Humanities Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 06-17-2024

Have you ever felt you needed to hone your critical thinking skills, to enable you to master the logic of arguments and improve your critical skills as you read, write, speak, or listen? This Cheat Sheet is here to help.

Article / Updated 09-01-2022

If you don’t understand your society, you can’t truly understand yourself. That's one reason it's worthwhile to study sociology. You are part of your society, and your actions and beliefs are part of what defines that society. Your actions, in a thousand small ways, help shape your society, and your beliefs both influence and are influenced by your society’s norms and values. Aggregate facts When they talk about societies, sociologists like to talk about “aggregate facts.” In sociology, an aggregate fact is an overall description of what a large number of people are doing. An aggregate trend describes how an aggregate fact is changing over time. The following aggregate facts are true of many societies in the world today. And they may be true of yours: Marriages: About half of all marriages end in divorce. Jobs: People typically hold several different jobs over the course of their working lives. Musical Tastes: Most people don’t listen to classical music. Knowing these facts about your society, however, tells me nothing about you as an individual. It doesn’t tell me about your personal history or the choices you personally will make in life. Those social facts don’t describe your life — but they do affect it! For better and for worse, those aggregate facts about your society heavily influence your own life, and make it different from what it would be if you lived in a different society. How society shapes your views To understand how facts about society in general can affect your own personal life, think about these points: Marriage: When you decide to marry someone, you do that with the understanding that, in your society, marriage is very often impermanent. That doesn’t mean you, as an individual, take marriage lightly. But it does mean that if the going gets rough and you or your partner decide to bail, you will be in the company of many friends and colleagues who have also experienced divorce. Consciously or unconsciously, that fact will affect the decisions you and your spouse make as your relationship progresses. Job: Similarly, when you take a job, you can’t — and shouldn’t — expect that it will be permanent. It may be, but that would not be the norm. You can expect to have other job opportunities in the future, which would be very unusual for you to never take. This means that you probably won’t look for a job that will last a lifetime — you’ll look for a job that will serve you well over the next few years. Music: You can listen to whatever music you want, but if you choose to listen to Beethoven or Mozart, you won’t be able to chat about it with most of the people around you — unless you happen to be a member of an orchestra. Everywhere from TV shows to dentists’ offices to nightclubs, you’re much more likely to hear pop, rock, or R&B than classical music. If you often listen to classical music, you are unusual, and that fact may cause people to make certain assumptions about your background and personality. For this reason, you may choose not to listen to classical music or to listen to it only in private. On the other hand, you may very deliberately and openly listen to classical music. Whether you’re blasting Beethoven or bumping trap music, you probably have a good understanding of how that will be perceived by people around you. Structural norms, cultural norms Some of the societal pressures we all face are clear and rigid; these fall under the heading of what sociologists call “structure." Other pressures are looser and murkier; these fall into the category of "culture." All along that continuum from structure to culture, there are norms and values that shape your life—the rules that people in your society play by. At the structure end of the continuum, the rules are hard and fast, relating to your economic system and the laws of the land. Laws are social norms that are seen as being so important that they’re written down and made formal; if you break the law, you can be punished—with punishments ranging from a small fine to a death sentence. For example, you can’t just: Make up your own currency and expect it to buy you anything at the store. Give yourself a job or expect anyone else to give you one if they don’t have one to give. Break an enforceable law without risk of punishment. At the culture end of the continuum are norms and values that are probably not written into law, but that are nonetheless real. For example: Current fashions and styles, such as whether it’s acceptable to wear socks with sandals Religious principles and rituals, such as bat mitzvahs and baptisms Social traditions, such as freely giving candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween in the United States You don’t have to follow any of these social norms. But if you don’t, people around you may find your behavior confusing or even rude. You won't go to jail, but there may be other consequences. No one person makes or breaks a norm Whether they are structural or cultural, these limits may seem unfair — you didn’t make any of these rules. In fact, no single person did. Economic realities are beyond the control of even the largest companies; laws may be proposed by specific legislators but normally must meet with broad approval to be passed; and fashion trends may be started by popular people, but even celebrities with millions of Instagram followers can’t easily change the styles of clothes people buy. No individual person makes social norms, but every single person helps perpetuate and enforce them. How? Simply by following them and by noticing when other people don’t. You can try to buck the trend, but you’ll almost certainly face resistance. Who you are, in part, is determined by the norms of the society you live in.

