| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Anthropology | study of human beings; or study of culture |
| 4 fields of Anthropology | cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic |
| cultural anthropology | using ethnography and ethnology to study human societies and cultures |
| archaeological anthropology | reconstructs, describes and interprets past human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains |
| biological anthropology | Pale anthropology: human evolution via fossil record: genetics, growth and development; primatology |
| linguistic anthropology | language in social and cultural context across space and time |
| Culture | Learned traditions and customs, that govern beliefs and behaviors; not biological always acquired ALSO the complex whole that includes all habits, customs, beliefs, knowledge, art, morals, etc. learned by humans as members of a society |
| Ethnicity | Biology, culture, behavior, basic values, language, and customs shared within a group. Members recognize other members of the group. Not strictly limited to color of skin. Example a person can be WHITE without being CAUCASIAN |
| Binary oppositions | contrasting pairs, such as male/female, young/old, sun/moon, by which people organize their social and conceptual worlds. This idea is associated with the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. |
| Gender | cultural meanings, values, and social roles assigned with respect to sex differences NOT BIOLOGICAL |
| Socialization | the process of transmitting appropriate cultural values and social behavior from one generation to the next |
| Society | groups living and sharing culture |
| Class, caste | a category of people who have approximately the same access to power and resources |
| Worldview | the culturally shaped way one sees and interprets the world. Not biological assumptions about nature moral options and life options. People never venture beyond their perception of the "Real world" |
| Applied anthropology | to identify, assess and solve contemporary social problems. Examples: Medical Anthropology, Cultural Resource Management (CRM), Forensic Anthropology, and Non-government Organizations (NGO's) |
| Cross | cultural- Phenomena or mode of comparison not limited to a particular culture or group |
| Cultural relativism | principle assuming that human customs and life ways are meaningful and coherent in their native social context |
| Emic | "Insider" |
| Etic | "Outsider" |
| Ethnocentrism | the belief that all aspects of European culture represent the best forms of culture |
| Ethnography | requires fieldwork to collect data, descriptive, group/community |
| Ethnology | draws upon data collected by a series of researchers, synthetic, comparative, cross-culture |
| Holistic | human biology, culture, and language |
| Science | a framework for systematically acquiring information about the physical world and testing that information through controlled observations |
| History | the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings |
| Participant observation | the preferred anthropological method it involves living as a member of the society under study and sharing in day-to-day activities usually for an extended period of time. |
| Affine | individuals related through marriage |
| Consanguine | individuals related through biological ties |
| Endogamy | a marriage practice according to which people are expected to take mates from within the group |
| Exogamy | a marriage practice according to which people are expected to take mates from outside the group |
| Evolution | the process of development or growth in a group; technically the change in allele frequency in a population from one generation to the next |
| Functionalism | associated with Bronislaw Malinowski, an anthropological approach the emphasizes the synchronic and holistic approaches |
| Infanticide | the practice of killing infants, female infanticide is the practice of killing female infants usually for purposes of population control or as a result of economic factors |
| Lineage | a kin group whose members trace descent matrilineally or patrinilinealy from a common ancestor through known links |
| Monogamy | a system of marriage involving one man and one wife |
| Social Darwinism | Application of the theory of natural selection to social organization, involving a misinterpretation of Darwin's biological theory of evolution |
| Big Man | in Melanesia a man who aims to increase his status by redistributing pigs and other goods at a feast or giveaway |
| Diachronic | uses the past to analyze the present |
| Synchronic | emphasizes the present |
| Band | A type of political organization that is autonomous at the local level; bands are kin-based and egalitarian |
| Tribe | composed of a number of bands |
| Chiefdom | a type of political organization that is regional, kin-based and hierarchical |
| State | a type of political organization that is regionalized, bureaucratic, and hierarchical |
| General evolution | Associated with Leslie White, a theory of social evolution that argues that cultures evolve through a series of universal stages as a result of increasing use of technology to capture energy |
| Specific evolution | Associated with Julian Steward, a theory of social evolution that holds the changes in each culture must be studied as adaptations to a specific environment rather than with reference to universal stages |
| Reciprocity | mutual dependence |
| Slash and burn agriculture | a cultivation technique in which an area of forest is cut down and then burned allowing the ashes to serve as fertilizer for crop production. Because the soil is only fertile for a few seasons the technique requires that the land be allowed to lie fallow after a few seasons |
| Pastoralism | People who are dependent mainly on domesticated animals, such as cattle, for subsistence |
| Capitalism | Economic system characterized by the following: private property ownership exists; individuals and companies are allowed to compete for their own economic gain; and free market forces determine the prices of goods and services. Such a system is based on the premise of separating the state and business activities. Capitalists believe that markets are efficient and should thus function without interference, and the role of the state is to regulate and protect. |
| Marxism | Associated with Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, a school of thought that argues that the social organization and ideology of a particular society are determined by its economic base. |
| Market System | a form of exchange which is concluded in a single transaction at a public place either through barter or transfer of cash |
| Industrialization | having a economic system heavily dependent on manufacturing |
| Complex society | a society characterized by a great deal of task specialization and differences in access to power and resources |
