Mid Term 1 Flashcards
Natural History
Study of organisms in their natural environment.
Archaeology
1/4 sub fields. Study of human history and pre history through remains and artifacts.
Biological anthropology
1/4 sub field. Study of biological and behavioral aspects of humans, pre humans and pre historic relatives.
Linguistics
1/4 sub field. The study of languages affects of social life and structure.
Cultural anthropology
1/4 sub field. Study of cultural variation between humans.
Holism
Mind, body, individuals, society, and the environment define one another.
Culture
Shared patterns of learned behavior and ideas that people acquire as members of society. Humans use culture to adapt and transform the world in which they live.
Ethnocentrism
Judging another culture by your own values. Assumption your group is superior.
Cultural relativism
Idea where a persons beliefs and practices should be understood based on that persons own culture.
Nacirema
American. A piece of which American culture is viewed from an outside perspective. Written by Horace Miner in 1956.
Fieldwork
Observation, descriptions, and empirical data that is obtained within the field of study.
Armchair anthropology
Hands off approach to a cultural study. Leads to inaccurate assessments.
Participant observation
Technique where an anthropologist will gain entrance to a foreign culture to attain understanding.
The imponderabilia of actual life
All the factors of life that can’t be seen second hand. Such as daily or private activities.
Cultural evolutionism
Culture is a linear progression from primitive to advanced. Causes a superiority of cultures.
Structural functionalism
1930’s & 40’s. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown & EE Evans-Pritchard.
Focused on structure and function of practices along with rules.
Culture area studies
A large area of fieldwork where traits and societies are similar.
Interpretive or symbolic anthropology
1970’s. Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner.
Interested in not just social systems but social meaning. Culture is a system of symbols and can be individually interpreted.
Writing against culture/ neomodern anthropology
Not all practices are functional
Culture is not static
Culture is not just shared but rather is contested.
Social groups are not bounded
Culture is power laden
EB Tylor
Cultural Evolutionist
1832-1917
Author of primitive culture
EE Evans-Pritchard
Structural-Functionalism
Function of magic and how it is used as a source to maintain power.
Bronislaw Malinowski
Introduced modern day fieldwork
Conducted research in and the islands off of Australia
1884-1942
Franz Boas
Father of anthropology
Cultural relativism
Margaret Mead
You can love a lot of people
Clifford Geertz
Interpretive Anthropologist
Thick methodology
Twitch v wink
Lila Abu-Lughod
1990’s
Conducted research in a beduin tribe in Egypt
Against interpretive anthropology
Thick description
Describes context to behaviors
Capitalism
Production of goods and services are freely exchanged
Colonialism
To acquire political control with occupation
Scramble for Africa
Period of European colonization
Anthropologists and colonial government were wary of each other
Indirect rule
Proxy government
Native people retain some power
Positivism
Produce objective and empirical knowledge
Neutral and scientific perspective
Empiricist
Importance of sensory experience and empirical evidence
Ideology
Collection of beliefs held by a group
Set of ideas brought by dominant class
Discourse
What people say
Often ideological
Practice
What people say and do
Paradigms
Changes in definition over time
Context in which definitions emerge
How these definitions shape data collection
Objective
Produce knowledge about reality that is true for all people in all time and places
Reflexivity
Researchers awareness of the affect they have on their data and study
How they affect the peoples actions they are with
Intersubjectivity
Putting the anthropologists in the communities shoes
Live how the people live
Situated knowledge
Understanding the view of others as it all stems from somewhere
Dialectic of fieldwork
Building a bridge between anthropologists and informants
Bedouin
Arab nomad
Awlad ‘Ali
Bedouin tribe lughod conducted research in
Ethics of fieldwork
To be considerate to the people being studied with consent
Human terrain system project
US government project to collect data from Afghans as a form of intelligence.
Anthropologists did not like this.
Cannibalism
People eat people
Not always bad stereotype
Medical cannibalism
Consumption of flesh to treat medical ailments
Endocannibalism
Earthing someone from the same community
Exocannibalism
Eating someone that is not in your community
Wari’
Western Brazilian tribe that consumed their dead as a form of respect
Virgin soil epidemics
Europeans bringing disease to the americas and wiping out a lot of people
Ritual
Repetitive social practice
Dance, song , speech , gesture, or manipulation of objects
Rite of passage
A ritual that is done to join a community
Separation
Separation from social community
Liminal phase
Where the person finds a meaning or a change of view of the world
Reaggregation
Reintroduced into community n a new role
Electronic fetal monitoring
Keeps track of fetal heart rate
Parental massage/ sobada
Midwife massage and manipulates uterus and determines where the fetuses head is and the due date
Medicalization
Everything can be treated
Form of social control expanding domain of medical authority
Sick role
Wari move and speaks very little
Yucatán
Home birth
Midwives
Seen as a natural process
Family helps birthing process
No male physician
Holland
50ish% of births are home births by highly trained midwives
No medication
Can abort pregnancy whenever during course of birth
Sweden
50ish% are at home births with highly trained midwives
Medication is used
Can be aborted
US
Majority are hospitalized
Medical decisions are in the hands of personnel and not the mother
