Anthropology Exam #2

situational negotiation of identity

people change their identities in different contexts

ethnic group

Group whose members share certain beliefs, values,
habits, customs, and norms because of their common background.

ethnicity

Identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group

ascribed status

Social status based on limited choice. (Race, sex/gender, age, birth order, and family socioeconomic background)

achieved status

Status (positive or negative) attained through
choices, actions, efforts, talents, or accomplishments (doctor, lawyer, college graduate, Olympic athlete, or even a criminal)

minority groups

1. Occupy subordinate positions within a social hierarchy.

2. Possess less power and wealth than majority groups

stratification

the classification of a society into ranked groups, layers, or tiers that shape people's roles, duties, and access to resources

racial classification

assigning humans to categories based on common ancestry, saying that humans belong to distinct races, and share blood ancestrally

explanatory approach

focuses on understanding specific
biological differences

race

an ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis

racism

discrimination against an ethnic group assumed to have a
biological basis

What did early scholars focus race on?

phenotypical traits

phenotype

refers to an organism’s evident traits, its “manifest
biology”—anatomy and physiology

genotype

reflect shared genetic material, all the genes a person has

takeaways about race

1. Race is a recent human invention.

2. Race is about culture and not biology.

3. Race and racism are embedded in institutions and everyday life.

4. Inequalities among “racial” groups are products of social, economic,
   educational, and political circumstances

hypodescent

automatically places children of mixed marriages into
the group of the minority parent

hafu

term used to describe people who are biracial Japanese

adaptive strategy

a society’s main system of economic production

Yehudi Cohen’s Typology

foraging, horticulture, agriculture,
pastoralism, and industrialism

foraging

economy based on hunting, gathering, and/or
fishing, survived where cultivation was not practicable with
simple technology

Where do foragers prevail?

marginal environments, in biologically rich and diverse environments, all foragers today live in nation-states, and cherish their identities as people who forage for a living

features of foraging groups

● Small social groups
● Mobile settlement patterns
● Sharing of resources
● Immediate food consumption
● Egalitarianism
● Decision making by mutual consent

band

• flexible/mobile

• fewer than 100 ppl

• may split up easily

• basic social unit among foragers

food production related adaptive strategies

Horticulture, Agriculture, Pastoralism

horticulture

Non-intensive plant cultivation with fallowing.
Horticulturists use simple tools.

features of horticulture

● Fields are not permanently cultivated.
● Slash-and-burn and shifting cultivation methods are used.
● Can support large, permanent villages.
● Locations of farm plots are shifted while the village remains in place

agriculture

Cultivation using land and labor continuously and
intensively. Agriculture is more labor intensive than horticulture.

features of agriculture

Domesticated animals are used by many agriculturists as a means
of production.
Sometimes use irrigation and/or terracing to support agriculture

cultivation continuum

Continuum of land and labor use
that ranges from horticulture to agriculture, with
intermediate economies combining both features.

intensification

intensive cultivators focus on one food staple crop, decreasing biological diversity compared to horticulture

pastoralism

Herders whose activities focus on domesticated
animals like cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and yaks

pastoral nomadism

The annual movement of an entire pastoral
group with herds.

transhumance

Part of the group moves with the herd. Most stay
in a home village

Sami People

Northern Scandanavian people who seasonally follow reindeer, they practice transhumance.

economy

System of the production, distribution, and consumption of
resources

modes of production

way of organizing production

production in nonindustrial societies

Division of economic labor related to age and gender is a
cultural universal.
Specific tasks assigned to males, females, and people of
different ages may vary.

means of production (factors)

land, labor, capital, and technology

land

● Ties between people and land are less permanent among
foragers than for food producers.
● Among food producers, the rights to the means of
production also granted through birth as well as kinship
and marriage

labor

● In nonindustrial societies, access to land and labor comes
through social links.
● Manufacturing is often linked to age and gender.

alienation

a worker makes a product but views it as separate from themselves, no sense of belonging

nonindustrial society production

the relations of production, distribution, and consumption are social relations
with economic aspects

economizing

Rational allocation of scarce means (resources) to
alternative ends

classical economic theory

● Assumes wants are infinite and means are limited.
● Society must learn to utilize available resources efficiently.
● Classical economists assume that when confronted with
choices and decisions, people tend to make the one that
maximizes profit.

alternative ends

People in various societies put a portion of their scarce resources toward building funds.

