Anthropology Final Exam

Culture

cultivation of the soul and the whole complex which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society and the way life, especially the general customs and belief, of a particular group of people at a particular time

Areas of Culture

Economy

Political organization

Language

Religion

Art

Attributes of Culture

Taught directly

Transmitted through observation

Absorbed subconsciously

Enculturation

a process of conscious and unconscious learning and of internalizing a cultural tradition, which guides a person’s behavior and perceptions

Culture is Symbolic

Learning depends on verbal or nonverbal symbols or arbitrary and conventional symbols

Shared Culture

culture shared by members of a society at 3 different levels:

Universal

Generality

Particularity

Intergrated Culture

cultures are integrated, patterned systems and if one-part changes, other parts change

Culture can be Adaptive or Maladaptive

Humans adapt biologically and culturally

Maladaptive: cultural traits that in the long run may threaten humans’ well-being and continued existence

Culture as Community

Culture is practiced and carried on by people

Relationship between Culture and the Individual

Culture shapes people’s behavior in a powerful

Humans can transform culture

Cultural relativism

behavior should NOT be evaluated by outside standards but in the context of the culture it occurs

Ethnocentrism

the tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to use one’s own standards and values in judging outsiders

Important to hold a cultural relativistic view

To achieve a more complete and objective understanding of another culture

To avoid hateful actions caused by extreme ethnocentrism

Human rights

inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being

Cultural rights

rights vested in religious and ethnic minorities or indigenous societies

Cultural Anthropology

studies variation in the beliefs and behavior of members of different human groups

Ethnographic Fieldwork

an extended period during which a cultural anthropologist studies a community or culture by closely observing and involving with the local people

Ethnographer

the cultural anthropologist doing fieldwork

Ethnography

the research product based on the fieldwork

Rite of passage for cultural anthropologists

fieldwork experience

Techniques of Collecting Field Data

Participant observation

Interviewing

The genealogical method

Gathering data from key consultants

Life history

Longitudinal research

Survey

Participant Observation

Study and record the details of daily life while taking part in community life

Interviewing

Talk to people and ask questions

Holistic view

helps understand the interconnections among social phenomena

A bottom-up view

social processes/phenomena that complements the top-down view focused on by most of the media and scholars

Emic perspective

seeing things from a perspective of the local people

Etic perspective

evaluating the local views using categories and interpretations of the anthropologist

Code of Ethics

Do no harm

Be open and honest regarding your work

Obtain informed consent and necessary permissions

Weigh competing ethical obligations due collaborators

Make your results accessible

Protect and preserve your records

Maintain respectful and ethical professional relationships

Hallmark and strength of cultural anthropology

Going there, wherever there may be;

To study them, whoever they may be.

Economy

system for the production, distribution, and consumption of resources

Features of Modern Economics

Assuming that production is arranged to maximize profits according to the principles of rationality and efficiency

Using mathematical models to study human behavior

Anthropologists studying economy

Holistic: seek the interrelations between an economic phenomenon and other social, historical, and natural factors

Comparative: study different types of economies across time and space

Relative: be cautious when applying universal economic models to a specific society

Kinship

the web of social relationships formed among individuals who are related by descent, marriage, or shared social and economic interests

Types of families

Nuclear family

Extended family

Matrifocal family

Avuncular family

Kin Groups

Family

Descent Groups

(Fictive Kin)

Nuclear Family

consists of a married couple with their unmarried children, normally living together in the same household, the most common kin group and a cultural preference, this type of family is closely related to social mobility caused by industrialism, for foragers with a highly mobile life this family is the most significant and stable kin group

Extended families

usually consists of a group of related nuclear families and includes three or more generations of family members, often function as an economic strategy and are higher of proportion

Matrifocal Family

family group consisting of a mother and her children, with a male only loosely attached or not present at all

Avuncular Families

A household headed by a senior woman, her children, and her brother(s)

Factors that have cause the different types of families among human populations

Different social and economic contexts

Cultural and emotional preferences

Diverse forms in recent decades

Single-parent families

Heterosexual raising adopted children

Gay couples raising children

Birth mothers vs adoptive mothers; sperm dads vs dads of the heart

Descent Groups

Unilineal Descent Groups: Lineage: Patrilineal and Matrilineal, Clan

Ambilineal Descent Group (Non-unilineal)

Unilineal Descent Groups

a group of relatives/families, who traces their genealogical links through only one sex (male of female)

Lineage

unilineal group whose members can actually trace how they are related (demonstrated descent)

Clan

unilineal group whose members may not always be able to trace how they are related, but who still believe themselves to be kinfolk (stipulated descent)

Patrilineal Lineage

individuals trace their genealogical links and kinship relationship through their fathers

Matrilineal lineage

individuals trace their genealogical links and kinship relationship through their mothers

Ambilineal Descent Group

Descent groups with flexible descent rule. Individuals can make choices about whom to live with, whose land to use, and so forth

Fictive Kin

Kinship relations based on neither blood nor marriage ties, but on a variety of forms of familiarity such as shared residence, shared economic ties, nurture relationship, etc.

