Exam 1

Question 1

Definition of anthropology

Answer 1

The science and study of people

Question 2

4 subfields of anthropology

Answer 2

Cultural, linguistics, biological, archaeology

Question 3

Aspects of Anthropology

Answer 3

 Holism- holistic approach to study people
 Global- the big picture
 Comparative- comparing one thing to another

Question 4

Culture defined by Edward Tyler

Answer 4

Culture is that complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other customs and habits acquired by people as members of a society.

Question 5

Text books definition of Culture

Answer 5

Material objects, ideas, values, etc., and behavior patterns all point to culture. Culture is everything we have, think, and do

Question 6

Leslie White’s deffiniton of Culture

Answer 6

Culture is a man’s non-physical means of adaption.

Question 7

Marvin Harris’ definition of culture

Answer 7

Culture is the total lifestyle of a group of people.

Question 8

Cultural relativism

Answer 8

Not judging a culture based on your own cultural values

Question 9

Ethnocentrism

Answer 9

The belief that one culture is better than the rest.

Question 10

Enculturation

Answer 10

The natural learning of your own culture

Question 11

Etic approach

Answer 11

The outsider’s perspective of a culture

Question 12

Emic approach

Answer 12

The insider’s perspective of a culture

Question 13

Field techniques

Answer 13

Participant observation, casual interviews, formal interviews, focus groups, genealogies, special informants, life histories, mapping, census data, videos or pictures, household composition studies, proxemics, events analysis, network analysis.

Question 14

Ethnography

Answer 14

The in-depth study of one culture

Question 15

Ethnology

Answer 15

The science and study of culture.

Question 16

Characteristics of culture

Answer 16

All-encompassing, learned, shared, symbolic, patterned, adaptive/maladaptive, influences biological processes, always changing, etc.

Question 17

Applied anthropology definition

Answer 17

The application of anthropological knowledge, theory, and methods to the solution of specific societal problems.

Question 18

Nestle Baby Formula Controversy

Answer 18

Penny Van Esterik noticed that the death rates of infants in certain countries increased as the use of baby formula increased. Nestle was aggressively marketing their formula to third world countries.

Question 19

Vicos Project

Answer 19

Cornell University bought a 10 year lease on the poorest plantation in Peru and tought the peasants how to run the plantation, understand bookkeeping, and provided them with equipment to run the plantation better. This plantation became the most productive plantation in the area. Cornell had government connections keep the other wealthy landowners from interfering with the Vicos.

Question 20

Fox Indians

Answer 20

Saul tax noticed that the Fox Indians were very isolated and had a lot of prejudices against everyone else. Built a community center so that the craftsman could sell their stuff and show it to the surrounding people. Also put together festivals, and convinced the community colleges to create American Indian courses. Ultimately brought two communities Togeather, Native Americans and Whites

Question 21

Payson Project

Answer 21

Gorge Esber noticed that the Apache Indians didn’t like the housing that the government built for them. He asked them how they would design a house by having them build a model one; all of the people surveyed had one thing in common: a front door into one large open space opposed to multiple small smaller rooms. So the government built housing then became more successful.

Question 22

Native American Religion in Prison

Answer 22

Common alcoholic problem solving devices did not help Lakota prisoners in the local prison. Grobsmith convinced the prison to put in a sweat lodge so that the Indians could complete a cleansing ritual. Prisoners have to earn the right to participate in the rituals.

Question 23

Green Revolution

Answer 23

The government wanted to come up with plants that would be more productive per unit of land (miracle rice, and wonder wheat). They gave some to Java, but the farmers had to buy a bunch of shit to make the stuff grow (fertilizers, insecticides, etc.), so it was expensive. The rich people bought up the fields and exported it instead of selling it to the local markets. Also, the chemicals used to make the rice grow leeched into the canals and killed off all the fish.

Question 24

Zulu Women and Malnutrition

Answer 24

cultural taboo against women drinking milk from anyone’s cows except their father’s, therefore after maturing, women were becoming calcium deficient. So the women drank powdered milk to get their calcium

Question 25

Brazilian Sisal Scheme

Answer 25

encouraged by the government, Farmers replaced their crops with Sisal plants because of the war, and after the war ended, the price for Sisal fiber dropped dramatically. The farmers had to work in factories and required 5k calories a day to meet their nutritional needs. The farmers had difficulty with buying enough food so the women and children became malnourished

Question 26

Nutritional Change in Tabasco Mexico

Answer 26

people were growing subsistence crops (corn, beans, squashes, peppers, cocoa beans, etc), and from the products they grew they made a drink called “pozol” which provided all their nutrients. Farmers began either selling or renting their land to oil farmers and buying their food rather than growing it and substituting "Pozol" with coke. The economy became a cash economy. The oil companies left after a while and the economy suffered.

Question 27

Intermediate (appropriate) technology

Answer 27

Not so high tech solutions for third world countries. EX: Instead of providing Indian people with tractors (no money for gas, no one to fix them), provide them with either more cattle, smaller machines, or slightly upgraded equipment (steel plow instead of wooden, bicycle)

Question 28

Anthropology Theory- Unilineal Evolutionism (Tyler, Morgan)

Answer 28

all cultures can be ranked along a scale/continuum and all have to go through different, universal stages of development. Some are faster or slower than others.

