ANTH 201 VOCAB

Ethnography

Both a research method (immersive participant-observation fieldwork) and a way of writing about a community or culture. Ethnos = culture/people; graphy = writing.

Participant observation

Anthropology's core method: living with and joining in a community's daily life while carefully observing and recording it.

Fieldwork

Long-term, on-the-ground research in a community; what makes anthropology different from other social sciences.

Emic

Insider/local perspective based on lived experience; highlights "native logics."

Etic

Outsider, detached, "scientific/objective" perspective focused on generalizable behavior.

Thick description (Geertz)

Detailed description that interprets the meaning of actions in context, not just what physically happened.

Rapport

Trust and acceptance between researcher and community (e.g., Geertz after the police raid).

Reflexivity

When the researcher reveals their own role, position, and experiences and how they shaped the research.

Insider / outsider (positionality)

Where a researcher stands relative to the community; affects access and perspective (e.g., Hurston in Eatonville, "stepping in and stepping out").

Making the familiar strange

Looking at your own customs as if they were foreign, to reveal they're cultural, not natural (Atwood, Tett, Sunstein & Chiseri-Strater).

Holism

Society/culture can only be understood as interconnected systems; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Cultural relativism

Understanding a culture on its own terms instead of judging it by your own standards.

Ethnocentrism

Belief that your own culture's knowledge and values are superior to others'.

Cultural critique

Using another culture as a mirror to criticize your own (Mead on Samoa).

Kulturbrille

Boas's "culture glasses": the cultural lens through which we see the world.

Tacit knowledge

Taken-for-granted, unspoken knowledge communicated through behavior; "it goes without saying."

Gift exchange

Exchange of objects or services that creates social relationships and obligations (Mauss).

Three obligations (Mauss)

To give, to receive, and to reciprocate.

Reciprocity

The expectation that a gift or favor will be returned, binding people in ongoing relationships.

Hau

Maori "spirit of the gift" – part of the giver stays in the gift and pushes it to be returned (Mauss).

Total social phenomenon

An exchange or institution that is economic, moral, religious, legal, and political all at once (Mauss on the gift).

Potlatch

Northwest Coast ceremonial feast of competitive gift-giving/destruction of wealth to gain status (Mauss).

Commodity

A thing exchanged for money in an impersonal market transaction; ends the relationship once paid.

Gift–commodity continuum

Objects can move between being gifts and commodities depending on context (Herrmann, garage sales).

Inalienable possession

An object so tied to a person or group that it can't really be fully given away; it carries their identity/history.

Economies of sentiment

Paxson: economic value and moral/emotional values are produced together in making and selling goods.

Value vs. values

"Value" = economic worth; "values" = moral ideas of what's good and important. Anthropologists study how they shape each other.

Social fact

Durkheim: ways of acting, thinking, feeling that are external to individuals and exert coercive power over them.

Deep play

Geertz: play with stakes so high it's economically irrational, meaningful because status/honor is at stake.

Emotional socialization

How a culture teaches people which emotions to feel and how to show them (Briggs, Scheper-Hughes).

Delayed attachment / "death without weeping"

Scheper-Hughes: mothers hold back attachment to babies unlikely to survive, given poverty and high infant mortality.

Morality play (Briggs)

Inuit adults' playful, emotionally charged dramas that make children work through moral dilemmas.

Personal reticence

Yarrow: holding back from verbalizing feelings; can still be a meaningful way of sharing feelings, especially among men.

Biological determinism

The idea that behavior or social status is explained by genes or biology.

Cultural determinism

The idea that a person's beliefs and actions are explained only by their culture's values.

Determinism

Idea that social outcomes are determined by causes outside human agency or free will.

Agency

The capacity and/or willingness to act within a specific social context.

Naturalize

To make something appear natural rather than cultural.

Ideology

Beliefs that encourage people to accept something as "natural"; a worldview with a moral component.

Hegemony

Political, economic, or sociocultural dominance of one group over others; hegemonic ideas = the dominant ideas of a society.

Subaltern

Ideas or people excluded, oppressed, or opposed to the hegemonic.

Subjectivity

The person as made by society; who you are in relation to others, including roles, rights, and duties.

Functionalism

Practices and institutions exist to meet individual biological/psychological needs (Malinowski). Hint: individual.

Structural-functionalism

Practices and institutions exist to keep society running smoothly (Radcliffe-Brown). Hint: social.

Cosmopolitanism

Being familiar and at ease in many cultures; including people from many cultural groups.

Elements of culture

Norms, values, symbols, and mental maps of reality.

Norms

Etiquette, social expectations, "correct" behaviors, and responses to deviance.

Values

Moral attitudes, shared goals, ideas about truth and the good life.

Symbols

Language, meaningful gestures/actions, objects with special significance, signs and images.

Mental maps of reality

Systems of classification and cultural categories (time, person, clean vs. dirty, sacred vs. profane).