This site is 100% ad supported. Please add an exception to adblock for this site.

Anthropology Unit 3

Terms

undefined, object
copy deck
Dating that gives a specific age, year, or range of years for an object or site.
Absolute dating
Here, the fact that the features of human languages bear no direct relation to their meanings but are agreed-on symbols
Arbitrary
a puff of air released from the mouth after saying a consonant
Aspiration
A radiometric dating technique using the decay rate of a radioactive form of carbon found in organic remains
Carbon dating
A geographic continuum in the variation of a trait. A gradual change in the variation over a geographic area.
Cline
Communication systems of all nonhumans, where there may be communication through meaningful signs, but all meanings are specific. Thus, there is a finite amount of things that may be communicated
Closed communication system
Words that are similar in two or more languages as a result of common descent
Cognates
Concentric circles created in rock from the shockwaves caused by flint knapping. They may be studied to determine where the blow struck and in what direction.
Conchoidal shells
What starts or stops the flow of sound created by a vowel
Consonant
The result of pidgin languages passed down to the next generation; a formal language with larger vocabulary, more complex grammar, and more consistency than its original pidgin language.
Creole
The study of the structure of language in general and of the specific variations among languages
Descriptive linguistics
The movement of cultural ideas and artifacts among societies. Cultural borrowing
Diffusion
The ability to communicate about things and ideas not immediate in space or time
Displacement
Here, the two levels of human language: units of sound and units of meaning that those units of sound are combined to create
Duality
Natural or human-made casts of the inside of a skull; the cast reflects the surface of the brain and allows us to study the brains of even extinct species.
Endocasts
Restricting marriage to members of the same culturally defined group
Endogamy
Interpreting archaeological data through the observation of analogous activities in existing societies.
Ethnographic analogy
The study of the meanings of words, especially as they relate to folk taxonomy
Ethnosemantics
A method employed by archaeologists commonly known as “digging.” It takes into account both time and space, i.e., how far down something was uncovered in relation to other artifacts
Excavation
The process of understanding ancient skills and technologies by reproducing them.
Experimental archaeology
Like our consonants
Explosive consonant
The process of making stone tools
Flint knapping
A subfield of anthropology applied to legal matters. Usually involved in the identification of skeletal remains and the assessment of time and cause of death.
Forensic anthropology
The innate capacity of humans to speak grammatically correctly
Generative grammar
The time needed for one-half of a given amount of a radioactive substance to decay
Half-life
The archaeology of a society that has written records
Historical archaeology
Consonant that makes use of “clicks,” like in Ashanti
Implosive consonant
Human communication by means of shared symbols
Language
A set of secular rules governing the behavior of individuals and institutions within a society
Legal systems
A scholar of language, although he or she does not need to speak it
Linguist
Ritual acts through which people attempt to control the supernatural
Magic
A Polynesian word referring to a force possessed by a person, a place, or a nonliving thing.
Mana
The pigment largely responsible for human skin color
Melanin
Specialized skin cells that produce the pigment melanin
Melanocytes
Originally applied to King David of the Jews, meaning one who had great holiness and power
Messiah
A unit of meaning in a language; it may or may not be a word
Morpheme
A language that displays duality and productivity, making the system almost infinitely creative
Open communication system
A unit of sound in a language; Probably 250 phenomes around the world, although only about 25-30 are used in each language
Phenome
Languages developed when groups of two cultures come into intimate contact with one another and the two groups need to communicate
Pidgin
Variations in phenotypic traits that are the results of genetic variation
Polymorphisms
A radiometric dating technique using the rate at which radioactive potassium, found in volcanic rock, decays into stable argon gas
Potassium/argon (K/Ar) Dating
A full-time, trained religious specialist who can interpret the supernatural and petition the supernatural on behalf of humans
Priest
If undisturbed, when excavated, the topmost layer is the most recent and the bottommost is oldest
Pristine stratigraph
Here, the ability of human languages to generate limitless numbers of meanings
Productivity
In biology, the same as subspecies. In culture, cultural categories to classify and account for human diversity
Races
Judging an individual solely on his or her racial affiliation
Racism
Referring to the decay rate of a radioactive substance
Radiometric
Ritual performed by chimpanzees observed by Jane Goodall that involves them throwing themselves down hills during violent thunderstorms. This ritual demonstrates a possible form of supernatural belief in chimps.
Rain display
Translating a complex set of phenomena into a single entity such as a number
Reification
Dating that indicates the age of one item in comparison to another.
Relative dating
A system of ideas and rules for behavior based on supernatural explanations
Religion
Populations of a species that are completely isolated from one another but have not yet become truly separate species.
Semispecies
A part-time, supernaturally chosen religious specialist who can manipulate the supernatural
Shaman
Rituals that attempt to control the supernatural for evil purposes
Sorcery
The study of layers
Stratigraphy
Physically distinguishable populations within a species; the concept is falling from use
Subspecies
Something, a force or power or being, that is outside the known laws of nature
Supernatural
Rules of word order in a language
Syntax
An exploratory, usually small excavation made to establish the presence or absence of an archaeological site.
Test Pits
phonemic; what changes the phonemic value of a word
Tonality
Process of transforming verbal utterances into meaning
Transformational grammar
Flow of sound
Vowel
Collective interpretation of, and response to, the natural and cultural environments in which a group of people lives; their assumptions about those environments and the values derived from these assumptions
Worldview
Author of 1969 article “How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?”; his article was very controversial as he attempted to explain why American black children on average scored 15 points lower than American white children on IQ tests. He cl
Arthur Jensen
Psychologists who first taught American Sign Language to a chimp, Washoe.
Beatrix and Allen Gardner
Anthropologist who described the development of cultures and society by their fulfillment of humans’ needs
Bronislaw Malinowski
Linguists who proposed model of how a closed communication may develop into an open one
Charles Hockett and Robert Ascher
Anthropologist who said religion is a “distinctive symbolic expression of human life that interprets man himself and his universe, providing motives for human action.” He sees role of religion “as explanatory, and in many ways psychologically reass
Edward Norbeck
Members of the Holiness Church, found mainly in Appalachia and the Southeast. They feel if they believe strongly enough, the Holy Ghost enters their bodies, making them immune to dangers such as ingesting poisons or snakebites.
Holy Ghost People
Archaeologists who studied gravestones in New England
James Deetz and Edwin Dethlefsen
Anthropologist who claims no correlation between complexity of language and complexity of society.
Jared Diamond
A preserved man found in an Alpine glacier from about 5300 years ago
Ice Man
Old World archaeologist who studied Maiden Castle, practically reconstructing every detail.
Mortimer Wheeler
An archaeologist who has examined many sites in East Africa and manufactured similar tools
Nick Toth
A famous linguistic anthropologist who studied the power of the rules on language and developed specific theories of the development of language in children
Noam Chomsky
Archaeologist and founder of the garbology movement; his project originated in Tucson, Arizona and revolved around the fact that much could be revealed about a person and his or her culture through his or her garbage
William Rathje
A deeply stratified location at which Prof. Bellis worked
Koster, IL
A Celtic hill fort in southern England that was attacked by Roman emperor Vaspasian. Studied and recreated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler
Maiden Castle

Deck Info

78

permalink