Final Exam after midterm Flashcards
Why is sex an important social organization priniciple?
- affects status, economic division of labour, political roles, inheritance, etc.
- division of labour
- often, men hunt, use plough, trade, take on leadership and warrior role in 88% of cultures
- often, women gather, prepare food, care for children, gather wood and fuel
- theories: compatibility with childcare, expendability, strength, economy of effort
What is the definition of sex?
Sex is the observable, reproductive females and males in a population
What are the different ways sex can be defined?
- Morphological sex = genitals, secondary sexual features, reproductive structures (uterus)
- sexual dimorphism - Gonadal sex
- Chromosomal sex
- Hormonal predominance
Dualistic sex in North America
How has the control of sex impacted human rights?
Has created
- Sexual taboos
- Sexual double standard
- human rights issues
- control of female sexuality in patrilineal systems
- seclusion, “honour killings”, child marriage, FGM/FGC (optional website reading available)
- dowry murders
What is the definition of intersex?
Intersex people cannot be strictly classified as male or female – “hermaphrodites” or androgynous
- causes of intersex
- “five sexes”intersex issues (e.g. Castor Semenya, Ren Kauffman)
What is the definition of gender?
culturally ‘appropriate’ behaviours and/or roles for a sex
How is gender assigned?
Gender can be assigned based on:
1. physical attributes (sex)
2. behavioural attributes (emotions, likes/dislikes)
3. gender role they choose (‘appropriate’ activities) e.g. caregiver, hunter
4 . identity - what a person feels they are; assigning a gender to oneself based on identification of “sameness”
5. sexuality (attraction/eroticism, mate choice)
What is meant by supernumerary genders?
Gender varies by culture (minimum two of M/F), but can have 3 or more
Supernumerary gender = culturally recognized extra gender category
- Twin Spirits (e.g. ‘berdache’) in 150+ First Nations cultures and others
- Manly hearted women (‘amazon’)
- Womanly hearted men (e.g. castrati, hijras, cochònes)
-‘X’ (indeterminate) in Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, India, Nepal and others
What is a complex society?
- Non-egalitarian (unequal access to wealth, power and prestige); presence of classes
- different settlements in a hierarchy
- Does not imply “smarter than those backward savages”!
Explain the civilization traits associated with monument architecture
- populations & war: cities, mounds, defensive walls
* infrastructure: public buildings for religion and; admin, canals, roads, sewers and aqueducts
Explain the civilization traits associated with ascribed status
- tombs and grave goods; infant burials (ascribed status)
- house variations; built on platforms, art, multiple rooms or storeys
Explain the civilization traits associated with occupational specialization
- standing army, priestly class, bureaucrats
- concentration of artifacts, manufacture, art
- pottery, metalworking, carpentry, stonemasons, jewelers, leatherworking…
Explain the civilization traits associated with artifacts of legitimization
- support from supernatural
- “best ruler” in time of trouble
Explain the civilization traits associated with trade items
- luxury items, trade seals
- evidence for trade: exotics and sourcing
Explain the civilization traits associated with writing
- trade and taxation
- legal/government
- astronomy (Halley’s Comet)
- religious
- world/geographic
What are the theories for the rise of states?
- Leisure time from domestication
- Water and irrigation management
- Population growth, social control
- Land shortage, conflict, warfare
- Trade and cultural sharing
- no one theory is applicable to all situations
- multifaceted approach seems most useful
Define economic systems
How cultures meet material needs and make a living
- economic activities include production, distribution and consumption
Explain modes of production in an economic system
Modes of production are the means by which raw resources are transformed into useful goods
Division of labour is the assignment of daily tasks by gender, age, status or job specialization
Different ways to divide labour
- domestic mode = kin (family) group
- tributary mode = means of production supplied by elite and tribute is extracted in return (e.g. serfdom)
- capitalist/industrial = means of production individually owned, labour is sold
Explain how distribution and modes of exchange occur in an economic system
- reciprocity is exchange without money
- generalized (e.g. parents and children)
- balanced (e.g. trade, Kula ring)
- negative (e.g. bargaining, theft) - redistribution accumulates goods/labour centrally, distribution according to needs
- EI, taxes, Kwakiutl potlatch, etc. - market exchange is based on supply and demand in a marketplace, contracts for labour, and money (general and specific purpose money)
Explain consumption and affluence in an economic system
Consumption is using up of material goods
- basic need, availability
- cultural choices and economic systems (India’s Sacred Cow)
Affluence is when resources and production outweigh consumption
- earn more, or minimize “needs” (desires)
- “the original affluent society”
- !Kung about 20 hrs per week for basics; Canadians about 42.5+ hrs per week
What are subsistence patterns in socio-cultural anthropology?
