Anthro Glossary Flashcards
social anthropology
In its literal sense, this term tends to refer to the branch of anthropology which emphasizes society over culture (cf. cultural anthropology). ‘Social anthropology’ is historically the preferred term in British anthropology and is now widely used throughout Europe, whereas ‘cultural anthropology’ tends to be the favoured term in North America. There the term ‘social anthropology’ can have the connotation of a specifically British type of anthropological theory (e.g. some forms of functionalism and structuralism). The differences between the two traditions were probably at their greatest from the 1940s to the 1960s, since when their interests have increasingly merged, as demonstrated by some anthropologists’ use of hybrids like ‘sociocultural anthropology’ to describe their interests.
social fact
Durkheim’s term for the fundamental subject matter of sociology, as expressed in his famous positivist aphorism that ‘social facts must be studied as things’, in other words as ‘realities external to the individual’. See functionalism.
state of exception
In Agamben’s theory of sovereignty, this is the space outside the political community, to which the sovereign power consigns those it would reduce to the condition of bare life. The post-9/11 employment of Guantanamo Bay as a detention centre outside the reach of US law by the Bush administration suggests that some members of that administration were surprisingly familiar with recent Italian political philosophy.
structural-functionalism
The theoretical perspective associated with A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (though he rejected the term) and his followers. It involved the emphasis on synchronic analysis of societies as isolated wholes. Each society was conceived as a set of systems related to each other analogously to the systems of a biological organism (cf. organic analogy). The approach dominated British anthropology from the 1940s to the 1960s. See functionalism.
subaltern
Translation of Gramsci’s term for ‘subordinate’ (as in ‘subaltern classes’), subaltern has taken on a slightly different meaning, mostly from the work of the radical South Asian historians associated with the series Subaltern Studies. In their usage, subaltern refers to the position of any dominated group, whether this be on grounds of class, gender, age, ethnicity or religion.
acculturation
The process of acquiring culture traits as a result of contact. The term was common, especially in American anthropology, until fairly recently.
actor network theory (ANT)
Highly influential theory with roots in science and technology studies, associated with the work of the sociologists Michel Callon, Bruno Latour and John Law. Analysts working in the broad area of ANT look at the networks linking both human and non-human actors, networks which can and do cross the conventional boundaries separating, say, science from politics, or nature from culture.
agency, agent
An agent is a person who is the subject of action. Agency, then suggests intention or consciousness of action, sometimes with the implication of possible choices between different actions. The concept of agency has been employed by anthropologists and social theorists, especially those influenced by Max Weber, in contrast to structure, which implies constraint on action.
alterity
Literally ‘otherness’. Variously used in recent anthropology to describe and comment on the construction and experience of cultural difference.
animism
The belief in spirits which inhabit or are identified with parts of the natural world, such as rocks, trees, rivers and mountains. In the nineteenth century, writers such as Sir Edward Tylor argued that animism represented an early form of religion, one which preceded theistic religions in the evolution of ‘primitive thought’. The term is sometimes used loosely to cover religious beliefs of indigenous population groups, e.g. in Africa and North America, prior to the introduction of Christianity, and is still widely used to describe the religious practice of so-called tribal or indigenous groups in areas like Southeast Asia.
anomie
É. Durkheim’s term for a condition of normlessness, often confused with Marxist uses of the word ‘alienation’.
archetype
C.G. Jung’s term for symbols which are common to all humanity. The notion has found little support among anthropologists.
bare life
Concept invoked by Agamben in his ideas about sovereignty and the state of exception. Bare life is the condition of those placed outside the political community by the decision of the sovereign power.
base and superstructure
In Marxist theory, the base (or infrastructure) is the material basis of society (technology, resources, economic relations) which is held ultimately to determine the superstructure, or ideological levels of society (law, religion, etc.).
behaviourism, behaviourist
The school of psychology which emphasizes learned behaviour over innate cognitive propensities.
biopolitics, biopower
Terms used by writers working in the shadow of Michel Foucault to denote the workings of modern forms of power that work directly on the body through modern disciplines and technologies (epitomized by certain sorts of biomedical intervention).
bricolage, bricoleur
A bricoleur is a kind of French handyman who improvises technical solutions to all manner of minor repairs. In The Savage Mind (1962) Lévi-Strauss used this image to illustrate the way in which societies combine and recombine different symbols and cultural elements in order to come up with recurring structures. Subsequently bricolage has become a familiar term to describe various processes of structured improvisation.
collective consciousness
Durkheim’s term (conscience collective) for the common consciousness shared by individuals belonging to the same society or social group. The French conscience may be translated as either ‘conscience’ or ‘consciousness’; thus the conscience collective is at once both cognitive and moral.
cultural anthropology
One of the four fields (with linguistics, archaeology and physical anthropology) which combine to make up North American anthropology. Broadly comparable to European social anthropology, although the use of ‘cultural’ indicates significant historical differences in their intellectual genealogies. In the 1950s and 1960s the differences between social and cultural anthropology were the stuff of fraught controversy within anglophone anthropology; since the 1970s these differences have become less and less important (as the title of this Encyclopedia makes clear). See culture.
cultural determinism
Any perspective which treats culture itself as determining the differences between peoples, e.g. in personality type. It is associated especially with relativism of various kinds.
culturalism, culturalist
Any anthropological approach which gives first priority to explaining a culture in its own terms; employed as a term of mild abuse by British anthropologists of the 1950s. See culture.
culture of poverty
A term first used by Oscar Lewis to suggest that poverty is not simply a lack of material resources, but entails in addition a set of associated cultural values which drastically limit the capacity of the poor to change their own circumstances. The concept has come in for much criticism, particularly through its application to problems of race and poverty in the United States.
