BANC-133 : FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

ANTHROPOLOGY
Tutor Marked Assignments

Course Code: BANC-133

Assignment Code: ASST /TMA /July 2021 and January 2022
Total Marks: 100

There are three Assignments. All questions are compulsory.

Assignment – A

Answer the following in about 500 words each. 20X2= 40

a. Discuss the relevance of social and cultural anthropology.
b. Write a note on fieldwork traditions in anthropology.

Assignment – B
Answer the following in about 250 words each. (Write Short Notes) 10X3=30
a. Symbolism
b. The British and American Schools of Anthropology.
c. Discuss institutions within the ambit of social and cultural anthropology

Assignment – C

Answer the following questions in about 150 words each. 5X6=30

a. Rapport Building
b. Caste and Tribe
c. Contemporary theories
d. Marriage
e. Survey method
f. Report Writing

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ASSIGNMENT REFERENCE MATERIAL (2021-22)

BANC-133

Fundamentals of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Assignment – A

Answer the following in about 500 words each.

Q1. Discuss the relevance of social and cultural anthropology.

Ans. It is also accepted in anthropological theory that the real social conditions do not show up on the
surface but are at deeper layers below the visible reality, and to look for the real reasons, one may
have to go deeper. This is the reason that anthropological methods require long term and engaged
study of a particular situation or ‘field’. This in-depth study is mostly qualitative in nature where one
engages with real human beings rather than just rely on secondary data or statistics. This is where
anthropologists differ significantly from economists, as to them concepts like poverty are not just
statistical figures but relate to real people, their lives and their real life conditions. Anthropologists
tend to put a face on the facts that they present.

The ethnographic method, as the anthropological method of doing a holistic study of a specific area, is
called, often uses as data, personal narratives, life histories and face to face interviews with real
people. It also involves the anthropologist going and staying for long periods of time with the people
who are being studied and whose lives are then shared by them. This is known in anthropological
language as ‘going native’. Thus anthropological fieldwork involves the subjective interaction of the
anthropologist with the field that can no longer be viewed as an object. The subjectivities of the
informants and that of the anthropologist for man interaction where the subjective self of the
anthropologist cannot be ignored. In other words the anthropologist is not the passive, objective,
scientific observer of the laboratory situation; he or she is a living human being in contact with other
human beings and thus his or her emotions and sentiments remain alive. The fieldwork situation is an
interaction of one human being with others and therefore there is a cognitive and perceptual element
from both sides. The very presence of the anthropologist transforms the field as others begin to
interact with the scholar, who becomes situated in the field, as a part of it (Clifford and Marcus
1990).This very subjectivity, the lack of so-called scientific objectivity is the hallmark of the
anthropological method.

Q2. Write a note on fieldwork traditions in anthropology.

Ans. The term ‘fieldwork’ is used to describe research in all areas of anthropology from social and
cultural anthropology to medical or biological anthropology. The practice of ‘fieldwork’ can be done
in a variety of different settings such as an urban or virtual environment, a small tribal community, a
museum, library, cultural institution, business, or a primate conservation area.

There is a general consensus amongst anthropologists today that fieldwork came to be considered part
of the practice of social anthropology with the work of one of the founding fathers of British
anthropology, Bronislaw Malinowski. Unlike the ‘armchair anthropologists’ before him, Malinowski
advocated, instead of studying other peoples from the comfort of university libraries, going ‘into the
field’: that is, living with the people he was studying, engaging in their community, learning their
language, eating their food, and taking part in their everyday life. Since Malinowski’s time, fieldwork

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– traditionally, away from one’s own society – has been regarded as an essential and necessary part of
an anthropologist’s professional training. Fieldwork over an extended period – typically 1-2 years -
has been thought of as particular to social anthropology, and part of what distinguishes the discipline
from other social sciences. Today, some anthropologists still consider that doing fieldwork in the
traditional Malinowskian sense is an essential and distinguishing aspect of anthropological research.
Others see fieldwork as encompassing a wide variety of practices in different settings, and as one of
many different methods by which anthropologists can gain intimate knowledge of a community.
Fieldwork itself is increasingly practised in highly contemporary settings, as well as the more
traditional ‘remote’ ones.

