Sociocultural Systems Flashcards
Ethnographic feildwork
living with people for a significant period of time and immersing yourself in their culture.
Ethnocentrism
Judging other cultures using one’s own cultural standards.
Cultural Relativism
The consideration of behavior, beliefs and customs within the context of the particular context of the particular culture from which they are derived.
This idea combats ethnocentrism.
Cultural Universals
Essential behavioral characteristics of societies found throughout the world. (i.e. dancing, building tools, agriculture)
What are the features of cultural systems ?
- Subsistence and physical enviornment
- Demography
- Technology
- Economy
- Social structure
- Political organization
- Religion
Subsistence patterns
The means by which people obtain food.
Agriculture, horticulture, hunter-gatherer, domestication, pastorailsm.
What is the main influence on the subsistence patterns of cultures?
The Environment in which the culture lives.
Demography
The study of population and its relationship to society.
Fertility
The number of births in a society.
Mortality
The incidence of death in a society’s population.
Migration
The movement of people into or out of an area or territory.
Carrying Capacity
The maximum population size that a certain environment can support.
Technology
The making and use of tools, techniques, and skills in order to solve a problem, improve something, or achieve a goal.
how is technology cultural?
These societies need the cultural knowledge in order to what to build and how to build it.
Economy
The social relationships that organize the production, exchange and consumption of goods and services.
Social Structure
Pattern of relationships between members of a society.
Social Stratification
The inequality of statuses in a society.
Family
social group of two or more people related by blood marriage or adoption who live or reside in the same home.
nuclear and kin?
see slides.
Ascribed status
A status that you are born into (price harry).
Achieved status
A status that you have earned.
Endogamy
the practice of marriage within a single social group.
Exogamy
The practice of marriage between people from different social groups.
Monogomy
The practice of marriage between one man and one woman.
Polygomy
One man, many wives.
Social Order
Things that must be enforce in order to uphold civility.
Political Organization
The means to which a society creates and upkeeps social order.
What are the 4 functions of political organizations?
To control a geographical territory
To defend itself
Obtaining resources
To unify a group of people
What two main approaches exist in politics and economy?
Political ecology - Examines the control of the material resources.
Political Economy - focuses on political and economic processes, their interrelations and their influence on a culture.
Band
a political organization that can be defined as small, flexible, egalitarian societies that practice kinship, marriage and foraging. There is no head, no power.
informal conflict resolution
Tribe
A society larger than a band that is made up of a loose integration of communities the contain horticulturalists, pastoralists and leaders of achieved statuses who have authority but no power. They are usually egalitarian, and have no social stratification.
Cheifdom
Formal integration of local communities made up of horticulturists, pastoralists, and agriculturalists.
Centralized political organization.
Stratum endogamy
Ranking of power determined by ascribed status.
There is power.
State
Large, complex
central government
non kinship based
agriculture
Religion
Worldwide-encmpassing picture of reality based on a set of shared assumptions of how the world works.
Myth
Explanatory narratives that rationalize religious beliefs and practices.
Religious Rituals
The means through which a person relates to the supernatural.
Polyandry
One woman has many husbands
Rites of Passage
A ritual event that marks a person’s transition from one status to another. Milestones include transitions from puberty, year 7 to high school, coming of age, marriage and death. Initiation ceremonies such as baptism, akika, confirmation and Bar or Bat Mitzvah are considered important rites of passage for people of their respective religions
Rites of Intensification
A ritual or ceremony performed by a community in a time of crisis that affects all members, as a rain dance during a drought.
