Ch 2

Question 0

symbol

Answer 0

Something that stands for something else. Central to language and culture.

Question 1

enculturation

Answer 1

The process of learning to be a member of a particular cultural group.

Question 2

anthropological theory

Answer 2

Is set of propositions about which aspects of culture are critical, how they should be studied, and what the goal of studying them should be.

Question 3

State the six characteristics shared by all cultures.

Answer 3

1) Enculturation
2) Symbolism
3) Change in one aspect of culture affect other aspects, with cultural elements not always harmonising
4) Culture is shared
5) Have adaptive (survival) and maladaptive information encoded
6) Constantly in flux

Question 4

culture and personality

Answer 4

The theoretical position in anthropology that held that cultures could best be understood by examining the patterns of child rearing and considering their effect on adult lives and social institutions.

Question 5

ethnoscience

Answer 5

A theoretical position in anthropology that focuses on recording and examining the ways in which members of a culture use language to classify and organise their cognitive world.

Question 6

cognitive anthropology

Answer 6

A theoretical position in anthropology that focuses on the relationship between the mind and society.

Question 7

ethnobotany

Answer 7

A focus within anthropology that examines the relationship between humans and plants in different cultures.

Question 8

ethnomedicine

Answer 8

A focus within anthropology that examines the ways in which people in different cultures understand health and sickness as well as the ways they attempt to cure diseases.

Question 9

symbolic anthropology

Answer 9

A theoretical position in anthropology that focuses on understanding cultures by discovering and analysing the symbols that are most important to their members.

Question 10

interpretive anthropology

Answer 10

Theoretical position in anthropology that focuses on using humanistic methods, such as those found in the analysis of literature, to analyse culture and discover the meaning of culture to its participants.

Question 11

organic anthropology

Answer 11

The comparison of societies to living organisms.

Question 12

functionalism

Answer 12

A theoretical position in anthropology, common in the first half of the 20th century, that focuses on finding general laws that identify different elements of society, show how they relate to each other, and demonstrate their role in maintaining social order.

Question 13

ecological functionalism

Answer 13

A theoretical position in anthropology that focuses on the relationship between environment and society.

Question 14

norms

Answer 14

Shared ideas about the way things ought to be done; rules of behaviours that reflect and enforce culture.

Question 15

values

Answer 15

Shared ideas about what is true, right, and beautiful.

Question 16

subculture

Answer 16

A group within a society that shares norms and values significantly different from those of the dominant culture.

Question 17

dominant culture

Answer 17

The culture with the greatest wealth and power in a society that consists of many subcultures.

Question 18

historical particularism

Answer 18

A theoretical position in anthropology associated with American anthropologists of the early 20th century that focuses on providing objective descriptions of cultures within their historical and environmental context.

Question 19

postmodernism

Answer 19

A theoretical position in the anthropology that focuses on issues of power and voice. Postmodernists suggest that anthropological accounts are partial truths reflecting the backgrounds, training, and social positions of their authors.

Question 20

adaptation

Answer 20

A change in the biological structure or lifeways of an individual or population by which becomes better fitted to survive and reproduce in its environment.

Question 21

plasticity

Answer 21

The ability of human individuals or cultural groups to change their behaviour with relative ease.

Question 22

cultural ecology

Answer 22

(1930s) A theoretical position in the apology that focuses on the adaptive of dimension of culture.

Question 23

innovation

Answer 23

An object or way of thinking or behaviour that is new because it is qualitatively different from existing forms.

Question 24

diffusion

Answer 24

The spread of cultural elements from one culture to another.