Glossary Flashcards
1
Q
acclimatization
A
The physiological process of being or becoming accustomed to a new physical environment.
2
Q
Acheulean Industry
A
One of the major industries of the Lower Paleolithic (the Old Stone Age). The technology generally associated with Homo erectus.
3
Q
achieved status
A
A status that results, at least in part, from a person’s voluntary actions.
4
Q
adaptation
A
The process in which an organism makes a successful adjustment to a specific environment.
5
Q
adaptive radiation
A
The relatively rapid evolution of a species in a new environmental niche.
6
Q
adjudication
A
The settling of legal disputes through a formal, centralized authority.
7
Q
aerial photography
A
Photographs taken from the air of archaeological sites and the landscape. Helpful to archaeologists in mapping and locating sites.
8
Q
age grades
A
Statuses defined by age through which a person moves in the course of his or her lifetime.
9
Q
age sets
A
Corporate groups of people of about the same age who share specific rights, obligations, duties, and privileges in their community.
10
Q
age stratification
A
The unequal allocation of wealth, power, and prestige among people of different ages.
11
Q
agribusiness
A
Commercialized, mechanized agriculture.
12
Q
agricultural states
A
States in which the power of the ruling elite was vested in the control of agricultural surpluses. This type of control typifies early states.
13
Q
alleles
A
The alternate forms of genes.
14
Q
ambilineal descent group
A
A social kinship group formed by choosing to trace relationships through either a male or a female line.
15
Q
analogy
A
Similarities in organisms that have no genetic relatedness.
16
Q
anatomically modern Homo sapiens
A
The most recent form of human, distinguished by a unique anatomy that differs from that of earlier, archaic Homo sapiens.
17
Q
animism
A
The belief that the world is populated by spiritual beings such as ghosts, souls, and demons.
18
Q
antiquaries
A
Collectors whose interest lies in the object itself, not in where the fossils might have come from or what the artifact and associated materials might tell about the people that produced them. Collectors of this kind characterized the early history of archaeology.
19
Q
anthropology
A
The systematic study of humankind.
20
Q
apartheid
A
A political, legal, and social system developed in South Africa in which the rights of different population groups were based on racial criteria.
21
Q
applied anthropology
A
The use of data gathered from the other subfields of anthropology to find practical solutions to problems in a society.
22
Q
arboreal
A
Living in trees.
23
Q
archaeology
A
The subfield of anthropology that focuses on the study of the artifacts from past societies to determine the lifestyles, history, and evolution of those societies.
24
Q
archaeological sites
A
Places of past human activity that are preserved in the ground.
25
archaic
A post-Pleistocene hunting-and-gathering adaptation in the Americas characterized by tools suitable for broad-spectrum collecting and more intensive exploitation of localized resources. Corresponds in terms of general trends with the Mesolithic of Europe.
26
archaic Homo sapiens
The earliest form of Homo sapiens, dating back more than 200,000 years.
27
artifacts
The material products of past societies.
28
artificial selection
The process in which people select certain plants and animals for breeding.
29
ascribed status
A status that is attached to a person from birth— for example, sex, caste, and race.
30
assimilation
The adoption of the language, culture, and ethnic identity of the dominant group in a society by other groups.
31
authority
Power generally perceived by members of society as legitimate, rather than coercive.
32
balanced polymorphism
The mixture of homozygous and heterozygous genes of a population in a state of equilibrium.
33
balanced reciprocity
A direct type of reciprocal exchange with an explicit expectation of immediate return.
34
band
The least complex and, most likely, the oldest form of a political system.
35
barter
The direct exchange of one commodity for another; it does not involve the use of money.
36
beliefs
Specific cultural conventions concerning true or false assumptions shared by a particular group.
37
bilateral descent
A descent system that traces relatives through both maternal and paternal sides of the family simultaneously.
38
biodiversity
The genetic and biological variation within and among different species of plants and animals.
39
biological assimilation
The process by which formerly distinct groups merge through marriage and reproduction.
40
biome
An area distinguished by a particular climate and certain types of plants and animals.
41
bipedalism
The ability to walk erect on two hind legs.
42
brideservice
A situation in which a male resides with his wife’s family for a specified amount of time.
43
bridewealth
The transfer of some form of wealth from the descent group of the groom to that of the bride.
44
broad-spectrum collecting
The exploitation of varied food resources in local environments.
45
capitalism
An economic system in which natural resources, as well as the means of producing and distributing goods and services, are privately owned.
46
carrying capacity
The maximum population that a specific environment can support.
47
caste
An endogamous social grouping into which a person is born and in which the person remains throughout his or her lifetime.
