anthropology 101 definitions
Professor Chapman's ANTH 101 final review (definitions of key concepts)
Terms
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- structural inequality
- when unequal treatment is systematic, and perpetuated by dominant groups, social systems, and institutions; built into the system
- health
- presence of wellness (on any level)
- industrialization
- the process of social and economic change, usually marked by technological advancements or more efficient methods, helps to produce more capital
- sexuality
- interplay between body image, gender, identity, gender role, etc.
- life expectancy
- average age in which a person in a particular group or area is expected to live
- ethnicity
- cultural category, membership in a group identified by culture, religion, language, and national origin
- internal colonization
- the imposition of a new cultural system leaves those who are colonized with a lack of identity and limited sense of their past
- cultural construction
- the interplay between cultural expectancy (beliefs) and social structures; how things are represented
- pluralistic society
- one in which multiple cultures ideally coexist side by side
- compliance
- act of cooperating; obeying
- stigmatization
- abominations of the body, defects of personality, social identity (race, ethnicity, religion, caste)
- traditional
- holding on to own culture while rejecting dominant
- reflexology
- a therapeutic technique based on the premise that areas exist in the hands or feet that correspond to the organs and systems of the body and that stimulation of these areas by pressure can affect the corresponding organ or system
- urbanization
- the process in which people increasingly move from rural areas to densely populated cities
- social production
- product of social/power relationships, influenced by relationships through time; dynamic, shifting, subject to change
- social class
- place in social hierarchy based on distance from the means of production; owner/CEO vs. manager vs. worker = what you own = assets
- westernization
- the ideas and practices of Western European (North American) culture eventually displaces many of the ideas and practices of the indigenous cultures of the colonies
- hegemony
- dominance of one social group over another, such that the ruling group always involves some degree of consent from the subordinate (as opposed to dominance purely by force)
- structural violence
- the process by which the outcome of institutional inequality has the result of creating increased suffering, excess disease, and death
- biological reproduction
- preconception, conception, pregnancy, childbirth
- imperialism
- the forceful extension of a nation's authority by territorial conquest establishing economic and political domination of other nations that are not its colonies
- structure
- social organizations, power, relationships, roles, and identities
- geo-social position
- people's place (geographically/social hierarchy), place in space; position
- personalistic
- various theories of subjective idealism regarding personality as the key to the interpretation of reality
- etiology
- the cause of a disease
- family
- people related by blood or marriage ties
- colonialism
- a set of beliefs used to legitimize or promote colonization. Based on the ethnocentric belief that morales and values of the colonizers were superior to others
- oppression
- to "press down" in a political sense, therefore, the process by which people are prevented from exercising legitimate rights or are denied freedom, dignity, or justice
- neo-colonialism
- persisting colonial relationships in the absence of formal political occupation by presence of economical and cultural domination
- alienation
- complete acculturation, loss of original culture or ability to switch
- noncompliance
- the failure to obey
- household
- people who share living space and social support
- empty vessel fallacy
- ignoring preexisting cultural knowledge and behavior while attempting to conduct interventions
- sex
- biologically based differences between men and women
- superstructure
- area of symbols, cognitive models, and ideology (the X factor - culture)
- acculturation
- when different cultures interact - selectively taking on elements of each other (give/take)
- structural barriers
- factors in the social, political, and economic organization of a society that limit life chances and social mobility through discrimination
- apartheid
- a social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against non-whites; a form of structural inequality
- cultural imperialism
- colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and market of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious, and linguistic structures on the conquered population
- participant-observation
- A research method commonly used by sociologists, anthropologists, and journalistic feature writers. The investigator becomes or poses as a member of a group under study in an attempt to gain an intimate, firsthand acquaintance with the group and understand how group members interpret the world
- institutional racism
- systematic and covert forms of racism that are perpetuated
- life chances
- opportunities for acquiring favorable life experiences - the good life, liberty, and happiness
- social structure
- organized patterns of relationships between individuals and groups within a society, orders their behavior in a predictable fashion and influences their interaction
- ethnocentrism
- pan-human tendency to think one's culture is superior, and to judge other cultures based on our own
- Eugenics
- the belief that information about heredity can be used to improve the human race by lowering the fertility of "genetically inferior populations"; the objective scientific belief that society needs to be protected from inferior people
- modernization
- A process in which the standard of living (along with the economy) is drastically heightened due to industrialization, urbanization, trade, and other social changes.
- enculturation
- lifelong process of socialization in one's culture
- sickness
- unwanted condition or change (or even threat of change)
- bias
- all people have a position on which they see the world
- social reproduction
- all work of bringing each new generation of workers into the world (cooking, firewood, water, farming, homework, ritual) - things moms do
- colonization
- the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced
- naturalistic
- method of inquiry or investigation or any procedure for gaining knowledge that limits itself to natural, physical, and material approaches and explanations
- emic
- cultural insider perspective
- social economic status
- informal ranking based on income, occupation, education, etc.
- double day
- the costs of having to do two kinds of work
- gender
- a set of cultural beliefs of what is expected (roles, practices, opportunities, restrictions) based on sex
- racism
- the belief that human groups have inherent characteristics which determine their repsective cultures, usually involving the idea that one's own is inherently superior and has the right to rule or dominate others
- bicultural
- functioning in two or more cultures
- production
- the creation of value or wealth by producing goods and services
- counterculture
- alternative lifestyle for those who cannot or will not conform
- infrastructure
- material and economic culture (make from living off the land)
- marginal
- having little to do with either sub/dominant culture
- subculture
- a group withing a large group that lives with the general norm while preserving unique roots and lifestyles
- typology
- division of culture by races
- cultural relativism
- culture understood in terms of the values and ideas of that culture (don't compare with others)
- ethnophysiology
- the ways in which the culture of a group influences conceptualizations of the body
- etic
- cultural outsider perspective
- prejudice
- interpersonal hostility that is directed against individuals based on their membership in a minority group