Test 4 Vocab Flashcards
Margaret Mead
cultural anthropologist who popularized the insights of anthropology in modern American and Western cultures. Studied the attitudes towards sex in the South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures influence on the 1960s sexual revolution.
She’s important because she introduced the concept of approaching anthropological work with a question (her question was about samoan and american teen sexuality)
Documented sexual freedom of teenagers in Samoa as opposed to repression of American teens
Compared traditional experience among North American and Samoan teens
Focus group
Research method in anthropology that deals with talking to people in groups and listening to them talk to each other. Focuses not just on their answers but also how they interact with each other
Multi-sited research
Research in multiple times and places towards a common goal.
Longitudinal study
Long term study, usually based on repeated visits.
Emic account
is a description of a behavior or belief that comes from a person within the culture.
Etic account
An etic account is a description of a behavior or belief by an observer in terms that can be applied across cultures.
**combining these perspectives provides a richer picture of culture than anyone can alone
Participant observation
○ Typically gone for a year
○ Must really gain trust with the culture
○ Difficult
○ Will typically have a host family
○ Must establish good working relationship with community
○ Important that the people of the culture know exactly what you’re doing and agree to answer research questions
○ Ethical clearances
○ Must be approved by an ethics review panel
Functionalism
- Social systems = biological or physiological systems
- Any social practice exists because it performs useful functions
- All customs and institutions in a society are interrelated
- Each aspect of a culture was a function of others
Needs functionalism
For Malinowski, biological needs were preeminent (food, shelter, sex) and other aspects of a culture developed to help fulfill those needs.
Structural functionalism
- Customs and social practices function in order to preserve the social structure
- a theoretical orientation that views society as a system of interdependent parts whose functions contribute to the stability and survival of the system
Hegemony
Social order in which subordinates are socialized to accept hierarchy as “natural”. Deals with social control and ideology.
Historical particularism
Based on the principle of cultural relativism; rooted in the notion that each culture is unique and intelligible only in its own terms; rejects the comparative method
Focal vocabulary
Sets of words that describe particular domains of experience that are especially important in culture. Like eskimos’ many words for snow
Ethnocide
targeted destruction of cultures of certain ethnic groups
Ethnicity
Based on perceived cultural similarities and differences in a society or nation. Groups of people who are considered to share common national, territorial, religious, linguistic, or cultural backgrounds.
Assimilationist model
Minorities are expected to abandon their cultural traditions and values and be absorbed into the dominant culture.
Big man
Highly influential figure; may have supporters in several villages. Leadership based on redistribution and reciprocity. He would gather mass amounts of wealth and redistribute it in a ceremony.
Potlach
competitive feast among Indians on the North Pacific Coast of North America. A gift-giving feast, among whom it is traditionally the primary economic system.
Kula ring
Trobriand Islands- interisland trade between senior male participants; reinforced bonds between leaders and trade partners; clockwise- necklace; counterclockwise- gave bracelets; formalized trade by younger men at the same time as the senior exchange. is a system of the ceremonial exchange of gifts among a number of tribal societies inhabiting various island groups in the region east of Papua New Guinea.
Adaptive strategy
Group system of economic production or their way of “making a living”. Ex: Foraging, Horticulture, Agriculture, Pastoralism, Industrialism
Horticulture
Nonindustrial plant cultivation. No plows, digging, hoes, etc. Fallow periods, slash and burn.
Agriculture
Intensification of production. Use of domesticated animals to plow. Irrigation and terracing.
Pastoralism
○ Make direct use of herds for food, milk cows, etc
○ Animals are the capital, portable source of wealth in pastoral societies
focus economic activity on domesticated activity. branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. Could eat the livestock or use their product i.e. milk, fur
Market principle
Buying, selling, and valuation. Determined by supply and demand. Aim to maximize profit. Governs the distribution of the means of production: land, labor, and natural resources.
