Anthropology: Research Methods and Communication

Published Date: 03 Oct 2016 Last Modified: 20 Sep 2017

A correlation is also known as a relationship between two or more variables. There are three types of correlation, positive, negative, and no correlation. Positive correlation is when the data of the two variables increase. Negative correlation occurs when one of the variables increases, but the other decreases. And last but not least, no correlation, which shows that neither of the variables has an effect on the other. Different types of data, collected by social scientists, can be put into a scatter plot to identify any relation between the two variables. This cartoon is related to correlation because it shows two penguins discussing whether there is a relation between global warming and film crews. The humour behind this cartoon is that the penguins are not sure if the film crews are the cause of global warming because of the pollution they created or if the film crews are here because of global warming.

Objectivity is the lack of favoritism and being equal and fair to both sides of the situation. However, when talking about social sciences, objectivity is when one tries to gather and evaluate information that is approached in a way as free from bias as possible to carry out a fair outcome. This cartoon is related to the concept of objectivity because it shows a marriage counselor as he is telling his two patients how he keeps his objectivity without any biased results. This cartoon is funny because the method the marriage counselor uses to maintain his objectivity is staying single. This tells the reader what he means is that if he was married, he would probably side up with the men because he knows how much of a pain having a wife can be. And so, he tries to not be biased to the women side by not getting married and keeping his objectivity in place.

Surveys involve gathering a large number of persons to ask them a particular question or set of questions about their views and attitudes towards something or someone. The survey method is one of many other methods used by social scientists to gather a sample set of data that represents the opinion of a whole. This kind of method can be done by using the Social Science Research Method. The Social Research Science method involves raising a question, posing a hypothesis to the question asked, and then gathering the data by conducting an interview, an experiment, case study, or in this case, a survey. This cartoon is related to the method of surveying because it shows two people asking a man a question and then recording it on a sheet of paper as a way of gathering data. The humour behind this cartoon is that the two men dressed in black look very serious about their job when the question they are asking is simply, “would you pay $2.99 for the toothpaste?” The expression on the face of the man being surveyed is really funny because he is puzzled whether to take them seriously or not.

One of anthropology’s branches is physical anthropology, which is the study of human evolution, human biology, and other primates. Forensic Science is also part of physical anthropology and it uses scientific studies to discover, record, gather, and preserve evidence and clues that might be of some help to establish what occurred based on collected evidence. The evidence gathered from the crime scene can be in the shape of finger prints, bit marks, foot wear, firearms, and many more. These clues can provide the forensic police officers with hints about the criminal and what weapon was used. For example, bite marks can be useful when in need of DNA, foot prints can tell the skin pattern and foot size, which can later be matched with the suspects, and firearms can detect which weapon was used at the crime scene since each gun has a unique rifle mark to it. This cartoon relates to the concept because you can see a dead snowman and two policemen trying to find out who committed this crime by matching one snowflake to another through DNA, which is an area of expertise to forensic science. The humour of this cartoon is that the snowmen are having a hard time matching DNA because it is known that, “no two darn snowflakes are alike,” and so it is impossible to solve that crime since snowmen are all made out of snowflakes.

Jane Goodall is a British primatologist who is best known for her study of chimpanzees. She began observing chimpanzees by first naming those who were being observed to tell them apart. She gave them names such as Flo, Fifi, Mike, and Flen. She observed them to have unique personalities from one another, and that is when she discovered that humans are not the only beings who have different personalities and behaviours. She made many discoveries about chimpanzees that are very much similar to our human behaviour. She found that chimps make and use tools in a variety of ways, can hunt, and have family relationships. This cartoon gives you an idea about the work Jane Goodall used to do with chimps because you can see that Jane Goodall is the one in the bushes observing someone, who she thinks is a chimp, from far away. The humour in this cartoon is that Bill’s wife notices Jane Goodall staring at her husband, but what’s really happening is that Goodall thinks she is observing a chimp when that ‘chimp’ is actually Bill, but he appears to look like a chimp because he is hairy.

