Midterm (Anthropology and Psychology)

Anthropology

the study of the origin and development of human societies and cultures

Social Anthropology

the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures (examines the diverse ways in which human beings establish and live social lives)

Cultural Anthropology

the study of how people who share a common cultural system organize and shape the physical and social world around them, and are in turn shaped by those ideas, behaviors, and physical environment

Ethnography

descriptive study of a particular human society or the process of making such a study (based almost entirely on fieldwork and requires the complete immersion of the anthropologist in the culture and everyday life of the people who are the subject of their study)

Ethnology

the study of the characteristics of various peoples and the differences and relationships between them

Archaeology

the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains

Physical Anthropology

branch of anthropology concerned with the origin, evolution, and diversity of people

Paleoanthropology

the study of human evolution through the fossil and archaeological records

Primatology

the study of the behavior, biology, evolution, and taxonomy of nonhuman primates

Forensic Anthropology

a special sub-field of physical anthropology (the study of human remains) that involves applying skeletal analysis and techniques in archaeology to solving criminal cases

Linguistic Anthropology

the study of human communication across the globe, attempting to understand how language and linguistic practices intersect with cultural processes, worldviews, ideologies and identities

Absolute Dating

methods measure the physical properties of an object itself and use these measurements to calculate its age (measuring the amount of carbon present in a dead plant or animal, or measuring the breakdown of potassium into argon gas)

Relative Dating

the process of determining if one rock or geologic event is older or younger than another, without knowing their specific ages

Dendochronology

the science that deals with the dating and study of the annual growth increments, or tree rings, in woody trees and shrubs

Assimilation

the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society

Acculturation

the process that occurs when groups of individuals of different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, which changes the original culture patterns of either or both groups

Diffusion

the diffusion or transmission of cultural characteristics or traits from the common society to all other societies

Multiculturalism

the presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society

Netnography

 a form of research that may be used to investigate online consumer culture

Cultural Relativism

the view that ethical and social standards reflect the cultural context from which they are derived

Structural-Functional Theory

the theory that views society as a complex but orderly and stable system with interconnected structures and social patterns that operate to meet the needs of individuals in a society

Postmodernism

a late-20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of “art”

Libido

the sexual urge that is part of our biological makeup.

Gratification

 a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction derived when a want or desire is fulfilled

Fixation

is a strong drive or obsession with a particular individual or thing

Psychosexual Stages

during the five stages, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages, the erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure

ID

a part of the unconscious that contains all the urges and impulses, including what is called the libido, a kind of generalized sexual energy that is used for everything from survival instincts to appreciation of art

Ego

the part of the psyche responsible for our sense of self and our ability to interact with the outside world

Superego

a part of the unconscious that is the voice of conscience (doing what is right) and the source of self-criticism