Ch. 1

Question 1

Define: Sociocultural Anthropology

Answer 1

a comparative approach to the study of societies and cultures that focuses on the differences and similarities in the ways that societies are structured and cultural meanings are created

Question 2

Define: Biological Anthropology

Answer 2

a sub discipline of anthropology that focuses upon the study of the evolution, function, and health of the human body and our closest primate ancestors across time and space

Question 3

Define: Archeology

Answer 3

the branch of anthropology that studies human history and its artifacts. Archaeologists typically look at the material remains of human groups in order to learn how people lived

Question 4

Define: Linguistic Anthropology

Answer 4

a study of the relationship between language and culture. Linguistic anthropologists explore how people use language, both in a physical sense with regard to how communication is structured, and in a historical sense with regard to how different languages have developed and spread throughout history

Question 5

Define: Culture

Answer 5

the system of meanings about the nature of experience that are shared by a people and passed on from one generation to another, including the meanings that people give to other things, events, activities and people

Question 6

Define: Ethnocentric Fallacy

Answer 6

the mistaken notion that the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures can be judged from the perspective of one’s own culture

Question 7

Define: Ethnocentrism

Answer 7

the tendency to judge the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures from the perspective of one’s own culture

Question 8

Define: Cultural Relativism

Answer 8

the effort to understand the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures in terms of the culture in which they are found

Question 9

Define: Relativistic Fallacy

Answer 9

the idea that it is impossible to make moral judgements about the beliefs and behaviours of members of other cultures

Question 10

Define: Critical Cultural Relativism

Answer 10

an alternative perspective on cultural relativism that poses questions about cultural beliefs and practices in terms of who accepts them and why , who they might be disproportionately harming or benefiting, and the cultural power dynamics that enable them

Question 11

Define: Cultural Text

Answer 11

a way of thinking about culture as a text of significant symbols, such as words, gestures, drawings, and natural objects, all of which carry meaning