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| The comparative study of human societies and culture. |
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| In anthropology, an approach that considers culture, history, language, and biology essential to a complete understanding of human society. |
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| A group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being as well as the relationships among such people, including their status and roles. |
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| The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups. The primary means by which humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristic of a particular human society. |
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| A description of society or culture. "Culture writing." Detailed description of a living culture. |
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| Examining society using concepts, categories, and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that culture. |
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| Examining society using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science; an outsider's perspective, which produces analyses that members of the society being studied may not find meaningful. |
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| The attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena. |
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| The study of human thought, meaning, and behavior that is learned rather than genetically transmitted, and that is typical of groups of people. |
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| Description of the cultural past based on written records, interviews, and archaeology. |
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| A branch of linguistics concerned with understanding language and its relation to culture. |
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| Study of relationships among languages to better understand the histories and migrations of those who speak them. |
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| The subdiscipline of anthropology that focuses on the reconstruction of past cultures based on their material remains. |
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| Societies or which we have no unusable written records. |
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| Any object made or modified by human beings. Generally used to refer to objects made by past cultures. |
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| The archaeological investigation of towns and cities as well as the process of urbanization. |
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| Cultural Resource Management (CRM) |
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| The protection and management of archaeological, archival, and architectural resources. |
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| Biological/Physical Anthropology |
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| The subdiscipline of anthropology that studies people from a biological perspective, focusing primarily on aspects of humankind that are genetically inherited. It includes osteology, nutrition, demography, epidemiology, and primatology. |
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| The subdiscipline of anthropology concerned with tracing the evolution of humankind in the fossil record. |
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| The subdiscipline of anthropology concerned with mapping and explaining physical differences among modern human groups. |
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| A member of a biological order of mammals that includes human beings, apes, and monkeys as well as prosimians (lemurs, tarsiers, and others) |
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| A subfield of cultural anthropology concerned with the ways in which disease is understood and treated in different cultures |
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| The application of anthropology to the solution of human problems. |
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| Societies that have occupied a region for a long time and are recognized by other groups as its original (or very ancient) inhabitants. |
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| The application of biological anthropology to the identification of skeletalized or badly decomposed human remains. |
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| Judging other cultures from the perspective of one's own culture. The notion that one's own culture is more beautiful, rational, and nearer to perfection than any other. |
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| A situation where social or moral norms are confused or entirely absent; often caused by rapid social change. |
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| The belief that some human populations are superior to others because of inherited, genetically transmitted characteristics. |
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| The notion that cultures should be analyzed with reference to their own histories and values, in terms of the cultural whole, rather than according to the values of another culture. |
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| Biopsychological equality |
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Definition
| The notion that all human groups have the same biological and mental capacities. |
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