Studied by 0 people
Alternative modernity
versions of modernity shaped by local social and cultural forms.
Animal domestication
the processing of animal products for use as food, textiles, and tools.
Balanced reciprocity
the practice building social relationships through the exchange of gifts of roughly equal value.
Band
a form of social organization associated with gatherer-hunter societies. Bands are relatively small, often around 50 people, ideal for a nomadic or seminomadic lifestyle.
Colonialism
the political domination of another country in the interest of economic exploitation.
Commodity fetishism
the association of commodities with magical powers of personal transformation.
Cultivation
basic manipulation of nature, such as the intentional growing of plants.
Egalitarian
emphasizing equality and sharing.
Extensive horticulture
a form of plant cultivation in which new plots are regularly cleared, prepared with digging sticks or hoes, and fertilized with animal dung, ash, or other natural products.
Extensive/shifting cultivation
a horticultural practice in which plots of land are farmed for a period of time, then left to lie fallow as farmers move on to cultivate other plots.
Fallow
describes a plot of land that is not cultivated for a period of time so that wild vegetation may grow in naturally.
Gathering-Hunting
the mode of subsistence in which people rely on resources readily available in their environment. Gathering-hunting peoples collect fruits, nuts, berries, and roots and harvest honey. They also hunt and trap wild animals.
General purpose money
money that can be exchanged for a wide variety of goods and services.
Generalized reciprocity
the practice of sharing without regard for the value of objects or interest in compensation.
Globalization
the dramatic increase in global processes of production and consumption since the 1970s.
Humus
organic matter in soil formed by the decomposition of plants.
Hxaro
a friendship developed through gift exchange, practiced among the Dobe Ju/’hoansi and other San groups of the Kalahari.
Industrialism
the mode of subsistence that uses wage labor, machines, and chemical processes to mass-produce commodities.
Intensive agriculture
a form of plant cultivation in which one plot is farmed over and over again using labor-intensive methods such as plowing, terracing, and irrigation.
Intercropping
planting certain species of plants side by side to enhance their health and growth.
Markets
institutions that allow for buyers and sellers to meet for the purposes of economic exchange.
Modes of subsistence
a way in which people interact with the environment to meet their needs. Each mode of subsistence involves its own forms of knowledge, techniques, technologies, and social organization.
Modernity
the complex of sociocultural features associated with industrial society.
Money
a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value.
Monumental architecture
large structures built for public viewing or use, such as pyramids, temples, sports arenas, and coliseums.
Nomadism
the practice of moving frequently in search of resources.
Pastoralism
the mode of subsistence associated with the care and use of herd animals.
Peasants
small-plot farmers incorporated into larger regional economies, often states.
Plant domestication
the process of adapting wild plants for human use.
Postmodernity
the cultural shift associated with postindustrialism.
Potlatch
a feast in which a trove of gifts is presented by the host chief to the guest chief in order to demonstrate wealth and gain prestige.
Precarity
physical and psychological harm caused by lack of secure and stable income.
Redistribution
a system whereby goods are collected and stored by a leader and later given out or used for public benefit.
Seminomadic
the practice of settling in one place for a period of time, usually a few weeks, then moving to a new site to find fresh resources.
Sexual division of labor
the assignment of work based on a person’s sex.
Special purpose money
money that is exchanged for specific items or services.
Slash and Burn
the technique of preparing a new plot by cutting down the trees and shrubs, burning the vegetation to the ground, then tilling the ash into the soil as fertilizer.
Surplus
amount of harvest left over after supplying the needs of the household.
Time-space compression
the postmodern feeling that time is speeding up and global space is shrinking.
Transhumance
a technique practiced by many pastoralist groups that combines a settled lifestyle with routine movement. Societies that practice transhumance may move between two permanent settlements in an annual cycle. Another transhumance strategy involves most people residing in a settlement and sending a smaller group out to pasture the animals at certain times of the year.
Universalism
the belief that social systems have operated roughly the same way all over the world at all times past and present.
Usufruct rights
rights to use a resource but not to own or sell it
acephalous societies
communities with no formal positions of leadership.
Age sets
gendered groups of people of roughly the same age who play a distinctive role in society with important social obligations and abilities. Age-grade systems tend to be associated with acephalous societies.
