Anthropology Midterm

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anthropology

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the study of the cultural and biological variations among human groups

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applied anthropology

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the use of anthropological knowledge to solve practical problems outside the academy

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archaeology

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the branch of anthropology that investigates people of the past, usually through excavations of ancient sites

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artifact

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generally anything made by people. used especially in archeology for small objects like tools

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biological anthropology

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the branch of anthropology which focuses on the human body, including its skeleton, its diseases, and its adaptations and variations

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comparative linguistics

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comparing features of different languages to establish their historical relationships and determine language families

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descriptive linguistics

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working out the grammar and compiling dictionaries of specific languages

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cross-cultural studies

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comparison of traits between different cultures

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cultural anthropology

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the study of the cultures of living peoples

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cultural relativity

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the principle that each culture has its own moral integrity and should not be judged by the standards of other cultures. the extreme view of cultural relativity holds that anything a culture believes in should be accepted, including, presumably, anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust, or female genital mutilation, and so forth

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descriptive morphology

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a branch of physical anthropology describing the details of the human body, making racial determinations, and such

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emic

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ideas, categories, and explanations of people themselves (contrast etic)

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ethnoarchaeology

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the attempt, usually by archeologists, to understand the meanings of the artifacts that they excavate by studying the way contemporary peoples produce and use similar artifacts

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ethnocentrism

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the use of one's own cultural values, models, or categories to understand and judge another culture

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ethnographic present

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a convenient fiction. describing a culture as it presumably existed before some particular outside intrusion began to modernize it

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ethnography

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that branch of anthropology which studies particular cultures

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ethnology

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the anthropological comparisons of cultures

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etic

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the use of culture-neutral, "scientific" terms and categories to describe a culture

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fieldwork

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the prototypical research method of anthropology, usually involving living in the midst of a social group

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garbagology

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archaeological research on what people put in their garbage cans on the street

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holism

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the principle that aspects of a culture are likely to be, to some extent, interrelated, leading to research principle that it is useful to explore the possible interconnections within a culture

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kintampo culture

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a prehistoric culture in Ghana, dating from about 3000 to 3500 years ago that seems to represent a transitional stage between foraging and full horticulture with domestic animals

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linguistic anthropology

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that branch of anthropology which is particularly concerned with language, with communication in general with how different sorts of communication are related to other aspects of culture

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material culture

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the artifacts and other objects made and used by people in accord with their cultural schemas

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paleoanthropology

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that branch of anthropology which studies fossil hominids

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paleontology

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the study of the past through examination of fossil remains

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phonemics

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the meaningful classes of sounds in a particular language

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phonetics

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defines the spoken sounds in a language in terms of their physical properties

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primatologist

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someone who studies nonhuman primates (e.g. monkeys and apes)

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social anthropology

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an especially british form of cultural anthropology, often focusing more on kinship and political relationships than on cultural meanings. in fact, there is little clear line of demarcation between cultural and social anthropology

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syncretism

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the incorporation of traits from another culture into the pattern (usually religious) of a culture

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hyperstartler

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appearing in any population, those people who have extreme reactions to being startled. in some cultures, enculturally elaborated

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biological race

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the illusion that humans can be subdivided into discrete groups (races) on the basis of physical attributes. It has no scientific basis

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clines

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the steady slope in the measure of an attribute. humans show physical variation on many attributes (skin color, hair form, and so on) but most variation is clinal. Furthermore, the many clines do not vary together

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cultural construction

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refers to the particular spin that particular cultures put on such biologically rooted behavior as handedness or language or food patterns

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cultural race

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the schemas, or cultural ideas, that people have in their minds about how humans are divided into significant and discrete groups based on, especially, physical characteristics, but implicitly including cultural, mental, and moral attitudes also. although this concept has no biological basis, it does affect behavior

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culture

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a working definition: learned, shared ideas about behavior

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ethnicity

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a person's culture or cultural identity; or a euphamism for "race"

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enculturation

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learning of cultural patterns during childhood

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fuzzy categories

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a group of things with no precisely bounded definition of membership but usually a clear or core exemplar. You may share in much British CULTURE, but you are either a British citizen or not

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latah

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the malay cultural elaboration of hyperstartling where people (usually dependent, older women) react to a startle with imitative behavior and obscene language

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modernization

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an ethnocentric western notion of culture change the makes other cultures more like us

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national culture

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that which is shared by most of the people of a nation, overarching their regional cultures; usually promoted through radio and television

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race

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a pseudoscientific term for a group of people with the same physical attributes. biologically it doesn't make sense, but culturally people believe and act on their notions of race

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schema

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a set of cultural ideas that give coherent meaning to something.

