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90 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Ethnography
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Field work in a particular culture.
the firsthand, personal study of local settings |
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Natural Selection
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Originally formulated by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace; the process by which nature selects the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment, such as the tropics.
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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 reference to the material and physical world.
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Adaptation
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The process by which organisms cope with environmental stresses.
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Cultural anthropology
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The study of human society and culture; describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences.
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Sociolinguistics
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Study of relationships between social and linguistic variation; study of language in its social context.
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Acculturation
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The exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct.
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Culturual Relativism
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The position that the values and standards of cultures differ and deserve respect. Anthropology is characterized by methodological rather than moral relativism: In order to understand another culture fully, anthropologists try to understand its members' beliefs and motivations. Methodological relativism does not preclude making moral judgments or taking action.
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Diffusion
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Borrowing between cultures either directly or through intermediaries.
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Enculturation
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The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the generations.
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Globalization
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The accelerating interdependence of nations in a world system linked economically and through mass media and modern transportation systems.
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Human Rights
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Doctrine that invokes a realm of justice and morality beyond and superior to particular countries, cultures, and religions. Human rights, usually seen as vested in individuals, would include the right to speak freely, to hold religious beliefs without persecution, and not to be enslaved.
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Symbol
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Something, verbal or non-verbal, that arbitrarily and by convention stands for something else, with which it has no necessary or natural connection.
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Emic
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The research strategy that focuses on native explanations and criteria of significance.
Manifest Functions • honor of women – ‘pure’ virginity • honor of family – protect women from rape • protect women’s reputation |
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Etic
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The research strategy that focuses on native explanations and criteria of significance.
Latent Functions • birth control • midwife’s economic security • midwife’s status |
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Participant Observation
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A characteristic ethnographic technique; taking part in the events one is observing, describing, and analyzing.
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Complex Societies
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Nations; large and populous, with social stratification and central governments.
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Longitudinal Research
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Long-term study of a community, society, culture, or other unit, usually based on repeated visits.
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Call Systems
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Systems of communication among nonhuman primates, composed of a limited number of sounds that vary in intensity and duration. Tied to environmental stimuli.
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Culturual Transmission
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A basic feature of language; transmission through learning.
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
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Theory that different languages produce different ways of thinking.
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Sociolinguistics
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the study of relationships between social and linguistic variation; study of language (performance) in social context… uses/effects of language
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Displacement
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A linguistic capacity that allows humans to talk about things and events that are not present.
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Focal Vocabulary
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A set of words and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups (those with particular foci of experience or activity), such as types of snow to Eskimos or skiers.
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Agriculture
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Nonindustrial system of plant cultivation characterized by continuous and intensive use of land and labor.
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Balanced Reciprocity
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Principle that characterizes exchanges between closely related individuals. As social distance increases, reciprocity becomes balanced and finally negative.
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Band
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Basic unit of social organization among foragers. A band includes fewer than one hundred people; it often splits up seasonally.
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Correlation
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An association between two or more variables such that when one changes (varies), the other(s) also change(s) (covaries); for example, temperature and sweating.
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Economy
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A population's system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources.
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Generalized Reciprocity
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Principle that characterizes exchanges between closely related individuals. As social distance increases, reciprocity becomes balanced and finally negative.
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Horticulture
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Nonindustrial system of plant cultivation in which plots lie fallow for varying lengths of time.
- uses the land as it is for food |
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Market Principle
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Profit-oriented principle of exchange that dominates in states, particularly industrial states. Goods and services are bought and sold, and values are determined by supply and demand.
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Means of production
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Land, labor, technology, and capital—major productive resources.
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Negative Reciprocity
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See generalized reciprocity.
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Nomadism, Pastoral
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Movement throughout the year by the whole pastoral group (men, women, and children) with their animals. More generally, such constant movement in pursuit of strategic resources.
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Pastoralists
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People who use a food-producing strategy of adaptation based on care of herds of domesticated animals.
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Potlatch
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Competitive feast among Indians on the North Pacific Coast of North America.
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Redistribution
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Major exchange mode of chiefdoms, many archaic states, and some states with managed economies.
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Achieved Status
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Social status that comes through talents, actions, efforts, activities, and accomplishments, rather than ascription.
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Caste Systems
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Closed, hereditary system of stratification, often dictated by religion; hierarchical social status is ascribed at birth, so that people are locked into their parents' social position.
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Band
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Basic unit of social organization among foragers. A band includes fewer than one hundred people; it often splits up seasonally.
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Law
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A legal code, including trial and enforcement; characteristic of state-organized societies.
