraging cultures in which food is not produced but rather collected as it is needed and distributed immediately according to the process known as generalized reciprocity. The Yolmo of Nepal traditionally practiced pastoralism and subsistence farming, using an exchange system of balanced reciprocity combined with redistribution. A Ghanian market run by women illustrates a traditional form of market exchange, and a Japanese fish market exemplifies the wholesale commercial market with international participants but face-to-face transactions according to Japanese cultural practices.

The video opens with a wedding in Long Bow Village, in China, and effectively shows the diverse nature of weddings from one culture to another emphasizing that weddings are rites of passage, full of ritual and symbols that convey and emphasize the values of that society. It defines marriage and suggests that this is one way that societies regulate sexual relations between men and women. It points out that all cultures include rules on who can marry whom because of the general concern regarding marriage between close family members, or incest. The incest taboo is discussed, and the narrator and expert anthropologists explain it provides a structuring mechanism for marriage rules, endogamy and exogamy. Arranged marriages are discussed, how they benefit specific societies, and the attitudes toward then as opposed to the western ideals of romantic love.