ANTHRCUL 101 - Exam 1

Four Fields of Anthro

Linguistic, Biological, Archaeological, Cultural

Linguistic Anthropology

Focuses on how ppl communicate w/ e/o using language. How language shapes group membership + identity. How languages help organize cultural beliefs + ideologies.

Biological Anthropology

Focuses on bicultural aspects of humans past + present. Also primates lol.

Archaeological Anthropology

Past cultures are focused on by excavating where ppl lived, worked, farmed, or engaged in activity.

Cultural Anthropology

Focuses on the social lives of living communities.

What major concerns shaped foundation of 19thC Euro/American Anthropology?

1) Disruptions of industrialization

2) Rise of evolutionary theories

3) Growing ump of European far colonies + the vast American West which Europeans wanted to control

Ethnocentrism

Assuming that your way of “doing things” is the only correct way. This dismisses other ideas as wrong and subordinate.

Cultural Relativism

Moral + intellectual principle. One should try to understand cultures on the culture’s terms w/o judging things that they see as different.

Methodological Relativism

Uses Cultural Relativism as a technique to bracket own perceptions to learn abt + describe the unfamiliar.

Familiarizing vs Defamiliarizing MOST BASIC DIFF

Familiarizing Description

Learning unfamiliar categories on one’s own terms. Interpreting + describing the new thing.

Defamiliarizing Description

Making the familiar strange. Enables ETHNOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION, uses juxtaposition when things seem out of place.

Franz Boas

• Pioneer of American Anthropology.

• Thought deeply about bracketing one’s own cultural framework to learn other perspectives.

• Used science to oppose “Scientific Racism”.

• Argued cultural forms are the result of LOCAL CONTEXTS + HISTORIES.

Historical Particularism

Anthropological theory that emphasizes understanding cultures in their specific historical contexts/on their own terms.

Universals

Anything common that exists in every human culture on the planet. It varies from different culture in terms of values + models of behavior. EX: Having death rituals.

Particulars

The specific cultural practices that distinguish cultures from one another.

Seven Elements of Culture

Learned, Symbolic, Dynamic + Changing, Integrated, Shapes Everyone’s Life, Shared, Feels Stable (even tho isn’t)

NOTE: Meant to OVERCOME ETHNOCENTRISM

If culture always changing + contested, why so stable?

It’s integrated so all parts of culture are connected. it’s built up over time, so has a strong base.

Cornflakes = how has the cultural/symbolic life of it changed?

Changed to be “remedy” for sexual deviance to typical breakfast snack.

Three Elements of Language

Cultural Transmission, Productivity, Displacement

Cultural Transmission

Language is learned, not biologically inherited. Language is also symbolic.

Productivity

Use of language rules to produce new + comprehensible statements. OPPOSITE OF CALL SYSTEMS.

Displacement

Ability to speak of or symbolize things or events that are not present.

Six Functions of Language, Jakobsen

Referential, Poetic, Emotive, Conative, Phatic, Metalinguistic

Referential - Function of Language

Can describe things

Poetic - Function of Language

Focus on message + how it’s communicated. Room for embellishing!

Emotive - Function of Language

Conveys emotions.

Conative - Function of Language

Can be used to address someone directly in order to influence or get a reaction, focusing particularly on recipient of message. EX: Hey! Can you show Stan where to find the clips?

Phatic - Function of Language

Language used to initiate or end a conversation without communicating anything meaningful. EX: See you! How are you?

Metalinguistic - Function of Language

You can describe language by using language.

Microaggressions

Indirect, subtle, or unintentional interactions and behaviors that communicate a bias. They are often UNRECOGNIZED by the speaker.

Second Order Information

Background knowledge of situation + expectation of communication that allows interpretation. NOT WHAT IS ACTUALLY SAID.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Linguistic Relativity. Diff languages prod. diff patterns of thought, grammar, + time constructs.

Linguistic Relativity

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Diff languages prod. diff patterns of thought, grammar, + time constructs.

Linguistic Ideology

Widespread assumptions ppl make abt superiority or sophistication status of certain dialects or languages.

Phonology

Systematic pattern of sounds in language = sound systems.

Phonetics

Study + classifying of speech sounds.

Materiality

Act of being tangible + physical.

Material Culture

Objects that are made + used in society.

What sub-fields of anthropology will De Leon use to try to make cultures of violence at the US/Mexico border visible?

Linguistic —> asking ppl abt experiences, interviews

Archaeological —> photos, “artifact” collection

Cultural / Linguistic —> using words in Spanish in essay EX: Gringo

What ethical predicaments were flagged by De Leon about researching border crossings, which led him to his decisions about how to (and how not to) conduct his research)?