Subsistence fund: Working for sustenance.
Replacement fund: Maintaining technology and other items essential to production.
Social fund: Helping friends, relatives, in-laws, and neighbors.
Ceremonial fund: Covering expenditures on ceremonies or rituals.
Rent fund: Rendering resources to an individual or agency that is politically or economically superior.

“The Political”

Morton Fried’s definition emphasizes “individuals or groups
that manage the affairs of public policy.”

Socio- political organizations

is preferred in discussing the exercise of power and the regulation of relations among groups and their representatives.

political regulation

includes such processes as decision making, dispute management, and conflict resolution

band

Small kin-based group found among hunter-gatherers.

tribe

Food-producing society with a rudimentary political
structure.

chiefdom

Intermediate between tribe and state that feature
differential access to resources and a permanent political
structure.

state

Formal governmental structure with socioeconomic
stratification

foraging bands

Modern foragers live in nation-states and in an interlinked
world.
● All foragers now trade with food producers.
● Most contemporary hunter-gatherers partially rely on
governments and/or missionaries

Ju/’hoansi

San Peoples

Linguistic group in Southern Africa. Illustrate links between a
foraging economy and other aspects of life in bands.

• egalitarian societies

• no formal law, but have ways to settle disputes

• rely on Kalahari dessert resources and ecosystem

Inuit

Illustrate a foraging band.

• Every man and woman had access to the resources he or she needed to sustain life.

• There was no notion of private ownership.

• most disputes over women

• men hunted

• inuit husbands could enact jealous revenge by murder or insulting songs

tribal cultivators

Tribes typically have a horticultural or pastoral economy
and are organized into villages and/or descent groups.
● Lack socioeconomic stratification and formal
government.
● Regulatory officials are village heads, “big men,” descent-
group leaders, village councils, and leaders of pantribal
associations.

Egalitarianism in Tribes

Horticultural villages are usually small, with low population
density and open access to strategic resources.
● Age, gender, and personal traits determine how much
respect people receive.
● Egalitarianism diminishes as village size and population
density increase.

Yanomami

In Brazil, village fissioning occurs from time to
time.
● When a village is dissatisfied with its headman, its members
can leave and find a new village.

Head Man/Village Head

Local tribal leader with limited authority.
● Must lead by example
● Acts as a mediator in disputes
● Must lead in generosity

The Big man

Similar to a village head, except his authority is
regional.
A Big Man may have influence over more than one village.
Common to the South Pacific region.

Kapauku Papuans

Indonesia, Big man = tonowi

● Key political figure with status achieved through hard
work.
● Amassed wealth in the form of pigs and native riches.
● Distinguished by generosity, eloquence, bravery, physical
fitness, and supernatural powers.
● Decisions are accepted as binding

Kawelka

PNG, big man prepares for moka

Moka

a competitive gift exchange in which status comes from
giving wealth away, not accumulating

Pantribal Sodalities

a non-kin societal grouping

Maasai

• Linguistic group

• Predominantly pastoralists

• Polygyny (two or more women
  sharing a husband) common with
  older men.

• Marriage involves substantial
  bride price

• Patrilineal clans grouped into two
  moieties

• Socially organized by age-sets

Age-sets and Age-grades

Among the pastoral Maasai of Kenya, men born during the
same four-year period were circumcised together.
Belonged to the same named group, an age set, throughout their lives. Sets moved through age grades.

chiefdoms

Society with a permanent political structure,
hereditary leaders, and social ranking but lacking class divisions

Chiefdom Socio-Political Org

social relations are based on kinship, marriage,
descent, age, generation, and gender

• permanent political system

• Office: Permanent position that must be refilled when
  it is vacated.

