Cultural Anthropology Midterm

Front 1

Call systems

Back 1

Systems of communication among nonhuman primates composed of a limited number of sounds that vary in intensity and duration. Tied to environmental stimuli.
Stimuli- dependent: the food call will be made only in the presence of food, it cannot be faked.
consists of a limited number of calls that can't be combined to produce new calls
species specific.

Front 2

Kinesics

Back 2

The study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions

Front 3

Lexicon

Back 3

Vocabulary; a dictionary containing all the morphemes in a language and their meaning.

Front 4

Focal vocabulary

Back 4

A set of words and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups (those with particular foci of experience or activity), such as types of snow to Eskimos or skiers.

Front 5

Diglossia

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The existence of “high” (formal) and “low” (familial) dialects of a single language, such as German. For ex. high variant are used at universities and in writing, professions, and the mass media. They use the low variant for ordinary conversation with family members and friends.

Front 6

The Band

Back 6

Basic unit of social organization among foragers. A band includes fewer than one hundred people; it often splits up seasonally.

Front 7

Horticulture vs. Agriculture

Back 7

• Horticulture: Nonindustrial system of plant cultivation in which plots lie fallow for varying lengths of time.
• Agriculture: Nonindustrial system of plant cultivation characterized by continuous and intensive use of land and labor.

Front 8

Importance of irrigation

Back 8

Allows for Argriculture and becomes the basis for the first cities (grain and vegetable, food). While horticulturalists must await the rainy season, agriculturalists can schedule their planting in advance because they control water. Like other irrigation experts in the Philippines, the Ifuagao water their fields with canals from rivers, streams, springs, and ponds.
-makes it possible to cultivate a plot year after year
-enriches the soil (because the irrigated field is a unique ecosystem with several species of plants and animals, many of them minute organisms, whose wastes fertilize the land.
-a capital investment that usually increases in value (takes time for a field to start yielding, it reaches full productivity only after several years of cultivation. The Ifugao, like other irrigators, have farmed the same fields for generations.)
Terracing:another agricultural technique to prevent fertile soil and crops on steep hills from being washed away during the rainy season, Ifuagao cut into the hillside and build stage after stage of terraces fields (look like deep steps). Springs located above the terraces supply their irrigation water. T

Front 9

Tranhumance

Back 9

One of two variants of pastorialism; part of the population moves seasonally with the herds while the other part remains in home villages (98)

Front 10

Mode of production

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Way of organizing production- a set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, and knowledge
In a capitalist mode of production, money buys labor power, and there is a huge social gap between the people (bosses and workers) involved in the production process. Nonindustrial societies, labor usually is not bought but given as a social obligation- kin-based mode of production, mutual aid in production is one among many expressions of a larger web of social relations.

Front 11

The village head

Back 11

Leadership position in a village (as among the Yanomami, where the head is always a man); has limited authority; leads by example and persuasion.

Front 12

Achieved v. Ascribed status

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Achieved status: Social status that comes through talents, actions, efforts, activities and accomplishments, rather than ascription.
• Ascribed status: social status (ex. Race or gender) that people have little of no choice about occupying

Front 13

Pantribal Sodalities

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A NON-KIN BASED GROUP that exists throughout a tribe, spanning several villages

Front 14

Office

Back 14

permanent political position (128)

Front 15

Stratification

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Characteristic of a system with socioeconomic strata (131)
A stratum is one of two or more groups that contrast in social status and access to strategic resources.
The emergence of stratification signifies the transition from chiefdom to state. Its presence is one key distinguishing factors of a state.
consists of WEALTH, POWER, and PRESTIGE
Online:
The way in which different groups of people are placed within society.
The hierarchal or vertical division of society according to rank, caste, or class.

Front 16

Fiscal systems/mechanisms

Back 16

pertaining to finances and taxation.
-NEEDED IN STATES to support rulers, nobles, officials, judges, military personal and other specialists. STATE INTERVENES IN PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION. State also HAS REDISTRIBUTION THROUGH TAXES and less of what comes in flows back out to the people. People pay a portion of what the produce to government and that is reallocated for the general good and uses while another part is used for the elite. Taxes support the elite and are used for dams, monumental public works, palaces...etc.
IN NON STATES MORE GENEROSITY AND SHARING WITH RELATIVES

Front 17

The Most Popular Leisure Time Activity Among the Villagers:

Back 17

The most popular is gossip. (Many leisure activities are engaged in while doing work). Both men and women enjoy filling each other in on the latest news of happenings and minor scandals in Suduwarta Ara and neighboring villages. Near the equator night falls early; but for many households, kerosene is too expensive for doing activities during the long evenings. Groups of people can be heard chatting in near darkness in their houses or in the huts where they guard their fields from wild animals at night. The gossip serves as recreation and social control, as newspaper and grapevine telephone.

