From: strange@acpub.duke.edu (Michael B. Scher)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Re: The Bible In The Context of Its Time
Summary: Huh?
Date: 10 Oct 92 17:04:16 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

In article <1992Oct9.192405.21864@midway.uchicago.edu> coonstot@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>
>      However, I would argue that the interest in institutions
>by anthropologists is meerly to gain an understanding of them in 
>so far as they can advance research on the individual's participation.
>In other words, the anthropological study of institutions meerly
>allows the construction of a culture so as to provide background
>for studies of the individuals.  In sociology, institutions are
>studied as entities unto themselves.
>
     "merely to gain an understanding of them in so far as they can advance 
research on the individual's participation" -- ?  You may argue that, but
it ain't so.  Would you argue that Levi-Strauss's study of myths (classic
cultural anthro) is only aimed at the individual?  Would you argue that O'Barr
and Conley's study of small claims courts was ained at individual behavior?  It
wasn't, except in the extreme abstract; they were looking for the interraction
between the institutional culture and commonplace social culture.  True, 
anthro pays attention to the fact that institutions are MADE UP OF individuals,
but that hardly implies that the REASON we study institutions is only to
understand the individuals.  Usually it is quite the opposite:  anthropology 
is interested in the behavior of humans AS MEMBERS OF GROUPS--and while we
may draw on other fields, it is psychology that is manifestly interested in the
individual.
   . . .

>     Certainly methodologies play a critical role, however I could
>argue that there exist strong similarites between anthropological
>and sociological methodologies.
>
     Similarities as compared with what?  Physics?  Sure.  But if you were
to submit an anthropological study to a sociological journal, you would most
likely be rejected; unless of course you're Geertz.  This is because there
IS a difference, and it is quite a large difference, extending all the way 
to the very questions that practitioners of the fields ask.  All you need to
do is take a methods course in each field and you'll soon enough see the
differences.

[I (strange@raphael.acpub.duke.edu) also wrote:]
>>     I would note that in anthropology, we study everything from the 
>>individual as a member of society, to the institutions of the society quite
>>apart from the individuals (e.g. studies of kinship and locality systems),
>>to the society-wide institutions that exist on a culturally-created level,
>>but are taken as hard realities (e.g. race, gender).

> This is interesting, but I am not certain that what anthropology 
>does in this case is conduct a study sociologically.

     Since the studies I described date back to the foundations of
anthropology, I think the blue between anthropology and sociology is in 
your conceptions of them.  You aretrying to make a square peg fit into the
round hole of your conception of the disciplines.  Please note that anthro
IS NOT centered on the individual, and in fact there was quite a large to-do
when cognitive anthro broke onto the scene in the late '60's, over whether
it was overly centered on the individual; and you'll find that even that
supposedly individualistic branch of anthro still does studies like Quinn's
convergent evidence for an American model of marriage paper.  And THAT was
considered too psychological/individual for anthro in the late '60's.

>
>  Yes, and you will find that the questions asked by anthropology of
>educational institutions still focus on the individual.
>
    Care to give one example?

> [RE:What is culture?]
> True enough; however the question still remains critical to 
>the study of anthropology.

     That is what I said.


-- 
Mike Scher                      strange@hercules.acpub.duke.edu
Duke University -- Durham, NC:  Law and Cultural Anthropology 
This post expressly not for use as toilet tissue.
(K) 1991 Net Prophet Productions - All lefts deserved.
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology