Anthropology Exam 1 Terms

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Adaptation

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the process by which organisms cope with enviornmental forces and stresses, such as those posed by climate and terrains

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Anthropology

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the study of the human species and its immediate ancestors, uniquely comparative and holistic science

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Applied Anthropology

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the application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory and methods to identify, asses, and solve contemporary social problems

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Archaeological Anthropology

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reconstructs, describes and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains

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Biocultural

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refers to the inclusion and combination of both biological and cultural perspectives and approaches to comment on or solve a particular issue or problem

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Biological (Physical) Anthropology

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human biological diversity in time and space

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Five Interests of Biological Anthropology

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-Human evolution according to fossil record (paleoanthropology)-Human genetics-Human growth and development-Human biological plasticity (the body's ability to change as it copes with stresses such as cold, heat, and altitude)-The biology, evolution, behavior, and social life of monkeys, apes and other non-human primates

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Cultural Anthropology

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the study of human society and culture, the subfield that describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences

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Cultural Resource Management (CRM)

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decides what sites need saving, and preserves significant information about the past when sites cannot be saved, as well as allowing the destruction of sites if they are not significant

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Culture

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distinctly human, traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them

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Ethnography

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provides and account of a particular community, society, or culture

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Ethnology

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examines, compares, analyzes and interprets the results of ethnographic data gathered in different societies

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Food Production

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the cultivation of plants and animals, this followed the process of hunting and gathering, or foraging

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General Anthropology

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"four-field" anthropology, includes four main sub-disciplines: sociocultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology

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Holistic

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the study of the whole human condition: past, present and future; biology, society, language, and culture

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Linguistic Anthropology

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studies the language in its social and cultural context, across space and time

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Science

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a systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims, through experiment, observation, and deduction, to produce reliable explanations of phenomena, with references to the material and physical world

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Society

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organized life in groups, is shared with animals like baboons, rats and wolves

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Sociolinguists

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investigate relationships between social and linguistic variation

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Acculturation

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the ongoing exchange of cultural features that results when groups have continous firsthand contact

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Core Values

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a set of characteristic, key, basic central values integrated in each culture to help distinguish it from others

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Cultural Relativism

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the viewpoint that behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another

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Cultural Rights

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these are not vested in individuals, but in groups, such as religious and ethnic minorities and in indigenous societies

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Diffusion

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the borrowing of traits between cultures

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Enculturation

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the process by which a child learns his or her culture

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Estrus

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ovulation period of baboons and chimps

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Ethnocentrism

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the tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to apply ones's own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures

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Generality

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cultural features common to several, but not all human groups

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Globalization

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a series of processes that work trans-nationally to promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent

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Hominids

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the zoological family that includes fossil and living humans, as well as chimps and gorillas

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Hominins

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the group that leads to humans, but not to chimps and gorillas and encompasses all the human species that have ever existed

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Human Rights

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invokes a realm of justice and morality beyond and superior to the laws and customs off particular countries, cultures and religions

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Independent Invention

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the process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems; a mechanism of cultural change

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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

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each society's cultural base - its core beliefs and principles; a group right, a cultural right, allowing indigenous peoples to control who may know and use their collective knowledge and its applications

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International Culture

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culture that extends beyond and across national boundaries (spread through borrowing or diffusion)

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National Culture

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the beliefs, learned behavior patterns, values and institutions that are shared by citizens of the same nation

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Particularity

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a trait or feature of culture that is not shared, generalized or wide-spread, but confined to a single place, culture, or society

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Subcultures

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different symbol-based patterns and traditions associated with particular groups in the same complex society (Jews, Baptists and Roman Catholics in the US)

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Symbols

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signs that have no necessary or natural connection to the things they stand for, or signify

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Universal

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certain biological, psychological, social and cultures features that are found in every culture (incest taboo)

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Cultural Consultant

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(aka informant) refers to individuals the ethnographer gets to know in the field, the people who teach him or her about their culture, who provide the emic perspective

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Emic

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investigates how local people think

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Etic

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science-oriented approach shifts the focus from local observations, categories, explanations, and interpretations to those of the anthropologist

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Genealogical Method

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well-established ethnographic technique, deals with kinship, descent, and marraige

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Informed Consent

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agreement to take part in research, after having been informed about its nature, procedures, and possible impacts

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Interview Schedule

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the ethnographer talks face-to-face with people, asks the questions, and writes down the answers

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Key Cultural Consultants

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(aka key informants) people who by accident, experience, talent, or training can provide the most complete or useful information about particular aspects of life

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Life History

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the recollection of a lifetime to provide a more intimate and personal cultural portrait than would be possible otherwise

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Longitudinal Research

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the long-term study of an area of a population, usually based on repeated visits

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Participant Observation

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taking part in the events one is observing, describing, and analyzing

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Sample

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a small, manageable study group from a larger population

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Survey Research

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this research design involves sampling, impersonal data collection, and statistical analysis

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Variables

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attributes that vary among members of a sample or population

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Interpretive anthropologist

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believe that ethnographers should describe and interpret that which is meaningful to the natives

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Experimental anthropologist

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(aka reflexive ethnography) question ethnographic realism b/c there is a possibility of an objective, scientific account, or opinion because ethnographers ALWAYS incorporate their point-of-view into the account, so this bias is acknowledged

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Black English Vernacular (BEV)

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relatively uniform dialect spoken by the majority of black youth in most parts of the United States today, especially in the inner-city areas of New York, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, Cleveland. It is also spoken in most rural areas and is used in the casual, intimate speech of many adults

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Call Systems

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natural communication systems of other primates (monkeys and apes)

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Cultural Transmission

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a basic feature of language transmission through learning

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Daughter Languages

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languages that descend from the same parent language; have been changing separately for hundreds, or even thousands, of years

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Descriptive Linguistics

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the scientific study of a spoken language

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Diglossia

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applies to "high" and "low" variants of the same language (speaking to professors versus speaking to friends)

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Displacement

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having the ability to talk about things that are not present (humans can, apes cannot)

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Focal Vocabulary

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a specialized set of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups (hockey fans use more hockey terms to describe a play than soccer fans)

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Historical Linguistics

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subdivision of linguistics that studies languages over time

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Kinestics

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the study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and expressions

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Lexicon

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a dictionary containing all of a language's morphemes and their meanings

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Morphology

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studies how sounds combine to form morphemes

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Morphemes

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words and their meaningful parts (cats = cat(furry animal) + s(plural))

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Phoneme

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a sound contrast that makes a difference in the meaning of the word (pit/bit)

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Phonemics

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studies only the significant sound contrasts (phonemes) of a given language

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Phonetics

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the study of speech sounds in general, what people actually say in various languages, like the differences in vowel pronunciations

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Phonology

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the study of speech sounds

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Productivity

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the ability to use the rules of one's language to create new expressions comprehensible to other speakers; a basic feature of language

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Protolanguage

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the original language from which daughter languages come from

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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the belief that language differences produce different ways of thinking (English divides tense into past, present, and future; Hopi (Pueblo region) distinguishes between events that exist or have existed, and those that don't or don't yet)

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Semantics

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a language's meaning system

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Sociolinguists

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investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation

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Style Shifts

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how we vary in our speech in different contexts (Oprah Winfrey)

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Subgroups

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languages within a classification of related languages that are most closely related

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Syntax

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refers to the arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences (Yoda)