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85 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is anthropology?
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Anthropology is a science of humankind. It studies all facets of society and culture. It studies tools, techniques, traditions, language, beliefs, kinships, values, social institutions, economic mechanisms, cravings for beauty and art, struggles for prestige. It describes the impact of humans on other humans. With the exception of the Physicial Anthropology discipline, Anthropology focuses on human characteristics generated and propogated by humans themselves.
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Four subfields of anthropology
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Physical, Archaeology, Cultural, Linguistic
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Ethnography
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the study of a group of people
go and live with a group of people for a long time Very small sample but you know alot about them depth over breadth |
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Emic prospective
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prospective of the people (folk explanation)
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Etic Prospective
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the researcher's prospective
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IRB
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Institutional Review Board
Examines ethics of research Participation must be voluntary Ethical treatment of human subjects |
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Unstructured Interview
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Just like a conversation. No pre-set questions
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Semi-structured interview
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preplanned questions with open ended answers
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Structured interview
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Questionnaire (On a scale of 1-5 etc.)
Often get made up answers |
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Focus group
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demographically similar group
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Participatory Observation
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You do what they do
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Time allocation Observation
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observe how the people allocate their time
Participant observation |
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Enculturation
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When you learn a culture for the first time as a baby
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Culture
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learned information
the most important topic in anthropology |
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Acculturation
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how culture is relearned through life and changes in time and place
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Vertical inheritance
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How culture is passed down through generations from the parents to the children
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Horizontal inheritance
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How culture is passed through people by things like the radio, magazines, and peers
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Biased transmission
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Conformity, prestige, success
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Conformity bias
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when you learn from the majority
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Prestige bias
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When you follow somebody that is cool
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Success bias
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When you follow successful people (actors)
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Memes
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Culturally learned information
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Nature vs. Nurture
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?
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Critical Period
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The time during infancy where it is said you have to learn culture. If you don't, you might not be able to
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Culture is in our heads
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brains are preprogrammed for culture (we know because all groups have culture)
Mirror neurons- most people feel what other people feel (what you see happening to them) |
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Culture is super organic/ emergent property
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The whole is more than the sum of its parts = super-organic
not caused by any one thing, but a bunch of things = emergent property |
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Agency vs. Structure
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"agency" refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. "Structure", by contrast, refers to the recurrent patterned arrangements which seem to influence or limit the choices and opportunities that individuals possess.
contrasted with the "nature versus nurture" debate |
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Cultural categories for matter, colors, plants, animals, smells, normalcy
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Matter- objects, animate vs. inanimate
Sensory input: hot vs. cold, clean vs. dirty, colors, smells Social phenomena- fairness (what is fair to us might not be to others); otherness (what is not like us), morality, normality (rewards and sanctions) |
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Theory of chunking
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we see objects in chunks
we don't have to learn how objects chunk |
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Rewards and punishments
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?
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Environmentists vs. Innatists
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Environmentists- humas have a GENERALIZED intelligence; your brain begins as a blank slate; culture writes things to your brain
Innatists- humans have a SPECIALIZED intelligence; we are born with categories for knowledge Genetic determinism- we are born with all knowledge; culture has no influence |
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Noam Chomsky
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language acquisition device; critical period- have to learn it when you're a baby; universal- words may be different but the structure is the same (75% subject, verb, object)
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Language Acquisition device
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?
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Universal grammar
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words may be different but the structure is the same (75% subject, verb, object)
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Brain as blank slate
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environmentists way of thinking
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Biologically preprogrammed brain (compartmentalized)
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Innatists way of thinking
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
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language constrains our thoughts and culture; we think in words; you can't think about what you can't talk about
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Productivity
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you can talk about something you have never seen
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Displacement
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You can talk about thinks that aren't right in front of you
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Human language has...
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Productivity, displacement, lies, humor, grammar, and syntax
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Lessons from ape language studies
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Productivity- Lucy = drink fruit (watermelon); washoe = waterbird (duck); Koko = finger bracelet (ring)
Displacement- Koko = apology for biting the next day Argument, lies- Washoe = feces argument (blamed somebody else) Humor- Koko tells jokes NO GRAMMAR OR SYNTAX!!! |
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Lessons from Genie language study
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She had many symptoms caused by child abuse (inability to eat hard foods, constant salivation and spitting, fear of kakhi pants and dogs, bruised buttocks, incontinence)
Result of no culture= couldn't cry; no sense of hot or cold; difficulty with some colors; poor integration of senses; no classification of self and other (couldn't learn respect); no shame; no language |
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Lessons from Berlin and Kay color study
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Test- compare 21 languages and how they classify colors; show a color chart and ask :
Do all languages have the same color categories? (no) Do all languages have the same focal colors? (Yes) Do they have purest colors? (ex. blue, green) (yes) Focal colors correspond to light, dark, red, green, yellow, blue, etc. Languages have 2-11 basic color terms Is it universal which colors languages name? (yes) 2= light and dark (white & black) 3= W, B, and red 4-5= W, B, R, and Yellow or Blue 6= W, B, R, Y, B, and Green |
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Focal colors
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Focal colors correspond to light, dark, red, green, yellow, blue, etc.