48
catastrophism
A theory that suggests that many species have dis- appeared since the time of creation because of major catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes, and other major geological disasters.
49
central place theory
The theory in geography and archaeology that, given uniform topography, resources, and opportunities, the distribution of sites within a region should be perfectly regular. Political and economic centers would be located an equal distance from one another, and each in turn would be surrounded by a hierarchical arrangement of smaller settlements, all evenly spaced. Developed by the German geographer Walter Christaller in the 1930s.
50
chief
A person who owns, manages, and controls the basic productive factors of the economy and has privileged access to strate- gic and luxury goods.
51
chiefdom
A political system with a formalized and centralized leadership, headed by a chief.
52
childhood mortality rate
The number of children who die before reaching the age of 5.
53
civilization
A complex society that has dense urban centers, ex- tensive food surpluses, a specialized division of labor, a bureaucratic organization or government, monumental art, and writing systems.
54
clan
A form of descent group in some societies whose members trace their descent to an unknown ancestor or, in some cases, to a sacred plant or animal.
55
clinal distribution
Plotting the varying distribution of physical traits in various populations on maps by clines, or zones.
56
clines
The zones on a map used to plot physical traits of populations.
57
closed peasant communities
Indian communities in highland areas of Latin America that were isolated from colonialism and the market economy.
58
closed society
A society in which social status is generally ascribed, rather than achieved.
59
Clovis-first hypothesis
The theory that maintains that the Clovis culture represents the initial human settlement of the Americas.
60
cognitive anthropology
The study of human psychological thought processes based on computer modeling.
61
command economy
An economic system in which the political elite makes the decisions concerning production, prices, and trade.
62
communication
The act of transferring information.
63
complementary opposition
The formation of groups that parallel one another as political antagonists.
64
composite tools
Tools, such as harpoons or spears, made from several components.
65
conflict theories
Theories that argue that state-level organization is beneficial only to the ruling elite and is generally costly to subor- dinate groups such as the peasantry.
66
consumption
The use of goods and services to satisfy desires and needs.
67
context
The specific location in the ground of an artifact or fossil and all associated materials.
68
continental drift
The separation of continents that occurred over millions of years as a result of the geological process of plate tectonics.
69
continuous variation
A phenomenon whereby variation in a particular trait or characteristic cannot be divided into discrete, readily definable groups, but varies continuously from one end of the spectrum to the other.
70
cosmologies
Ideas that present the universe as an orderly system, including answers to basic questions about the place of humankind.
71
core societies
Powerful industrial nations that exercise economic hegemony over other regions.
72
correlation
The simultaneous occurrence of two variables.
73
cross-cousin
The offspring of one’s father’s sister or one’s mother’s brother.
74
crude birth rate
The number of live births in a given year for every thousand people in a population.
75
crude death rate
The number of deaths in a given year for every thousand people in a population.
76
cultivation
The systematic planting and harvesting of plants to support the subsistence activities of a population.
77
culture
A shared way of life that includes the material products and nonmaterial products (values, beliefs, and norms) that are transmitted within a particular society from generation to generation.
78
cultural anthropology
The subfield of anthropology that focuses on the study of contemporary societies.
79
cultural assimilation
The process by which an ethnic group adopts the culture of another ethnic group.
80
cultural ecology
The systematic study of the relationships be- tween the environment and society.
81
cultural hegemony
The control over beliefs, values, and norms exercised by the dominant group in a society.
82
cultural materialism
A research strategy that focuses on technology, environment, and economic factors as key determinants in sociocultural evolution.
83
culture of poverty
The hypothesis that sets of values sustaining poverty are perpetuated generation after generation within a community.
84
cultural patrimony
The ownership of cultural properties such as human remains, artifacts, monuments, sacred sites, and associated cultural materials.
85
cultural relativism
The view that cultural traditions must be understood within the context of a particular society’s responses to problems, cultural practices, and values.
86
culture shock
A severe psychological reaction that results from adjusting to the realities of a society radically different from one’s own.
87
cultural universals
Essential behavioral characteristics of humans found in all societies.
88
cultural resource management
The attempt to protect and conserve artifacts and archaeological resources for the future.
89
culture
A shared way of life that includes material products, values, beliefs, and norms that are transmitted within a particular society from generation to generation.
90
Cut marks
Marks left on bones as a consequence of stone tool use, distinct from marks that might be left by a predator’s teeth or natural weathering.
91
datum point
A reference point in an archaeological excavation, often some permanent feature or marker, from which all measurements of contour, level, and location are taken.
