midterm #1 chp1-6 Flashcards
What is the key challenge to anthropology?
Decentralization
or,
Turn the unfamiliar familiar
Define anthropology and name the 4 adjectives used to describe the specificities of the discipline?
Anthropology= the study of human nature, human society, human language and human past.
1) holistic
2) comparative
3) field- based
4) evolutionary
Human beings are :biological ,cultural or bicultural organisms? Why?
Human beings are bicultural organisms. Human biology turns culture possible
And, Culture turns biological survival possible
Who is known as the“Father of physical anthropology”? Introduce very briefly his
work.
Johan Blumenbach (1752-1840), father of the physical anthropology, was a physician.
Classification of 5 races: Caucasoïd, Mongoloïd, American, Ethiopian and Malayan.
He assumed that the races of mankind were fixed and unchanging subdivisions of humanity
Why physical anthropology became known as biological anthropology?
in the 20th century in US and Canada anthropologists trained in human biology and human culture fought racial stereotypes and physical anthropology (devoted to racial classifications) became biological anthropology (considering human species as whole)
Introduce the different elements of cultural anthropology’s methodology?
Fieldwork- extended period of close involvement with the people in who’s life anthropologists are interested in
Informants- people who share information and provide insights about the way of life.
Aka respondents, collaborators, teachers, friends, people I work with…
method- participant to all possible activities, while still observing as an outsider: participant-observation
ethnography- description of what we see, ear…written or recorded description of a particular culture
ethnology- comparative study of two or more such groups.
What is the goal of Archaeology, and what methods do archeologists use to achieve
it?
goal of archaeology- reconstructing human pre history. Seek to understand past human cultural activity using a variety of different methods
Methods: surveys on areas, reconstructions, study of garbage, recreate tools and excavation of archeological sites.
Name some topics studied in Linguistic Anthropology?
- study the way language differences correlate with differences in gender, race, class, or ethnic identity
- studying what happens when speakers are fluent in more than one language, which language use under which circumstances
- study when speakers of unrelated languages are forced to communicate producing languages called (pidgins)
How can we avoid a cultural bias?
- look at the unfamiliar as if it is familiar
- question the unquestionable (our own culture)
- No culture has the monopoly of truth
What is human agency, and how it relates Culture and History?
Human agency: human ability to exercise some control over their lives
Human beings can change history, they are “agents” but we do so in a specific cultural and historic context
Cultural relativism can be used as a progressive political tool. Yet, what are the
limits of cultural relativism?
cultural relativism is defined as understanding another culture in it’s own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living
Goal = to understand cultural practices which look incoherent, simply disturbing or morally troubling
the limit of cultural relativism is to lock up culture into some timeless culture
it does not free us from facing difficult choices between alternatives whose “rightness” or “wrongness” is less than clear cut
Name the two concepts describing how we learn a culture.
socialization- the process by which humans as material organisms, living together with other similar organisms, cope with the behavioural rules established by their respective societies
enculturation- the process by which humans living with one another must learn to come to terms with the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cultures
Why can we say that cultural relativism could help us to build a more complex and
realistic reasoning?
- forces us to question common sense, shows the social reality is way more complex than we thought
Why can we say that cultural relativism could help us to build a more complex and
realistic reasoning?
- forces us to question common sense, shows the social reality is way more complex than we thought
check this card****
What is the Evolutionary Theory? Why is that so important to Anthropologists?
evolutionary theory- the set of testable hypothesis that assert that living organisms can change over time and give rise to new kinds of organisms, with the result that all organisms ultimately share common ancestry
- it is so important because
Pick one of the two examples of Inuit Christianization and FGC in East Africa, and
explain how they can illustrate human agency (from the girl in East Africal; from
Inuit people in the other case).
human agency is the practice of exercising control over one’s life, at least some. Women in east Africa want to have power, in order to do that they have to pass on their lineage by having children FGC is a act of fertility, most women want to do it because fertility=best chance at having children. Women choosing FGC would illustrate human agency.
Why can we say that cultural relativism could help us to build a more complex and
realistic reasoning?
Cultural relativism could help us to build a more complex and realistic reasoning because it forces us to take into consideration more than one point of view and to question common sense, it also shows us that social reality is more complex than we thought it was.
What are the central rule and the 3 principles of The Great Chain of Being?
The Natural World is harmonious by means of 3 principles:
1) continuity;
2) plentitude;
3) unilinear gradation
What is Catastrophism, and why is that a challenge to the Great Chain of Being?
catastrophism- the notion that natural disasters, such as floods, are responsible for extinction of species, then replaced by new species
* edit card later put in challenge to great chain of being
Who is the first one to introduce the idea that species can change, evolve?
According to him how do they change?
Jean- Baptiste de Monet de Lamarck
- Lamarck suggested that once a kind came into existence it had the capacity to evolve over time into perfect form. He also suggested that they might adapt to change by splitting into 2 or more new species. every individual species= adaptive transformation over time
According to Lamarck, what are the two attributes of all organisms that allow them
to transform themselves, and what are the two laws to explain the mechanisms of
transformation?
two attributes:
1. the ability to change physically in response to the environmental demands and
2. the capacity to activate this ability whenever environmental change makes the organism’s previous response obsolete
laws
1. law of use and disuse
2. inheritance of acquired characteristics
Introduce briefly the two Darwinian revolutions?
First Darwinian revolution- theory of a common ancestry and explanations of the mechanisms of evolution ( all species must have a common ancestor)
second Darwinian revolution- theory of natural selection 1) variant individuals because of genetic mutation 2) individuals best suited to environment survive and produce more offspring
Name the three principles used by Darwin to explain the theory of Natural Selection
and explain it with an example.
3 principles (natural selection aka survival of the fittest)
theory of natural selection: Variation is the central dimension of life:
the ones who adapt survive and reproduce more.
- Variation all individuals of all species are unique.
- Heredity variations are transmitted from one generation to another.
- Natural Selection different variants leave different numbers of offspring
Ex: “panda’s thumb”
Focus on the population + the differences
Panda’s with “thumbs” were more successful, so they have more offspring
The number with linger thumbs got larger, etc.
Name the two biological processes which were significant to overcome Pangenesis? What is the difference between them?
Main idea of Pangenesis the particles of the parents blend and give the offspring particles in such different proportions so that siblings are different.
Mitosis – duplication of the cell
Meiosis – a mitosis of a sex cell, duplication of the cell, and then a separation without chromosome duplication (contains only a single set of chromosomes).
