ANTH 2351 Final Exam

Emic perspective

• from the studied culture

• avoid interpreting with outsider bias

Etic perspective

• from the observer

• to interpret meaningful behaviors that culture would find normal

Armchair anthropology

• collection and analysis of reports of cultures from a far location

• inaccurate and racist conclusion

• James Frazer (magic - religion - science)

Endogamy

• marriages within a cultural group

• race, religion, education, etc

Exogamy

• marriage outside a cultural group

Ethnography - “people writing”

• the process and result of cultural anthropological research

• descriptive accounts of culture thatweave detailed observations with theory.

participant observation

• long-term, intimate, immersive observation while participating in same activities 

Ethnocentrism

• belief that one’s own culture is better than other

• justified subjugation of non-europeans

social construction

reality is created through shared meaning

• money, gender, race

cultural relativism

seeking to understand another’s beliefs from the perspective of their culture

reproductive labor

• reproduction, care, and teaching of the labor force

• invisible, crucial, labeled for women

Consanguineal

• relationships formed through blood connection

• parents, siblings

affinal

• relationships formed through marriage ties

• in-laws

Modes of subsistence

• techniques to obtain food

• foraging, pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture

Foraging

• reliance of wild plan and animal food resources available in environment

• only immediate return subsistence system

• small societies

• egalitarian (little property)

• high value of generosity

• heavy roles (males hunt, elders heal)

• most of day in leisure

Pastoralism

• reliance on herds of domesticated livestock

• most in africa

• Milk/milk products are 65% of caloric intake

• trade to get products not self-produced

• tension for resources amongst groups

• more animals = more social status “money on legs”

• women valued for role as mothers

• love affairs of women normalized among women

Horticulture

• reliance on gardens for majority of food

• move farms periodically

• bananas, plantains, rice, cassava

• “slash and burn” - controlled fires to restore quality of soil

• crops are bassi for social relations

Agriculture - intense horticulture

• reliance on cultivation of domesticated plants and animals using technologies that allow intensive and continuous use of land

• result of population growth

• few staple crops

• division of labor (not everyone grows food)

• capacity unevenly distributed

Anthropocene

most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity began to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate

• maybe after nuclear bomb drop

Cultural ecology - Diamond

how cultures use and understand their environments

Political Ecology

how power intersects with human-nature relationships

• maybe “poachers” just want food?

• people prevented from living on their “protected land”

Racialization

process of creating a race category by ascribing complex characteristics to racial categories

Race

social construction that defines humans based on arbitrary physical traits that are believed to be distinguishing

ethnicity

group of people who identify with each other based on some combination of shared cultural heritage