SCL ANT100

Governmentality

The way a state is ruled by government in conjunction with other organizations.

Hegemony

A way to install self-disciplined conforming behavior that aligns with government wishes.

Surveillance

The method by which the public is monitored to maintain control for the elite.

Consent

Agreement or compliance that is essential for the maintenance of power structures, which can be voluntary and internalized.

Panopticon

A prison design featuring a central watchtower, allowing constant surveillance without prisoners knowing when they are being observed.

Levels of Power in a Capitalist Society

1. businesses

2. government (democracies)

3. private institutions

4. media press

5. family

6. individuals

Digital Economy

Economic activities that are conducted through digital means, often dominated by a few wealthy individuals.

Big Data

Large volumes of data analyzed to identify trends, often used by businesses and governments for surveillance.

Monopoly Capitalism

An economic system where a single entity dominates the market, often involving cooperation between the state and capital.

consent

• pervades all levels of society

• based on violence

• violence is implied

• acquired via education

Gramsci’s Hegemony

1. consent has to be given without thought for hegemony

2. consent does not always occur

3. if it does not occur there is a struggle

• the struggle can be spontaneous

• or explicitly

violent surveillance

• law enforcement

• war

voluntary surveillance

• welfare

• entertainment

• information

capital surveillance

• private, informative, encourages competition, non-coercive

• businesses track your digital history for advertisement/to sell a product or service

government surveillance

• classified, non-transparent, monopolistic

• unknown what the government is using the data for

What happens when the capital cooperates with the state?

• cooperation discourages competition

• result can be opaque monopoly capitalism

Ethnography

Describing of people through the study of their cultures.

Cultural Relativism

The principle of understanding other cultures without judgment; each culture is a unique entity with its own special genius, world view, and behavioural characteristics.

Universal Moral Values

Belief that some moral values are valid regardless of culture.

Participant Observation

Method where ethnographers live with the people they study.

Language Acquisition Device

Innate ability for humans to learn language, as proposed by Noam Chomsky.

• can not grow up without learning language

• language is an innate and universal ability

• moral standards are innate and universal

• we learn specific languages from others in our society

• but all humans learn a language

• not instant, but by the age of 6

Deep Structure

The underlying syntax that generates different surface structures in language.

• deep structure in languages are the same

  • verbs, nouns, noun phrases, etc

Moral Relativism

The belief that moral standards are not absolute and depend on culture.

Political Economy

The relationship between economic behavior and political structures affecting society.

Surface Structure

The actual form of sentences generated from deep structures in language.

Taboo

A prohibition or restriction against certain practices or discussions in cultures.

discourse analysis

A research method used to analyze spoken or written communication, focusing on the context, structure, and meaning of language in social interactions.

• study of text

syntax

The set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a language, including word order and sentence formation.

• study of sentences

morphology

The study of the structure and formation of words in a language, including prefixes, suffixes, and root forms.

• study of words

phonology

the study of the sound system of a language, including the organization and patterns of sounds.

• study of sound units

phonetics

the study of the physical properties of sounds in human speech, including their articulation and auditory perception.

• study of sounds

Surface Structure

• generated by the deep structure

• the actual sentence itself

Universal Moral Values

• there exists moral values that exist regardless of culture

• opposite of moral relativism

• not the opposite of cultural relatvisim

Cultural Relativism

• cannot judge other cultures based on their practices

• allows for moral universals and particulars

Moral Relativism

• cannot judge cultures at all

• moral values are dependent on cultural context.

Other

a person or group defined as being excluded of another group; non dominating

Colonial definition of anthropology

“science of the colonial Other”

What was colonial anthropology?

a Western science; the field consisted of White people studying conquered peoples

What were the Other to the West?

“primitives”, “natives,” “without history”, “without writing”

What is “folklore”?

the exclusion of the study of Western civilization in anthropology

What was the Orient?

• “non-primitive” people → who had writing systems

• China, Persia, India, Islam, South Asia & South East Asia

metropolitan

centred in the colonizing countries

What are the Four Fields of Anthropology?

1. physical/evolutionary anthropology

2. archaeology

3. cultural

4. linguistic

physical anthropology

study of characteristics and physical appearance

archaeology

study of material culture

cultural anthropology

study of customs, ideas, social organization

linguistic anthropology

study of spoken languages

ideology & representation

• the makings of meaning

• culture & language

political economy

• interrelationships among people and groups

• the “body politic” → the makings of society

What is culture?

