SOC 2310 Study Guide (Cumulative with a focus on Weeks 13-15, Religion, Globalization, Seeing like an Anthropologist)

i hate this class; the first 37 flashcards are questions i got wrong on the quizzes and exams; 38 through the end are notes for every single pptx;

the most energy efficient subsistence pattern

horticulture

In his book, The Golden Bough (1890), Sir James Frazer

relied on the accounts of others, such as missionaries and government officials, to formulate his ideas.

Which of these is NOT a criticism of functionalism?

it focuses on the practices that give structure to daily life.

Which of the following scenarios best represents the “built environment” among foragers?

Foragers clear an area of brush and small trees, leaving the large trees intact, and after eating fruit, discard the seeds which later germinate to produce more trees.

Which of these is NOT studied by the subfield of descriptive linguistics?

non-primate call systems

Cultural anthropologists conduct and produce:

ethnography, ethnographies

The concept of "holism" is important and possible because Culture is:

integrated

The theory of functionalism, as used by Malinowski, understood that cultural traditions developed as a result of

the need to regulate specific human needs, such as food, safety, reproduction, and livelihood.

Thomas Malthus’ idea that connects population and resources argues that

without something to slow it down, a population will grow faster than the resources that the environment can provide.

Which type of economic exchange is practiced in ALL types of groups and societies?

reciprocity, Reciprocity, gifts, gift giving

In which type of group or society do men have the most participation in care of infants?

foraging, Foraging, hunting and gathering, Hunting and gathering

Your father's sister's children are your

cross-cousins, cross cousins, Cross-cousins, Cross cousins

ISIS has characteristics of

a constituitive state.

Which of these is not a way in which marriages integrate family groups in tribal societies?

dividing property into parcels owned by different family groups.

The salaula (secondhand clothes market system) of Zambia is an example of

a highly successful informal economy that operates within a global system.

The key or central principle or factor in traditional (pre-agricultural) groups and societies is

kinship, Kinship

Economic anthropologists have studied the results of Westernization around the world, and found that increasing numbers of McDonalds (or other Western commodities) have

not Westernized people in the ways originally feared, and in some cases have caused a resurgence of local identities.

What is the term for the process of participant-observation fieldwork in cultural anthropology?

Ethnography

In his book, The Golden Bough (1890), Sir James Frazer

relied on the accounts of others, such as missionaries and government officials, to formulate his ideas.

Chapter author Nelson tells the story of her fieldwork experience in two Mayan villages in highland Chiapas in order to describe

how learning to weave helped her understand her ethnographic research in a new way.

An etic perspective would include which of the following?

Analyzing a cultural practice by examining how it fits into the recent economic practices of a region

Allowing one’s field research to refine and guide the research question or problem is an approach called

deductive

A minimal unit of meaning in a language, that may be bound or unbound, is

a morpheme.

The field of linguistics that focuses on the study of the meanings of words and other morphemes, as well as how the meanings of phrases derive from them is called

semantics

Pastoralists primarily raise animals for all of these reasons, EXCEPT

to sell the animals at the market.

Thomas Malthus’ idea that connects population and resources argues that

without something to slow it down, a population will grow faster than the resources that the environment can provide.

How do anthropologists today evaluate Marshall Sahlins’ statement that foragers are “the original affluent society?”

Anthropologists know that foragers’ work and leisure time depends on the availability of resources, making this statement overly romantic.

How does chapter author McDowell understand the political organization of ISIS (also called the Islamic State)?

He argues that ISIS has achieved many of the characteristics of a formal political state.

The ability to induce or cause the behavior of others to change due to a social or political position is called

authority

What was true about the terms that siblings used for each other In traditional Chinese society?

The terms identified siblings by gender and whether they were older or younger.

The term anthropologists use for a marriage between one man and multiple wives is

polygyny

A family of parents in a culturally-recognized relationship, such as marriage, and their minor or dependent children is called a/an

nuclear family.

What do the authors argue is “natural” (that is, not culturally determined) about the family?

A biological mother and biological father

The social-cultural process that creates kinship-based relationships of rights and obligations between members of a family is referred to as

descent

Which of these statements is FALSE with regard to the challenges for anthropologists of religion?

It is hard to determine which view of God is most correct.

Globalization within a consumerist economy enables individuals

all of the answer choices are correct.

The term _____ refers to attempts to impose unequal and unfair relationships between members of different culture groups or societies.

cultural hegemony

anthropology

study of humans

anthropological method: comparative

Anthropology stresses cross-cultural or comparative study of full range of
human lifeways

Anthropological method: Holistic

Anthropologists apply holism; connections within each culture help us
explain why people think and act as they do

Anthropological method: Relativistic

Anthropologists practice relativism, understanding is relative to its own
beliefs, values and norms

four fields of anthropology (plus one)

archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, (extra one is applied)

cultural anthropologists

study the similarities and differences among living societies and cultural groups, ask broader questions about humankind, and often study social groups different from their own, but examine subcultures in their own society

what is culture

A set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared.

