Anthropology 201 chapters 1-7 – Flashcards
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anthropology
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the study of the full scope of human diversity and the application of that knowledge to help people of different background better understand one another.
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ethnocentrism
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the belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal and natural; using one's own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others.
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ethnographic fieldwork
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a primary research strategy in cultural anthropology involving living with a community of people over and extended period to better understand their lives. "walking in their shoes."
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our-field approach
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the use of four interrelated disciplines to study humanity; physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.
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holism
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the anthropologic commitment to consider the full scope of human life, including culture, biology, history, and language across space and time.
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physical anthropology
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the study of humans from a biological perspective, particularly focused on human evolution.
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paleoanthropology
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the study if the history of human evolution through the fossil record.
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primatology
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the study of living nonhuman primates as well as primate fossils to better understand human evolution and early human behavior.
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archaeology
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the investigation of the human past by means of excavating and analyzing artifacts.
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prehistoric archaeology
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the reconstruction of human behavior in the distant past (before written records) through the examination of artifacts.
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historic archaeology
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the exploration of the more recent past through an examination of physical remains and artifacts as well as written or oral records.
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linguistic anthropology
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the study of human language in the past and present
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descriptive linguists
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those who analyzes languages and their component parts.
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historical linguists
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those who study how language changes over time within a culture and how languages travel across cultures.
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sociolinguists
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those who study language in its social and cultural contexts.
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cultural anthropology
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the study of people's communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions, including how people make meaning as they live, work, and play together.
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participant observation
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a key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied.
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ethnology
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the analysis and comparison of ethnographic data across cultures.
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globalization
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the worldwide intensification of interactions and incurred movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders.
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time-space compression
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the rapid innovation of communication and transportation technologies associated with globalization that transforms the way people think about space and time.
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flexible accumulation
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the increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization, enabled by innovative communications and transportation technologies.
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increasing migration
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the accelerated movement of people within and between countries.
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uneven development
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the unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization.
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rapid change
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the dramatic transformations of economics, politics, and culture characteristics of contemporary globalization.
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climate change
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changes to earth's climate, including global waning produced primarily by increasing concentration of greenhouse gases created by human activity such as burring fossils fuels and deforestation.
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culture
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a system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns and behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned and shared by a group of people.
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enculturation
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the process of learning culture. humans learn how to communicate and establish patterns of behavior that allow life in a community. we learn culture throughout our lives from the people and cultural institutions that surround us.
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norms
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ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people. what is considered "normal" and appropriate behavior.
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values
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fundamental beliefs about what is important, true, or beautiful and what makes a good life.
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what effect does culture have on values?
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culture promotes and cultivates a core set of values.
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what do values shape?
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shapes and guides people's behavior as well as goals that people feel are important for themselves, their families, and their communities.
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symbol
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anything that signifies something else symbolic communication is nonverbal, action-based and unconscious.
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mental maps of reality
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cultural classifications of what kinds of people and things exist, and the assignment of meaning to those classifications. helps us organize the world into categories that help us sort out our experiences and what they mean.
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what effect does globalization have on mental maps of reality?
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globalization continues to put pressure on mental maps of reality as people on the planet are drawn to closer contact with the world's diversity.
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the two important functions of mental maps are
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1. classify reality 2.assign meaning to what has been classified.
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cultural relativism
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understanding a group's beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making judgments.
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what is an anthropologists first task?
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to understand a culture's internal logic and system of meaning.
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unilineal cultural evolution
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the theory proposed by nineteenth century anthropologists that all cultures naturally evolve through the same sequence of stages from simple to complex.
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Why did later anthropologists reject unilineal cultural evolution?
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they rejected it as being too Eurocentric, too hierarchical, and lacking adequate data to support its grand claims. Franz Boas rejected unilineal cultural evolution.
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Franz Boas
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(1858-1942) anthropologist that later taught at Colombia University in NY. As a Jewish immigrant, he was particularly sensitive to the dangers of racial stereotyping.
