Social Science Inquiry Test

Ethnocentrism → Belief that one’s own culture is superior to others.

Cultural Relativism → Understanding a culture on its own terms without judgment.

Enculturation → Process of learning cultural norms and practices.

Norms → Shared rules for behavior.

Symbols → Objects, words, or actions with culturally recognized meaning.

Values → Deeply held cultural beliefs about what is good or desirable.

Structure vs Agency → Humans are creative, but possibilities are limited by structural realities of everyday life.

Participant Observation → Immersing oneself in a setting or culture to observe and participate in daily life.

Ethical Considerations → Protect subjects by keeping them unidentifiable; secure fieldnotes and interview materials.

Informed Consent → Ensures subjects understand the study, risks, benefits, and that participation is voluntary.

Companionate Marriage → Marriage based on love and personal choice.

Arranged Marriage → Marriage as a social obligation and commitment to the larger group.

Patrilineal Descent → Kinship traced through the father’s line.

Matrilineal Descent → Kinship traced through the mother’s line.

Endogamy → Marriage within a specific group.

Exogamy → Marriage outside one’s group.

Polygyny → Marriage of one man to multiple women.

Polyandry → Marriage of one woman to multiple men.

Monogamy → Marriage of two people.

Foraging → Subsistence strategy based on hunting, fishing, and gathering.

Pastoralism → Raising livestock for food (meat, milk, blood).

Horticulture → Cultivation of plants for subsistence through non‑intensive land use and labor.

Agriculture → Cultivation of domesticated plants and animals using technologies for intensive land use.

Industrialized Agriculture → Corporate‑run farms relying on mechanization, producing food on a mass scale.

Carrying Capacity → Maximum population size an environment can sustain with available resources.

Food Norms → Standards for appropriate consumption within a social group.

Food Security → Focus on who controls food production, distribution, and consumption.

Food Sovereignty → Right of people to define and control their own food systems in socially just, ecological ways.

Economy (Anthropological Definition) → Cultural adaptation to the environment.

Production → How necessities are produced.

Distribution → How produced goods are distributed among people.

Reciprocity → Exchange of goods and services (generalized, balanced, negative).

Redistribution → Goods collected from members of a group are reallocated in a different pattern.

Market Exchange → Markets bring goods together for the purpose of exchanging them.

Consumption → Buying, eating, or using a resource, food, commodity, or service.

Commodity Chains → Steps a product takes from raw material to finished product and consumer.

Globalization → Increasing interconnectedness of people, economies, and cultures worldwide.

Triangle Trade/Transatlantic Slave Trade → Historical trade linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Neoliberalism → Economic philosophy emphasizing free markets, privatization, and deregulation.

Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) → IMF/World Bank policies requiring economic restructuring in exchange for loans.

Flexible Accumulation → Corporate strategies like outsourcing/offshoring to maximize profit.

Time-Space Compression → Globalization reduces perceived distance due to faster communication/transport.

Uneven Development → Unequal distribution of globalization’s benefits.

Core/Periphery → Wealthy “core” nations exploit poorer “periphery” nations.

Neocolonialism → Economic/political/cultural pressures used to control other countries.

Bands → Small kinship‑based groups, highly egalitarian, competitiveness not acceptable.

Tribes → Indigenous groups organized around villages/kin groups, mostly egalitarian, decentralized power.

Chiefdoms → Autonomous political unit built around kinship networks under a paramount chief.

State → Centralized government with authority to make laws and use force.

Egalitarian → Society where all members have equal access to resources/power.

Ranked → Society with status ranking but relatively fair resource distribution.

Stratified → Society with sharp divisions in wealth, power, and prestige.

Hegemony → Domination by consent.

Agency → Ability of less powerful individuals/groups to question, challenge, or resist norms.

Social Movement → Movement rooted in political economy to change political and economic conditions.

Sovereignty → Full right and power of a governing body to govern itself.

Ethnomedicines → Systems of health and healing rooted in culturally specific norms and values.

Biomedicine → Health system rooted in specific knowledge and values, culturally defined.

Social Construction of Illness → Experience of being sick, beyond just symptoms of disease.

Medicalization → Human conditions/problems defined and treated as medical conditions.

Globalization Effects on Health/Medicine → Spread of diseases, practices, and pharmaceuticals across borders.

Medical Migration → Movement of healthcare professionals across countries.

Brain Drain → Emigration of trained professionals from poorer to wealthier countries.

Medical Pluralism → Coexistence of multiple medical systems in a society.

Structural Violence → Social structures that harm individuals by preventing basic needs.

Socialization for Scarcity → Normalization of limited resource access.

Global Health Disparities → Unequal health outcomes due to social/economic/political inequalities.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis → Language shapes thought and perception.

Standard Languages as Prestige Languages → Certain dialects valued more highly and associated with power.

Language Ideology → Beliefs about language that justify social hierarchies.

Paralanguage → Nonverbal elements of communication like tone, pitch, gestures.

Codeswitching → Alternating between languages or dialects depending on context.

Social Indexicals → Linguistic features pointing to social identities or relationships.