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Anthropology > Lecture 1 > Flashcards

Lecture 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is Anthropology

A

Study of humanity
All aspects of an individual: (how we act, speak, live, look like, our past)

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2
Q

What is the main concept in anthropology

A

Culture

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3
Q

What is culture? Is it static?

A
  • Broad based concept
  • Rules and norms of how we function within our world
  • Dictates proper/improper behaviour, language, etc.
  • Promote the long-term survival of the group
  • Not a static entity (adaptive)
  • Change is based upon beliefs and perceptions of group members
  • Culture is shared by group members
    -Learned
  • Knowledge within cultural practices allows the group to survive in
    their social and natural environment
  • Practices are integrated
  • Many social roles within one culture
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4
Q

Why do we need culture

A

we aren’t born with the knowledge we need to function
Culture provides us with the mental tools and behaviours to successfully adapt and survie in our environment and interact in our social relations in an appropriate manner

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5
Q

What are the social perspectives to cultures

A

ethnocentrism
Cultural relativism

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6
Q

ethnocentrism

A
  • Belief that one’s own culture, beliefs and practices are better than others
  • All other practices in cultural groups are measured against your own
  • Foundational to larger practices used to devalue and persecute other
    groups
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7
Q

Cultural relativism

A
  • Perspective that dictates that cultures are viewed and evaluated upon
    their own beliefs and standards
  • No such thing as a superior culture
  • Adopted within Anthropology
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8
Q

how is anthropology different form other fields

A

-Other fields tend to focus on examining only one aspect of one
society, typically their own
* Sociology, psychology, history
* Anthropology examines multiple aspects of multiple groups
across space and time
* Look at and compare different groups to understand the scope of human
behaviour and how it has developed and changed
* Not to rank or judge
* Holistic disciplin

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9
Q

What is holism

A
  • Perspective that recognizes that all aspects of a group (physical, mental, past/present) are important in understanding why that group acts/acted in a particular manner
  • Anthropology examines all of the possible factors of influence on groups over time
  • Nothing is excluded
  • Is a very broad discipline
  • Divided into four major subfields
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10
Q

four major anthropology subfields

A
  • Related through a common goal of understanding group culture
  • Overlap when approaching specific questions about cultural
    groups due to the focus of each subfield
  • Physical Anthropology
  • Anthropological Archaeology
  • Linguistic Anthropology
  • Cultural Anthropology
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11
Q

Physical anthropology

A
  • Study of human biological diversity, both past and present
  • Human evolution, primate studies, disease, and forensic anthropology
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12
Q

Archaeology

A
  • Study of peoples and their environment through physical remains and
    objects
  • Past and present groups
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13
Q

Linguistic Anthropology

A

Study of language

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14
Q

Cultural anthropology

A
  • Study of living or recent cultural groups
  • Observes and examines the social structures and knowledge of a group
    that allows it to function
  • As a group (internally)
  • With outside groups (externally
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15
Q

What is indigenous?

A
  • Any group of people or culture that is native to (originating within) a
    specific region
  • People in a location prior to the arrival of outside colonists or settlers
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16
Q

What are societal structures

A
  • One of the most observable aspects of any culture is their system
    of political organization
  • How groups manage public policy and public power
  • Uses the most commonly know descriptive terms
  • All of these political systems work with other complimentary
    systems within a society
  • Subsistence, religion, kinship, etc.
  • Are integrated together
17
Q

Who made the four major forms of societal structures?

