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Exam Vocab 1
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95
Anthropology
Undergraduate 1
02/27/2012

Additional Anthropology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Enthology/ cultural anthropology
Definition
The branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and or national divisions of humanity
Term
Emic
Definition
from the view of the observed
Term
social organization
Definition
Marriage household and family
Term
holistic
Definition
broad in scope, concerned with all facets of human life
Term
Enculturation
Definition
passing of cultural traits from one generation to the next
Term
Diffusion 
Definition
Movement of ideas and goods between cultures
Term
ethnology 
Definition
study of human behavior in context of culture: Big picture
Term

PHILOPATRIC

Male vs. Female

Definition

Remaining in or returning to one's birthplace.

 

Male would be patrilocal societies - males defend territory to attract females

 

Female would be matrilocal societies - females stay together and cooperate when resources defensible

 

 

Term
Ethnographer
Definition
person who does study
Term
culture relativism
Definition
all cultures are equal in calue
Term
Subculture
Definition
A subculture is an identifiable  culture within a society - a group with a substantially different lifestyle.
 
Term
Archaeology
Definition
the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and envrironmental data that they ahve left behind which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes
Term
ethnocentrism
Definition

Tendency to view the traits, ways, ideas, and values observed in other cultural groups as inferior and less natural or logical than those of one’s own group

 
Term
Linguistics
Definition
The scientific study of human language
Term
Physical Anthropology AKA Biological anthropolgy
Definition
Branch of anthro that studies the physical development of the human species
Term
participant observation
Definition
primary method in enthnography. traditional method
Term
Applied anthro
Definition
Refers to the application method and theory of anthro to the analysis and solution of practical problems
Term
marriage
Definition
sexual access, control of reproduction, economic ties
Term
Ecological anthro
Definition
Subfield of anthro that deals with relationships between humans and their environment, or between nature and culture, over time and space
Term
Types of marriage: polyandry
Definition
Woman having multiple husbands, occurs rarely in a few isolated tribal societies 
Term
UNILINEAL / UNILATERAL
Definition

System of determining descent groups where one belongs to one's fathers line or one's mothers line.


Exclusively through male ancestors = PATRILINEAL / PATRILATERAL

Exclusively through female ancestors = MATRILINEAL / PATRILATERAL

Term
BILINEAL / BILATERAL
Definition
system of family lineage in which the relatives on the mother's side and father's side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth.
Term
Etic
Definition
From the view of the observer
Term
Types of marriage: Endogamous 
Definition
A marriage witin the boundaries of the domestic group between members of the same group
Term
EXOGAMY
Definition

Must marry outside of a certain group

 
Term
Types of marriage: exogamous 
Definition
A marriage outside of the domestic group, between members of different groups
Term
Marriage
Definition
Culturally sanctioned agreement involving sexual access, control of reproduction, and economic ties (labor, production)
Term
Main Types of Unilineal Descent Groups
Definition

CLANS

how tribal peoples divide themselves into family groups - cannot marry within clan as this would denote a relative too close to pair with.


LINEAGE
Lineages refer to ancestors and descendants. AKA the line of heritage

Term
ENDOGAMY
Definition

Must marry within your own group or status level

 
Term
Types of marriage: monogamy
Definition
Marriage with one spuse at a time but with remarriage after death or divorce
Term
Types of marriage: polygamy
Definition
Marriage to more than one spouse at a time
Term
Types of marriage: polygyny
Definition
Marriage to more than one spouse at a time, majority of societies are polygynous
Term
The Incest Taboo
Definition

Biological ways of avoiding it:

Proximate mechanisms

Critical period

Childhood Familiarity

 
Term
Types of marriage: Replacement marriage- Levirate
Definition
Favore the remarriage of a widow to her deceased husband's brother
Term
Types of marriage: Replacement marriage- Sororate
Definition
Custom of a deceased wife being replaced by her sister
Term
Postmarital residence: Neolocal
Definition

Need for mobility due to post-industrialization, economic pursuits outside of household, the need to move for jobs.

Generally found in North Americans and some Europeans

Term
Postmarital Residence: Bilocal
Definition
May move between families due to scarce resources, to avoid conflict.  Generally seen in band level societies.
Term
Postmarital Residence: Patrilocal
Definition

Living with the husbands family.  

