Cultural Anthro midterm 2

Hijra

Often called a third gender, these individuals are usually biologically male but adopt female clothing, gestures, and names and go through religious rituals that give them certain divine powers, including blessing or cursing couples’ fertility and performing at weddings and births. Hijra sometimes undergo voluntary surgical removal of genitals through a “nirvan” or rebirth operation

Intersex

individuals with ambiguous genitals, constitute at least two percent of human births

Chastity belt symbolized.

the idea that a woman’s sexuality belonged solely to her husband, thus precluding her from engaging not only in premarital and extra-marital sex but also in masturbation

What do Na pillars represent?

one representing male identity and one representing female identity.

What does Rowell’s baboon study show?

the stable group core was matrifocal—a mother and her offspring constituted the central and enduring ties

Agta women ________ when pregnant.

hunt

Transgender

a category for people who identify as a different gender than the one assigned to them at birth

Cisgender

for those who identify with the sex and the gender they were assigned at birth

Sex vs. gender

sex is biological difference and gender is the way members of the sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave

Cross-cultural variation in gender definitions

definition of male and female and the traits then ascribed to them

Margaret Mead’s study

(1935) study in the New Guinea cultures focusing on three groups; Arapesh, Mundugumor, Tchambuli. Mead argues if characteristics are masculine in one group and feminine in another, then there is biological basis for feminine and masculine definitions

Nancy Schepper-Hughes’ study in Brazil

Gender roles

the division of labor between males and females as defined by a particular society, most cultures are generally uniformed un the way they divide gender rolls

Two Spirits

bridges the gap between male and female, and the physical and spiritual

Ernestine Freidl’s study on gender stratification

gender roles and assigned worth are based on economics and not sex

Gender stratification

the separation of genders based on cultural expectations

Gender ideology

a system of thoughts and values that legitimize gender roles and customary behavior

Extreme gender ideology

leads to exploitation, harm, and even death

Fly Girls video

WASP (Women’s Aviation Special Program) came of age during the Great Depression and established by Jackie Cochran

The analysis of human variation

Scientific classifications of human variation (Linnaeus, Blumenbach)

these were based on location primarily but also on skin color, personality traits

Problems with classification of human variation

to have racial classification there must be noticeable differences between groups but this distinction does not exist in nature, rather it is a gradient

Ethnicity

a group of people who emphasized common origins, language, and a shared history

Social reality of racial classification

it reflects political implications, how a person may act differently based on how they perceive others

Biological reality of racial classification

there is none, it is cultural criteria masquerading as biological differences

Family

a social unit with; economic cooperation, management of reproduction and child rearing, common residence (cross-cultural variation)

Marriage

a series of customs formalizing the relationship between two (or more) people within the family. Usually involves an explicit contract/understanding between individuals

Functions of families

marriage regulates sexual mating and reproduction, provide a mechanism for regulating sexual division of labor, creates a set of family relationships that provide for; material, educational, and emotional needs of children for a long time

Incest taboos

prohibition against mating w/ certain types of kin who are designated by the society as being inappropriate sexual partners

Natural aversion theory

those that grow up together will have a natural aversion to sexual reproduction together

Inbreeding theory

mating with close kin would produce a higher incidence of genetic defects. Those that practice this taboo will have offspring that follow

Theory of expanding social alliances

(Levi-Strauss 1969) mate outside=large network of alliances

Rules of exogamy

rules for marrying outside a certain group of kin

Rules of endogamy

requires an individual to marry within one’s group (usually higher social class)

Arranged marriages

based on a premise that marriage is a union of kin groups, rather than individuals, the family’s opinion outweighs the individuals

Monogamy

marrying one spouse at a time

Polygyny

one man with multiple wives

Polyandry

one woman with multiple husbands

Bridewealth

material compensation given upon marriage by the family of the groom to the bride

Brideservice

labor of groom in exchange for marriage

Dowry

transfer of goods or money from the bride’s family to new couple

Reciprocal exchange

roughly equal exchange of gifts between the families of the bride and groom

Family structure

three main types; nuclear, extended, and blended

Kinship

relationships in society are based on blood, marriage, or fictive

Kinship Diagram

used to simply terminology by anthropologist

Descent groups

the rules a culture uses to establish relationships with one’s parents

types of unilineal and nonunilineal descent

unilineal clearly defines who is and who isn’t (patri/matrilineal) and bilineal traces from both parents equally

Nayar marriage

married men and women would not live together until 18th/19th c. as women would live with extended family and her brother would raise the child. The bio father would live with his mother and raise his sisters children → men don’t have strong ties with children but women have more sexual and marital freedom/independence

Iroquois longhouse

who owns?, an example of which descent?

Chinese families

an example of which descent?, what do brothers do in adulthood?

Post-Marital Residence patterns (4)

neolocal (new location), patrilocal (live w/ husband’s father), matrilocal (live w/ wive’s mother), avunculocal (live w/ wive’s uncle)

Clan

a group of people who have a general notion of common descent that is not attached to a specific biological ancestor.

Stem family

a version of an extended family that includes an older couple and one of their adult children with a spouse (or spouses) and children.

Joint family

a very large extended family that includes multiple generations

Sororate

man who marries deceased wife’s sister

Levirate

woman who marries deceased husband’s brother

Wealth

accumulation of economic resources

Power

the ability to achieve one’s goals and objectives (correlated with wealth)

Prestige

the social esteem, respect, or admiration that a society confers on people

Egalitarian Societies

few or no groups w/ greater access to wealth, power, and/or prestige

Ranked Societies

unequal access to prestige but equal to wealth and power

Stratified Societies

considerable inequality to wealth, power, and prestige

Class system

based on achieved status, a segment of the population whose individuals share similar lifestyles

Caste system

members are ranked from birth (ascribed status) with little to no social mobility

Caste system in Hindu India- purity, how many groups?, names of varnas, location of

origination (body part), untouchables, varna relation to occupation.

According to Hindu myth there were four original groups of people (varnas) that all came from the god Brahma. Brahmans; white, priests and scholars, came from the mouth, highest varna. Kshtriyas; warriors and landowners, red, came from arms. Vasiyas; merchants, artisans, tradesmen, brown, came from thighs. Sudras; cultivators and laborers, black, came from feet. Untouchables; too lowly to be considered part of system or interacted with, thought of as “unpure”, do the jobs no one else will

Reified and race

refers to the process in which an inaccurate concept or idea is so heavily promoted and circulated among people that it begins to take on a life of its own

Lumpers vs. splitters

Lumpers follow Linneau’s school of thought and classify race by large geographic tracts, small number of broad/general racial categories. Splitters try to identify many more races and sub-divide continent racial categories into specific more localized regional races

Nonconcordant traits and skin color/blood types/lactose intolerance

in order for racial traits to have a biological significance, a racial classification scheme for skin color would also have to reflect classifications by blood type, hair texture, eye shape, lactose intolerance, and other traits often mistakenly assumed to be “racial” characteristics.

The overwhelming majority of genetic diversity in humans is found _____ people who live on the same continent

within

Social races

more accurate term for race seeking to emphasize their cultural and arbitrary roots

Hypodescent

refers to a socially constructed racial classification system in which a person of mixed race is automatically categorized into the least privileged race

Ethnogenesis

gradual emergence of a new, distinct ethnic identity in response to changing social circumstances

Amalgamation

promotes hybridization of diverse cultural groups in a multiethnic society