anthropology final

language

a system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar

philology

the comparative study of ancient texts and documents

Sapir

a language inclines its speakers to think about the world in certain ways because of its specific grammatic categories

Linguistic relativity

people speaking different languages perceive/interpret the world differently because of differences in their languages

signs

the most basic way of conveying simple meaning (red octagon)

symbols

elaborating on signs with a wider range of meanings (ex. American flag)

sociolinguistics

Studies how social context and cultural norms shape language use among a linguistic community. Describes how language is used by people rather than prescribing how language should be used. Examines signs, symbols, and metaphors.

language maintenance

Efforts to preserve linguistic tradition amid social change

language shift

Gradual replacement of one language by another

creole

a language of mixed origin that has developed from a complex blending of two parent language and that exists as a mother tongue for some part of their population

pidgin

a mixed language with a simplified grammar typically borrowing its vocabulary from one language and its grammar from another

key scenarios

imply how people should act

language ideology

The widespread assumption that people make about the relative sophistication and status of particular dialects and languages. Language ideology links language with identity, morality, and aesthetics, shaping our image of who we are as individuals and members of social groups and institutions.

Malinowski

focused on how gift giving generates individual status

Mauss

focused on how gift exchange generates and sustains social relationships and obligations

societal notion of obligation

the obligation to give, the obligation to receive, and the obligation to reciprocate in appropriate ways

generalized reciprocity

gifts are given freely without the expectation of return

balanced reciprocity

the giver expects a fair return at some later time

negative reciprocity

the giver attempts to get something for nothing; to haggle one’s way into a favorable personal outcome

kula ring

An inter-island exchange network: Men pass shell jewelry to recipients on other islands to cement lifelong relationships between high-ranking men

delayed reciprocity

A form of reciprocity in which there is a long lag time between giving and receiving

gift exchange in market economies

gift exchange still matters (for social status, relationships, influence), gifts follow hidden rules, impersonalization issues with mass production, personalizing gifts, marketing helps with personalization

cultural economics

An anthropological approach to economics that focuses on how symbols and morals help shape a community’s economy — Economy a category of culture like any other

value

the relative worth or service that makes it more desirable

how value is created

Sociocultural relationships and processes play a primary role in creating value

transactional orders

Realms of transactions a community uses, each with its own set of symbolic meanings and moral assumptions (ex. In academic settings, a diploma must be earned via a combination of tuition money and hard work. To simply buy a diploma is ethically and culturally hazardous.)

prestige economies

Economies in which people seek high social rank, prestige and owner, instead of money and material wealth (ex. Greek life)

commodity money

Money with intrinsic value (e.g., gold, silver, goods)

fiat money

Money created and regulated by governments

evolution of money

1. Bartering

2. Physical money

3. Credit systems are developed

general purpose money

Money that can be used to buy almost anything

limited purpose money

Money that can only be used for specific goods or purposes (used to gain prestige and social status)

ownership is about interactions

social relationships and rights (who can use something/transfer/control), expressed through cultural and symbolism, inalienable possessions (Maori cloak), temporary

consumption

The act of using something and assigning meaning to it

puissance (strength/energy)

potential power; power as might (ex. physical wherewithal to explode an atomic bomb)

pouvoir (influence/control)

actualized power, the authority or “powers” to stop the rocket being launched

four mechanisms used to produce compliance

• Coercive (for or direct threat force)

• Utilitarian (bribes, trades of service)

• Normative agreement (treaties)

• Ideological hegemony (creating and maintaining the dominance of a particular set of ideas which come to seem natural and normal)

politics

those relationships and processes of cooperation, conflict, and power that are fundamental aspects of human life. Rooted in people’s everyday social interaction, belief systems and cultural practices

centralized power

A political system in which certain individuals and institutions hold power and control over resources

acephalous societies

societies without a governing head, generally with no hierarchical leadership

Neo-evolutionary Typology

Band: Small, foraging, egalitarian, no formal leader

Tribe: Larger, kin-based, headman leadership

Chiefdom: Ranked, centralized, chief redistributes resources

State: Large, stratified, bureaucracy, laws, monopoly on force

Political power in nonstate societies

In non-state societies, leadership tends to be temporary, informal, and based on personal attributes rather than hereditary or rank (ex. the power of an Amazonian headman is based on personal charisma and persuasiveness)

informal leadership

acephalous societies have this type of leadership where elders may be looked to for guidance based on their experience and some cultures are egalitarian enough to allow female leadership (ex. the Batek of Malaysia)

social controls

Many pastoralist societies divide men from different families into age-grades. Religious ritual can reinforce political power, maintain solidarity within groups and unity against other groups and resolve local disputes.

political power in state societies

Power in state and chiefdoms is controlled by officials and hierarchical institutions. Formalized laws determine who may hold office, for how long, and the power that may be legitimately wielded by an official.

