Anthro final

Colonialism

The extension of a nation’s sovereignty over territory beyond its borders.

Settler colonialization

a form of colonialism refers to the colonial processes in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and few areas in Africa. the main focus was that Eurpians wanted to seize land from the indigeous people and adopted “a logic of elimination” and drove natives off of their land in processes that often ended up in killing them.

Extractive colonialism

this type of colonialism was more prevelent in Africa and Asia where colonies wanted to accelerate European imperialism and instead of trying to seize land from indigenous people they extracted the natural resources from the areas. while these colonies were not genocidal like the settler colonies but were still brutal and ruthless.

First Contact attitudes towards indigenous people

when colombus made first contact they finally discovered that people could be different. indigenous people were considered to be inferior “savages” that needed to be saves of conquered.

Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism

this was the idea that white europeans were at the top of the animal kingdom and the competition among groups and nations drives social evolution. Argues that white europeans are meant to be “naturally” in charge.

Edward Tylor and Unilinear Evolution

tylor believed that human societies evolved all together in a singular linear pathway in three stages, Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization

Medical anthropology

this is a branch of cultural anthropology that interects biological anthropology, health and medicine. it studies how health, illness and diseas are informed by culture, politics and the economy. applying anthropological theories to questions of health, illness medicine and healing.

WHO definition of health

health is not merely the absence of diease but is a state of physical social and psychological well being.

disease vs illness

disease is the outward clinical manifestation of alterest physical function or infection and illness is human experience and perceptions of health that are informed by social and cultural meanings. diease is diagnosable dysfunctions of the body and illness is subjective personal experiences.

ethnomedicine

the study of traditional culture-specific medical practices and beliefs for healing and health. often plant based or animal based spiritual methods.

critical medical anthropology

this s informed by critical theories such as postmodernism, marxism, feminism and deconstructionism and encourages people to critically examine their intellectual assumptions about the way the world works. studies how political economic forces and power structures tht shape human health, disease patterns and healthcare access.

medicalization

labeling a particular issue as medical that requires medical treatment

cartesian mind/body dualism

a theory that divides existence/the human organism into two classes of substance the palpable bodyand the intangible mind. the soul is part of the domain of theology and the body is the domain of science. that if there is an issue then it is all in the mind or all in the body. the mind and body are seperate.

holistic medical tradition

this is an approach to healthcare that treats the whole person (mind body and spirit). in traditional chinese medicine the world exists as a single unbroken wholeness (Tao) that exists in every person. they believe the cosmos and the body are all in dynamic equilibrium and the human body is an ecosystem and the way they look at medicine is based in metaphors from nature.

culture bound syndromes

these are health problems with symptoms associated with a particular culture. like susto in spanish speaking communities is “fright sickness”, shock or soul loss with symptoms of lethargy, poor appetite and problems sleeping. this is an emotional illness caused by sudden and severe traumatic fright or scare

placebo vs nocebo

both are inactive substance or treatment given to people to compare the effectiveness of new treatments. a placebo is when there are positive side effects and a nocebo is when there are negative side effects. placebo is when a person’s symptoms are altered in some way by an inert treatment and a nocebo is the causation of sickness by expectation of sickness.

Edward Tylors proposed religion stages

animism (the worldview that non human entitites possess a spiritual essence/soul and that all things are interconnected), polytheism and monotheism

shamanism

thought to be the first religious practitioners among humns. they function similarly to a priest-rabbi. their treatments are ancient nature-based and spiritual. shamans go into a divine trance or dreams to communicate with the suernatural to heal.

religion (definition, function and importance)

a set of beliefs and behaviors that pertain to the supernatural. they create a set of assumptions, attitudes and responses that are important to culture. the can direct and impact our worldviews and creates beliefs, traditions, teachings, rituals etc.. of groups. religion explains and deal with death and the afterlife and explains the urpose and beginnings of humans on earth and provides motivations for humans actions.

Tylor’s depiction of religion

the founder of anthropology of religion and believed that humans had two entities in the body, the one active during the day and a second sould active during sleep/trance and they never meet but they are vital to eachother. they believed the second double soul when it departes from the body the body dies.

malinowski depiction of religion

he believed that religion was an important bechanism for psychological anxiety etc.. that religion offers emotional comfort in time of crisis and when studyingthe trobriand islanders he believed that religion was used to establish control but also born from tragedies of human life

bailey and peoples functions of religion

they believe there are three functions: intellectual/cognitive (beliefs help satisfy human desire to understand things), psychological (religion helps people cope in troubles/stress/anxiety) and social (religion instill common values and cultural norms)

neandertals religion

there have been 40% graves discovered with things surrounding them like stone tools, animal bones and sometimes flowers and it can be assumed these were left with the idea of death and possibly an afterlife. many graves have special positionng of the bodies, sometimes fetal position.