Participant Observation BAD!

• focus shifts to RESEARCHER + their safety

• vast inequality b/w researcher + subject (crossers)

• guarantees experience anything other than normal

• methods shift around ethical obstacles

Does De Leon use graphic photographs in his book based on what we read?

Yes! Not afraid to show the reality despite possible backlash.

Symbolic Capital

Mastery of communication/self expression which is acquired from cultural surroundings —> convertible into forms of power. Distinctly context dependent.

Etic

Focused on “outsider” standards for describing cultural behavior.

• Useful identifying functional + comparative significance.

Emic

Descriptions + definitions focused on the “insiders” perspective of cultural beliefs, values, practices, documenting interpretations.

What does UM R+E Requirement Consist Of?

Credit for at least one 3-Credit course. It addresses issues arising from intolerance of Race + Ethnicity including:

• Knowing definition of race + ethnicity + racism

• racial + ethnic intolerance + resulting inequality as it occurs in US or elsewhere

• component of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, etc

How did whiteness come to be? What defined early whiteness?

Settlers began to homogenize ALL Europeans into “white”. This was first seen in a law preventing intermarriage. It allowed poor whites to move up in the world. Done for consolidation of power.

In the early colonial period, which ethnic groups does Smedley say are framed as "Savage" by the ruling classes? 

Those who were captured in wars with the English who knew nothing about tropical agriculture. Originally used for the Irish!

Which ethnic groups are seen as more "Civilized" in era prior to Bacon's Rebellion?  Why?  

Anyone who understood how to tend to tropical agriculture was seen as civilized before.

What changed after Bacon's Rebellion?

Savages vs civilized shifted from agricultural knowledge to race, now Africans seen as savage.

Race (Golash-Boza)

Refers to a group of people who share physical + cultural traits.

Racism (Golash-Boza)

The belief that races are populations whose physical diffs linked to significant cultural + social diffs within a hierarchy. Practice of subordinating races believed to be inferior.

Ethnicity (Golash-Boza)

Group identity based on notion of similar + shared history, culture, + kinship. Ppl self-belong to this! NOT ASCRIBED.

Ideology (Golash-Boza)

A set of principles + ideas that benefit the dominant group.

Colonialism (Golash-Boza)

The practice of acquiring political control over another country + occupying it with settlers, + exploiting it economically.

Scientific Racism (Golash-Boza)

The use of science or pseudoscience to rationalize or reproduce racial inequality.

Ascribed Status

Status that is given by an outside source.

Rule of Hypodescent

Children whose parents are from diff racial classifications assume the identity of the parent w/ the subordinate status.

Rule of Hyperdescent

Children whose parents are from diff racial classifications assume the identity of the parent w/ the superior status.

Polynesian Navigation

Relies heavily on constant observation and memorization. CROSS-CULTURAL CONTACT EXAMPLE. See diffusionists.

Globalization

Too narrow of a focus = transnational should be used instead. Contemporary widening scale of cross-cultural interactions owing to the rapid movement of money, people, goods, images, + ideas within nations + across national boundaries.

Diffusionists

Emphasized cultural characteristics result from internal historical dynamism OR spread of cultural attributes from one society to another.

Eric Wolf + Power Relations

?

Transnational

Preferred term over globalization. Preferred turn over globalize. Imagines relations extending beyond nations w/o assuming they cover the whole world.

Migrants

Leave homes to work for a time elsewhere.

Immigrants

Leave countries w/o expecting to return.

Refugees

Migrants who b/c of oppression of war w/ legal permission to stay.

Exiles

Expelled by authority of home countries.

Hybridization

Persistent cultural mixing, no predetermined direction or endpoint. Emphasizing world of cultural mixing.

How do Welsch et al. define violence?  What difficulties do they note about defining violence?

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What is the problem with stories of "tribalism" as it relates to ethnic conflict (see 443-444)?

Some believe it’s related to the way we respond to threats —> release stress hormones causing fear + aggression. Leads to action that are harmful to others to protect our own group.

Juxtaposition

Exploring the relationship b/w unlike conditions to understand the connections b/w them.

Learned - Element of Culture

Enculturation process

Symbolic - Element of Culture

Arbitrary element to culture suggested. It’s durable, and preserves cultural meanings.

Dynamic + Changing - Element of Culture

Symbols articulate + connect w/ diff meanings in ways that are often fought over + shift over time. Culture is creative and CONTESTED.

Integrated - Element of Culture

Interconnected / embedded