chapter 4

Question 1

Evolutionism

Answer 1

all societies go through 3 distinct evolutionary phases: savagery, barbarianism, civilization

Question 2

founder of evolutionism

Answer 2

E. B Tylor

Question 3

survivals

Answer 3

items of culture that had survived earlier times and seem out of place in contemporary society

Question 4

5 main assumption of evolutionism

Answer 4

1. culture is governed by laws just like science
2. cultural laws are uniformitarian (don’t change)
3. cultural progress is from simple to complex
4. cultural progress is stimulated by interactions with the environment
5. cultures are order in a hierarchical manner

Question 5

critiques of evolutionism

Answer 5

1. is the central tenet valid?
2. it’s ethnocentric- and sees civilization as superior
3. there is no data to support the theory, assumptions from notes and observations from other anthropologists.
4. is the doctrine of survivals valid

Question 6

sociological theory

Answer 6

science of society is based on the same principles as those of the natural science; there are objective social facts

Question 7

who did the sociological theory?

Answer 7

Emile Durkhiem

Question 8

functionalism

Answer 8

theory that social institutions function to fulfill biological needs of individuals

Question 9

Durhiem’s theory on what held societies together?

Answer 9

mechanical solidarity- members of a society think and act similarly because the small-scale societies are integrated
organic solidarity- large-scale societies are held together because of their dependence on each other to survive

Question 10

father of structuralist functionalism

Answer 10

Radcliffe Brown

Question 11

structuralist functionalism

Answer 11

the society has a structure that must be maintained and upheld by social institutions that mold and form people who will fit into this structure- focus on the function of instution on the organism of society as a whole

Question 12

critiques of functionalism

Answer 12

1. don’t look at the history/origin of such institutions
2. views humans as puppets who cannot come into conflict with each other
3. institutions are assumed to be static, don’t account for change
4. who decides what is good for society
5. do all institutions have a function

Question 13

historical particularism

Answer 13

to understand any culture you have to look at that culture’s particular history

Question 14

father of historical particularism

Answer 14

Frank Boas

Question 15

approach of historical particularism

Answer 15

• ethnographic facts precede cultural theories
• every culture is unique
• cultural diffusion
• fieldwork

Question 16

Boaz’s view on evolutionism

Answer 16

• it assumes what it wants to prove
• categorizing ignores each culture’s uniqueness
• doesn’t focus on cultural history
• rational psychological explanations to culture are not correct because people do not reason out of a primitive culture, it is automatic and unconscious

Question 17

culture is super organic

Answer 17

the product of a group but individual effects the product

Question 18

Alfred Louis Kroeber

Answer 18

super organic culture- individual has very little effect on the group

Question 19

Ruth Benedict

Answer 19

theory that cultures dictate the personalities of the individuals that inhabit their culture by enforcing them through cultural and daily practices.

Question 20

Boasian concept of culture

Answer 20

• superorganic
• unconscious
• adaptive

Question 21

Margaret Mead

Answer 21

gender roles are not biologically determined but socially constructed

Question 22

critiques of culture and personality relationship

Answer 22

1. history is not taken into account
2. circular, using personality traits identify personality traits
3. does culture cause individual personality
4. what accounts of individual behaviour patterns (evidence)

Question 23

neo-evolutionism

Answer 23

there are many stages and processes societies go through to develop, but cultures do evolve from simple to complex

Question 24

founder of cultural ecology

Answer 24

Julian Steward

Question 25

cultural ecology

Answer 25

study of how society adapts to it’s environment

Question 26

cultural core

Answer 26

a collection of traits and activities that directly lead ot the exploitation of the resources and obtaining of basic needs

Question 27

culture types

Answer 27

cultures that have a similar cultural core

Question 28

cultural hierarchy complexity

Answer 28

band-tribe-chiefdom-state

Question 29

materialist view of culture

Answer 29

culture is influenced by material ideas, natural resources, and human biology

Question 30

idealist view of culture

Answer 30

culture is influenced by values and the way we view the world- etic perspective

Question 31

Marvin Harris

Answer 31

materialist view; culture is a system of energy transfer and distribution

Question 32

symbolic anthropology

Answer 32

a theoretical school of thought in anthropology that views the goal of anthropology as the interpretation of symbols

Question 33

father of interpretive anthropology

Answer 33

Clifford Geetz

Question 34

interpretative anthropology

Answer 34

culture is a tangled web of symbols and meanings and an anthropologist’s job is to interprete them

Question 35

Geetz’s revolutionary ideas

Answer 35

anthropologists were forced to become more aware of the cultural context of things, because they had to interpret how people see themselves- etic perspective

Question 36

Feminist anthropology

Answer 36

giving women a voice in anthropology not just as subject topics but main focuses, and an alternative analysis of women in societies

Question 37

political economy

Answer 37

study of conflict, ideology and power and how they impact a society (a connection between economic power and political progress)

Question 38

focuses of political economy

Answer 38

inequality, marginalizing effects on groups, labour force, war, violence… (focuses on areas of conflict and power struggle)

Question 39

political ecology

Answer 39

study of how unequal relations among society affect the use of the natural environment and its resources.

Question 40

political ecology and marginalized people

Answer 40

focus on how environmental degradation can be a source of marginalization, relocating people for industrial purposes

Question 41

post modern anth.

Answer 41

challenging the idea that anthropology can be objective

Question 42

postmodernism labels these things as subjective forms of information

Answer 42

fieldwork, ethnography

Question 43

postmodernist on power relations in anthropology

Answer 43

colonialism- anthropologist were part of the dominant group, working for colonialists, conflict of interest

Question 44

reflexive anthropology

Answer 44

recognizing one’s biases and subjective approach when engaging in research, by disclosing the terms and conditions of the fieldwork, discussion of interpersonal relations with informants, discussing situations and knowledge presented, in terms of how the ethnographer collected it.

Question 45

critiques of post-modernism

Answer 45

• anthropology into literature by discounting all data as subjective and based on interpretation
• no conclusions can be reached on anything

Question 46

central tenets

Answer 46

evolutionist view that conditions of savages and barbarous tribes often more or less represent stages of culture through which our own ancestors passed along

Question 47

survivals

Answer 47

E.B Taylor used that as evidence for evolutionism to trace the course history that civilization has gone through

Question 48

John Fergurson McLennan Primitive Marriages

Answer 48

Scottish evolutionist who discovers that early marriages had to do with the capturing of women