Anthropological Perspectives Fieldwork

ethnography based on participant-observation; descriptive accounts of culture with theory

Scientific vs. Humanistic approaches

Biological subfield uses a more scientific approach, while Cultural uses a more humanistic approach

Absolute relativism

Sometimes referred to as “moral relativism” Whatever goes on in a culture must not be questioned or changed by outsiders

critical relativism

Seeks objectivity, sensitivity to diversity. Poses questions about cultural practices in terms of who is accepting them and why, recognizes winners/losers, oppressors/victims

culture

Knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior (norms) and organization (structures of status and institutions) and ways of thinking

Norms

shared patterns of behavior

Values

ideals, motivating and inspiring

Symbols

something that stands for something else: Body language; words; emojis; signage....

Proxemics (study of space)

intimate zone: 1.5 ft; personal zone: 1.5-4 ft.; social zone: 4-12 ft.; public zone: 12+ ft

culture is becoming

globalized and mobile

armchair anthropology

measuring another culture from one’s own vantage point

ethnocentrism

the attitude that one’s own group or culture is better than any other

Functionalism

cultural traditions developed as a response to basic human needs

Structural-functionalism

social structures such as family serve to create social stability

functionalism and structural functionalism do not

these theories do not explain social change

cultural relativism

the principle that a culture must be understood on its own terms rather than compared to an outsider’s standard

fieldwork

most important method (set of methods) for collecting data

Ethnography

also often referred to as the anthropological method
• the in-depth study of everyday practices and lives of a people
• Participant Observation – main method of doing ethnography
• Emic (insider) and Etic (outsider) perspectives

salvage ethnography

Sought to preserve, document, and collect artifacts of “primitive” and “disappearing” cultures

Culture according to Clifford Geertz

“a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life”; “stories we tell ourselves about ourselves”

today’s anthropology can be conducted within

urban settings, one’s own culture, using deductive methodology, a mix of qualitative and quantitative

American Anthropological Association’s Code of Ethics

Stresses informed consent of study participants and making the results accessible

culture feeds into language and

language feeds into culture

Language

The system of arbitrary (vocal) symbols we use to encode our experience of the world.

Linguistics

The scientific study of language.

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of patterns of language use in social and cultural context.

Phonology

sounds

Phonemes

no two languages exactly the same

Morphology

combinations

Morphemes

“free” and “bound”

Syntax

sentence structure

Semantics

meaning

Pragmatics

context of use (could be tonal)

Structural linguistics

analyzes language as a system of interrelated structures such as syntax and lexicon (vocabulary)

Historical linguistics

historical development and change in language

Descriptive linguistics

analyzing and describing how language is spoken

Sociolinguistics

how society, social structure impacts language use (e.g. social class, gender)

features of language: Openness

creativity; new messages never before uttered can be created and understood (unlike other animal call systems)

features of language: displacement

Humans can talk about absent or nonexistent objects, and about past or future events, as easily as we can discuss our current situation. Nonhuman primates, using closed call systems, cannot do this. Their calls concern only the here and now.

linguistic determinism

Patterns of grammar determine patterns of thought and culture

linguistic relativity

Language shapes perception
◦ Draws attention to different aspects of experience
◦ Reinforces ideas

the four subsistence patterns

foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture

foraging

small groups, gender roles but egalitarian, immediate return system, low population density, sharing a social norm/survival strategy

horticulture social organization

Economic unit – extended families; Children work more in horticultural
groups than any other type of economy; Gender roles clearly defined, simple tools and physical labor, plot rotations,

pastoralism

Caring for domesticated animals which produce meat and milk; Involves a complex interaction among animals, land, and people; Found along with cultivation or trading relations with food cultivators; less efficient than horticulture, mobile herds, social status surrounds animals

Agriculture

Production of plants using plows, animals, and soil and water control; Fertilizer and Irrigation; Associated with: Sedentary villages, Occupational diversity, Social stratification, Rise of Cities and “civilization”, State society; complex; trade

industrialism

after industrial revolution, replacement of human and animal energy by machines, shift towards wage labor, etc.

economic functionalism

meets needs, doesn’t explain overconsumption

materialist

Environment, technology, economic system

interpretivist

goods have meaning, food is “good to think”

modes of production

production, labor, technology

gendered division of labor found in

all human societies

three principles of exchange

reciprocity, redistribution, market

tributary production

what it sounds like

tribal systems of social integration

age sets, sodalities, gendered groups (brotherhoods), gifts, feasting, marriage, secret societies

power

the ability to induce behavior of others in specified ways by means of coercion or physical force