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socialization

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enculturation

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social unit

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a smaller social group within a larger society

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society

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organized group of individuals, human, or otherwise

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subculture

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a convenient (and nonderogatory) way to refer to various cultural patterns shared by smaller numbers of people within a broader culture

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cultural ecology

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the study of how people use cultural knowledge to interact with the natural environment

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cultural materialism

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the theory that the material facts - the substructural underpinnings of a culture - are of prime importance and will casually shape the superstructural features like religion

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diffusion

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the movement of cultural ideas from one culture to another, usually wit some transformation in the process. differs from trade, which is simply the movement of objects from one place to another

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ethical dilemma

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in anthropology, usually a situation where one's own personal interests conflict with broader professional standards, or code of ethics

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evolution

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that change (biological or cultural) governed by general principles, proceeding through broad stages

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evolutionary theories

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ways of explaining physical or cultural changes over long periods of time

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explicit function

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referring to cultural behaviors or institutions, the purpose or outcome that is generally known to the people themselves

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going native

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an outdated term; when an ethnographer slips from a position as interpreter between cultures into total identification with the culture being studied

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functional theories

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a wide range of explanations for human behavior that focus on the effects, intended or otherwise, of that behavior

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Heisenberg effect

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a concept that anthropology took from physics, referring to the fact that to observe and measure something is also to be intrusive and alter it

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historical particularism

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an approach especially associated with Franz Boas, accounting for cultural institutions by detailing the unique historical development, without concern for the general principles involved

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historical theories

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a large range of approaches that focus on the origin and development of a trait or institution

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implicit function

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referring to cultural behaviors or institutions, the purpose or outcome of which is generally not recognized by the people themselves but is identified in the course of anthropological analysis

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interactionist theories

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ways of explaining human behavior through focusing on the results of interpersonal interaction

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interpretive theories

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focus on the meanings that people give to behavior and institutions

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participant observation

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a research method in anthropology, taking fieldwork a step further and actually joining in the life and work of the people

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qualitative research

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gathers rich experiential accounts that cannot be precisely measured and compared

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quantitative research

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measures and counts to produce behavioral data that can be tabulated, statistically analyzed, and precisely compared

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questionnaires

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a wide range of strict to loosely formulated ways of gathering data through a set of predetermined questions

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rapport

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the relation of trust and friendship that anthropologists try to develop with the people they are studying

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Rashomon effect

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the idea that one's fieldwork affected by personal baggage like one's age, gender, ethnicity, theoretical orientations, and such, and that no ethnographer can be a totally neutral being without attributes

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reflexivity

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in an ethnography or an ethnographic film, acknowledging the presence of the researcher/film crew and attempting to evaluate the effect of such intrusion

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resistance

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how those in subordinate positions manage to thwart the wills of those nominally in power over them

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symbolic theories

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a wide range of approaches that account for cultural behavior and institutions by focusing on the meanings that they have for the people of that culture

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unobtrusive data collection

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the methodology of collecting data that has been left behind by the actors, such that the collection process does not effect the behavior itself

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allomorph

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the different forms of a morpheme

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allophone

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one of the variant forms of the same phoneme

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art

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the elaboration or ornamentation of an act (like dance) or a thing (like a house) beyond the strictly utilitarian demands

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buttersworth

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a somewhat tounge-in-cheek term for nonverbal gestures that people make when they are searching for the right word

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choreometrics

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the study of body movement style especially in dance and work, developed by Alan Lomax

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conversation-analysis

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the detailed analysis of how people actually speak with each other, with particular attention paid to paralanguage features

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design features

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hockett's phrase for the different attributes of (human) languages that, together, distinguish it from the communication systems of other creatures

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discourse analysis

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conversation analysis

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emblems

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a hand gesture that has a specific agreed- upon concise meaning