Front 18

The Three Types of Cultivation Practiced in Suduwatura Ara

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Paddy Cultivation, NONSHIFTING HIGHLAND CULTIVATION, Chena (slash and burn) cultivation

Front 19

Why Villagers Choose Home Remedies and Ritual Cures Over Western Medicine

Back 19

“Western medicine is highly respected by the people of Suduwatura Ara, but due to the villages isolation and the long distance that must be walked to go to the dispensary or rural hospitals, home remedies and indigenous or local ritual cures are usually the first and easiest choices for healing. Villagers will also return to these options when Western medicine has failed. For illnesses with prolonged fever malaria, or intense pain, may prefer to go to a clinic or hospital for Western tx.

Front 20

Sinhalese Marriage Rules

Back 20

You cannot marry your mother’s brothers (maama) or fathers sisters (nenda) but the children of maama and nenda are not taboo as marriage partner. They are called (massina) male cross-cousin and (naena) female cross-cousin. Cross cousins (fathers sisters children or mothers brothers children) are the preferred marriage partner. They have preferential bilateral cross-cousin marriages, which can lead to a stable alliance between the two groups.
Marrying a parallel cousin (fathers brothers children or mothers sisters children) would be considered incest and is a grave social taboo, though not illegal; the legal restriction on incest applies only to the nuclear family (Villagers believe that there is a close biological relationship that would lead to retardation and disabilities between parallel cousins that doesn’t hold true for cross-cousins)
Marriages are generally patrilocal in Sinhalese society, with bride leaving her village or compound to live in the village of her husband. Arranged marriages=more common that doing it oneself. Astrological compatibility is considered essential. Marrying within ones caste remains important.
Added to the social prohibition against marrying ones parallel cousin (considered as a sibling), there are further taboos. You may not marry your grandparents’ siblings children, who are also considered b y the villagers to be like fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts→ though not legally incest.
IN divorce, Levirate→ brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother’s widow & widow must marry her deceased husbands brother. And Sororate→ husband engages in marriage or sexual relations with his wife’s sister as a result of his wifes death or if she is infertile. Legal divorce is unfamiliar. Newly married couple will build their own house near that of the young mans parents-the accepted place to settle in this patrilocal society. As several of the parent sons settle with their families near the parental compound, the circle of reciprocal exchange and sharing widens.

Front 21

Combites

Back 21

informal work associations of friends and neighbors who come together to work for the day if there is a large task to be accomplished (clearing a field, building a house. Normally men work their land individually except in this case) and those who come to work together are compensated with a festive meal at the end of the job, accompanied by singing, dancing, and games of riddles and storytelling. (68)

Front 22

Kwv tij

Back 22

patrilineal clans are further divvied into lineages (Kwv tij) and these ties are depended upon for economic help and daily assistance. It functions like a large extended family. Provide social, emotional and spiritual value as well as help the household, provide rice or money during difficult times, or share land. The Hmong are only happy when near their family. (84)

Front 23

Paj Ntuah

Back 23

“Flower cloth,” the most exquisite cloth on which geometric or organic designs are embroidered, appliqued, or batiked. (The traditional Hmong dress is elaborate and colorful, and Hmong women are renowned textile artists. Traditional process of making cloth; cultivate plants (hemp & other woody plants), fibers must be spun and prepared and dyed before they can be transformed into the cloth that is embroidered into breathtaking garments. The stitching is painstaking. Dressing for special occasions involves donning several layers of skirts, vests, fabric belts over 20 ft. long wound around the waist and triangular cloth leggings. The central item=skirt, contains upwards of 500 tiny pleats using a single thread from waist to hem very tiny stitching. (88

Front 24

Why the Ju/’hoansi Criticized Lee’s Gift of the Ox

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Insulting the meat is one of the central practices of the !Kung that serves to maintain egalitarianism. Even though some men are better hunters than others, their behavior is molded by the group to minimize the tendency toward self-praise and to channel their energies into socially beneficial activities. As a result, the existence of differences in hunting prowess does not lead to a system of Big Men in which a few talented individuals tower over the others in terms of prestige.
They were acting in their characteristic manner, the way in which all hunters are treated despite the bounty they might bring home. “…when a young man kills much meat he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We cant accept this. We refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make him kill somebody. So we always speak of his meat as worthless. This way we cool his heart and make him gentle.” (104)

Front 25

Reasons Why Anthropologists Are Interested in Language:

Back 25

Culture is based on language and Anthropologists need to know language of people to study their culture, understand the nuances and do fieldwork for the purpose of interviewing.
The belief that language reflects cultural patterns of thought and the only way to get at patterns of thought is through language because we can’t see them.
Language can be studied out of context or abstractly especially with grammar or syntax (structure of sentence) and language is our main means of communication.