Article / Updated 09-01-2022

The acronym BIPOC has come into common use recently; it stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The term became widely adopted amid the discussions sparked by the death of George Floyd in 2020, as people confronted the reality that different groups have different experiences. It’s an evolving effort. “The whole point is that we want to take up space,” writer Sylvia Obell, who doesn’t care for the acronym, told the New York Times (Sandra E. Garcia, “Where Did BIPOC Come From?”, 2020). “Take the time to say black, Latinx and Asian. Say our names. Take the time to learn. Show me that you know the difference.” This is a rich and important vein of sociological research; here are just two ways in which people’s lived realities involve variables that go well beyond anything you could check on a census form. Intersectionality Have you sent a mouth swab in for genetic testing, or do you know someone who has? People are often surprised by just how varied their genetic makeup is, testament to how the human family tree has always crossed branches. In a world that sorts people into racial and ethnic boxes, though, people at the intersections of different groups are forced to navigate challenging landscapes. Many multiracial people have stories of being baldly asked, “What are you?” Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman and Edlin Veras (Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2019) point out that nearly a quarter of Hispanics in America identify as Afro-Latinx, tracing heritage to both Africa and to Latin America. Talking to people in this group, the sociologists found widespread reports of what they called ethnoracial dissonance. In other words, many Afro-Latinx Americans simply don’t feel like they fit into the racial and ethnic groups recognized by the people around them. In some cases, that even included their own families; one woman said that her relatives coached her to downplay her Black features by straightening her hair. “To be Afro-Latine in America,” said one research subject, “is to feel like you don’t fit in anywhere. You’re not Black enough, you’re not Puerto Rican enough. To be Afro-Latine is to be salsa and hip-hop, bachata and reggae, rice and beans and collard greens, papito and homeboy. Afro-Latine is important because we exist.” The term intersectionality, in reference to overlapping aspects of social identity that can lead to distinct experiences of oppression (such as African, Latinx, and female), was coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a Black feminist scholar. Colorism Discrimination based on skin color, referred to as colorism, is experienced by people around the world. Angela R. Dixon and Edward E. Telles (writing in the Annual Review of Sociology, 2017) identify colorism as “a globalized preference for whiteness and/or lightness.” That can lead to discrimination against darker-skinned individuals by people both outside and within what any given society defines as a “race.” That there’s even a distinction between colorism and racism is another example of the degree to which race is a social construct. In the United States, a biased preference for lighter-skinned individuals within, say, the Black community is called “colorism.” Meanwhile, “racism” means discrimination against the entire Black community. In Latin America, on the other hand, concepts of “race” are less prevalent, and what someone from the United States might call colorism is experienced as racism. Sociologists and historians have extensively studied colorism in the United States, which in Black American communities stretches back to the time of slavery, when lighter-skinned slaves (their fathers often being slave owners who committed rape) were given preferential treatment. Civil rights activists have fought colorism, concerned for its potential to divide communities that need to unite against white supremacy. A persistent disadvantage Despite some progress, colorism remains widespread; across races, researchers have found that lighter-skinned individuals fare better in areas including income, education, and occupational status. Irene V. Blair, Charles M. Judd, and Kristine M. Chapleau (Psychological Science, 2004) found that for crimes committed in Florida between 1998 and 2002, both Black and white convicts received harsher sentences when their facial features were more Afrocentric. The sale of products designed to lighten the skin, and cosmetic surgery to change racial features, is a multi-billion-dollar industry that spans continents from Asia to Africa to America. As the world becomes increasingly multi-racial, sociologists expect that intersectionality and colorism will become increasingly important as lenses through which to understand discrimination, inequality, and identity.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 12-13-2021

Sociology is the study of society — of people interacting in groups, from small social circles to global society. Sociologists gather information about the social world and systematically analyze that information to understand social phenomena including class, race, gender, culture, social networks, and historical change. Many sociologists are academics — trying to understand society simply for the sake of understanding — but many work in corporations, government departments, and nonprofit organizations trying to understand (and help to solve) specific social problems.

Article / Updated 12-13-2021

Many people are absolutely convinced of the truth of some things about society that are not entirely true. Here are a few of the most common misconceptions about society, proven false by sociology. Social inequality is deserved. Although it’s true that people with many resources in society (saved wealth, good jobs, happy families) have worked hard to earn those resources, it’s not necessarily true that people who lack such resources are lacking them because it’s somehow their fault. Social disadvantages generally compound one another, meaning that when you’re in a disadvantaged position in society — for whatever reason — it’s much more difficult to climb out of that position than people in advantaged positions may realize. Race and gender don’t matter anymore. Physical characteristics have always affected the way people regard one another in society, and they always will. Although many societies have seen a welcome decline in the most destructive forms of racism and sexism, it’s flatly false to say that physical characteristics — skin color, sex, height, weight, you name it — no longer matter. Society prevents us from being our “true selves.” From a sociological perspective, humans are fundamentally social beings. From the moment you were born, the people around you have been at the heart of your life and your idea of who you are. This is one of the most important reasons to study sociology: If you don’t understand your society, you can’t truly understand yourself.

