Anthro Theories - Basics

Biopsychological functionalism

What one observes in a society can often be explained by how it meets the biological and/or the psychological needs of its members.

Structural Functionalism

A theory that claims that each element of society serves a particular function to keep the entire system in equilibrium, even those elements that deviate from it (deviants, such as criminals).

Marxism

A theory that focuses on the conflictual relationship between the working class (proletariat) and the ruling class (bourgeoisie) in the capitalist system.

Post-structuralism

An analytical approach that focuses on the relationships between knowledge and power, and how both power and resistance are exercised through subtle means.

Habitus

Bourdieu's term to describe the self-perceptions and beliefs that develop as part of one's social identity and shape one's conceptions of the world and where one fits in it

Theory of practice

Bourdieu argues that in order to be a successful member of society, you need to learn the rules of the "game", ie the appropriate ways of behaving, moving, etc..., in the fields you operate in. Bourdieu uses the term habitus to describe this sets of dispositions and behaviour that become embodied into ourselves and often operate in subtle and tacit ways.

As individuals with free will, we can learn and manipulate the rules of the game (we have agency) but we still need to operate within the constraints of the game (social structure = the institutions governing society).

Feminism

Feminist anthropology focuses on the cultural construction of gender, notions such as femininity and masculinity, and how culturally specific beliefs and values about gender usually lead to gender inequality and the subordination of women.

Intersectionality

An analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender, and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification

Critical Race Theory

A movement in social, political, and legal theory that aims to discern the subtle effects of racism and related forms of prejudice.

Discourse

Foucault uses this term to describe a system of thought, knowledge, or communication that constructs our experience of the world. Since control of discourse amounts to control of how the world is perceived, social theory often studies discourse as a window into power.

Discipline

Foucault argues that discipline is a mechanism of power that regulates the thought and behaviour of social actors through subtle means.

In contrast to the brute, sovereign force exercised by monarchs or lords, discipline works by organizing space (e.g. the way a prison or classroom is built), time (e.g. the set times you are expected to be at work each day), and everyday activities.

Docile Bodies (Foucault)

Bodies are rendered docile in interests of the state: factories, prison, school, hospitals. Foucault argues that individuals are under constant surveillance and regulation in ways that are often subtle and thereby seemingly invisible, leading to normalization and acceptance of such systems.

Foucault focuses on the body specifically as the site of regulation, or more specifically "as object and target of power" historically.

Embodiment

The process through which we internalise, incorporate biologically (into our bodies) our cultural capital. We know, feel and think about the social world through our bodies.

Biopower (Foucault)

The policies and procedures that manage births, deaths, reproduction, and health and illness within the larger social body.

Medical Gaze (Foucault)

The development of modern medical view of the human body as a set of parts, rather than understood in its social, cultural and historical context.

Postcolonial Theory

a means of interpreting modern historical phenomena as deeply intertwined with the previous colonial era and its political, economic, and imperial injustices

Orientalism (Edward Said)

The acceptance in the West of "the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, 'mind,' destiny and so on."