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Title: Chapters 1-5

Description: Cultural Anthropology

Total Flash Cards: 76

Created: 09/29/2007 14:36:51

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Term
Anthroplogy
Definition
A discipline of infinite curiosity about human beings
Term
Biological (physical) anthroplogy
Definition
seeks to answer 2 questions: 1. The emergence of humans and their later evolution. 2. How and why contemporary human populations vary biologically.
Term
Fossils
Definition
Hardened remains or impressions
Term
Primates
Definition
Prosimians, monkeys, and apes
Term
Primatologists
Definition
Anthropologists, psychologists, and biologists who specialize in the study of primates
Term
Homo sapiens
Definition
The species of all living people
Term
Culture
Definition
The customary ways of thinking and behaving of a particular population
Term
Archeaology
Definition
Study of past cultures, through material remains
Term
Ethnology
Definition
Study of existing and recent cultures
Term
Prehistory
Definition
Before written records
Term
Historical archealogy
Definition
Study of remains or recent peoples who left written records
Term
Historical linguistics
Definition
Study of how language changes over time
Term
Sociolinguistics
Definition
Study of how language is used in social contexts
Term
Ethnohistorian
Definition
Person who studies how the ways of life of a particular group change over time
Term
Cross-cultural researcher
Definition
Researcher interested in discovering general patterns about cultural traits
Term
Applied/practicing anthropology
Definition
Making anthroplogical knowledge useful
Term
Culture
Definition
People with the same set of standards and behaviors; unconscious learning
Term
Field work
Definition
Living in another community for an extended period of time
Term
Participant observation
Definition
Observe through participating in the lives of people
Term
Rapport
Definition
To develop good relationships with the people you're studying
Term
Theoretical orientation
Definition
A general attitude about how cultural phenomena are to be explained
Term
Survivals
Definition
Traces of earlier customs that survive in present day cultures
Term
Culture center
Definition
Where the traits were first developed and from which they diffused outward
Term
Basic personality
Definition
Produced by shared cultural experiences
Term
Primary institutions
Definition
Customary ways of making a living
Term
Secondary institutions
Definition
Satisfy and reconcile the needs and conflicts that constitute the basic personality structure (ritual, religion & folklore)
Term
Functionalism
Definition
Looks for the part, some aspect of culture or social life plays in maintaining a cultural system
Term
Specific evolution
Definition
The particular sequence of change and adaptation of a particular society in a given environment
Term
General evolution
Definition
General progress of human society; higher forms arise and surpass lower forms
Term
Structuralism
Definition
Culture, art, ritual and patterns of everyday life are a surface respresentation of the underlying structure of human kind
Term
Cultural ecology
Definition
The analysis of relationship between culture and its environment
Term
Political economy
Definition
External forces explain the way a society changes and adapts
Term
Behavioral ecology
Definition
The application of biological evolutionary principles to the social behavior of animals
Term
Group selection
Definition
How a certain behavioral or social characteristic may be adaptive for a group or society in a given environment
Term
Individual selection
Definition
How a certain characterstic may be adaptive for an individual in a given environment
Term
Hermeneutics
Definition
The study of meaning
Term
Language
Definition
the system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication
Term
Diachronic
Definition
Over a period of time
Term
Synchronic
Definition
At a point in time
Term
Morphology
Definition
How a language's phonemes combine together
Term
Subculture
Definition
Commonly shared customs of a group within a society
Term
Ethnocentric
Definition
A person who judges other cultures solely in terms of his or her own culture
Term
Cultural Relativism
Definition
The attitude that a society's customs and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of that society's problems and opportunities
Term
Norms
Definition
Standards or rules about what is acceptable behavior
Term
Random sample
Definition
Giving all individuals an equal chance of being selected for study
Term
Maladaptive customs
Definition
Customs that diminsh the chances of survival and reproduction
Term
Adaptive customs
Definition
Customs that enhance survival and reproductive success
Term
Variables
Definition
Things or quantities that vary
Term
Laws
Definition
Repeated observations that are accepted by all scientists
Term
Theories
Definition
Explanations of laws and statistical associations
Term
Theoretical construct
Definition
Something that cannot be observed or verified directly
Term
Falsification
Definition
Method that shows that a theory seems to be wrong
Term
Hypotheses
Definition
Predictions of what might be found in an experiment
Term
Operational definition
Definition
Provided to transform theoretical predictions into statements that might be verified
Term
Measure
Definition
To compare an object with other things on some scale of variation
Term
Sampling universe
Definition
The list of cases to be sampled from
Term
Probability value (p-value)
Definition
The likelihood that the observed result or a stronger one could have occurred by chance
Term
Statistically significant
Definition
A "probably true" result
Term
Participant-observation
Definition
To observe and take part in the events of those societies and question the people of their native customs
Term
Fieldwork
Definition
Firsthand experience with the people being studied and/or conducting a census or survey
Term
Kinesics
Definition
The study of communication by nonverbal or nonvocal means (posture, mannerisms, body movement, facial expressions, signs and gestures).
Term
Accent
Definition
Differences in pronunciation
Term
Paralanguage
Definition
All the optional vocal features or silences that communicate meaning apart from the language itself
Term
Symbolic communication
Definition
When the communication has meaning even when whatever is referred to isn't present. The receiver of the message could not guess its meaning from just the sounds and doesn't know the meaning isntinctively
Term
Phonology
Definition
The rules that predict how sounds are made and how they are used interchangeably in words without creating a difference in meaning
Term
Morphology
Definition
How sound sequences convey meaning and how meaningful sound sequences are strung together to form words
Term
Syntax
Definition
How words are strung together to form phrases and sentences
Term
Phones
Definition
Sounds
Term
Phoneme
Definition
A sound or set of sounds that makes a difference in meaning in that language
Term
Morph
Definition
The smallest unit of language
Term
Morpheme
Definition
One or more morphs with the same meaning
Term
Historical linguistics
Definition
The study of how languages change over time
Term
Protolanguage
Definition
A reconstructed language created by linguists that has many features of an ancestral language
Term
Cognates
Definition
Words that are similar in sound and meaning
Term
Core vocabulary
Definition
Nonspecialist vocabulary
Term
Codeswitching
Definition
Using more than one language in the course of conversing



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