Sociocultural Systems

Question 1

Ethnographic feildwork

Answer 1

living with people for a significant period of time and immersing yourself in their culture.

Question 2

Ethnocentrism

Answer 2

Judging other cultures using one’s own cultural standards.

Question 3

Cultural Relativism

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

Cultural Universals

Answer 4

Essential behavioral characteristics of societies found throughout the world. (i.e. dancing, building tools, agriculture)

Question 5

What are the features of cultural systems ?

Answer 5

• Subsistence and physical enviornment
• Demography
• Technology
• Economy
• Social structure
• Political organization
• Religion

Question 6

Subsistence patterns

Answer 6

The means by which people obtain food.

Agriculture, horticulture, hunter-gatherer, domestication, pastorailsm.

Question 7

What is the main influence on the subsistence patterns of cultures?

Answer 7

The Environment in which the culture lives.

Question 8

Demography

Answer 8

The study of population and its relationship to society.

Question 9

Fertility

Answer 9

The number of births in a society.

Question 10

Mortality

Answer 10

The incidence of death in a society’s population.

Question 11

Migration

Answer 11

The movement of people into or out of an area or territory.

Question 12

Carrying Capacity

Answer 12

The maximum population size that a certain environment can support.

Question 13

Technology

Answer 13

The making and use of tools, techniques, and skills in order to solve a problem, improve something, or achieve a goal.

Question 14

how is technology cultural?

Answer 14

These societies need the cultural knowledge in order to what to build and how to build it.

Question 15

Economy

Answer 15

The social relationships that organize the production, exchange and consumption of goods and services.

Question 16

Social Structure

Answer 16

Pattern of relationships between members of a society.

Question 17

Social Stratification

Answer 17

The inequality of statuses in a society.

Question 18

Family

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Ascribed status

Answer 19

A status that you are born into (price harry).

Question 20

Achieved status

Answer 20

A status that you have earned.

Question 21

Endogamy

Answer 21

the practice of marriage within a single social group.

Question 21

Exogamy

Answer 21

The practice of marriage between people from different social groups.

Question 22

Monogomy

Answer 22

The practice of marriage between one man and one woman.

Question 23

Polygomy

Answer 23

One man, many wives.

Question 25

Social Order

Answer 25

Things that must be enforce in order to uphold civility.

Question 26

Political Organization

Answer 26

The means to which a society creates and upkeeps social order.

Question 27

What are the 4 functions of political organizations?

Answer 27

To control a geographical territory
To defend itself
Obtaining resources
To unify a group of people

Question 28

What two main approaches exist in politics and economy?

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

Band

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Tribe

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

Cheifdom

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

State

Answer 32

Large, complex
central government
non kinship based
agriculture

Question 32

Religion

Answer 32

Worldwide-encmpassing picture of reality based on a set of shared assumptions of how the world works.

Question 33

Myth

Answer 33

Explanatory narratives that rationalize religious beliefs and practices.

Question 34

Religious Rituals

Answer 34

The means through which a person relates to the supernatural.

Question 36

Polyandry

Answer 36

One woman has many husbands

Question 37

Rites of Passage

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Rites of Intensification

Answer 38

A ritual or ceremony performed by a community in a time of crisis that affects all members, as a rain dance during a drought.