Languages have 2-11 basic color terms Is it universal which colors languages name? (yes) 2= light and dark (white & black) 3= W, B, and red 4-5= W, B, R, and Yellow or Blue 6= W, B, R, Y, B, and Green |
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"Atomic" similarity, "Molecular" differences in color categories
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"Atomic" similarity due to the universal biology of the human brain
"Molecular" variation due to learning/ culture |
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Archaeologists
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Study material culture from the past; infer past behavior based on material remains
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Material culture
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Static objects NOT data
Artifacts, ecofacts, features |
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Artifacts
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objects that have been made or modifies by humans, and usually small enough to be carried (ex. pottery)
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Ecofacts
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Plant and animal remains that were used by humans but NOT modified (ex. animal bones)
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Features
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Non-portable evidence of human activities (ex. hearths, garbage pits)
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Relative dating
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general age of something by relating it to something else
Original horizontality, law of superposition, seriation |
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Original horizontality
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layers are laid flat
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Law of Superposition
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as new layers form, older ones are buried
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Seriation
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how styles change over time (things become more and less popular)
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Exact dating
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Scientific ways of dating things
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Radiocarbon dating
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(14c) Need organic material to date (carbon)
Measure radioactive decay of carbon (14c) Decay starts at death |
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Cultural chronology
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changes in cultural characteristics over tie (ex. subsistence, settlement, environment)
This has pretty much already been done for the U.S. (more or less) |
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Ethnographic analogy
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Analogy = comparing similarities
Ethnographic analogy = observations on living societies taking documented behavior and using it to interpret remains -Direct historical approach (cultural continuity) -Similar environments/ socio-political organizaiton: how they go about doing things |
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Ethnohistory
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?
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Ethnoarchaeology
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archaeologists doing ethnography
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Experimental Archaeology
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replicate past behavior to test "what", "how", and "why" people were doing it
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Identity
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How people classify themselves and others
Forms of identity: ethnicity, tribe, race, nationality, religion, class, social status, subculture, interest group, kinship, family, descent group, lineage, clan, occupation, roles, gender |
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Fluidity of identity
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we can have multiple identities: woman student, musician, teacher, friend
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Style-shifting
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depends on who you are talking to
ex: talk differently as a friend than as a teacher (has to do with identity) Identity is relative |
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Ascribed vs. Achieved statuses
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I didn't choose to be Georgian, female, or Matthews; I did choose to be a student, a musician, etc.
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Identity and normal behavior
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Identity tells you what is a normal way to act
Culture tells you what is normal and what is abnormal |
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Identity defined by opposition
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Identity is relative (exists in opposition)
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Essentialist / Primordialist concepts of identity
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assume ethnicity, tribe, race = inherited, static, biological
believe it has ancient roots and is impossible to change You are not something (like Catholic or Indian) because you or a group of people choose to be Emic (popular) explanation for identity |
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Constructivist concepts of identity
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Ethnicity is socially constructed
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Instrumentalist concepts of identity
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"Invented tradition"
We do things because that's the way it was "It is what the founding fathers wanted" Authors write stories that define a culture (ex: the Odyssey) Colonial invention of tribes (they weren't actually tribes, they just invented them) Instrumentalists believe that it is primarily leaders who are responsible for emphasizing identity cleavages, often through use of the media. |
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Segmentary opposition
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Segmentary opposition involves the ordering of cooperation and conflict according to the boundaries of lineage segments, or more accurately of territories associated with them. Concerted action within the group is activated by a dispute between one of its members and someone in an opposing unit. However, the presence of a series of nested lineages creates a situation in which the level and size of the groups participating the conflict is determined by the genealogical positions of the contending parties
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Invented tradition
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We do things because that's the way it was
"It's what the founding fathers wanted" |
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Why there are no "tribes" in Africa
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many names for ethnic groups came from misunderstandings (often offensive)
Dinka: any non-Nuer herder; got their name b/c another tribe called them this bad name (means "those other people over there) Tiv = clan (the tribe was actually just a clan) San, Khoi, Banta: words the English just made up to name tribes |
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Sex and gender
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Sex- bioligical categories; chromosomes (DNA that occur in pairs) (XX female, XY male, XXY male with Klinefelters 1/500 have it but there aren't many symptoms, XXX female tends to be tall)
Gender- cultural categories |
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Gender identities
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sexuality-partners, expected behaviors
Work roles-division of labor Ritual roles- symbolic significance |
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Gender Segregation
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Do men and women do things together or separately
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Gender stratification
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Status, power, rights
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Examples of cultural interpretations of masculinity and femininity
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appropriate dress, appropriate ways for men and women to interact, work roles, parenting (devoted father), sexual roles (some women it is seen as dirty for them to have sex, victorian England (rich women))(man w/ boy, Etoro)
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Gender identity and age
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boy/man, girl/woman
Babies (M/F) What clothing you put them in Children (boys/girls) What toys they play with Teenagers (M/F) Man/Woman |
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Hijra
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Two-spirits
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male that acts female or a female that acts male
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AAA Statement on Race
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Continuous vs. Discrete variation on human traits
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Racial categories in Brazil
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Kromebar people
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-named the culture for the most typical artifacts recovered from it
-all too often, archaeologists have guessed at how artifacts were made or used and have been content with their speculations -Formal analysis- what it looks like -Functional analysis- description of those characteristics that reflect what it may have been used for -Check to see if similar things have been found elsewhere -unknown artifacts are named for the owner of the property -date the artifact by association -Sort into nine categories |