A

Elman Service

18
Q

Band

A
  • Least complex
  • Foraging groups
  • Family group(s)
  • Economically self sufficient
  • Nomadic
  • Disperse and aggregate on a seasonal basis
  • Two types:
  • Simple
  • Composite
19
Q

Simple vs. composite band

A

Simple: Composed of a single extended family, 25-50 individuals, egalitarian (consensus), Leadership with elders (based on influence and authority)

Composite: Composed of several extended families, 50-200 members, egalitarian to a certain extent

20
Q

Tribes

A
  • Several residence groups under one leader
  • Several bands
  • 1,000 - 20,000 members
  • Have similar language and lifestyle
  • Occupy different territories
  • May have common ancestor
  • Kinship basis of membership
  • Share organized institutions
  • Sodalities
  • Kin groups, age groups, warrior groups
  • Leadership invested in headman
  • Generosity and influence
  • Responsible for group decisions
  • Hunting, planting, migration
  • Not full time politician
  • Egalitarian
  • Greater authority with headman
  • Foraging
  • Horticulture
  • Pastoralism
21
Q

chiefdom

A
  • Several residence groups under one leader
  • Permanently allied
  • 1,000 to 30,000 members
  • Similar to Tribe
  • Difference is in leadership
  • Authority with a hereditary chief
  • Passed down familial lines
  • Achievement still important
  • Centralized leadership
  • Leadership is an office
  • Regulates production and distribution
  • Settles internal conflict
  • Plans/leads raids
  • Controls two or more local groups
  • Can have regional variation in behaviour
  • Social stratification
  • Superordinate – elite who have privileged access to resources
  • Subordinate – underprivileged or commoners
  • Inequality of wealth
  • Chief responsible for religion
  • Fortified towns and villages
  • Pastoralism and agriculture
  • Some craft specialization
22
Q

State

A
  • Wide spread territory
  • Very large population base (millions)
  • Centralized political power
  • Ruling elite
  • Hereditary, elected, or appointed
  • Power through a coup
  • Development of bureaucracy
  • Manage state supported structures
  • Military, religion, government, social support and program
23
Q

What are powers of state

A
  • Defines citizenship and its rights and responsibilities
  • Monopolizes use of force and maintenance of law and order
  • Maintains standing armies and police
  • Maintains census of citizens
  • Age, wealth, marital status
  • Extract resources from citizens through taxation
24
Q

Indigenous vs Western State structures

A

Western societies have State structures
* Centralized power structures supported through taxation and the
production of food surplus
* Social structures that can be developed and maintained in any area that has been colonized
* Politics, religion, etc

25
Q

What is intensive agriculture

A
  • Produces a large surplus that can be taxed and used to support large
    government – infrastructure, military, bureaucracy, state supported
    religion
  • Job specialization – politician, soldier, bureaucrat, priest
26
Q

What is indigenous philosophy

A
  • Focal point of philosophy is the land upon which Indigenous
    groups live
  • Humans are just one of a multitude of other living beings (plants
    and animals) that are all equals
  • Individuals are dependent on Creation for all the resources they
    need to survive
  • Source of identity for Indigenous society
  • Responsibility of these beings, human and others, to act as
    stewards to maintain Creation and the environments they live in
  • Over time Indigenous groups have developed and intricate
    knowledge and unique ways of interacting with and living in
    Creation and their traditional landscapes
  • Includes positive and negative forces
    -Ecological philosophy- Gregory Cajete
  • Relationship with the land is dynamic
  • Continually adding and interpreting knowledge and narratives through
    interaction with the land
  • Concepts of time, space, language, and relationships have
    evolved in reference to their extended interactions and
    relationships with their landscapes
  • Cultural lessons/guidelines, individual and group identity, and
    traditional knowledge bases reside with locations on the
    landscape
  • Can be accessed through visitation and ritual
  • No one overall Indigenous philosophy
  • Diversity of landscapes within what is now Canada is going to be
    reflected in the philosophies and ways of knowing in the cultural
    groups that live there
27
Q

What is ecological philosophy

A
  • Local environment influences beliefs, actions, and how individuals view
    and process their world (how they “know”)
  • Over millennia these interactions and the subsequent acquisition of
    knowledge and narratives created a community-based consciousness
  • Cultural identity, knowledge, beliefs, guides for being a member of the
    community or culture is tied to the land

Anthropology (13 decks)

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