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Cultural Anthropology Chapter 2
The Nature of Culture
17
Anthropology
Undergraduate 1
02/24/2013

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Term
Culture
Definition
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
Society
Definition
an organized group of people who share a homeland and who depend on each other for the survival and well-being.
Term
Members of a subculture
Definition
share certain cultural features that are significantly different from those of the rest of society.
Term
Enculturation
Definition
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
the belief that one's own patterns of behavior are always natural, good, beautiful, or important and that strangers, to the extent that they live differently, live by savage, inhuman, disgusting, or irrational standards.
Term
Cultural relativism
Definition
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 ethically worthy of respect.
Term
Falsification
Definition
entails the rejection of a theory because the prediction is not supported by the data.
Term
Diffusion
Definition
takes place when culture contact leads to 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; the observer uses concepts and distinctions that are meaningful and appropriate to the observer.
Term
The Universal Pattern
Definition
is a set of categories that is 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
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. PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION.
Term
Structure
Definition
consists of the groups and organizations present in every society that allocate, regulate, and exchange good, labor, and information. DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.
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. BEHAVIORAL SUPERSTRUCTURE AND MENTAL SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Term
Cultural materialism
Definition
a research strategy that holds that the primary task of cultural anthropology is to give scientific causal explanations for the differences and similarities in thought and behavior found among human groups.
Term
The principle of primacy of infrastructure
Definition
states that infrastructural variables are more determinative of the evolution of sociocultural systems.
Term
Acculturation
Definition
the process that involves learning the culture of the new place.
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