Anthro 185 Key Concepts
Terms
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- assimilation
- the process of change that a minority group may experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates; the minority is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit.
- shaman
- a religious intermediary, usually part-time, whose primary function is to cure people through sacred songs, pantomime, and other means; sometimes called "witch doctor" by Westerners; e.g. babaylan among the Tagalogs, mombaki among the Ifugaos.
- monosyllabic language
- a language whose lexicons consist of only one syllable, e.g. Chinese.
- artifact
- a material item that humans have manufactured or modified; synonymous with material culture.
- Bilateral kinship
- a system of descent reckoned equally through both parents.
- Out of Taiwan theory
- Peter Bellwood's hypothesis that Austronesians came from southern China and spread throughout the region by passing through Taiwan before reaching the Philippines and then bifurcating to other parts of the world.
- Tambalang Lapit
- a dynamic dualist approach developed by Prospero Covar.
- ideal pattern
- the pattern of culture that members of a particular culture set as their standard.
- preferred pattern
- one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. This happens when one particular type of behavior is more valued than other responses in a particular setting.
- ethnology
- the study of how and why recent cultures differ and are similar
- Tabon Cave
- cave site in Quezon, Palawan where the Tabon man skullcap and mandible were found.
- structuralism
- the theoretical orientation that human culture is a surface representation of the underlying structure of the human mind.
- Austronesian
- the biggest language family in the world in terms of actual number of languages belonging to this family and also in terms of its geographic spread, i.e. from Madagascar in the west to Rapa Nui in the east.
- participant observation
- living among the people being studied: observing, questioning, and (when possible) taking part in the important events of the group
- destruction and desecration
- according to Enriquez, this is the second phase of cultural domination that was implemented by colonizers in the Philippines.
- culture area
- a region which has a relatively similar way of living common to its component socio-economic systems and cultures. Its center has uniform customs but its periphery may be less homogenous. The concept is more relevant to material culture than to other aspects of culture.
- kindred
- a bilateral set of close relatives; angkan in Tagalog.
- material culture
- one of the component parts of a cultural system; synonymous with artifact.
- real pattern
- the pattern of culture that actually takes place.
- society
- a group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not generally understood by neighboring peoples. By this definition, they do not necessarily correspond to nations.
- Manunggul jar
- a secondary burial jar found in Manunggul Cave in Quezon, Palawan, the lid of which contains a representation of a dead person being brought to the afterlife through a boat.
- culture complex
- a combination of various culture traits.
- Negrito
- the pygmies of Southeast Asia, more particularly found in the Philippines, Andaman Islands, Malay peninsula, and New Guinea.
- prehistory
- the time before written records.
- Baybayin
- the term used by early Filipinos to refer to their syllabic writing.
- dialect
- a variety of a language spoken in a particular area or by a particular social group.
- ethnicity
- focuses on the ways in which social and cultural processes intersect with one another in the identification of, and interaction between, ethnic groups.
- Mombaki
- Ifugao shaman.
- redefinition and token utilization
- according to Enriquez, this is the fourth phase of cultural domination that was implemented by colonizers in the Philippines.
- anitism
- a term coined by Isabelo de los Reyes to describe the belief of prehispanic Filipinos in ancestral spirits or anitos.
- Wave of Migration Theory
- a theory espoused by H. Otley Beyer stating that the peopling of the Philippines happened in a series of migrations, i.e. first came the Negritos, then the Indonesians, and lastly the Malays.
- ethnic identity
- the aspect of a person's self-conceptualization which results from identification with a broader group in opposition to others on the basis of perceived cultural differentiation and/or common descent.
- lexicostatistics
- a method used for dating languages by computing the frequencies of cognates across different languages.
- Malayo-Polynesian
- one of the two subfamilies of the Austronesian languages.
- subculture
- the shared customs of a subgroup within a society.
- disyllabic language
- a language whose lexicons consist of several syllables.
- cultural tradition
- one of the five component parts of a cultural system. These are human activities and behavior that are continually practiced by a given group across several generations.
- restricted pattern
- one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. In this pattern, certain types of behavior are only acceptable to a particular segment of society.
- actual pattern
- synonymous with real pattern.
- diffusionism
- a theory that emphasizes the role of diffusion in the study of the genesis and transmission of culture, to the neglect of other factors.
- Ilocano
- the third largest ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines, found mainly in Northern Luzon but have migrated to other parts of the country as well as to Hawaii and the Marianas.
- language
- arbitrary signs and symbols used for communication.
- ethnolinguistic group
- ethnic group distinguished mainly through the presence of a distinct language.
- culture region
- an area occupied by people who have something in common culturally; or a spatial unit that functions politically, socially, or economically as a distinct entity.