(Also, linguistic anthropologists
-reconstruct ancient languages by comparing their contemporary descendants and in doing so make discoveries about history.
-study linguistic differences to discover varied world views an patterns of thought in a multitude of cultures
-examine dialects and styles in a single language to show how speech reflects social change.
-explore the role of language in colonization and globalization.)

Front 26

Kinesics vs. Proxemics

Back 26

Kinesics: are a nonverbal form of communication that include facial expressions, hand gestures, shrugging, body language
Proxemics: a form of nonverbal communication in the cultural use of space when two people are speaking. In US it is about 3 feet.

Front 27

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:

Back 27

Language guides thought and determines culture. Benjamin Lee Whorf noticed many fatal petroleum accidents occurred near “empty” petroleum barrels. He noted that the use of the word “empty” in connection to the barrels led the workers to think they were “not harmful” and therefore would smoke near them unconsciously though dangerous flammable vapors were still lingering.
Its the belief that different languages produce different ways of thinking. Ex. English divides time into past, present and future while Hopi language of the Native American southwest doesn’t distinguish between present and past.

Front 28

Surface vs Deep structure

Back 28

Surface= syntax, visible/audible part of the sentence
Deep structure= semantics, invisible/inaudible aspect of the sentence
Different surface structures can have the same deep structure.

Front 29

Gender differences between speakers

Back 29

1. You Just Don’t Understand- Deborah Tannen
2. men= egocentric, self-promoting- I, Mine, Me-→ more private
3. women= sociocentric, group-promoting- We, our, Us → more inclusive
There are differences between men and women in
phonology: AMERICAN WOMEN tend to pronounce their VOWELS more PERIPHERALLY: "rant," "rint" when saying the word "rent," whereas MEN tend to pronounce theirs more CENTRALLY: "runt."
Differences in grammer: Women tend to be more careful about uneducated speech. Man may adopt working class speech because they associate it with masculinity. Women may pay more attention to the media, in which standard dialects are employed.
Differences in vocabulary: Women tend to use certain types of words and expressions associated with women's traditional lesser power in American society. Ex. Oh dear, Oh Fudge, Goodness! are less forceful than Hell and Damn. Men would be unlikely to say "Phooey on you"
Women are more likely to use adjectives as "adorable, charming, sweet, cute, lovely and divine" than men.
Men and women have differences in lexical (vocabulary distinctions). Men know more terms related to sports and make more distinctions (runs vs. points) and use them more precisely than women. Correspondingly, more influenced by fashion and cosmetics industries than men, women use more color terms and attempt to use them more specifically than men. (ex. hold up an off purple shirt and ask women what color it is & they rarely respond with a uniform answer as they try to distinguish the shade "mauve, lavender, lilac, violet." then ask Men who consistently answer "purple." Rarely do they imagine the difference between fuchsia and magenta.
DIfferences in linguistic strategies and behavior by sociolinguist Deborah Tannen: Women typically use language and body movements to build rapport, social connections with others. Men tend to make reports, reciting information that serves to establish a place for them in a hierarchy as they also attempt to determine the relative ranks of their conversation mates.
other differences: Japanese women tend to adopt an artificially high voice, for the sake of politeness, according to their traditional culture.

Front 30

Balanced v. Generalized reciprocity

Back 30

• Balanced: immediate return ex. Gift exchange
• Generalized: Delayed return-when return is delayed obligations are established. Obligation carries weight on relationship. Ex. Trobian Islanders- Kula ring sent off and eventually they would receive bracelets in return. Ex. Birthday gifts

• Reciprocity= exchange of goods/services between known people who establish the value of the goods/services at the time of the exchange aka “swapping” “simple trade” no $ involved. Goods/services for goods/services. Its controlled by the desires of the traders-each instance of exchange determines the price. The only social control that makes this work is morality (relationships/family)

Front 31

Redistribution

Back 31

must have sufficient resources for redistribution & a central authority to over see and control redistribution. Has Legal enforcement and central authority. Ex. Taxation from central authority- government.

