Definitions

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

• A key word for anthropologists that represents a holistic, integrated and comparative approach to human difference
• the system of meanings about the nature of experience that are shared by a people and passed on from one generation to another
• a term that helps us to think about how and why there are different meanings attached to common life events and practices
• people act differently based on their culture

Question 2

Ethnocentrism

Answer 2

• the tendency to judge the behaviours or beliefs of other cultures from the perspective of one’s own culture
• a term anthropologists try to avoid
• judging cultures due to their own beliefs

Question 3

Ethnocentric Fallacy

Answer 3

the belief that one’s own ethnic group is innately superior to others and that all other groups should therefore be judged by one’s own local standards

Question 4

Cultural Relativism

Answer 4

The attempt to understand the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures in terms of the culture in which they are found

Question 5

Relativistic Fallacy

Answer 5

problems with ethnocentrism and cultural relativism

Question 6

Armchair Fallacy

Answer 6

refers to an approach to the study of various societies that dominated anthropology in the late 1800s
-collection, study and analysis of the writings of missionaries, explorers, and colonists who has sustained contact with non-western peoples

Question 7

Participant Observation

Answer 7

an element of fieldwork that can involve participating in daily tasks, and observing daily interactions among a particular group

Question 8

Ethnographic Fieldwork

Answer 8

• a research method in which sociocultural anthropologists have intensive, long-term engagements with a group of people
• it may involve the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, participant observation, and survey based research

Question 9

Ethnography

Answer 9

a written description and analysis of a particular group of people, usually based upon anthropological fieldwork

Question 10

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

Answer 10

• Diversity of human behaviour
• different components of life and how they impact each other
• how humans create meanings to make sense of the world

Question 11

Applied Anthropology

Answer 11

-putting knowledge into practice
critics:
-you are being hired by a group of people/ company/ organizations to do the work for them, how can you guarantee your work is going to be important?

Question 12

Social Identity

Answer 12

the view people have of their own and others positions in society. Social identities are earned personal and social affiliations including gender, sexuality, race class, national identity, etc.

Question 13

Enculturation

Answer 13

the process through which individuals learn identity. It can encompass parental socialization, the influence of peers, the mass media, government, and other forces

Question 14

Egocentric Society

Answer 14

• you identity cultural beliefs by oneself

- a person’s identity is independent of the group.

Question 15

Sociocentric Society

Answer 15

• define yourself based on the community

- a person gets their identity from the group

Question 16

Gender

Answer 16

culturally constructed ideals of behaviour, dress, occupations, roles and comportment for particular sexes

Question 17

Third Gender

Answer 17

A gender role given to someone who does not fit within strictly masculine or feminine gender roles in a society that recognizes the possibility of at least three genders

Question 18

Gender Stratification

Answer 18

hegemonic masculinity

Question 19

Rites of Passage

Answer 19

1. Separation
2. Liminality
3. Corporation
   - way to communicate our identity, however it is not the only way (other ways can be the clothes we wear, our religion, etc. )

Question 20

Worldview

Answer 20

• an encompassing picture of reality based on shared cultural assumptions about how the world works
• when people try to make sense of their experiences, they do so by drawing from shared cultural assumptions about how the world works
• many people think their worldview is the only correct way to interpret their reality, which often leads to ethnocentric assumptions about other cultures and beliefs

Question 21

Symbolic Actions

Answer 21

-we can think of metaphors, rituals, stories, music and myths as symbolic actions, activities that dramatically depict the worldview shared by a specific group of people

Question 22

Metaphor

Answer 22

• we apply to make our knowledge meaningful to ourselves and others
• figure of speech in which linguistic expressions are taken from one area of domain of experience and applied to another domain
  ex. the shoulder of the road

Question 23

Ritual

Answer 23

a dramatic rendering or social portrayal of meanings shared by a specific body of people in a way that makes them seem correct and proper

Question 24

Myth

Answer 24

a story or narrative that portrays the meanings people give to their experience

Question 25

Revitalization Movements

Answer 25

Attempts by a people to construct a more satisfying culture or worldview for themselves

Question 26

Syncretization

Answer 26

the combinations of old and new beliefs to produce a new way of understanding lived experience

Question 27

Nation-state

Answer 27

a political community that has clearly defined territorial borders and a centralized authority
-keep public order, maintain armies, collect tribute or taxes, and so on

Question 28

Nationalism

Answer 28

• the worldview of members of a nation state
• nationalism describes the belief in national identity and emotional investments in that national identity, and the actions that members of a nation take to achieve self -determination as a nation

Question 29

Multiculturalism

Answer 29

a term that Eva Mackey defines as a Canadian Policy in which all hyphenated cultures, such as African-Canadian and French- Canadian are described and celebrated as a “cultural mosaic”. Contrast with the “cultural melting pot” image that is used in the united states.