Lecture Notes: Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography, Material Culture, and Evolution

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from Pages 1–3 notes in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography, and Evolution.

Bronisław Malinowski

Proposed that you can’t understand a culture without actually practicing it; fieldwork and participant observation are essential for ethnography.

Ethnography

Systematic study and description of cultures through fieldwork and data collection; findings can be published as books, films, videos, or articles.

Enculturation

The process of learning one’s own culture, values, beliefs, and practices through social interaction, family, school, etc.

Cultural adaptation

Culture changes in response to circumstances and historical period; culture is adaptive.

Ethnocentrism

Belief that one’s own culture is superior and the only natural/right way to do things.

Cultural relativism

Beliefs and practices must be understood within their own cultural context without judgment.

Armchair anthropology

Early approach based on reading accounts and discussing cultures without field observation.

Salvage ethnography

Documenting cultures at risk of extinction to preserve aspects of those cultures.

Artifacts

Objects created or modified by humans; a type of material culture.

Lithics

Stone tools and implements; a category of material culture.

Projectile points

Arrowheads and spear tips; a type of lithic artifact.

Figurines

Small sculpted representations; include various ritual or symbolic figures.

Venus figurines

Fertility-associated figurines, often female, from prehistoric contexts.

Ecofacts

Natural remains (plants, seeds, bones, shells) used by humans but not modified as artifacts.

Features

Non-portable traces of human activity at a site (e.g., hearths, pits); removing/damaging them alters context.

Rock art

Art on rock surfaces, including carvings and paintings.

Petroglyphs

Rock art created by carving or engraving into rock surfaces.

Pictographs

Rock art created by painting on rock surfaces.

Human remains

Bones or other bodily remains studied as material culture; can be culturally modified.

Archaeological bias

Tendency to study materials that preserve well, leading to a partial view of past cultures.

Relative dating

Dating that orders events in sequence without specifying exact calendar dates.

Chronometric dating

Scientific dating methods that provide calendar dates (absolute dating).

Stratigraphy

Study of soil or sediment layers to determine relative ages of finds.

Law of Superposition

In undisturbed layers, deeper layers are older than those above.

Law of Association

Objects found in the same layer are generally from around the same time.

Stratum

A single layer of sediment or soil; strata is the plural.

Seriation

Dating method that orders artifacts by style or frequency to infer time periods.

Carbon dating

Radiocarbon dating using C-14 to estimate age of formerly living material; half-life ~5730 years; destructive process.

Primatology

Study of non-human primates to understand evolution and behavior.

Molecular anthropology

Study of human genetics across populations to assess relationships, diversity, and interbreeding (e.g., with Neanderthals).

Bioarchaeology

Understanding past populations and cultures through human remains, including diet and disease.

Paleoanthropology

Study of human evolution, including origins, bipedalism, brain size, and skeletal changes.

Forensic anthropology

Application of osteology to medicolegal cases; interpretation of skeletal remains for legal purposes.

Human biology

Study of the living human body, disease, adaptation, nutrition, growth, and variation.

Evolution

Change in frequencies of inherited traits in populations over time.

Evolutionary forces

Mutation, natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift drive evolutionary change.

Biological approach

Understanding how biology and sociocultural factors interact to shape human variation.

Natural selection

Process where differential survival and reproduction favor certain heritable traits.

Mutation

Source of new genetic variation; introduces novel genetic material.

Gene flow

Transfer of genes between populations through interbreeding.

Genetic drift

Random changes in allele frequencies, especially in small populations.

Bipedalism

Walking on two feet; a defining trait in human evolution.

Encephalization

Increase in brain size relative to body size across evolution.

Skeletal and dental analysis

Methods used in anthropology to study bones and teeth for health, age, sex, and behavior.