Anthropology vocab for midterm
Terms
undefined, object
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- call systems
- closed- elements of one call cannot be combined with elements of another to produce a new message
- cultural adaptation
- all of the learned of socially acquired responces and behaviors that affect reproduction, provisioningm shelter (survival)
- cultural relativism
- the ability to view the beliefs and customs of other people within the context of their cultural matrix rather than one's own
- culture
- system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another... generation to generation through learning
- empiricism
- reliance on observable and quantifiable data
- enculturation
- becoming proficient in the cultural codes of one's society
- ethnocentrism
- people in every society tend to view outsiders and their customs with suspicion and often condemnation
- gender
- behavioral or culturally interpreted dimensions of sexual categories
- holism
- study and description of the properties of complex systems... includes studies of living systems comprised of interacting organisms
- Homo Sapiens
- Human species
- hypothesis
- statement about the relationship that can possible be shown to be untrue
- language
- open-number of messages is infinite
- natural selection
- only the strongest will survive
- participant observation
- anthropologist enters the field in which is to be studied
- scientific theory
- statement that postulates ordered relationships among natural phenomenons
- socialization
- acquiring the technical skills of ones society
- adaptation
- organism makes biological or behavioral adjustments that facilitate their survival and reproductive success
- carrying capacity
- the point at or below which a population tends to stabalize
- ecosystem
- cycle of matter and energy that includes all living things and links them to nonliving
- environment
- every factor that inpinges on the life chances of the individual, not just the obvious preditors etc.
- evolution
- small changes in a species over time that can lead to a transformation
- foraging
- food gathering dependent on naturally occuring resources, especially wild plants, also hunting
- genes
- hereditary information passed from parents to offspring
- habitat
- specific area where a species lives
- horticulture
- simple for of agriculture based on working small plots of land with no animals plows or irrigation
- industrial agriculture
- farming using lots of technology and fuels
- intensive agriculture
- involves animals, plows and some kind of irrigation
- niche
- what one does to survive
- pastoralism
- economy largely based on the use of domesticated animals even if they get their food thru trade
- political ecology
- focuses on the distribution of power
- subsistence agriculture
- limited nonhuman energy sources
- resilience
- ability of an ecosystem to undergo change while still maintaing its basic elements of relationships
- stability
- the ability of an ecosystem to return to equilibrium after disturbances
- balanced reciprocity
- gift giving that carries an obligation of an eventual equal return
- bands
- loosley integrated population sharing a sense of common identity but few specialized institutions
- bride service
- service rendered by a male the the family whom he takes the daughter in marriage
- ethnographic present
- point and time in which a society or culture is frozen when enthrographic data is collected to make a report
- generalized reciprocity
- informal gift giving which no accounts are kept and no immidiate return is expected
- low-energy budget
- adaptive strategy by which a minimum of energy is used to extract sufficient resources to survive
- negative reciprocity
- each side tries to get the better end of the bargin
- potlach
- reciprical feasting and gift giving that can involve the conspicious display even the destruction of wealth
- reciprocity
- mutual giving and taking between people who are often bound by social ties and obligations
- social control
- framework of rewards and sanctions that channel behavior
- acculation
- cultural changes that occurs in responce to extended firsthand contacts between two or more previously autonomous groups
- clan
- a group that claims but cannot trace precisely their descent from a common ancestor
- domestication
- people try to control reproduuction of plants and animals
- extensive agriculture
- farming using limited sources of human energy
- headman
- leaders of tribal or band orginaizied societies
- household
- domestic residential group whose members live together in intimate contact, rear children etc.
- kula ring
- system of exchanges among the Trobriand Islanders linking dispersed island communitiesm in which 2 varieties of ceremonial shells are essential good are traded in separate spheres of exchange
- matrilineal descent
- traces thru the female line
- moiety
- one of the two subdivisions of a society with a dual organizational structure
- Neolithic Revolution
- develp. of agriculture and consequent cultural changes that occurred at dfferent times and palces in the old and new worlds
- patrilineal descent
- traced thru the male line
- polyculture
- planting of many species or strains of plants in close proximity
- postpartum taboo
- supernaturally justified prohibitions of certain activities following a birth
- sedentism
- establishing a permanent year round settlement
- slash and burn (swidden) agriculture
- fields are cleared, trees and brush burned and soil is fertalized by the ash
- spheres of exchange
- modes of exchange: reciprocity, redistribution, market exchange
- age grade
- category of people of the same sex and approximantly the same age who share a set of duties and privilages
- age set
- about same age, lifetime of those individuals
- animal husbandry
- breeding, care, and use of heard animals
- cattle complex
- cattle reps. social status and wealth
- economic stratification
- the segmentation of society along lines of access to resources
- horizontal migration
- nomadic pattern characterized by regular movement over a large area in search of a pasture
- nomadic pastoralism
- strategy of moving ones heards from pasture to pasture
- oasis
- human constructed fertile area in an arid region
- sedentary pastoralism
- animal husbandry that does not involve mobility
- segmentary liniage
- decent group in which minimal lineages are encompassed as segments of minor lineages, minors as major and so on
- specialized pastoralism
- exclusive reliance of animal husbandry
- transhumance
- seasonal movement of livestock between upland and lowlands