Midterm #1

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

the study of how human beings make sense of their lives and the world around them

Question 2

What are the four sub-fields of Anthropology?

Answer 2

Physical/ Biological, Archaeology, Linguistics, Cultural

Question 3

Ethnography

Answer 3

mode of writing, figuring out what we know, and thinking critically about the “ethical process”.

Question 4

Cultural Evolution

Answer 4

mid 19th century theory that cultures can be compared to determine their relative position on a single scale of development.
Savagery> Barbarism> Civilization

Question 5

Hegemony

Answer 5

lived dominance and subordination of particular groups within a culture

Question 6

Discourse

Answer 6

language bound by (often unstated) rules that both construct and are patterned by social and personal reality; debate

Question 7

Historical Particularism

Answer 7

culture or society product of its unique past (inner and outside) influences

Question 8

Ethnocentrism

Answer 8

judging other cultures using one’s own cultural standards

Question 9

Cultural Relativity

Answer 9

study of culture in its own context without judgment; the idea that to know another culture requires full understanding of its members’ beliefs & motivations

Question 10

Dialect Dynamism

Answer 10

culture changes in relation to social environment and in response to how people interact with this environment

Question 11

Enculturation

Answer 11

process by which a child learns his or her culture

Question 12

Symbolic

Answer 12

how we assign meaning to signs that have no necessary or natural meaning; tied to broader systems of meaning

Question 13

society

Answer 13

a structure of position that people occupy

Question 14

Moral (Ethical) Relativism

Answer 14

the idea that you can’t make an ethical claim about what is right or wrong beyond your own culture

Question 15

Social Darwinism

Answer 15

social philosophy (mistakenly) based on biological evolution

Question 16

Difference without hierarchy

Answer 16

the study of man in his physical, intellectual, and moral dimensions, no matter his race

Question 17

The concept of race:

Answer 17

race is a cultural category rather than biological reality

Question 18

The “Savage Slot”

Answer 18

the prototypical object of study in Anthropology, which grew out of the categories of Western political and intellectual history and colonial encounter

Question 19

Queer Theory

Answer 19

explores the oppressive power of dominant social norms, especially but not only around sexuality

Question 20

Intersectionality

Answer 20

the interconnected nature of social organizations such as race, class, and gender; applied to a given individual or group

Question 21

Colonialism

Answer 21

political, social, economic and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended period of time

Question 22

Examples of Colonialisms

Answer 22

• massive depopulation
• massive land loss
• impacts on culture + language
• transformed religious, political, and kinship systems
• violent demands on resources
• political and economic afterlives
• transformed environmental and inter-species relations

Question 23

Settler Colonialism

Answer 23

taking of land and the dispossession of people; a structure, not an event

Question 24

Salvage Anthropology

Answer 24

dated term referring to the anthropological study of cultures considered to be in decline or at risk of disappearance

Question 25

Globalization

Answer 25

the increased movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders; generally used to characterize around the last 45 years

Question 26

Effects of Globalization

Answer 26

• time-space compression
• flexible accumulation
• increasing migration
• inequality
• cultural standardization
• environmental damage/ climate change
• effects on anthro, what is studied and how?

Question 27

Post-cultural Anthropology

Answer 27

looks to the margins to understand the center; seeks to understand how people experience hegemony; is concerned with the production and reproduction of truths

Question 28

Post-structural Theory

Answer 28

concerned with understanding modern power as disciplinary in addition to political and legal

Question 29

Historic Turn

Answer 29

attention to the history of cultural beliefs and structures; idea that all people live in the historic present

Question 30

Political Economy

Answer 30

concerned with the links of politics, economy, and culture, as well as the material factors in social and cultural change

Question 31

Gender

Answer 31

the social, cultural, and psychological constructions that are imposed on the biological differences of sex; internally felt/ experienced

Question 32

Sex/ gender system

Answer 32

the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity

Question 33

Gender Binary

Answer 33

the idea that there are two distinct and opposite genders– male and female; this model is limiting and doesn’t account for full spectrum of gender identities and expressions

Question 34

Gender Role

Answer 34

a set of social and cultural beliefs or expectations about appropriate behavior for men, boys, women, and girls

Question 35

Sexual Division of Labor

Answer 35

the division of labor in society along gender roles

Question 36

Feminist Anthropology

Answer 36

• the study of women, sex-gender systems, and the naturalization of power and hierarchy across categories of experience
• studies gender relations cross-culturally and variation in gender expression