Front 32

Market Exchange

Back 32

Buying/selling goods and services with money set by market exchange/system.
• Free market capitalism values are established and maintained by supply and demand.
• Socialism/ Communism (China, Cuba) Market is fixed by the state.
• Social control= legal enforcement, strong legal authority for fulfillment of obligations.
• Standard monetary system is required.

Front 33

The paradox in Culture and Economics in the United States

Back 33

paradox: juggling disparate/ contradictory principles without being bothered by conflict.
• Puritan values at Core of American Culture→ thrift, Frugality, no borrowing: we buy into these values- we want to save but we don’t. Consumerism and Debt are both OK

Front 34

Technology

Back 34

tools, techniques and knowledge to adapt to the natural environment (ex. If your in a cold environment you make use of technology to help with warmth), exploiting energy resources, including food –exploit plants and animals to sew clothes exploit sheep for wool. Economy and production are connected to technology because production is transformed by technology.

Front 35

Unilineal vs. multilineal cultural evolution

Back 35

Unilineal→ primitive→barbaric→civilized. Culture evolves in one line through all 3 stages.
Unilineal evolutionism was predicated on two fundamental axioms: (1) the idea of progress, that the direction of cultural evolution is everywhere from "primitive" to "civilized" and (2) the idea of psychic unity, that all human beings, irrespective of their environment or specific history, will necessarily think the same thoughts and, therefore, progress through the same series of evolutionary stages
Multilineal→replaced unilineal due to 3 flaws 1. Faulty data creates faulty theories 2. Synchrony to diachrony 3. People stuck in certain age. Examines cultures in isolation as independent inventions. How easy it is to adapt- cultures evolve at different rates depending on how easy it is to adapt to environment.

Basic difference is that for unilinear evolutionists the evolutionary path must be the same for every society/culture and thus you are either in the front of the evolutionary race or you are somewhere in between or in the back. Multilinear evolution tried to solve the inevitably "superior culture" conclusion of such an idea and defined several possible paths (lines) of evolution. Thus you might seem "primitive" but you might actually be in a very high level of evolution in your own kind of economy. Not all societies/cultures must stroll the same path towards "perfection"

Front 36

Hunting and Gathering vs. Horticulture

Back 36

Hunting and gathering (foraging)→ small groups of people live together in a band. 40-50 people at most, dispersed population (not dense) with no formal leadership although elders are the mentors that keep things orderly. There is a need for kinship relationships. Basic gender division of labor (men hunt, women gather)
Plants are kept within each family unit and the whole band shares the meat men bring in. Egalitarian, equal nature-everyone together thrives or starves. Informal dwellings are made from natural materials (leaves, sticks). If there is a drought and plants die, animals migrate and so does the band (anywhere from 1 wk. to a month). Religion= Animists- the belief in the existence of spirits, the spirit of the tree gives the tree its texture, smell and action. The only part time specialization is from a Shaman that intercedes between humans and spirits.
Horticulture (slash and burn; digging stick)→ Larger populations living in closer proximity with a Big man as a headman of leadership. Alliance and warfare is born. NO permanent settlement usually from 1-10 years, they slash down brush and trees and burn the refuse to clear land and they use the nitrogen from the ash as fertilizer. The upkeep of plants depends on rainfall. Once land is leached of nutrients they must leave. Still gender based division of labor and still equalitarianism bc no one can really “get ahead” in this environment. They are still Animists but ADDED Ancestor worship and kept spirit behind when they came here (Fresno). Still hunt though more growing of plants occurs.

Front 37

Coercive vs. Legitimate Power

Back 37

power is the ability to control resources valued by others
coercive power= forcefully control these resources. Ex. autocratic, dictatorial, totalitarian government such as government. (will break into your house if you don't open your door) and raid
Legitimate power: legitimately control valued resources based on law, with constraints ex. in a democratic government (will wait at your door till you open it, show a search warrant and enter)

Front 38

The Three Types of Political Authority

Back 38

Traditional, Legal-rational/bureaucratic, charismatic

Front 39

? traditional

Back 39

types of Political Authority.

• "sanctity of immemorial (primordial) traditions"- old, ancient (& valued more). Forced acceptance of older tradition.
• "obedience owed to the person" (as expression of filial piety- respect for father) traditional leader.
• “traditionally sanctioned positions of authority”
• “matters of personal loyalty” just tradition you should respect
• accustomed obligations- you owe toward them. Parameters around obligations.
• Further considerations: Tradition authority is characteristic of hunting/gathering, simple farmers (horticulturists), and simple pastorialists (herders of domesticated animals) Traditional authority exists everywhere, in families ex. Parents- personal loyalty, accustomed traditions.

