Chapter 2 Flashcards
armchair anthropologists
early anthropologists who gathered data from travelogues and books rather than from their own direct research.
cultural relativism
the view that cultural practices and beliefs are best understood in relation to their entire context.
cultural relativism
the view that cultural practices and beliefs are best understood in relation to their entire context.
culture
the total way of life of a group of people that is learned, adaptive, shared, and integrated.
epistemological relativism
the belief that the validity of knowledge itself is limited to the context in which it was produced.
ethnocentrism
the use of one’s own culture to measure another’s, putting one’s own culture (ethno) at the center (centrism) of interpretation and typically devaluing the other culture.
historical particularism
an early anthropological theory that argues that each culture is a unique representation of its history and context.
monogenesis
the view that all humans originate from a single creation of God.
moral relativism
the idea that something is only right or wrong according to context-specific criteria.
polygenesis
the theory that various groups of humans appeared on earth or were created separately.
polygenesis
the theory that various groups of humans appeared on earth or were created separately.
racism
the belief that humans are organized into race groupings that are different from one another in intelligence and worth.
racism
the belief that humans are organized into race groupings that are different from one another in intelligence and worth.
tacit ethnocentrism
the assumption that one’s own way of life is just normal, not cultural.
unilinear cultural evolution
an early anthropological theory that states all cultures evolve from simple to complex along a single trajectory of progress.
