AN101 Final

Power

Ability to influence other people through force or threat of force

Resistance

How people organize themselves to challenge systems of oppression

Ideology

A set of ideas that make certain power relations seem normal and natural

Space

Location or physical geography, more general, abstract, and neutral. It has no obvious meaning

Place

a space that is imbued with personal or collective meanings, feels unique and have a ‘personality’, identity, historical significance

Globalization

Intensification of movement of money, people, goods, images, and ideas across national borders

Time-Space Compression

Planes, supertankers, cell phones, computers, and the internet have brought people closer together; The world feels smaller; Social pace has accelerated with globalization

Flexible accumulation

The process through which companies move their production to other parts of the world This is done in search of cheap labor, lower taxes, and fewer environmental and workplace regulations

Off shoring

moving companies to export-processing zones; Cheaper and less stringent regulations

Outsourcing

Hiring employees in different parts of the world to lower costs Software design, customer support, data processing, etc.

Maquila

Assembly plants located in tariff-free zones, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border, offer a cheaper workforce: lower wages, fewer labor regulations and workplace safety laws, flexible work contracts

consumption

Reliance on commodities produced by others, an act that is socially consequential and culturally meaningful

Ritual

A sequence of actions often performed as part of a religious ceremony or a social custom, marriage, rites of passage

rites of passage

Life-transition rituals E.g., from child into adults, non-initiated into initiated, single into married, living into dead, student into alum, etc. 3. phases: Separation. Liminality, reincorporation

Separation (rites of passage)

1st phase (from everyday activities): physical, psychological, symbolic

Liminality

2nd phase. a period where social categories and norms are suspended. In this stage, a person learns relevant knowledge and gains a new perspective about life

Reincorporation

3rd phase. individual returns to everyday life but with a new status, purpose, and connection to the larger group

Embodiment

How people inhabit, experience, and feel the world through their bodies

Cultural ecology

examines the relationship between culture and environment, focusing on how humans adapt culturally rather than biologically.

Political ecology

How political and economics processes shape the use to certain environments, rejects the assumption that people have undifferentiated access to natural resources and spaces Differences in power result in an uneven distribution of costs and benefits tied to environmental processes

Ethnoecology

cross-cultural study of how humans perceive the natural environment Role of knowledge in shaping human environmental behavior

Anthropocene

A proposed geological era: one where human activity has altered the planet in permanent ways

Multispecies ethnography

looks at how human and nonhuman lives are interconnected and co-exist, and how these relationships influence culture, ethics, and the environment

Applied anthropology

Use of anthropological theory, methods, and concepts to solve concrete problems. It offers specific recommendations

Anne Allison

Ethnography of lunch boxes in Japan, Children must eat their meals according to school rules, Mothers devote a huge amount of time to “both please their children and to affirm that they are good mothers”. Ideological state apparatus

Bonilla & Rosa

Hashtag ethnography: sites of community, debate, and political action, not just online commentary. social media is not neutral, amplifies marginalized voices

Lila Abu-Lughod

Western “saving Muslim women” narratives oversimplify and stereotype Muslim women, ignore historical and political contexts, and are used to justify imperial power rather than address structural inequalities

Jason De Leon

“Prevention through Deterrence” The desert is intentionally used by the U.S. state as a tool for discouraging immigration. Borders as ‘spaces of exception’ Migrant deaths are of little consequence

Kathryn Takabvirwa

street vending in Zimbabwe is not just informal work but a crucial urban infrastructure that sustains economic and social life amid crisis; vendors improvise, adapt, and “make shift” — creating mobile systems that enable vital commerce, connections, and survival

Marcel Mauss

different societies teach different bodily habits, reflecting social norms, technology, and environment; human action is shaped by both culture and habit, bridging anthropology, sociology, and physiology.

Kyrstin Mallon Andrews

fishermen describe the sea in a range of colors (e.g., blue, black, brown, green, purple) as meaningful indicators of environmental and ecological change

Piers Locke

elephants in Nepal and argues that ethnography should include nonhuman animals as active, subjective participants rather than treating them as objects; multi species ethnography

Gillian Tett

applying ethnographic knowledge of local cultures and practices can improve public health responses, as in the Ebola outbreak, by designing interventions that respect communities while slowing contagion

Anand Pandian

we need to pay more attention instead to the everyday walls and divides that Americans have come to rely on their daily lives; Walls such as Fortified homes and neighborhoods Bulked-up cars and trucks Visions of the body as an armored fortress Media that shut out contrary perspectives

Joanna Davidson

ethnography in rural West Africa to show how environmental and economic pressures reshape religious, moral, and social life—especially women’s experiences of marriage, widowhood, and death—revealing broader tensions between visibility and invisibility, speech and silence, and the living and the dead

Sarah Lewinger

Christianity in Uganda

Syeda Rumana Mehdi

widowhood shapes women’s piety in Pakistan, using shrine rituals to show how widows navigate social marginalization, silence, and everyday life while engaging in spiritual and religious practices that can challenge social norms

Maquilapolis

globalized factory production on the U.S.–Mexico border exploits women workers, harms the environment, and creates health and labor injustices—while also showing how women workers organize, document their own lives, and fight for rights and accountability

I Like Dirt

human relationships with soil, waste, and composting challenge modern ideas of cleanliness and pollution, arguing that reconnecting with dirt reveals alternative, more sustainable ways of living with the environment

Sweetgrass

the last generation of sheep herders in Montana, showing the demanding, intimate relationships between humans, animals, and landscapes and highlighting the persistence—and limits—of traditional pastoral lifeways in a modern world

Human Terrain: How War Becomes Academic

anthropological knowledge was used by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, raising ethical concerns about militarization of academia, the role of social science in warfare, and the consequences for the people being studied