Cultural Anthropolgy Midterm Exam

Anthropology

The study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present, and the application of that knowledge to help people of different backgrounds better understand one another.

Ethnographic fieldwork

A primary research strategy in cultural anthropology typically involving living and interacting with a community of people over an extended period to better understand their lives.

four-field approach

The use of four interrelated disciplines to study humanity: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

linguistic anthropology

The study of human language in the past and the present.

archaeology

The investigation of the human past by means of excavating and analyzing artifacts.

sociolinguists

Those who study language in its social and cultural contexts.

cultural anthropology

The study of people’s communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions, including how people make meaning as they live, work, and play together.

culture

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

enculturation

The process of learning culture.

norms

Ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people.

values

Fundamental beliefs about what is important, what makes a good life, and what is true, right, and beautiful.

symbols

Anything that represents something else.

mental maps of reality

Cultural classifications of what kinds of people and things exist, and the assignment of meaning to those classifications.

unilineal cultural evolution

The theory proposed by nineteenth-century anthropologists that all cultures naturally evolve through the same sequence of stages from simple to complex.

historical particularism

The idea, attributed to Franz Boas, that cultures develop in specific ways because of their unique histories.

power

The ability or potential to bring about change through action or influence.

stratification

The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among participants in a group or culture.

hegemony

The ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force.

agency

The potential power of individuals and groups to contest cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power.

ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture or way of life is normal and natural; using one’s own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others.

cultural relativism

Understanding a group’s beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making judgments.

ethnographic fieldwork

A primary research strategy in cultural anthropology typically involving living and interacting with a community of people over an extended period to better understand their lives.

participant observation

A key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied.

field notes

The anthropologist’s written observations and reflections on places, practices, events, and interviews.

life history interview

A form of interview that traces the biography of a person over time, examining changes in the person’s life and illuminating the interlocking network of relationships in the community.

survey

An information-gathering tool for quantitative data analysis.

kinship analysis

A fieldwork strategy of examining interlocking relationships of power built on marriage and family ties.

mapping

The analysis of the physical and/or geographic space where fieldwork is being conducted.

rapport

Relationships of trust and familiarity that an anthropologist develops with meembers of the community under study.

salvage ethnography

Fieldwork strategy developed by Franz Boas to collect cultural, material, linguistic, and biological information about Native American populations being devastated by the westward expansion of European settlers.

reflexivity

A critical self-examination of the role the anthropologist plays and an awareness that one’s identity affects one’s fieldwork and theoretical analyses.

mutual transformation

The potential for both the anthropologist and the members of the community being studied to be transformed by the interactions of fieldwork.

EMIC

An approach to gathering data that investigates how local people think and how they understand the world.

ETIC

Description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropologist’s perspective in ways that can be compared across cultures.

polyvocality

The practice of using many different voices in ethnographic writing and research question development, allowing the reader to hear more directly from the people in the study.

informed consent

A key strategy for protecting those being studied by ensuring that they are fully informed of thte goals of the project and have clearly indicated their consent to participate.

anonymity

Protecting the identities of the people involved in a study by changing or omitting their names or other identifying characteristics. 

language

A system of communication organized by rules that uses symbols such as words, sounds, and gestures to convey information.

language continuum

The idea that variation in languages appears gradually over distance so that groups of people who live near one another speak in a way that is mutually intelligible.

speech community

A group of people who come to share certain norms of language use through living and communicating together. 

phoneme

The smallest units of sound that can make a difference in meaning.

morpheme

The smallest units of sound that carry meaning on their own.

syntax

The specific patterns and rules for combining morphemes to construct phraases and sentences.

grammar

The combined set of observations about the rules governing the formation of morphemes and syntax that guide language use.

kinesics

The study of the relationship between body movements and communication.

paralanguage

An extensive set of noises (such as laughs, cries, sighs, and yells) and tones of voice that convey significant information about the speaker. 

linguistic relativity

The notion that all languages will develop the distinctive categories necessary for those who speakthem to deal with the realities around them.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

The idea that different languages create different ways of thinking.

lexicon

All the words for names, ideas, and events that make up a language’s dictionary.

dialect

A nonstandard variation of a language.

prestige language

A particular language variation or way of speaking that is associated with wealth, success, education, and power.

code switching

Switching back and forth between one linguistic variant and another depending on the cultural context.

religion

A set of beliefs and rituals based on a unique vision of how the world ought to be, often focused on a supernatural power and lived out in community.

sacred

Anything that is considerd holy.

profane

Anything that is considered unholy.

ritual

An act or series of acts regularly repeated over years or generations that embody the beliefs of a group of people and create a sense of continuity and belonging.

