Ant 200 Exam One Vocabulary

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Anthropology

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The study of humanity, including prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity

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Biological Anthropology or Physical Anthropology

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The study of humans as biological organisms, including evolution and contemporary variation

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Archaeology (or Prehistory)

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The study of past human cultures through their material remains

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Linguistic Anthropology

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The study of human communication, including its origins, history, and contemporary variation and change

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Cultural Anthropology and Social Anthropology

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The study of living peoples and their cultures, including variation and change

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Culture

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learned, shared patterns of beliefs and ideas

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Applied/Practicing/Practical Anthropology

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The use of anthropological knowledge to prevent or solve problems or to shape and achieve policy goals

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Cultural Materialism

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A theoretical position that takes material features of life, such as the environment, natural resources, and mode of production, as the bases for explaining social organization and ideology.

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Interpretive anthropology or interpretivism

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The view that cultures can be understood by studying what people thing about, their ideas, and the meanings that are important to them.

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Structurism

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A theoretical position concerning human behavior and ideas that says large forces such as the economy, social and political organization, and the media shape what people do and think.

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Agency

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The ability of humans to make choices and exercise free will even within dominating structures

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Microculture

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A distinct pattern of learned and shared behavior and thinking found within larger cultures

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Symbol

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An object, word, or action with culturally defined meaning that stands for something else; most symbols are arbitrary

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Globalization

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Increased and intensified international ties related to the spread of Western, especially USA, capitalism that affects all world cultures.

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Localization

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The transformation of global culture by local cultures into something new.

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Class

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A way of catagorizing people on the basis of their economic position in society, usually measured in terms of income or wealth.

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"Race"

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A classification of people into groups on the basis of supposedly homogeneous and largely superficial biological traits such as skin color or hair characteristics.

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Ethnicity

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A shared sense of identity among a group based on a heritage, language, or culture

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Indigeneous People

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Groups who have a long-standing connection with their home territory that predates colonial or outside societies that prevail in that territory

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Gender

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Culturally constructed and learned behaviors and ideas attributed to males, females, or blended genders

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Ethnocentrism

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Judging other cultures by the standards of one's own culture rather than by the standards of that particular culture

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BIological Determinism

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A theory that explains human nehavior and ideas mainly as shaped by biological features such as genes and hormones.

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Cultural Constructionism

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A theory that explains human behavior and ideas mainly as shaped by learning

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Natural Selection

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The process by which organisms better adapted to the environment reproduce more effectively compared with less well-adapted forms

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Evolution

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Inherited and cumulative change in the characteristics of a species, population, or culture

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Fossil

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The preserved remains of a plant or animal of the past

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Artifact

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A protable object made or modified by humans

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Primates

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An order of mammals that includes modern humans

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Sociality

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The preference for living in groups and interacting regularly with members of the same species

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Foraging

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Obtaining food available in nature through gathering, hunting, or scavenging

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Great Apes

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A category of large and tailless primates that includes orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans

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Brachiation

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Arboreal travel, using the forelimbs to swing from branch to branch, that is distinct to apes

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Knuckle-walking

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A form of terrestrial travel that involves walking flat-footed while supporting the upper body on the front of fingers bent beyond the knuckle.

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Hominims

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A category of primates that includes modern humans and extinct species of early human ancestors that are more closely related to humans than to living chimpanzees and bonobos

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Bipedalism

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Upright locomotion on two feet

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Australopithecines

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A category of several extinct hominim species found in East and Central Africa that lived between 4.5 and 3 million years ago

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Savanna

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An environment that consists of open plains with tall grasses and patches of trees.

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Archaic Homo

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A category of several extinct hominim species that lived from 2.4 million years to 19,000 years ago and is characterized by different stone tool traditions, depending on the species

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Oldowan tradition

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The oldest hominim toolkit, characterized by core tools and flake tools

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Acheulian tradition

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The toolkit of H. erectus, used from 1.7 million years ago to 300,000 years ago, and characterized by handaxes

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Mousterian tradition

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the toolkit of the Neanderthals characterized by the predominance of small, light, and more specialized flake tools such as points, scrapers, and awls

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Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) or Homo sapiens or modern humans

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The species to which modern humans belong and also referred to by that term; first emerged in Africa between 300,000-160,000 years ago and then spread throughout the Old and New Worlds.

