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ATH 175 Final Exam
n/a
63
Anthropology
Undergraduate 2
11/24/2009

Additional Anthropology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Selective-Sex Abortion
Definition

Sexist attitudes of traditional society?

  • male heir preferred to continue the Patrilineage
  • Dowry to attract suitors for marriageable daughter

Term

Lancet Medical Journal 

(Jan 2006)

 

Selective-Sex abortions in India are more common among...

Definition

  • educated mothers
  • urban middle classes
  • wealthy business families
    • New Delhi affluent suburbs have worst sex ratios

Term
Selective-sex abortions are rare among..
Definition
Dalits(lowest castes) and remote tribes
Term
India Becoming "Modern"
Definition

 

  • Indian population control campaigns of 1970s & 1980s: "happy families are small"
  • Economic liberalization
    • Foreign companies market ultrasound
    • Easy credit allows clinics to purchase ultrasound
    • Clinics market selective sex technologies

 

Term
Selective-sex abortion attractive to upper class
Definition

  • can afford to pay for the procedure
  • want to be seen as "modern"
  • Want male heir to keep wealth/resources within patrilineage

Not popular among poorer people

 

More children an economic necessity

Term
Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act of 1994 (PNDT)
Definition

  • Bans doctors from revealing fetus' sex
  • Absconds clinic ultrasounds upon violation
  • Rarely enforced

Government child support to the poor

  • get double rupees for girls' care

Term
Government gave double rupees for..
Definition
Girls
Term
One-Child Policy (1979)
Definition

  • Policy limits couple to one child
  • Policy adjusted for rural areas to allow a second child, if first is a girl
  • Strictly enforced in urban areas/less so in rural areas
    • Heavy fines per extra child
    • Denied workplace bonusses

Term

One-Child Policy (1979)

 

Implications

Definition

  • Child-raising
    • Parents & 4 grandparents indulge the child; "little emperor"
    • High emphasis on educational success elevated girls' status
  • Long term: elderly welfare
    • care of unmarried son's parents
    • care of unmarried son in elder years

Term

Surplus male population across Asia

 

Some speculations...

Definition

  • Only wealthy men can afford wives
  • Trafficking in women
  • Increase in rapes
  • Increase in wars? Macho values need an outlet

Term

Child Rearing 

 

Darunga extended family

 

Southern Balkans

Definition

  • Four-brother household
  • Labuniste Village, Macedonia[image]

Term

Kerala State, India: female-headed household

 

TARAWAD

Definition

 

  • Nayar (Nair)
  • Matrilineal caste
  • [image][image]

 

Term
Why Marriage is Important
Definition

  • A society has to reproduce itself for the security of its members, young & old
  • Marriage provides for
    • Regulation of sexual relations
    • Reproduction & rearing of children
    • Enculturation of those children
  • A wedding is a celebration of the continuation of a society and its culture

Term
Ideas about marriage
Definition

Western:

  • private matter between man and woman
  • two freely consenting adults, or "free choice"
  • requires emotional attachment

Non-Western:

  • Joins two families
  • requires relatives' consent
  • emotional attachment not required

Term

West Contrasts to East

Ideas about marriage

 

Differing Views about:

Definition

  • Love & romance
  • Sexual activity
  • Cohabitation
  • Reproduction & child rearing
  • Sharing joys & burdens of life

Term

Long Houses

Melanesia

Definition
[image]
Term
Marriage Types
Definition

  • Monogamy
    • Serial Monogamy
  • Polygamy
    • Polygyny
    • Polyandry
    • Group marriage, Multilateral

Term
Monogamy
Definition
one spouse at a time
Term
Serial Monogamy
Definition
several spouses through lifetime due to divorce, but only one at a time
Term
Polygamy
Definition
multiple spouses, plural spouses
Term
Polygyny
Definition

one man + more than one wife

 

  • 75% cultures allow its practice
  • Within those cultures, monogamy the norm
    • Imbalances of gender ratios, not enough women to go around
    • Economics: who can afford that many wives?
    • Conflicts between co-wives
  • Some scholars argue that _____ empowers women; although others disagree

 

Term
Polyandry
Definition

one woman + more than one husband (usually brothers)

  • very rare
  • Most polyandrous societies in South Asia:
    • Tibet, Nepal, India & Sri Lanka

Not easily explained--Plausible Reasons

  • Inheritance of scarce resources- avoid splitting land among brothers; fraternal polyandry; brothers pool resouces & share wife (Tibet)

Term
Group marriage, Multilateral
Definition

several people married together

  • Emerges from 1960s hippie movement Hog Farm- oldest continual communal living experiment; LLano NM & Tujunga, CA

Term

Polygyny

 

Reasons for existence

Definition

 

