Anthro Unit 1

What is Agency?

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

What is the Anthropocene?

The current historical era in which human activity is reshaping the planet in permanent ways.

What is Anthropology?

The study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present, and the application of that knowledge to help people of different backgrounds better understand one another.

What is Archaeology?

The investigation of the human past by excavating and analyzing artifacts.

What is Biological Anthropology?

The study of humans from a biological perspective, particularly how they have evolved over time and adapted to their environments.

What is Climate Change?

Changes to Earth’s climate, including global warming produced primarily by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases created by burning fossil fuels.

What is the Cross-Cultural and Comparative Approach?

The approach by which anthropologists compare practices across cultures to explore human similarities, differences, and the potential for human cultural expression.

What is Cultural Anthropology?

The study of people’s communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions, including how people make meaning as they live, work, and play together.

What is Cultural Relativism?

Understanding a group’s beliefs and practices within their own cultural context without making judgments.

What is Culture?

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

What is Emic?

An approach to gathering data that investigates how local people think and how they understand the world.

What is Enculturation?

The process of learning culture.

What is Epigenetics?

An area of study in genetics exploring how environmental factors directly affect the expression of genes during one’s lifetime.

What is Ethnocentrism?

The belief that one’s own culture or way of life is normal and natural; using one’s own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others.

What is Ethnology?

The analysis and comparison of ethnographic data across cultures.

What is Ethnographic Fieldwork?

A primary research strategy in cultural anthropology, typically involving living and interacting with a community of people over an extended period to better understand their lives.

What is Etic?

Description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropologist’s perspective in ways that can be compared across cultures.

What is the Four-Field Approach?

The use of four interrelated disciplines to study humanity: biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

What is Globalization?

The worldwide intensification of interactions and increased movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders.

What is Hegemony?

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

What is Historic Archaeology?

The exploration of the more recent past through an examination of physical remains and artifacts as well as written or oral records.

What is Historic Linguistics?

The study of how language changes over time within a culture and how languages travel across cultures.

What is Holism?

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

What is Increasing Migration?

The accelerated movement of people within and between countries.

What are Mental Maps of Reality?

Cultural classifications of what kinds of people and things exist, and the assignment of meaning to those classifications.

What is Mutual Transformation?

The potential for both the anthropologist and the members of the community being studied to be transformed by their interactions during fieldwork.

What are Norms?

Ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people.

What is Participant Observation?

A key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied.

What is Polyvocality?

The practice of using many different voices in ethnographic writing and research question development, allowing the reader to hear more directly from the people in the study.

What is Prehistoric Archaeology?

The reconstruction of human behavior in the distant past before written records through the examination of artifacts.

What is Qualitative Data?

Descriptive data drawn from nonstatistical sources, including personal stories, interviews, life histories, and participant observation.

What is Quantitative Data?

Statistical information about a community that can be measured and compared.

What is Reflexivity?

A critical self-examination of the role the anthropologist plays and an awareness that one’s identity affects their fieldwork and theoretical analyses.

What is Stratification?

The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among members of a group or culture.

What are Symbols?

Anything that represents something else.

What is Time-Space Compression?

The rapid innovation of communication and transportation technologies associated with globalization that transforms the way people think about space and time.

What is Uneven Development?

The unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization.

What are Values?

Fundamental beliefs about what is important, what makes a good life, and what is true, right, and beautiful.

What is Applied Anthropology?

Using anthropological research and knowledge outside academics.

What are Armchair Anthropologists?

Anthropologists who do not do fieldwork and instead read and analyze the work of others.

What is Cultural Diffusion?

The spread of culture, ideas, beliefs, or practices from one group or society to another.

What is a Cultural Universal?

Behavior patterns or cultural items that can be found in every culture.

What is Culture Shock?

A sense of disorientation caused by overwhelmingly new and unfamiliar people and experiences encountered in everyday life.

What is Innovation?

Making changes to or adding onto something that already exists.

What is Offshoring?

When companies in developed countries move business activities or concepts to other countries.

What are issues with Publishing Work?

Writers may write from their own viewpoint, so their biases can affect the work.

What are Anthropological Ethics?

Ethical principles anthropologists follow, including obtaining consent, protecting privacy, and avoiding harm.

What is Evolution in Anthropology?

Comparing how culture changes over time.

What were the Origins of Anthropology?

Colonialism was a major force in the development and origins of anthropology.

How does Globalization affect Disasters?

Natural and human-made disasters can affect more than the place where they occur, and globalization allows people to see their effects in real time.

How does Globalization affect Migration?

Migration affects both the places people move to and the places they return to, including changes in dialects and ideas.

How do Franchises adapt to different countries?

They change products and menus to make them more appealing to the local population.

What is Nature?

The biological or genetic traits and characteristics people are programmed or born with.

What is Nurture?

The influence of other people and the environment on how a person develops and learns ideas.

How does Culture adapt?

Culture adapts to the environment and changes in order to remain relevant and help people adapt to the world.

What are Social Norms?

Rules or expectations for behavior; not following them can result in consequences such as violence, threats, imprisonment, or shunning.

Why is creating Maps important?

Maps help preserve ideas and land while showing what is important to people and how they utilize their environment.

What is one major difference between Humans and Other Animals?

Humans have complex language.

What causes Global Warming?

Greenhouse gases, pollution, unsustainable energy use, and burning fossil fuels.

What strategies are involved in Ethnographic Fieldwork?

Observation, interviews with individuals and groups, and focusing on everyday activities and language.

Who was Franz Boas?

An anthropologist associated with cultural relativism who emphasized understanding cultures within their own cultural contexts.

What was Annette Weiner's impact?

Her research showed that women played a larger and more important role in societies than earlier anthropological research often recognized.

What was Horace Miner's Body Ritual Among the Nacirema about?

It showed how ordinary practices can seem strange when viewed from outside their cultural context.

What was Audrey Richards known for?

Her work focused on health and nutrition issues affecting children and women.

What issues existed with E. E. Evans-Pritchard's research?

He was British and did not adequately acknowledge his own cultural bias toward the group he studied.

What did Clifford Geertz believe about Symbols?

He believed symbols were very important to culture and could have very different meanings.

What was Bronislaw Malinowski's impact on Cultural Anthropology?

He helped establish modern ethnographic fieldwork and revolutionized cultural anthropology by developing guidelines for conducting fieldwork.

What did Nancy Scheper-Hughes study?

Poverty in Brazilian shantytowns