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ANT2000
midterm flashcards
51
Anthropology
Undergraduate 3
02/26/2013

Additional Anthropology Flashcards

 


 

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Term
What parts of society influenced early anthropologists?
Definition
science, religion, disappearance of religion, positivism (everyone thinking their society was on top of all others), industrial revolution, technologies, finding new natives, and people running into new natives
Term
How did evolution inspire early anthropology?
Definition
Darwin released thoughts--> people ran with them.
Darwin, species, orders. We have to see how society evolves and changes
Term
What were some problems with early anthropological approaches?
Definition
ethnocentrism, "armchair"
Term
What is social theory?
What social theorist was a big influence on anthropological ideas of society?
Definition
-Understanding whats going on in society
-Emile Durkheim
Term
Who was Malinowski and why was he important?
Definition
one of the 1st long-term ethnographers, important in terms of functionalism. came up with theories. why humans were doing the things they did
Term
What is functionalism?
Definition
similarily to Durkeheim, believed Society was a big totality and people are part of a collective. Institutions and everything people do work together to help society run smoothly together: language, religion, law, myths, magic, etc. everything in society has a function
Term
Who is considered the granddaddy of modern (current, specifically U.S.) anthropology?
Definition
Franz Boas
Term
What were some of the main contributions to anthropology from the "granddaddy" of modern anthro?
Definition
- 4 field approach
linguistic, biological, cultural, archaeological. we as a class have gone through archaeology and biological
Term
What was the culture and personality trend in older anthropology?
-what was wrong with it?
-how did it move anthropology
forward?
Definition
Margaret Mead- had different perspective on what culture was. she saw cultures as sort of having personality.

The theorists of the culture and personality school argue that culture creates personality patterns. One's culture helps shape people's emotions, thought behavior, values and norms that fit their surroundings. Ruth benedict focuses on the relationship between culture and individual personality and Mead describes the relationship between culture and human nature

-probs w /meads study:
-she didnt really live with the families, but stayed in a village w/ other american
-unfamiliar w/ their language
-ignored violence (domestic)
-focused mainly on culture
-had been lied to by informants
-preconceived notions
Term
What is the argument of nature vs. nurture?
Definition
nature refers to an individual's innate qualities (nativism)
nurture refers to personal experiences (i.e., empericism or behaviorism)
Term
What was similar abut Julian Steward's and Marvin Harris' approach?
Definition
They are both etic (does not participate) approaches. They are both also interested in the environment and are interested in things like surviability. Neither of them is really interested in understanding symbols. Harris-culture is a system of energy transfer between nature and humans. Steward-cultural ecology and mulitilinear evolution
Term
What was symbolic Anthropology? Why is interpretation so important to this approach?
Definition
-people were trying to understand symbolic systems by looking at interpretation how do we know something is a symbol.

Clifford Gertz-EX- the wink. you have to interpret the wink in order to understand it.

understand symbols and understanding it through circles of interpretation. Interpret it.

Main problems was they romanticized there subjects and tried to prove points that were'nt exactly true
Term
What adaptions make humans different from primates?
Definition
arm length, we use tools, our feet are used/made differently, posture, cranium size (roughly 3 times the cubic capacity than a chimpanzee)
Term
What makes us a unique primate species?
Definition
bipedalism
Term
What morphological characteristics define primates?
Definition
Term
Why are primates good research models?
Definition
-biological relatives
-we share 98.4% of our DNA with
Term
Why do we study non-human primates?
Definition
1. ancestors behavior
2. social culture, ecology, and intelligence of early humans
3. primate social organizations communication and intellegance
4. environmental factors
5. endangered primates
Term
How is behavior linked to evolution?
Definition
behavior & natural selection
-reproductive success

natural selection & behaviors
-behavior is complex
Term
What is the difference between a homology and an analogy?
Definition
homology-evolutionarily related
analogy-not evolutionary related

-homologies: in biology, structures possessed by two diff organisms that arise in similar fashion and pass through similar stages during embryonic development, although they may have different functions

analogies: in biology, structures possessed by different organisms that are superficially similar due to similar function but that do not share a common developmental pathway or structure
Term
What kinds of behavior do primatologists study?
Definition
-closest living relatives
-social behavior
-communications
-infant care
-reproductive behavior
Term
Why have primates been important to medical research?
Definition
Major medical advances aided by research with nonhuman primates
Term
Do primates have culture? elaborate.
Definition
yes..culture is learned and passes on from one generation to the next learned though instruction and observation. cultural tradition
Term
Where did the first primate originate?
Definition
Africa
Term
How is the primate family tree divided?
Definition
(from the farthest point away from humans, to humans)
-lorises, pottos, and lemurs
-tarsiers
-new world monkeys
-old world monkeys
-gibbons
-orangutans
-gorillas
-chimps
-humans
Term
What are the 2 catarrhine superfamilies?
Definition
old world monkeys
terrestrial old world monkeys(baboon)
Term
Is the path to human origins a straight line? Why is it more bushy?
Definition
Our lineage is bushy because it looks messy..as opposed to a family-treeish lineage, it is all over the place, not sure of all ancestors
Term
What defines the Paleolithic period?
Definition
"old stone age"
-99% of our human technological history
-cut marks (utilizing tools, evidence of animal kill)
-homo erectus
-neanderthal
Term
What trends in tool use do we see during the Paleolithic period?
Definition
old stone. tool use moves from very basic old stone tools and axes. sharpened. then we see them eventually sharpening both sides of stone making specialized tools. trends that we see are going from basic breaking of rocks to sharpening rocks forming then to create specialized tools