92
deductive method
A method of investigation in which a scientist begins with a general theory, develops specific hypotheses, and tests them.
93
dendrochronology
A numerical dating technique based on the varying pattern of environmental conditions preserved in the annual growth rings of trees.
94
dentition
The number, form, and arrangement of teeth.
95
demographic transition
The decline of birth rates and death rates during later phases of industrialization.
96
demographic-transition theory
A model used to measure population trends within a society that assumes a close connection between fertility and mortality rates and socioeconomic development.
97
demography
The study of population and its relationship to society.
98
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
A chain of chemicals contained in each chromosome that produces physical traits that are transmitted to the offspring during reproduction.
99
dexterity
The flexibility and efficient use of the digits (fingers and toes) of the feet and hands. This is a key characteristic of the primates that allows them to grasp and manipulate objects.
100
dependence theory
The theory that underdevelopment in Third World societies is the result of domination by industrial capitalist societies.
101
dependent variable
A variable whose value changes in response to changes in the independent variable.
102
descent group
A social group identified by a person in order to trace his or her real or fictive kinship relationships.
103
developmental acclimatization
Permanent or non-reversible adaptation to specialized environmental conditions such as high altitude.
104
dialect
A linguistic pattern involving differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, or syntax that occurs within a common language family.
105
diffusionism
The spread of cultural traits from one society to another.
106
diurnal
Active during the day.
107
division of labor
The specialized economic roles and activities within a society.
108
domestication
The systematic, artificial selection of traits in plants or animals to make them more useful to human beings.
109
dominance hierarchy
The relative social status or ranking order found in some primate social groups.
110
dominant
The form of a gene that is expressed in a heterozygous pair.
111
doubling time
The period of time required for a population to double.
112
dowry
Goods and wealth paid by the bride’s family to the groom’s family.
113
drives
Basic, inborn biological urges that motivate human behavior.
114
dyadic contact
A reciprocal exchange arrangement between two individuals.
115
ecclesiastical religions
Religious traditions that develop in state societies and combine governmental and religious authority.
116
ecofacts
Archaeological finds that have cultural significance but that are not artifacts manufactured or produced by humans. Examples of ecofacts would be botanical, faunal, and shell remains recovered from an archaeological site.
117
ecology
The study of living organisms in relationship to their environment.
118
ecological niche
The specific environmental setting to which an organism is adapted.
119
economy
The social relationships that organize the production, exchange, and consumption of goods and services.
120
egalitarian
A type of social structure that emphasizes equality among different statuses.
121
ego
Freud’s term to refer to the aspect of the personality that is displayed to other individuals.
122
emic perspective
The study of a culture from an insider’s point of view.
123
embodied wealth
The physical or bodily health of individuals or groups.
124
enculturation
The process of social interaction through which people learn their culture.
125
endocast
The casts of the interior of the cranium, either natural of manmade, that provide a replica of the surface of the brain.
126
endogamy
Marriage between people of the same social group or category.
127
environmental niche
A locale that contains various plants, animals, and other ecological conditions to which a species must adjust.
128
epidemiology
The study of disease patterns in a society.
129
Epipaleolithic
The time period of about 14,000 years ago in the Near East when people begin to subsist on resources such as fish, small game, and wild plants and become more sedentary and less nomadic.
130
ethical relativism
The belief that the values of one society should never be imposed on another society.
131
ethnic boundary marker
The distinctions of language, clothing, or other aspects of culture that emphasize ethnicity.
132
ethnic group
A group that shares a culture.
133
ethnicity
Cultural differences among populations, usually based upon attributes such as language, religion, lifestyle, and cultural ideas about common descent or specific territory.
134
ethnoarchaeology
The study of material artifacts of the past along with the observation of modern peoples who have knowledge of the use and symbolic meaning of those artifacts.
135
ethnocentrism
The practice of judging another society by the values and standards of one’s own.
136
ethnocide
A process in which a dominant group or society forces other groups to abandon their traditional language and culture.
137
ethnogenesis
The emergence of a new ethnic group.
138
ethnography
A description of a society written by an anthropologist who conducted field research in that society.
139
ethnologist
An anthropologist who focuses on the cross-cultural aspects of ethnographic studies.
140
ethnology
The subfield of anthropology that focuses on the cross-cultural aspects of ethnographic studies.
141
ethnomusicology
The study of musical traditions in different societies.
142
ethnonationalist movements
The process of emphasizing the cultural distinctions of a particular group for political purposes.
143
ethnopoetics
The study of the poetry traditions and practices in different societies.
144
ethologist
A scientist who studies the behaviors of animals in their natural setting.
