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Primary means of human communication
- Symbolic
- Can be expressed through nonverbal communication
- Can be spoken or written
- Transmitted through learning and facilitates it |
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| Formation/composition of phrases/sentences from words |
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Research strategy by which an investigator is immersed in a culture/community (emic)
- How different cultures understand different concepts |
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| Sets of related things (e.g. kinship, color terminology, perceptions of time) |
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Social anthropology who wrote "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" in 1969
- Ethnicity can only be said to exist when people claim a certain identity for themselves and are defined by others as having that identity, which outlines an approach to the study of ethnicity which focuses on the on-going negotiations of boundaries between groups of people |
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| Minorities are expected to abandon their cultural traditions and values and be absorbed into the dominant culture |
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| Several different cultures can coexist peacefully and equitably in a single country |
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| Attempts to explain human behavior in its widest historic, geographic, and cultural scope; originally focused on exchange (reciprocity) as an alternative to market exchange |
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| Distinct differences in size/appearance between sexes of an animal (marked phenotypic differences) |
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| Domestic-Public Dichotomy |
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| Relative value of work within the home (domestic) v. work outside the home (public) |
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- Scientific description of the customs of peoples and cultures
- Process of describing a culture of a specific people through field work |
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| Description of a behavior or belief that comes from a person within a culture |
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| Description of a behavior or belief by an observer in terms that can be applied across cultures |
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Study of characteristics of various peoples and the differences and relationships among them [thru comparison and generalization]
- Suggests reasons for cross-culture regularities observed and generates theories to explain those regularities |
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| Systematic organization of idea proposed to explain a phenomenon |
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Study of the human language
- Explores how language shapes Communication, Social Identity/Group Membership, Cultural Beliefs & Ideologies, Cultural Representations of Natural and Social Worlds |
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| A society's unequal distribution of social resources (wealth/power/prestige) between men and women |
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| Groups of people based on belief in shared ancestry; permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundament to tribal society |
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| The system by which people in a society reckon their [kin] relations |
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| Seeking a mate outside of one's kin group; confers social benefits by linking people into wider social networks |
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| System of production, distribution and consumption of resources, system of labor, capital, land-based resources and exchange that facilitates production and consumption |
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| 1.Three subfields of linguistics |
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Language formation (phonology, morphology, syntax)
Language meaning (semantics, connotation can be positive or negative)
Language in cultural context (consists of 2 theories: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that language shapes culture; modern anthropologists believe a person's culture shapes his/her language) |
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| Describe/give an example of a focal vocabulary - why are focal vocabs of significant to anthropologists? |
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Specialized set of terms in language important to certain groups (e.g. Eskimo people have many words for what North Americans call "snow")
- Significant because objects that can be described in many ways indicate that the object holds more importance in that culture than a culture that only has one word for the object |
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| Why 'race' IS or IS NOT a biological reality |
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| Race is NOT a biological reality because there is no genomic pattern defining a specific race |
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| Explain how the concepts of Economic Anthropology might differ from those of strictly western Economics |
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| Western Economics has a heavy focus on market exchange; whereas Economic Anthropology focuses on the study of reciprocity, exchange along various continuums, as an alternative to market exchange |
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| Provide an example of how beliefs about gender work and attitudes have varied in North America in response to social circumstances or economic needs |
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- In general, women don't hold the same social status as men do in North America. The "traditional" idea that a woman's place is in the home developed in the '50s in response to the influx of troops returning from WW2 who were in need of non-military careers.
- Today, women hold a much higher percentage of positions of power in North America, though they are still not considered equal to men when it comes to average annual salaries. |
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| What is meant by a "theoretical perspective" and how does it apply to anthropologists' attempts to understand human culture? |
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- Set of assumptions about reality that underlies the questions we ask and the kinds of answers we arrive at as a result (synonymous with paradigm)
- A framework through which we collect and analyze our data and which colors our interpretations |
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| What is the relationship between language and cultural meaning? Why is linguistic analysis used to understand human cultural systems? |
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- Speakers of particular languages use set of terms to organize and categorize their experiences/perceptions; these experiences/perceptions vary among different cultures and so the language will vary accordingly
- Linguistic analysis is used to understand human cultural systems because different cultures have different phonologic, morphologic, and syntactical formations of words that affect the meaning of their communication |
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| What is meant by the term "universal grammar?" Compare this theory to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - name scholars most closely associated which each respective theory and explain why the distinction between the 2 theories is important to anthropologists |
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UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR (Noam Chomsky) is a theory of linguistics stating that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language (all languages have a common structural basis)
SAPIR-WHORF (a.k.a. Linguistic Relativity) (Edward Sapir) is a principle that states the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers conceptualize their world
(We Understand The World In Terms Of Our Language)
- Assuming Universal Grammar theory and Sapir-Whorf are correct, we can assume every culture conceptualizes their worlds in a similar way because they all have a common structural basis in their language |
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| What's an economy and what factors set the conditions under which economies function? |
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Economy - System of labor capital, land-based resources, and exchange that facilitate production/consumption.
