all Flashcards
Cultural Anthropology:
Focuses on the study of cultural variations among humans and collects data through fieldwork and participant observation.
Archaeology
: Studies past human societies, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data they have left behind.
Biological/Physical Anthropology
Concentrates on the biological development of humans and human ancestors, as well as the study of human genetics, primates, and fossil records.
Linguistic Anthropology
language reflects and influences social life, including language development, usage, and cultural norm
What does it mean to be enculturated
Learning culture through social groups (e.g., ethnic groups, family); involves understanding norms, values, and what’s considered right or wrong.
Ethnocentrism
Viewing other cultures from one’s own cultural perspective. This approach is discouraged.
Culture is expressed and transmitted symbolically.
Symbols
Cultural Relativism:
Understanding a culture within its own context, which is challenging but preferred.
Human Rights and Society:
rights and wrongs within a society, influenced by cultural norms.
Power Structures in Culture
can be ideological, shaped by power structures.
Stratification
Division into superordinate (dominant) and subordinate (lower) groups.
Hegemony:
Government-sanctioned practices; non-compliance leads to legal consequences.
Often associated with dictatorships controlling society.
Human Agency
Present in all individuals, particularly in subordinate groups within hegemonic states.
Example: Individuals in hegemonic states using tactics like shame and gossip against leaders to resist and challenge the system.
Origin and Evolution
Developed over time, adapting new methods and theories.
Herbert Spencer
Unilineal Cultural Evolution
All societies pass through stages, from primitive state to complex civilization. Cultural differences are the result of different evolutionary stages.
Franz Boaz
Historical Particularism
individual societies’ unique traits.
Edward Sapir:
Contributions in linguistics.
Functionalism
Bronislaw Malinowski, key figure in British anthropology, developed participant observation.
Cultural Materialism
Focus on religious aspects
E.E. Evans-Pritchard:
Work in 1950s-1970s.
Cognitive Anthropology
Understanding cultural models through logical models.
Structuralism
Claude Levi Strauss
Analysis of cultures through binary oppositions.
Interpretive Anthropologist
Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner
Interpretive Anthropology
Culture as a shared system of meaning.
Post-Structuralism
Building upon structuralism, open to various interpretive methods.
Conducting Fieldwork:
Anthropologists become personally involved with the people, focusing on individuals rather than entire cultures.
Participant Observation:
Involves integrating into the culture and interviewing people, particularly “the other” in a society different from one’s own.
Contemporary Anthropology
Emphasizes reflexivity, understanding how an anthropologist’s presence affects the study.
Engaged Anthropology
Involvement in the community.
Consent and Anonymity
Essential in interviews; use anonymous names when reporting.
Strategies for Fieldwork and Ethnographies:
Methods for collecting and analyzing field data.
Linguistics
one of the four fields of anthropology-
humans use language to communicate
language can be synbolic
FOXP2 Gene
Unique to humans, crucial for language and speech.
Aspects of Linguistics: Descriptive, Historical, Sociolinguistics
Descriptive: Structure of language.
Historical: Language origins.
Sociolinguistics: Language use in society.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Language shapes cultural reality.
Noam Chomsky
Universal aspects of language and thought.
shakespeare and the bush concluded that
Thinking process are particular to culture
Subsistence
how we eat
Foraging:
Gathering resources.
Horticulture:
Semi-permanent plant cultivation.
Agriculture:
Permanent plant cultivation.
Pastoralism:
Involving animal husbandry.
gender roles in subsistence strategies
hunter gatherer society in where men hunt and women gather
Subsistence in non industrial societies
community effort done for the good of the community
Social Obligation
Roles often age-related; everyone has a role in the community.
Kinship-based societies
share resources and responsibilities.
Market principle
In chiefdoms and nascent states, resources are centralized and redistributed.
Reciprocity and peasant labor reflect rising inequality.
Redistribution
storage facility and then the chief redistributed the food
back to the people
Reciprocity
exchange system amongst people - no money in society
Peasant labor
unequal; rise of inequality
egalitarian to unequal system
people worked the land for landlord
Bands:
Small, nomadic groups like the Inuit; subsist on hunting and foraging.
Subsistence and industrial society - karl marx
Capitalist mode of production where workers alienated from production, leading to unequal benefits.
