Anthro Midterm Flashcards
(41 cards)
1
Q
4 sub fields of anthropology
A
Archaeology, Biological/physical, Linguistic, Cultural
2
Q
Archaeology
A
- prehistoric
- historic
- Looking at bones, rocks, fauna, pottery, etc
- Using these things to track early human development and interaction
3
Q
Biological anthropology
A
- Paleoanthropology
- Human Biology
- Primatology
- Focus on human structure and evolution
- Lots of bones
- Primatology is a subset
4
Q
Linguistic Anthropology
A
- Descriptive
- Comparative
- Historical
- Historical language development but also current
- Language shifts due to social media
- Cultural connotations of certain genres of words
5
Q
Cultural Anthropology
A
- Kinship and social organization
- Material life/technology
- Subsistence and economics
- World View
6
Q
Ethnology
A
- Comparative focus
- Focuses on similarity and difference
- Universal comparisons:
- Economics, families, politics, marriage, religion
- can be generalizing
- Perspectives textbook
- Provides an outside perspective for comparison
7
Q
Ethnography
A
- A description
- Specifics through participant observation
- Particulars of one group
- Expressions of the universals at a local level
- Seeks insider knowledge
8
Q
Ethnocentrism
A
The belief that your culture is the superior culture. Everything else is strange, wrong, or weird, and needs to be changed
9
Q
Cultural Relativism
A
- No universal standard to measure cultures by
- All cultures can only be understood within the context of itself
- Cultures can’t be judged by the norms and values of other cultures
10
Q
Culture
A
- A set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared
- Form an all-encompassing whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifestyles
- Beliefs/practices within a shared culture can differ depending on age, gender, social status, etc.
11
Q
Characteristics of Culture
A
- Humans are born with the capacity to learn the culture of any social group
- We learn culture directly and indirectly
- Culture changes in response to internal and external factors
- Humans have the ability to conform or not conform to culture
- Culture is symbolic
- Create and share the meanings of symbols within their group/society
- The degree that we associate with culture distinguishes us from other species
- Our biology, growth, and development and impacted by culture
12
Q
Field and fieldwork in research
A
- How anthropologists conduct research
- Referred to ethnography in cultural anthropology
- Ethno (people) graphy (writing)
- There’s an ethnographic process
- Inductive research is based on day to day observations
- Also the end result of fieldwork
13
Q
Participant observation
A
keeping a field notebooks that documents ideas and reflections as well as what they do and observe when participating in activities with the people they are studying
14
Q
etic perspective
A
the perspective of the observer
15
Q
emic perspective
A
the perspective of the culture being studied
- discovered through observation and participation
16
Q
cultural evolution(ism)??
A
A discredited theory popular in nineteenth century anthropology suggesting that societies evolved through stages from simple to advanced.
17
Q
economic anthropology
A
- a study of livelihoods: how humans work to obtain the material necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter that sustain our lives
- focus on how people produce, exchange, and consume material objects and the role that immaterial things such as labor, services, and knowledge play in our efforts to secure our livelihood
- always in dialogue with the discipline of economics
- encompasses the production, exchange, consumption, meaning, and uses of both material objects and immaterial services, whereas contemporary economics focuses primarily on market exchanges.
18
Q
economic systems
A
- Capitalism
- Communism
19
Q
foraging
A
- characterized by
- the collective ownership of the primary means of production
- lower rates of social domination
- sharing
20
Q
horticulture
A
- Small scale cultivation of crops intended for subsistence
21
Q
pastoralism
A
- Raising herds of domesticated livestock
22
Q
agriculture
A
- The cultivation of domesticated plants and animals using technology
23
Q
industrial capitalism
A
- 3 central features:
- Private property, Labourers, profit/wealth
- workers don’t own the means of production
- you know a lot about capitalism don’t sweat
24
Q
sustainability
A
- how are all the different economic/subsistence systems sustainable?
25
consumption and exchange
- consumption:
- the process of buying, eating, or using a resource, food, commodity, or service
- the forms of behavior that connect our economic activity with the cultural symbols that give our lives meaning
- always social
- Exchange:
- the exchange of goods for services, vice versa, or just exhanging stuff for other stuff
- the relationship
26
consumption & its relationships with ecosystems
- Capitalism bad for the environment: over consumption, over production, over use
- foraging/horticulture/pastoralism better for the environment: movement allows for areas to regenerate, reasonable use of resources
27
gift exchanges
- generally an EXCHANGE
- people are expected to give back
- builds social relations
28
types of exchanges
- market exchange:
- a form of trade that today most commonly involves general purpose money, bargaining, and supply and demand price mechanisms
- reciprocity
- involves the exchange of goods and services and is rooted in a mutual sense of obligation and identity
- Redistribution
- occurs when an authority (a temple priest, a chief, or even an institution such as the Internal Revenue Service) collects economic contributions from all community members and then redistributes these back in the form of goods and services
29
types of reciprocity
- Generalized
- Balanced
- Negative
30
Generalized reciprocity
- When we give a gift without excepting something of equal value.
- Occurs within the closest social relationships
31
Balanced reciprocity
- A direct exchange where things of equal value are being exchanged
- Three distinct stages:
- The gift being given
- The gift being received
- An equal gift is returned
- gifts must be returned in a reasonable timeframe
32
Negative reciprocity
- getting something for nothing
33
redistribution
- the accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person or institution for the purpose of dispersal at a later date (ex. Taxes)
34
market exchange
- social institutions with prices or exchange equivalencies
- can move around
- based on transactions
- impersonal
35
pot latch and Moka examples
36
kinship
- the word used to describe culturally recognized ties between members of a family
- encompasses relationships formed through blood connections (consanguineal)
- relationships created through marriage ties (affinal)
- “chosen kin”
37
patrilineal/matrilineal descent
- patrilineal descent: the paternal line of the family, or fathers and their children
- matrilineal descent defines membership in the kinship group through the maternal line of relationships between mothers and their children
- Both kinds of kinship are considered unilineal because they involve descent through only one line or side of the family
38
bilateral descent
- means that families are defined by descent from both the father and the mother’s sides of the family
39
ambilineal descent
- Allows individuals (the ego) to choose who's line they want to follow (either the mothers or the fathers)
40
double descent
- when a society uses both patrilineal and matrilineal descent depending on the situation
41
mothers brother in matrilineal societies
- included in matrilineal descent
- could cause inheritance to be passed to a sister