145
etic perspective
The study of a culture from an outsider’s point of view.
146
evolution
Process of change within the genetic makeup of a species over time.
147
evolutionary psychology
The study of the human mind using evolutionary findings.
148
exchange
The transfer of goods and services from one member of society to another.
149
exogamy
Marriage between people of different social groups or categories.
150
experimental studies
Studies involving the replication of tools or activities to infer how ancient tools may have been made and used.
151
extended family
A family that is made up of parents, children, and other kin relations bound together as a social unit.
152
family
A social group of two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption who live or reside together for an extended period, sharing economic resources and caring for their young.
153
faunal correlation
The dating of fossils through the comparison of similar fossils from better-dated sequences.
154
faunal succession
Literally, “animal” succession; recognizes that life-forms change through time. First noted by the English geologist William Smith.
155
features
Nonmovable artifacts or traces of past human activity such as an ancient fire hearth, a pit dug in the ground, or a wall.
156
fecundity
The potential number of children that women in a society are capable of bearing.
157
feminism
The belief that women are equal to men and should have equal rights and opportunities.
158
fertility
The number of births in a society.
159
feud
A type of armed combat within a political community.
160
feudalism
A decentralized form of political economy based on landed estates, which existed during different historical periods in agrarian societies.
161
fictive kinship ties
Extrafamilial social ties that provide mutualaid work groups.
162
fission-track dating
A numerical dating method based on the decay of an unstable isotope of uranium. Used to date volcanic rocks.
163
First World
The sector of the global economy that is composed of modern industrialized capitalist societies.
164
fissioning
The moving of people from one group to another area when their population begins to increase and food or other resources become scarce.
165
floatation
A specialized recovery technique in archaeology in which material from an excavation is placed in water to separate soil from organic remains such as plants, seeds, and charcoal.
166
folkways
Norms guiding ordinary usages and conventions of everyday life.
167
foraging society
Another classification used for a hunting-and-gathering society.
168
foramen magnum
The opening in the base of the skull through which the spinal cord passes.
169
forensic anthropology
The identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes.
170
fossil
The remains of bones and living materials preserved from earlier periods.
171
fossil localities
Places where fossils are found. These may be locations where predators dropped animals they killed, places where creatures were naturally covered by sediments, or sites where early humans or primates actually lived.
172
founder effect
A type of genetic drift resulting from the randomly determined genetic complement present in the founders of an isolated population.
173
Fourth World
Indigenous, native, or aboriginal societies.
174
functionalism
An anthropological perspective based upon the assumption that society consists of institutions that serve vital purposes for people.
175
galactic polity
A type of state that rules primarily through religious authorities and cosmologies.
176
gametes
Sex cells (such as egg and sperm in humans). They contain only half of the chromosomes found in ordinary body, or somatic, cells.
177
gene flow
The exchange of genes between populations as a result of interbreeding.
178
gene pool
The total collection of all the alleles within a particular population.
179
generalized reciprocity
A type of reciprocal exchange based upon the assumption that an immediate return is not expected and that the value of the exchange will balance out in the long run.
180
genes
Discrete units of hereditary information that determine specific physical characteristics of organisms.
181
genetic drift
Change in allele frequencies within a population as a result of random processes of selection.
182
gender
Specific human traits defined by culture and attached to each sex by a society.
183
genocide
The physical extermination of a particular ethnic group in a society.
184
genotype
The specific genetic constitution of an organism.
185
geronticide
The killing of old people.
186
gerontocracy
Rule by elders (usually male) who control the material and reproductive resources of the community.
187
globalization
The worldwide impact of industrialization and its socioeconomic, political, and cultural consequences on the world.
188
glocalization
The incorporation of global factors into the local culture.
189
goods
Elements of material culture produced from raw materials in the natural environment, ranging from the basic commodities for survival to luxury items.
190
greenhouse effect
Global warming caused when carbon dioxide traps heat from solar rays, preventing it from radiating back into space.
191
Green Revolution
The use of bioengineering and industrial technology for agricultural purposes.
192
hamula
The Arabic term for a clanlike organization.
193
Hardy–Weinberg theory of genetic equilibrium
An idealized mathematical model that sets hypothetical conditions under which no evolution is taking place. Developed independently by G. H. Hardy and W. Weinberg, the model is used to evaluate evolutionary processes operating on a population.
194
heterozygous
Having two different alleles in a gene pair.
195
hierarchical society
A society in which some people have greater access than others to wealth, rank, status, authority, and power.
