Final (Health and Illness to Language)

Question 1

Holism in anthropology

Answer 1

(1) studies all dimensions of humanity throughout history (2) established, institutional disciplinary boundaries should not constrain our ability to understand society as a whole with interconnected parts e.g. cultural, social, medical, historical, religious, economic, linguistic, etc.

Question 2

Deviance (abnormality)

Answer 2

an attribute that sets the individual part from the majority of the population, who are assumed to be normal; often accompanied by social stigma due to overt or external deformations, leading to social isolation and shame

Question 3

Structure

Answer 3

patterned social arrangements that constrain us, but we need them

Question 4

Agency

Answer 4

people’s ability to act independently from structures

Question 5

Structural adjustments

Answer 5

policies implemented by the IMF and the World Bank in developing countries to reduce inflation and fiscal imbalance at the expense of reduction in social spending which results in worsening poor people’s condition

Question 6

World bank as a global apartheid

Answer 6

it represents over 180 countries but is run by a small number of powerful economies (the core)

Question 7

Structural violence

Answer 7

subtle, often invisible, systematic ways in which social structures harm or otherwise disadvantage individuals and usually has no one specific person who can (or will) be held responsible

Question 8

Capitalist world economy

Answer 8

a single system committed to production with the object of maximizing profits rather than supplying domestic needs

Question 9

Capital

Answer 9

wealth and resources invested in business with intent to make a profit

Question 10

Modernization theory

Answer 10

ALL societies naturally pass through certain stages of development driven by population growth and technological advancement. Western developed countries help developing countries.

Question 11

World systems theory (a response to modernization theory)

Answer 11

Social systems, based on wealth and power, operate outside their own nation or state. Unlike European countries, others have a history of colonization and have to compete with highly developed countries. These countries become stuck in a state of underdevelopment.

Question 12

What does WST criticize?

Answer 12

specialization on the goods in which a country has a comparative advantage leads to gains from trade for i.e. a win/win situation where everyone becomes more efficient and wealthy

Question 13

Three positions of economic and political power

Answer 13

(1) core or the geographic center (2) semiperiphery (3) periphery

Question 14

Core

Answer 14

dominant position in the world system, complexity of economic activities are the highest, sophisticated technologies and mechanized production

Question 15

Semiperiphery

Answer 15

industrialized, exports industrial goods but lacks the power of core nations

Question 16

Periphery

Answer 16

least privileged and powerful countries, less mechanized but with some degree of industrialization

Question 17

Dependency

Answer 17

The vulnerable state of being exploited by core countries; Poor (peripheral) countries depend on rich (core) countries to get technology, machinery, manufactured goods, etc. to develop their economies and are forced to pay high prices yet they sell their raw materials and agricultural products very cheaply

Question 18

Special Housing Unit Syndrome

Answer 18

effects of solitary confinement on prisoners e.g. distortions of time and perception

Question 19

Life cycle

Answer 19

our lifetime is broken up into phases, which are infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, middle aged, and old, that are usually punctuated with rituals

Question 20

Rituals

Answer 20

Must be performed and set apart from everyday life by setting a stage; Consists of a sequence of symbolic activities; Sometimes connected to a myth; Accomplished the work of society and replicates the social system

Question 21

Two types of rituals

Answer 21

Calendrical and Rites of passage

Question 22

Calendrical rituals

Answer 22

occur each year and may connect participants to the sacred myth of creation

Question 23

Rites of passage

Answer 23

marks transitional events such as birth, marriage, and death; marks an individual’s crossing over from one social status to another (Van Gennep), wherein the types of status are ascribed and achieved

Question 24

Three phases of a rite of passage

Answer 24

separation, marginality, admission

Question 25

Separation

Answer 25

ritual removal of the individual from everyday society

Question 26

Marginality (liminal status)

Answer 26

a period of isolation when the individual is in-between two social identities, considered to be a precarious situation

Question 27

Admission (incorporation)

Answer 27

formal return of the individual and readmission back into society in their new social status

Question 28

Theory of the sign (de Saussure)

Answer 28

language is a process of signification that establishes a link between names (signifier) and ideas (signified), wherein the relation between the two is arbitrary; meaning emerges in relation to all other signs as language is a closed system with no relation to the external/actual world

Question 29

Edward Sapir’s theory of language

Answer 29

different societies live in distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels; the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation

Question 30

Benjamin Whorf’s theory of language

Answer 30

language use affects habitual behavior and people act on the basis of linguistic cues

Question 31

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Answer 31

differences in the way languages encode cultural and cognitive categories affect the way people think so speakers of different languages tend to think and behave differently; language is not a mere reflection of the world and means for connecting things and words

Question 32

Metaphors we live by

Answer 32

everyday language is filled with conceptual metaphors we may not always notice, which then shape not just our communication, but also the way we think and act

Question 33

Language and other social categories

Answer 33

Gender (feminist linguistics) and race

Question 34

Collective effervescence (Émile Durkheimm)

Answer 34

an ecstatic state of shared excitement generated by collective performance of a ritual that results in alignment of emotional states, producing a sense of belonging and assimilation in all participants who feel and act as one