Cultural Anthropology Exam 2

race

flawed system with no biological basis that separates people based off of looks

intersectionality

assessing how race, gender, and class shape individual life chances

genotype

inherited genetic factors that provide a framework for an organism’s physical form

phenotype

how genes are expressed in an organism’s physical form (skin color, hair type, etc)

miscegenation

demeaning historical term for interracial marriage

Pem Buck

wrote “Worked to the Bone,” documents how white privilege was invented to prevent poor and landless whites from rebelling in early 1700s Virginia

Jim Crow

Enforced segregation legally

hypodescent

race of mixed marriage children assigned to the lower one

racialization

categorizing and assigning certain characteristics to a group/person based on race

Plessy v. Ferguson

state sponsored segregation was allowed for public schools as long as the facilities were equal (1896) 

Brown v. Board of Education

reversed separate but equal and banned racial segregation (1954)

racial ideology

popular ideas about racism that justify mean acts

roots of racism

colonialism

racisms

the variety of ways race has been constructed among people of different places

country that never banned interracial marriage

Brazil

cultural practice of “one drop of blood”

still has not ended in the US (Obama example)

Brazil consideration of race (not just skin)

also includes wealth and education

Percentage of DNA shared between all humans

99.9

Ethnicity

sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes ancestral connection to a group of people imagined to be distinct from outside groups

How many ethno-cultural groups?

8000

ethnic boundary markers

practice/belief to define who is in a group or who isn’t

situational negotiation of identity

self-identification with a particular ethnic group can change according to one’s social location

Johanna Lessinger

Wrote “From the Ganges to the Hudson” and studied how a bunch of Indians moved to NYC

Rwandan Genocide

Hutu vs Tutsi, 1 million Tutsi (ruling class) died

Tone Bringa

studied the Yugoslavian civil war and the Muslim genocide in Bosnia by Croatian forces, made film Bosnia: We Are All Neighbors

Multiculturalism

the process through which new immigrants and their children enculturate into the dominant national culture and yet retain an ethnic culture

nation-state

distinct political entity whose population shares a sense of culture, ancestry, and destiny as a people.

state

regional structures of political, economic, and military rule

Nationality

is an identification with a group of people thought to share a place of origin

Benedict Anderson

came up with imagined community because people will likely not meet in a nation

diaspora

live outside of ancestral homeland but send money and emotional ties to home

assimilation vs multiculturalism

Assimilation implies a loss of ethnic identity, multiculturalism keeps it

nation-state vs state

The population shares a sense of culture, ancestry, and destiny as a people (nation-state)

ethnicity status

 

actively created and negotiated.

kinship

system of meaning and power that cultures create to determine who is related to whom

descent group

primary relationships are with blood relatives

consanguineal relatives

blood relatives

lineage

an clearly demonstrate genealogical connections through many generations, tracing the family tree to a founding (apical) ancestor

clans

lack genealogical documentation

Affinal ties

marriage

Fictive

social ties

unilineal descent

traced through one parent

cognatic (ambilineal) descent

traced through both parents

how to read triangle-circle chart thingy

triangle-male, circle - female. Colored in- what the ego shares the same last name as

E.E.Evans-Pritchard

studied the Nuer people of southern Sudan (patrilineal descent group), only exogamous

Exogamous

marrying outside of group

Kathleen Gough

revisited Evans-Pritchard’s findings and suggested that outside conflict caused increased attention on the importance of kinship and family to boost group identity

companionate marriage

marriage built on love

polygyny

one man, multiple women

polyandry

one woman, two or more men

Bridewealth

gift from groom to bride

dowry

gift from bride to groom

family of orientation

family you are born into

Cati Coe

wrote “The Scattered Family” that studied the transnational kinship practices of immigrants from Ghana to US. Many parents working in US send kids back to Ghana for culture. Also caregiving for elders was disrupted by transnational migration

family of procreation

one that splits off to have kids

economy

A cultural adaptation to the environment that enables a group of humans to use the available land, resources, and labor to satisfy their needs and to thrive

reciprocity

involve an exchange of resources, goods, and services among people of relatively equal status

modernization theories

predicted that with the end of colonialism, less-developed countries would follow the same trajectory as the industrialized countries and achieve improved standards of living

dependency theory

even though colonialism ended, the underlying economics didn’t

neocolonialism

unequal relationship between former colonies and the colonists despite the end of colonialism

periphery countries

least developed and least powerful nations

core countries

Industrialized former colonial countries

semipheriphery `countries

between periphery and core countries

Fordism

higher wages, shorter hours, dominated 20th century economics

flexible accumulation

increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization

Adam Smith

Lazzez-faire capitalism (hands off)

Keynesian economics

idea that capitalism would work best when the government had a role in moderating capitalism’s excesses and ensuring the basic welfare of all citizens

neoliberalism

free market as main mechanism for economic growth

class

system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of the society’s resources

Karl Marx

bourgeoisie and proletariat junk

Max Weber

Came up with ideas about prestige and life chances

prestige

the reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups

life chances

An individual’s opportunities to improve their quality of life and realize life goals.

Pierre Bourdieu

Education and Social reproduction ideas

habitus

dispositions, self-perceptions, sensibilities, and tastes developed in response to external influences over a lifetime that shape one’s conceptions of the world and where one fits into it.

cultural capital

the knowledge, habits, and tastes learned from parents and family that individuals can use to gain access to scarce and valuable resources of society.

roots of extreme stratification

Intensive agriculture and rising populations created new opportunities to concentrate wealth.