Anth Exam III Flashcards
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- Hockett's theory of language evolution
- 2 steps: 1) blending (prelanguage); 2) duality of patterning
- blending
- when human ancestors began to produce new calls by combining 2 old ones
- prelanguage
- language of human ancestors through blending
- duality of patterning
- human ancestors acquired ability to produce arrangements of blended sounds
- when did language emerge?
- 150,000 yrs ago w/ appearance of modern human beings
- 3 ways human language different from animal communication
- conventionality, productivity, displacement
- conventionality
- association btwn meaningful sequence of sounds and an object, action, or idea
- productivity
- idea that humans can combine words and sounds into new meaningful utterances they have never before heard
- displacement
- ability of language to convey info about something not in immediate environment
- critical period of language
- up till 6-7 years in children
- universal grammar
- basic set of principles, conditions, and rules that form foundations of all languages; led by Noam Chomsky
- descriptive/structural linguistics
- study of structure and content of specific languages; language can be separated from social context
- 4 subsystems of language
- phonology (system of sounds); morphology (system for creating words form sounds); syntax (system of rules for combining words into meaningful sentences); semantics (system that relates words to meaning)
- phones
- any sound used as part of a human language
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
- records different sounds in language
- phoneme
- smallest sound uit that distinguishes meaning w/in a given language
- allophones
- 2 phones indicating same phoneme
- morpheme
- smallest unit of a language that has a meaning
- bound morpheme
- unit of meaning that must be associated w/another
- free morpheme
- can stand alone as a word
- word
- smallest part of sentence that can be said alone and still retain its meaning
- isolating language
- language with relatively few morphemes per word, fairly simple rules for combining them; ex: English, Chinese
- agglutinating language
- allows great number of morphemes per word and has highly regular rules for combinng them; ex: Turkish
- synthetic language
- words w/many morphemes and complex, highly irregular rules for combination; ex: Mohawk, Inuktitut
- lexicon
- total stock of words in a language
- Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
- hypothesis that perceptions and understandings of time, space, and matter are conditioned by structure of a language
- sociolinguistics
- focuses on speech performance
- dialects
- grammatical constructions that deviate from those used by socially dominant group in society
- pidgins
- a language of contact and trade composed of features of original languages of 2 or more societies
- creole
- first language that is composed of elements of 2 or more different languages.
- African American/Black Vernacular English (AAVE/BVE); Ebonics
- form of English spoken by blacks, especially in rural or urban working-class backgrounds
- code switching
- ability of speakers of multiple languages to move seamlessly between them
- fields of nonverbal communication
- artifacts, haptics, chronemics, proxemics, kinesics
- haptics
- study/analysis of touch
- chronemics
- study of different ways cultures understand time and use it to communicate
- proxemics
- study of cultural use of interpersonal space
- kinesics
- study of body position, movement, facial expressions, and gaze
- historical linguistics
- concerned w/discovering histories of languages
- comparative lingustics
- science of documenting relationshiops between languages and grouping them into language factories
- core vocabulary
- list of 100 or 200 terms that designate things, actions, and activities, likely to be named in all the world's languages
- glottochronology
- statistical technique that linguists have developed to estimate date of separation of related languages
- sex
- biological difference between male and female
- gender
- cultural construction that makes biological and physical differences into socially meaningful categories that seem reasonable and appropriate
- androcentric
- male-centered
- cultural construction of gender
- idea that gender characteristics are result of historical, economic, and political forces acting w/in each culture
- xanith
- alternative gender role of Oman on the Saudi Arabian peninsula
- two-spirit role
- alternative gender role in native North America
- mahu
- alternative gender role in Tahiti
- hijra
- alternative gender role in India conceptualized as neither man nor woman
- manhood puzzle
- question of why in almost all cultures masculinity is viewed not as a natural state but as a problematic status to be won through overcoming obstacles
- machismo
- cultural construction of hypermasculinity as essential to male gender rol
- gender role
