ANT 105: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Kinship, Race, and Medical Anthropology

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental concepts in introductory anthropology, research methods, kinship and marriage systems, race and ethnicity, and medical anthropology.

Anthropology

The systematic study of humanity, encompassing human diversity past and present, evolutionary origins, distinctiveness as a species, and social existence across time and space.

Cultural Relativism

The foundational anthropological concept that an individual's beliefs and behaviors should be understood and evaluated from the perspective of their own culture rather than judged by external standards.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view one's own culture as superior, most important, and correct, using it as the primary yardstick by which to judge and measure all other cultures.

Four-Field Approach

The foundational organizational framework of American anthropology, comprising cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological (physical) anthropology, and archaeology.

Archaeology

The anthropological subfield that investigates the human past through the excavation, recovery, and systematic analysis of material remains and artifacts.

Biological Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology that examines humans from a biological perspective, including evolutionary origins, environmental adaptations, genetic variation, and non-human primate behavior.

Linguistic Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology that studies human language in the past and present, investigating how linguistic practices relate to cultural frameworks, social identity, and communication.

Cultural Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology dedicated to studying human communities, beliefs, behaviors, institutions, and the shared systems of meaning people negotiate as they live and work together.

Unilineal Cultural Evolution

A 19th-century theoretical framework associated with Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor positing that all human societies evolve through a fixed sequence of stages: Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilization.

Culture

An integrated, learned, and shared set of beliefs, practices, values, and symbols that binds people together, shaping their lifeways and worldview.

Norms

Explicit or implicit cultural ideas and rules regarding how individuals ought to behave in specific social situations or toward particular categories of people.

Values

Fundamental cultural beliefs concerning what is important, desirable, morally right, and beautiful within a given society.

Ethnographic Fieldwork

The primary research strategy of cultural anthropology, typically requiring an anthropologist to live and interact directly within a community over an extended period to understand their everyday lives.

Participant Observation

The central anthropological research method where an investigator immerses themselves in a community, observing social life while actively participating in the daily activities of the informants.

Armchair Anthropology

An early method in anthropology whereby researchers synthesized theories on foreign cultures using second-hand reports, travel accounts, and missionary diaries without conducting direct fieldwork.

Emic Perspective

An insider approach in anthropology that seeks to describe cultural beliefs, practices, and behaviors in terms that are meaningful and intelligible to the members of that specific culture.

Etic Perspective

An outsider approach in anthropology that analyzes and interprets cultural practices using cross-cultural, external, or scientific frameworks.

Key Informants

Knowledgeable individuals within a community of study who develop an ongoing collaborative relationship with an anthropologist, providing deep insight into local culture and answering research questions.

Informed Consent

The ethical requirement that research participants be fully informed of the nature, potential risks, and goals of a research study before voluntarily agreeing to take part.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

An administrative body that examines and approves research protocols involving human participants to protect subjects from harm and ensure compliance with ethical guidelines.

Kinship

The culturally recognized ties between members of a family, encompassing the social statuses used to define relatives and the expected behavioral patterns associated with those statuses.

Ego

The focal person used as the point of departure or central reference point when constructing a kinship chart.

Consanguineal Relationships

Kinship ties based on recognized biological descent or shared parentage, traditionally referred to as blood relations.

Affinal Relationships

Kinship connections established through marriage or marital alliance rather than common biological descent.

Fictive Kin

Social ties that are treated as familial relationships despite lacking biological descent or formal marital links (also known as chosen kin).

Marriage

A socially recognized union between individuals that may establish sexual and emotional intimacy as well as legal rights to property, inheritance, and childcare.

Incest Taboo

Cultural rules universally recognized across human societies that prohibit sexual relationships and marriage between designated close biological or social relatives.

Bilateral Descent

A descent system that traces ancestry, kinship connections, and inheritance equally through both maternal and paternal lines.

Patrilineal Descent

A unilineal descent system where descent, social membership, and property inheritance are traced exclusively through the father's male lineage.

Matrilineal Descent

A unilineal descent system where lineage, social identity, and property rights are traced exclusively through the mother's female lineage.

Omaha Kinship System

A naming system typical of patrilineal societies that distinguishes between cross-cousins and parallel cousins and merges generations on the mother's side.

Crow Kinship System

A naming system typical of matrilineal societies that distinguishes cross-cousins from parallel cousins and merges generational distinctions on the father's side.

Monogamy

A marriage rule or practice that permits an individual to have only one spouse at a given time.

Polygyny

A form of polygamous marriage in which one man is legally or culturally married to two or more women simultaneously.

Polyandry

A form of polygamous marriage in which one woman is legally or culturally married to two or more men simultaneously.

Exogamy

A cultural rule or marriage pattern requiring individuals to seek marriage partners outside their specific kin group, clan, or local community.

Endogamy

A cultural rule or marriage pattern requiring individuals to marry within their specific social group, caste, lineage, or category.

Race

A cultural classification system that attempts to divide human beings into distinct biological groups based on perceived physical variations; it is a cultural reality with no basis in human biology.

Genotype

The specific inherited genetic instructions and DNA material that provide the biological framework for an organism's physical structure.

Phenotype

The observable physical characteristics and traits of an organism, generated by the interaction between its genotype and environmental factors.

Nonconcordance

The biological principle that human physical and genetic traits vary continuously and are inherited independently of one another rather than packaged together into racial sets.

Hypodescent

A racial classification rule (such as the American 'one-drop rule') that assigns individuals of mixed racial heritage to the less privileged or subordinate racial category.

Blood Quantum

A legal standard defining Native American identity and tribal entitlement based on a documented fraction or percentage of recognized Indigenous ancestry.

Ethnicity

The degree to which an individual identifies with and feels a sense of belonging to an ethnic group based on shared cultural traits, language, and ancestral heritage.

Ethnic Group

A population within a larger society that claims a distinct collective identity based on shared ancestry, history, and cultural traditions.

Health

The absence of disease and infirmity as well as the active presence of physical, mental, and social well-being.

Medical Anthropology

A subdiscipline of anthropology that investigates human health, illness beliefs, and health care systems across cultures in a comparative perspective.

Ethnomedicine

The comparative anthropological study of cultural conceptions and practices regarding wellness, illness categorization, and healing.

Ethno-etiology

A culturally specific framework or explanation regarding the underlying causes and origins of health problems and disease.

Western Biomedicine

An ethnomedical system based on biology and chemistry that conceptualizes the human body as an individual biological machine subject to mechanical and pathological breakdowns.

Personalistic Approach

An ethno-etiology that explains illness as the purposeful, targeted result of actions taken by human or supernatural agents, such as sorcerers, spirits, or deities.

Naturalistic Approach

An ethno-etiology that explains illness as the result of impersonal natural forces such as cold, heat, wind, or an internal imbalance among basic bodily elements.

Machi

A traditional Mapuche spiritual leader and healer who utilizes sacred songs, herbal remedies, and diagnostic ceremonies to restore health and ecological balance.

Machitun

A traditional diagnostic and healing ceremony practiced by a Mapuche machi to determine the spiritual or natural cause of illness and effect a cure.

Lawen

The traditional herbal remedies and botanical medicines prepared and administered by a Mapuche healer to treat health conditions.