Arab Spring
a series of protests that spread throughout the Arab world in the early 2010s, demanding an end to oppressive government and poor living conditions.
Asafo
in Akan societies, the group of young men charged with protecting the town, performing public works, and representing public opinion. Asafo could depose corrupt and unpopular chiefs.
Authority
The exercise of power based on expertise, charisma, or roles of leadership.
Band societies
communities of gatherer-hunters in which leadership is temporary, situational, and informal.
Big man
an informal leader who has gained power by accumulating wealth, sponsoring feasts, and helping young men pay bride wealth.
Centralized societies
communities in which power is concentrated in formal positions of authority, such as chiefs or kings.
Chief
the inherited office of leadership in a chiefdom, combining coercive forms of economic, political, judicial, military, and religious authority.
Chiefdoms
societies in which political leadership is regionally organized through an affiliation or hierarchy of chiefs. Chiefdoms are associated with intensive agriculture, militarism, and religious ideologies.
Chinampas
agricultural plots created from layers of mud and vegetation in the shallow part of a lake.
Clans
large kin groups that trace their descent from a common ancestor who is either not remembered or possibly mythological.
Coercive power
the ability to enforce judgments and commands using socially sanctioned violence.
Colonial states
state governments imposed by foreigners to rule over local peoples.
Failed state
a state that cannot perform any of the essential functions of a state.
Fragile state
a state government that cannot adequately perform the essential functions of a state, such as maintaining law and order, building basic infrastructure, guaranteeing basic amenities, and defending its citizens against violence.
Hegemony
a powerful ideology that has become generally accepted by most groups in society as common sense. Hegemony emphasizes the norms and values that support the existing social order.
Ideology
an organized set of ideas associated with a particular group or class in society. Ideologies are used to explain how various realms of nature and society work, including such realms as economics, politics, religion, kinship, gender, and sexuality.
Imagined communities
citizens of a nation-state joined together by rituals and practices that give them a collective, imagined sense of community.
King
hereditary ruler of a multiethnic empire based on a chiefdom.
Leopard skin chief
an informal mediator in Nuer society who negotiated settlement in the case of homicide.
Lineage
Order societies in which extended family groups provide the primary means of social integration. Leadership in these societies is provided by elders and other temporary or situational figures.
Nation
a sense of cultural belonging or peoplehood based on a common language, common origin story, common destiny, and common norms and values. National identities are actively constructed by states.
Nation state
a political institution joining the apparatus of the state with the notion of cultural belonging or peoplehood.
Parrheisa
courageous public speech inspired by a moral desire to reveal the truth and demand social change.
Persuasive power
the ability to influence others without any formal means of enforcement.
Political economy
study of the ways in which political and economic realms continually reinforce and sometimes contradict one another over time.
Politics
all elements of the sociocultural dynamics of power
Post colonial studies
an interdisciplinary field that combines history, anthropology, political science, and area studies in an effort to understand the diversity, complexity, and legacy of colonialism throughout the world.
Proto-states
societies that exhibit some but not all of the features of state societies.
Power
the ability to influence people and/or shape social processes and social structures.
Reform
the call for systemic changes to address social problems.
Resistance
the expression of disagreement or dissatisfaction with the social order; may be explicit or implicit.
Rev
the replacement of one social order with a different one, often to create enhanced justice, equality, stability, or freedom.
Segmentary lineage
a kind of lineage order in which family units called minimal lineages are encompassed by larger groups called maximal lineages, which are subsumed by even larger groups called clans.
Social movement
an organized set of actions by a group outside of government aiming at achieving social change.
Social stratification
the division of society into groups that are ranked according to wealth, power, or prestige.
State societies
large, stratified, multiethnic societies with highly centralized leadership, bureaucracies, systems of social control, and military forces exerting exclusive control over a defined territory.
Tribal societies
an older term used by anthropologists to refer to pastoralist and horticulturalist societies in which extended family structures provide the primary means of social integration.
Tribe
an old-fashioned term used to describe ethnic groups or groups organized by lineage. Avoided by many anthropologists now because of connotations of primitivism and groupthink.
Village democracies
acephalous societies in which an array of social groups provide arenas for discussion and cons
Note 
Flashcard (59)