Assignment – B

Answer the following in about 250 words each. (Write Short Notes)

Q3. Symbolism

Ans. By the sixties, the understanding of culture as a system of symbols was taking its roots (Ortner
1984). A symbol is a representation of something to which it has no inherent or physical relationship.
Thus language is the prime example of symbolic behaviour, something that only the human brain is
capable of. Since the relationship of an object to the sound that represents it is purely arbitrary, there
are numerous languages and dialects in the world, for there are just so many ways in which anything
can be attached to a verbal expression. The same or similar sound may mean something quite different
in different languages. The symbolic approach looks at culture itself as a system of symbols and
symbolically constructed action patterns. Everything in culture has a meaning. Thus we have
culturally prescribed dress codes, we have culturally understood scripts for action, and we are able to
understand signs, gestures, words and actions because the process of symbolic behaviour is also a
public and shared one. So to say, all belonging to the same community of shared meaning can
communicate easily with each other, while outside of one’s shared meaning system people become
illiterate, they become clueless as to what is happening.

Q4. The British and American Schools of Anthropology.

Ans. The intrinsic relationship of anthropology with colonisation is explicit in the further
development of the discipline in its British version and the development of what came to be known as
the American Cultural Tradition. The academic roots of British structural –functional school was
drawn from the functionalism of Durkheim(1950) who belonged to the French school of sociology.
The structural-functional school critiqued the classical evolutionists for their speculative theories.
Moving away from the deductive theories of evolution they moved to empiricism and developed the
field study method that has today become the hallmark of anthropology.

Q5. Discuss institutions within the ambit of social and cultural anthropology

Ans. The social institutions are vital to the functioning of any society as they enable the members of
the society to perform all the tasks that are required by them as social persons. The institutions that we
will discuss are:

Economic: This has been often considered to be the most basic of human institutions as it has to do
with physical survival such as provision of food and shelter. But to be human goes way beyond mere
food, clothing and shelter and we shall see how this institution also regulates the way people relate to
each other and how hierarchies and inequalities are formed in society on the basis of distribution and
control of resources essential not only for survival but for locating persons on a scale of social
importance. The economic institutions are divided into three types depending upon which aspect of
the economy they deal with.

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Political: All societies comprise of individuals but the social norms or the rules that bind people
together often require that one has to rise above individual interests and pay heed to the group above
one’s self. The political institution of any society has to deal with questions of regulation and
management of social relations both inside the group and outside of it. The political institutions have
to deal with power, as management of these relations may involve direct or indirect coercion.

Assignment – C

Answer the following questions in about 150 words each.

Q6. Rapport Building

Ans. Rapporter is an old French word that literally means to bring back (webster.com). Rapport
building is one of the important process in fieldwork, through which anthropologists gain access to a
community or universe, and are able to bring back information and data. The aim of rapport is to
create a harmonious and friendly relation with people. Creating rapport helps in building trust, belief
and confidence among two or more persons in a way that facilitates the flow of information both
ways. So, the question here is how to build rapport. Rapport building is a two-way process where the
fieldworker is also being observed and questioned by the people in the field. It is the time when the
researcher tries to learn the customs, manners and the way of life of the people so that s/he can move
around freely with the people. During the period of rapport building, many anthropologists try to pick
up the local language. Rapport building is a continuous process and one must try to build a
relationship of trust and understanding with the respondents throughout the period of fieldwork. The
most successful rapport building leads to a situation of empathy when one is able to understand the
other even without actually asking questions or talking.

