Self Awareness

The ability to identify oneself as an individual, to reflect on oneself, and to evaluate oneself 

Naming Ceremony 

A special event or ritual to mark the naming of a child 

Personality 

The distinctive way a person thinks, feels, and behaves 

Dependence training 

Childrearing practices that foster compliance in the performance of assigned tasks and dependance on the domestic group, rather than reliance on oneself

Independence training 

Childrearing practices that foster indepedence, self reliance and personal achievement 

Modal Personality 

Those character traits that occur with the highest frequency in a social group and are therefore the most representative of its culture  

Core Values 

Those values espessically promoted by a particular culture 

Intersexual 

A person born with reproductive organs, genitalia, and/or sex chromosomes that are not exclusively male or female 

Culture bound syndrome 

A mental disorder specific to a particular cultural group 

Ecosystem 

A system, or a functioning whole composed of both the natural environment and all the organisms living within it 

Cultural evolution 

Cultural change over time; not to be confused with progress 

Progress 

The notion that humans are moving forward to a better, more advanced stage in their cultural development toward perfection 

Convergent evolution 

In cultural evolution, the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by different peoples w/ different ancestorial cultures 

Parallel evolution 

In cultural evolution, the development of similar cultural adapations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were already some what alike 

Culture area 

A geographic regino in which a number of socities follow similar patterns of life 

Culture Core 

Cultural features that are fundamental in the society's way of making its living-including food-producing techniques, knowledge of available resources, and the wrk arrangements involved in applying those techniques to the local environment 

Economic system  

An organized arrangment for producing, distributing, and consuming goods 

Technology 

Tools and other material equipment, together with knowledge of how to use them 

Retropocity 

The exchange of goods or services, of approximately equal value, between two parties 

Generalized retropocity 

A mode of exchange in which hte value of what is given is not calculated, nor is not calculated, nor is the time of repayment specified 

Balanced reciprocity 

A mode of exchange in which the giving and the recieving are specific as to the value of ht egood san dht eitme of their delivery 

Negative reciprocity 

A form of exchange in which the aim is to get something for as little as possible. Neither fair nor balanced 

Redistribution 

A form of exchange in which goods flow into a central place, where they are sorted, counted, and reallocated 

Conspicious consumption

A showy display of wealth for social prestige 

Potlatch 

On the northwest coast of North America, a ceremonial event in which a village chief publically gives away stockpiled food and goods to signify wealth 

Prestige economy 

Creation of a surplus for the express purpose of gaining prestige through a public display of wealth that is given away as gifts 

Leveling mechanism 

A cultural obligation compelling prosperous members of a community to give away goods, host public feasts, provide free service, or otherwise demonstrate generosity so that no one permeantly accumulates more wealth than everyone else 

Market exchange 

The buying and selling of goods and services w/ prices set by rules of supply and demand 

Money 

Something used to make payments for other goods and services as well as to measure their value 

Informal economy 

A network of producing and circulating marketable commodities, labor, and services that for various reasons escapes govt control  

Marriage 

A culturally sanctioned untion between two people that establishes certain rights and obligations 

Consanguineal kin 

Biologically related relatives, commonly referred to as blood relatives 

Incest taboo 

The prohibition of sexual relations between specified individuals usually parent and child and sibling relations at a minimum 

Endogamy 

Marriage within a particular group or category of individuals 

Exogamy 

Marriage outside the group 

Monogamy 

Marriage in which both partners have just one spouse

Serial monogamy 

A marriage form in which a man or woman marries or lives with a series of partners in succession 

Polygamy 

One individual having multiple spouses at hte same time from the Greek words poly and gamos 

Polyandry 

Marriage of a woman to two or more men at one time; a form of polygamy 

Group marriage

Marriage iin which several men and women have access to one another; also called a co-marriage 

Fictive marriage 

Marriage by proxy to the symbols of someone not physically present to establish the social status of spouse and heirs 

Parallel cousin 

Child of a father's brother or mother's sister 

Cross cousin 

Child of a mother's brother or a father's sister 

Bridewealth 

Money or valuable goods paid by the groom or his family to the bride's family upon marriage; also called bride-price  

Bride service 

A designated period of time when the groom works for hte bride's family 

Dowry 

Payment of a woman's inheritance at ht etime of her marriage, either to her or her husband 

Family 

Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption. The family may take many forms, ranging from a single parent w/ one or more children, to a married couple or polygamous spouses w/ or w/out offspring 

Household 

The basic residental unit where economic production, consumption, inheritance, childrearing, and shelter are organized and carried out 

Conjugal family 

A family established through marriage 

Nuclear family 

A group consisting of one or two parents and dependent offspring , which may include a stepparent, stepsiblings and adopted children

Extended family 

Two or more closely related nuclear families clustered together in a domestic group 

Patrilocal residence 

A residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the husband's father's place of residence 

Matrilocal residence 

A residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the wife's mother's place of residence 

Ambilocal residence 

A residence pattern in which a married couple may choose either matrilocal or patrilocal residence 

Neolocal residence 

A pattern in which a married couple establishes a household in a location away from either hte husband's or the wife's relatives 

Kinship 

A network of relatives within which individuals possess mutual rights and obligations

Descent group 

Any kin-ordered social group w/ a membership in the direct line of descent from a rela or fictional common ancestor 

Unilaterial descent 

Descent establishes group membership exclusively through either the male or female line

Matrilineal descent 

Descent traced exclusively through the female line to establish group membership 

Patrilineal descent 

Descent traced exclusively through the male line to establish group membership 

Lineage 

A unilaterial kinship group descended from a common ancestor or founder who lived four to six generations ago, and in which relationships among members can be exactly stated in genealogical terms 

Clan 

An extended unilaterial kinship group, often consisting of several lineages, whose members claim common descent from a remote ancestor, usually legendary or mythological 

Fission 

The splitting of a descent group into two or more new descent groups 

Totemism 

The belief that people are related to particular animals, plants, or natural objects by virtue of descent from common ancestral spirits 

Phratry

A unilaterial descent group composed of at least two clans that supposedly share a common ancestry, whether or not they really do 

Moiety 

Each group that results from a division of a society into two halves on the basis of descent 

Kindred 

An individual's close blood relatives on maternal and paternal sides of his or her family  

EGO

The central person from whom the degree of each relationship in traced 

Eskimo system 

Kinship reckoning in wich hte nuclear family is emphasized by specfically identifying the mother, father, and sister while dumping in all the other family ala lineal system 

Hawaiian system 

Kinship reckoning in which all relatives of the same sex and generations are referred in by the same term 

Iroquois system 

Kinship reckoning in which a father and father's brother are referred to by a single term, as are a mother and father's sister, but a father's sister and mothers brother are given seperate terms 

Age grade 

An organized category of people based on age; every individual passes through a series of such categories over his or her lifetime 

Age set 

A formally established group of people born during a certain time span who move through the series of age grade categories together 

Common Interest Association 

An association that results from an act of joining based on sharing particular activities, objectives, values, or beliefs, sometimes rooted in common ethnic, religious, or regional background  

Stratified society 

A society in which people are hiearchially divided and rankeed into social strata, or layers, and do not share equally in the basic resources that support survival, influence, and prestige   

Egalitarian society 

A society in which everyone has about equal rank, access to, and power over the basic resources that support survival, influence and prestige 

Social class 

A category of individuals in a stratefied society who enjoy equal or nearly equal prestige according to the system of evaluation 

Caste 

A closed social class in a stratified society in which membership is determined by birth and fixed for life 

Social mobility 

Upward or downward chnage in one's social class position in a stratified society