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Upper Paleolithic

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the period of modern human occupation in Europe and Eurasia from 45,000-40,000 years ago to 12,000 years ago, characterized by microlithic tools and prolific cave art and portable art

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Cro-Magnons

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The first modern humans in Europe, dating from 40,000 years ago

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Clovis culture

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New World population characterized by the Clovis point with the earliest site dated to 11,000 years ago in the Southwest USA

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Sedentism

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A lifestyle associated with residence in permanent villages, towns, and cities, generally linked with the emergence of farming

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Domestication

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A process by which human selection causes changes in the genetic material of plants and animals

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Neolithic Revolution

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A time of rapid transformation in technology, related to plant and animal domestication, which includes tools such as sickle blades and grinding stones

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Tell

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A human-made mound resulting from the accumulation of successive generations of house construction, reconstruction, and trash

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Anthropogenic

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Caused by humans

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Fieldwork

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Research in the field, which is any place where people and culture are found.

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Participant observation

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Basic fieldwork method in cultural anthropology that involves living in a culture for a long period of time while gathering data

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Multisited Research

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Fieldwork conducted in more than one location in order to understand the behaviors and ideas of dispersed members of a culture or the relationships among different levels such as state policy and local culture

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Informed consent

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An aspect of fieldwork ethics requiring that the researcher infrom the research participants of the intent, scope, and possible effects of the study and seek their consent to be in the study

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Kula

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A trading network, linking many of the Trobriand Islands, in which men have long-standing partnerships for the exchange of everyday goods such as food as well as highly valued necklaces and armlets

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Rapport

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A trusting relationship between the researcher and the study population

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Culture Shock

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Persistant feelings of uneasiness, loneliness and anxiety that often occure when a person has shifted from one culture to a different one

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Deductive Approach (to research)

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A research method that involves posing a research question or hypothesis, gathering data related to the question, and then assessing the findings in relation to the original hypothesis

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Inductive Approach (to research)

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A research approach that avoids hypothesis formation in advance of the research and instead takes its lead from the culture being studied

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Quantitative Data

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Numeric information

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Qualitative Data

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Non-numeric information

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Etic

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An analytical framework used by outside analysts in studying culture

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Emic

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Insiders' perceptions and categories, and their explanations for why they do what they do

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Hawthorne effect

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Research bias due to participants changing their behavior to conform to expectations of the researcher

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Interview

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A research technique that involves gathering of verbal data through questions or guided conversation between at least two people

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Questionnaire

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A formal research instrument containing a pre-set series of questions that the anthropologist asks in a face-to-face setting, by mail, or by email

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Toponymy

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The naming of places

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Indigenous Knowledge (IK)

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Local understanding of the environment, climate, plants, and animals

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Ethnography

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A firsthand, detailed description of a living culture, based on personal observation

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Collaborative Research

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An approach to learning about culture that involves anthropologists working with members of the study population as partners and participants rather than "subjects"

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Communication

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The conveying of meaningful messages from one person, animal, or insect to another

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Language

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A form of communication that is a systematic set of learned symbols and signs shared among a group and passed on from generation to generation

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Productivity

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A feature of human language that offers the ability to communicate many messages efficiently

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Call system

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A form of oral communications among nonhuman primates with a set repertiore of meaningful sounds generated in response to environmental factors

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Displacement

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A feature of human language that allows people to talk about events in the past and future

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Phoneme

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A sound that makes a difference for meaning in a language

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Ethnosemantics

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The study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in particular cultural contexts.

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Sign language

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A form of communication that uses mainly hand movements to convey messages

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Critical media anthropology

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An approach within the cross-cultural study of media that examines how power interests shape people's access to media and the contents of its messages

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Digital Divide

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Social inequality in access to new and emerging information technology, notably access to up-to-date computers, the Internet, and training related to their use

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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

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A theory in linguistic anthropology that says language determines thought

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Sociolinguistics

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A theory in linguistic anthropology that says that culture and society and a person's social position determine language

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Critical discourse analysis

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The study of the relations of powerand inequality in language

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Tag question

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A question seeking affirmation, placed at the end of a sentence.

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Historical linguistics

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The study of language change using formal methods that compare shifts over time and across space in aspects of language such as phonetics, syntax, and semantics

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Language family

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Languages descended from a parent language

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Logograph

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A symbol that conveys meaning through a form or picture resembling that to which it refers

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Khipu

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Cords of knotted strings used during the Inca empire for keeping accounts and recording events

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Pidgin

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A contact language that blends elements of at least two languages and that emerges when people with different languages need to communicate

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Creole

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A language directly descended from a pidgin but possessing its own native speakers and involving linguistic expansion and elaboration

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Global language or world language

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A language spoken widely throughout the world and in diverse cultural contexts, often replacing indigenous languages

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Language shift or language decay

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Condition of a language in which speakers adopt a new language for most situations, begin to use their native language only in certain contexts, and may be only semi-fluent and have limited vocabulary in their native language

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Language endangerment

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Condition of a language when it has fewer than 10,000 speakers

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Language extinction

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Condition of a language in which speakers abandon it in favor of a new language to the extent that the native language loses functions and no longer has competent users.