Subsistence patterns refer to how humans make food/feed themselves
- food collection = gathering wild foods from the environment (e.g. plants, animals, fish)
- food production = primary dependence on domesticated species (often supplemented with food collecting)
)• pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture
Who are food collectors or foragers?
- most ancient human economy- e.g. Baka, !Kung San, Inuit, Kwakiutl
- Division of labour by age and gender - e.g. men hunt, women gather, elders teach
- small nomadic groups, largest territory
- seasonal round to exploit resources
Explain what horticulturalists food producers do
- growing domesticated crops with simple tools in the absence of permanent fields
- use of fallow; no fertilizer or irrigation
1. . tree crops (breadfruit, banana)
2. extensive/swidden horticulture with slash-and-burn technique, rotating garden plots - larger, more sedentary communities
- often men clear gardens, women grow crops and weed
Explain what pastoralists food producers do
dependence on domesticated or semi-domesticated herds; milk and blood products - e.g. Basseri, WoDaaBe, Laplanders
- extensive follows free ranging herds
- intensive uses corrals or fenced herds
- larger groups of related families
- often men herd animals, women process meats and milk products
Explain what agriculturalists food producers do
- primary reliance on domesticated crops and animals
- permanent fields, fertilizer, irrigation, draught animals or machinery
- large, sedentary, urban groups
- trade and market, cash crops
- full time job specialization
- work longest hours
- most danger of famine
What are three types of food producers
- agriculturalists
- horticulturalists
- pastoralists
What is kinship?
socially significant relationships based on descent, marriage,
- may exclude some family (i.e. cousins)
- technology and kinship (text)
- key to social organization and may determine: obligations, alliances, access to economic resources, political authority, inheritance, marriage and sexual partners
Explain the difference between bilateral and unilineal descent
Bilateral descent is descent through mother’s and father’s sides equally
- creates a kindred = ambiguous, flexible set of relatives with a wide range of obligations
Unilateral descent is descent only through the mother’s OR father’s side of family
- creates a lineage = group descended from common ancestor (ie. Scottish clans)
- very specific regarding membership and obligations
Explain the difference between patrinlineage and matrinlineage
Patrinlineage is the father and all his line
- membership passes from father to all his children regardless of childrens’ sex
Matrinlineage is the mother and all her line
- membership passes from mother to all her children regardless of childrens’ sex
Explain family or family systems
Family is a related group of two or more related people who share residence, resources, and child care
- main unit of socialization
- extended*, nuclear, polygamous
- incompatible activity requirements
Explain the difference between communication and language
Communication is a transfer of information
- a closed system; sound, movement, and scent represent fixed concepts (“food”, “mate” or “danger”)
Language is a symbolic system that expresses experiences and thoughts, past and future
- design features: openness, arbitrariness, displacement, duality of meaning (sound and meaning) semanticity (context), prevarication
What are the types of nonverbal communication
- Proxemics - spacing and orientation
- Kinesics - motion and gestures (mirroring, facial expressions, eye contact, gestures)
- Paralanguage - loudness, speed, rhythm, spaces
How does culture influence language?
culture influences language (e.g. environment words, colour vocabulary, word choice, gender terms
- linguistic relativity principle (aka “Sapir-Whorf hypothesis”) = language may shape the way people see their world
- time; gendered language
- problems (linguistic determinism)
Explain what has been learned through origins and ape language studies
- associated with modern humans; gestural languages may be very ancient
- language-acquisition device (LAD)
- language and non-human primates: speech, use of ASL (remember Koko article)
Explain sociolinguisitics and ethnopragmatics
Ethnography of speaking studies variations in speech that reflect social context
- e.g. social status, codeswitching, ethnicity Considers gender use of language
- linguistic correctness, “assertiveness”
Linguistic inequality is ethnocentrism based on use of language or dialect (e.g. AAE vs. SAE)
What is proto- language?
proto-language = ancestor of two or more languages who then share common features and core vocabulary
- e.g. Indo-European, Bantu, Sino-Tibetan
Explain how language loss occurs
languages change over time through various mechanisms
- invention, culture contact, globalisation
- extinctions esp. minority languages
What is marriage?
