Unc Anth 49 Test 1 Definitions

Front 1

Culture (old definition)

Back 1

Culture is the system of learned beliefs and customs that characterize the total way of life for a particular society.

Front 2

Culture (new definition)

Back 2

Culture is the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret their world and generate social behavior.

Front 3

Methodology

Back 3

A methodology is the method by which data or information is acquired.

Front 4

Participant-Observation

Back 4

Participant-Observation is an anthropologist's primary methodology. It is defined by the practices of participating in the society (including having conversations and intervies with people) and observing behavior and interaction. Participation-observation usually invovles long-term research.

Front 5

Emic point of view

Back 5

An emic point of view is an insider's point of view. Emic perspectives are multiple.

Front 6

Informant or Consultant

Back 6

An informant or consultant is a person from whom an anthropologist acquires data. This data includes direct statements (verbal or oral evidence), interactions with others in society (both oral and behavioral), and non-verbal information (behavior).

Front 7

Values

Back 7

Values are arbitrary conceptions of what is desireable in human experience. Values tend to center on ideas about right and wrong and good and bad.

Front 8

Ethnocentrism

Back 8

Ethnocentrisim is the act of thinking that your own culture represents the best of at least the most appropriate way for human beings to live.

Front 9

Symbols

Back 9

A symbol is anything we can perceive with our senses that stands for something else.

Front 10

Referent

Back 10

A referent what a symbol refers to or points to.

Front 11

Hunting and Gathering

Back 11

Hunting and gathering is a subsistence strategy in which there is heavy reliance on wilds plants and animals as a source of food. This subsistence strategy usually does not involve food production, either directly by planting or indiretly by controlling the reproduciton of animals or keeping domestic animals for consumption of their meat or milk.

Front 12

Pastoralism

Back 12

Pastoralism is a subsistence strategy that primarily involves the care of domestic herd animals.

Front 13

Horticulture

Back 13

Horticulture is a subsistence strategy that is based on the production of plants using non-mechanized technologies.

Front 14

Agriculture

Back 14

Agriculture is a form of food production in which fields are in permanent cultivation.

Front 15

Industrialism

Back 15

Industrialism is a subsistence strategy that involves the use of machine technology and chemical processes for the production of food and other goods. Industrialism is defined by the replacement of human and animal energy by machines.

Front 16

Kinship

Back 16

Kinship is the complext system of culturally-defined social relationships based on mariage or other long-term sexual unions and based on birth.

Front 17

Descent

Back 17

Descent is a cultural rule that ties together people on the basis of reputed common ancestry.

Front 18

Bilateral Kinship

Back 18

Bilateral kinship is a rule os descent that links a person to kin through both males and females.

Front 19

Patrilineal

Back 19

Patrilineals is a rule of descent that links relatives through males only. (Both patrilineal and matrilineal kinship systems are unilineal)

Front 20

Matrilineal

Back 20

Matrilineal is a rule of descent that links relatives through females only. (Both patrilineal and matrilineal kinship systems are unilineal)

Front 21

Lineage

Back 21

A lineage is a localized group that is based on unilineal descent and that usually holds some corporate powers.

Front 22

Clan

Back 22

A clan is composed of of several lineages, usually three or more. Clan members believe they are all descended from a common ancestor.