IB Anthropology 💱

Question 1

Ethnography: Learning Capitalist Culture
Author, Year, Location, Historical Context, Groups Studied, AOI, Key Concept, RWI, Modern Example

Answer 1

Author: Douglas Foley
Year: 1970s
Location: North town, Texas
Historical Context: End of the Civil Rights Movement
Groups Studied: Anglos & Mexicanos
AOI: Conflict (Race, gender), The Body (Females, Powder Puff Game)
Key Concept: Social Relations (Dating)(Race,gender), Power (White, Anglos Males, Football Player, Booster Club), Social Relations (Race, gender)
RWI: Inequality (Racism, discrimination) (BLM), Poverty (Class difference) (Poverty gap n the US)

Question 2

Belief and knowledge

Answer 2

Belief and knowledge is a set of convictions, values and viewpoints regarded as ‘‘the truth’’ and shared by members of a social group. These are underpinned and supported by known cultural experience

Question 3

Change

Answer 3

Change refers to the alteration or modification of cultural or social elements within a society. Change may be due to internal dynamics within a society, making contact with another culture, or consequence of globalization

Question 4

Culture

Answer 4

Culture refers to organized systems of symbols, ideas, explanations, beliefs and material production that humans create and manipulate in the coarse of their daily lives. Culture includes the customs by which humans organize their physical world and maintain their social structure

Question 5

Identity

Answer 5

Identity can refer either to the individual’s private and personal view of the self or how an individual is viewed from the perspective of a social group. Identity can also refer to group identity , which is the image of a group held by it’s members or of those who are external to the group

Question 6

Materiality

Answer 6

Objects, resources, and belongings that have cultural meaning are embedded in all kinds of social relations and practices. Some anthropologists seek to understand human experience through the study of material objects

Question 7

Power

Answer 7

Power is an essential feature pf social relationships and can be considered as a persons or groups capacity to influence, manipulate or control others and resources

Question 8

Social Relations

Answer 8

Social relations refer to any relationship between two or more individuals in a network of relationships. Social relations involve an element of individual agency as well as group expectations, and form the basis of social organization and social structure. They pervade every aspect of human life and are extensive, complex, and diverse

Question 9

Society

Answer 9

Society refers to the way in which humans organize themselves in groups and networks. Society is created and sustained by social relationships and institutions. The term ‘‘society’’ can also be used to refer to a human group that exhibits some internal coherence and distinguishes itself from other such groups

Question 10

Symbolism

Answer 10

Symbolism is the study of the significance that people attach to objects, actions, and processes, creating networks of symbols through which they construct a culture’s web of meaning

Question 11

Ethnography: Shadowed Lives
Author, Year, Location, Historical Context, Groups Studied, AOI, Key Concept, RWI, Modern Example

Answer 11

Author: Leo Chavez
Year: 1980s
Location: US/MEX Border, San Diego County
Historical Context: Immigration Debate
Groups Studied: Documented/Undocumented Workers
AOI: Conflict (Conflict to Migrate)
Key Concept: Change (incorporation into society, jobs, opportunities), Culture (Adaptation, children being raised in US culture), Identity (Docuemnted vs Undocumented workers)
RWI: Globalization (Migration outsourcing) (Illegal Immigration) (COVID) Inequality (Documented vs Undocumented) (BLM)

Question 12

Ethnography: Selling Sex for Visas
Author, Year, Location, Historical Context, Groups Studied, AOI, Key Concept, RWI, Modern Example

Answer 12

Author: Denise Brennan
Year: 1990s
Location: Sosua, Dominican Republic
Historical Context: Rise of the Internet, Globalization
Groups Studied: Dominican women (female sex workers), European men
AOI: Conflict (Domestic Work vs Sex work, The Body (Sex work)
Key Concept: Social Relations (Dominican women) (European Men), Power (Sex Worker) Men - Visas)
RWI: Globalization (Illegal Immigration) (COVID), Poverty (Living Paycheck to Paycheck) (Poverty gap in the US) (COVID), Human Rights (Sex trafficking)

Question 13

Ethnography: Because She Looks Like A Child
Author, Year, Location, Historical Context, Groups Studied, AOI, Key Concept, RWI, Modern Example

Answer 13

Author: Kevin Bales
Year: 1990s
Location: Thailand
Historical Context: Modernization of Thailand
Groups Studied: Child Prostitutes, Pimps, Sex trafficking
AOI: The Body (Siri-body as commodity), (Movement, Time, Space)
Key Concept: Power (Pimps), Social relations (Pimps v Sex Workers)
RWI: Globalization, Human Rights, Inequality (Sex trafficking), Violence (Pimps use violence and drugs to control girls) (Gun Violence in the US)