Article / Updated 12-13-2021

Modern humans have physical and behavioral differences from ancient humans. When you're studying anthropology — specifically, modernity in humans — keep these points in mind. They highlight the most important characteristics of anatomical and behavioral human modernity: Anatomical modernity is having anatomical characteristics indistinguishable from modern, living humans. Appearing by 100,000 years ago, these characteristics include a larger brain (averaging 1,450 cubic centimeters), a larger body overall, and the presence of a chin. Behavioral modernity is behaving in ways that are indistinguishable from modern humans; it appears by 100,000 to 50,000 years ago and includes symbolism (the use of one thing to represent another thing), complex language (with complex grammar), and complex tool use (such as the use of symmetrical tools). Modern humans colonized sub-Himalayan East Asia by 80,000 BP (before present, a term archeologists use), Southeast Asia and Australia by 40,000 BP, Europe at least by 30,000 BP, the New World by 14,000 BP, and the Pacific and Arctic by 1,000 BP.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 12-13-2021

What is anthropology? The study of humanity, or anthropology, starts with the origin and evolution of humanity. Other elements key to the study of anthropology are human modernity (anatomical and behavioral); defining culture and cultural universals; how humans feed themselves (subsistence) and the influence of subsistence on social organization; and human language.

Article / Updated 12-13-2021

By studying early hominids (large, bipedal primates) that date back to millions of years, anthropologists can track the development of the human race. When exploring anthropology, keep these important points in mind: The evolutionary process shapes species by replication, variation, and selection, leading to adaptation. Humans are one of roughly 200 species of the Primate order, a biological group that's been evolving for about 60 million years. Hominids appear (only in Africa) by at least 4 million years ago with the following adaptive characteristics: bipedalism (habitually walking on two legs), encephalization (larger brains than expected for their body size), small teeth (smaller teeth than expected for their body size — the canines in particular). The following table summarizes what anthropology has discovered about the main groups of early hominids. Hominid Group, Diet, and Tool Use Some Genera and Species Included Fossil Finds Dates Evolutionary Fate Gracile australopithecines: omnivorous diet with little tool use Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus A. afarensis in Ethiopia, and A. africanus at many sites in South and East Africa Over 4 million years ago (A. afarensis) to about 2 million years ago (later A. africanus) A. afarensis probably ancestral to A. africanus; A. africanus probably ancestral to early Homo Robust australopithecines: more herbivorous diet with little or no tool use. Australopithecus aethiopicus, Australopithecus robustus A. aethiopicus and A. boisei in East Africa, A. robustus in South Africa Over 2 million years ago (A. aethipoicus) to about 1 million years ago (late A. robustus) Extinction around 1 million years ago Early Homo: omnivorous diet with more animal tissue consumption and survival relying on tool use. Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, earliest Homo erectus Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and Koobi Fora, Kenya Earliest Homo around 2.5 million years ago; clearly H. erectus by 1.8 million years ago Evolved into H. erectus by 1.8 million years ago

Article / Updated 12-13-2021

Anthropologists don't just study the evolution of human beings; they also learn about their cultures, how cultures develop, and how cultures shape human behavior. If you need to refresh your memory about culture, like what it is and how it guides human behavior, take a look at these aspects: Culture is a learned set of ideas and rules about appropriate behavior shared by a group; it's passed on from one generation to the next not by the genes but with language. Although the contents of each culture are different, each culture has specific ideas of language (a way to communicate), ethics (concepts of right and wrong), social roles (rights and responsibilities per gender and age class), the supernatural (the realm of supernatural beings), styles of bodily decoration (styles normally indicate identity), family structure (marriage customs and rules for inheritance), sexual regulation (incest taboos and marriage customs) and food preferences (ideas of what's appropriate for consumption at various social gatherings).

Cheat Sheet / Updated 07-21-2021

Archaeology is exciting adventure and discovery, and while you can become a real archaeologist yourself (which requires years of really hard work), you can also get an informal archaeology education, volunteer for digs, and more. If you go on-site for fieldwork, know what supplies and equipment to pack for a proper excavation, and what safety and health items to keep on hand during a dig.