Explorations Chapter 1

Question 1

Belief

Answer 1

A firmly held opinion or conviction typically based on spiritual apprehension rather than empirical proof.

Question 2

Cultural relativism

Answer 2

The anthropological practice of suspending judgment and seeking to understand another culture on its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living.

Question 3

Empirical

Answer 3

Evidence that is verifiable by observation or experience instead of relying primarily on logic or theory.

Question 4

Faith

Answer 4

Complete trust or confidence in the doctrines of a religion, typically based on spiritual apprehension rather than empirical proof.

Question 5

Holism

Answer 5

The idea that the parts of a system interconnect and interact to make up the whole.

Question 6

Hominins

Answer 6

Species that are regarded as human, directly ancestral to humans, or very closely related to humans.

Question 7

Human adaptation

Answer 7

The ways in which human bodies, people, or cultures change, often in ways better suited to the environment or social context.

Question 8

Human variation

Answer 8

The range of forms of any human characteristic, such as body shape or skin color.

Question 9

Hypothesis

Answer 9

Explanation of observed facts; details how and why observed phenomena are the way they are. Scientific hypotheses rely on empirical evidence, are testable, and are able to be refuted.

Question 10

Indigenous

Answer 10

Refers to people who are the original settlers of a given region and have deep ties to that place. Also known as First Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, or Native Peoples, these populations are in contrast to other groups who have settled, occupied, or colonized the area more recently.

Question 11

Knowledge System

Answer 11

A unified way of knowing that is shared by a group of people and used to explain and predict phenomena.

Question 12

Law

Answer 12

A prediction about what will happen given certain conditions; typically mathematical.

Question 13

Participant observation

Answer 13

A research method common in cultural anthropology that involves living with, observing, and participating in the same activities as the people one studies.

Question 14

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 14

The principle that the language you speak allows you to think about some things and not other things. This is also known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis.

Question 15

Scholarly peer review

Answer 15

The process whereby an author’s work must pass the scrutiny of other experts in the field before being published in a journal or book.

Question 16

Scientific understanding

Answer 16

Knowledge accumulated by systematic scientific study, supported by rigorous testing and organized by general principles.

Question 17

Subdisciplines

Answer 17

The four major areas that make up the discipline of anthropology: biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. Applied anthropology is sometimes considered to be a fifth subdiscipline.

Question 18

Subfield

Answer 18

In this textbook, subfield refers to the different specializations within biological anthropology, including primatology, paleoanthropology, molecular anthropology, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and human biology.

Question 19

Theory

Answer 19

An explanation of observations that typically addresses a wide range of phenomena.