  • Seen in majority of societies.  
  • Keeps related males together to work or fight.
  • Usually agriculturalists or pastoralists.
  • Makes divorce more difficult
Term
Postmarital Residence: Matrilocal
Definition

Living with wife's family

  • Keeps related femals together who havve more control/possesions
  • Horticultural societies
  • Husband's family usually not far away
  • Divorce is easy
Term
Cross Cousins vs. Parallel Cousins
Definition

 

Patrilateral/Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage

 

e.g. father’s sister’s or mother’s brother’s kid
 

 


Patrilateral/Matrilateral parallel-cousin marriage

 

e.g. father’s brother’s or mother’s sister’s kid

 

Term
Bride price/Bridewealth
Definition

Paid to the bride’s family at marriage (by groom or his family)

Compensation for loss of daughter/grandchildren

Usually patrilocal/patrilineal

 
Term
Postmarital Residence: Avunculocal
Definition

Living with the mother's brother

  • Seen in matrilineal societies where descent is through the female line but males rule so power is transferred from uncle to nephew 
  • Weak father figure and divorce is easy
Term

Female Claustration

 

Definition

 

Types

Definition

Seen in patrilineal societies. Seclusion, Concealment, Mutilation, Cloistering

 

Female Circumcision

Clitoridectomy

Infibulation


Foot Binding

Term
Bride Service
Definition

A designated period after marriage when the groom works for the bride’s family

 
Term
Dowry
Definition

Payment of a woman’s inheritance at the time of her marriage, either to her or her husband

 
Term
Types of marriage exhanges: Brideprice/Bridewealth
Definition
  • Paid to the bride's family at marriage (by groom or his family)
  • Compensation for loss of daughter/grandchildren
  • Usually patrilocal/patrilineal 
Term
CONSANGUINEAL
Definition

Wife stays with her family and husband with his

Family consists of siblings and their kids

 
Term
Moiety
Definition

If society is divided into two descent groups it is this - french for "Half"

Marriages must consist of one member from one side and one member from another

Term
Phratry
Definition
a descent group containing at least two clans which have a supposed common ancestor.
Term
Types of marriage exhanges: Bride Service
Definition
  • Designated period after marriage when the groom works for the bride's family
Term
Totemism
Definition
a system of belief in which humans are said to have a connection or a kinship with a spirit-being, such as an animal or plant
Term
Potlatch
Definition
The ceremonial feast called a potlatch, practiced among a diverse group of Northwest Coast Indians as an integral part of indigenous culture, had numerous social implications. The Kwakiutl, of the Canadian Pacific Northwest, are the main group that still practices the potlatch custom. Although there were variants in the external form of the ceremony as conducted by each tribe, the general form was that of a feast in which gifts were distributed. The size of the gathering reflected the social status of the host, and the nature of the gifts given depended on the status of the recipients. Potlatches were generally held to commemorate significant events in the life of the host, such as marriage, birth of a child, death, or the assumption of a new social position. Potlatches could also be conducted for apparently trivial reasons, because the true reason was to validate the host's social status. Such ceremonies, while reduced to external materialistic form in Western society, are important in maintaining stable social relationships as well as celebrating significant life events. Fortunately, through studies by anthropologists, the understanding and practice of such customs has not been lost.
Term
Types of marriage exchanges: Dowry
Definition
  • Payment of a woman's inheritance at the time of her marriage, either to her or her husband
  • Common in Eurasia and U.S. 
  • Associated with intensive agriculture
Term
HOUSEHOLD
Definition

Universal

A residential socioeconomic unit involving

Production

Consumption

Maintenance

 
Term
Kula Ring
Definition

New Guinea

Ceremonial Exchange

From North to South exchange of a brown necklace (Kula Ring) and white armbands

Reinforces social status though the hierarchy of gifts

Term
Subsistence Strategies
Definition

 

Activities involved with food acquisition & production

 

Cultural adaptations

 

Often correlated/adapted to particular environments

 

Term
Types of families: Nuclear family
Definition
  • Uncommon
  • Foragers and industrial nations
  • Increased during post-industrial period because of associated mobility
Term
Types of Families: Extended family
Definition
  • Domestic group consisting of parents, children, childrens spouses and children
  • Minmum of 3 generations
  • Most common form of family
  • seen in farming communities 
  • High among poor in our country
Term
Foraging
Definition

 

 

People who obtain food by hunting and collecting wild plant foods

Used to be much more prevalent, nowadays it occurs where food production isn't practical - arctic ; desert

High mobility - nothing tying foragers to one area

BAND level of pol. org. - small (less than 100) people

Related by blood and marriage

Flexible dividion of labor but men hunt and women gather / family manage

 

 

 

Term
Types of Families: Consanguineal family
Definition
  • Wife stays with her family and husband with his
  • Family consists of siblings and their kids
  • May be seen where people marry later and are stuck in their ways- don't want to disrupt household
Term
Household
Definition
  • Universal
  • A residential socioeconomic unit involving production, consumption, maintenance
  • May be made up of one or more families
Term
Communal Families
Definition
  • Sort of an extended household
  • e.g. Communes or band level societies where all adults are mother/father and everyone shares to some extent
Term
Categories of Subsistence patters
Definition
  • Foragers
  • Food Producers- horticulturalists, agriculturalists
  • animal husbandry/pastoralism
Term

FOOD PRODUCTION SOCIETY 1:

HORTICULTURE

Definition
Hand tools only - small scale
Term
SLASH AND BURN / SWIDDEN AGRICULTURE
Definition

Gets rid of vegetation and pests and enriches soil

Moderate mobility

Forager/Horti = Band Level

Pastoral/Horti = Tribe Level

Term
Foragers
Definition

People who obtain food by hunting and collecting wild plant foods

  • Relatively high mobility
  • Where food production is not practical- arctic, desert
  • May be associated with agricultural community
Term

FOOD PRODUCTION GROUP 2:

INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE

Definition

-Industrial v. Non-Industrial

Machines v. Plow / Animals

-Intensive Production

-Irrigation / Fertilization

-High Labor -> Sexual Division of Labor

-Modify Landscape more -> Terracing, Irrigation, Drainage

-This type led to civilization

 

Term
Carrying Capacity
Definition

The maximum population density a given environment can support using a particular subsistence strategy

  • Low in foragers
  • Popultion size is determined by available resources
Term
Horticulturalists
Definition
  • People wlho work small gardens using simple hand tools without irrigation or plow
  • Slash and burn- swidden agriculture
  • Gets rid of vegetation and pests- enriches soil
  • usually moderate mobililty due to fallow period
Term
PASTORALISM
Definition

Practicing Animal Husbandry

Dependence on animals for food, beasts of burden, byproducts, currency…

Involves degrees of nomadism

 

 

 

Term
Intensive Agriculture
Definition
  • Machines vs. Plow and animals
  • Allows higher population density
  • Continuous use of land
  • Irrigation/Fertilization
  • High labor
  • Sexual division of labor
Term
Transhumance
Definition

Seasonal movement of herds in relation to altitude

 

Term
Intensive Agriculture cont. 
Definition
  • Modified landscape more than other subsistence strategies
  • Terracing
  • Irrigation
  • Drainage
  • Led to civilization
Term
BARTER / SILENT TRADE
Definition
Trading goods ; Silent is when you cannot speak the same language and yet you trade
Term
Nonindustrial intensive agriculturalists
Definition
  • All early civilizations
  • SE Asian rice farmers today
Term

Reciprocity

Definition and 3 Types

Definition

reciprocity is a way of defining people's informal exchange of goods and labour; that is, people's informal economic systems. It is the basis of most non-market economies.

 

Generalized reciprocity is the exchange of goods and services without keeping track of their exact value, but often with the expectation that their value will balance out over time

 

Balanced or Symmetrical reciprocity occurs when someone gives to someone else, expecting a fair and tangible return - at a specified amount, time, and place

 

Negative reciprocity is the exchange of goods and services where each party intends to profit from the exchange, often at the expense of the other

Term
Human Signals
Definition
  • Physical, vocal, facial, gestural, olfactory
  • Body language
  • Sex and gender
  •  biological and cultural
  • Status/personality e.g. secure/insecure
Term
REDISTRIBUTION
Definition

In cultural anthropology and sociology, redistribution is a system of economic exchange within a social group intended to alter the distribution of goods.[1] Typically this involves a strong, political centre such as kinship-based leadership which receives and distributes goods according to culturally specific principles.

An elaborate example of this in a non-market society is the potlatch, where large amounts of personal resources are ceremonially given away to others in the community according to social status, with the tacit expectation that other members of the community would themselves give away large amounts of their own property in the future

Term
Language
Definition

Human language learned through enculturation

-Biological and Cultural elements

Term
How Signals differ from symbolic communication
Definition
  • The arbitrary use of sounds, gestures, or characters that have ascribed meaning among a group of people
Term
Characteristics of Language
Definition
  • Made up of sounds and symbols
  • Written and spoken
  • Arbitrary- culturally assigned
  • Open system-infinite combinations of words in sentences
  • Displacement in space and time
Term
Signal
Definition

 

 

§Physical characteristic, sound, or gesture that communicates information
§Sender and receiver
§Closed system of communication
lCannot change meaning
lAlthough variability and gradation
§All mammals use vocal signals

 

lInternal vs. external

 

§We also have signals

 

§Language differs from signals

 

 

Term
Phonemes
Definition
  • The sounds that native speakers of a language perceive as being distinct e.g. "e" in French vs. English and Spanish
  • They are meaningless individually
  • When they are combined into proscribed sequence, the convey definite meaning
Term
Historical Linguistics
Definition
study of the history and evolution of languages
Term
Sociolinguistics
Definition
How language varies within culture
Term
Morphemes
Definition
The smallest part of an utterance that has definite meaning i.e. word or part of a word (prefix, suffix)
Term
Syntax
Definition

 

Syntax: rules for combining words into sentences

 

Term
Syntax
Definition
Rules for combining words into sentences
Term
Morphology
Definition
Rules for combining phonemes into morphemes, word construction
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