rite of passage

A category of ritual that enacts a change of status from one life stage to another, either for an individual or for a group. 

communitas

A sense of camaraderie, a common vision of what constitutes a good life, and a commitment to take social action to more toward achieving this vision that is shaped by the common experience of rites of passage.

pilgrimage

A religious journey to a sacred place as a sign of devotion and in search of transformation and enlightenment.

cultural materialism

A theory that argues that material conditions, including technology, determine patterns of social organization, including religious principles. 

shaman

Part-time religious practicioners with special abilities to connect inviduals with supernatural powers or beings. 

magic

The use of spells, incantations, words, and actions in an ettempt to compel supernatural forces to act in certain ways, whether for good or for evil. 

authorizing process

The complex historical and social developments through which symbools are given power and meaning. 

time-space compression

The rapid innovation of communication and transportation technologies associated with globalization that transforms the way people think about space and time.

uneven development

The unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization.

economy

A cultural adaptation to the environment that enables a group of humans to use the available land, resources, and labor to satisfy their needs and to thrive. 

foragers

Humans who subsist by hunting, fishing, and gathering plants to eat.

pastoralism

A strategy for food preparation involving domestication of animals.

horticulture

The cultivation of plants for subsistene through nonintensive use of land and labor.

agriculture

An intensive farming strategy for food production involving permanently cultivated land.

industrial agriculture

Intensive farming practices involving mechanization and mass production of foodstuffs.

reciprocity

The exchange of resources, goods, and services among people of relatively equal status; meant to create and reinforce social ties.

redistribution

A form of exchange in which accumulated wealth is collected from the members of the group and reallocated in a different pattern.

colonialism

The practice by which a nation-state extends political, economic, and military power beyond its own borders over an extended period of time to secure access to raw materials, cheap labor, and markets in other countries or regions.

triangle trade

The extensive exchange of slaves, sugar, cotton, and furs between Europe, Africa, and the Americas that transformed economic, political, and social life on both sides of the Atlantic.

development

Post-World War II strategy of wealthy nations to spur global economic growth, alleviate poverty, and raise living standards through strategic investment in national economies of former colonies.

underdevelopment

The term used to suggest that poor countries are poor as a result of their relationship to an unbalanced global economic system.

flexible accumulation

The increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization, enabled by innovative communication and transportation technologies.

neoliberalism

An economic and political worldview that sees the free market as the main mechanism for ensuring economic growth, with a severely restricted role for government.

class

A system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of a society’s resources.

bourgeoisie

Marxist term for the capitalist class that owns the means of production.

proletariat

Marxist term for the class of laborers who own only their labor.

prestige

The reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups.

social mobility

The movement of one’s class position, upward or downward, in stratified societies.

social reproduction

The phenomenon whereby social class relations of prerstige or lack of prestige are passed from one generation to the next.

habitus

Bourdieu’s term to describe the self-perceptions, sensibilities, and tastes developed in response to external influences over a lifetime that shape one’s conceptions of the world and where one fits in it. 

cultural capital

The knowledge, habits, and tastes learned from parents and family that individuals can use to gain access to scarce and valuable resources in society.

refugees

Persons who have been forced to move beyond their national borders because of political or religious persecution, armed conflict, or disasters.

social network analysis

A method for examining relationships in a community, often conducted by identifying whom peopleturn to in times of need.

Morphology

The study of patterns and rules of how sounds combine to make morphemes.

Generalized reciprocity

Encompasses exchanges in which the value of what is exchanged is not carefully calculated and the timing or amount of repayment is not predetermined. 

Balanced reciprocity

Encompasses exchanges that include norms about giving, accepting, and reciprocating. The giver expects a ggift to be accepted and then to recieve something in return. The recipient has an obligation to accept the gift and reciprocate promptly with a gift of equal value.

Negative reciprocity

Refers to a pattern of exchange in which the parties seek to recieve more than they give, reaping a material advantage through the echange.

Redistribution

A form of exchange in which goods are collected from the members of the group and reallocated in a different pattern.

labor immigrants

Persons who move in search of low-skill and low-wage jobs, often filling an economic niche that native-born workers will not fill. 

professional immigrants

Highly trained individuals who move to economic niches in a middle-class prrofession often marked by shortages in the receiving country.

pushes and pulls

The forces that spur migration from the country of origin and draw immigrants to a new particular destination country.

herodotus, ibn khaldun

The two earliest scholars of anthropology.

Structural functionalism

A conceptual framework positing that each element of society serves a particular function to keep the entire system in equilibrium.

Interpretivist approach

A conceptual framework that sees culture primarily as a symbolic system of deep meaning.