Week 1 - What is Anthropology? Flashcards
What is anthropology?
Study of humans around the world and through time
What are cultures (and provide an example)?
Traditions and customs that form and guide beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them
What is society?
organized life in groups
What is a holistic science?
Study of the of the human condition, past, present, future, biology, society, language and culture.
Anthropology is a uniquely comparative and
__________ ____________
Holistic science
What is the critical element of cultural traditions?
transmission through learning rather than through biological inheritance
What are the biological elements of culture?
Ability to learn, think symbolically, use language, and to employ tools and other products in organizing their lives and adapting to their environments.
What is ethnography?
What is adaptation?
Processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stress such as those posed by climate and topography.
What is an example of adaptation?
Living in the mountains that are associated with high altitude and oxygen deprivation.
What is an example of holistic science?
an anthropologist studying the meaning of marriage in a small village in India and using gender norms, existing family networks, laws regarding marriage, religious rules, and economic factors vs just one aspect.
What is biocultural?
Using and combining both biological and cultural perspectives and approaches to analyze and understand a particular issue or problem.
What is cultural anthropology?
The study of human society and culture.
What is Ethnography?
provides an account of a particular culture, society or community.
What is Ethnology?
It examines, compares, analyzes and interprets the results of ethnography.
What do Ethnologists use their data for?
To compare, and contrast, and generalize about society and culture.
Describe Ethnography
Requires fieldwork to collect data, Is descriptive, Is SPECIFIC to a group or community
Describe Ethnology
Uses data collected by a series of researchers, Is usually synthetic, Is comparative, and cross-cultural.
What is anthropological archaeology?
reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains. (artifacts)
What is biological anthropology?
study of human biological diversity through time and its existence in the world today. There are 5 specialties.
What are the 5 specialties of biological anthropology?
human biological evolution by fossils, human genetics, human growth and development, human biological plasticity,(living body’s ability to change) primatology (study of monkeys)
What is sociolinguistics?
investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation. (how do different speakers use a given language)
What is linguistic anthropology?
Studies language and its social and cultural context throughout the world and over time.
What is biological adaptation?
variations that increase one’s biological fitness in a specific environment
What are cultural adaptations?
learned behaviors that help humans cope with environmental changes
What accelerated the rate of cultural adaptation during the last 10,000 years?
Food production: the domestication of plants and animals
What are the 4 subfields of general anthropology?
cultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