smashing rocks, taking chunks of the pieces and sharpening edges

also started having better shaped tools that could have been more advanced material, like bone. other materials such as feathers were added too.
Term
What kinds of art are found in the paleolithic period,and when does it start showing up?
Definition
really only found art in the very end of the paleolithic period. 30-40k years ago.
sculptures relating to female form, cave paintings, carvings in bone/ivory, instruments
Term
What is archaeology?
Definition
the study of cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data
Term
What is the relationship between Archaeology and Anthropology?
Definition
material products found through archaeology such as tools, pottery, hearths, and enclosures that remain as traces of cultural practices in the past.
-the arrangement of these traces, as much as the traces themselves, reflect specific human ideas and behavior.
Term
What was the Speculative Period? How was archaeology done in the earliest days of our nation's history?
Definition
(1492-1840)
-searching for possibility of native americans? (moundbuilder problem)
-speculative historical narratives
-data (ethnocentric)
-stratigraphy (digging/observing layer by layer) was used with the moundbuilder prob
Term
Who were the mound builders? Why were they important to the history of archaeology?
Definition
native americans. everyone else had theories that there was some lost race.

they were important because they spurred a lot of interest early on and were directly related to native people that were living in the U.S
Term
What did archaeology do during the classificatory/ Historical period?
Definition
studied how artifacts and cultures function
-explanatory framework: artifacts are material remains of cultural behaviors/inferences about: economic, political, subsistence/settlement
-conjunctive approach (WW tylor): gather all data possible
-versus comparative approach
Term
What was the goal of cultural history? What new things did they do different than archaeologists before them? (think function and history)
Definition
culture history came right after the classificatory period. they tried to bring the idea of culture back. there are different culture periods. before people were interested in just lining up artifacts, they tried to associate the artifacts with culture and people. and also tried to look at how these artifacts function. what kind of animals could have been hunted with this arrow head. EX- what functions


2 basic components
-inductive method (observation, pattern, tentative hypoth, theory_
-normative view of culture (culture normalizes, makes everything the same)

also relied heavily on stratigraphy
Term
What is processual archaeology? What are its goals? How did it relate to science and evolution?
Definition
how certain processes existed in society. we can understand society by scientifically uncovering these processes. Ask alot of questions that were environmental. Moved into looking at behavior too. started to look at society in terms as a evolutionary model
Term
What is Postprocessual archaeology? What were its critiques of processual archaeology?
Definition
what our teacher did. trying to get inside peoples heads. understand what symbols mean, and how they came that way..

critiques
-by looking at behavior and adaption they are forgetting..why people have certain religious rituals, why people do things like art, why certain political systems arise. processional archaeologists weren't really concerned with these kinds of things
Term
What do astronomical alignments tell us about culture at the site level and at the regional level?
Definition
we can say that the peoples were sharing some aspect of their culture, and there may have been a regional belief system
Term
How does ancient astronomy relate to ancient agriculture?
Definition
we see that many times these dates and alignments are matching up with agricultural dates which are important. they may have had a sacred purpose, but also a pragmatic purpose
Term
What can 3D modeling tell us about sites that conventional maps can not?
Definition
they bring you right into the site and can see the sunrise, for example, almost exactly as it was seen in the past
Term
What is a landscape approach to archaeology?
Definition
focusing on the landscape and not just things that people build. people and agriculture change all throughout time
Term
In the case of Cerros, why was the ritual stage of 5C-2nd more than JUST a political stage?
Definition
the place where it was used to be an early observation point that they could observe early parts of the year, like venus rising.
Term
In what ways does Archaeology strive to be ethical?
Definition
conservation and protection
society of professional archaeologists guidelines

avoid commercialization: its not all about money.
intellectual property..archaeologists dont own what they collect or record

public reporting and publication
Term
What are some reasons there has been a rise in the concern over ethical behavior?
Definition
-post processualism and ethics
-internationalism
-federal legislation
-unethical behavior
Term
morphology
Definition
physical characteristics of an organism
Term
Emic
Definition
of, relating to, or involving analysis of cultural phenomena from the perspective of one who participates in the culture being studied
Term
Etic
Definition
of, relating to, or involving analysis of cultural phenomena from the perspective of one who does not participate in the culture being studied
Term
ethnocentric
Definition
the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture
Term
culture relativity
Definition
it states that what is right or wrong is an evolved idea that is relative to culture. that is, two distinct cultures may have entirely different approached to a certain moral issue.
Term
Epistemology
Definition
a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge
Term
Case studies!
landscape archaeology?
idea of archaeostronomy?
3D modeling?
Definition
-how people affect the landscape and how the landscape effects them
-people are watching the stars its apart of their culture
-allows archaeologists to see some more things that you cant see with a map
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