| The Impact of Socially Disorganized Communities on Urban Tribes Essay Review |
In review of my “popular subculture essay,” titled “The Impact of Socially Disorganized Communities on Urban Tribes,” I learned to pay closer attention to the term “culture,” as described in this class. In most cultural anthropology classes, located on college campuses across the U.S., including Foothill College, social organization, which may also be referred to as social stratification, is a commonly taught subtopic. Cultural anthropology classes at Foothill College, consist of, an “introduction to the diversity of human behaviors, beliefs, and social organization.” (1) Cultural anthropology classes at Centre College located in Kentucky, include teaching, “the nature of culture; the relation of culture to language; the importance of the environment for human societies; and a cross-cultural examination of family structure, social organization, political and economic systems, religion, arts and folklore, and the impact of social and cultural change.” (2) At Kennesaw State University in Georgia, anthropology students, can choose to take one of two separate cultural anthropology classes, Anth 3310, which teaches, “the interrelated issues of culture, race, ethnicity, identity, gender, and social stratification in American society,” or Anth 3350, which offers students “a comparative survey of culture and social organization in various regions of the world with a focus on contemporary social problems, cultural change and adaptation.” (3) Unfortunately, since social stratification and or social organization, are seen as sociological topics, and not anthropological topics in this particular class, my essay was seen to be more sociological based, with a “great sociological view…of gangs,” when “the assignment called for more of an “anthropological definition of the culture.” Thus the problem with my essay laid not in the essay’s structure fore say, but in the understanding of the term culture as is used and applied in this classes, verses the way the term is used and is now generally applied by anthropologists.
As a result, and as a read, writer and thinker, I learned not to apply the anthropological knowledge I have obtained in other anthropology classes to this class, and to instead stick with only what is being thought in this particular class. Socio-cultural anthropology, also known as social anthropology, is now a widely accepted academic field and taught at some of the most prestigious universities in the world, including, Harvard, Oxford, Columbia, and Stanford.(4,5,6 & 7) Thus for many practicing anthropologists, and anthropology students, there is no longer a distinction between the worlds of sociology and anthropology, when it comes to culture, since the two academic subjects are so closely related.
Bibliography & Sources Cited:
1. http://www.foothillglobalaccess.org/register/Winter/ANTH002APRICE.html
2. http://www.centre.edu/web/catalog_past/2003/antcc.html
3. http://www.kennesaw.edu/academicaffairs/acadpubs/2008-2009UCat/UCAT%2026-29%20Course%20Descriptions.pdf
4. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~anthro/
5. http://www.isca.ox.ac.uk/
6.http://www.columbia.edu/cu/anthropology/undergrad/main/program/index.html#Majors%20and%20Concentrations
7. https://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthropology/cgi-bin/web/?q=node/806 |
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