Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
26 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
Name some of the early thinkers who talked about evolution of human beings and societies. |
Even before Darwin and Wallace had formulated the theories of biological evolution, the French thinkers and the Scottish Enlightenment philosophers were formulating their hypotheses of human social evolution and the possibility of society being a human rather than a divine creation. The exposure to other cultures triggered ideas of social evolution as the European thinkers tried to explain the diversity of cultures by connecting them with their own past. Auguste Comte gave his theory of a stage by stage evolution of human societies that set the stage for further speculative thinking on these lines. |
|
|
Who postulated the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ in terms of social evolution? |
Herbert Spencer’s rather controversial theory that societies behave like natural systems where all those parts (people) that are weak or lack survival potential get eliminated was established as the popular conception of ‘survival of the fittest’ that also got mistakenly grafted to Darwin’s theory of evolution. |
|
|
Give two reasons why anthropology is known as the ‘Science of (Hu)Man’. |
A great deal of theory building in the age of positivism was triggered by the great curiosity that Europeans had about their ‘origins’ and ultimately it was this search for the origin and evolution of human beings that gave rise formally to a discipline labelled anthropology or the, ‘Science of Man’. This original definition of anthropology indicates the two basic assumptions that informed the establishment of this discipline; one, that humans were potential subjects for scientific analysis in all aspects of their being and second, that to be really ‘human’ was to be a (Hu)Man. |
|
|
Positivist approach to the study of social phenomenon. |
Both Comte and Spencer along with other European scholars were representing what is known as the Positivist approach to the study of social phenomenon. The Positivist approach advocated that societies were capable of being studied and analysed as objects like any other object of scientific investigation. In other words the scholar of society was also a scientist who could apply his analytical skills to objectively scrutinize society with the same degree of objective detachment and methodological rigour that a scientist brings to his examinations. Societies were compared to organisms and like organisms they were subjects of evolution and predictable laws. |
|
|
Ethnocentrism |
Ethnocentrism refers to the feeling of considering one’s own culture as being superior as well as the ‘normal’ way of doing things. Eurocentric perspective refers to the Europeans considering their own society and culture as being at the height of social evolution and most civilised. |
|
|
‘The growth of anthropology was at its peak during the colonisation process of the Europe over the rest of the world.’ State whether the following statement is True or False. |
True |
|
|
During the Enlightenment period state the ideas that flowered owing to the French and American revolutions. |
Enlightenment period was the time of flowering of ideas of Equality, Humanism and Liberty; thoughts that originated from the French and American revolutions. |
|
|
Who assumed the first chair of anthropology in Oxford University? |
The discipline of anthropology was finally established as a distinct discipline with Edward B. Tylor assuming the chair of anthropology at the Oxford University. |
|
|
Name the four major branches of anthropology. |
Anthropology diversified into four main branches, namely physical or biological anthropology that dealt with human biological diversity; linguistics that dealt with relationship between culture and language, archaeology that delved into the past of human society and social/cultural anthropology. |
|
|
Which method of study is the hallmark of anthropology? |
The academic roots of British structural –functional school was drawn from the functionalism of Durkheim (1950) who belonged to the French school of sociology. The structural-functional school critiqued the classical evolutionists for their speculative theories. Moving away from the deductive theories of evolution they moved to empiricism and developed the field study method that has today become the hall mark of anthropology |
|
|
Cultural Relativism |
Cultural Relativism refers to the theoretical position where aspects of any culture are seen as relevant, that is functional in their own context and not comparable to other cultures. This was a criticism of evolutionary theory and foundation of functional theory. |
|
|
Who authored the book Argonauts of the Western Pacific? |
Bronislaw Malinowski |
|
|
Who is regarded as the father of American anthropology? |
Franz Boas |
|
|
Diffusionism |
Diffusionism is the theory that emphasises on the spread of cultures from centers of their origin and not on parallel evolution of similar traits. Unlike evolution it is more inclined towards the decline of cultures over the passage of time and their distance from the point of their origin. They believe that original concepts occur rarely and similarities observed in cultural traits is due to diffusion |
|
|
Sigmund Freud - Psychoanalytic school |
Sigmund Freud founded the psychoanalytic school and was known for his theories of human personality development that he identified as rooted in early childhood experiences. He explained neurosis in terms of unresolved contradictions of childhood such as the Oedipal Complex |
|
|
Why did the American anthropologists while studying the people like the Navaho focused on the concept and study of cultures instead of society. |
They focused, by necessity on the concept of culture as against that of society because what they did get to study were not functioning societies but left over bits of people’s lives like myths, folklore, material culture and narratives of ways of lives that had disappeared or were going to disappear soon. The people they studied, like the Navaho were a people living in reservations, in abject poverty, mental and physical misery, practicing witchcraft not to maintain a functioning society like the study made by Evans-Pritchard on the Azande, but to survive conditions of extreme hardship. |
|
|
Name some of the early American anthropologists. |
Franz BoasRuth BenedictA. L. Kroeber |
|
|
Name the University in India where the first department of Anthropology was established in 1921. |
Calcutta University was the first university to have a department of anthropology in 1921, and had among its staff persons like B.S. Guha, Ananthakrishna Iyer, Panchanan Mitra, N.K. Bose and others. |
|
|
In which University social anthropology was first introduced as a part of the Sociology syllabus in 1919 in India. |
Social anthropology was first introduced as part of sociology syllabus in Bombay University in 1919; initially anthropology was taught as an integrated subject that was inclusive of the physical and social aspects. |
|
|
Who is regarded as the father of anthropology in Great Britain? Name his classic monograph. |
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, the father of anthropology in Great Britain, who wrote his classic monograph on The Andaman Islanders, published by Cambridge University Press in 1922. |
|
|
Who authored The Todas? |
W.H.R. Rivers, who was on the border of evolutionism and functionalism; wrote his original work on The Todas, in 1911. |
|
|
Jajmani |
Jajmani refers to a redistributive system based on agriculture found in the caste based Indian villages. The landholding castes give share of produce to specialist caste groups who provide them with services like hair cutting, washing of clothes and agricultural labour. In many parts of India the Brahmin is also a dependent caste providing ritual services in exchange for food and other subsistence. |
|
|
Universalisation and Parochialisation |
Universalisation is the process of cultural transmission where a trait from a simpler society gets absorbed into the universal culture and Parochialisation is the opposite trend where a trait from a complex civilisation is accepted into a local culture in a modified form |
|
|
Little Tradition and Great Tradition |
These terms were coined by Robert Redfield and refer to the cultures of the simple society and complex society respectively. |
|
|
Tribalisation |
The acceptance of cultural traits from a tribal society into caste society so that they develop cultural traits similar to that of the tribe. It may also mean giving up of some caste based traits and accepting rituals and food that is found among the tribes |
|
|
Hinduisation |
This refers mostly to acceptance of Brahmanical values and caste system. |
