Cultural Anthropology

Front 1

The hypo-descent principle

Back 1

count descent by the "lower" of the two classes. # of races in a culture: as many as the culture creates.

Front 2

The ideology of Racism
- "how to be a good racist"

Back 2

1) Believe race is biological
2) Believe differences don't change and some groups are superior to others
3) Physical traits are related to culture, personality and intelligence
4) Public policy and personal behavior should reflect this understanding of race

Front 3

Hockey Player example

Back 3

- almost all hockey players born in Jan/Feb and in Canada youth leagues have cut off dates by year. People in Jan/Feb are the oldest & strongest, ie the best players

Front 4

Ethnic Group

Back 4

a group in society that displays a unique set of traits. "boundary markers" that define you as a group

Front 5

Ethnicity vs. Class

Back 5

Ethnicity= vertical axis

Class= horizontal axis

Front 6

Ethnic Origin Myth

Back 6

= comes from past generations
- doesn't always include the entire ethnic group (ie black africans in war, black cowboys)

Front 7

Ethnicity is Subjective

Back 7

a group of people who display they are a group

Front 8

Nation State

Back 8

a state-level society that contains a nation by heritage

Front 9

3 periods before a Nation-State

Back 9

1) Melting pot assimilation?
2) Multiculturalism
?

Front 10

Why study Religion?

Back 10

- People spend a lot of time, energy and resources on it; want to know why (ie greatest religious buildings were VERY expensive)

Front 11

Theistic vs. Social Answers

Back 11

Section

Front 12

Cognitive Approach
-Gaertz

Back 12

= religion explains things

1. explains things we cannot otherwise understand
- Gaertz "religion is a pre-scientific explanation", when you don't have enough science to understand something
- Is not just cognitive, but also about establishing meaning/purpose in life. Religion steps in at very tragic stages.
** Problem- if science explained everything, we would no longer need religion

Front 13

Cognitive Approach
-Edward Tylor

Back 13

"Dreaming and Death" = the origins of religion are to explain these two things we don't understand
- said that "one genius came around with the theory of the 'invisible you'. Can leave your body (dream and death) and cannot be seen. These evolved into a 'spirit' or soul. Difference- that when you die you don't come back

Front 14

Animism

Back 14

tree spirits, moon spirits, live in alternate world
- Tylor thought this was the religion of the savages

Front 15

How do people thing when they are thinking magically/religiously?

Back 15

Sir James Frazer looked at magic across the world & came up with...
Two types of Magical Thinking
1) Imitative Magic: things that are similar to each other appear to be connected (ie voodo doll)

2) Contagious Magic: things that have been in contact with each other continue to effect one another (ie adolf hitler's sweater)

Front 16

Social Functions of Religion

Back 16

2 major ways to answer:
1) Praying together creates togetherness, and sense of community

2) Helps bring people together and social stability
- For example, the 10 commandments are good 'rules' to live by

Front 17

Emile Durkheim
-Totemism & how it differs from Religion

Back 17

Father of sociology. Wanted to know how religion started. Came up with
Totemism = clan of people that have a particular thing in which they worship (ex: the kangaroo spirit). Concluded that the symbol (kanga) is the image of the society itself

** Stated that the difference between totemism and religion is:
1. Religion involves community
2. magic is individual

Front 18

Psychological Approach to Religion

Back 18

Malinowski

Studied Trobriand Fishing
-People had put spells on fishing nets. In the deep sea (with higher risk), people used more spells.

= Religion Calms Society

(also used baseball example)

Front 19

Festinger- When Prophecy Fails

Back 19

Festinger joined a group of people who claimed that aliens were coming to end the world & focused on how they would react when prophecy failed.

- Result= beliefs intensified after it was wrong & created the Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Front 20

The Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Back 20

unpleasant tension state: doing something you know you shouldn't be doing. Solutions:
1. Blame it on something else (ie, it's not as bad that I smoke because my friends smoke)

** means that it is very hard to learn from mistakes

Front 21

Azande Witchcraft

Back 21

- Everyone inherits a black, goo-like substance in their stomach. That substance can be cool or hot. They blame tragedies/problems on someone else's substance being hot and attacking them.

