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Anthropology 106 Study Guide
5 Themes of Cultural Anthropology |
1. Comparative perspective
2. Holistic perspective
3. Systems and processes
4. Emic/etic perspectives
5. Case study |
Achieved Status |
Status you achieve/earn (ex. college graduate) |
Anthropology |
Study of humans |
Applied Anthropology |
"The application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems" (Kottak) |
Archaeology |
"Reconstructs, describes, and interprets past human behavior through [the analysis of] material remains" (Kottak) |
Artifact |
Something created by and used humans. |
Ascribed Status |
Status you are born into, defined by your society (ex. race, gender, sex, ethnicity) |
Assimilation |
When a minority ethnic group adopts the patterns and norms of its host culture. It is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit. |
Biological Determinism |
Holds that shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups - primarily races, classes, and sexes - arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology (Gould) |
Biological/Physical Anthropology |
The study of human biological diversity across time and space; the study of primate biological diversity including humans. |
Colonialism |
The often forceful control and/or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory or people (Webster's Dictionary) |
Concordance |
Traits are found together predictably |
Craniometry |
The study of the internal measurement/volume of human skulls to determine intelligence |
Cultural Anthropology |
"The study of human society and culture...describes, analyzes, interprets and explains social and cultural similarities and differences" (Kottak) |
Cultural Evolutionism/Stagism |
Theory that says that cultures evolve, in stages, and that all cultures move through these stages at different times. |
Cultural Relativism |
The belief that the value of any social practice or belief is relative to the society in which it is practiced. |
Culture |
The learned shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience (Spradley) |
Defamiliarize The Familiar |
To take those everyday things - beliefs, behaviors, ideas, that are so normalized to us, and view them in a new light and from a new perspective |
Ecofacts |
Something naturally made, used by humans. |
Essentialism |
A perspective that defines a group of people based on their most essential and generalized traits, behaviors and practices, and that ignores any variation and difference within that group. |
Ethnicity |
Is a process that occurs when cultural differences are made relevant through interaction (Eriksen) |
Ethnocentrism |
The tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to apply one's own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people from other cultures (Kottak) |
Ethnography |
The work of discovering and describing a particular culture (Spradley) |
Evolution |
Change over time; descent with modification |
Feminist Anthropology |
An approach to anthropology that includes a focus on sex and gender, paritcularly women, as well as issues of power in the research process and the writing up of research |
Fieldwork |
Method of anthropology in which the anthropologist lives with the people whose way of life is of concern to them |
Historical Particularism |
View that all societies or cultures have their own unique history that cannot be reduced to a category in some universalist scheme of development (Eriksen) |
Institutions |
Major structural entities in sociocultural systems that address a basic need of the system. Institutions involve fixed modes of behavior backed by strong norms and sanctions that tend to be followed by most members of society (Sociology Dictionary) |
Jim Crow Segregation |
Practice and policy of segregation and discrimination against African Americans in the U.S. following the abolition of slavery; U.S. Apartheid. |
Linguistic Anthropology |
"Studies language in its social and cultural context, across space and over time" (Kottak) |
Meritocracy |
The idea that the individual can earn (merit) their worth, progress and status in a society. It rests on the idea that the playing field is even, and that all members of society have an equal chance to make it |
Multiculturalism |
Encourages the practice of cultural-ethnic traditions. A multicultural society socializes individuals not only into the dominant (national) culture but also into an ethnic culture |
Naive Realism |
The almost universal belief that all people define the real world of objects, events, and living creatures pretty much the same way (Spradley) |
Native Anthropology |
Anthropologist is native to the region or cultural group that they are studying; a shift in practice (and theory) in which those who were once the subjects of anthropological research have now become the researchers |
One-Drop Rule |
System of racial classification, developed in the context of slavery and its aftermath to categorize people as either white or black in order for discriminatory practices to work. According to the rule, one drop of black blood was enough to determine blackness. |
Participant observation |
An anthropological method that involves both the observing of behavior as well as participating in that behavior; combining the emic/etic perspectives |
Phenotype |
The observable characteristics of biology; physical features (like skin color, hair texture, facial features, eye shape/color) |
Phrenology |
The study of the shape, size, and form of human skulls to determine character, personality and ability. |
Positivism/modernism |
"The view that there is a reality 'out there' that can be known through the senses and that there is a single, appropriate set of scientific methods for investigating that reality" (Schultz and Lavenda). "Objective" knowledge. |
Postmodernism |
A view that opposes the assumed objective knowledge in modernism and argues that there are multiple truths and experiences with reality; a perspective that allows for multiple interpretations of reality and that critically questions difference and the 'voice from nowhere' |
Racial Classification |
The attempt to assign humans to discrete categories [purportedly] based on common ancestry (Kottak) |
Salvage Anthropology |
To study and record cultural diversity threatened by Westernization" (kottak).; to salvage and collect cultural artifacts and observe and record cultural behaviors before they disappeared due to colonialism |
Social Darwinism |
An ideology which assumes that social processes, social stratification and social injustices are reflections of biology and nature, and are therefore inevitable and natural |
Social Constructivism |
A theory that holds that knowledge (including beliefs, attitudes, and values) normally thought of as 'common sense' is actually constructed through everyday social practices and intraction, and such knowledge must be looked at critically (Youmans) |
Species |
Classified group whose members can interbreed |
Stagism/Cultural Evolutionism |
Theory that says that cultures evolve, in stages, and that all cultures move through these stages at different times |
Subspecies |
Groups of species, whose traits are concordant and predictable and separate them from other subspecies of the larger species. Races. |
Symbol |
"Something verbal or nonverbal, within a particular language or culture, that comes to stand for something else" (Kottak) |
Traditional Anthropology |
Focused on small-scale tribal groups; often viewed them as living in the past, and as separate from the larger global world in which they lived and interacted. |
Visual Anthropology |
Utilizes visual media to describe cultures (visual ethnographies); sees visuals as cultural artifacts and constructed - not as objective reflections of reality |
White Privilege |
An invisible knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks [that whites carry on a daily basis] (McIntosh) |