Chapter 1 Vocab Flashcards
Anthropology
The study of humanity.
Holism
The study of human societies as systematic sums of their parts, as integrated wholes.
Physical Anthropology
The study of human biology and evolution
Archaeology
The study of prehistoric people from the analysis of their physical and cultural remains.
Linguistics
The study of language.
Cultural Anthropology
The study of contemporary human societies and their cultures.
Participant observation
A research method whereby the anthropologist lives in a community and participates in the lives of the people under study while at the same time making objective observations
Ethnography
The descriptive study of human societies
Ethnographic present
Speaking or writing about cultures in the present tense although what is described might no longer exist.
Culture area
A geographical area in which societies share many cultural traits.
Etic analysis
The study of a society using concepts that were developed outside of the culture.
Emic analysis
The study of a society through the eyes of the people being studied.
Ethnocentrism
Using one’s own culture as the basis for interpreting and judging other cultures.
Cultural relativism
Attempting to analyze and understanding cultures other than one’s own without judging them in terms of one’s own culture.
Postmodernism
An emphasis on subjectivity over objectivity and a tendency towards reflexivity, or self-consciousness; all knowledge is seen as being a human construction that scholars must seek to deconstruct.
Modernity
A philosophical movement based on ideas of rationality, objectivity, reason, and science as the means of gaining knowledge, truth, and progress.
Culture
Human beliefs and behaviors of a society that are learned, transmitted from one generation to the next, and shared by a group of people.
Symbol
A shared understanding about the meaning of certain words, attributes, or objects; something that stands for something else.
Operant definition
A definition in which we define our terms so that they are observable and measurable, and therefore can be studied.
Analytic definition
A definition that focuses on the way religion manifests itself or is expressed in a culture.
Animism
A belief in spirit beings.
Functional definition
A definition that is based on the role that religion plays in a society.
Essentialist definition (also known as substantial)
A definition that looks at the essential nature of religion.
Supernatural
Entities and actions that transcend the natural world of cause and effect.
Sacred
An attitude wherein the subject or object is set apart from the normal, everyday world and is entitled to reverence and respect.
Religion
The realm of culture that concerns the sacred supernatural.
Evolutionary approach
An approach that focuses on the questions of when and how religion began and how it developed through time.
Positivism
A philosophy that emphasizes empiricism, or observing and measuring, saying that the only real knowledge is scientific knowledge and any knowledge beyond that is impossible.
Animatism
The belief in an impersonal supernatural power.
Functional approach
An approach that is based on the function or role that religion plays in a society.
Collective conscious
A set of beliefs shared by members of a social group that function to limit the natural selfishness of individuals and promote social cooperation.
Psychosocial approach
An approach to the study of religion that is concerned with the relationship between culture and personality and between society and individual.
Cognition
The processes of the human brain, including perception, attention, learning, memory, concept formation, and problem solving.
Agnosticism
The idea that the nature of the supernatural is unknowable, that it is as impossible to prove the nonexistence of the supernatural as it is to prove its existence.
Empirical
evidence based
Objective
not being subjective or too systematic/specific (this is what we strive for).
Comparative
looking for patterns
Cross-Cultural
looking at relationships across cultures to see patterns
Cultural Relativism
the principle that an individual’s beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture.
4 fields relates to anthropology
- Physical - Stones & bones, Physical evidence
- Archaeology - Historic and preserved items
- Linguistics - Study of language
- Cultural (“Social”) - Study of contemporary social groups
