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120 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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symbol |
cultural constructs that often do not have universally recognized meanings
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displacement
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the ability to use symbols to refer to things and activities that are remote from the user
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symbolic classification |
the attempt to create worlds and webs of meaning; language, age, sex, ethnic and cultural features, health, disability
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culture is...
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1) learned and shared, 2) integrated, 3) adaptations
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ethnography
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• method entails participant observation and interviews-lived experience and social relationships with those we write about; account of a group of peoples lifeways, patterns, practices, beliefs
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ethnocentrism |
• thinking of your own way of doing things as THE right way; disparaging others’ worldviews and practices because they are simply different from one’s own
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cultural relativism
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understanding worldviews and practices of people from other cultures from within their own way of thinking and acting
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representation
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the act of placing or stating facts in order to influence or affect the action of others; representations are never natural, but always constructed; when representations of an other are constructed to serve the purposes of the powerful (the one doing the construction), those being represented are oppressed
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essentialism
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a generalization stating that certain properties possessed by a group are universal, and not dependent on context
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two key developments toward Ethnological Science in the 19th century
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1) completion of European global imperialism; 2) scientific revolution: the theory of evolution |
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cultural evolutionism |
Lewis Henry Morgan: Ancient Society (1877); evolve in linear fashion: savage > barbarism > civilized; based on order of technology; Edward Tylor, James Frazier = "armchair anthropologists"
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American historicism
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Franz Boas’ approach, which induces rather than deduces; Alfred Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead
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British functionalism
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Bronislaw Malinowski; each cultural practice and institution fulfills a particular function for human survival; focused on the individual; A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, E.E. Evans-Pritchard
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French structuralism
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Claude Levi-Strauss; seeks to understand the deep, subconscious, unobservable structure of human realities that is believed to determine observable behavior; binary oppositions or pairs: the fundamental characteristic of human thought; contrasting pairs of items or concepts; Rodney Needham, Edmund Leach
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feminist anthropology
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response to male/paternalistic biases in the field: initially focused on women, gender construction, and gender inequality; increasingly concerned now with power and inequality in general;
• Louise Lamphere • Michelle Rosaldo • Sherry Ortner |
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interpretive anthropology |
Clifford Geertz; culture as text and Ethnographer as “intercultural translator”; meaning-centered approach; “human beings are caught in webs of meaning they themselves have created”
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post-modern anthropology
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• no grand theory of human behavior possible
• emphasizes collaborations and reflexivity • all knowledge is contextual • all knowledge is relative • an elaboration of Boas’ cultural relativism |
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Marxist/critical anthropology and political economy |
• the political and economic environment influences individuals, societies, and cultures
• “Marxism” is a way of viewing and studying society • focuses on “power differentials” and power inequalities between individuals, groups, and societies |
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research methods |
1) participant observation
2) Emosedato: “One who shows the way”; key informants or consultants 3) longitudinal follow-up 4) interview schedules 5) informal conversation 6) genealogical surveys and kinship rules/patterns 7) life histories and narratives 8) literature and archival research |
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Who is Franz Boas?
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• factors determining the color of sea water
• Eskimos • a “cultured” individual is relative • first distinguished white social scientist in U.S. who minimizes race as a factor in human behavior • willing to take the position of the non-conformist |
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In what region of the U.S. did Boas primarily work?
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Pacific Northwest, visited the coast of British Columbia
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With what indigenous group did Boas principally work?
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Eskimos, traditional Kwakiutl culture
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What was the purpose of repeated trips? What did he accomplish?
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to make race no longer a determinant in human behavior
• people were unequal and miserable • many scientists used their science to justify inequality |
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Why did he consider his work so important? What is "salvage ethnography"?
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“salvage ethnography” = trying to gather all the data you can to preserve a society, languages die out
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What are Anthropology's Four Fields?
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• biological/physical anthropology
• archaeology • linguistic anthropology • cultural anthropology |
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What makes anthropology unique?
