Introduction to Cultural and Political Anthropology Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering research methodology, political typology, economic subsistence systems, kinship structures, marital residence rules, and gender concepts in anthropology.

Scholarly Article

An academic publication written by researchers or experts in a particular field that presents original research, evidence, analysis, and references.

Peer-Reviewed Article

An academic article evaluated by other experts in the field prior to publication to verify its accuracy, quality, and credibility.

Anthropology Plus

A specialized research database available through the Young Library focusing on anthropology and archeology literature.

JSTOR

A multidisciplinary digital database providing access to academic journals, books, and primary research materials.

Abstract

A concise summary of an academic article detailing the topic, methodology, and primary research findings.

Book Review

A brief written evaluation or critical discussion analyzing the content and arguments of a published book.

Ethnography

The core research methodology of cultural anthropology involving the comprehensive, firsthand study of a society or community over an extended period.

Bronislaw Malinowski

The anthropologist credited with establishing modern ethnographic fieldwork through his World War I research in the Trobriand Islands.

Participant Observation

A primary ethnographic method where a researcher engages directly in everyday communal activities while systematically observing and documenting cultural behaviors.

Band

A small, flexible, nomadic foraging society characterized by egalitarian relationships and informal, non-centralized leadership.

Tribe

A non-centralized society generally practicing horticulture or pastoralism, organized primarily around extended families, clans, and descent groups.

Chiefdom

A ranked society with centralized political authority headed by a chief who manages tribute collection and resource redistribution.

State

A politically centralized society characterized by formal government, intensive agriculture, institutionalized offices, codified laws, and permanent administrative or military bureaucracies.

Horticulture

A low-intensity cultivation system using simple handheld tools and shifting field rotation, often employing slash-and-burn clearing techniques.

Intensive Agriculture

A high-input cultivation strategy that continuously maintains permanent field plots using irrigation, fertilizers, plows, and draft animals.

Kinship

The anthropological study of how societies classify family relations, trace descent, organize inheritance, and conceptualize social relatedness.

Nuclear Family

A family unit composed of a married couple and their dependent children coresiding in a single domestic household.

Extended Family

A multigenerational household structure encompassing three or more generations, such as grandparents, parents, children, and collateral kin.

Polygynous Family Household

A domestic structure consisting of one husband, multiple co-wives, and their shared offspring.

Family of Orientation

The natal family into which an individual is born and socialized during childhood.

Family of Procreation

The family unit an individual establishes through marriage and the bearing or rearing of children.

Bilateral Descent

A kinship ideology that traces familial ties and inheritance equally through both maternal and paternal genealogical lines.

Unilineal Descent

A descent ideology that traces kinship affiliation and property inheritance through only one parental line, either maternal or paternal.

Matrilineal Descent

A unilineal descent system wherein lineage, clan membership, and property rights pass strictly through female ancestors and mothers.

Patrilineal Descent

A unilineal descent system wherein lineage, clan membership, and inheritance pass strictly through male ancestors and fathers.

Affines

Individuals related to one another through marital ties, including spouses and in-laws.

Collateral Relatives

Biological relatives linked through genealogical side branches rather than direct ancestral or descendant lines, such as siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Lineal Relatives

Direct blood relatives situated in an unbroken vertical chain of descent, such as parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren.

Endogamy

The cultural practice or rule mandating marriage within the boundaries of a specific social group, caste, or community.

Exogamy

The cultural requirement or custom mandating marriage outside of one's immediate kin group, clan, or local community.

Patrilocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern in which a married couple resides with or near the husband's kin group.

Matrilocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern in which a married couple establishes a household with or near the wife's kin group.

Neolocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern in which a newly married couple establishes an independent domestic residence apart from both kin groups.

Avunculocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern in which the newly married couple resides with or adjacent to the husband's maternal uncle.

Bridewealth

A customary transfer of valuable gifts or goods, such as cattle, from the groom and his family to the bride's kin group to legitimize a marriage.

Dowry

A gift of money, goods, or movable wealth transferred from the bride's natal family to the groom, his family, or the newly formed household.

Polygyny

A specific form of plural marriage wherein one man is simultaneously married to multiple wives.

Polyandry

A rare marital arrangement in which one woman is simultaneously married to two or more husbands.

Monogamy

A marriage rule and practice restricting an individual to a single spouse at any given time.

Gender

The learned cultural constructions, behavioral expectations, and social roles attributed to biological sex differences.

Gender Roles

The culturally prescribed domestic and public tasks, duties, and activities assigned to individuals based on gender.

Gender Stereotypes

Oversimplified, rigid cultural preconceptions and beliefs concerning the innate attributes, capabilities, or personalities of men and women.

Gender Stratification

The unequal cultural distribution of power, prestige, personal autonomy, and material resources across gender categories.

Intersex

A term describing individuals born with reproductive anatomy, chromosomal variations, or hormonal profiles that do not align with conventional medical definitions of male or female.

Gender Dimorphism

The average phenotypic biological differences exhibited between biological males and females of a species beyond primary sexual organs, such as body size.

Walking Marriage

A traditional Mosuo relationship system where sexual partners live in separate maternal households, with men making nocturnal visits and maternal families rearing resulting children.