Term
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Definition
| the learned and shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience: includes habits acquired by man as a member of society: beliefs, law, customs, art, behavior |
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Term
| explicit culture + examples |
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Definition
| generally aggreed-upon views of a culture: cultural knowledge that people can talk about (tangible). i.e. American culture = baseball, apple pie, fast food, reality TV |
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Term
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Definition
| cultural knowledge that is below the surface, that people lack words for (intangible). i.e. conversation distance, familial relationships, ideas about sex |
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Term
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Definition
| the process of studying, discovering and describing a culture |
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Term
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Definition
| systems of cultural knowledge characteristics of subgroups within larger societies |
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Term
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Definition
| working and observing a culture from the outside; subject vs. informant relationship |
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Term
| naive realism + examples of cultural symbols that mean different things |
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Definition
the belief that all people everywhere see the world the same way
ex: greetings, insults, attire, love, Spradley example of police "attacks" |
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Term
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Definition
| a state of anxiety that results from cross-cultural misunderstandings or transplantings |
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Term
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Definition
| the belief that one's own culture is the best: the degree of "goodness" of other cultures is based on the degree to which they are similar to your own |
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Term
| cultural relativism + examples of things that "should not" be acceptable anywhere |
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Definition
judging vs. perceiving other cultures: our perception of the world is NOT universal
- genocide, female genital cutting, infanticide, punishment practices, human servitude |
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Term
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Definition
| our perception of the world is not universal: cultural symbols are expressed and displayed in cultures to be learned and interpreted |
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Term
| Two reasons why Anthropology did not become a scholarly disciple until the late 19th c.? |
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Definition
- travel became easier
- ethnocentrism existed
- developing nations were still under colonialism
- missionaries and international trade/advertisements |
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Term
| What are the five subfields of Anthropology? |
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Definition
1) Cultural anthropology
2) Linguistic anthropology
3) Archaeology
4) Physical (biological) anthro
5) Applied Anthropology |
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Term
| What are some of the distinguishing characteristics or practices of Linguistic Anthropology + the three sub-categories? |
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Definition
- distinguishes cultural groups
- Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
1) Descriptive linguistics: the meanings of words
2) Historical Linguistics: compares historical relationships and the diffusion of their languages
3) Socio-Linguistics: the social use and meanings of language (i.e. film dubbing) |
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Term
| What are some of the distinguishing characteristics or practices of Archaeology? |
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Definition
- focus on material cultural remains
- Garbology
- history is written by elites --> root of behavior
- status, diffusion of technology
- subsistence strategies: relationship between humans and environment
- belief systems |
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Term
| What are some of the distinguishing characteristics or practices of Physical (Biological) Anthropology? |
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Definition
- human biological variation (evolution) through time and space
- primates
- adaptation to the environment |
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Term
| What are some of the distinguishing characteristics or practices of Applied Anthropology? |
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Definition
real-world work using ahtopological concepts
ex: forensic anthropology, museum curators, development work
- tension between academics and applied anthropologists |
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Term
| What is the Sapir-Whorn hypothesis? |
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Definition
| language shapes cognition, subsequently reflecting in the culture of your group: people distinguish the world differently based on their language |
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Term
| What are leveling mechanisms? Give an example from readings. |
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Definition
Rituals or practices intended to prevent individuals or groups from attaining leadership positions or keeping their ego in check
ex: !Kung men insulting hunter's catches |
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Term
| What type of research/results does Sociology tend towards? |
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Definition
Quantitative research methods:
- surveys, population sampling, census data
i.e. relationship between political party & religiosity |
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Term
| What type of research methods does Anthropology tend towards? |
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Definition
Qualitative resarch methods: striving for VALIDITY
- fieldsork, learning language, participant observation, interviews |
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Term
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Definition
| the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, i.e. individual aspects of social life cannot define the whole: interrelations are more important |
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Term
| What are some examples of data used by Anthropologists? |
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Definition
| audio/video recordings, interview transcripts, fieldnotes, photography, material culture, kinship chart, surveys |
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Term
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Definition
| you have to study culture in context in order to truly understand it: any one situation is not necessarily going to be the same universally |
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Term
| Explain Eric Wolf's idea of historical particularism using the Potlatch example. |
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Definition
| You can't understand a society without historical context; critiqued the "bounded and ahistorical" theory. Ex: Potlatch cermony among Pacific Northwest Tribes |
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Term
| What does Clifford Geertz mean by using a "thick description"? |
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Definition
