Ib Social and Cultural Anthropology:. Pamela S. Haley

      CHAPTER 1

      INTRODUCTION

      I have taught standard level International Baccalaureate Social and Cultural Anthropology (IBSCA) Standard Level for about 12 years. During those 12 years, only two students failed the exam, and that was in my first years. But through the years, I have studied every (well, many) aspects of social and cultural anthropology (SCA), and I plan to keep studying it until I draw my last breath.

      Unlike some disciplines, social and cultural anthropology is very easy to connect to our daily lives, because SCA is not just studying other cultures; it is about learning about all humanity, including ourselves. Specifically SCA explores how we think, judge, interpret, and analyze humanity. In a sense, we are all anthropologists. We all observe other people; we look for patterns; we compare one group to the other; some of us even record our observations in a journal or diary. And “certified” anthropologists do all of that, too. But the difference between the experienced and certified anthropologists and everyday anthropologists is that formally trained anthropologists make a conscious effort to rid themselves of biases, assumptions, and moral judgments when observing others. In addition, they often spend years studying a specific group. The study the history and past ethnographies. It is not uncommon, for example, for anthropologists to spend their entire academic careers studying one group or even subgroup of people. They learn the language, history, kinship patterns, and every aspect of the target culture. They live and work among their target populations and gather numerous informants who will teach them about the target culture. Yet, they would never proclaim that they are the expert on that people. They, instead, humbly admit that their study is merely a detailed cultural account at a specific time and place. No more, no less.

      Anthropologists may be a humble group readily admitting to biases and rejecting absolutist conclusions. On the other hand, the study of social and cultural anthropology can change your life, because it can deeply change your worldview. It can make you a keener observer by giving you the tools to observe people and human interactions from a more objective and analytical stance. It does this by training you to observe not only explicit culture, but the more elusive, and much more interesting, implicit culture. Social and cultural anthropologists are always looking for implicit culture perhaps even more so than explicit culture. Therefore, hopefully you will find yourself looking for more implicit cultural indicators such as gender relationships, power hierarchies, societal structures, inequalities, kinship relations,