Evolution is a theory that is based upon physical anthropological indication of bones and fossils. It is the idea that all living things went through a process of continuous transformations from one or few simple life form(s) to more complex ones. According to this theory, it is believed that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, humans appeared 3 million years ago, and the existence of life emerged about 3.3 billion years ago. Charles Darwin played a big role in the influence of the evolutionary theory through the introduction of an assumption of his own, natural selection. Charles Darwin believed that natural selection occurs when a population consists of different individuals with different traits. Some of these individuals have traits that improve the way of survival, and later on get passed on to their offspring. While the species that do not have these traits end up dying off. The assumption that genetic material is passed on from parent to offspring was later on proved genetically by Gregor Mendel by the cross-breeding of pea plants. The cartoon chosen to represent this concept is a good example because it shows a person who appears to be asking this family about whether they are evolutionists or not. The humour of this cartoon is that the father of the family is saying that his family doesn’t believe in evolution, which states that we developed from simpler life forms like chimps and apes, but it is clear that they are all up on the tree and hanging around it, acting like apes.

Creationism is the belief that all existing forms of life were fully-created in their current state by a superior being of higher power. This theory relies on the faith in one’s religion, and even though each religion has its own way of life, beliefs, and tome, they all involve a creator. Many creationists believe in Christianity, which states that the world was created in six days, and men were created in their current state on the fifth day. This cartoon is related to creationism because it shows a creationist teacher educating his science class about creationism and telling them why the evolution theory is wrong. I find this cartoon funny because of the method the teacher used to prove that evolution was just a misunderstanding. The teacher told his students that God buried fossils all over the place as a way of tricking evolutionists because, as stated in the other cartoon, evolution is based on fossils and bones. And so the teacher is taking advantage of his students because they are easily tricked and he appears to be a creationist and wants others to think like him.

Creationism is the belief that all existing forms of life were fully-created in their current state by a superior being of higher power. This theory relies on the faith in one’s religion, and even though each religion has its own way of life, beliefs, and tome, they all involve a creator. Many creationists believe in Christianity, which states that the world was created in six days, and men were created in their current state on the fifth day. This cartoon is related to creationism because it shows a creationist teacher educating his science class about creationism and telling them why the evolution theory is wrong. I find this cartoon funny because of the method the teacher used to prove that evolution was just a misunderstanding. The teacher told his students that God buried fossils all over the place as a way of tricking evolutionists because, as stated in the other cartoon, evolution is based on fossils and bones. And so the teacher is taking advantage of his students because they are easily tricked and he appears to be a creationist and wants others to think like him.

Classical conditioning is one of the two types of conditioning, classical and operant. Conditioning is the process of when one learns a response by being rewarded or punished each time he performs a specific action to make a change in his behaviour or attitude. Classical conditioning was first discovered by a Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, by presenting different stimuli along with his dogs’ food. Instead of rattling the dishes, he would ring a bell. After hearing the bell regularly, the dogs became conditioned to it and salivated whenever they heard it. On the other hand, B.F. Skinner, an American psychologist, described operant conditioning to be done by applying a system of reinforcement and punishment to strengthen or weaken a voluntary behaviour. The cartoon shows classical conditioning because there is dog, appears to be one of Pavlov’s, getting help from a psychologist and telling him about the trouble his owner, Pavlov, seems to be giving him at home. I find this cartoon funny because the dog seems to be so upset that his owner keeps tricking him into thinking he is giving him food, when he is actually just ringing a bell, like the dog is demonstrating in the cartoon and he doesn’t know that he is being conditioned to it.

Non-verbal communication is a type of body language that uses gestures, signals, eye contact, facial expressions, position, and territory to communicate without any spoken words. It is said that more than half of communication is done without using words but by using non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication can come in the form of applause, a node, a smile, or even your body posture. Many things can be interpreted through these forms, for example, giving someone a smile; it can show that you are a friendly person or just simply happy. In this case, sign language is a type of non-verbal communication for it doesn’t need any spoken words and only uses visual gestures and signals to send and receive a certain message to one another. This cartoon demonstrates the use of non-verbal communication because one friend is telling the other about why she decided to go into sign language and the benefit she gets out of it. The amusing part about this cartoon is the part when the one friend says her mom used to tell her, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” This also means she couldn’t say anything nice to people, and saying something is using non-verbal communication, so she decided to get into sign language so she wouldn’t have to say what she has to say to people, but gesture it, and still follow her mom’s words.