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illustrators

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a hand gesture that accompanies speech but has no independent meaning

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kinesics

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the study of how the body is used in communication, developed by Ray Birdwhistell and others

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linguistic determinism

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the idea that the structure of a language has a total coercive power to shape perception

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linguistic relativism

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the idea that differences in languages are significantly related to differences in the way people see the world and deal with the world. Sometimes called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

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morpheme

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like a word or a suffix, a phoneme or groups of phonemes that conveys meaning

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morphology

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the study of sounds or groups of sounds in a language that carry meanings

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nonverbal communication

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those channels of communication that involve body movement, hand gestures, use of space and time, and the like, and complement or substitue for language in the narrow sense

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paralanguage

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those channels of communication such as intonation, pacing, and the like that are used along with language features in the narrow sense

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phoneme

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the sound or set of sounds that make a difference in the meaning of a word

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phonemic analysis

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phoneme

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phonology

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the study of sound system in language

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primitive

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an old term with derogatory and racist connotations used for other societies, usually tribal and band societies. in its basic sense of "simple," it could be used for kinds of technologies, for example, but it has been so contaminated by its negative uses that is it rarely employed these days

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proxemics

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how space and time are used in organizing human interaction, a term especially connected with Edward T. Hall

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Sapir-Whorf hypthesis

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theory based on the ideas of linguistic relativism, that the features of a language shape the way in which its speakers perceive and act in the world

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semantic fields

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a set of words whose referents all lie in the same realm of activity, like kinship terms or color terms

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semantics

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the meaning of words

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signs

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a signal with a direct, essential relationship to its referent

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sociolinguistics

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the study of how a language is actually used in interactive social settings

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swastika

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the sanskrit name for one of the oldest and most widespread symbols

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symbols

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a signal with an indirect, arbitrary relationship to its referent (red cross - medical help)

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syntax

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the grammar of a language

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universal grammar

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the underlying innate, genetically transmitted basic structure of language that allows humans to learn any specific language easily and early

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emotion

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certain brief responses (both internal physiological and external behaviorial), influenced by cultural norms, to antecedent events

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cognition

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how people think

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cultural themes

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basic organizing principles evident in various cultural practices

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culture of acquisition

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the sort of learning common in colleges, where a set of information is to be mastered

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display rules

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cultural norms about how emotions should be shown or masked

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environmental determinism

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an extreme position of cultural ecology that holds that cultural traits are the result of the natural environment

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ethnopsychology

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usually, the folk theories or cultural schemas about psychology (personality, emotion, the self, and so on) that are held by a people

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folk ethnography

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the cultural schemas that a people have about other cultures. Usually some mix of rank prejudice and actual insight

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groupism

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the principle that a person's primary identity is as the member of a social network, as opposed to individualism

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indigenous psychologies

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the culture-specific schemas, theories, explanations, and under-standings of mental processes held by a people

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individualism

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emphasis on a person as autonomous, independent, not beholden to his or her social groups

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intelligence

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a complex bundle of skills and abilities, not necessarily correlated with each other, and very different from the one dimensional IQ measure

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learning

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acquiring knowledge or skills

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masking

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the cultural display rule that says one should hide a particular emotion behind the facial expression for another - for example, smile when angry

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mental illness

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a vague term for psychological behavior that a particular culture considers deviant

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multiple intelligences

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the idea, propagated by Howard Gardner, that the intelligence of any one person can be considered as made up of several different and not necessarily correlated factors, rather than mapped on a single linear dimension like IQ

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national character

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a very generalized description of the psychological makeup of an entire nation

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national culture

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that which is shared by most of the people of a nation, overarching their regional cultures; usually promoted through radio and television

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othering

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the ethnocentric process of demonizing people of other cultures

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perception

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the mental processing of incoming stimuli

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personality

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those various attributes and attitudes that make up a person's individuality

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psychological anthropology

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that branch of anthropology which focuses on cognition, perception, emotion, and the like in a cross-cultural context

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situated learning

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informal transmission of cultural knowledge with emphasis on in situ, contextualized learning rather than classroom lectures

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situated practice

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the learning that takes place in context, as in apprenticeship (contrast wtih culture of acquisition)