• Endure across the generations.

Chiefs roles in chiefdom

• the production, distribution, and consumption of resources

• Received the first fruits of harvest from subjects.

• Redistributed harvest by sponsoring feasts.

status in chiefdoms

• seniority of descent

• people in chiefdom believed to be descended from common ancesters

• degrees of seniority were intricately calculated

early states difference from chiefdoms

practices stratum endogamy, separation of marriage and society based on socioeconomic class

What are the three dimensions of stratification?

Economic status or wealth: an individual’s material assets.
Power: Ability to control others.

Prestige: Esteem, respect, or approval

early states and social stratification

• see divides in wealth, power, and prestige

• emerge a superordiante and subordinate group

state systems

States are autonomous political units with social strata and a
formal government.
States tend to be large and populous.
Certain systems and subsystems are found in all states:

• population control

• judiciary

• enforcement

• fiscal support

population control

• censuses

• regional boundaries

• grant citizenship

judiciary

• laws

• courts and judges

• curb internal conflict

enforcement

• agents of the state

• punishments

• protection

fiscal support (taxes & finances)

Required to support governments and their functions.

• People have to turn over a significant portion of what
  they produce to the state.

• Of the revenues collected, a state re-allocates a part for the general good and keeps another part (often larger) for itself.

Karl Polanyi’s Principles that Guide Exchange

Society is usually dominated by one.
Dominant principle determines how means of production are
exchanged.

• market principle

• resdistribution

• reciprocity

market principle

Buying, selling, and valuation based on supply
and demand.

• dominant principle in capitalist market

• bargaining is big deal here

redistribution

Flow of goods from the local level into a center,
then back out.

• common in chiefdoms

reciprocity

Exchange between social equals who are
normally related by kinship, marriage, or close personal ties.
It is dominant in societies that are primarily egalitarian.

reciprocity continuum

Runs from generalized reciprocity
(closely related/deferred return) to negative reciprocity
(strangers/immediate return).

generalized reciprocity

Exchanges among closely related
individuals

balanced reciprocity

Midpoint on the reciprocity continuum
between generalized and negative reciprocity

negative reciprocity

Potentially hostile exchanges among
strangers

potlatch

Festive event within a regional exchange system
among groups of the North Pacific Coast of North America. Sponsoring community give items such as food, blankets, pieces of copper, or other items to visitors from other villages.

Kula

Exchange by Trobriand Islanders studied by Malinowski. They share shell necklaces and arm bands

Wall Street

Hegemony: subordinates comply by internalizing
rulers’ values and accepting the “naturalness” of
domination

Karen Ho and Hegemony

Ho shows that access to markets is produced through
relationships, pedigree, and institutional recruitment — not
neutral supply and demand.

James Scotts Weapon of the Weak

“public transcript” interactions with both opressed and opressors

“hidden transchript” critique of power behind opressors backs

Igbo Women’s War - Nigeria

Used a traditional practice of censoring and shaming men
through all-night song-and-dance. Informal social control.

What is religion?

“belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces.” - Wallace

• cultural universal

• shared beliefs within religion

early anthro prespective on religion

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor believed that religion evolved through
stages and would decline as science offers better explanations for things.

Animism: Belief in spiritual beings.

Polytheism: Belief in multiple gods who control aspects of
nature.
Monotheism: Belief in a single, all-powerful deity.

Shaman

curers, mediums, spiritualists, astrologers, palm readers, and other independent diviners.

ritual

Formal stylized, repetitive, stereotyped behavior,
based on a liturgical order

rites of passage

Customs associated with a transition from
one stage of life to another.

• separation

• liminality

• incorporation

“regional ontologies”

interiority:Does it have something like
what I have inside, such as intentions, a soul,
a point of view, the capacity for culture?

physicality: Does it have a body like mine, in
form, substance, and the way it works
physically?

animism

non human things have a personhood, life, and agency