196
hieroglyphic writing
Hiero meaning “sacred” and gyphein meaning “carving.” An early pictographic writing system in which symbols denoted the ideas and concepts.
197
historical linguistics
The comparison and classification of different languages to discern the historical links among them.
198
historical particularism
An approach to studying human societies in which each society has to be understood as a unique product of its own history.
199
holistic
A broad, comprehensive approach to the study of hu- mankind drawing on the four subfields of anthropology and integrating both biological and cultural phenomena.
200
hominid
The family of primates that includes modern humans and their direct ancestors who share distinctive types of teeth, jaws, and bipedalism.
201
homology
Traits that have a common genetic origin, but may differ in form and function.
202
homozygous
Having the same alleles in a gene pair.
203
horticulture
A form of agriculture in which people use a limited, nonmechanized technology to cultivate plants.
204
hunter-gatherer society
A society that depends on hunting animals and gathering vegetation for subsistence.
205
hybridization and assimilation models
Models of the evolution of anatomically modern humans that they allow for varying degrees of gene flow between Homo sapiens and earlier populations of archaic Homo sapiens via gene flow or genetic admixture.
206
hypodescent concept
A system of racial classification in which children of mixed parentage acquire the social and racial status of the parent whose social and racial status is lower.
207
hypothesis
A testable proposition concerning the relationship between different sets of variables within the collected data.
208
id
Freud’s term to refer to the unconscious, innate drives such as sex and aggression found in all humans.
209
ideal culture
What people say they do or should do.
210
ideographic writing systems
An early form of writing in which simple pictures are used to communicate ideas, an individual picture expressing each idea. In actuality, this system involves neither language nor writing.
211
ideology
Cultural symbols and beliefs that reflect and support the interests of specific groups within a society.
212
imperialsm
The economic and political domination and control of other societies.
213
incest
Sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives.
214
incest avoidance
Avoidance of sexual relations and marriage with members of one’s own family.
215
incest taboo
Strong cultural norms that prohibit sexual relations or marriage with members of one’s own family.
216
independent variable
A causal variable that produces an effect on another variable, the dependent variable.
217
inductive method
A method of investigation in which a scientist first makes observations and collects data and then, formulates a hypothesis.
218
industrialization
The use of machines and other sophisticated technology to satisfy the needs of society by transforming raw materials into manufactured goods.
219
industrial society
A society that uses sophisticated technology based upon machinery powered by advanced fuels to produce material goods.
220
infanticide
The deliberate abandonment or killing of infants 1 year of age or younger.
221
infant mortality rate
The number of babies per thousand births in any year who die before reaching the age of 1.
222
instincts
Fixed, complex, and genetically based unlearned behaviors that promote the survival of a species.
223
integrationist theories
A variety of theories that argue that state organization is, on the whole, advantageous and beneficial to all members of a society.
224
intelligence
The capacity to process information and adapt to the world.
225
intensive agriculture
The cultivation of crops by preparing permanent fields year after year, often using irrigation and fertilizers.
226
intensive horticulture
A method of crop production by irrigating, fertilizing, hoeing, and terracing hillsides.
227
jajmani economy
The Hindi term for the traditional caste-based economy in India.
228
jati
The Hindi term for caste.
229
jihad
The Arabic term that refers to a “holy struggle” against the destroyer of one’s own religion and culture.
230
Jim Crow laws
The laws that were used to segregate African Americans from white Americans in the southern United States prior to the civil rights era.
231
kindred
Overlapping relatives from both sides of a family that an individual recognizes as being part of his or her descent group.
232
kinesics
The study of body motion and gestures used in nonverbal communication.
233
knowledge
The storage and recall of learned information based on experience.
234
Knuckle walking
A distinctive type of quadrupedal locomotion used by gorillas. Knuckle walkers rest their hands on the ground in a curled position, with the tops of their curled middle and index fingers bearing their weight.
235
kula
A form of reciprocal exchange involving ceremonial items in the Trobriand Islands.
236
lactase deficiency
The inability to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk.
237
language
A system of symbols with standard meanings through which members of a society communicate with one another.
238
law of supraposition
States that in any succession of rock layers, the lowest rocks were deposited first and the upper rocks have been in place for progressively shorter periods. This assumption forms the basis of stratigraphic dating.
239
Levalloisian technique
A refined type of percussion flaking used during the Middle Paleolithic.
240
levirate
The rule that a widow is expected to marry one of her deceased husband’s brothers.
241
life expectancy
The number of years as average person can expect to live.
242
lineages
Descent groups composed of relatives, all of whom trace their relationship through consanguineal or affinal relations to an actual, commonly known ancestor.
