Intro to Cultural Anthropology

Four-field discipline in anthropology

The framework dividing anthropology into four interrelated subfields: biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Conformity bias

The tendency to adjust one's beliefs or behaviors to align with those of a group, even when conflicting with personal independent judgment.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms pre-existing beliefs, values, or theories.

Typology

A method of organizing and classifying types of people, societies, cultures, or behaviors based on shared characteristics.

Empirical research

Research relying on direct observation and experimentation to test hypotheses and interpret quantitative, qualitative, or mixed data.

Ethnographic fieldwork

The primary research strategy in cultural anthropology involving long-term living and interacting with a community through participant observation.

Objective vs. subjective inquiry

An analytical distinction where objective data is unbiased and verifiable, whereas subjective data reflects individual opinions, feelings, and personal perspectives.

Theory vs. methodology

An analytical distinction where theory addresses the 'what' and 'why' of a phenomenon, while methodology provides the structured plan ('how') to investigate it.

Edward Burnett Tylor

19th-century anthropologist who proposed unilineal cultural evolution, claiming cultures naturally progress through stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization.

Franz Boas

Anthropologist known as the 'Father of American Anthropology' who established the four-field approach and championed cultural relativism and historical particularism.

Culture

A system of knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, artifacts, and institutions created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

Ethnocentrism

The practice of using one's own cultural standards to evaluate and judge other cultures, assuming one's own way of life is superior.

Cultural relativism

The approach of understanding a group's beliefs and practices within their own cultural context without applying external judgments.

Historical particularism

The concept that cultures develop in distinct ways due to their specific, unique historical trajectories.

Agency

The potential power of individuals and groups to contest cultural norms, values, symbols, institutions, and structures of power.

Power

The ability or potential of a person, group, or institution to bring about change through action, influence, or force.

Mental maps of reality

Culturally constructed systems of classification and meaning that shape how individuals perceive, organize, and interpret the world.

Symbols

Anything that represents or stands for something else, including language, currency, time, and religious iconography.

Values

Fundamental cultural beliefs regarding what is important, true, desirable, and right.

Zora Neale Hurston

Anthropologist and author who documented African American life, folklore, and culture in the rural South, focusing on community and Black women's experiences.

Colonialism

The practice by which a nation extends political, economic, and military control beyond its borders to secure raw materials, cheap labor, and markets.

Race

A flawed system of classification with no biological basis that uses specific physical characteristics to divide human populations into discrete groups.

Melanin

A biological pigment in skin, hair, and eyes that protects against ultraviolet radiation.

Racism

Individual thoughts and actions, along with institutional patterns, that create or reproduce unequal access to power, privilege, and resources based on perceived racial differences.

Jim Crow laws

A system of laws implemented in the United States following the Civil War to legally enforce racial segregation and disenfranchisement.

Cultural determinism

The belief that behavioral variations among human groups are solely the result of cultural learning rather than biological or genetic factors.

Systemic / structural racism

The interlinked network of institutions and societal structures that reifies inequality, where disparities in one system perpetuate disadvantages in others.

Stratification

The uneven distribution of resources, power, and privileges among members of a society, often persisting across generations.

Margaret Mead

Renowned American anthropologist famous for her comparative studies demonstrating that gender expressions, roles, and expectations vary across cultures.

Cultural construction of gender

The process through which individuals learn to perform, perceive, and categorize behaviors as masculine or feminine within a specific cultural context.

Sex

The observable physical and biological differences used to categorize humans as male or female for reproductive purposes.

Intersex

A naturally occurring biological variation in which an individual is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit typical male or female definitions.

Gender

A social construct encompassing roles, behaviors, expressions, and identities assigned to or adopted by individuals, distinct from biological sex.

Cisgender

Describing individuals whose gender identity and expression align with the sex assigned to them at birth.

Transgender

Describing individuals whose gender identity or expression differs from the sex assigned to them at birth.

Heteronormative

Assumptions and societal structures that treat a strict gender binary and heterosexual relationships as the default or normal standard.

Intersectionality

An analytical framework for understanding how overlapping social identities such as race, gender, class, and nationality shape individual experiences and systemic inequality.

Kinship analysis

A methodological approach in anthropology used to study social relationships and structures built on family ties, descent, and marriage.

Endogamy

The practice or requirement of marrying within a specific social, ethnic, or kinship group.

Exogamy

The practice or requirement of marrying outside one's defined social or kinship group.

Bridewealth

A transfer of goods or currency from the groom's family to the bride's family to validate a marriage.

Dowry

A transfer of goods or currency from the bride's family to the groom's family or the new couple as part of the marriage process.

Lineage

A descent group that traces clear, documented genealogical ties back to a specific common ancestor.

Patriarchy

A social system in which men hold primary authority and dominate roles in political leadership, social privilege, and property ownership.