Chapters 1 & 2

Question 1

Anthropology

Answer 1

A discipline that studies humans, focusing on the study of differences and similarities, both biological and cultural, in human populations. It is concerned with typical biological and cultural characteristics of human populations in all periods and in all parts of the world.

Question 2

Applied (practicing) anthropology

Answer 2

The branch that concerns itself with applying anthropological knowledge to achieve practical goals, usually in the service of an agency outside the traditional academic setting.

Question 3

Archeology

Answer 3

The branch that seeks to construct the daily life and customs of peoples who lived in the past and to trace and explain cultural changes. Often lacking written records for study, scientists must try to reconstruct history from the material remains of human cultures.

Question 4

Biological (physical) anthropology

Answer 4

The study of humans as biological organisms, dealing with the emergence and evolution of humans and with contemporary biological variations among human populations.

Question 5

Cross-cultural researcher

Answer 5

An ethnologist who uses ethnographic data about many societies to test possible explanations of cultural variation to discover general patterns about cultural traits - what is universal, what is variable, why traits vary, and what the consequences of the variability might be.

Question 6

Cultural anthropology

Answer 6

The study of cultural variation and universals in the past and present.

Question 7

Descriptive (structural) linguistics

Answer 7

The study of how languages are constructed.

Question 8

Ethnographer

Answer 8

A person who spends some time living with, interviewing, and observing a group of people to describe their customs.

Question 9

Ethnography

Answer 9

A description of a society’s customary behaviors and ideas.

Question 10

Ethnohistorian

Answer 10

An ethnologist who uses historical documents to study how a particular culture has changed over time.

Question 11

Ethnology

Answer 11

The study of how and why recent cultures differ and are similar.

Question 12

Fossils

Answer 12

The hardened remains or impressions of plants and animals that lived in the past.

Question 13

Historical archaeology

Answer 13

A specialty that studies the material remains of recent peoples who left written records.

Question 14

Historical linguistics

Answer 14

The study of how languages change over time.

Question 15

Holistic

Answer 15

Refers to an approach that studies many aspects of a multifaceted system.

Question 16

Homo sapiens

Answer 16

All living people belong to one biological species which means that all human populations on earth can successfully interbreed. The first may have emerged 200,000 years ago.

Question 17

Human paleontology

Answer 17

The study of the emergence of humans and their later physical evolution, also called paleoanthropology.

Question 18

Human variation

Answer 18

The study of how and why contemporary human populations vary biologically.

Question 19

Prehistory

Answer 19

The time before written records.

Question 20

Primates

Answer 20

A member of the mammalian order, divided into the two suborders of prosimians and anthropoids.

Question 21

Primatologists

Answer 21

People who study primates.

Question 22

Sociolinguistics

Answer 22

The study of cultural and subcultural patterns of speaking in different social contexts.

Question 23

Acculturation

Answer 23

The process of extensive borrowing of aspects of culture in the context of superordinate - subordinate relations between societies usually occurs as the result of external pressure.

Question 24

Adaptive customs

Answer 24

Cultural traits that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.

Question 25

Cultural relativism

Answer 25

The attitude that a society’s customs and ideas should be viewed within the context of that society’s problems and opportunities.

Question 26

Culture

Answer 26

The set of learned behaviors and ideas including beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals that are characteristic of a particular society or population.

Question 27

Diffusion

Answer 27

The borrowing of one society of a cultural trait belonging to another society as a result of contact between the two societies.

Question 28

Ethnocentric

Answer 28

Refers to judgment of other cultures solely in terms of one’s own culture.

Question 29

Ethnocentrism

Answer 29

The attitude that other societies customs and ideas can be judged in the context of one’s own culture.

Question 30

Ethnogenesis

Answer 30

The process of the creation of a new culture.

Question 31

Globalization

Answer 31

The ongoing spread of goods, people, information, and capital around the world.

Question 32

Maladaptive customs

Answer 32

Cultural traits that diminish the chances of survival and reproduction in a particular environment.

Question 33

Norms

Answer 33

Standards or rules about what is acceptable behavior.

Question 34

Revolution

Answer 34

A usually violent replacement of a society’s rulers.

Question 35

Society

Answer 35

A group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not generally understood by neighboring people’s. They do not necessarily correspond to nations.

Question 36

Subculture

Answer 36

The shared customs of a subgroup within a society.

Question 37

Culture - with a big C

Answer 37

Human extra somatic means of adaptation, of survival.

Question 38

culture - with a little c

Answer 38

Particular version that has time and place sensitivity.

Question 39

Anthropological linguistics

Answer 39

The anthropological study of languages.