Midterm Review

Question 1

What is anthropology?

Answer 1

The study of humans;
The study of people, their origins and their development, whenever and wherever they have been found.

Question 2

What are the 4 fields of anthropology?

Answer 2

1. Biological
2. Archeology
3. Linguistics
4. Cultural

Question 3

Biological Anthropology

Answer 3

The biological evolution of human beings.

Question 4

Archeology

Answer 4

The study of prehistoric and historic cultures through the excavation of material remains.

Question 5

(Anthropological) Linguistics

Answer 5

The scientific study of human communication.

Question 6

Cultural Anthropology

Answer 6

The scientific study of cultural similarities and differences.

Question 7

Ethnocentrism

Answer 7

The practice of viewing the cultural features of other societies in terms of their own.

Question 8

Enculturation

Answer 8

The process by which human infants learn their culture.

Question 9

Assimilation

Answer 9

The process by which a less dominant culture group changes in ways to blend into the beliefs and practices of the dominant culture.

Question 10

Acculturation

Answer 10

The process by which a less dominant culture group adjusts of learns to live within a dominant culture while at the same time maintaining their cultural identity.

Question 11

Cultural Diffusion

Answer 11

The spreading of a thing, an idea, or a behavior pattern from one culture to another.

Question 12

Cultural Universal

Answer 12

The general cultural traits found in all societies.

Question 13

Theory

Answer 13

A statement that suggests a relationship among phenomena.

Question 14

Hypothesis

Answer 14

An educated guess about the relationship among certain variables that guides a research project.

Question 15

Evolutionism

Answer 15

Developed by Edward Tylor & Lewis Henry Morgan;
Attempted to explain variations in world cultures by the single deductive theory that they all pass through a series of evolutionary stages. :
(The devlopement of a society from a simple to a more complex form)

Question 16

Barbarism

Answer 16

Middle stage of evolutionism where all cultures evolve from simple to complex systems;
savagery, barbarism and civilization.

Question 17

Civilization

Answer 17

Last stage of evolutionism;
term used to describe any society that has cities.

Question 18

Diffusionism

Answer 18

A theory that stated that certain cultural features were invented originally in one or several parts of the world and then spread through the process of diffusion to other cultures.

Question 19

American Historicism

Answer 19

Headed by Franz Boas;
Insisted on the collection of ethnographic data prior to making cross-cultural generalizations.

Question 20

Bronislaw Malinowski

Answer 20

Developed an important new way of looking at contemporary cultures known as functionalism.

Question 21

Functionalism

Answer 21

A theory of social stratification that holds that social inequality exists because it is necessary for the maintenance of society.

Question 22

Ruth Benedict

Answer 22

Her theories influenced cultural anthropology, especially in the area of culture and personality.

Question 23

Margaret Mead

Answer 23

Devoted her career to the study of how culture affects the process of growing up.

Question 24

Clifford Geertz

Answer 24

Examined how the people of culture being studied interpreted their own values and behaviors.

Question 25

Postmodernism

Answer 25

A school of anthropology that advocates the switch from cultural generalization and laws to description, interpretation, and the search for meaning.

Question 26

Stages of field research

Answer 26

1. Selecting a research problem
2. Formulating a research design
3. Collecting the data
4. Analyzing the data
5. Interpreting the data