Marriage is an enduring and socially approved bond between two or more people that:
- changes status of partners
- creates an economic unit
- creates kinship ties
- controls sexuality
- legitimizes children
- is an emotional bond
How is who can marry decided?
- Marriage can be by choice or by arrangement
- Incest taboos forbid marriage/mating between people who are “too closely related”
What the different forms of marriage?
- One spouse per person at a time (monogamy)
- serial monogamy - one spouse per person at a time (polygamy)
- organizing polygamous partners
- similarities to monogamy - Forms of polygamous marriage
a) Polygyny* = 1 man, 2 or more wives (>80%)
- sororal polygyny
b) Polyandry = 1 woman, 2 or more husbands
- fraternal polyandry
What are some the practical reasons to practice polygamy?
- help with housework
- creation of wealth
- control numbers of children
- avoid land division and taxation
What is meant by the economy of marriage?
Economic transactions accompanying marriage
- bride wealth/price* (>60%)
- bride service
- dowry = transfer of family wealth to bride from parents
- “premortem inheritance”
- “dowry murders” (see text)
What are the different types of post-marital residence patters?
- common: patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal
- less common: avunculocal, ambilocal, duolocal
Explain social organizations
Social organization refers to rules or institutions that govern the behaviour of group members
- wealth (economic resources like land, water, money, gold, etc.)
- power (ability to change social situations and others’ actions)
- prestige (respect or honour)
- coercion (force)
What is the difference between an egalitarian vs a ranked or strafied society?
All societies have some inequality between individuals based on ability and personality
- egalitarian societies have slight differences in status and roles between individuals (fairly equal access to wealth, power, prestige)
If differences are greater and extend to groups:
- ranked = unequal access to prestige and often power, depending on group
- stratified = unequal access to wealth, power and prestige, depending on group
Describe characteristics of egalitarian societies
Egalitarian societies
- Bands/tribes
In General:
- bands vary in size; are generally small groups (50-100 people), often foragers
- tribe numbers vary less, are more sedentary, and have generally larger groups (up to approx. 5000 people) who are often horticulturalists or pastoralists
Explain how egalitarian societies operate
- decisions are made by consensus or fission
- prestige is impermanent except for elders
- high degree of reciprocity
- often communal ownership of resources and wealth
What is organization in an egalitarian society based upon
- kinship, friendship, ability to work together
- age-set = group of people of same age who go through life’s stages together
- sodality = special purpose group (based on age, sex, interests, kinship, social role)
- secret society = initiation group; may be a prerequisite for certain life stages
Explain leadership in an egalitarian society
Usually a “headman” or “Big Man”
- often an elder, or head of a kinship group, sodality or age-set
- achieved status = position earned through personal abilities; cannot be passed on
- limited individual power and coercion
- persuasion and “social leveling devices” as shown in “Christmas in the Kalahari”
How is conflict handled in an egalitarian society
- avoidance, negotiation, mediation,
- formal apology, ordeal, oath, oracle
Explain how ranked societies or chiefdoms operate
- ranked society (partially stratified)
- often more than one community with formal control of leader
- approximately a few thousands to tens of thousands of people
Explain organization in ranked societies or chiefdoms
- kinship, age-sets, sodalities, secret societies
- ascribed status (inherited/born with position)
Explain leadership in ranked societies or chiefdoms
Chief (inherited position)
- responsible for redistribution
- position may be marked
- chief has some coercive power (domination of others through threat, intimidation, force, etc.)
Explain how conflict is resolved in ranked societies or chiefdoms
- resolved through adjudication by chief (fines, banishment, and sometimes death)
- warfare sustained; warriors often supported by chief
Explain how stratified societies or states are organized
- stratified society (groups have ascribed unequal access to resources, power, prestige)
- multi-ethnic groups under a central government (due to war / peaceful immigration)
Explain leadership in stratified societies or states
- various forms of leadership
- often reinforced through ideology
Explain how conflict is resolved in stratified societies or states
- use of codified law, courts
- monopoly on force and coercion
- standing army, rules of war
- highest rates of conflict/war
What is a class-based state
Class = “open” (vertically mobile) group with about the same access to wealth, power and prestige
- often correlated with education, ethnicity, or ownership of key resources
What is a caste-based state
Caste is a highly ascribed “closed” class (with little or no vertical mobility)
- born, work, marry in caste
- often ranked in order of prestige, etc.