Ex: a hut collapsed because of witchcraft, not termites

Front 22

Who is most likely to be a witch?

Back 22

1. Certain classes ( ie more than one wife)
2. Old women/widows
3. Irritable/ anti-normal individuals

Front 23

How do the Azande deal with witchcraft?

Back 23

1. They go to the Oracle= rubbing rocks asking questions until the rock sticks. (sticks=yes)

2. They they go to the Poison Oracle who puts poison into two chickens and if one dies, they are right. If not they go back to the rocks

Front 24

How can the Azande keep believing this?

Back 24

- witchcraft oracles & magic fit together
- don't generalize failure
- contradictions not present at the same time
- No experimentation to see if it's real
- Not used alone
- Often desired results happen

Front 25

What functions does witchcraft fulfill?

Back 25

- Social!
1. Social Harmony
2. Everyone nice to everyone
3. Gives sense of security
4. Reinforces heirarchy

** Problem = if functionalism really works then why do things in society change/grow

Front 26

Anthony Wallace Revitalization Movements

Back 26

- Five stages to major changes
1) Steady State
2) Period of increased stress
3) Period of cultural distortion
4) Period of Revitalization / a prophet arises
5) New steady state

Front 27

Requirements for a prophet to be successful

Back 27

1) Must be a good speaker
2) Their ideas must make sense
3) Be congruent with politics/the people in power
4) Need to form a church= set of rules

Front 28

Disease vs. Illness

Back 28

** are both Western ethnocentric terms
Disease= diagnosable/biological

Illness= differs between cultures (cultural perspective/description of symptoms)

- Can be both!

Front 29

I weally wike

Back 29

your bwack shirt.

Front 30

Epidemiology

Back 30

The investigation of the relationships among the various factors which determine the spread and incidence of disease

Front 31

Example of Epidemiology
- Industrial vs. Small scale

Back 31

Small Scale societies
- have no coronary or blood diseases
- have no cancers, obesity, diabetes
- no cavities
- no lung diseases

* shorter life spans because they don't have treatments

Front 32

Why the differences between industrial and small scales?

Back 32

- Diets
- Exercise
-Evolutionarily we are hunters and gatherers
- Pollution
- Drugs
- Artificial light affects sleep patterns

Front 33

Kuru & Endocanibalism

Back 33

disease that affects people in New Guinea; is like mad cow but only affects women
- turned out to be a Behavioral Difference.

Endocanibalism: eat brains of other people that contains Prions (disease carrying proteins) that were getting into women's blood streams
* Christian Missionaries convinced them not to eat humans

Front 34

Types of Diseases (3)

Back 34

1) Endemic: continuous, low-level frequency (ie the common cold, not going to kill you)

2) Epidemic: moves through population & kills quickly
* most come from animals which is why they seem to be more apparent in europe
3) Diseases of Development: diseases that come from industrializations
- from integrating people into larger societies
-from development schemes that introduce bacteria or parasites (ie building highways release fly parasites)
- Diseases from poverty, overworking etc.

Front 35

The Old Hag Epidemiological Study

Back 35

- Wake up in the middle of the night and feel presence of something in the room. Is explained by:

- ASC= altered state of consciousness

Front 36

Narcolepsy & Cataplexy

Back 36

Narcolepsy= sudden sleep

Cataplexy= attack where you loose all muscle connection, just fall over.

Front 37

Conceptions of Health and Curing are cultural

Back 37

Section

Front 38

Personalistic System

Back 38

believe the reason you get sick is because of something/someone is attacking you (God, deamons, witches)
- Must appease what is attacking you
- Attack it back
- Drive it out

Front 39

Naturalistic System

Back 39

- Things that you need to keep in balance/harmonious
- basis for western medicine (working parts that need to be kept harmonious).