Front 40

? legal- rational bureaucratic

Back 40

• “legality of enacted rules” laws, statutes, regulations, postulations, LEGAL CODE>
• “obedience owed to the legally established impersonal order” we respect police not one in particular but as an institution.
• “only within the scope of authority of the office” highly specialized roles of authority (fire fighters wont deliver your mail)
• further considerations: legal rational refers to means-to end reasoning calculation is the best means to reach the end., its used in bureaucracy-everybody has to go to some bureaucratic place to get X – vote., It becomes impersonal., characteristic of advanced Mongolian and agricultural and industrial.

Front 41

? charismatic

Back 41

• “a certain quality of an individual personality” a “gift” like traditional in that owed to a person rather than an agency.
• “condifered extraordinary, [as having] supernatural (refers to ancient prophets), superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional qualities” gift of public speaking, persuasion.
• Further considerations:
• A calling or a mission and once recruited to movement, loyalty to leader is a duty.
• Doesn’t require formal training-decisions are based on revelation/inspiration- genetically endowed.
• SOLO operator- but usually has an administrative staff w/o hierarchy-whole staff is equal and there is no payment
• Threat to state/authority bc usually speaking against state
• Inherently unstable- bc just one person- if leader dies administrative staff can write down oratory speeches and routinize principles; Routinization of charisma.
• Ex. Ancient prophets

Front 42

Headmen vs. Big Men

Back 42

Headman: LEADERSHIP IN ONE VILLAGE rational decision making comes up with best means to an end. When to relocate, controls conflict, is head arbiter
Big Man: HAS SUPPORTERS IS SEVERAL VILLAGES & a regulator or regional political position. He turns wealth into prestige and gratitude, gives it away and doesn't hoard for himself. Established obligations based on largesse-incessant gift giving-gift give then via reciprocity everyone is obligated to him.
Headman & Bigman→local centralization at village level

Big man: figure often found among tribal horticulturalists and pastorialists. The big man occupies no office but creates his reputation through entrepreneurship and generosity to others. Neither his wealth nor his position passes to his heirs.

Head man: leadership position in a village; has limited authority, leads by example and persuasion.

Front 43

Feuding vs. Raiding

Back 43

form of intergroup conflict
Feuding: personal vendetta-member from one family revenge to another & on & on.Blood for blood/eye for eye
Raiding: On and off again- ex.pirate- strike & take what they want & leave the rest. Not trying to conquer land.

Front 44

Compare and contrast BEV and SE with respect to phonology, giving two examples

Back 44

Phonological difference: BEV= less likely to pronounce r than SE speakers are. Ebonics aka Black English vernacular- don’t pronounce intervocalic “r” (coming btw. Two vowels). So speakers of Se and BEV have very different homonyms (words that sound the same but have different meanings) ex. Paris/pass & Carol/ Cal
Paris can be said as “pass” This is a problem regarding meaning, bc may be saying pass, passed, or past or Paris.
Phonological rules may lead BEV speakers to omit –ed as a past-tense marker and –s as a marker of plurality.

(Prestige and symbolic capital, though technically standard English and BEV are both languages SE is thought of as the proper way of speaking & prestige dialect- one used in the mass media, writing and most public/professional contexts.)

Front 45

Explain the similarities and differences between hunting and gathering and horticultural

Back 45

Hunting and gathering (foraging)→ small groups of people live together in a band. 40-50 people at most, dispersed population (not dense) with no formal leadership although elders are the mentors that keep things orderly. There is a need for kinship relationships. Basic gender division of labor (men hunt, women gather)
Plants are kept within each family unit and the whole band shares the meat men bring in. Egalitarian, equal nature-everyone together thrives or starves. Informal dwellings are made from natural materials (leaves, sticks). If there is a drought and plants die, animals migrate and so does the band (anywhere from 1 wk. to a month). Religion= Animists- the belief in the existence of spirits, the spirit of the tree gives the tree its texture, smell and action. The only part time specialization is from a Shaman that intercedes between humans and spirits.
Horticulture (slash and burn; digging stick)→ Larger populations living in closer proximity with a Big man as a headman of leadership. Alliance and warfare is born. NO permanent settlement usually from 1-10 years, they slash down brush and trees and burn the refuse to clear land and they use the nitrogen from the ash as fertilizer. The upkeep of plants depends on rainfall. Once land is leached of nutrients they must leave. Still gender based division of labor and still equalitarianism bc no one can really “get ahead” in this environment. They are still Animists but ADDED Ancestor worship and kept spirit behind when they came here (Fresno). Still hunt though more growing of plants occurs.