Vocab For Anthropology Test Ii

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archaeology

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A cultural anthropology of the human past focusing on material evidence of human modification of the physical environment

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archaeological record

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all material objects constructed by humans or near-humans revealed by archaeology

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site

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a precise geographical location of the remains of past human activity

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artifacts

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objects that have been deliberately and intellgently shaped by human or near-human activity

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features

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nonportable remnants from the past, such as house walls or ditches

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ethnoarchaeology

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the study of the way present-day societies use artifacts and structures and how these objects become part of the archaeological record

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survey

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the physical examination of the geographical region in which a promising site is most likely to be found

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excavation

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the systematic uncovering of archaeological remains through removal of the deposits of soil and other material covering them and accompanying them

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subsistance strategy

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different ways that people in different societies go about meeting their basic material survival needs

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band

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-the characteristic form of social organization found among foragers.
-small, usually no more than 50 people
-labor is divided, ordinarily on the basis of sex and age.
-all adults in band socities have roughly equal access to whatever material or social valuables are locally available.

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tribe

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-society that is generally larger than a band
-members usually farm or herd for a living
-social relations in a tribe are still relatively egalitarian, although there may be a chief who speaks for the group

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sodalities

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special-purpose groupings that may be organized on the basis of age, sex, economic tole, and personal interest

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chiefdom

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a form of social organization in which a leader (the chief) and close relatives are set apart from the rest of the society and allowed priveleged access to wealth, power and prestige.

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status

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a particular social position in a group

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state

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a stratified society that possesses a territory that is defended from outside enemies with an army, and from internal disorder with police
-has a separate set of governmental institutions designed to enforce laws and to collect taxes and tribute
-run by an elite that possesses a monopoly on the use of force

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feminist archaeology

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research approach that explores why women's contributions have been systematicaly written out of the archaeological record and suggests new approaches to the human past that include such contributions

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historical archaeology

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the study of archaeological sites associated with written records, frequently the sudy of post-European contact sites in the world.

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domestication

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human interference with the reproduction of another species, with the result that specific plants and animals become useful to people and dependent on them

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ecological niche

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any species' way of life; what it ats, how it finds mates, raises its young, relates to companions, and protects itself from predators

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evolutionary niche

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sum of all the natural selection pressures to which a population exposes

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niche construction

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when an organism actively perturbs the environment or when it actively moves into a different environment

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agriculture

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the systematic modification of the environments of plants and animals to increase their productivity and usefulness

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agroecology

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the systematically modified environment ( or constructed niche ) whic becomes the only environment within which domesticated plants can flourish

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sedentism

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the process of increasingly permanent human habitation in one place

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broad-spectrum foraging

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a subsistence strategy based on collecting a wide range of plants and animals by hunting, fishing, and gathering

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social stratification

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a form of social organization in which people have unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige

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Neolithic

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the "New Stone Age" which began with the domestication of plants 10,300 years ago

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egalitarian social relations

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social relations in which no great differences in whealth, power, or presige divide members from one another

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surplus production

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production of amounts of food that exceed the basic subsistence needs of the population

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sherds

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pieces of broken glass

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occupational specialization

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specialization in various occupations (e.g. weaving or pot making) or in new social roles (e.g. king or priest) that is found in socially complex societies

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class

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a ranked group within a hierarchy stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria

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complex societies

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societies with large populations, on extensive division of labor and occupational spcialization

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monumental architecture

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architectural constructions of a greater-than-human scale, such as pyramids, temples, and tombs.

