ISS 315 Week 1 Quiz Study Notes

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from week 1 study notes on Cultural Anthropology, Human Diversity, Orientalism, Colonialism, and World-Systems Theory.

Anthropology

The study of human beings and human diversity, aiming to understand the entire human experience.

Holistic Approach

An anthropological perspective that considers culture, history, language, and biology together to understand humans as whole organisms adapting through interactions between biology and culture.

Cultural Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology focused on learned behavior, symbols, beliefs, and ways of life.

Culture

Learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups.

Society

Social relationships among people in a geographical area.

Linguistic Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology focused on language, language variation/development, how language is learned, and language's relationship to culture.

Archaeology

The subfield of anthropology studying past cultures through material remains.

Physical/Biological Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology studying humans from a biological perspective.

Paleoanthropology

A branch of biological anthropology focused on the biological processes of human adaptation.

Human Variation

Physiological differences among modern humans.

Primatology

The study of apes and clues about humans within biological anthropology.

Applied Anthropology

The practice of using anthropology to analyze social, political, and economic problems and develop solutions.

Medical Anthropology

The study of social, cultural, biological, and linguistic factors affecting health and well-being, including experiences, distribution, prevention, and treatment of disease.

Forensic Anthropology

The study and identification of skeletized or badly decomposed human remains.

Artifact

A material remain of a past culture that can generally be moved, such as a stone axe, tortilla, or holiday wreath.

Feature

A material remain of a past culture that cannot easily be moved, such as building ruins, burials, or fire pits.

Indigenous People

Groups that have occupied a region for a long time and are recognized as its original or very ancient inhabitants, often existing as minorities with limited influence in the governing body.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture is better than other cultures, judging other cultures by one's own cultural standards.

Cultural Relativism

Understanding values and customs in terms of the specific culture of which they are a part.

Emic

An insider perspective representing how members of a culture understand the organization and meaning of their practices.

Etic

An external or analytical perspective that seeks causes of cultural patterns that may be beyond the awareness of people in that culture.

Race

A socially constructed category representing human groups that are not biologically separate, with all humans having an equal capacity for culture.

Biopsychological Equality

The principle that all human groups have the same biological and mental capabilities.

Racism

The belief that characteristics are caused by racial inheritance and that some human populations are superior to others.

Racialism

An ideology claiming biologically fixed races have different moral, intellectual, and physical characteristics that determine aptitudes and can be ranked hierarchically.

Edward Said

Palestinian-American literary critic and political activist associated with founding postcolonial studies and author of Orientalism (1978).

Orientalism

An analytical critique examining how Western academic knowledge and representations of the East were connected to political power and Western domination.

Colonialism

An all-encompassing way of understanding the world through which European influence spread via conquest and trade, evolving into different forms rather than simply ending.

World-Systems Theory (WST)

A macro-sociological framework analyzing the global economy through a historical lens, emphasizing interconnected countries, regions, and economic institutions.

Immanuel Wallerstein

The key sociologist who developed and advanced World-Systems Theory.

Core

Wealthy, industrialized nations dominant in global trade and economic activity, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and European countries.

Semi-periphery

Countries in a middle position in World-Systems Theory that benefit from relationships with both core and peripheral regions, such as Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.

Periphery

Generally poorer regions reliant on exporting raw materials, including much of Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Capitalism

An economic orientation toward the world market for profit.

Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid industrial development that began in England, driven by near-maximum production levels that made innovation necessary to increase yields.

Max Weber

Sociologist who argued that Protestant beliefs and values contributed to industrialization's spread and success in England, while Catholicism inhibited it in France.

Karl Marx

Theorist who viewed industrial stratification as a conflict between capitalists (owners of the means of production) and propertyless workers.

Proletarianization

The development of a class of workers who do not own the means of production and therefore depend on wage labor.

Aihwa Ong

Anthropologist who studied Malaysian women working in Japanese electronics factories in rural areas.

Spirit Possession

In the context of the Malaysian factory women case study, an act presented as a form of rebellion or resistance against stress and alienation caused by factory conditions.

Roland Barthes

Thinker whose ideas on the distinction between a text and a traditional work highlight that understanding a text requires surrounding context.