| you must understand what people's intentions and meanings are in social or cultural contexts. ex: putting your feet up, winking --> kindof relates to naive realism |
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Term
| What is the "emic" view of culture? |
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Definition
| perspective of the "locals", or the native peoples living in a culture |
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Term
| What is the "emic" view of a culture? |
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Definition
| faux-scientific point of view (researchers); an attempt to be unbiased from an outsider's perspective = relativist's goal |
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Term
| Describe further what an "emic" perspective is in relation to Marvin Harris' bovicide study in India. |
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Definition
| - believed that they were killing cows as a need for fertilizer when the ideological, functionalist reason was that they are sacred |
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Term
| What is Functionalism (Malinowsky & Gmelch)? |
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Definition
| all aspects fo society are serving a purpose/function: cultural traits go through mutations and only survive if they benefit the society, even if it may be to reduce anziety, increase efficiency, etc. |
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Term
| What is cultural lag + an example? |
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Definition
aspects of culture that lag behind for various reasons, then not serving a purpose and becoming maladaptive
ex: QWERTY keyboards, salltes, bows inside hats |
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Term
| Give 4 examples of cultural universals. |
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Definition
| language, math, music, body art |
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Term
| According to Noam Chomsky, what accounts for similarities between languages universally? |
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Definition
| believed that all children were born with a "language box" which predisposed them to learn a language; theory of universal grammar; reduces language to a cognitive, evolutionary perspective |
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Term
| What is the Gender-Neutral Language movement and what are some examples of terms? |
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Definition
To address gender inequalities within language
Ex policeman --> police officer, mailman --> mail carrier, stewardess --> flight attendant |
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Term
| What did Laura Bohannan try to translate for the Tiv? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| one cultural aspect completely determines another. i.e. you're sensible because you're female, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis --> almost always societal exceptions so determinism is usually avoided |
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Term
| Explain the Berlin & Kay experiment (1969) and what their findings showed. |
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Definition
| studied words for colors across cultures and languages; most cultures have two words for colors: black and white. For those with more, the order was almost always the same; shows that there is some universal perception, CONTRARY TO SAPIR-WHORF. Color order: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown |
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Term
| Explain John Skoyles' study of International Sign Language and what his findings showed. |
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Definition
| [It must be determined if it is really language that is determining culture and not actually other culural factors] Studied deaf families to test whether perception was different between ISL and English --> results SUPPORTED SAPIR-WHORF where there were differences in perception and language, there were cultural differences also |
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Term
| Explain Deborah Tannen's study of the different ways humans communicate. |
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Definition
| looked at how language shaped societal structure, particularly gender roles in the workplace. Language can screen for other aspects of culture such as class, status, region, education, ethnicity, race.. |
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Term
| Explain Judith Hall's study of non-verbal communication. |
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Definition
| gestures and body language vary, closeness of stance during conversation, nodding/shaking head, pointing, beckoning. Smiling = universal gesture |
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Term
| What are some measres of a "successful" life? |
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Definition
| professional success, education, family + children (biological success), overall happiness, material wealth, personal relationships, health, independence, legacy |
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Term
| What are two central critiques of the adaptation/maladaptation perspective? |
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Definition
1) Biological success is not what humans are trying to optimize
2) It is a reductionist outlook |
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Term
| What are some examples of maladaptive traits? |
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Definition
| caste systems, slavery, smoking/drug addiction, technological overdependency, warfare and violence, economic situations that promote disparity |
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Term
| What is a reductionist perspective? |
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Definition
| reducing a culture or human social life to either adaptive or maladaptive: narrow-minded view, opposite of HOLISM |
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Term
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Definition
| cyclical view of thinking |
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Term
| What is unilinear cultural "evolution" and what are its two main faults? |
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Definition
| idea that cultures everywhere are always evolving, adapting and changing along a linear scale from least advanced --> most advanced (ethnocentric): 1) that society is moving in one direction, 2) that you can actually measure levels of development |
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Term
| What is multilinear cultural evolution? |
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Definition
| there are multiple paths to societal development and evolution: effort to identify trends of cultural divergences |
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Term
| What are the 4 trends in convergence of developing societies? |
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Definition
1) Intensification: most societies are intensifying over time, more energy being put into smaller area = more output
2)Specialization: diversified tasks, power structure
3) Centralization of power: people begin to have the ability and resources in order to settle down, results from more intense forms of subsistence
4) Stratification of wealth: more wealth is concentrated in fewer hands |
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Term
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Definition
| common cast member who is chosen to be the authority over water rights based on his relationship to the Goddess of the Lake |
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Term
| Why do socially maladaptive practices persist? |
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Definition