| Cultural ecology | Associated with Julian Steward, an approach to anthropological analysis that focuses on the relationship of a culture to its environment |
| Egalitarian | Characteristic of a society in which social roles are allocated by gender or age but are otherwise undifferentiated |
| Hierarchy, status | A form of social organization in which some roles are associated with more power, higher status, and greater access to resources than others |
| Animism | The belief in a spirit essence that animates people, animals, plants, and some geographical features |
| Kinship, marriage | A publically recognized social contract that establishes a social contract, sexual rights, social identity of offspring, and an alliance between kin groups. |
| Bride capture | A marriage custom in which the groom makes a great show and pretense of stealing the bride from her family |
| Fictive kin | People who and not blood relatives of an individual but occupy the place of biological kin and are referred to by kinship terminology |
| Kula, potlatch | A redistribution form of exchange characteristic of native people of the northwestern coast of North America in which a lineage head collects art objects and other valuables to be given away to members of another lineage at a ceremonial feast and dance performance |
| Nuclear family | An economically interdependent unit consisting of a parent or parents and their dependent offspring |
| Polygamy | A system of marriage where a person of either sex can have more than one mate |
| Polygyny | A system of marriage where a man can have more than one wife |
| Polyandry | a system of marriage where a woman can have more than one husband (mostly in East Asia) |
| Exchange, redistribution | trade |
| Subsistence | the means by which human groups convert environmental resources to human use |
| Unilineal | Tracing your descent using only one line either your mother's side or father's |
| Multilineal | tracing your descent using both parents' lines |
| Incest taboo | a social rule the prohibits sexual relations with certain categories of relatives |
| Boas | Anthropologist that went and lived with the Eskimos and learned that culture affects behavior. Culture Realism, historical particularism. Father of American Anthropology |
| Lewis Morgan | General Evolution. Control of energy is key to evolution= progress. Famous for his statement in 1957 after Russia launched Sputnik |
| Steward | Specific evolution. Ecological approach. Culture=adaptation |
| syntax | rules governing way rules combine |
| phoneme | theoretical represents of sound |
| descriptivism | the specialization in linguistics that focuses on grammatical structure of language |
| Conspicuous consumption | taking in more than you need; appearing rich |
| Materialism | all aspects of culture are means to exploit materials |
| Political economy | economics of power; the way power is structured |
| Neolocal | creating a new home with a new family example a new husband and wife move to a new house in a new location seperate from either of their original families |
| Bourgois | wrote "In Search of Respect" studied crack dealers in Harlem and lived there for three years using participant observation. |
| Geertz | anthropologists have to put themselves in the picture; interpretive anthropologist |
| Malinowski | Tribraind Islands; Cricket Video |
| Lewis-Morgan | General Evolution. Control of energy is key to evolution= progress. Famous for his statement in 1957 after Russia launched Sputnik |
| Spencer | survival of the fittest theory, social Darwinism |
| Darwin | evolution theory, The Origin of the Species |
| White | Generalization: control of energy is the key to cultural progress |
| Steward | Specific evolution. Ecological approach. Culture=adaptation |
| Diamond | agriculture was the worst mistake of humans because it increased the likely hood of diseases |
| Harris | sacred cows in India, starving people were dumb should eat the cows like we do, economic materialist |
| Marx | social conflict/ conflict between the classes |
| Prescriptivism | the idea that one variety of language has higher value than others and it should imposed onto the whole of the speech community: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, creation of a standard speech or writing "correctly" |
| Aztec | human sacrifices |
| Balinese | Clifford Geertz's famous cockfight scene came from here. Inside glimpse of life |
| Ilongot | Rage Theory. "Rosaldo" wife died, canibals |
| Margaret Mead | anthropologist who studied Samoa culture and decided that nurture was above nature in human emotions |
| culture and personality 'school' of anthropology | discovered by Francis Boas, trained famous anthropologist like Margret Mead and Ruth Benedict. Concentrated on nurture vs. nature, female anthropologist, race, how adolescents see the world, disappearing cultures ect. |
| language and communication | the ability to transmit encoded thoughts from the mind of one individual to another, usually verbal. |
| language universals | Substantive, formal and implicational |
| Sapir-Whorf hypothesis | language structures the world in particular ways different languages = different social realities |
| functions of language | emotional expression, social interaction, control of reality, recording the facts, an instrument of thoughts, and expression of identity |
| place names | may give info about societies, history, beliefs, and values |
| Language families | languages with clear linguistic evidence of relation |
| pidgin and Creole | real formal languages languages with grammar that developed when people gathered and didn't have a common language so they created a new language; creative adaptations of other languages. |
| Radcliffe-Brown | - English anthropologist that pioneered the study of social relations as integrated systems. |
| Kwakiutl | native american group on the north american pacific coast studied by Francis Boas |
| Non-stratified | societies exist which have little or no concept of social hierarchy, political or economic status, class, or even permanent leadership. |
| Kayasa | What is Cricket used for in the trobriand islands? |
| shorten the bats and balls, made it so as many people who wanted to play could play | What did the trobriand islanders do to inovate the game of Cricket? |
| culture affects behavior | During his artic fieldwork what does Boas learn about the relationship between culture and behavior? |
| Harlem | Where does "In Search of Respect" take place? |
| puerto rican immigrants | Who is the SPECIFIC subject of "In Search of Respect" |
| changing names and addresses, partially censors it, and constructs a story | What literary liberities are taken by the ethnographer of "In Search of Respect" |
| children of children | Who are the most vunerable inner city residents in "In Search of Respect" |
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