Anthropology Flashcards
Anthropology
Studies the whole of the human condition
The Four Subfields of Anthropology
Archaeology, Biological, Cultural, and Linguistic
Instincts
An inborn pattern of activity or tendency
Culture
Traditions and customs transmitted through learning that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them
Franz Boas
Thought it essential to learn the language, culture, biology, and the past of the cultures to understand who they are. Rejected racism, sexism, etc.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to apply one’s own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures.
Cultural Relativism
The viewpoint that behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture.
Society
A group of people who interact more with each other than with others.
Enculturation
The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted within generations, across generations, or across societies.
Universals
Found in every culture
Particularities
Unique to certain cultural traditions
Marriage
A relationship between one or more men and one or more women who are recognized by society as having a continuing claim to the right of sexual access to one another.
Polygyny
Marriage of a man to two or more women at the same time
Polyandry
Marriage of a woman to two or more men at the same time
Family
Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption
Household
Basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out.
Patrilocal Residence Pattern
Husband’s father’s relatives
Matrilocal Residence Pattern
Wife’s mother’s relatives
Ambilocal Residence Pattern
Can choose either relatives
Neolocal Residence Pattern
Move away from both relatives
Patrilineal Descent
Automatic membership in father’s group
Matrilineal Descent
Automatic membership in mother’s group
Bilateral Descent
Traced through both paternal and maternal lines.
Disability
A physical or mental condition that limit’s a person’s movements, senses, or activities.
Religion
Belief in or worship of supernatural beings, powers, and forces.
Magic
Refers to supernatural techniques intended to accomplish specific aims.
Rituals
Prescribed behaviors in which there is no empirical connection between the means and the desired end.
Rites of Passage
Rituals which mark and facilitate a person’s movement from one social state of being to another.
Three Phases of the Rite of Passage
Separation, Liminality, and Incorporation
Separation
Participant(s) withdraws from group and beings moving from one place to another
Liminality
Period between states, during which the participant(s) has left one place but has not yet entered the next.
Incorporation
Participant(s) reenters society with a new status having completed the rite.
Sex
Refers to biological differences
Sexual Orientation
One’s identity in relation to who they are sexually attracted to or who they have sex with
Gender
Refers to the cultural construction of masculine and feminine characteristic that may or may not correlate with the biological underpinnings of sex.
Race
Any of the groups into which humans can be divided according to their physical characteristics
Biological Species Concept
Defines a species as a group of interbreeding organisms that are reproductively isolated from other organisms.
Stereotype
A widely held hurtful, and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing that pigeonholes someone
Racism
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group.
Linguistic Anthropology
Qualitative, “micro,” interactional analysis taking many contextual facts into account.
Sociolinguistics
Quantitative, “macro,” studying variables in urban settings (such as gender, sex, dialect variation, sound change in progress).
Ethnolinguistics
A term mostly used in Europe.
The Socio-Cultural Context
The essence of language cannot be understood without reference to the particular social contexts in which it is used.
The Linguistic Approach
Language is reduced to a set of formal rules.
Ferdinand De Saussure
Maintained that it was not only possible but necessary to decontextualize the study of language
Noam Chomsky
Universal grammar for all languages exists. Humans are hardwired to learn language.
Phonology
The study of sound in language
Morphology
The study of the internal structure of words
Syntax
The study of the structure of sentences, including the construction of phrases, clauses, and the order of words.
Semantics
The study of meaning in language, including the analysis of the meanings of words and sentences.
Pragmatics
The study of language use, of actual utterances, of how meanings emerge in actual societal contexts.
Language
A system of arbitrary symbols used to encode and communicate their experience.
Gestures
Completely non-verbal communication. Highly particular to a culture. Not universal
Call Systems
Natural communication system used by other animals. Very limited and shallow. Are not as complex and language. Ex. Laughing, crying, etc.
Kinesics
Study of non-verbal communication, such as the proximity between two people when communicating (In the US, individuals usually have a wide berth).
Semiotics
The study of signs and their use.
Signifier
Physical form of a sign, such as the word woof
Signified
The concept of the signifier, such as the concept of the dog (relationship with the dog, cuteness or bond).
Icon
Looks like the thing of what it ism such as a picture of a fire to signify a fire.
Index
A physical connection between a signifier and the signified, such as a picture of smoke signifying fire because there cannot be smoke without a fire.
Symbol
A completely random picture to represent something, such as a triangle to signify caution. Can vary between different cultures.
Phonemes
Sounds, or smallest units, or a language. Is the base of all verbal communication and is the easiest part of language to learn.
Morphemes
Pattern of use, words. Basically compound phonemes. Can be prefixes, suffixes, etc.
Grammar
Rules of use in morphemes
Focal Words
Set of words and distinctions important to a certain group. Can be called lingo
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Different languages produce different ways of thinking.
Dialects
A variety of a language spoken by a group of people with distinct phonemes and-or syntax.
Gender Binary
The categorization of gender into two, distinct, opposite sexes.
Trans/Transgender
An umbrella term applied to those whose gender identity is not the same as the sex they were assigned at birth.
Cisgender
Someone who is not transgender
Genderqueer
A term applied to individuals who do not identify within the gender binary.
Transition
The process of changing one’s gender expression to match their gender identity.
Sex
Male, female, variations of intersex
Gender
Man, woman, third gender
Performance
Masculine, feminine, or non-binary characteristics
Rapport Talk
A way of establishing connection and negotiating relationships.
Report Talk
A way of delivering facts and establishing status in a hierarchical order.
Uptalk
Ending a statement on something that makes it sound like a question.
Vocal fry
Accessing the lower crackling part of your vocal cords.
Mutual Intelligibility
If a speaker of one language can understand another, and vice versa, it’s not a unique language.
Endangered Languages
One that is spoken by relatively few people, is not being learned by the next generation, and/or is likely to become extinct in the near future.
Creationism and Catastrophism
God created a perfect world, exactly as we see it, but what about imperfections found in nature? Catastrophic natural events changed the world dramatically and these natural processes can be explained through study.
Principle of Uniformitarianism
The same geological processes observed in present have been at work in the past (uniform processes). These processes are so slow that the formations on Earth must be very ancient.
Stratigraphy
Subsurface layers produce ordered groups of fossils. Those at the bottom are older and those on top are newer.
Artifacts
Portable objects that own their form to humans
Features
Non-portable human-made remains that cannot be removed without destroying their original form
Ecofacts
Portable objects that have cultural significance, but do not own their form to humans
Sites
A cluster of artifacts, features, and ecofacts. A place where humans used to occupy and something happened there.
Law of Superposition
The bottom of the cliff is older than the top of the cliff.
Relative Dating
Artifact X is older than Artifact Y. Artifact y is younger than Artifact Z.
Radiometric Dating Carbon-14
Unstable. Maintained in living beings. Decays on death. We can date organic remains.
BC
Before Christ. Goes after the year (500 BC)
AD
Anno Domini, or in the year of the Lord. Goes before the year (AD 2013)
BCE
Before the common era. Goes before the year
BP
Before present. Usually means before AD 1950, when radiocarbon dating was invented.
Animal Domestication
Artificial selection for traits. Smaller, less dangerous. More docile and social. Useful secondary products.
Progressivist View
Agriculture gave us free time to build the glories of civilization. Hunters and gatherers have a nasty, brutish life. It is an efficient way to get more food for less work. But with agriculture came widespread social and sexual inequality and disease and despotism.
Problems with agriculture
Hunter-gatherers have a varied diet. Farmers ran the risk of starvation if the crop failed. Crowding and high populations led to infectious
