Week 1 Flashcards
(32 cards)
belief (religious)
A firmly held opinion or conviction typically based on spiritual apprehension rather than empirical
proof.
bipedal
Habitually using only two legs to walk.
cultural relativism
The anthropological practice of suspending judgment and seeking to understand another culture
on its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living.
empirical
Evidence that is verifiable by observation or experience instead of relying primarily on logic or theory.
ethnocentralism
The opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct and the only true way of being fully human.
faith (relgious)
Complete trust or confidence in the doctrines of a religion, typically based on spiritual apprehension
rather than empirical proof.
historical archaeologists
Archaeologists who excavate and analyze material remains to supplement a society’s written
records.
holism
The idea that the parts of a system interconnect and interact to make up the whole.
hominins
Species that are regarded as human, directly ancestral to humans, or very closely related to humans.
human variation
The range of forms of any human characteristic, such as body shape or skin color.
human adaptation
The ways in which human bodies, people, or cultures change, often in ways better suited to the
environment or social context.
hypothesis
Explanation of observed facts; explains how and why observed phenomena are the way they are. Scientific
hypotheses rely on empirical evidence, are testable, and are able to be refuted.
indigenous
Refers to people who are the original settlers of a given region and have deep ties to that place. Also known
as First Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, or Native Peoples, these populations are in contrast to other groups who have
settled, occupied, or colonized the area more recently.
knowledge system
A unified way of knowing that is shared by a group of people and is used to explain and predict
phenomena.
law
A prediction about what will happen given certain conditions; typically mathematical.
participant observation
A research method common in cultural anthropology that involves living with, observing, and
participating in the same activities as the people one studies.
prehistoirc archaeologists
: Archaeologists who survey, excavate, and analyze material remains to study civilizations
that lacked written records.
sapir-whorf hypthesis
The principle that the language you speak allows you to think about some things and not other
things. This is also known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis.
scholarly peer review
The process where an author’s work must pass the scrutiny of other experts in the field before
being published in a journal or book.
subdiscipline
These refer to the four major areas that make up the discipline of anthropology: biological anthropology,
cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology.
subfield
In this book, subfield refers to the different specializations within biological anthropology, including
primatology, paleoanthropology, molecular anthropology, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and human biology.
theroy
An explanation of observations that typically addresses a wide range of phenomena.
understanding (sceintific)
Knowledge accumulated by systematic scientific study, supported by rigorous testing and
organized by general principles
What are some key approaches to anthropological research?
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