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• the integration of the four subdisciplines
• emphasis on culture • holistic approach • comparative approach • evolutionary • methodologically: the type of fieldwork • contextual approach |
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How did Boas contribute to our understanding of race?
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Boas sought to challenge the assumptions behind racial superiority
• one of the first prominent Jews, felt he needed to defend the black population in the U.S. and in the world, wanted to study the people that live in white society, contrary to other anthropologists • wanted to look at race in a new way, Boas believed that science could help in important ways to solve important social and moral problems • Boas was a Jew in Germany and suffered anti-Semitism • new way of looking at race > discredits racial and religious prejudice • he was not successful until the trying of Hitler in court, his view then became more widely accepted |
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Describe Boas' concern with the presentation of research data to the public. |
museum anthropology sacrificed science for public appeal, more an entertainer than an educator; for research = okay to have western clothes, for the public = Indians needed to be “authentic,” never get the whole picture of a culture from a few art pieces, they cannot express the life of a culture, ex. World Fair in Chicago
• video = for Boas means to study behavior, Edward Curtis, reconstruct culture for the public, concern for authentic detail, footage with context, his fantasy of what it could have been • heavy involvement in culture, you would like to portray your view, Boas vs. Curtis |
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Who were some of Boas' students?
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Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict
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What did he demand from his students and how did he encourage/support them?
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they probably wouldn’t be able to get jobs as anthropologists, taught his students to preserve knowledge of languages
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Boas eventually turned away from museum work as the "seat" of anthropology and to the university departmen, a move that forever influenced American anthropology. Why did he make this shift? |
Boas moved away from museums because he discovered that indigenous artwork couldn’t capture the essence of a culture’s daily life, Columbia University
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politics |
is the ability to influence or control the direction and the outcome of social interactions
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sources of power according to Max Weber
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1) authority = legitimate power-ascribed and/or achieved
2) persuasion = based on control over valuable social resources 3) coercion = threat or use of force or sanction |
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Mary Douglas' Ideas |
o Mary Douglas: emphasized the relationship between symbolic classifications, rituals, and social systems.
• There is a recurring connection between the human body and the body politic: rituals designed to protect the human body from pollution or outside contamination are reflected in those rituals designed to protect the boundaries of society. o Douglas defined two bodies of experience and the relationship between them: the social body and physical (human) body. o Society is organized as a system of relations which regulates and constrains the way the human body is perceived, thus regulating and constraining social behavior. o boundaries are physical and conceptual o boundaries for the individual body o boundaries for the societal or social body |
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Types of Non-Kin Based Corporate Groups
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• age or generation
• common interest (religion, education, etc.) • “race” • ethnicity • nationality/citizenship • socio-economic status • sex or gender |
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What is Kinship?
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• main principles of any kinship system:
o marriage: who may one marry? o residence: where may one live? o descent: to whom is one related by birth/blood? |
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the three main functions of marriage
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biological reproduction, social reproduction, inter-group alliance
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the incest taboo
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(Claude-Levi-Strauss, Structuralist)
o exists in all cultures in some variation (a cultural universal) o however, definitions of who one may or many not marry vary cross-culturally o defines who is and who is not appropriate to marry or have sexual relations with (often based on blood and descent) |
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endogamy |
should marry within your own group or kind
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exogamy
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should marry outside your own group
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three common exchange practices in marriage
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o bride wealth or bride price
• man make monetary gift to female’s family o bride service • man does service for female’s family o dowry • woman’s family pays by sending wealth with daughter |
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Economy
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foraging > pastoralism > horticulture > intensive agriculture > industrialism
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consanguineal relatives
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people to whom we are related through birth or blood
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affinal relatives
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people to whom we are related through marriage
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fictive or metaphorical kin
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people to whom we extend kinship categories
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lineage
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membership in a group by lineal descent from a real or mythical ancestor
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bilateral descent
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people trace their descent equally through the father and mother’s line
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unilineal descent
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patrilineal and matrilineal
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cross cousins
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children of your father’s/mother’s opposite sex siblings
