Anthropology Unit 1 Study Guide Definitions

Anthropology

The scientific study of humans, human behavior, and societies in the past and present.

Cultural Anthropology

A singular branch of anthropology that studies human societies, cultural variation, and learned patterns of behavior, beliefs, and values that people share.

Holism

The anthropological commitment to look at the whole picture of human life—culture, biology, history, and language—across space and time.

Armchair Anthropology

An outdated research method where scholars study human cultures from a distance through secondhand reports, rather than conducting direct fieldwork.

Salvage Paradigm

The process of observing and documenting ways of life prior to traditional languages and customs disappearing.

Culture

A system of beliefs, knowledge, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that shapes how people perceive the world and act within it.

Unilinear Theory of Cultural Evolution

The idea that human societies pass through same fixed stages of cultural development, branching from “simple” to “complex” forms.

Cultural Relativity

The belief that one culture’s way of life cannot be judged or evaluated by the standards of another culture.

Historical Particularism

How cultures develop in specific ways as a result of their unique histories.

Herzensbildung

The training of one’s heart to see the humanity of another.

Enculturation

The process of learning culture.

Norms

Preconceived ideas and rules about how individuals should behave in set particular situations or towards specific people.

Values

Fundamental beliefs about what is considered important, what fosters and good life, and what is true, right, and beautiful.

Symbols

Something that stands for something else (within symbols are other symbols).

Hegemony

The ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force.

Discipline

Molding ones own behavior to conform with or against one’s own self-interests.

Agency

The potential power of individuals and groups to contest cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power.

Cross-Cultural & Comparative Approach

The process of comparing practices across cultures to explore similarities and differences on a global scale.

Natural Selection

The natural cycle of which certain inheritable traits pas onto offspring because it is better suited to their particular environment.

Ethnocentrism

The act of using one’s own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others (hand-in-hand with bias).

Emic Perspective

The goal to appreciate how culture understands itself on its own terms.

Mental Maps of Reality

The classification of what kinds of people and things exist, assigning meaning to those classifications.

Three events/ideas that shaped the development of anthropology in 19th.

Industrialization, evolution, and colonialism