ANTHRO 2A MIDTERM 2 GPT

Social organization

The patterned relationships and social arrangements (roles, groups, institutions) through which people coordinate behavior.

Social structure

Stable networks and institutions (kinship, class, polity) that shape recurring social relations and constraints.

Institution

Durable rule-governed social arrangements that organize major social functions (e.g., family, religion, economy).

Mode of production

The overall system a society uses to produce goods: technologies, labor forms, and social relations.

Means of production

The material tools, land, and technology (land, tools, animals, factories) used to produce goods.

Relations of production

Social relationships defining who controls the means of production and who performs labor (owners, workers, kin obligations).

Subsistence strategy / technique of production

The method(s) a group uses to obtain food and materials (foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, industrialism).

Foraging

Subsistence by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods; typically small, mobile bands with sharing practices.

Pre-industrial agriculture

Cultivation using human/animal labor without industrial machinery; includes horticulture and traditional plow agriculture.

Pastoralism

Subsistence focused on herding domesticated animals; often mobile and adapted to marginal lands.

Industrialism

Large-scale production using machinery, fossil fuels, wage labor, and complex division of labor.

Group size (San Foragers)

Typically small bands (~20-50 people) with flexible membership.

Mobility (San Foragers)

High residential mobility to follow seasonal resources and water.

Gathering v. hunting

Gathering often supplies majority of calories; hunting supplies protein and social prestige.

Contributions of men and women (San Foragers)

Sex-differentiated labor: women often do most gathering, men hunt; both essential.

Leisure, health (San Foragers)

Foragers often work fewer hours than farmers and can have relatively good health indicators historically.

Sharing and survival (San Foragers)

Obligation to share food and resources reduces individual risk and supports group survival.

Domestication

Human-driven selection and breeding of plants/animals to change their traits for human use.

Extensive agriculture (horticulture)

Low-input, shifting cultivation using simple tools and fallow cycles (large land per capita).

Slash-and-burn (swidden) agriculture

Clearing vegetation by cutting and burning to create nutrient-rich fields used briefly and then left fallow.

Intercropping

Growing multiple crops together in the same plot to increase productivity and reduce risk.

Fallow

Period when cultivated land is left uncultivated to regain fertility.

Intensive agriculture

High-input, high-labor farming using plows, irrigation, terracing, and fertilizers to maximize yield per unit land.

Terracing

Creating stepped fields on slopes to reduce erosion and allow cultivation.

Irrigation

Artificial watering systems to control crops' water supply and increase yields.

Wet-rice agriculture

Intensive cultivation of rice in flooded paddies, typical of monsoon Asia.

Intensification

Process of increasing labor/inputs/technology per land unit to raise output.

Pastoralism and environment

How herding adapts to and shapes arid/marginal ecosystems; mobility conserves fragile pastures.

Livestock and environment

Herds convert local vegetation into human-useful products but can also cause overgrazing if unmanaged.

Livestock as food

Animals provide milk, blood, meat, and social wealth; consumption strategies vary culturally.

Transhumance

Seasonal movement of herds (and sometimes people) between fixed summer and winter pastures.

Energy

Production and efficiency — Industrialism relies on concentrated fossil-fuel/industrial energy, raising productivity per worker.

Energetic comparisons

Industrial societies consume far more energy per capita and convert it more efficiently than preindustrial societies.

Market principle

Exchange organized by supply, demand, and price in impersonal markets using currency.

Redistribution

Central collection of goods by a leader or institution and their reallocation (e.g., tribute, taxes, potlatch redistribution).

Reciprocity

Exchange based on social ties: gifting and counter-gifting rather than market prices.

Law of supply and demand

Economic rule where price moves with availability and consumer desire (scarcity raises price; demand raises price).

Generalized reciprocity

Giving with no immediate or calculable return expected (close kin, communal sharing).

Balanced reciprocity

Exchange with expectation of equivalent return within a time frame (friends, neighbors).

Negative reciprocity

Attempts to get something for nothing; includes haggling, theft, or deceitful trade.

Potlatch

Ceremonial competitive feast among Pacific Northwest peoples focused on lavish giving to gain status.

Kinship

Socially recognized ties based on descent, marriage, and nurturance; organizes inheritance, obligations, and identity.

Diversity in kin terms

Different languages categorize kin differently (e.g., bifurcate merging, Eskimo, Hawaiian systems).

Diversity in logic of kin ties

Kinship can be based on biology, descent, alliance, household, or social relationships.

Enduring diffuse solidarity

Broad, long-term mutual obligations across kin networks (solidarity beyond immediate nuclear family).

Kin terms

Culturally specific labels for relatives (mother, aunt, parallel-cousin, etc.).

