Anthropology 1001 Module 3 Chapters 7 and 8

Textbook The Essence of Anthropology by Haviland, Prins, Walrath, and McBride: Fourth Edition Chapters 7 and 8. LSUA online course in Moodle for Anthro 1001.

Culture

The shared, socially learned ideas, values, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors that people use to understand the world and guide behavior.

Adaptation

The process of adjusting to environmental conditions.

Biological Adaptation

Changes through evolution over many generations passed genetically, such as skin color, lactose tolerance, and disease resistance.

Cultural Adaptation

Learned behavior through which humans solve problems instead of through biological change, including technology, clothing, and medicine.

Enculturation

The lifelong process of learning one's culture, including manners, language, morality, gender expectations, and traditions.

Society

An organized group of people living together who share a territory, cooperation, and political organization.

Symbol

Something that represents another idea or object, such as a flag, wedding ring, or money.

Language

The most important symbolic system of culture that allows humans to teach, preserve history, and build civilizations.

Integrated Culture

The characteristic where every part of culture connects to every other part, meaning changes in one area affect the rest.

Dynamic Culture

The characteristic of culture describing its constant change due to technology, migration, climate, or innovation.

Subculture

A group sharing the larger culture while maintaining unique traditions, values, and customs, such as the Amish or the military.

Ethnicity

A shared cultural identity based on common ancestry, history, language, and traditions.

Pluralistic Society

A society composed of multiple ethnic groups living within one nation, such as the United States, Canada, Nigeria, or Afghanistan.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture is superior to others and judging other traditions as strange or incorrect.

Cultural Relativism

The practice of understanding another culture according to its own values and standards rather than judging it by one's own.

Barrel Model of Culture

A theoretical model that divides culture into three connected systems: infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure.

Infrastructure

The economic and technological foundation of a culture, including food production and tools.

Social Structure

The organized relationships among members of a society, including family, marriage, and political systems.

Superstructure

The shared ideas, beliefs, and values of a culture, including religion, ideology, and philosophy.

Kapauku

A people of New Guinea who illustrate integrated culture through how pig raising affects their economy, marriage practices, and political leadership.

Race (biological)

A proposed subspecies distinguished by geographic, genetic, or morphological differences; anthropologists argue this does not apply to humans as they lack distinct subspecies.

Race (anthropological)

A social and cultural category rather than a valid biological division of human beings.

Racism

A doctrine of superiority used to justify the dehumanization of others based on physical traits.

Scientific racism

The use of supposed scientific evidence to support racial hierarchy and inequality.

Genocide

The systematic extermination of one group by another.

Hypodescent (One-drop rule)

The practice of assigning individuals of mixed ancestry to the subordinate racial group.

Gene flow

The movement of genes between populations through reproduction, which prevents human populations from becoming separate species.

Phenotype

The observable physical characteristics of an individual.

Systemic racism

Structural inequalities that are embedded in social institutions and systems.

Structural violence

Harm caused by unjust social, political, and economic systems.

Epigenetics

The study of how environmental factors influence gene expression.

Flynn Effect

The observed worldwide rise in $IQ$ scores across populations over time.

Cultural race

A socially defined category based on perceived ancestry, appearance, and cultural traits.

Biological variation

Differences in physical traits, such as skin color, height, and hair texture, among individuals and populations.

Casta system

A colonial social hierarchy used in Mexico based on ancestry and racial mixture.

Carolus Linnaeus

An early classifier of human groups by geography and skin color, dividing humans into white Europeans, black Africans, yellow Asians, and red Native Americans.

Johann Blumenbach

The scholar who coined the term "Caucasian" and ranked human groups hierarchically with Caucasians at the top.

Franz Boas

An anthropologist who criticized racial hierarchy and argued that culture, not biology, explains differences in human behavior.

Ashley Montagu

The author of "Man's Most Dangerous Myth," who argued that race is a social myth rather than a biological reality.

Richard Lewontin

A researcher who demonstrated that only about $7\%$ of human genetic variation occurs among racial groups, while the vast majority exists within populations.

Raphael Lemkin

The individual who coined the term "genocide."

Ota Benga

A Congolese Twa man who was exhibited in the Bronx Zoo, illustrating the dehumanizing effects of racist ideology.

Gregory Stanton

The scholar who developed the Eight Stages of Genocide model.

Classification

The first stage of genocide where groups are categorized into "us" and "them."

Symbolization

The second stage of genocide, involving give names or symbols to the classifications.

Dehumanization

The third stage of genocide where one group denies the humanity of the other group, equating them with animals or diseases.

Organization

The fourth stage of genocide, usually organized by the state or terrorist groups, using militias to provide deniability.

Polarization

The fifth stage of genocide where extremists drive the groups apart through propaganda and laws.

Preparation

The sixth stage of genocide where victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity.

Extermination

The seventh stage of genocide, the mass killing legally called genocide.

Denial

The eighth and final stage of genocide where perpetrators dig up mass graves and intimidate witnesses to hide evidence.