Anthropology 207 Final

Front 1

world-view

Back 1

a generally coherent system of cultural ideas and beliefs about the nature of reality that is shared by the members of a society

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culture

Back 2

a society's framework for constructing reality

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epistemology

Back 3

the study of how knowledge or information is acquired

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Divination

Back 4

the art of foreseeing future events or discovering hidden knowledge through supernatural means

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Symbolic classification

Back 5

the way in which a culture organizes knowledge into significant categories

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Values

Back 6

Standards of what is good, desirable or correct that are shared by the members of a society

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Peasants

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rural people who produce food for their own subsistence but who must also contribute or sell their surpluses to others who do not produce their own food

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Image of limited good

Back 8

a peasant value based on the belief that 1) all of the good things in life are limited in quantity and are always in short supply; 2) there is no way to increase the available quantities of the good things in life; 3) therefore an individual or a family can get more of the good things only at the expense of others

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linguistics

Back 9

the scientific study of language

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prescriptive grammar

Back 10

artificial rules of "proper" languages as certain people insist it must be used

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Descriptive Grammar

Back 11

description of the unconscious rules of a language as it is actually used by native speakers

Front 12

structural linguistics

Back 12

the study of how languages are constructed

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syntax

Back 13

the study of sentence structure

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morphology

Back 14

the study of word structure

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phonology

Back 15

the study of sound structure

Front 16

phoneme

Back 16

1) a sound or set of sounds that make a difference in meaning to the speakers of a language; 2) a basic, distinctive unit of speech sound in a language

Front 17

semantics

Back 17

the study of meaning

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neologism

Back 18

a newly coined word of phrase

Front 19

historical linguistics

Back 19

the study of how languages change over time

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Dialect

Back 20

A variety of a language spoken in a particular area or by a particular social group

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Language Family

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a group of languages that are related by a descent from a common ancestor

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protolanguage

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a hypothesized ancestral language from which two or more languages seem to have descended

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cognates

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words belonging to different languages that have similar sounds and meanings because they were related by descent from a common ancestral language

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Sapir-Whort hypothesis

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language is a force in its own right that affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality

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obligatory categories

Back 25

categories in a language that force a speaker to make certain choices before he or she can speak a sentence

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magic

Back 26

the performance of certain rituals that are believed to compel supernatual powers to act in particular ways

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homeopathic magic

Back 27

the attempt to influence people or things based on a mystical connection Frazer called the law similarity-like affect like

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contagious magic

Back 28

the attempt to influence people or things based on a mystical connection Frazer called the law of contact- the part affects the whole

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mana

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a supernatural impersonal force that inhabits certain objects or people and is believed to confer success and/or strength

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taboo

Back 30

a prohibition that, if violated, is believed to bring supernatural punishment

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Sorcery

Back 31

the use of certain materials to invoke supernatural powers to harm people

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witchcraft

Back 32

attempting to harm people by supernatural means, but through emotions and thought alone, not through the use of materials

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animism

Back 33

1)a term used by Edward Tylor to describe a belief in a dual existence for all things- a physical, visible body and a psychic, invisible soul; 2) the belief that humans, animals, plants, and natural phenomena all have souls

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polytheism

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recognizeing many gods, none of whom is believed to be superordinate

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monotheism

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believing that there is only one high god and that all other supernatural beings are subordinate to, or are alternate manifestations of, this supreme being

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anthropomorphic

Back 36

having human physical characteristics

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anthropopsychic

Back 37

sharing the traits of human mentality

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anthroposocial

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endorsing the values of human society

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dualistic

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1) isolating the eternal supernatural world from the everyday natural world where humans 2) dividing supernatural beings into those representing absolute good and those representing absolute evil, which are at war

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monistic

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1) believing the natural and supernatural worlds to be geographically joined or connected 2) characterizing all supernatural beings as having both good and evil qualities

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Cosmology

Back 41

a culture's theory of the origin aqnd general structure of the universe

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Amulet

Back 42

an object, usually worn, thought to possess power to ward off danger or confer some ability

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Shaman

Back 43

a master of spirits who makes contact with the supernatural world on behalf of the community through trance or altered consciousness

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priest

Back 44

a religious specialist trained in the competent performance of rituals

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trepanning

Back 45

surgically opening the skull to drive out evil spirits