- cultural expectations of men and women in a particular society, including division of labor
- gender hierarchy
- ways in whch gendered activities and attributes are differentially valued and related to the distribution of resources, prestige, and power in a society; not universal
- private/public dichotomy
- gender system in which women's status is lowered by their almost exclusive cultural identification with home and children, while men are identified with public, prestigious economic and politcal roles
- religion
- social process that helps to order society and provide its members with meaningful unity, peace of mind, and the degree of control over events they believe is possible
- cosmology
- system of beliefs that deals w/fundamental questions in religious and social order
- sacred narratives
- stories held to be holy and true by members of religious tradition; tell of historical events, heroes, spritis, and origin of all things
- anthropomorphic
- having human shape
- zoomorphic
- having animal shape
- naturalism
- endowing features of natural world, such as rivers and mountains, with spirit, soul, or other supernatural characteristics
- anthropopsychic
- having though processes and emotions similar to humans
- god
- named spirit who is believed to have created or to control some aspect of world
- polytheism
- belief in many gods
- monotheism
- belief in one god
- trickster
- supernatural entity that doe snot act in bet interest of humans
- mana
- religious powr or energy that is concentrated in idnividuals or objects
- ritual
- patterned act that involves manipulation of religious symbols
- rite of passage
- ritual that marks a person's transition from one status to another
- separation
- first stage of a rit of passage in which individuals are removed from their community or status
- liminal
- stage of ritual, particularly rite of passage, in which individuals are removed from community or status
- reincorporation
- 3rd phase of rite of passage during which participants are returned to community w/new status
- communitas
- state of perceived solidarity, equality, unity among poeple sharing a religious ritual, often characterized by intense emotion
- antistructure
- socially sanctioned use of behvior that radically violates social norms; found in religious ritual
- rite of intensification
- ritual structured to reinforce values and norms of a community and to strengthen group identity
- totem
- animal, plant, or other aspect of natl. world held to be ancestral or to have other intimate relationship with members of a group
- totemism
- religious practices centered around totems
- prayer
- any communication between people and spirits or gods in which people praise, plead, or request w/o assurance of results
- sacrifice
- offering made to increase efficacy of prayer or the religious purity of indiv.
- magic
- religious ritual believed to prouce mechanical effect by supernatural means; believers think it must have desired effect if done correctly
- imitative magic
- belief that imitating an action in a religious ritual will cause the action to happen in material world (ex: voodoo)
- contagious magic
- belief thta things once in contact w/person or object retain invisible connection w/that person or object
- divination
- religious ritual performed to find hidden objects or information
- scapulomancy
- divination using shoulder blade of animal
- shaman
- indiv. socially recognized as having ability to medite btw world of humanity and world of gods or spirits, but who i snot recognized official of any religious organization
- vision quest
- practice common among many Native America groups in which individuals seek to achieve direct contact w/supernatural
- pharmacopoeia
- collection of preparations used as medications
- priest
- formally elected/appointed to full-time religious office
- witchcraft
- ability to harm others by harboring malevolent thoughts about them; practice of sorcery
- sorcery
- conscious and intentional use of magic
- Wiccan/neopagan
- member of new religion that claims descent from pre-Christian nature worship; modern-day witchcraft
- nativism
- religious movement that aims to resotr ea golden age believed to have existed in past
- vitalism
- religious movement that looks toward creation of utopian future that does not resemble a golden past
- revitalization movement
- movement that proposes society can be improved through adoption of set of new religious beliefs
- messianic
- focusin on coming of individual who will usher in a utopian world
- millenarian
- one who believes that a coming catastrophe will signal the beginning of a new age and the eventual establishment of paradise
- syncretism
- merging of elements of 2 or more religious traditions to produce a new religion
- oricha
- Yoruba deity identified w/a Catholic saint in Vodou and Santeria
- Ghost Dance
- Native American religious movement of late 19th century
- Native American Church
- religious revitalization movement among Native Americans, also known as Peyote religion