Tribes:
Larger than bands, settled in villages.
Chiefdoms:
Much larger, with military and defense systems; chiefship is hereditary.
State Society:
Industrialized and complex.
In bands and tribes, leaders like headmen or bigmen
achieve status rather than inherit it.
- no laws to back them up
- if people didn’t approve of big man they would move on
headman(small village) or bigman (bigger villae)
Cheifdoms
permanent with redistribution centers
Chiefdoms have hereditary chiefs and systems like Potlatch for reciprocity.
State societies
social stratification and Max Weber’s three dynamics (wealth, power, prestige).
Social control
Laws and punishments are essential for social control in state societies, with the possibility of hegemonic resistance.
Human Sexuality
preferences of an individual towards others, including heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual orientations.
Societal and Governmental Influence in sexuality
Despite being a private matter, governments and societies historically impose laws and norms on sexuality.
Colonialism and Immigration in sexuality
influence of history, immigration and race and power relations
Immigration in sexuality
Policies influenced cultural views on sexuality, including who one can marry.
Sexual assualt
Issues like sexual abuse on college campuses.
Globalization
Affects the migration of sex workers across countries.
Gender
identity, distinct from biological sex.
cisgender, nonbinary, and transgender.
Masculinity and Femininity:
Performative aspects of gender ideologies.
Gender Stratification and Stereotypes:
Concepts like ‘machismo’ in hypermasculinity.
Gender Violence:
Issues faced by LGBTQ individuals.
Societal Influence on Gender:
Example of sports in America where children are enculturated into gender roles from a young age.
Transgender Athletes:
Challenges faced by trans women in sports competitions.
Monogamy
one man/one woman
Kinship
Focuses on power dynamics within familial and marital structures.
Polygamous
one man many women
Descent Groups:
Includes clans and lineages, which can be matrilineal, patrilineal, or ambilineal.
Marriage
Not-Blood relation
AFFINAL relationships - either arranged or companionate
Polyandry
one woman many man
family of orientation
an individual is born and raised, encompassing parents and siblings
family of procreation
family that an individual forms through marriage and having children
Incest Taboo:
Restrictions against relationships with close kin.
Exogamy and Endogamy:
Marriage outside or within a particular group.
Dowry and Bride Wealth:
Cultural practices involving the exchange of assets in marriage.
dowry: bride family pays to wedding
bridewealth - bride goes to live w the husbands family so the husbands family pays to the brides family as a substiution of labor
Fictive kinship
Non-blood relationships
chosen family
marriage, eating together and adoption - there could be a blood relation
however not a traditional nuclear family
Popular Art:
Art of the people, including street art.
Fine Arts vs. Popular Arts:
Anthropology focuses more on popular art.
Primitive Art:
Origins and influence, e.g., African, Australian Aboriginal; Picasso’s inspiration.
Dance and Music
Contrast between formal (fine) and street forms; e.g., concert halls vs. street performances.
West African Art:
Economic aspects, pricing, and income for artists.
middle man prices the art; money they make are for economic income
Political art
Art as a form of expression, e.g., Haitian bands, Rara.
Community Through Art:
choreographed dance.
Ethnomusicology:
Study of music’s cultural significance, instrument choices.
Media Arts:
Involvement in social media, photography, film; focus on native content creation.
disease
Differentiating between the pathogen
illness
personal experience of being unwell
sickness
societal recognition of the condition
Biomedicine
discipline of medical schools behind the science
ethonomedicine
medicine of
the people/ ethopharamacology
Global health systems
Contrast between technocratic approaches like C-sections (sterile environment) and natural remedies or childbirth methods.(home/hospital with family)
Structural Violence
Inequality systems preventing access to proper healthcare, exemplified by situations like those faced by Haitian workers.
Medical Anthropology
Analyzing social inequalities that affect access to healthcare
Social Structures in Healthcare
how societal structures influence healthcare availability and quality.
Race Classification in American Society:
Rule of hypodescent (one-drop rule).
Concept of Race:
Recognized culturally but not scientifically valid.
Race Classification in Latin American Society:
Based on skin color.
Blood Quantum:
Requirement of a certain percentage of indigenous DNA for native identity.
