ANTHRCUL 101 - Exam 3

Politics is…

a feature of everyday life

Sociopolitical Organization

One aspect of social organization focused on histories, cultures of power, authority, governance, and conflict resolution.

Governance

Conduct of conduct.

Power

The ability to exercise one’s will over others.

Authority

Socially approved use of power.

All forms of sociopolitical organization have these in common:

Governance, Power, Authority ==> GPA

Governance can happen BOTH WHEN

1) power w/o authority

2) authority w/o power

Why was colonialism linked to the rise of anthropology as a discipline?

Led with the assumption that similar forms of government should be forced on non-Europeans through colonialism. Anthropologists aligned with colonialism to study their subjects.

How is power distributed in “band” societies?

• political systems in which power + control over resources dispersed b/w members of society

• non-centralized

How is power distributed in “chiefdom” + “states” societies?

• political system in which certain individuals hold power + control over resources

• centralized

Basic understanding of the WLA textbook description of Pr. Max Owusu's work in Ghana

• Political anthropologist

• Consulting member to Constitutional Experts Committee → drafted 1992 constitution proposals

• Critic of autocratic + repressive leadership 

• Understood problems of imposing foreign models of politics (Western-style democracy with competing political parties) on Ghana + other African societies w different histories + indigenous political traditions

What are the features of chiefdoms?

• Kinship = central role

  • social status based on seniority of descent

• permanent regulation of territory

• may regulate thousands

• ranked relative to chief

• often linked to convergence of larger-scale AGRICULTURAL ways to live

What is the concept of office and why is it important?

• Def: permanent position, refilled upon vacancy, basis of more complex bureaucracies

• in chiefdoms, it isn’t permanent, it’s flexible + changes over time

• Office = place of authority 

• State-level society = office is PERMANENT, handed down via inheritance or voting, socially constructed 

What are three consequences of state administration?

• displace the place of kinship

• foster geographic mobility and resettlement

• assign differential right and distinctions

Features of Nation-States?

• independent states recognized by other states, composed of people who share single national identity

• most contemporary bands, tribes, or chiefdoms exist within geographic borders of a “state”

• employ many forms of “control” over populations —> surveillance, terror, genocide

Three Aspects of State Stratification

Unrelated groups differing in access to…

• wealth

  • material assets

• power

  • exercising will over others

• prestige

  • cultural capital, esteem, respect

How is the concept of a public/private division linked to state power, and to gender?

• legal political realms —> distinctions b/w public v private rose with modern nation-states

• modeled on European patriarchy ideals, includes limits of state in relation to domestic spaces + family

• asserted a well-defined distinction b/w non-public sphere + women + children + domestic sphere

What does it mean to say public private divisions are cultural?

• Modern conception of public + private

• Public v private , organisation of space over time in different society

• THINK: hunter-gatherer tribes, no division, lots is communally shared 

• How we understand public v private v western + patriarchal, those distinction dont exactly conform with other cultures or history 

Gender

the expectations of thought and behavior that cultures assign to people of different sexes

Sexes

the culturally agreed upon (or contested) physical differences between male and female humans, or those in between, often focused on biological differences related to reproduction

Gender Identities

each person’s internal experience and understanding of their own gender

Gender Expressions

how a person presents themselves in relationship to gender, whether in behavior, appearance, name, pronouns, etc.

Gender Studies

 how gender identities and gender expressions are shaped by and affect one’s life chances

The Egg and the Sperm by Emily Martin

understandings of gender permeate everything in our world, from biology to the playground 

Corporate Groups

Not only operates within settings but also organizes and orchestrates settings in which social and individual action take place.

Nuclear Families

Parents and kids in a common households.

Endogamy

Pressure to marry within one’s descent group.

Exogamy

Pressure to marry outside one’s descent group.

Matrilineal Descent

Lifetime membership in mother’s group, kids of group’s men excluded.

Patrilineal Descent

Lifetime membership in dad’s group, kid of group’s women excluded.

Family of Orientation/Natal Family

The family that you were born and grew up in.

Family of Procreation

Formed when married and having kids.

Cross Cousins

Kids of mom’s brother or dad’s sister

Parallel Cousins

Kid of mom’s sister or dad’s brother.

