Lecture series 2 Flashcards
theory
a statement that suggests a relationship among phenomena and explains that relationship theories can generate hypotheses to be tested in an empirical research investigation theories also shape methods of interpretation in qualitative approaches
positivism
there is a structure that determines truth and it can be identified (science)
determinism
all human action comes from external causes
idealism
mind/spirit determines human nature
agency
humans consciously do as they please
materialism
physical matter determines human nature (biological characteristics, wealth)
history of anthropology
- pre-disciplinary
- pre-formative
- relativism and cultural preservation (1900’s-1980’s)
- critical and post modern (1960’s-present)
- activist (1980’s-present)
- neo-evolutionary
pre-disciplinary
- across cultures and across history, understaning “other”cultures was used for empire building
- orientalism (asia as a projected other against which to define the west)
- modern academia in some cases recognizes, or looks for, ancient roots in other philosophies
pre-formative
- european colonialism (1400’s- 1960’s)
- efficient subjucation (production/extraction)
- empire
colonialism
a social system in which one society dominates another through political and economic force
colonialism established extractive processes
capitalism
the economic system that assigns value to items based on supply and demand
the transition to capitalism assigned_____________to land, labor, and wealth
european values
three key concepts that shaped early anthropology (1850’s)
- disruptions caused by industrialization in europe and america
- the rise of evolutionary theories
- the spread of european colonialism
idustrialization
- disrupted american and european societies by bringing large numbers of rural people into towns and cities to work in factories. urbanization, secular trends. specialization (academics)
- studying how european villages and cities were structured and how they perpetuated their cultures led to questions about how non-western societes worked as well
evolution
- On the Origin of Species was published in 1859 by Charles Darwin
- evolutionary theories were subsequentially applied to the study of culture
- early concepts of unilineal cultural evolution were abandoned
salvage paradigm
to observe indigenous ways of life before knowledge of traditional languages and customs before they were persumed to disappear
early academic
- grand theories (1880’s-1940’s)
- goal is prediction of behavior and beliefs-a focus on “other” seemingly simple cultures
- evolutionism
- diffusionism
- american historicism
- functionalism
- WW2 reconstruction efforts spawned international development
structural-functionalism
culture is structured to meet needs of the individual within society
psychological anthropology
culture and personality-culture groups share personality traits that encourage behaviors
evolutionism
- represented by edward tylor and lewis henry morgan in the 19th century
- attempted to explain variations in world cultures by the single deductive theory that they all pass through a series of evolutionary stages
- defined by the presence and absence of certain technological features
- savagery-barbarism-civilization
functionalism
purposes that cultural practices and beliefs perform functions for societies:explaining how the world works, organizing people into efficient roles, etc.
emphasizes that socil institutions function together in an integrated and balanced fashion to keep the whole society functioning smoothly and to minimize social change
associated with british anthropologists bronislaw malinowski and a.r. radcliffe-brown
critics of fuctionalism argued that it was too_____________and viewed culture as too stable and smoothly functioning
diffusionism
a theory that stated that certain cultural features were invented originally in one or several parts of the world and then spread to other cultures
overemphasized the valid idea of diffusion
american historicism
inductive approach-interpret themes from extensive collections of ethnographic data based upon direct fieldwork
headed by franz boas
prominent in the first part of the 20th century
person
the socially recognized individual
modern societies value__________while premodern societies emphasize____________
each unique individual (egocentric)
social solidarity (sociocentric)
ruth benedict was an influential proponent of _______________
culture and personality studies
“self” refers to_______________
an individual’s conception of his or her fundamental qualities and consciousness
relativism and cultural preservation (1900’s-1980’s)
- deconstructioning dominant cultural concepts like “race”
- complex and relative theories
- cultural relativity-understand culture in its own terms
- what does this require? (language, time-experience-methods)
- political (race, war)
- international development
ethnopsychology is an anthropological analysis of
world psychologies
ethnopsychology
- explores how societies make sese of persons, selves, and emotions
- the emtions we experience, and assume to be univeral may not have an exact equivelant in other cultures
materialist/marxist theory
- human agency operates within cultural and historical material constraints
