HSP3UX Anthropology Unit Revision

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, methods, theories, and famous figures of the HSP3UX anthropology unit.

Participant observation

A research method where the anthropologist lives with a cultural group for a period of time long enough to understand the group's functioning.

Cultural anthropology

The study of human cultures, their beliefs, their practices, and their social organization.

Social anthropology

The study of human societies and cultures and their development.

Physical anthropology

The study of the physical differences and similarities of existing human populations.

Ethnocentrism

The act of judging other cultures from the point of view of one's own culture.

Myth

A traditional story involving the early history of a people.

Rite of passage

A ceremony, ritual, or event that marks a change in life or status.

Diffusion

The movement of a cultural good from its place of origin to other locations.

Cultural evolutionism

An evolutionary theory of social change.

Culture

Social behavior, institutions, and norms present in human societies.

Language taboo

The prohibition of using a word due to social, religious, or cultural constraints.

Canadian identity

The unique culture, characteristics, and condition of being Canadian.

Subculture

A group of people with beliefs different from the dominant culture.

Archaeological excavations

The exposure, processing, and recording of archaeological remains.

Elites

The social layers that have access to culturally valued resources.

Enculturation

The process of learning to integrate into a specific culture.

Acculturation

The process of cultural and psychological change resulting from contact between different cultural groups.

Ethnic assimilation

The idea that immigrants should adopt the dominant culture.

Stereotypes

An unfair image or idea about a group of people or a thing.

Interviews

A research tool used to better understand a culture and to collect data.

Unstructured interviews

Interviews without predefined questions.

Structured interviews

Interviews with a fixed list of questions.

Semi-structured interviews

Interviews with a general guide but without strict questions.

Oral history

The collection of personal testimonies to understand history.

Ethnography

Research conducted in a community through detailed observation of behaviors.

Emic

The internal perspective using the concepts specific to a culture.

Etic

The external perspective of an observer analyzing a culture.

Kinship

The links between descendants of a common ancestor.

Cultural characteristics

The activities, creations, and beliefs of peoples, including daily behaviors, rituals, and abstract concepts.

Material aspects

The physical objects of a culture such as clothing, cars, schools, books, and tools.

Non-material aspects

Thoughts and behaviors such as values, beliefs, language, rules, customs, myths, and political systems.

Factors influencing personal identity

Elements that shape a person's identity such as language of use, values, traditions, religion, and modes of socialization and consumption.

Nature culture

The idea that natural needs, such as eating, are influenced by culture, for example the choice of foods.

Postmodernism / Post-colonialism

The theory that studying in an independent or objective manner is not possible because of personal relationships between the anthropologist and the informant.

Cultural materialism

The theory that the physical world has an impact and establishes restrictions on human behavior, and society develops on a basis of trial and error and stages.

Cultural relativism

The idea that cultures cannot be compared because each has its own internal rules that must be accepted.

Feminist anthropology

The belief that anthropology must be re-examined so that women's voices are included.

Structuralism

The theory that cultures are based on universal mental structures that influence behaviors.

Functionalism

The understanding of cultures as systems of interdependent parts, similar to organs in the body.

Mead

Cultural anthropologist who studied the peoples of the Pacific Islands (Samoa) and argued that personalities are influenced by the culture where we live.

Benedict

Cultural anthropologist who studied the impact of religion on personality and the first peoples of the Plains of North America, proposing a definition of culture linked to collective or national personality.

Malinowski

Cultural anthropologist who developed the functional theory and rejected the theory of cultural evolutionism.

Boas

Cultural anthropologist who studied ethnology, culturalism, race, and history, and focused on applying the scientific method to anthropology.

Harris

Cultural anthropologist who studied at Columbia University and focused on race, evolution, and culture, primarily studying Latin and Brazilian populations; created the development of cultural materialism and environmental determinism.