| Because they benefit a small but powerful minority that has the means and movtive to perpetuate the systems and practices |
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Term
| Explain the Germ Model of Disease in relation to maladaptive practices? |
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Definition
| People do not have a clear view of the world: roughtly 95% of diseases cure themselves, but many reasons could account for the 5% failure rate: to actually figure out what works to cure 95% of diseases is almost impossible |
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Term
| what is the definition of a subsistence stragety? |
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Definition
| fulfilling basic needs thorugh roles within the environment: social complexity is NOT always associated with subsistence strategy |
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Term
| List the 5 subsistence strategies in order |
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Definition
| foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture (intense), industrialism |
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Term
| Whare are the number of hours worked each day for each subsistence strategy? |
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Definition
Foraers: 3-4
Horticulturalists: 6
Pastoralists: 6-7
Agriculturalists: 11-12
Industrialists: 8-9 |
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Term
| Explain Dick Fox's piece "Professional Primitives" in relation to foragers. |
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Definition
| some subsistence strategies work better for certain enironments: not a unilineal progression: Indian foraging group had a relationship with nearby agricultural group that had divulged from the same group several hundred years earlier |
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Term
| What is the definition of a forager and what are its diagnostic characteristics? |
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Definition
| Not manipulating the environment: leveling mechanisms, most egalitarian in terms of gender roles, self-sufficient, live below carrying capacity, low birth rates |
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Term
| What are some reasons for the low birth rates in foraging groups? |
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Definition
| infanticide, breast feeding, post partum sex taboos, low body fat --> all contribute to carrying capacity and resilience of group |
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Term
| What is the key difference between foraging and horticulturalists? |
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Definition
| Ownership and the notion of private property |
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Term
| What are the four main characteristics of horticulturalist societies? |
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Definition
| 1) Property - lineages, 2) Sedentary/Semi-sedentary, 3) Swidden agriculture with long fallow periods, 4) Polycropping |
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Term
| Explain the Yanamamo group in Northern South America and the violence theories of Napoleon Chagnon, Marvin Harris, and Brian Ferguson. |
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Definition
horticultural group in Northern Brasil + Venezuela, believed to be the fiercest, most violent people on earth: male-dominated: 30% of men in older generations are killed in warfare, female infanticide
Chagnon: violence is build in through biological selection
Harris: due to protein deficienty and warfare with other groups over animal protein
Ferguson: history of slave-raiding giving men a higher societal status due to uneven ratios --> higher degree of violence and animosity |
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Term
| Define pastoralism and the two sub-categories. |
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Definition
Using animals to process resources:
1) Lateral migration: moving in a logical pattern: circular, following a river
2) Transhumance: migrating up and down elevations with livestock, practicing small-scale agriculture |
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Term
| What is the definition of Intensive Agriculture, and what are its diagnostic characteristics? |
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Definition
| intensive use of labor, animals, and resources to get more out of the land: monoculture, fertilizers, irrigation, high amounts of labor, sedentism |
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Term
| How is industrial agriculture different from intensive agriculture? |
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Definition
| same premise, but with the addition of mechanization and fossil fuels |
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Term
| What are some of the reasons for governments being necessary? |
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Definition
| enforcement of norms, legal framework, provide social services, large-scale group decision making, redistritubiton of wealth, protection |
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Term
| What is the difference between encorcable authority vs. charismatic authority? |
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Definition
| Enforcable authoirty = organization of enforcement and legal frameworks, whereas Charismatic authority = leaders who have social inflouence by no real legal framework |
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Term
| What is the leadership, size and specialization/stratification of bands? |
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Definition
| no formal leadership: family-level, 30-100 people, dividion of labor along age and gender lines: low crime levels, highly mobile, charismatic authority |
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Term
| Describe the subsistence strategies and pan-tribal sodalities of tribes |
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Definition
| horticulture/pastoralists, sedentary/semi-sedentary, permanent corporate bodies; pan-tribal sodalities that cut across lineage lines to bind a tribe together (i.e. cross-cousin marriage, council of enders, age grades, clan leadership) |
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Term
| What are three main characteristics of chiefdoms? |
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Definition
| leadership is encorcable, redistribution of wealth, use of force |
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Term
| What are the two main characteristics of state systems? |
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Definition
| legitimate use of violence (warfare, police), most stratified and specialized society |
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Term
| What are some of the characteristics of big man socieites? |
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Definition
| authority is enforcable by consensus, redistibutive exchange, slightly larger horticultural societies, no officials |
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Term
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Definition
| how family relationships are tracked by a society |
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Term
| What are some characteristics of patrilineal descent? |
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Definition
| more warfare, pastoralists, intensive agriculture |
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Term
| What are some characteristics of matrilineal descent? |
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Definition
| lower warfare, larger population density, horticulturalists |
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Term
| What is a permanent corporate body? |
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Definition
| a unilineal descent group (patrilineal/matrilineal) that can act in unison |