Social and economic factors that promote the nuclear family

Mobility

Emphasis on small and economically self-sufficient family units

Marriage

a union between a man and a woman such that the children born to the woman are recognized as legitimate offspring of both partners or a domestic partnership

Practical side of marriage

Rights conferred to a married couple

Social functions fulfilled by marriage

Marital Rights

Establishing a legal father and mother

Giving a monopoly in sexuality of other

Giving rights to the labor of the other

Giving rights over the other’s property

Establishing a joint fund of property

Establishing a socially significant “relationship of affinity”

Social Functions of Marriage in Industrial Societies

Although marriage is largely a personal matter in modern industrial societies, it fulfills various social, legal, and economic functions and can be formed out of the considerations of political, economic, religious, or other social reasons

Social Functions of Marriage in Non-industrial Societies

In many of these societies, marriage remains the concern of social groups rather than mere individuals. Marriages then often become “strategic marriages/arranged marriage,” that is, a mechanism to create alliances between families/groups

How to maintain a strategic marriage

Marital gifts-insurance against the dissolving of marriage

Two types of marital gifts: bride price and dowry

Bride price

gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin

Dowry

gift from the wife’s group to the husband’s family

Sororate

husband may marry the wife’s sister if the wife dies

Levirate

widow marries the brother of her deceased husband

Monogamy

the practice of being married to only one person at the same time

Serial Monogamy

individuals may have more than one spouse but never, legally, more than one at the same time

Polygamy

the practice of being married to more than one person at the same time

Polygyny

the marriage of one man to more than one woman

Polyandry

the marriage of one woman to more than one man

Same Sex Marriage

often to fulfill certain social needs or expectations, based on sexual orientations, gender identities, and emotional preferences

Marriage Regulations

Incest taboo

Kinship relations

Customs and laws

Incest

sexual relations with a close relative

Incest Taboo

the universal prohibition against incest is with the basic nuclear family

Discouragement of incest

Biological concerns: to avoid producing abnormal offspring

Social concerns: marrying outside one’s kin group can create new social ties and alliances

Exogamy

the practice of seeking a spouse outside one’s own kin group-creating social alliances

Endogamy

marriage of people from the same social group

Sex

observable physical characteristics that distinguish two kinds of humans, females and males, needed for biological reproduction

Sexual dimorphism

marked differences in male and female biology, beyond primary reproductive organs

Gender

the social categories/traits associated with masculinity and femininity

Gender roles

tasks and activities that a culture assigns to the sexes

Gender stereotypes

oversimplified, strongly held ideas of characteristics of men and women

Gender identity

refers to whether a person feels, or is regarded by others as, male, female, or something else

Intersex

conditions involving discrepancy between external and internal reproductive organs

Transgender

a social category that includes individuals who self-gender identity contradicts their biological sex at birth

Sexual orientation

a person’s habitual sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex, same sex, or both sexes. It is not decided by ones’ gender identity or biological sex

Heterosexuality

attraction to persons of the opposite sex

Homosexuality

the same sex

Bisexuality

both sex

Asexuality

indifference of lack of attraction to either sex

Gender inequality

unequal distribution of social resources between men and women

Economic role

contributions to the subsistence

Domestic-public dichotomy

contrast between work at home and more valued work outside the home

Bilateral kinship

kinship relations among foragers are calculated equally through male and female lines

Changing Gender Roles in the US

Before 1980

In the 1890s, 1 million US women holding factory positions

European immigration in the early 20th century and a new notion about women’s work ability

Changes during WWII

Increasing female employment and women’s movement

Female percentage of American workforce: 38% in 1970, 46% in 2011

Foraging

Searching for wild food resources/hunting-gathering

Understanding Modern Foragers

Foraging has survived mainly in environments that posed major obstacles to food production

Modern Foragers

Live in modern nation-states and affected by national policies

Trade with food producers

Influenced by broader social and economic forces

Horticulture

Plant cultivation that makes no intensive use of land, labor, capital, or machinery

Two Methods of Horticulture

Slash-and-burn techniques

Shifting cultivation: the following of land

Agriculture

An intensive type of food production, requiring greater labor using techniques such as irrigation and terracing

Agriculture and the Environment

Irrigation and wastes, chemicals, and diseases

Deforestation

Reduction of ecological diversity

Pastoralism

the raising of livestock

Pastoral nomadism

members of pastoral society follow herd throughout the year