Vocab of 1-4

Question 1

Cultural relativism:

Answer 1

the idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their own culture and not our own.

Question 2

Enculturation:

Answer 2

the process of learning the characteristics and expectations of a culture or group.

Question 3

Ethnocentrism:

Answer 3

the tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures.

Question 4

Ethnography:

Answer 4

the in-depth study of the everyday practices and lives of a people.

Question 5

Participant-observation:

Answer 5

a type of observation in which the anthropologist observes while participating in the same activities in which her informants are engaged.

Question 6

Armchair anthropology:

Answer 6

an early and discredited method of anthropological research that did not involve direct contact with the people studied.

Question 7

Cultural determinism:

Answer 7

the idea that behavioral differences are a result of cultural, not racial or genetic causes.

Question 8

Cultural evolutionism:

Answer 8

a discredited theory popular in nineteenth century anthropology suggesting that societies evolved through stages from simple to advanced.

Question 9

Culture:

Answer 9

a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways.

Question 10

Enculturation:

Answer 10

the process of learning the characteristics and expectations of a culture or group.

Question 11

Ethnocentrism:

Answer 11

the tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures.

Question 12

Functionalism:

Answer 12

an approach to anthropology developed in British anthropology that emphasized the way that parts of a society work together to support the functioning of the whole.

Question 13

Holism:

Answer 13

taking a broad view of the historical, environmental, and cultural foundations of behavior.

Question 14

Structural-Functionalism

Answer 14

an approach to anthropology that focuses on the ways in which the customs or social institutions in a culture contribute to the organization of society and the maintenance of social order.

Question 15

Arbitrariness:

Answer 15

the relationship between a symbol and its referent (meaning), in which there is no obvious connection between them.