Chapter 1: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology

Question 1

Cultural Anthropology

Answer 1

the study of similarities and differences among living societies and cultural groups

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

• a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared
• together they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways
• includes tangible and intangible qualities
• born with the capacity to learn any culture
• symbolic

Question 3

Enculturation

Answer 3

the process of learning the characteristics and expectations of a culture or group

Question 4

Beliefs

Answer 4

the mental aspects of culture including values, norms, philosophies, worldview, knowledge

Question 5

Practices

Answer 5

• behaviours and actions that may be motivated by belief or performed without reflection as part of everyday routines
• cultural practices can then impact our biology, growth, and development

Question 6

6 Characteristics of Culture

Answer 6

1. Humans are born with the capacity to learn the culture of any social group. We learn culture both directly and indirectly
2. Culture changes in response to both internal and external factors
3. Humans are not bound by culture; they have the capacity to conform to it or not, and sometimes change it
4. Culture is symbolic; individuals create and share the meanings of symbols within their group or society
5. The degree to which humans rely on culture distinguishes us from other animals and shaped our evolution
6. Human culture and biology are interrelated: our biology, growth, and development are impacted by culture

Question 7

Zhang Qian

Answer 7

• military officer from China who spent 25 years traveling and recording his observations of the peoples and cultures of Central Asia in the second century BCE
• used this info to establish new relationships and cultural connections with China’s neighbours to the West
• brought Buddhism to China

Question 8

Ibn Battuta

Answer 8

• Moroccan Muslim scholar during the fourteenth century who traveled for 30 years covering almost the whole of the Islamic world
• documented the customs and traditions of the people he encountered in his book Al Rihla (first examples of early pre-anthropological writing)

Question 9

Ethnocentrism

Answer 9

• the tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures
• used to justify the subjugation of non-European societies on the alleged basis that these groups were socially and biologically inferior
• supported colonial projects
• a common human experience

Question 10

The Age of the Enlightenment

Answer 10

a social and philosophical movement that privileged science, rationality, and experience, while critiquing religious authority

Question 11

Sir Charles Lyell

Answer 11

• argued that the earth’s surface must have changed gradually over long periods of time
• created the Young Earth theory which claimed the earth was 6,000 from Biblical info

Question 12

Charles Darwin

Answer 12

naturalist and biologist that argues that all life is descended from a common ancestor

Question 13

Participant-observation

Answer 13

• anthropologist observes while participating in the same activities in which her informants are engaged
• created by Bronislaw Malinowsk while stranded on the Trobriand Islands

Question 14

Bronislaw Malinowsk’s theory of human cultural diversity

Answer 14

each culture functions to satisfy the specific biological and psychological needs of its people

Question 15

Cultural Relativism

Answer 15

• the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their own culture and not our own from Franz Boas
• cultures differ but they are not better or worse than one another
• Boas argued that culture and biology are distinct: human behaviors are socially learned, contextual, and flexible, not innate

Question 16

5 Sub-Fields Of Anthropology

Answer 16

1. Biological anthropology
2. Archaeology
3. Linguistics anthropology
4. Socio-cultural anthropology
5. Applied anthropology

Question 17

Biological Anthropology

Answer 17

• examine the biological and behavioural similarities and differences between nonhuman primates and human primates
• paleoanthropology
• primatology
• contemporary human variation

Question 18

Paleoanthropology

Answer 18

• the study of human evolution through the fossil and archaeological records
• evolutionary timelines

Question 19

Primatology

Answer 19

• the study of the behaviour, biology, evolution, and taxonomy of nonhuman primates
• includes comparative anatomy, subsistence and locomotion, and reproductive behaviour

Question 20

Human Variation

Answer 20

• the range of possible values for any characteristic, physical or mental, of human beings
• anthropometry: continuous (height) and discrete (blood type) traits
• distributions of traits (clines vs. races)

Question 21

Hominin

Answer 21

humans (Homo sapiens) and their close relatives and immediate ancestors

Question 22

Paleoanthropologist

Answer 22

biological anthropologists who study ancient human relatives

Question 23

Archaeology

Answer 23

• the study of the material past: the tools, food, pottery, art, shelters, seeds, and other objects left behind by people
• prehistoric: pre-writing
• historical: beginning of writing
• ethnohistory: oral history of artifacts (often distorted, false documents)
• experimental: reenacting past events

Question 24

Linguistics Anthropology

Answer 24

• the study of the nature of human languages in the context of those cultures that developed them
• language is a requirement for socialization
• descriptive linguistics
• sociolinguistics
• ethnolinguistics

Question 25

Descriptive Linguistics

Answer 25

• phonetics
• different levels of language

Question 26

Sociolinguistics

Answer 26

• language as a marker of social status
• relates to gender
• involves discourse

Question 27

Ethnolinguistics

Answer 27

• different cultures have different terms for body parts, animals, and plants
• language and culture
• language and thought

Question 28

Sociocultural Anthropology

Answer 28

• ethnography
• ethnology

Question 29

Ethnography

Answer 29

• data from fieldwork and monographs
• no formula

Question 30

Ethnology

Answer 30

• classification, analysis, comparison of data, kinship (descent, marriage, family organization, etc.)
• theory: explaining the data (father and mother authority
  figures, ex. Trobriand Islands fieldwork)

Question 31

Applied Anthropology

Answer 31

• involves the application of anthropological theories, methods, and findings to solve practical problems
• medical anthropology
• forensic anthropology
• cultural resource management
• development
• consulting

Question 32

7 Anthropological Perspectives

Answer 32

1. Holism
2. Fieldwork
3. Comparison
4. Cultural relativism/ethnocentrism
5. Scientific (nomothetic) anthropology
6. Interpretive (idiographic) anthropology
7. Basic vs. applied research

Question 33

Holism

Answer 33

how different aspects of humanity interact with and influence one another

ex. studying marriage through gender norms, marriage laws, and religious rules

Question 34

Fieldwork

Answer 34

• research in the field with the species, civilization, or groups of people they are studying
• ethnography
• inductive

Question 35

Ethnography

Answer 35

the in-depth study of the everyday practices and lives of a people

Question 36

Inductive

Answer 36

• uses specific info to draw general conclusions
• based on day-to-day observations
• involve asking specific questions about the group or about the human condition more broadly

Question 37

Comparison

Answer 37

between people in societies, and between humans and other primates

Question 38

Cultural Relativism

Answer 38

• the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own
• opposite of ethnocentrism

Question 39

Deductive

Answer 39

• scientific approach that uses hypothesis testing, they collect and analyze material data (ex. bones, tools, seeds, etc.) to answer questions about human origins and evolution
• reasoning from the general to the specific; the inverse of inductive reasoning

ex. biological anthropology and archaeology