Anthropology In Avatar And The Gods Must Be Crazy

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Archaeology is very interesting because it is the study of human cultures from the past, this subfield is very important because it shows how cultures were in the past. Everything that studied in this subfield is material remains of artifacts and architecture. Physical anthropology is the study of all the way a human is. The study of human evolution and how humans became humans is what goes on throughout this subfield along with the variation of them. Cultural anthropology is what some call modern living cultures versus the past like archaeology. Cultures all around the world are studied. In cultural anthropology there are two versions of studying a culture there is emic which signifies that you are studying as a native to the culture and etic…show more content…
In Avatar linguistic anthropology is seen especially when Jake begins to learn the native language of the Na’vi. Throughout the movie cultural anthropology was perceived by showing the use of emic and etic. Jake was etic to their culture, but later himself became emic to the culture by becoming one of them and becoming a considered native to the Na’vi culture. In the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, linguistic anthropology is observed in the scene where Xi is with the whole tribe and they are communicating with clicking sounds, those clicking sounds are their own native language that would need to be studied in order for someone who is not native to understand them, in the same scene that is where cultural anthropology comes into play, because they are their own type of people. Cultural anthropology is also seen when xi hits the goat with the tranquilizer, he did not know that in this other culture where he is etic that is not allowed, versus where he is emic with the San tribe that is what they do for…show more content…
The reason is because the anthropologist must understand that every culture is different and has their own ways of being, with that being said they must respect how their perspectives of life are and how they choose to live life. Anthropologists use cultural relativism when studying a culture that is not like theirs but studying it in a way that they are trying to understand where they are coming from and how they see life. The archaeologist must put themselves in the shoes of the culture and maybe act as one of them. Avatar uses cultural relativism by studying the Na’vi and their culture. The “sky people”, create an avatar that is exactly like the Na’vi’s, which gave the people a chance to understand how they feel about destroying their home in their point of view. Throughout the movie the Gods Must Be Crazy, the people eventually understood each other and how their cultures work. In the film Planet of the Apes the humans needed to understand the apes point of view throughout their culture. Although this was a different type of relativism it still consists of the same

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