Socio-Culture Anthropology

1.3.b Socio-cultural Anthropology branch : meaning , scope and relevance.

• Social Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology
• Socio-Cultural Anthropology
• Social Anthropology and Sociology
• Social Anthropology and Psychology
• Social Anthropology and History
• Social Anthropology and Economics
• Social Anthropology and Political Science
  
  

2.1 The Nature of Culture :

• Concept and characteristics of culture
• Culture and civilization;
• Ethnocentrism
• Cultural Relativism
• Explain why culture is integrated or patterned ?
• Describe and give examples of how cultures change through discovery and invention, diffusion, and acculturation ?
• Inorganic , organic and super organic view of culture
• Additonal concepts on culture

2.2 The Nature of Society:

• Concept of Society;
• Society and Culture;
• Social Institutions;
• Erving Goffman’s Total Institution
• Social groups;
• Communities
• Associations
• Organizations
• Social stratification.
• Status and Roles
• Social Structure and Social Organization
• Evolution of human society
• 2.1 & 2.2 Previous Year Questions

2.3 Marriage

• Marriage vs Mating
• Why do humans practice marriage universally ?
• The problem of universal definition of marriage;
• Kathleen Gough – Nayars Marriages
• Functions of marriage;
• Ways of Acquiring a Mate
• How does one marry – Marking the Onset of Marriage
• Types of marriage
  • monogamy
  • polygamy
    • Polygyny
    • polyandry
    • Polygynandry
    • Group Marriage.
• Marriage regulations
  • proscriptive
  • prescriptive
  • preferential
• Underlying reasons for emergence of cross cousin marriages
• Laws of marriage
  • endogamy
  • exogamy
  • hypergamy
  • hypogamy
  • incest taboo
• Marriage payments
  • Bride wealth
  • Dowry
  • Gift Exchange
  • Bride-service
  • Exchange Marriages
• Understanding Love, Sexual and Reproductive Behavior among tribes
• Marriage instability and Divorce
• Deviations in Marriage Rules
• Previous Years Questions

Optional :

• Marriages in India – Kathleen Gough
• Himalayan Polyandry: Structure, Functioning and Culture Change: A Field Study of Jaunsar-Bawar By D. N. Majumdar
• Notes on Love in a Tamil Family by Trawick
• Dowry System in India
• Strange sexual customs and adulthood rites
• Videos

2.4 Family

• Definition and universality;
• Family, household and domestic groups;
• functions of family;
• Changes in the family in 21st century
• Major world trends in family patterns
• Types of family (from the perspectives of structure, blood relation, marriage, residence and succession)
• Nuclear Family
• Joint family or Extended Family
• Types of families among Indians
• Different types of family in the tribes in India
• Impact of urbanization on family
• Impact of industrialization on family
• Is nuclear family suitable for Industrialization ?
• Impact of feminist movements on family
• Stability and change in the family – direction and factors
• Stability and change in the family- Anthropological models
• Patriarchy and domestic violence in family
• Gender and Family
• Previous Years Question

2.5 KINSHIP

• Concept of Kinship
• Difference between Kinship and Descent
• Principle rules of residence
• Importance of Kinship in primitive , peasant and advanced societies
• Principles and types of descent
  • Unilineal
  • Double Descent
  • Parallel Descent
  • Bilateral Kin Group
  • Ambilineal
  • Cognatic Groups
• Forms of descent groups
  • lineage
  • clan
  • phratry
  • moiety
  • Kindred / Bilateral Kin group
• Sigmentary Lineage
• Evolution of family forms
• Matrilineal Puzzle
• Kin Categories
• Kinship terminology (descriptive and classificatory);
• Kinship Systems
• Criteria for Kinship terms
• Determinants of Kinship Term
• Kinship Usages
• Descent, Filiation and Complimentary Filiation;
• Descent Theory
• Alliance Theory
• Kinship organization in India by Iravati Karve
• Kinship in changed situation
• Social Categories among Australian Tribes
• Previous Years Questions

3. Economic Organization

• Meaning, scope and relevance of economic anthropology
• Formalist and Substantivist debate
• Principles governing production, distribution and exchange (reciprocity, redistribution and market) , Consumption in simple societies
• Modes of Exchange (Also discussed in as part of above question)
• Ceremonical Exchange : Potlatch , Kula Ring
• Characteristics of economic organization of
  • Definition and characteristics of the Primitive Economy
  • hunting and gathering
  • fishing
  • pastoralism
  • horticulture/ swiddening (slash and burn cultivation)
  • settled agriculture;
  • The Cultivation Continuum 
• Traditional economic systems
• Discuss the socio-cultural and economic functions of tribal markets
• globalization and indigenous economic systems.
• Previous Years Questions

Further Reading :

• Hunters and Gathers
• Why do Anthropologists interested in Hunters & Gathers ?
• Defining Hunters and Gathers
• Classification of Hunters and Gathers
• Modes of transformation or Future of Hunting and gathering tribes
• Beginning of Pastoralism
• Definition of Pastoralism
• Transformation and Future Challenges of Pastoralism
• Theoretical interpretations of Agriculture by Anthropologists
• The Theories of origin of agriculture
• Modern Agriculture: Contract and Corporate Farming
• Sustainable agriculture
• Agriculture among Indian Tribes
• Issues of Agriculture

4. Political Organization and Social Control

• Meaning and Scope of Political Anthropology
• Types of political organizations
  • Uncentralized / stateless political organizations
    • Band
    • tribal level political organizations / multicentric P.O
      • Kinship based political organization
        • Linage political organization
        • Clan based political organization
      • Non-Kinship based political organizations
        • Age-grade based political system
        • Club-based political Organization
        • Headman
        • Melanesian Big Man-based Political system
      • chiefdom
  • Centralized / unicentral political organizations
    • kingdom
    • state
  • Comparison of state and stateless societies
• concepts of power
• Concept of authority
• Relation between Power and Authority
• Concept of legitimacy
• Structure of the Primitive government in Tribal societies
• Primitive Society and the traditional customary law
• law and justice in simple societies.
• social control
• Nation building process in a State
• Previous Years Questions

5. Religion

• Meaning and definition of religion
• The Universality of Religion
• Anthropological approaches to the study of religion – Introduction
  • evolutionary Perspective
  • psychological Approach
  • functional Approach
  • Structuralist Approach – contribution of Levi Strauss for mythology study
  • Symbolic Approach
• Monotheism and Polytheism
• Sacred and Profane
• Myths
• Rituals;
• The Structuralist theory of ritual
• Nature of Religious Practices (Religious rites and Rites-de-Passage)
• Religious Symbols
• Forms of religion in tribal and peasant societies
  • animism
  • animatism
  • Ancestor Worship
  • fetishism
  • naturism
  • totemism
  • Magic
• religion, magic and science distinguished
• Variations in Religious Beliefs
• Taboo in primitive societies
• Variability in religious practices
• Magico religious functionaries
  • priest
  • shaman
  • medicine man
  • sorcerer and witch
  • Evil Eye
• Discuss the religion in terms of adaptation
• Religion and Economy
• Religion and Political System
• Religion and Social Control
• Religious Change
• Some ethnographic works on religion
  • Sacred knowledge
    • (a) Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India by M.N. Srinivas
    • (b) Death in Banaras by Jonathan P. Parry
  • Rituals
    • (a) The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual
    • (b) The Religion of Java by Geertz
• Previous Years Questions