sandr010

The rules of residence reflect the general social,economic ,social and cultural conditions of the society. Patrilocality- When men contributes most to the economy and do most of the work,patrilocality is applied.Societies which are based on agriculture or do hunting require services of menfolk on a large scale.It is men in these societies who own land and other types of property.They require effective political organisation in order to control. Matrilocality-When women contribute to the society and economy and do most of the work.In some communities women inherit all the property including land.They donot move away from the land even after their marriage but ask their husbands to reside with them and assist them in their economic enterprise. The absence of certain negative conditions like warfare,political organisation and polygamous marriges all favour matrilocal residence. Bilocality-When equal importance is given to men and women in economy with proper division of labour between the...

Feminism is a term includes movements and ideologies which have  an impact on the emancipation and liberation of women.It also includes establishment of equal rights for women and opposes all form of male domination.Great diversity in feminist movments and positions is recognized .Feminism has never  been a united or homogenous movement ever since its origin in the late 18th century.The feminist movements are  working towards twin goals of struggle for equal rights for women on par with men under the law and the second for equal opportunities in the fields of education and occupation.Laws in world wide continue to discriminate against women in different ways  and in variety of contexts.The feminists are also fighting for  women's rights to have control over their own body and reproductive functions. The radical feminists believe that all the institutions  which are of patriarchal origin need to be thrown out.Others argue that there should be redistribution ...

The dividing line between the historical era and professional modern anthropology is the shift from speculation to empirical science.According to Malinowski the real meeting ground of all branches of anthropology is the scientific study of culture. This shift was signalled by a change of location leaving the armchair,the philospher and colonial mindset  to venture off into the field where primitive people lived.In the field  empirical inquiry would provide new empirical evidence.This would explain different cultures and permit comparison of human similarities and differences that was not speculation. The theories and organizing principles that accompanied the anthropologist into the field were those inherited from his ancestors.It was the time to see the truth on his own.

The intellectual tradition of anthropology takes shape in the 1860s according to British anthropologist Adam Kuper the invention of the primitive society: transformations of an illusion.Primitive man is the legitimate and defining object of study for which professional anthropology was created. Sir Henry Maine defined the distinction between primitive and civilized as ascribed and acquired status.Primal promiscuity,the precedence of matriliny over patriliny and matriarchy over patriarchy defined the primitive.From this speculative construct both the character of the primitive -its identification with living people and the specialist field of anthropology begin.The concept of the primitive was expanded by Sir Edward Tylor.Tylor saw living primitives as relics of earlier stages of human existence.

In Kinship Organization in India Prof Irawati Karve states the composition of joint family as there are three or four generations of males related to a male ego as grandfather and his brothers,father and his brothers,brother's and cousins,sons and nephews and wives of all these male relatives  plus the ego's own unmarried sisters and daughters.Prof Karve has followed the classical  three or four generation formula but she does not include the generation of the common ancestor,the great grandfather in the number of generations and does not mention unmarried males at all.This means for formula of the genealogical depth  of the joint family is deeper than the classical formula. She mentions for the joint family of the formula almost all the functional characteristics generally mentioned in the description of the joint family household of the maximum depth and she also makes remarks about the general nature of life in such a household.She mentions that every joint family has ...

Prof Mandelbaum's paper The Family in India was published in 1948.The aim of the paper is to depict Indian family organization in general terms .It talks about the model of the orthodox scriptural joint family.It is defined as a household group having three types of composition- All the men are related by blood as a man and his sons and grandsons or a set of brothers,their sons and grandsons.The women of the household are their wives,unmarried daughters and perhaps the widow of a deceased kinsman.There are even now households in which four generations are to be found  living together under one roof.Mandelbaum has followed the classical three of four generation formula. He states that the large joint family of former times  has been generally replaced by small joint families of fewer members and short duration but he does not define the composition of these families.He also describes all the functional characteristics  usually associated  with the ideal joint family a...

Urbanization is a universal process implying economic development and social change.It also means a breakdown of traditional social institutions and values.MSA Rao observes that the breakdown hypothesis originated from the western experience and it ignores the fact of traditional urbanization in India. Urban centers in traditional India were important places of worship,annual congregations,trade and navigation.They had a stable population.Today cities have come up as places of industry headquarters of districts and states or as centers of higher education.Some towns have lost their traditional significance whereas some have acquired added importance because of economic and political factors. Rao classifies urban studies into three categories - those concerned with the institutional approaches,those treating cities and their growth in the general contexts of history of civilization and those which formulate the cultural role of cities in the context of social organization of the great t...

The name Acheulian  was given after the site at St Acheul France where the first finds of tools were identified.The Acheulian tradition appeared about 1.5 million years ago in East Africa and persisted during the period of Homo Erectus.The finds includes large to small tools.Large bifacial implements and small flakes have been traced.It is characterized by predominance of hand axes and bifacial tools. Excavations carried out in couple of sites in Spain brought out the presence of elephant remains along with the tools used by Homo Erectus.Homo Erectus had learnt to control fire which could have been used for warmth during freezing winters  to keep wild animals away and for cooking.Acheulain camp sites were located mostly in the open,close to water sources. Since Acheulain tools dating back from 1.5 million years ago to more then a million years later show similarity to one another and Homo Erectus was the only hominid that spanned the period it is now assumed that Homo Erectus ...