mana

this is a sacre impersonal forcethat exists in the universe. this force, under certain conditions, could be controlled by people. it can be in people, plants, objecst.kinda like “luck”

syncretism

this is the blending of diverse religious beliefs and practices into a hybrid system. through contact between cultures and ultimately shapes new faiths and mixes traditions and can result in cultural change. blends dominant systems of belief with local beliefs.

race as a cultural construct

there is no scientifically valid way to divide us up into biologically meaningful groups below the species level therefore biologically race does not exist. skin color doesnt differentiate between race, neither does blood type so biologically and genetically there is no difference in race.

scientific racism

this emerged in european colonial cultures as the concept of race began to gain significance. political and intellectual leaders used race as a way to justify colonial efforts of domination over the world. tried to justify racism through fake scientific methods and data. in polygenesis scientists believed that each race originated from their own region/homeland, rejecting monogenesis wwhere it was beleives that there was a single creation story for all humans. some people measured craniums to rank human races. Argues a racial hierarchy placing europeans over people of color.

racial etiquette

these are codes and rules that are shaped by perceptions of race that determine the way people present themselves. everone grow up learning a combination of rules of racial classifications. these are unwritten but forced social rules that govern the interactions ebtween races. it usually i used to maintain white supremacy. “microaggressions?”

why are there different skin colors

variations in skin color is an adaptive response to UV radiation for vitamin D production. lighter skin tones /lower melanin production were a response as people moved away from the equator because they could not manufacture sufficient vitamin D. vitamin D is important for absoption of calcium and necessary for bone growth. and increased UV radiation can lead to increased melanin production. as you move away from the equator, there is less UV sunlight and therefore the lighter skin tones are meant to allow more UV radiation through to produce enough vitamin D.

cline/clinal distribution of traits

cline is a continuous change in a specific biological trait like skin tone of a species over a geographic area. these variable traits can cluster or grade over geographical spaces

hypodescent

this is a social rule wehre for mixed-race children they are assigned the minority race group. in early US history if someone had “one drop” of african descent they were defined as black and not white

ethnicity

this is a shared cultural identity based on social and cultural things rather than biology

minority groups

these are groups of people differentiated by physical or cultural traits that often experience unequal treatment compared to the dominant group.

jim crow laws

these were state statues in, primarily southern america, that mandated racial segregation. “Seperate but equal” , and other laws made it legal to discriminate against black people. involved seperate but equal public schools, transportation and all public spaces

systemic/institutionalized racism (example)

stop and frist is an example wehre 82% of the people that were stopped were totally innocent and a majority of them were people of color. with only 12 percent of them being white.

sex/gender

sex is based on biological attributes like chromosomes while gender is a cultural construction based on male and female characteristics.

gender roles

tasks and activities that culture assignes to the different sexes.

gender stereotypes

oversimplified but strongly held ideas about characteristics of males and females.

gender stratification

unequal distribution of rewards between men and women due to their different positions in social heirarchy

gender crossing

this is when people adopt behaviors typically associated with the opposite sex as them.

sexual orientation

what someone is attracted to (men, woman, or other genders)

intersex

this is when sex characteristics differ from typical binary definitions of male and female bodies. when there are chromosomal differences, different chromosomal variations beyond male and female

transgender

this is an umbrella term for people who feel and see their own gender as different to the sex they were assigned at birth

transsexual

this is when someones gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth similar to transgender but a more outdated term and often used in medical spaces.

native american two spirit people

this is a term used by some native american to describe people that embody both masculine and feminine spirits. this is a spiritual identity.

North American Zuni and gender constructions

they have a non-binary gender system that recognizes a third gendr that can embody masculine and feminine traits, often male bodies individuals that adopt social and ceremonial roles that are performed by women

Sambia construction of gender

they believed that maleness was not biologically given and that were were no natural attributes of sex and gender for boys. they have a secret ritual that artificially induces maleness where boys recieve semen as the essence of maleness and masculinity.

Hua of Papua New Guinea gender construction

they believed that men and women have a substance called nu that is a life-giving substance in bodily fluids. if boys in their teens are able to be initiated (Kakora) and avoid femae foods and contact with women then they will have limited nu. nu can be passed around.

Hijras of India

in india they allow a third gender that is neither man nor woman. they are phenotypically men who will wear female clothing and other female attributes. they primarily work as sex workers but also perform at rituals like pregnancies and weddings.

Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey scale

Alfred kinsey was a sexologst and biologist who researched sex and gender. the kinsey scale is a scale from 0-6 that measures sexual orientation from exclusively heterosexual to asexual. they rank things not as either or but as a continuum.

Sudanese Azande

this community has prospective warriors of boys from 12 - 20 who leave their families and live with adult fighters are boy brides with a bridewealth and have sex with the boys. when the boys reach adult age they take on their own boy brides and then marry women