nation-states

1. Independent states recognized by other states, composed of people who share a single national identity

2. Most contemporary bands, tribes, or chiefdoms exist within the geographic borders of a state

3. States employ many forms of control over their populations

migration

Movement of Human Beings, Different Periods (Early Migration Across the Globe), Global Phenomena, Diversity, Relationships and Tensions

what does archeology study?

the study of human trajectories overtime, material analysis, human movement, the history of humanity, methodology: surveys of excavation

archeology of the contemporary

that studies the material remains of the recent past and present, rather than ancient civilizations

Undocumented Migrant Project

The Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) is a research, arts, and education collective that seeks to raise awareness and inspire positive social change about migration issues globally.

prevention through deterrence

A U.S. border enforcement strategy that pushes migrants into dangerous environments (like deserts) to discourage crossing. Instead of direct force, it relies on natural hazards—heat, dehydration, terrain—as a form of control, making the landscape itself part of enforcement.

hybrid collectif

A concept (influenced by Bruno Latour) describing how humans, objects, environments, and institutions form interconnected systems. In De León’s work, the borderlands are a hybrid collectif where migrants, border patrol, terrain, backpacks, water bottles, and policies all interact to produce outcomes like survival or death.

moral alibi

A justification that allows individuals or governments to deny responsibility for harm. In this context, policymakers can claim migrant deaths are “accidents” caused by nature, rather than the predictable result of enforcement strategies like prevention through deterrence.

ethnography giving deterrence a body

Ethnography (a method in Anthropology involving immersive, on-the-ground research) makes abstract policies tangible by showing their real effects on human bodies. De León documents suffering, injury, and death to demonstrate how deterrence physically impacts migrants.

residues of the recent past

Material traces left behind by recent human activity—like clothing, water bottles, backpacks, or camps. In Archaeology, these are studied to understand behavior, movement, and survival strategies in the present or near-present.

Typologies (Layups, Campsites, Rest Sites, Religious Shrines, Pick-Up Sites)

A typology is a system for classifying artifacts or sites into categories based on shared features.

In De León’s border archaeology:

• Layups – Hidden stash areas where supplies are stored

• Campsites – Places where migrants sleep overnight

• Rest sites – Short توقف points for recovery during travel

• Religious shrines – Spaces with spiritual objects (crosses, icons) for protection or remembrance

• Pick-up sites – Locations where migrants are retrieved by vehicles after crossing

These categories help archaeologists interpret patterns of movement and survival.

Chronology

The arrangement of events or material remains in time. In this context, it means reconstructing when migrants passed through an area based on the age, weathering, or layering of objects they left behind.

Deposition

The process by which objects are left in the archaeological record. Along the border, deposition can be intentional (discarding heavy items) or unintentional (losing belongings while traveling).

historical amnesia

A collective forgetting or ignoring of past events. Here, it refers to how society overlooks or erases the history and ongoing reality of migrant suffering and death, allowing harmful policies to continue without accountability.

How did anthropology arise?

1. The disruptions of industrialization in Europe and America

2. The rise of evolutionary theories

3. The growing importance of Europe’s far-flung colonies and the vast American West with their large indigenous populations whose land, mineral wealth, and labor Europeans and Americans wanted to control.

four fields

• sociocultural

• linguistics

• archeology

• biological

salvage anthropology

• Trying to capture the disappearing pre-modern

• Vanishing Indian Myths

• Trying to capture anything they can, material goods, stories

• Collect all of this because it was going to show us how humans evolved

pre-modern to modern

1. Hunter/gatherers

2. Nomads

3. Agricultural settlements

4. Civilizations

5. Technological advancements

6. Modernity

modernity

• Move from cyclical time to linear time

• Universalism

• Belief in Perfectible Future

• Things get ever better through human ingenuity

• Move from Religion to Science

• Individual is freed from tradition and can make their own destiny

• No longer at the whim of nature, given advances in technology, economy, governance, etc.

Franz Boas

• Historical Particularism (not all human beings on a linear timeline heading to the same definition, we’re shaped by condition and context, what gave rise to this kind of life?)

• Cultural Relativism

  • Cultural chauvinism

  • Cultural relativism

  • Post-cultural relativism

• Race as a social construct

• Brought a number of people into the discipline who historically didn’t have the opportunity (women, women of color, jewish people, etc. – Zora Neale Hurston)

• Emphasis on holism

cultural chauvinism

belief that one’s own culture is inherently superior to others, often leading to dismissive or judgmental attitudes toward different cultural practices, values, or ways of life

cultural relativism

the idea that beliefs, values, and practices should be understood within the context of the culture they come from, rather than judged by the standards of another culture.

limits of cultural acceptance

• gender relations

• FGM

• child marriage

• extreme corporeal punishment

The Disruptions of Industrialization

• Shift from agricultural economies to factory-based economies

• Drew rural populations into towns and cities

• Disrupted social, economic, and cultural life in Europe and the U.S.