Dating the fossil- The first thing to know about a fossil is find out its date in the earth's history.This can be done by measuring the radioactivity of radioactive elements like carbon,uranium etc.The radioactive elements lose half of their radioactivity in a fixed period.An approximate time of the fossils in the geological time scale can be pinpointed by this method. Geography- The location where the fossil is found is also to be taken note of.The occurrence of the organism there and the presence or absence of similar fossils elsewhere will point out the clues as to the origin,migration etc of the organism. Biochemical- The fossils may give a clue as to the composition of the tissues fossilized.In fact it has been possible to get small fragments of DNA from some fossils and a comparison of these fragments with other  organisms of the present day; a relationship is established between the organisms and thereby trace the evolutionary trend of them. Anthropometry- The measurements o...

All cultures in the world over have histories of change and none have remained static.At the same time it is true that all cultures do not change at the same speed.Anthropologists have traditionally viewed cultural change in terms of innovation,invention or diffusion.A variation of an existing cultural pattern accepted by a society is innovation.Most innovations are involved by modification of the existing habits of thought and action.An invention is the combination of existing cultural elements into something that is new.New ideas and new art forms also come under invention. Cultural environment  is an important aspect governing an invention.Most far reaching changes in culture are through direct cultural contact.This is the reason why cultures in major trade routes  tend to change rapidly.No human society has been completely isolated from diffusion.A society may reject diffused cultural traits or modify them for acceptance.Changes in the meanings of cultural elements are par...

Honor killing is the killing of a member of a family or social group by other members due to the belief of the perpetrators and the community members in some cases that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community. Honor killings are directed mostly against women and girls and sometimes against the men as well.These killings are common in patriarchal societies where male domination is high and women have no standing within the family set up.They are treated as inferior and suppressed within the family and community.Honor killings are common in northern regions of India mainly in the states of Haryana,Punjab and Rajasthan.The perceived dishonor is result of following behaviors - unacceptable form of dressing,terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or love marriage within the same clan,extra marital affairs outside marriage etc.Women and girls are the worst sufferers of honor killings .

Religion is universally found because it has a vital function in maintaining the social system as whole.The main requirement that religion is deemed to fulfill has been the necessity of ideological and sentimental cohesion or solidarity.Men pick up the items like plant or animal and make this the symbol of both their society and of their religion.Their shared religious beliefs arises from society  and in turn it helps to hold the society together.The social function of shared religious beliefs and the rituals that go with them are so important that every society needs a religion or some belief system that serves the same function.In times of individual distress or group crisis the rituals and beliefs provide help and comfort.The rituals and beliefs also have some function.They maintain taboos and prohibitions and those who violate them are punished.The non followers of norms may even be required to undergo ritual punishment or purification.The origin of religious beliefs lies in th...

Screening for certain genetic defects can help the future generations to get rid of many undesirable inherited diseases.Screening may be done at the prenatal stage and of the newborns.Screening of carriers are also important. Amniocentesis is a method by which many biochemical disorders and most chromosomal abnormalities can  be detected at prenatal stage.Other techniques are also there to detect certain malformations caused by genetic as well as non-genetic factors. Pregnant women over 35 years of age have higher risk of carrying a baby with Down's Syndrome.Prenatal diagnosis will indicate whether the babying the mother's womb is affected with that syndrome or free from that defect. Many metabolic disorders can be detected by screening of blood and urine samples from newborn babies.Mass screening programs for newborns for metabolic disorders will definitely be of great use to identify children who can be treated before it is too late. Identification of heterozygotes and avoida...

Categorization of humans according to physical or racial characteristics appear among very early human societies.Prehistoric cave paintings in various parts of the world and decorations on ancient Egyptian tombs refer to people of different racial origin. Anthropologists have discovered that people make distinctions between groups according to observed or presumed biological differences.The concept of race or categorization according to physical traits is virtually universal as is the belief that the feature chosen for purposes of categorization parallel differences in behavior. As European civilization spread across the globe,race became the subject of systematic scientific enquiry.It became an important  issue as Europeans encountered people who differed so markedly from themselves as to raise doubts about their humanness.They developed universel classifications.These classifications were used to determine the political and economic statuses of people. Race as a biological concep...

Demographers use the term demographic transition to explain the trends in the growth of the population.Socieities may be considered to fall into three categories in the process of modernization.The first category includes primitive social organizations in which fluctuation in mortality rate are defined and fertility is correspondingly higher.The second category characteristic of less developed countries is marked by declining mortality and increasing fertility as also high rates of increase in population.The third category is characterized by the modern society of the more developed countries in which mortality is stabilized at a relatively low average value,fertility approaches the mortality level or going even below it and a stationary and declining population. The theory of demographic transition is a history of mortality transition from high to low death rates and a comparable transition in fertility.In pre-industrial society there were fluctuations  in population as a result o...

Morgan and Tylor recognized the role of cultural borrowing in cultural growth.Morgan pointed out that cultures  in isolation may grow differently from other cultures.Tylor listed independent evolution,inheritance from common ancestors and cultural transmission as the three main ways  in which culture grow.  According to Majumdar and T.N Madan, even though they recognized the role of cultural borrowing the way they sought to show unilinear development in human institutions like family,the clan,the government,property and religion they seem to be indifferent to the consequences of cultural borrowing for its operation rules out undisturbed unilinear growth. Cultures grow and cultural parallelism arises from both independent evolution and diffusion.There are no laws about sequential evolution nor about the uninventiveness of  man.Cultural borrowing will always make impossible growth stage by stage and upwards in straight line.