Symbolic Anthropology Midterm

Front 1

Symbols/Example

Back 1

a means of communication- concepts with bountifical meanings/ the color black

Front 2

Signs/Example

Back 2

have one fixed meaning/ Stop sign

Front 3

Metaphorical Entailments/Example

Back 3

characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts./ 'Time is Money'- you're wasting my time; I don't have the time to give you; That flat tire cost me an hour

Front 4

Liminal Period/Example

Back 4

An ephemeral psychosocial space in which social arrangements are subject to transformation, inversion and affirmation. (as an anti-structure: limitations of everyday structure are opened up but people ultimately come to recognize and reaffirm the basic structural cohesion they had known in routine existence./ Period between couple getting engaged and getting married.

Front 5

Thick Description/Example

Back 5

an interpretation of what natives are thinking made by an outsider who cannot think like a native but is made possible by anthropological theory. Details the mental process and reasoning of the natives./Winking has different meanings depending on the context.

Front 6

Structuralism/Example VS Post-structuralism/Example

Back 6

Structuralists look at the overarching structure focusing on the systems of meaning and how it functions. Post-structuralists pays more attention to the actor within the structure. They believe that our realities are created by the languages we use and that these structures are unstable and not fixed whereas structuralist view structures as static and stable. / An orange- orange, round and soft on the inside./ nature vs culture.

Front 7

BAMBI

Back 7

acronym developed for nearly version of an antiballistic missile system (Ballistic Missile Boost Intercept)

Ex. "Cookie Cutter" a phrase used to describe a particular mode of nuclear attack.

Front 8

Mary Douglas "where there is dirt there is a system" what does she mean by this? Explain the symbolic meaning of dirt.

Back 8

-Where one finds constructions of purity and impurity, one finds a symbolic system that gives rise to such constructions. Purity system as symbolizing the social body by assigning impurity to physical one.

-Dirt is never a unique, isolated event. We don't care about what defines dirt, but what makes dirt is what makes clean, clean.

Front 9

Laknoff states "our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally in metaphorical nature" What does he mean by this statement?

Back 9

The concepts that govern our thought also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around the world and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining everyday realities.

Front 10

The bodily adornment and transformation involve multiple meanings among the Tchikrin- Explain the symbolisms surrounding hair and lip adornment transformation.

Back 10

Hair- is associated with sexual powers. Long hair connects full participation in sexually based relationships.

Lip plug- speaking has specific social associations and these associations relate to each other as complementary passive and active values. Speaking- mature and masculinity. Flamboyant oratory. Assertiveness. Full size lip plug- badge of paternity and the symbol of mature oral aggressiveness- phallic and oral components of adult masculinity, of the family and communal levels of men's social relations.

Front 11

Thai Village- What is the link between the rules concerning the eating of animals, spatial use of the house, and the rules regarding sex and marriage?

Back 11

Scales of social distance and edibility distance. Link between the 3 is that there are hierarchical ordered group systems in place which compromises a system of classification.

Front 12

If you apply Turner's approach to symbolism in Thai village- what functions do these symbols posses?

Back 12

The function of the symbols are to set a social norm in which taboos are created to keep the social order in place.

Front 13

Victor Turner and Clifford Geertz are considered to be the major figures in symbolic anthropology. Compare and contrast their approaches.

Back 13

Geertz believed that symbols shouldn't be studies in and of themselves. He saw symbols as "vehicles of culture" in which symbols are produced and formulated through everyday interactions. Turner on the other hand percieved symbols as "operators in the social process" in that they produce "social transformation". Geertz interpreted symbols as a product of culture whereas Turner saw symbols as producing culture.

Front 14

Cosmology/Example

Back 14

The scientific study or mythical/religious explanation of the universe as a whole, seeking to understand its origin, evolution and structure./1st chapter of Genesis