Cultural Antro. Exam 2

Race

Culturally constructed classification of perceived physical difs. and presumed ancestory

Racism

The belief that some groups of people are naturally superior or inferior to others based on their race, skin color, or ethnic background

Ethnicity

perceived physical difs. thru which groups distinguish themselves / others

Racial ideology

Belief that visible physical characteristics indicate deeper inherited difs. among groups (intelligence, athletic ability, etc.)

Extinction hypothesis

Theory that African Americans were biologically inferior and would go extinct after emancipation

Cultural hegemony

process thru which the ideas/ values of dominant groups become accepted as natural/normal (racial ideology has been used to justify unequal access to wealth, power, and global status)

Article: The History of the Idea of Race, by Audrey Smedley

Film: Race, The Power of an Illusion: The Difference Between Us

Two-spirit

term used by some Indigenous North American people for people whose gender, sexuality, and/or gender role isn’t just feminine or masculine

Gender policing

actions that pressure people to conform to culturally accepted gender roles/ expressions (rewards gender conformity, discourages people from challenging gender norms)

Microaggressions

Common verbal, behavioral, or environmental messages that communicate negative assumptions/ stereotypes

Gender stratification

Unequal distribution of status, rights, resources, and power based on gender

Sex

Biological characteristics associated w/ reproduction (anatomy, chromosomes, and hormones)

-chromosomes: XX and XY (other variations exist)
-Hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone
-Secondary sex char: puberty

Gender

Culturally defined roles, behaviors, identities, and expectations associated w/ sex

Sexuality

includes sexual attraction, desire, identity, behavior, beliefs, relationships, intimacy, and the cultural rules surrounding them

Sexual Orientation

(One part of sexuality) The gender of whom a person experiences romantic/ sexual attraction

Class system

A system in which social strata form a continuum based on unequal wealth, power, and prestige (social mobility is possible)

-class position is shaped by achieved, ascribed status, and structural conditions (access to ed, employment, housing)

Caste system

-System based on birth and ascribed status
-Rigid boundaries and severely restricted social mobility

Meritocracy

Belief that social rewards / positions should reflect individual ability and achievement

(central to American Dream)

Ascribed status

Assigned largely through birth / w/o individual choice (race, sex)

Achieved status

Acquired through action, education, job, accomplishments (degree, military)

Social mobility

-The movement of individuals, families, or groups through a social hierarchy or stratification system
-It measures how easily a person can change their social or economic status relative to where they started

Subsistence strategies

The way people transform material resources from their environment into food, clothes, shelter, etc.

Foraging

-Gathering wild plants, hunting, and fishing
-Requires knowledge of plants, animals, seasons, water, and landscape
-Supports lower population density
-Moved w/ the seasons / animals

Pastoralism

people make their living by raising, caring for, and moving domesticated farm animals (cattle, sheep, goats) rather than growing crops

Horticulture

Cultivation of plants using human labor and relatively simple, nonmechanized tools
-Fields usually cultivated for limited periods (allowing soil/vegetation to recover)
-Supports a smaller population
-Includes foraging, farming, fishing, and raising animals

Agriculture

The cultivation of soil, growing crops, and raising livestock to produce food, fiber, fuel, and other raw materials

Industrialism

a social and economic system where a country's economy relies heavily on machine-based manufacturing and large-scale factories rather than farming or handcrafts

Article: The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, by Jared Diamond

Slash and burn farming

“Swidden cultivation”
-Burn field, ash temporarily returns nutrients to the soil. Fields are cultivated / planted in for 2-3 years, and then left alone for 10-16 years to regenerate

Economy

Culturally organized system thru which people produce, distribute, and consume goods and services

Religion

Functions of religion

Cosmology

Characteristics of religion

Holism

POV that looks at all parts of a system and how those parts are intergrated (4 field approach)

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to use one’s own culture as the standard, measure, or baseline to judge other cultures, often viewing one's own group as superior

Ethnicity

Perceived cultural difs. thru which groups distinguish themselves and are distinguished by others
-Shared cultural background, heritage, and identity that connects a group of people

Culture

How group members adapt to the environment and give life meaning (ideas, beliefs, values, behaviors)
-The learned, symbolic, adaptive, and ever-changing patterns of behavior / meaning shared by members of a group

Anthropology

-Holistic (total range of human activity)
-Archaeology, cultural, biological, and linguistic