Culture 36

Question 1

POLYGYNY

Answer 1

A man has more than one wife.

Question 2

POLYNESIA

Answer 2

Islands in Oceania within the triangle whose corners are the Hawaiian Islands, Easter Island, and New Zealand.

Question 3

POLYTHEISM

Answer 3

• Belief in several deities who control aspects of nature.
• The ancient Greeks believed that their gods were independent deities who weren’t aspects of a great deity.

Question 4

POSITIVE EUGENICS

Answer 4

• Is a method of increasing the frequency of desirable traits by encouraging reproduction by individuals with these traits.
• Negative eugenics is aimed at lowering fertility among the genetically disadvantaged by means of abortions, sterilization, and other methods of family planning.

Question 5

POSITIVISM

Answer 5

Refers to the theoretical position that explanations must be empirically verifiable, that there are universal laws in the structure and transformation of human institutions, and that theories which incorporate individualistic elements, such as minds, are not verifiable.

Question 6

POSTCOLONIAL

Answer 6

• Refers to interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized (mainly after 1800).
• May be used to signify a position against imperialism and Eurocentrism.

Question 7

POSTMODERN

Answer 7

Describes the blurring and breakdown of established canons (rules, standards), categories, distinctions, and boundaries.

Question 8

POSTMODERNISM

Answer 8

• A social movement or fashion amongst intellectuals centring around a rejection of modernist values of rationality, progress and a conception of social science as a search for over-arching explanations of human nature or the social and cultural world.
• By contrast, postmodernists celebrate the fall of such oppressive grand narratives, emphasizing the fragmented and dispersed nature of contemporary experience.

Question 9

POSTMODERNITY

Answer 9

Refers to the condition of a world in flux, with people on the move, in

Question 10

POST-PARTUM SEX TABOO

Answer 10

Is the prohibition of a woman from having sexual intercourse for a specified period of time following the birth of a child.

Question 11

POTLATCH

Answer 11

Competitive feast among Indians on the North Pacific Coast of North America.

Question 12

POWER

Answer 12

The ability to exercise one’s will over others-to do what one wants; the basis of political status.

Question 13

POWER DISTANCE

Answer 13

• One of the Hofstede dimensions of national cultures.
• “The extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.”

Question 14

POWER GEOMETRY

Answer 14

The notion of Power Geometry is a product of globalization and refers to the ways that different groups of individuals interact at different scales, linking local development to national, international, and global processes.

Question 15

PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Answer 15

Used as a synonym for applied anthropology; anthropologists who practice their profession outside of academia.

Question 16

PREJUDICE

Answer 16

• Over-generalized, oversimplified or exaggerated beliefs associated with a category or group of people.
• These beliefs are not easily changed, even in the fact of contrary evidence.
• Example: A French woman is in an elevator alone. She grabs her purse tight when an African young man enters.
• Can also be devaluing (looking down on) a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, attitudes, or other attributes.