Question 14

Emic (Insider)

Answer 14

View from the perspective of the native of the culture

Question 15

Etic (Outsider)

Answer 15

Views of a culture from the perspective of an anthropologist/outsider/someone not from the culture being studied

Question 16

Ethnography

Answer 16

Description of a particular culture, usually based on the method of participant observation

Question 17

Acculturation

Answer 17

External culture change resulting from contact between cultures

Question 18

Assimilation

Answer 18

When one ethnic group absorbs another so that the cultural traits of the assimilated group become indistinguishable

Question 19

Discrimination

Answer 19

Unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people on the grounds of race, age and sex

Question 20

Ethnicity

Answer 20

State of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition

Question 21

Ethnocentrism

Answer 21

Judging other cultures by the standards of your own, which you believe to be superior

Question 22

Impression Management

Answer 22

Conscious or subconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people

Question 23

Race

Answer 23

Major groupings into which humankind is considered to be divided on the basis of physical characteristics or shared ancestry

Question 24

Rites of Passage

Answer 24

Ritual ceremonies intended to mark the transition from one phase of life to another

Question 25

Socialization

Answer 25

The process by which culture is learned. Individuals internalize a culture’s social controls, along with values and norms about rights and wrongs

Question 26

Gender

Answer 26

The range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them

Question 27

Role

Answer 27

The relation one has with another node in a social network

Question 28

Status

Answer 28

The position one has in a social network

Question 29

Sex

Answer 29

Either two man categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions

Question 30

Social Structure

Answer 30

Patterned social arrangements in a society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals

Question 31

Religion

Answer 31

A set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power

Question 32

Ritual

Answer 32

The viable control of abstract thoughts. Tries to control unpredictable events and the supernatural. Tries to know the unknowable and change the unchangeable.

Question 33

Secular

Answer 33

Non-religious or spiritual

Question 34

Power

Answer 34

The ability to influence the actions of others

Question 35

Globalization

Answer 35

When the world becomes more interconnected and breaks down boundaries. Increases unification of worlds economic order through international trade, migration, etc

Question 36

Migration

Answer 36

Movement of humans from one area to another

Question 37

Brain Drain

Answer 37

The emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a particular country

Question 38

Care Drain

Answer 38

The emigration of care workers (mainly women) from a particular country

Question 39

Commodity

Answer 39

An economic good .. something that can be baught/sold

Question 40

Commodification

Answer 40

Transformation of goods/services into a community (includes things that are normalized as trading goods such as people)

Question 41

Class Stratification

Answer 41

When members of a society are ranked from higher to lower based on wealth, prestige, position, or education

Question 42

Division of Labor

Answer 42

The division of tasks in a society between women an men, old and young, ability, knowledge and experience

Question 43

The Body

Answer 43

Human bodies are the product of both biology and culture

Question 44

Belonging

Answer 44

Individuals come together to form communities which may include belonging to a social group or class

Question 45

Conflict

Answer 45

Complexity of power relations and questions of inequality

Question 46

Inequality

Answer 46

Treating others unequally

Question 47

Human Rights

Answer 47

Denying peoples freedoms

Question 48

Poverty

Answer 48

Lack of basic needs and necessities

Question 49

Violence

Answer 49

Deliberately harming others

Question 50

Learning Capitalist Culture Details:

Answer 50

Intro: In the ethnography “Learning Capitalist Culture” by Douglas Foley, the youth lives within a predominately Mexican American society showcased inside North Town, Texas. Foley studied North Town at the height of the 1970s following the end of the Civil Rights Movement where the Mexicanos were challenging the Anglos for equal rights. The racially segregated motions created tension between the Anglos and Mexicanos.

.AOI:
Conflict (Race, gender) The Body (Females, Powder Puff Game)

