FINAL Flashcards
Culture
a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways.
Different anthropological perspectives
Relativistic Perspective, Comparative Perspective, Holistic Perspective, Culture Concept, Methodological Approach, Reflexivity
Holism Perspective
Understanding that elements of a culture are interrelated and should be understood with context, the WHOLE picture
Cultural Relativism
we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors
Reflexivity
can never be truly objective; there are multiple ways to interpret any given cultural scenario
Comparative Perspective
identify ways in which different aspects of culture compare across different societies over time
Culture Concept
understand what culture is and how it shapes how human experience, perceive and act in the world
Ethnocentrism
assumption that one’s own way of doing things is correct and others are wrong and ignorant
Armchair Anthropology
studying culture through someone else’s perspective, secondhand information
linguistic relativity
language influences thought
4 core ethical guidelines
do no harm, obtain informed consent, retain anonymity and privacy, make results accessible
participant observation
fieldwork, fully immerse yourself into another culture, firsthand information.
Functionalism
everything in society has a reason
-doesn’t account for change and justifies bad stuff like inequality
Structural functionalism
looking at structures in society and how it effects culture
Interview
Any systematic conversation with an informant to collect field research data, ranging from highly structured set of questions to the most open-ended ones
Quantitative Methods
numbers and data
Qualitative Methods
observation and descriptive
Types of interviews
highly structured, systematic surveys, open ended interviews
informal interview, unstructured interview, semi-structured interview, structural interview
Mixed Methods
using multiple ways to conduct a study
Genealogical Method
recording kinship relations and how kin terms are used in different societies. Key in understanding relationship in societies where political, economic and social institutions are based on kinship
Life History Research
any survey of an informant’s life; residence, occupation, marriage, family, and difficulties
-can reveal how societies change over time
Action Research
the goal of a researcher’s involvement in a community is to help social change
Participatory Action
research questions, data collection and analysis are a collaboration between researcher and subject
Goal: subjects to develop the capacity to investigate and take action
Languaculture
-language encodes culture and provides the means through which culture is shared and passed down from one generation to the next
Wesch’s view on languaculture
language shapes how you see the world
-change your language, you change your world
Edward Spair and Benjamin Whorf Hypothesis
language influences thought
-studies Hopi people, said they don’t have words for time, so it doesn’t exist for them (DISCREDITIED)
one-drop rule
any trace of known or recorded nonwhite ancestry excludes a person to being classified as white
Descriptive interview questions
-grand tour-questions- who, what, when, where, why
-mini-tour questions- more in detail
-example questions- specific example
- experience questions- personal experience
Pre-interview things
- Explicit Purpose
- Ethnographic Explanations
- Ethnographic questions