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Anthropology 101 Final
Anthro Vocabulary
74
Anthropology
Undergraduate 2
03/10/2012

Additional Anthropology Flashcards

 


 

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Term
Cultural Anthropology:
Definition
(sometimes called social anthropology) deals with the description of cultures- the socially learned traditions of past and present ages.
Term
Holism:
Definition
Is an approach that assumes that any single aspect of culture is integrated with other aspects, so that no single dimension of culture can be understood in isolation.
Term
Fieldwork:
Definition
Refers to the firsthand experience with the people being studied. It involves integration into a community though long-term residence and knowledge of the local language and customs while maintaining the role of observer.
Term
Participant observation:
Definition
Places the ethnographer at the scene, where a combination of direct observation and interviews provide the evidence from which ethnographic accounts are constructed.
Term
Culture shock:
Definition
Is the feeling of anxiety and disorientation that develops in an unfamiliar situation when there is confusion about how to behave or what to expect.
Term
Informants:
Definition
Are people through whom the anthropologist learns about the culture through observation and by asking questions.
Term
Ethnography:
Definition
Is a firsthand description of a living culture based on personal observation.
Term
Ethnology:
Definition
Is a study of a particular topic or problem in more than one culture using a comparative perspective.
Term
Culture:
Definition
Refers to the learned, socially acquired traditions of thought and behavior found in human societies. It is a socially acquired lifestyle that includes patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Term
Subculture:
Definition
A group having social, economic, ethnic, or other traits distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.
Term
Enculturation:
Definition
Is a partially conscious and partially unconscious learning experience whereby the older generation invites, induces, and compels the younger generation to adopt traditional ways of thinking and behaving.
Term
Ethnocentrism:
Definition
Is the belief that one’s own patterns of behavior are always natural, good, beautiful, or important and that the strangers, to the extent that they live differently, live by savage, inhuman, disgusting, or irrational standards.
Term
Cultural Relativism:
Definition
Stipulates that behavior in a particular culture should not be judged by the standards of another. Yet it is evident that not all human customs or institutions contribute to the society’s overall health and well-being, nor should they be regarded as morally or ethnically worthy of respect.
Term
Diffusion:
Definition
Takes place when culture contact leads to the borrowing and passing on of culture traits.
Term
Emics:
Definition
Describe culture from the participants’ viewpoint. The observer uses concepts and distinctions that are meaningful and appropriate to the participants.
Term
Etics:
Definition
Describe culture from the observer’s perspective.
Term
Universal Patterns:
Definition
a set of categories that are comprehensive enough to afford logical and classificatory organization for a range of traits and institutions that can be observed in all cultural systems.
Term
Infrastructure:
Definition
The infrastructure consists of the technologies and productive and reproductive activities that bear directly on the provision of food and shelter, protection against illness, and the satisfaction of sexual and other basic human needs and drives.
Term
Structure:
Definition
Consists of the groups and organizations present in every society that allocate, regulate, and exchange goods, labor, and information.
Term
Superstructure:
Definition
Consists of the behavior and thought devoted to symbolic, ideational, artistic, playful, religious, and intellectual endeavors as well as all the mental and emic aspects of a culture’s infrastructure and structure.
Term
Phonetic:
Definition
Phonetic sound patterns represent etic occurrences. They occur due to variations in the location of the tongue and lips and the stress, pitch, and tone of the sound. They can be observed and identified in speech without having to question the speaker.
Term
Phonetics:
Definition
Is the study of the phones, or individual sounds, that native speakers make.
Term
Phones:
Definition
Represent etic occurrences. They occur due to variations in the location of the tongue and lips and the stress, pitch, and tone of the sound.
Term
Phonemes:
Definition
Are units of sound (phones) that lack meaning in themselves; they are the smallest sound contrasts that distinguish meaning.
Term
Morphemes:
Definition
Is the smallest part of an utterance that has a definite meaning.
Term
Syntax:
Definition
Consists of the unconscious rules governing the arrangement of words in sentences and phrases.
Term
Symbolic thought:
Definition
Occurs when a person simultaneously associates two or more complex ideas that evoke a reaction.
Term
Cross-talk:
Definition
Takes place when listeners miss or misinterpret cues in communication
Term
Hunting and Gathering:
Definition
Societies that rely primarily or exclusively on hunting wild animals, fishing, and gathering wild fruits, berries, nuts, and vegetables to support their diet.
Term
Indirect Infanticide:
Definition
Begins with neglect and underinvestment- inadequate feeding, withholding emotional support, and careless and indifferent handling, especially when the infant is sick.
Term
Direct Infanticide:
Definition
Involves deliberate killing-starvation, dehydration, smothering, placing a child in a dangerous situation, or using excessive physical punishment.
Term
Lactation Amenorrhea:
Definition
(Disruption of the menstrual cycle) is a typical accompaniment of breastfeeding and serves as another form of birth control.
