Key Terms - Anthropology Flashcards
Ethnocentrism
The act of judging another culture and believing that the values and standards of one’s own culture superior
Bipedalism
The ability to walk on two legs.
Cultural Relativism
Idea that a person’s beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another.
Functional Theory
A framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
Culture (rules)
- Culture is learned
2. Culture is shared
Physical/Bio Anthro
Scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an evolutionary perspective.
Cultural Anthro
Focuses on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of the anthropological constant.
Linguistics
Scientific study of language
Archeology
Study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture.
Evolution
Darwins Theory:
Natural Selection - The change in traits of a characteristic of a population over generations
Adaptation - Slow process of the adjustment of an organism to environmental conditions (we cannot see it)
Survival of the Fittest
Phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success.
Monogamy
The practice or state of being married to one person at a time.
Polygamy
A form of marriage with multiple partners
Endogamy
Marrying within a specific social group, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships
Anthropology
The study of human beings as a species and members of different cultures