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Term
| What are ambilineal, double unilineal and bilateral descent? |
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Definition
Abilineal: individual chooses matriline or patriline
Double Unilineal: patrilineal and matrilineal lines have different roles
Bilateral: both sides are equally related, affinial ties |
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Term
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Definition
| when you use metaphors about biological relationships with people whom you are not related to in that way. i.e. adopted children, mother-in-law |
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Term
| what is a bridewealth, dowry, and levirate marriage? |
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Definition
bridewealth: bride's labor is valued - grooms family pays bride's family to secure marriage
dowry: bride's family pays grooms family to secure marriage
levirate marriage: bride and children's labor are "owned" so if husband dies, brother or other male relative would inherit them |
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Term
| define polygamy, polygyny and polyandry |
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Definition
polygamy: plural marriages, not common but often times allowed in a societ
polygyny: multiple wives
polyandry: multiple husbands |
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Term
| Explain the case study of the Nuer in North Africa |
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Definition
| female-female marriage: if widow was unable to conceive any more with inherited wealth, then can take a younger wife; older women responsible for providing for younger women; women with children have birthrights of the two women |
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Term
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Definition
| a social prcess that helps to order society and provide its members with meaning, unity, peace of mind, and the degree of control over events they believe is possible |
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Term
| What are some of the functions within society that religion serves? |
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Definition
| explaining natural phenomena, community/social network building, moral standards, repurcussions, gives purpose - cosmology |
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Term
| Explain the case study of The Rastafari |
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Definition
| the belief that Haile Selassie, former emperor of Ethiopia, was the second coming of Christ: pan-African vales to reject capitalism and embrace blackness |
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Term
| What are the three cross-cultural elements of religion? |
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Definition
| sacred narratives, rituals (anti-structural and rites of intensificatin), and magic |
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Term
| Define sacred narratives and give an example. |
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Definition
| Things that reinforce religious ideas, such as mythology and historical ideas. i.e. "thou shall not steal" - supernatural consequences |
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Term
| Define rituals, the two sub-categories, and examples of each. |
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Definition
Rituals act out tenance of religion or garner enthusiasm or support. 1) anti-structura rituals are acts that go against culturally-constructed norms i.e. Halloween, Mardi Graw, Sadie Hawkins
2) rites of intensification are rituals of "social effervescence" in a large group to gain enthusiasm or support, i.e. pep rallies, large-group religous practices |
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Term
| What is the difference between how the U.S. views ethnicity vs. Brazil? |
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Definition
| U.S.: hypodescent view; Brazil: divides people into different groups based on descripted variables or TYPOS. No majority vs. minority distinctions or elements of hypodescent |
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Term
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Definition
| a group with a common cultural or national tradition; self-identified |
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Term
| what is fludity in terms of ethnic groups? |
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Definition
| varition from ethnicity to ethnicity or within ethnic groups |
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Term
| Explain the Samburu/Masai example in terms of ethnicity. |
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Definition
| Masai girl adopted by Samburu family; when drought came, her cows were excluded from drinking water because of her ethnic background; circunstantialist, hypodescent perspective |
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Term
| define primordialist perspective |
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Definition
| definition of race in which intent in human being: biological component; phenotypic characteristics |
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Term
| define circumstantialist perspective |
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Definition
| race is culturally constructed from historical circumstances; dynamic and fluid |
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Term
| Where did the concept of race come from? |
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Definition
| British colonization of Ireland: Irish = first race because of their "inherent differences" from the British (dominant group) |
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Term
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Definition
| "one drop" of minority blood places you within that minority: maintains social boundaries and racial purity, emphasizes separation and preservation of majority group |
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Term
| What is the difference between sex and gender? |
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Definition
sex = genetic male/female determination
gender = what it means to be masculine/feminine: cultural constructs |
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Term
| What are the three elements of women's lower status and a critique for each? |
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Definition
1) Difference in strength: men are more dominant. C: women have higher endurance and pain tolerance
2) Childcare providers: limits activities and mobility. C: other child care options available today
3) Male expendability: males have a higher risk of death due to higher risk activities. C: pretty much true... |
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Term
| Explain the concept of a third gender using the Hijra example. |
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Definition
| Hijra group in India: born as men but have genitals removed: separate understandings of gender for this group that are more closely associated with femininity |
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Term
| What are three things associated with women having a HIGHER status? |
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Definition
1) Social labor
2) Relief of reproductive burden
3) Ownership |
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Term
| How does Herdt's study of the Sambia in New Guinea challenge gender and sexuality norms? |
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Definition
| Homosexual rites of passage: Cult of the Warrior for boys: periods of time when everyone is homosexual and periods of time when everyone is heterosexual --> challenges culturally accepted norm of gender roles |
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