Anthrcul 101 - Exam 1

Colonialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

Comparative Method

Comparing cultural/linguistic similarities, differences, and patterns

Cosmopolitan distribution

Species with ranges that cover most of the earth

Culture

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people

Cultural relativism

Looking at a culture in relation to itself while withholding judgement

Ethnography

The scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

Ethnocentrism

Belief that one's way of doing things is correct, while dismissing and "othering" other groups' ways

Extraction

Removing people from their own territory (Chicago World's Fair example)

Feature of Humanity that are Distinct, thanks to Culture

Language, Abstraction, and Technological Innovation

Herodotus

Greek, traveled from Greek city states into Persian Empire. Gathered information about customs and religion.

Ibn Battuta

Traveled by sea and reached North Africa, the Middle East, and Central/Eastern Asia. Wrote memoir and account of journey

Zhang Qian

Traveled through Eastern Asia for trade, wrote about experiences. Talks about inhabitants of the lands he visited, their customs, and their occupations.

Intersubjectivity

The mutual understanding that people share during communication, regardless of language

Othering

Defining colonized peoples as different from, and subordinate to, Europeans in terms of their social, moral, and physical norms.

Prosocial Impulses

Tendencies to voluntarily do things that benefit others

Sociality

the preference for living in groups and interacting regularly with members of the same species

Anthropology

The study of humans

Juane Quick-To-See Smith

State Names painting as an example of defamiliarizing "Michigan" and it's native origins

Subfields of Anthropology

sociocultural, linguistic, archaeological, biological

Bonobo

Peace, non-reproductive sex to avoid conflict, females have power

Brachiation

Arboreal locomotion by swinging from the underside of branches by the arms.

Chimpanzee

Internal hierarchies, males have power, territorial, violent

Hominoid

Super family of all the apes and humans.

Old world monkeys

Asia and Africa, diurnal, Larger, patches to sit on

New world monkeys

Americas, smaller, arboreal, prehensile tails

Primate Qualities of Note

Dexterity, Visual Acuity, Big Brains, Infant Dependency, Social

Strepsirrhines

lemurs and lorises. Smaller body and brain:body ratio, good smell, arboreal and nocturnal

Haplorrhines

New world, old world, and tarsiers. Larger body and brain:body ratio, good vision, arboreal and terrestrial

Knuckle walking

Gorillas, Chimps, Bonobos

7 Basic Elements of Culture

Is Learned, Uses Symbols, Is Dynamic, Is Integrated with Daily Experience, Shapes Everybody's Lives, Is Shared, Gives people a way of doing things they may consider "right"

Customs

Long-established norms that have a codified and law-like aspect.

Generalities

Cultural patterns or traits that are present insome but not all societies.

Hatshepsut

Power is communicated materially, materials show how gender and power are represented

Symbol

Something - an object, idea, image, figure, or character- that represents something else.

Traditions

Practices and customs that have become the most ritualized and enduring.

Universals

Something that exists in every culture.

Values

Symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities.

Norms

Typical patterns of actual behavior as well as the rules about how things should be done.

Emic

approach of studying a culture's behavior from the perspective of an insider

Etic

approach of studying a culture's behavior from the perspective of an outsider

Ethics

Moral questions about right and wrong and standards of appropriate behavior

Fieldwork

Long-term immersion in a community, often involving firsthand research in a specific study community or research setting where people's behavior can be observed and the researcher can have conversations or interviews with members of the community.

Informed Consent

An agreement to take part in research—after havingbeen informed about its purpose, nature, procedures,and possible impacts.

Interlocutors

Informants. People the anthropologist gets data from.

Participant Observation

Getting involved in and observing naturally occurring situations, interactions, and everyday activities in a community. Can be from a distance, or immersed. Must rely on your senses.

Qualitative

A research strategy producing an in-depth and detailed description of social activities and beliefs.

Rapport

Looking for opportunities to engage, joining in, and taking notes

Semi-structured interview

More structured than a conversation, intended to gather data, but NOT like a survey with a narrow set of answers.

Thick Description and its 3 components

Relevant detail, context, scholarly analysis

Agency

Determined by individuals' capacity to have the power and/or resources to do something.

Assimilation

When one group adopts the patterns and norms of another group, either voluntarily or forcibly, and no longer exists as a separate unit. This requires abandonment of cultural traditions

Ethnicity

Group identity based on notions of similar and shared history, culture, and kinship.

Ethnic Group

Usually more than one uniting feature, and these features intersect together. (i.e. Japanese American)

Ethnocide

The deliberate destroying and erasure of an ethnic group's culture.

Intersectionality

We hold multiple social identities at once, and these identities intersect in meaningful ways.

Multiculturalism

Encouraging numerous distinct cultural/ethnic units within a society. Melting pot.

Race

A social construction to describe a group of people who share physical and cultural traits as well as a common ancestry.

Implies that the people of the world can be divided into biologically discreet and exclusive groups based on physical and cultural traits.

A system that organizes people into hierarchical groups based on specific physical traits that are thought to reflect fundamental and innate differences that are rooted in genetic and biological differences.

Implies that the people of the world can be divided into biologically discreet and exclusive groups based on physical and cultural traits.

A system that organizes people into hierarchical groups based on specific physical traits that are thought to reflect fundamental and innate differences that are rooted in genetic and biological differences.

Race is not

Biological, a cultural universal, ahistorical

Social identities

Positions a person holds in a particular society, or groups to which they claim belonging. Some are agency-based, others ascribed

Angela

Bacon's Rebellion

Indentured servants and slaves rose up against the wealthy in Jamestown, burning the colony down. After this, their demands were met.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America

Point Comfort

First landing point for slaves in the United States, coming from two English privateer ships. Slaves came from Kingdom of Ndongo, in Angola.

Racial Ideology

A set of principles and ideas that divides people into different racial groups and serves the interest of one group.

Racialization

The social, economic, and political processes of transforming populations into races and creating racial meanings. Gave indentured servants power over slaves, and more rights as whites.

Seneca Village

Predominantly African-American community in NYC where residents were evicted to make way for Central Park.