Question 29

Anthropology Theory Diffusionism (culture circles) (Smith and Perry, Graebner and Schmidt)

Answer 29

when two cultures come in contact with each other and share knowledge and ideas and characteristics through trade. Smith and Perry believed all culture comes from Egypt Graebner and Schmidt believe there are multiple "culture hubs" 3-5

Question 30

Anthropological Theory (Franz Boaz and students) American Historicism

Answer 30

challenged armchair anthropology and emphasized data (empirical approach). Is accused of being anti-theory/ hypothesis because he did not come up with any theories. Took an inductive approach (from general to specific) and frowned upon the deductive approach (specific to general)

Question 31

Anthropology Theory (Malinowski) Functionalism

Answer 31

Went to the Trobriand Islands right before WWII and became trapped on the islands for seven years. He observed the Kula Ring (a trading ring on several islands). The items that were traded were simple (shell jewelry) and included ceremonies. During the ceremonies, the women put food in the canoes. The Kula Ring was actually focused on the food rather than the jewelry, in a silent trade. The ceremonial exchange protected the food exchange. Every culture focuses on basic human needs.

Question 32

Anthropology Theory (Radcliffe-Brown) Structural Functionalism

Answer 32

Focus on the structure on society. What are the things the support the social system? EX: limits contact between the in-laws the limit conflict. Sometimes taken to the extreme.

Question 33

Anthropology Theory (Merton) Modern Functionalism

Answer 33

A lot of things in a civilization are dysfunctional, but have an explanation. Ex: the reason Christmas is celebrated in December instead of March.

Question 34

Manifest functions

Answer 34

Things that are done for obvious reasons.

Question 35

Latent Functions

Answer 35

Certain reasoning behind actions are hidden

Question 36

Anthropology Theory (Margret Mead) Psychological Anthropology

Answer 36

Compared USA, Japan, and France in how they cared for their children (swaddling or letting them move around). Thought that this influenced the type of personality the child would have. Also studied New Guinea: found that genders are culturally determined. In the American Samoa, attitudes toward sexuality were very open (while other countries were very conservative about it). There was also a lack of tempestuous teenage years (no angsty teenagers).

Question 37

Anthropology Theory (Ruth Benedict) Psychological Anthropology

Answer 37

The Kwakiutl Tribe: the Potlatch was a party where there was food and gifts and the chief would brag about himself, and then throw the leftover party shit into the fire

Question 38

Anthropology Theory (Edward Sapir) Psychological Anthropology

Answer 38

Every culture has different language categories in our brains.

Question 39

Anthropology Theory (White) Neoevolution

Answer 39

Interested in the interactions between the culture and the environment. Universal Evolution: Amount of energy harnessed per person per year

Question 40

Anthropology Theory ( Steward) Multilinear Evolution

Answer 40

there are many different ways that cultures develop

Question 41

Anthropology Theory (Levi Strauss) French Structuralism

Answer 41

Everybody has similar brains and is hardwired in similar ways. Can't prove or disprove his theories

Question 42

Anthropology Theory (Murdock) Statistical Cross Cultural Comparisons

Answer 42

Human relations area files: 300 different cultures, 77 different subjects.

Question 43

Anthropology Theory (Marvin Harris) Cultural Materialism

Answer 43

Focused on the materialistic aspects of culture (foods, resources, etc.) and leaving out the belief systems. The hard parts of culture.

Question 44

Anthropology Theory (Clifford Geertz, Ruth Behar) Post Modernism

Answer 44

Interpretive anthropology. The emic approach.

Question 45

Anthropology Theory (Lamphere, Ortner, Rosaldo) Feminist Anthropology

Answer 45

To fill in the gaps of anthropology. Lots of studies where women were left out.

Question 46

Grammar

Answer 46

Rules of a language

Question 47

Syntax

Answer 47

Sentence structure

Question 48

Semantics

Answer 48

the meaning behind language

Question 49

Phonemes

Answer 49

the sounds a language uses

Question 50

Morphemes

Answer 50

the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language

Question 51

Foraging, hunter & gatherers

Answer 51

Relies on food and plant substance in a natural, wild setting

Question 52

Horticulture

Answer 52

small scale crop cultivation characterized by the use of simple technology and absence of irrigation (ex. Yanomamo's slash & burn)

Question 53

Agriculture

Answer 53

a form of food production that requires intensive working of the land with plows and draft animals and soil treatment (ex. Aztecs)

Question 54

Pastorialism

Answer 54

relies mostly on domesticated animals for food source. (Ex. Nuer in the Himalayas relying on yacks) nomads and transhumance

Question 55

industrialism

Answer 55

a process transforming a culture from home made goods to large scale factory production (USA+Europe early 20th century)

Question 56

Carrying capacity

Answer 56

maximum number of people a given society can support, given available resources.

Question 57

Liebig's Law of the Minimum

Answer 57

that growth is controlled not by the total amount of resources available, but by the scarcest resource (limiting factor)

Question 58

Limiting Factor

Answer 58

Lack of a resource in environment, causing population to decrease

Question 59

Sapir-Whorf hypothosis

Answer 59

different linguistic structures produced different ways of viewing the world

Question 60

sociolinguistics

Answer 60

a branch of anthropological linguistics that studies how language and culture are related and how language is used in different social contexts

Question 61

turtle people

Answer 61

miskito Indians E. Nicaragua -intensive fishing + Horticulture High class food companies started paying the Miskito Indians for the turtles they caught. The culture went from a substance economy to a cash economy. Causing and bad chain of events because the men started to go father and farther away from home to catch turtles, for they became more scarce because the turtle population was declining. The females started to have to do heavy gardener work.