What is learned from each other

What is language?

• tool of social construction & social transmission

• communication

• identity formation

What is affect?

emotion; the conscious emotion that occurs in reaction to a thought or experience

sameness in identity formation

affect → community

differences in identity formation

affect → othering

What is an important law of language?

every language has nouns, verbs, and word order

• languages have more in common than not

  • geographical proximity

  • nouns & verbs

  • word order & grammar

Culture & Language in Universals and Particulars

• culture & language are human universals

• specificity in culture & language are human particulars

define niches

specific languages and cultures developed to cope with specific environmental and social contexts

cultural variables

systematic way to study differences

naturalization

when people mistakenly come to think of what is socially constructed to be from nature

social location bias

the upbringing, background, culture, bias, aptitude, etc a person has

semiotics

• language

• signifying systems that study the signs and symbols in communication and their meanings.

• the study of signs and symbols and their interpretations

define Social Construction

Social construction is the theory that concepts, practices, and realities are developed and maintained through social interactions and cultural practices, often seen as subject to varying interpretations; an “invention” society agrees upon collectively

• works with material reality and transforms it into social reality

race

• socially constructed

• not real

• imagined common descent

• folk notion, not scientific

• national; regional; linguistic

racialization

the process through which social categories, such as race, are constructed and assigned meanings based on perceived differences.

race: biology vs. social construction

• different races have different genetic characteristics,

• yet are still socially constructed race can correlate with colour and certain genetic traits

• but not consistently enough to justify scientifically the notion of human races

One-Drop Rule

• if you had any “Black blood” (African ancestors) you were considered Black

  • socially constructed and racialized as Black

  • encompassed other non-white groups

  • having any non-white blood made you not white

semiosis

the process of constructing meaning

signification (semiotics)

making sense of signs

3 nature of signs

1. signifier & signified

2. symbol, icon, index

3. denotation & connotation

parts of semiotics

1. language (linguistics)

2. semiotics proper (other signs)

A Classic (“Saussurean”) View of Semiosis

• signifier + signified

• material/immaterial

  • material: the object itself

• together the signifier and the signified make

• up the sign

• sign ≠ the physical object

• sign: ordinary language

  • the sign itself

• signifier: technical language

  • yellow colours, silhouette of a car on slippery roads

• signified: the message

  • slippery roads ahead

define sign

ordinary language; anything that communicates a meaning that is not the sign itself to the interpreter of the sign

signifier + signified = sign

define signifier

the part of a sign that represents the concept or meaning, often a word, image, or sound; technical language; the observable aspects of the sign itself

define signified

the message itself; what the sign represents or refers to

Charles Peirce’s Theory

• symbol

• icon

• index

define symbol

arbitrary meanings attributed to a sign

define icon

quality/physical characteristics of a sign; shares some physical form with the referenced; motivated

define index

does not share any of their form with the reference; motivated

ethno-nationalism

the idea that one belongs to the people descended from the same ancestry

Relatedness

people who are “special” with whom we have a relationship with

• descent

• kinship

• language groups

• nationalism

• marriage

corporate groups

• acting as a group together in society

• can be hierarchal

• share residence, identity; unified

consanguineal

related by blood

affinal

related by marriage

avunculate

the most powerful male relative is the mother’s brother

• popular in Wendat and Haudenosaunee culture

Hawaiian Kinship System

no distinction between biological and non-biological relatives

Sudanese Kinship System

different naming systems between the mother and father’s side

Eskimo Kinship System

nuclear family

Trobriand Islands Society Kinship System

avuncular system, biological father → an affectionate playmate

commensality

everyone eats together

Germanic languages

• German

• Swedish

• English

Slavic languages

• Russian

• Polish

• Bulgarian

Romance languages

• Latin

• Italian

• French

• Romanian

True or False: Language is a political social construct

True!

neoliberalism

free markets, less government control

precariousness

a state of having uncertain job security and income stability; the onus is put on employees to prove their usefulness

globalization

the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or operate on an international scale, increasing interconnectedness across countries.

South to North (Capital)

investments: North to South

profits: South to North

few or no restrictions to the flow

South to North (Migration)

Global South wages are lower; people want to migrate but are heavily restricted; people can move freely, labour cannot → lots of production is outsourced elsewhere

How is globalization functioning now?

• rivalry of alternative economies implies globalization is over → not true

• neoliberalism continues but within the state

• globalization → limited interference by national governments

• post-globalization (today) → reinforce borders & liberalism in one’s own country