Anthro Key Terms

Agency

Agency

The ability of individuals to act independently and make their own choices freely.

Social Class

A division in society based on social and economic status

Community

A group of people sharing similar characteristics, and/or interests (location, language, religion, sports etc.)

Cultural Relativism

Suspending one's own ethnocentric judgement in order to understand and appreciate another culture; interpreting the various aspects of a culture in reference to that culture rather than one's own.

Ethnicity

The identification of a group based on a perceived shared cultural distinctiveness, expressed through language, music, religion, values, art, literature, family life, food, ritual, public life and material culture.

Ethnocentrism

Regarding one's own ethnicity as superior to others and/or viewing others only through one's own cultural categories.

Gender

Culturally constructed notions of what it means to be male or female, depending on the social context.

Personhood

A social status granted in various ways to those who meet certain criteria on who can become a person.

Sexuality

One's self-expression as a sexual being

Social Structure

The distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions (such as the government, criminal justice system, education, religious authorities) whereby human beings in a society interact and live together.

Ethnography

Writing about people's cultures, customs, habits and mutual differences, usually based on participant observation.

Reflexivity

The ability to stand back and assess aspects of one's own behaviour, society and culture etc.

Positionality

The recognition and declaration of one's own position in a piece of academic work

Globalisation

The worldwide process of increasing economic, technological, political and cultural interactions, integration and interdependence of nations.

Kinship

Sets of relationships considered primary in any society, also called family and relations

Ideology

A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Commodification

Treating something as if it is something you can buy and sell (a commodity)

Classification

The process of classifying the world according to specific cultural values and beliefs

Morality

Principles (culturally specific) that define what is right and wrong

Socialisation

The process through which someone learns and internalises their culture's values and beliefs.

Boundaries

The physical and imagined differences between groups and individuals.

Resistance

A range of behaviours that aim at opposing expectations imposed by different forms of authorities

Social control

The enforcement of conformity by society upon its members, either by law or by social pressure.

Habitus

The lifestyle, values, dispositions and expectations of particular social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life.

Embodiment

The process through which cultural beliefs and values are incorporated in the physical body.

Enculturation

The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted across generations

Acculturation

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.

Reproduction (social and biological)

The transmission of existing cultural values and norms and other aspects of society from generation to generation.

The Self

The socially constructed understanding of individual and cultural identity that, in people's thinking, distinguishes them from "the Other".

Virtual community

A social group that exists and interacts in an online environment.

The Other

Anthropologists use this term "the Other" to describe the way people who are members of a particular social group perceive other people who are not members. For example, non-Muslims may perceive Muslims as "the Other". "Othering" may be negative.

Syncretism

The hybridization or amalgamation of two or more cultural traditions.

Suffering

The human consequences of war, famine, depression, disease, torture, and other problems that result from how political, economic, and institutional power may impact people negatively.

Subaltern

Refers to social groups that are socially and politically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the society. This term particularly relates to colonial and post-colonial contexts.

Social inequality

The existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.

Ritual

A formalized event, the rules of which are determined by the traditions of a social group, characterized by symbolism and performance. Religion is a significant context for the practice of rituals, but the scope of ritual behaviour extends to other areas.

Reflexivity

Anthropologists acknowledge that their own knowledge base, beliefs and perspectives may influence their research and writing.

Reciprocity

Mutual exchange or obligation between people: generalized (no expectation of return); balanced (exchange of equal value); negative (one party seeks to benefit at the expense of the other).

Positionality

The effect an anthropologist's own subjectivity might have on how he or she interprets observations and experience.

Politicized body

The body becomes the topic of political debate, for example, in gender related discourse.

Mechanized body

The body may be perceived as a machine consisting of organic parts. Surgical implants of mechanical parts means re-thinking the concept of "the body".

Marginalization

Relegating specific groups of people to the edge of society, economically, politically, culturally and socially; limiting their access to productive resources and avenues for the realization of their productive human potential.

Localization

A social group's specific adaptation of the influences of globalization.

Liminality

Participants in a rite of passage or ritual are temporarily literally and symbolically marginalized from their community. Status becomes ambiguous until they re-join their community and adopt their new status. This term may be more broadly used in the context of cultural change.

Imagined community

The idea that a community is to some extent constructed in the minds of the people who consider themselves to belong to it.

Ideology

The system of social and moral ideas of a group of people; a commitment to central values.

Hybridity

Multiple cultures mix, bringing together traditions as they negotiate their shared and unshared identities.

Exchange

The transfer of things between social actors. The things can be human or animal, material or immaterial. It is central to all people's lives, but its consequences and elaborations are more marked in some cultures.

Alterity

"Otherness". Used in anthropology to describe and comment on the construction and experience of cultural difference.

Biomedicine

a practice, often associated with Western medicine, that seeks to apply the principles of biology and the natural sciences to the practice of diagnosing disease and promoting healing

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a society's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Classification

Assigning common knowledge to describe a large number of people or things as belonging to a recognizable system.

Conflict

Disagreements between individuals, groups, cultures or societies may result from differences in interests, values or actions. Conflict theory (eg Marxism, Feminism, CRT) presents a lens, or framework, which can give anthropologists insight into the social impact of disharmony.

Consensus

Theories around the concept of consensus (Functionalism) assume that cultural values and beliefs are learned and shared to a significant extent across a society and that there is a general level of agreement about these values and beliefs.

Consumption

The meaningful use that people make of the objects that are associated with them. The use can be mental or material; the objects can be things, ideas or relationships.

Cosmology

Social groups perceive the universe and describe their relationship with it in different ways.

Development

The concept of development refers to more economically developed societies providing assistance and resources to less economically developed societies, either directly through bilateral aid or indirectly via other agencies. Development also refers to self-directed industrial, technological and economic improvement.

Diaspora

The dispersal of peoples from homelands to establish new, migrated communities in other places.

Discourse

Written or spoken intellectual communication or debate in a discipline such as anthropology.

Globalization

The tendency towards increasing global interconnections in culture, economy and social life. The transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations.

Modified body

The human body is deliberately altered for cultural reasons (for example, rites of passage, group membership) or aesthetic reasons (for example, body art, self-expression).

Movement

A loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically either the implementation or the prevention of a change in society's structure or values.

Nation state

A politically legitimate, bounded geographical area. It is a political and geopolitical entity, while a nation may be considered as a cultural one. The term "nation state" implies that the two coincide, but colonization created many instances where this notion may be disputed.

Neo-colonialism

Relations between former colonial powers and former colonies, which perpetuate to some degree the domination and exploitation that existed under colonialism.

Post-colonialism

Study of the legacy of the colonial era and the residual political, cultural, socio-economic, and psychological effects.

Reproduction

The transmission of existing cultural values and norms and other aspects of society from generation to generation.

Representation

Anthropologists need to consider the inherently problematic nature of representation and description of living people, specifically in ethnography and more generally in anthropological work as a whole.

Role

The dynamic aspect of status: a person's actual behaviour within the context of that status.

social control

Any means used to maintain behavioural norms and regulate conflict.

Status

The position a person has within a social system—this may be ascribed (beyond an individual's control) or achieved (acquired on the basis of merit). Persons' statuses are usually multiple and come with sets of rights, obligations, behaviours and duties that individuals of certain positions are expected to perform.