Anthropology DSST

Mesolithic period (MIDDLE STONE)

Between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, WHEN FARMING BEGAN TO BE ESTABLISHED. Humans learned to hunt in groups and to fish, and began to learn how to domesticate animals and plants.

Primates

The strongest social unit is a mother and her young children.

Mana (according to Melanesian culture)

SACRED LIFE ENERGY

Lexicon

A COLLECTION - INTERNAL DICTIONARY, IF YOU WILL, OF WORDS THAT EACH PERSON HAS.

Carbon Dating

Technique is used to date the remains of organic materials. Dating samples are usually charcoal, wood, bone, or shell, but any tissue that was ever alive can be dated.

Jackal (dog) in Africa

The Neolithic age , or New Stone age. first domesticated animal is the...?

Magic

What is an attempt to control supernatural forces thru performance of a ritual that ensures clearly defined outcomes

Sorcery

What is an attempt to control supernatural forces thru performance of a ritual and uses objects?

Major function of a dominance hierarchy, in a primate troop

Arises when members of a social group interact, often aggressively, to create a ranking system (social order, access to limited resources LIKE FOOD, and mating opportunities)

Law can back up mandates with legal physical force

Difference between law and social norm?

Maize, around 5000 BC

Tehucan Valley Mexico's shift to plant domestication

Age Grade Systems

A form of social organization - coefficiency of education

The first domesticated plants in Mesopotamia

Wheat, barley and flax. Other plants that were cultivated by early civilizations included rice in Asia and potatoes in South America.

Ethnology

Systematic and detailed comparison of human races, their origin, distribution, culture, etc.

Hand Axe and Fire

Associated with Homo Erectus

Burial

Associated with Neanderthalensis

Cosmology

The study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe

Edward Tylor

(English Anthrop. 1832-1917) associated with Animism (faith in the individual soul). Considered by many to be a founding figure of the science of social anthropology.

Java Man

Discovered 1891 island of Java, Homo erectus, discoverer DuBois named it Pithecanthropus erectus.

Peking Man

1927, China by Pei. Homo erectus.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

A theory developed by Sapir and Whorf that states the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken. circa 1950

Pastoralization

To convert (an industrial society or economy) to an agricultural society. To raise herds of animals.

Examples of Political Systems

Bands, Tribes and Chiefdoms

Polyandry

What's it called when several brothers marry same woman?

Kula Circles (Rings) in Malaysia

A complex system of visits and gift exchanges. shell necklaces (soulava) traded to the north and shella rimbands (Mwali) trade in the southern direction. These are traded purely for purposes of enhancing mutual trust relationships, securing trade, and enhancing one's social status and prestige.

Homonids

Erect bipedal primate mammals that includes recent humans

Australopithecines

A Homonid evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago.

Mendels first principle

Sex cell may contain one factor (allele) for different traits but not both needed

Mendels second principle

Characteristics are inherited independently from other characteristics

Mendels third principle

Each inherited characteristic is determined by two heredity factors/genes, one from each parent, which determines whether a gene will be dominant or recessive.

Chromotin

The readily stainable substance of a cell nucleus, consisting of DNA, RNA, and various proteins, that forms chromosomes during cell division.

Paleolithic period

Old Stone Age. 2.5 million years ago to 12 thousand years ago. Chipped stone tools. earliest human ancestors. Pleistocene.

Lower Paleo Period

Chopper-chopping tool industry (Pebble Industry). Wood,bone,stone tools. Homo Erectus. Hand-Axe (700kya): Abbevillian Industry (France) and later Acheulian Industry (Eur/Af/As). Flake Stone Tools (flint): Clactonian Industry

Middle Paleo Period

Refined the Flake Stone Tools (flint): Mousterian Industry. Neanderthal Man.

Upper Paleo Period

<40kya): Regional stone tool industries (Perigordian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdelenian) More complex, specialized, variety of tools. Regional artistic traditions. Homosapien, Neanderthal, Cro-magnon. Small Sculptures (E. Eur): Small, portable clay figures, bone and ivory carvings. Venus Figures. Monuments (W. Eur): Franco-Cantabrian School. Limestone caves paintings, reliefs, incisions.

Mesolithic Period

(Middle Stone Age): 10 thousand years ago. Hunter/Gatherer (w/ fish). Baskets, Pots,, harpoons, canoes, store food. Holocene. Not much development in art, focused on inventions, diversification of subsistence strategies

Neolithic Period

(New Stone Age): 10 thousand years ago. Domestic animals, villages, pottery, weaving, food producing (not collecting). Holocene. Beginning of real civilization (Final stage of prehistoric cult evol/techno dev)

Ardi (female). Ethiopia, 3.2 million years ago

Where the first early hominid was discovered?

LUCY

Female Australopithecus afarensis. It was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression

Oldivai Gorge (ravine) eastern Africa

Cradle of life. This site is significant in showing increased developmental and social complexities in hominins (found tools of habillus and erectus).

