Anthropology

anthropology
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Terms in this set (28)
anthropology
the study of humankind in all times and places
holistic perspective
a fundamental principle of anthropology: the various parts of human culture and biology must be viewed in the broadest possible context in order to understand their interconnections and interdependence.
ethnocentrism
the belief that the ways of one's own culture are the only proper ones
culture-bound
a perspective that produces theories about the world and reality that are based on the assumptions and values from the researcher's own culture
applied anthropology
the use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems, often for a specific event
medical anthropology
a specialization in anthropology that brings theoretical and applied approaches from cultural and biological anthropology to the study of human health and disease
cultural anthropology
the study of patterns in human behavior, thought, and emotions, focusing on humans as culture-producing and culture-reproducing creatures. also known as social or sociocultural anthropology
culture
a society's shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and which generate behavior and are reflected in that behavior
ethnography
a detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork
participant observation
in ethnography, the technique of learning a people's culture through social participation and personal observation within the comunity being studied, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended period of time
ethnologythe study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative or historical point of view, utilizing ethnographic accounts and developing anthropological theories that help explain why certain important differences or similarities occur among groupslinguistic anthropologythe study of human languages-looking at their structure, history, and relation to social and cultural contextsarcheologythe study of cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental datahistorical archaeologythe archaeological study of places for which written records existbioarchaeologythe archaeological study of human remains-bones, skulls, teeth, and sometimes hair, dried skin, or other tissue-to determine the influences of culture and environment on human biological variationcultural resource managementa branch of archaeology concerned with survey and/or excavation of archaeological and historical remains that might be threatened by construction or development; also involved with policy surrounding protection of cultural resourcesphysical anthropologythe systematic study of humans as biological organisms; also known as biological anthropologymolecular anthropologythe anthropological study of genes and genetic relationships, which contributes significantly to our understanding of human evolution, adaptation, and diversitypaleonathropologythe anthropological study of biological changes through time (evolution) to understand the origins and predecessors of the present human speciesbioculturalan approach that focuses on the interaction of biology and cultureprimatologythe study of living and fossil primatesforensic anthropologythe identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposesempiricalan approach based on observations of the world rather than on intuition or faithhypothesisa tentative explanation of the relationships among certain phenomenatheorya coherent statement that provides an explanatory framework for understand; an explanation or interpretation supported by a reliable body of datadoctrinean assertion of opinion or belief formally handed down by an authority as true and indisputableculture shockin fieldwork, the anthropologist's personal disorientation and anxiety that may result in depressionglobalizationworldwide interconnectedness, evidenced in rapid global movement of natural resources, trade goods, human labor, finance capital. information, and infectious diseases