Week 1 - What is Anthropology?

Question 1

What is anthropology?

Answer 1

Study of humans around the world and through time

Question 2

What are cultures (and provide an example)?

Answer 2

Traditions and customs that form and guide beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them

Question 3

What is society?

Answer 3

organized life in groups

Question 4

What is a holistic science?

Answer 4

Study of the of the human condition, past, present, future, biology, society, language and culture.

Question 5

Anthropology is a uniquely comparative and
__________ ____________

Answer 5

Holistic science

Question 6

What is the critical element of cultural traditions?

Answer 6

transmission through learning rather than through biological inheritance

Question 7

What are the biological elements of culture?

Answer 7

Ability to learn, think symbolically, use language, and to employ tools and other products in organizing their lives and adapting to their environments.

Question 8

What is ethnography?

Question 9

What is adaptation?

Answer 9

Processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stress such as those posed by climate and topography.

Question 10

What is an example of adaptation?

Answer 10

Living in the mountains that are associated with high altitude and oxygen deprivation.

Question 11

What is an example of holistic science?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

What is biocultural?

Answer 12

Using and combining both biological and cultural perspectives and approaches to analyze and understand a particular issue or problem.

Question 13

What is cultural anthropology?

Answer 13

The study of human society and culture.

Question 14

What is Ethnography?

Answer 14

provides an account of a particular culture, society or community.

Question 15

What is Ethnology?

Answer 15

It examines, compares, analyzes and interprets the results of ethnography.

Question 16

What do Ethnologists use their data for?

Answer 16

To compare, and contrast, and generalize about society and culture.

Question 17

Describe Ethnography

Answer 17

Requires fieldwork to collect data, Is descriptive, Is SPECIFIC to a group or community

Question 18

Describe Ethnology

Answer 18

Uses data collected by a series of researchers, Is usually synthetic, Is comparative, and cross-cultural.

Question 19

What is anthropological archaeology?

Answer 19

reconstructs, describes, and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains. (artifacts)

Question 20

What is biological anthropology?

Answer 20

study of human biological diversity through time and its existence in the world today. There are 5 specialties.

Question 21

What are the 5 specialties of biological anthropology?

Answer 21

human biological evolution by fossils, human genetics, human growth and development, human biological plasticity,(living body’s ability to change) primatology (study of monkeys)

Question 22

What is sociolinguistics?

Answer 22

investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation. (how do different speakers use a given language)

Question 23

What is linguistic anthropology?

Answer 23

Studies language and its social and cultural context throughout the world and over time.

Question 24

What is biological adaptation?

Answer 24

variations that increase one’s biological fitness in a specific environment

Question 25

What are cultural adaptations?

Answer 25

learned behaviors that help humans cope with environmental changes

Question 26

What accelerated the rate of cultural adaptation during the last 10,000 years?

Answer 26

Food production: the domestication of plants and animals

Question 27

What are the 4 subfields of general anthropology?

Answer 27

cultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.