Anthropology - Key Concepts and Terms

How is culture transmitted?

Enculturation, Acculturation, Assimilation

Anthropology

The study of humankind, of ancient and modern people and their ways of living.

Culture

Everything that people collectively do, make, think, and speak.

Cultural Anthropology

The study of human cultures.

Enculturation

The process by which an individual absorbs the details of their particular culture, starting from birth.

Acculturation

The process by which important changes take place within a culture or family as a result of contact with another culture.

Assimilation

When an individual or cultural group is forced to conform to the confines of another culture.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture is superior to all others.

Cultural Relativism

The principle that cultural beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of one’s own culture, not according to the values of another culture.

Racism

Discrimination based on race.

Sexism

Discrimination based on gender.

Ageism

Discrimination based on age.

Classism

Discrimination based on social class.

Heterosexism

Discrimination against non-heterosexual orientations.

Religiocentrism

Discrimination based on religion.

Genoism

Discrimination based on genetic characteristics.

Emic Perspective

Describing culture from a participant’s or native’s point of view.

Etic Perspective

Describing culture from the observer’s point of view.

Other

A concept used to describe someone unlike oneself, often marginalized.

Exonym

An outside-given name; a foreign name.

Xenonym

A name for a people or language not used by the natives themselves, often derogatory.

Xenophobia

Fear of others.

Endonym

A native-given name.

Symbol

Something that stands for something else.

Culture is Learned

Culture is acquired through socialization, not biology.

Culture is Transmitted

Culture is passed down from generation to generation.

Culture is Symbolic

Culture ascribes meanings to objects, behaviors, and symbols.

Culture is Shared

General principles are shared within a culture, allowing communication.

Culture is Patterned

Customs, beliefs, and institutions are interrelated and form a logical connection.

Culture is Adaptive

Humans adapt to their environments using culture as a mechanism for survival.

Principles of Cultural Relativism

• Different cultures have different social codes 

• There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one cultural code better than another 

• The social code of our own society has no special status; it is merely one among many  

• There is no “universal truth” that holds for all people 

• The social code of a society determines what is right within that society; that is, if the moral code of a society says that a certain action is right, then that action IS right, at least within that society  

• It is ethnocentric for us to judge the conduct of other people; we should adopt an attitude of tolerance and understanding towards the practices of another culture