- Cagayan Man
- a Homo erectus; the oldest hominid in the Philippines that was believed to have lived in the Liwan Valley at the border of Cagayan and Kalinga; sometimes referred to as Luzon man. Although stone tools and associated Pleistocene mammals have been found, the actual fossil remains of the Cagayan man have not yet been located.
- diffusion
- the borrowing by one society of a cultural trait belonging to another society as a result of contact between the two societies.
- proto-austronesian
- ancestors of the Austronesians.
- ethnography
- a description of a culture's customary behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes.
- ethnocentrism
- the attitude that other societies' customs and ideas can be judged in the context of one's own culture.
- East Asian River Systems Theory
- a theory that espouses that the original homeland of proto-Asians is at the headwaters of the great rivers of East Asia, i.e. Irawaddy, Yangtze, Huang Ho, and Mekong.
- acculturation
- the process of extensive borrowing of aspects of culture in the context of superordinate-subordinate relations between societies; usually occurs as the result of external pressure.
- Nusantao hypothesis
- Wilhelm Solheim's hypothesis that the ancestors of Southeast Asians were boat-dwelling peoples found in the border of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
- anito
- a dead person's spirit that may cause sickness or death.
- Tiki
- a Polynesian god with both male and female characteristics.
- syllabary
- a system of writing wherein each syllable is represented by a particular character.
- denigration and marginalization
- according to Enriquez, this is the third phase of cultural domination that was implemented by colonizers in the Philippines.
- Ibanag
- indigenous people of northern Isabela and southern Cagayan; according to E. Arsenio Manuel, they had the most number of monosyllabic words among Philippine languages.
- Bulul
- Ifugao rice granary god.
- culture
- according to E.B. Tylor, that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
- culture trait
- a particular trait that is easily identifiable with a specific culture.
- typical pattern
- one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. There are many ways of meeting a specific situation but one type of behavior is more frequent than the rest.
- Philippineasian
- the term used by E. Arsenio Manuel to refer to prehispanic Filipinos.
- anthropology
- the study of differences and similarities, both biological and cultural, in human populations. It is concerned with typical biological and cultural characteristics of human populations in all periods and in all parts of the world.
- culture bearer
- any member of a particular culture area.
- cultural anthropology
- the study of cultural variations and universals.
- historical linguistics
- the study of how languages change over time.
- environment
- one of the five component parts of a cultural system consisting of the physical setting from which a particular culture emerged or is related to.
- cultural relativism
- the attitude that a society's customs and ideas should be viewed within the context of that society's problems and opportunities.
- Ifugao
- one of the major ethnolinguistic groups in the Cordillera region; the indigenous people of the Province of Ifugao.
- paleolithic
- period of early Stone Age, when flint, stone, and bone tools were developed and hunting and gathering were the means of acquiring food.
- neolithic
- originally meaning "the new stone age", now meaning the presence of domesticated plants and animals.
- indigenization
- the process of modification to fit the local culture.
- globalization
- the accelerating interdependence of nations in a world system linked economically and through mass media and modern transportation systems.
- archaeology
- one of the main branches of anthropology that is concerned with the study of cultures in the past.
- animism
- a term used by E.B. Tylor to describe a belief in a dual existence for all things, i.e. a physical, visible body and a psychic, invisible soul.
- glottochronology
- a method of dating languages by calculating the time it takes for a certain phoneme to change to another phoneme.
- Chopper-chopping tool tradition
- south and east Asian tool complex based on the use of pebbles.
- patterns of culture
- socially defined limits within which individual variation takes place.
- Badjao
- sea-faring peoples found in the Sulu archipelago in the Philippines, Sabah in Malaysia, and Sulawesi in Indonesia.
- alternative pattern
- one of the categories of the patterns of culture occurring when culture allows various types of behavior in meeting a particular situation and there is no difference in terms of value or frequency of the manifested behavior.
- transforming and mainstreaming
- according to Enriquez, this is the fifth phase of cultural domination that was implemented by colonizers in the Philippines
- denial and withdrawal
- according to Enriquez, this is the first phase of cultural domination that was implemented by colonizers in the Philippines.
- hudhud
- an Ifugao epic.
- ethnic group
- any group of people who set themselves apart and/or are set apart by others with whom they interact or coexist on the basis of perceptions of cultural differentiation and/or common descent.
- pleistocene
- epoch of Homo's appearance and evolution; began two million years ago; divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper.
- Metal Age
- the age when metallurgy was invented and metal tools were utilized. In the Philippines, there is no developed sequence on the type of metal implements used by humans.
- Tagbanwa
- an ethnolinguistic group found in Palawan that still uses a syllabic form of writing.
- Compulsory pattern
- one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. In this pattern, culture allows only one type of behavior in a given situation.
- Commercialization and commodification
- according to Virgilio Enriquez, this is the last phase of cultural domination that was implemented by colonizers in the Philippines.