Q7. Caste and Tribe

Ans. Communities are not just confined to villages. They are also found in urban societies, where in
an anonymous world, they are like cohesive structures (‘honeycomb systems’)which integrate the
individual to the society. One may refer here to the example of two types of communities – the tribe
and the caste.

The tribe is understood as a community comprising groups of family which live together, or have
lived together, sharing the same territory and has a common language, culture, religion, and life
styles. Such a community is politically autonomous, which means that each tribal community has its
own political leader and all the matters of dispute are resolved internally. According to this
conception, a tribal community is largely isolated from the outside world, and for its understanding,
the knowledge of other societies is not needed. It was because of this a tribal community has come to
be regarded as a ‘cultural isolate’, which means that it has its own distinct culture, which makes its
bearers proud, and they are prepared to defend it against any kind of onslaught or criticisms from the
external forces. This notion contributes to the idea of the resilience of culture, which resists all
attempts to drive it out.

Q8. Contemporary theories

Ans. Contemporary theories stress that the focus of developmental understanding must be on systemic
change (Ford and Lerner 1992). This focus is required because of the belief that the potential for
change exists across the life span (e.g., Baltes 1987). Although it is also assumed that systemic change
is not limitless (e.g., it is constrained by both past developments and by contemporary contextual
conditions), contemporary theories stress that relative plasticity exists across life—although the
magnitude of this plasticity may vary across ontogeny (Lerner 1998).

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There are important implications of relative plasticity for the application of developmental science.
For instance, the presence of relative plasticity legitimates a proactive search across the life span for
characteristics of people and of their contexts that, together, can influence the design of policies and
programs promoting positive development (Birkel et al. 1989).

Q9. Marriage

Ans. “Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that the children born to the woman are
recognised as legitimate offspring of both partners”. So basically marriage is a sanction which is
accepted by the society for a man and a woman to have a relationship and gives them the social
sanctity to beget or adopt children. However, let us now explore if in the present world this definition
holds true and also try to understand the various types of marriages prevalent in societies.

Types of Marriages

Broadly speaking marriage can be divided into two types a. Monogamy and b. Polygamy.

1. Monogamy: Sanctions marriage to one partner/ person only. Monogamy is further divided into
serial monogamy and non-serial monogamy.

2. Polygamy: Is a type of marriage where more than one partner is involved.

Q10. Survey method

Ans. Survey is defined as asking questions at a particular point of time to a group of respondents.
Most of the surveys are completed within a short span of time; however, some are extended over a
length of time. Survey method could be either a trend or panel study. A distinction is made between a
panel study and a trend study. When the same group of respondents is interviewed at different points
of time to see if there are any changes in their opinion, it is known as a panel study. When different
people are interviewed over time to see how the changes are occurring in the opinions of people, it is
called a trend study. The major instrument (tool) of survey is questionnaire, which is a set of questions
pertaining to a particular topic of study. When the questionnaire is sent by mail/email, it is called
‘mailed (or emailed) questionnaire’; but when it is administered in a face-to-face interview situation,
it is termed ‘interview schedule’. We opt for the latter because one of the major problems with the
mailed questionnaire is ‘low response rate’, and moreover, the open-ended questions may remain
unanswered.

Q11. Report Writing

Ans. Once the data has been sorted, compiled and analysed we need to put it in a sequential format
and present the same in a write-up. You must have come across the term ‘writer’s block’ referring to a
stage where the writer is not able to comprehend where to begin and what to write. It is one of the
most common issues when it comes to writing. We have collected data, we have analysed our data but
we are not sure as to how to present the same. In such a case two types of writing styles are listed to
help young writers.

Basically, the writing stage can be done in two ways. One where we start writing in a free-flowing
manner starting with the data collected in the field and later put it in a sequence which is also known
as writing up. The best way to start this is by revisiting the field through our field diary and write
about incidents and events that we feel are important for the presentation. Many researchers start with
writing about their first day’s impression of the field.

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