cybernetics
A field which stresses the relation between elements in a system of interrelated actions. It is used in engineering, computer technology, psychology and education, but its significance in anthropology comes largely through the work of Gregory Bateson, who helped develop the field in the 1940s.
cyborg
A hybrid, part human and part machine. The idea has been explored by feminist anthropologists (most notably Donna Haraway) and those working in the new field of the anthropology of science.
deconstruction
Jacques Derrida’s term for a strategy of critical analysis which serves to expose underlying metaphysical assumptions in a particular text, in particular assumptions which would appear to contradict the surface argument of the text itself. The term has become synonymous with postmodern theory of various sorts and is often applied much more loosely to refer to the taking apart, or unpacking, of a particular term or concept.
deep and surface structure
In linguistics, where the distinction was introduced by Chomsky, the deep structure of a particular language contains the rules for generating the surface structure, i.e. the structure of what is actually said. At its most abstract, deep structure is common to all human languages.
diachronic
Literally, ‘through time’. Diachronic perspectives include evolutionist and diffusionist ones, in which time depth is the significant factor. The opposite is synchronic.
dialectical materialism
Another term, like historical materialism, for the theoretical approach of Marx and his followers in which Hegel’s dialectical style is married to a materialist concern with the production of human needs.
différance
In postmodern terminology, différance is Derrida’s punning term (combining the French for ‘differ’ and ‘defer’) for the endless slippage of meaning from sign to sign, such that any appeal to some real, foundational meaning is always ‘deferred’.
dialogic, dialogical
Terms employed by the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin to indicate that language and meaning are never fixed in themselves, but only work in situations of dialogue, where meanings and understandings are contingent on other meanings and understandings. In this context, dialogue refers to a broader idea of language in use than simply conversation between two people.
diglossia
The presence of two ways of speaking, often one ‘high’ and the other ‘low’, in the same language. Each is appropriate to a different set of social conditions.
disposition
In the works of Bourdieu, a propensity for some specific action. The culturally determined set of dispositions available to any particular actor is called the habitus.
economic man
In economic theory, a hypothetical individual (Homo oeconomicus) who always acts in an economically rational way, i.e. to secure the most benefit in any given economic context. Since Malinowski’s assault on the idea of ‘primitive economic man’, the concept has been much criticized by economic anthropologists.
empiricism
In philosophy, the doctrine that knowledge depends on experience, in contrast to rationalism which posits that knowledge is structured by mind. More broadly in anthropology and the other human sciences, empiricism is used (often pejoratively) to characterize any approach which places the collection of empirical evidence before the construction of theoretical schemes.
eschatology
The branch of theology which deals with the ‘last things’, death and the end of the world.
ethno-
A prefix which usually (but not always) treats the substantive concept in light of indigenous explanations.
ethnographic present
A hypothetical time frame, characterized by the use of the present tense, employed in ethnographic writing. Normally it coincides with the time of fieldwork, which is not necessarily the time of writing, or indeed of reading.
ethnology
Broadly, a synonym for social or cultural anthropology. In early nineteenth-century Britain, the term often implied a monogenic theory of humankind, whereas ‘anthropology’ implied a polygenic theory. Often in Continental usage, ‘ethnology’ means social anthropology and ‘anthropology’ means physical anthropology. In yet another usage, Radcliffe-Brown distinguished ethnology (the study of culture history and relationships) from social anthropology (the study of society).
feedback
In systems theory, a mechanism which results from some action within a cybernetic system, usually when an effect returns to the point in the system from which it originally emanated. The term is commonly used in ecological anthropology to describe the results of environmental or socially induced change.
fetish, fetishism, fetishization
A fetish is an object which is believed to have spiritual power, such as a magical charm. The concept was used especially in late nineteeth-century anthropology to describe ritual objects used in supposedly ‘primitive’ societies. (For the history of the concept see main entry on religion.) Fetishization is the act of treating something as if it were a fetish. The term is often used to describe a process by which a culture or a social group irrationally overrates something (that which it fetishizes). In this sense, the object does not have to be material but may be, for example, a theoretical idea in anthropology. In this sense, the term becomes an accusation which is levelled against theoretical opponents. In a famous passage in Capital, Marx used the image of the fetish to illustrate the way in which people misapprehend the true nature of commodities by treating them as persons, thus attributing power and agency to things, while treating people (who really do have agency) as things, mere repositories of labour power for sale in the market.
Fourth World
A term employed to characterize either (1) the extremely impoverished members of Third World societies, or (2) highly marginalized minority groups such as hunter-gatherers or indigenous peoples, who are dominated by other groups or by state bureaucracies.
generative
Having rules which determine either an outcome or a more visible form in the social structure. The term, borrowed from linguistics, has been commonly used by structuralist anthropologists, as when deep structures generate surface structures.
Gestalt theory
In psychology, the approach which argues that phenomena should be studied as wholes, through their configuration or internal relations, rather than merely in part. This idea influenced the culture and personality school in American anthropology.
globalization
The tendency towards increasing global interconnections in culture, economy and social life. Belatedly noticed by sociologists and social theorists in the 1980s. See complex society, world system.
habitus
A term taken by Bourdieu from the work of Mauss, to denote the total set of dispositions which shape and constrain social practices. Habitus is Bourdieu’s central notion, and he uses it to acknowledge the appearance of structures in the social world, while allowing the reality of individual strategy.
hegemony
Domination or power of one person or group over another. The term was used by Gramsci to describe the cultural processes through which the ruling classes maintain their power, and has been widely employed in ethnographic studies of domination and resistance. Cf. counter-hegemony.