  • Economic, a way to accumulate resources
    • one needs to be wealthy to have several wives
  • Prestige, a way to show off status
  • Political

 

Term

Polygyny:

 

minimizing co-wife conflicts

Definition

 

  • Sororal polygyny: man marries sisters
  • Man marries unrelated women
    • Each takes up separate residence
    • Wives are ranked: senior wife (first & oldest) & junior wives

 

Term
Marriage Preference Rules
Definition

  • Exogamy (outmarriage)
  • Endogamy (in-group marriage)
    • Caste system (India)
    • De facto: as if a rule existed, i.e. marrying within same group
    • Religious preferences, Catholic marrying Catholic, Jew marrying Jew, Muslim marrying Muslim
    • Miami Merger

Term

Incest Taboo

 

 

Definition

Prohibition of sexual relations with certain, usually close, relatives

  • Cultural universal
  • Always restricts relatives from sex within nuclear family
  • Outside the nuclear family, the taboo is culturally constructed, i.e. the culture determines which relatives are taboo for sex

Term

Incest Taboo

 

Some explanations

Definition

  • Biological
    • Instinctual
    • Prevents transmission of recessive genes
  • Psychological (E. Westermarck)
    • "familiarity breeds contempt;" i.e. sexual appetite dulled by people living together for a long time
  • Social conflict avoidance (Malinowski)
    • Sexual contact within group creates jealousy and competition among them

Term

Marital Exchanges

 

Transfer of goods and services between families at marriage

Definition

  • Bridewealth (brideprice): Male's family --> female's family
    • Compensation for loss of her services
    • Makes future children full members of male's descent group
  • Dowry: goods that female brings into the new household
    • Compensates man's gamily for taking on the added responsibility
    • Today social problem: "Dowry Deaths" in India
  • Bride Service: male works with woman's family for period before wedding.

Term
Post-Marital residence rules
Definition

  • Patrilocal: with or near husband's parents (70%)
  • Matrilocial: with or near wife's parents (13%)
  • Avunculocal: with or near husband's mother's brother (2-7%)
  • Bilocal: couple can choose between mother's or father's relatives
  • Neolocal: couple sets up own household (5%)

Term

Zagrunda in Western Bosnia

Household group takes precedence over nuclear family

 

William G. Lockwood's study in Western Bosnia (1967)

Definition

 

  • Composition: senior male & wife; adult married siblings & children; unmarried adult offspring
  • Living Arrangements
    • Married couples have sleeping room
    • Common sleeping room for children >age 12
    • Three meal setting for men, women & kids
    • All share common property, clothes
    • Adults discipline all children
    • Children stay with zagruda even after divorce
  • Household segmentation
    • Senior male dies; eldest son is head
    • Sons later divide property under Islamic law

 

Term
The Tarawad
Definition

  • Ritual marriage: after three days, man & woman return to separate tarawad
  • Men are warrior caste, often away to fight
  • women have multiple sex partners
  • Children reside with mother; paternity never an issue 
  • Women return "marriage" ornament at "hustban's" funeral

Term
Current social effects of female- headed society
Definition

  • British abolished tarawad during colonialism, but women's status remained relatively high
  • Today...
    • First Indian state to be 100% literate
    • 90% women in work force
    • Relatively travel-safe state for women

Term
Defining Religion
Definition

  • E.B. Tylor
    • "Belief in spiritual beings"
  • Anthony F.C. Wallace
    • "Belief & ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers & forces"

Term
Operational definition of Religion
Definition

  • The beliefs & ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers & forces

Key Points:

  • Outside the observable world; not measurable
  • Belief of an effect in this world
  • Accepted on basis of "faith"

Term
19th Century Unilineal Cultural Evolution Ideas
Definition

  • E.B. Tylor (1871): Animism the earliest form of religion
    • Proposes stages of religious evolution:
      • Animism
      • Polytheism
      • Monotheism

Term
Animism
Definition
belief in spiritual beings that have human-like qualities, i.e. soul, ghosts, spirits
Term

Critique of Tylor

 

Definition

  • Even monotheistic religions have animist beliefs
  • Polytheistic religions, i.e. Hinduism, persist today
  • Religion also encompasses moral/ethical doctrines

Term

Thailand:

 

Buddhist Society with Animist Beliefs

Definition

 

  • Remembering the deceased at Buddhist temple
  • Guardian Spirits
    • Of the field 
    • Of the village

 

Term

Unilineal Cultural Evolutionists

 

R.R. Marett (1909) Revises Tylor's Stages

Definition

  • Animatism
  • Animism
  • Polytheism
  • Monotheism

Term
Animatism
Definition

Belief in an impersonal supernatural force that can affect outcomes in the visible, tangible world.