- “men make theirwon history, but they do not make it jsut as they please”
marx’s constraints on agency
power-there are individual differences in the ability to make change
coevolution
culture (symbols) and agency (ideas) both influence and are influenced by the material (physical environment)
franz boas and his students were_________
diffusionists
diffusionists
early twentieth-century anthropologists who held that cultural characteristics result from either internal historical dynamism or a spread (diffusion) of cultural attributes from other societies
in the 1950’s, marxists anthropologists like eric wolf suggested that non-western societies could not be understood without reference to
their place within a global capitalist system
until the 1980’s, mainstream anthropology was locally focused on research in face-to-face village settings
research in face-to-face village settings
as globalization has increased in pace, anthropologists now realize that too narrow a focus gives an incomplete understanding of people’s lives and the underlying causes of cultural differences
too narrow a focus gives an incomplete understanding of people’s lives and the underlying causes of cultural differences
critical, postmodern and activist
- deep relexivity
- reflection on anthropologist’s own role in creating the social encounter
- view of social phenomena as subjecitvely experienced rather thta fundamentally constructed of elements (distanced from objective science/positivism)
- representation becomes the goal (film, poetry, photography)
- theories of visibility and invisibility (postmodern)
- anti-war, anti-hunger, universal human rights, civil rights
globalization
the widening scale of cross-cultural interactions caused by the rapid movement of money, people, goods, images, and ideas within nations and across national boundaries
the process of globalization affects__________, especially anthropologists who seek to understand the differences and similarities between_______________
everyone
human groups and cultures
interpretive contemporary theory
understanding the symbolic meaning used to express and transmit culture.
ex. structural functionalism/historical particularism/symbolic/postmodern or hermaneutic
evolutionary contemporary theory
understand how culture changes in response to human needs
activist contemporary theory
direct social change for a purpose
evolutionary psychologists use____________ to help explain contemporary human behavior, cognition, and perception
natural selection
biological determinism
the belief that human behaviors and beliefs are primarily, if not solely, the result of biological characteristics and processes
migrants
people who leave their homes to work for a time in other regions or countries
immigrants
people who leave their countries with no expectation of ever returning
refugees
people who migrate because of political oppression or war, usually with legal permission to stay in a different country
exiles
people who are expelled by the authorities of their home countries
transnational
refers to the relationships that extend beyond nation-state boundaries without assuming they cover the whole world.
financial globalization
- began in the 1870’s
- was interrupted by two world wars
- has accelerated over the last sixty years
eric wolf challenged
anthropology’s traditional focus on small, local groups of people, while negledting the world system’s influence
postcolonialism
the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism, the study of which has also helped anthropologists understand the linkages between local social relations and larger regional, national, and transnational levels of political-economic activity
anthropologists study resistance groups on the periphery which show how
people interpret and challenge global processes through local cultural idioms and beliefs
localization
the creation and assertion of highly particular, often place-based, identities and communitites
- localization is relected in patterns of consumption. may other cultues use clothing to convey messages
development anthropology
the application of anthropological methods to the practical aspects of shaping and implementing development projects
anthropology of development
the field of study within anthropology concerned with understanding the cultural conditions for proper development or, alternatively, the negarive impacts of development projects
postmodernism
a school of anthropology that advocates the switch from cultural generalization and absolutes to instead focus on the processes of description, interpretation, and the search for meaning through culture
ethnographies should be a_____________between the anthropologist and those of the people under analysis
dialogue
interpretive anthropologist clifford geertz focused on culture as_____________
symbols
humans are very____________
altrical (dependent on parent nurturing ar birth)
humans have limited survival without
social interaction
human biology (anatomy and physiology) is evolved for
sociality and expression of culture
cultural adaptions to ecological changes are much more rapid than
genetic changes
cultural adaption is a better strategy for survival in a
variable environment
cultural adaption is probably essential when culture is also a
selective pressure (people decide if you live, die, or reproduce)
