Final Exam Flashcards
Kinship
- often based on biological or marriage ties
- all cultures have well defined systems of defining relatives
consanguineal
biological kinship
Affinal
kin by marriage
fictive kin
kinship terms applied to nonkin
Why do anthropologists focus on kinship?
various dimensions of culture are interconnected
Kinship function
- not solely based on biological or marriage ties
- Cultural roles determine kinship
Vertical kinship function
binds together multiple generations
Horizontal kinship function
binds together across a generation
Kinship classifications
- generations
- marriage
- social condition
- gender
- relative age
- kinship by milk
Unilinear
ancestry through the mother’s or father’s line, not both
double descent
matrilineal and patrilineal
ambilinear
choose between mother and father
bilateral
equally related
Eskimo classification
bilateral descent
Hawaii classification
ambilineal
Iroquois classification
unilinear
Omaha classification
patrilineal
Crow classification
matrilineal
Sudanese classification
patrilineal
Sex
biological
Gender
- two sexes perceived, evaluated and expected to behave
- a cultural construct
Gendered division of labor
- mass and body strength (women hunt)
- childcare (work took precedence over childcare)
- adaptation (women gathers in HG; women food prep, work with domesticated animals in Agrarian)
Status
multidimensional; varies across societies
All known societies
- some relatively egalitarian
- many patriarchal societies
- no societies where women as a group are dominant
What influences status?
- women’s contributions to maternal welfare and role in distributing these resources
- descent post marital residence and inheritance
- overal complexities of societies
Egalitarian society
Food gathering
In which societies does egalitarian decline?
horticulture, agrarian, and industrial
When does egalitarianism increase?
In industrial societies
Status and Language
- differing statuses reflected in language
- in some cultures, genders use different vocabularies
- genders may have differing speech patterns
Defining religion
- “belief in spiritual beings”
- a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate [humanity] to ultimate conditions of their existence
- beliefs and symbols… pertaining to a distinction between empirical and super-empirical reality
Westerners view
science and logic, empirical
Religion
super-empirical; not be demonstrated
Anthropological focus
identify, function, and adhere, affect human behavior
Social control
Positive and negative sanctions encourage acceptable behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior
Conflict resolution
may reduce stress and frustration that leads to social conflict
Group solidarity
express identity in emotionally charged environment
Cognitive functions
may explain the unexplainable
Emotional function
- helps individuals cope with anxieties accompany misfortune
- less control over life; more turning towards supernatural
- real in their consequences
Individualistic Cults
- no religious cults
- predominate in small scale band societies
- establishing special relationship with a spirit
- established through dreams, fasting, body mutilation, smoking hallucinogenics, or isolation
Shamanistic
- simplest division of labor
- supernatural power through birth, training or inspiration
- have access to supernatural spirit
- ability to contact the spirit at will
- becomes spokesperson for the spirit
Communal cults
groups of ordinary people conduct religious rites and ceremonies for a larger community
rites of passage
- to mark the change in persons status
- to recognize a a wider set of altered social relationships
rites of solidarity
- rites directed towards welfare of community
Ecclesiastical cults
- most complex religious organization
- full time clergy formally elected or appointed
- rituals at regular intervals
- hierarchal or bureaucratic organization
- may be linked to central government and use myths and beliefs to support the ruling class
- few women serve because of the link between ruling and religion
- clear distinction between laypersons and clergy
laypersons
provide money and labor
clergy in ecclesiastical cults
priests conduct rituals on behalf of the lay population