Term
Marrett's Evidence
Definition

  • Mana in Melanesian (south Pacific) religions
  • Suggests animatism predates animism in Tylor's stages

Term
Animatism Today
Definition

  • In China...
    • Qi ("chi") concept: energy force in the universe
    • Feng shui: Law of aesthetics that allows one to receive positive qi
    • Hong Kong buildings sited with feng shui principles

Term

Unilineal Cultural Evolutionists

 

Sir. James George Frazer (1890)

Definition

Religion & delopment of human thought

  • Magic: controlling the world through rites & spells
    • Imitative magic: performing an activity similar to the desired outcome
    • Contagious magic: contact with sacred can result in desired outcome
  • Religion: belief in supernatural beings requiring worship & sacrifices
  • Science: systematic knowledge by observing cause-and-effect relationships

Term
Imitative Magic
Definition

  • Christian baptism
  • Did Archie Griffin's # 45 make Andy Katzenmoyer good?

Term
Contagious Magic
Definition

  • William Oxley Thompson bust at Ohio State Universtiy Main Library
  • Did short sleeves win games for woody?

Term
Thailand: Magic in Buddhist Society
Definition

  • Imitative Magic
    • "Little House": for deceased
  • Contagious Magic
    • Healing ritual for monk

Term
Critique of Frazer
Definition

  • Magic common in societies based on scientific knowledge
  • Religion is also a moral/ethical system
  • All cultures possess practical, technical knowledge based on trial-&-error & empirical evidence: indigenous knowledge

Term
Why do people practice religion?
Definition
Evidence that even NEanderthals practiced religion 135,000-35,000 years ago in Europe[image]
Term

Sociological View

 

Emile Durkheim: Religion maintains social order

Definition

  • "Social solidarity": brings people together for common purpose
  • Expresses moral values, collective beliefs
  • Durkheim's Concepts
    • The "sacred" 
      • phenomena that inspire respect, awe & reverence; expressed through religious symbols
  1.  
    • the "profane"
      • the ordinary, routine & natural phenomena in everyday world

Term
Karl Marx- Religion Alienates
Definition

  • Relition opresses working class
  • Religion diverts peoples' attention from their exploitation; creates subservience, promising rewards in afterlife

Famous sayings:

  • "workers of the world, unite!"
  • "man makes religion, religion does not make man... It is the opium of the people"

Term
Marx & the evidence
Definition

  • Catholic Friars' Role in Spanish Colonization
  • Bibles used to justify slavery in US South

Term
Contrary Examples of Marx
Definition

  • Churches take up workers' causes
    • Sister Dorothy Stang (1933-2005)
      • Advocate for Brazil's landless farmers
      • Murdered, 2005
  • US abolitionists base anti-slavery movement on Bible

Term

Psychological-- Bronislaw Malinowski

 

Religion relieves anxiety

Definition

  • Life is full of uncertainty & uncontrollable events, regardless of technological development
  • Religion inspires hope & gives confidence as people face the challenges of living

Term

Malinowski's insight:

 

Trobrianders' highly skilled fishermen

Definition

  • They use no magical chants when fishing in calm lagoon waters
  •  They use elaborate chants in the dangerous open seas

Term
Why People Practice Religion
Definition

  • Sociological
  • Psychological
  • Cognitive/Intellectual

Term
Anthropological Perspective:
Definition

  • Religion persists because it meets certain human needs: sociological, psychological & cognitive/intellectual
  • Religions emerge/change to meet those needs

Term
Syncretism
Definition

The blending of one or more cultural traits, many time involving religion, but also art & music

 

Examples

  • Christmas tree 
  • Village saints in Latin America
  • Haitian Voodoo saints

Term

Syncretism

 

Haiti: Voodoo

Definition

Blend of West African religion & Christianity

  • Bondeye: supreme being
  • Danbella, "serpent deity" renamed from St. Patrick
  • Ogun, soldiers' patron, honored on St. James' feast day

Term
Chinese in Philippines
Definition

  • 750,000 to 850,000 ethnic Chinese in the Philippines
  • <1% of national population of 91.1 million
  • Originated from Fujian Province, Southwestern China
  • Manila census of Chinese (1989)
    • 66.6% Roman Catholic
    • 11.5% Protestant
    • 9% Chinese folk religion & Christianity mixture

Term

Chinese Religion in Philippines

 

Definition

  • Western view: excludes other belief systems
  • Chinese view: inclusive of many belief systems

Term
Chinese Religious Sources
Definition

  • Chinese gods & goddesses
  • Daoism (taoism)
  • Buddhism
  • Confucianism
  • Ancestors
  • Christianity

Term
Chinese-Christian Adaptations
Definition

  • "Lucky" days for weddings
  • Display lucky characters on doors
  • Employ feng shui in house-building
  • Offerings to Tudi Gong (Earth God) at groudbreaking

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