Cultural Anthropology Exam 2

Anthropological Linguistics

The study from an anthropological point of view, eventually lead to Linguistic Anthropology

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of language as form symbolic human communication in both a social and cultural context

Ethnography of Speaking

The study of how people use spoken language in a cultural setting

Ethnopoetics

Looking at language as performance in order to understand how this differs from written language

Language

A symbolic system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammer

Larynx

The biological part of human anatomy that allows for sound

Call System

Patterned Sounds, utterances, and movements of the body that express meaning

Historical Linguistics

The study of language that focuses on how and where the languages people speak today emerged

Philology

The comparative study of ancient texts and documents

Proto-Language

The hypothetical common ancestral language of two or more living languages became extinct after these group separated from each other and their own language started to change

Cognate Word

Words in two languages that show the same systematic sound shifts as other words in the two languages

Langue

Formal rules of Language

Parole

The way people speak

Descriptive Linguistics

The systematic analysis and description of a language’s sound system and grammar which studies the structure of language

Phonology

The structure of speech sounds

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound humans make that have no meaning

Accent

A regional or social variation in the way a language sounds

Dialect

A regional or social variety of a language that differs from the standard version of a language

Morphology

The study of how sounds are put together to create meaning

Morpheme

The smallest unit of a language that has meaning

Grammar

The part of language that looks at tense, word order, and genders

Syntax

The study of how words are put together to form sentences and complex utterances like paragraphs

Sociolinguistics

The study of how sociocultural context and norms shape language use and the effects of language use on society

Signs

Words or objects that stand for something else, they are a basic was to convey meaning

Symbols

These are elaboration of signs, when a sign becomes a symbol it usually takes on a much wider range of meanings than when it was a sign

Metaphors

Comparisons of words or things that emphasize the similarities between them, allowing people to make sense of complex social relations around them

Sapir Whorf Hypothesis

Started by cultural anthropologist Edward Sapir in 1920s, said cultural anthropologists should pay attention to language during field research because he felt grammar shapes how people see the world, his student Benjamin Whorf went further and said that language shows how cultures experience the world differently based on the language they speak

Linguistic Relativity

The idea that people speaking different languages perceive or interpret the world differently because of the differences in their languages

Ethnoscience

The study of how people classify things in the world

Pidgin Language

A mixed language with simplified grammar, typically borrowing vocabulary from one language but its grammar from another

Creole Language

A language of mixed origin that has developed from a complex blending of two parental languages and it exists as a mother tongue for some populations

Language Death

Languages that are not spoken anymore

Trolls

People who post hateful comments about someone or a topic anonymously in or to hurt or attack someone for their views

Language Ideology

The widespread assumption that people make about the relative sophistication and status of dialects and languages

Difference Model

Each gender is reared in a different way to speak, how boys and girls are socialized to speak while growing up

Dominance Model

Looks at how child rearing uses language to teach children to teach children to either be dominant in a gender or subordinate to a gender

Prestige Language

A particular language variation or way of speaking that is associated with wealth, success, education, and power

Code Switching

Switching back and forth between one linguistic variant and another or one language and another depending on the cultural context

Paralanguage

Refers to how something is said and how it is intended to be heard, so it is looking at how something is said rather than what is said

Vocal Segregates

Also called vocal gestures, are not quite words but they are often ascribed meanings

Ideophones

Sounds that represent other sounds, in the category of paralanguage; Onomatopoeia

Tonal Languages

Languages where a word’s meaning changes depending on tones of the sounds that make up the word (Ma)

Whistling Language

Communication through whistling, a remnant of a tonal language

Kinesics

The study of body motion and gestures used in non-verbal communication

Proxemics

The study of how people in different societies perceive and use space

Globalization

The contemporary widening scale of cross-cultural interactions owing to the rapid movement of money, people, products, and ideas across national boundaries

Transnational

Relationships that extend beyond nation-state boundaries but not necessarily cover the whole world

Migrants

People who leave their homes to live or work for a time in other regions or countries

Immigrants

People who leave their home country with no expectation of returning

Refugees

People who migrate because of political oppression or war with legal permission to stay in another country

Exiles

People who are expelled by authorities of their home country

World Systems Theory

A theory that capitalism has expanded on the basis of unequal exchanges throughout the world, creating a global market and global division of labor, diving the world between a dominant “Core” and a dependent “Periphery”

Core

Areas considered the winners or wealthy people/countries due to globalization

Periphery

Areas considered the losers or the people in poverty that are exploited by the core

Postcolonialism

The field that studies the cultural legacies of colonialism, how it impacted people and places after colonialism ended

Localization

The creation and assertion of highly particular, place-based identities and communities

Anthropology of Development

The field of study within Anthropology concerned with understanding the cultural conditions for proper development or the negative impacts of development projects

Developmental Anthropology

The application of Anthropological Knowledge and research methods to the practical aspects of shaping and implementing developmental projects

Multi-sited Ethnography

An ethnographic research strategy of following connections, associations, and relationship from place to place (Otherwise known as Cultural Geography)

Ethnocide

The process in which a dominant group forces an indigenous group to change or abandon their traditional ways of life

Foraging Society

Classification used for groups that are hunters and gatherers (Hunter animals, gathering nuts, fruits, and vegetables without cultivation)

Revitalization Movements

Attempts to restore traditional aspects of native culture

Ghost Dance

A hypnotic dance with spiritual meaning that spread across the US western states among different native tribes to try stop white expansion in the 1800s

Environmental Anthropology

The field that studies how different societies understand, interact with, and make changes to the natural world

Environmental Determinism

The outdated theory that the environment determines cultural characteristics or how a culture develops because of the natural landscape

Ecological Anthropology

A part environmental anthropology that studies the direct relationship between human’s natural ecosystem

Ecosystem

Natural system based on the interaction of non-living and living organisms

Cultural Landscape

The culturally specific images, knowledge, and concepts of the physical landscape that help shape the relationship between the two

Ethnoscience

The study of how people classify the world

Ethnobiology

The sub field of ethnoscience that studies how people in non-Western societies name and organize living things

Ecological Footprint

A quantitative tool that measures what people consume and the waste they produce

Political Ecology

The field of study that focuses on the linkage’s between political economic power, social inequality, and ecological destruction

Environmental Justice

A social movement addressing the linkages between racial discrimination, injustice, social equity, and environmental quality

Foodways

The structured beliefs and behaviors surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food

Omnivores

Species that eat both plant and animals

Frugivores

Species that just eat fruit

Core-Legume-Fringe Pattern

Human meals that consist of complex carbohydrates (Core), a protein (Legume) and a flavoring (Fringe)

Lactase

Enzyme produced by mammals that allow for lactose digestion

Lactase Persistence

The continuation of lactase production beyond early childhood that allows a person to digest milk and dairy products

Etiquette

Rules on how to eat food

Food Taboo

Avoiding certain types of food due to some kind of religious restriction

Structuralism

An anthropological theory that states people make sense of their world through binary oppositions

Tastes

Refers to the sense that gives humans the ability to detect flavors as well as the social distinction associated with certain foodstuffs

Industrial Agriculture

Large scale agriculture done by companies

Overweight

Having an abnormally high accumulation of body fat

Obesity

Having excess body fat to the point of impairing bodily health and functions

Global Nutrition Transition

The combination of changes in diet towards energy dense food (High in fat, calories, and sugar) and decline in physical activity

Sustainable Agriculture

Farming based on integrating goals of environmental health, economic productivity, and economic equity

Agroecology

The integration of the principles of the environment into agricultural production