- Technological evolution, history/social organization, natural resource endowment, and ecology are the factors that set conditions |
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| Describe differences between horticulture and agriculture |
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Horticulture - Nonindustrial plant cultivation (no plows; slash-and-burn technique; fallow periods in which seeds are not planted during the growing season)
Agriculture - Uses domesticated animals to plow (irrigation and terracing to produce crops) |
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| Dr. Huff's research in Madagascar - What are the 3 ethnicities in area she works; what are they based on? Are these ethnicities permanent or fluid? |
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- Vezo, Mikea, Masikoro
- Based on history, livelihoods, situation in regards to the others (interactions with other groups)
- Fluid --> You don't have to belong to just one group; you can be vezo-mikea, mikea-masikoro |
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| 12.Difference between an 'emic' and 'etic' perspective? What do anthropologists aspire to do in their research, and why? Discuss potential difficulties one might encounter in maintaining this perspective during fieldwork |
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- Emic is perspective from someone within a culture
- Etic is perspective from outside culture that describes it in terms that can be applied across cultures
- Anthropologists aspire to provide a rich picture of culture
- One difficulty is participant bias (tendency for research participants to respond in a certain way because they know they're being observed; important for research to stay inconspicuous while engaging in fieldwork) |
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| Difference between a 'lineage' and a 'clan'; what kind of 'descent' characterizes each? |
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Lineage (demonstrated descent) - Can directly trace descent back to a common ancestor
Clans (stipulated descent) - Say they descent from a common ancestor - do not actually trace genealogical links |
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| Difference between 'sex' and 'gender'? Give examples of how each can be indeterminate |
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Sex - Determined by biological traits (e.g. hermaphrodite; any genetically indeterminate trait)
Gender - Determined by whether you identify as a male or female based on social aspects (e.g. bisexuals; something you might not associate with the sex the person is) |
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| Describe 2 main types of questions that interest economic anthropologists |
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1. How are production, distribution, and consumption organized in different societies?
2. What motivates people in different cultures to produce, distribute or exchange, and consume? |
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| 16.What is an adaptive strategy? Provide 3 examples from a culture(s) |
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A group's system of economic production (or their way or "making a living")
- Foraging (hunting, fishing, & gathering; Native Americans)
- Pastoralism (medieval cultures; direct use of herds of animals)
- Industrialism (American "traditional" idea that the woman's place is in the home developed during 1950s) |
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| According to Karl Polanyi, what are the 3 main principles that govern exchange? |
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- Market Principle (buying/selling/valuation of goods & services determined by supply & demand; like stock market)
- Redistribution (system of economic exchange within a social group intended to alter distribution of goods; like collection of taxes from citizens)
- Reciprocity (exchange along various continuums);
3 types -->(Generalized is gift-giving without expectation of an immediate return; Balanced exchange entails an explicit expectation of immediate return; Negative is exchange of goods/services where each party intends to profit, often at expense of other) |
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| Name 2 examples of non-verbal communication that differ across cultures |
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- While patting a child's head is considered friendly/affectionate here, it's considered inappropriate by many Asians to touch someone on that head, which is believed to be a sacred part of the body
- In the U.S. thumbs-up is indicator of agreement; Middle Easterners consider it an offensive gesture
- In mainstream Western culture, eye contact is interpreted as attentiveness and honesty, while in Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native American cultures, eye contact is thought to be disrespectful or rude |
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| David and Dr. Huff - Describe how environmental preservation interests can interfere/conflict with the livelihoods of indigenous peoples living in the areas environmentalists seek to preserve |
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- People from west try to set up national park --> people living in the area had to pretend to be far more primitive than they were
- Preservation of land forced indigenous people to relocate into a more modernized culture |
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| 20.What is a "moka" in the context of "Ongka's Big Moka?" Why is it important? What is the primary component of a 'moka'? |
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Moka - Act of one tribe giving a gift to another tribe that had given them a gift in the past
- Exchange of pigs; important because it establishes the "Big Man" since a leader emerges to organize the pigs, pick a date, etc.
- Balanced Reciprocity |
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| What's a 'rite of passage'? What are the 3 phases involved in a 'rite of passage'? |
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Ritual event that marks a person's transition from one status to another (e.g. graduating from college)
- Separation (withdrawal from group)
- Liminality (occupying ambiguous social positions)
- Incorporation (reincorporation into community/group with a different status) |
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| In order to understand mortuary practices in a given society, it is best to study what happens to 3 components of a funeral - what are they? |
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1. The body
2. The soul
3. The mourners |
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| You're a cultural anthropologist preparing to conduct fieldwork - describe the methods you plan to use and why you'd choose those methods |
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- Observing the culture from afar to gain an 'etic' account
- Then, immerse myself into the culture and become one of the tribesmen to gain an 'emic' account
- With both records on file, I'll combine the perspectives to provide a richer picture of the culture than I could with only 1 of the accounts, alone |
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| Difference between a 'shaman' and a 'priest' |
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Shaman - Someone capable of communicating with the spirit world by altering his/her own consciousness
Priest - Someone who has been deemed authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, who also acts as a mediator between humans and deities |
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| Mortuary rite that transforms a person from a living to a deceased member of society |
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| Study of formation/composition of words |
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Language's meaning system or how meaning is inferred from words and concepts
(Ambiguity --> e.g. "We saw her duck") |
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| Devaluing or looking down upon a group of people because of assumed behavior, values, or capabilities |
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