Chapter 11 Terminology Flashcards
Achieved status
Rights, duties, and obligations that accrue (προκύπτουν) to a person by virtue of what they accomplished in their life.
Androcentric
A perspective that focuses on what men do in a society, to the exclusion of women.
Ascribed status
Rights, duties, and obligations that accrue to a person by virtue of their parentage; ascribed status is inherited.
Band
A residential group composed of a few nuclear families, but whose membership is neither permanent nor binding
Beraches
Among Plains Indian societies, men who elected to live life as women; they are recognized by their group as a third gender.
Bilateral descent
A kinship system in which relatives are traced equally on both mother’s and father’s side.
Bilocal residence
A cultural practice in which a newly married couple may live in either the village of the groom of the village of the bride.
Cargo system
Part of the social organization found in many Central American communities in which a wealthy individual is named to carry out and bear the cost of important religions ceremonies over the year.
Chiefdom
A regional polity in which two or more local groups are organized under a single chief (who is the head of a ranked social hierarchy). Unlike autonomous bands and villages, chiefdoms consist of several more or less permanently aligned communities or settlements.
Clans
A group of matri or patrilineages who see themselves as descent from a (sometimes mythical) common ancestor.
Codices
Maya texts, long strips of paper, many meters in length when unfolded, made of the pounded inner bark of certain trees; these texts helped analysis interpret Maya hieroglyphics on stelae.
Direct acquisition
A form of trade in which a person/group goes to the source area of an item to produce the raw material directly or to trade for it or finished products.
Down-the-line trade
An exchange system in which a person/group goes to the source area of an item from group to group, resulting in a steady decline in the item’s abundance in archaeological sites farther from the source.
Egalitarian societies
Social systems that contain roughly as many valued positions as there are persons capable of filling them; in egalitarian societies all people have nearly equal access to the critical resources needed to live.
Energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (XRF)
An analytical technique that uses obsidian’s trace elements to “fingerprint” an artifact and trace it to its geological source.
Exotics
Material culture that was not produced locally and/or whose raw material is not found locally.
Gender ideology
The culturally prescribed values assigned to the task and status of men and women; values can vary from society to society.
Gender role
The culturally prescribed behavior associated with men and women; roles can vary from society to society
Hopewell
A cultural tradition found primarily in Ohio River Valley and its tributaries, dating from 200 BC-AD 400. Hopewell societies engaged in hunting and gathering and in some horticulture of indigenous plants. The are known for their mortuary rituals, which included charnel houses and burial mounds; some central tombs contained exotics. They also constructed geometric earthworks as ceremonial enclosures and effigy.
Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA)
An analytical technique that determines the trace element composition of the clay used to make a pot to help identify the clay’s geological source.
Kinship
Socially recognized network of relationships through which individuals are related to one another by ties of descent (real or imagined) and marriage.
Matrilineal descent
Un unlinear descent system in which ancestry is traced through the female line.
Matrileneage
Individuals who share a line of matrilineal descent.
Matrilocal residence
A cultural practice in which a newly married couple live in the bride’s place of origin; it is often associated with matrilineal descent.
Mississippian
A widespread cultural tradition across much of the eastern United States from AD 800-1500. Mississippian societies engaged in intensive village-based maize horticulture and constructed large, earthen platform mounds that served as substructures for temples, residences, and council buildings.
Moieties
Two groups of clans that perform reciprocal ceremonial obligations for one another; moieties often intermarry.
Patrialineage
Individuals who share a line of patrilineal descent
Patrilineal descent
A unilineal descent system in which ancestry is traced through the male line.
Patrilocal residence
A cultural practice in which newly married couple live in the groom’s place of origin; it is often associated with patrilineal descent.
Petrographic analysis
A analytical technique that identifies the mineral composition of a pot’s temper and clay through microscopic observation of thin sections.
Political organization
A society’s formal and informal institutions that regulate a population’s collective acts.
Ranked societies
Social systems in which a hierarchy of social status has been established, with a restricted number of valued positions available; in ranked societies, not everyone has the same access to the critical resources of life.
Shell midden
The remnants of shellfish collecting; some shellfish middens can become many meters thick.
Social organization
The rules and structures that govern relations within a group of interacting people. Societies are divided into social units (groups) within which are recognized social positions (statuses), with appropriate behavior patterns prescribed for these positions (roles).
Southeastern ceremonial complex
A specific assortment ceremonial objects that occurs in the graves of high-status Mississippian individuals. Ritual exchange of these artifacts crosscut the boundaries of many distinctive local cultures.
Status
The rights, duties, privileges, powers, liabilities, and immunities that accrue to a recognized and named social position.
Temper
Material added to clay to give a ceramic item strength through the firing process.