Biological kin types & notation

Anthropological shorthand (F = father, M = mother, B = brother, Z = sister, etc.) to indicate genealogical relationships.

Nuclear family

Parents and their children (immediate household).

Extended family

Multi-generational or collateral kin living together or recognized as a household unit.

Industrialism and family organization

Industrial societies often emphasize nuclear households, wage labor, and geographic mobility; class affects family forms.

General differences by class

Working-class families often have extended kin networks for support; middle-class families more nuclear and privatized.

Changes in North America

Trends: later marriage, smaller households, higher divorce rates, more single-parent and dual-earner families.

Bilateral descent

Individuals reckon kinship equally through both mother's and father's lines.

Unilineal descent

Descent traced only through one sex (patrilineal or matrilineal).

Patrilineal descent

Descent and inheritance through the male line.

Matrilineal descent

Descent and inheritance through the female line.

Kindred

Ego-centered network including relatives from both lines (not a corporate lineage).

Lineage

A descent group that can demonstrate common descent from an ancestor.

Patrilineage

Lineage traced through males.

Matrilineage

Lineage traced through females.

Clan

A larger descent group composed of several lineages claiming descent from a remote ancestor, often with totemic identity.

Patriclan / Matriclan

Clan organized around male-line or female-line descent respectively.

Corporate groups

Groups (lineages, clans) that act as single units for property, rituals, and politics.

Genitor

Biological father.

Pater

Social/legal father who claims and raises the child.

Functions of marriage

Marriage organizes descent, inheritance, and alliances between groups.

Affines

Relatives by marriage (in-laws), distinct from consanguineal kin.

Incest taboo

Cultural prohibition against sexual relations between specified close kin.

Monogamy

Marriage of one spouse at a time.

Polygamy

Marriage where a person has multiple spouses; includes polygyny and polyandry.

Polygyny

One man married to multiple women.

Polyandry

One woman married to multiple men (often fraternal polyandry among Himalayan groups).

Social organization & material conditions

The idea that economic/ecological constraints shape social forms (family, marriage, inheritance).

Himalayan agriculturists & polyandry

Example where scarce arable land and need to prevent fragmentation encourage fraternal polyandry.

Land tenure

Rules and customs determining who holds and transmits land rights.

Primogeniture

Inheritance system where the eldest son inherits most or all property.

Exogamy

Marriage outside one's social group.

Endogamy

Marriage within a designated group (caste, ethnicity).

Caste system of India

Endogamous, hereditary social hierarchy with occupational specialization and ritual status rules.

Post-marital residence

The household location and group a couple joins after marriage.

Matrilocal residence

Couple lives near or with the wife's kin.

Patrilocal residence

Couple lives near or with the husband's kin.

Neolocal residence

Couple establishes an independent household apart from both kin groups.

Bridewealth

Transfer of goods (often cattle, money) from groom's family to bride's family as part of marriage.

Dowry

Transfer of goods from bride's family to the bride/groom's family (bride's contribution).

Bride service

Period where the husband works for the bride's family as part of marriage arrangement.

Marriage exchanges

Systems of transfer (bridewealth, dowry, exchanges) that formalize marriage alliances.

Nature and kinship

Debates about whether kinship is biologically based (blood) or culturally constructed; most anthropology emphasizes cultural construction.

Nuer marriage & descent

Nuer use cattle and bridewealth to establish social fatherhood and lineage membership; biological paternity is not decisive.

Nuer kinship & sociopolitical relations

Kinship organizes lineage-based politics, cattle exchanges, and male authority; elders and lineage heads hold power over marriages and cattle.

Elders and sons / husbands and wives (Nuer)

Elders control cattle and marriage exchanges; husbands/wives have asymmetric authority shaped by lineage and cattle ownership.

Matrilateral & patrilateral kin types

Relatives on mother's side (matrilateral) versus father's side (patrilateral).

Parallel cousins

Children of two same-sex siblings (father's brother's kids or mother's sister's kids) — often seen as akin to siblings in some systems.

Cross cousins

Children of opposite-sex siblings (father's sister's kids or mother's brother's kids) — often preferred marriage partners in some cultures.

Ascending generation

Generations above ego (parents = 1st ascending, grandparents = 2nd ascending).

Descending generation

Generations below ego (children = 1st descending, grandchildren = 2nd descending).

Ego's own generation

Peers and same-generation relatives (siblings, cousins).

Band

Small, kin-based, egalitarian hunter-gatherer group with flexible leadership.

Tribe

Larger, kin-based society with segmentary organization and leaders but no centralized political authority.

Chiefdom

Ranked society with a hereditary chief who controls redistribution and ritual authority.