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grave goods

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objects buried with a corpse

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concentrations of particular artifacts

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sets of artifacts indicating that particular social activities took place at a particular area in an archaeological site when that site was inhabited in the past

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bloodwealth

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material goods paid by perpetrators to compensate their victims for their loss

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culture

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sets of learned behaviors and ideas that humans acquire as members of society.
-humans use culture to adapt to transform the world in which they live

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symbol

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something that stands for something else

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institutions

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complex, variable, and enduring forms of cultural practice that organize social life

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essence

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an unchanging core of features that is unique to things of the same kind and that makes them what they are

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coevolution

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the dialectical relationship between biological processes and symbolic cultural processes in which each makes up an important part of the environment to which the other must adapt

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ethnocentrism

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the opinion that one's own way of life is natural or correct, and incdeed the only true way was being fully human

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cultural relativism

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understanding another culture in its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living

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human agency

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the excercise of at least some control over their lives by human beings

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objective knowledge

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knowledge about reality that is absolute and true

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informants

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people in a particular culture who work with anthropologists and provide tem with insights about their way of life. Also called respondents, teachers, or friends

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intersubjective meanings

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the shared, public symbolic systems of a culture

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reflexivity

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critically thinking about the way one thinks, reflecting on one's own experience

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dialectic of fieldwork

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the process of building a bridge of understanding b/w anthropologists and informants, so that each can begin to understand each other

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culture shock

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the feeling, akin to panic, that develops in people living in an unfamiliar society when they cannot understand what is happening around them.

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fact

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a widely accepted observation, a taken-for-granted item of common knowledge.
-do not speak for themselves but only when they are interpreted and placed in a context meaning that makes them intelligible

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personality

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the relative integration of an individual's perceptions, motives, cognitions, and behavior within a sociocultural matrix

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subjectivity

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the felt interior experience of the person that includes his or her positions in a field of relational power [Das and Kleinman 2000]

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language

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the system of arbitrary vocal symbols used to encode one's experience of the world and of others

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linguistics

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the scientific study of language

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grammar

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a set of rules that aim to describe fully the patterns of linguistic usage observed by members of a particular speech community

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linguistic competence

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a term coined by anthropological linguist Noam Chomsky to refer to the mastery of adult grammar

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communicative competence

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a term coined by anthropological linguist Dell Hymes to refer to the mastery of adult rules for socially and culturally appropriate speech

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pragmatics

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the study of language in the contect of its use

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discourse

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a stretch of speech longer than a sentance united by a common theme

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ethnopragmatics

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The study of language use that relies on ethnography to illuminate the ways in which speech is both constituted by and constitutive of social interaction

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pidgin

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a language with no native speakers that develops in a single generation b/w members of communities that possess distinct native languages

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language ideology

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a marker of struggles b/w social groups w/ different interests, revealed in what people say and how they say it.

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perception

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the process by which people organize and experience information that is primarily of sensory origin

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schemas

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patterned, repetitive experiences

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prototypes

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examples of a typical instance, element, relation, or experience within a culturally relavant semantic domain

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cognition

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--> the mental process by which human beings gain knowledge
--> the nexus of relations between the mind at worl and the world inn which it works

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functional cognitive systems

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culturally linked process by which individuals develop the skills they need to interact successfully with other members of the social groups to which they belong and come to terms with the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cultures

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socialization/enculturation

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the learning process by which individuals develop the skills they need to interact successfully with other members of the social groups to which they belong and come to terms with the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cultures

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worldviews

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encompassing pictures of reality created by the members of societies

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metaphor

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a form of thought and language that asserts a meaningful link b/w two expressions from different semantic domains

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metonymy

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the culturally defined relationship of the parts of a semantic domain as a whole and of the whole to its parts

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symbol

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something that stands for something else. A symbol signals the presence of an important domain experience

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key metaphors

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metaphors that serve as the foundation of a worldview

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organic metaphors

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a worldview metaphor that applies the image of the body to social structures and institutions

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societal metaphors

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a worldview metaphor whose model for the world is the social order

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technological metaphor

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a worldview metaphor that employs objects made by human beings as predicates

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self

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the result of the process of socialization/enculturation for an individual

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elementary cognitive processes

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the mental processes by which humans make abstractions, reason interentially, categorize, and perform other mental tasks common to all normal humans