social changes caused by industrialization

• urbanization

• social organization

• government

• residential patterns

• culture

• changed daily work, marriage patterns, social interactions, and role of religion

early anthropology

• emerged during peak colonialism

• early anthropologists sometimes reinforced othering through stereotypes and classifications

Role of Early Anthropologists

• Studied non-Western societies to help colonial officials govern and control them

• Developed early social scientific research methods

• Contributed to both knowledge production and colonial power structures

salvage paradigm

• Belief that indigenous cultures would soon disappear

• Motivated documentation of language, customs, oral history, material culture

• common approach through the 1920s

cultural anthropology

Studies the social lives of living communities. Before the 1970s, most research focused on non-Western societies and involved long-term fieldwork, learning local languages, and observing everyday life. Anthropologists examined how economic, religious, political, and family systems influenced one another. In recent decades, research has shifted toward specific issues such as religious conflict, environmental change, and social inequality. Today, cultural anthropologists study both non-Western societies and their own cultures, including modern institutions, ethnic groups, and social media.

archeology

Examines past cultures by excavating sites where people lived and worked. Prehistoric archaeology focuses on life before written records, especially hunting and gathering societies, early agriculture, trade, warfare, and the rise of cities and states. Historical archaeology studies societies from the past 500 years that left written and oral records, using material evidence to better understand migration, cultural change, and everyday life.

biological anthropology

Studies the biological and cultural aspects of humans and non-human primates. Early work centered on human fossils and evolutionary pathways. By the mid-20th century, the field expanded to include human health, disease, and primate behavior to distinguish biological traits from cultural ones. Today, biological anthropologists also study genetics, nutrition, stress, and biological variation.

linguistic anthropology

Focuses on language and communication and how language shapes identity, group membership, and cultural beliefs. Linguistic anthropologists study how people use language to organize their social and natural worlds, often by examining indigenous languages and classification systems.

culture

Term refers to the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural and the way things should be.

Ethnocentrism

Assuming our way of doing things is correct, while simply dismissing other people’s assumptions as wrong or ignorant. Such a position would render the attempt to understand other cultures meaningless and can lead to bigotry and intolerance.

emic

understanding of community you work with

etic

outsider understanding of a community

7 elements of culture

1. Culture is learned

2. Culture uses symbols (ex. US flag)

3. Cultures are dynamic, always adapting and changing

4. Culture is integrated with daily experience

5. Culture shapes everybody’s life

6. Culture is shared

7. Understanding culture involves overcoming ethnocentrism

What makes culture “feel” enduring?

• Symbols

• Values

• Norms

• Tradition

the “post-modern” turn

• A worldview that accepts difference and irreducible conflict in human affairs,

• Plurality in ways of being and knowing

• Acknowledges relationships between knowledge and power abandonment [of]…theories of truth, universal reason and unitary schemas of progress.

• Creates a ‘crisis in representation

functionalism in anthropology

Culture as the glue holding society together; maintains order in social relationships.

critiques of functionalism

• Stability that ignored the dynamics of change

• Too associated with the natural sciences

• Viewed culture as too stable and smoothly functioning

cultural appropriation

One social group unilaterally taking control over symbols, practices, or objects of another.

examples of cultural appropriation

• American Indians: sports mascots, “playing Indian,” New Age spirituality, Hollywood portrayals, Zia sun symbol on New Mexico flag.

• Australian Aboriginals: 2002 protest removing coat of arms (kangaroo & emu) claiming cultural ownership.

• Legal cases: Zia Pueblo vs. New Mexico (1994) demanding reparations for use of Zia sun symbol.

enculturation

process of learning new things, learning our culture/paradigm

subjectivity

perspective/sense of self

positionality

your attributions within a matrix

reflexivity

Practice of critically recognizing self and the impacts of self

Post structuralism

Set of theoretical positions that rejects the idea that there are underlying structures that explain culture. Embraces the idea that cultural processes are dynamic, and that the observer of cultural processes can never see culture completely objectively.

liminality

in between space

embodiment

How we incorporate social, cultural, and emotional forces into our way of life (walking, talking, accents, hand gestures, etc.)

habitus

• Deeply internalized dispositions

• Shaped over long periods

• Operates below consciousness

bodily hexus

• Embodied class and gender norms

• Expressed through posture, speech, movement, dress

• how a body has been trained to act in a social world

ethnographic method

• method of paying attention

• participant observation

• deep hanging out

• observing space, actors, activities, objects, acts, events, time, goals, feelings

AAA Ethics Forum

1. Do no harm

2. Be open and honest about your work

3. Obtain informed consent and necessary permissions

4. Weigh competing ethical obligations due collaborations and affected parties

5. Make your results accessible

6. Protect and preserve your records

7. Maintain respectful and ethical relationships

unique traits of hominims

• Modifications in the lower body, upper arms, and backbone that make them capable of bipedal locomotion

• Smaller canine teeth than other Hominidae because of diet

• A forward-placed foramen magnum to support bipedalism