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What was Franz Boas' claim?
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cultures arise from different causes, not uniform processes. anthropologists could not rely on an evolutionary formula to explain differences among cultures but must study the particular history of each culture to see how it developed.
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historical particularism
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the idea that cultures develop in specific ways because their unique histories.
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who came up historical particularism>
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Franz Boas
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structural functionalism
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a conceptual framework posting that each element of society serves a particular function to keep the entire system in equilibrium.
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interpretivist approach
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a conceptual framework that sees culture primarily as a symbolic system of deep meaning.
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who was key to the interpretivist approach?
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anthropologist Clifford Geertz.
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what was Clifford Geertz claim?
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we must look beneath the surface activities to see the layers of deep cultural meaning in which those actives are embedded.
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power
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the ability or potential to bring about change through action or influence.
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stratification
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the uneven distribution of resources and privileges among participants in a group or culture.
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how may power be stratified?
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gender, racial or ethnic groups, class, age, family, religion, sexuality or legal status.
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hegemony
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the ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use of threat of force.
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agency
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the potential power of individuals and groups to contest cultural norms, values, symbols, mental maps of reality, institutions, and structures of power.
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cosmopolitanism
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a global outlook emerging in response to increasing globalization.
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is culture learned by DNA?
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no, culture is learned from the people around us. it's not written into our DNA, but we are born with the ability to learn any culture that we might be born into or move into.
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how are culture and economics closely linked?
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advertising, marketing and financial service industries work to transform cultural values of frugality, modesty, ect into patterns of spending and consumption associated with acquiring the material goods of a middle-class lifestyle.
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how is globalization transforming culture?
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encounter, interaction, movement and exchange have been fundamental aspects of humanity. cultures have always been influenced by the flow of people, ideas and goods, whether through migration, trade, or invasion.
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endogamy
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the custom of marrying only within the limits of a local community, clan, or tribe.
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exogamy
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not marrying only within the limits of a local community, clan, or tribe.
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four field approach
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gathering cultural, linguistic, archaeological, and biological data.
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salvage ethnography
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fieldwork strategy developed by Franz Boas to rapid collect cultural, material, linguistic, and biological information about U.S. native populations being devastated Western expansion.
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participant observation
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a key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied.
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synchronic approach
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control experiments by limiting consideration of the larger historical and social context in order to isolate as many variables as possible.
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mead's fieldwork testified to the fact that U.S. cultural norms...
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were not found cross-culturally but were culturally specific
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reflexivity
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a critical self-examination of the role the anthropologists plays and an averseness that one's identity affects one's fieldwork and theoretical analyses.
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anthropologist's toolkit
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the tools needed to conduct fieldwork, including a notebook, pen, camera, voice recorder, and dictionary.
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rapport
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the relationships of trust and familiarity developed with members of the community being studied.
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key informant
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a community member who advises the anthropologist on community issues, provides feedback, and warns against cultural miscues. Also called cultural consultant.
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life history
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a form of interview that traces the biography of a person over time, examining changes and illuminating the interlocking network of relationships in the community.
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kinship analysis
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traditional strategy of examining genealogies to uncover the relationship built upon structures such as marriage and family ties.
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field notes
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the anthropologist's written observations and reelections on places, practices, events and interviews.
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mapping
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the analysis of the physical and/or geographic space where fieldwork is being conducted. spacial awareness of where people live, work, workshop, play and eat, and of the space through which they move.
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mapping is important because
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physical surroundings influence human culture, shaping the boundaries and behavior and imagination.
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built environment
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the intentionally designed features of human settlement, including buildings, transportation and public service and infrastructure, and public spaces.
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zeros
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elements of a story of picture that are not told or seen and yet offer key insight into issues that might be to sensitive to discuss or display publicly.
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mutual transformation
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the potential for both the anthropologist and the members of the community being studied to be transformed by the interactions of fieldwork.