Assimilation
Process of an ethnic group integrating into mainstream culture.
Multiculturalism
Embracing diverse cultures, counter to segregation.
Racial Identity:
Identifying as Black, White, Asian, Hispanic American, etc.
Identity and Race:
How individuals are categorized into racial groups.
Social Component in Anthropology
social aspects of belief systems, rather than abstract beliefs.
Emile Durkheim:
Studied rituals, distinguishing between sacred and profane.
Victor Turner:
Interpretive anthropology, concepts of liminality and communitas in rites of passage.
Karl Marx:
Explored religion’s role in social stratification, especially among lower classes.
Max Weber:
Argued that capitalism leads to secularization and separation of church and state.
Culture as a Shared System of Meaning:
The collective understanding of cultural elements.
E.E. Evans-Pritchard
Analyzed the logic of rituals and magic in cultural contexts.
Marvin Harris
Religion in the context of cultural materialism, like the veneration of cows.
Clifford Geertz
Focused on religion and symbolic meaning through cultural symbols.
Symbolic Meaning
Importance of objects like the cross, Torah, and communion in religious contexts.
Ethnopharmacology
how different cultures use plants, animals, and minerals in medicinal practices.
Unilineal Cultural Evolution ANPs
Edward Burnet Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, Herbert Spencer
Unilineal Cultural Evolution
All societies pass through stages, from primitive state to complex civilization. Cultural differences are the result of different evolutionary stages.
Historical Particularism ANPs
Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict
Historical Particularism
Individual societies develop particular cultural traits and undergo unique processes of change. Cultural traits diffuse from one culture to another.
Functionalism
Cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions fulfill psychological and social needs.
Cognitive Anthropology
Culture operates through mental models and logical systems.
Cultural Materialism
The material world, especially economic and ecological conditions, shapes people’s customs and beliefs.
Structuralism
People make sense of their worlds through binary oppositions like hot-cold, culture-nature, male-female, and raw-cooked. These binaries are expressed in social institutions and cultural practices like kinship, myth, and language.
Interpretive Anthropology
Culture is a shared system of meaning. People make sense of their worlds through the use of symbols and symbolic activities such as myths and rituals.
Post-Structuralism/ Post- Moderism
rejects the idea that there are underlying structures that explain culture. Embraces the idea that cultural processes are dynamic and that the observer of cultural processes can never see culture completely objectively.
Post-Structuralism/ Post- Moderism Anthropologists
Renato Rosaldo, George Marcus
Interpretive Anthropology Anthropologists
Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, Mary Douglas
Structuralism Anthropologists
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Cultural Materialism Antroplogist
Marvin Harris
Functionalism Anthropologist
Bronislaw Malinowski
Cognitive Anthropology Anthropologist
E.E. Evans Pritchard
anthropology
the study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present, and the application of that knowledge to help people of different backgrounds better understand one another
ethnocentrism
the belief that one’s own culture or way of life is normal and natural; using one’s own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others
four-field approach
f four interrelated disciplines to study humanity:
physical anthropology, archaeological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.
holism
the anthropological commitment to consider the full scope
sociolinguists
those who study language in its social and cultural contexts
globalization
the worldwide intensification of interactions and increased
movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and
across national borders.
Franz Boas introduced and practiced the concepts of____, which is the rapid gathering of all available material, and ______, or seeing the merits of each culture from that culture’s perspective.
salvage ethnography; cultural relativism
Salvage Anthropology
Preserving old cultures and languages that are presumed to be rapidly vanishing in our fast-evolving society
Salvaging a certain area’s culture and heritage before westernization can displace it
Settler Colonialism
characterized by the settlement of a foreign people on Indigenous land.
culture:
A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, and shared by a group of people.
enculturation:
The process of learn- ing culture.