Key Concept: Social Relations(race and gender, Mexicanos/Anglos)/Culture(Dating, Football and Powderpuff games), Society(Race and Gender relations)- Dating played a big role in representing class status. Who you dated influenced your achieved status: a concept indicating a social position that a person can acquire on the basis of merit; it is a position that is either earned or chosen. For instance, if a Mexicano male dated an Anglo female, it was seen as a political victory since the all Anglos are ranked above Mexicanos in a social status. However, if you were a Mexicano female dating an Anglo male, you’d have strong connotations of being frowned upon. The most forbidden couple would be between an Anglo male, who sits at the top of the societal food chain and a female Mexicano who holds the lowest status in the hierarchy. Dating relationships in North Town are a form of hypodescent which rules that the youth who chose to form personal relationships with those in varying racial or gender groups automatically reduce their social status to a lower level. Teenagers didn’t want to lose their reputation or lower their status because of who they were dating. These stereotypes that people already had made it difficult for young people to date.
In Northtown, Football games weren’t just seen as a simple sporting event, but a symbol. A symbol can be defined as an idea that stands for something else and contains no natural connection to the actual meaning of the word. The more popular and rather normalize version of football was known as ‘’ The Powder-Puff Football’’ which was a game designed to reinforce gender roles. It socialized young men to believe they were socially and physically superior to females. Males dressed and acted femininely as some sort of punitive entertainment where they deliberately make fun of girls. The football players had a sense of ethnocentrism: a tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and judge behaviors and beliefs within different cultures under the basis of one’s own standards. Since the society within Northtown appreciates the sport of football, they were automatically favored those who played rather than those who didn’t participate. The Anglo football players were honored to great extend; students that previously graduated, which mainly consisted of Anglos, returned to honor the new generation over an organized bonfire. As a means for valuing and respecting football players, former students pledge and celebrate them to ensure the Anglos of their authority and importance.

Question 51

Shadowed Lives Details:

Answer 51

In the midst of the Immigration Debate of the 90’s, Leo Chavez conducted over 2000 interviews of Mexican migrants who settled in the San Diego Country. Chavez wrote an informative ethnography discussing the transformation of Mexican migrants across the border and their encounters with documented workers.

Key Concept: Culture (Green Valley/Gloria’s restaurant) - Many migrants’ culture or ‘‘way of life’’ derived from the Green Valley Camp in which many migrants worked and spent a significant amount of time there. Green valley included manufactured, makeshift homes that are hidden within the hills of El Camino Real. For the most part, Green Valley held a respectable reputation among the community for it’s positive impact, cleanliness and crime less atmosphere. Both types of workers were kept in the green Valley and learned to work together. Even children were present and prepped with adventures to keep themselves entertained. Green Valleys’ reputation of pleasant conditions spread among the migrant network, especially to women who can be productive there; the community had friendly people and satisfactory living conditions including showers, washing stations, and faucets for drinking water. It’s well deserved reputation allowed for Gloria’s restaurant to open. Gloria’s restaurant was a family friendly restaurant intended to feed migrant workers after a long day of hard work. It had a dirt floor and chickens running all around and was hidden in the brush, contributing to the lifestyle they led and adding an immeasurable amount to the quality of life there. The role of restaurants, particularly instigated by Gloria’s, encouraged social interactions people migrant workers since it was epitomized as the social center of Green Valley. Different groups of immigrants felt comfortable in the presence of restaurants where they could freely share stories and experiences from their lives with one another as well as feed the camps and give them stability without fear or judgment from others.

Question 52

Big 6 Questions:

What is culture?

What does it mean to be a person?

What does it mean to live in a society?

How are we the same yet different from each other?

Why does anthropology matter?

To what extend is knowing others possible?

Answer 52

Culture is defined as the way of life. Distinct attitudes and behaviors embedded in the characteristics of a particular social group or organization are what make up a culture. Individuals can be seen as homogeneous since we all participate and live with through cultural universals. However, the way in which these universals are constructed varies between each culture. I will further allude to the three different ethnographies to identify their interpretations of culture…
LCC (Football/Powderpuff/Dating)
SL (Green Valley/Gloria’s restaurant)

The state of existing as a social, sentient being. Personhood can be understood as most firmly connected to the mind whereas other individuals can view a person more closer to the body or environment, as opposed to the mind.

A society is developed through humans that are organized into a variation of social groups and networks. Being a part of society means to belong in a cluster of individuals that share the same norms and lifestyle.

Individuals can be seen as homogeneous since we all participate and live with through cultural universals. However, the way in which these universals are constructed varies between each culture. The difference between one another derives from the minor adaptions and way of life we exhibit.

Since anthropology studies human societies and cultures, it evaluates how other individuals operate. Being open to learning about other cultures allows people to understand why others behave and act in a certain way. Thus, people can appreciate other societies cultural differences without any discrimination.

It’s imperative for people to understand that everyone is different; people vary through cultures, societies and feelings. It’s inevitable that people will carry on with their different lives and norms, However, by utilizing the emic approach: viewing from the perspective of the native of the culture, people can immerse themselves into other cultures by putting themselves into the shoes of others.