Anthropology Midterm Flashcards
anthropology
the study of human beings, and especially the study of human variation around the world
language
the most human and variable of all cultural traits.
what are the four disciplines of anthropology?
archaeology, biological, cultural, linguistic.
archaeology
The study of the lifeways of past cultures through excavation and
analysis of material remains
biological anthropology
The study of how humans evolved as a species, our
biological traits and proclivities, and human physical variation around the world.
cultural anthropology
the study of the beliefs and practices of living cultures and peoples.
Linguistic Anthropology
The study of human communication systems around the world.
The basis of the course
the study of language variation, why those variations exist, how those variations are used, and what those variations mean
when they are used in different contexts.
when did the discipline of anthropology begin?
19th century
Why do when people think of anthropology, they often think of the study of small-scale and indigenous cultures
Anthropologists studied subjects not yet
claimed by other disciplines. This left the non-literate indigenous peoples of
the world who were, at the time, considered “primitive” or “savage.”
the inclusion of linguistic anthropology is…
uniquely American
Where did linguistic anthropology have its beginnings in the US?
America!
salvage anthropology
the documentation of indigenous life before it became extinct
what happened when anthropology emerged in the early 1900s?
anthropologists in this country took on the task
of attempting to “salvage” the disappearing cultures of Native Americans
how would anthropologists go about salvage anthropology?
merely collecting and cataloguing the remnants of those cultures as the US began to usurp more and
more of indigenous land.
Who first carried out salvage anthropology missions?
non-anthropologists and
instead amateur ethnologists under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1846, and then later by the Bureau of American Ethnology founded in 1879.
John Wesley Powell
The first director of the BAE for 23 years who was an explorer and adventurer.
who is the person most identified with salvage anthropology?
Franz Boas
Franz Boas
the founder of
anthropology as a discipline in the United States. He founded the first department of anthropology at a
university in this country – Columbia University – in 1897
what was Boas trained in?
a physicist.
what was Boas’ dissertation written on?
the optical properties of
water, focusing on the color of sea water among the Inuit
what did boas learn about language and connection?
Boas investigated the different words used for the color of sea water by the Inuit and found that the Inuit have a number of different words, thereby showing that they are able to perceive slight
variations in color that other Americans could not.
why was the discovery about the different names for water important?
Forthe Inuit, since their livelihood was based on fishing, they had become so attuned to the slight
gradations in sea water because it enabled them to detect schools of fish and other things under the
water.
cultural emphasis!
what provides us with deep insight into culture?
Language.