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agriculture

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growing crops; usually restricted to use of plows and permanent fields

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animal husbandry

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raising domestic animals, usually for food or traction (pulling vehicles or plows)

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cultural adaptation

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both the process and the result of changes in a culture made to better interact with and exploit the environmental setting

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division of labor

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how work and other activities are allocated to specific sorts of people within a society, according to gender, age, and so forth

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farming

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a general term for both agriculture and horticulture

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food production strategies

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how a people use foraging, farming, pastoralism, or, usually, some mix of the three to get their food

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foraging

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the food production strategies of people who live by gathering and hunting foods rather than by farming or herding

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gardening

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low-tech farming, without plows or tractors, often characterized by shifting, nonpermanent field patters (also called horticulture)

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horticulture

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technologically simple farming, usually carried out with digging sticks or hoes rather than plows

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hunting and gathering

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the food production strategies of foragers, who get their food by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants

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intensive agriculture

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farming that utilizes plows, tractors, chemical fertilizers, and insecticides, carried out on large permanent fields, often with irrigation

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local knowledge

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the ideas, knowledge, and skills that a particular cultural group shares; folk science

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mechanical solidarity

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that minimal division of labor in which everyone performs pretty much the same tasks

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mixed production strategies

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the practice in most groups, of using some combination of subsistence activities to produce food, for example, foraging, farming, and pastoralism

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organic solidarity

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the maximal division of labor in which there are many different, complementary occupations, making people interdependent on the model of the various parts of the human body

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pastoralism

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the subsistence mode where a group is primarily engaged in keeping herd animals (cattle, camels, sheep, goats, and so on). Pastoralists either do some farming on the side or live in close contact with farmers

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production

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one of the three main aspects of economies (with distribution and consumption). The creation or manufacture of goods.

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shifting horticulture

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farming where temporary fields are partially cleared in forest or jungle, planted for a very few crop cycles, then abandoned (also known as slash and burn)

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slash-and-burn horticulture

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shifting horticulture

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specialization

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that division of labor where people do different tasks

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swidden farming

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nonintensive horticulture, also called shifting horticulture

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technology

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the tools and techniques of manufacture and production (including both ideas and material objects)

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transhumance

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that form of pastoralism in which animals are shifted from one grazing place to another in a yearly cycle

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balanced reciprocity

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the direct or immediate exchange of goods with little or no long-term social consequences

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barter

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the direct negotiated exchange of goods and services, without the use of money

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cargo system

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a religious-economic institution of the chiapas maya, where men spend great amounts of money and time for the honor and prestige of holding ("carrying") ceremonial offices

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consumption

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the third interest of traditional economics (with production and distribution). the use of goods and services

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distribution

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one of the basic aspects of economic behavior, the movement of goods and services through some sort of exchange or reciprocity (see also production and consumption)

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exchange

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the movement of goods and services between people (see also distribution, gift, and reciprocity)

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foodways

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all the knowledge and behavior that surrounds the foods of a culture

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forms of integration

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the various forms of exchange in a society (reciprocity, redistribution, and market) viewed in a holistic sense

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generalized reciprocity

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exchange between relatives or others with close social ties, usually involving some time lag between one transaction and its reciprocal

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gift

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that sort of exchange of goods between people which usually involves a delay between the one gift and the return gift. the people are embedded in a web of social relationships, and the gifts are often said to be "free," but as Marcel Mauss showed, there are strong obligations to repay gits

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kula exchange

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the great interisland routes along which people of the islands off the eastern tip of New Guinea, including the Trobriand Islanders, circulated valuable shell and coral ornaments

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leveling effect

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cultural institutions that function to reduce the distinctions between rich and poor people through fear (of being accused of being a witch) or economic redistribution (like the chiapas maya)

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medical materialism

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the explanation of the foodways, including food prohibitions, of a culture in terms of benefits or dangers of those food items

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negative reciprocity

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the distribution of goods without ay full reciprocity, usually theft or trickery

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nutritional anthropology

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the study of food practices with emphasis on their biological effects

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potlatch

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ritual feasts where valuables are given away and destroyed in competition for prestige between high-status leaders of societies in the pacific northwest

