Anthropology Midterm Review Questions Flashcards
Raymond Williams argues that the confusion of meaning inherent in culture lies in the complex relationship between our ____ and ____.
material/symbolic worlds
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, culture was viewed by most Western intellectuals as synonymous with ____.
civilization
The theory that there is a single universal human culture that can be found to a greater or lesser extent among all the world’s peoples and that all societies follow the same stages of cultural development is referred to as ____.
unilineal evolution
The theoretical perspective that argues that the physical environment directly shapes culture is referred to as ____.
environmental determinism
According to sociologist Talcott Parsons, the norms and values that regulate social action are part of which major element of society?
the cultural system
Clifford Geertz viewed culture as “a shared code of meaning that is acted out publicly.” His method of interpreting the guiding symbols of culture is referred to as ____.
thick description
Clifford Geertz argued that the primary importance of public symbols (such as the cockfight) is that they serve as social events (rituals) where ____.
members of a society communicate their worldview (their values) to one another
Volti views technology as a system because ____.
it involves the energies and skills of many individuals; it requires an existing base of knowledge; it generally requires complementary technologies; it involves a combination of devices and organizational strutures
According to Neil Postman, the cultural classification in which society becomes only loosely controlled by social custom and religious tradition is referred to as a ____.
technocracy
According to Neil Postman, the cultural classification in which belief systems guide the invention of technologies and direct their use is referred to as ____.
tool-using