Term
Economizing:
Definition
Refers to the choices people make they believe will provide the greatest benefit to them.
Term
Economics:
Definition
The condition of a region or group as regards material prosperity.
Term
Exchange:
Definition
An act of giving one thing and receiving another (esp. of the same type or value) in return.
Term
Generalized Reciprocity:
Definition
Involves mutual giving and receiving among people of equal status in which there is (1) no need for immediate return, (2) no systematic calculation of the value of the services and products exchanged, and (3) an overt denial that a balance is being calculated or that the balance must come out even.
Term
Balanced Reciprocity:
Definition
Involves the expectation that goods will be returned within a specified period of time.
Term
Potlatches:
Definition
Redistributive feasts that were once engaged in by the Native Americans who inhabit the northwest coast of the United States and Canada
Term
Money:
Definition
Is a medium of exchange that has standard value. It is used as a means of payment for goods and services in a wide range of transactions where trade is well developed and economizing is a guiding principle.
Term
Capitalism:
Definition
Is associated with a change from production for use value to production for profit value.
Term
Surplus:
Definition
Is an amount greater than what is needed for immediate consumption by the producers.
Term
Serial monogamy:
Definition
Is marriage to two or more spouses one after another, rather than at the same time.
Term
Polygamy:
Definition
The practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time.
Term
Matrifocal Household:
Definition
Pertaining to a family with a mother as the head of the household; also, pertaining to a culture dominated by families headed by mothers
Term
Bridewealth:
Definition
Compensates the bride’s group for the loss of her labor and the children she bears, who become full members of the husband’s group.
Term
Hypergamy:
Definition
The practice of marrying into an equal or more prestigious social group or caste.
Term
Kinship:
Definition
Refers to relationships that are based on relatedness through descent and marriage.
Term
Descent:
Definition
Refers to parentage from a common ancestor.
Term
Patrilineal Descent:
Definition
Requires ego to follow the ascending and descending genealogical links through males only.
Term
Matrilineal Descent:
Definition
Requires ego to follow the ascending and descending links through females only.
Term
Patrilocal Residence:
Definition
Referring to the social system in which a married couple resides with or near the husband's parents; Is associated with internal warfare
Term
Matrilocal Residence:
Definition
is a term referring to the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents; Is associated with long-distance trade or external warfare.
Term
Egalitarian Society:
Definition
Lacks formalized differentiation in access to and power over basic resources among its members.
Term
Shamans:
Definition
Are women or men who are socially recognized as having special abilities for entering into contact with spirit beings and for controlling supernatural forces.
Term
Rank Society:
Definition
Has equal access to economic resources and power, but social groups have unequal access to status positions and prestige.
Term
Big Man:
Definition
A local entrepreneur who successfully mobilizes and manipulates wealth on behalf of his group in order to host large feasts that enhance his status and rank relative to other big men in the region. He is a man of prestige and renown but has no formal authority or power and no more wealth.
Term
Headman:
Definition
Unlike such specialists as king, president, and dictator, is a relatively powerless figure incapable of compelling obedience.
Term
Chiefdoms:
Definition
A society larger than a tribe but smaller or simpler than a state; An area or region governed by a chief
Term
Achieved Status:
Definition
Is acquired through talents, efforts, and accomplishments, rather than ascription.
Term
Ascribed Status:
Definition
Is determined for a person at birth.
Term
Stratified Society:
Definition
Arranges statuses or subgroups within a society according to socially superior and inferior ranks that produce inequality.
Term
Class:
Definition
Is a group whose members possess similar amounts of power within a stratified society.
Term
Caste:
Definition
Are closed, endogamous, and stratified descent groups.
Term
Dharma:
Definition
In Hinduism, social custom regarded as a religious and moral duty
Term
Ethnic Group:
Definition
A group that has been incorporated into a state through conquest or migration, that maintains distinctive cultural and/or linguistic traditions, and that has a sense of a separate, shared, and age-old identity.
Term
Ethnic Chauvinism:
Definition
is the excessive love of one's own race/ethnicity, usually meaning that all other races/ethnicities are looked down upon as inferior.
Term
Racism:
Definition
The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races
Term
Racialism:
Definition
A relatively benign form of making racial distinctions, such as skin color and facial characteristics, intended for reference purposes.
Term
Sex:
Definition
Refers to anatomical and physiological attributes.
Term
Gender:
Definition
Refers to the learned cultural and psychological attributes.
Term
Two-spirits:
Definition
Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations communities.
Term
Schema:
Definition
Provide people with simplified cultural models of what the world is like and how they should act, feel, and think.
Term
Animism:
Definition
Is the belief that humans share the world with a population of extraordinary, mostly invisible beings.
Term
Communitas:
Definition
Is an intense community spirit, a feeling of social solidarity, equality, and togetherness that is achieved through liminality.
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