Intelligence is the ability to learn and understand things in life and know how to deal with difficult situations you are put in. Intelligence can be tested with an Intelligence Quotient test, which is also known as an IQ test. Alfred Binet was the first to develop a valid intelligence test. The IQ test is designed to test your ability to think and reason, it doesn’t test a person’s whole intelligence, but it does test a person’s compenential intelligence, which is also known as “Book Smarts”. The IQ test isnt only used for finding a person’s intelligence, but it can also help in finiding if somebody has a learning disorder by comparing it with 50% of the population’s score, 24-34 out of 60. This cartoon illustrate the use of intelligence by showing a man that is planning on taking the intelligence test. The humour I found in this cartoon is that the man is asking where he could go to take the intelligence test when it is clearly stated in huge letters on the wall in front of him, but he has no clue. It is funny how the lady on the desk is giving him that “don’t even bother” look because she can already tell that he wont be passing the test.

The word ‘cult’ comes from the Latin word, cultis, meaning to worship. A cult is usually mistaken to be a religious group, but the main differences between a cult and a religion is that cults worship a live person and use methods of deception, manipulation and abuse to get members to join them. They usually aim for people who are going through personal struggles, searching for answers, or just looking towards making the world a better place. These cult recruiters are found everywhere. They target many places, such as: college campuses, beaches, concerts, and malls. There are many methods of deception that cults use to trick people into joining their cult. They get you to believing that you will be guaranteed with happiness, family, equality, and answers if you were to join their cult, but what it does is narrow your world. The cult members worship their leader because he claims to have all the answers and they believe that he is the one to lead them to a better place. There has been many “Killer Cults” in the past who live together in a group, including The People’s Temple Lead by Rev. Jim Jones , but now a days, cults include normal people who do not live in communes. This cartoon is related to a cult because it shows peanuts being tricked into joining a religion, where “everybody becomes one”, which sounds a lot like something a cult would say to get you to join. The humour behind this cartoon is that the peanuts have no idea that they will actually all become one and be made into peanut butter.

Socialization is the process in which humans obtain their habits, ethics, behaviour, and knowledge about different kinds of topics. Media is known to play a big role in shaping the way we act, and behave in our society, for we are bombarded with it on a daily basis. It is an influential instrument that is used through TV, radios, newspapers, magazines, and the internet. The media can play a beneficial part in our society, for it is a source of education for many, and makes learning more fun. As stated before, it can teach a person how to act, and how ‘normal’ people should behave. In this case, the cartoon relates to how and what boys should and shouldn’t act or use when associated with the society they live in. In the eyes of the media, Barbie dolls should be used by young girls and girls only because they were made for girls, it would be a weird site to see a boy playing with a Barbie doll or in this case, has a Barbie band-aid; it isn’t considered a normal behaviour because media suggests so. The funny thing about this cartoon is the expression on the child’s face. He is terrified to have a Barbie band-aid because he knows it is for girls and he is scared of people’s judgments, so it looks like as if he rather bleeds to death than have a girly band-aid.

Deviance is the act that is done by a person that goes against a social standard or expectation. These standards and expectations are also known as norms, which are rules put up by the society and are normally followed by everyone in that community. If these norms are not followed, it can be considered to be a deviant act or if done frequently, you yourself might be a deviant. Deviant acts can be spotted as to how a person might react to your behaviour. Media attempts to prevent acts of deviants by the use of socialization to teach people the right way to behave. However, Emile Durkheim believes that deviant behaviour has a positive effect on society because it gives one a sense of unity. This cartoon is related to deviance because it shows a dog dressing differently than any other dog, and that shows a deviance act of him because he is noticed by another dog and questioned about his behaviour. The humour behind this cartoon is that I wasn’t expecting a deviant act to come from a dog and in the shape it came in. The attitude the dog is giving the dog of higher power and how he said, “The pants stay on,” sound very funny because dogs don’t wear clothes and he insists to keep them on.

Social Institutions are organized structures that help a society function and develop to meet its peoples’ needs. There are five main institutions, this includes: families, economics, politics, educational and religious institutions. Each of these major institutions plays an important role in shaping our society and making it a functional place by assigning a role to each of its members. The educational institution is to provide and transmit knowledge to the younger generation. These basic needs can be met by assigning teachers, administrators, support workers, and other staffs who are eligible and meet the expectations of their roles. Teachers are expected to teach the required curriculum, evaluate students’ work and report on their achievement. This cartoon is related to the social institution of school because it shows a family as they are staring at their child’s report that he received from school. The funny thing about this cartoon is when the child added, “She skipped right over ‘E’!” Of course she went on to F, there is no such mark as an ‘E’. He also states that it is not fair, which is funny because every student does that just as an excuse to why they got a bad mark.