anthro exam 1
Terms
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- anthropology
- comp study of human societies & cultures
- holistic/holism
- viewing culture as a whole
- cultural anthropology
- study of human behavior- learned, typical of groups of people
- society
- set of social rel. among people w/i geo. area, including status & roles
- culture
- learned behaviors & symbols allow people to live in groups
- historical ethnography
- descrp. of cultural past based on written records,interv., & archaeo.
- anthropological linguistics
- understanding lang. and its relation to culture
- archaeology
- subdis of anthro.-focuses on reconstruction of past cultres based on material remains
- prehistoric
- societies for which we have no usable written records
- artifact
- any object made/mod. by human beings- used to refer to objects made by past cultures
- urban archaeology
- archae. investig. of current-day cities
- cultural resource management
- protection & manag. of archaeo., archival, & archit. resources
- bio/physical anthropology
- study of humankind from a bio perspective
- paleoanthropology
- subdis. of anthro concerned w/ tracing evolution of humankind in fossil record
- human variation
- subdis. of anthro concerned w/ mapping & explaining phy. diff. among modern human groups
- primate
- member of bio order of mammals that includes human beings, apes, & monkeys, prosimians(lemurs, tairsirs, etc)
- applied anthropology
- solution of human problems
- forensic anthropology
- id of skeletalized or badly decomp. human remains
- ethnocentrism
- to avoid it (our culture is the right culture)
- racism
- some human pops are superior to others
- biopsychological equality
- all human groups have same bio & mental capabilities
- racialism
- bio fixed races w/ diff moral, intell, & phy charact.-that can be ranked on 1 hierarchy
- cultural relativism
- no universal standards- all cultures may be evaluated
- emic
- native's point of view
- etic
- observer's/outsiders point pf view
- indigenous peoples
- people who occupied region for long time but who have minority position & little, no influence in gov't of nationstate that controls theri land
- fieldwork
- source of data, living in culture for 1 yr +
- nomothetic
- charact. of what makes us human ww
- reflexive
- reflect back on ourselves
- discourse
- way of expressing thoughts on subj. verballyin formal, orderly ext.
- diachronic
- ext thgh time: analyzes subj over period of time
- synchronic
- happening at same time: analyze what is happening/existingat 1 point in time
- aims/goals of cultural anthropology?
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*learned
*use symbols & languages
*shared
*adaptive, maladaptive
*fluid, subj to change
*all cultures are competent
*comparative - major ? addressed by discipline
- what is it that makes us, as a species, human?
- charact. define disc. of anthropolgy?
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1. cultural
2. contextual
3. comparative
4. cross-cultural
5. culture as a construct/creation
6. cultural relativism
7. emic/etic
8. holistic
9. fieldwork
10. ethnography
11. participant-obs
12. informants - anthro diff. from other ss & human discp.?
-
*history is concerned w/ course of key events, dev situations, key figs involved
*sociology focuses on social struct & processes in modern, dev societies
*geography concerns itself w/ place, space & location
*religion concerns itself w/ belief systems based on dogma that est belief - Franz Boas?
-
*teacher of 1st generation of cultural anthro in US
*put discipline on firm empirical basis - symbol
- s/t that stands for s/t else:central to culture
- platicity
- ability of humans to change behavior in resp. to wide range of envior. demands
- cultural ecology
- cultural patterns as adaptive resp. to basic problems of human surv & reprod.
- cultural materialism
- primary task of anthro is to account for sim. & diff. among cultures
- neo-evolutionism
- historical change of culture from small-scale societies to ext. large-scale societies
- neo-Marxism
- applying insights of Marxist thought to anthro
- sociobiology
- explores relationship between human cultural behavior and genetics
- ethnoscience
- focuses on ways in which mem. of culture classify their world
- cognitive anthropology
- defines culture in terms of rules and meanings underlying human behavior
- ethnobotany
- describing ways in which diff. cultures classify plants
- ethnomedicine
- describing medical systems of diff. cultures
- structural anthropology
- holds that all cultures reflect sim. deep, underlying patterns and anthros should decipher these patterns
- interp/symb anthropology
- emphasizes culture as a system of meaning & proposes aim of cult. anthro to interp. meanings
- functionalism
- specific institutions funct to support struct of society or serve needs of individuals in society
- ecological functionalism
- holds the ways in whch cultural insti work can best be understood by examining their effects on the envior.
- norm
- ideal cultural pattern that influences behavior in society
- value
- what is true, right, and beautiful
- subculture
- system of percep, values, beliefs, customs that are sig diff from those of a larger, dom culture w/i the same society
- fem anthropology
- focuses on describing and explaining the social roles of women
- innovation
- new variation on existing cult. patterns that is accep by other mem of society
- diffusion
- spread of cultural elements from one culture to another thgh cultural contact
- transculturation
- transformation of adopted cultural traits, resulting in new cult forms