Front 40

Mind-Body Dualism

Back 40

Renee Descartes=
mind/soul is seperate from the body!
- Body is machine controlled by the mind.
- Makes it easier for western medicine to remove things, because they aren't connected to your soul

Front 41

Psychoneuroimmunology

Back 41

learning forms new neural pathways- brain physically changes
= says mind and body are cnonected

Front 42

"Culture Bound Syndrome"

Back 42

= localized illness based on cultural beliefs, not a disease & only occurs in a particular area

Front 43

Examples of Culture Bound Syndromes

Back 43

1. Tabanka (trinidad) = love sickness
2. Brain Fog (West Africa) = brain as a muscle, gets tired
3. Koro (malasia) = fear that penis will turn inside out & kill him
4. Annorexia (america) = not eating for fear of being fat

Front 44

Motives for Expansion

Back 44

- Exploration
- Wealth
- Spreading Christianity

Front 45

Why Europe for Expansion?

Back 45

- expansion began due to Caravel Ships, which could sail into the wind and have cannons for war

Front 46

Three Phases of Expansion and Colonialism

Back 46

1. Mercantile Phase
2. Colonialism
3. Globalization

Front 47

Phase 1: Mercantile Phase
- Joint Stock Companies

Back 47

- primarily trading
- Colonies were developed in the Americas

Joint Stock Companies= selling shares of companies & voyages.

- As accumulated wealth takes over, resources are not used for expansion or christianity but trather to gain $

Other Factors: Population growth & rise of banking

Front 48

Methods of Mercantilism

Back 48

1) Pileage = taking things
2) Forced labor

Front 49

Phase 2: Colonialism

Back 49

Why move to colonialism?
1. disentegration of the joint stock companies
2. New technology and capitalism
- captive markets
- cheap production of raw materials
- monoculture agriculture

ex: invention of spinning machine competes with indian fabrics and brings need for more cotton/land

Front 50

Consequences of Colonialism

Back 50

Manifest Destiny & the Indian Removal Act (SE US moved to Oklahoma) - The Trail of tears

Front 51

The End of Colonialism - Post WWII

Back 51

- Colonies create resistence movements for independence & foreign powers are reduced
- Reordering of the World: Soviet and US interests
- Growth of Transnational Corporations= sell and get materials outside of where they are lovated

Front 52

Phase 3
Globalization

Back 52

- The fall of colonialism- more trade, more connections
- Development of international finance
- New Technologies: container ships, international telephone lines, macdonalds, toyota

Front 53

Advantages of Globalization

Back 53

1. Wider markets and resources
- functionalist model applies
2. Increased diffusion of goods
3. Improved world Health (WHO)
4. International Responses (UN)

Front 54

Globalization Problems

Back 54

1. Cultural propaganda
ex: French protest of euro-disneyland
2. Growing inequality between rich and poor
3. The digital divide
4. Massive migrations

Front 55

Who are the victims of expansion?

Back 55

Indigenous Peoples!
- Genocide = mass killing
- Ethnocide = stomping out a culture

Front 56

Justifications for Globalization

Back 56

1) Manifest Destiny = way of justifying indigenous treatment
2) "White man's burden" = it's white man's job to civilize them
3) Social Darwinism = survival of the fittest via cultures
4) Scientific Racism
5) Saving souls = must convert them
6) Development = piece of land is being insufficiently used

Front 57

Ethnocide is Inevitable Argument
"The Realists"

Back 57

1) Scientific Imperialists= "salvage" it before it disappears; anthropologists study as much as they can while they can

2) Realists Humanitarians = aboriginal protection society, summer institute for linguistics, world bank

Front 58

Ethnocide is NOT inevitable
"The Idealists"

Back 58

1) Scientific Preservation
2) Humanitarian preservationists
3) Environmentalists: national parks created to protect people and land

Front 59

Organizations that fight Ethnocide

Back 59

1) IWGA = international work group for indigenous affairs

2) Survival international = land issues

3) Cultural survival = informing the public

Front 60

Why should we care?

Back 60

1. More diverse= more stable
2. Vanishing local knowledge (medicinal plants, land race crop varieties)
3. Ethical issues