Subjects: Anthropology

This program explores concepts related to non-kin based social groupings by focusing on the culture of the Black Indians of New Orleans. They are a common interest group that celebrates their own art and culture, culminating in their annual celebration of Mardi Gras separately from the better known White Carnival. Divisions within the group based on age and gender are discussed, as is its origins and history as an oppressed minority social class excluded from the white Mardi Gras. Finally the show examines the effects of hurricane Katrina on the culture of the Mardi Gras Black Indians and on the recovery of the city in general.

This video explores the anthropological concepts of political organization and social control as practiced cross-culturally. It opens with anthropologists Victoria Bernal and Laura Nader discussing the concepts of political organization, in terms of power, authority, functions, and its four main forms: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Nader and William Ury then explore the various methods of maintaining social order across cultures, including interior and externalized controls, sanctions and laws. Methods of dispute resolution are described by Nader and Ury, and the two then debate the merits of the use of alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR) in the United States. China?s control over citizen use of the internet is used as an example of the interrelationships between social control, ideology, legitimacy, and the potential for the use of force by ruling powers.

The program opens with a general discussion of the anthropological definition of religion contrasted with spirituality. This is followed by a close up view of some of the history, beliefs, and practices of Islam and Tibetan Buddhism, through the eyes of several experts and practitioners. Discussions of anthropological concepts of religion cross-culturally are offered with examples of the basic forms of religion, its specialists, and its rituals, as well as magic and witchcraft. The exploration of some of the social and psychological functions of religious practices and belief systems, especially focusing on Islam, conclude the show.

This video lesson focuses on visual, verbal and musical art forms. Since art is created in response to social. religious, political, economic, and aesthetic stimuli, anthropologists use it as a guide to understanding the values and ideals of culture. Being able to put art within a cultural context enables anthropologists to observe cultural dynamics. That is why tattoos, hip hop and hula provide insight into past and present cultures. You will also be reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest Potlatch ceremony. This once again will highlight the integrated nature of all aspects of culture.

This lesson details the technological, artistic, and geographic expansion of the Cro-Magnons, the anatomically modern humans of Europe during the Upper Paleolithic era. The video details some of the major innovations, such as blade technique in which long, parallel-sided flakes are struck off the edges of a specially prepared core. It also details artistic endeavors of the Upper Paleolithic, beyond cave paintings, such as Venus figures. The geographic expansion during this time is also presented, highlighting the need for and development of a new technology used for their migration over open water. The video also illustrates the cognitive capacity of the Homo sapiens of the Upper Paleolithic, and how it allowed them to create technology that eased their daily survival.

This lesson explores how the accelerated rate of cultural change continued to drive human innovation in ways that transformed daily life for everyone. It illustrates the most radical cultural shift in the history of humankind that occurred in the Neolithic period (or New Stone Age), detailing the domestication of plants and animals and the shift to setting up permanent residences. The video concentrates on the Mayan civilization to explain the cultural changes that mark the differences between village life and urban settlements.

The video begins with comments on some instances of ethnic genocide that have occurred in the past in the Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Nazi Germany during World War II, and relates these occurrences to the concept of ?race,? a concept that is based on physical differences between groups. Briefly explains the historical context of how the concept of race emerged among European explorers during the sixteenth century. And, it explains that today anthropologists and scholars look beyond visible physical differences to explain human variation, that they analyze genetics and DNA, the cornerstone of genetic studies, to describe and understand human diversity. The video defines polymorphisms and clearly explains how their presence in human genotypes causes differences in phenotypic variation.

How do humans adapt to environmental challenges? In this video, experts explore this question from many angles. The difference between acclimatization and adaptation is explained. Nina Jablonski explains skin color function and adaptations related to UV radiation levels, the vitamin D hypothesis, and preventing the loss of folate in the body. High-altitude adaptations are also discussed, along with responses to heat and cold stressors. In the last segment, the evolutionary dance between humans and their pathogens is brought to light. The interwoven interactions between human cultural activities, and the evolution of new pathogens, as well as the evolution of drug resistance in existing pathogens are discussed.

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.

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.