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emic
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an approach to gathering data that investigates how local people thing and how they understand the world.
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etic
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description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropologist's perspective in ways that can be compared across cultures.
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polyvocality
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the practice of using many different voices in ethnographic writing and research question development, allowing the reader to hear more directly form the people in the study.
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at the core of our ethics code is the mandate...
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to do no harm
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race
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a flawed system of classification, with no biological basis, that uses certain physical characteristics to divide the human population into supposedly discrete groups.
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racism
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individuals thoughts and actions and institutional patterns and policies that create unequal access to power, resources, and opportunities based on imagined differences amend groups.
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genotype
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the inherited genetic factors that provide the framework for an organism's physical form.
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phenotype
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the way genes are expressed in an organisms physical form as a result of genotype interaction with environmental factors.
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miscegenation
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a demeaning historical term for interracial marriage
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white supremacy
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the belief that whites are biologically different and superior to people of other races.
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whiteness
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a culturally constructed concept originating in 1691 Virginia designed to establish clear boundaries of who is white and who is not, a process central to the formation of U.S. racial stratification.
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Jim Crow
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Laws implemented after the U.S. civil war to legally enforce segregation, particularly in the South, after the end of slavery.
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hypodescent
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called "one drop of blood rule" the assignment of children of racially "mixed" unions to the subordinate group.
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eugenics
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a pseudoscience attempting to scientifically prove the existence of separate human races to improve the population's genetic composition by favoring some races over others.
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racialization
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to categorize, differentiate and attribute a particular racial character to a person or group of people.
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individual racism
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personal prejudices beliefs and discriminatory actions based on race
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institutional racism
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patterns by which racial inequality is structured through ket cultural institutions, policies, and systems.
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racial ideology
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a set of popular ideas about race that allows the discriminatory behaviors of individuals and institutions to seem reasonable, rational and normal.
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phonology
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The study of what sounds exist and which ones are important for a particular language.
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displacement
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The ability to use words to refer to objects not immediately present or events occurring in the past or future.
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descriptive linguistics
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The study of the sounds, symbols, and gestures of a language, and their combination into forms that communicate meaning.
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productivity
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The linguistic ability to use known words to invent new word combinations.
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phonemes
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The smallest units of sound that can make a difference in meaning.
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language
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A system of communication organized by rules that uses symbols such as words, sounds, and gestures to convey information.
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morphemes
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The smallest units of sound that carry meaning on their own.
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syntax
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The specific patterns and rules for constructing phrases and sentences.
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kinesics
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The study of the relationship between body movements and communication.
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paralanguage
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An extensive set of noises (such as cries) and tones of voice that convey significant information about the speaker.
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grammar
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The combined set of observations about the rules governing the formation of morphemes and syntax that guide language use.
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morphology
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The study of patterns and rules of how sounds combine to make morphemes.
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prestige language
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A particular way of speaking, or language variation, that is associated with wealth, success, education, and power.
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dialect
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A nonstandard variation of a language.
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
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The idea that different languages create different ways of thinking.
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focal vocabulary
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The words and terminology that develop with particular sophistication to describe the unique cultural realities experienced by a group of people.
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sociolinguistics
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The study of the ways culture shapes language and language shapes culture, particularly the intersection of language and systems of power such as race, gender, class, and age.
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lexicon
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All the words for names, ideas, and events that make up a language's dictionary.
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multiculturalism
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A pattern of ethnic relations in which new immigrants and their children enculturate into the dominant national culture and yet retain an ethnic culture.
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assimilation
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The process through which minorities accept the patterns and norms of the dominant culture and cease to exist as separate groups
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melting pot
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A metaphor used to describe the process of immigrant assimilation into U.S. dominant culture
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nationalism
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The desire of an ethnic community to create and/or maintain a nation-state
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imagined community
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The invented sense of connection and shared traditions that underlies identification with a particular ethnic group or nation whose members likely will never meet.
