Desta Alemu
Cultural anthropology and history of Ethiopia (CAHE) was the idea of Prof. Dr. Seidler Horst (emeritus) who is the Head of the Institute of Human Biology, University of Vienna (as of Jan. 1, 2000 renamed Institute for Anthropology) and who is searching for human Fossils in the vicinty of Mount Galila in Ethiopia and who is organising the group of Students in this Fieldwork.
Cultural Anthropology also called socio-cultural anthropology or social anthropology, is a field of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. It is the branch of anthropology that has developed and promoted “culture” as a meaningful scientific concept; it is also the branch of anthropology that studies cultural variation among humans. Anthropologists argue that culture is “human nature,” and that all people have a capacity to classify experiences, encode classifications symbolically, and teach such abstractions to others. Since humans acquire culture through learning, people living in different places or different circumstances may develop different cultures. As an Ethiopian to have such opportunity to teach in the university of Vienna since 2001 was a very big pleasure and humanity side of the people who are engage this process.
Die Vorlesung bringt umfassende Kenntnisse über die Vielfältigkeit der äthiopischen Kulturen, sozialen und materiellen Aspekte der menschlichen Existenz in Ostafrika. Es wird auch darauf wert gelegt zu vermitteln, wie bedeutungsvoll die Verbindung zwischen Anthropologie und Geschichte Äthiopien ist, handelt es sich dabei doch um das älteste ganze Skelett LUCY & ARDI der menschlichen Natur. Anhand klassischer Studien aus unterschiedlichen Kulturanthropologischen Disziplinen werden beispielhaft Methodenverständnis und unterschiedliche Forschungszugänge thematisiert sowie damit verbundene Fragen und Probleme angesprochen.
Department of Evolutionary Anthropology