Cultures include complex systems of symbols and symbolic actions in realms such
as language, art, religion, politics, and economics— that convey meaning to other participants.
quantitative data:
Statistical information about a community that can be measured and compared.
human agency
Individuals and groups have the power to contest cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power
qualitative data:
Descriptive data drawn from nonstatistical sources, including participant observation, personal stories, interviews, and life histories.
rapport:
The relationships of trust and familiarity developed with members of the community being studied.
key informant:
A community member who advises the anthropologist on community issues, provides feedback, and warns against cultural miscues. Also called cultural consultant.
interview:
A research strategy
of gathering data through for- mal or informal conversation with informants.
life history:
A form of interview that traces the biography of a per- son over time, examining changes and illuminating the interlock-
ing network of relationships in the community.
survey:
An information-gathering tool for quantitative data analysis.
kinship analysis:
A traditional strat- egy of examining genealogies to uncover the relationships built upon structures such as marriage and family ties.
social network analysis:
A method for examining relationships in a community, often conducted by identifying who people turn to in times of need.
field notes:
The anthropologist’s written observations and reflections on places, practices, events, and interviews.
mapping:
The analysis of the physi- cal and / or geographic space where fieldwork is being conducted.
zeros:
Elements of a story or a picture that are not told or seen and yet offer key insights into issues that might be too sensitive to discuss or display publicly.
mutual transformation:
The potential for both the anthropologist and the members of the community being studied to be transformed by the interactions of fieldwork.
emic:
An approach to gathering data that investigates how local people think and how they understand the world.
etic:
Description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropolo- gist’s perspective in ways that can be compared across cultures.
reflexivity:
A critical self-examination of the role the anthropologist plays and an awareness that one’s iden- tity affects one’s fieldwork and theo- retical analyses.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:
The idea that different languages create different ways of thinking.
lexicon:
All the words for names, ideas, and events that make up a language’s dictionary.
focal vocabulary
words and terminology that develop with particular sophistication to describe the unique cultural realities experienced by a group of people.
descriptive linguists:
Those who analyze languages and their component parts.
historic linguists:
Those who study how language changes over time within a culture and how languages travel across cultures.
sociolinguists:
Those who study language in its social and cultural contexts.
Bohannan’s insights as related in “Shakespeare in the Bush” reveal
power of our environment to shape our language and the power of our language to shape the way we see the world.
Adaptation
A series of beneficial adjustments of organisms to their
environment
Chomsky’s view
all humans share a similar language ability and ways of thinking.
Evolution
Changes in the genetic makeup of a population over generations
Natural Selection
The principle or mechanism by which individuals having
biological characteristic best suited to a particular environment survive and reproduce with greater frequency than
individuals without those characteristics
Hominoid
The broad-shouldered tailless groups of primates that includes all living and extinct apes and humans
Multiregional Hypothesis
modern humans originated through a process of simultaneous local transition from
Homo sapiens throughout the inhabitated world
Archaic Admixture Model
modern
homo sapiens derive from limited interbreeding between
anatomically modern humans, as evolved in Africa, and
members of archaic human populations. Based on genetic
evidence of introgression, it is a synthesis of the recent African origins hypothesis and the multiregional hypothesis
How Do Humans Adapt
medium of culture as they develop ways of doing things compatible withthe resources they have available to them and within the limitations of the environment in which they live
How Does Human Adaption Differ From That of Other Animals
ecological adaption, involving the provision of food and shelter and the maintenance of health as the basis of all human life
social adaption, which concerns sociability between individuals and groups, the maintenance of order, and reproduction, both biological and social
psychological adaption, which relates to how humans through language and symbolic action create and maintain meaning and coherence in their lives
Balanced reciprocity
exchanges between people who are more distantly related
Five main adaptive strategies
- foraging
- horticulture
- agriculture
- pastoralism
- indutrialims
Negative reciprocity
exchanges with people on fringes or outside of social system; full of ambiguity and sitrust
Generalized reciprocity
someone gives and expects nothing immediate in return
Reciprocity
exchange between social equals; normally related by kinship, marriage, or another close personal tie
cultural construction of gender:
The ways humans learn to behave as
a man or woman and to recognize behaviors as masculine or feminine within their cultural context.
situational negotiation of identity:
An individual’s self-identification with a particular group that can shift according to social location.
ethnomusicology:
The study of music in cultural context.
kinetic orality:
A musical genre com- bining body movement and voice.
The trade in west African art
art is being created to catch eye of tourists who think that’s what original African art
western consumption patterns dictate the production and marketing
Anthropological Insights in Medical Practice by paul farmer:
.
reveal the importance of considering cultural beliefs and social conditions in treatment.