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reciprocity

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distribution of products and services by long-delayed exchange of gifts (generalized reciprocity); balanced reciprocity or barter; or even negative reciprocity

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redistribution

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passing out goods to people, often in exchange for some sort of prestige (a leveling effect) (see also cargo system) or pooling and spending as in taxation

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taxation

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where goods or services are collected and then used or redistributed by a central authority

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total social phenomenon

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Durkheim's phrase for the interconnectedness of institutions with the rest of the culture (see also Holism)

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address, terms of

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a kinship term that is used in talking to that person (contrast reference, term of)

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affines (affinal)

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an in law; a person related through one or more marriage links. In parts of the United States, "affines" grade out to mere "connections" (contrast consanguine)

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age sets

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people not necessarily otherwise related who are born at about the same time and constitute more or less formal groups that cross-cut descent groups. known especially from east africa, but vaguer groups like "Generation X" and "class of 2001" bear some similarities to age sets.

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bilateral societies

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a group that emphasizes both matrilineal and patrilineal descent in its organization of subgroups (contrast unilineal)

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clans

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a social group made up of people descended from a common ancestor through the male line (patri-clan) or the female line (matri-clan). Clans are often exogamous and are especially common in middle-level, tribal societies

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cognatic descent groups

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a subgroup of a society whose membership is determined by descent through either the female or the male line. (contrast unilineal descent)

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cognatic societies

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one which puts relatively equal emphasis on descent through both the male and female lines

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componential analysis

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the description of some realm of culture in terms of those dimensions that have meaning for the people themselves

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consanguines (consanguinal)

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"same blood"; a biological relative (contrast affine)

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corporate

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ownership, by a group (like a clan) of land, heirlooms, sacred knowledge, and the like

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descent groups

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a social group whose membership is determined by some rule such as descent from a common ancestor through the female line (matrilineality) or through the male line (patrilineality). most such groups are unilineal descent groups, whose rules specify descent through only one line

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genealogical method

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a first step in field research in a new culture, recording names and kin relationships of all in the group

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house society

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societies where basic subgroups are not descent groups but rather various people, kin and nonkin, who live together in a large house

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kinship

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relationships between people based on blood ties (consanguinity) or marriage ties (affinity)

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kinship terms

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words used for relatives to designate them (terms of reference) or to address them (terms of address), often expanded metaphorically ("Mother Goose")

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lineage

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a unilineal descent group whose members are all descended from the same recent ancestor through males or females. (A clan is usually made up of SEVERAL lineages)

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matriarchy

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an old idea that once, somewhere, there was a society in which women held power and ruled, while men were subordinate to them. the ancient greeks told of the amazons, a warrior society made up of only women

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matrilineal descent

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a rule that membership in a descent group is through one's mother. by extension, such things as inheritance can be matrilineal, through the female line (contrast patrilineal descent)

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moiety

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literally, half; when the entire society is divided into two groups, usually matri-moieties or patri-moieties

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non-unilineal descent

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when membership in a group is determined by using either patrilineal or matrilineal rules (see also cognatic descent group)

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patriarchal

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the principle of male domination in a society (contrast matriarchy)

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patrilineal descent

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a rule that the membership in a descent group is through one's father. by extension, such things as inheritance can be patrilineal, through the male line (contrast matrilineal descent)

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phratry

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a social organization where two or more clans are associated (contrast moiety)

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reference, term of

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a kinship term used when talking about someone (contrast address, term of)

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segmentary lineage system

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as a lineage grow with new generations, the sublineage branches split off and form independent lineages

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sibs

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a unilineal descent group like a clan, but without the clan's territorial limitations

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social organization

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the ways in which a social unit is subdivided into smaller groups whose membership is determined by kinship, age, location, and such criteria

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social structure

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social organization

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society

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organized group of individuals, human or otherwise (contrast culture)

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totemism

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the special symbolic and spiritual association between a person or group of persons and a natural phenomenon, individual, or kind

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unilineal descent

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where social groups are subdivided into smaller groups like clans on the basis of a single rule of descent; you are either in your mother's group (matrilineal) or your father's group (patrilineal). (contrast cognatic decent group.

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voluntary association

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social groups whose members are recruited not through descent rules but through free choice. many voluntary associations actually hedge, and descent considerations are involved also.