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parallel cousins
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children of your father’s /mother’s same-sex siblings
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economy
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the ideas and practices involved in the production, distribution, and consumption by society of needed goods and services
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band
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o small, mobile, fluid
o not the entire society by one local group in a disintegrated society o egalitarian o largely a kin group o most associated with foraging |
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tribe
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o often multiple local groups or communities integrated by overarching social and political institutions
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chiefdom
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o one or more communities under control of a hierarchy with some coercive power
o power is often hereditary o may have power to compel labor |
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generalized reciprocity
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principle that characterizes exchange between closely associated individuals with little calculation of value
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balanced reciprocity
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some calculation of value and some expectation of equal return
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negative reciprocity
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value is calculated and expectation of receiving more value than is given
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redistribution |
a central person, group, or institution which collects wealth and goods and determines how the wealth is used and circulated in society
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market exchange
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specialized place for redistribution. Impersonal, supply and demand, pursuit of profit. Increasingly in today’s world a place both physical and virtual. |
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Culture is not itself biological but rests on certain features of human biology? |
TRUE |
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The characteristics of ethnology include all the following except? |
It's primary goal is the description of particular cultures |
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According to Kottak, anthropology may improve psychological studies of human behavior by contributing? |
A cross-cultural perspective on models of human psychology. |
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What is one of the most fundamental key assumptions that anthropologists share? |
A comparative, cross-cultural approach is essential to study the human condition |
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Which is the following are the main "building blocks" of research in cultural anthropology? |
ethnology and ethnography |
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Which of the following statements about biology and culture is most correct? |
Human biology and culture both shape and are shaped by each other |
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What is anthropology? |
The exploration of human diversity in time and space |
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Anthropologists study only non-Western cultures? |
FALSE |
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Archaeologists study only prehistoric communities? |
FALSE |
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__________________ involves the collection of data that is used to create an account of a particular community, society, or culture. |
Ethnography |
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___________ is the holistic and comparative study of human physical and cultural variation at all times and in all places. |
Anthropology |
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Anthropology is _______________ because it seeks to understand all aspects of humanity and how they are related as a single system. |
Holistic |
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Claude Levi-Strauss was primarily concerned with "binary oppositions" and how a culture's unique classification system could provide clues to the underlying structure of the human mind? |
TRUE |
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Survey research is usually conducted through intensive personal contact with the study subjects? |
FALSE |
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The American Anthropological Association Code of Ethics prohibits anthropologists from working with governments on matters of national security? |
FALSE |
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Franz Boas was a strong supporter of anthropological theories that stressed unilineal cultural evolution? |
FALSE |
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Theories can ultimately be proven true and directly tested? |
FALSE |
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In survey research what is a sampling? |
The collection of a study group from a larger population. |
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All of the following are characteristic field techniques of the ethnographer except? |
Longitudinal analysis of data sets gathered from state-sponsored statistical agencies. |
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A random sample is? |
Allows generalization to the larger population from which it is drawn. Is a sample in which everyone has an equal chance of being selected. |
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Which of the following is not an example of participant observation? |
Administering interviews according to an interview schedule over the phone. |
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Ethnographers typically combine emic and etic strategies in their fieldwork. This means they are interested in applying both? |
Local and scientist - oriented research approaches. |
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The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) is? |
A database that provides cross-cultural data |
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The study "Television's behavioral effects in Brazil" illustrates all of the following except? |
How investigators must carefully choose between a qualitative or quantitative data model. |
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Longitudinal research, by definition, must involve traveling great distances to the study area? |
FALSE |
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______________ is a theoretical orientation which holds that evolution acts upon individuals rather than groups and that individuals act in their own self-interest? |
Sociobiology |