Neolocality

In the US, are married couples primarily matrilocal (married couple resides near wifes family), or patrilocal (married couple resides near husbands family), etc? Neither. They establish their own unit

Maya people of the post classic.

Who built Chichen Itza?

Hittites

Invented smelting of iron

Homo Habilis

The earliest member of the genus Homo, ape-like, found on sites dating 2 million years ago. Dr. Leakey found in Olduvai Gorge, Africa. 775cc brain, (1/2 sapien) tool users. Lived 50,000 years. "handy man". This and all the australopithecines are found only in Africa 2.33 to 1.44 million years ago

Homo Erectus

"Upright Man" - An extinct species of the genus Homo, Africa/Europe/Asia. fire and tools. hand ax. early speech. Peking Man. 143,000 years to 1.4 million

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

Is an extinct hominine species that is dated to about 7 million years ago, possibly very close to the time of the chimpanzee/human divergence

Paleoanthropology

The field of science which studies the human fossil record

Ziggurat

Built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Assyrians - flat pyramid like structures part of temple complex. The earliest began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period.

Catal Hoyuk (Turkey)

A very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC, and flourished around 7000BC. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date

Superposition/Stratigraphy

Nature of matter at molecular level, digging down by layers

Ethnography

A systematic and detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork, direct contact, and qualitative research.

Oldest hominid found so far in USA

In 1959, the partial skeletal remains of an ancient woman 13,000 years old were unearthed in "Arlington Springs" (woman) on Santa Rosa Island, one of the eight Channel Islands off the southern California coast.

Dating Technology

Scientific Dating of Archaeological Sites and Artifacts

Ethnocentrism

Judge others by your own standards

Cultural Relativism

Judge each culture by their own ideals not ours

Diffusion

Transfer of cultural traits/ideas from one society/ethnic group to another. McDonald's (US=Fast Food, China=Special Occasion)

Emic perspective

Describes behavior in insider/natives own terms. Actor's own reasons, interpretations, customs, beliefs

Etic perspective

Describes behavior in terms familiar to the observer (enables comparative research, and making universal claims)

Status

Position from which members engage in social practices. (Sociology focuses on interrelationship/effect of status

Symbols

Communication element. Represents a complex of person, object, group, or idea. Graphically or Representational

Band

Mobile Foragers (Eskimo) combine nuclear families. Don't allow accumulated wealth, prize generosity, equality of resources

Caste System

Fixed at birth, unchangeable, endogamous. India: BWAL: Brahmins, warriors, artisans, laborers (then untouchables)

Chiefdom

Half way b/n tribe and state. Kin-based. Permanent group-based differences in access to resources. Permanent Political Structure

Class

Category of individuals who enjoy equal prestige according to a society. (Perception of class is relative). Economics, social status, aesthetic preferences, behavior, occupation, appearance, civic involvement

Clan

Common ancestor. Endogamy forbidden (regarded as incest). Can be Matriclan/Patriclan/Tribe

Kinship

Affinal kin are Relatives through marriage

Kindred

Are relatives on each side of marriage, extending at least to second cousin

Family of orientation

Is the Family that raised you

Family of procreation

Is the New family you form when you marry and have children.

Unilineal Descent

Groups descended from mother or father's line only.

Lineage (Matri/Patri)

Traces back to ONE person

Endogamy

Marrying with in a tribe

Exogamy

Marrying without a tribe

Potlach

Gift-giving feast practiced by ; red clockwise/white counter. Similar to the Kula Rings.

Animism

The attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena

Revitalization

A "deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture

Folktale

Anonymous, timeless, and placeless tale circulated orally among a people

Shamanism

Some were schizophrenics, intermediary for God

Taboo

no no but not sin - Common example... in most societies is incest.

Totem

Is a being, object, or symbol representing an animal or plant that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan

Applied Anthropology

To solve practical problems

Darwin

Social Darwinism, natural selection, Origin of Species.

Tylor

Armchair anthropologist tin Britain late nineteenth century

Boas

Father of Modern Anthropology, noted for applying the scientific method to the study of human cultures and societies. Opposed evolutionist

Rivers

Known for Kinship

Frazer

Wrote the Golden Bough/Educated people leave religion and turn to science

Malinowski

Father of the functionalist school, developed methods of research, Boas hailed him

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Languages effect the way we think

Benedict

She did field research with American southwestern tribes, customs, Boas loved her, wrote Patterns of Culture

Petrie

Heiroglyphs - father of archeology

Schleiman

Discovered Troy

Maya

Pre-Classic Period: noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas

Inca

Largest empire in pre-Columbian, 1300-1500, Son God

Aztec

Spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries - Mexico

Aborigine

Indigenous peoples are commonly known as (American Indian)

Olmec

Mexico. 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization. Big heads

India/Hindu

Which civilization first invented "zero"?

Cultural Ecology

Focuses on variations in cultural behaviors among human populations

New Mexico

Clovis and Folum are Indian tool types found where?