Exam 2

Question 1

three subdivisions of linguistic anthropology

Answer 1

historic linguistics - study of language over time and how languages are related, tracks how we got there and where we went

descriptive linguistics- how contemporary languages differ in terms of their formal structure, record written language, understanding the structure of the language, focus on the sounds that make up language and what the meaning of those sounds are.

ethnolinguistics (sociolinguistics) - study of relationships among social variation, social context, and linguistic variation, including non verbal, how language influences culture and behavior

Question 2

glottochronology/ lexicostatistics

Answer 2

part of historic linguistics, tracks how one group of people speaking the same language when they split up and move in different directions, tracks migration

lexicostatistics -involves quantitative comparison of lexical cognates.

glottochronology - use lexicostatistical methods to estimate the length of time since two or more languages diverged from a common earlier proto-language

Question 3

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 3

relates to enthnolinguistics (sociolinguistics), says that language determines thought, (ie. Hopi don’t have words to describe time, therefore they don’t have an understanding of that concept or even use that concept like we do)

Question 4

magico-religious system

Answer 4

1. myth- belief associated with that religion
2. rituals-all religions have them (behavior)
3. personnel - practitioners, interpret and guide
4. symbolism - representations
5. faith

Question 5

pantheon

Answer 5

collection od deities

Question 6

animism

Answer 6

assigning spiritual power to an object makes is personal

Question 7

mana

Answer 7

pure supernatural power )neither good or bad)

Question 8

polytheistic

Answer 8

more than one god, uses animism

Question 9

monotheistic

Answer 9

believe in only one god, only Christianity, Islam and Jerusalem have one god, personal relationships are created

Question 10

generalized myth

Answer 10

origin myth, basic concepts, common is all religions

Question 11

specialized myth

Answer 11

beliefs specific to that religion

Question 12

calendrical ritual

Answer 12

group created, designed to reinforce values, primary purposes

1. group cohesion/ shared values
2. predictable, always know when they happen,
3. seasonal, changes with the time of year

Sun Dance is an example, primary function is the world renewal, important to keep the world functioning

Question 13

critical ritual

Answer 13

right of passage ritual,

1. individual
2. focuses on the stages of life
3. deals with changes of state in society

3 stages:
removal -> transitional -> reincorporation

(ie. marriage)

Question 14

religion

Answer 14

characterized by supplication, concentrated in deity(s)

Question 15

magic

Answer 15

coercion/ manipulation, belief that you can control the deity, directly related to ritual

Question 16

witchcraft

Answer 16

using same entity as religion. socially acceptable, rituals vary

Question 17

sorcery

Answer 17

antisocial, not socially acceptable

Question 18

imitative magic

Answer 18

like imitates like, voodoo dolls

Question 19

contagious magic

Answer 19

anything of you, is you such as hair, finger nail, clothing, etc.

Question 20

there major functions of shaman

Answer 20

1. maintain social control
2. healthcare delivery system
3. bring about necessary social changes

Question 21

full time religion specialists

Answer 21

monotheistic, needs training, only in societies who can afford them (ie. priests)

Question 22

part time religious specialists

Answer 22

can manipulate the supernatural, receives power directly from supernatural world

Question 23

nativistic religious social movements

Answer 23

belong, do rituals, receive element that had been extinct/ forgotten (ie. Ghost dance), uses supernatural to fix problem

Question 24

utopian movement

Answer 24

group perceives no options left, belief that adherence will fix everything, make everything perfect (ie. Jonestown, Jimmy Jones convinced over 1,000 people to drink cyanide laced kook-aid)

Question 25

millenarian

Answer 25

popular and frequent, belief in Armageddon (ie. 2012, end of world type thing)

Question 26

revitalization

Answer 26

succesful, deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture

Question 27

phoneme

Answer 27

any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat

Question 28

morpheme

Answer 28

smallest grammatical unit in a language. In other words, it is the smallest meaningful unit of a language.

Question 29

allophone

Answer 29

one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language

Question 30

allomorph

Answer 30

variant form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit of meaning can vary in sound without changing meaning.