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The view that element of culture, such as the culture trait or trait complex, had its own distinctive history, and that social forms (such as totemism in different societies) that might look similar were far from identical because of their different histories, is known as __________? |
Historical Particularism |
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A measurement is ___________ if different researchers can use it and get the same results? |
Reliable |
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______________ are predictions, which may be derived from theories, about how variables are related? |
Hypothesis |
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Because nonindustrial economies can have features of both horticulture and agriculture it is useful to discuss cultivators as being arranged along a cultivation continuum. Which of the following generally occurs in moving toward the more intensive end of the cultivating continuum? |
Increasing economic specialization |
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Which of the following statements is NOT true? Potlatching: |
Is a case which proves that the profit-maximizing motive is a human universal. |
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Unlike in industrial societies, where economic alienation is common, in nonindustrial societies? |
the relations of production, distribution, and consumption are social relations with economic aspects. |
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Generalized Reciprocity? |
is the characteristic form of exchange in egalitarian societies. |
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As you move from generalized to negative reciprocity, which of the following increases? |
social distance between the people exchanging gifts. |
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Many foragers try to get the "best bang for their buck" by focusing on resources, such as plants, that are easier to acquire, but don't necessarily provide as many calories per unit as other resources, such as big-game animals. This cliche is a good example of? |
optimization |
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Richard Lee argued that the !Kung San of the Kalahari worked substantially less than do people in agricultural societies. This is because the !Kung? |
Have less wants than people in agricultural societies. |
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In general, the more complex and advanced a subsistence technology, the more efficient it is? |
True |
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Domesticated animals, more specifically their manure and pulling capabilities, are key components of horticulture? |
FALSE |
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Most contemporary foragers live in remote areas, completely cut off from contact with other modern, agricultural and industrial communities? |
FALSE |
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Horticulture is capable of supporting permanent villages? |
TRUE |
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Environmental degradation and destruction are the result of increasing industrialization. Only modern societies can have significant impact on their environments? |
FALSE |
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Only band-level societies do not practice some sort of division of labor? |
FALSE |
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____________ refers to growing multiple types of plants in the same plot of land. |
Polyculture |
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In ____________ there is no required or implied social relationship between people involved in an economic transaction. |
Market Exchange |
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_______________ refers to the type of pastoral economy in which part of the population moves with the herds while the rest stays in the village. |
Transhumant pastoralism |
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The domestic mode of production refers to production that is taken out of the home and appropriated by an elite or noble class? |
FALSE |
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The domestic mode of production refers to production that is taken out of the home and appropriated by an elite or noble class? |
FALSE |
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All of the following are a form of polygamy except: |
A man who marries, then divorces, then marries again, then divorces again, then marries again, each time to a difficult woman. |
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In sudan a woman may marry another woman who becomes her wife and who bears children for her and her lineage. The woman who takes a wife would be what to the children the wife bears? |
Pater |
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Which of the following is ego's cross-cousin? |
MBS |
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With unilineal descent, sex with cross-cousins is proper, but sex with parallel cousins is considered incestuous, why? |
Parallel cousins are considered closer relatives than cross-cousins. |
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Polyandrous marriage is rare cross-culturally, but does in some societies, most notably in Tibet and Nepal. Which of the following is NOT a potential reason given for the prevalence of polyandry in these cultures? |
Increasing the labor input available to support each child. |
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Anthropologist Edmund Leach (1955) observed that, depending on the society, several different kinds of rights are allocated by marriage. According to Leach, marriage can, but doesn't always accomplish each of the following except? |
give either or both spouses rights over the latent and manifest functions of the other. |
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Incest prohibitions are found in all cultures, but? |
It is only punished if offspring result from the relationship. |
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In a society that practices the levirate, if Bob and Jill are married and? |
Bob dies, Jill will marry one of Bob's brothers. |
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Dowries are most common in societies in which women occupy an elevated status position. |
FALSE |
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The instinctive horror explanation for the incest taboo has been rejected in part because if it were instinctive, a formal incest taboo would be unnecessary? |
TRUE |
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Divorce tends to be more common in matrilineal than in patrilineal societies? |
TRUE |
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Cross-culturally, monogamy is the most commonly preferred form of marriage? |
FALSE |
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In societies that practice polygyny, most men have multiple wives? |
FALSE |
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______________ refers to the culturally sanctioned practice of marrying someone within a group to which one belongs. |
Endogamy |
