Concepts/theories

Question 1

Symbol

Answer 1

Any object, idea, or action that has cultural meaning
Is a vehicle for cultural meaning
Interpreted emotionally and intellectually

Question 2

Ritual

Answer 2

A patterned, repetitive, and symbolic enactment of a cultural belief or value.
Aligning societal and individual beliefs by reproducing beliefs into the emotions, bodies, and minds of individuals

Question 3

Symbolic Capital

Answer 3

A form of non-economic (social) capital that makes relations appear natural or inevitable, is the vehicle for transmitting cultural capital.
Concept by Pierre Bourdieu

Question 4

Cultural Capital

Answer 4

Form of social capital (non-economic) with non monetary values that is accumulated and invested in social situations. Contains embodiments and cultural resources that enable particular competencies in particular settings.
Concept of Pierre Bourdieu

Question 5

Paradigm

Answer 5

A conceptual world view or set of accepted beliefs

Grand theory consisting of many theories - bringing theories together

Question 6

Theory

Answer 6

A set of ideas that explain reality based on general academic consensus - can and do change

Question 7

Etic

Answer 7

Outsiders perspective 
Typically synchronic (what can be witnessed)

Question 8

Emic

Answer 8

Insiders’ perspective
For Geertz only emic knowledge is understanding as etic can only ever be approximations or constructions that are not false

Question 9

Historical Particularism

Answer 9

Franz Boas’s idea that every culture has its own distinct history and processes in which it should be studied. Under this paradigm every cultural practice has merit within its own cultural context. Was a argument against unilateral cultural evolutionism and diffusionism.
Is necessarily relativistic

Question 10

Enculturation

Answer 10

The process of becoming a functional adult member of a culture/society

Question 11

Old definition of culture

Answer 11

Multiple cultures distinct from one another

Bounded homogenous entities

Question 12

New definition of culture

Answer 12

A fluid and dynamic process of contested meaning making
Meanings are never stagnant but constantly questioned and prominent meaning can altered or replaced and assimilated into everyday life

Question 13

Ethical Periods

Answer 13

A model of unilineal cultural evolutionism created by Lewis-Henry Morgan
Savagery - origins of human race
Barbarism -fishing-bow & arrow
Civilization - poetry - phonetic alphabet

Each period further broken into low and high

Question 14

Unilineal Cultural Evolutionism

Answer 14

Idea that cultures progress over time based on biology
Was a naturalizing discourse
Prominent on Victorian anthropology

Question 15

Idealism

Answer 15

Perspective on human nature that placed the mind, ideas or the spirit as constituting the essence of society
Is reductionist
Opposite of materialism

Question 16

Materialism

Answer 16

A perspective of human nature that places emphasis on physical needs and activities as the essence of human nature.
Reductionist and deterministic
Opposite of idealism

Question 17

Bio-cultural Model

Answer 17

An approach to human nature that recognizes that biology and culture are interrelated.
A key component of the anthropological perspective that is holistic, competitive and evolutionary

Question 18

Contested Meaning Making

Answer 18

The processes of contesting and changing cultural meanings
Embedded in the new cultural paradigm
Involves attempts to redefine a symbol, institutional changes, diffusion into everyday life

Question 19

Inter-Subjective Meanings

Answer 19

Shared public symbol systems of culture
Anthropologist gains this knowledge through inter subjective reach which is achieved through dialogue ( a dialectic of field word)

Question 20

Linguistic Relativity it Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 20

Idea that language shaped how one seed the world. In most severe form results in linguistic determinism (language key factor in determine though and culture)
Idea of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf

Question 21

Radical Alterity

Answer 21

Construction of difference of a radical other which sows separation between people and the formation of clear groups based on who does not belong - the other

Question 22

Positivist Approach

Answer 22

Physical science research approach that early social sciences attempted to utilize. Goal is to discover objective knowledge - universals
Separating facts from values and viewing the world as working through material processes.

Question 23

Individual Body (phenomenology)

Answer 23

One of three ways to view the body as thirties by Nancy Shepard Hues. Sees the body as the way individuals experience the world. The body mediated between self and the world. Changes to body body changed how one experiences the world.

Question 24

Social Body (symbolic/structural theory)

Answer 24

One of three ways Nancy Shepard Hues thinks the body can be viewed. The body as representing and reflecting ideas and culture or a society. Either confirmed or rejects societal norms.
Body techniques are culturally acceptable actions or uses of the body

Question 25

Body politic (post structural)

Answer 25

One of 3 ways Nancy Shepard Hues believes the body can be viewed. Body as a representation of social organization - who controls or defines bodies is s model of wider social power distribution.

Question 26

Structurally Reproductive Agency

Answer 26

Part of a continuum of human choice. Choice that reaffirms or strengthens existing structure. Can be done knowingly or unknowingly.

Question 27

Structurally Transformative Agency

Answer 27

Part of the continuum of human choice. Choice that significantly transforms structure. Can be purposeful or not

Question 28

Reification

Answer 28

A process of absolute ethnic or racial identification that is often tied to the encouragement of the elimination of a certain group.

More broadly is turning something into a set bounded object

Question 29

Objectification

Answer 29

Process of intentionally building ethnicity through constructing collective public identities
Not fixed and can change situationally

Question 30

Structure

Answer 30

Is created by humans and shapes them. Simultaneously enabling and constraining. Has different levels of visibility, influence, and susceptibility to change. Appears hard and independent but is a continuously changing

Question 31

Rite of Passage

Answer 31

A series of rituals that change an individual’s social status in the eyes of the society and the individual. Divided in three phases 1) separation (from existing status) 2) transition or luminal period (betwixt and between) 3) integration (re-entering society with new label.
Initially theorized by Arnold Van Gennep & elaborated and famously used by Victor Turner

Question 32

Naturalizing Discourses

Answer 32

the representation of identities or groupings as rooted in biology or nature and therefore as innate and unchanging. Reduces culture to blood.

Question 33

Ethnicity

Answer 33

Is a cultural construct that stratifies society. Distinguishes people based on distinct cultural features such as language, region, or dress. Is based on self and group identification.

Question 34

Nationality

Answer 34

Is a cultural construct that stratifies society. Is the identification with a nation-state based on shared history, culture, and a political territory.

Question 35

Gender

Answer 35

Culturally assigned behaviors/roles and meanings attributed to the biological sexes. Is not intrinsic but a cultural construction that varies between societies and other time.

Question 36

Liminality

Answer 36

A state of being inbetween two social positions. It is a period o reaching a threshold to a new stage in life or identity. Occurs int he transition phase of a rite of passage.

Question 37

Syncretization

Answer 37

A process where elements of several world views are combined to create a new way of interpreting and understanding experience. Example: Creole

Question 38

Revitalization

Answer 38

Conscious and deliberate efforts to forge a more satisfying culture in response to change or crisis.

Question 39

World View

Answer 39

an all encomposing picture of reality created by members of a society. Attempts to answer the question: what must the world be like for my experiences to be what they are?

Question 40

Relativism

Answer 40

Believe that no behavior can be judged because it is different then your own. Believes culture must be understood in it’s own terms within it’s own context.

Question 41

Ethnocentrism - ethnocentric

Answer 41

focus on one’s own believes and behavioral norms as a way to compare and evaluate the actions and ideas of others.

Question 42

Ethnocentric Fallacy

Answer 42

Holding one’s own way of life as automatically correct and all other ways of life as wrong or misguided.

Question 43

Relativistic Fallacy

Answer 43

The belief that no thought or action can be judged or compared outside of its own concept. Taken to the extreme this can justify any action as correct or okay in the name of culture. Stops critical analysis.