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Power
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The ability to exercise one's will over others—to do what one wants; the basis of political status.
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Prestige
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Esteem, respect, or approval for acts, deeds, or qualities considered exemplary.
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Wealth
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All a person's material assets, including income, land, and other types of property; the basis of economic status.
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Slavery
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The most extreme, coercive, abusive, and inhumane form of legalized inequality; people are treated as property.
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State
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Complex sociopolitical system that administers a territory and populace with substantial contrasts in occupation, wealth, prestige, and power. An independent, centrally organized political unit, a government.
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Stratification
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Characteristic of a system with socioeconomic strata.
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Tribe
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Form of sociopolitical organization usually based on horticulture or pastoralism. Socioeconomic stratification and centralized rule are absent in tribes, and there is no means of enforcing political decisions.
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Veritcal Mobility
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Upward or downward change in a person's social status.
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Bridewealth
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A customary gift before, at, or after marriage from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin; see also progeny price.
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Clan
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Unilineal descent group based on stipulated descent.
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Descent Group
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A permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundamental to tribal society.
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Endogamy
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Marriage between people of the same social group.
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Exogamy
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Mating or marriage outside one's kin group; a cultural universal.
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Extended Family Household
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Expanded household including three or more generations.
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Incest
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Sexual relations with a close relative.
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Matrilineal Descent
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Unilineal descent rule in which people join the mother's group automatically at birth and stay members throughout life.
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Matrilocality
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Customary residence with the wife's relatives after marriage, so that children grow up in their mother's community.
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Neolocality
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Postmarital residence pattern in which a couple establishes a new place of residence rather than living with or near either set of parents.
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Patrilineal Descent
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Unilineal descent rule in which people join the father's group automatically at birth and stay members throughout life.
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Patrilocality
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Customary residence with the husband's relatives after marriage, so that children grow up in their father's community.
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Plural Marriages
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Marriage of a man to two or more women (polygyny) or marriage of a woman to two or more men (polyandry)—at the same time; see also polygamy.
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Polyandry
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Variety of plural marriage in which a woman has more than one husband.
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Polygamy
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Marriage with three or more spouses, at the same time; see also plural marriage.
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Polygyny
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Variety of plural marriage in which a man has more than one wife.
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Domestic-Public dichotomy
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Contrast between women's role in the home and men's role in public life, with a corresponding social devaluation of women's work and worth.
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Gender Roles
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The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex.
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Gender Stereotypes
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Oversimplified but strongly held ideas about the characteristics of males and females.
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Patriarchy
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Political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status, including basic human rights.
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Patrilineal-Patrilocal complex
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An interrelated constellation of patrilineality, patrilocality, warfare, and male supremacy.
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Gender Stratification
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Unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom) between men and women, reflecting their different positions in a social hierarchy.
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Assimilation
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The process of change that a minority group may experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates; the minority is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit.
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Cultural Colonialism
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Within a nation or empire, domination by one ethnic group or nationality and its culture/ ideology over others—e.g., the dominance of Russian people, language, and culture in the former Soviet Union.
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Discrimination
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Policies and practices that harm a group and its members.
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Ethnicity
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Identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group, and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation.
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Race
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An ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis.
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Genocide
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Policies aimed at, and/or resulting in, the physical extinction (through mass murder) of a people perceived as a racial group, that is, as sharing defining physical, genetic, or other biological characteristics.
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Multiculturalism
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The view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable; a multicultural society socializes individuals not only into the dominant (national) culture, but also into an ethnic culture.
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Nation
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Once a synonym for "ethnic group," designating a single culture sharing a language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, and kinship; now usually a synonym for "state" or "nation-state."
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Nation-State
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An autonomous political entity, a country like the United States or Canada.
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Racism
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Discrimination against an ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis.
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Prejudice
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Devaluing (looking down on) a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes.
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Chomsky
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Universal Grammer: argued that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language, so that all languages have a common structural basis.
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Marx
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saw socioeconomic stratification as a sharp and simple division between two opposed classes: the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the proletariat (propertyless workers).
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Cohen
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developed a typology of societies based on correlations between their economies and their social features. His typology includes these five adaptive strategies: foraging, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, and industrialism.
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Weber
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Max Weber (1922/1968) defined three related dimen- sions of social stratification: 1(Wealth) 2(power) 3(prestige)
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Durkheim
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Sociologist turned to anthropologist founder - studied religions
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Mauss
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Contributed to Structural anthropology --- focused on reciprocity and "paying it back"
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Polanyi
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Defined 3 principles that guide exchanges.
1(market principle) 2(redistributioon) 3(reciprocity) |
