ANTH 100 Exam 2 Study Guide: Globalization & Local Cultures

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards for ANTH 100 Exam 2 covering foundational concepts, glocalization, McDonaldization, commodification, labor migration, night work, outsourcing, and language in globalization.

Anthropology

The holistic and comparative study of humans, cultures, and societies, examining human behaviors, beliefs, social relationships, and cultural differences.

Culture

The shared, learned beliefs, values, practices, and behaviors of a group of people that is socially transmitted and changes through interaction.

Holism

Studying human experiences by considering multiple interconnected dimensions rather than examining them in isolation.

Comparativism

Comparing similarities and differences across cultures to better understand human experiences.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture according to the standards and expectations of one's own culture, often involving viewing one's own cultural practices as normal or superior.

Cultural relativity

Understanding cultural practices and beliefs within their own cultural contexts instead of judging them according to outside standards.

Ethnography

A research method involving sustained engagement with people to understand their everyday experiences and cultural practices, often including participant observation, interviews, and fieldwork.

Globalization

The increasing interconnectedness of people, cultures, economies, and societies across geographic boundaries through the movement of people, goods, money, ideas, information, and cultural practices.

Westernization

The spread of Western cultural practices, values, products, and institutions into other societies.

Glocalization

The process wherein local cultures are transformed through contact, but not made indistinguishable; glocal forms remain local, representing culture change rather than just culture loss.

McDonaldization

The rationalization of contemporary life and society, characterized by four central features: efficiency, standardization, calculability, and control (Ritzer, 1993).

Use-value

The practical usefulness of an object, or what it can actually be used for.

Exchange-value

The value of something in exchange, generally expressed through its price or monetary worth.

Commodity fetishism

When commodities appear to possess value independently of the human labor and social relationships involved in producing them, obscuring those underlying social and economic relationships.

Commodification

The process of transforming something into a commodity that can be bought and sold on the market.

Symbolic value

The cultural or social meanings attached to something beyond its practical usefulness or monetary value.

Migrants

People who move from one location to another, temporarily or permanently, either within countries or across national boundaries.

Transnational migration

Migration across national borders, wherein migrants may maintain social, economic, and cultural connections with their places of origin.

Labor migration

Movement from one place to another specifically for employment or economic opportunities.

Sending community

The community or society from which migrants originate.

Receiving community

The community or society where migrants move to live or work.

Remittance economy

An economy significantly supported by money sent home by individuals working elsewhere.

Socioeconomic mobility

Movement from one social or economic position to another, which can involve changes in income, employment, education, or social status.

Migrant worker exploitation

Taking unfair advantage of migrant workers through unequal power relationships and difficult employment conditions such as withheld wages, confiscated passports, and excessive hours.

Kafala

A sponsorship system connecting migrant workers' employment and legal status to local sponsors, creating substantial employer control and worker dependence.

Outsourcing

Contracting business activities or services to an outside company or workforce (frequently referred to as Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO).

Night work

Employment conducted during nighttime hours that, while economically beneficial, generates negative social and biological consequences such as chronic sleep deprivation.

Time neutrality

The treatment of time as interchangeable regardless of natural day-night cycles, defined by Aneesh as an 'indifference to difference' where different hours become economically equivalent.

Transnationalism

Social, economic, and cultural relationships extending across national borders, forming interconnected cultural and economic spheres.

Virtual migration

The phenomenon where labor, data, and code cross national borders while the workers themselves physically remain in their home country.

Call center culture

A workplace environment typically characterized by a young, unmarried, college-educated workforce navigating intensive cultural training, overnight hours, automated dialing, and strict monitoring.

Language

A multi-layered system of human communication involving sounds, vocabulary, grammar, meaning, and social use that expresses cultural identity and social relationships.

Accent

Patterns of pronunciation associated with particular linguistic, geographic, or social backgrounds.

Linguistic competence

Being able to understand and produce grammatical (i.e., sensical) utterances.

Communicative competence

Being able to effectively communicate in interactional contexts.

Cultural distance

Differences in cultural knowledge, expectations, values, and practices that can complicate cross-cultural communication.

Cultural training

Intensive, formal study programs that prepare workers for cross-cultural communication by covering physical environments, social structure, values, daily habits, and language.

Linguistic neutrality

The deliberate attempt to construct and adopt speech forms that remove or reduce distinctive linguistic features associated with particular geographic or cultural backgrounds.

Linguistic inequality

The unequal social, political, or economic value assigned to different languages or varieties of language.

Mimesis

The practice of imitating desired cultural behaviors and communication patterns, often utilized by global call center workers.