Ch. 1: What Is Anthropology Flashcards
What is Culture?
An environmental force that shapes peoples’ personalities, bodies, and health by influencing what they do, eat, and think.
A primary reason Anthropology is so effective
The discipline is based on cross-cultural perspective which gives more data than just a single nation
What leads to Human Diversity?
Adaptability
What is Anthropology?
The study of humans around the world and through time
What is Holism?
To study the whole of the human condition: past, present, future; biology, society, language, and culture.
What is society?
Organized life in groups
What are cultures?
Traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed.
What is enculturation?
A process of learning traditions by growing up in a particular society.
What features of human biology are necessary to use culture?
Ability to learn, think symbolically, use language, and make and use tools
Most critical element of cultural traditions?
The transmission through learning rather than biological inheritance
What is adaptation?
The process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses
Forms of Adaptation:
Technological - Cultural Adaptation
Genetic - Biological
Long term Physiological(occurs during growth and development of organism)- Biological
Short term Physiological(occurs spontaneously when in new environment)- Biological
Examples of world events that create Globalization
Disasters, Space, and Sports
Example of how the rate of adaptation has been accelerating
Transition from foraging to The Food Production process which originated between 12000 and 10000 years ago
When we’re the first civilizations developed?
Between 6000 and 5000 B.P (before the present)
Biocultural
Using and combining both biological and cultural perspectives and approaches to analyze and understand a particular issue or problem
What influences participation and achievement in sports?
Cultural standards of attractiveness and propriety
General Anthropology
The academic discipline of Anthropology also known as “Four Field” anthropology
The four main sub fields of General Anthropology:
1.) Sociocultural Anthro.
2.) Anthro. Archaeology
3.) Biological Anthro.
4.) Linguistic Anthro.
What is Sociocultural Anthropology?
Cultural Anthro. That focuses on societies of the present and near past
What is Anthropological Archaeology?
The reconstruction of life ways of ancient and more recent societies through analysis of material remains
What is Biological Anthropology?
The study of human biological variation through time and across geographic space
What is Linguistic Anthropology?
Examining language through social and cultural context
Which field of anthropology has the largest membership?
Cultural Anthropology
The origin of North American Anthro. Can be traced back to when? And for what society?
The 19th Century.
To study the origins and diversity of Native Americans
Any conclusion about human nature must be pursued with what?
A comparative, cross-cultural approach
What do the Four Subfields share in common?
The goal of exploring variation in time and space to improve the understanding of human biology, society, and culture and their interrelations
What is Cultural Anthro.?
Comparative, cross-cultural study of human society and culture
What is Ethnography?
Fieldwork in a particular cultural setting that provides an account for that society
What is Ethnology?
The study of sociocultural differences and similarities by examining, interpreting, and analyzing the results of ethnography
Characteristics of Ethnography
Fieldwork
Descriptive
Group/community specific
Characteristics of Ethnology
Uses data collected
Usually synthetic
Comparative/cross cultural
Archaeological material remains include:
Artifacts
Garbage
Burials
Grains
Remains of structures
What is ecology?
The study of interrelations among living things in an environment
What is paleoecology?
Examining ecosystems of the past
Archaeologists reconstruct:
Ecological patterns
Behavior patterns
Lifestyles of past
Who launched a long term study of modern garbage disposal practices?
William Rathje
What value does garbage have from past?
Provides evidence of what people actually did
What are the five specialties of Biological Anthropology?
Human Biological Evolution
Human Genetics
Human Growth and development
Human Biological plasticity(adapt)
Primatology
What is Linguistic Anthropology?
The study of language and linguistic diversity in time, space, and society
What are sociolinguistics?
The study of language in society
What are the two dimensions of Anthropology?
Academic
Applied
What is Applied Anthro.(public archaeology)?
The use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems
Who are Cultural Resource Management(CRM)?
They decide what significant information needs to be saved at a site that cannot be saved
What is a Science?
A field of study that seeks reliable explanations, with reference to the material and physical world
What kind of science is Anthropology?
A humanistic science - devoted to discovering, describing, understanding, and appreciating humans and ancestors
The humanities include fields that study:
Languages
Texts
Philosophies
Forms of creative expression
Similarities between Anthro. and Sociology:
They study society, including human social behavior, social relations, and social organization
Differences between Anthro. and Sociology:
Sociologists typically have studied Western, industrial societies and employ surveys and other quantitative methods of sampling and statistical techniques
Anthropologists have focused on native and non westernized societies in which during ethnographic study, they take part in the events being observed, described, and analyzed
Psychological Anthropology studies:
Cross cultural variations in psychological traits and conditions
What are culturally specific syndromes?
Patterns of unusual, aberrant, or abnormal behavior confined to a single culture or group of related cultures
Scientific method:
Experiments, observation, and procedures form explanations that can predict future occurrences
What is a Theory?
A set of logically connected ideas formulated to explain many associations
What is an association?
An observed relationship between two or more measured variables(covariation)
What is a hypothesis?
A proposed explanation for something
What is a law?
A generalization that applies to and explains all instances of an association
What is generalization?
A statement that: change in one variable tends to follow or be associated with change in another variable
What is a dependent variable?
The thing to be explained
What is a predictor variable?
An outcome expected to result from the dependent variable
What are the steps of the Scientific Method?
1.) question
2.) hypothesize
3.) propose the purpose of the question
4.) gather data
5.) measure
6.) analyze
7.) draw conclusion
8.) derive implications
9.) contribute to theory
