Anthropology exam 1 - FLASHCARDS - Lecture 3
What is linguistic anthropology?
Study of human language. Uses comparative and historical methods.
What is Glottochronology?
looks at the history of language and how it has evolved over time
What are core words?
Can change slowly
What is vulgar latin?
What modern languages are derived from. Latin that roman soldiers brought with them during the conquest of Europe
What is cultural anthropology?
The comparative and holistic study of human cultures. Both historical and contemporary. Became popular in the 1800s. Began as an attempt to separate that which is universal from that which is particular about humans. (What is universal about human existence?)
What does comparative mean?
Two or more units of analysis are compared within or between specific cultures, across time, or across geographic space. For example, with sex before marriage, some cultures believe you shoild wait and some don’t
What does holistic mean?
All perspectives should be examined to explain human phenomena. Example is Beri Beri in Thailand
What is participant observation?
Anthropologists live with the people they study and participate in their culture. Traditionally been used to create ethnographies
Who was Napoleon Chagnon?
First person to study the Yanomamo people in the Amazon. Many people were getting measles and they were able to convince the Yanomamo to get vaccinated. Interested in family structure and wanted to learn their language
What is emic perspective?
The insider’s perspective. The way we view our own behavior.
What is etic perspective?
The outsider’s perspective. Scientific perspective. Example is elephantitis in India. Natives believed it was caused by divine punishment (like you had an infedelity and you are being punished with the disease). You are shunned by society.
What is culture?
Information which allows us to interpret, experience, and to generate appropriate behavior
What are he attributes of culture?
Culture is learned, shared, dynamic, an interrelated system, and is our primary means of adaption. Culture itself is not biological
What are the modes of transmission of culture?
vertical, horizontal, and oblique.
What is vertical transmission of culture?
Most exact form of communication. Core values passed from the independent to the dependent. Parents to children. Most active in certail realms of culture (belief systems or religion, kinship, and core values)