Monogamy

a cultural practice or social system where an individual has only one spouse or long-term partner at a time, often contrasted with polygamy or polyandry

Polygamy

marital or social system in which an individual has multiple spouses simultaneously, commonly categorized into polygyny and polyandry

Polygyny

one man with multiple wives

Polyandry

one woman with multiple husbands

Serial Monogamy

social practice in which an individual engages in a sequence of monogamous relationships or marriages, one at a time, often over the course of their lifetime, reflecting societal norms that allow for separation, divorce, and remarriage

Main Marriage Points

• dramatic variation in marriage across cultures

• regulates social links b/w sexuality

• regulates descent and inheritance

• serves to socially legitimate kids in social world

General Characteristics of Religion

• magic = key

  • explanatory system of causation that does not follow naturalistic explanations, often working at a distance w/o direct physical contact

• IRRELEVANT if anthros believe in magic

  • want EMIC understanding of its role in informant’s lives

Two Principles of Sympathetic Magic

• Law of Similarity

  • imitative magic encompasses stuff like voodoo dolls

• Law of Contagion

  • harming representative object “contaminated” by person believed to harm person

Disease

the physiological condition of being sick

Illness

psych and social experience of a disease

Explanatory Models

explanation of what’s happening to patient by the patient, family, or healthcare professionals —> all could be diff

Sick Role

Culturally defined agreement b/w patients + family members to acknowledge the patient is legit sick

Medical Anthropology

Subfield, study of social + culture + bio + linguistic factors that shape human health. Emphasis on illness + disease as culturally influenced subjective states

Globalizing Forces

• industrial growth + colonialism

• materials = raw

• labor = cheap

• materials = new

Core World System

• structurally dominant countries

• monopolize most profitable activities EX: finance

Semi-periphery World System

• industrialized, expert goods + commodities

Periphery World System

• least privileged

• some of raw materials + cheap materials

Syncretism

process by which elements from different cultural, religious, or philosophical systems are blended or merged to form new practices, beliefs, or traditions, often occurring in contexts of cultural contact, colonization, or globalization

Cricket in the Triobriand

Significance about Syncretism, or blending of cultures.

• british missionary introduced

• adapted to have cultural traditions like singing, dancing, and ritual aspects

• evolved to include warlike aspects

  • decoration of players in bright design, field entry + exit dances in warlike formation

Cannibal Tours

• legacy of colonizers

  • what are these tourists involved in?

  • what does it say about power relations?

  • nostalgia to take pictures of things colonization destroyed = strange

Rosie the Riveter, Tough Guise, Barbie Liberation Organization

purpose of all was to make it so ppl think diff abt gender + gender norms

What is religion?

A symbolic system that is socially enacted through rituals and other aspects of social life that relates to ultimate issues of humankind’s existence.

Characteristics of Religion

• Explain the world

• Validates decisions + rules

• Gives meaning to the world

• Orient people towards a particular stance towards the world

What is Taylor’s Theory of Animism

• Dreams can be mistaken for reality and things that actually happen in a different plane of existence

• Dreams are an extension of reality

What is Animism?

The belief in spiritual beings. Derives from the idea of a double within ourselves, perhaps linked to dreaming and waking states.

What is a ritual? How does Wallace define it?

• Ritualized behavior is formal, stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped, performed earnestly as a social act using symbols; held at set times and places… associated with social, political, and religious activities.

• A rite of passage is a ritual, but there are other rituals too

What is a Rite of Passage?

• Moves someone from one social role to another

• Separation, Liminality, Incorporation

Separation

• leaving the familiar

• when an individual or group symbolically detaches from their previous social status or place in society

• deconstructing the individual's idea of self so they can build a new identity

Liminality

•  time of testing, learning, and growth

• the period between states where the individual crosses the boundary to their new identity

Incorporation

• The passage is completed , re-enters society with a new identity + status

Rosie the Riveter

• gender relationships + state system story

• gov changed perception of gender for its benefit

Tough Guise

• movie

• “men must be tough” “men don’t cry” —> mythbusting this

• aggression = masculine, exploring why

Barbie Liberation Organization

• movement, replaced voices of GI Joe’s + Barbie

• criticizing Mattel by doing complex art project of source

• meant to change gender norms + get ppl to think abt them