Cultural Anthropology - Test #2

What is language?

A system of communication using symbols, like words, sounds, gestures, organized according to certain rules that convey information. Oral communication, sign language, writing and emotions.

Basic Structure of Language: Phonemes

smallest unit of sound

Basic Structure of Language: Phonology

study of these sounds in language and what they mean 

Basic Structure of Language: Morphemes

smallest unit of sound that carry meaning on their own.

Basic Structure of Language: Morphology

study of the way these sounds combine to make morphemes

Basic Structure of Language: Syntax

patterns and rules for constructing a phrase or sentence in that language.

Basic Structures of Language: Grammar

rules in that language for morphemes and syntax.

Basic Structures of Language: Lexicon

word choice, words that make up a language  

Basic Structures of Language: Prosody

tone, pattern of stress sounds.

Basic Structures of Language: Gesture/Kinesics

body movements, eye movement, body posture and communication.

Basic Structures of Language: Paralanguage

noises or tones at communicate information.

Language Socialization

How people learn and develop language from others around them

Linguistic Facts of Life

All spoken human language is variable

One of the functions of variation is to convey social, stylistic and geographic meaning

Below level of consciousness

Accent

A loose reference to a specific “way of speaking”

Only defined by comparison

What is important is not what comes out of the speakers but what listeners hear and understand

Myth of non-accent

Dialect

Different dialects or varieties of a single language are distinguished by phonology (sound) and by structure.

if two varieties of a language differ in all of these ways

Code-shifting

Multilingual Hong Kong: A sociolinguistic case study of code-switching

Standard Language Myth

The idea that there is a particular “correct” or “accentless” way of speaking

“A bias toward an abstracted, idealized, homogenous spoken language which is imposed a maintained by dominant bloc institutions and which names as its model the written language, but which is drawn primarily from the spoken language of the upper middle class” (67).  

Lakota Language Nest Program Film

Language Revitalization in Australia Film

Difference between gender and sex

Sex: Observable physical difference between male and female human beings, Especially biological differences related to reproduction .

Gender: Socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities associated with being male or female.

Gender

preconceived ideas about proper roles, behaviors, economic activities for people who identify as men or boys and people who identify as women or girls in a particular culture. 

Sex

Observable physical difference between male and female human beings  

Especially biological differences related to reproduction  

Anatomical  

Cross Cultural Examples of Gender

Middle sexes

Legal requirements of determination  

90% if surgeries make ambiguous male anatomy female  

Trying to meet cultural need for distinction  

Multiple gender categories

Cross Cultural Examples

Transgender

gender identity or performance that does not fit with cultural norms related to one’s assigned sex at birth. Variation cross-culturally.

Gender & Socialization/Enculturation

How people learn and develop language from others around you

Speech of mothers with female children: talked more, questions and longer utterances.

Correlation & Causation difference and how this is associated with the confusion of the difference between gender and sex.

Gender Stereotypes

preconceived ideas about proper roles, behaviors, economic activities for people who identify as men or boys, and people who identify as women or girls in a particular culture.

Gender Stratification & Examples

Unequal distribution of power and access to resources, opportunities, privileges based on gender. Women make 75 cents for every dollar men make in Wyoming.

Lander’s Study of T-ball

Boy received more playing time  

Boys played positions that provided more opportunities to touch ball  

Boys had more opportunities for hitting at the plate  

Boys received more coaching advice for mistakes  

Patterns repeated among players  
Established a hierarchy of opportunity, training and encouragement that favored boys over girls.  

Gender and Performance, Cross Cultural Variation

Gender is continuum of behaviors

Cross cultural differences

linking cultural ideas about masculinity and femineity to biological sex reproduces ideas about gender

men and women can display any of these characteristics

perform gender differently in different settings.

Human Sexuality

complex range of desires, beliefs, and behaviors related to erotic physical contact.

ideas used to create status, power, privileges, access to resources.

Globalization

Most mammals only have sex when evaluating, humans can always get pregnant.

Understand that Culture can Shape sexuality

The cultural arena in which people debate ideas about what kinds of physical desires and behaviors are morally right “natural”.

Constructionist school of thought

culture shapes sexual desires and behaviors

Enculturated into limited expressions

Institutions that guide our expression of sexuality.

Kinsey scale

Intersectionality

the way systems of power interconnect to affect individual lives and group experiences.

Gender Case Study: Mosuo of China

Gender Case Study: Third Gender Cultures in Samoa

Gender Case Study: Gender, Sex, and the Brain

Race

a social construct used to categorize humans based on physical characteristics, such as skin color and facial features. It often has significant cultural implications and influences societal dynamics.

Racism

Prejudice or discrimination against individuals based on their race, often leading to social, economic, and political inequalities.

Understand how biology and genetics relate to the social idea of race

No biologically distinct groups

No genetic lines can separate people into biologically discrete groups

Human variation changes in a continuum

More variation within human groups than between them

Genotype

Refers to the genetic constitution of an individual, which can influence physical traits but does not determine social categorization of race.

Phenotype

Refers to the observable physical characteristics of an individual, such as skin color and hair type, which result from the interaction of genotype and environment.

Mental Maps of Reality

Colonialism & How it relates to racial categories

History & Concepts of Race in the US

Indentured servants from Europe

Native Americans

Imported africans into slaves

System Dependent upon hegemonic acceptance of white supremacy- the belief that whites are biologically different from and superior to people of other races.

Social Construction of Race: Choice, Context, Chance

Chance: your physical appearance and your parents are matters of chance.

Context: is the social setting in which races are recognized, constructed and contested

Choice: conscious decision. Change something about yourself your appearance to tell people your race.

Hypodescent

Whiteness as a racial category

How Racial Categories change over time

Racialization

Racism (Individual and Structural)

Environmental Racism

Racial Ideology

Cross-Cultural examples of race, such as Brazil

Film: Race: The power of an Illusion and questions

Ethnicity

How Ethnicity is taught and reinforced

Ethnogenesis

Situational negotiation of ethnicity

How Ethnicity is performed

How Ethnicity May be Used for Opportunity/Commodified

How Ethnic group-making may be used for political power, genocide

History of Rwandan Civil War is an Example of how colonialism related to the creation of ethnic groups and conflict

Ethnicity in The US

Melting Pot Analogy

Assimilation and Examples

Multiculturalization

Ethnicity and relationship to the nation, nationalism

Film: Seeking the Spirit: The Plains Indians of Russia and discussion questions

Film: Soy Andina and discussion questions

Reasons for Migration(pushes and pulls, bridges and barriers)

Know what remittances are

Hometown Associations

Types of Immigrants (labor, professional, entrepreneurial, refugees)

Guest worker programs

Social capital

Gendered processes of Global Migration

Internal Migration, transnational migration, return migration

Changes in Migration over time